Search results for: vegetation root system

Authors: Rabson Banda

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This abstract delves into the transformative journey of Rabson Banda, a visionary leader in Zambia who has harnessed the power of photovoice, mental fitness, and entrepreneurship to combat substance use disorders in the face of limited job opportunities in Africa. Rabson's personal battle with alcohol-induced disorder serves as the foundation for his pioneering work in establishing Elevated Initiatives, a grassroots organization dedicated to empowering individuals struggling with addiction through innovative approaches. Through the lens of photovoice, Rabson Banda amplifies the voices of those affected by substance abuse, providing a platform for self-expression and healing. By intertwining mental fitness techniques and entrepreneurial skills, he equips individuals with the tools needed to break free from the cycle of addiction and chart a new path toward holistic wellness and economic independence. Rabson Banda's story embodies resilience, hope, and the unwavering belief in the transformative power of community-driven initiatives. His work not only addresses the immediate challenges of substance use disorders but also addresses the root causes of addiction by advocating for increased job opportunities and economic empowerment in Zambia and across Africa for decent job creation and Entrepreneurship: A Lived Experience of Alcohol-Induced Disorder and Recovery in Zambia.

Keywords: mental fitness, entrepreneurship, photovoice, descent jobs

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Authors: Gia Surguladze, Nino Topuria, Lily Petriashvili, Giorgi Surguladze

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Modeling of building processes of a multimodal freight transportation support information system is discussed based on modern CASE technologies. Functional efficiencies of ports in the eastern part of the Black Sea are analyzed taking into account their ecological, seasonal, resource usage parameters. By resources, we mean capacities of berths, cranes, automotive transport, as well as work crews and neighbouring airports. For the purpose of designing database of computer support system for Managerial (Logistics) function, using Object-Role Modeling (ORM) tool (NORMA – Natural ORM Architecture) is proposed, after which Entity Relationship Model (ERM) is generated in automated process. The software is developed based on Process-Oriented and Service-Oriented architecture, in Visual Studio.NET environment.

Keywords: seaport resources, business-processes, multimodal transportation, CASE technology, object-role model, entity relationship model, SOA

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Authors: Bello Abdullahi, Kabir Bala, Yahaya M. Ibrahim, Ahmed D. Ibrahim

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Public sector tendering has traditionally been conducted using manual paper-based processes which are known to be inefficient, less transparent, and more prone to manipulations and errors. However, the advent of the Internet and its associated technologies has led to the development of numerous e-Tendering systems that addressed many of the problems associated with the manual paper-based tendering system. Currently, in Nigeria, the public tendering processes are largely conducted based on manual paper-based system that is bedevilled by a number of problems such as inordinate delays, inefficiencies, manipulation of the tender evaluation process, corruption, lack of transparency and competition, among other problems. These problems can be addressed through the adoption of existing web-based e-Tendering systems which are known to address most of these problems. However, these existing e-Tendering systems that have been developed are not based on the Nigerian legal procurement processes and as such their suitability for local application is very limited. This paper is part of a larger study that attempt to address this problem through the development of an e-Tendering system that is based on the requirements of the Nigerian public procuring entities. In this paper, the identified tendering processes commonly used by Nigerian public procuring entities in the selection of construction sources are presented. A multi-methods research approach was used to identify those tendering processes. Specifically, 19 existing business use cases used by Nigerian public procuring entities were identified and 61 system use cases were prescribed based on the identified business use cases. The use cases were used as the basis for the development of domain and software conceptual models. The models were successfully used to guide the development of an e-Tendering system called NPS-eTender. Ripple and Unified Process were adopted as the software development methodologies.

Keywords: e-tendering, e-procurement, requirement model, conceptual model, public sector tendering, public procurement

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Authors: Ugur Fidan, Naim Karasekreter

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Healthy and clean water should not contain disease-causing micro-organisms and toxic chemicals and must contain the necessary minerals in a balanced manner. Today, water resources have a limited and strategic importance, necessitating the management of water reserves. Water tanks meet the water needs of people and should be regularly chlorinated to prevent waterborne diseases. For this purpose, automatic chlorination systems placed in water tanks for killing bacteria. However, the regular operation of automatic chlorination systems depends on refilling the chlorine tank when it is empty. For this reason, there is a need for a stock control system, in which chlorine levels are regularly monitored and supplied. It has become imperative to take urgent measures against epidemics caused by the fact that most of our country is not aware of the end of chlorine. The aim of this work is to rehabilitate existing water tanks and to provide a method for a modern water storage system in which chlorination is digitally monitored by turning the newly established water tanks into a closed system. A sensor network structure using GSM/GPRS communication infrastructure has been developed in the study. The system consists of two basic units: hardware and software. The hardware includes a chlorine level sensor, an RFID interlock system for authorized personnel entry into water tank, a motion sensor for animals and other elements, and a camera system to ensure process safety. It transmits the data from the hardware sensors to the host server software via the TCP/IP protocol. The main server software processes the incoming data through the security algorithm and informs the relevant unit responsible (Security forces, Chlorine supply unit, Public health, Local Administrator) by e-mail and SMS. Since the software is developed base on the web, authorized personnel are also able to monitor drinking water tank and report data on the internet. When the findings and user feedback obtained as a result of the study are evaluated, it is shown that closed drinking water tanks are built with GRP type material, and continuous monitoring in digital environment is vital for sustainable health water supply for people.

Keywords: wireless sensor networks (WSN), monitoring, chlorine, water tank, security

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Authors: Meilisha Putri Pertiwi, Mufti Petala Patria

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Mangrove forest often categorized as a productive ecosystem in trophic water and the highest carbon storage among all the forest types. Mangrove-derived organic matter determines the food web of fish and invertebrates. In Indonesia trophic water ecosystem, 80% commersial fish caught in coastal area are high related to food web in mangrove forest ecosystem. Based on the previous research in Panjang Island, Bojonegara, Banten, Indonesia, removed mangrove litterfall to the sea water were 9,023 g/m³/s for two stations (west station–5,169 g/m³/s and north station-3,854 g/m³/s). The vegetation were dominated from Rhizophora apiculata and Rhizopora stylosa. C element is the highest content (27,303% and 30,373%) than N element (0,427% and 0,35%) and P element (0,19% and 0,143%). The aim of research also to know the diversity of fish inhabit in mangrove forest. Fish sampling is by push net. Fish caught are collected into plastics, total length measured, weigh measured, and individual and total counted. Meanwhile, the 3 modified pipes (1 m long, 5 inches diameter, and a closed one hole part facing the river by using a nylon cloth) set in the water channel connecting mangrove forest and sea water for each stasiun. They placed for 1 hour at low tide. Then calculate the speed of water flow and volume of modified pipes. The fish and mangrove litter will be weigh for wet weight, dry weight, and analyze the C, N, and P element content. The sampling data will be conduct 3 times of month in full moon. The salinity, temperature, turbidity, pH, DO, and the sediment of mangrove forest will be measure too. This research will give information about the fish diversity in mangrove forest, the removed mangrove litterfall to the sea water, the composition of sediment, the total element content (C, N, P) of fish and mangrove litter, and the correlation of element content absorption between fish and mangrove litter. The data will be use for the fish and mangrove ecosystem conservation.

Keywords: fish diversity, mangrove forest, mangrove litter, carbon element, nitrogen element, P element, conservation

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Authors: Dalia Salem, Detlef Schulz

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As Germany pursues its ambitious plan towards a power system based on renewable energy sources, the necessity to establish steady, robust microgrids becomes more evident. Inside the microgrid, there is at least one grid-forming inverter responsible for generating the coupling voltage and stabilizing the system frequency within the standardized accepted limits when the microgrid is forced to operate as a stand-alone power system. Grid-forming control for distributed inverters is required to enable steady control of a low-inertia power system. In this paper, a designed droop control technique is tested at the controller of an inverter as a component of a hardware test bed to understand the microgrid behavior in two modes of operation: i) grid-connected and ii) operating in islanding mode. This droop technique includes many current and voltage inner control loops, where the Q-V and P-f droop provide the required terminal output voltage and frequency. The technique is tested first in a simulation model of the inverter in MATLAB/SIMULINK, and the results are compared to the results of the hardware laboratory test. The results of this experiment illuminate the pivotal role of the grid-forming inverter in facilitating microgrid resilience during grid disconnection events and how microgrids could provide the functionality formerly provided by synchronous machinery, such as the black start process.

Keywords: microgrid, grid-forming inverters, droop-control, islanding-operation

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Authors: Martin Mundo-Molina

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In Mexico, there are many small rural communities with serious water supply deficiencies. In Chiapas, Mexico, there are 19,972 poor rural communities, 15,712 of which have fewer than 100 inhabitants. The lack of a constant water supply is most severe in the highlands of Chiapas where the population is made up mainly of indigenous groups. The communities are on mountainous terrain with a widely dispersed population. These characteristics combine to make the provision of public utilities, such as water, electricity and sewerage, difficult with conventional means. The introduction of alternative, low-cost technologies represents means of supplying water such as through fog and rain catchment with zero greenhouse emissions. In this paper is presented the rainwater harvesting system (RWS) constructed in Yalentay, Chiapas Mexico. The RWS is able to store 1.2 M liters of water to provide drinking water to small rural indigenous communities of 500 people in the drought stage. Inside the system of rainwater harvesting there isn't photosynthesis in order to conserve water for long periods. The natural filters of the system of rainwater harvesting guarantee the drinking water for using to the community. The combination of potability and low cost makes rain collection a viable alternative for rural areas, weather permitting. The Mexican Institute of Water Technology and Chiapas University constructed a rainwater harvesting system in Yalentay Chiapas, it consists of four parts: 1. Roof of aluminum, for collecting rainwater, 2. Underground-cistern, divided in two tanks, 3. Filters, to improve the water quality and 4. The system of rainwater harvesting dignified the lives of people in Yalentay, saves energy, prevents the emission of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, conserves natural resources such as water and air.

Keywords: appropriate technologies, climate change, greenhouse gases, rainwater harvesting

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Authors: B. Moaveni, S. Morovati

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In recent years, increasing the usage of railway transportations especially in developing countries caused more attention to control systems railway vehicles. Consequently, designing and implementing the modern control systems to improve the operating performance of trains and locomotives become one of the main concerns of researches. Dynamic braking systems is an important safety system which controls the amount of braking torque generated by traction motors, to keep the adhesion coefficient between the wheel-sets and rail road in optimum bound. Adhesion force has an important role to control the braking distance and prevent the wheels from slipping during the braking process. Cascade control structure is one of the best control methods for the wide range of industrial plants in the presence of disturbances and errors. This paper presents cascade control structure based on two forward simple controllers with two feedback loops to control the slip ratio and braking torque. In this structure, the inner loop controls the angular velocity and the outer loop control the longitudinal velocity of the locomotive that its dynamic is slower than the dynamic of angular velocity. This control structure by controlling the torque of DC traction motors, tries to track the desired velocity profile to access the predefined braking distance and to control the slip ratio. Simulation results are employed to show the effectiveness of the introduced methodology in dynamic braking system.

Keywords: cascade control, dynamic braking system, DC traction motors, slip control

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Authors: Kristýna Weissová

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This study is focused on two selected model taxa of invertebrates - Hymenoptera: Aculeata and Lepidopterawithnocturnalactivity, recordedatthesitesof lignite dumps and their surroundings in the North Bohemian Lignite Basin, Czech Republic. There search was conducted on 10 landfills, 3 study areas were determined on each landfill - primary and secondary succession and recultivation. A total of 3,202 individuals belonging to 232 species and 17 families of sagebrushinsects were collected. died, 74%of the species occurred on the primary succes sionare as, that is 2x more species than on the reclaimed areas. Of the total number of species and on all areas, 60 rare species were recorded - 29 vulnerable, 21 endangered, 8 critically endangered, and 2 extinct The areas of primary succession were again confirmed to be the richest in terms of rare species, hosting 39 rare species of Hymenoptera: Aculeata. In addition, bothextinct species were represented only on plots of primary succession. The family Crabronidae had the largestre presentation of species on theareasofleft primary succession, the family Halictidae was the most represented on the reclaimed areas and areas of secondary succession. A total of 3,634 moths were collected, assigned to 262 species and 10 families. A similar number of species occurred on the primary succession and reclaimed areas, but the reclaimed area had a greater abundance. Secondary successionsiteshostedha lf as many species and alsocontainedlow abundance compared to other management types. The results show that there claimed areas host a numerically larger group and more species of moths than the successionalareas. Rare species did not occur at any site. A higher number of days in locations without water bodies, wetland vegetation, and locations with a highre presentation of woody species. It is advisable to combine individual types of landscape management in such a way as to create a colorfulmosaic that supports biodiversity. In particular, we recommend incorporating natural successionintoreclamation plans, which is a refuge for many rare species of invertebrates, which has not yetbeenroutinely and purposefully practiced.

Keywords: hymenoptera: aculeata, lepidoptera, reclamation, succession, post-mining ara

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Authors: Asma Shaheen Hashmi, Omer Riaz, Khalid Mahmood, Fahad Ullah, Tanveer Ahmad

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The urban landscapes are being change with the population growth and advancements in new technologies. The urban sprawl pattern and utilizes are related to the local socioeconomic and physical condition. Urban policy decisions are executed mostly through spatial planning. A decision support system (DSS) is very powerful tool which provides flexible knowledge base method for urban planning. An application was developed using geographical information system (GIS) for urban planning. A scenario based DSS was developed to integrate the hierarchical muti-criteria data of different aspects of urban landscape. These were physical environment, the dumping site, spatial distribution of road network, gas and water supply lines, and urban watershed management, selection criteria for new residential, recreational, commercial and industrial sites. The model provided a framework to incorporate the sustainable future development. The data can be entered dynamically by planners according to the appropriate criteria for the management of urban landscapes.

Keywords: urban, GIS, spatial, criteria

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Authors: Gbenga F. Akomolafe, Joseph Omojola, Ezekiel S. Joshua, Seyi C. Adediwura, Elijah T. Adesuji, Michael O. Odey, Oyinade A. Dedeke, Ayo H. Labulo

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Microgravity is known to be a major abiotic stress in space which affects plants depending on the duration of exposure. In this work, tomatoes seeds were exposed to long hours of simulated microgravity condition using a one-axis clinostat. The seeds were sown on a 1.5% combination of plant nutrient and agar-agar solidified medium in three Petri dishes. One of the Petri dishes was mounted on the clinostat and allowed to rotate at the speed of 20 rpm for 72 hours, while the others were subjected to the normal gravity vector. The anatomical sections of both clinorotated and normal gravity plants were made after 72 hours and observed using a Phase-contrast digital microscope. The percentage germination, as well as the growth rate of the normal gravity seeds, was higher than the clinorotated ones. The germinated clinorotated roots followed different directions unlike the normal gravity ones which grew towards the direction of gravity vector. The clinostat was able to switch off gravistimulation. Distinct cellular arrangement was observed for tomatoes under normal gravity condition, unlike those of clinorotated ones. The root epidermis and cortex of normal gravity are thicker than the clinorotated ones. This implied that under long-term microgravity influence, plants do alter their anatomical features as a way of adapting to the stress condition.

Keywords: anatomy, clinostat, germination, lycopersicon esculentum, microgravity

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Authors: Bryce Benson, Sooin Lee, Ashwin Belle

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Unrecognized or delayed identification of patient deterioration is a key cause of in-hospitals adverse events. Clinicians rely on vital signs monitoring to recognize patient deterioration. However, due to ever increasing nursing workloads and the manual effort required, vital signs tend to be measured and recorded intermittently, and inconsistently causing large gaps during patient monitoring. Additionally, during deterioration, the body’s autonomic nervous system activates compensatory mechanisms causing the vital signs to be lagging indicators of underlying hemodynamic decline. This study analyzes the predictive efficacy of the Analytic for Hemodynamic Instability (AHI) system, an automated tool that was designed to help clinicians in early identification of deteriorating patients. The lead time analysis in this retrospective observational study assesses how far in advance AHI predicted deterioration prior to the start of an episode of hemodynamic instability (HI) becoming evident through vital signs? Results indicate that of the 362 episodes of HI in this study, 308 episodes (85%) were correctly predicted by the AHI system with a median lead time of 57 minutes and an average of 4 hours (240.5 minutes). Of the 54 episodes not predicted, AHI detected 45 of them while the episode of HI was ongoing. Of the 9 undetected, 5 were not detected by AHI due to either missing or noisy input ECG data during the episode of HI. In total, AHI was able to either predict or detect 98.9% of all episodes of HI in this study. These results suggest that AHI could provide an additional ‘pair of eyes’ on patients, continuously filling the monitoring gaps and consequently giving the patient care team the ability to be far more proactive in patient monitoring and adverse event management.

Keywords: clinical deterioration prediction, decision support system, early warning system, hemodynamic status, physiologic monitoring

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Authors: Zhi Liu, Hui Jiang, Jin Li, Kunhao Chen, Langfang Zhang

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Fast acquisition of the seismic information and accurate assessment of the earthquake disaster is the key problem for emergency rescue after a destructive earthquake. In order to meet the requirements of the earthquake emergency response and rescue for the cities and counties, a quasi real-time comprehensive evaluation system for earthquake disaster is developed. Based on monitoring data of Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems (MEMS) strong motion network, structure database of a county area and the real-time disaster information by the mobile terminal after an earthquake, fragility analysis method and dynamic correction algorithm are synthetically obtained in the developed system. Real-time evaluation of the seismic disaster in the county region is finally realized to provide scientific basis for seismic emergency command, rescue and assistant decision.

Keywords: quasi real-time, earthquake disaster data collection, MEMS accelerometer, dynamic correction, comprehensive evaluation

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Authors: Sham Kidane, Fitsum Gaim, Ibrahim Abdella, Sirak Asmerom, Yoel Ghebrihiwot, Simon Mulugeta, Natnael Ambassager

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The lack of annotated datasets is a bottleneck to the progress of NLP in low-resourced languages. The work presented here consists of large-scale annotated datasets and models for the named entity recognition (NER) system for the Tigrinya language. Our manually constructed corpus comprises over 340K words tagged for NER, with over 118K of the tokens also having parts-of-speech (POS) tags, annotated with 12 distinct classes of entities, represented using several types of tagging schemes. We conducted extensive experiments covering convolutional neural networks and transformer models; the highest performance achieved is 88.8% weighted F1-score. These results are especially noteworthy given the unique challenges posed by Tigrinya’s distinct grammatical structure and complex word morphologies. The system can be an essential building block for the advancement of NLP systems in Tigrinya and other related low-resourced languages and serve as a bridge for cross-referencing against higher-resourced languages.

Keywords: Tigrinya NER corpus, TiBERT, TiRoBERTa, BiLSTM-CRF

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Authors: Arya Sarukkai

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Due to increased technological advances and the high use of phones, tablets, computers, and other electronics, we continue to see rapid growth in the volume of e-waste. There are millions just throwing out their old devices, millions who have many devices and don’t know what to do with them, and there are millions who would benefit from receiving those devices. The thesis of this paper is that by creating an ecosystem of donors and recipients and providing the right incentives, we can reduce e-waste. We discuss a system for sustainable e-waste by building a marketplace between donors and recipients. We also summarize experimental results comparing different incentives and present a live web service that allows for e-waste supplies to reach schools and nonprofit institutions.

Keywords: E-waste ecosystems, marketplaces, e-waste web app, online services

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Authors: Ramdan B. A. Koad, Ahmed F. Zobaa

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Since the output characteristics of Photovoltaic (PV) system depends on the ambient temperature, solar radiation and load impedance, its maximum Power Point (MPP) is not constant. Under each condition PV module has a point at which it can produce its MPP. Therefore, a Maximum Power Point Tracking (MPPT) method is needed to uphold the PV panel operating at its MPP. This paper presents comparative study between the conventional MPPT methods used in (PV) system: Perturb and Observe (P&O), Incremental Conductance (IncCond), and Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) algorithm for (MPPT) of (PV) system. To evaluate the study, the proposed PSO MPPT is implemented on a DC-DC converter and has been compared with P&O and INcond methods in terms of their tracking speed, accuracy and performance by using the Matlab tool Simulink. The simulation result shows that the proposed algorithm is simple, and is superior to the P&O and IncCond methods.

Keywords: photovoltaic systems, maximum power point tracking, perturb and observe method, incremental conductance, methods and practical swarm optimization algorithm

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Authors: Hsin-Lien Lin, Ju-Hui Fu

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Dendritic cells (DCs) are the major professional antigen-presenting cells for the development of optimal T-cell immunity. DCs can be used as pharmacological targets to screen novel biological modifiers for the treatment of harmful immune responses, such as transplantation rejection. Dryopteris crassirhizoma Nakai (Aspiadaceae) is used for traditional herbal medicine in the region of East Asia. The root of this fern plant has been listed for treating inflammatory diseases. Dryocrassin is the tetrameric phlorophenone component derived from Dryopteris. Here, we tested the immunomodulatory potential of dryocrassin on lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-stimulated activation of mouse bone marrow-derived DCs in vitro and in skin allograft transplantation in vivo. Results demonstrated that dryocrassin reduced the secretion of tumor necrosis factor-α, interleukin-6, and interleukin-12p70 by LPS-stimulated DCs. The expression of LPS-induced major histocompatibility complex class II, CD40, and CD86 on DCs was also blocked by dryocrassin. Moreover, LPS-stimulated DC-elicited allogeneic T-cell proliferation was lessened by dryocrassin. In addition, dryocrassin inhibited LPS-induced activation of IϰB kinase, JNK/p38 mitogen-activated protein kinase, as well as the translocation of NF-ϰB. Treatment with dryocrassin obviously diminished 2,4-dinitro-1-fluorobenzene- induced delayed-type hypersensitivity and prolonged skin allograft survival. Dryocrassin may be one of the potent immunosuppressive agents for transplant rejection through the destruction of DC maturation and function.

Keywords: dryocrassin, dendritic cells, immunosuppression, skin allograft

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Authors: Oualid Walid Ben Ali

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Big Data has become one of the buzzwords today. The recent explosion of digital data has led the organization, either private or public, to a new era towards a more efficient decision making. At some point, business decided to use that concept in order to learn what make their clients tick with phrases like ‘sales funnel’ analysis, ‘actionable insights’, and ‘positive business impact’. So, it stands to reason that Big Data was viewed through green (read: money) colored lenses. Somewhere along the line, however someone realized that collecting and processing data doesn’t have to be for business purpose only, but also could be used for other purposes to assist law enforcement or to improve policing or in road safety. This paper presents briefly, how Big Data have been used in the fields of policing order to improve the decision making process in the daily operation of the police. As example, we present a big-data driven system which is sued to accurately dispatch the patrol cars in a geographic environment. The system is also used to allocate, in real-time, the nearest patrol car to the location of an incident. This system has been implemented and applied in the Emirate of Abu Dhabi in the UAE.

Keywords: big data, big data analytics, patrol car allocation, dispatching, GIS, intelligent, Abu Dhabi, police, UAE

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Authors: Mohamed Salah Azzaz, Camel Tanougast, Tarek Hadjem

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In this paper, a new low-cost image encryption technique is proposed and analyzed. The developed chaos-based key generator provides complex behavior and can change it automatically via a random-like switching rule. The designed encryption scheme is called PCSS (Parametric Chaos-based Switching System). The performances of this technique were evaluated in terms of data security and privacy. Simulation results have shown the effectiveness of this technique, and it can thereafter, ready for a hardware implementation.

Keywords: chaos, encryption, security, image

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Authors: Roya Ahmadi Ahangar, Hamid Madadyari

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The seeker optimization algorithm (SOA) is increasingly gaining popularity among the researchers society due to its effectiveness in solving some real-world optimization problems. This paper provides the load-frequency control method based on the SOA for removing oscillations in the power system. A three-zone power system includes a thermal zone, a hydraulic zone and a wind zone equipped with robust proportional-integral-differential (PID) controllers. The result of simulation indicates that load-frequency changes in the wind zone for the multi-zone system are damped in a short period of time. Meanwhile, in the oscillation period, the oscillations amplitude is not significant. The result of simulation emphasizes that the PID controller designed using the seeker optimization algorithm has a robust function and a better performance for oscillations damping compared to the traditional PID controller. The proposed controller’s performance has been compared to the performance of PID controller regulated with Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) and. Genetic Algorithm (GA) and Artificial Bee Colony (ABC) algorithms in order to show the superior capability of the proposed SOA in regulating the PID controller. The simulation results emphasize the better performance of the optimized PID controller based on SOA compared to the PID controller optimized with PSO, GA and ABC algorithms.

Keywords: load-frequency control, multi zone, robust PID controller, wind generation

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Authors: Danny Manuel Calvo Velasco, Robert Sanchez Cano

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By using the transference matrix formalism, in this work, it is presented the study of the optical properties of the 1D graded structure, constructed by multiple bi-layers of dielectric and air, considering a redistribution of the material lengths following an arithmetic progression as a function of two parameters. It is presented a factorization for the transference matrices for the graded structure, which allows the interpretation of their optical properties in terms of the properties of simpler structures. It is shown that the graded structure presents new transmission peaks, which can be controlled by the parameter values located in frequencies for which a periodic system has a photonic bandgap. This result is extended to the case of a photonic crystal for which the unitary cell is the proposed graded structure, showing new transmission bands which are due to the multiple new sub-structures present in the system. Also, for the TE polarization, it is observed transmission bands' low frequencies which present low variation of its width and position with the incidence angle. It is expected that these results could guide a route in the design of new photonic devices.

Keywords: graded, material redistribution, photonic system, transference matrix

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Authors: Seada Hussen, Frie Ayalew

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Integrating different energy resources, like solar PV and hydro, is used to ensure reliable power to rural communities like Hara village in Ethiopia. Hybrid power system offers power supply for rural villages by providing an alternative supply for the intermittent nature of renewable energy resources. The intermittent nature of renewable energy resources is a challenge to electrifying rural communities in a sustainable manner with solar resources. Major rural villages in Ethiopia are suffering from a lack of electrification, that cause our people to suffer deforestation, travel for long distance to fetch water, and lack good services like clinic and school sufficiently. The main objective of this project is to provide a balanced, stable, reliable supply for Hara village, Ethiopia using solar power with a pumped hydro energy storage system. The design of this project starts by collecting data from villages and taking solar irradiance data from NASA. In addition to this, geographical arrangement and location are also taken into consideration. After collecting this, all data analysis and cost estimation or optimal sizing of the system and comparison of solar with pumped hydro and solar with battery storage system is done using Homer Software. And since solar power only works in the daytime and pumped hydro works at night time and also at night and morning, both load will share to cover the load demand; this need controller designed to control multiple switch and scheduling in this project fuzzy logic controller is used to control this scenario. The result of the simulation shows that solar with pumped hydro energy storage system achieves good results than with a battery storage system since the comparison is done considering storage reliability, cost, storage capacity, life span, and efficiency.

Keywords: pumped hydro storage, solar energy, solar PV, battery energy storage, fuzzy logic controller

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Authors: Qian Zhang, Dongkai Shen, Yan Shi

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A new mechanical ventilator with automatic secretion clearance function can improve the secretion clearance safely and efficiently. However, in recent modeling studies on various mechanical ventilators, it was considered that human had one lung, and the coupling effect of double lungs was never illustrated. In this paper, to expound the coupling effect of double lungs, a mathematical model of a ventilation system of a bi-level positive airway pressure (BiPAP) controlled ventilator with secretion clearance was set up. Moreover, an experimental study about the mechanical ventilation system of double lungs on BiPAP ventilator was conducted to verify the mathematical model. Finally, the coupling effect of double lungs of the mathematical ventilation was studied by simulation and orthogonal experimental design. This paper adds to previous studies and can be referred to optimization methods in medical researches.

Keywords: double lungs, coupling effect, secretion clearance, orthogonal experimental design

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Authors: Samar Alharbi, Yota Dimitriadi

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The literature on educational technology in Saudi Arabia reveals female learners’ unwillingness to study fully online courses in higher education despite the fact that Saudi universities have offered a variety of online degree programmes to undergraduate students in many regions of the country. The root causes keeping female students from successfully learning in online environments are limited social interaction, lack of motivation and difficulty with the use of e-learning platforms. E-immediacy remains an important method of online teaching to enhance students’ interaction and support their online learning. This study explored Saudi female students’ perceptions, as well as the experiences of lecturers’ immediacy behaviours in online environments, who participate in fully online courses using Blackboard at a Saudi university. Data were collected through interviews with focus groups. The three focus groups included five to seven students each. The female participants were asked about lecturers’ e-immediacy behaviours and which e-immediacy behaviours were important for an effective learning environment. A thematic analysis of the data revealed three main themes: the encouragement of student interaction, the incorporation of social media and addressing the needs of students. These findings provide lecturers with insights into instructional designs and strategies that can be adopted in using e-immediacy in effective ways, thus improving female learners’ interactions as well as their online learning experiences.

Keywords: e-learning, female students, higher education, immediacy

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Authors: Aung Kyaw Moe, Lukin Evgeny Stepanovich, Popova Nelya Alexandrovna

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In this paper, the effect of the additive content in the Al₂O₃-TiO₂-MnO system on the sintering of composite ceramics based on corundum was studied. The samples were pressed by uniaxial semi-dry pressing under 100 MPa and sintered at 1500 °С and 1550 °С. The properties of composite ceramics for porosity and flexural strength were studied. When the amount of additives increases, the properties of composite ceramic samples are better than samples without additives.

Keywords: ceramic, composite material, sintering, corundum

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Authors: Andreas Schweiger, Matthias Gnigler, Elisabeth Wieder, Michael Grobbauer

Abstract:

Especially in the alpine region, available areas for new residential development are limited. One possible solution is to exploit the potential of existing settlements. Urban redensification, especially the addition of floors to existing buildings, requires efficient, lightweight constructions with short construction times. This topic is being addressed in the five-year Alpine Building Centre. The focus of this cooperation between Salzburg University of Applied Sciences and RSA GH Studio iSPACE is on transdisciplinary research in the fields of building and energy technology, building envelopes and geoinformation, as well as the transfer of research results to industry. One development objective is a system of wood panel system construction with a high degree of prefabrication to optimize the construction quality, the construction time and the applicability for small and medium-sized enterprises. The system serves as a reliable working basis for mastering the complex building task of redensification. The technical solution is the development of an open system in timber frame and solid wood construction, which is suitable for a maximum two-story addition of residential buildings. The applicability of the system is mainly influenced by the existing building stock. Therefore, timber frame and solid timber construction are combined where necessary to bridge large spans of the existing structure while keeping the dead weight as low as possible. Escape routes are usually constructed in reinforced concrete and are located outside the system boundary. Thus, within the framework of the legal and normative requirements of timber construction, a hybrid construction method for redensification created. Component structure, load-bearing structure and detail constructions are developed in accordance with the relevant requirements. The results are directly applicable in individual cases, with the exception of the required verifications. In order to verify the practical suitability of the developed system, stakeholder workshops are held on the one hand, and the system is applied in the planning of a two-storey extension on the other hand. A company-independent construction standard offers the possibility of cooperation and bundling of capacities in order to be able to handle larger construction volumes in collaboration with several companies. Numerous further developments can take place on the basis of the system, which is under open license. The construction system will support planners and contractors from design to execution. In this context, open means publicly published and freely usable and modifiable for own use as long as the authorship and deviations are mentioned. The companies are provided with a system manual, which contains the system description and an application manual. This manual will facilitate the selection of the correct component cross-sections for the specific construction projects by means of all component and detail specifications. This presentation highlights the initial situation, the motivation, the approach, but especially the technical solution as well as the possibilities for the application. After an explanation of the objectives and working methods, the component and detail specifications are presented as work results and their application.

Keywords: redensification, SME, urban development, wood building system

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Authors: Ionel Zagan, Vasile Gheorghita Gaitan

Abstract:

Minimizing the response time to asynchronous events in a real-time system is an important factor in increasing the speed of response and an interesting concept in designing equipment fast enough for the most demanding applications. The present article will present the results regarding the validation of the nMPRA (Multi Pipeline Register Architecture) architecture using the FPGA Virtex-7 circuit. The nMPRA concept is a hardware processor with the scheduler implemented at the processor level; this is done without affecting a possible bus communication, as is the case with the other CPU solutions. The implementation of static or dynamic scheduling operations in hardware and the improvement of handling interrupts and events by the real-time executive described in the present article represent a key solution for eliminating the overhead of the operating system functions. The nMPRA processor is capable of executing a preemptive scheduling, using various algorithms without a software scheduler. Therefore, we have also presented various scheduling methods and algorithms used in scheduling the real-time tasks.

Keywords: nMPRA architecture, pipeline processor, preemptive scheduling, real-time system

Procedia PDF Downloads 349

Authors: Hamidreza Miri, Farahnaz Momtazi

Abstract:

Wheat is one of the most important crops in Fars province, and because of water shortage, there is a great emphasis on its water use efficiency in the production field. A field experiment was conducted in 2021 and 2022 in order to evaluate wheat yield and its components in raised planting system in Arsanjan, Fars province. The experiment was conducted as a split plot with three irrigation treatments (irrigation equal to evapotranspiration, 80% of evapotranspiration irrigation (moderate drought stress), and 60% of evapotranspiration irrigation (severe drought stress)) as the main plot and three planting methods (conventional flat planting, 60 cm raised bed planting and 120 cm raised bed planting) as a subplot. The results indicated that drought stress significantly decreased traits such as plant height, grain yield, ear number, seed number, and biological yield while increasing seed protein. Raised bed planting significantly increased the traits in comparison with conventional flat planting. So that plating with a 120 cm raised bed increased grain yield by 22.1% and 25.9% in the first and second years, respectively. This increase was 17% for biological, 75 for ear number, and 21% for seed number. Planting in raised bed system reduced the adverse effect of drought stress on wheat traits. In conclusion, based on the observed results planting in raised bed system can be adopted as an appropriate planting pattern for improving yield and water productivity in experimental regions and similar climates.

Keywords: wheat, raised bed planting, drought stress, yield, water use

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Authors: Sai Sankalp Vemavarapu

Abstract:

This paper discusses the application of machine learning in the field of transportation engineering for predicting engineering properties of pavement more accurately and efficiently. Predicting the elastic properties aid us in assessing the current road conditions and taking appropriate measures to avoid any inconvenience to commuters. This improves the longevity and sustainability of the pavement layer while reducing its overall life-cycle cost. As an example, we have implemented differential evolution (DE) in the back-calculation of the elastic modulus of multi-layered pavement. The proposed DE global optimization back-calculation approach is integrated with a forward response model. This approach treats back-calculation as a global optimization problem where the cost function to be minimized is defined as the root mean square error in measured and computed deflections. The optimal solution which is elastic modulus, in this case, is searched for in the solution space by the DE algorithm. The best DE parameter combinations and the most optimum value is predicted so that the results are reproducible whenever the need arises. The algorithm’s performance in varied scenarios was analyzed by changing the input parameters. The prediction was well within the permissible error, establishing the supremacy of DE.

Keywords: cost function, differential evolution, falling weight deflectometer, genetic algorithm, global optimization, metaheuristic algorithm, multilayered pavement, pavement condition assessment, pavement layer moduli back calculation

Procedia PDF Downloads 150

Authors: JungYeon Park, Jooyong Park

Abstract:

Brainstorming and discussion are widely used around the world as formal techniques of collaborative creative problem solving. This study investigated whether a web-based peer review system would improve collaborative creative problem solving. In order to assess the efficiency of using web-based peer review system before brainstorming and discussion, we conducted a between-group design study for two conditions (a web-based peer review system vs. face-to-face brainstorming only) using two different scenarios. One hundred and twenty participants were divided into teams of four and randomly assigned to one of the four conditions. The participants were given problems for them to solve. The participants in the experimental group first generated ideas independently for 20 minutes and wrote down their ideas. Afterwards, they reviewed the list of ideas of their peers and gave and received feedback for 10 minutes. These activities were performed on-line. The last activity was face-to-face brain-storming and discussion for 30 minutes. In contrast, the control group participated in brainstorming and discussion for 60 minutes. The quantity and the quality of ideas were measured as dependent variables of creative problem solving. Two evaluators rated the quantity and quality of the proposed ideas. Inter-rater agreement rate was good or strong. The results showed that both the average number of unique ideas and the average quality of ideas generated for the experimental condition were significantly higher than those for the control condition in both scenarios. The results of this study support the hypothesis that collaborative creative problem solving is enhanced when individuals write their thoughts individually and review ideas written by peers before face-to-face brainstorming and discussion. The present study provides preliminary evidence that a web-based peer review system can be instrumental in improving creative problem solving for teams. This system also offers an effective means to quantify the contribution of each member in collaborative team activity. We are planning to replicate these results in real-life situations.

Keywords: brainstorming, creative problem solving, peer-review, team efficiency

Procedia PDF Downloads 144