Search results for: high technology export

Authors: Mostafa Jafarian Abyaneh, Khashayar Jafari, Vahab Toufigh

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The cost of experiments on different types of concrete has raised the demand for prediction of their behavior with numerical analysis. In this research, an advanced numerical model has been presented to predict the complete elastic-plastic behavior of polymer concrete (PC), high-strength concrete (HSC), high performance concrete (HPC) along with different steel fiber contents under uniaxial compression. The accuracy of the numerical response was satisfactory as compared to other conventional simple models such as Mohr-Coulomb and Drucker-Prager. In order to predict the complete elastic-plastic behavior of specimens including softening behavior, disturbed state concept (DSC) was implemented by nonlinear finite element analysis (NFEA) and hierarchical single surface (HISS) failure criterion, which is a failure surface without any singularity.

Keywords: disturbed state concept (DSC), hierarchical single surface (HISS) failure criterion, high performance concrete (HPC), high-strength concrete (HSC), nonlinear finite element analysis (NFEA), polymer concrete (PC), steel fibers, uniaxial compression test

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Authors: Kawinphat Lertpongmanee

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The purposes of this study were (1) investigate the English language learning motivation and the attainment of their English proficiency, (2) to find out how motivation and motivational variables of the high and low proficiency subjects are related to their English proficiency. The respondents were 80 fourth-year from Faculty of Management Sciences students in Rajabhat Suansunadha University. The instruments used for data collection were questionnaires. The statistically analyzed by using the SPSS program for frequency, percentage, arithmetic mean, standard deviation (SD), t-test, one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA), and Pearson correlation coefficient. The findings of this study are summarized as there was a significant difference in overall motivation between high and low proficiency groups of subjects at .05 (p < .05), but not in overall motivational variables. Additionally, the high proficiency group had a significantly higher level of intrinsic motivation than did the low proficiency group at .05 (p < .05).

Keywords: English language proficiency, faculty of management sciences, motivation factors, proficiency subjects

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Authors: Theophilus Adedokun, Sylvia Zulu, Felix Awung, Sam Usadolo

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The proliferation of technology into teaching process has brought about transformation into the field of education. Language teaching is not left behind from this tremendous transformation which has drastically altered the teaching of language. It is, however, appalling that some language instructors seem to possess negative attitudes toward the use of technology in language teaching, which in this study is referred to as Computer Assisted Language Teaching (CALT). The purpose of this study, therefore, is to explore sustainable lesson that can be learnt from the attitudes of language instructors towards language teaching in some public universities. The knowledge gained from this study could inform and advance the use of Computer Assisted Language Teaching. This study considers the historical progression of CALT and recommends that a fundamental approach is required for institutions to develop and advance the use of CALT for teaching. A review of sustainable lessons learnt from the attitudes of language instructors towards CALT are provided, and the CALT experience of 3 institutions are described. Drawing from this succinct description, this study makes recommendations on how operative CALT could be executed on a personal and institutional basis.

Keywords: attitudes, language instructors, sustainable lessons, computer assisted language teaching

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Authors: Yihao Kuang, Bowen Ding

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With the increasing scale and complexity of knowledge graph, modern knowledge graph contains more and more types of entity, relationship, and attribute information. Therefore, in recent years, it has been a trend for knowledge graph inference to use reinforcement learning to deal with large-scale, incomplete, and noisy knowledge graphs and improve the inference effect and interpretability. The Proximal Policy Optimization (PPO) algorithm utilizes a near-end strategy optimization approach. This allows for more extensive updates of policy parameters while constraining the update extent to maintain training stability. This characteristic enables PPOs to converge to improved strategies more rapidly, often demonstrating enhanced performance early in the training process. Furthermore, PPO has the advantage of offline learning, effectively utilizing historical experience data for training and enhancing sample utilization. This means that even with limited resources, PPOs can efficiently train for reinforcement learning tasks. Based on these characteristics, this paper aims to obtain a better and more efficient inference effect by introducing PPO into knowledge inference technology.

Keywords: reinforcement learning, PPO, knowledge inference

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Authors: Nesrine Bougarech, Habib Affes

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This research lays the emphasis on the business process reengineering (BPR) which consists in radically altering the organizational processes through the optimal use of information technology (IT) to attain major enhancements in terms of quality, performance and productivity. A survey of the business process reengineering (BPR) was carried out in three French groups and their subsidiaries in Tunisia. The data collected were qualitatively analyzed in an attempt to test the main indicators of the success of a business process reengineering project (BPR) and to compare the importance of these indicators in the context of France versus Tunisia. The study corroborates that the respect of the inherent principles of the business process reengineering (BPR) and the diversity of the human resources involved in the project can lead to better productivity, higher quality of the goods or services and lower cost. Additionally, our results mirror the extent to which the respect of the principles and the diversity of resources are more important in the French companies than in their Tunisian subsidiaries.

Keywords: business process reengineering (BPR), human resources management (HRM), information technology (IT), management

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Authors: Ching-Yu Liao, Ju-Joan Wong

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Recent years have shown a trend of younger stroke patients and an increase in ischemic strokes with the rise in stroke incidence. This has led to a growing demand for telemedicine, particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic, which has made the need for telemedicine even more urgent. This shift in healthcare is also closely related to advancements in Internet of Things (IoT) technology. Stroke-induced hemiparesis is a significant issue for patients. The medical community believes that if intervention occurs within three to six months of stroke onset, 80% of the residual effects can be restored to normal, a period known as the stroke golden period. During this time, patients undergo treatment and rehabilitation, and neural plasticity is at its best. Lower limb rehabilitation for stroke generally includes exercises such as support standing and walking posture, typically involving the healthy limb to guide the affected limb to achieve rehabilitation goals. Existing gait training aids in hospitals usually involve balance gait, sitting posture training, and precise muscle control, effectively addressing issues of poor gait, insufficient muscle activity, and inability to train independently during recovery. However, home training aids, such as braced and wheeled devices, often rely on the healthy limb to pull the affected limb, leading to lower usage of the affected limb, worsening circular walking, and compensatory movement issues. IoT technology connects devices via the internet to record, receive data, provide feedback, and adjust equipment for intelligent effects. Therefore, this study aims to explore how IoT can be integrated into existing gait training aids to monitor and sensor home rehabilitation movements, improve gait training compensatory issues through real-time feedback, and enable healthcare professionals to quickly understand patient conditions and enhance medical communication. To understand the needs of hemiparetic patients, a review of relevant literature from the past decade will be conducted. From the perspective of user experience, participant observation will be used to explore the use of home training aids by stroke patients and therapists, and interviews with physical therapists will be conducted to obtain professional opinions and practical experiences. Design specifications for home training aids for hemiparetic patients will be summarized. Applying IoT technology to lower limb training aids for stroke hemiparesis can help promote walking function recovery in hemiparetic patients, reduce muscle atrophy, and allow healthcare professionals to immediately grasp patient conditions and adjust gait training plans based on collected and analyzed information. Exploring these potential development directions provides a valuable reference for the further application of IoT technology in the field of medical rehabilitation.

Keywords: stroke, hemiplegia, rehabilitation, gait training, internet of things technology

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Authors: B. S. So, Y. H. Yoon, J. O. Jung, K. S. Bae

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Metal Injection Molding (MIM) is a technology that combines powder metallurgy and injection molding. Particularly, it is widely applied to the manufacture of precision mobile parts and automobile turbocharger parts because compact precision parts with complicated three-dimensional shapes that are difficult to machining are formed into a large number of finished products. The swing valve is a valve that adjusts the boost pressure of the turbocharger. Since the head portion is exposed to the harsh temperature condition of about 900 degrees in the gasoline GDI engine, it is necessary to use Inconel material with excellent heat resistance and abrasion resistance, resulting in high manufacturing cost. In this study, we developed a swing valve using a metal powder injection molding based hybrid material (Inconel 713C material with heat resistance is applied to the head part, and HK30 material with low price is applied to the rest of the body part). For this purpose, the process conditions of the metal injection molding were optimized to minimize the internal defects, and the effectiveness was confirmed by the fracture strength and fatigue test.

Keywords: hybrid metal injection molding, swing valve, turbocharger, double injection

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Authors: J. P. Chollom, G. M. Kumleng, S. Longwap

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The search for higher order A-stable linear multi-step methods has been the interest of many numerical analysts and has been realized through either higher derivatives of the solution or by inserting additional off step points, supper future points and the likes. These methods are suitable for the solution of stiff differential equations which exhibit characteristics that place a severe restriction on the choice of step size. It becomes necessary that only methods with large regions of absolute stability remain suitable for such equations. In this paper, high order block implicit multi-step methods of the hybrid form up to order twelve have been constructed using the multi-step collocation approach by inserting one or more off step points in the multi-step method. The accuracy and stability properties of the new methods are investigated and are shown to yield A-stable methods, a property desirable of methods suitable for the solution of stiff ODE’s. The new High Order Block Implicit Multistep methods used as block integrators are tested on stiff differential systems and the results reveal that the new methods are efficient and compete favourably with the state of the art Matlab ode23 code.

Keywords: block linear multistep methods, high order, implicit, stiff differential equations

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Authors: Minoo Tavakoli, Alireza Kiani Rashid, Abbas Afrasiabi

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An aluminum coating deposited on mild steel substrate by electric arc spray and diffused to the base steel material by diffusion treatment at 800 and 900°C for 1 and 3 hours in a static air. Alloy layers formed by diffusion at both temperatures were investigated, and their features were compared with those of pack cementation aluminized steel. High-temperature oxidation tests were carried out in air at 600 °C for 145 hours. Results indicated that the aluminide coatings obtained from this process have significantly improved the high-temperature oxidation resistance in both methods due to the Al2O3 scale formation. Furthermore, it showed that the isothermal oxidation resistance of arc spray technique is better than pack cementation method. This can be attributed to voids that formed at the intermetallic layer /Al layer interface which is increased in the pack cementation method.

Keywords: electric arc spray, pack cementation, oxidation resistance, aluminized steel

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Authors: Patrice L. Weiss, Barbara Mazer, Tal Krasovsky, Naomi Gefen

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Knowledge translation (KT) involves the process of applying the most promising research findings to practical settings, ensuring that new technological discoveries enhance healthcare accessibility, effectiveness, and accountability. This perspective paper aims to discuss and provide examples of how the KT process can be implemented during a time of rapid advancement in rehabilitation technologies, which have the potential to greatly influence pediatric healthcare. The analysis is grounded in a comprehensive systematic review of literature, where key studies from the past 34 years were carefully interpreted by four expert researchers in scientific and clinical fields. This review revealed both theoretical and practical insights into the factors that either facilitate or impede the successful implementation of new rehabilitation technologies. By utilizing the Knowledge-to-Action cycle, which encompasses the knowledge creation funnel and the action cycle, we demonstrated its application in integrating advanced technologies into clinical practice and guiding healthcare policy adjustments. We highlighted three successful technology applications: powered mobility, head support systems, and telerehabilitation. Moreover, we investigated emerging technologies, such as brain-computer interfaces and robotic assistive devices, which face challenges related to cost, durability, and usability. Recommendations include prioritizing early and ongoing design collaborations, transitioning from research to practical implementation, and determining the optimal timing for clinical adoption of new technologies. In conclusion, this paper informs, justifies, and strengthens the knowledge translation process, ensuring it remains relevant, rigorous, and significantly contributes to pediatric rehabilitation and other clinical fields.

Keywords: knowledge translation, rehabilitation technology, pediatrics, barriers, facilitators, stakeholders

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Authors: Ishani Maheshika

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The intermediary role performed by freight forwarders in exportation has become significant in fulfilling businesses’ supply chain needs in this dynamic world. Since the success of exporter’s business is at present, highly reliant on supply chain optimization, cost efficiency, profitability, consistent service and responsiveness, the decision of selecting the most beneficial freight forwarder has become crucial for exporters. Although there are similar foreign researches, prior researches covering Sri Lankan setting are not in existence. Moreover, results vary with time, nature of industry and business environment factors. Therefore, a study from the perspective of Sri Lankan exporters was identified as a requisite to be researched. In order to identify and prioritize key factors which have affected the exporter’s decision in selecting freight forwarders in Sri Lankan context, Sri Lankan export industry was stratified into 22 sectors based on commodity using stratified sampling technique. One exporter from each sector was then selected using judgmental sampling to have a sample of 22. Factors which were identified through a pilot survey, was organized under 6 main criteria. A questionnaire was basically developed as pairwise comparisons using 9-point semantic differential scale and comparisons were done within main criteria and subcriteria. After a pre-testing, interviews and e-mail questionnaire survey were conducted. Data were analyzed using Analytic Hierarchy Process to determine priority vectors of criteria. Customer service was found to be the most important main criterion for Sri Lankan exporters. It was followed by reliability and operational efficiency respectively. The criterion of the least importance is company background and reputation. Whereas small sized exporters pay more attention to rate, reliability is the major concern among medium and large scale exporters. Irrespective of seniority of the exporter, reliability is given the prominence. Responsiveness is the most important sub criterion among Sri Lankan exporters. Consistency of judgments with respect to main criteria was verified through consistency ratio, which was less than 10%. Being more competitive, freight forwarders should come up with customized marketing strategies based on each target group’s requirements and expectations in offering services to retain existing exporters and attract new exporters.

Keywords: analytic hierarchy process, freight forwarders, main criteria, Sri Lankan exporters, subcriteria

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Authors: Haralabos C. karantonis, Afroditi Michalaki

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High intakes of carbohydrates and fats have been associated with an increased risk of chronic diseases due to the role of postprandial oxidative stress. This pilot nutritional intervention aimed to examine the acute effect of consuming two different types of breadsticks prepared from durum wheat flour mixtures differing in total phenolic content on postprandial inflammatory and oxidant responses in healthy volunteers. A cross-over, controlled, and single-blind clinical trial was designed, and two isocaloric high-fat and high-carbohydrate meals were tested. Serum total, High Density Lipoprotein (HDL)- and Low Density Lipoprotein (LDL)-cholesterol, triglycerides, glucose, C-reactive protein (CRP), uric acid, plasma total antioxidant capacity, and antiplatelet activity were determined in fasting and 30, 60, and 120 min after consumption. The results showed a better postprandial HDL-cholesterol and total antioxidant activity response in the intervention group. The choice of durum wheat flours with higher phenolic content and antioxidant activity is presented as promising for human health, and clinical studies will expand to draw safer conclusions.

Keywords: antioxidant, antiplatelet, durum wheat, nutritional value

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Authors: Yen-Ku Kuo, Chie-Bein Chen, Jyh-Yi Shih, Kuang-Yi Lin, Chien-Han Peng

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This study is primarily concerned with exploring what factors affect the consumer’s intention of using mobile phone e-book. In developing research structure, we adopted technology acceptance model (TAM) and Innovation Diffusion Theory (IDT) as a foundation. The analysis method of structural equation model (SEM) was used to carry out this study. Subjects were 261 users who are using or used the mobile phone e-book. The findings can be summed up as follows: (1) The subjective norm and job relevance has non-significant and positive influence to the perceived usefulness. This represents now the user are still in a small number and most of them used it in non-work related purpose. (2) The output quality, result demonstrability and perceived ease of use were confirmed to have positive and significant influence to the perceived usefulness. (3) The moderator “innovative diffusion” affects the relationship between the attitude and behavior intention. These findings could be a reference for the practice and future study to make further exploration.

Keywords: mobile phone e-book, technology acceptance model (TAM), innovation diffusion theory (IDT), structural equation model (SEM)

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Authors: Siti Aisyah binti Jumpaan

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21ˢᵗ century skills (PAK-21) integration has made its way into Malaysian curriculum when Ministry of Education introduce its implementation since 2016. This study was conducted to explore pre-service teachers’ readiness in integrating 21st century skills in the classroom via the digital storytelling (DST) method and to find gaps between theory and practice that can be integral towards pre-service teachers’ professional growth. Qualitative research method was used in this research involving six respondents who were selected using a purposive sampling method. Their response from interviews and lesson plan analysis were analysed using narrative analysis. The findings showed that pre-service teachers showed a moderate level of readiness in integrating 21st century skills using DST. Pre-service teachers demonstrated high level of preparedness in writing their lesson plan, but their interview revealed that they faced struggles in implementation due to several factors, such as lack of technology and failure to obtain students’ participation. This study further strengthens the need for specialised curriculum for pre-service teachers in teaching 21st century skills via DST.

Keywords: digital storytelling, 21ˢᵗ century skills, preservice teachers, teacher training

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Authors: Azman Ramlie, Vivian Foo Jing Wen

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As the advancement of technology has tremendously changed the way people communicate with each other, it has opened up opportunities for interracial relationships. Interracial relationship is also known as intercultural or interethnic relationships. This research topic aims to study on students’ perceptions toward interracial relationship in terms of their level of acceptance and approval. In addition, the study also focuses on determining and ranking the factors that affects students’ perceptions towards interracial relationship. This study also targets to determine the differences in students’ perceptions from business and communication major. This study uses a sample of university students from Sunway University, particularly on students in business and communication major. The study was conducted through online survey questionnaires. Results revealed that students’ level of acceptance towards interracial relationship was high. In addition, results also further indicated that family members’ support was one of the most important factors in influencing students’ perception towards interracial relationship. No diverse differences of perceptions among students in business and communication major towards interracial relationship were shown in the findings. Most of the result showed that both majors turned out to have similar perceptions towards interracial relationship. It can be said that the students’ perception towards interracial relationship did not differ from which major the students was in but their family background that would shape their perceptions.

Keywords: interracial relationship, racial, relationship, perceptions

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Authors: Rafat Alwazna

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Technical lexicon is witnessing a large upsurge in the use of new terminologies whose emergence is an inevitable result of the spread of high-quality technology, the existence of scientific paradigms and the fast growth of research in different disciplines. One important subfield of terminology is legal terminology, which forms a crucial part of legal studies, and whose translation from one legal system into another is deemed a formidable and arduous task that needs to be properly performed by legal translators. Indeed, the issue of untranslatability of legal terms, particularly between originally unrelated languages, like legal Arabic and legal English, has long been a real challenge in legal translation. It stems from the conceptual incongruency between legal terms of different legal languages, which are derived from different legal cultures and legal systems. Such conceptual asymmetry is owing to the fact that law has no universal reference and that legal language is what determines the degree of difference in conceptual correspondence. The present paper argues that although conceptual asymmetry, which is the main reason for the issue of untranslatability of legal terms, cannot be denied in legal translation, there exist certain translation techniques which, if properly adopted, would resolve the issue of untranslatability of legal terms and therefore achieve acceptable legal translation. Hence, the question of untranslatability of legal terms should no longer exist within the context of legal translation.

Keywords: conceptual incongruency, Legal terms, translation techniques, untranslatability

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Authors: Igor Bilenko, Artem Shitikov, Michael Gorodetsky

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Optical whispering gallery mode (WGM) resonators combine very high optical quality factor (Q) with small size. Resonators made from low loss crystalline fluorites (CaF2, MgF2) may have Q as high as 1010 that make them unique devices for modern applications including ultrasensitive sensors, frequency control, and precision spectroscopy. While silicon is a promising material transparent from near infrared to terahertz frequencies, fundamental limit for Si WGM quality factor was not reached yet. In our paper, we presented experimental results on the preparation and testing of resonators at 1550 nm wavelength made from crystalline silicon grown and treated by different techniques. Q as high as 3x107 was demonstrated. Future steps need to reach a higher value and possible applications are discussed.

Keywords: optical quality factor, silicon optical losses, silicon optical resonator, whispering gallery modes

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Authors: Tammeen Siraj, Wenxing Zhou, Terry Huang, Mohammad Al-Amin

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The high resolution inline inspection (ILI) tool is used extensively in the pipeline industry to identify, locate, and measure metal-loss corrosion anomalies on buried oil and gas steel pipelines. Corrosion anomalies may occur singly (i.e. individual anomalies) or as clusters (i.e. a colony of corrosion anomalies). Although the ILI technology has advanced immensely, there are measurement errors associated with the sizes of corrosion anomalies reported by ILI tools due limitations of the tools and associated sizing algorithms, and detection threshold of the tools (i.e. the minimum detectable feature dimension). Quantifying the measurement error in the ILI data is crucial for corrosion management and developing maintenance strategies that satisfy the safety and economic constraints. Studies on the measurement error associated with the length of the corrosion anomalies (in the longitudinal direction of the pipeline) has been scarcely reported in the literature and will be investigated in the present study. Limitations in the ILI tool and clustering process can sometimes cause clustering error, which is defined as the error introduced during the clustering process by including or excluding a single or group of anomalies in or from a cluster. Clustering error has been found to be one of the biggest contributory factors for relatively high uncertainties associated with ILI reported anomaly length. As such, this study focuses on developing a consistent and comprehensive framework to quantify the measurement errors in the ILI-reported anomaly length by comparing the ILI data and corresponding field measurements for individual and clustered corrosion anomalies. The analysis carried out in this study is based on the ILI and field measurement data for a set of anomalies collected from two segments of a buried natural gas pipeline currently in service in Alberta, Canada. Data analyses showed that the measurement error associated with the ILI-reported length of the anomalies without clustering error, denoted as Type I anomalies is markedly less than that for anomalies with clustering error, denoted as Type II anomalies. A methodology employing data mining techniques is further proposed to classify the Type I and Type II anomalies based on the ILI-reported corrosion anomaly information.

Keywords: clustered corrosion anomaly, corrosion anomaly assessment, corrosion anomaly length, individual corrosion anomaly, metal-loss corrosion, oil and gas steel pipeline

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Authors: Deepak Loura

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Production and productivity of several crops in the country continue to be adversely affected by biotic (e.g., Insect-pests and diseases) and abiotic (e.g., water temperature and salinity) stresses. Over-dependence on pesticides and other chemicals is economically non-viable for the resource-poor farmers of our country. Further, pesticides can potentially affect human and environmental safety. While traditional breeding techniques and proper- management strategies continue to play a vital role in crop improvement, we need to judiciously use biotechnology approaches for the development of genetically modified crops addressing critical problems in the improvement of crop plants for sustainable agriculture. Modern biotechnology can help to increase crop production, reduce farming costs, and improve food quality and the safety of the environment. Genetic engineering is a new technology which allows plant breeders to produce plants with new gene combinations by genetic transformation of crop plants for improvement of agronomic traits. Advances in recombinant DNA technology have made it possible to have genes between widely divergent species to develop genetically modified or genetically engineered plants. Plant genetic engineering provides the strength to harness useful genes and alleles from indigenous microorganisms to enrich the gene pool for developing genetically modified (GM) crops that will have inbuilt (inherent) resistance to insect pests, diseases, and abiotic stresses. Plant biotechnology has made significant contributions in the past 20 years in the development of genetically engineered or genetically modified crops with multiple benefits. A variety of traits have been introduced in genetically engineered crops which include (i) herbicide resistance. (ii) pest resistance, (iii) viral resistance, (iv) slow ripening of fruits and vegetables, (v) fungal and bacterial resistance, (vi) abiotic stress tolerance (drought, salinity, temperature, flooding, etc.). (vii) quality improvement (starch, protein, and oil), (viii) value addition (vitamins, micro, and macro elements), (ix) pharmaceutical and therapeutic proteins, and (x) edible vaccines, etc. Multiple genes in transgenic crops can be useful in developing durable disease resistance and a broad insect-control spectrum and could lead to potential cost-saving advantages for farmers. The development of transgenic to produce high-value pharmaceuticals and the edible vaccine is also under progress, which requires much more research and development work before commercially viable products will be available. In addition, molecular-aided selection (MAS) is now routinely used to enhance the speed and precision of plant breeding. Newer technologies need to be developed and deployed for enhancing and sustaining agricultural productivity. There is a need to optimize the use of biotechnology in conjunction with conventional technologies to achieve higher productivity with fewer resources. Therefore, genetic modification/ engineering of crop plants assumes greater importance, which demands the development and adoption of newer technology for the genetic improvement of crops for increasing crop productivity.

Keywords: biotechnology, plant genetic engineering, genetically modified, biotic, abiotic, disease resistance

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Authors: Miroslav Dumbrovsky, Lucie Larisova

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The infiltration characteristic of the soil surface is one of the major factors that determines the potential soil degradation risk. The physical, chemical and biological characteristic of soil is changed by the processing of soil. The infiltration soil ability has an important role in soil and water conservation. The subject of the contribution is the evaluation of the influence of the conventional tillage and reduced tillage technology on soil surface crusting processing and infiltration properties of the soil in the North Bohemia region. Field experimental work at the area was carried out in the years 2013-2016 on Cambisol district medium-heavy clayey soil. The research was conducted on sloping erosion-endangered blocks of compacted arable land. The areas were chosen each year in the way that one of the experimental areas was handled by conventional tillage technologies and the other by reduced tillage technologies. Intact soil samples were taken into Kopecký´s cylinders in the three landscape positions, at a depth of 10 cm (representing topsoil) and 30 cm (representing subsoil). The cumulative infiltration was measured using a mini-disc infiltrometer near the consumption points. The Zhang method (1997), which provides an estimate of the unsaturated hydraulic conductivity K(h), was used for the evaluation of the infiltration tests of the mini-disc infiltrometer. The soil profile processed by conventional tillage showed a higher degree of compaction and soil crusting processing. The bulk density was between 1.10–1.67 g.cm⁻³, compared to the land processed by the reduced tillage technology, where the values were between 0.80–1.29 g.cm⁻³. Unsaturated hydraulic conductivity values were about one-third higher within the reduced tillage technology soil processing.

Keywords: soil crusting processing, unsaturated hydraulic conductivity, cumulative infiltration, bulk density, porosity

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Authors: Shunsuke Aoki, Taku Ri, Tatsuya Yamazaki

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These days, along with the development of e-sports, video games as a competitive sport is attracting attention. But, in many cases, action in the screen does not match the real motion of operation. Inclusiveness of player motion is needed to increase reality and excitement for sports games. Therefore, in this study, the authors propose a method to recognize player motion by using the motion capture technology and develop a virtual basketball game. The virtual basketball game consists of a screen with nine targets, players, depth sensors, and no ball. The players pretend a two-handed basketball shot without a ball aiming at one of the nine targets on the screen. Time-series data of three-dimensional coordinates of player joints are captured by the depth sensor. 20 joints data are measured for each player to estimate the shooting motion in real-time. The trajectory of the thrown virtual ball is calculated based on the time-series data and hitting on the target is judged as success or failure. The virtual basketball game can be played by 2 to 4 players as a competitive game among the players. The developed game was exhibited to the public for evaluation on the authors' university open campus days. 339 visitors participated in the exhibition and enjoyed the virtual basketball game over the two days. A questionnaire survey on the developed game was conducted for the visitors who experienced the game. As a result of the survey, about 97.3% of the players found the game interesting regardless of whether they had experienced actual basketball before or not. In addition, it is found that women are easy to comfort for shooting motion. The virtual game with motion capture technology has the potential to become a universal entertainment between e-sports and actual sports.

Keywords: basketball, motion capture, questionnaire survey, video ga

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Authors: Sayed Abdallah Mohamed Dahy

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Aswan High Dam Reservoir extends for 500 km along the Nile River; it is a vast reservoir in southern Egypt and northern Sudan. It was created as a result of the construction of the Aswan High Dam between 1958 and 1970; about 95% of the main water resources for Egypt are from it. The purpose of this study is to discuss and understand the effect of the fluctuation of the water level in the reservoir on natural and human-induced environmental like earthquakes in the Aswan area, Egypt. In summary, the correlation between the temporal variations of earthquake activity and water level changes in the Aswan reservoir from 1982 to 2014 are investigated and analyzed. This analysis confirms a weak relation between the fluctuation of the water level and earthquake activity in the area around Aswan reservoir. The result suggests that the seismicity in the area becomes active during a period when the water level is decreasing from the maximum to the minimum. Behavior of the water level in this reservoir characterized by a special manner that is the unloading season extends to July or August, and the loading season starts to reach its maximum in October or November every year. Finally, daily rate of change in the water level did not show any direct relation with the size of the earthquakes, hence, it is not possible to be used as a single tool for prediction.

Keywords: Aswan high dam reservoir, earthquake activity, environmental, Egypt

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Authors: Benu Gupta

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The purpose of the study was to assess the impact of yogic exercise on cardiovascular exercises on selected college students of high altitude. The research was conducted on college students of high altitude in Shimla for their cardiovascular function [Blood Pressure (BP), VO2 Max (TLC) and Pulse Rate (PR)] in respect to yogic exercise. Total 139 students were randomly selected from Himachal University colleges in Shimla. The study was conducted in three phases. The subjects were identified in the first phase of research program then further in next phase they were physiologically tested, and yogic exercise battery was operated in different time frame. The entire subjects were treated with three months yogic exercise. The entire lot of students were again evaluated physiologically [(Cardiovascular measurement: Blood Pressure (BP), VO2 Max (TLC) and Pulse Rate (PR)] with standard equipments. The statistical analyses of the variance (PR, BP (SBP & DBP) and TLC) were done. The result reveals that there was a significant difference in TLC; whereas there was no significant difference in PR. For BP statistical analysis suggests no significant difference were formed. Result showed that the BP of the participants were more inclined towards normal standard BP i.e. 120-80 mmHg.

Keywords: cardiovascular function, college students, high altitude, yogic exercise

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Authors: André Luis Messias Dos Santos Duque, Daniela Polessa Paula, Rosane Harter Griep

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The intensity of physical activity (PA) over time is essential for health promotion. However, there are few studies that have analyzed the practice of different intensities of PA longitudinally. The objective was to identify PA intensity trajectories in men and women from a Brazilian multicentric cohort and their associated factors. Data from 10,367 participants (5,777 women and 4,590 men) aged 35 to 74 years from the baseline and two follow-up visits (2012-2014 and 2017-2019) of the Longitudinal Study of Adult Health (ELSA-Brasil) were analyzed. PA intensity (low, moderate, or high) was assessed using the leisure-time PA module of the International Physical Activity Questionnaire (IPAQ), and sociodemographic, behavioral, and clinical variables were included. Chi-square and T-student tests were used, considering a significant level of 5%. Four intensity trajectories were identified: low, moderate, high, and no pattern. Most participants (82.5% of women and 75.7% of men) had low PA intensity trajectories, and only 2% of women and 4.8% of men had high PA intensity trajectories. For both sexes, a significant difference (p<0.05) was found for age group, education level, income, smoking, type 2 diabetes, obesity, hypertriglyceridemia, and hypertension. Actions that promote the practice of high-intensity PA over time and consider sociodemographic, clinical, and behavioral factors are necessary.

Keywords: lifestyle, longterm effects, physical activity, socioeconomic factors

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Authors: Junqi Zou

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As one of the world’s most tech-ready countries, Singapore has initiated the Smart Nation plan to harness the full power and potential of digital technologies to transform the way people live and work, through the more efficient government and business processes, to make the economy more productive. The key evolutions of digital technology transformation in healthcare and the increasing deployment of Internet of Things (IoTs), Big Data, AI/cognitive, Robotic Process Automation (RPA), Electronic Health Record Systems (EHR), Electronic Medical Record Systems (EMR), Warehouse Management System (WMS in the most recent decade have significantly stepped up the move towards an information-driven healthcare ecosystem. The advances in information technology not only bring benefits to patients but also act as a key force in changing management accounting in healthcare sector. The aim of this study is to investigate the impacts of digital technology transformation on Singapore’s healthcare sector from a management accounting perspective. Adopting a Balanced Scorecard (BSC) analysis approach, this paper conducted an exploratory case study of a newly launched Singapore public hospital, which has been recognized as amongst the most digitally advanced healthcare facilities in Asia-Pacific region. Specifically, this study gains insights on how the new technology is changing healthcare organizations’ management accounting from four perspectives under the Balanced Scorecard approach, 1) Financial Perspective, 2) Customer (Patient) Perspective, 3) Internal Processes Perspective, and 4) Learning and Growth Perspective. Based on a thorough review of archival records from the government and public, and the interview reports with the hospital’s CIO, this study finds the improvements from all the four perspectives under the Balanced Scorecard framework as follows: 1) Learning and Growth Perspective: The Government (Ministry of Health) works with the hospital to open up multiple training pathways to health professionals that upgrade and develops new IT skills among the healthcare workforce to support the transformation of healthcare services. 2) Internal Process Perspective: The hospital achieved digital transformation through Project OneCare to integrate clinical, operational, and administrative information systems (e.g., EHR, EMR, WMS, EPIB, RTLS) that enable the seamless flow of data and the implementation of JIT system to help the hospital operate more effectively and efficiently. 3) Customer Perspective: The fully integrated EMR suite enhances the patient’s experiences by achieving the 5 Rights (Right Patient, Right Data, Right Device, Right Entry and Right Time). 4) Financial Perspective: Cost savings are achieved from improved inventory management and effective supply chain management. The use of process automation also results in a reduction of manpower costs and logistics cost. To summarize, these improvements identified under the Balanced Scorecard framework confirm the success of utilizing the integration of advanced ICT to enhance healthcare organization’s customer service, productivity efficiency, and cost savings. Moreover, the Big Data generated from this integrated EMR system can be particularly useful in aiding management control system to optimize decision making and strategic planning. To conclude, the new digital technology transformation has moved the usefulness of management accounting to both financial and non-financial dimensions with new heights in the area of healthcare management.

Keywords: balanced scorecard, digital technology transformation, healthcare ecosystem, integrated information system

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Authors: Sami Baraketi, Jean Marie Garcia, Olivier Brun

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Wavelength Division Multiplexing (WDM) is the dominant transport technology used in numerous high capacity backbone networks, based on optical infrastructures. Given the importance of costs (CapEx and OpEx) associated to these networks, resource management is becoming increasingly important, especially how the optical circuits, called “lightpaths”, are routed throughout the network. This requires the use of efficient algorithms which provide routing strategies with the lowest cost. We focus on the lightpath routing and wavelength assignment problem, known as the RWA problem, while optimizing wavelength fragmentation over the network. Wavelength fragmentation poses a serious challenge for network operators since it leads to the misuse of the wavelength spectrum, and then to the refusal of new lightpath requests. In this paper, we first establish a new Integer Linear Program (ILP) for the problem based on a node-link formulation. This formulation is based on a multilayer approach where the original network is decomposed into several network layers, each corresponding to a wavelength. Furthermore, we propose an efficient heuristic for the problem based on a greedy algorithm followed by a post-treatment procedure. The obtained results show that the optimal solution is often reached. We also compare our results with those of other RWA heuristic methods.

Keywords: WDM, lightpath, RWA, wavelength fragmentation, optimization, linear programming, heuristic

Procedia PDF Downloads 527

Authors: Luca Martignoni

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The increasing usage of clinical decision support systems in healthcare and the demand for software that enables doctors to take informed decisions is changing everyday clinical practice. However, as technology advances not only are the benefits of technology growing, but so are the potential risks. A growing danger is the doctors’ over-reliance on the proposed decision of the clinical decision support system, leading towards deskilling and rash decisions by doctors. In that regard, identifying doctors' requirements for software and developing approaches to prevent technological over-reliance is of utmost importance. In this paper, we report the results of a design science research study, focusing on the requirements and design principles of ultrasound software. We conducted a total of 15 interviews with experts about poten-tial ultrasound software functions. Subsequently, we developed meta-requirements and design principles to design future clinical decision support systems efficiently and as free from the occur-rence of technological over-reliance as possible.

Keywords: clinical decision support systems, technological over-reliance, design principles, design science research

Procedia PDF Downloads 100

Authors: R. M. Dodo, Z. Musa, K. A. Bello, U. Abdullahi, G. A. Faruna

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Temperature depended austempering of high carbon steel using epoxidized-transesterified cotton seed oil (ETO) was examined. Five set of samples were heated to 850oC and held for one hour then quenched in oil bath of ETO at 250oC at one hour holding time. The same procedure was performed on the rest of the samples and austempered at 270oC, 290oC, 310oC and 330oC. Next, mechanical properties’ tests conducted. The austempered samples were then analyzed for microstructure using scanning electron microscope (SEM). The results indicate that tensile strength and hardness dip with increase in the temperature. Again, impact strength improved with rise in the temperature. It was observed that 270oC is the best austempering temperature, since it produces austempered sample with the best combination of mechanical properties.

Keywords: epoxidized transesterified cotton seed oil, austempering temperature, high carbon steel, bainitic structure

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Authors: D. M. Rey, V. Delgado, J. Zambrano Nájera

Abstract:

Increases in urbanization during XX century, has produced changes in natural dynamics of the basins, which has resulted in increases in runoff volumes, peak flows and flow velocities, that in turn increases flood risk. Higher runoff volumes decrease sewerage networks hydraulic capacity and can cause its failure. This in turn generates increasingly recurrent floods causing mobility problems and general economic detriment in the cities. In Latin America, especially Colombia, this is a major problem because urban population at late XX century was more than 70% is in urban areas increasing approximately in 790% in 1940-1990 period. Besides, high slopes product of Andean topography and high precipitation typical of tropical climates increases velocities and volumes even more, causing stopping of cities during storms. Thus, it becomes very important to know hydrological behavior of Andean Urban Watersheds. This research aims to determine the impact of urbanization in high sloped urban watersheds in its hydrology. To this end, it will be used as study area experimental urban watershed named Palogrande-San Luis watershed, located in the city of Manizales, Colombia. Manizales is a city in central western Colombia, located in Colombian Central Mountain Range (part of Los Andes Mountains) with an abrupt topography (average altitude is 2.153 m). The climate in Manizales is quite uniform, but due to its high altitude it presents high precipitations (1.545 mm/year average) with high humidity (83% average). It was applied HEC-HMS Hydrologic model on the watershed. The inputs to the model were derived from Geographic Information Systems (GIS) theme layers of the Instituto de Estudios Ambientales –IDEA of Universidad Nacional de Colombia, Manizales (Institute of Environmental Studies) and aerial photography taken for the research in conjunction with available literature and look up tables. Rainfall data from a network of 4 rain gages and historical stream flow data were used to calibrate and validate runoff depth using the hydrologic model. Manual calibration was made, and the simulation results show that the model selected is able to characterize the runoff response of the watershed due to land use for urbanization in high mountain watersheds.

Keywords: Andean watersheds modelling, high mountain urban hydrology, urban planning, hydrologic modelling

Procedia PDF Downloads 233

Authors: Samir Khene

Abstract:

Present and future industrial uses of high critical temperature superconductors require high critical temperatures TC and strong current densities JC. These two aims constitute the two motivations of the scientific research in this domain. The most significant feature of any superconductor, from the viewpoint of uses, is the maximum electrical transport current density that this superconductor is capable of withstanding without loss of energy. In this work, vortices pinning in conventional and high-TC superconductors will be studied. Our experiments on vortices pinning in single crystals and nanoparticles of YBa2Cu3O7- and La1.85 Sr0.15CuO will be presented. It will be given special attention to the study of the YBa2Cu3O7- nanoparticles doped by ferromagnetic nanoparticles of Y3Fe5O12. The ferromagnetism and superconductivity coexistence in this compound will be demonstrated, and the influence of these ferromagnetic nanoparticles on the variations of the critical current density JC in YBa2Cu3O7- nanoparticles as a function of applied field H and temperature T will be studied.

Keywords: ferromagnetism, superconductivity, coexistence, magnetic material

Procedia PDF Downloads 77