Search results for: integral indicator

Authors: Alejandro Paz Parra, Jose Luis Oslinger Gutierrez, Javier Olaya Ochoa

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In the present paper, five electric current based methods to analyze electric faults on the stator of induction motors (IM) are used and compared. The analysis tries to extend the application of the multiple reference frames diagnosis technique. An eccentricity indicator is presented to improve the application of the Park’s Vector Approach technique. Most of the fault indicators are validated and some others revised, agree with the technical literatures and published results. A tri-phase 3hp squirrel cage IM, especially modified to establish different fault levels, is used for validation purposes.

Keywords: motor fault diagnosis, induction motor, MCSA, ESA, Extended Park´s vector approach, multiparameter analysis

Procedia PDF Downloads 325

Authors: Jannis Kountouras, Nikolaos Kapetanakis, Stergios A. Polyzos, Apostolis Papaeftymiou, Panagiotis Katsinelos, Ioannis Venizelos, Christina Nikolaidou, Christos Zavos, Iordanis Romiopoulos, Elena Tsiaousi, Evangelos Kazakos, Michael Doulberis

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Background & Aims: Helicobacter pylori infection (Hp-I) has been recognized as a substantial risk agent involved in gastrointestinal (GI) tract oncogenesis by stimulating cancer stem cells (CSCs), oncogenes, immune surveillance processes, and triggering GI microbiota dysbiosis. We aimed to investigate the possible involvement of active Hp-I in the sequence: chronic inflammation–adenoma–colorectal cancer (CRC) development. Methods: Four pillars were investigated: (i) endoscopic and conventional histological examinations of patients with CRC, colorectal adenomas (CRA) versus controls to detect the presence of active Hp-I; (ii) immunohistochemical determination of the presence of Hp; expression of CD44, an indicator of CSCs and/or bone marrow-derived stem cells (BMDSCs); expressions of oncogene Ki67 and anti-apoptotic Bcl-2 protein; (iii) expression of CD45, indicator of immune surveillance locally (assessing mainly T and B lymphocytes locally); and (iv) correlation of the studied parameters with the presence or absence of Hp-I. Results: Among 50 patients with CRC, 25 with CRA, and 10 controls, a significantly higher presence of Hp-I in the CRA (68%) and CRC group (84%) were found compared with controls (30%). The presence of Hp-I with accompanying immunohistochemical expression of CD44 in biopsy specimens was revealed in a high proportion of patients with CRA associated with moderate/severe dysplasia (88%) and CRC patients with moderate/severe degree of malignancy (91%). Comparable results were also obtained for Ki67, Bcl-2, and CD45 immunohistochemical expressions. Concluding Remarks: Hp-I seems to be involved in the sequence: CRA – dysplasia – CRC, similarly to the upper GI tract oncogenesis, by several pathways such as the following: Beyond Hp-I associated insulin resistance, the major underlying mechanism responsible for the metabolic syndrome (MetS) that increase the risk of colorectal neoplasms, as implied by other Hp-I related MetS pathologies, such as non-alcoholic fatty liver disease and upper GI cancer, the disturbance of the normal GI microbiota (i.e., dysbiosis) and the formation of an irritative biofilm could contribute to a perpetual inflammatory upper GIT and colon mucosal damage, stimulating CSCs or recruiting BMDSCs and affecting oncogenes and immune surveillance processes. Further large-scale relative studies with a pathophysiological perspective are necessary to demonstrate in-depth this relationship.

Keywords: Helicobacter pylori, colorectal cancer, colorectal adenomas, gastrointestinal oncogenesis

Procedia PDF Downloads 118

Authors: Sofia Ayouche, Rachid Ellaia, Rajae Aboulaich

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Today, insurers may use the yield curve as an indicator evaluation of the profit or the performance of their portfolios; therefore, they modeled it by one class of model that has the ability to fit and forecast the future term structure of interest rates. This class of model is the Nelson-Siegel-Svensson model. Unfortunately, many authors have reported a lot of difficulties when they want to calibrate the model because the optimization problem is not convex and has multiple local optima. In this context, we implement a hybrid Particle Swarm optimization and Nelder Mead algorithm in order to minimize by least squares method, the difference between the zero-coupon curve and the NSS curve.

Keywords: optimization, zero-coupon curve, Nelson-Siegel-Svensson, particle swarm optimization, Nelder-Mead algorithm

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Authors: Hossein Javidnia, Salehe Taheri

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The Electrocardiogram (ECG) is the recording of the heart’s electrical potential versus time. ECG signals are often contaminated with noise such as baseline wander and muscle noise. As these signals have been widely used in clinical studies to detect heart diseases, it is essential to filter these noises. In this paper we compare performance of Wiener Filtering and Median Filtering methods to filter Additive White Gaussian (AWG) noise with the determined signal to noise ratio (SNR) ranging from 3 to 5 dB applied to long-term ECG recordings samples. Root mean square error (RMSE) and coefficient of determination (R2) between the filtered ECG and original ECG was used as the filter performance indicator. Experimental results show that Wiener filter has better noise filtering performance than Median filter.

Keywords: ECG noise filtering, Wiener filtering, median filtering, Gaussian noise, filtering performance

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Authors: Amir Mohtarami, Hadi Kandjani

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The amount of business-critical information in enterprises is growing at an extraordinary rate, and the ability to catalog that information and properly protect it using traditional security mechanisms is not keeping pace. Alongside the Information Technology (IT), information security needs a holistic view in enterprise. In other words, a comprehensive architectural approach is required, focusing on the information itself, understanding what the data are, who owns it, and which business and regulatory policies should be applied to the information. Enterprise Architecture Frameworks provide useful tools to grasp different dimensions of IT in organizations. Usually this is done by the layered views on IT architecture, but not requisite security attention has been held in this frameworks. In this paper, after a brief look at the Enterprise Architecture (EA), we discuss the issue of security in the overall enterprise IT architecture. Due to the increasing importance of security, a rigorous EA program in an enterprise should be able to consider security architecture as an integral part of its processes and gives a visible roadmap and blueprint for this aim.

Keywords: enterprise architecture, architecture framework, security architecture, information systems

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Authors: Noxolo Mafu

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This study presents an overview of strategic planning in South African higher education institutions by tracing its trends and mystique in order to identify its impact. Over the democratic decades, strategic planning has become integral to institutional survival. It has been used as a potent tool by several institutions to catch up and surpass counterparts. While planning has always been part of higher education, strategic planning should be considered different. Strategic planning is primarily about development and maintenance of a strategic fitting between an institution and its dynamic opportunities. This presupposes existence of sets of stages that institutions pursue of which, can be regarded for assessment of the impact of strategic planning in an institution. The network theory serves guides the study in demystifying apparent organisational networks in strategic planning processes.

Keywords: network theory, strategy, planning, strategic planning, assessment, impact

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Authors: Shinji Ukita, Naohiro Nakamura, Yuji Miyazu

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In considering the dynamic characteristics of structure, natural frequency and damping ratio are useful indicator. When performing dynamic design, it's necessary to select an appropriate initial damping model and hysteretic model. In the linear region, the setting of initial damping model influences the response, and in the nonlinear region, the combination of initial damping model and hysteretic model influences the response. However, the dynamic characteristics of structure in the nonlinear region remain unclear. In this paper, we studied the effect of setting of initial damping model and hysteretic model on the dynamic characteristics of structure. On initial damping model setting, Initial stiffness proportional, Tangent stiffness proportional, and Rayleigh-type were used. On hysteretic model setting, TAKEDA model and Normal-trilinear model were used. As a study method, dynamic analysis was performed using a lumped mass model of base-fixed. During analysis, the maximum acceleration of input earthquake motion was gradually increased from 1 to 600 gal. The dynamic characteristics were calculated using the ARX model. Then, the characteristics of 1st and 2nd natural frequency and 1st damping ratio were evaluated. Input earthquake motion was simulated wave that the Building Center of Japan has published. On the building model, an RC building with 30×30m planes on each floor was assumed. The story height was 3m and the maximum height was 18m. Unit weight for each floor was 1.0t/m2. The building natural period was set to 0.36sec, and the initial stiffness of each floor was calculated by assuming the 1st mode to be an inverted triangle. First, we investigated the difference of the dynamic characteristics depending on the difference of initial damping model setting. With the increase in the maximum acceleration of the input earthquake motions, the 1st and 2nd natural frequency decreased, and the 1st damping ratio increased. Then, in the natural frequency, the difference due to initial damping model setting was small, but in the damping ratio, a significant difference was observed (Initial stiffness proportional≒Rayleigh type>Tangent stiffness proportional). The acceleration and the displacement of the earthquake response were largest in the tangent stiffness proportional. In the range where the acceleration response increased, the damping ratio was constant. In the range where the acceleration response was constant, the damping ratio increased. Next, we investigated the difference of the dynamic characteristics depending on the difference of hysteretic model setting. With the increase in the maximum acceleration of the input earthquake motions, the natural frequency decreased in TAKEDA model, but in Normal-trilinear model, the natural frequency didn’t change. The damping ratio in TAKEDA model was higher than that in Normal-trilinear model, although, both in TAKEDA model and Normal-trilinear model, the damping ratio increased. In conclusion, in initial damping model setting, the tangent stiffness proportional was evaluated the most. In the hysteretic model setting, TAKEDA model was more appreciated than the Normal-trilinear model in the nonlinear region. Our results would provide useful indicator on dynamic design.

Keywords: initial damping model, damping ratio, dynamic analysis, hysteretic model, natural frequency

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Authors: Ping-Hsiung Wang, Kuo-Chun Chang

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There has been a common trend worldwide in the seismic design and evaluation of bridges towards the performance-based method where the lateral displacement or the displacement ductility of bridge column is regarded as an important indicator for performance assessment. However, the seismic response of a bridge to an earthquake is a combined result of cyclic displacements and accumulated energy dissipation, causing damage to the bridge, and hence the lateral displacement (ductility) alone is insufficient to tell its actual seismic performance. This study aims to propose a damage-based seismic design and evaluation method for reinforced concrete bridges on the basis of the newly developed capacity-based inelastic displacement spectra. The capacity-based inelastic displacement spectra that comprise an inelastic displacement ratio spectrum and a corresponding damage state spectrum was constructed by using a series of nonlinear time history analyses and a versatile, smooth hysteresis model. The smooth model could take into account the effects of various design parameters of RC bridge columns and correlates the column’s strength deterioration with the Park and Ang’s damage index. It was proved that the damage index not only can be used to accurately predict the onset of strength deterioration, but also can be a good indicator for assessing the actual visible damage condition of column regardless of its loading history (i.e., similar damage index corresponds to similar actual damage condition for the same designed columns subjected to very different cyclic loading protocols as well as earthquake loading), providing a better insight into the seismic performance of bridges. Besides, the computed spectra show that the inelastic displacement ratio for far-field ground motions approximately conforms to the equal displacement rule when structural period is larger than around 0.8 s, but that for near-fault ground motions departs from the rule in the whole considered spectral regions. Furthermore, the near-fault ground motions would lead to significantly greater inelastic displacement ratio and damage index than far-field ground motions and most of the practical design scenarios cannot survive the considered near-fault ground motion when the strength reduction factor of bridge is not less than 5.0. Finally, the spectrum formula is presented as a function of structural period, strength reduction factor, and various column design parameters for far-field and near-fault ground motions by means of the regression analysis of the computed spectra. And based on the developed spectrum formula, a design example of a bridge is presented to illustrate the proposed damage-based seismic design and evaluation method where the damage state of the bridge is used as the performance objective.

Keywords: damage index, far-field, near-fault, reinforced concrete bridge, seismic design and evaluation

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Authors: L. J. Díaz, M. A. Hernández, A. K. Molina, A. Bermúdez, C. Crane, V. M. Pabón

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One of the most important biological indicators that show the exposure to the radiation is the micronuclei (MN). This technique is using to determinate the radiation effects in blood cultures as a biological control and a complement to the physics dosimetry. In Colombia the necessity to apply this analysis has emerged due to the current biological indicator most used is the chromosomal aberrations (CA), that is why it is essential the MN technique’s standardization and validation to have enough tools to improve the radioprotection topic in the country. Besides, this technique will be applied on the construction of a dose-response curve, that allow measure an approximately dose to irradiated people according to MN frequency found. Inside the steps that carried out to accomplish the standardization and validation is the statistic analysis from the lectures of “in vitro” peripheral blood cultures with different analysts, also it was determinate the best culture medium and conditions for the MN can be detected easily.

Keywords: micronuclei, radioprotection, standardization, validation

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Authors: Belbahi Ahlam

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With the phenomenal growth in the Internet, network security has become an integral part of computer and information security. In order to come up with measures that make networks more secure, it is important to learn about the vulnerabilities that could exist in a computer network and then have an understanding of the typical attacks that have been carried out in such networks. The first half of this paper will expose the readers to the classical network attacks that have exploited the typical vulnerabilities of computer networks in the past and solutions that have been adopted since then to prevent or reduce the chances of some of these attacks. The second half of the paper will expose the readers to the different network security controls including the network architecture, protocols, standards and software/ hardware tools that have been adopted in modern day computer networks.

Keywords: network security, attacks and controls, computer and information, solutions

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Authors: Maha Hamoud Alatawi

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Drawing on the work of John McLeod and Ariel Watson, this paper explains the relationship between narrative and psychotherapy in two plays by the Irish playwright Conor McPherson. Dublin Carol presents John’s chequered past through his reminiscences of alcohol addiction and Shining City tells the story of John who is haunted by the ghost of his wife, recently died in a car accident, and who seeks the help of Ian, a therapist. At first, the significance of storytelling as an integral part of Irish culture is highlighted. Such a tradition features prominently in contemporary Irish drama. The paper concludes that it is the power of narrative and its therapeutic impact and not the act of psychotherapy and treatment which brings signs of change to characters’ lives.

Keywords: Conor McPherson, drama, psychotherapy, storytelling

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Authors: Sung-Wook Shin, Sung-Taek Chung

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Hand grip strength has been utilized as an indicator to evaluate the motor ability of hands, responsible for performing multiple body functions. It is, however, difficult to evaluate other factors (other than hand muscular strength) utilizing the hand grip strength only. In this study, we analyzed the motor ability of hands using EMG and the hand grip strength, simultaneously in order to evaluate concentration, muscular strength reaction time, instantaneous muscular strength change, and agility in response to visual reaction. In results, the average time (and their standard deviations) of muscular strength reaction EMG signal and hand grip strength was found to be 209.6 ± 56.2 ms and 354.3 ± 54.6 ms, respectively. In addition, the onset time which represents acceleration time to reach 90% of maximum hand grip strength, was 382.9 ± 129.9 ms.

Keywords: hand grip strength, EMG, visual reaction, endurance

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Authors: Sen Yung Lee, Chih Cheng Huang, Te Wen Tu

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A solution methodology without using integral transformation is proposed to develop analytical solutions for transient heat conduction in nonuniform hollow cylinders with time-dependent boundary condition at the outer surface. It is shown that if the thermal conductivity and the specific heat of the medium are in arbitrary polynomial function forms, the closed solutions of the system can be developed. The influence of physical properties on the temperature distribution of the system is studied. A numerical example is given to illustrate the efficiency and the accuracy of the solution methodology.

Keywords: analytical solution, nonuniform hollow cylinder, time-dependent boundary condition, transient heat conduction

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Authors: Ming-Chien Su, Yi-Zih Chen, Nien-Hsin Kao, Hideaki Shibata

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The major component of the atmosphere is nitrogen, yet atmospheric nitrogen has limited availability for biological use. Human activities have produced different types of nitrogen related compounds such as nitrogen oxides from combustion, nitrogen fertilizers from farming, and the nitrogen compounds from waste and wastewater, all of which have impacted the environment. Many studies have indicated the N-footprint is dominated by food, followed by housing, transportation, and goods and services sectors. To solve the impact issues from agricultural land, nitrogen cycle research is one of the key solutions. The study site is located in Hualien County, Taiwan, a major rice and food production area of Taiwan. Importantly, environmentally friendly farming has been promoted for years, and an environmental indicator system has been established by previous authors based on the concept of resilience capacity index (RCI) and environmental performance index (EPI). Nitrogen management is required for food production, as excess N causes environmental pollution. Therefore it is very important to develop a roadmap of the nitrogen footprint, and to integrate it with environmental indicators. The key focus of the study thus addresses (1) understanding the environmental impact caused by the nitrogen cycle of food products and (2) uncovering the trend of the N-footprint of agricultural products in Hualien, Taiwan. The N-footprint model was applied, which included both crops and energy consumption in the area. All data were adapted from government statistics databases and crosschecked for consistency before modeling. The actions involved with agricultural production were evaluated and analyzed for nitrogen loss to the environment, as well as measuring the impacts to humans and the environment. The results showed that rice makes up the largest share of agricultural production by weight, at 80%. The dominant meat production is pork (52%) and poultry (40%); fish and seafood were at similar levels to pork production. The average per capita food consumption in Taiwan is 2643.38 kcal capita−1 d−1, primarily from rice (430.58 kcal), meats (184.93 kcal) and wheat (ca. 356.44 kcal). The average protein uptake is 87.34 g capita−1 d−1, and 51% is mainly from meat, milk, and eggs. The preliminary results showed that the nitrogen footprint of food production is 34 kg N per capita per year, congruent with the results of Shibata et al. (2014) for Japan. These results provide a better understanding of the nitrogen demand and loss in the environment, and the roadmap can furthermore support the establishment of nitrogen policy and strategy. Additionally, the results serve to develop a roadmap of the nitrogen cycle of an environmentally friendly farming area, thus illuminating the nitrogen demand and loss of such areas.

Keywords: agriculture productions, energy consumption, environmental indicator, nitrogen footprint

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Authors: Mrityunjay Kumar Sinha, Mayank Srivastava

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The position of interface and temperature variation of phase change thermal energy storage system under constant heat injection and radiative heat injection is analysed during charging/discharging process by Heat balance integral method. The charging/discharging process is solely governed by conduction. Phase change material is kept inside a rectangular cavity. Time-dependent fixed temperature and radiative boundary condition applied on one wall, all other walls are thermally insulated. Interface location and temperature variation are analysed by using MATLAB.

Keywords: conduction, melting/solidification, phase change materials, Stefan’s number

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Authors: Gyu-Jin Kim, Hyo-Gyoung Kwak

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In this research, the effect of prestressing force on the nonlinearity of concrete was investigated by an experimental study. For the measurement of ultrasonic nonlinearity, a prestressed concrete beam was prepared and a nonlinear resonant ultrasound method was adopted. When the prestressing force changes, the stress state of the concrete inside the beam is affected, which leads to the occurrence of micro-cracks and changes in mechanical properties. Therefore, it is necessary to introduce nonlinear ultrasonic technology which sensitively reflects microstructural changes. Repetitive prestressing load history, including maximum levels of 45%, 60% and 75%, depending on the compressive strength, is designed to evaluate the impact of loading levels on the nonlinearity. With the experimental results, the possibility of ultrasonic nonlinearity as a trial indicator of stress was evaluated.

Keywords: micro crack, nonlinear ultrasonic resonant spectroscopy, prestressed concrete beam, prestressing force, ultrasonic nonlinearity

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Authors: I. Nižetić Kosović, T. Jagušt

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Lately, with the increasing number of location-based applications, demand for highly accurate and reliable indoor localization became urgent. This is a challenging problem, due to the measurement variance which is the consequence of various factors like obstacles, equipment properties and environmental changes in complex nature of indoor environments. In this paper we propose low-cost custom-setup infrastructure solution and localization algorithm based on the Weighted Centroid Localization (WCL) method. Localization accuracy is increased by several enhancements: calibration of RSSI values gained from wireless nodes, repetitive measurements of RSSI to exclude deviating values from the position estimation, and by considering orientation of the device according to the wireless nodes. We conducted several experiments to evaluate the proposed algorithm. High accuracy of ~1m was achieved.

Keywords: indoor environment, received signal strength indicator, weighted centroid localization, wireless localization

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Authors: Morar (Bumbu) Nicoleta Ileana

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Located in the northeastern part of Romania in a cross-border area, Bucovina region, due to historical events that took place here, is characterized by the cohabitation in the same area of a significant number of ethnic communities, represented in 54% by rural population. In addition to providing the natural, economic history and decision makers, the demographic component is responsible for the region's development trajectory to which it belongs. The influence that people exert on rural development is shown by the values of the different demographic indicator. This study will analyze the demographic indicators obtained against a strong database, emphasizing the indicators that favor the rural development of the region and those that prevent it. The study is useful in defining the rightful directions that rural economic development can focus on, also representing an important tool in developing strategies for the development of rural settlements of Bucovina region.

Keywords: Bucovina, development directions, demographic indicators, rural development

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Authors: Halimi Mohamed Taher, Kordoghli Bassem, Ben Hassen Mohamed, Sakli Faouzi

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Textile industry has been an important part of many developing countries economies such as Tunisia. This industry is confronted with a challenging and increasing competitive environment. Good quality management in production process is the key factor for retaining existence especially in raw material exploitation. The present work aims to develop an intelligent system for fabric inspection. In the first step, we have studied the method used for fabric control which takes into account the default length and localization in woven. In the second step, we have used a method based on the fuzzy logic to minimize the Demerit point indicator with appropriate total rollers length, so that the quality problem becomes multi-objective. In order to optimize the total fabric quality, we have applied the genetic algorithm (GA).

Keywords: fabric control, Fuzzy logic, genetic algorithm, quality management

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Authors: Sahiti Ganduri, Kavya Sreenivasan, Venya Lankala

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The narcissistic personality is a condition that causes individuals to have an inflated perception of self, giving themselves higher self-importance. It is necessary and interesting to study narcissistic traits in students of different majors. This can be a crucial environmental or psychosocial marker/indicator of narcissism which can also be of substantial importance in the field of education. This study focuses on identifying narcissism in students of psychology background. The narcissistic personality inventory was administered to 114 psychology students of different universities (public and private) in India. The results of our study provided evidence of the fact that narcissistic traits are higher in male psychology students as compared to female psychology students. Further, this paper has provided evidence that narcissistic traits are higher in leaders as compared to non-leaders.

Keywords: college students, disorder, gender, leadership, narcissistic personality, personality, students, traits

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Authors: Noshin Mehrabian, Mohammad Reza Abedi, Hassan Ali Zamani

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A highly selective poly(vinyl chloride)-based membrane sensor produced by using 1,2-Diaminopropane-N,N,N',N'-tetraacetic acid (DAPTA) as active material is described. The electrode displays Nernstian behavior over the concentration range 1.0×10⁻⁶ to 1.0×10⁻² M. The detection limit of the electrode is 7.2×10⁻⁷ M. The best performance was obtained with the membrane containing 30% polyvinyl chloride (PVC), 65% nitrobenzene (NB), 2% sodium tetra phenyl borate (Na TPB), 3% DAPTA. The potentiometric response of the proposed electrode is pH independent in the range of 2.5–‎‎9.1. ‎The proposed sensor displays a fast response time 'less than 10s'. The electrode shows a good selectivity for Eu (III) ion with respect to most common cations including alkali, alkaline earth, transition, and heavy metal ions. It was used as an indicator electrode in potentiometric ‎titration of 25 mL of a 1.0×10⁻⁴ M Eu (III) solution with a 1.0×10⁻² M EDTA solution.

Keywords: potentiometry, PVC membrane, sensor, ion-selective electrode

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Authors: Felib Ayman Shawky Salem

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Experiential marketing means an unforgettable experience that remains deeply anchored in the customer's memory. Furthermore, customer satisfaction is defined as the emotional response to the experiences provided that relate to specific products or services purchased. Therefore, experiential marketing activities can influence the level of customer satisfaction and loyalty. In this context, the study aims to examine the relationship between experiential marketing, customer satisfaction and loyalty of beauty products in Konya. The results of this study showed that experiential marketing is an important indicator of customer satisfaction and loyalty and that experiential marketing has a significant positive impact on customer satisfaction and loyalty.

Keywords: sponsorship, marketing communication theories, marketing communication tools internet, marketing, tourism, tourism management corporate responsibility, employee organizational performance, internal marketing, internal customer experiential marketing, customer satisfaction, customer loyalty, social sciences.

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Authors: Nadeem Munawar, Tariq Mahmood, Paula Rivadeneira, Ali Akhter

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In this paper, we review on rodent species which are common inhabitants of agricultural landscapes where they are an important prey source for a wide variety of avian, reptilian, and mammalian predators. Agricultural fields are surrounded by fallow land, which provide suitable sites for shelter and breeding for rodents, while shrubs, grasses, annual weeds and forbs may provide supplementary food. The assemblage of rodent’s fauna in the cropland habitats including cropped fields, meadows and adjacent field structures like hedgerows, woodland and field margins fluctuates seasonally. The mature agricultural crops provides good source of food and shelter to the rodents and these factors along with favorable climatic factors/season facilitate breeding activities of these rodent species. Changes in vegetation height and vegetative cover affect two important aspects of a rodent’s life: food and shelter. In addition, during non-crop period vegetation can be important for building nests above or below ground and it provides thermal protection for rodents from heat and cold. The review revealed that rodents form a very diverse group of mammals, ranging from tiny pigmy mice to big capybaras, from arboreal flying squirrels to subterranean mole rats, from opportunistic omnivores (e.g. Norway rats) to specialist feeders (e.g. the North African fat sand rats that feed on a single family of plants only). It is therefore no surprise that some species thrive well under the conditions that are found in agricultural fields. The review on the population dynamics of the rodent species indicated that they are agricultural pests probably due to the heterogeneous landscape and to the high rotativity of vegetable crop cultivation. They also cause damage to various crops, directly and indirectly, by gnawing, spoilage, contamination and hoarding activities, besides this behavior they have also significance importance in agricultural habitat. The burrowing activities of rodents alter the soil properties around their burrows which improve its aeration, infiltration, increase the water holding capacity and thus encourage plant growth. These properties are beneficial for the soil because they affect absorption of phosphorus, absorption zinc, copper, other nutrients and the uptake of water and thus rodents are known as indicator species in agricultural fields. Our review suggests that wide crop field’s borders, particularly those contiguous to various cropland fields, should be understood as priority sites for nesting, feeding, and cover for the rodent’s fauna. The goal of this review paper is to provide a comprehensive synthesis of understanding regarding rodent habitat and biodiversity in agricultural landscapes.

Keywords: agricultural landscapes, food, indicator species, shelter

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Authors: Irina Veselova, Maria Makedonskaya, Olga Eremina, Alexandr Sidorov, Eugene Goodilin, Tatyana Shekhovtsova

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Such catecholamines as dopamine, norepinephrine, and epinephrine are the principal neurotransmitters in the sympathetic nervous system. Catecholamines and their metabolites are considered to be important markers of socially significant diseases such as atherosclerosis, diabetes, coronary heart disease, carcinogenesis, Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases. Currently, neurotransmitters can be studied via electrochemical and chromatographic techniques that allow their characterizing and quantification, although these techniques can only provide crude spatial information. Besides, the difficulty of catecholamine determination in biological materials is associated with their low normal concentrations (~ 1 nM) in biomaterials, which may become even one more order lower because of some disorders. In addition, in blood they are rapidly oxidized by monoaminooxidases from thrombocytes and, for this reason, the determination of neurotransmitter metabolism indicators in an organism should be very rapid (15—30 min), especially in critical states. Unfortunately, modern instrumental analysis does not offer a complex solution of this problem: despite its high sensitivity and selectivity, HPLC-MS cannot provide sufficiently rapid analysis, while enzymatic biosensors and immunoassays for the determination of the considered analytes lack sufficient sensitivity and reproducibility. Fluorescent and SERS-sensors remain a compelling technology for approaching the general problem of selective neurotransmitter detection. In recent years, a number of catecholamine sensors have been reported including RNA aptamers, fluorescent ribonucleopeptide (RNP) complexes, and boronic acid based synthetic receptors and the sensor operated in a turn-off mode. In this work we present the fluorescent and SERS turn-on sensor systems based on the bio- or chemorecognizing nanostructured films {chitosan/collagen-Tb/Eu/Cu-nanoparticles-indicator reagents} that provide the selective recognition, visualization, and sensing of the above mentioned catecholamines on the level of nanomolar concentrations in biomaterials (cell cultures, tissue etc.). We have (1) developed optically transparent porous films and gels of chitosan/collagen; (2) ensured functionalization of the surface by molecules-'recognizers' (by impregnation and immobilization of components of the indicator systems: biorecognizing and auxiliary reagents); (3) performed computer simulation for theoretical prediction and interpretation of some properties of the developed materials and obtained analytical signals in biomaterials. We are grateful for the financial support of this research from Russian Foundation for Basic Research (grants no. 15-03-05064 a, and 15-29-01330 ofi_m).

Keywords: biomaterials, fluorescent and SERS-recognition, neurotransmitters, solid-phase turn-on sensor system

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Authors: G. Guramishvili, M. Moistsrapishvili, L. Andghuladze

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In the article are considered the problems arising at increasing of transferring from rolling stock axles on rail loading from 210 KN up to 270 KN and is offered for rail strength analysis definition of rail force loading complex integral characteristic with taking into account all affecting force factors that is characterizing specific operation condition of rail structure and defines the working capability of structure. As result of analysis due mentioned method is obtained that in the conditions of 270 KN loading the rail meets the working assessment criteria of rail and rail structures: Strength, rail track stability, rail links stability and its transverse stability, traffic safety condition that is rather important for post-Soviet countries railways.

Keywords: axial loading, rail force loading, rail structure, rail strength analysis, rail track stability

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Authors: Houneïda Benbouzid, Houria Berrebbah, Mohammed-Réda Djebar

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The toxicological impacts of the increasing number of synthetic compounds present in the aquatic environment are assessed predominantly in laboratory studies where test organisms are exposed to a range of concentrations of single compounds. The bio-indicator Paramecium sp., characterized by a short life cycle, rapid multiplication and normal behavior that may be affected by the presence of pollutants. We therefore investigated the inhibitory effect of a newly synthesized acaricide: the chlorfenapyr tested at concentrations of 250, 300, and 350 µM on a pure culture of Paramecium sp. during 6 day. Paramecia treated with different concentrations of Chlorfenapyr illustrate strong inhibition of cell growth from the second day of treatment. Low levels of glutathione, increased glutathione S-transferase and the decrease in respiratory metabolism, recorded in the presence of different concentrations of Chlorfenapyr, involve the activation of detoxification system.

Keywords: Paramecium sp., chlorfenapyr, oxidative enzymes, detoxification

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Authors: G. Shabib, Esam H. Abd-Elhameed, G. Magdy

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In this paper, a comparison of discrete time PID, PSS controllers is presented through small signal stability of power system comprising of one machine connected to infinite bus system. This comparison achieved by using a new approach of discretization which converts the S-domain model of analog controllers to a Z-domain model to enhance the damping of a single machine power system. The new method utilizes the Plant Input Mapping (PIM) algorithm. The proposed algorithm is stable for any sampling rate, as well as it takes the closed loop characteristic into consideration. On the other hand, the traditional discretization methods such as Tustin’s method is produce satisfactory results only; when the sampling period is sufficiently low.

Keywords: PSS, power system stabilizer PID, proportional-integral-derivative PIM, plant input mapping

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Authors: T. Francis Thamburaj, A. Aloysius

Abstract:

Polymorphism is one of the main pillars of the object-oriented paradigm. It induces hidden forms of class dependencies which may impact software quality, resulting in higher cost factor for comprehending, debugging, testing, and maintaining the software. In this paper, a new cognitive complexity metric called Cognitive Weighted Polymorphism Factor (CWPF) is proposed. Apart from the software structural complexity, it includes the cognitive complexity on the basis of type. The cognitive weights are calibrated based on 27 empirical studies with 120 persons. A case study and experimentation of the new software metric shows positive results. Further, a comparative study is made and the correlation test has proved that CWPF complexity metric is a better, more comprehensive, and more realistic indicator of the software complexity than Abreu’s Polymorphism Factor (PF) complexity metric.

Keywords: cognitive complexity metric, object-oriented metrics, polymorphism factor, software metrics

Procedia PDF Downloads 418

Authors: Muhammad Naeem, Syed M. Moeen-ud-Din Raheel, Muhammad Arshad, Muhammad Naeem Qaisar, Muhammad Khalid, Muhammad Zubair Ahmed, Muhammad Ashraf

Abstract:

Iron, Copper, Cadmium, Zinc, Manganese, Chromium levels were estimated to study the risk of trace elements on human consumption. The area of collection was Dera Ghazi Khan, Pakistan and was evaluated by means of flame atomic absorption spectrophotometer. The standards find in favor of the six heavy metals were in accordance with the threshold edge concentrations on behalf of fish meat obligatory by European and other international normative. Regressions were achieved for both size (length and weight) and condition factor with concentrations of metal present in the fish body.

Keywords: Oreochromis mossambica, toxic analysis, body size, condition factor

Procedia PDF Downloads 555

Authors: Abdallah Benaissa

Abstract:

In this paper, we consider the problem of asymptotics of double oscillatory integrals in the case of critical points of the second kind, the order of contact between the boundary and a level curve of the phase being even, the situation when the order of contact is odd will be studied in other occasions. Complete asymptotic expansions will be derived and the coefficient of the leading term will be computed in terms of the original data of the problem. A multitude of people have studied this problem using a variety of methods, but only in a special case when the order of contact is minimal: the more cited papers are a paper of Jones and Kline and an other one of Chako. These integrals are encountered in many areas of science, especially in problems of diffraction of optics.

Keywords: asymptotic expansion, double oscillatory integral, critical point of the second kind, optics diffraction

Procedia PDF Downloads 328