Search results for: real time control

Authors: Michael Johnson, Vincenzo Oliveri

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This work considers an interdisciplinary Problem-Based Learning (PBL) project developed by lecturers from the Aeronautical and Electronic and Computer Engineering departments at the University of Limerick. This “CANSAT” project utilises the CanSat can-sized satellite platform in order to allow students from aeronautical and electronic engineering to engage in a mixed format (online/face-to-face), interdisciplinary PBL assignment using a real-world platform and application. The project introduces students to the design, development, and construction of the CanSat system over the course of a single semester, enabling student(s) to apply their aeronautical and technical skills/capabilities to the realisation of a working CanSat system. In this case study, the CanSat kits are used to pivot the real-world, discipline-relevant PBL goal of designing, building, and testing the CanSat system with payload(s) from a traditional module-based setting to an online PBL setting. Feedback, impressions, benefits, and challenges identified through the semester are presented. Students found the project to be interesting and rewarding, with the interdisciplinary nature of the project appealing to them. Challenges and difficulties encountered are also addressed, with solutions developed between the students and facilitators to overcoming these discussed.

Keywords: problem-based learning, interdisciplinary, engineering, CanSATs

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Authors: Ali Hassan, Mian Muhammad Awais, Muhammad Rafique Shahid, Farazia Hassan, Shumaila Rasool

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Dusky cotton bug (Oxycarenus laetus) has attained the status of major insect pest of cotton. It is also known as seed bug due to its property of feeding on seeds. It causes floral abscission at flowering stage and reduction in seed germination. Present study was carried out to assess germination loss caused by dusky bug with respect to crop stage and insect intensity. Treatments consisted of three stages immature boll, mature boll and opened boll as well three levels of dusky bug i.e., 50 bugs per boll, 40 bugs per boll along with zero level kept as control. Results showed that the germination percentage was highest in control treatment where no insect was released followed by treatment where 40 insects released and minimum germination showed by treatment in which 50 insects were released. The germination percentage of seeds surpassed after control treatment in the treatment where dusky bugs exposure was given at boll opening stage than on mature boll stage. Minimum germination was observed in immature boll stage. Interaction between crop stages and dusky bug levels showed that germination percentage of seeds was maximum in control treatment then boll opening stage followed by mature boll stage. Minimum seed germination was recorded in dusky bug treatment at immature boll stage which was 34% where 50 insects were released. From the results it is clear that dusky bug should be managed properly at all reproductive stages but immature stage is most critical.

Keywords: Gossypium hirsutum, Oxycarenus laetus, seed bug, seed germination

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Authors: Kristine Joy Simpao

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Improving labour productivity is one of the most enthralling and challenging aspects of managing hotels and restaurant business. The demand to secure countless productivity became an increasingly pivotal role of managers to survive and sustain the business. Besides making business profitable, they are in the doom to make every resource to become productive and effective towards achieving company goal while maximizing the value of organization. This paper examines what productivity means to the services industry, in particular, to the hotel industry. This is underpinned by an investigation of the extent of practice of respondent hotels to the labour productivity aspect in the areas of materials management, human resource management and leadership management and in a way, computing the labour productivity ratios using the hotel simple ratios of productivity in order to find a suitable measurement and control standards for hotels with SBMA, Olongapo City as the locale of the study. The finding shows that hotels labour productivity ratings are not perfect with some practices that are far below particularly on strategic and operational decisions in improving performance and productivity of its human resources. It further proves of the no significant difference ratings among the respondent’s type in all areas which indicated that they are having similar perception of the weak implementation of some of the indicators in the labour productivity practices. Furthermore, the results in the computation of labour productivity efficiency ratios resulted relationship of employees versus labour productivity practices are inversely proportional. This study provides a potential measurement and control standards for the enhancement of hotels labour productivity. These standards should also contain labour productivity customized for standard hotels in Subic Bay Freeport Zone to assist hotel owners in increasing the labour productivity while meeting company goals and objectives effectively.

Keywords: labour productivity, hotel, measurement and control, standards, efficiency ratios, practices

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Authors: Mohammed Ali

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A flexible manufacturing system has been studied under different manufacturing strategies. The aim of this paper is to test the impact of number of pallets and routing flexibility (design strategy) on system performance operating at different sequencing and dispatching rules (control strategies) at unbalanced load condition (planning strategies). A computer simulation model is developed to evaluate the effects of aforementioned strategies on the make-span time, which is taken as the system performance measure. The impact of number of pallets is shown with the different levels of routing flexibility. In this paper, the same manufacturing system is modeled under different combination of sequencing and dispatching rules. The result of the simulation shows that there is definite range of pallets for each level of routing flexibility at which the systems performs satisfactorily.

Keywords: flexible manufacturing system, manufacturing, strategy, makespan

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Authors: Tatiana V. Melnikova, Lyudmila P. Polyakova, Alla A. Oudalova

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As a result of environmental pollution, the production of agriculture and foodstuffs inevitably contain residual amounts of Persistent Organic Pollutants (POP). The special attention must be given to organic pollutants, including various organochlorinated pesticides (OCP). Among priorities, OCP is DDT (and its metabolite DDE), alfa-HCH, gamma-HCH (lindane). The control of these substances spends proceeding from requirements of sanitary norms and rules. During too time often is lost sight of that the primary product can pass technological processing (in particular irradiation treatment) as a result of which transformation of physicochemical forms of initial polluting substances is possible. The goal of the present work was to study the OCP radiation degradation at a various gamma-radiation dosimetric characteristics. The problems posed for goal achievement: to evaluate the content of the priority of OCPs in food; study the character the degradation of OCP in model solutions (with micro concentrations commensurate with the real content of their agricultural and food products) depending upon dosimetric characteristics of gamma-radiation. Qualitative and quantitative analysis of OCP in food and model solutions by gas chromatograph Varian 3400 (Varian, Inc. (USA)); chromatography-mass spectrometer Varian Saturn 4D (Varian, Inc. (USA)) was carried out. The solutions of DDT, DDE, alpha- and gamma- isomer HCH (0.01, 0.1, 1 ppm) were irradiated on "Issledovatel" (60Co) and "Luch - 1" (60Co) installations at a dose 10 kGy with a variation of dose rate from 0.0083 up to 2.33 kGy/sec. It was established experimentally that OCP residual concentration in individual samples of food products (fish, milk, cereal crops, meat, butter) are evaluated as 10-1-10-4 mg/kg, the value of which depends on the factor-sensations territory and natural migration processes. The results were used in the preparation of model solutions OCP. The dependence of a degradation extent of OCP from a dose rate gamma-irradiation has complex nature. According to our data at a dose 10 kGy, the degradation extent of OCP at first increase passes through a maximum (over the range 0.23 – 0.43 Gy/sec), and then decrease with the magnification of a dose rate. The character of the dependence of a degradation extent of OCP from a dose rate is kept for various OCP, in polar and nonpolar solvents and does not vary at the change of concentration of the initial substance. Also in work conditions of the maximal radiochemical yield of OCP which were observed at having been certain: influence of gamma radiation with a dose 10 kGy, in a range of doses rate 0.23 – 0.43 Gy/sec; concentration initial OCP 1 ppm; use of solvent - 2-propanol after preliminary removal of oxygen. Based on, that at studying model solutions of OCP has been established that the degradation extent of pesticides and qualitative structure of OCP radiolysis products depend on a dose rate, has been decided to continue researches radiochemical transformations OCP into foodstuffs at various of doses rate.

Keywords: degradation extent, dosimetric characteristics, gamma-radiation, organochlorinated pesticides, persistent organic pollutants

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Authors: Jaworski Mariusz, Owczarek Krzysztof, Adamus Mirosława

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Binge eating disorder (BED) is one of the three main eating disorders, beside anorexia and bulimia nervosa. BED is characterized by a loss of control over the quantity of food consumed and the lack of the compensatory behaviors, such as induced vomiting or purging. Studies highlight that certain personality traits may contribute to the severity of symptoms in the ED. The aim of this study is to analyze the relationship between psychological variables (Impulsivity and Urgency) and Nutritional restrictions in BED. The study included two groups. The first group consisted of 35 women with BED aged 18 to 28. The control group - 35 women without ED aged 18 to 28. ED-1 questionnaire was used in a study to assess the severity of impulsivity, urgency and nutritional restrictions. The obtained data were standardized. Statistical analyzes were performed using SPSS 21 software. The severity of impulsivity was higher in patients with BED than the control group. The relation between impulsivity and nutritional restrictions in BED was observed, only taking into consideration the relationship of these variables with the level of urgency. However, if the severity of urgency in this relationship is skipped, the relationship between impulsivity and nutritional restrictions will not occur. Impulsivity has a negative relationship with the level of urgency. This study suggests the need to analyze the interaction between impulsivity and urgency, and their relationship with dietary behavior in BED, especially nutritional restrictions. Analysis of single isolated features may give erroneous results.

Keywords: binge eating disorder, impulsivity, nutritional restrictions, urgency

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Authors: Rona Hanani Simamora, Bahagia Loebis, M. Surya Husada

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Background: The exact cause of schizophrenia is not known, although several etiology theories have been proposed for the disease, including immune dysfunction or autoimmune mechanisms. Cytokines including Tnf-α has an important role in the pathophysiology of schizophrenia and the effects of pharmacological treatment with antipsychotics. Nicotine is widespread effects on the brain, immune system and cytokine levels. Smoking among schizophrenic patients could play a role in the altered cytokine profiles of schizophrenia such as Tnf-α. Aims: To determine differences of serum Tnf-α levels between schizophrenic patients with smoking in male and healthy control. Methods: This study was a comparative analytic study, divided into two groups: 1) group of male schizophrenic patients with smoking (n1=30) with inclusion criteria were patients who have been diagnosed schizophrenic based PPDGJ-III, 20-60 years old, male, smoking, chronic schizophrenic patients in the stable phase and willing to participate this study. Exclusion criteria were having other mental disorders and comorbidity with other medical illnesses. 2) healthy control group (n2=30) with inclusion criteria were 20-60 years old, male, smoking, willing to participate this study. Exclusion criteria were having mental disorder, a family history of psychiatric disorders, the other medical illnesses, a history of alcohol and other substances abuse (except caffeine and nicotine). Serum Tnf-α were analyzed using the Quantikine HS Human Tnf –α Immunoassay. Results: Serum Tnf-α level measure in patient schizophrenia male with smoking and compared with the healthy control subjects. Tnf-α levels were significantly higher in patients schizophrenic male with smoking (25,79±27,96) to healthy control subjects (2,74±2,19), by using the Mann Whitney U test showed a statistically significant difference was observed for serum Tnf-α level (p < 0,001). Conclusions: Schizophrenia is a highly heterogeneous disorder, and this study shows an increase Tnf-α as pro-inflammation cytokines in schizophrenics. These results suggest an immune abnormalities may be involved in the etiology and pathophysiology of schizophrenia.

Keywords: male, schizophrenic, smoking, Tnf Alpha

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Authors: Waleed A. Basuliman, Khalid S. AlSaleh, Mohamed Z. Ramadan

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Applying the anthropometric dimensions is considered one of the important factors when designing any human-machine system. In this study, the estimation of anthropometric dimensions has been improved by developing artificial neural network that aims to predict the anthropometric measurements of the male in Saudi Arabia. A total of 1427 Saudi males from age 6 to 60 participated in measuring twenty anthropometric dimensions. These anthropometric measurements are important for designing the majority of work and life applications in Saudi Arabia. The data were collected during 8 months from different locations in Riyadh City. Five of these dimensions were used as predictors variables (inputs) of the model, and the remaining fifteen dimensions were set to be the measured variables (outcomes). The hidden layers have been varied during the structuring stage, and the best performance was achieved with the network structure 6-25-15. The results showed that the developed Neural Network model was significantly able to predict the body dimensions for the population of Saudi Arabia. The network mean absolute percentage error (MAPE) and the root mean squared error (RMSE) were found 0.0348 and 3.225 respectively. The accuracy of the developed neural network was evaluated by compare the predicted outcomes with a multiple regression model. The ANN model performed better and resulted excellent correlation coefficients between the predicted and actual dimensions.

Keywords: artificial neural network, anthropometric measurements, backpropagation, real anthropometric database

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Authors: Karen Louise Lacey, Dario Javier Pavon Vargas, Massimiliano Rinaldi, Luca Cattani, Sara Rainieri

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The effects of high-pressure processing (HPP) and thermal treatments (TT) on quality markers of strawberry nectar (12 °Brix, 3,3 pH) was studied before and after treatments. TT and HPP treatments ensured a 3-log aerobic bacteria inactivation. No significant difference was detected in terms of pH and °Brix. TT samples were less red (a* less positive) than all HPP treated samples, while all samples were less red than the control. Apparent viscosity was significantly increased in all the HPP treatments, at 10 1/s shear rate, control was 79.04±7.94 mPa•s and the 600 MPa-20 min treatment were 327.10±1.64 mPa•s. This work suggests that HPP treatments may maintain the quality markers of strawberry nectar better.

Keywords: HPP, strawberry nectar, colour , viscosity

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Authors: Hisham M. Soliman, Hassan Yousef

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This manuscript presents new results on design saturated power system stabilizers (PSS) to assign system poles within a desired region for achieving good dynamic performance. The regional pole placement is accomplished against model uncertainties caused by different load conditions. The design is based on a sufficient condition in the form of linear matrix inequalities (LMI) which forces the saturated nonlinear controller to lie within the linear zone. The controller effectiveness is demonstrated on a single machine infinite bus system.

Keywords: power system stabilizer, saturated control, robust control, regional pole placement, linear matrix inequality (LMI)

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Authors: Pejman Taghibeikzadehbadr

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Background and Aim: PGC-1 alpha is a transcription factor that was first detected in brown adipose tissue. Since its discovery, PGC-1 alpha has been known to facilitate beneficial adaptations such as mitochondrial biogenesis and increased angiogenesis in skeletal muscle following aerobic exercise. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to investigate the expression of PGC-1 alpha isoforms in response to eccentric and concentric resistance training in healthy subjects. Materials and Methods: Ten healthy men were randomly divided into two groups (5 patients in eccentric group - 5 in eccentric group). Isokinetic contraction protocols included eccentric and concentric knee extension with maximum power and angular velocity of 60 degrees per second. The torques assigned to each subject were considered to match the workload in both protocols, with a rotational speed of 60 degrees per second. Contractions consisted of a maximum of 12 sets of 10 repetitions for the right leg, a rest time of 30 seconds between each set. At the beginning and end of the study, biopsy of the lateral broad muscle tissue was performed. Biopsies were performed in both distal and proximal directions of the lateral flank. To evaluate the expression of PGC1α-1 and PGC1α-4 genes, tissue analysis was performed in each group using Real-Time PCR technique. Data were analyzed using dependent t-test and covariance test. SPSS21 software and Exell 2013 software were used for data analysis. Results: The results showed that intra-group changes of PGC1α-1 after one session of activity were not significant in eccentric (p = 0.168) and concentric (p = 0.959) groups. Also, inter-group changes showed no difference between the two groups (p = 0.681). Also, intra-group changes of PGC1α-4 after one session of activity were significant in an eccentric group (p = 0.012) and concentric group (p = 0.02). Also, inter-group changes showed no difference between the two groups (p = 0.362). Conclusion: It seems that the lack of significant changes in the desired variables due to the lack of exercise pressure is sufficient to stimulate the increase of PGC1α-1 and PGC1α-4. And with regard to reviewing the answer, it seems that the compatibility debate has different results that need to be addressed.

Keywords: eccentric contraction, concentric contraction, PGC1α-1 و PGC1α-4, human subject

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Authors: Fevy Kae Mateo, Kimberly Javier, Alyzza Marie Palles

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Leadership is a process of relationship involving interaction with other people. Leaders emphasise authority, which executes and implements regulations, maintains the rules and leads to a better future. The First Time voters are very significant because there are the stakeholders of the type of leader to be deployed. They also have the capacity of engaging the government and can be the agents of change. The objective of the study is to identify the strengths and weaknesses of leader. Moreover, the study identifies the qualities of a leader. Finally, the study determines first-time voter’s representation of a leader. Focus Group Discussion was carried out into two groups of first time voter’s ages 18 to 21 years old. Verbatim transcripts of the discussion were analyzed using Thematic Analysis. Overall results showed super ordinate themes for weaknesses of leader: Lace of transparency in the government, poor communication strategy, and valuing experience over potential and other contributory factor; for strength of a leader: analytical skill, emotional intelligence in political work, analytical ability and economic status on political participation; finally, in the representation of a leader: positive representation of a leader and negative representation of a leader.

Keywords: first time voters, focus group discussion, leadership, qualitative research design

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Authors: Hossein Edrisi

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To study the impact of the amount and volume of power of isolation transformer on the lamps in airfield Ground Lighting Systems. A test was conducted in Persian Gulf International Airport, This airport is situated in the south of Iran and it is one of the most cutting-edge airports, the same one that owns modern devices. Iran uses materials and auxiliary equipment which are made by ADB Company from Belgium. Airfield ground lighting (AGL) systems are responsible for providing visual issue to aircrafts and helicopters in the runways. In an AGL system a great deal of lamps are connected in serial circuits to each other and each ring has its individual constant current regulators (CCR), which through that provide energy to the lamps. Control of lamps is crucial for maintenance and operation in the AGL systems. Thanks to the Programmable Logic Controller (PLC) that is a cutting-edge technology can help the system to connect the elements from substations and ATC (TOWER). For this purpose, a test in real conditions of the airport done for all element that used in the airport such as isolation transformer in different power capacity and different consuming power and brightness of the lamps. The data were analyzed with Lux meter and Multimeter. The results had shown that the increase in the power of transformer caused a significant increase in brightness. According to the Ohm’s law and voltage division, without changing the characteristics of the light bulb, it is not possible to change the voltage, just need to change the amount of transformer with which it connects to the lamps. When the voltage is increased, the current through the bulb has to increase as well, because of Ohm's law: I=V/R and I=V/R which means that if V increases, so do I increase. The output voltage on the constant current regulator emerges between the lamps and the transformers.

Keywords: AGL, CCR, lamps, transformer, Ohm’s law

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Authors: Nasser S. Shebka

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Fuzzy logic is used in complex adaptive systems where classical tools of representing knowledge are unproductive. Nevertheless, the incorporation of fuzzy logic, as it’s the case with all artificial intelligence tools, raised some inconsistencies and limitations in dealing with increased complexity systems and rules that apply to real-life situations and hinders the ability of the inference process of such systems, but it also faces some inconsistencies between inferences generated fuzzy rules of complex or imprecise knowledge-based systems. The use of fuzzy logic enhanced the capability of knowledge representation in such applications that requires fuzzy representation of truth values or similar multi-value constant parameters derived from multi-valued logic, which set the basis for the three t-norms and their based connectives which are actually continuous functions and any other continuous t-norm can be described as an ordinal sum of these three basic ones. However, some of the attempts to solve this dilemma were an alteration to fuzzy logic by means of non-monotonic logic, which is used to deal with the defeasible inference of expert systems reasoning, for example, to allow for inference retraction upon additional data. However, even the introduction of non-monotonic fuzzy reasoning faces a major issue of conflict resolution for which many principles were introduced, such as; the specificity principle and the weakest link principle. The aim of our work is to improve the logical representation and functional modelling of AI systems by presenting a method of resolving existing and potential rule conflicts by representing temporal modalities within defeasible inference rule-based systems. Our paper investigates the possibility of resolving fuzzy rules conflict in a non-monotonic fuzzy reasoning-based system by introducing temporal modalities and Kripke's general weak modal logic operators in order to expand its knowledge representation capabilities by means of flexibility in classifying newly generated rules, and hence, resolving potential conflicts between these fuzzy rules. We were able to address the aforementioned problem of our investigation by restructuring the inference process of the fuzzy rule-based system. This is achieved by using time-branching temporal logic in combination with restricted first-order logic quantifiers, as well as propositional logic to represent classical temporal modality operators. The resulting findings not only enhance the flexibility of complex rule-base systems inference process but contributes to the fundamental methods of building rule bases in such a manner that will allow for a wider range of applicable real-life situations derived from a quantitative and qualitative knowledge representational perspective.

Keywords: fuzzy rule-based systems, fuzzy tense inference, intelligent systems, temporal modalities

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Authors: Ajayi Oluwasola Felix

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Management information system (MIS) provides information for the managerial activities in an organization. The main purpose of this research is, MIS provides accurate and timely information necessary to facilitate the decision-making process and enable the organizations planning control and operational functions to be carried out effectively. Management information system (MIS) is basically concerned with processing data into information and is then communicated to the various departments in an organization for appropriate decision-making. MIS is a subset of the overall planning and control activities covering the application of humans technologies, and procedures of the organization. The information system is the mechanism to ensure that information is available to the managers in the form they want it and when they need it.

Keywords: Management Information Systems (MIS), information technology, decision-making, MIS in Organizations

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Authors: Salman Ali Nisar, Koshi Suzuki

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Precedence Diagram Method (PDM) with its additional relationships i.e., start-to-start, finish-to-finish, and start-to-finish, between activities provides more flexible schedule than traditional Critical Path Method (CPM). But, changing the duration of critical activities in PDM network will have anomalous effect on critical path. Researchers have proposed some classification of critical activity effects. In this paper, we do further study on classifications of critical activity effect and provide more information in detailed. Furthermore, we determine the maximum amount of time for each class of critical activity effect by which the project managers can control the dynamic feature (shortening/lengthening) of critical activities and project duration more efficiently.

Keywords: construction project management, critical path method, project scheduling, precedence diagram method

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Authors: Cristiane R. Magalhaes

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Advances in Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) have led to changes in different sectors particularly in architecture, engineering, construction, and operation (AECO) industry. In this context, the advent of BIM (Building Information Modeling) has brought a number of opportunities in the field of the digital architectural design process bringing integrated design concepts that impact on the development, elaboration, coordination, and management of ventures. The project scope has begun to contemplate, from its original stage, the third dimension, by means of virtual environments (VEs), composed of models containing different specialties, substituting the two-dimensional products. The possibility to simulate the construction process of a venture in a VE starts at the beginning of the design process offering, through new technologies, many possibilities beyond geometrical digital modeling. This is a significant change and relates not only to form, but also to how information is appropriated in architectural and engineering models and exchanged among professionals. In order to achieve the main objective of this work, the Design Science Research Method will be adopted to elaborate an artifact containing strategies for the application and use of ICTs from BIM flows, with pre-construction cut-off to the execution of the building. This article intends to discuss and investigate how BIM can be extended to the site acting as a protagonist and link between the Virtual Environments and the Real-World, as well as its contribution to the integration of the value chain and the consequent increase of efficiency in the production of the building. The virtualization of the design process has reached high levels of development through the use of BIM. Therefore it is essential that the lessons learned with the virtual models be transposed to the actual building production increasing precision and efficiency. Thus, this paper discusses how the Fourth Industrial Revolution has impacted on property developments and how BIM could be the propellant acting as the main fuel and link between the virtual environment and the real production for the structuring of flows, information management and efficiency in this process. The results obtained are partial and not definite up to the date of this publication. This research is part of a doctoral thesis development, which focuses on the discussion of the impact of digital transformation in the construction of residential buildings in Brazil.

Keywords: building information modeling, building production, digital transformation, ICT

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Authors: A. Vijayendra Chary, R. Hemalatha

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Background: Vitamin D is a potent modulator of the immune system and is involved in regulating cell proliferation and differentiation. Vitamin D deficiency has been linked to increased severity of asthma in children. Asthma has dramatically increased in past decades, particular in developing countries and affects up to 20% of the population. IgE and its receptors, CD23 (FcεRII) and CD 21, play an essential role in all allergic conditions. Methods: A case control study was conducted on asthma and age and sex matched control children. 25 hydroxyvitamin D3 was quantified by HPLC; CD23; and CD21 expression on B cells were performed by flow cytometry. Total Histamine, total IGE and IL-5 and IFN-γ cytokines were determined by ELISA in blood samples of bronchial asthma (n=45) and control children (n=45). Results: The mean ± SE of vitamin D was significantly (p<0.05) low in asthma children (13.6±0.54 ng/mL) than in controls (17.4 ± 0.37 ng/mL). The mean (%) ± SE of CD23 and CD21 expression on B cells were significantly (p<0.01) high in asthma (1.02±0.09; 1.67± 0.13), when compared to controls (0.24±0.01; 0.94±0.03) respectively. The mean± SE of Serum IgE and blood histamine levels in asthma children (354.52 ± 17.33 IU/mL; 53.27 ± 2.54 nM/mL) were increased (P<0.05) when compared to controls (183.12±17.62 IU/mL 39.34±4.16 nM/mL) respectively and IFN-γ (Th1 cytokine) was lower (P<0.01) (16.37±1.27 pg/mL) than in controls (43.34±6.21 pg/mL). Conclusion: Our study provides evidence that low vitamin D levels are associated with increased IgE receptors CD23 and CD21 on B cells. In addition, there was preferential activation of Th2 (IL-5) and suppression of Th1 (IFN-γ) cytokines in children with asthma.

Keywords: bronchial asthma, CD23, IgE, vitamin D

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Authors: Josephine R. Migalbin, Jurhamid C. Imlan, Evelyn P. Esteban

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A study was conducted to determine the effect of vermicompost and vermitea as organic fertilizers on the growth and yield of selected vegetable crops specifically eggplant, tomatoes and sweet pepper. The study was laid-out in Randomized Complete Block Design with 4 treatments replicated 4 times. The treatments were as follows: Treatment I (control), Treatment II (vermitea), Treatment III (vermicompost with buffalo manure), and Treatment IV (vermicompost with goat and sheep manure). In all the vegetable crops, almost all parameters significantly increased compared with the control except for number of fruits in eggplant and plant height in tomatoes where no significant difference was observed among treatments. The highest marketable fruit yield (tons/ha) was obtained from plants applied with vermicompost with goat and sheep manure but comparable with plants applied with vermicompost with buffalo manure and vermitea while the control plots received the lowest yield. The 28 spotted beetle (Epilachna philippinensis), and shoot and fruit borer (Leucinodes orbonalis) were the serious pests observed in the study on eggplant.

Keywords: marketable fruit yield, vermicompost, vermitea, vegetable crops

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Authors: Mohsen Tehranizadeh, Mahboobe Forghani

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The impact of higher modes on the seismic response of dual structural system consist of concrete moment-resisting frame and with RC shear walls is investigated against near-field earthquakes in this paper. a 20 stories reinforced concrete shear wall-special moment frame structure is designed in accordance with ASCE7 requirements and The nonlinear model of the structure was performed on OpenSees platform. Nonlinear time history dynamic analysis with 3 near-field records are performed on them. In order to further understand the structural collapse behavior in the near field, the response of the structure at the moment of collapse especially the formation of plastic hinges is explored. The results revealed that the amplification of moment at top of the wall due to higher modes, the plastic hinge can form in the upper part of wall, even when designed and detailed for plastic hinging at the base only (according to ACI code).on the other hand, shear forces in excess of capacity design values can develop due to the contribution of the higher modes of vibration to dynamic response due to the near field can cause brittle shear or sliding failure modes. The past investigation on shear walls clearly shows the dual-hinge design concept is effective at reducing the effects of the second mode of response. An advantage of the concept is that, when combined with capacity design, it can result in relaxation of special reinforcing detailing in large portions of the wall. In this study, to investigate the implications of multi-design approach, 4 models with varies arrangement of hinge plastics at the base and height of the shear wall are considered. results base on time history analysis showed that the dual or multi plastic hinges approach can be useful in order to control the high moment and shear demand of higher mode effect.

Keywords: higher mode effect, Near-field earthquake, nonlinear time history analysis, multi plastic hinge design

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Authors: Vijay Sodhi, Charanjit Singh, Neelam Sodhi, Puneet P. S. Cheema, Reena Sharma, Mithilesh K. Jha

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The management and secure disposal of the biosludge generated from widely commercialized conventional activated sludge (CAS) treatments become a potential environmental issue. Thus, a sustainable technological upgradation to the CAS for sludge yield minimization has recently been gained serious attention of the scientific community. A number of recently reported studies effectively addressed the remedial technological advancements that in monopoly limited to the municipal wastewater. Moreover, the critical review of the literature signifies side-stream sludge minimization as a complex task to maintain. In this work, therefore, a hybrid moving bed biofilm reactor (MBBR) configuration (named as AMOMOX process) for in-situ minimization of the excess biosludge generated from high organic strength tannery wastewater has been demonstrated. The AMOMOX collectively stands for anoxic MBBR (as AM), aerobic MBBR (OM) and an oxic CAS (OX). The AMOMOX configuration involved a combined arrangement of an anoxic MBBR and oxic MBBR coupled with the aerobic CAS. The AMOMOX system was run in parallel with an identical CAS reactor. Both system configurations were fed with same influent to judge the real-time operational changes. For the AMOMOX process, the strict maintenance of operational strategies resulted about 95% removal of NH4-N and SCOD from tannery wastewater. Here, the nourishment of filamentous microbiota and purposeful promotion of cell-lysis effectively sustained sludge yield (Yobs) lowering upto 0.51 kgVSS/kgCOD. As a result, the volatile sludge scarcity apparent in the AMOMOX system succeeded upto 47% reduction of the excess biosludge. The corroborated was further supported by FE-SEM imaging and thermogravimetric analysis. However, the detection of microbial strains habitat underlying extended SRT (23-26 days) of the AMOMOX system would be the matter of further research.

Keywords: tannery wastewater, moving bed biofilm reactor, sludhe yield, sludge minimization, solids retention time

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Authors: Mohammad Reza Zamani Kouhpanji

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This paper presents a MEMS/NEMS device for fatigue and fracture characterization of nanomaterials. This device can apply static loads, cyclic loads, and their combinations in nanomechanical experiments. It is based on the electromagnetic force induced between paired parallel wires carrying electrical currents. Using this concept, the actuator and sensor parts of the device were designed and analyzed while considering the practical limitations. Since the PWCC device only uses two wires for actuation part and sensing part, its fabrication process is extremely easier than the available MEMS/NEMS devices. The total gain and phase shift of the MEMS/NEMS device were calculated and investigated. Furthermore, the maximum gain and sensitivity of the MEMS/NEMS device were studied to demonstrate the capability and usability of the device for wide range of nanomaterials samples. This device can be readily integrated into SEM/TEM instruments to provide real time study of the mechanical behaviors of nanomaterials as well as their fatigue and fracture properties, softening or hardening behaviors, and initiation and propagation of nanocracks.

Keywords: sensors and actuators, MEMS/NEMS devices, fatigue and fracture nanomechanical testing device, static and cyclic nanomechanical testing device

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Authors: Jipeng Yan, Xingchen Yang, Xiaowei Zhou, Mengxing Tang, Honghai Liu

Abstract:

Shear elastic modulus of skeletal muscles can be obtained by shear wave elastography (SWE) and has been linearly related to muscle force. However, SWE is currently implemented using array probes. Price and volumes of these probes and their driving equipment prevent SWE from being used in wearable human-machine interfaces (HMI). Moreover, beamforming processing for array probes reduces the real-time performance. To achieve SWE by wearable HMIs, a customized three-element probe is adopted in this work, with one element for acoustic radiation force generation and the others for shear wave tracking. In-phase quadrature demodulation and 2D autocorrelation are adopted to estimate velocities of tissues on the sound beams of the latter two elements. Shear wave speeds are calculated by phase shift between the tissue velocities. Three agar phantoms with different elasticities were made by changing the weights of agar. Values of the shear elastic modulus of the phantoms were measured as 8.98, 23.06 and 36.74 kPa at a depth of 7.5 mm respectively. This work verifies the feasibility of measuring shear elastic modulus by wearable devices.

Keywords: shear elastic modulus, skeletal muscle, ultrasound, wearable human-machine interface

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Authors: Shwetha B. S., Sirisha M., Vachana U., Aditya Kadlimatti, Manjushree N. S.

Abstract:

Braille script holds significant importance in bridging the communication gap for visually impaired individuals. However, the challenge of interpreting Braille for non-experts creates barriers in education and day-to-day interactions. This paper aims to develop a system that translates Braille text into multilingual speech using advanced Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs) and Google Text-to-Speech (GTTS) technology. The proposed system employs image recognition techniques powered by CNNs to accurately identify and decode Braille characters from captured images. The deep learning model undergoes training on a diverse dataset of Braille symbols to ensure high accuracy and robustness. Among the models evaluated, AlexNet demonstrated the highest accuracy in decoding Braille characters. Once recognized, the decoded text is converted into speech in the user’s preferred language using the GTTS API. This system possesses the ability to greatly improve inclusivity by enabling real-time Braille interpretation for visually impaired individuals, educators, and caregivers.

Keywords: convolutional neural networks, Braille image, image-to-speech, GTTS, AlexNet, VGG16, DenseNet121, ResNet50

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Authors: Si Jack Chong, Chew Theng Yap, Wan Loong James Mok

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Introduction: Regional burn centres face the spectra of introduced multi-drug resistant organisms (MDRO) from transfer patients resident in MDRO endemic countries. MDRO can cause severe nosocomial infection, which in massive burn patients, will lead to greater morbidity and mortality and strain the institution financially. We aim to highlight 4 key measures that have effectively prevented transmission of imported MDRO. Methods: A case of Candida auris (C. auris) from a massive burn patient transferred from an MDRO endemic country is used to illustrate the measures. C. auris is a globally emerging multi-drug resistant fungal pathogen causing nosocomial transmission. Results: Infection control measures used to mitigate the risk of outbreak from transfer cases are: (1) Multidisciplinary team approach involving Infection Control and Infectious Disease specialists early to ensure appropriate antibiotics use and implementation of barrier measures, (2) aseptic procedures for dressing change with strict isolation and donning of personal protective equipment in the ward, (3) early screening of massive burn patient from MDRO endemic region, (4) hydrogen peroxide vaporization terminal cleaning for operating theatres and rooms. Conclusion: The prevalence of air travel and international transfer to regional burn centres will need effective infection control measures to reduce the risk of transmission from imported massive burn patients. In our centre, we have effectively implemented 4 measures which have reduced the risks of local contamination. We share a recent case report to illustrate successful management of a potential MDRO outbreak resulting from transfer of massive burn patient resident in an MDRO endemic area.

Keywords: burns, burn unit, cross infection, infection control

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Authors: Siddharth Sarma, Ayush Majumdar, Nidhi Sabu, Mufaddal Jiruwaala, Shilpa Paygude

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Digital Elevation Models (DEMs) are digital representations of the Earth’s topography, which include information about the elevation, slope, aspect, and other terrain attributes. DEMs play a crucial role in various applications, including terrain analysis, urban planning, and environmental modeling. In this paper, TerraEnhance is proposed, a distinct approach for high-resolution DEM generation using Generative Adversarial Networks (GANs) combined with Real-ESRGANs. By learning from a dataset of low-resolution DEMs, the GANs are trained to upscale the data by 10 times, resulting in significantly enhanced DEMs with improved resolution and finer details. The integration of Real-ESRGANs further enhances visual quality, leading to more accurate representations of the terrain. A post-processing layer is introduced, employing high-pass filtering to refine the generated DEMs, preserving important details while reducing noise and artifacts. The results demonstrate that TerraEnhance outperforms existing methods, producing high-fidelity DEMs with intricate terrain features and exceptional accuracy. These advancements make TerraEnhance suitable for various applications, such as terrain analysis and precise environmental modeling.

Keywords: DEM, ESRGAN, image upscaling, super resolution, computer vision

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Authors: Jin-Hui Lee, Myung-Min Oh

Abstract:

The application of temporary abiotic stresses before crop harvest is a potential strategy to enhance phytochemical content. The objective of this study was to determine the effect of various UV-A LED lights on the growth and content of bioactive compounds in kale (Brassica oleracea var. acephala). Fourteen-day-old kale seedlings were cultivated in a plant factory with artificial lighting (air temperature of 20℃, relative humidity of 60%, photosynthesis photon flux density (PPFD) of 125 µmol·m⁻²·s⁻¹) for 3 weeks. Kale plants were irradiated by four types of UV-A LEDs (peak wavelength; 365, 375, 385, and 395 nm) with 30 W/m² for 7 days. As a result, image chlorophyll fluorescence (Fv/Fm) value of kale leaves was lower as the UV-A LEDs peak wavelength was shorter. Fresh and dry weights of shoots and roots of kale plants were significantly higher in the plants under UV-A than the control at 7 days of treatment. In particular, the growth was significantly increased with a longer peak wavelength of the UV-A LEDs. The results of leaf area and specific leaf weight showed a similar pattern with those of growth characteristics. Chlorophyll content was highest in kale leaves subjected to UV-A LEDs with the peak wavelength of 395 nm at 3 days of treatment compared with the control. Total phenolic contents of UV-A LEDs with the peak wavelength of 395 nm at 5 and 6 days of treatment were 44% and 47% higher than those of the control, respectively. Antioxidant capacity showed almost the same pattern as the results of total phenol content. The activity of phenylalanine ammonia-lyase was approximately 11% and 8% higher in the UV-A LEDs with the peak wavelength of 395 nm compared to the control at 5 and 6 days of treatment, respectively. Our results imply that the UV-A LEDs with relative longer peak wavelength were effective to improve growth as well as the content of bioactive compounds of kale plants.

Keywords: bioactive compounds, growth, Kale, UV-A LEDs

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Authors: Jean Paul Hategekimana, Bampire Claudine, Niyonsenga Nadia, Irakoze Josiane

Abstract:

Peas, soybeans and rice are crops which are grown in Rwanda and are available in rural and urban local markets and they give contribution in reduction of health problems especially in fighting malnutrition and food insecurity in Rwanda. Several research activities have been conducted on how cereals flour can be mixed with legumes flour for developing baked products which are rich in protein, fiber, minerals as they are found in legumes. However, such activity was not yet well studied in Rwanda. The aim of the present study was to develop bread and biscuit products from peas, soybeans and rice as functional ingredients combined with wheat flour and then analyze the nutritional content and consumer acceptability of new developed products. The malnutrition problem can be reduced by producing bread and biscuits which are rich in protein and are very accessible for every individual. The processing of bread and biscuit were made by taking peas flour, soybeans flour and rice flour mixed with wheat flour and other ingredients then a dough was made followed by baking. For bread, two kind of products were processed, for each product one control and three experimental samples in different three ratios of peas and rice were prepared. These ratios were 95:5, 90:10 and 80:20 for bread from peas and 85:5:10, 80:10:10 and 70:10:20 for bread from peas and rice. For biscuit, two kind of products were also processed, for each product one control sample and three experimental samples in three different ratios were prepared. These ratios are 90:5:5,80:10:10 and 70:10:20 for biscuit from peas and rice and 90:5:5,80:10:10 and 70:10:20 for biscuit from soybean and rice. All samples including the control sample were analyzed for the consumer acceptability (sensory attributes) and nutritional composition. For sensory analysis, bread from of peas and rice flour with wheat flour at ratio 85:5:10 and bread from peas only as functional ingredient with wheat flour at ratio 95:5 and biscuits made from a of soybeans and rice at a ratio 90:5:5 and biscuit made from peas and rice at ratio 90:5:5 were most acceptable compared to control sample and other samples in different ratio. The moisture, protein, fat, fiber and minerals (Sodium and iron.) content were analyzed where bread from peas in all ratios was found to be rich in protein and fiber compare to control sample and biscuit from soybean and rice in all ratios was found to be rich in protein and fiber compare to control sample.

Keywords: bakery products, peas and rice flour, wheat flour, sensory evaluation, proximate composition

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Authors: M. Amparo Nunez-Andres, Nieves Lantada

Abstract:

One of the most harmful geological risks is rockfalls. They cause both economic lost, damaged in buildings and infrastructures, and personal ones. Therefore, in order to estimate the risk of the exposed elements, it is necessary to know the mechanism of this kind of events, since the characteristics of the rock walls, to the propagation of fragments generated by the initial detached rock mass. In the framework of the research RockModels project, several inventories of rockfalls were carried out along the northeast of the Spanish peninsula and the Mallorca island. These inventories have general information about the events, although the important fact is that they contained detailed information about fragmentation. Specifically, the IBSD (Insitu Block Size Distribution) is obtained by photogrammetry from drone or TLS (Terrestrial Laser Scanner) and the RBSD (Rock Block Size Distribution) from the volume of the fragment in the deposit measured by hand. In order to share all this information with other scientists, engineers, members of civil protection, and stakeholders, it is necessary a platform accessible from the internet and following interoperable standards. In all the process, open-software have been used: PostGIS 2.1., Geoserver, and OpenLayers library. In the first step, a spatial database was implemented to manage all the information. We have used the data specifications of INSPIRE for natural risks adding specific and detailed data about fragmentation distribution. The next step was to develop a WMS with Geoserver. A previous phase was the creation of several views in PostGIS to show the information at different scales of visualization and with different degrees of detail. In the first view, the sites are identified with a point, and basic information about the rockfall event is facilitated. In the next level of zoom, at medium scale, the convex hull of the rockfall appears with its real shape and the source of the event and fragments are represented by symbols. The queries at this level offer a major detail about the movement. Eventually, the third level shows all elements: deposit, source, and blocks, in their real size, if it is possible, and in their real localization. The last task was the publication of all information in a web mapping site (www.rockdb.upc.edu) with data classified by levels using libraries in JavaScript as OpenLayers.

Keywords: geological risk, web mapping, WMS, rockfalls

Procedia PDF Downloads 162

Authors: F. Berahmandpour, K. Bagheri

Abstract:

Introduction: Spirulina is nutritious blue - green algae which are used as supplement or a preservative in many foods. The studies about the algae argue that the Spirulina can improve immune system, increase fat utilization, reduce oxidative stress and promote endurance at high-intensity exercise. The purpose of study is to assess the effects of Spirulina supplement on healthy weight control. Method: the study is a cross-sectional study which had 30 participants. The participants were men and women who referred to the nutrition and diet therapy clinic (in west of Tehran / Iran) for control weight. The sampling was a purposeful sampling. The participants were divided into three groups, and they were surveyed for 4 weeks. In the first group, 10 participants were used Spirulia supplement (dose: 500mg of Spiruvit Supplement as tablet / 3 times per day) without any special diet. The second group was 10 participants who received Spirulia supplement (dose 500mg of Spiruvit Supplement as tablet / 3 times per day) with a weight loss exercise program and without any special diet. The third group was 10 participants who used Spirulia supplement (dose 500mg of Spiruvit Supplement as tablet / 3 times per day) with an optimum weight loss diet. Results and Discussion: The results show that there were not any significant loss weights in first group. In while, the participants of second group argued that the Spirulina supplement had positive effects on their mud and physical body; however the clinical results showed that the loss weight had fixed tilt in this group. The significant results of study were related to the third group, because the participations could continuous loss weight during 4 weeks. However, the optimum weight loss diets were effective effects on weight loss in this group, but the researchers found that Spirulina supplement could improve loss weight with set of hormonal system (especially in women with menopause). Conclusion: The study is concluded that the Spirulina as a supplement (Spiruvit Supplement) can be an effective effect on healthy weight control, if it is used with a nutritious healthy weight loss diet. In fact, the effect of Spirulina can be related to powerful antioxidant effects and improvable hormonal system in the body.

Keywords: diet, healthy weight control, spirulina, spiruvit supplement

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