Search results for: innovation ecosystem components

Authors: Asma Temagoult, Bariza Zitouni, Yassin Noui

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Cactus fruit contains different nutritional and functional components, which are used because of their benefits to human health, such as flavonoids, phenolic compounds, carotenoids and vitamins C. It has hypoglycemic and hypolipidemic action, and antioxidant properties related to anticarcinogenic, antiulcerogenic and immunomodulatory effects. The antioxidant and nutritional properties have been characterized in cactus prickly pear (Opuntia ficus-indica Mill.), cultivar yellow, grown in Arris area; Eastern of Algeria. The antioxidant properties of this cactus cultivar were higher than the others cactus cultivar in the world. The amount of fruit phenolic compounds revealed contents between 20.65 and 45.70 mg / 100 g of FW for total polyphenols and 0.519 - 0.591 mg / 100 g of FW for the flavonoids. The antioxidant activity was evaluated by DPPH radical scavenging and FRAP (ferric reducing antioxidant power) methods. The average recorded to the potassium content is about 1070 mg / 100 g of the fresh weight; sodium is 60.7 mg / 100 g of the fresh weight and 80 mg / 100g for the calcium. According to the high value of this cactus, it was considered as a good nutrient and important pharmaceutical resource. It could be used as a natural additive or substituted food supplement in many foodstuffs production, to benefit from these benefits.

Keywords: antioxidant properties, DPPH, FRAP, nutritional properties, Opuntia ficus indica

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Authors: Sandeep Bandarwadkar, Tadas Zdankus

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To maintain a comfortable indoor temperature for its residents in the colder season, heating a building is necessary. Due to the expansion in the construction sectors, the consumption of heating energy is increasing. According to Eurostat data, in the European Union, the share of energy consumption of heating energy for space and cooling in residential buildings was around 63% in 2019. These figures indicate that heating energy still accounts for a significant portion of total energy consumption in Europe. Innovation is crucial to reduce energy consumption in buildings and achieve greater energy efficiency and sustainability. It can bring about new solutions that are smarter and more natural energy generation to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The ground can serve as an effective and sustainable heat accumulator for heating and cooling. The temperature of the ground is higher than that of the ambient air in the colder period and lower in the warmer period. The building deep in the soil could use less thermal energy compared to the above-ground buildings that provide the same amount of thermal comfort. The temperature difference between the soil and the air inside the building decreases as the temperature of the soil increases. In progress, this process generates the condition that acts against heat loss. However, heat dissipates further to the consecutive layers and reaches thermal equilibrium. The charging of the ground by heat and its dissipation through the adjacent soil layers was investigated experimentally. The results of this research showed that 9% of the energy savings in partially underground buildings and 44.4% in completely underground buildings were derived from heating the space. Heat loss to the ground is treated as a charge of the soil by thermal energy. The dependence of the intensity of the charge on time was analysed and presented.

Keywords: heat transfer, accumulation of heat, underground building, soil charge

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Authors: E. R. Swart, S. J. Gismondi, N. R. Swart, C. E. Bell

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We present an heuristic algorithm that decides graph non-Hamiltonicity. All graphs are directed, each undirected edge regarded as a pair of counter directed arcs. Each of the n! Hamilton cycles in a complete graph on n+1 vertices is mapped to an n-permutation matrix P where p(u,i)=1 if and only if the ith arc in a cycle enters vertex u, starting and ending at vertex n+1. We first create exclusion set E by noting all arcs (u, v) not in G, sufficient to code precisely all cycles excluded from G i.e. cycles not in G use at least one arc not in G. Members are pairs of components of P, {p(u,i),p(v,i+1)}, i=1, n-1. A doubly stochastic-like relaxed LP formulation of the Hamilton cycle decision problem is constructed. Each {p(u,i),p(v,i+1)} in E is coded as variable q(u,i,v,i+1)=0 i.e. shrinks the feasible region. We then implement the Weak Closure Algorithm (WCA) that tests necessary conditions of a matching, together with Boolean closure to decide 0/1 variable assignments. Each {p(u,i),p(v,j)} not in E is tested for membership in E, and if possible, added to E (q(u,i,v,j)=0) to iteratively maximize |E|. If the WCA constructs E to be maximal, the set of all {p(u,i),p(v,j)}, then G is decided non-Hamiltonian. Only non-Hamiltonian G share this maximal property. Ten non-Hamiltonian graphs (10 through 104 vertices) and 2000 randomized 31 vertex non-Hamiltonian graphs are tested and correctly decided non-Hamiltonian. For Hamiltonian G, the complement of E covers a matching, perhaps useful in searching for cycles. We also present an example where the WCA fails.

Keywords: Hamilton cycle decision problem, computational complexity theory, graph theory, theoretical computer science

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Authors: Fayyaz Rasool, Shakeela Parveen

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The studies on genetic diversity of Labeo rohita by using molecular markers were carried out to investigate the genetic structure by RAPAD marker and the levels of polymorphism and similarity amongst the different groups of five populations of wild and farmed types. The samples were collected from different five locations as representatives of wild and hatchery raised populations. RAPAD data for Jaccard’s coefficient by following the un-weighted Pair Group Method with Arithmetic Mean (UPGMA) for Hierarchical Clustering of the similar groups on the basis of similarity amongst the genotypes and the dendrogram generated divided the randomly selected individuals of the five populations into three classes/clusters. The variance decomposition for the optimal classification values remained as 52.11% for within class variation, while 47.89% for the between class differences. The Principal Component Analysis (PCA) for grouping of the different genotypes from the different environmental conditions was done by Spearman Varimax rotation method for bi-plot generation of the co-occurrence of the same genotypes with similar genetic properties and specificity of different primers indicated clearly that the increase in the number of factors or components was correlated with the decrease in eigenvalues. The Kaiser Criterion based upon the eigenvalues greater than one, first two main factors accounted for 58.177% of cumulative variability.

Keywords: variation, clustering, PCA, wild, hatchery, RAPAD, Labeo rohita

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Authors: Akeel Noori Al-Mulla Hwaish

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The environmental impact, economics, social and cultural factors, and the processes by which people define history and meaning had influenced the dynamic shape and character of the traditional Islamic Arabic city. Therefore, in regard to the period when Islam was at its peak (7th- 13th Centuries), Islamic city wasn’t the highly dynamited at the scale of buildings and city planning that demonstrates a distinguished city as an ‘Islamic’ as appeared after centuries when the function of the buildings and their particular arrangement and planning scheme in relation to one another that defined an Islamic city character. The architectural features of the urban fabric of the traditional Arabic Islamic city are a ‎reflection of the spiritual, social, and cultural characteristics of the people. It is a ‎combination of Islamic values ‘Din’ and life needs ‘Dunia’ as Prophet Muhammad built the first Mosque in ‎Madinah in the 1st year of his migration to it, then the Suq or market on 2nd of Hijrah, attached to ‎the mosque to signify the birth of a new Muslims community which considers both, ‎‎’Din’ and ‘Dunia’ and initiated nucleus for what which called after that as an ‘Islamic’ city. This research will discuss the main characteristics and components of the traditional Arab cities and demonstrate the impact of the Islamic values on shaping the planning layout and general built environment features of the early traditional Arab cities.

Keywords: urban, Islamic, Arabic, city

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Authors: Jiwon Lee, Si-hwan Jang, Sanghyun Joo

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The popularity of emoticons are on the rise since the mobile messengers are generalized. At the same time, few problems of emoticons are also occurred due to innate characteristics of emoticons. Too many emoticons make difficult people to select one which is well-suited for user's intention. On the contrary to this, sometimes user cannot find the emoticon which expresses user's exact intention. Poor information delivery of emoticon is another problem due to a major part of current emoticons are focused on emotion delivery. In this situation, we propose a new concept of emoticons, editable emoticons, to solve above drawbacks of emoticons. User can edit the components inside the proposed editable emoticon and send it to express his exact intention. By doing so, the number of editable emoticons can be maintained reasonable, and it can express user's exact intention. Further, editable emoticons can be used as information deliverer according to user's intention and editing skills. In this paper, we propose the concept of editable emoticons and schema based editable emoticon description method. The proposed description method is 200 times superior to the compared screen capturing method in the view of transmission bandwidth. Further, the description method is designed to have compatibility since it follows MPEG-UD international standard. The proposed editable emoticons can be exploited not only mobile applications, but also various fields such as education and medical field.

Keywords: description schema, editable emoticon, emoticon transmission, mobile applications

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Authors: Wanhyun Cho, Soonja Kang, Sangkyoon Kim, Soonyoung Park

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In this paper, we present the human action recognition method using the variational Bayesian HMM with the Dirichlet process mixture (DPM) of the Gaussian-Wishart emission model (GWEM). First, we define the Bayesian HMM based on the Dirichlet process, which allows an infinite number of Gaussian-Wishart components to support continuous emission observations. Second, we have considered an efficient variational Bayesian inference method that can be applied to drive the posterior distribution of hidden variables and model parameters for the proposed model based on training data. And then we have derived the predictive distribution that may be used to classify new action. Third, the paper proposes a process of extracting appropriate spatial-temporal feature vectors that can be used to recognize a wide range of human behaviors from input video image. Finally, we have conducted experiments that can evaluate the performance of the proposed method. The experimental results show that the method presented is more efficient with human action recognition than existing methods.

Keywords: human action recognition, Bayesian HMM, Dirichlet process mixture model, Gaussian-Wishart emission model, Variational Bayesian inference, prior distribution and approximate posterior distribution, KTH dataset

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Authors: Paul Saah, Charles Mbohwa, Nelson Sizwe Madonsela

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In the context of developing countries, this study explores a crucial component of economic development by examining the reasons behind the failure of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). SMEs are acknowledged as essential drivers of economic expansion, job creation, and poverty alleviation in emerging countries. This research uses South Africa as a case study to evaluate the reasons why SMEs fail in developing nations. This study explores a quantitative research methodology to investigate the complex causes of SME failures using statistical tools and reliability tests. To ensure the viability of data collection, a sample size of 400 small business owners was chosen using a non-probability selection technique. A closed-ended questionnaire was the primary technique used to obtain detailed information from the participants. Data was analysed and interpreted using computer software packages such as the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS). According to the findings, the main reasons why SMEs fail in developing nations are a lack of strategic business planning, a lack of funding, poor management, a lack of innovation, a lack of business research and a low level of education and training. The results of this study show that SMEs can be sustainable and successful as long as they comprehend and use the suggested small business success determining variables into their daily operations. This implies that the more SMEs in developing countries implement the proposed determinant factors of small business success in their business operations the more the businesses are likely to succeed and vice versa.

Keywords: failure, developing countries, SMEs, economic development, South Africa

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Authors: Fatma El-Zahraa El-Taher, Ayman Taha, Jane Courtney, Susan Mckeever

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Understanding road networks plays an important role in navigation applications such as self-driving vehicles and route planning for individual journeys. Intersections of roads are essential components of road networks. Understanding the features of an intersection, from a simple T-junction to larger multi-road junctions, is critical to decisions such as crossing roads or selecting the safest routes. The identification and profiling of intersections from satellite images is a challenging task. While deep learning approaches offer the state-of-the-art in image classification and detection, the availability of training datasets is a bottleneck in this approach. In this paper, a labelled satellite image dataset for the intersection recognition problem is presented. It consists of 14,692 satellite images of Washington DC, USA. To support other users of the dataset, an automated download and labelling script is provided for dataset replication. The challenges of construction and fine-grained feature labelling of a satellite image dataset is examined, including the issue of how to address features that are spread across multiple images. Finally, the accuracy of the detection of intersections in satellite images is evaluated.

Keywords: satellite images, remote sensing images, data acquisition, autonomous vehicles

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Authors: Justine Garraud, Hervé Capiaux, Cécile Le Guern, Pierre Gaudin, Clémentine Lapie, Samuel Chaffron, Erwan Delage, Thierry Lebeau

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The repeated use of Bordeaux mixture (copper sulphate) and other chemical forms of copper (Cu) has led to its accumulation in wine-growing soils for more than a century, to the point of modifying the ecosystem of these soils. Phytoextraction of copper could progressively reduce the Cu load in these soils, and even to recycle copper (e.g. as a micronutrient in animal nutrition) by cultivating the extracting plants in the inter-row of the vineyards. Soil cleaning up usually requires several years because the chemical speciation of Cu in solution is mainly based on forms complexed with dissolved organic matter (DOM) that are not phytoavailable, unlike the "free" forms (Cu2+). Indeed, more than 98% of Cu in the solution is bound to DOM. The selection and inoculation of invineyardsoils in vineyard soils ofbacteria(bioaugmentation) able to degrade Cu-DOM complexes could increase the phytoavailable pool of Cu2+ in the soil solution (in addition to bacteria which first mobilize Cu in solution from the soil bearing phases) in order to increase phytoextraction performance. In this study, sevenCu-accumulating plants potentially usable in inter-row were tested for their Cu phytoextraction capacity in hydroponics (ray-grass, brown mustard, buckwheat, hemp, sunflower, oats, and chicory). Also, a bacterial consortium was tested: Pseudomonas sp. previously studied for its ability to mobilize Cu through the pyoverdine siderophore (complexing agent) and potentially to degrade Cu-DOM complexes, and a second bacterium (to be selected) able to promote the survival of Pseudomonas sp. following its inoculation in soil. Interaction network method was used based on the notions of co-occurrence and, therefore, of bacterial abundance found in the same soils. Bacteria from the EcoVitiSol project (Alsace, France) were targeted. The final step consisted of incoupling the bacterial consortium with the chosen plant in soil pots. The degradation of Cu-DOMcomplexes is measured on the basis of the absorption index at 254nm, which gives insight on the aromaticity of the DOM. The“free” Cu in solution (from the mobilization of Cu and/or the degradation of Cu-MOD complexes) is assessed by measuring pCu. Eventually, Cu accumulation in plants is measured by ICP-AES. The selection of the plant is currently being finalized. The interaction network method targeted the best positive interactions ofFlavobacterium sp. with Pseudomonassp. These bacteria are both PGPR (plant growth promoting rhizobacteria) with the ability to improve the plant growth and to mobilize Cu from the soil bearing phases (siderophores). Also, these bacteria are known to degrade phenolic groups, which are highly present in DOM. They could therefore contribute to the degradation of DOM-Cu. The results of the upcoming bacteria-plant coupling tests in pots will be also presented.

Keywords: complexes Cu-DOM, bioaugmentation, phytoavailability, phytoextraction

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Authors: Felicia Orah Rein Moshe

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Soil erosion has become a priority global concern, impairing water quality and degrading ecosystem services. In Mediterranean climates, following a long dry period, the onset of rain occurs when agricultural soils are often bare and most vulnerable to erosion. Early storms transport sediments and sediment-bound pollutants into streams, along with dissolved chemicals. This results in loss of valuable topsoil, water quality degradation, and potentially expensive dredged-material disposal costs. Information on the provenance of fine sediment and priority sources of adsorbed pollutants represents a critical need for developing effective control strategies aimed at source reduction. Modifying sediment traps designed for marine systems, this study tested a cost-effective method to collect suspended sediments on a catchment scale to characterize stream water quality during first-flush storm events in a flashy Eastern Mediterranean coastal perennial stream. This study investigated the Kishon Basin, deploying sediment traps in 23 locations, including 4 in the mainstream and one downstream in each of 19 tributaries, enabling the characterization of sediment as a vehicle for transporting chemicals. Further, it enabled direct comparison of sediment-bound pollutants transported during the first-flush winter storms of 2020 from each of 19 tributaries, allowing subsequent ecotoxicity ranking. Sediment samples were successfully captured in 22 locations. Pesticides, pharmaceuticals, nutrients, and metal concentrations were quantified, identifying a total of 50 pesticides, 15 pharmaceuticals, and 22 metals, with 16 pesticides and 3 pharmaceuticals found in all 23 locations, demonstrating the importance of this transport pathway. Heavy metals were detected in only one tributary, identifying an important watershed pollution source with immediate potential influence on long-term dredging costs. Simultaneous sediment sampling at first flush storms enabled clear identification of priority tributaries and their chemical contributions, advancing a new national watershed monitoring approach, facilitating strategic plan development based on source reduction, and advancing the goal of improving the farm-stream interface, conserving soil resources, and protecting water quality.

Keywords: adsorbed pollution, dredged material, heavy metals, suspended sediment, water quality monitoring

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Authors: Rayeheh Khatami, Toktam Hanaei, Mohammad Reza Mansouri Daneshvar

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Today, many local and national governments are developing urban agriculture as an effective tool in responding to challenges such as food security, poverty and environmental problems. In fact, urban agriculture plays an important role in food system, which can provide citizens' income and become one of the components of economic, social and environmental systems. The purpose of this paper is to analyze the urban agriculture and urban food systems in order to understand the impact of urban foods production on environmental planning in non-western city region context. To achieve such objective, we carry out a case study in Mashhad city of Iran by using qualitative approaches. A survey on documentary studies and planning tools integrate with face to face interview with experts which explain the role of food system in environmental planning process. The paper extends the use of food in the environmental planning, specifically to examine this role to create agricultural garden as a mean to improve agricultural system in non-western country. The paper is concluded with a set of recommendations for researchers and policymakers who seek to create spaces in order to implement urban agriculture in cities for food justice.

Keywords: urban agriculture , agricultural park, city region food system, Mashhad

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Authors: Han Longxiang

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In the process of treating industrial oil wastewater with complex components, the traditional treatment methods (flotation, coagulation, microwave heating, etc.) often produce high operating costs, secondary pollution, and other problems. In order to solve these problems, the materials with high flux and stability applied to surfactant-stabilized emulsions separation have gained huge attention in the treatment of oily wastewater. Nevertheless, four stable oil-in-water emulsions can be formed due to different surfactants (surfactant-free, anionic surfactant, cationic surfactant, and non-ionic surfactant), and the previous advanced materials can only separate one or several of them, cannot effectively separate in one step. Herein, a facile synthesis method of graphene-based multilevel filter materials (GMFM) can efficiently separate the oil-in-water emulsions stabilized with different surfactants only through its gravity. The prepared materials with high stability of 20 cycles show a high flux of ~ 5000 L m-2 h-1 with a high separation efficiency of > 99.9 %. GMFM can effectively separate the emulsion stabilized by mixed surfactants and oily wastewater from factories. The results indicate that the GMFM has a wide range of applications in oil-in-water emulsions separation in industry and environmental science.

Keywords: emulsion, filtration, graphene, one-step

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Authors: Mansur Abdulrasheed, Ibrahim I. Hussein, Ahmed M. Mubarak, Ahmed F. Umar

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This study was aimed at evaluating the phytochemical constituents and the antimicrobial activity of the seed oil of Moringa oleifera and garlic against some selected food-borne microorganisms (Staphylococcus aureus, Escherichia coli, Salmonella spp and Pseudomonas aeruginosa) using disc diffusion method. The results of the phytochemical screening revealed differences in the presence of the phytochemicals among the extracts. Saponins were detected in both Moringa oleifera and garlic seed oil, while alkaloid and tannins were observed in seed oil of garlic. Furthermore, the antibacterial assay results show that the seed oil of Moringa oleifera was inactive against all the tested organisms, even at 100 % concentration. In contrast, garlic oil was found to be active against all the tested organisms. The highest inhibition was observed in E. coli (12 mm)at 100 % concentration, while at 20 % concentration, Salmonella Sp and P. aeruginosa showed the least inhibit on (6 mm). The antimicrobial activity of the seed oil of garlic may be attributed to its phytochemicals components which were not detected in the seed oil of Moringa oleifera. The results of this study have shown the potentials of the seed oil of garlic as an antimicrobial agent more especially in foods, by inhibiting the growth of the test organisms, which range from food-borne pathogens to food spoilage organisms.

Keywords: antimicrobial, garlic, Moringa oleifera, food borne pathogens

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Authors: Yannick Willemin

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Carbon fibre-reinforced plastic (CFRP) offers outstanding value. However, like all materials, CFRP also has its challenges. Many forming processes are largely manual and hard to automate, making it challenging to control repeatability and reproducibility (R&R); they generate significant scrap and are too slow for high-series production; fibre costs are relatively high and subject to supply and cost fluctuations; the supply chain is fragmented; many forms of CFRP are not recyclable, and many materials have yet to be fully characterized for accurate simulation; shelf life and outlife limitations add cost; continuous-fibre forms have design limitations; many materials are brittle; and small and/or thick parts are costly to produce and difficult to automate. A majority of small structural parts are metal due to high CFRP fabrication costs for the small-size class. The fact that CFRP manufacturing processes that produce the highest performance parts also tend to be the slowest and least automated is another reason CFRP parts are generally higher in cost than comparably performing metal parts, which are easier to produce. Fortunately, business is in the midst of a major manufacturing evolution—Industry 4.0— one technology seeing rapid growth is additive manufacturing/3D printing, thanks to new processes and materials, plus an ability to harness Industry 4.0 tools. No longer limited to just prototype parts, metal-additive technologies are used to produce tooling and mold components for high-volume manufacturing, and polymer-additive technologies can incorporate fibres to produce true composites and be used to produce end-use parts with high aesthetics, unmatched complexity, mass customization opportunities, and high mechanical performance. A new hybrid manufacturing process combines the best capabilities of additive—high complexity, low energy usage and waste, 100% traceability, faster to market—and post-consolidation—tight tolerances, high R&R, established materials, and supply chains—technologies. The platform was developed by Zürich-based 9T Labs AG and is called Additive Fusion Technology (AFT). It consists of a design software offering the possibility to determine optimal fibre layup, then exports files back to check predicted performance—plus two pieces of equipment: a 3d-printer—which lays up (near)-net-shape preforms using neat thermoplastic filaments and slit, roll-formed unidirectional carbon fibre-reinforced thermoplastic tapes—and a post-consolidation module—which consolidates then shapes preforms into final parts using a compact compression press fitted with a heating unit and matched metal molds. Matrices—currently including PEKK, PEEK, PA12, and PPS, although nearly any high-quality commercial thermoplastic tapes and filaments can be used—are matched between filaments and tapes to assure excellent bonding. Since thermoplastics are used exclusively, larger assemblies can be produced by bonding or welding together smaller components, and end-of-life parts can be recycled. By combining compression molding with 3D printing, higher part quality with very-low voids and excellent surface finish on A and B sides can be produced. Tight tolerances (min. section thickness=1.5mm, min. section height=0.6mm, min. fibre radius=1.5mm) with high R&R can be cost-competitively held in production volumes of 100 to 10,000 parts/year on a single set of machines.

Keywords: additive manufacturing, composites, thermoplastic, hybrid manufacturing

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Authors: Jane A. Luke

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Persistent pressure passed on to manufacturers from escalating consumer expectations and the ever growing global competitiveness have produced a rapidly increasing interest in the development of various manufacturing strategy models. Academic and industrial circles are taking keen interest in the field of manufacturing strategy. Many manufacturing strategies are currently centered on the traditional concepts of focused manufacturing capabilities such as quality, cost, dependability and innovation. Process capability indices was conducted assuming that the process under study is in statistical control and independent observations are generated over time. However, in practice, it is very common to come across processes which, due to their inherent natures, generate autocorrelated observations. The degree of autocorrelation affects the behavior of patterns on control charts. Even, small levels of autocorrelation between successive observations can have considerable effects on the statistical properties of conventional control charts. When observations are autocorrelated the classical control charts exhibit nonrandom patterns and lack of control. Many authors have considered the effect of autocorrelation on the performance of statistical process control charts. In this paper, the effect of autocorrelation on confidence intervals for different PCIs was included. Stationary Gaussian processes is explained. Effect of autocorrelation on PCIs is described in detail. Confidence intervals for Cp and Cpk are constructed for PCIs when data are both independent and autocorrelated. Confidence intervals for Cp and Cpk are computed. Approximate lower confidence limits for various Cpk are computed assuming AR(1) model for the data. Simulation studies and industrial examples are considered to demonstrate the results.

Keywords: autocorrelation, AR(1) model, Bissell’s approximation, confidence intervals, statistical process control, specification limits, stationary Gaussian processes

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Authors: Henok Metaferia Gebremariam

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Worldwide, considerable resources are spent implementing public health interventions that are interrupted soon after the initial funding ends. However, ambiguity remains as to how health programs can be effectively sustained over time because of the diversity of perspectives, definitions, study methods, outcomes measures and timeframes. From all the above-mentioned research challenges, standardized measures of sustainability should ultimately become a key research issue. To resolve this key challenge, the objective of the study was to adapt a tool for measuring the program’s capacity for sustainability and evaluating its reliability and validity. To adapt and validate the tool, a cross-sectional and cohort study design was conducted at 26 programs in Addis Ababa between September 2014 and May 2015. An adapted version of the tool after the pilot test was administered to 220 staff. The tool was analyzed for reliability and validity. Results show that a 40-item PSAT tool had been adapted into the Amharic version with good internal consistency (Cronbach’s alpha= 0.80), test-retest reliability(r=0.916) and construct validity. Factor analysis resulted in 7 components explaining 56.67 % of the variance. In conclusion, it was found that the Amharic version of PAST was a reliable and valid tool for measuring the program’s capacity for sustainability.

Keywords: program sustainability, public health interventions, reliability, validity

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Authors: Chia-Chen Wei, Pack Hsieh, Jeffrey Chen

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Surface Mount Technology (SMT) is widely used in the area of the electronic assembly in which the electronic components are mounted to the surface of the printed circuit board (PCB). Most of the defects in the SMT process are mainly related to the quality of solder paste printing. These defects lead to considerable manufacturing costs in the electronics assembly industry. Therefore, the solder paste inspection (SPI) machine for controlling and monitoring the amount of solder paste printing has become an important part of the production process. So far, the setting of the SPI threshold is based on statistical analysis and experts’ experiences to determine the appropriate threshold settings. Because the production data are not normal distribution and there are various variations in the production processes, defects related to solder paste printing still occur. In order to solve this problem, this paper proposes an online machine learning algorithm, called the automatic threshold adjustment (ATA) algorithm, and closed-loop architecture in the SMT process to determine the best threshold settings. Simulation experiments prove that our proposed threshold settings improve the accuracy from 99.85% to 100%.

Keywords: big data analytics, Industry 4.0, SPI threshold setting, surface mount technology

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Authors: Hongyu Ye, Hong Zhang, Minjie Sun, Hongfang Xu

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In the context of China's promotion of smart construction and building industrialization, there is a need for evaluation standards for the development of building industrialization based on assembly-type construction. However, the evaluation of smart construction remains a challenge in the industry's development process. This paper addresses this issue by proposing a calculation and evaluation method for the smartization rate of concrete structure building construction. The study focuses on examining the factors of smart equipment application and their impact on costs throughout the process of smart construction design, production, transfer, and construction. Based on this analysis, the paper presents an evaluation method for the smartization rate based on components. Furthermore, it introduces calculation methods for assessing the smartization rate of buildings. The paper also suggests a rapid calculation method for determining the smartization rate using Building Information Modeling (BIM) and information expression technology. The proposed research provides a foundation for the swift calculation of the smartization rate based on BIM and information technology. Ultimately, it aims to promote the development of smart construction and the construction of high-quality buildings in China.

Keywords: building industrialization, high quality building, smart construction, smartization rate, component

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Authors: Hanna Faron, Wojciech Marcinkowski, Daniel Prusak

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The aim of this article is to familiarize with the activity of AGH Racing scientific circle, pertaining to the international project -Formula Student, giving the opportunity to young engineers from all around the world to validate their talent and knowledge in the real world conditions, under the pressure of time, and the design requirements. Every year, the team begins the process of building a race car from the formation of human resources. In case of the public sector, to which public universities can be included, the scientific circles represent the structure uniting students with the common interests and level of determination. Due to the scientific nature of the project which simulates the market conditions, they have a chance to verify previously acquired knowledge in practice. High level of the innovation and competitiveness of participating in the project Formula Student teams, requires an intelligent organizational system, which is characterized by a high dynamics. It is connected with the necessity of separation of duties, setting priorities, selecting optimal solutions which is often a compromise between the available technology and a limited budget. Proper selection of the adequate guidelines in the design phase allows an efficient transition to the implementation stage, which is process-oriented implementation of the project. Four dynamic and three static competitions are the main verification and evaluation of year-round work and effort put into the process of building a race car. Acquired feedback flowing during the race is a very important part while monitoring the effectiveness of AGH Racing scientific circle, as well as the main criterion while determining long-term goals and all the necessary improvements in the team.

Keywords: SAE, formula student, race car, public sector, automotive industry

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Authors: Subodh Kumar, Amit Varde

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Typical on-premises high-performance computing (HPC) environments consist of a fixed number and a fixed set of computing hardware. During the design of the HPC environment, the hardware components, including but not limited to CPU, Memory, GPU, and networking, are carefully chosen from select vendors for optimal performance. High capital cost for building the environment is a prime factor influencing the design environment. A class of software called “Job Schedulers” are critical to maximizing these resources and running multiple workloads to extract the maximum value for the high capital cost. In principle, schedulers work by preventing workloads and users from monopolizing the finite hardware resources by queuing jobs in a workload. A cloud-based HPC environment does not have the limitations of fixed (type of and quantity of) hardware resources. In theory, users and workloads could spin up any number and type of hardware resource. This paper discusses the limitations of using traditional scheduling algorithms for cloud-based HPC workloads. It proposes a new set of features, called “HPC optimizers,” for maximizing the benefits of the elasticity and scalability of the cloud with the goal of cost-performance optimization of the workload.

Keywords: high performance computing, HPC, cloud computing, optimization, schedulers

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Authors: Balaji Ganesh Rajagopal, Subramanian Appavu alias Balamurugan, Ayyalraj Midhun Kumar, Krishnan Nallaperumal

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Intelligent Transportation System is an Emerging area to solve multiple transportation problems. Several forms of inputs are needed in order to solve ITS problems. Advanced Traveler Information System (ATIS) is a core and important ITS area of this modern era. This involves travel time forecasting, efficient road map analysis and cost based path selection, Detection of the vehicle in the dynamic conditions and Traffic congestion state forecasting. This Article designs and provides an algorithm for traffic data generation which can be used for the above said ATIS application. By inputting the real world traffic situation in the form of video sequences, the algorithm determines the Traffic density in terms of congestion, number of vehicles in a given path which can be fed for various ATIS applications. The Algorithm deduces the key frame from the video sequences and follows the Blob detection, Identification and Tracking using connected components algorithm to determine the correlation between the vehicles moving in the real road scene.

Keywords: traffic transportation, traffic density estimation, blob identification and tracking, relative velocity of vehicles, correlation between vehicles

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Authors: Gholam Reza Mirzaei, Mehran Roost

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This research was conducted with the aim of predicting the relationship between coronavirus anxiety and psychological hardiness in employees working at Shahid Beheshti Hospital in Shiraz. The current research design was descriptive and correlational. The statistical population of the research consisted of all the employees of Shahid Beheshti Hospital in Shiraz in 2021. From among the statistical population, 220 individuals were selected and studied based on available sampling. To collect data, Kobasa's psychological hardiness questionnaire and coronavirus anxiety questionnaire were used. After collecting the data, the scores of the participants were analyzed using Pearson's correlation coefficient multiple regression analysis and SPSS-24 statistical software. The results of Pearson's correlation coefficient showed that there is a significant negative correlation between psychological hardiness and its components (challenge, commitment, and control) with coronavirus anxiety; also, psychological hardiness with a beta coefficient of 0.20 could predict coronavirus anxiety in hospital employees. Based on the results, plans can be made to enhance psychological hardiness through educational workshops to relieve the anxiety of the healthcare staff.

Keywords: the corona virus, commitment, hospital employees, psychological hardiness

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Authors: Vânia Graça, Paula Quadros-Flores, Altina Ramos

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The use of Digital Technologies in teaching and learning processes is currently a reality, namely in initial teacher training. This study aims at knowing the digital reality of students in initial teacher training in order to improve training in the educational use of ICT and to promote digital technology integration strategies in an educational context. It is part of the IFITIC Project "Innovate with ICT in Initial Teacher Training to Promote Methodological Renewal in Pre-school Education and in the 1st and 2nd Basic Education Cycle" which involves the School of Education, Polytechnic of Porto and Institute of Education, University of Minho. The Project aims at rethinking educational practice with ICT in the initial training of future teachers in order to promote methodological innovation in Pre-school Education and in the 1st and 2nd Cycles of Basic Education. A qualitative methodology was used, in which a questionnaire survey was applied to teachers in initial training. For data analysis, the techniques of content analysis with the support of NVivo software were used. The results point to the following aspects: a) future teachers recognize that they have more technical knowledge about ICT than pedagogical knowledge. This result makes sense if we consider the objective of Basic Education, so that the gaps can be filled in the Master's Course by students who wish to follow the teaching; b) the respondents are aware that the integration of digital resources contributes positively to students' learning and to the life of children and young people, which also promotes preparation in life; c) to be a teacher in the digital age there is a need for the development of digital literacy, lifelong learning and the adoption of new ways of teaching how to learn. Thus, this study aims to contribute to a reflection on the teaching profession in the digital age.

Keywords: digital technologies, initial teacher training, pedagogical use of ICT, skills

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Authors: Ummi Sholihah Pertiwi Abidin, Khusnul Hajar Nuansari

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Human resource is one of the most important components that can not be separated from communication fields, either in a large community like a mass or narrow ones such as an institution, office, group and even family. Human resource is an asset which is often used as a tool to achieve certain goals. Therefore, development of human resources is essential for improving skills and character of a person especially at the time that has entered globalization era. People are required to be able to compete both in the local and international arena, no matter what. This paper raised topic related to human resource development solution by a unique educational leadership and communication skill improvement through a linguistic approach. Here the authors want to go by form of public speaking method applied in Modern Islamic Boarding School Darussalam Gontor as the extracurricular activity that is using three languages, they are: Indonesian as the mother language or the nation language of the students, Arabic and English as the second language and Gontor’s mean to supply its students to be able to conquer the globalization needs. This implementation produced the establishment of great leaders through confidence growing to speak in public by adjusting the listener context. In linguistic term, it will help enhancing verbal and nonverbal communication skills and so forth in owning a lot of vocabulary.

Keywords: public speaking, Gontor, language, leadership

Procedia PDF Downloads 242

Authors: Javed Mohammed

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As urbanization process has been and will be happening in an unprecedented scale worldwide, strong requirements from academic research and practical fields for smart management and intelligent planning of cities are pressing to handle increasing demands of infrastructure and potential risks of inhabitants agglomeration in disaster management. Geo-spatial data and Geographic Information System (GIS) are essential components for building smart cities in a basic way that maps the physical world into virtual environment as a referencing framework. On higher level, GIS has been becoming very important in smart cities on different sectors. In the digital city era, digital maps and geospatial databases have long been integrated in workflows in land management, urban planning and transportation in government. People have anticipated GIS to be more powerful not only as an archival and data management tool but also as spatial models for supporting decision-making in intelligent cities. The purpose of this project is to offer observations and analysis based on a detailed discussion of Geographic Information Systems( GIS) driven Framework towards the development of Smart and Sustainable Cities through high penetration of Renewable Energy Technologies.

Keywords: digital maps, geo-spatial, geographic information system, smart cities, renewable energy, urban planning

Procedia PDF Downloads 516

Authors: M. Nita-Lazar, E. Manea, C. Bumbac, A. Banciu, C. Stoica

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The population and economic growth have generated a significant new number of pollutant compounds which have to be degraded before reaching the environment. The wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) have been the last barrier between the domestic and/or industrial wastewaters and the environment. At present, the conventional WWTPs have very high operational costs, most of them linked to the aeration process (60-65% from total energy costs related to wastewater treatment). In addition, they have had a low efficiency in pollutants removal such as pharmaceutical and other resilient anthropogenic compounds. In our study, we have been focused on new wastewater treatment strategies to enhance the efficiency of pollutants removal and decrease the wastewater treatment operational costs. The usage of mixed microalgae-bacteria granules technology generated high efficiency and low costs by a better harvesting and less expensive aeration. The intertrophic relationships between microalgae and bacteria have been characterized by the structure of the population community to their metabolic relationships. The results, obtained by microscopic studies, showed well-organized and stratified microalgae-bacteria granules where bacteria have been enveloped in the microalgal structures. Moreover, their population community structure has been modulated as well as their nitrification, denitrification processes (analysis based on qPCR genes expression) by the type of the pollutant compounds and amounts. In conclusion, the understanding and modulation of intertrophic relationships between microalgae and bacteria could be an economical and technological viable alternative to the conventional wastewater treatment. Acknowledgements: This research was supported by grant PN-III-P4-ID-PCE-2016-0865 from the Romanian National Authority for Scientific Research and Innovation CNCS/CCCDI-UEFISCDI.

Keywords: activated sludge, bacteria, granules, microalgae

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Authors: Sri Rahayu, M. Dwi Susan, Aris Soewondo, W. M. Agung Pramana

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Semen is an organic fluid (seminal plasma) that contain spermatozoa. Proteins are one of the major seminal plasma components that modulate sperm functionality, influence sperm capacitation and maintaining the stability of the membrane. Semen freezing is a procedure to preserve sperm cells. The process causes decrease in sperm viability due to temperature shock and oxidation stress. Oxidation stress is a disturbance on phosphorylation that increases ROS concentration, and it produces lipid peroxide in spermatozoa membrane resulted in high MDA (malondialdehyde) concentration. The objective of this study was to examine the effect of freezing on protein and MDA profile of bovine sperm cell and seminal plasma after freezing. Protein and MDA of sperm cell and seminal plasma were isolated from 10 sample. Protein profiles was analyzed by SDS PAGE with separating gel 12,5 %. The concentration of MDA was measured by spectrophotometer. The results of the research indicated that freezing of semen cause lost of the seminal plasma proteins with molecular with 20, 10, and 9 kDa. In addition, the result research showed that protein of the sperm (26, 10, 9, 7, and 6 kDa) had been lost. There were difference MDA concentration of seminal plasma and sperm cell were increase after freezing. MDA concentration of seminal plasma before and after freezing were 2.2 and 2.4 nmol, respectively. MDA concentration of sperm cell before and after freezing were 1,5 and 1.8 nmol, respectively. In conclusion, there were differences protein profiles of spermatozoa before and after semen freezing and freezing cause increasing of the MDA concentration.

Keywords: MDA, semen freezing, SDS PAGE, protein profile

Procedia PDF Downloads 261

Authors: James Hilton Williams

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Recent tsunami events, including the 2011 Tohoku Tsunami, Japan, and the 2015 Illapel Tsunami, Chile, have highlighted the potential for tsunami impacts on the built environment. International research in the tsunami impacts domain has been largely focused toward impacts on buildings and casualty estimations, while only limited attention has been placed on the impacts on infrastructure which is critical for the recovery of impacted communities. New Zealand, with 75% of the population within 10 km of the coast, has a large amount of coastal infrastructure exposed to local, regional and distant tsunami sources. To effectively manage tsunami risk for New Zealand critical infrastructure, including energy, transportation, and communications, the vulnerability of infrastructure networks and components must first be determined. This research develops infrastructure asset vulnerability, functionality and repair- cost functions based on international post-event tsunami impact assessment data from technologically similar countries, including Japan and Chile, and adapts these to New Zealand. These functions are then utilized within a New Zealand based impact framework, allowing for cost benefit analyses, effective tsunami risk management strategies and mitigation options for exposed critical infrastructure to be determined, which can also be applied internationally.

Keywords: impact assessment, infrastructure, tsunami impacts, vulnerability functions

Procedia PDF Downloads 147

Authors: Su Bin Wang, Jin Hee Ahn, Tong-Shin Chang

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The peroxisome proliferator-activated receptors (PPARs) are member of nuclear receptor superfamily that act as a ligand-activated transcription factors. Although platelets lack a nucleus, previous studies have shown that PPARγ agonists, rosiglitazone, inhibited platelet activation induced by collagen. In this study, we investigated the inhibitory effects of KR-62980, a newly synthesized PPARγ agonist, on collagen receptor-stimulated platelet activation. The specific tyrosine phosphorylations of key components (Syk, Vav1, Btk and PLCγ2) for collagen receptor signaling pathways were suppressed by KR-62980. KR-62980 also attenuated downstream responses including cytosolic calcium elevation, P-selectin surface exposure, and integrin αIIbβ3 activation. PPARγ was found to associate with multiple proteins within the LAT signaling complex in collagen-stimulated platelets. This association was prevented by KR-62980, indicating a potential mechanism for PPARγ function in collagen-stimulated platelet activation. Furthermore, KR-62980 inhibited platelet aggregation and adhesion in response to collagen in vitro and prolonged in vivo thrombotic response in carotid arteries of mice. Collectively, these data suggest that KR-62980 inhibits collagen-stimulated platelet activation and thrombus formation through modulating the collagen receptor signaling pathways.

Keywords: KR-62980, PPARγ, antiplatelet, thrombosis

Procedia PDF Downloads 324