Search results for: complex interactions

Authors: Ashraf M. Khalifa, Hwat Bing So, Greg Maddocks

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Changes to the mining environmental approvals process in Queensland have been rolled out under the MERFP Act (2018). This includes requirements for a Progressive Rehabilitation and Closure Plan (PRC Plan). Key considerations of the landform design report within the PRC Plan must include: (i) identification of materials available for landform rehabilitation, including their ability to achieve the required landform design outcomes, (ii) erosion assessments to determine landform heights, gradients, profiles, and material placement, (iii) slope profile design considering the interactions between soil erodibility, rainfall erosivity, landform height, gradient, and vegetation cover to identify acceptable erosion rates over a long-term average, (iv) an analysis of future stability based on the factors described above e.g., erosion and /or landform evolution modelling. ACARP funded an extensive and thorough erosion assessment program using rainfall simulators from 1998 to 2010. The ACARP program included laboratory assessment of 35 soil and spoil samples from 16 coal mines and samples from a gold mine in Queensland using 3 x 0.8 m laboratory rainfall simulator. The reliability of the laboratory rainfall simulator was verified through field measurements using larger flumes 20 x 5 meters and catchment scale measurements at three sites (3 different catchments, average area of 2.5 ha each). Soil cover systems are a primary component of a constructed mine landform. The primary functions of a soil cover system are to sustain vegetation and limit the infiltration of water and oxygen into underlying reactive mine waste. If the external surface of the landform erodes, the functions of the cover system cannot be maintained, and the cover system will most likely fail. Assessing a constructed landform’s potential ‘long-term’ erosion stability requires defensible erosion rate thresholds below which rehabilitation landform designs are considered acceptably erosion-resistant or ‘stable’. The process used to quantify erosion rates using rainfall simulators (flumes) to measure rill and inter-rill erosion on bulk samples under laboratory conditions or on in-situ material under field conditions will be explained.

Keywords: open-cut, mining, erosion, rainfall simulator

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Authors: Berfu Guley Goren, Ayse Lale Berkoz

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The aim of the study is to analyze the concept of universal design and accessibility to make the city which allows equality and independence for individuals. In the content of the study, literature researches and observations of samples in Istanbul, Turkey are analyzed. As a result proposals are going to be developed to create the cities which are designed for everyone. In globalization process, in cities, population have been increasing dramatically with social and economic activities. Medical developments have been effective in prolonging human life and the disability that comes with aging has also increased in parallel with the disabled population. Nowadays disability is an important phenomenon. Because approximately 1 billion people live with disabilities. The heterogeneous structure formed by the rapid gathering of individuals with different social, economic and physical characteristics in the cities creates great spatial diversity and richness in the cities with different needs brought together. Unlike the cultural and physical wealth in these places and the potential to integrate and diversify the urban people, unfortunately, the designs in practice cause the urban areas to break apart, the urbanities to tear themselves apart, to interfere with their communication and interactions. The social and physical structure of the city is important to feel belonging to the urban society. In most cities when an observation is made, obstructions for people with disabilities can be seen in urban physical structure and design. With these obstructions, people with disabilities cannot live in urban space, and they are desolated in urban life. The city, which offers equal opportunity, the relation between economic development, social justice and built environment must be planned synchronous. Isolation and stigmatization must be abolished by regulations, activities of awareness and universal urban design. Without regard to social, economical and physical features every individual has the same right, which is using the freedom of movement. Supporting freedom of movement of every individual may be ensured by universal design and its principles. So urban spaces are going to be for every individual. For equal opportunity in urban services, urban design must be the focus on every individual including people with disabilities. In built environment practices, democratic suitable spaces should be created. In this respect, urban planners, architects, political decision-makers and other relevant actors should work together and should think very versatile.

Keywords: disability, equality, universal design, urban design

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Authors: A. Al-Rifaie, Z. W. Guan, S. W. Jones

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This paper presents a method for modelling and analysing end plate beam-to-column connections to obtain the quasi-static behaviour using non-linear dynamic explicit integration. In addition to its importance to study the static behaviour of a structural member, quasi-static behaviour is largely needed to be compared with the dynamic behaviour of such members in order to investigate the dynamic effect by proposing dynamic increase factors (DIFs). The beam-to-column bolted connections contain various contact surfaces at which the implicit procedure may have difficulties converging, resulting in a large number of iterations. Contrary, explicit procedure could deal effectively with complex contacts without converging problems. Hence, finite element modelling using ABAQUS/explicit is used in this study to address the dynamic effect may be produced using explicit procedure. Also, the effect of loading rate and mass scaling are discussed to investigate their effect on the time of analysis. The results show that the explicit procedure is valuable to model the end plate beam-to-column connections in terms of failure mode, load-displacement relationships. Also, it is concluded that loading rate and mass scaling should be carefully selected to avoid the dynamic effect in the solution.

Keywords: quasi-static, end plate, finite elements, connections

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Authors: Samuel Nii Tackie, Oyebade K. Oyedotun, Ebenezer O. Olaniyi, Adnan Khashman

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Artificial neural networks have been used in different fields of artificial intelligence, and more specifically in machine learning. Although, other machine learning options are feasible in most situations, but the ease with which neural networks lend themselves to different problems which include pattern recognition, image compression, classification, computer vision, regression etc. has earned it a remarkable place in the machine learning field. This research exploits neural networks as a data mining tool in predicting the number of times a student repeats a course, considering some attributes relating to the course itself, the teacher, and the particular student. Neural networks were used in this work to map the relationship between some attributes related to students’ course assessment and the number of times a student will possibly repeat a course before he passes. It is the hope that the possibility to predict students’ performance from such complex relationships can help facilitate the fine-tuning of academic systems and policies implemented in learning environments. To validate the power of neural networks in data mining, Turkish students’ performance database has been used; feedforward and radial basis function networks were trained for this task; and the performances obtained from these networks evaluated in consideration of achieved recognition rates and training time.

Keywords: artificial neural network, data mining, classification, students’ evaluation

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Authors: Yen Ling Liu, Shu-Fen Wu, Chen-Fuh Lam, I-Ling Tsai, Chia-Yu Chen

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Purpose: Nurse anesthetists are confronting extraordinarily high job stress in their daily practice, deriving from the fast-track anesthesia care, risk of perioperative complications, routine rotating shifts, teaching programs and interactions with the surgical team in the operating room. This study investigated the influence of work stress on the burnout and turnover intention of nurse anesthetists in a regional general hospital in Southern Taiwan. Methods: This was a descriptive correlational study carried out in 66 full-time nurse anesthetists. Data was collected from March 2017 to June 2017 by in-person interview, and a self-administered structured questionnaire was completed by the interviewee. Outcome measurements included the Practice Environment Scale of the Nursing Work Index (PES-NWI), Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI) and nursing staff turnover intention. Numerical data were analyzed by descriptive statistics, independent t test, or one-way ANOVA. Categorical data were compared using the chi-square test (x²). Datasets were computed with Pearson product-moment correlation and linear regression. Data were analyzed by using SPSS 20.0 software. Results: The average score for job burnout was 68.7916.67 (out of 100). The three major components of burnout, including emotional depletion (mean score of 26.32), depersonalization (mean score of 13.65), and personal(mean score of 24.48). These average scores suggested that these nurse anesthetists were at high risk of burnout and inversely correlated with turnover intention (t = -4.048, P < 0.05). Using linear regression model, emotional exhaustion and depersonalization were the two independent factors that predicted turnover intention in the nurse anesthetists (19.1% in total variance). Conclusion/Implications for Practice: The study identifies that the high risk of job burnout in the nurse anesthetists is not simply derived from physical overload, but most likely resulted from the additional emotional and psychological stress. The occurrence of job burnout may affect the quality of nursing work, and also influence family harmony, in turn, may increase the turnover rate. Multimodal approach is warranted to reduce work stress and job burnout in nurse anesthetists to enhance their willingness to contribute in anesthesia care.

Keywords: anesthesia nurses, burnout, job, turnover intention

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Authors: Y. D. Lim, K. S. Yap, K. T. Ooi

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Cross Vane Expander Compressor (CVEC) is a newly invented expander-compressor combined unit, where it is introduced to replace the compressor and the expansion valve in traditional refrigeration system. The mathematical model of CVEC has been developed to examine its performance, and it was found that the energy consumption of a conventional refrigeration system was reduced by as much as 18%. It is believed that energy consumption can be further reduced by optimizing the device. In this study, the coefficient of performance (COP) of CVEC has been optimized under predetermined operational parameters and constrained main design parameters. Several main design parameters of CVEC were selected to be the variables, and the optimization was done with theoretical model in a simulation program. The theoretical model consists of geometrical model, dynamic model, heat transfer model and valve dynamics model. Complex optimization method, which is a constrained, direct search and multi-variables method was used in the study. As a result, the optimization study suggested that with an appropriate combination of design parameters, a 58% COP improvement in CVEC R134a refrigeration system is possible.

Keywords: COP, cross vane expander-compressor, CVEC, design, simulation, refrigeration system, air-conditioning, R134a, multi variables

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Authors: Cleiton Pons Ferreira, Diana Francisca Adamatti

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Advancements in computers technology have allowed to obtain information for research in biology and neuroscience. In order to transform the data from these surveys, networks have long been used to represent important biological processes, changing the use of this tools from purely illustrative and didactic to more analytic, even including interaction analysis and hypothesis formulation. Many studies have involved this application, but not directly for interpretation of data obtained from brain functions, asking for new perspectives of development in neuroinformatics using existent models of tools already disseminated by the bioinformatics. This study includes an analysis of neurological data through electroencephalogram (EEG) signals, using the Cytoscape, an open source software tool for visualizing complex networks in biological databases. The data were obtained from a comparative case study developed in a research from the University of Rio Grande (FURG), using the EEG signals from a Brain Computer Interface (BCI) with 32 eletrodes prepared in the brain of a blind and a sighted individuals during the execution of an activity that stimulated the spatial ability. This study intends to present results that lead to better ways for use and adapt techniques that support the data treatment of brain signals for elevate the understanding and learning in neuroscience.

Keywords: neuroinformatics, bioinformatics, network tools, brain mapping

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Authors: Girish J. Showkatramani, Arthi M. Krishna, Sashi Nareddi, Naresh Nula, Aaron Pepe, Glen Brown, Greg Gabel, Chris Doninger

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Trademark examination and approval is a complex process that involves analysis and review of the design components of the marks such as the visual representation as well as the textual data associated with marks such as marks' description. Currently, the process of identifying marks with similar visual representation is done manually in United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) and takes a considerable amount of time. Moreover, the accuracy of these searches depends heavily on the experts determining the trademark design codes used to catalog the visual design codes in the mark. In this study, we explore several methods to automate trademark design code classification. Based on recent successes of convolutional neural networks in image classification, we have used several different convolutional neural networks such as Google’s Inception v3, Inception-ResNet-v2, and Xception net. The study also looks into other techniques to augment the results from CNNs such as using Open Source Computer Vision Library (OpenCV) to pre-process the images. This paper reports the results of the various models trained on year of annotated trademark images.

Keywords: trademark design code, convolutional neural networks, trademark image classification, trademark image search, Inception-ResNet-v2

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Authors: Ambika Perisamy, Asyriawati binte Mohd Hamzah

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The focus of this presentation is to discuss teacher professional development (TPD) through the use of technology. TPD is necessary to prepare teachers for future challenges they will face throughout their careers and to develop new skills and good teaching practices. We will also be discussing current issues in embracing technology in the field of early childhood education and the impact on the professional development of teachers. Participants will also learn to apply teaching and learning practices through the use of technology. One major objective of this presentation is to coherently fuse practical, technology and theoretical content. The process begins by concretizing a set of preconceived ideas which need to be joined with theoretical justifications found in the literature. Technology can make observations fairer and more reliable, easier to implement, and more preferable to teachers and principals. Technology will also help principals to improve classroom observations of teachers and ultimately improve teachers’ continuous professional development. Video technology allows the early childhood teachers to record and keep the recorded video for reflection at any time. This will also provide opportunities for her to share with her principals for professional dialogues and continuous professional development plans. A total of 10 early childhood teachers and 4 principals were involved in these efforts which identified and analyze the gaps in the quality of classroom observations and its co relation to developing teachers as reflective practitioners. The methodology used involves active exploration with video technology recordings, conversations, interviews and authentic teacher child interactions which forms the key thrust in improving teaching and learning practice. A qualitative analysis of photographs, videos, transcripts which illustrates teacher’s reflections and classroom observation checklists before and after the use of video technology were adopted. Arguably, although PD support can be magnanimously strong, if teachers could not connect or create meaning out of the opportunities made available to them, they may remain passive or uninvolved. Therefore, teachers must see the value of applying new ideas such as technology and approaches to practice while creating personal meaning out of professional development. These video recordings are transferable, can be shared and edited through social media, emails and common storage between teachers and principals. To conclude the importance of reflective practice among early childhood teachers and addressing the concerns raised before and after the use of video technology, teachers and principals shared the feasibility, practical and relevance use of video technology.

Keywords: early childhood education, reflective, improve teaching and learning, technology

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Authors: Marlene Rosa, Susana Lopes

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Board games have been used for different purposes in geriatric care, demonstrating good results for health in general. However, there is not a conceptual framework that can help professionals and researchers in this area to design intervention programs or to think about future studies in this area. The aim of this study was to provide a pilot collection of board games’ serious purposes in geriatric care, using a WHO framework for health and disability. Study cases were developed in seven geriatric residential institutions from the center region in Portugal that are included in AGILAB program. The AGILAB program is a serious game-based method to train and spread out the implementation of board games in geriatric care. Each institution provides 2-hours/week of experiences using TATI Hand Game for serious purposes and then fulfill questions about a study-case (player characteristics; explain changes in players health according to this game experience). Two independent researchers read the information and classified it according to the International Classification for Functioning and Disability (ICF) categories. Any discrepancy was solved in a consensus meeting. Results indicate an important variability in body functions and structures: specific mental functions (e.g., b140 Attention functions, b144 Memory functions), b156 Perceptual functions, b2 sensory functions and pain (e.g., b230 Hearing functions; b265 Touch function; b280 Sensation of pain), b7 neuromusculoskeletal and movement-related functions (e.g., b730 Muscle power functions; b760 Control of voluntary movement functions; b710 Mobility of joint functions). Less variability was found in activities and participation domains, such as purposeful sensory experiences (d110-d129) (e.g., d115 Listening), communication (d3), d710 basic interpersonal interactions, d920 recreation and leisure (d9200 Play; d9205 Socializing). Concluding, this framework designed from a brief gamed-based experience includes mental, perceptual, sensory, neuromusculoskeletal, and movement-related functions and participation in sensory, communication, and leisure domains. More studies, including different experiences and a high number of users, should be developed to provide a more comprehensive ICF framework for game-based experiences in geriatric care.

Keywords: board game, aging, framework, experience

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Authors: Ali Bakari Mohammed

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Transitioning is a continuous process of radical change in a society which involves co-evolution of institutional, technological, socio-cultural, and ecological developments at different scales and levels. Transition management model is a methodology that influences structural change of complex systems over a period (0-30 years) by experimenting and implementing new techniques. A transition management in the context of groundwater is a radical change from the current operate and control system to a next generation integrated and sustainable system that takes into account quality protection and sustained supply into the future. This study evaluates the transition management model in adopting it as a viable tool for the attainment of sustainable groundwater management. The outcome of the evaluation shows that there are three levels (strategic, tactical and operational) of operating the transition management model. At the strategic level, long-term goals for sustainable groundwater management are formulated, at the tactical level activities such as inter institutional networking, negotiation, planning and financing are carried out, and at the operational level, transition experiments and strategic niche management are carried out at the societal level. Overall, different actors and set of activities are required to partake at each management level. The outcome of this paper will provide basis for the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 6 in Nigeria.

Keywords: transition management, groundwater, sustainable management, tool, Nigeria

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Authors: Kholil, Laksanto Utomo

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The food needs of the Indonesian people will continue increase year to year due to the increase of population growth. For ensuring food securityand and resilience, the government has developed a program food self-resilience village since 2006. Food resilience is a complex system, consisting of subsystem availability, distribution and consumption of the sufficiency of food consumed both in quantity and quality. Low access, and limited assets to food sources is the dominant factor vulnerable of food. Women have a major role in supporting the productive activities of the family to meet food sufficiency and resilience. The purpose of this paper is to discuss the model of food self-resilience village wich gender responsive by using a dynamic system model. Model will be developed into 3 level: family, vilage, and regency in accordance with the concept of village food resilience model wich has been developed by ministry of agriculture. Model development based on the results of experts discussion and field study. By some scenarios and simulation models we will able to develop appropriate policy strategies for family food resilience. The result of study show that food resilience was influenced by many factors: goverment policies, technology, human resource, and in the same time it will be a feed back for goverment policies and number of poor family.

Keywords: food availability, food sufficiency, gender, model dynamic, law enfrocement

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Authors: Aditya Karade, Sharada Falane, Dhananjay Deshmukh, Vijaykumar Mantri

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Brain tumors pose a significant challenge in healthcare due to their complex nature and impact on patient outcomes. The application of deep learning (DL) algorithms in medical imaging have shown promise in accurate and efficient brain tumour detection. This paper explores the performance of various pre-trained DL models ResNet50, Xception, InceptionV3, EfficientNetB0, DenseNet121, NASNetMobile, VGG19, VGG16, and MobileNet on a brain tumour dataset sourced from Figshare. The dataset consists of MRI scans categorizing different types of brain tumours, including meningioma, pituitary, glioma, and no tumour. The study involves a comprehensive evaluation of these models’ accuracy and effectiveness in classifying brain tumour images. Data preprocessing, augmentation, and finetuning techniques are employed to optimize model performance. Among the evaluated deep learning models for brain tumour detection, ResNet50 emerges as the top performer with an accuracy of 98.86%. Following closely is Xception, exhibiting a strong accuracy of 97.33%. These models showcase robust capabilities in accurately classifying brain tumour images. On the other end of the spectrum, VGG16 trails with the lowest accuracy at 89.02%.

Keywords: brain tumour, MRI image, detecting and classifying tumour, pre-trained models, transfer learning, image segmentation, data augmentation

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Authors: Shyam Sunder Kawan

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Museums are enclosed buildings encompassing and displaying creative artworks, artefacts, and discoveries for people’s knowledge and observation. In the context of Nepal, museums and exhibition areas are either adaptive to small gallery spaces in residences or ‘neo-classical palatial complexes’ that evolved during the 19th century. This study accepts the sparse occurrence of a diverse range of artworks and expressions in the country's complex cultural manifestations within vivid ethnic groups. This study explores the immense potential of one such prevalence beyond the delimitation of physical boundaries. Taking Bhaktapur World Heritage Site as a case, the study perpetuates its investigation into real-time life activities that this city and its cultural landscapes ensemble. Seeking the ‘musealization’ as an urban process to induce museums into the city precinct, this study anticipates art space into urban spaces to offer a limitless experience for this contemporary world. Unveiling art as an experiential component, this study aims to conceptualize a living heritage as an infinite resource for museum interpretation beyond just educational institute purposes.

Keywords: living museum, site museum, museulization, contemporary arts, cultural heritage, historic cities

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Authors: Mengmeng Zhang, Honghui Chen, Kalle Lyytinen

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The major challenges for sustainable business-IT alignment (BITA) in a company root in its volatile external competitive environment, increasingly complex internal relationships, and subversive IT roles. Failure to adequately address BITA results in wasting organizational resources, losing competitive advantages, and failing to produce adequate returns on investments. The coevolution is more suitable to describe the dynamic relationships of business and IT and has received certain attention in recent years. Multiple mechanisms for achieving BITC (e.g., sharing domain knowledge, modular design) were obtained. However, instead of a complete managing process, BITC achievement is still hard to operate in practice. This study emphasizes what the BITC management process looks like and how to execute this coevolution step-by-step. A practical coevolutionary framework that combines the enterprise architecture (EA) method with misalignment analysis is proposed in this paper. It contains steps of EA design, misalignment detection, misalignment correction, and EA management /misalignment prevention. The step of misalignment correction is especially discussed at length. This study also evaluates the proposed framework by comparing the characteristics, principles, and approaches of coevolution in the literature.

Keywords: business-IT alignment, business-IT coevolution, enterprise architecture, misalignment analysis, misalignment correction

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Authors: Somia Lakehal Ayat, Ibtissem Samai, Srara Lakehal Ayat, Chaima Dahmani

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The aim of this work relates to the physicochemical diversity and the characterization of the different types of soils of the edough massif (North East of Algeria) and to the evaluation and characterization of the existing organic matter as well as to the evolution. and the dynamics of the latter, also on its influence on changes in the physical properties of soils. In order to know the soil properties of seraidi forest, we established a stratified sampling plan. The results obtained show that we are in the presence of a great diversity of soils, such as neutral to alkaline, whose adsorbent complex is sufficiently saturated. Also, the presence of limestone offers the soil a fairly significant buffering capacity. In our study region, the texture of the soils is varied between clayey and silty, where it offers medium porosity, there is a strong accumulation of organic matter, therefore soils rich in organic matter.The fractionation of the organic matter of the soils allowed to obtain a very high rate of humification. The soil characteristics of the edough massif (North East of Algeria) are controlled by the contribution of organic matter, which presents a dynamic and an important evolution and which varies with the climatic conditions and the nature and the type of plant formation, and these the latter have a capital and important role in the rate of mineralization of organic matter.

Keywords: organic matter, soil, foresty, diversity, mineralization

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Authors: Ashfaq M. Naikwadi

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Decided cases of medical negligence, mostly are not settled in the lower courts. Majority of them reach up to the apex courts. This is mostly due to different interpretations of the term medical negligence. After studying various cases of medical negligence it is found that in most of the cases the doctors/hospitals are not held liable. There are different interpretations of law concerning medical services. Globally the principles deciding medical negligence are same, viz. Legal duty of care - breach of that duty - direct causation resulting in damages. Since ordinary negligence is not punishable by law, doctors/hospitals have defenses to save themselves from liability. Complaints of negligence come to the courts whose judges mostly are not oriented with medical services or health sciences. Matters of medical negligence are decided on the basic principles of reasonableness and prudence or by relying on the expert’s opinion. Deciding reasonableness or prudence is a complex issue in case of medical services. Again expert opinion is also questionable as an expert in case of medical negligence is appointed from the same field and same faculty. There is a chance of favoritism to the doctor/hospital. The concept of vicarious liability is not widely applied to in many of the medical negligence cases. Established cases used as precedents were studied to understand the basic principles in deciding medical negligence. This paper evaluates the present criteria in interpreting medical negligence and concludes with suggesting reforms required to be made in deciding matters of medical negligence under the consumer laws.

Keywords: consumer, doctors, laws, medical negligence

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Authors: Shokoufeh Roudashti, Shahin Bahari, Fakhri Haghi, Habib Zeighami, Ghazal Naderi, Paniz Shirmast

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Background: Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex (MTBC) causes tuberculosis (TB) in humans and animals. Mycobacterium MTBC is one of the most important species of zoonotic pathogens that can be transmitted from cattle to humans. The disease can transmit to human by direct contact with the infected animals, drinking unpasteurized milk and consumption of uncooked meat. The presence of these opportunistic, pathogenic bacteria in bovine milk has emerged as a public-health concern, especially among individuals who consume raw milk. Tuberculosis MTBC is the predominant infectious cause of morbidity and morality worldwide, It is estimated that one third of the world population (approx. 1.8 billion persons) is infected with M. tuberculosis and each year there are 8 million new cases worldwide. The aim of this study, to detect Mycobacterium MTBC in raw milk samples using polymerase chain reaction (PCR). Materials and Methods: In the present study, 60 raw milk samples were collected from rural areas in Zanjan, Iran. After extraction of DNAs and using special primers for Is6110 gene as a marker, PCR was applied to detect the presence or non-presence of the related gene. Results: According to the findings of this study, 8 (13.5 %) out of 60 milk samples were positive for Mycobacterium spp (P < 0.1). Conclusions: The Outbreak of genus Mycobacteria spp in milk samples were determined to be relatively high in Zanjan, Iran.

Keywords: Mycobacteria spp, raw milk, PCR, Zanjan

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Authors: Anton Serov, Alan Maslani, Michal Hlina, Vladimir Kopecky, Milan Hrabovsky

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Recycling of organic waste is an increasingly hot topic in recent years. This issue becomes even more interesting if the raw material for the fuel production can be obtained as the result of that recycling. A process of high-temperature decomposition of a lignite (a non-hydrolysable complex organic compound) was studied on the plasma gasification reactor PLASGAS, where water-stabilized plasma torch was used as a source of high enthalpy plasma. The plasma torch power was 120 kW and allowed heating of the reactor to more than 1000 °C. The material feeding rate in the gasification reactor was selected 30 and 60 kg per hour that could be compared with small industrial production. An efficiency estimation of the thermal decomposition process was done. A balance of the torch energy distribution was studied as well as an influence of the lignite particle size and an addition of methane (CH4) in a reaction volume on the syngas composition (H2+CO). It was found that the ratio H2:CO had values in the range of 1,5 to 2,5 depending on the experimental conditions. The recycling process occurred at atmospheric pressure that was one of the important benefits because of the lack of expensive vacuum pump systems. The work was supported by the Grant Agency of the Czech Republic under the project GA15-19444S.

Keywords: atmospheric pressure, lignite, plasma treatment, water-stabilized plasma torch

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Authors: Paulo H. R. G. Reis, Joana P. Maia, Davi Neiva Alves, Mariana R. C. Aquino, Igor B. Guimaraes, Anderson Horta, Thiago Santiago, Mariana Volpini

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Additive manufacturing is a manufacturing technique used in many fields as a tool for the production of complex parts accurately. This technique has a wide possibility of applications in bioengineering, mainly in the manufacture of orthopedic devices, thanks to the versatility of shapes and surface details. The present article aims to evaluate the mechanical viability of a wrist-hand orthosis made using additive manufacturing techniques with Nylon 12 polyamide and compare this device with the wrist-hand orthosis manufactured by the traditional process with thermoplastic Ezeform. The methodology used is based on the application of computational simulations of voltage and temperature, from finite element analysis, in order to evaluate the properties of displacement, mechanical stresses and thermal comfort in the two devices. The execution of this work was carried out through a case study with a 29-year-old male patient. The modeling software involved was Meshmixer from US manufacturer Autodesk and Fusion 360 from the same manufacturer. The results demonstrated that the orthosis developed by 3D printing, from Nylon 12, presents better thermal comfort and response to the mechanical stresses exerted on the orthosis.

Keywords: additive manufacturing, finite elements, hand orthosis, thermal comfort, neurorehabilitation

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Authors: S. A. Tabatabaei, S. Aarabi

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Predicting the hot mix asphalt (HMA) response and performance is a challenging task because of the subjectivity of HMA under the complex loading and environmental condition. The behavior of HMA is a function of temperature of loading and also shows the time and rate-dependent behavior directly affecting design criteria of mixture. Velocity of load passing make the time and rate. The viscoelasticity illustrates the reaction of HMA under loading and environmental conditions such as temperature and moisture effect. The behavior has direct effect on design criteria such as tensional strain and vertical deflection. In this paper, the computational framework for viscoelasticity and implementation in 3D dimensional HMA model is introduced to use in finite element method. The model was lied under various repeated loading conditions at constant temperature. The response of HMA viscoelastic behavior is investigated in loading condition under speed vehicle and sensitivity of behavior to the range of speed and compared to HMA which is supposed to have elastic behavior as in conventional design methods. The results show the importance of loading time pulse, unloading time and various speeds on design criteria. Also the importance of memory fading of material to storing the strain and stress due to repeated loading was shown. The model was simulated by ABAQUS finite element package

Keywords: viscoelasticity, finite element method, repeated loading, HMA

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Authors: Amanda M. Tadini, Houssam Hajjoul, Gustavo Nicolodelli, Stéphane Mounier, Célia R. Montes, Débora M. B. P. Milori

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Soil organic matter (SOM) plays an important role in maintaining soil productivity and accounting for the promotion of biological diversity. The main components of the SOM are the humic substances which can be fractionated according to its solubility in humic acid (HA), fulvic acids (FA) and humin (HU). The determination of the chemical properties of organic matter as well as its interaction with metallic species is an important tool for understanding the structure of the humic fractions. Fluorescence spectroscopy has been studied as a source of information about what is happening at the molecular level in these compounds. Specially, soils of Amazon region are an important ecosystem of the planet. The aim of this study is to understand the molecular and structural composition of HA samples from Spodosol of Amazonia using the fluorescence Emission-Excitation Matrix (EEM) and Time Resolved Fluorescence Spectroscopy (TRFS). The results showed that the samples of HA showed two fluorescent components; one has a more complex structure and the other one has a simpler structure, which was also seen in TRFS through the evaluation of each sample lifetime. Thus, studies of this nature become important because it aims to evaluate the molecular and structural characteristics of the humic fractions in the region that is considered as one of the most important regions in the world, the Amazon.

Keywords: Amazonian soil, characterization, fluorescence, humic acid, lifetime

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Authors: Suneet Jagdev

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17 Sustainable Development Goals were adopted by the world leaders in September 2015 at the United Nations Sustainable Development Summit. These goals were adopted by UN member states to promote prosperity, health and human rights while protecting the planet. Around the same time, the Government of India launched the Smart City Initiative to speed up development of state of the art infrastructure and services in 100 cities with a focus on sustainable and inclusive development. These cities are meant to become role models for other cities in India and promote sustainable regional development. This paper examines goals set under the Smart City Initiative and evaluates them in terms of the Sustainable Development Goals, using case studies of selected Smart Cities in India. The study concludes that most Smart City projects at present actually consist of individual solutions to individual problems identified in a community rather than comprehensive models for complex issues in cities across India. Systematic, logical and comparative analysis of important literature and data has been done, collected from government sources, government papers, research papers by various experts on the topic, and results from some online surveys. Case studies have been used for a graphical analysis highlighting the issues of migration, ecology, economy and social equity in these Smart Cities.

Keywords: housing, migration, smart cities, sustainable development goals, urban infrastructure

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Authors: Fawwaz Eniola Fajingbesi, Nur Shahida Midia, Elsheikh M. A. Elsheikh, Siti Hajar Yusoff

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Empirical analysis of lightning related phenomena in real time is extremely dangerous due to the relatively high electric discharge involved. Hence, design and optimization of efficient grounding systems depending on real time empirical methods are impeded. Using numerical methods, the dynamics of complex systems could be modeled hence solved as sets of linear and non-linear systems . In this work, the induced current distribution as lightning strike traverses the soil have been numerically modeled in a 2D axial-symmetry and solved using finite element method (FEM) in COMSOL Multiphysics 5.2 AC/DC module. Stratified and non- stratified electrode system were considered in the solved model and soil conductivity (σ) varied between 10 – 58 mS/m. The result discussed therein were the electric field distribution, current distribution and soil ionization phenomena. It can be concluded that the electric field and current distribution is influenced by the injected electric potential and the non-linearity in soil conductivity. The result from numerical calculation also agrees with previously laboratory scale empirical results.

Keywords: current distribution, grounding systems, lightning discharge, numerical model, soil conductivity, soil ionization

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Authors: Aghamusa Azizov

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This study investigates the correlation between solar activity and sentiment in news media coverage, using a large-scale dataset of solar activity since 1750 and over 15 million articles from "The New York Times" dating from 1851 onwards. Employing Pearson's correlation coefficient and multiple Natural Language Processing (NLP) tools—TextBlob, Vader, and DistillBERT—the research examines the extent to which fluctuations in solar phenomena are reflected in the sentiment of historical news narratives. The findings reveal that the correlation between solar activity and media sentiment is generally negligible, suggesting a weak influence of solar patterns on the portrayal of events in news media. Notably, a moderate positive correlation was observed between the sentiments derived from TextBlob and Vader, indicating consistency across NLP tools. The analysis provides insights into the historical impact of solar activity on human affairs and highlights the importance of using multiple analytical methods to understand complex relationships in large datasets. The study contributes to the broader understanding of how extraterrestrial factors may intersect with media-reported events and underlines the intricate nature of interdisciplinary research in the data science and historical domains.

Keywords: solar activity correlation, media sentiment analysis, natural language processing, historical event patterns

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Authors: Sanaa Riaz

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Spirits occupy a world that simultaneously dwells between the divine and the earthly binary while speaking to all forces of nature, marginality, and extremity in between. This paper examines the conceptualizations, interactions with, and experience of spiritual beings in relation to the concept of self and social agency, defined as a continuum of cooperation leaving those involved with an enhanced or diminished perception of self-agency. To do justice to the diverse mythological and popular interpretations of spirit entities, ethnographic examples from Africa, in particular, will be used. An examination of the nature and role of spirits in Africa allows one to understand the ways in which colonial influences brought by Catholicism and Islam added to the pre-colonial repertoire and syncretic imaginations of spirits. A comprehensive framework to analyze spirits requires situating them as a cognitive configuration of humans to communicate with other humans and forces of nature to receive knowledge about the normative in social roles, conduct, and action. Understanding spirits also requires a rethinking of the concept of self as not one encapsulated in the individual but one representing positionalities in collective negotiations, adversity, and alliances. To use the postmodern understanding of identity as a far from a coherent collection of selves fluidly moving between and dialoguing with gravitational and contradictory social forces, benevolent and maleficent spirit forces represent how people make sense of their origin, physiological and ecological changes, subsistence, and political environment and social relations. A discussion on spirits requires examining the rituals and mediational forces and their performance that allow participants to tackle adversity, voicelessness and continue to work safely and morally for the collective good. Moreover, it is important to see the conceptualization of spirits in unison with sorcery and spirit possession, central to voodoo practices, also because they speak volumes about the experiences of slavery and marginalization. This paper has two motives: It presents a critical literature review of ethnographic accounts of spirit entities in African spiritual experiences to examine the ways in which spirits become mediums through which the self is conceptualized and asserted. Second, the paper highlights the ways in which spirits become a medium to represent political and sociocultural ambiguities and desires along a spectrum of social agencies, including joint agency, vicarious agency, and interfered agency.

Keywords: spirits, social agency, self, ethnographic case studies

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Authors: Emmanouel Koumoulas, Aikaterini Rokkou, Marios Moschakis

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Theagenio" in Thessaloniki exists and works for three centuries now as a hospital. Since 1975, it has been operating as an Integrated Special Cancer Hospital and since 1985 it has been integrated into the National Health System. "Theagenio" Cancer Hospital is located at the central web of Thessaloniki residential complex and consists of two buildings, the "Symeonidio Research Center", which was completed in 1962 and the Nursing Ward, a project that was later completed in 1975. This paper examines the design of the Hospital Unit according to the requirements of the energy design of buildings. Initially, the energy characteristics of the Hospital are recorded, followed by a detailed presentation of the electromechanical installations. After the existing situation has been captured and with the help of the software TEE-KENAK, different scenarios for the energy upgrading of the buildings have been studied. Proposals for upgrading concern both the shell, e.g. installation of external thermal insulation, replacement of frames, addition of shading systems, etc. as well as electromechanical installations, e.g. use of ceiling fans, improvements in heating and cooling systems, interventions in lighting, etc. The simulation calculates the future energy status of the buildings and presents the economic benefits of the proposed interventions with reference to the environmental profits that arise.

Keywords: energy consumption in hospitals, energy saving interventions, energy upgrading, hospital facilities

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Authors: Nawel Ouennoughi, Kamel Daoud

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During recent years, new pharmaceutical dosage forms were developed in the research laboratories and which consists of encapsulating one or more active molecules in a polymeric envelope. Several techniques of encapsulation allow obtaining the microparticles or the nanoparticles containing one or several polymers. In the industry, microencapsulation is implemented to fill the following objectives: to ensure protection, the compatibility and the stabilization of an active matter in a formulation, to carry out an adapted working, to improve the presentation of a product, to mask a taste or an odor, to modify and control the profile of release of an active matter to obtain, for example, prolonged or started effect. To this end, we focus ourselves on the encapsulation of the antidiabetic. It is an oral hypoglycemic agent belonging to the second generation of sulfonylurea’s commonly employed in the treatment of type II non-insulin-dependent diabetes in order to improve profile them dissolution. Our choice was made on the technique of encapsulation by complex coacervation with two types of polymers (gelatin and the gum Arabic) which is a physicochemical process. Several parameters were studied at the time of the formulation of the microparticles and the nanoparticles: temperature, pH, ratio of polymers etc. The microparticles and the nanoparticles obtained were characterized by microscopy, laser granulometry, FTIR and UV-visible spectrophotometry. The profile of dissolution obtained for the microparticles showed an improvement of the kinetics of dissolution compared to that obtained for the active ingredient.

Keywords: coacervation, gum Arabic, microencapsulation, gelatin

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Authors: Ching-Shoei Chiang

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The Malfatti’s Problem solves the problem of fitting 3 circles into a right triangle such that these 3 circles are tangent to each other, and each circle is also tangent to a pair of the triangle’s sides. This problem has been extended to any triangle (called general Malfatti’s Problem). Furthermore, the problem has been extended to have 1+2+…+n circles inside the triangle with special tangency properties among circles and triangle sides; we call it extended general Malfatti’s problem. In the extended general Malfatti’s problem, call it Tri(Tn), where Tn is the triangle number, there are closed-form solutions for Tri(T₁) (inscribed circle) problem and Tri(T₂) (3 Malfatti’s circles) problem. These problems become more complex when n is greater than 2. In solving Tri(Tn) problem, n>2, algorithms have been proposed to solve these problems numerically. With a similar idea, this paper proposed an algorithm to find the radii of circles with the same tangency properties. Instead of the boundary of the triangle being a straight line, we use a convex circular arc as the boundary and try to find Tn circles inside this convex circular triangle with the same tangency properties among circles and boundary Carc. We call these problems the Carc(Tn) problems. The CPU time it takes for Carc(T16) problem, which finds 136 circles inside a convex circular triangle with specified tangency properties, is less than one second.

Keywords: circle packing, computer-aided geometric design, geometric constraint solver, Malfatti’s problem

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Authors: Shafiullah Soomro

Abstract:

Active contour is one of the image segmentation techniques and its goal is to capture required object boundaries within an image. In this paper, we propose a novel image segmentation method by using an active contour method based on anisotropic diffusion feature enhancement technique. The traditional active contour methods use only pixel information to perform segmentation, which produces inaccurate results when an image has some noise or complex background. We use Perona and Malik diffusion scheme for feature enhancement, which sharpens the object boundaries and blurs the background variations. Our main contribution is the formulation of a new SPF (signed pressure force) function, which uses global intensity information across the regions. By minimizing an energy function using partial differential framework the proposed method captures semantically meaningful boundaries instead of catching uninterested regions. Finally, we use a Gaussian kernel which eliminates the problem of reinitialization in level set function. We use several synthetic and real images from different modalities to validate the performance of the proposed method. In the experimental section, we have found the proposed method performance is better qualitatively and quantitatively and yield results with higher accuracy compared to other state-of-the-art methods.

Keywords: active contours, anisotropic diffusion, level-set, partial differential equations

Procedia PDF Downloads 146