Search results for: pulmonary function tests

Authors: Punnoose A. K.

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This paper presents an approach for identifying noisy speech recording using a multi-layer perception (MLP) trained to predict phonemes from acoustic features. Characteristics of the MLP posteriors are explored for clean speech and noisy speech at the frame level. Appropriate density functions are used to fit the softmax probability of the clean and noisy speech. A function that takes into account the ratio of the softmax probability density of noisy speech to clean speech is formulated. These phoneme independent scoring is weighted using a phoneme-specific weightage to make the scoring more robust. Simple thresholding is used to identify the noisy speech recording from the clean speech recordings. The approach is benchmarked on standard databases, with a focus on precision.

Keywords: noisy speech identification, speech pre-processing, noise robustness, feature engineering

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Authors: Wook-Won Kim, Je-Seok Shin, Jin-O Kim

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This paper propose the method for optimal scheduling for battery energy storage system with reliability constraint of energy storage system in reliability aspect. The optimal scheduling problem is solved by dynamic programming with proposed transition matrix. Proposed optimal scheduling method guarantees the minimum fuel cost within specific reliability constraint. For evaluating proposed method, the timely capacity outage probability table (COPT) is used that is calculated by convolution of probability mass function of each generator. This study shows the result of optimal schedule of energy storage system.

Keywords: energy storage system (ESS), optimal scheduling, dynamic programming, reliability constraints

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Authors: Abderrahmane Hemmani, Hamid Khachab, Dennai Benmoussa, Hassane Benslimane, Abderrachid Helmaoui

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Back surface field GaAs with n -p-p+ structures are found to have better characteristics than the conventional solar cells. A theory, based on the transport of both minority carriers under the charge neutrality condition, has been developed in the present paper which explains behavior of the back surface field solar cells. That is reported with an efficiency of 25,05% (Jsc=33.5mA/cm2, Vco=0.87v and fill factor 86% under AM1.5 global conditions). We present the effect of technological parameters of the p+ layer on the conversion efficiency on the solar cell. Good agreement is achieved between our results and the simulation results given the variation of the equivalent recombination velocity to p+ layer as a function of BSF thickness and BSF doping.

Keywords: back surface field, GaAs, solar cell, technological parameters

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Authors: Shan Zhou, Wenju Li, Kehui Chai

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Along with economic globalization, marketization and regional development, strengthen planning and construction of the New Town, which is always the main way to optimize the structure and function of metropolitan spatial configuration. But, the new town is often of high-intensity development, bringing a series of natural, ecological and environmental issues, so it is difficult to achieve sustainable development. In this paper, taking the administrative center of Jiangping in Dongxing as an example. It is analyzed from the following three aspects：Vertical design of road traffic，Space layout of mountain buildings，and the design of landscape. The purpose is to elaborate the hillside design methods guided by low-intensity damage, and explore the guiding significance of sustainable development of the hillside construction in the future.

Keywords: low-intensity damage, new town construction，hillside，sustainable development, natural, ecology

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Authors: H. M. Wilhelm, P. O. Fernandes, L. P. Dill, C. Steffens, K. G. Moscon, S. M. Peres, V. Bender, T. Marchesan, J. B. Ferreira Neto

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Deterioration of insulating oil is a natural process that occurs during transformers operation. However, this process can be accelerated by some factors, such as oxygen, high temperatures, metals and, moisture, which rapidly reduce oil insulating capacity and favor transformer faults. Parts of building materials of a transformer can be degraded and yield soluble compounds and insoluble particles that shorten the equipment life. Physicochemical tests, dissolved gas analysis (including propane, propylene and, butane), volatile and furanic compounds determination, besides quantitative and morphological analyses of particulate are proposed in this study in order to correlate transformers building materials degradation with insulating oil characteristics. The present investigation involves tests of medium temperature overheating simulation by means of an electric resistance wrapped with the following materials immersed in mineral insulating oil: test I) copper, tin, lead and, paper (heated at 350-400 °C for 8 h); test II) only copper (at 250 °C for 11 h); and test III) only paper (at 250 °C for 8 h and at 350 °C for 8 h). A different experiment is the simulation of electric arc involving copper, using an electric welding machine at two distinct energy sets (low and high). Analysis results showed that dielectric loss was higher in the sample of test I, higher neutralization index and higher values of hydrogen and hydrocarbons, including propane and butane, were also observed. Test III oil presented higher particle count, in addition, ferrographic analysis revealed contamination with fibers and carbonized paper. However, these particles had little influence on the oil physicochemical parameters (dielectric loss and neutralization index) and on the gas production, which was very low. Test II oil showed high levels of methane, ethane, and propylene, indicating the effect of metal on oil degradation. CO₂ and CO gases were formed in the highest concentration in test III, as expected. Regarding volatile compounds, in test I acetone, benzene and toluene were detected, which are oil oxidation products. Regarding test III, methanol was identified due to cellulose degradation, as expected. Electric arc simulation test showed the highest oil oxidation in presence of copper and at high temperature, since these samples had huge concentration of hydrogen, ethylene, and acetylene. Particle count was also very high, showing the highest release of copper in such conditions. When comparing high and low energy, the first presented more hydrogen, ethylene, and acetylene. This sample had more similar results to test I, pointing out that the generation of different particles can be the cause for faults such as electric arc. Ferrography showed more evident copper and exfoliation particles than in other samples. Therefore, in this study, by using different combined analytical techniques, it was possible to correlate insulating oil characteristics with possible contaminants, which can lead to transformers failure.

Keywords: Ferrography, gas analysis, insulating mineral oil, particle contamination, transformer failures

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Authors: Hisyam Hidayatullah

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This world events consciously or not realize everything has a pattern, until the events of the universe according to the Big Bang theory of the solar system which makes so regular in the rotation. The author would like to create a results curve area between the quadratic function y=kx2 and line y=ka2 using GeoGebra application version 4.2. This paper can provide a series that is no less interesting with Fourier series, so that will add new material about the series can be calculated with sigma notation. In addition, the ranks of the unique natural numbers of extensive changes in established areas. Finally, this paper provides analytical and geometric proof of the vast area in between the lines and curves that give the area is formed by y=ka2 dan kurva y=kx2, x-axis, line x=√a and x=-√a make a series of numbers for k=1 and a ∈ original numbers. ∑_(i=0)^n=(4n√n)/3=0+4/3+(8√2)/3+4√3+⋯+(4n√n)/3. The author calls the series “H154M”.

Keywords: sequence, series, sigma notation, application GeoGebra

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Authors: El Metmati Abdelhaq

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Shear strength of sandy soils has been considered as the important parameter to study the stability of different civil engineering structures when subjected to monotonic, cyclic and earthquake loading conditions. The objective of this laboratory investigation is to study the influence of the fraction of low plastic fines and gradation on the mechanical behavior of sand-silt mixtures reconstituted in the laboratory. For this purpose, a series of Casagrande shear box tests were carried out on different reconstituted samples of sand-silt mixtures with various gradations at two initial relative densities (Dr = 20 and 91 %) with different fines content ranging from 0 to 40 %. The soil samples were tested under different normal stresses (100, 200 and 300 kPa). The evaluation of the data indicates that the fines content and the gradation have significant influence on the friction angle and the cohesion.

Keywords: mechanical behavior, silty sand, friction angle, cohesion, fines content

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Authors: Shigeyuki Haruyama, Ken Kaminishi, Junji Kaneko, Tadayuki Kyoutani, Siti Ruhana Omar, Oke Oktavianty

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This study is used as a definition method to the value and function in manufacturing sector. In concurrence of discussion about present condition of modeling method, until now definition of 1D-CAE is ambiguity and not conceptual. Across all the physics fields, those methods are defined with the formulation of differential algebraic equation which only applied time derivation and simulation. At the same time, we propose semi-acausal modeling concept and differential algebraic equation method as a newly modeling method which the efficiency has been verified through the comparison of numerical analysis result between the semi-acausal modeling calculation and FEM theory calculation.

Keywords: system model, physical models, empirical models, conservation law, differential algebraic equation, object-oriented

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Authors: Chirawat Wattanapanich, Hong Wei

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This study presents new gait representations for improving gait recognition accuracy on cross gait appearances, such as normal walking, wearing a coat and carrying a bag. Based on the Gait Energy Image (GEI), two ideas are implemented to generate new gait representations. One is to append lower knee regions to the original GEI, and the other is to apply convolutional operations to the GEI and its variants. A set of new gait representations are created and used for training multi-class Support Vector Machines (SVMs). Tests are conducted on the CASIA dataset B. Various combinations of the gait representations with different convolutional kernel size and different numbers of kernels used in the convolutional processes are examined. Both the entire images as features and reduced dimensional features by Principal Component Analysis (PCA) are tested in gait recognition. Interestingly, both new techniques, appending the lower knee regions to the original GEI and convolutional GEI, can significantly contribute to the performance improvement in the gait recognition. The experimental results have shown that the average recognition rate can be improved from 75.65% to 87.50%.

Keywords: convolutional image, lower knee, gait

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Authors: A. W. Zularisam, Lakhveer Singh, Mimi Sakinah Abdul Munaim

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In this study, the optimization of hydrogen production using polyethylene glycol (PEG) immobilized sludge was investigated in batch tests. Palm oil mill effluent (POME) is used as a substrate that can act as a carbon source. Experiment focus on the effect of some important affecting factors on fermentative hydrogen production. Results showed that immobilized sludge demonstrated the maximum hydrogen production rate of 340 mL/L-POME/h under follow optimal condition: amount of biomass 10 mg VSS/ g bead, PEG concentration 10%, and cell age 24 h or 40 h. More importantly, immobilized sludge not only enhanced hydrogen production but can also tolerate the harsh environment and produce hydrogen at the wide ranges of pH. The present results indicate the potential of PEG-immobilized sludge for large-scale operations as well; these factors play an important role in stable and continuous hydrogen production.

Keywords: bioydrogen, immobilization, polyethylene glycol, palm oil mill effluent, dark fermentation

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Authors: Sukhveer Singh, Sandeep Singh

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A bi-objective fuzzy transportation problem with the objectives to minimize the total fuzzy cost and fuzzy time of transportation without according priorities to them is considered. To the best of our knowledge, there is no method in the literature to find efficient solutions of the bi-objective transportation problem under uncertainty. In this paper, a bi-objective transportation problem in an uncertain environment has been formulated. An algorithm has been proposed to find efficient solutions of the bi-objective transportation problem under uncertainty. The proposed algorithm avoids the degeneracy and gives the optimal solution faster than other existing algorithms for the given uncertain transportation problem.

Keywords: uncertain transportation problem, efficient solution, ranking function, fuzzy transportation problem

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Authors: M. Kumpugdee-Vollrath, T. G. D. Phu, M. Helmis

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A suitable model membrane to study the pharmacological effect of pharmaceutical products is human stratum corneum because this layer of human skin is the outermost layer and it is an important barrier to be passed through. Other model membranes which were also used are for example skins from pig, mouse, reptile or fish. We are interested in fish skins in this project. The advantages of the fish skins are, that they can be obtained from the supermarket or fish shop. However, the fish skins should be freshly prepared and used directly without storage. In order to understand the effect of different model drugs e.g. lidocaine HCl, resveratrol, paracetamol, ibuprofen, acetyl salicylic acid on the properties of the model membrane from various types of fishes e.g. trout, salmon, cod, plaice permeation tests were performed and differential scanning calorimetry was applied.

Keywords: fish skin, model membrane, permeation, DSC, lidocaine HCl, resveratrol, paracetamol, ibuprofen, acetyl salicylic acid

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Authors: Arti Devi, Parthasarthi Choudhury

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Extreme rainfall frequency analysis for Meteorological Sub-Division 4 of India was analysed using L-moments approach. Serial Correlation and Mann Kendall tests were conducted for checking serially independent and stationarity of the observations. The discordancy measure for the sites was conducted to detect the discordant sites. The regional homogeneity was tested by comparing with 500 generated homogeneous regions using a 4 parameter Kappa distribution. The best fit distribution was selected based on ZDIST statistics and L-moments ratio diagram from the five extreme value distributions GPD, GLO, GEV, P3 and LP3. The LN3 distribution was selected and regional rainfall frequency relationship was established using index-rainfall procedure. A regional mean rainfall relationship was developed using multiple linear regression with latitude and longitude of the sites as variables.

Keywords: L-moments, ZDIST statistics, serial correlation, Mann Kendall test

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Authors: Hafiz Arbab Sakandar, Sabahat Yaqub, Ayesha Sameen, Muhammad Imran, Sarfraz Ahmad

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Yoghurt is one of the famous nutritious fermented milk products which have myriad of positive health effects on human beings and curable against different intestinal diseases. This research was conducted to observe effects of different artificial sweeteners on the quality parameters of yoghurt with relation to storage. Some people are allergic to natural sweeteners so artificial sweetener will be helpful for them. Physical-chemical, Microbiology and various sensory evaluation tests were carried out with the interval of 7, 14, 21, and 28 days. It was outcome from this study that addition of artificial sweeteners in yoghurt has shown much harmful effects on the yoghurt microorganisms and other physicochemical parameters from quality point of view. Best results for acceptance were obtained when aspartame was added in yoghurt at level of 0.022 percent. In addition, growth of beneficial microorganisms in yoghurt was also improved as well as other sensory attributes were enhanced by the addition of aspartame.

Keywords: yoghurt, artificial sweetener, storage, quality parameters

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Authors: Cinthia G. P. Calou, Franz J. Antezana, Ana I. O. Nicolau, Eveliny S. Martins, Paula R. A. L. Soares, Glauberto S. Quirino, Dayanne R. Oliveira, Priscila S. Aquino, Régia C. M. B. Castro, Ana K. B. Pinheiro

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Introduction: As an integral part of the health-disease process, gestation is a period in which the social insertion of women can influence, in a positive or negative way, the course of the pregnancy-puerperal cycle. Thus, evaluating the quality of life of this population can redirect the implementation of innovative practices in the quest to make them more effective and real for the promotion of a more humanized care. This study explores the associations between the obstetric factors with affected areas of health-related quality of life of pregnant women with habitual risk. Methods: This is a cross-sectional, quantitative study conducted in three public facilities and a private service that provides prenatal care in the city of Fortaleza, Ceara, Brazil. The sample consisted of 261 pregnant women who underwent low-risk prenatal care and were interviewed from September to November 2014. The collection instruments were a questionnaire containing socio-demographic and obstetric variables, in addition to the Brazilian version of the Mother scale Generated Index (MGI) characterized by being a specific and objective instrument, consisting of a single sheet and subdivided into three stages. It allows identifying the areas of life of the pregnant woman that are most affected, which could go unnoticed by the pre-formulated measurement instruments. The obstetric data, as well as the data concerning the application of the MGI scale, were compiled and analyzed through the statistical program Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS), version 20.0. After the compilation, a descriptive analysis was carried out. Then, associations were made between some variables. The tests applied were the Pearson Chi-Square and the Fisher's exact test. The odds ratio was also calculated. These associations were considered statistically significant when the p (probability) value was less than or equal to a level of 5% (α = 0.05) in the tests performed. Results: The variables that negatively reflected the quality of life of the pregnant women and presented a significant association with the polaciuria were: gestational age (p = 0.022) and parity (p = 0.048). Episodes of nausea and vomiting also showed significant with gestational age correlation (p = 0.0001). Evaluating the crossing of stress, we observed a significant association with parity (p = 0.0001). In turn, emotional lability revealed dependence on the variable type of delivery (p = 0.009). Conclusion: The health professionals involved in the assistance to the pregnant woman can understand how the process of gestation is experienced, considering all its peculiar transformations; to meet their individual needs, stimulating their autonomy and their power of choice, envisaging the achievement of a better quality of life related to health in the perspective of health promotion.

Keywords: health-related quality of life, obstetric nursing, pregnant women, prenatal care

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Authors: Joseph Akyeh, Abdul Samed Muntaka, Emmanuel Anin, Dorcas Nuertey

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Purpose: This study develops and tests arguments that the relationship between technology alignment and supply chain performance is conditional upon levels of technology championing. Methodology: The proposed relationships are tested on a sample of 217 hospitals in a major sub-Saharan African economy. Findings: Findings from the study indicate that technology alignment has a positive and significant effect on supply chain performance. The study further finds that while technology championing strengthens the direct effects of technology alignment on supply chain performance. Theoretical Contributions: A theoretical contribution from this study is the finding that when technology alignment drives supply chain performance is more complex than previously thought it depends on whether or not technology alignment is first championed by top management. Originality: Though some studies have been conducted on technology alignment and health supply chain performance, to the best of the researcher’s knowledge, no previous study has examined the moderating role of technology championing the link between technology alignment and supply chain performance.

Keywords: technology alignment, supply chain performance, technology championing, structural equation modelling

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Authors: Nuray Baltaci, Kursat Cagiltay

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University rankings which can be seen as nouveau topic are at the center of focus and followed closely by different parties. Students are interested in university rankings in order to make informed decisions about the selection of their candidate future universities. University administrators and academicians can utilize them to see and evaluate their universities’ relative performance compared to other institutions in terms of including but not limited to academic, economic, and international outlook issues. Local institutions may use those ranking systems, as TUBITAK (The Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey) and YOK (Council of Higher Education) do in Turkey, to support students and give scholarships when they want to apply for undergraduate and graduate studies abroad. When it is considered that the ranking systems are concerned by this many different parties, the importance of having clear, easy to use and well-designed websites by ranking institutions will be apprehended. In this paper, a usability study for the websites of four different global university ranking institutions, namely Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU), Times Higher Education, QS and University Ranking by Academic Performance (URAP), was conducted. User-based approach was adopted and usability tests were conducted with 10 graduate students at Middle East Technical University in Ankara, Turkey. Before performing the formal usability tests, a pilot study had been completed to reflect the necessary changes to the settings of the study. Participants’ demographics, task completion times, paths traced to complete tasks, and their satisfaction levels on each task and website were collected. According to the analyses of the collected data, those ranking websites were compared in terms of efficiency, effectiveness and satisfaction dimensions of usability as pointed in ISO 9241-11. Results showed that none of the selected ranking websites is superior to other ones in terms of overall effectiveness and efficiency of the website. However the only remarkable result was that the highest average task completion times for two of the designed tasks belong to the Times Higher Education Rankings website. Evaluation of the user satisfaction on each task and each website produced slightly different but rather similar results. When the satisfaction levels of the participants on each task are examined, it was seen that the highest scores belong to ARWU and URAP websites. The overall satisfaction levels of the participants for each website showed that the URAP website has highest score followed by ARWU website. In addition, design problems and powerful design features of those websites reported by the participants are presented in the paper. Since the study mainly tackles about the design problems of the URAP website, the focus is on this website. Participants reported 3 main design problems about the website which are unaesthetic and unprofessional design style of the website, improper map location on ranking pages, and improper listing of the field names on field ranking page.

Keywords: university ranking, user-based approach, website usability, design

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Authors: Qian Li, Shouxiang Lu

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With the rapid increase in electric power use, wire and cable fire occur more and more frequent. The fire smoke has a corrosive effect on the solders, which seriously affects the function of electronic equipment. In this research, the effect of environment relative humidity on corrosion behavior of Sn-0.7Cu solder has been researched under 140 g·m⁻³ polyvinyl chloride (PVC) fire smoke atmosphere. The mass loss of Sn-0.7Cu solder increased with the relative humidity. Furthermore, the microstructures and corrosion mechanism were analyzed by using SEM, EDS, XRD, and XPS. The result shows that Sn₂₁Cl₁₆(OH)₁₄O₆ is the main corrosion products and the corrosion process is an electrochemical reaction. The present work could provide guidance to the risk assessment for electronic equipment rescue after a fire.

Keywords: corrosion, fire smoke, relative humidity, Sn-0.7Cu solder

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Authors: Ravid Inbar

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CaMKII (calcium-calmodulin dependent protein kinase II) makes up 2% of the protein in our brain and has a critical role in memory formation and long-term potentiation of neurons. Despite this, research has yet to uncover the role of one of the domains on the activation of this kinase. The following proposes to express the protein without the hub domain in E. coli, leaving only the kinase and regulatory segment of the protein. Next, a series of kinase assays will be conducted to elucidate the role the hub domain plays on CaMKII sensitivity to calcium/calmodulin activation. The hub domain may be important for activation; however, it may also be a variety of domains working together to influence protein activation and not the hub alone. Characterization of a protein is critical to the future understanding of the protein's function, as well as for producing pharmacological targets in cases of patients with diseases.

Keywords: CaMKII, hub domain, kinase assays, kinase + reg seg

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Authors: Mehtap Dursun, Zeynep Şener

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Supplier selection is considered as one of the most critical issues encountered by operations and purchasing managers to sharpen the company’s competitive advantage. In this paper, a novel fuzzy multi-criteria group decision making approach integrating quality function deployment (QFD) and decision making trial and evaluation laboratory (DEMATEL) method is proposed for supplier selection. The proposed methodology enables to consider the impacts of inner dependence among supplier assessment criteria. A house of quality (HOQ) which translates purchased product features into supplier assessment criteria is built using the weights obtained by DEMATEL approach to determine the desired levels of supplier assessment criteria. Supplier alternatives are ranked by a distance-based method.

Keywords: DEMATEL, group decision making, QFD, supplier selection

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Authors: Yanhui Jia, Ning Guo, Juan Li, Yunkui Sun, Wei Yang, Tianping Zhang, Lin Ma, Wei Meng, Hai Geng

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The current statuses of lifetime test of LaB6 hollow cathode at the Lanzhou institute of physics (LIP), China, was described. 5A LaB6 hollow cathode was designed for LIPS-200 40mN Xenon ion thruster and it could be used for LHT-100 80 mN Hall thruster, too. Life test of the discharge and neutralizer modes of LHC-5 hollow cathode were stared in October 2011, and cumulative operation time reached 17,300 and 16,100 hours in April 2015, respectively. The life of cathode was designed more than 11,000 hours. Parameters of discharge and key structure dimensions were monitored in different stage of life test indicated that cathodes were health enough. The test will continue until the cathode cannot work or operation parameter is not in normally. The result of the endurance test of cathode demonstrated that the LaB6 hollow cathode is satisfied for the required of thruster in life and performance.

Keywords: LaB6, hollow cathode, thruster, lifetime test, electric propulsion

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Authors: Alexia Wu, Joel Ribis, Jean-Christophe Brachet, Emmanuel Clouet, Benoit Arnal, Elodie Rouesne, Stéphane Urvoy, Justine Roubaud, Yves Serruys, Frederic Lepretre

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To enhance the safety of Light Water Reactor, accident tolerant fuel (ATF) claddings materials are under development. In the framework of CEA-AREVA-EDF collaborative program on ATF cladding materials, CEA has engaged specific studies on chromium coated zirconium alloys. Especially for Loss-of-Coolant-Accident situations, chromium coated claddings have shown some additional 'coping' time before achieving full embrittlement of the oxidized cladding, when compared to uncoated references – both tested in steam environment up to 1300°C. Nevertheless, the behavior of chromium coatings and the stability of the Zr-Cr interface under neutron irradiation remain unknown. Two main points are addressed: 1. Bulk Cr behavior under irradiation: Due to its BCC crystallographic structure, Cr is prone to Ductile-to-Brittle-Transition at quite high temperature. Irradiation could be responsible for a significant additional DBTT shift towards higher temperatures. 2. Zircaloy/Cr interface behavior under irradiation: Preliminary TEM examinations of un-irradiated samples revealed a singular Zircaloy-4/Cr interface with nanometric intermetallic phase layers. Such particular interfaces highlight questions of how they would behave under irradiation - intermetallic zirconium phases are known to be more or less stable under irradiations. Another concern is a potential enhancement of chromium diffusion into the zirconium-alpha based substrate. The purpose of this study is then to determine the behavior of such coatings after ion irradiations, as a surrogate to neutron irradiation. Ion irradiations were performed at the Jannus-Saclay facility (France). 20 MeV Kr8+ ions at 400°C with a flux of 2.8x1011 ions.cm-2.s-1 were used to irradiate chromium coatings of 1-2 µm thick on Zircaloy-4 sheets substrate. At the interface, the calculated damage is close to 10 dpa (SRIM, Quick Calculation Damage mode). Thin foil samples were prepared with FIB for both as-received and irradiated coated samples. Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM) and in-situ tensile tests in a Scanning Electron Microscope are being used to characterize the un-irradiated and irradiated materials. High Resolution TEM highlights a great complexity of the interface before irradiation since it is formed of an alternation of intermetallic phases – C14 and C15. The interfaces formed by these intermetallic phases with chromium and zirconium show semi-coherency. Chemical analysis performed before irradiation shows some iron enrichment at the interface. The chromium coating bulk microstructures and properties are also studied before and after irradiation. On-going in-situ tensile tests focus on the capacity of chromium coatings to sustain some plastic deformation when tested up to 350°C. The stability of the Cr/Zr interface is shown after ion irradiation up to 10 dpa. This observation constitutes the first result after irradiation on these new coated claddings materials.

Keywords: accident tolerant fuel, HRTEM, interface, ion-irradiation

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Authors: Adji Achmad Rinaldo Fernandes

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Regression analysis is a statistical method that is able to describe and predict causal relationships between individuals. Not all relationships have a known curve shape; often, there are relationship patterns that cannot be known in the shape of the curve; besides that, a cause can have an impact on more than one effect, so that between effects can also have a close relationship in it. Regression analysis that can be done to find out the relationship can be brought closer to the semiparametric regression of truncated spline biresponse. The purpose of this study is to examine the function estimator and determine the best model of truncated spline biresponse semiparametric regression. The results of the secondary data study showed that the best model with the highest order of quadratic and a maximum of two knots with a Goodness of fit value in the form of Adjusted R2 of 88.5%.

Keywords: biresponse, farmer attachment, farmer loyalty, truncated spline

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Authors: Mohamed Zakaulla, A. R. Anwar Khan

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Al6061 alloy base matrix, reinforced with particles of silicon carbide (10 wt %) and Graphite powder (1wt%), known as hybrid composites have been fabricated by liquid metallurgy route (stir casting technique) and optimized at different parameters like applied load, sliding speed and sliding distance by taguchi method. A plan of experiment generated through taguchi technique was used to perform experiments based on L27 orthogonal array. The developed ANOVA and regression equations are used to find the optimum coefficient of friction and wear under the influence of applied load, sliding speed and sliding distance. On the basis of “smaller the best” the dry sliding wear resistance was analysed and finally confirmation tests were carried out to verify the experimental results.

Keywords: analysis of variance, dry sliding wear, hybrid composite, orthogonal array, Taguchi technique

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Authors: Midhun Xavier

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This paper introduces a method to verify multi-agent systems in industrial control systems using blockchain technology. The proposed solution enables to record and verify each process that occurs while generating a customized product using Ethereum-based smart contracts. Node-Red software agents are developed with the help of semantic web technologies, and these software agents interact with IEC 61499 function blocks to execute the processes. The agent associated with each mechatronic component and its controller can communicate with the blockchain to record various events that occur during each process, and the latter smart contract helps to verify these process orders of the customized product.

Keywords: blockchain, Ethereum, node-red, IEC 61499, multi-agent system, MQTT

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Authors: Joel Mintz, Kyle Huntley, Waseem Wahood, Samuel Raine, Farzanna Haffizulla

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The effect of different state government interventions on COVID-19 health outcomes is currently unknown. Stay at home (SAH) orders, all non-essential business closures and school closures in the Northeastern US were examined. A linear correlation between the peak number of new daily COVID-19 positive tests, hospitalizations and deaths per capita and the elapsed time between government issued guidance and a fixed number of COVID-19 deaths in each state was performed. Earlier government interventions were correlated with lower peak healthcare burden. Statewide closures of schools and non-essential businesses showed significantly greater (p<.001) correlation to peak COVID-19 disease burden as compared to a statewide SAH. The implications of these findings require further study to determine the effectiveness of these interventions.

Keywords: Coronavirus, epidemiology, government intervention, public health, social distancing

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Authors: Smita Sonker, Uaday Singh

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Various investigators have determined the degree of approximation of functions belonging to the classes W(L r , ξ(t)), Lip(ξ(t), r), Lip(α, r), and Lipα using different summability methods with monotonocity conditions. Recently, Lal has determined the degree of approximation of the functions belonging to Lipα and W(L r , ξ(t)) classes by using Ces`aro-N¨orlund (C 1 .Np)- summability with non-increasing weights {pn}. In this paper, we shall determine the degree of approximation of 2π - periodic functions f belonging to the function classes Lipα and W(L r , ξ(t)) by C 1 .T - means of Fourier series of f. Our theorems generalize the results of Lal and we also improve these results in the light off. From our results, we also derive some corollaries.

Keywords: Lipschitz classes, product matrix operator, signals, trigonometric Fourier approximation

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Authors: Haroon Abdelrahman Mohamed Saeed, Hongjun Yang

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This study aims to examine the impact of hyperbranched polyester (AA-Ph) on the dyeability and color fastness of recycled poly (ethylene terephthalate) (RPET) fabric. AA-Ph was synthesized through single-step melt polycondensation of adipic acid (AA) and phloroglucinol (Ph) and then incorporated into RPET before spinning. The addition of AA-Ph significantly improves the dye uptake of recycled PET when dyed with disperse dye blue 56 due to the introduction of polar groups and aromatic rings. The blends RPET-3 and RPET-5 show strong abrasion resistance, dyeability, and washing fastness. Furthermore, these blends exhibit high moisture absorbance owing to the polar groups and aromatic structures, as demonstrated by exhaustion tests, which enhance perspiration absorption for added comfort in apparel. Overall, RPET-3 and RPET-5 blends are well-suited for various textile applications, especially in garment manufacturing.

Keywords: recycled poly (ethylene terephthalate), hyperbranched polyester, dyeability, dye blue

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Authors: Jean-Marie Vilaire, Ricardo Abreu-Blaya, Juan Bory-Reyes

Abstract:

The classical Beltrami system of elliptic equations generalizes the Cauchy Riemann equation in the complex plane and offers the possibility to consider homogeneous system with no terms of zero order. The theory of Douglis-valued functions, called Hyper-analytic functions, is special case of the above situation. In this note, we prove an analogue of the N. Davydov theorem in the framework of the theory of hyperanalytic functions. The used methodology contemplates characteristic methods of the hypercomplex analysis as well as the singular integral operators and elliptic systems of the partial differential equations theories.

Keywords: Beltrami equation, Douglis algebra-valued function, Hypercomplex Cauchy type integral, Sokhotski-Plemelj formulae

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Authors: J. Nesleha, H. Florianova

Abstract:

The goal of the study is to provide results of a conducted study devoted to financial literacy in the Czech Republic and to introduce a project related to financial education in the Czech Republic. Financial education has become an important part of education in the country, yet it is still neglected on the lowest level of formal education–primary schools. The project is based on investigation of financial literacy on primary schools in the Czech Republic. Consequently, the authors aim to formulate possible amendments related to this type of education. The gained dataset is intended to be used for analysis concerning financial education in the Czech Republic. With regard to used methods, the most important one is regression analysis for disclosure of predictors causing different levels of financial literacy. Furthermore, comparison of different groups is planned, for which t-tests are intended to be used. The study also employs descriptive statistics to introduce basic relationship in the data file.

Keywords: Czech Republic, financial education, financial literacy, primary school

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