Search results for: optimal control

Authors: Mohamad Syahrizal Ahmad, Illyas M. Isa

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In this paper, a multiwall carbon nanotubes (MWCNT) paste electrode modified by a Zn layered hydroxide-ferulate (ZLH-F) was used for detection of hydroquinone (HQ). The morphology and characteristic of the ZLH-F/MWCNT were investigated by scanning electron microscope (SEM), transmission electron microscope (TEM) and square wave voltammetry (SWV). Under optimal conditions, the SWV response showed linear plot for HQ concentration in the range of 1.0×10⁻⁵ M – 1.0×10⁻³ M. The detection limit was found to be 5.7×10⁻⁶ M and correlation coefficient of 0.9957. The glucose, fructose, sucrose, bisphenol A, acetaminophen, lysine, NO₃⁻, Cl⁻ and SO₄²⁻ did not interfere the HQ response. This modified electrode can be used to determine HQ content in wastewater and cosmetic cream with range of recovery 97.8% - 103.0%.

Keywords: 1, 4-dihydroxybenzene, hydroquinone, multiwall carbon nanotubes, square wave voltammetry

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Authors: Chia-Ju Peng, Shih-Jui Chen

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This paper proposes a method to discriminate electroencephalogram (EEG) signals between different concentration states using empirical mode decomposition (EMD). Brain-computer interface (BCI), also called brain-machine interface, is a direct communication pathway between the brain and an external device without the inherent pathway such as the peripheral nervous system or skeletal muscles. Attention level is a common index as a control signal of BCI systems. The EEG signals acquired from people paying attention or in relaxation, respectively, are decomposed into a set of intrinsic mode functions (IMF) by EMD. Fast Fourier transform (FFT) analysis is then applied to each IMF to obtain the frequency spectrums. By observing power spectrums of IMFs, the proposed method has the better identification of EEG attention level than the original EEG signals between different concentration states. The band power of IMF3 is the most obvious especially in β wave, which corresponds to fully awake and generally alert. The signal processing method and results of this experiment paves a new way for BCI robotic system using the attention-level control strategy. The integrated signal processing method reveals appropriate information for discrimination of the attention and relaxation, contributing to a more enhanced BCI performance.

Keywords: biomedical engineering, brain computer interface, electroencephalography, rehabilitation

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Authors: Anastasios Charisis, Evangelos Kaisar, Steven Spana, Lili Du

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Logistics play a vital role in the prosperity of today’s cities, but current urban logistics practices are proving problematic, causing negative effects such as traffic congestion and environmental impacts. This paper proposes an alternative urban logistics system, leasing hubs inside cities for designated time intervals, and using handcarts for last-mile deliveries. A mathematical model for selecting the locations of hubs and allocating customers, while also scheduling the optimal times during the day for leasing hubs is developed. The proposed model is compared to current delivery methods requiring door-to-door truck deliveries. It is shown that truck traveled distances decrease by more than 60%. In addition, analysis shows that in certain conditions the approach can be economically competitive and successfully applied to address real problems.

Keywords: hub location, last-mile, logistics, optimization

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Authors: M. C. Lin, C. W. Su

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The paper investigates the optimization analysis to the heat exchanger design, mainly with response surface method and genetic algorithm to explore the relationship between optimal fluid flow velocity and temperature of the heat exchanger using field synergy principle. First, finite volume method is proposed to calculate the flow temperature and flow rate distribution for numerical analysis. We identify the most suitable simulation equations by response surface methodology. Furthermore, a genetic algorithm approach is applied to optimize the relationship between fluid flow velocity and flow temperature of the heat exchanger. The results show that the field synergy angle plays vital role in the performance of a true heat exchanger.

Keywords: optimization analysis, field synergy, heat exchanger, genetic algorithm

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Authors: Ali Heydarimoghim

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In this paper, the optimal placement of charging and discharging stations is done to determine the location and capacity of the stations, reducing the cost of electric vehicle owners' losses, reducing the cost of distribution system losses, and reducing the costs associated with the stations. Also, observing the permissible limits of the bus voltage and the capacity of the stations and their distance are considered as constraints of the problem. Given the traffic situation in different areas of a city, we estimate the amount of energy required to charge and the amount of energy provided to discharge electric vehicles in each area. We then introduce the electricity distribution system of the city in question. Following are the scenarios for introducing the problem and introducing the objective and constraint functions. Finally, the simulation results for different scenarios are compared.

Keywords: charging & discharging stations, hybrid vehicles, optimization, replacement

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Authors: Meng-Hao Chen, Jeng-Der Huang, Chia-Ray Chen

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With the new space mission need of high power dissipation, low thermal inertia and cyclical operation unit, such as high power amplifier (HPA) for synthetic aperture radar (SAR) satellite, the development of phase change material (PCM) technology seems to be a proper solution. Generally, the expected benefit of PCM solution is to eliminate temperature variation and maintain the stability of electronic units by using the latent heat during phase change process. It can also result in advantages of decreased radiator area and heater power. However, the PCMs have a drawback of low thermal conductivity that leads to large temperature gradient between the heat source and PCM. This paper thus presents both experimental and simplified numerical investigations on configuration design of PCM’s container. A comparison was carried out between the container with and without internal pin-fins structure. The results showed the benefit of pin-fins that act as the heat transfer enhancer to improve the temperature uniformity during phase transition. Furthermore, thermal testing and measurements were presented for four PCM candidates (i.e. n-octadecane, n-eicosane, glycerin and gallium). The solidification and supercooling behaviors on different PCMs were compared with available literature data and discussed in this study

Keywords: phase change material (PCM), thermal control, solidification, supercooling

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Authors: Nadir Sidiqi

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Biodiversity conservation is humanity’s building block to sustain lives - ultimately allowing all living and nonliving creatures to interact in a balanced proportion. Humanity’s challenge in the 21st century is to maintain biodiversity without harming the natural habitat of plants, animals and beneficial microorganisms. There are many good reasons to consider why biodiversity is important to every nation around the world, especially for a nation like Afghanistan. One of the major values of biodiversity is its economic value: biodiversity provides goods and services to the Afghan nation directly through links and components such as the maintenance of traditional crops, medicine, fruits, animals, grazing, fuel, timber, harvesting, fishing, hunting and related supplies. Biodiversity is the variety of the living components, such as humans, plants, animals, and microorganisms, and nonliving components interaction, including air, water, sunlight, soil, humidity and environmental factors in an area. There are many ways of gauging the value of biodiversity. As an ecosystem, biodiversity includes such benefits as soil fertility, erosion control, crop pollination, crop rotation, and pest control. The conservation of biodiversity is crucial for these benefits, which would be impossible to replace. Biodiversity conservation also has heritage values; this wealth of genetic diversity provides backup to rural people living close together.

Keywords: Afghanistan, biodiversity, conservation, economy, environment

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Authors: Puttharapong Sakulwaropas, Uraiwan Jaroengeratikun

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Casualty insurance business, the optimal premium pricing and adequate cost for an insurance company are important in risk management. Normally, the insurance pure premium can be determined by multiplying the claim frequency with the claim cost. The aim of this research was to study in the application of generalized linear models to select the risk factor for model of claim frequency and claim cost for estimating a pure premium. In this study, the data set was the claim of comprehensive motor insurance, which was provided by one of the insurance company in Thailand. The results of this study found that the risk factors significantly related to pure premium at the 0.05 level consisted of no claim bonus (NCB) and used of the car (Car code).

Keywords: generalized linear models, risk factor, pure premium, regression model

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Authors: Arif İsmailov, Naila Hasanova, Gunay Orujalieva

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Homocysteine (HCY) is an indicator of prognostic value in monitoring regenerative processes in osteoporosis and osteoporotic fractures. The osteoporosis is known to be a serious health and economic problem, especially for women in the postmenopausal period. The study was carried out on patients 45-83 years old divided into 3 groups: group I – 14 patients with osteoporosis , group II – 15 patients with non-osteoporotic fractures, group III – 25 patients with osteoporotic fractures. The control group consisted of practically healthy 14 people. A blood sample was taken at 3 stages to monitor the dynamics of HCY level: on the 1st day before treatment, on the 10th day of treatment and 1 month after it. Blood levels of Hcy were determined at a wavelength of 450 nm by the ELİSA(Cloud Clone Corp.Elisa kits,USA). The statistical evaluation was performed by using SPSS 26.0 program (IBM SPSS Inc., USA).The results showed that on the 1st day before the treatment HCY concentration was statistically increased 2.7 times(PU = 0.108) in group I, 5.6 times (PU <0.001) in group II and 6.5 times (PU <0.001) in group III compared to the control group. Thus, the average value of HCY in group I was 1.76 ± 0.56 μg/ml; in group II – 3.57 ± 0.62 μg/ml; in group III – 4.2 ± 0.50 μg/ml. HCY level increases more sharply after fractures,especially in osteoporotic patients. In treatment period Vitamin D plays an important role in synthesis of the Cystathionine β‐synthase enzyme, which regulates HCY metabolism. Increased Hcy levels could lead to an increase in the risk of fracture through the interference in collagen cross-linking.

Keywords: homocysteine, osteoporosis, osteoporotic fractures, Vitamin D

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Authors: Anitha Naittee Abraham, N. Sreedevi

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Individuals with Down syndrome (DS) have relatively better expressive language compared to other individuals with intellectual disabilities. Reduced speech intelligibility is one of the major concerns of this group of individuals due to their anatomical and physiological differences. The study investigated the vowel articulation of Malayalam speaking children with DS in the age range of 5-10 years. The vowel production of 10 children with DS was compared with typically developing children in the same age range. Vowels were extracted from 3 words with the corner vowels /a/, /i/ and /u/ in the word-initial position, using Praat (version 5.3.23) software. Acoustic analysis was based on vowel space area (VSA), Formant centralization ration (FCR) and F2i/F2u. The findings revealed increased formant values for the control group except for F2a and F2u. Also, the experimental group had higher FCR, lower VSA, and F2i/F2u values suggestive of imprecise vowel articulation due to restricted tongue movements. The results of the independent t-test revealed a significant difference in F1a, F2i, F2u, VSA, FCR and F2i/F2u values between the experimental and control group. These findings support the fact that children with DS have imprecise vowel articulation that interferes with the overall speech intelligibility. Hence it is essential to target the oromotor skills to enhance the speech intelligibility which in turn benefit in the social and vocational domains of these individuals.

Keywords: Down syndrome, FCR, vowel articulation, vowel space

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Authors: Olufemi Oyedele

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Building collapse (BC) in Nigeria is becoming a regular occurrence, each recording great casualties in the number of lives and materials lost. Building collapse is a situation where building which has been completed and occupied, completed but not occupied or under construction, collapses on its own due to action or inaction of man or due to natural event like earthquake, storm, flooding, tsunami or wildfire. It is different from building demolition. There are various causes of building collapse and each case requires expert judgment to decide the cause of its collapse. Rate of building collapse is a reflection of the level of organization and control of building activities and degree of sophistication of the construction professionals in a country. This study explored the use of case study by examining the causes of six (6) collapsed buildings (CB) across Nigeria. Samples of materials from the sites of the collapsed buildings were taken for testing and analysis, while critical observations were made at the sites to note the conditions of the ground (building base). The study found out that majority of the building collapses in Nigeria were due to poor workmanship, sub-standard building materials, followed by bad building base and poor design. The National Building Code 2006 is not effective due to lack of enforcement and the Physical Development Departments of states and Federal Capital Territory are just mere agents of corruption allowing all types of construction without building approvals.

Keywords: building collapse, concrete tests, differential settlement, integrity test, quality control

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Authors: Nicole Selvi Hill, Archchana Radhakrishnan

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Introduction: Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is a leading cause of mortality among trauma patients. In the management of TBI, the main principle is avoiding cerebral ischemia, as this is a strong determiner of neurological outcomes. The use of vasoactive drugs, such as vasopressin, has an important role in maintaining cerebral perfusion pressure to prevent secondary brain injury. Current guidelines do not suggest a preferred vasoactive drug to administer in the management of TBI, and there is a paucity of information on the therapeutic potential of vasopressin following TBI. Vasopressin is also an endogenous anti-diuretic hormone (AVP), and pathways mediated by AVP play a large role in the underlying pathological processes of TBI. This creates an overlap of discussion regarding the therapeutic potential of vasopressin following TBI. Currently, its popularity lies in vasodilatory and cardiogenic shock in the intensive care setting, with increasing support for its use in haemorrhagic and septic shock. Methodology: This is a review article based on a literature review. An electronic search was conducted via PubMed, Cochrane, EMBASE, and Google Scholar. The aim was to identify clinical studies looking at the therapeutic administration of vasopressin in severe traumatic brain injury. The primary aim was to look at the neurological outcome of patients. The secondary aim was to look at surrogate markers of cerebral perfusion measurements, such as cerebral perfusion pressure, cerebral oxygenation, and cerebral blood flow. Results: Eight papers were included in the final number. Three were animal studies; five were human studies, comprised of three case reports, one retrospective review of data, and one randomised control trial. All animal studies demonstrated the benefits of vasopressors in TBI management. One animal study showed the superiority of vasopressin in reducing intracranial pressure and increasing cerebral oxygenation over a catecholaminergic vasopressor, phenylephrine. All three human case reports were supportive of vasopressin as a rescue therapy in catecholaminergic-resistant hypotension. The retrospective review found vasopressin did not increase cerebral oedema in TBI patients compared to catecholaminergic vasopressors; and demonstrated a significant reduction in the requirements of hyperosmolar therapy in patients that received vasopressin. The randomised control trial results showed no significant differences in primary and secondary outcomes between TBI patients receiving vasopressin versus those receiving catecholaminergic vasopressors. Apart from the randomised control trial, the studies included are of low-level evidence. Conclusion: Studies favour vasopressin within certain parameters of cerebral function compared to control groups. However, the neurological outcomes of patient groups are not known, and animal study results are difficult to extrapolate to humans. It cannot be said with certainty whether vasopressin’s benefits stand above usage of other vasoactive drugs due to the weaknesses of the evidence. Further randomised control trials, which are larger, standardised, and rigorous, are required to improve knowledge in this field.

Keywords: catecholamines, cerebral perfusion pressure, traumatic brain injury, vasopressin, vasopressors

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Authors: Jumazulhisham Abdul Shukor, Mohd. Sazali Said, Roshanizah Harun, Shuib Husin, Ahmad Razlee Ab Kadir

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This paper applies Taguchi Optimization Method in determining the best machining parameters for pocket milling process on Polypropylene (PP) using CNC milling machine where the surface roughness is considered and the Carbide inserts cutting tool are used. Three machining parameters; speed, feed rate and depth of cut are investigated along three levels; low, medium and high of each parameter (Taguchi Orthogonal Arrays). The setting of machining parameters were determined by using Taguchi Method and the Signal-to-Noise (S/N) ratio are assessed to define the optimal levels and to predict the effect of surface roughness with assigned parameters based on L9. The final experimental outcomes are presented to prove the optimization parameters recommended by manufacturer are accurate.

Keywords: inserts, milling process, signal-to-noise (S/N) ratio, surface roughness, Taguchi Optimization Method

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Authors: M. Abir Hossain, M. Shahjada Tarafder

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This paper deals with the analysis of potential flow past two-dimensional body by discretizing the body into panels where the Laplace equation was applied to each panel. The Laplace equation was solved at each panel by applying the boundary conditions. The boundary condition was applied at each panel to mathematically formulate the problem and then convert the problem into a computer-solvable problem. Kutta condition was applied at both the leading and trailing edges to see whether the condition is satisfied or not. Another approach that is applied for the analysis is Vortex Lattice Method (VLM). A vortex ring is considered at each control point. Using the Biot-Savart Law the strength at each control point is calculated and hence the pressure differentials are measured. For the comparison of the analytic result with the experimental result, different NACA section hydrofoil is used. The analytic result of NACA 0012 and NACA 0015 are compared with the experimental result of Abbott and Doenhoff and found significant conformity with the achieved result.

Keywords: Kutta condition, Law of Biot-Savart, pressure differentials, potential flow, vortex lattice method

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Authors: Yazdan Moradi

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Spirulina platensis is a blue-green microalga with unique nutrient content and has many nutritional and therapeutic effects that are used to enrich various foods. The purpose of this research was to investigate the effect of Spirulina platensis microalgae on the nutritional value and sensory and physical properties of four different cereal-based products. For this purpose, spirulina microalgae dry powder with amounts of 0.25, 0.5, 0.75, and 1 is added to the formula of pasta, bulk bread, layered sweets, and cupcakes. A sample without microalgae powder of each product is also considered as a control. The results showed that adding Spirulina powder to the formulation of selected foods significantly changed the nutrition value and sensory and physical characteristics. Comparison to control protein increased in the samples containing spirulina powder. The increase in protein was about 1, 0.6, 1.2 and 1.1 percent in bread, cake, layered sweets and Pasta, respectively. The iron content of samples, including Spirulina, also increased. The increase was 0.6, 2, 5 and 18 percent in bread, cake, layered sweets and Pasta respectively. Sensory evaluation analysis showed that all products had an acceptable acceptance score. The instrumental analysis of L*, a*, and b* color indices showed that the increase of spirulina caused green color in the treatments, and this color change is more significant in the bread and pasta samples. The results of texture analysis showed that adding spirulina to selected food products reduces the hardness of the samples. No significant differences were observed in fat content in samples, including spirulina samples and control. However, fatty acid content and a trace amount of EPA found in samples included 1% spirulina. Added spirulina powder to food ingredients also changed the amino acid profile, especially essential amino acids. An increase of histidine, isoleucine, leucine, tryptophan, and valine in samples, including Spirulina was observed.

Keywords: spirulina, nutrition, Alge, iron, food

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Authors: Majed Zobairy, Payam Mohammadpanahi

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Introduction: Skill movement education is one of extremely important duty for sport coaches and sport teachers. Researchers have done lots of studies in this filed to gain the best methodology in movement learning. One of the essential aspects in skill movement education is observational learning. Observational learning, or learning by watching demonstrations, has been characterized as one of the most important methods by which people learn variety of skill and behaviours.The purpose of this study was determined the effect of observational practice on the volleyball service learning with emphasis on the Role of Self–Efficacy. Methods: The Sample consisted of100 male students was assigned accessible sampling technique and homogeneous manner with emphasis on the Role of Self–Efficacy level to 4 groups. The first group performed physical training, the second group performed observational practice task, the third practiced physically and observationally and the fourth group served as the control group. The experimental groups practiced in a one day acquisition and performed the retention task, after 72 hours. Kolmogorov-Smirnov test and independent t-test were used for Statistical analyses. Results and Discussion: Results shows that observation practice task group can significantly improve volleyball services skills acquisition (T=7.73). Also mixed group (physically and observationally) is significantly better than control group regarding to volleyball services skills acquisition (T=7.04). Conclusion: Results have shown observation practice task group and mixed group are significantly better than control group in acquisition test. The present results are in line with previous studies, suggesting that observation learning can improve performance. On the other hand, results shows that self-efficacy level significantly effect on acquisition movement skill. In other words, high self-efficacy is important factor in skill learning level in volleyball service.

Keywords: observational practice, volleyball service, self–efficacy, sport science

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Authors: Natalia Politaeva, Iuliia Smiatskaia, Iuliia Bazarnova, Iryna Atamaniuk, Kerstin Kuchta

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Nowadays, the progressive decrease of primary natural resources and ongoing upward trend in terms of energy demand, have resulted in development of new generation technological processes which are focused on step-wise production and residues utilization. Thus, microalgae-based 3^rd generation bioeconomy is considered one of the most promising approaches that allow production of value-added products and sophisticated utilization of residues biomass. In comparison to conventional biomass, microalgae can be cultivated in wide range of conditions without compromising food and feed production, and thus, addressing issues associated with negative social and environmental impacts. However, one of the most challenging tasks is to undergo seasonal variations and to achieve optimal growing conditions for indoor closed systems that can cover further demand for material and energetic utilization of microalgae. For instance, outdoor cultivation in St. Petersburg (Russia) is only suitable within rather narrow time frame (from mid-May to mid-September). At earlier and later periods, insufficient sunlight and heat for the growth of microalgae were detected. On the other hand, without additional physical effects, the biomass increment in summer is 3-5 times per week, depending on the solar radiation and the ambient temperature. In order to increase biomass production, scientists from all over the world have proposed various technical solutions for cultivators and have been studying the influence of various physical factors affecting biomass growth namely: magnetic field, radiation impact, and electric field, etc. In this paper, the influence of infrared radiation (IR) and fluorescent light on the growth rate of microalgae Chlorella sorokiniana has been studied. The cultivation of Chlorella sorokiniana was carried out in 500 ml cylindrical glass vessels, which were constantly aerated. To accelerate the cultivation process, the mixture was stirred for 15 minutes at 500 rpm following 120 minutes of rest time. At the same time, the metabolic needs in nutrients were provided by the addition of micro- and macro-nutrients in the microalgae growing medium. Lighting was provided by fluorescent lamps with the intensity of 2500 ± 300 lx. The influence of IR was determined using IR lamps with a voltage of 220 V, power of 250 W, in order to achieve the intensity of 13 600 ± 500 lx. The obtained results show that under the influence of fluorescent lamps along with the combined effect of active aeration and variable mixing, the biomass increment on the 2^nd day was three times, and on the 7^th day, it was eight-fold. The growth rate of microalgae under the influence of IR radiation was lower and has reached 22.6·10⁶ cells·mL^-1. However, application of IR lamps for the biomass growth allows maintaining the optimal temperature of microalgae suspension at approximately 25-28°C, which might especially be beneficial during the cold season in extreme climate zones.

Keywords: biomass, fluorescent lamp, infrared radiation, microalgae

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Authors: Linh Nguyen Tung, Anh Truong Viet, Nghien Nguyen Ba, Chuong Trinh Trong

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This paper proposes a reconfiguration methodology based on a continuous genetic algorithm (CGA) and particle swarm optimization (PSO) for minimizing active power loss and minimizing voltage deviation. Both algorithms are adapted using graph theory to generate feasible individuals, and the modified crossover is used for continuous variable of CGA. To demonstrate the performance and effectiveness of the proposed methods, a comparative analysis of CGA with PSO for network reconfiguration, on 33-node and 119-bus radial distribution system is presented. The simulation results have shown that both CGA and PSO can be used in the distribution network reconfiguration and CGA outperformed PSO with significant success rate in finding optimal distribution network configuration.

Keywords: distribution network reconfiguration, particle swarm optimization, continuous genetic algorithm, power loss reduction, voltage deviation

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Authors: Sarbjit Singh, Amit Kumar Lal

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In India there is no governing body to control advertisement apart from ASCI due to which most of the companies are targeting children in their advertisements that have a negative impact on their behaviour. The main purpose of this research paper is to find out the impact of the television advertisement on the behaviour of the children as observed and reported by parents. The exploratory research design is adopted by using in-depth interviews with 20 parents in various cities of Punjab on the basis semi-structured interviews a self-administered structured Questionnaire was developed for data collection. Exploratory factor analysis using varimax rotation is used to analyse the data from 100 parents from the conjoint cities of Punjab. (Jalandhar, Amritsar and Ludhiana) The finding suggests that children demand those products which are more advertised. Parents believe that television advertisements are affecting the study of their children. Moreover, the children are becoming more violent, stubborn and rebellious. They try to start copying from the advertisements and indulge in bad habits. Children demand, nag and pester their parents to purchase the advertised product. This research paper would help advertisers to understand children behaviour towards advertisements and more over what should be done to control the negative impact of advertisement on children. Advertisers can also understand the parental perception towards advertisement.

Keywords: advertisement, consumer behaviour, children perception, teen marketing

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Authors: Lourdes I. Meriño, Viatcheslav Kafarov, Maria Gómez

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Fuel gas used in the burner receives as contributors other gases from different processes and this result in variability in the composition, which may cause an incomplete combustion. The burners are designed to operate in a certain curve, the calorific power dependent on the pressure and gas burners. When deviation of propane and C5+ is huge, there is a large release of energy, which causes it to work out the curves of the burners, because less pressure is required to force curve into operation. That increases the risk of explosion in an oven, besides of a higher environmental impact. There should be flame detection systems, and instrumentation equipment, such as local pressure gauges located at the entrance of the gas burners, to permit verification by the operator. Additionally, distributed control systems must be configured with different combustion instruments associated with respective alarms, as well as its operational windows, and windows control guidelines of integrity, leaving the design information of this equipment. Therefore, it is desirable to analyze when a plant is taken out of service and make good operational analysis to determine the impact of changes in fuel gas streams contributors, by varying the calorific power. Hence, poor combustion is one of the cause instability in the flame of the burner and having a great impact on process safety, the integrity of individuals and teams and environment.

Keywords: combustion process, fuel composition, safety, fuel gas

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Authors: Benslimane Marwa, Benabbas-Sahki Ilham

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Spiders play an important role in agroecosystems due to their great abundance. They are considered a valuable group of invertebrates in agricultural land. They are predators of insects harmful to crops, but their use in biological control requires in-depth research on their ecology. During our study, we counted a total of 768 spiders, which we were able to identify and classify into 14 families over a period between March 2021 and October of the same year. This study aims to compare a station subjected to agricultural practices, including the spreading of herbicides, with another station subjected to the same practices but without the use of phytosanitary products. The inventory shows a strong dominance of the Gnaphosidae family (75.8%). This result affirms that the proliferation of this family is very favorable to the knowledge of the fruits by limiting the populations of aphids infesting the plot, which can therefore be proposed for biological control. The comparative study of the populations of spiders in the stations studied shows the negative effect of agricultural practices on the species richness and abundance of these species; as for the diversity, this one is only slightly affected. Finally, we can note that the effects of herbicides did not cause a significant imbalance in this agroecosystem, unlike plowing, which showed harmful consequences on spiders.

Keywords: spiders, predator, species richness, herbicides, agricultural practices

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Authors: Abdulaziz Bashir Kutawa, Khairulmazmi Ahmad, Mohd Zobir Hussein, Asgar Ali, Mohd Aswad Abdul Wahab, Amara Rafi, Mahesh Tiran Gunasena, Muhammad Ziaur Rahman, Md. Imam Hossain, Syazwan Afif Mohd Zobir

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Rice is a cereal crop and belongs to the family Poaceae, it was domesticated in southern China and North-Eastern India around 8000 years ago, and it’s the staple nourishment for over half of the total world’s population. Rice production worldwide is affected by different abiotic and biotic stresses. Diseases are important challenges for the production of rice, among all the diseases in rice plants, the most severe and common disease is the rice blast. Worldwide, it is one of the most damaging diseases affecting rice cultivation, the disease is caused by the non-obligate filamentous ascomycete fungus called Magnaporthe grisae or Pyricularia oryzae Cav. Nanotechnology is a new idea to improve agriculture by combating the diseases of plants, as nanoparticles were found to possess an inhibitory effect on different species of fungi. This work aimed to develop and determine the efficacy of agronanofungicides, and commercial fungicides (in-vitro and in-vivo). The agronanofungicides were developed using ionic gelation methods. In-vitro antifungal activity of the synthesized agronanofungicides was evaluated against P. oryzae using the poisoned medium technique. The potato dextrose agar (PDA) was amended in several concentrations; 0.001, 0.005, 0.01, 0.025, 0.05, 0.1, 0.15, 0.20, 0.25, 0.30, and 0.35 ppm for the agronanofungicides. Medium with the only solvent served as a control. Mycelial growth was recorded every day, and the percentage inhibition of radial growth (PIRG) was also calculated. Based on the results of the zone of inhibition, the chitosan-hexaconazole agronanofungicide (2g/mL) was the most effective fungicide to inhibit the growth of the fungus with 100% inhibition at 0.2, 0.25, 0.30, and 0.35 ppm, respectively. The least were found to be propiconazole and basamid fungicides with 100% inhibition only at 100 ppm. In terms of the glasshouse results, the chitosan-hexaconazole-dazomet agronanofungicide (CHDEN) treatment (2.5g/L) was found to be the most effective fungicide to reduce the intensity of the disease with a disease severity index (DSI) of 19.80%, protection index (PI) of 82.26%, lesion length of 1.63cm, disease reduction (DR) of 80.20%, and AUDPC (390.60 Unit2). The least effective fungicide was found to be ANV with a disease severity index (45.60%), protection index (45.24%), lesion length (3.83 cm), disease reduction (54.40%), and AUDPC (1205.75 Unit2). The negative control did not show any symptoms during the glasshouse assay, while the untreated control treatment exhibited severe symptoms of the disease with a DSI value of 64.38%, lesion length of 5.20 cm, and AUDPC value of 2201.85 Unit2, respectively. The treatments of agronanofungicides have enhanced the yield significantly with CHDEN having 239.00 while the healthy control had 113.67 for the number of grains per panicle. The use of CHEN and CHDEN will help immensely in reducing the severity of rice blast in the fields, and this will increase the yield and profit of the farmers that produced rice.

Keywords: chitosan, dazomet, disease severity, efficacy, and blast disease

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Authors: Marco Barassi, Nicola Spagnolo

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This paper uses a DCC-GARCH model framework to examine mean and volatility spillovers (i.e. causality in mean and variance) dynamics between financial centers and the stock market indexes of the BRICS countries. In addition, tests for changes in the transmission mechanism are carried out by first testing for structural breaks and then setting a dummy variable to control for the 2008 financial crises. We use weekly data for nine countries, four financial centers (Germany, Japan, UK and USA) and the five BRICS countries (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa). Furthermore, we control for monetary policy using domestic interest rates (90-day Treasury Bill interest rate) over the period 03/1/1990 - 04/2/2014, for a total of 1204 observations. Results show that the 2008 financial crises changed the causality dynamics for most of the countries considered. The same pattern can also be observed in conditional correlation showing a shift upward following the turbulence associated to the 2008 crises. The magnitude of these effects suggests a leading role played by the financial centers in effecting Brazil and South Africa, whereas Russia, India and China show a higher degree of resilience.

Keywords: financial crises, DCC-GARCH model, volatility spillovers, economics

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Authors: Xinke Huang, Huan Wang, Lidong Guo, Changbin Ju, Runbiao Liu, Shanshan Meng, Yibo Wang, Honghua Xu

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Large-scale photovoltaic (PV) generation system connected to HVDC grid has many advantages compared to its counterpart of AC grid. DC connection can solve many problems that AC connection faces, such as the grid-connection and power transmission, and DC connection is the tendency. DC/DC converter as the most important device in the system has become one of the hot spots recently. The paper proposes a centralized DC/DC converter which uses Boost Full Bridge Isolated DC/DC Converter(BFBIC) topology and combination through input parallel output series(IPOS) method to improve power capacity and output voltage to match with the HVDC grid voltage. Meanwhile, it adopts input current sharing control strategy to realize input current and output voltage balance. A ±30kV/1MW system is modeled in MATLAB/SIMULINK, and a downscaled ±10kV/200kW DC/DC converter platform is built to verify the proposed topology and control strategy.

Keywords: photovoltaic generation, cascaded dc/dc converter, galvanic isolation, high-voltage, direct current (HVDC)

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Authors: Haibo Zhao, Thomas Andre, Katherine Avery, Alper Kiziltas, Deborah Mielewski

Abstract:

Silica aerogels were fabricated through a modified rapid supercritical extraction (RSCE) process. The silica aerogels were made using a tetramethyl orthosilicate precursor and then placed in a hot press and brought to the supercritical point of the solvent, ethanol. In order to control the pressure release without a pressure controller, a needle valve was used. The resulting aerogels were then characterized for their physical and chemical properties and compared to silica aerogels created using similar methods. The aerogels fabricated using this modified RSCE method were found to have similar properties to those in other papers using the unmodified RSCE method. Silica aerogel infused glass blanket composite, graphene reinforced silica aerogel composite were also successfully fabricated by this new method. The modified RSCE process and system is a prototype for better gas outflow control with a lower cost of equipment setup. Potentially, this process could be evolved to a continuous low-cost high-volume production process to meet automotive requirements.

Keywords: aerogel, automotive, rapid supercritical extraction process, low cost production

Procedia PDF Downloads 181

Authors: Muhammad Fiaz, Muhammad Saqlain, Bernard M. Y. Cheung, S. M. Saqlan Naqvi, Ghazala Kaukab Raja

Abstract:

Background: Association of C allele of rs662799 SNP of APOA5 gene with metabolic syndrome (MetS) has been reported in different populations around the world. A case control study was conducted to explore the relationship of rs662799 variants (T/C) with the MetS and the associated risk phenotypes in a population of Pakistani origin. Methods: MetS was defined according to the IDF criteria. Blood samples were collected from the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences, Islamabad, Pakistan for biochemical profiling and DNA extraction. Genotyping of rs662799 was performed using mass ARRAY, iPEX Gold technology. A total of 712 unrelated case and control subjects were genotyped. Data were analyzed using Plink software and SPSS 16.0. Results: The risk allele C of rs662799 showed highly significant association with MetS (OR=1.5, Ρ=0.002). Among risk phenotypes, dyslipidemia, and obesity showed strong association with SNP (OR=1.49, p=0.03; OR =1.46, p=0.01) respectively in models adjusted for age and gender. Conclusion: The rs662799C allele is a significant risk marker for MetS in the local Pakistani population studied. The effect of the SNP is more on dyslipidemia than the other components of the MetS.

Keywords: metabolic syndrome, APOA5, rs662799, dyslipidemia, obesity

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Authors: Santhosh Srinivasan, Vipul Garhiya, Shahul Hamid Khan

Abstract:

Environmental performance along with social performance is becoming vital factors for industries to achieve global standards. With a good environmental policy global industries are differentiating them from their competitors. This paper concentrates on multi stage, multi product and multi period manufacturing network. Single objective mathematical models for a total cost for the entire forward supply chain and reverse chain are considered. Here five different problems are considered by varying the number of facilities for illustration. M-MOGA, Shuffle Frog Leaping algorithm (SFLA) and CPLEX are used for finding the optimal solution for the mathematical model.

Keywords: closed loop supply chain, genetic algorithm, random search, multi period, green supply chain

Procedia PDF Downloads 390

Authors: Xiaoping Qiu, Binci You, Yue Hu

Abstract:

The executive time of the workflow network has an important effect on the efficiency of the business process. In this paper, the activity executive time is divided into the service time and the waiting time, then the lead time can be extracted from the waiting time. The executive time formulas of the three basic structures in the workflow network are deduced based on the activity lead time. Taken the process of e-commerce logistics as an example, insert appropriate lead time for key activities by using Petri net, and the executive time optimization model is built to minimize the waiting time with the time-cost constraints. Then the solution program-using VC++6.0 is compiled to get the optimal solution, which reduces the waiting time of key activities in the workflow, and verifies the role of lead time in the timeliness of e-commerce logistics.

Keywords: electronic business, execution time, lead time, optimization model, petri net, time workflow network

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Authors: A. Mohammed, A. M. Umar, S. H. Adamu

Abstract:

The study was conducted to evaluate the growth performance and nutrients utilization using 20 entire males of Sahelian goats fed Rumen content (fore-stomach digest) and poultry litter waste (PLW) at various levels of inclusion. The experimental animals were randomly allocated to diet A (Control), B (10% each of FSD and PLW), C (6.67%PLW and 13.33 FSD) and D(13.33% PLW and 6.67% FDS) at the rate of five animals per treatment. After 90 days of feeding trial, It was observed that Diets D had best feed intake and body weight gain which might be due to the good palatability of PLW and less odour of FSD in the diet. Diet C had the least feed cost then followed by diet B and while diet A(control) was more expensive than other treatments. There was the significant difference (P<0.05) between the treatments in the cost of daily feed consumption. Treatment A had the highest value while treatment C recorded the lowest cost of daily feed consumption. There was no significant difference (P > 0.05) between all treatments in terms of Cost of feed kg/ live weight gain, where treatment B had the highest value while the lowest obtained in treatment D. However, it is recommended that more research trial should be carried out to ascertain the true value of incorporating poultry litter waste and fore-stomach digest.

Keywords: poultry litter, rumen content, weight gain, economics

Procedia PDF Downloads 637

Authors: Rasheed Owolabi Oloyede, Joseph Olusegun Adelusi, Seun Oluwadare

Abstract:

Sleep has been found to have many recuperative and restorative beneficial effects on athletic recovery. When a person is deprived of sleep this can have many effects on their immune and endocrine systems. Both of these systems are extremely important for the recovery process of any athlete and when we deprive ourselves of sleep, we are depriving ourselves of recovery. This study examined how sleep deprivation can hinder sport performance among selected athletes representing Adeyemi College of Education at Nigeria Colleges of Education Games (NICEGA) competitions at Minna. A total of 32 athletes were sampled for the study. They were exposed to two different activities. Each activity was performed before and after sleep deprivation, the activities were 100m dash, shuttle relay. The athletes were randomly assigned to two groups that are experimental and control groups. Pretest were conducted on both groups before apply treatment to the other group. A day before the activities to be performed the control group was denied of sleep between 10p.m to 5a.m for a period of 6 weeks. The analysis of the data showed that athletes performance in the two selected activities performed on equal basis before the sleep deprivation. After sleep deprivation the performance of experimental group was a little better than the control group that were denied of sleep. It was concluded that sleep allows the body to spend less energy resources on body processes needed while awake, it was concluded that sleep deprivation enables the body system work effectively. The body can expend needed energy, balance and adequate reaction time if it is allowed to have enough rest. Lack of adequate sleep results to dullness of the brain, nervousness and anxiety which all have negative effect on performance of activities by athletes. Based on the findings, it was recommended that extend nightly sleep for several week to reduce your sleep debt before competition. Maintain a low sleep debt by obtaining a sufficient amount of nightly sleep (seven to eight hours for adults, nine or more hours for teens and young adults). Keep a regular sleep-wake schedule, going to bed and waking up at the same times every day.

Keywords: activities, deprivation, performance, sleep

Procedia PDF Downloads 346