Search results for: IEEE standard Test System

Authors: Hyun-Jun Shin, Jae-Jeong Kim, Hyoung-Kyu Song

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In broadcasting and cellular system, a cooperative scheme is proposed for the improvement of performance of bit error rate. Up to date, the coverage of broadcasting system coexists with the coverage of cellular system. Therefore each user in a cellular coverage is frequently involved in a broadcasting coverage. The proposed cooperative scheme is derived from the shared areas. The users receive signals from both broadcasting base station and cellular base station. The proposed scheme selects a cellular base station of a worse channel to achieve better performance of bit error rate in cooperation. The performance of the proposed scheme is evaluated in fading channel.

Keywords: cooperative communication, diversity, STBC, CDD, channel condition, broadcasting system, cellular system

Procedia PDF Downloads 509

Authors: Aktan Ozsoy, Ali Fırat Cabalar, Eyyub Karakan

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Climate change is one of the biggest issues facing communities. Increasing population, growing economies, rapid industrialization are the main factors triggering it. On the other hand, the millions of tons of waste have generated by the period of rapid global growth not only harm to the environment but also lead to the use of valuable lands around the world as landfill sites. Moreover, it is rapidly consuming our resources and this forcing the human population and wildlife to share increasingly shrinking space. In this direction, it is vital to reuse waste materials with a sustainability philosophy. This study was carried out to contribute to the combat against climate change, conserve our natural resources and the environment. An oedometer (consolidation) test was performed on two waste materials combined in certain proportions to evaluate their sustainable usage. Crushed brick (BD) was mixed with rock powder (RP) in 0, 5, 10, 20, 30, 40, and 50% (dry weight of soil). The results obtained revealed the importance of the gradation of the material used in the consolidation test. It was found that there was a negligible difference between the initial and final void ratio of mixtures with brick dust added.

Keywords: waste material, oedometer test, environmental geotechnics, sustainability

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Authors: Nadezda Sergunicheva, Victoria Vasilenko

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The emotional sphere is one of the most important aspects of the child's development and significant factor in his psychological well-being. Present research aims to identify the relationships between emotional characteristics of preschoolers and parameters of family interaction: emotional interaction, parental styles, family adaptation, and cohesion. The study involved 40 people from Saint-Petersburg: 20 children (10 boys and 10 girls) from 5 to 6 years, Mage = 5 years 4 months and 20 mothers. Methods used were: Test 'Emotional identification' by E.Izotova, Empathy test by T. Gavrilova, Children's fears test by A. Zakharov, M. Panfilova, 'Parent-child emotional interaction questionnaire' by E. Zakharova, 'Analysis of family relationships questionnaire by E. Eidemiller and V. Yustitskis, Family Adaptation and Cohesion Scales (FACES III) by D. X. Olson, J. Portner, I. Lavi. Сorrelation analysis revealed that the higher index of underdevelopment of parental feelings, the lower the child’s ability to identify emotions (p < 0,05), but at the same time, the higher ability to understand emotional states (p < 0,01), as in the case of hypoprotection (p < 0,05). Two last correlations can be explained by compensatory mechanism. This is also confirmed by negative correlations between maternal educational uncertainty and child’s ability to understand emotional states and between indulgence and child’s ability to perceive emotional states (p < 0,05). The more pronounced the phobia of a child's loss, the higher egocentric nature of child’s empathy (p < 0,05). The child’s fears have the greatest number of relationships with the characteristics of family interaction. The more pronounced mother’s positive feelings in interaction, emotional support, acceptance of himself as a parent, desire for physical contact with child and the more adaptive the family system, the less the total number of child’s fears (p < 0,05). The more the mother's ability to perceive the child's state, positive feelings in interaction, emotional support (p < 0,01), unconditional acceptance of the child, acceptance of himself as a parent and the desire for physical contact (p < 0,05), the less the amount child’s spatial fears. Socially-mediated fears are associated with less pronounced mother's positive feelings in interaction, less emotional support and deficiency of demands, obligations (p < 0,05). Fears of animals and fairy-tale characters positively correlated with the excessive demands, obligations and excessive sanctions (p < 0,05). The more emotional support (p < 0,01), mother's ability to perceive the child's state, positive feelings in interaction, unconditional acceptance of the child, acceptance of himself as a parent (p < 0,05), the less the amount child’s fears of nightmares. This kind of fears is positively correlated with excessive demands, prohibitions (p < 0,05). The more adaptive the family system (p < 0,01), the higher family cohesion, mother's acceptance of himself as a parent and preference to childish traits (p < 0,05), the less fear of death. Thus, the children's fears have the closest relationships with the characteristics of family interaction. The severity of fears, especially spatial, is connected, first of all, with the emotional side of the mother-parent interaction. Fears of animals and fairy-tale characters are associated with some characteristics of the parental styles, connected with the rigor of mothers. Correlations of the emotional identification are contradictory and require further clarification. Research is supported by RFBR №18-013-00990.

Keywords: emotional characteristics, family interaction, fears, parental styles, preschoolers

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Authors: Arash Gharibi

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Mankind has always used models to solve problems. Essentially, models are simplified versions of reality, whose need stems from having to deal with complexity; many processes or phenomena are too complex to be described completely. Thus a fundamental model requirement is that it contains the characteristic features that are essential in the context of the problem to be solved or described. Models are used in virtually every scientific domain to deal with various problems. During the recent decades, the number of models has increased exponentially. Publication of models as part of original research has traditionally been in in scientific periodicals, series, monographs, agency reports, national journals and laboratory reports. This makes it difficult for interested groups and communities to stay informed about the state-of-the-art. During the modeling process, many important decisions are made which impact the final form of the model. Without a record of these considerations, the final model remains ill-defined and open to varying interpretations. Unfortunately, the details of these considerations are often lost or in case there is any existing information about a model, it is likely to be written intuitively in different layouts and in different degrees of detail. In order to overcome these issues, different domains have attempted to implement their own approaches to preserve their models’ information in forms of model documentation. The most frequently cited model documentation approaches show that they are domain specific, not to applicable to the existing models and evolutionary flexibility and intrinsic corrections and improvements are not possible with the current approaches. These issues are all because of a lack of unified standards for model documentation. As a way forward, this research will propose a new standard for capturing and managing models’ information in a unified way so that interoperability and reusability of models become possible. This standard will also be evolutionary, meaning members of modeling realm could contribute to its ongoing developments and improvements. In this paper, the current 3 of the most common metamodels are reviewed and according to pros and cons of each, a new metamodel is proposed.

Keywords: metamodel, modeling, interoperability, reuse

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Authors: James Rigor Camacho, Wansu Lim

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Over the last few years, the development of new wearable and processing technologies has accelerated in order to harness physiological data such as electroencephalograms (EEGs) for EEG-based applications. EEG has been demonstrated to be a source of emotion recognition signals with the highest classification accuracy among physiological signals. However, when emotion recognition systems are used for real-time classification, the training unit is frequently left to run offline or in the cloud rather than working locally on the edge. That strategy has hampered research, and the full potential of using an edge AI device has yet to be realized. Edge AI devices are computers with high performance that can process complex algorithms. It is capable of collecting, processing, and storing data on its own. It can also analyze and apply complicated algorithms like localization, detection, and recognition on a real-time application, making it a powerful embedded device. The NVIDIA Jetson series, specifically the Jetson Nano device, was used in the implementation. The cEEGrid, which is integrated to the open-source brain computer-interface platform (OpenBCI), is used to collect EEG signals. An EEG-based real-time emotion recognition system on Edge AI is proposed in this paper. To perform graphical spectrogram categorization of EEG signals and to predict emotional states based on input data properties, machine learning-based classifiers were used. Until the emotional state was identified, the EEG signals were analyzed using the K-Nearest Neighbor (KNN) technique, which is a supervised learning system. In EEG signal processing, after each EEG signal has been received in real-time and translated from time to frequency domain, the Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) technique is utilized to observe the frequency bands in each EEG signal. To appropriately show the variance of each EEG frequency band, power density, standard deviation, and mean are calculated and employed. The next stage is to identify the features that have been chosen to predict emotion in EEG data using the K-Nearest Neighbors (KNN) technique. Arousal and valence datasets are used to train the parameters defined by the KNN technique.Because classification and recognition of specific classes, as well as emotion prediction, are conducted both online and locally on the edge, the KNN technique increased the performance of the emotion recognition system on the NVIDIA Jetson Nano. Finally, this implementation aims to bridge the research gap on cost-effective and efficient real-time emotion recognition using a resource constrained hardware device, like the NVIDIA Jetson Nano. On the cutting edge of AI, EEG-based emotion identification can be employed in applications that can rapidly expand the research and implementation industry's use.

Keywords: edge AI device, EEG, emotion recognition system, supervised learning algorithm, sensors

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Authors: Wirat Sonchan, Pratoom Moungmee, Anek Sootmongkol

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This study aimed to examine the effects of a circuit training program on muscle strength, agility, anaerobic performance and cardiovascular endurance. The study involved 24 freshmen (age 18.87+0.68 yr.) male students of the Faculty of Sport Science, Burapha University. They sample study were randomly divided into two groups: Circuit Training group (CT; n=12) and a Control group (C; n=12). Baseline data on height, weight, muscle strength (hand grip dynamometer and leg strength dynamometer), agility (agility T-Test), and anaerobic performance (Running-based Anaerobic Sprint Test) and cardiovascular endurance (20 m Endurance Shuttle Run Test) were collected. The circuit training program included one circuit of eight stations of 30/60 seconds of work/rest interval with two cycles in Week 1-4, and 60/90 seconds of work/rest interval with three cycles in Week 5-8, performed three times per week. Data were analyzed using paired t-tests and independent sample t-test. Statistically significance level was set at 0.05. The results show that after 8 weeks of a training program, muscle strength, agility, anaerobic capacity and cardiovascular endurance increased significantly in the CT Group (p < 0.05), while significant increase was not observed in the C Group (p < 0.05). The results of this study suggest that the circuit training program improved muscle strength, agility, anaerobic capacity and cardiovascular endurance of the study subjects. This program may be used as a guideline for selecting a set of exercise to improve physical fitness.

Keywords: circuit training, physical fitness, cardiovascular endurance, anaerobic performance

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Authors: Saru Arora, Anurag Sharma, Harsukhpreet Singh

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To meet the growing need of high data rate and bandwidth, various efforts has been made nowadays for the efficient communication systems. Optical Code Division Multiple Access over Free space optics communication system seems an effective role for providing transmission at high data rate with low bit error rate and low amount of multiple access interference. This paper demonstrates the OCDMA over FSO communication system up to the range of 7000 m at a data rate of 5 Gbps. Initially, the 8 user OCDMA-FSO system is simulated and pseudo orthogonal codes are used for encoding. Also, the simulative analysis of various performance parameters like power and core effective area that are having an effect on the Bit error rate (BER) of the system is carried out. The simulative analysis reveals that the length of the transmission is limited by the multi-access interference (MAI) effect which arises when the number of users increases in the system.

Keywords: FSO, PSO, bit error rate (BER), opti system simulation, multiple access interference (MAI), q-factor

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Authors: Ahmet Kayabasi, Ali Akdagli

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In this study, three robust predicting methods, namely artificial neural network (ANN), adaptive neuro fuzzy inference system (ANFIS) and support vector machine (SVM) were used for computing the resonant frequency of A-shaped compact microstrip antennas (ACMAs) operating at UHF band. Firstly, the resonant frequencies of 144 ACMAs with various dimensions and electrical parameters were simulated with the help of IE3D™ based on method of moment (MoM). The ANN, ANFIS and SVM models for computing the resonant frequency were then built by considering the simulation data. 124 simulated ACMAs were utilized for training and the remaining 20 ACMAs were used for testing the ANN, ANFIS and SVM models. The performance of the ANN, ANFIS and SVM models are compared in the training and test process. The average percentage errors (APE) regarding the computed resonant frequencies for training of the ANN, ANFIS and SVM were obtained as 0.457%, 0.399% and 0.600%, respectively. The constructed models were then tested and APE values as 0.601% for ANN, 0.744% for ANFIS and 0.623% for SVM were achieved. The results obtained here show that ANN, ANFIS and SVM methods can be successfully applied to compute the resonant frequency of ACMAs, since they are useful and versatile methods that yield accurate results.

Keywords: a-shaped compact microstrip antenna, artificial neural network (ANN), adaptive neuro-fuzzy inference system (ANFIS), support vector machine (SVM)

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Authors: Abdel-Maksoud Abdel-Kader Soliman

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The General Regularized Long Wave (GRLW) equation is solved numerically by giving a new algorithm based on collocation method using quartic B-splines at the mid-knot points as element shape. Also, we use the Fourth Runge-Kutta method for solving the system of first order ordinary differential equations instead of finite difference method. Our test problems, including the migration and interaction of solitary waves, are used to validate the algorithm which is found to be accurate and efficient. The three invariants of the motion are evaluated to determine the conservation properties of the algorithm.

Keywords: generalized RLW equation, solitons, quartic b-spline, nonlinear partial differential equations, difference equations

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Authors: Youssef Mazloum, Haytham Sayah, Maroun Nemer

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The penetration of renewable energy sources into the electric grid is significantly increasing. However, the intermittence of these sources breaks the balance between supply and demand for electricity. Hence, the importance of the energy storage technologies, they permit restoring the balance and reducing the drawbacks of intermittence of the renewable energies. This paper discusses the modeling and the cost-effectiveness of an isobaric adiabatic compressed air energy storage (IA-CAES) system. The proposed system is a combination among a compressed air energy storage (CAES) system with pumped hydro storage system and thermal energy storage system. The aim of this combination is to overcome the disadvantages of the conventional CAES system such as the losses due to the storage pressure variation, the loss of the compression heat and the use of fossil fuel sources. A steady state model is developed to perform an energy and exergy analyses of the IA-CAES system and calculate the distribution of the exergy losses in the latter system. A sensitivity analysis is also carried out to estimate the effects of some key parameters on the system’s efficiency, such as the pinch of the heat exchangers, the isentropic efficiency of the rotating machinery and the pressure losses. The conducted sensitivity analysis is a local analysis since the sensibility of each parameter changes with the variation of the other parameters. Therefore, an exergoeconomic study is achieved as well as a cost optimization in order to reduce the electricity cost produced during the production phase. The optimizer used is OmOptim which is a genetic algorithms based optimizer.

Keywords: cost-effectiveness, Exergoeconomic analysis, isobaric adiabatic compressed air energy storage (IA-CAES) system, thermodynamic modeling

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Authors: Benhamouda Sara, Guezouli Larbi

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Nowadays, the dissemination of information touches the distributed world, where selecting the relevant servers to a user request is an important problem in distributed information retrieval. During the last decade, several research studies on this issue have been launched to find optimal solutions and many approaches of collection selection have been proposed. In this paper, we propose a new collection selection approach that takes into consideration the number of documents in a collection that contains terms of the query and the weights of those terms in these documents. We tested our method and our studies show that this technique can compete with other state-of-the-art algorithms that we choose to test the performance of our approach.

Keywords: distributed information retrieval, relevance, server selection, collection selection

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Authors: Abdellahi Cheikh

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With the emergence of quantum computers with very powerful capabilities, the security of the exchange of shared keys between two interlocutors poses a big problem in terms of the rapid development of technologies such as computing power and computing speed. Therefore, the Diffie-Hellmann (DH) algorithm is more vulnerable than ever. No mechanism guarantees the security of the key exchange, so if an intermediary manages to intercept it, it is easy to intercept. In this regard, several studies have been conducted to improve the security of key exchange between two interlocutors, which has led to interesting results. The modification made on our model Diffie-Hellman-RSA-AES (DRA), which encrypts the information exchanged between two users using the three-encryption algorithms DH, RSA and AES, by using stenographic photos to hide the contents of the p, g and ClesAES values that are sent in an unencrypted state at the level of DRA model to calculate each user's public key. This work includes a comparative study between the DRA model and all existing solutions, as well as the modification made to this model, with an emphasis on the aspect of reliability in terms of security. This study presents a simulation to demonstrate the effectiveness of the modification made to the DRA model. The obtained results show that our model has a security advantage over the existing solution, so we made these changes to reinforce the security of the DRA model.

Keywords: Diffie-Hellmann, DRA, RSA, advanced encryption standard

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Authors: Edmaritz Hernandez-Pagan, Kanjana Laosuntisuk, Alex Harris, Allison Haynes, David Buitrago, Michael Kudenov, Colleen Doherty

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Rare Earth Elements (REEs) are critical metals for modern electronics, green technologies, and defense systems. However, due to their dispersed nature in the Earth’s crust, frequent co-occurrence with radioactive materials, and similar chemical properties, acquiring and purifying REEs is costly and environmentally damaging, restricting access to these metals. Plants could serve as resources for bioengineering REE mining systems. Although there is limited information on how REEs affect plants at a cellular and molecular level, plants with high REE tolerance and hyperaccumulation have been identified. This dissertation aims to develop a plant-based system for harvesting REEs from industrial waste material with a focus on Acid Mine Drainage (AMD), a toxic coal mining product. The objectives are 1) to develop a non-destructive, in vivo detection method for REE detection in Phytolacca plants (REE hyperaccumulator) plants utilizing fluorescence spectroscopy and with a primary focus on dysprosium, 2) to characterize the uptake of REE and Heavy Metals in Phytolacca americana and Phytolacca acinosa (REE hyperaccumulator) in AMD for potential implementation in the plant-based system, 3) to implement the REE detection method to identify REE-binding proteins and peptides for potential enhancement of uptake and selectivity for targeted REEs in the plants implemented in the plant-based system. The candidates are known REE-binding peptides or proteins, orthologs of known metal-binding proteins from REE hyperaccumulator plants, and novel proteins and peptides identified by comparative plant transcriptomics. Lanmodulin, a high-affinity REE-binding protein from methylotrophic bacteria, is used as a benchmark for the REE-protein binding fluorescence assays and expression in A. thaliana to test for changes in REE plant tolerance and uptake.

Keywords: phytomining, agromining, rare earth elements, pokeweed, phytolacca

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Authors: Ellen A. Kalinga

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Moodle is an open source learning management system that enables creation of a powerful and flexible learning environment. Many organizations, especially learning institutions have customized Moodle open source LMS for their own use. In general open source LMSs are of great interest due to many advantages they offer in terms of cost, usage and freedom to customize to fit a particular context. Tanzania Secondary School e-Learning (TanSSe-L) system is the learning management system for Tanzania secondary schools. TanSSe-L system was developed using a number of methods, one of them being customization of Moodle Open Source LMS. This paper presents few areas on the way Moodle OS LMS was customized to produce a functional TanSSe-L system fitted to the requirements and specifications of Tanzania secondary schools’ context.

Keywords: LMS, Moodle, e-learning, Tanzania, secondary school

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Authors: Nora Arbaoui, Rachid Tadili, Ilham Ihoume

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Climate change and its effects on low external temperatures in winter require great consumption of energy to improve the greenhouse microclimate and increase agricultural production. To reduce the amount of energy consumed, a solar system has been developed to heat an agricultural greenhouse. This system is based on a transfer fluid that will circulate inside the greenhouse through a solar copper coil positioned on the roof of the greenhouse. This thermal energy accumulated during the day will be stored to be released during the night to improve the greenhouse’s microclimate. The use of this solar heating system has resulted in an average increase in the greenhouse’s indoor temperature of 8.3°C compared to the outdoor environment. This improved temperature has created a more favorable climate for crops and has subsequently had a positive effect on their development, quality, and production.

Keywords: solar system, agricultural greenhouse, heating, cooling, storage, drying

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Authors: Pouya Molana, Zeinab Alimohammadi

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Determining wind wave characteristics is essential for implementing projects related to Coastal and Marine engineering such as designing coastal and marine structures, estimating sediment transport rates and coastal erosion rates in order to predict significant wave height (H_s), this study applies the third generation spectral wave model, Mike 21 SW, along with CEM model. For SW model calibration and verification, two data sets of meteorology and wave spectroscopy are used. The model was exposed to time-varying wind power and the results showed that difference ratio mean, standard deviation of difference ratio and correlation coefficient in SW model for H_s parameter are 1.102, 0.279 and 0.983, respectively. Whereas, the difference ratio mean, standard deviation and correlation coefficient in The Choice Experiment Method (CEM) for the same parameter are 0.869, 1.317 and 0.8359, respectively. Comparing these expected results it is revealed that the Choice Experiment Method CEM has more errors in comparison to MIKE 21 SW third generation spectral wave model and higher correlation coefficient does not necessarily mean higher accuracy.

Keywords: MIKE 21 SW, CEM method, significant wave height, difference ratio

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Authors: David Levy

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The newly released Distributed System Interface 3 (DSI3) Bus Standard specification defines 3 modulation levels from which 16 valid symbols are coded. This structure creates power consumption variations depending on the transmitted data of a factor of more than 2 between minimum and maximum. The power generation unit has to consider therefore the worst case maximum consumption all the time and be built accordingly. This paper proposes a method to reduce both the average current consumption and worst case current consumption. The transmitter randomizes the data using several pseudo-random sequences. It then estimates the energy consumption of the generated frames and selects to transmit the one which consumes the least. The transmitter also prepends the index of the pseudo-random sequence, which is not randomized, to allow the receiver to recover the original data using the correct sequence. We show that in the case that the frame occupies most of the DSI3 synchronization period, we achieve average power consumption reduction by up to 13% and the worst case power consumption is reduced by 17.7%.

Keywords: DSI3, energy, power consumption, randomization

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Authors: Alonggot Limcharoen Kaeochotchuangkul, Pathomporn Sawatchai

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This research aims to design and build a wet etching system, which is suitable for anisotropic wet etching, in order to reduce etching time, to reduce hillocks on the etched surface (to reduce roughness), and to create a 45-degree wall angle (micro-mirror). This study would start by designing a wet etching system. There are four main components in this system: an ultrasonic cleaning, a condenser, a motor and a substrate holder. After that, an ultrasonic machine was modified by applying a condenser to maintain the consistency of the solution concentration during the etching process and installing a motor for improving the roughness. This effect on the etch rate and the roughness showed that the etch rate increased and the roughness was reduced.

Keywords: anisotropic wet etching, wet etching system, hillocks, ultrasonic cleaning

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Authors: Nwanneka Mmonwuba

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Solid waste disposal to the environment was investigated by analyzing the quality characteristics of waste, air quality, and heavy metal concentration in the soil. The characteristics of waste were analyzed by enumerating the number of houses, hostels, hotels, markets, schools, and industries with the type of waste being discharged or deposited into the dump site. The percentage of waste was estimated with organic ranking first for both wet and dry seasons, 54% and 44%, respectively. The ambient air quality was analyzed using the crown gas monitor analyzer. The analysis showed that the mean concentration of NO₂, SO₂, and Co is 0.74, 0.37, and 47.35 ppm for the wet season and 0.47, 0.35, and 37.65 ppm for the dry season, respectively, and do not conform with the USEPA standard. The chemical analysis of the groundwater sample indicates alkalinity ranging from 7.38 to 9.11. the heavy metals concentration in the soil of cadmium, iron, copper, calcium, and potassium with 0.053, 0.722, 0227, 21.3, and 9.019, respectively, obtained from 0.3 m at the subsurface failed to conform to the NRC (2013) standard. Iron consent in the soil can be corrected using ascorbic acid and soda ash. The permanent reduction of effects is to try relocating people who live very close to the dumpsite, or the dumpsite should be sited elsewhere and replaced with a sanitary landfill.

Keywords: solid waste, groundwater, disposal, dumpsite

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Authors: Justin Tang

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Balance tests are frequently used to diagnose concussions on the sidelines of sporting events. Manual scoring, however, is labor intensive and subjective, and many concussions go undetected. This study institutes a novel approach to conducting the Balance Error Scoring System (BESS) more quantitatively using Microsoft’s gaming system Kinect, which uses a contactless sensor and several cameras to receive data and estimate body limb positions. Using a machine learning approach, Visual Gesture Builder, and a deterministic approach, MATLAB, we tested whether the Kinect can differentiate between “correct” and erroneous stances of the BESS. We created the two separate solutions by recording test videos to teach the Kinect correct stances and by developing a code using Java. Twenty-two subjects were asked to perform a series of BESS tests while the Kinect was collecting data. The Kinect recorded the subjects and mapped key joints onto their bodies to obtain angles and measurements that are interpreted by the software. Through VGB and MATLAB, the videos are analyzed to enumerate the number of errors committed during testing. The resulting statistics demonstrate a high correlation between manual scoring and the Kinect approaches, indicating the viability of the use of remote tracking devices in conducting concussion tests.

Keywords: automated, concussion detection, contactless sensors, microsoft kinect

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Authors: Kelvin Datonye Bob-Manuel

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The shipping industry has begun to seriously look at ways of reducing fossil fuel consumption so that current reserves can last longer and operate their ships in a more environmentally friendly way. The concept of Green Shipping or Sustainable Shipping with the use of alternative fuels is now becoming an important issue for ship owners, shipping lines and ship builders globally. This paper provides a critical review of the performance of biodiesel and natural gas-fuelled diesel engines for shipboard application. The emission reduction technique included the use of either neat or emulsified rapeseed methyl ester (RME) for pilot ignition and the emission of NOx, CO2 and SOx were measured at engine speed range of 500 - 1500 r/min. The NOx concentrations were compared with the regulated IMO MARPOL73/78, Annex VI, Tiers I, II, III and United States Environmental Protection Agency (US-EPA) standard. All NOx emissions met Tier I and II levels and the EPA standard for the minimum specification of category 1 engines at higher speed but none met the MARPOL Tier III limit which is for designated Emission Control Areas (ECAs). No trace of soot and SOx emission were observed.

Keywords: dual-fuel, biodiesel, natural gas, NOx, SOx, MARPOL 73/78 Annex VI. USEPA Tier 3, EURO V &VI

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Authors: Abimbola Motunrayo Enitan, Ibironke Titilayo Enitan, John Odiyo

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The study assessed quality of surface water across Ndawuse River Phase 1, District of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja, Nigeria based on physico-chemical variables that are linked to agrochemical and eutrophication, as well as heavy metals concentrations. In total, sixteen surface water samples were obtained from five locations along the river. The results were compared with the standard limits set by both World Health Organization and Federal Environmental Protection Agency for drinking water. The results obtained indicated that BOD5, turbidity, 0.014-3.511 mg Fe/L and 0.078-0.14 mg Cr/L were all above the standard limits. The results further showed that the quality of surface water is being significantly affected by human activities around the Ndawuse River which could pose an adverse health risk to several communities that rely on these receiving water bodies primarily as their source of water. Therefore, there is a need for strict enforcement of environmental laws considering the physico-chemical analysis.

Keywords: Abuja, heavy metals, human exposure risk, Ndawuse River, Nigeria, surface water

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Authors: Taha Benarbia, Kay W. Axhausen, Anugrah Ilahi

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Electric car sharing system as ecologic transportation increasing in the world. The complexity of managing electric car sharing systems, especially one-way trips and battery autonomy have direct influence to on supply and demand of system. One must be able to precisely model the demand and supply of these systems to better operate electric car sharing and estimate its effect on mobility management and the accessibility that it provides in urban areas. In this context, our work focus to develop performances optimization model of the system based on discrete event simulation and stochastic Petri net. The objective is to search optimal decisions and management parameters of the system in order to fulfil at best demand while minimizing undesirable situations. In this paper, we present new model of electric cars sharing with relocation based on monitoring system. The proposed approach also help to precise the influence of battery charging level on the behaviour of system as important decision parameter of this complex and dynamical system.

Keywords: electric car-sharing systems, smart mobility, Petri nets modelling, discrete event simulation

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Authors: Gikunda Aloise, Mjema Saida, Barasa Herbert, Wanyungu John, Kimani Maureen

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Background: Community Health Workforce (CHW) is health care providers at the community level (Level 1) and serves as a bridge between the community and the formal healthcare system. This human resource has enormous potential to extend healthcare services and ensures that the vulnerable, marginalized, and hard-to-reach populations have access to quality healthcare services at the community and primary health facility levels. However, these cadres are neither recognized, remunerated, nor in most instances, registered in a master list. Management and supervision of CHWs is not easy if their individual demographics, training capacity and incentives is not well documented through a centralized registry. Description: In February 2022, Amref supported the Kenya Ministry of Health in developing a community health workforce database called Community Health Workers Master List Registry (CHWML), which is hosted in Kenya Health Information System (KHIS) tracker. CHW registration exercise was through a sensitization meeting conducted by the County Community Health Focal Person for the Sub-County Community Health Focal Person and Community Health Assistants who uploaded information on individual demographics, training undertaken and incentives received by CHVs. Care was taken to ensure compliance with Kenyan laws on the availability and use of personal data as prescribed by the Data Protection Act, 2019 (DPA). Results and lessons learnt: By June 2022, 80,825 CHWs had been registered in the system; 78,174 (96%) CHVs and 2,636 (4%) CHAs. 25,235 (31%) are male, 55,505 (68%) are female & 85 (1%) are transgender. 39,979. (49%) had secondary education and 2500 (3%) had no formal education. Only 27 641 (34%) received a monthly stipend. 68,436 CHVs (85%) had undergone basic training. However, there is a need to validate the data to align with the current situation in the counties. Conclusions/Next steps: The use of CHWML will unlock opportunities for building more resilient and sustainable health systems and inform financial planning, resource allocation, capacity development, and quality service delivery. The MOH will update the CHWML guidelines in adherence to the data protection act which will inform standard procedures for maintaining, updating the registry and integrate Community Health Workforce registry with the HRH system.

Keywords: community health registry, community health volunteers (CHVs), community health workers masters list (CHWML), data protection act

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Authors: Ankush Raina, Ankush Anand

Abstract:

Plyometric training is a form of specialised strength training that uses fast muscular contractions to improve power and speed in sports conditioning by coaches and athletes. Despite its useful role in sports conditioning programme, the information about plyometric training on the athletes cardiovascular health especially Electrocardiogram (ECG) has not been established in the literature. The purpose of the study was to determine the effects of lower and upper body plyometric training on ECG of athletes. The study was guided by three null hypotheses. Quasi–experimental research design was adopted for the study. Seventy-two university male athletes constituted the population of the study. Thirty male athletes aged 18 to 24 years volunteered to participate in the study, but only twenty-three completed the study. The volunteered athletes were apparently healthy, physically active and free of any lower and upper extremity bone injuries for past one year and they had no medical or orthopedic injuries that may affect their participation in the study. Ten subjects were purposively assigned to one of the three groups: lower body plyometric training (LBPT), upper body plyometric training (UBPT), and control (C). Training consisted of six plyometric exercises: lower (ankle hops, squat jumps, tuck jumps) and upper body plyometric training (push-ups, medicine ball-chest throws and side throws) with moderate intensity. The general data were collated and analysed using Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS version 22.0). The research questions were answered using mean and standard deviation, while paired samples t-test was also used to test for the hypotheses. The results revealed that athletes who were trained using LBPT had reduced ECG parameters better than those in the control group. The results also revealed that athletes who were trained using both LBPT and UBPT indicated lack of significant differences following ten weeks plyometric training than those in the control group in the ECG parameters except in Q wave, R wave and S wave (QRS) complex. Based on the findings of the study, it was recommended among others that coaches should include both LBPT and UBPT as part of athletes’ overall training programme from primary to tertiary institution to optimise performance as well as reduce the risk of cardiovascular diseases and promotes good healthy lifestyle.

Keywords: boundary lubrication, copper oxide, friction, nano diamond

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Authors: Š. Čemerková, M. Wilczková

Abstract:

The paper deals with the importance of information flow for providing of defined level of customer service in the firms. Setting of the criteria for the selection and implementation of logistics information system is a prerequisite for ensuring of the flow of information in firms. The decision on the selection and implementation of logistics information system is linked to the investment costs and operating costs, which are included in the total logistics costs. The article also deals with the conclusions of the research focused on the logistics information system selection in companies in the Czech Republic.

Keywords: customer service, information system, logistics, research

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Authors: Youjeong Hwang

Abstract:

Purpose: Insulin-like growth factor-I (IGF-I) promotes B-cell development, immunoglobulin formation, and interleukin-6 (IL-6) production, then regulate the immune response and inflammation. As IGF-I and their receptor also exist in the periodontal tissue, they may affect the immune response caused by periodontal pathogens in aggressive periodontitis (AgP) patients. The function of IGF is regulated by IGF binding proteins (IGFBPs), and IGFBP-3 is known to most abundant in plasma. The aim of the present study was to assess the concentration of IGF-I and IGFBP-3 in plasma and gingival crevicular fluid (GCF) in AgP patients and to find out their association. Methods: Nine patients with AgP (test group) and nine healthy subjects (control group) were included in this study. None of the subjects had a history of systemic disease, smoking or steroids medication. GCF samples were collected by microcapillary pipettes and plasma samples were obtained by venipuncture. Probing pocket depth (PD), clinical attachment level (CAL) and bleeding on probing (BOP) were recorded. Samples were assayed for IGF-I and IGFBP-3 levels using ELISA. Results: Mean IGF-I level in GCF was higher in the test group than control. Mean IGF-I level in plasma and IGFBP-3 level in GCF and plasma in control group were higher than that of the test group. However, there was no statistical significance (p > 0.05). The mean level of IGF-I and IGFBP-3 in GCF was lower than those in plasma. Mean IGF-I level in plasma showed a negative correlation with PD and CAL (p < 0.05) in both groups. The levels of IGF-I and IGFBP-3 in GCF seemed to be negatively correlated with BOP in the test group (p < 0.05). Conclusions: The difference in the level of IGF-I and IGFBP-3 between AgP and healthy subjects was not significant. Further studies that explain the mechanism of the protective role of IGF-I with more samples are needed.

Keywords: aggressive periodontitis, pathogenesis, insulin-like growth factor, insulin-like growth factor binding protein

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Authors: Renata Markiewicz-Żukowska, Patryk Nowakowski, Sylwia K. Naliwajko, Jakub M. Bołtryk, Katarzyna Socha, Anna Puścion-Jakubik, Jolanta Soroczyńska, Maria H. Borawska

Abstract:

Selenium (Se) is an essential element for human health. As an integral part of glutathione peroxidase, it has antioxidant, anti-inflammatory and anticancer activities. Unfortunately, Se dietary intake is often insufficient, especially in regions where the soil is low in Se. Therefore, in search for good sources of Se, the content of this element in food products should be monitored. Food product can be considered as a source of Se when its standard portion covers above 15% of recommended daily allowance. In the case of nuts, 42g is recognized as the standard portion. The aim of this study was to determine the Se content in nuts and to answer the question of whether the studied nuts can be considered as a source of Se in the diet. The material for the study consisted of 10 types of nuts (12 samples of each one): almonds, Brazil nuts, cashews, hazelnuts, macadamia nuts, peanuts, pecans, pine nuts, pistachios and walnuts. The nuts were mineralized using microwave technique (Berghof, Germany). The content of Se was determined by atomic absorption spectrometry method with electrothermal atomization in a graphite tube with Zeeman background correction (Hitachi, Japan). The accuracy of the method was verified on certified reference material: Simulated Diet D. The statistical analysis was performed using Statistica v. 13.0 software. Statistical significance was determined at p < 0.05 level. The highest content of Se was found in Brazil nuts (4566.21 ± 3393.9 µg/kg) and the lowest in almonds (36.07 ± 18.8 µg/kg). A standard portion (42g) of almonds, brazil nuts, cashews, hazelnuts, macadamia nuts, peanuts, pecans, pine nuts, pistachios and walnuts covers the recommended daily allowance for Se respectively in: 2, 192, 28, 2, 16, 7, 4, 3, 12, 6%. Brazil nuts, cashews and macadamia nuts can be considered as a good source of Se in diet.

Keywords: atomic absorption spectrometry, diet, nuts, selenium

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Authors: Claire Kaplaan P. Lafadchan

Abstract:

The study looked into the peace pact system as a customary way of solving cases in Bontoc, Mountain Province. To study the importance of the peace pact system, the study focused on the extent of attainment of the objectives of peace pact system in Bontoc, Mountain Province; the extent of attainment of the procedure; level of satisfaction on the peace pact system; and, the degree of the seriousness of the problems encountered. The study aimed to see the importance of peace pact system as a means of amicable settlement in Bontoc, Mountain Province as the researcher is concerned on the conflicts evolving between natives of Bontoc and people from other municipalities. Questionnaire-checklist was used as the main data-gathering tool. It was found out in the study that the goals and objectives of peace pact is much attained; the procedures is much attained; the level of satisfaction is much satisfied; and the problems encountered is moderately serious. Despite the fact that peace pact participants are all doing their part in the process, still, there are problems they encountered.

Keywords: peace pact, amicable settlement, bontoc, pagta, pechen

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Authors: Olu Ale, Olugbenga Aribisala, Sanmi Awopetu

Abstract:

Groundwater (Wells) is obtained from several well-defined and different water-bearing geological layers or strata. The physical, chemical and bacteriological quality of the water contributed from each of these water-bearing formations and resultant effects of indiscriminate wastes disposal will be dependent on the dissolution of material within the formation. Therefore, water withdrawn from any ground water source will be a composite of these individual aquifers. The water quality was determined by actual sampling and analysis of the completed wells. This study attempted to examine the physicochemical and bacteriological water quality of twenty five selected wells comprising twenty boreholes (deep wells) and five hand dug wells (shallow wells). The twenty five wells cut across the entire Ado Ekiti Metropolitan area. The water samples collected using standard method was promptly taken to water laboratory at the Federal Polytechnic Ado-Ekiti for analysis, physical, chemical and bacteriological tests were carried out. Quality characteristics tested were found to meet WHO’s standard and generally acceptable, making it potable for drinking in most situations, thus encouraging the use of groundwater. Possible improvement strategies to groundwater exploitation were highlighted while remedies to poor quality water were suggested.

Keywords: bacteriological, physicochemical, quality, wells, Ado Ekiti

Procedia PDF Downloads 368