Search results for: unit weight

Authors: Yıldırım I. Tosun, Halim Cevizci, Hakan Ceylan

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By GEO5 FEM program with four rockfill slope modeling and stability analysis was performed for S1, S2, S3 and S4 slopes where landslides of the shalefills were limited. Effective angle of internal friction (φ'°) 17°-22.5°, the effective cohesion (c') from 0.5 to 1.8 kPa, saturated unit weight 1.78-2.43 g/cm3, natural unit weight 1.9-2.35 g/cm3, dry unit weight 1.97-2.40 g/cm3, the permeability coefficient of 1x10-4 - 6.5x10-4 cm/s. In cross-sections of the slope, GEO 5 FEM program possible critical surface tension was examined. Rockfill dump design was made to prevent sliding slopes. Bulk material designated geotechnical properties using also GEO5 programs FEM and stability program via a safety factor determined and calculated according to the values S3 and S4 No. slopes are stable S1 and S2 No. slopes were close to stable state that has been found to be risk. GEO5 programs with limestone rock fill dump through FEM program was found to exhibit stability.

Keywords: slope stability, stability analysis, rockfills, sock stability

Procedia PDF Downloads 483

Authors: Mohammadjavad Yaghoubi, Arul Arulrajah, Mahdi M. Disfani, Suksun Horpibulsuk, Myint W. Bo, Stephen P. Darmawan

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This paper investigates the changes in the strength development of a high water content soft soil stabilised with alkaline activation of fly ash (FA) to use in deep soil mixing (DSM) technology. The content of FA was 20% by dry mass of soil, and the alkaline activator was sodium silicate (Na2SiO3). Samples were cured for 3, 7, 14, 28 and 56 days to evaluate the effect of curing time on strength development. To study the effect of adding slag (S) to the mixture on the strength development, 5% S was replaced with FA. In addition, the effect of the initial unit weight of samples on strength development was studied by preparing specimens with two different static compaction stresses. This was to replicate the field conditions where during implementing the DSM technique, the pressure on the soil while being mixed, increases with depth. Unconfined compression strength (UCS), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS) tests were conducted on the specimens. The results show that adding S to the FA based geopolymer activated by Na2SiO3 decreases the strength. Furthermore, samples prepared at a higher unit weight demonstrate greater strengths. Moreover, samples prepared at lower unit weight reached their final strength at about 14 days of curing, whereas the strength development continues to 56 days for specimens prepared at a higher unit weight.

Keywords: alkaline activation, curing time, fly ash, geopolymer, slag

Procedia PDF Downloads 338

Authors: M. Shannag, A. Charif, S. Naser, F. Faisal, A. Karim

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Structural lightweight concrete is used primarily to reduce the dead-load weight in concrete members such as floors in high-rise buildings and bridge decks. With given materials, it is generally desired to have the highest possible strength/unit weight ratio with the lowest cost of concrete. The work presented herein is part of an ongoing research project that investigates the properties of concrete mixes containing locally available Scoria lightweight aggregates and mineral admixtures. Properties considered included: workability, unit weight, compressive strength, and splitting tensile strength. Test results indicated that developing structural lightweight concretes (SLWC) using locally available Scoria lightweight aggregates and specific blends of silica fume and fly ash seems to be feasible. The stress-strain diagrams plotted for the structural LWC mixes developed in this investigation were comparable to a typical stress-strain diagram for normal weight concrete with relatively larger strain capacity at failure in case of LWC.

Keywords: lightweight concrete, scoria, stress, strain, silica fume, fly ash

Procedia PDF Downloads 511

Authors: Diego Aguirre, Olac Fuentes

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In this paper, we present a taxonomy of weight initialization schemes used in deep learning. We survey the most representative techniques in each class and compare them in terms of overhead cost, convergence rate, and applicability. We also introduce a new weight initialization scheme. In this technique, we perform an initial feedforward pass through the network using an initialization mini-batch. Using statistics obtained from this pass, we initialize the weights of the network, so the following properties are met: 1) weight matrices are orthogonal; 2) ReLU layers produce a predetermined number of non-zero activations; 3) the output produced by each internal layer has a unit variance; 4) weights in the last layer are chosen to minimize the error in the initial mini-batch. We evaluate our method on three popular architectures, and a faster converge rates are achieved on the MNIST, CIFAR-10/100, and ImageNet datasets when compared to state-of-the-art initialization techniques.

Keywords: deep learning, image classification, supervised learning, weight initialization

Procedia PDF Downloads 135

Authors: Nooshin Salari, Viliam Makis, Jane Doe

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This paper presents a maintenance policy for a system consisting of two units. Unit 1 is gradually deteriorating and is subject to soft failure. Unit 2 has a general lifetime distribution and is subject to hard failure. Condition of unit 1 of the system is monitored periodically and it is considered as failed when its deterioration level reaches or exceeds a critical level N. At the failure time of unit 2 system is considered as failed, and unit 2 will be correctively replaced by the next inspection epoch. Unit 1 or 2 are preventively replaced when deterioration level of unit 1 or age of unit 2 exceeds the related preventive maintenance (PM) levels. At the time of corrective or preventive replacement of unit 2, there is an opportunity to replace unit 1 if its deterioration level reaches the opportunistic maintenance (OM) level. If unit 2 fails in an inspection interval, system stops operating although unit 1 has not failed. A mathematical model is derived to find the preventive and opportunistic replacement levels for unit 1 and preventive replacement age for unit 2, that minimize the long run expected average cost per unit time. The problem is formulated and solved in the semi-Markov decision process (SMDP) framework. Numerical example is provided to illustrate the performance of the proposed model and the comparison of the proposed model with an optimal policy without opportunistic maintenance level for unit 1 is carried out.

Keywords: condition-based maintenance, opportunistic maintenance, preventive maintenance, two-unit system

Procedia PDF Downloads 200

Authors: K. N. Ashna

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Lightweight fills are a viable alternative where weak soils such as soft clay, peat, and loose silt are encountered. Materials such as Expanded Polystyrene (EPS) geo-foam, plastics, tire wastes, rubber wastes have been used along with soil in order to obtain a lightweight fill. Out of these, Expanded Polystyrene (EPS) geo-foam has gained wide popularity in civil engineering over the past years due to its wide variety of applications. It is extremely lightweight, durable and is available in various densities to meet the strength requirements. It can be used as backfill behind retaining walls to reduce lateral load, as a fill over soft clay or weak soils to prevent the excessive settlements and to reduce seismic forces. Geo-foam is available in block form as well as beads form. In this project Expanded Polystyrene (EPS) beads of various diameters and varying densities were mixed along with sand to study their lightweight as well as strength properties. Four types of EPS beads were used 1mm, 2mm, 3-7 mm and a mix of 1-7 mm. In this project, EPS beads were varied at .25%, .5%, .75% and 1% by weight of sand. A water content of 10% by weight of sand was added to prevent segregation of the mixture. Unconsolidated Unconfined (UU) tri-axial test was conducted at 100kPa, 200 kPa and 300 kPa and angle of internal friction, and cohesion was obtained. Unit weight of the mix was obtained for a relative density of 65%. The results showed that by increasing the EPS content by weight, maximum deviator stress, unit weight, angle of internal friction and initial elastic modulus decreased. An optimum EPS bead content was arrived at by considering the strength as well as the unit weight. The stress-strain behaviour of the mix was found to be dependent on type of bead, bead content and density of the beads. Finally, regression equations were developed to predict the initial elastic modulus of the mix.

Keywords: expanded polystyrene beads, geofoam, lightweight fills, stress-strain behavior, triaxial test

Procedia PDF Downloads 265

Authors: Mehmet Celik, Celal Erbas, Mehtap Baykal, Aygül Kucukgulmez, Mahmut Ali Gokce, Bilge Kaan Tekelioglu

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In this study, determination of differences in fresh meat yield and proximate compositions of different weight groups of sea bream and sea bass grown in cages in Izmir region of the Aegean Sea were aimed. For this purpose, the length and weight of five different weight groups of sea bass (I: 175.8±5.2, II: 227.3±10.2, III: 293.3±21.3, IV: 404±9.9, V: 508.7±46 g) and sea bream (I: 146.6±13.6, II: 239.8±21.7, III: 279.2±20.8, IV: 400.9±10.5, V: 546.8±0.8 g) were measured and the amount of edible and non-edible parts were determined. Besides this, protein, lipid, dry matter, ash, condition factor, HSI and VSI values were compared according to different weight groups for each species. According to the results of analysis, while the absolute meat yields of sea bream was between 69-294 g, it was between 71-252 g for the sea bass and the highest meat yields were found in fifth (V) weight groups of fish for both species. The relative meat yield (%) was determined in weight group II for sea bass and in the IV. group in sea bream with 51.9%. However, the amount of muscle tissue lipids in I. and V. weight groups of sea bream ranged between 3.6 to 11.9 % and ranged between 6.2 to 9.0 % for sea bass respectively. Protein, fillet and ash content increased in direct proportion to the weight. As a result, it can be speculated that when the meat yield and lipid rates were considered, IV. group in sea bream and II. group in sea bass are the most advantageous groups for the consumers. Acknowledgement: This work was supported by the Scientific Research Project Unit of the University of Cukurova, Turkey under grant no FBA-2015-3830.

Keywords: sea bream, sea bass, meat yield, proximate composition, different weight

Procedia PDF Downloads 357

Authors: Michal Spilacek, Marian Brazdil, Otakar Stelcl, Jiri Pospisil

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This paper shows an experimental testing of a small unit for combustion of solid fuels, such as charcoal and wood logs, that can provide electricity. One of the concepts is that the unit does not require a qualified personnel for its operation. The unit itself is composed of two main parts. The design requires a heat producing stove and an electricity producing thermoelectric generator. After the construction the unit was tested and the results shows that the emission release is within the legislative requirements for emission production and environmental protection. That qualifies such unit for indoor application.

Keywords: micro-cogeneration, thermoelectric generator, biomass combustion, wood stove

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Authors: T. S. Ramesh Babu, D. Neeraja

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This research work revealed that effect of Natural admixture (NAD) on Conventional Concrete (CC) and Class F Fly Ash(FA) blended concrete. Broiler hen egg white albumen and yellow yolk were used as Natural Admixture. Cement was replaced by Class F fly ash at various levels of 0%, 25%, 35%, 45% and 55% by its mass and NAD was added to concrete at different replacement dosages of 0%, 0.25%, 0.5%, 0.75% and 1.00% by its volume to water content and liquid to binder ratio was maintained at 0.5. For all replacement levels of FA and NAD, the mechanical properties viz unit weight, compressive strength, splitting tensile strength and modulus of elasticity of CC and Class F fly ash (FA) were studied at 7, 28, 56 and 112 days. From the results, it was concluded that 0.25% of NAD dosage was considered as optimum dosage for both CC and class F fly ash blended concrete. The studies revealed that 35% Class F fly ash blended concrete mix is concluded as optimum mix and 55% Class F fly ash blended concrete mix is concluded as economical mix with 0.25% NAD dosage.

Keywords: Class F fly ash, compressive strength, modulus of elasticity, natural admixture, splitting tensile strength, unit weight

Procedia PDF Downloads 289

Authors: Wararit Panichkitkosolkul

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The unit root tests based on the robust estimator for the first-order autoregressive process are proposed and compared with the unit root tests based on the ordinary least squares (OLS) estimator. The percentiles of the null distributions of the unit root test are also reported. The empirical probabilities of Type I error and powers of the unit root tests are estimated via Monte Carlo simulation. Simulation results show that all unit root tests can control the probability of Type I error for all situations. The empirical power of the unit root tests based on the robust estimator are higher than the unit root tests based on the OLS estimator.

Keywords: autoregressive, ordinary least squares, type i error, power of the test, Monte Carlo simulation

Procedia PDF Downloads 289

Authors: A. K. Srivastva

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Body weight is considered as an important factor in health and fitness. It is an index of one's health. Considering significance of body weight and its wider application in various fields in general and sports in particular, it is made a point of enquiry in the present study. The purpose of the study to observe over all weight pattern of Indian youths in the age group of 15 through 20 years. Total 7500 samples pooled from ten Indian states ranging in their age 15 to 20 years were examined in six age categories. Conclusion: 1. The period between 15 to 20 year of age is a growing period and that body weight is gained during this period. 2. Statewise difference is observed in body-weight during the period, which is significant. 3. PRG indicated by higher rate of weight gain varies from state to state. 4. Sportsman possess comparatively higer level of body-weight than other student of same age group. 5. Tribal youths show comparatively better status in their weight gain than the untrained uraban dwellers.

Keywords: PRG (period of rapid growth), HG (heterogeneous group), WP (weight pattern), MBW (mean body weight)

Procedia PDF Downloads 337

Authors: Murat Toren, Mehmet Çelebi

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Reducing the weight of transformers while providing good performance, cost reduction and increased efficiency is important. Weight is one of the most significant factors in all electrical machines, and as such, many transformer design parameters are related to weight calculations. This study presents a comparison of the weight of oil type transformers and dry type transformer weight. Oil type transformers are mainly used in industry; however, dry type transformers are becoming more widespread in recent years. MATLAB is typically used for designing transformers and design parameters (rated voltages, core loss, etc.) along with design in ANSYS Maxwell. Similar to other studies, this study presented that the dry type transformer option is limited. Moreover, the commonly-used 50 kVA distribution transformers in the industry are oil type and dry type transformers are designed and considered in terms of weight. Currently, the preference for low-cost oil-type transformers would change if costs for dry-type transformer were more competitive. The aim of this study was to compare the weight of transformers, which is a substantial cost factor, and to provide an evaluation about increasing the use of dry type transformers.

Keywords: weight, optimization, oil-type transformers, dry-type transformers

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Authors: Yong Seong Kim, Seongbin Hong, So Hun Kim, Moonsuk Nam

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Background: Patients who undergo thyroidectomy due to thyroid cancer often complain weight gain, although they are on suppressive thyroid hormone treatment. The aim of this study is to know whether thyroid cancer patients gain the weight after thyroidectomy and weight change is dependent on estrogen state or use of rhTSH. Material and Method: We performed a retrospective chart review of subjects receiving medical care at an academic medical center. Two hundred two patients who underwent total thyroidectomy were included. As a control group, patients with thyroid nodule and euthyroidism were matched for age, gender, menopausal status. The weight changes occurring over first one year and thyroid function were assessed. Results: Mean age was 51±12 years and patients was composed with 38% of premenopausal, 15 % perimenopausal women, 37% of postmenopausal women and 20% of men. Patients with thyroid cancer gained 2.2 kg during the first year. It’ was not significantly different with control. However, weigh change in perimenopausal and post menopausal women gained more weight than control (P <0.05). Age, baseline body weight and weight gain were not correlated. Discussion: Patient who had undergone thyroidectomy gained more weight than their control, especially in peri- and postmenopausal women. Patients in this age should be monitored for their weight carefully.

Keywords: weight gain, thyroidectomy, thyroid cancer, weight chance

Procedia PDF Downloads 416

Authors: Safa A. Mohammed Ali, Ammar S. Ahamed, Mohammed Khair Abdalla

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The objectives of this study were to estimate the means and genetic parameters of birth and weaning weight of calves of pure Holstein-Friesian cows raised in Sudan. The traits studied were:*Weight at birth *Weight at weaning. The study also included some of the important factors that affected these traits. The data were analyzed using Harvey’s Least Squares and Maximum Likelihood programme. The results obtained showed that the overall mean weight at birth of the calves under study was 34.36±0.94kg. Male calves were found to be heavier than females; the difference between the sexes was highly significant (P<0.001). The mean weight at birth of male calves was 34.27±1.17 kg while that of females was 32.51±1.14kg. The effect of sex of calves, sire and parity of dam were highly significant (P<0.001). The overall mean of weight at weaning was 67.10 ± 5.05 kg, weight at weaning was significantly (p<0.001) effected by sex of calves, sire, year and season of birth have highly significant (P<0.001) effect on either trait. Also estimates heritabilities of birth weight was (0.033±0.015) lower than heritabilities of weaning weight (0.224±0.039), and genetic correlation was 0.563, the phenotypic correlation 0.281, and the environmental correlation 0.268.

Keywords: birth, weaning, weight, friesian

Procedia PDF Downloads 665

Authors: Muhammad Yusuf Abduh, Robert Manurung, Hero Jan Heeres

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Biodiesel can be produced in small scale mobile units which are designed with local input and demand. Unlike the typical biodiesel production plants, mobile biodiesel unit consiss of a biodiesel production facility placed inside a standard cargo container and mounted on a truck so that it can be transported to a region near the location of raw materials. In this paper, we review the existing concept and unit for the development of community-scale and mobile production of biodiesel. This includes the main reactor technology to produce biodiesel as well as the pre-treatment prior to the reaction unit. The pre-treatment includes the oil-expeller unit to obtain oil from the oilseeds as well as the quality control of the oil before it enters the reaction unit. This paper also discusses the post-treatment after the production of biodiesel. It includes the refining and purification of biodiesel to meet the product specification set by the biodiesel industry.

Keywords: biodiesel, community scale, mobile biodiesel unit, reactor technology

Procedia PDF Downloads 236

Authors: G. Karakaya, C. Türker, M. Anaklı

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It is necessary to test to see if optical devices such as camera, night vision devices are working properly. Therefore, a precision biaxial rotary system (gimbal) is required for mounting Unit Under Test, UUT. The Gimbal systems can be utilized for precise positioning of the UUT; hence, optical test can be performed with high accuracy. The weight of UUT, which is placed outside the axis of rotation, causes an off-axis moment to the mounting armature. The off-axis moment can act against the direction of movement for some orientation, thus the electrical motor, which rotates the gimbal axis, has to apply higher level of torque to guide and stabilize the system. Moreover, UUT and its mounting fixture to the gimbal can be changed, which causes change in applied resistance moment to the gimbals electrical motor. In this study, a preloaded spring is added to the gimbal system for minimizing applied off axis moment with the help of four bar mechanism. Two different possible methods for preloading spring are introduced and system optimization is performed to eliminate all moment which is created by off axis weight.

Keywords: adaptive, balancing, gimbal, mechanics, spring

Procedia PDF Downloads 122

Authors: Fatma Abdel Moneim Al Tawil

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Low back pain (LBP) among nurses has been the subject of research studies worldwide. However, evidence of the influence of patients lifting behaviors and LBP among nurses in Saudi Arabia remains scarce. The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between LBP and nurses lifting behaviors. LBP questionnaire was distributed to 100 nurses working in Alsadairy Hospital distributed as Emergency unit(9),Coronary Care unit (9), Intensive Care Unit (7), Dialysis unit (30), Burn unit (5), surgical unit (11), Medical (14) and, X-ray unit (15). The questionnaire included demographic data, attitude scale, Team work scale, Back pain history and Knowledge scale. Regarding to emergency unit, there is appositive significant relation between teamwork scale and Knowledge as r = (0.807) and P =0.05. Regarding to ICU unit, there is a positive significant relation between teamwork scale and attitude scale as r= (0.781) and P =0.05. Regarding to Dialysis unit, there is a positive significant relation between attitude scale and teamwork scale as r=(0.443) and P =0.05. The findings suggest enhanced awareness of occupational safety with safe patient handling practices among nursing students must be emphasized and integrated into their educational curriculum. Moreover, back pain prevention program should incorporate the promotion of an active lifestyle and fitness training the implementation of institutional patient handling policies.

Keywords: low back pain, lifting behaviors, nurses, team work

Procedia PDF Downloads 435

Authors: Imene Skhakhfa, Lahbaci Ouerdachi

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To ensure the overall coherence of simulated results, it is necessary to develop a robust validation process. In many applications, it is no longer content to calibrate and validate the model only in relation to the hydro graph measured at the outlet, but we try to better simulate the functioning of the watershed in space. Therefore the timing also performs compared to other variables such as water level measurements in intermediate stations or groundwater levels. As part of this work, we limit ourselves to modeling flood of short duration for which the process of evapotranspiration is negligible. The main parameters to identify the models are related to the method of unit hydro graph (HU). Three different models were tested: SNYDER, CLARK and SCS. These models differ in their mathematical structure and parameters to be calibrated while hydrological data are the same, the initial water content and precipitation. The models are compared on the basis of their performance in terms six objective criteria, three global criteria and three criteria representing volume, peak flow, and the mean square error. The first type of criteria gives more weight to strong events whereas the second considers all events to be of equal weight. The results show that the calibrated parameter values are dependent and also highlight the problems associated with the simulation of low flow events and intermittent precipitation.

Keywords: model calibration, intensity, runoff, hydrograph

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Authors: Md. R. Shattique, Md. T. Zaki, Md. G. Kibria

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Fly-ash bricks give a comprehensive solution towards recycling of fly-ash and since there is no requirement of firing to produce them, they are also eco-friendly bricks; little or no carbon-dioxide is emitted during their entire production cycle. As bricks are the most essential and widely utilized building materials in the construction industry, the significance of developing an alternate eco-friendly brick is substantial in modern times. In this paper, manufacturing and potential utilization of Fly-ash made building bricks have been studied and was found to be a prospective substitute for fired clay bricks that contribute greatly to polluting the environment. Also, a comparison between sand made and ceramic dust made Fly-ash bricks have been carried out experimentally. The ceramic dust made bricks seem to show higher compressive strength at lower unit volume weight compared to sand made Fly-ash bricks. Moreover, the water absorption capacity of ceramic dust Fly-ash bricks was lower than sand made bricks. Then finally a statistical comparison between fired clay bricks and fly-ash bricks were carried out. All the requirements for good quality building bricks are matched by the fly-ash bricks. All the facts from this study pointed out that these bricks give a new opportunity for being an alternate building material.

Keywords: coal fly-ash, ceramic dust, burnt clay bricks, sand, gypsum, absorption capacity, unit volume weight, compressive strength

Procedia PDF Downloads 422

Authors: Maria Hussin, Malik Zawwar Hussain, Mubashrah Saddiqa

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We present a trigonometric scheme to approximate a circular arc with its two end points and two end tangents/unit tangents. A rational cubic trigonometric Bézier curve is constructed whose end control points are defined by the end points of the circular arc. Weight functions and the remaining control points of the cubic trigonometric Bézier curve are estimated by variational approach to reproduce a circular arc. The radius error is calculated and found less than the existing techniques.

Keywords: control points, rational trigonometric Bézier curves, radius error, shape measure, weight functions

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Authors: Ziwei Huang

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The standard unit of Shenzhen land spatial planning has the characteristics of vertical conduction, horizontal evaluation, internal balance and supervision of implementation. It mainly assumes the role of geospatial unit, assists in promoting the complex development of the business in Shenzhen and undertakes the management and transmission of upper and lower levels of planning as well as the Urban management functions such as gap analysis of public facilities, planning evaluation and dynamic monitoring of planning information. Combining with the application examples of the analysis of gaps in public facilities in Longgang District, it can be found that the standard unit of land spatial planning in Shenzhen as a small-scale geographic basic unit, has a stronger urban spatial coupling effect. However, the universality of the application of the system is still lacking and it is necessary to propose more scientific and powerful standard unit delineation standards and planning function evaluation indicators to guide the implementation of the system's popularization and application.

Keywords: Shenzhen city, land spatial planning, standard unit system, urban delicacy management

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Authors: Filipa Cortez, Vanessa Pereira

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Introduction: The main challenge of obesity treatment is long-term weight loss maintenance. The 3 phases method is a weight loss program that combines a low carb and moderately high-protein diet, food supplements and a weekly one-to-one consultation with a certified nutritionist. Sustained weight control is the ultimate goal of phase 3. Success criterion was the minimum loss of 10% of initial weight and its maintenance after 12 months. Objective: The aim of this study was to identify factors associated with successful weight loss maintenance after 12 months at the end of 3 phases method. Methods: The study included 199 subjects that achieved their weight loss goal (phase 3). Weight and body mass index (BMI) were obtained at the baseline and every week until the end of the program. Therapeutic adherence was measured weekly on a Likert scale from 1 to 5. Subjects were considered in compliance with nutritional recommendation and supplementation when their classification was ≥ 4. After 12 months of the method, the current weight and number of previous weight-loss attempts were collected by telephone interview. The statistical significance was assumed at p-values < 0.05. Statistical analyses were performed using SPSS TM software v.21. Results: 65.3% of subjects met the success criterion. The factors which displayed a significant weight loss maintenance prediction were: greater initial percentage weight loss (OR=1.44) during the weight loss intervention and a higher number of consultations in phase 3 (OR=1.10). Conclusion: These findings suggest that the percentage weight loss during the weight loss intervention and the number of consultations in phase 3 may facilitate maintenance of weight loss after the 3 phases method.

Keywords: obesity, weight maintenance, low-carbohydrate diet, dietary supplements

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Authors: Francis Gbogbo, Angelica Ama Essandoh, Wendy Teresa Baffoe, Henry Groos, Charles Mario Boateng, Emmanuel Robert Blankson

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Baseline data on plastic landing by fishers and monitoring of this is important in evaluating the success of plastic waste management efforts. This study investigated plastic and fish landed by beach seine fishers in Ghana, together with the rate of plastic deposition on an adjoining beach. Plastic constituted 31.6% of the total catch, and 41.7% of the fish landed by weight. There were significant differences between the average weight of fish (139.58±53.6kg) and plastic (65.73±14.6kg) landed per fishing session and the catch per unit effort of fish (183.4±76.7 kg/day) and plastic (88.4±35.2 kg/day). The mean weight of plastic landed per fishing session was higher than the mean weight of each of the 26 species of fisheries. The rate of plastic deposition on the beach was 8.1±2.5 plastic items per m2 per tidal cycle or 0.35±0.11kg plastic per m2 per tidal cycle, with food packs and tableware dominating the deposited plastic. The results suggested that ongoing water sachets and plastic bottle recycling in Ghana are yielding results and calls for targeted efforts in plastic food packs and tableware management.

Keywords: fishig, landing, plastic waste, intertidal area, fishing effort

Procedia PDF Downloads 91

Authors: Leila Jafari, Viliam Makis, G. B. Akram Khaleghei

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In this paper, we present a maintenance model of a two-unit series system with economic dependence. Unit#1, which is considered to be more expensive and more important, is subject to condition monitoring (CM) at equidistant, discrete time epochs and unit#2, which is not subject to CM, has a general lifetime distribution. The multivariate observation vectors obtained through condition monitoring carry partial information about the hidden state of unit#1, which can be in a healthy or a warning state while operating. Only the failure state is assumed to be observable for both units. The objective is to find an optimal opportunistic maintenance policy minimizing the long-run expected average cost per unit time. The problem is formulated and solved in the partially observable semi-Markov decision process framework. An effective computational algorithm for finding the optimal policy and the minimum average cost is developed and illustrated by a numerical example.

Keywords: condition-based maintenance, semi-Markov decision process, multivariate Bayesian control chart, partially observable system, two-unit system

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Authors: Eugene Y. C. Wong, Daniel Y. W. Mo, Cosmo T. Y. Ng, Jessica K. Y. Chan, Leith K. Y. Chan, Henry Y. K. Lau

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The real-time planning visualisation, precise allocation and loading optimisation in air cargo load planning operations are increasingly important as more considerations are needed on dangerous cargo loading, locations of lithium batteries, weight declaration and limited aircraft capacity. The planning of the unit load devices (ULD) can often be carried out only in a limited number of hours before flight departure. A dynamic air cargo load planning system is proposed with the optimisation of cargo load plan and visualisation of planning results in virtual reality systems. The system aims to optimise the cargo load planning and visualise the simulated loading planning decision on air cargo terminal operations. Adopting simulation tools, Cave Automatic Virtual Environment (CAVE) and virtual reality technologies, the results of planning with reference to weight and balance, Unit Load Device (ULD) dimensions, gateway, cargo nature and aircraft capacity are optimised and presented. The virtual reality system facilities planning, operations, education and training. Staff in terminals are usually trained in a traditional push-approach demonstration with enormous manual paperwork. With the support of newly customized immersive visualization environment, users can master the complex air cargo load planning techniques in a problem based training with the instant result being immersively visualised. The virtual reality system is developed with three-dimensional (3D) projectors, screens, workstations, truss system, 3D glasses, and demonstration platform and software. The content will be focused on the cargo planning and loading operations in an air cargo terminal. The system can assist decision-making process during cargo load planning in the complex operations of air cargo terminal operations. The processes of cargo loading, cargo build-up, security screening, and system monitoring can be further visualised. Scenarios are designed to support and demonstrate the daily operations of the air cargo terminal, including dangerous goods, pets and animals, and some special cargos.

Keywords: air cargo load planning, optimisation, virtual reality, weight and balance, unit load device

Procedia PDF Downloads 345

Authors: Huseyin A. Yavasoglu, Yusuf Ziya Tengiz, Ali Göksenli

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In this study, an automatic feeding machine for different type and class of bovine animals is designed. Daily nutrition of a bovine consists of grass, corn, straw, silage, oat, wheat and different vitamins and minerals. The amount and mixture amount of each of the nutrition depends on different parameters of the bovine. These parameters are; age, sex, weight and maternity of the bovine, also outside temperature. The problem in a farm is to constitute the correct mixture and amount of nutrition for each animal. Faulty nutrition will cause an insufficient feeding of the animal concluding in an unhealthy bovine. To solve this problem, a new automatic feeding machine is designed. Travelling of the machine is performed by four tires, which is pulled by a tractor. The carrier consists of eight bins, which each of them carries a nutrition type. Capacity of each unit is 250 kg. At the bottom of each chamber is a sensor measuring the weight of the food inside. A funnel is at the bottom of each chamber by which open/close function is controlled by a valve. Each animal will carry a RFID tag including ID on its ear. A receiver on the feeding machine will read this ID and by given previous information by the operator (veterinarian), the system will detect the amount of each nutrition unit which will be given to the selected animal for feeding. In the system, each bin will open its exit gate by the help of the valve under the control of PLC (Programmable Logic Controller). The amount of each nutrition type will be controlled by measuring the open/close time. The exit canals of the bins are collected in a reservoir. To achieve a homogenous nitration, the collected feed will be mixed by a worm gear. Further the mixture will be transported by a help of a funnel to the feeding unit of the animal. The feeding process can be performed in 100 seconds. After feeding of the animal, the tractor pulls the travelling machine to the next animal. By the help of this system animals can be feeded by right amount and mixture of nutrition

Keywords: bovine, feeding, nutrition, transportation, automatic

Procedia PDF Downloads 342

Authors: K. A. Bindu, T. V. Raja, P. M. Rojan, A. Siby

Abstract:

The multivariate path coefficient approach was employed to study the effects of various production and reproduction traits on the slaughter body weight of rabbits. Information on 562 rabbits maintained at the university rabbit farm attached to the Centre for Advanced Studies in Animal Genetics, and Breeding, Kerala Veterinary and Animal Sciences University, Kerala State, India was utilized. The manifest variables used in the study were age and weight of dam, birth weight, litter size at birth and weaning, weight at first, second and third months. The linear multiple regression analysis was performed by keeping the slaughter weight as the dependent variable and the remaining as independent variables. The model explained 48.60 percentage of the total variation present in the market weight of the rabbits. Even though the model used was significant, the standardized beta coefficients for the independent variables viz., age and weight of the dam, birth weight and litter sizes at birth and weaning were less than one indicating their negligible influence on the slaughter weight. However, the standardized beta coefficient of the second-month body weight was maximum followed by the first-month weight indicating their major role on the market weight. All the other factors influence indirectly only through these two variables. Hence it was concluded that the slaughter body weight can be predicted using the first and second-month body weights. The principal components were also developed so as to achieve more accuracy in the prediction of market weight of rabbits.

Keywords: component analysis, multivariate, slaughter, regression

Procedia PDF Downloads 165

Authors: Jianghao Hu, Hongyu Wang

Abstract:

The effective and efficient human pose estimation algorithm is an important task for real-time human pose estimation on mobile devices. This paper proposes a light-weight human key points detection algorithm, Light-Weight Network for Real-Time Pose Estimation (LWPE). LWPE uses light-weight backbone network and depthwise separable convolutions to reduce parameters and lower latency. LWPE uses the feature pyramid network (FPN) to fuse the high-resolution, semantically weak features with the low-resolution, semantically strong features. In the meantime, with multi-scale prediction, the predicted result by the low-resolution feature map is stacked to the adjacent higher-resolution feature map to intermediately monitor the network and continuously refine the results. At the last step, the key point coordinates predicted in the highest-resolution are used as the final output of the network. For the key-points that are difficult to predict, LWPE adopts the online hard key points mining strategy to focus on the key points that hard predicting. The proposed algorithm achieves excellent performance in the single-person dataset selected in the AI (artificial intelligence) challenge dataset. The algorithm maintains high-precision performance even though the model only contains 3.9M parameters, and it can run at 225 frames per second (FPS) on the generic graphics processing unit (GPU).

Keywords: depthwise separable convolutions, feature pyramid network, human pose estimation, light-weight backbone

Procedia PDF Downloads 154

Authors: Huseyi̇n Das, Bülent Tarim, Sunay Demi̇r, Nurçi̇n Küçükkent, Sevi̇l Cengi̇z, Engi̇n Tülek, Veci̇hi̇ Aksakal

Abstract:

Atak-S laying hens are a high-performance strain obtained by crossing of the Rhode Island Red (RIR) X the Barred Plymouth Rock (BR) and are being produced in the Ankara Poultry Research Institute since 1997. Phenotypic and genetic improving studies are continued for this strain. In this study, 2 from IGF and 1 from IGFBP2, totally 3 different SNP polymorphisms were examined in 200 Atak-S chickens. Genotypes of SNPs were compared using ANOVA to body weight and egg number thorough 32 weeks of age, body weight at sexual maturity, age at sexual maturity and also egg quality traits such as egg shell breaking strength, shell thickness, Haugh unit, albumen index, yolk index, shape index. Only IGF(a) locus was in agreement with Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium, while, the other loci were not. As a result of the performance comparisons to the 3 SNP loci, it was determined that there has a significant association (P<0.05) between only TC genotypes of the IGF(b) locus and body weight at 32 weeks of age, but there was not any association to the other traits.

Keywords: Atak-S, Igf, Igfbp2, single nucleotide polymorphism

Procedia PDF Downloads 367

Authors: Rifat Tabassoom

Abstract:

Recently multistoried housing projects are accelerating in the capital of Bangladesh- Dhaka, to house its massive population. Insufficient background research leads to a building design trend where a single unit is designed and then multiplied all through the buildings. Therefore, although having identical designs, all the units cannot perform evenly considering daylight, which also alters their household activities. This paper aims to understand if a single unit can be an optimum solution regarding daylight for a selected housing project.

Keywords: daylight, orientation, performance, simulations

Procedia PDF Downloads 123