Search results for: step input

Authors: Arbolino Roberta, Boffardi Raffaele

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Achieving the highest effectiveness for the National Plans for Recovery and Resilience (NPRR) while strengthening the objectives of cohesion and reduction of intra-EU unbalances is only possible by means of strategic, coordinated, and coherent policy planning. Therefore, the present research aims at assessing and quantifying the potential impact of NPRRs across the twenty-seven European Member States in terms of economic convergence, considering disaggregated data on industrial, construction, and service sectors. The first step of the research involves a performance analysis of the main macroeconomic indicators describing the trends of twenty-seven EU economies before the pandemic outbreak. Subsequently, in order to define the potential effect of the resources allocated, we perform an impact analysis of previous similar EU investment policies, estimating national-level sectoral elasticity associated with the expenditure of the 2007-2013 and 2014-2020 Cohesion programmes funds. These coefficients are then exploited to construct adjustment scenarios. Finally, convergence analysis is performed on the data used for constructing scenarios in order to understand whether the expenditure of funds might be useful to foster economic convergence besides driving recovery. The results of our analysis show that the allocation of resources largely mirrors the aims of the policy framework underlying the NPRR, thus reporting the largest investments in both those sectors most affected by the economic shock (services) and those considered fundamental for the digital and green transition. Notwithstanding an overall positive effect, large differences exist among European countries, while no convergence process seems to be activated or fostered by these interventions.

Keywords: NPRR, policy evaluation, cohesion policy, scenario Nalsysi

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Authors: Mustafa Al Sukar, Azzam Sleit, Abdullatif Abu-Dalhoum, Bassam Al-Kasasbeh

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Use and abuse of drugs by teens is very common and can have dangerous consequences. The drugs contribute to physical and sexual aggression such as assault or rape. Some teenagers regularly use drugs to compensate for depression, anxiety or a lack of positive social skills. Teen resort to smoking should not be minimized because it can be "gateway drugs" for other drugs (marijuana, cocaine, hallucinogens, inhalants, and heroin). The combination of teenagers' curiosity, risk taking behavior, and social pressure make it very difficult to say no. This leads most teenagers to the questions: "Will it hurt to try once?" Nowadays, technological advances are changing our lives very rapidly and adding a lot of technologies that help us to track the risk of drug abuse such as smart phones, Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs), Internet of Things (IoT), etc. This technique may help us to early discovery of drug abuse in order to prevent an aggravation of the influence of drugs on the abuser. In this paper, we have developed a Decision Support System (DSS) for detecting the drug abuse using Artificial Neural Network (ANN); we used a Multilayer Perceptron (MLP) feed-forward neural network in developing the system. The input layer includes 50 variables while the output layer contains one neuron which indicates whether the person is a drug addict. An iterative process is used to determine the number of hidden layers and the number of neurons in each one. We used multiple experiment models that have been completed with Log-Sigmoid transfer function. Particularly, 10-fold cross validation schemes are used to access the generalization of the proposed system. The experiment results have obtained 98.42% classification accuracy for correct diagnosis in our system. The data had been taken from 184 cases in Jordan according to a set of questions compiled from Specialists, and data have been obtained through the families of drug abusers.

Keywords: drug addiction, artificial neural networks, multilayer perceptron (MLP), decision support system

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Authors: Weichao Yu, Kai Wen, Weihe Huang, Yang Yang, Jing Gong

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Metal-loss corrosion is a major threat to the safety and integrity of gas pipelines as it may result in the burst failures which can cause severe consequences that may include enormous economic losses as well as the personnel casualties. Therefore, it is important to ensure the corroding pipeline integrity and efficiency, considering the value of wall thickness, which plays an important role in the failure probability of corroding pipeline. Actually, the wall thickness is controlled during pipe purchase stage. For example, the API_SPEC_5L standard regulates the allowable tolerance of the wall thickness from the specified value during the pipe purchase. The allowable wall thickness tolerance will be used to determine the wall thickness distribution characteristic such as the mean value, standard deviation and distribution. Taking the uncertainties of the input variables in the burst limit-state function into account, the reliability approach rather than the deterministic approach will be used to evaluate the failure probability. Moreover, the cost of pipe purchase will be influenced by the allowable wall thickness tolerance. More strict control of the wall thickness usually corresponds to a higher pipe purchase cost. Therefore changing the wall thickness tolerance will vary both the probability of a burst failure and the cost of the pipe. This paper describes an approach to optimize the wall thickness tolerance considering both the safety and economy of corroding pipelines. In this paper, the corrosion burst limit-state function in Annex O of CSAZ662-7 is employed to evaluate the failure probability using the Monte Carlo simulation technique. By changing the allowable wall thickness tolerance, the parameters of the wall thickness distribution in the limit-state function will be changed. Using the reliability approach, the corresponding variations in the burst failure probability will be shown. On the other hand, changing the wall thickness tolerance will lead to a change in cost in pipe purchase. Using the variation of the failure probability and pipe cost caused by changing wall thickness tolerance specification, the optimal allowable tolerance can be obtained, and used to define pipe purchase specifications.

Keywords: allowable tolerance, corroding pipeline segment, operation cost, production cost, reliability approach

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Authors: Kavian Khosravinia, Mohd Khair Hassan, Ribhan Zafira Abdul Rahman, Syed Abdul Rahman Al-Haddad

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The CAN (controller area network) bus is introduced as a multi-master, message broadcast system. The messages sent on the CAN are used to communicate state information, referred as a signal between different ECUs, which provides data consistency in every node of the system. OBD-II Dongles that are based on request and response method is the wide-spread solution for extracting sensor data from cars among researchers. Unfortunately, most of the past researches do not consider resolution and quantity of their input data extracted through OBD-II technology. The maximum feasible scan rate is only 9 queries per second which provide 8 data points per second with using ELM327 as well-known OBD-II dongle. This study aims to develop and design a programmable, and latency-sensitive vehicle data acquisition system that improves the modularity and flexibility to extract exact, trustworthy, and fresh car sensor data with higher frequency rates. Furthermore, the researcher must break apart, thoroughly inspect, and observe the internal network of the vehicle, which may cause severe damages to the expensive ECUs of the vehicle due to intrinsic vulnerabilities of the CAN bus during initial research. Desired sensors data were collected from various vehicles utilizing Raspberry Pi3 as computing and processing unit with using OBD (request-response) and direct CAN method at the same time. Two types of data were collected for this study. The first, CAN bus frame data that illustrates data collected for each line of hex data sent from an ECU and the second type is the OBD data that represents some limited data that is requested from ECU under standard condition. The proposed system is reconfigurable, human-readable and multi-task telematics device that can be fitted into any vehicle with minimum effort and minimum time lag in the data extraction process. The standard operational procedure experimental vehicle network test bench is developed and can be used for future vehicle network testing experiment.

Keywords: CAN bus, OBD-II, vehicle data acquisition, connected cars, telemetry, Raspberry Pi3

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Authors: Scott Nielsen, Luca Longanesi, Chris Chuck

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Palm oil is obtained from the flesh and kernel of the fruit of oil palms and is the most productive and inexpensive oil crop. The global demand for palm oil is approximately 75 million metric tonnes, a 29% increase in global production of palm oil since 2016. This expansion of oil palm cultivation has resulted in mass deforestation, vast biodiversity destruction and increasing net greenhouse gas emissions. One possible alternative is to produce a saturated oil, similar to palm, from microbes such as oleaginous yeast. The yeasts can be cultured on sugars derived from second-generation sources and do not compete with tropical forests for land. One highly promising oleaginous yeast for this application is Metschnikowia pulcherrima. However, recent techno-economic modeling has shown that cell lysis and standard lipid extraction are major contributors to the cost of the oil. Typical cell disruption techniques to extract either single cell oils or proteins have been based around bead-beating, homogenization and acid lysis. However, these can have a detrimental effect on lipid quality and are energy-intensive. In this study, a vortex separator, which produces high sheer with minimal energy input, was investigated as a potential low energy method of lysing cells. This was compared to four more traditional methods (thermal lysis, acid lysis, alkaline lysis, and osmotic lysis). For each method, the yeast loading was also examined at 1 g/L, 10 g/L and 100 g/L. The quality of the cell disruption was measured by optical cell density, cell counting and the particle size distribution profile comparison over a 2-hour period. This study demonstrates that the vortex separator is highly effective at lysing the cells and could potentially be used as a simple apparatus for lipid recovery in an oleaginous yeast process. The further development of this technology could potentially reduce the overall cost of microbial lipids in the future.

Keywords: palm oil substitute, metschnikowia pulcherrima, cell disruption, cell lysis

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Authors: Adel A. Ghoneim

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Desalination using solar energy is an interesting option specifically at regions with abundant solar radiation since such areas normally have scarcity of clean water resources. Desalination is the procedure of eliminating dissolved minerals from seawater or brackish water to generate fresh water. In this work, a simulation program is developed to determine the performance of reverse osmosis (RO) water desalination plant powered by high concentrated photovoltaic (HCPV) panels in Kuwait climate conditions. The objective of such a photovoltaic thermal system is to accomplish a double output, i.e., co-generation of both electricity and fresh water that is applicable for rural regions with high solar irradiation. The suggested plan enables to design an RO plant that does not depend on costly batteries or additional land and significantly reduce the government costs to subsidize the water generation cost. Typical weather conditions for Kuwait is employed as input to the simulation program. The simulation program is utilized to optimize the system efficiency as well as the distillate water production. The areas and slopes of HCPV modules are varied to attain maximum yearly power production. Maximum yearly distillate production and HCPV energy generation are found to correspond to HCPV facing south with tilt of 27° (Kuwait latitude-3°). The power needed to produce 1 l of clean drinking water ranged from 2 to 8 kW h/m³, based on the salinity of the feed water and the system operating conditions. Moreover, adapting HCPV systems achieve an avoided greenhouse gases emission by about 1128 ton CO₂ annually. Present outcomes certainly illustrate environmental advantages of water desalination system powered by high concentrated photovoltaic systems in Kuwait climate conditions.

Keywords: desalination, high concentrated photovoltaic systems, reverse osmosis, solar radiation

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Authors: T. Bryan , V. Kepuska, I. Kostnaic

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A method of data compression and denoising is introduced that is based on atomic decomposition of audio data using “basis vectors” that are learned from the audio data itself. The basis vectors are shown to have higher data compression and better signal-to-noise enhancement than the Gabor and gammatone “seed atoms” that were used to generate them. The basis vectors are the input weights of a Sparse AutoEncoder (SAE) that is trained using “envelope samples” of windowed segments of the audio data. The envelope samples are extracted from the audio data by performing atomic decomposition with Gabor or gammatone seed atoms. This process identifies segments of audio data that are locally coherent with the seed atoms. Envelope samples are extracted by identifying locally coherent audio data segments with Gabor or gammatone seed atoms, found by matching pursuit. The envelope samples are formed by taking the kronecker products of the atomic envelopes with the locally coherent data segments. Oracle signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) verses data compression curves are generated for the seed atoms as well as the basis vectors learned from Gabor and gammatone seed atoms. SNR data compression curves are generated for speech signals as well as early American music recordings. The basis vectors are shown to have higher denoising capability for data compression rates ranging from 90% to 99.84% for speech as well as music. Envelope samples are displayed as images by folding the time series into column vectors. This display method is used to compare of the output of the SAE with the envelope samples that produced them. The basis vectors are also displayed as images. Sparsity is shown to play an important role in producing the highest denoising basis vectors.

Keywords: sparse dictionary learning, autoencoder, sparse autoencoder, basis vectors, atomic decomposition, envelope sampling, envelope samples, Gabor, gammatone, matching pursuit

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Authors: Waqas Ahmed Khan Afridi, Subhas Chandra Mukhopadhyay, Bandita Mainali

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The research paper presents a unique approach to evapotranspiration (ET) prediction using a Support Vector Machine (SVM) learning algorithm. The study leverages real-time sensor node data to develop an accurate and adaptable prediction model, addressing the inherent challenges of traditional ET estimation methods. The integration of the SVM algorithm with real-time sensor node data offers great potential to improve spatial and temporal resolution in ET predictions. In the model development, key input features are measured and computed using mathematical equations such as Penman-Monteith (FAO56) and soil water balance (SWB), which include soil-environmental parameters such as; solar radiation (Rs), air temperature (T), atmospheric pressure (P), relative humidity (RH), wind speed (u2), rain (R), deep percolation (DP), soil temperature (ST), and change in soil moisture (∆SM). The one-year field data are split into combinations of three proportions i.e. train, test, and validation sets. While kernel functions with tuning hyperparameters have been used to train and improve the accuracy of the prediction model with multiple iterations. This paper also outlines the existing methods and the machine learning techniques to determine Evapotranspiration, data collection and preprocessing, model construction, and evaluation metrics, highlighting the significance of SVM in advancing the field of ET prediction. The results demonstrate the robustness and high predictability of the developed model on the basis of performance evaluation metrics (R2, RMSE, MAE). The effectiveness of the proposed model in capturing complex relationships within soil and environmental parameters provide insights into its potential applications for water resource management and hydrological ecosystem.

Keywords: evapotranspiration, FAO56, KNIME, machine learning, RStudio, SVM, sensors

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Authors: Khalil Ahmad Kakar

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In developing countries increasing the automobile and low capacity public transport (para-transit) which are creating congestion, pollution, noise, and traffic accident are the most critical quandary. These issues are under the analysis of assessors to break down the puzzle and propose sustainable urban public transport system. Kabul city is one of those urban areas that the inhabitants are suffering from lack of tolerable and friendly public transport system. The city is the most-populous and overcrowded with around 4.5 million population. The para-transit is the only dominant public transit system with a very poor level of services and low capacity vehicles (6-20 passengers). Therefore, this study after detailed investigations suggests bus rapid transit (BRT) system in Kabul City. It is aimed to mitigate the role of informal transport and decreases congestion. The research covers three parts. In the first part, aggregated travel demand modelling (four-step) is applied to determine the number of users for para-transit and assesses BRT network based on higher passenger demand for public transport mode. In the second part, state preference (SP) survey and binary logit model are exerted to figure out the utility of existing para-transit mode and planned BRT system. Finally, the impact of predicted BRT system on para-transit is evaluated. The extracted outcome based on high travel demand suggests 10 km network for the proposed BRT system, which is originated from the district tenth and it is ended at Kabul International Airport. As well as, the result from the disaggregate travel mode-choice model, based on SP and logit model indicates that the predicted mass rapid transit system has higher utility with the significant impact regarding the reduction of para-transit.

Keywords: BRT, para-transit, travel demand modelling, Kabul City, logit model

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Authors: Shereif. H. Mahmoud

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Egypt has limited water resources, and it will be under water stress by the year 2030. Therefore, Egypt should consider natural and non-conventional water resources to overcome such a problem. Rain harvesting is one solution. This Paper presents a geographic information system (GIS) methodology - based on decision support system (DSS) that uses remote sensing data, filed survey, and GIS to identify potential RWH areas. The input into the DSS includes a map of rainfall surplus, slope, potential runoff coefficient (PRC), land cover/use, soil texture. In addition, the outputs are map showing potential sites for RWH. Identifying suitable RWH sites implemented in the ArcGIS model environment using the model builder of ArcGIS 10.1. Based on Analytical hierarchy process (AHP) analysis taking into account five layers, the spatial extents of RWH suitability areas identified using Multi-Criteria Evaluation (MCE). The suitability model generated a suitability map for RWH with four suitability classes, i.e. Excellent, Moderate, Poor, and unsuitable. The spatial distribution of the suitability map showed that the excellent suitable areas for RWH concentrated in the northern part of Egypt. According to their averages, 3.24% of the total area have excellent and good suitability for RWH, while 45.04 % and 51.48 % of the total area are moderate and unsuitable suitability, respectively. The majority of the areas with excellent suitability have slopes between 2 and 8% and with an intensively cultivated area. The major soil type in the excellent suitable area is loam and the rainfall range from 100 up to 200 mm. Validation of the used technique depends on comparing existing RWH structures locations with the generated suitability map using proximity analysis tool of ArcGIS 10.1. The result shows that most of exiting RWH structures categorized as successful.

Keywords: rainwater harvesting (RWH), geographic information system (GIS), analytical hierarchy process (AHP), multi-criteria evaluation (MCE), decision support system (DSS)

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Authors: Hoa Thi Hoang, Stephan Sass, Michael U. Kumke

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Concanavalin A (conA) is a protein has been widely used in sensor system based on its specific binding to α-D-Glucose or α-D-Manose. For glucose sensor using conA, either fluoresence based techniques with intensity based or lifetime based are used. In this research, liposomes made from phospholipids were used as a biomimetic membrane system. In a first step, novel building blocks containing perylene labeled glucose units were added to the system and used to decorate the surface of the liposomes. Upon the binding between rhodamine labeled con A to the glucose units at the biomimetic membrane surface, a Förster resonance energy transfer system can be formed which combines unique fluorescence properties of perylene (e.g., high fluorescence quantum yield, no triplet formation) and its high hydrophobicity for efficient anchoring in membranes to form a novel probe for the investigation of sugar-driven binding reactions at biomimetic surfaces. Two glucose-labeled perylene derivatives were synthesized with different spacer length between the perylene and glucose unit in order to probe the binding of conA. The binding interaction was fully characterized by using high-end fluorescence techniques. Steady-state and time-resolved fluorescence techniques (e.g., fluorescence depolarization) in combination with single-molecule fluorescence spectroscopy techniques (fluorescence correlation spectroscopy, FCS) were used to monitor the interaction with conA. Base on the fluorescence depolarization, the rotational correlation times and the alteration in the diffusion coefficient (determined by FCS) the binding of the conA to the liposomes carrying the probe was studied. Moreover, single pair FRET experiments using pulsed interleaved excitation are used to characterize in detail the binding of conA to the liposome on a single molecule level avoiding averaging out effects.

Keywords: concanavalin A, FRET, sensor, biomimetic membrane

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Authors: Mariame Taibi, Marouane Aouiji, Rachid Bengueddour

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The Moroccan coastline is particularly rich in algae and constitutes a reserve of species with considerable economic, social and ecological potential. This work focuses on the research and characterization of algae bioactive compounds that can be used in pharmacology or phytopathology. The biochemical composition of the green alga Ulva lactuca (Ulvophyceae) was studied by determining the content of moisture, ash, phenols, flavonoids, total tannins, and chlorophyll. Seven solvents: distilled water, methanol, ethyl acetate, chloroform, benzene, petroleum ether, and hexane, were tested for their effectiveness in recovering chemical compounds. The identification of functional groupings, as well as the bioactive chemical compounds, was determined by FT-IR and GC-MS. The moisture content of the alga was 77%, while the ash content was 15%. Phenol content differed from one solvent studied to another, while chlorophyll a, b, and total chlorophyll were determined at 14%, 9.52%, and 25%, respectively. Carotenoid was present in a considerable amount (8.17%). The experimental results show that methanol is the most effective solvent for recovering bioactive compounds, followed by water. Moreover, the green alga Ulva lactuca is characterized by a high level of total polyphenols (45±3.24 mg GAE/gDM), average levels of total tannins and flavonoids (22.52±8.23 mg CE/gDM, 15.49±0.064 mg QE/gDM) respectively. The results of Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR) confirmed the presence of alcohol/phenol and amide functions in Ulva lactuca. The GC-MS analysis gave precisely the compounds contained in the various extracts, such as phenolic compounds, fatty acids, terpenoids, alcohols, alkanes, hydrocarbons, and steroids. All these results represent only a first step in the search for biologically active natural substances from seaweed. Additional tests are envisaged to confirm the bioactivity of seaweed.

Keywords: algae, Ulva lactuca, phenolic compounds, FTIR, GC-MS

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Authors: Myriam Rousseau, Marie-Hélène Poulin, Suzie McKinnon, Jacinthe Bourassa

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Context: There is a growing demand for effective training programs for parents of children with autism spectrum disorders. While traditional in-person training is effective, it can be difficult for some parents to participate due to distance, time, and cost. Telepractice, a form of distance education, could be a viable alternative to address these challenges. Research objective: The objective of this study is to explore the experiences of parents of children with autism who participated in a training program offered by telepractice in order to document: 1) the experience of parents who participated in a program telepractice training program for autistic children, 2) parental satisfaction with the telepractice modality, and 3) potential benefits of using telepractice to deliver training programs to parents of autistic children. Method: This study followed a qualitative research design, and Braun and Clarke's six-step procedure was used for the thematic analysis of the comments provided by parents. Data were collected through individual interviews with parents who participated in the project. The analysis focused on identifying patterns and themes in the comments in order to better understand parents' experiences with the telepractice modality. Results: The study revealed that parents were generally satisfied with the telepractice modality, as it was easy to use and enabled a better balance between work and family. This modality also enabled parents to share and receive mutual support. Despite the positive results, it is still relevant to offer training in different modalities to meet the different needs of parents. Conclusion: The study shows that parents of children with autism are generally satisfied with telepractice as a training modality. The results suggest that telepractice can be an effective alternative to traditional face-to-face training. The study highlights the importance of taking parents' needs and preferences into account when designing and implementing training programs.

Keywords: parents, children, training, telepractice

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Authors: Asfa Hussain, Chee Tang, Mien Nguyen

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Introduction: The safe usage of medications is dependent on clear, well-documented prescribing. Medical drug charts should be regularly checked to ensure that they are fit for purpose. Aims: The purpose of this study was to evaluate whether the Isabel Hospice drug charts were effective or prone to medical errors. The aim was to create a comprehensive palliative care drug chart in line with medico-legal guidelines and to minimise drug administration and prescription errors. Methodology: 50 medical drug charts were audited from March to April 2020, to assess whether they complied with medico-legal guidelines, in a hospice within East of England. Meetings were held with the larger multi-disciplinary team (MDT), including the pharmacists, nursing staff and doctors, to raise awareness of the issue. A preliminary drug chart was created, using the input from the wider MDT. The chart was revised and trialled over 15 times, and each time feedback from the MDT was incorporated into the subsequent template. In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic in September 2020, the finalised drug chart was trialled. 50 new palliative drug charts were re-audited, to evaluate the changes made. Results: Prescribing and administration errors were high prior to the implementation of the new chart. This improved significantly after introducing the new drug charts, therefore improving patient safety and care. The percentage of inadequately documented allergies went down from 66% to 20% and incorrect oxygen prescription from 40% to 16%. The prescription drug-drug interactions decreased by 30%. Conclusion: It is vital to have clear standardised drug charts, in line with medico-legal standards, to allow ease of prescription and administration of medications and ensure optimum patient-centred care. This closed loop audit demonstrated significant improvement in documentation and prevention of possible fatal drug errors and interactions.

Keywords: palliative care, drug chart, medication errors, drug-drug interactions, COVID-19, patient safety

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Authors: Monika Michałowska, Anna Alichniewicz

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Detrimental outcomes of advanced maternal age on the chances of fertilization, pregnancy as well as mother and fetus health have been recognized for several decades. It seemed interesting to investigate whether there is a comparable awareness of the detrimental influence on the reproductive outcomes of late fatherhood, given that it has been already ten years since an intense and growing interest concerning later-age fatherhood commenced in medical research. To address that issue a two-step research was done. First, we performed a review of the subject literature to answer the following questions: 1) What age is defined as advanced?; 2) Is the same age defined as advanced in both genders?; 3) What terminology concerning age issues is used?; 4) Is the same age terminology used regarding both genders? The second part of our studies was devoted to the views of medical students. This part of our research comprised both quantitative and qualitative studies. Opinions of medical students in one of the Polish medical universities on several issues connected with assisted reproduction technology (ART) were gathered: 1) students’ attitude to in vitro fertilization (IVF) for women over 40 and for postmenopausal women; 2) students’ attitude to late fatherhood; 3) students’ reasoning given against acceptability of IVF procedure for all of these group of patients involved in an IVF procedure. Our analyses revealed that: First, there is no universal definition of the term ‘advanced age’; secondly, there is a general tendency to adopt different age limits depending on whether they refer to maternal or paternal age, but no justification is provided by the researchers explaining why they set different age limits for women and men; thirdly, the image of postponed fatherhood stands in stark contrast to postponed motherhood - while postponed fatherhood is frequently portrayed as a reasonable and conscious decision enabling a stable family environment for a child, the reasonableness of postponed motherhood is often questioned; finally, the bias regarding maternal versus paternal age is deeply embedded in medical students’ attitude to IVF for women over 40 and for postmenopausal women.

Keywords: gender stereotypes, reproductive medicine, maternal age, paternal age

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Authors: Mohamed Aly, Aliaa Rehan Youssef, Emad Sawerees, Mounir Guirgis

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Relevance: Osteoarthritis (OA) is the most common degenerative disease seen in all populations. It causes disability and substantial socioeconomic burden. Evidence supports that exercise are the most effective conservative treatment for patients with OA. Therapists experience and clinical judgment play major role in exercise prescription and scientific evidence for this regard is lacking. The development of clinical prediction rules to identify patients who are most likely benefit from exercise may help solving this dilemma. Purpose: This study investigated whether body mass index and functional ability at baseline can predict patients’ response to a selected exercise program. Approach: Fifty-six patients, aged 35 to 65 years, completed an exercise program consisting of open kinetic chain strengthening and passive stretching exercises. The program was given for 3 sessions per week, 45 minutes per session, for 6 weeks Evaluation: At baseline and post treatment, pain severity was assessed using the numerical pain rating scale, whereas functional ability was being assessed by step test (ST), time up and go test (TUG) and 50 feet time walk test (50 FTW). After completing the program, global rate of change (GROC) score of greater than 4 was used to categorize patients as successful and non-successful. Thirty-eight patients (68%) had successful response to the intervention. Logistic regression showed that BMI and 50 FTW test were the only significant predictors. Based on the results, patients with BMI less than 34.71 kg/m2 and 50 FTW test less than 25.64 sec are 68% to 89% more likely to benefit from the exercise program. Conclusions: Clinicians should consider the described strengthening and flexibility exercise program for patents with BMI less than 34.7 Kg/m2 and 50 FTW faster than 25.6 seconds. The validity of these predictors should be investigated for other exercise.

Keywords: clinical prediction rule, knee osteoarthritis, physical therapy exercises, validity

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Authors: Bushra Zafar, Usman Qamar

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Large data sample size and dimensions render the effectiveness of conventional data mining methodologies. A data mining technique are important tools for collection of knowledgeable information from variety of databases and provides supervised learning in the form of classification to design models to describe vital data classes while structure of the classifier is based on class attribute. Classification efficiency and accuracy are often influenced to great extent by noisy and undesirable features in real application data sets. The inherent natures of data set greatly masks its quality analysis and leave us with quite few practical approaches to use. To our knowledge first time, we present a new approach for investigation of structure and quality of datasets by providing a targeted analysis of localization of noisy and irrelevant features of data sets. Machine learning is based primarily on feature selection as pre-processing step which offers us to select few features from number of features as a subset by reducing the space according to certain evaluation criterion. The primary objective of this study is to trim down the scope of the given data sample by searching a small set of important features which may results into good classification performance. For this purpose, a heuristic for wrapper-based feature selection using genetic algorithm and for discriminative feature selection an external classifier are used. Selection of feature based on its number of occurrence in the chosen chromosomes. Sample dataset has been used to demonstrate proposed idea effectively. A proposed method has improved average accuracy of different datasets is about 95%. Experimental results illustrate that proposed algorithm increases the accuracy of prediction of different diseases.

Keywords: data mining, generic algorithm, KNN algorithms, wrapper based feature selection

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Authors: Avinash

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Rural Jharkhand has attracted lesser attention in the field of agrarian studies in India, despite more than eighty percent of its rural population being directly dependent on agriculture as their primary source of livelihood. The limited studies on agrarian issues in Jharkhand have focused predominantly on the subsistence nature of agriculture and low crop productivity. There has also not been much research on agrarian social relations between ‘tribe’ and ‘non-tribe’ communities in the region. This paper is an attempt to understand changing agrarian social relations between tribal and non-tribal communities relating them to different kinds of agrarian transitions taking place in two districts of Jharkhand - Palamu and Khunti. In the Palamu region, agrarian relations are dominated by the presence and significant population size of Hindu high caste land owners, whereas in the Khunti region, agrarian relations are characterized by the population size and dominance of tribes and lower caste land owner cum cultivators. The agrarian relations between ‘upper castes’ and ‘tribes’ in these regions are primarily related to agricultural daily wage labour. However, the agrarian social relations between Dalits and tribal people take the form of ‘communal system of labour exchange’ and ‘household-based labour’. In addition, the ethnographic study of the region depicts steady agrarian transitions (especially shift from indigenous to ‘High Yielding Variety’ (HYV) paddy seeds and growing vegetable cultivation) where ‘Non-Governmental Organizations’ (NGOs) and agricultural input manufacturers and suppliers are playing a critical role in agrarian transitions as intermediaries. While agricultural productivity still remains low, both the regions are witnessing slow but gradual agrarian transitions. Rural-urban linkages in the form of seasonal labour migration are creating capital and technical inflows that are transforming agricultural activities. This study describes and interprets the above changes through the lens of ‘regional rurality’.

Keywords: agrarian transitions, rural Jharkhand, regional rurality, tribe and non-tribe

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Authors: Jessica Achebe, Susan Tighe

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The reduction of material consumption and greenhouse gas emission when maintain and rehabilitating road networks can achieve added benefits including improved life cycle performance of pavements, reduced climate change impacts and human health effect due to less air pollution, improved productivity due to an optimal allocation of resources and reduced road user cost. This is the essence of incorporating environmental sustainability into pavement management. The functionality of performance measurement approach has made it one of the most valuable tool to Pavement Management Systems (PMSs) to account for different criteria in the decision-making process. However measuring the environmental performance of road network is still a far-fetched practice in road network management, more so an ostensive agency-wide environmental sustainability or sustainable maintenance specifications is missing. To address this challenge, this present research focuses on the environmental sustainability performance of network-level pavement management. The ultimate goal is to develop a framework to incorporate environmental sustainability in pavement management systems for network-level maintenance programming. In order to achieve this goal, this paper present the first step, the intention is to review the previous studies that employed environmental performance measures, as well as the suitability of environmental performance indicators for the evaluation of the sustainability of network-level pavement maintenance strategies. Through an industry practice survey, this paper provides a brief forward regarding the pavement manager motivations and barriers to making more sustainable decisions, and data needed to support the network-level environmental sustainability. The trends in network-level sustainable pavement management are also presented, existing gaps are highlighted, and ideas are proposed for network-level sustainable maintenance and rehabilitation programming.

Keywords: pavement management, environment sustainability, network-level evaluation, performance measures

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Authors: Rehan Deshmukh, Sunil Bhand, Utpal Roy

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We report the label-free electrochemical detection of Escherichia coli O157:H7 (ATCC 43895) in potable water using a DNA probe as a sensing molecule targeting the open reading frame marker. Indium tin oxide (ITO) surface was modified with organosilane and, glutaraldehyde was applied as a linker to fabricate the DNA sensor chip. Non-Faradic electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) behavior was investigated at each step of sensor fabrication using cyclic voltammetry, impedance, phase, relative permittivity, capacitance, and admittance. Atomic force microscopy (AFM) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) revealed significant changes in surface topographies of DNA sensor chip fabrication. The decrease in the percentage of pinholes from 2.05 (Bare ITO) to 1.46 (after DNA hybridization) suggested the capacitive behavior of the DNA sensor chip. The results of non-Faradic EIS studies of DNA sensor chip showed a systematic declining trend of the capacitance as well as the relative permittivity upon DNA hybridization. DNA sensor chip exhibited linearity in 0.5 to 25 pg/10mL for E. coli O157:H7 (ATCC 43895). The limit of detection (LOD) at 95% confidence estimated by logistic regression was 0.1 pg DNA/10mL of E. coli O157:H7 (equivalent to 13.67 CFU/10mL) with a p-value of 0.0237. Moreover, the fabricated DNA sensor chip used for detection of E. coli O157:H7 showed no significant cross-reactivity with closely and distantly related bacteria such as Escherichia coli MTCC 3221, Escherichia coli O78:H11 MTCC 723 and Bacillus subtilis MTCC 736. Consequently, the results obtained in our study demonstrated the possible application of developed DNA sensor chips for E. coli O157:H7 ATCC 43895 in real water samples as well.

Keywords: capacitance, DNA sensor, Escherichia coli O157:H7, open reading frame marker

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Authors: Othman Maklouf, Abdunnaser Tresh

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Land vehicle navigation is subject of great interest today. Global Positioning System (GPS) is the main navigation system for positioning in such systems. GPS alone is incapable of providing continuous and reliable positioning, because of its inherent dependency on external electromagnetic signals. Inertial Navigation (INS) is the implementation of inertial sensors to determine the position and orientation of a vehicle. The availability of low-cost Micro-Electro-Mechanical-System (MEMS) inertial sensors is now making it feasible to develop INS using an inertial measurement unit (IMU). INS has unbounded error growth since the error accumulates at each step. Usually, GPS and INS are integrated with a loosely coupled scheme. With the development of low-cost, MEMS inertial sensors and GPS technology, integrated INS/GPS systems are beginning to meet the growing demands of lower cost, smaller size, and seamless navigation solutions for land vehicles. Although MEMS inertial sensors are very inexpensive compared to conventional sensors, their cost (especially MEMS gyros) is still not acceptable for many low-end civilian applications (for example, commercial car navigation or personal location systems). An efficient way to reduce the expense of these systems is to reduce the number of gyros and accelerometers, therefore, to use a partial IMU (ParIMU) configuration. For land vehicular use, the most important gyroscope is the vertical gyro that senses the heading of the vehicle and two horizontal accelerometers for determining the velocity of the vehicle. This paper presents a field experiment for a low-cost strap down (ParIMU)\GPS combination, with data post processing for the determination of 2-D components of position (trajectory), velocity and heading. In the present approach, we have neglected earth rotation and gravity variations, because of the poor gyroscope sensitivities of our low-cost IMU (Inertial Measurement Unit) and because of the relatively small area of the trajectory.

Keywords: GPS, IMU, Kalman filter, materials engineering

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Authors: Sungsoo Na, Chanho Park

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Lung cancer is one of the most common severe diseases driving to the death of a human. Lung cancer can be divided into two cases of small-cell lung cancer (SCLC) and non-SCLC (NSCLC), and about 80% of lung cancers belong to the case of NSCLC. From several studies, the correlation between epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) and NSCLCs has been investigated. Therefore, EGFR inhibitor drugs such as gefitinib and erlotinib have been used as lung cancer treatments. However, the treatments result showed low response (10~20%) in clinical trials due to EGFR mutations that cause the drug resistance. Patients with resistance to EGFR inhibitor drugs usually are positive to KRAS mutation. Therefore, assessment of EGFR and KRAS mutation is essential for target therapies of NSCLC patient. In order to overcome the limitation of conventional therapies, overall EGFR and KRAS mutations have to be monitored. In this work, the only detection of EGFR will be presented. A variety of techniques has been presented for the detection of EGFR mutations. The standard detection method of EGFR mutation in ctDNA relies on real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR). Real-time PCR method provides high sensitive detection performance. However, as the amplification step increases cost effect and complexity increase as well. Other types of technology such as BEAMing, next generation sequencing (NGS), an electrochemical sensor and silicon nanowire field-effect transistor have been presented. However, those technologies have limitations of low sensitivity, high cost and complexity of data analyzation. In this report, we propose a label-free and high-sensitive detection method of lung cancer using quartz crystal microbalance based platform. The proposed platform is able to sense lung cancer mutant DNA with a limit of detection of 1nM.

Keywords: cancer DNA, resonance frequency, quartz crystal microbalance, lung cancer

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Authors: Maryam Kakavand, Samira Entezari, Sara Khoshjamalfekri, Raghad Mimar

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The objective of this study is 1) to compare elite female and beginner taekwondo players in terms of plantar pressure distribution, vertical ground reaction force, contact area, mean pressure, and right and left longitudinal arches, and 2) to compare preferred and non-preferred limbs among elite players. To the best of authors’ knowledge, as of yet, there is no information available about the plantar pressure distribution and arch index among taekwondo players. Material and Methods: An analytical-comparative research method is applied. Therefore seven elite athletes and eight novice athletes were selected. The emed-C50 platform was used to assess plantar pressure distribution, vertical ground reaction force, contact area, mean pressure of different areas, and planter longitudinal arch in a second step protocol. Independent t-test and dependent t-test were used at a level of 0.05 to compare the elites and beginners' right and left feet, and preferred and non-preferred limbs among elite athletes, respectively. Results: In comparing the right and left limbs of elite and beginner groups, findings indicate that there is only a significant difference in the mean pressure of the first metatarsal of the right foot. Findings also showed a significant difference in the contact area of the toes 3, 4, 5 regions between elites’ preferred and non-preferred limbs. However, no significant difference was found between the two groups’ right and left limbs and elites’ preferred and non-preferred limbs in terms of pressure distribution, vertical ground reaction force, and arch index. Conclusion: It seems that taekwondo exercises have affected pressure distribution patterns among advanced players causing some differences in their planter pressure distribution pattern when compared to that of beginners. Therefore, taekwondo exercises may be a factor contributing to asymmetry performance in preferred and non-preferred limbs.

Keywords: planter pressure, arch index, taekwondo, elite

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Authors: M. R. Ahmad, I. Musirin, M. M. Othman, N. A. Rahmat

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Plug-in Hybrid-Electric Vehicle (PHEV) has gained immense popularity in recent years. PHEV offers numerous advantages compared to the conventional internal-combustion engine (ICE) vehicle. Millions of PHEVs are estimated to be on the road in the USA by 2020. Uncoordinated PHEV charging is believed to cause severe impacts to the power grid; i.e. feeders, lines and transformers overload and voltage drop. Nevertheless, improper PHEV data model used in such studies may cause the findings of their works is in appropriated. Although smart charging is more attractive to researchers in recent years, its implementation is not yet attainable on the street due to its requirement for physical infrastructure readiness and technology advancement. As the first step, it is finest to study the impact of charging PHEV based on real vehicle travel data from National Household Travel Survey (NHTS) and at present charging rate. Due to the lack of charging station on the street at the moment, charging PHEV at home is the best option and has been considered in this work. This paper proposed a technique that comprehensively presents the impact of charging PHEV on power system networks considering huge numbers of PHEV samples with its traveling data pattern. Vehicles Charging Load Profile (VCLP) is developed and implemented in IEEE 30-bus test system that represents a portion of American Electric Power System (Midwestern US). Normalization technique is used to correspond to real time loads at all buses. Results from the study indicated that charging PHEV using opportunity charging will have significant impacts on power system networks, especially whereas bigger battery capacity (kWh) is used as well as for higher penetration level.

Keywords: plug-in hybrid electric vehicle, transportation electrification, impact of charging PHEV, electricity demand profile, load profile

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Authors: Sagar Jitendra Mahendrakar

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Integrating quality assurance (QA) practices into DevOps culture has become increasingly important in modern software development environments. Collaboration, automation and continuous feedback characterize the seamless integration of DevOps development and operations teams to achieve rapid and reliable software delivery. In this context, quality assurance plays a key role in ensuring that software products meet the highest quality, performance and reliability standards throughout the development life cycle. This brief explores key principles, challenges, and best practices related to quality assurance in a DevOps culture. This emphasizes the importance of quality transfer in the development process, as quality control processes are integrated in every step of the DevOps process. Automation is the cornerstone of DevOps quality assurance, enabling continuous testing, integration and deployment and providing rapid feedback for early problem identification and resolution. In addition, the summary addresses the cultural and organizational challenges of implementing quality assurance in DevOps, emphasizing the need to foster collaboration, break down silos, and promote a culture of continuous improvement. It also discusses the importance of toolchain integration and capability development to support effective QA practices in DevOps environments. Moreover, the abstract discusses the cultural and organizational challenges in implementing QA within DevOps, emphasizing the need for fostering collaboration, breaking down silos, and nurturing a culture of continuous improvement. It also addresses the importance of toolchain integration and skills development to support effective QA practices within DevOps environments. Overall, this collection works at the intersection of QA and DevOps culture, providing insights into how organizations can use DevOps principles to improve software quality, accelerate delivery, and meet the changing demands of today's dynamic software. landscape.

Keywords: quality engineer, devops, automation, tool

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Authors: C. V. Nnamani, O. L. Adedeji

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The contemporary global economic meltdown has devastating effect on the Nigerian’s economy and its frantic search for alternative source of national revenue aside from oil and gas has become imperative for economic emancipation for Nigerians. Apicultural entrepreneurship could provide a source of livelihood if the basic knowledge of those plant genetic resources needed by bees is made available. A palynological evaluation of those palynotaxa which honey bees forage for pollen and nectar was carried out after standard acetolysis method. Results showed that the honey samples were highly diversified and rich in honey plants. A total of 9544.3 honey pollen, consisting of 39 honey plants belonging to 21 plant families and distributed within 38 genera were identified excluding 238 unidentified pollen grains. Data from the analysis equally revealed that Elaeis guineensis Jacq, Anacardium occidentale L, Diospyros mespiliformis Hochist xe ADC, Alchornea cordifolia Muell, Arg, Daniella oliveri (Rolfe) Hutch & Dalz, Irvingia wombolu Okafor ex Baill, Treculia africana Decne, Nauclea latifolia Smith and Crossopteryx febrifuga Afzil ex Benth were the predominant honey plants. It provided a guide to the optimal utilization of floral resources by honeybees in these regions, showing the opportunity and amazing potentials for apiculture entrepreneurship of these palytaxa. Most of these plants are rare, threatened and endangered. It calls for urgent conservation techniques and step by all players. Critical awareness creation to ensure farmers knowledge of these palynotaxa to ensure proper understanding and attendance boost from them as economic empowerment is needed.

Keywords: palynotaxa, acetolysis, enterprise, livelihood, Nigeria

Procedia PDF Downloads 277

Authors: Francisco Javier Montes Ruiz-Cabello, Guillermo Guerrero-Vacas, Sara Bermudez-Romero, Miguel Cabrerizo Vilchez, Miguel Angel Rodriguez-Valverde

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Galvanized steel is one of the widespread metallic materials used in industry. It consists on a iron-based alloy (steel) coated with a layer of zinc with variable thickness. The zinc is aimed to prevent the inner steel from corrosion and staining. Its production is cheaper than the stainless steel and this is the reason why it is employed in the construction of materials with large dimensions in aeronautics, urban/ industrial edification or ski-resorts. In all these applications, turning the natural hydrophilicity of the metal surface into superhydrophobicity is particularly interesting and would open a wide variety of additional functionalities. However, producing a superhydrophobic surface on galvanized steel may be a very difficult task. Superhydrophobic surfaces are characterized by a specific surface texture which is reached either by coating the surface with a material that incorporates such texture, or by conducting several roughening methods. Since galvanized steel is already a coated material, the incorporation of a second coating may be undesired. On the other hand, the methods that are recurrently used to incorporate the surface texture leading to superhydrophobicity in metals are aggressive and may damage their surface. In this work, we used a novel strategy which goal is to produce superhydrophobic galvanized steel by a two-step non-aggressive process. The first process is aimed to create a hierarchical structure by incorporating zinc nanoparticles sintered on the surface at a temperature slightly lower than the zinc’s melting point. The second one is a hydrophobization by a thick fluoropolymer layer deposition. The wettability of the samples is characterized in terms of tilting plate and bouncing drop experiments, while the roughness is analyzed by confocal microscopy. The durability of the produced surfaces was also explored.

Keywords: galvanaized steel, superhydrophobic surfaces, sintering nanoparticles, zinc nanopowder

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Authors: Sanja O. Podunavac-Kuzmanović, Strahinja Z. Kovačević, Lidija R. Jevrić

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Prion is a protein substance whose certain form is considered as infectious agent. It is presumed to be the cause of the transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (TSEs). The protein it is composed of, called PrP, can fold in structurally distinct ways. At least one of those 3D structures is transmissible to other prion proteins. Prions can be found in brain tissue of healthy people and have certain biological role. The structure of prions naturally occurring in healthy organisms is marked as PrPc, and the structure of infectious prion is labeled as PrPSc. PrPc may play a role in synaptic plasticity and neuronal development. Also, it may be required for neuronal myelin sheath maintenance, including a role in iron uptake and iron homeostasis. PrPSc can be considered as an environmental pollutant. The main aim of this study was to carry out the molecular modeling and calculation of molecular descriptors (lipophilicity, physico-chemical and topological descriptors) of structurally diverse compounds which can be considered as anti-prion agents. Molecular modeling was conducted applying ChemBio3D Ultra version 12.0 software. The obtained 3D models were subjected to energy minimization using molecular mechanics force field method (MM2). The cutoff for structure optimization was set at a gradient of 0.1 kcal/Åmol. The Austin Model 1 (AM-1) was used for full geometry optimization of all structures. The obtained set of molecular descriptors is applied in analysis of similarities and dissimilarities among the tested compounds. This study is an important step in further development of quantitative structure-activity relationship (QSAR) models, which can be used for prediction of anti-prion activity of newly synthesized compounds.

Keywords: chemometrics, molecular modeling, molecular descriptors, prions, QSAR

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Authors: Nguyen Chi Quang, Nguyen Duong Tri Nguyen

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This article is the first step to research and outline the structure of the geotechnical database in the geological survey of a power project; in the context of this report creating the database that has been carried out for the Bac Ai pumped storage hydropower project. For the purpose of providing a method of organizing and storing geological and topographic survey data and experimental results in a spatial database, the RockWorks software is used to bring optimal efficiency in the process of exploiting, using, and analyzing data in service of the design work in the power engineering consulting. Three-dimensional (3D) geotechnical models are created from the survey data: such as stratigraphy, lithology, porosity, etc. The results of the 3D geotechnical model in the case of Bac Ai pumped storage hydropower project include six closely stacked stratigraphic formations by Horizons method, whereas modeling of engineering geological parameters is performed by geostatistical methods. The accuracy and reliability assessments are tested through error statistics, empirical evaluation, and expert methods. The three-dimensional model analysis allows better visualization of volumetric calculations, excavation and backfilling of the lake area, tunneling of power pipelines, and calculation of on-site construction material reserves. In general, the application of engineering geological modeling makes the design work more intuitive and comprehensive, helping construction designers better identify and offer the most optimal design solutions for the project. The database always ensures the update and synchronization, as well as enables 3D modeling of geological and topographic data to integrate with the designed data according to the building information modeling. This is also the base platform for BIM & GIS integration.

Keywords: database, engineering geology, 3D Model, RockWorks, Bac Ai pumped storage hydropower project

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Authors: Beata Patuszynska

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Children are largely absent from Polish social discourse, a fact which is mirrored in urban planning processes. Their absence creates a vicious circle – an unfriendly urban space discourages children from going outside on their own, meaning adults do not see a need to make spaces more friendly for a group, not present. The pandemic and lockdown, with their closed schools and temporary ban on unaccompanied minors on the streets, have only reinforced this. The project – co-writing with children a book concerning their first steps into urban independence - aims at empowering children, enabling them to find their voice when it comes to urban space. The foundation for the book was data collected during research and workshops with children from Warsaw primary schools, aged 7-10 - the age they begin independent travel in the city. The project was carried out with the participation and involvement of children at each creative step. Children were (1) models: the narrator is an 7-year-old boy getting ready for urban independence. He shares his experience as well as the experience of his school friends and his 10-year-old sister, who already travels on her own. Children were (2) teachers: the book is based on authentic children’s stories and experience, along with the author’s findings from research undertaken with children. The material was extended by observations and conclusions made during the pandemic. Children were (3) reviewers: a series of draft chapters from the book underwent review by children during workshops performed in a school. The process demonstrated that all children experience similar pleasures and worries when it comes to interaction with urban space. Furthermore, they also have similar needs that need satisfying. In my article, I will discuss; (1) the advantages of creating together with children; (2) my conclusions on how to work with children in participatory processes; (3) research results: perceptions of urban space by children age 7-10, when they begin their independent travel in the city; the barriers to and pleasures derived from independent urban travel; the influence of the pandemic on children’s feelings and their behaviour in urban spaces.

Keywords: children, urban space, co-creation, participation, human rights

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