Search results for: linear structural relations (LISREL)

Authors: S. Shamohammadi, L. Razavi

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This paper based on the principle concepts of SCS-CN model, a new mathematical model for computation of retention potential (S) presented. In the mathematical model, not only precipitation-runoff concepts in SCS-CN model are precisely represented in a mathematical form, but also new concepts, called “maximum retention” and “total retention” is introduced, and concepts of potential retention capacity, maximum retention, and total retention have been separated from each other. In the proposed model, actual retention (F), maximum actual retention (Fmax), total retention (S), maximum retention (Smax), and potential retention (Sp), for the first time clearly defined, so that Sp is not variable, but a function of morphological characteristics of the watershed. Indeed, based on the mathematical relation of the conceptual curve of SCS-CN model, the proposed model provides a new method for the computation of actual retention in watershed and it simply determined runoff based on. In the corresponding relations, in addition to Precipitation (P), Initial retention (Ia), cumulative values of actual retention capacity (F), total retention (S), runoff (Q), antecedent moisture (M), potential retention (Sp), total retention (S), we introduced Fmax and Fmin referring to maximum and minimum actual retention, respectively. As well as, ksh is a coefficient which depends on morphological characteristics of the watershed. Advantages of the modified version versus the original model include a better precision, higher performance, easier calibration and speed computing.

Keywords: model, mathematical, retention, watershed, SCS

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Authors: Ved Vrat Verma, Rani Gupta, Manisha Goel

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γ-glutamyltranspeptidase (GGT: EC 2.3.2.2) is an N-terminal nucleophile hydrolase conserved in all three domains of life. GGT plays a key role in glutathione metabolism where it catalyzes the breakage of the γ-glutamyl bonds and transfer of γ-glutamyl group to water (hydrolytic activity) or amino acids or short peptides (transpeptidase activity). GGTs from bacteria, archaea, and eukaryotes (human, rat and mouse) are homologous proteins sharing >50% sequence similarity and conserved four layered αββα sandwich like three dimensional structural fold. These proteins though similar in their structure to each other, are quite diverse in their enzyme activity: some GGTs are better at hydrolysis reactions but poor in transpeptidase activity, whereas many others may show opposite behaviour. GGT is known to be involved in various diseases like asthma, parkinson, arthritis, and gastric cancer. Its inhibition prior to chemotherapy treatments has been shown to sensitize tumours to the treatment. Microbial GGT is known to be a virulence factor too, important for the colonization of bacteria in host. However, all known inhibitors (mimics of its native substrate, glutamate) are highly toxic because they interfere with other enzyme pathways. However, a few successful efforts have been reported previously in designing species specific inhibitors. We aim to leverage the diversity seen in GGT family (pathogen vs. eukaryotes) for designing specific inhibitors. Thus, in the present study, we have used DIVERGE software to identify sites in GGT proteins, which are crucial for the functional and structural divergence of these proteins. Since, type II divergence sites vary in clade specific manner, so type II divergent sites were our focus of interest throughout the study. Type II divergent sites were identified for pathogen vs. eukaryotes clusters and sites were marked on clade specific representative structures HpGGT (2QM6) and HmGGT (4ZCG) of pathogen and eukaryotes clade respectively. The crucial divergent sites within 15 A radii of the binding cavity were highlighted, and in-silico mutations were performed on these sites to delineate the role of these sites on the mechanism of catalysis and protein folding. Further, the amino acid network (AAN) analysis was also performed by Cytoscape to delineate assortative mixing for cavity divergent sites which could strengthen our hypothesis. Additionally, molecular dynamics simulations were performed for wild complexes and mutant complexes close to physiological conditions (pH 7.0, 0.1 M ionic strength and 1 atm pressure) and the role of putative divergence sites and structural integrities of the homologous proteins have been analysed. The dynamics data were scrutinized in terms of RMSD, RMSF, non-native H-bonds and salt bridges. The RMSD, RMSF fluctuations of proteins complexes are compared, and the changes at protein ligand binding sites were highlighted. The outcomes of our study highlighted some crucial divergent sites which could be used for novel inhibitors designing in a species-specific manner. Since, for drug development, it is challenging to design novel drug by targeting similar protein which exists in eukaryotes, so this study could set up an initial platform to overcome this challenge and help to deduce the more effective targets for novel drug discovery.

Keywords: γ-glutamyltranspeptidase, divergence, species-specific, drug design

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Authors: Rukshani Wickrama-Arachchi, Tanner Metz, James M. Takacs

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Amines bearing γ-stereocenters are important structural motifs found in many biologically active compounds. Regioselective Rh-catalyzed asymmetric hydroboration of acyclic allylamines is used to synthesize amines bearing chiral β- and γ-boronic esters yields up to 70% with 98:2 enantioselectivity. The major enantiomeric outcome can be independent of starting alkene geometry, revealing that cis/trans-isomerization of alkene can occur before hydroboration. Stereospecific transformations of the newly generated C-B bond illustrates the utility of these chiral synthons.

Keywords: allylamines, borylated amines, chiral amines, hydroboration, rhodium-catalysis

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Authors: Mohammed Arif, Abdessalam Kifouche

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Optical character recognition (OCR) has a main role in the present time. It's capable to solve many serious problems and simplify human activities. The OCR yields to 70's, since many solutions has been proposed, but unfortunately, it was supportive to nothing but Latin languages. This work proposes a system of recognition of an off-line Arabic handwriting. This system is based on a structural segmentation method and uses support vector machines (SVM) in the classification phase. We have presented a state of art of the characters segmentation methods, after that a view of the OCR area, also we will address the normalization problems we went through. After a comparison between the Arabic handwritten characters & the segmentation methods, we had introduced a contribution through a segmentation algorithm.

Keywords: OCR, segmentation, Arabic characters, PAW, post-processing, SVM

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Authors: Kulsoom S. Bughio, Naeem K. Janjua, Gordana Dermody, Leslie F. Sikos, Shamsul Islam

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The advancement in information and communication technologies (ICT) and wireless sensor networks have played a pivotal role in the design and development of real-time healthcare solutions, mainly targeting the elderly living in health-assistive smart homes. Such smart homes are equipped with sensor technologies to detect and record activities of daily living (ADL). This survey reviews and evaluates existing approaches and techniques based on real-time sensor-based modeling and reasoning in single-user and multi-user environments. It classifies the approaches into three main categories: learning-based, knowledge-based, and hybrid, and evaluates how they handle temporal relations, granularity, and uncertainty. The survey also highlights open challenges across various disciplines (including computer and information sciences and health sciences) to encourage interdisciplinary research for the detection and recognition of ADLs and discusses future directions.

Keywords: daily living activities, smart homes, single-user environment, multi-user environment

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Authors: Achsania Hendratmi, Puji Sucia Sukmaningrum, Fatin Fadhilah Hasib, Nisful Laila

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The research aimed to know the influence of Capital Adequacy Ratio (CAR), Return on Assets (ROA) and Size of the Financing to Deposit Ratio (FDR) Islamic Banks in Malaysia by using eleven Islamic Banks in Indonesia and fifteen Islamic Banks in Malaysia in the period 2012 to 2016 as samples. The research used a quantitative approach method, and the analysis technique used multiple linear regression. Based on the result of t-test (partial), CAR, ROA and size significantly affect of FDR. While the results of f-test (simultaneous) showed that CAR, ROA and Size significant effect on FDR.

Keywords: capital adequacy ratio, financing to deposit ratio, return on assets, size

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Authors: Jennifer Loar, Jason Montefalcon, Kissy Mae Alimpangog, Miriam Bongo

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The demanding, professional roles that air traffic controllers (ATC) play in air transport operation provided the main motivation of this paper. As the controllers’ workload stress becomes more complex due to various stressors, the challenge to overcome these in the pursuit of improving the efficiency of controllers and safety level of aircrafts has been relevant. Therefore, in order to determine the main stressors and surface the best alternative, two widely-known multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) methods, DANP and PROMETHEE II, are applied. The proposed method is demonstrated in a case study at Mactan Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines (CAAP). The results showed that the main stressors are high air traffic volume, extraneous traffic, unforeseen events, limitations and reliability of equipment, noise/distracter, micro climate, bad posture, relations with supervisors and colleagues, private life conditions/relationships, and emotional conditions. In the outranking of alternatives, compartmentalization is believed to be the most preferred alternative to overcome controllers’ workload stress. This implies that compartmentalization can best be applied to reduce controller workload stress.

Keywords: air traffic controller, DANP, MCDM, PROMETHEE II, workload stress

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Authors: Shenghong Huang, Weirong Wang, Xisheng Luo, Xinzhu Li, Xinwen Zhao

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Understanding of material mixing induced by Richtmyer-Meshkov instability (RMI) at extreme shock compressing conditions (high energy density environment: P >> 100GPa, T >> 10000k) is of great significance in engineering and science, such as inertial confinement fusion(ICF), supersonic combustion, etc. Turbulent mixing induced by RMI is a kind of complex fluid dynamics, which is closely related with hydrodynamic conditions, thermodynamic states, material physical properties such as compressibility, strength, surface tension and viscosity, etc. as well as initial perturbation on interface. For phenomena in ordinary thermodynamic conditions (low energy density environment), many investigations have been conducted and many progresses have been reported, while for mixing in extreme thermodynamic conditions, the evolution may be very different due to ionization as well as large difference of material physical properties, which is full of scientific problems and academic interests. In this investigation, the first principle based molecular dynamic method is applied to study metal Lithium and gas Hydrogen (Li-H2) interface mixing in micro/meso scale regime at different shock compressing loading speed ranging from 3 km/s to 30 km/s. It's found that, 1) Different from low-speed shock compressing cases, in high-speed shock compresing (>9km/s) cases, a strong acceleration of metal/gas interface after strong shock compression is observed numerically, leading to a strong phase inverse and spike growing with a relative larger linear rate. And more specially, the spike growing rate is observed to be increased with shock loading speed, presenting large discrepancy with available empirical RMI models; 2) Ionization is happened in shock font zone at high-speed loading cases(>9km/s). An additional local electric field induced by the inhomogeneous diffusion of electrons and nuclei after shock font is observed to occur near the metal/gas interface, leading to a large acceleration of nuclei in this zone; 3) In conclusion, the work of additional electric field contributes to a mechanism of RMI in micro/meso scale regime at extreme shock compressing conditions, i.e., a Rayleigh-Taylor instability(RTI) is induced by additional electric field during RMI mixing process and thus a larger linear growing rate of interface spike.

Keywords: ionization, micro/meso scale, material mixing, shock

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Authors: Xu Tao, Yilun Xu, Dingwei Xiang, Yaofei Sun

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Urban community is constitute the entire city and its management ‘cell’, let ‘cells’ with growth and self-regeneration capacity and persistence, to allow the city with infinite vigor and vitality of the source; with toughness community mankind's adaptation to the basic unit of social risk, toughness of the city from the community to create a point of building is urban toughness of top-down construction mode of supplement, is of positive significance on the toughness of the urban construction. Based on the basic concept of resilience, this paper reviews the research on the four main areas of the study of urban resilience (i.e., the engineering toughness, ecological resilience, economic resilience, and social resilience, etc.). Studies and comments and summarizes the basic characteristic and main content of the four kind of toughness. Based on, from the city - community level and community level for building community resilience, including the level of urban community and create a Unicom, inclusiveness and openness of the community; community-level lifted from the four angles of the engineering community toughness, ecological toughness, resilience, social resilience, mainly including enhanced the toughness of the infrastructure, green infrastructure of toughness, resilience, social network and social relations, building with a sense of belonging, inclusive, multicultural community. Finally, summarize and prospect the resilience of the community.

Keywords: resilience, community resilience, urban resilience, construction strategies

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Authors: Shahram Naghizadeh Raeisi, Ali Alghooneh

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The loss of curd cohesiveness and syneresis are two common problems in the ultrafiltered cheese industry. In this study, by using membrane technology and protein modification, a modified cheese was developed and its properties were compared with a control sample. In order to decrease the lactose content and adjust the protein, acidity, dry matter and milk minerals, a combination of ultrafiltration, nanofiltration and reverse osmosis technologies was employed. For protein modification, a two-stage chemical and enzymatic reaction was employed before and after ultrafiltration. The physicochemical and microstructural properties of the modified ultrafiltered cheese were compared with the control one. Results showed that the modified protein enhanced the functional properties of the final cheese significantly (pvalue< 0.05), even if the protein content was 50% lower than the control one. The modified cheese showed 21 ± 0.70, 18 ± 1.10 & 25±1.65% higher hardness, cohesiveness and water-holding capacity values, respectively, than the control sample. This behavior could be explained by the developed microstructure of the gel network. Furthermore, chemical-enzymatic modification of milk protein induced a significant change in the network parameter of the final cheese. In this way, the indices of network linkage strength, network linkage density, and time scale of junctions were 10.34 ± 0.52, 68.50 ± 2.10 & 82.21 ± 3.85% higher than the control sample, whereas the distance between adjacent linkages was 16.77 ± 1.10% lower than the control sample. These results were supported by the results of the textural analysis. A non-linear viscoelastic study showed a triangle waveform stress of the modified protein contained cheese, while the control sample showed rectangular waveform stress, which suggested a better sliceability of the modified cheese. Moreover, to study the shelf life of the products, the acidity, as well as molds and yeast population, were determined in 120 days. It’s worth mentioning that the lactose content of modified cheese was adjusted at 2.5% before fermentation, while the lactose of the control one was at 4.5%. The control sample showed 8 weeks shelf life, while the shelf life of the modified cheese was 18 weeks in the refrigerator. During 18 weeks, the acidity of modified and control samples increased from 82 ± 1.50 to 94 ± 2.20 °D and 88 ± 1.64 to 194 ± 5.10 °D, respectively. The mold and yeast populations, with time, followed the semicircular shape model (R2 = 0.92, R2adj = 0.89, RMSE = 1.25). Furthermore, the mold and yeast counts and their growth rate in the modified cheese were lower than those for control one; Aforementioned result could be explained by the shortage of the source of energy for the microorganism in the modified cheese. The lactose content of the modified sample was less than 0.2 ± 0.05% at the end of fermentation, while this was 3.7 ± 0.68% in the control sample.

Keywords: non-linear viscoelastic, protein modification, semicircular shape model, ultrafiltered cheese

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Authors: Sana Ansari, Sirus Mohammadi

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In distribution systems, shunt capacitors are used to reduce power losses, to improve voltage profile, and to increase the maximum flow through cables and transformers. This paper presents a new method to determine the optimal locations and economical sizing of fixed and/or switched shunt capacitors with a view to power losses reduction and voltage stability enhancement. General Algebraic Modeling System (GAMS) has been used to solve the maximization modules using the MINOS optimization software with Linear Programming (LP). The proposed method is tested on 33 node distribution system and the results show that the algorithm suitable for practical implementation on real systems with any size.

Keywords: power losses, voltage stability, radial distribution systems, capacitor

Procedia PDF Downloads 649

Authors: Rui Wang, Luodi Yu, Dan Huang, Hsuan-Chih Chen, Yang Zhang, Suiping Wang

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Enhanced discrimination of pure tones but diminished discrimination of speech pitch (i.e., lexical tone) were found in children with autism who speak a tonal language (Mandarin), suggesting a speech-specific impairment of pitch perception in these children. However, in tonal languages, both lexical tone and vowel are phonemic cues and integrally dependent on each other. Therefore, it is unclear whether the presence of phonemic vowel dimension contributes to the observed lexical tone deficits in Mandarin-speaking children with autism. The current study employed a multi-feature oddball paradigm to examine how vowel and tone dimensions contribute to the neural responses for syllable change detection and involuntary attentional orienting in school-age Mandarin-speaking children with autism. In the oddball sequence, syllable /da1/ served as the standard stimulus. There were three deviant stimulus conditions, representing tone-only change (TO, /da4/), vowel-only change (VO, /du1/), and change of tone and vowel simultaneously (TV, /du4/). EEG data were collected from 25 children with autism and 20 age-matched normal controls during passive listening to the stimulation. For each deviant condition, difference waveform measuring mismatch negativity (MMN) was derived from subtracting the ERP waveform to the standard sound from that to the deviant sound for each participant. Additionally, the linear summation of TO and VO difference waveforms was compared to the TV difference waveform, to examine whether neural sensitivity for TV change detection reflects simple summation or nonlinear integration of the two individual dimensions. The MMN results showed that the autism group had smaller amplitude compared with the control group in the TO and VO conditions, suggesting impaired discriminative sensitivity for both dimensions. In the control group, amplitude of the TV difference waveform approximated the linear summation of the TO and VO waveforms only in the early time window but not in the late window, suggesting a time course from dimensional summation to nonlinear integration. In the autism group, however, the nonlinear TV integration was already present in the early window. These findings suggest that speech perception atypicality in children with autism rests not only in the processing of single phonemic dimensions, but also in the dimensional integration process.

Keywords: autism, event-related potentials , mismatch negativity, speech perception

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Authors: Heejin Song

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Employing a critical action research approach that rejects essentialist onto-epistemological orientations to research in English language teaching (ELT) and interrogates the hegemonic relations in the knowledge construction and reconstruction processes, this study illuminates how an action research-informed pedagogical practice can transform the English for academic purposes (EAP) teaching to be more culturally and linguistically inclusive and critically oriented for English language learners’ advancement in academic literacies skills. More specifically, this paper aims to showcase the action research-informed pedagogical innovations that emphasize multilingual learners’ multiliteracies engagement and experiential education-oriented learning to facilitate the development of learners’ academic literacies, intercultural communicative competence, and inclusive global citizenship in the context of Canadian university EAP classrooms. The pedagogical innovations through action research embarked in response to growing discussions surrounding pedagogical possibilities of plurilingualism in ELT and synchronous online teaching. The paper is based on two iterations of action research over the pandemic years between 2020 and 2022. The data includes student work samples, focus group interviews, anonymous surveys, teacher feedback and comments on student work and teaching reflections. The first iteration of the action research focused on the affordances of multimodal expressions in individual learners’ academic endeavors for their literacy skills development through individual online activities such as ‘my language autobiography,’ ‘multimodal expression corner’ and public speeches. While these activities help English language learners enhance their knowledge and skills of English-spoken discourses, these tasks did not necessarily require learners’ team-based collaborative endeavors to complete the assigned tasks. Identifying this area for improvement in the instructional design, the second action research cycle/iteration emphasized collaborative performativity through newly added performance/action-based innovative learning tasks, including ‘situational role-playing’, ‘my cooking show & interview’, and group debates in order to provide learners increased opportunities to communicate with peers who joined the class virtually from different parts of the world and enhance learners’ intercultural competence through various strategic and pragmatic communicative skills to collaboratively achieve their shared goals (i.e., successful completion of the given group tasks). The paper exemplifies instances wherein learners’ unique and diverse linguistic and cultural strengths were amplified, and critical literacies were further developed through learners’ performance-oriented multiliteracies engagement. The study suggests that the action research-informed teaching practice that advocates for collaborative multiliteracies engagement serves to facilitate learners’ activation of their existing linguistic and cultural knowledge and contributes to the development of learners’ academic literacy skills. Importantly, the study illuminates that such action research-informed pedagogical initiatives create an inclusive space for learners to build a strong sense of connectedness as global citizens with increased intercultural awareness in their community of language and cultural practices, and further allow learners to actively participate in the construction of ‘collaborative relations of power’ with their peers.

Keywords: action research, EAP, higher education, multiliteracies

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Authors: Berker Bayazit, Gulgun Kayakutlu

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The World Energy Outlook shows that energy markets will substantially change within a few forthcoming decades. First, determined action plans according to COP21 and aim of CO₂ emission reduction have already impact on policies of countries. Secondly, swiftly changed technological developments in the field of renewable energy will be influential upon medium and long-term energy generation and consumption behaviors of countries. Furthermore, share of electricity on global energy consumption is to be expected as high as 40 percent in 2040. Electrical vehicles, heat pumps, new electronical devices and digital improvements will be outstanding technologies and innovations will be the testimony of the market modifications. In order to meet highly increasing electricity demand caused by technologies, countries have to make new investments in the field of electricity production, transmission and distribution. Specifically, electricity generation mix becomes vital for both prevention of CO₂ emission and reduction of power prices. Majority of the research and development investments are made in the field of electricity generation. Hence, the prime source diversity and source planning of electricity generation are crucial for improving the wealth of citizen life. Approaches considering the CO₂ emission and total cost of generation, are necessary but not sufficient to evaluate and construct the product mix. On the other hand, employment and positive contribution to macroeconomic values are important factors that have to be taken into consideration. This study aims to constitute new investments in renewable energies (solar, wind, geothermal, biogas and hydropower) between 2018-2023 under 4 different goals. Therefore, a multi-objective programming model is proposed to optimize the goals of minimizing the CO₂ emission, investment amount and electricity sales price while maximizing the total employment and positive contribution to current deficit. In order to avoid the user preference among the goals, Dinkelbach’s algorithm and Guzel’s approach have been combined. The achievements are discussed with comparison to the current policies. Our study shows that new policies like huge capacity allotment might be discussible although obligation for local production is positive. The improvements in grid infrastructure and re-design support for the biogas and geothermal can be recommended.

Keywords: energy generation policies, multi-objective linear programming, portfolio planning, renewable energy

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Authors: Supanan Chansap, Werachon Cheukamud, Pornanan Kueakhai, Narin Changklungmoa

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Fasciola species (Fasciola spp.) is caused fasciolosis in ruminants such as cattle, sheep, and buffalo. Fasciola gigantica (F.gigantica) commonly infects tropical regions. Fasciola hepatica (F.hepatica) in temperate regions. Liver fluke infection affects livestock economically, for example, reduced milk and meat production, weight loss, sterile animals. Currently, Triclabendazole is used to treat liver flukes. However, liver flukes have also been found to be resistant to drugs in countries. Therefore, vaccination is an attractive alternative to prevent liver fluke infection. Peptide vaccines are new vaccine technologies that mimic epitope antigens that trigger an immune response. An interesting antigen used in vaccine production is catepsin L, a family of proteins that play an important role in the life of the parasite in the host. This study aims to identify immunogenic regions of protein and construct a multi-epidetope vaccine using an immunoinformatic tool. Fasciola gigantica Cathepsin L1 (FgCatL1), Fasciola gigantica Cathepsin L1G (FgCatL1G), and Fasciola gigantica Cathepsin L1H (FgCatL1H) were predicted B-cell and Helper T lymphocytes (HTL) by Immune Epitope and Analysis Resource (IEDB) servers. Both B-cell and HTL epitopes aligned with cathepsin L of the host and Fasciola hepatica (F. hepatica). Epitope groups were selected from non-conserved regions and overlapping sequences with F. hepatica. All overlapping epitopes were linked with the GPGPG and KK linker. GPGPG linker was linked between B-cell epitope. KK linker was linked between HTL epitope and B-cell and HTL epitope. The antigenic scores of multi-epitope peptide vaccine was 0.7824. multi-epitope peptide vaccine was non-allergen, non-toxic, and good soluble. Multi-epitope peptide vaccine was predicted tertiary structure and refinement model by I-Tasser and GalaxyRefine server, respectively. The result of refine structure model was good quality that was generated by Ramachandran plot analysis. Discontinuous and linear B-cell epitopes were predicted by ElliPro server. Multi-epitope peptide vaccine model was two and seven of discontinuous and linear B-cell epitopes, respectively. Furthermore, multi-epitope peptide vaccine was docked with Toll-like receptor 2 (TLR-2). The lowest energy ranged from -901.3 kJ/mol. In summary, multi-epitope peptide vaccine was antigenicity and probably immune response. Therefore, multi-epitope peptide vaccine could be used to prevent F. gigantica infections in the future.

Keywords: fasciola gigantica, Immunoinformatic tools, multi-epitope, Vaccine

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Authors: Hristina Šalipur, Jasmina Dostanić, Davor Lončarević, Matej Huš

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Photocatalytic water splitting/alcohol photoreforming has been used for the conversion of sunlight energy in the process of hydrogen production due to its sustainability, environmental safety, effectiveness and simplicity. Titanate nanotubes are frequently studied materials since they combine the properties of photo-active semiconductors with the properties of layered titanates, such as the ion-exchange ability. Platinum (Pt) doping into titanate structure has been considered an effective strategy in better separation efficiency of electron-hole pairs and lowering the overpotential for hydrogen production, which results in higher photocatalytic activity. In our work, Pt doped titanate catalysts were synthesized via simple alkaline hydrothermal treatment, incipient wetness impregnation method and temperature-programmed reduction. The structural, morphological and optical properties of the prepared catalysts were investigated using various characterization techniques such as X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), N2 physisorption, and diffuse reflectance spectroscopy (DRS). The activities of the prepared Pt-doped titanate photocatalysts were tested for hydrogen production via photocatalytic water splitting/alcohol photoreforming process under simulated solar light irradiation. Characterization of synthesized Pt doped titanate catalysts showed crystalline anatase phase, preserved nanotubular structure and high specific surface area. The result showed enhancement of activity in photocatalytic water splitting/alcohol photoreforming in the following order 2-butanol>1-butanol>tert-butanol, with obtained maximal hydrogen production rate of 7.5, 5.3 and 2 mmol g-1 h-1, respectively. Different possible factors influencing the hole scavenging ability, such as hole scavenger redox potential and diffusivity, adsorption and desorption rate of the hole scavenger on the surface and stability of the alcohol radical species generated via hole scavenging, were investigated. The theoretical evaluation using density functional theory (DFT) further elucidated the reaction kinetics and detailed mechanism of photocatalytic water splitting/alcohol photoreforming.

Keywords: hydrogen production, platinum, semiconductor, water splitting, density functional theory

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Authors: Mehtap Lafcı

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In recent years, oscillation, periodicity and convergence of solutions of linear differential equations with piecewise constant arguments have been significantly considered but there are only a few papers for impulsive differential equations with piecewise constant arguments. In this paper, a first order nonlinear impulsive differential equation with piecewise constant arguments is studied and the existence of solutions and periodic solutions of this equation are investigated by using Carvalho’s method. Finally, an example is given to illustrate these results.

Keywords: Carvalho's method, impulsive differential equation, periodic solution, piecewise constant arguments

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Authors: R. Chakib, A. Essadki, M. Cherkaoui

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This paper proposes the study of a robust control of the doubly fed induction generator (DFIG) used in a wind energy production. The proposed control is based on the linear active disturbance rejection control (ADRC) and it is applied to the control currents rotor of the DFIG, the DC bus voltage and active and reactive power exchanged between the DFIG and the network. The system under study and the proposed control are simulated using MATLAB/SIMULINK.

Keywords: doubly fed induction generator (DFIG), active disturbance rejection control (ADRC), vector control, MPPT, extended state observer, back-to-back converter, wind turbine

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Authors: Masuma Novak, Daniel Novak

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Background: Sweden along with other Nordic countries has the highest incidence of type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1DM) worldwide. The trend is increasing globally. The diagnosis is often given at the emergency clinic when children arrive with cardinal symptom of T1DM. Children with T1DM are known to have an increased risk of microvascular- and macrovascular complications. A family history of cardiovascular complications may further increase their risk. Clinically evident diabetes-related vascular complications are however rarely visible in childhood and adolescence, whereby an intensive diabetes treatment and normoglycemic control is a goal for every child. This study is a risk evaluation of children with T1DM based on their family’s cardiovascular history. Method: Since 2005 the Better Diabetes Diagnosis (BDD) study is a nationwide Swedish prospective cohort study that recruits new-onset T1DM who are less than 18 years old at time of diagnosis. For each newly diagnosed child, blood samples are collected for specific HLA genotyping and islet autoantibody assays and their family’s cardiovascular history is evaluated. As part of the BDD study, during the years 2010-2013 all children diagnosed with T1DM at the Queen Silvia’s Children’s Hospital in Sweden were asked about their family’s cardiovascular history. Questions regarded maternal and paternal high blood pressure, stroke, and myocardial infarction before the age of 55 years, and hyperlipidemia were answered. A maximum risk score of eight was possible. All children are clinically observed prospectively for early functional and structural abnormalities such as protein uremia, blood pressure, and retinopathy. Results: A total of 275 children aged 0 to 18 years were diagnosed with T1DM at the Queen Silvia’s Children’s Hospital emergency clinic during this four year period. The participation rate was 99.7%. 26.4% of the children had no hereditary cardiovascular risk factors. 22.7 % had one risk factor and 18.8% had two risk factors. 14.8% had three risk factors. 9.7% had four risk factors and 7.5% had five risk factors or more. Conclusion: Among children with T1DM in Sweden there is a difference in hereditary cardiovascular risk factors. These results indicate that children with T1DM who also have increased hereditary cardiovascular risk factors should be monitored closely with early screening for functional and structural cardiovascular abnormalities. This is a very preliminary and ongoing study which will be complemented with the cardiovascular risk analysis among children without T1DM.

Keywords: children, type I diabetes, emergency clinic, CVD risk

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Authors: Mohamed Elhadi M. Sharif, Mona Masood

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The usage of e-health facilities is seen to be the first priority by the Libyan government. As such, this paper focuses on how the key factors or elements of working size in terms of technological availability, structural environment, and other competence-related matters may affect nurses’ sharing of knowledge in e-health. Hence, this paper investigates learning readiness assessment to raise e-health for Libyan regional hospitals by using e-health services in nursing education.

Keywords: Libyan nurses, e-learning readiness, e-health, nursing education

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Authors: Yin Yuanling

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A Deep Feedback Recurrent Neural Network (DFRNN) and Bidirectional Long Short-Term Memory (BiLSTM) are designed to address the problem of low accuracy of traditional relationship extraction models. This method combines a deep feedback-based recurrent neural network (DFRNN) with a bi-directional long short-term memory (BiLSTM) approach. The method combines DFRNN, which extracts local features of text based on deep feedback recurrent mechanism, BiLSTM, which better extracts global features of text, and Self-Attention, which extracts semantic information. Experiments show that the method achieves an F1 value of 76.69% on the CEC dataset, which is 0.0652 better than the BiLSTM+Self-ATT model, thus optimizing the performance of the deep learning method in the event relationship extraction task.

Keywords: event relations, deep learning, DFRNN models, bi-directional long and short-term memory networks

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Authors: E. O. Clarke, O. J. Aderinola, O. A. Adeboyejo, M. A. Anetekhai

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Aims: The study is aimed at establishing the influence of some physical and chemical parameters on the abundance, distribution pattern and seasonal variations of the planktonic crustacean populations. Place and Duration of Study: A premier investigation into the dynamics of planktonic crustacean populations in Ologe lagoon was carried out from January 2011 to December 2012. Study Design: The study covered identification, temporal abundance, spatial distribution and diversity of the planktonic crustacea. Methodology: Standard techniques were used to collect samples from eleven stations covering five proximal satellite towns (Idoluwo, Oto, Ibiye, Obele, and Gbanko) bordering the lagoon. Data obtained were statistically analyzed using linear regression and hierarchical clustering. Results:Thirteen (13) planktonic crustacean populations were identified. Total percentage abundance was highest for Bosmina species (20%) and lowest for Polyphemus species (0.8%). The Pearson’s correlation coefficient (“r” values) between total planktonic crustacean population and some physical and chemical parameters showed that positive correlations having low level of significance occurred with salinity (r = 0.042) (sig = 0.184) and with surface water dissolved oxygen (r = 0.299) (sig = 0.155). Linear regression plots indicated that, the total population of planktonic crustacea were mainly influenced and only increased with an increase in value of surface water temperature (Rsq = 0.791) and conductivity (Rsq = 0.589). The total population of planktonic crustacea had a near neutral (zero correlation) with the surface water dissolved oxygen and thus, does not significantly change with the level of the surface water dissolved oxygen. The correlations were positive with NO3-N (midstream) at Ibiye (Rsq =0.022) and (downstream) Gbanko (Rsq =0.013), PO4-P at Ibiye (Rsq =0.258), K at Idoluwo (Rsq =0.295) and SO4-S at Oto (Rsq = 0.094) and Gbanko (Rsq = 0.457). The Berger-Parker Dominance Index (BPDI) showed that the most dominant species was Bosmina species (BPDI = 1.000), followed by Calanus species (BPDI = 1.254). Clusters by squared Euclidan distances using average linkage between groups showed proximities, transcending the borders of genera. Conclusion: The results revealed that planktonic crustacean population in Ologe lagoon undergo seasonal perturbations, were highly influenced by nutrient, metal and organic matter inputs from river Owoh, Agbara industrial estate and surrounding farmlands and were patchy in spatial distribution.

Keywords: diversity, dominance, perturbations, richness, crustacea, lagoon

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Authors: Agnieszka H. Ludwig-Slomczynska, Michal T. Seweryn, Przemyslaw Kapusta, Ewelina Pitera, Katarzyna Cyganek, Urszula Mantaj, Lucja Dobrucka, Ewa Wender-Ozegowska, Maciej T. Malecki, Pawel Wolkow

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Obesity results from an imbalance between energy intake and its expenditure. Genome-Wide Association Study (GWAS) analyses have led to discovery of only about 100 variants influencing body mass index (BMI), which explain only a small portion of genetic variability. Analysis of gene epistasis gives a chance to discover another part. Since it was shown that interaction and communication between nuclear and mitochondrial genome are indispensable for normal cell function, we have looked for epistatic interactions between the two genomes to find their correlation with BMI. Methods: The analysis was performed on 366 T1DM patients using Illumina Infinium OmniExpressExome-8 chip and followed by imputation on Michigan Imputation Server. Only genes which influence mitochondrial functioning (listed in Human MitoCarta 2.0) were included in the analysis – variants of nuclear origin (MAF > 5%) in 1140 genes and 42 mitochondrial variants (MAF > 1%). Gene expression analysis was performed on GTex data. Association analysis between genetic variants and BMI was performed with the use of Linear Mixed Models as implemented in the package 'GENESIS' in R. Analysis of association between mRNA expression and BMI was performed with the use of linear models and standard significance tests in R. Results: Among variants involved in epistasis between mitochondria and nucleus we have identified one in mitochondrial transcription factor, TFB2M (rs6701836). It interacted with mitochondrial variants localized to MT-RNR1 (p=0.0004, MAF=15%), MT-ND2 (p=0.07, MAF=5%) and MT-ND4 (p=0.01, MAF=1.1%). Analysis of the interaction between nuclear variant rs6701836 (nuc) and rs3021088 localized to MT-ND2 mitochondrial gene (mito) has shown that the combination of the two led to BMI decrease (p=0.024). Each of the variants on its own does not correlate with higher BMI [p(nuc)=0.856, p(mito)=0.116)]. Although rs6701836 is intronic, it influences gene expression in the thyroid (p=0.000037). rs3021088 is a missense variant that leads to alanine to threonine substitution in the MT-ND2 gene which belongs to complex I of the electron transport chain. The analysis of the influence of genetic variants on gene expression has confirmed the trend explained above – the interaction of the two genes leads to BMI decrease (p=0.0308). Each of the mRNAs on its own is associated with higher BMI (p(mito)=0.0244 and p(nuc)=0.0269). Conclusıons: Our results show that nuclear-mitochondrial epistasis can influence BMI in T1DM patients. The correlation between transcription factor expression and mitochondrial genetic variants will be subject to further analysis.

Keywords: body mass index, epistasis, mitochondria, type 1 diabetes

Procedia PDF Downloads 180

Authors: H. Aissa, L. Mouzai, M. Bouhadef

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The effects of down slope steepness on soil splash distribution under a water drop impact have been investigated in this study. The equipment used are the burette to simulate a water drop, a splash cup filled with sandy soil which forms the source area and a splash board to collect the ejected particles. The results found in this study have shown that the apparent mass increased with increasing downslope angle following a linear regression equation with high coefficient of determination. In the same way, the radial soil splash distribution over the distance has been analyzed statistically, and an exponential function was the best fit of the relationship for the different slope angles. The curves and the regressions equations validate the well known FSDF and extend the theory of Van Dijk.

Keywords: splash distribution, water drop, slope steepness, soil detachment

Procedia PDF Downloads 341

Authors: Jung-Hun Cho, Tae-Heon Moon, Jin-Hak Lee

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Land price contains the comprehensive characteristics of urban space, representing the social and economic features of the city. Accordingly, land price can be utilized as an indicator, which can identify the changes of spatial structure and socioeconomic variations caused by urban development. This study attempted to explore the changes in land price by a new road construction. Methodologically, it adopted Space Syntax, which can interpret urban spatial structure comprehensively, to identify the relationship between the forms of road networks and land price. The result of the regression analysis showed the ‘integration index’ of Space Syntax is statistically significant and has a strong correlation with land price. If the integration value is high, land price increases proportionally. Subsequently, using regression equation, it tried to predict the land price changes of each of the lots surrounding the roads that are newly opened. The research methods or study results have the advantage of predicting the changes in land price in an easy way. In addition, it will contribute to planners and project managers to establish relevant polices and smoothing urban regeneration projects through enhancing residents’ understanding by providing possible results and advantages in their land price before the execution of urban regeneration and development projects.

Keywords: space syntax, urban regeneration, spatial structure, official land price

Procedia PDF Downloads 337

Authors: Pooja Sharma

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In the present paper the effects of radiation is studied on unsteady flow of viscous incompressible electrically conducting fluid past a vertical porous plate embedded in the porous medium in the presence of constant heat flux. A uniform Transverse Magnetic field is considered and induced magnetic field is supposed as negligible. The non-linear governing equations are solved numerically. Numerical results of the velocity and temperature fields are shown through graphs. The results illustrates that the appropriator combination of regulated values of thermo-physical parameters is expedient for controlling the flow system.

Keywords: heat transfer, radiation, MHD flow, porous medium

Procedia PDF Downloads 442

Authors: Ling Qi, Matloob Khushi, Josiah Poon

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This paper introduces a pre-trained Masked Candlestick Model (MCM) for trading time-series data. The pre-trained model is based on three core designs. First, we convert trading price data at each data point as a set of normalized elements and produce embeddings of each element. Second, we generate a masked sequence of such embedded elements as inputs for self-supervised learning. Third, we use the encoder mechanism from the transformer to train the inputs. The masked model learns the contextual relations among the sequence of embedded elements, which can aid downstream classification tasks. To evaluate the performance of the pre-trained model, we fine-tune MCM for three different downstream classification tasks to predict future price trends. The fine-tuned models achieved better accuracy rates for all three tasks than the baseline models. To better analyze the effectiveness of MCM, we test the same architecture for three currency pairs, namely EUR/GBP, AUD/USD, and EUR/JPY. The experimentation results demonstrate MCM’s effectiveness on all three currency pairs and indicate the MCM’s capability for signal extraction from trading data.

Keywords: masked language model, transformer, time series prediction, trading prediction, embedding, transfer learning, self-supervised learning

Procedia PDF Downloads 131

Authors: Chi Zhang, Jun Jiang

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Constitutive equations are very important in finite element (FE) modeling, and the accuracy of the material constants in the equations have significant effects on the accuracy of the FE models. A wide range of constitutive equations are available; however, fitting the material constants in the constitutive equations could be complex and time-consuming due to the strong non-linearity and relationship between the constants. This work will focus on the development of a set of unified MATLAB programs for fitting the material constants in the constitutive equations efficiently. Users will only need to supply experimental data in the required format and run the program without modifying functions or precisely guessing the initial values, or finding the parameters in previous works and will be able to fit the material constants efficiently.

Keywords: constitutive equations, FE modelling, MATLAB program, non-linear curve fitting

Procedia PDF Downloads 101

Authors: Woraprat Chaomuang, Sirikorn Sringern, Pawanrat Chamnanwongsritorn, Kridsada Luangthongkham

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In this study, we have applied a digital scale to demonstrate the electricity concept of changing the capacity (C), due to the weight of an object, as a function of the distance between the conductor plates and the pressing down. By calibrating on standard scales with the Visual Basic program and the Arduino Uno microcontroller board, we can obtain the weight of the object from the frequency (ƒ) that is measured from the electronic circuit (Astable Multivibrator). Our results support the concept, showing a linear correlation between the frequency and weight with an equation y = –0.0112x + 379.78 and the R2 value of 0.95. In addition, the effects of silicone rods shrinkage, permittivity and temperature were also examined and have found to affect various graph patterns observed.

Keywords: Arduino Uno board, frequency, microcontroller board, parallel plate conductor

Procedia PDF Downloads 212

Authors: Lenshie, Nsemba Edward

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This paper examines political sexuality as an identity construct, which imparts on democratic practices globally. The manifestation of political sexuality reflect on the dynamics of social, economic, cultural and political relations among different gender affecting a number of issues, such as the questions of citizenship, poverty alleviation, property rights, ownership and inheritance, rights to sexual consent, polygamous marriage, governance and representation among other issues. This paper is concerned with the aspect of political participation among different genders in Nigeria. This paper posit that political sexuality is an outcome of ‘sexuality differences’, which seeks to glorify and gratify the superiority of a particular sexuality over another. Political sexuality, therefore, motivate and exacerbate socio-cultural, economic, and political struggles among different sexualities. The paper asserts further that majority of women have been discriminated, sexually harassed, and are often denied certain rights and privileges in Nigeria. A few number of women who have found themselves at the corridors of government have used the Beijing protocol on Women to demand for ‘affirmative action’ to expand their political space. It contends that the ‘affirmative action’ in Nigeria is far from achieving it throughout the country. The paper conclude that women require more than just a ‘self-rediscovery’ to assertively demand for a more and proper inclusion in Nigeria’s democratic process.

Keywords: gender democracy, identity, politics, political sexuality

Procedia PDF Downloads 441