Search results for: dynamic adaptation

Authors: Taghreed Al-Khalid, Muftah El-Naas

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As an economical and environmentally friendly technology, biological treatment has been shown to be one of the most promising approaches for the removal of numerous types of organic water pollutants such as Chlorophenols, which are hazardous pollutants commonly encountered in wastewater generated by the petroleum and petrochemical industries. This study aimed at evaluating the performance of a spouted bed bioreactor (SBBR) for aerobic biodegradation of 2, 4 dichlorophenol (DCP) by a commercial strain of Pseudomonas putida immobilized in polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) gel particles. The SBBR is characterized by systematic intense mixing, resulting in improvement of the biodegradation rates through reducing the mass transfer limitations. The reactor was evaluated in both batch and continuous mode in order to evaluate its hydrodynamics in terms of stability and response to shock loads. The SBBR was able to maintain a stable operation and recovered quickly to its normal operating mode once the shock load had been removed. In comparison to a packed bed reactor bioreactor, the SBBR proved to be more efficient and more stable, achieving a removal percentage and throughput of 80% and 1414 g/m3day, respectively. In addition, the biodegradation of chlorophenols was mathematically modeled using a dynamic modeling approach in order to assess reaction and mass transfer limitations. The results confirmed the effectiveness of the use of the PVA immobilization technique for the biodegradation of phenols.

Keywords: biodegradation, 2, 4 dichlorophenol, immobilization, polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) gel

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Authors: Angeliki Gkiouzeli, Christine Rotonda, Elise Eby, Claire Touchet, Marie-Jo Brennstuhl, Cyril Tarquinio

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Resilience is a psychological concept of possible relevance to the development and maintenance of chronic pain (CP). It refers to the ability of individuals to maintain reasonably healthy levels of physical and psychological functioning when exposed to an isolated and potentially highly disruptive event. Extensive research in recent years has supported the importance of this concept in the CP literature. Increased levels of resilience were associated with lower levels of perceived pain intensity and better mental health outcomes in adults with persistent pain. The ongoing project seeks to include the concept of pain-specific resilience in the French literature in order to provide more appropriate measures for assessing and understanding the complexities of CP in the near future. To the best of our knowledge, there is currently no validated version of the pain-specific resilience measure, the Pain Resilience scale (PRS), for French-speaking populations. Therefore, the present work aims to address this gap, firstly by performing a linguistic and cultural translation of the scale into French and secondly by studying the internal validity and reliability of the PRS for French CP populations. The forward-translation-back translation methodology was used to achieve as perfect a cultural and linguistic translation as possible according to the recommendations of the COSMIN (Consensus-based Standards for the selection of health Measurement Instruments) group, and an online survey is currently conducted among a representative sample of the French population suffering from CP. To date, the survey has involved one hundred respondents, with a total target of around three hundred participants at its completion. We further seek to study the metric properties of the French version of the PRS, ''L’Echelle de Résilience à la Douleur spécifique pour les Douleurs Chroniques'' (ERD-DC), in French patients suffering from CP, assessing the level of pain resilience in the context of CP. Finally, we will explore the relationship between the level of pain resilience in the context of CP and other variables of interest commonly assessed in pain research and treatment (i.e., general resilience, self-efficacy, pain catastrophising, and quality of life). This study will provide an overview of the methodology used to address our research objectives. We will also present for the first time the main findings and further discuss the validity of the scale in the field of CP research and pain management. We hope that this tool will provide a better understanding of how CP-specific resilience processes can influence the development and maintenance of this disease. This could ultimately result in better treatment strategies specifically tailored to individual needs, thus leading to reduced healthcare costs and improved patient well-being.

Keywords: chronic pain, pain measure, pain resilience, questionnaire adaptation

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Authors: Ganesh B. Shinde, Vijaya B. Musande

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Cotton crop identification based on the timely information has significant advantage to the different implications of food, economic and environment. Due to the significant advantages, the accurate detection of cotton crop regions using supervised learning procedure is challenging problem in remote sensing. Here, classifiers on the direct image are played a major role but the results are not much satisfactorily. In order to further improve the effectiveness, variety of vegetation indices are proposed in the literature. But, recently, the major challenge is to find the better vegetation indices for the cotton crop identification through the proposed methodology. Accordingly, fuzzy c-means clustering is combined with neural network algorithm, trained by Levenberg-Marquardt for cotton crop classification. To experiment the proposed method, five LISS-III satellite images was taken and the experimentation was done with six vegetation indices such as Simple Ratio, Normalized Difference Vegetation Index, Enhanced Vegetation Index, Green Atmospherically Resistant Vegetation Index, Wide-Dynamic Range Vegetation Index, Green Chlorophyll Index. Along with these indices, Green Leaf Area Index is also considered for investigation. From the research outcome, Green Atmospherically Resistant Vegetation Index outperformed with all other indices by reaching the average accuracy value of 95.21%.

Keywords: Fuzzy C-Means clustering (FCM), neural network, Levenberg-Marquardt (LM) algorithm, vegetation indices

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Authors: Himayatullah Khan, Alena Fedorova

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The present paper analyses the income-consumption relationships in Pakistan using annual time series data from 1980-81 to 2010-1. The paper uses the Augmented Dickey-Fuller test to check the unit root and stationarity in these two time series. The paper finds that the two time series are nonstationary but stationary at their first difference levels. The Augmented Engle-Granger test and the Cointegrating Regression Durbin-Watson test imply that the two time series of consumption and income are cointegrated and that long-run marginal propensity to consume is 0.88 which is given by the estimated (static) equilibrium relation. The paper also used the error correction mechanism to find out to model dynamic relationship. The purpose of the ECM is to indicate the speed of adjustment from the short-run equilibrium to the long-run equilibrium state. The results show that MPC is equal to 0.93 and is highly significant. The coefficient of Engle-Granger residuals is negative but insignificant. Statistically, the equilibrium error term is zero, which suggests that consumption adjusts to changes in GDP in the same period. The short-run changes in GDP have a positive impact on short-run changes in consumption. The paper concludes that we may interpret 0.93 as the short-run MPC. The pair-wise Granger Causality test shows that both GDP and consumption Granger cause each other.

Keywords: cointegrating regression, Augmented Dickey Fuller test, Augmented Engle-Granger test, Granger causality, error correction mechanism

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Authors: Sittipong Jarernprasert, Enrique Bazan-Zurita, Paul C. Rizzo

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Currently, seismic probabilistic risk assessments (SPRA) for nuclear facilities use In-Structure Response Spectra (ISRS) in the calculation of fragilities for systems and components. ISRS are calculated via dynamic analyses of the host building subjected to two orthogonal components of horizontal ground motion. Each component is defined as the median motion in any horizontal direction. Structural engineers applied the components along selected X and Y Cartesian axes. The ISRS at different locations in the building are also calculated in the X and Y directions. The choice of the directions of X and Y are not specified by the ground motion model with respect to geographic coordinates, and are rather arbitrarily selected by the structural engineer. Normally, X and Y coincide with the “principal” axes of the building, in the understanding that this practice is generally conservative. For SPRA purposes, however, it is desirable to remove any conservatism in the estimates of median ISRS. This paper examines the effects of the direction of horizontal seismic motion on the ISRS on typical nuclear structure. We also evaluate the variability of ISRS calculated along different horizontal directions. Our results indicate that some central measures of the ISRS provide robust estimates that are practically independent of the selection of the directions of the horizontal Cartesian axes.

Keywords: seismic, directionality, in-structure response spectra, probabilistic risk assessment

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Authors: Xinge Liao, Francesc Xavier Roige Ventura, Dolores Sanchez Aguilera

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With the development of the Internet, the study of tourism behavior has rapidly expanded from the traditional physical market to the online market. Data on the Internet is characterized by dynamic changes, and new data appear all the time. In recent years the generation of a large volume of data was characterized, such as forums, blogs, and other sources, which have expanded over time and space, together they constitute large-scale Internet data, known as Big Data. This data of technological origin that derives from the use of devices and the activity of multiple users is becoming a source of great importance for the study of geography and the behavior of tourists. The study will focus on cultural heritage tourist practices in the context of Big Data. The research will focus on exploring the characteristics and behavior of Chinese tourists in relation to the cultural heritage of Catalonia. Geographical information, target image, perceptions in user-generated content will be studied through data analysis from Weibo -the largest social networks of blogs in China. Through the analysis of the behavior of heritage tourists in the Big Data environment, this study will understand the practices (activities, motivations, perceptions) of cultural tourists and then understand the needs and preferences of tourists in order to better guide the sustainable development of tourism in heritage sites.

Keywords: Barcelona, Big Data, Catalonia, cultural heritage, Chinese tourism market, tourists’ behavior

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Authors: Theophilius Adekunle Tinuoye

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Trade unions are groups formed essentially to promote, articulate and enhance the welfare of workers. They are expected to defend the workers interests and participate actively in workplace exchanges. But for trade unions to function effectively and actualize their lofty aspirations in the context of the current dynamic and ever-changing industrial relations context, they must not only have qualified and competent leaders, but also flexible and effective structure, systems, organograms, constitution, and administrative processes in place to compliment their policies and programmes. An important aspect of industrial relations is the existence of cordial tripartite or bipartite interactions between stakeholders and other social partners that are indispensable to the creation of positive and mutually beneficial exchanges and outcomes. This paper canvassed that unions must be structurally viable and administratively cohesive in order to be effective, pragmatic, functional and remain relevant. It also argued that weak, structurally deficient and less organized unions often find it immensely difficult to actualize workers goals. Finally, it outlined basic principles that will enhance union administration, guarantee that unions will continue to satisfy the yearnings of its members in these trying times and finally foster peaceful industrial relations climate and cordial labor relations between trade unions, employers /management and government.

Keywords: governance, labor relations, trade unions, workers

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Authors: Salim Al Jadidi, Shian Gao, Shivananda Moolya

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Computational Fluid Dynamic (CFD) technique coupled with Sub-Grid-Scale (SGS) model is used to study the flow behavior of heavy oil-water-air flow in a horizontal pipe by adapting ANSYS Fluent CFD software. The technique suitable for the transport of water-lubricated heavy viscous oil in a horizontal pipe is the Core Annular flow (CAF) technique. The present study focuses on the numerical study of CAF adapting Large Eddy Simulations (LES). The basic objective of the present study is to gain a basic knowledge of the flow behavior of heavy oil using turbulent CAF through a conventional horizontal pipe. This work also focuses on the success and applicability of LES. The simulation of heavy oil-water-air three-phase flow and two-phase flow of heavy oil–water in a conventional horizontal pipe is performed using ANSYS Fluent 16.2 software. The influence of three-phase heavy oil-water air flow in a selected pipe is affected by gravity. It is also observed from the result that the air phase and the variation in the temperature impact the behavior of the annular stream and pressure drop. Some results obtained during the study are validated with the results gained from part of the literature experiments and simulations, and the results show reasonably good agreement between the studies.

Keywords: computational fluid dynamics, gravity, heavy viscous oil, three-phase flow

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Authors: Anwar Ul Haque, Waqar Asrar, Erwin Sulaeman, Jaffar S. M. Ali

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Pressure distribution data of the standard airfoils is usually used for the calibration purposes in subsonic wind tunnels. Results of such experiments are quite old and obtained by using the model in the spanwise direction. In this manuscript, pressure distribution over NACA 4412 airfoil model was presented by placing the 3D model in the lateral direction. The model is made of metal with pressure ports distributed longitudinally as well as in the lateral direction. The pressure model was attached to the floor of the tunnel with the help of the base plate to give the specified angle of attack to the model. Before the start of the experiments, the pressure tubes of the respective ports of the 128 ports pressure scanner are checked for leakage, and the losses due to the length of the pipes were also incorporated in the results for the specified pressure range. Growth rate maps of the boundary layer thickness were also plotted. It was found that with the increase in the velocity, the dynamic pressure distribution was also increased for the alpha seep. Plots of pressure distribution so obtained were overlapped with those obtained by using XFLR software, a low fidelity tool. It was found that at moderate and high angles of attack, the distribution of the pressure coefficients obtained from the experiments is high when compared with the XFLR ® results obtained along with the span of the wing. This under-prediction by XFLR ® is more obvious on the windward than on the leeward side.

Keywords: subsonic flow, boundary layer, wind tunnel, pressure testing

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Authors: Yoonjin Lee, Dongwook Hwang, Juhee Park, Woojin Park

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As undesirable sitting posture is known to be a major cause of musculoskeletal disorder of office workers, sitting has attracted attention on occupational health. However, there seems to be no consensus on what are safe and unsafe sitting behaviors. The purpose of this study was to characterize safe and unsafe behaviors based on scientific findings of sitting behavior. Three objectives were as follows; to identify different sitting behaviors measure used in ergonomics studies on safe sitting, for each measure identified, to find available findings or recommendations on safe and unsafe sitting behaviors along with relevant empirical grounds, and to synthesize the findings or recommendations to provide characterizations of safe and unsafe behaviors. A systematic review of electronic databases (Google Scholar, PubMed, Web of Science) was conducted for extensive search of sitting behavior. Key terms included awkward sitting position, sedentary sitting, dynamic sitting, sitting posture, sitting posture, and sitting biomechanics, etc. Each article was systemically abstracted to extract a list of studied sitting behaviors, measures used to study the sitting behavior, and presence of empirical evidence of safety of the sitting behaviors. Finally, characterization of safe and unsafe sitting behavior was conducted based on knowledge with empirical evidence. This characterization is expected to provide useful knowledge for evaluation of sitting behavior and about postures to be measured in development of sensing chair.

Keywords: sitting position, sitting biomechanics, sitting behavior, unsafe sitting

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Authors: I. M. Salama, R. N. Miftahof

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A functional element of the myenteric nervous plexus is a morphologically distinct ganglion. Composed of sensory, inter- and motor neurons and arranged via synapses in neuronal circuits, their task is to decipher and integrate spike coded information within the plexus into regulatory output signals. The stability of signal processing in response to a wide range of internal/external perturbations depends on the plasticity of individual neurons. Any aberrations in this inherent property may lead to instability with the development of a dynamics chaos and can be manifested as pathological conditions, such as intestinal dysrhythmia, irritable bowel syndrome. The aim of this study is to investigate patterns of signal transduction within a two-neuronal chain - a ganglion - under normal physiological and structurally altered states. The ganglion contains the primary sensory (AH-type) and motor (S-type) neurons linked through a cholinergic dendro somatic synapse. The neurons have distinguished electrophysiological characteristics including levels of the resting and threshold membrane potentials and spiking activity. These are results of ionic channel dynamics namely: Na+, K+, Ca++- activated K+, Ca++ and Cl-. Mechanical stretches of various intensities and frequencies are applied at the receptive field of the AH-neuron generate a cascade of electrochemical events along the chain. At low frequencies, ν < 0.3 Hz, neurons demonstrate strong connectivity and coherent firing. The AH-neuron shows phasic bursting with spike frequency adaptation while the S-neuron responds with tonic bursts. At high frequency, ν > 0.5 Hz, the pattern of electrical activity changes to rebound and mixed mode bursting, respectively, indicating ganglionic loss of plasticity and adaptability. A simultaneous increase in neuronal conductivity for Na+, K+ and Ca++ ions results in tonic mixed spiking of the sensory neuron and class 2 excitability of the motor neuron. Although the signal transduction along the chain remains stable the synchrony in firing pattern is not maintained and the number of discharges of the S-type neuron is significantly reduced. A concomitant increase in Ca++- activated K+ and a decrease in K+ in conductivities re-establishes weak connectivity between the two neurons and converts their firing pattern to a bistable mode. It is thus demonstrated that neuronal plasticity and adaptability have a stabilizing effect on the dynamics of signal processing in the ganglion. Functional modulations of neuronal ion channel permeability, achieved in vivo and in vitro pharmacologically, can improve connectivity between neurons. These findings are consistent with experimental electrophysiological recordings from myenteric ganglia in intestinal dysrhythmia and suggest possible pathophysiological mechanisms.

Keywords: neuronal chain, signal transduction, plasticity, stability

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Authors: Guadalupe López-Bonilla

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Students of all educational levels participate in literacy practices that may involve print or digital media. Scholars from the New Literacy Studies distinguish practices that fulfill institutional purposes such as those established at schools from literate practices aimed at doing other kinds of activities, such as reading instructions in order to play a video game; the first are known as institutional practices while the latter are considered vernacular literacies. When students perform these kinds of activities they engage with print and digital media according to the demands of the task. In this paper, it is aimed to discuss the results of a research project focusing on literacy practices of high school students at 10 urban cybercafés in Mexico. The main objective was to analyze the literacy practices of students performing both school tasks and vernacular literacies. The methodology included a focused ethnography with online and face to face observations of 10 high school students (5 male and 5 female) and interviews after performing each task. In the results, it is presented how students treat texts as open, dynamic and relational artifacts when engaging in vernacular literacies; while texts are conceived as closed, authoritarian and fixed documents when performing school activities. Samples of each type of activity are shown followed by a discussion of the pedagogical implications for improving school literacy.

Keywords: digital literacy, text, school literacy, vernacular practices

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Authors: Mohammad Hossein Mohammadi Sanjani, Ashknaz Oraee, Arian Amirnia, Atena Taheri, Mohammadreza Arabi, Mahmud Fotuhi-Firuzabad

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Ferroresonance effects cause overvoltage in medium voltage transformers and isolators used in electrical networks. Ferroresonance effects are nonlinear and occur between the network capacitor and the nonlinear inductance of the voltage transformer during saturation. This phenomenon is unwanted for transformers since it causes overheating, introduction of high dynamic forces in primary coils, and rise of voltage in primary coils for the voltage transformer. Furthermore, it results in electrical and thermal failure of the transformer. Expansion of distribution lines, design of the transformer in smaller sizes, and the increase of harmonics in distribution networks result in an increase of ferroresonance. There is limited literature available to improve the effects of ferroresonance; therefore, optimizing its effects for voltage transformers is of great importance. In this study, comprehensive modeling of a medium voltage block-type voltage transformer is performed. In addition, a recent model is proposed to improve the performance of voltage transformers during the occurrence of ferroresonance using damping oscillations. Also, transformer design optimization is presented in this study to show further improvements in the performance of the voltage transformer. The recently proposed model is experimentally tested and verified on a medium voltage transformer in the laboratory, and simulation results show a large reduction of the effects of ferroresonance.

Keywords: optimization, voltage transformer, ferroresonance, modeling, damper

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Authors: El Miloudi Djelloul

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Based on analysis on applications by perception control technology in computer network security status and security protection measures, from the angles of network physical environment and network software system environmental security, this paper provides network security system perception control solution using Internet of Things (IOT), telecom and other perception technologies. Security Perception Control System is in the computer network environment, utilizing Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) of IOT and telecom integration technology to carry out integration design for systems. In the network physical security environment, RFID temperature, humidity, gas and perception technologies are used to do surveillance on environmental data, dynamic perception technology is used for network system security environment, user-defined security parameters, security log are used for quick data analysis, extends control on I/O interface, by development of API and AT command, Computer Network Security Perception Control based on Internet and GSM/GPRS is achieved, which enables users to carry out interactive perception and control for network security environment by WEB, E-MAIL as well as PDA, mobile phone short message and Internet. In the system testing, through middle ware server, security information data perception in real time with deviation of 3-5% was achieved; it proves the feasibility of Computer Network Security Perception Control System.

Keywords: computer network, perception control system security strategy, Radio Frequency Identification (RFID)

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Authors: Yogi Wibisono Budhi, Ferry Iskandar, Veinardi Suendo, Muhammad Fakhrudin, Neng Tresna Umi Culsum

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Oil palm empty fruit bunch (OPEFB), an abundant agro-waste in Indonesia, is being studied as raw material of Cellulose Nanocrystals (CNC) synthesis. Instead of conventional acid mineral, phosphotungstic acid (H₃PW₁₂O₄₀, HPW) was used to hydrolyze cellulose due to recycling ability and easy handling. Before hydrolysis process, dried EFB was treated by 4% NaOH solution at 90oC for 2 hours and then bleached using 2% NaClO₂ solution at 80oC for 3 hours to remove hemicellulose and lignin. Hydrolysis reaction parameters such as temperature, acid concentration, and reaction time were optimized with fixed solid-liquid ratio of 1:40. Response surface method was used for experimental design to determine the optimum condition of each parameter. HPW was extracted from the mixed solution and recycled with diethyl ether. CNC was separated from the solution by centrifuging and washing with distilled water and ethanol to remove degraded sugars and unreacted celluloses. In this study, pulp from dried EFB produced 44.8% yield of CNC. Dynamic Light Scattering (DLS) analysis showed that most of CNC equivalent diameter was 140 nm. Crystallinity index was observed at 73.3% using X-ray Diffraction (XRD) analysis. Thus, a green established process for the preparation of CNC was achieved.

Keywords: acid hydrolysis, cellulose nanocrystals, oil palm empty fruit bunch, phosphotungstic acid

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Authors: Milton Jusu, Moses Koroma

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Efforts by the Ministry of Fisheries and Marine Resources and its development partners to introduce “modern” aquaculture in Sierra Leone since the 1970s have not been successful. A number of reasons have been hypothesized, including the suggestion that the market infrastructure and demand for farmed fish were inadequate to stimulate large-scale and widespread aquaculture production in the country. We have assessed the size, structure, networks and opportunities in fish markets using a combination of Participatory Rural Appraisals (PRAs) and questionnaire surveys conducted in a sample of 29 markets (urban, weekly, wholesale and retail) and two hundred traders. The study showed that the local fish markets were dynamic, with very high variations in demand and supply. The markets sampled supplied between 135.2 and 9947.6 tonnes/year. Mean prices for fresh fish varied between US$1.12 and US$3.89/kg depending on species, with smoked catfish and shrimps commanding prices as high as US$7.4/kg. It is unlikely that marine capture fisheries can increase their current production levels, and these may, in fact, already be over-exploited and declining. Marine fish supplies are particularly low between July and September. More careful attention to the timing of harvests (rainy season, not dry season) and to species (catfish, not tilapia) (could help in the successful adoption of aquaculture.

Keywords: fisheries and aquaculture, fish market, marine fish supplies, harvests

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Authors: Mohammadreza Akbari, Leila Abdollahpour, Sara Akbari, Pooya Soleimani

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Transferring thermo at the field of solid materials for instance tube-shaped structures, causing dynamical vibration at them. Majority of thermal and fluid processes are done engineering science at solid materials, for example, thermo-transferred pipes, fluids, chemical and nuclear reactors, include thermal processes, so, they need to consider the moment solid-fundamental structural strength unto these thermal interactions. Fluid and thermo retentive materials in front of external force to it like thermodynamical force, hydrodynamical force and static force continuously according to a function of time vibrated, and this action causes relative displacement of the structural materials elements, as a result, the moment resistance analysis preservation materials in thermal processes, the most important parameters for design are discussed. Including structural substrate holder temperature and fluid of the administrative and industrial center, is a cylindrical tube that for vibration analysis of cylindrical cells with heat and fluid transfer requires the use of vibration differential equations governing the structure of a tubular and thermal differential equations as the vibrating motive force at double-glazed cylinders.

Keywords: heat transfer, elements in cylindrical coordinates, analytical solving the governing equations, structural vibration

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Authors: M. Sohail Hasan, Wichuda Munbua, Chikako Fujiyama, Koichi Maekawa

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During the past few years, offshore wind energy has become the key parameter to reduce carbon emissions. In most of the previous studies, floaters in floating offshore wind turbines (FOWT) are made up of steel. However, fatigue and corrosion are always major concerns of steel marine structures. Recently, researchers are working on concrete floating substructures. In this paper, the conceptual design of pre-cast panel-based economical and durable reinforced concrete floating substructure for a 10 MW offshore wind turbine is proposed. The new geometrical shape, i.e., hexagon with inside hollow boxes, is proposed under static conditions. To design the outer panel/side walls to resist hydrostatic forces, special consideration for durability is given to limit the crack width within permissible range under service limit state. A comprehensive system is proposed for transferring the ultimate moment and shear due to strong wind at the connection between steel tower and concrete floating substructure. Moreover, a stable connection is also designed considering the fatigue of concrete and steel due to the fluctuation of stress from the mooring line. This conceptual design will be verified by subsequent dynamic analysis soon.

Keywords: cracks width control, mooring line, reinforced concrete floater, steel tower

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Authors: Shaher A. I. Shalfawi, Fredrik Hviding, Bjornar Kjellstadli

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The main purpose of this study was to measure the effect of two different strength training methods on muscle strength, muscle mass, fat mass and endurance factors. Fourteen physical education students accepted to participate in this study. The participants were then randomly divided into three groups, traditional training group (TTG), cluster training group (CTG) and control group (CG). TTG consisted of 4 participants aged ( ± SD) (22.3 ± 1.5 years), body mass (79.2 ± 15.4 kg) and height (178.3 ± 11.9 cm). CTG consisted of 5 participants aged (22.2 ± 3.5 years), body mass (81.0 ± 24.0 kg) and height (180.2 ± 12.3 cm). CG consisted of 5 participants aged (22 ± 2.8 years), body mass (77 ± 19 kg) and height (174 ± 6.7 cm). The participants underwent a hypertrophy strength training program twice a week consisting of 4 sets of 10 reps at 70% of one-repetition maximum (1RM), using barbell squat and barbell bench press for 8 weeks. The CTG performed 2 x 5 reps using 10 s recovery in between repetitions and 50 s recovery between sets, while TTG performed 4 sets of 10 reps with 90 s recovery in between sets. Pre- and post-tests were administrated to assess body composition (weight, muscle mass, and fat mass), 1RM (bench press and barbell squat) and a laboratory endurance test (Bruce Protocol). Instruments used to collect the data were Tanita BC-601 scale (Tanita, Illinois, USA), Woodway treadmill (Woodway, Wisconsin, USA) and Vyntus CPX breath-to-breath system (Jaeger, Hoechberg, Germany). Analysis was conducted at all measured variables including time to peak VO2, peak VO2, heart rate (HR) at peak VO2, respiratory exchange ratio (RER) at peak VO2, and number of breaths per minute. The results indicate an increase in 1RM performance after 8 weeks of training. The change in 1RM squat was for the TTG = 30 ± 3.8 kg, CTG = 28.6 ± 8.3 kg and CG = 10.3 ± 13.8 kg. Similarly, the change in 1RM bench press was for the TTG = 9.8 ± 2.8 kg, CTG = 7.4 ± 3.4 kg and CG = 4.4 ± 3.4 kg. The within-group analysis from the oxygen consumption measured during the incremental exercise indicated that the TTG had only a statistical significant increase in their RER from 1.16 ± 0.04 to 1.23 ± 0.05 (P < 0.05). The CTG had a statistical significant improvement in their HR at peak VO2 from 186 ± 24 to 191 ± 12 Beats Per Minute (P < 0.05) and their RER at peak VO2 from 1.11 ± 0.06 to 1.18 ±0.05 (P < 0.05). Finally, the CG had only a statistical significant increase in their RER at peak VO2 from 1.11 ± 0.07 to 1.21 ± 0.05 (P < 0.05). The between-group analysis showed no statistical differences between all groups in all the measured variables from the oxygen consumption test during the incremental exercise including changes in muscle mass, fat mass, and weight (kg). The results indicate a similar effect of hypertrophy strength training irrespective of the methods of the training used on untrained subjects. Because there were no notable changes in body-composition measures, the results suggest that the improvements in performance observed in all groups is most probably due to neuro-muscular adaptation to training.

Keywords: hypertrophy strength training, cluster set, Bruce protocol, peak VO2

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Authors: Paulino V. Tavares, Ana L. Romao

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Public governance represents an articulated arrangement, dynamic and interactive, present in the exercise of authority aimed at strengthening the decision-making procedure in public administration with transparency, accountability, responsiveness and capable of to emerge control and social empowerment, to pursue and achieve the objectives efficiently and with the effectiveness desired by the collective, respecting laws and providing social, institutional and economic equility in society. With this, using a multidimensional approach with the application of three questionnaires to a universe of twenty Counselors of the Courts of Auditors (Brazil), twenty professionals of public administration (Brazil), twenty Government/Provincial Counselors (South Africa), and twenty South African professionals of public administration, the present work aims to capture what is the perception about the efficiency and equility of public policies in Brazil and South Africa. With this, up until now, 30 responses have been obtained, and the results indicate that, in Brazil, 65% affirm due to the inefficiency of public policies, 70% point out that they do not believe in the equility of these same policies. In South Africa, the results indicate that 45% believe in government efficiency, and, with regard to the equility of public policies, 65% do not believe. In Brazil, the research reveals at least three reasons for this result, that is, lack of planning, lack of clear objectives of public policies, and lack of information on the part of society, while in South Africa, so far, research has not identified a specific reason for this result.

Keywords: efficiency, equility, governance, public policy

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Authors: Jihene Bettaieb, Kaouther Ayouni, Ghassen Kharroubi, Rym Mallekh, Walid Hammemi, Afif Ben Salah, Henda Triki

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In Tunisia, the hepatitis A virus (HAV) represents a public health concern. Due to the progress in sanitation and socio-economic conditions, the epidemiology of HAV has shown dynamic changes over the past years. This study aimed to investigate the current seroprevalence of HAV antibodies (anti-HAV) among the residents of Thala, a rural setting in central-west Tunisia, to determine the age-specific seroprevalence for HAV infection and co-infection with hepatitis C and B virus. A total of 1379 subjects (mean age: 25.0 ± 17.3 years, 555 males/ 824 females) were recruited between January and June 2014. The study population included 95 individuals previously known as hepatitis C positive. Serum samples were collected and screened for the detection of IgG anti-HAV, HBsAg, and HBcAb by the Elisa Test. The overall anti- HAV seroprevalence was about 84.7%. There was no statistically significant difference between males and females. On the 1379 tested individual, 219 were positive for HBcAb, and 67 were positive for HBsAg. IgG anti- HAV were positive in 80.6% of HBsAg-positive patients (54 out of 67), 81.3% of HBcAb-positive patients (178 out of 219), and in 95.8% of HCV-positive patients (91 out of 95). HBV infection and HCV infection were statistically associated with a greater risk of positive anti-HAV antibody (p < 0.001). Our study revealed that Thala represents an intermediate endemicity level and that the introduction of vaccination against HAV in this region is recommended, especially for the hepatitis B or C infected person seronegative for HAV.

Keywords: coinfection, hepatitis A, seroprevalence, Tunisia

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Authors: Yanni Chang, Dezhi Dai, Albert Y. Tong

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Piecewise linear interface calculation (PLIC) schemes are widely used in the volume-of-fluid (VOF) method to capture interfaces in numerical simulations of multiphase flows. Dynamic overset meshes can be especially useful in applications involving component motions and complex geometric shapes. In the present study, the VOF value of an acceptor cell is evaluated in a geometric way that transfers the fraction field between the meshes precisely with reconstructed interfaces from the corresponding donor elements. The acceptor cell value is evaluated by using a weighted average of its donors for most of the overset interpolation schemes for continuous flow variables. The weighting factors are obtained by different algebraic methods. Unlike the continuous flow variables, the VOF equation is a step function near the interfaces, which ranges from zero to unity rapidly. A geometric interpolation scheme of the VOF field in overset meshes for the PLIC-VOF method has been proposed in the paper. It has been tested successfully in quadrilateral/hexahedral overset meshes by employing several VOF advection tests with imposed solenoidal velocity fields. The proposed algorithm has been shown to yield higher accuracy in mass conservation and interface reconstruction compared with three other algebraic ones.

Keywords: interpolation scheme, multiphase flows, overset meshes, PLIC-VOF method

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Authors: Elena E. Lyakso, Olga V. Frolova, Yuri N. Matveev, Aleksey S. Grigorev, Alexander S. Nikolaev, Viktor A. Gorodnyi

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The study of the children’s emotional sphere depending on age and psychoneurological state is of great importance for the design of educational programs for children and their social adaptation. Atypical development may be accompanied by violations or specificities of the emotional sphere. To study characteristics of the emotional state reflection in the voice and speech features of children, the perceptual study with the participation of adults and the automatic recognition of speech were conducted. Speech of children with typical development (TD), with Down syndrome (DS), and with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) aged 6-12 years was recorded. To obtain emotional speech in children, model situations were created, including a dialogue between the child and the experimenter containing questions that can cause various emotional states in the child and playing with a standard set of toys. The questions and toys were selected, taking into account the child’s age, developmental characteristics, and speech skills. For the perceptual experiment by adults, test sequences containing speech material of 30 children: TD, DS, and ASD were created. The listeners were 100 adults (age 19.3 ± 2.3 years). The listeners were tasked with determining the children’s emotional state as “comfort – neutral – discomfort” while listening to the test material. Spectrographic analysis of speech signals was conducted. For automatic recognition of the emotional state, 6594 speech files containing speech material of children were prepared. Automatic recognition of three states, “comfort – neutral – discomfort,” was performed using automatically extracted from the set of acoustic features - the Geneva Minimalistic Acoustic Parameter Set (GeMAPS) and the extended Geneva Minimalistic Acoustic Parameter Set (eGeMAPS). The results showed that the emotional state is worse determined by the speech of TD children (comfort – 58% of correct answers, discomfort – 56%). Listeners better recognized discomfort in children with ASD and DS (78% of answers) than comfort (70% and 67%, respectively, for children with DS and ASD). The neutral state is better recognized by the speech of children with ASD (67%) than by the speech of children with DS (52%) and TD children (54%). According to the automatic recognition data using the acoustic feature set GeMAPSv01b, the accuracy of automatic recognition of emotional states for children with ASD is 0.687; children with DS – 0.725; TD children – 0.641. When using the acoustic feature set eGeMAPSv01b, the accuracy of automatic recognition of emotional states for children with ASD is 0.671; children with DS – 0.717; TD children – 0.631. The use of different models showed similar results, with better recognition of emotional states by the speech of children with DS than by the speech of children with ASD. The state of comfort is automatically determined better by the speech of TD children (precision – 0.546) and children with ASD (0.523), discomfort – children with DS (0.504). The data on the specificities of recognition by adults of the children’s emotional state by their speech may be used in recruitment for working with children with atypical development. Automatic recognition data can be used to create alternative communication systems and automatic human-computer interfaces for social-emotional learning. Acknowledgment: This work was financially supported by the Russian Science Foundation (project 18-18-00063).

Keywords: autism spectrum disorders, automatic recognition of speech, child’s emotional speech, Down syndrome, perceptual experiment

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Authors: Joe Kallas

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It is now widely accepted that the preservation of cultural heritage must go beyond simple restoration and renovation actions. While some historic monuments have been preserved for millennia, many of them, less important or simply neglected because of lack of money, have disappeared. As a result, the adaptation of monuments and archaeological sites to new functions allow them to 'survive'. Temporary activities or 'ephemeral' re-use, are increasingly recognized as a means of vitalization of deprived areas and enhancement of historic sites that became obsolete. They have the potential to increase economic and cultural value while making the best use of existing resources. However, there are often conservation and preservation issues related to the implementation of this type of re-use, which can also threaten the integrity and authenticity of archaeological sites and monuments if they have not been properly managed. This paper aims to get a better knowledge of the ephemeral re-use of heritage, and more specifically the subject of the incorporation of the festival phenomenon within the monuments and archaeological sites in Lebanon, a topic that is not yet studied enough. This paper tried to determine the elements that compose it, in order to analyze this phenomenon and to trace its good practices, by comparing international study cases to important national cases: the International Festival of Baalbek, the International Festival of Byblos and the International Festival of Beiteddine. Various factors have been studied and analyzed in order to best respond to the main problematic of this paper: 'How can we preserve the integrity of sites and monuments after the integration of an ephemeral function? And what are the preventive conservation measures to be taken when holding festivals in archaeological sites with fragile structures?' The impacts of the technical problems were first analyzed using various data and more particularly the effects of mass tourism, the integration of temporary installations, sound vibrations, the effects of unstudied lighting, until the mystification of heritage. Unfortunately, the DGA (General Direction of Antiquities in Lebanon) does not specify any frequency limit for the sound vibrations emitted by the speakers during musical festivals. In addition, there is no requirement from its part regarding the installations of the lighting systems in the historic monuments and no monitoring is done in situ, due to the lack of awareness of the impact that could be generated by such interventions, and due to the lack of materials and tools needed for the monitoring process. The study and analysis of the various data mentioned above led us to the elaboration of the main objective of this paper, which is the establishment of a list of recommendations. This list enables to define various preventive conservation measures to be taken during the holding of the festivals within the cultural heritage sites in Lebanon. We strongly hope that this paper will be an awareness document to start taking into consideration several factors previously neglected, in order to improve the conservation practices in the archaeological sites and monuments during the incorporation of the festival phenomenon.

Keywords: archaeology, authenticity, conservation, cultural heritage, festival, historic sites, integrity, monuments, tourism

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Authors: M. Mohsin Munir, Taimoor Ahmad, Javed Munir, Usman Rashid

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Determination of maximum elevation of a flowing fluid due to sudden rejection of load in a hydropower facility is of great interest to hydraulic engineers to ensure safety of the hydraulic structures. Several mathematical models exist that employ one-dimensional modeling for the determination of surge but none of these perfectly simulate real-time circumstances. The paper envisages investigation of surge inception and propagation for a Low Head Hydropower project using Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) analysis on FLOW-3D software package. The fluid dynamic model utilizes its analysis for surge by employing Reynolds’ Averaged Navier-Stokes Equations (RANSE). The CFD model is designed for a case study at Taunsa hydropower Project in Pakistan. Various scenarios have run through the model keeping in view upstream boundary conditions. The prototype results were then compared with the results of physical model testing for the same scenarios. The results of the numerical model proved quite accurate coherence with the physical model testing and offers insight into phenomenon which are not apparent in physical model and shall be adopted in future for the similar low head projects limiting delays and cost incurred in the physical model testing.

Keywords: surge, FLOW-3D, numerical model, Taunsa, RANSE

Procedia PDF Downloads 351

Authors: V. Khosravi, F. D. Ardejani, A. Aryafar, M. Sedighi

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Heavy metals have a damaging impact for the environment, animals and humans due to their extreme toxicity and removing them from wastewaters is a very important and interesting task in the field of water pollution control. Biosorption is a relatively new method for treatment of wastewaters and recovery of heavy metals. In this study, a continuous fixed bed study was carried out by using Bacillus thuringiensis as a biosorbent for the removal of Cu and Mn ions from Sarcheshmeh Acid Mine Drainage (AMD). The effect of operating parameters such as flow rate and bed height on the sorption characteristics of B. thuringiensis was investigated at pH 6.0 for each metal ion. The experimental results showed that the breakthrough time decreased with increasing flow rate and decreasing bed height. The data also indicated that the equilibrium uptake of both metals increased with decreasing flow rate and increasing bed height. BDST, Thomas, and Yoon–Nelson models were applied to experimental data to predict the breakthrough curves. All models were found suitable for describing the whole dynamic behavior of the column with respect to flow rate and bed height. In order to regenerate the adsorbent, an elution step was carried out with 1 M HCl and five adsorption-desorption cycles were carried out in continuous manner.

Keywords: acid mine drainage, bacillus thuringiensis, biosorption, cu and mn ions, fixed bed

Procedia PDF Downloads 393

Authors: Mohammad Hossein Modarressi, Mozhgan Mondeali, Khabat Barkhordari, Ali Etemadi

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The COVID-19 pandemic, caused by SARS-CoV-2, has led to significant concerns worldwide due to its catastrophic effects on public health. The SARS-CoV-2 infection is initiated with the binding of the receptor-binding domain (RBD) in its spike protein to the ACE2 receptor in the host cell membrane. Due to the error-prone entity of the viral RNA-dependent polymerase complex, the virus genome, including the coding region for the RBD, acquires new mutations, leading to the appearance of multiple variants. These variants can potentially impact transmission, virulence, antigenicity and evasive immune properties. S477N mutation located in the RBD has been observed in the SARS-CoV-2 omicron (B.1.1. 529) variant. In this study, we investigated the consequences of S477N mutation at the molecular level using computational approaches such as molecular dynamics simulation, protein-protein interaction analysis, immunoinformatics and free energy computation. We showed that displacement of Ser with Asn increases the stability of the spike protein and its affinity to ACE2 and thus increases the transmission potential of the virus. This mutation changes the folding and secondary structure of the spike protein. Also, it reduces antibody neutralization, raising concern about re-infection, vaccine breakthrough and therapeutic values.

Keywords: S477N, COVID-19, molecular dynamic, SARS-COV2 mutations

Procedia PDF Downloads 161

Authors: P. Okoro Ugo Chigozie, P. A. Igbojekwe, E. N. Ukabuilu

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Tourism and terrorism experiences are best viewed as dynamic, complex systems with extreme diverse consequences on any nation’s economy. Tourism is one of the biggest industries in the world and one of the economical sectors which grows rapidly; tourism has positive impact on the nation’s economy. Terrorism is the method or the theory behind the method whereby an organized group or party seeks to achieve its avowed aims chiefly through the systematic use of violence; the consequences of terrorism on tourist destinations are inescapable and can be profound. Especially, it threatens the attractiveness of a tourist destination and strips the competitiveness of that destination. Destination’s vulnerability to politically motivated violence not only retracts tourists, but threatens sustainable tourism development. This paper examines the activities of the Jamaata Ahlis Sunna Liddaawati -an Islamic sect popularly known as Boko Haram – and its impact on sustainable tourism development in the Nigeria state. Possible triggers of this insurgency and potentially evolving measure against its influence on sustainable tourism including, strong image management of the tourism industry, feasible tourist safety policy, viable anti-terrorism measures, proactive respond to the challenge of terrorism, reinforcement of the legitimate frameworks and irrevocable penalty against menace of corruption; are discussed in this paper, as limiting the effects of insurgency on the attractiveness of Nigeria as safe tourists destination.

Keywords: Nigeria, terrorism, sustainable tourism development, corruption and competitiveness

Procedia PDF Downloads 607

Authors: Nusrat T. Chowdhury, M. F. Baki, A. Azab

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The production planning problem is concerned with specifying the optimal quantities to produce in order to meet the demand for a prespecified planning horizon with the least possible expenditure. Making the right decisions in production planning will affect directly the performance and productivity of a manufacturing firm, which is important for its ability to compete in the market. Therefore, developing and improving solution procedures for production planning problems is very significant. In this paper, we develop a Dantzig-Wolfe decomposition of a multi-item hierarchical production planning problem with capacity constraint and present a column generation approach to solve the problem. The original Mixed Integer Linear Programming model of the problem is decomposed item by item into a master problem and a number of subproblems. The capacity constraint is considered as the linking constraint between the master problem and the subproblems. The subproblems are solved using the dynamic programming approach. We also propose a multi-step iterative capacity allocation heuristic procedure to handle any kind of infeasibility that arises while solving the problem. We compare the computational performance of the developed solution approach against the state-of-the-art heuristic procedure available in the literature. The results show that the proposed heuristic-based decomposition approach improves the solution quality by 20% as compared to the literature.

Keywords: inventory, multi-level capacitated lot-sizing, emission control, setup carryover

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Authors: Chih-Hua Wu, Bang-Fuh Chen, Keryea Soong

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Midges can move on the surface of the water at speeds of approximately 340 body-lengths/s and can move continuously for >90 min. Their wings periodically scull the sea surface to push water backward and thus generate thrust; their other body parts, including their three pairs of legs, touch the water only occasionally. The aim of this study was to investigate the locomotion mechanism of marine midges with a size of 2 mm and living in shallow reefs in Wanliton, southern Taiwan. We assumed that midges generate lift through two mechanisms: by sculling the surface of seawater to leverage the generated tension for thrust and by retracting their wings to generate aerodynamic lift at a suitable angle of attack. We performed computational fluid dynamic simulations to determine the mechanism of midge locomotion above the surface of the water. The simulations indicated that ground effects are essential and that both the midge trunk and wing tips must be very close to the water surface to produce sufficient lift to keep the midge airborne. Furthermore, a high wing-beat frequency is crucial for the midge to produce sufficient lift during wing retraction. Accordingly, ground effects, forward speed, and high wing-beat frequency are major factors influencing the ability of midges to generate sufficient lift and remain airborne above the water surface.

Keywords: ground effect, water locomotion, CFD, aerodynamic lift

Procedia PDF Downloads 70