Search results for: floating point unit

Authors: Gurjeet Singh, Rabindra K. Panda

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Soil moisture is a key hydrologic state variable and is intrinsically linked to the Earth's water, climate and carbon cycles. On ecological point of view, the soil moisture is a fundamental natural resource providing the transpirable water for plants. Soil moisture varies both temporally and spatially due to spatiotemporal variation in rainfall, vegetation cover, soil properties and topography. Satellite derived soil moisture provides spatio-temporal extensive data. However, the spatial resolution of a typical satellite (L-band radiometry) is of the order of tens of kilometers, which is not good enough for developing efficient agricultural water management schemes at the field scale. In the present study, the soil moisture from radiometer data has been disaggregated using blending approach to achieve higher resolution soil moisture data. The radiometer estimates of soil moisture at a 40 km resolution have been disaggregated to 10 km, 5 km and 1 km resolutions. The disaggregated soil moisture was compared with the observed data, consisting of continuous sensor based soil moisture profile measurements, at three monitoring sites and extensive spatial near-surface soil moisture measurements, concurrent with satellite monitoring in the 500 km2 study watershed in the Eastern India. The estimated soil moisture status at different spatial scales can help in developing efficient agricultural water management schemes to increase the crop production and water use efficiency.

Keywords: disaggregation, eastern India, radiometers, soil moisture, water use efficiency

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Authors: M. A. Ahmed, Sidra A. Shaik

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Global and diffuse solar radiation on horizontal surface over seven cities of Sindh namely Karachi, Hyderabad, Chore, Padidan, Nawabshah, Rohri and Jacobabad were carried out using sunshine hour data of the area to assess the feasibility of solar energy utilization at Sindh province. The result obtained shows a variation of direct and diffuse component of solar radiation in summer and winter months in southern Sindh (50% direct and 50% diffuse for Karachi, and Hyderabad) where there is a large variation in direct and diffuse component of solar radiation in summer and winter months in northern region (80% direct and 20% diffuse for Rohri and Jacobabad). In southern Sindh, the contribution of diffuse solar radiation is higher during the monsoon months (July and August). The sky remains clear during September to June. In northern Sindh (Rohri and Jacobabad) the contribution of diffuse solar radiation is low even in monsoon months i,e in July and August. The Kt value for northern Sindh indicates a clear sky. In northern part of the Sindh percentage of diffuse radiation does not exceed more than 20%. The appearance of cloud is rare. From the point of view of power generation, the estimated values indicate that northern part of Sindh has high solar potential while the southern part has low solar potential.

Keywords: global and diffuse solar radiation, solar potential, Province of Sindh, solar radiation studies for power generation

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Authors: Yousaf Ayub

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A co-gasification process, which involves the utilization of both biomass and plastic waste, has been developed to enable the production of blue and green hydrogen. To support this endeavor, an Aspen Plus simulation model has been meticulously created, and sustainability analysis is being conducted, focusing on economic viability, energy efficiency, advanced exergy considerations, and exergoeconomics evaluations. In terms of economic analysis, the process has demonstrated strong economic sustainability, as evidenced by an internal rate of return (IRR) of 8% at a process efficiency level of 70%. At present, the process has the potential to generate approximately 1100 kWh of electric power, with any excess electricity, beyond meeting the process requirements, capable of being harnessed for green hydrogen production via an alkaline electrolysis cell (AEC). This surplus electricity translates to a potential daily hydrogen production of around 200 kg. The exergy analysis of the model highlights that the gasifier component exhibits the lowest exergy efficiency, resulting in the highest energy losses, amounting to approximately 40%. Additionally, advanced exergy analysis findings pinpoint the gasifier as the primary source of exergy destruction, totaling around 9000 kW, with associated exergoeconomics costs amounting to 6500 $/h. Consequently, improving the gasifier's performance is a critical focal point for enhancing the overall sustainability of the process, encompassing energy, exergy, and economic considerations.

Keywords: blue hydrogen, green hydrogen, co-gasification, waste valorization, exergy analysis

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Authors: Timothy Antoniuk

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This paper will demonstrate why the most successful and livable cities in the future will require multi-disciplinary designers to develop a deep understanding of peoples’ changing lifestyles, and why new generations of deeply integrated products, services and experiences need to be created. Disseminating research from the UNEP Creative Economy Reports and through a variety of other consumption and economic-based statistics, a compelling argument will be made that it is peoples’ living spaces that offer the easiest and most significant affordances for inducing positive changes to their wellbeing, and to a city’s economic and environmental prosperity. This idea, that leveraging happiness, wellbeing and prosperity through creating new concepts and typologies of ‘home’, puts people and their needs, wants, desires, aspirations and lifestyles at the beginning of the design process, not at the end, as so often occurs with current-day multi-unit housing construction. As an important part of the creative-reflective and statistical comparisons that are necessary for this on-going body of research and practice, Professor Antoniuk created the Micro Habitation Lab (mHabLab) in 2016. By focusing on testing the functional and economic feasibility of activating small spaces with different types of architectural robotics, a variety of movable, expandable and interactive objects have been hybridized and integrated into the architectural structure of the Lab. Allowing the team to test new ideas continually and accumulate thousands of points of feedback from everyday consumers, a series of on-going open houses is allowing the public-at-large to see, physically engage with, and give feedback on the items they find most and least valuable. This iterative approach of testing has exposed two key findings: Firstly, that there is a clear opportunity to improve the macro and micro functionality of small living spaces; and secondly, that allowing people to physically alter smaller elements of their living space lessens feelings of frustration and enhances feelings of pride and a deeper perception of “home”. Equally interesting to these findings is a grouping of new research questions that are being exposed which relate to: The duality of space; how people can be in two living spaces at one time; and how small living spaces is moving the Extended Home into the public realm.

Keywords: architectural robotics, extended home, interactivity, micro living spaces

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Authors: Khosro Shafie Motlaghi, Amir Reza Salemian

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In arid and semi-arid regions like our country Evapotranspiration is the greatestportion of water resource. Therefor knowlege of its changing and other climate parameters plays an important role for planning, development, and management of water resource. In this search the Trend of long changing of Evapotranspiration (ET0), average temprature, monthly rainfall were tested. To dose, all synoptic station s in iran were divided according to the climate with Domarton climate. The present research was done in semi-arid climate of Iran, and in which 14 synoptic with 30 years period of statistics were investigated with 3 methods of minimum square error, Mann Kendoll, and Vald-Volfoytz Evapotranspiration was calculated by using the method of FAO-Penman. The results of investigation in periods of statistic has shown that the process Evapotranspiration parameter of 24 percent of stations is positive, and for 2 percent is negative, and for 47 percent. It was without any Trend. Similary for 22 percent of stations was positive the Trend of parameter of temperature for 19 percent , the trend was negative and for 64 percent, it was without any Trend. The results of rainfall trend has shown that the amount of rainfall in most stations was not considered as a meaningful trend. The result of Mann-kendoll method similar to minimum square error method. regarding the acquired result was can admit that in future years Some regions will face increase of temperature and Evapotranspiration.

Keywords: analysis, algorithm, SANN, ET0

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Authors: El Miloudi Djelloul

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The computer network play an important position for practical implementations of the differently system. To implement a system into network above all is needed to know all the configurations, which is responsible to be a part of the system, and to give adequate information and solution in realtime. So if want to implement this system for example in the school or relevant institutions, the first step is to analyze the types of model which is needed to be configured and another important step is to organize the works in the context of devices, as a part of the general system. Often before configuration, as important point is descriptions and documentations from all the works into the respective process, and then to organize in the aspect of problem-solving. The computer network as critic infrastructure is very specific so the paper present the effectiveness solutions in the structured aspect viewed from one side, and another side is, than the paper reflect the positive aspect in the context of modeling and block schema presentations as an better alternative to solve the specific problem because of continually distortions of the system from the line of devices, programs and signals or packed collisions, which are in movement from one computer node to another nodes.

Keywords: local area networks, LANs, block schema presentations, computer network system, computer node, critical infrastructure packed collisions, structural control system representations, computer network, implementations, modeling structural representations, companies, computers, context, control systems, internet, software

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Authors: Ali Akbar Heydari

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Control charts are an important tool of statistical quality control. Thesecharts are used to detect and eliminate unwanted special causes of variation that occurred during aperiod of time. The design and operation of control charts require the determination of three design parameters: the sample size (n), the sampling interval (h), and the width coefficient of control limits (k). Thevariable parameters (VP) x-bar controlchart is the x-barchart in which all the design parameters vary between twovalues. These values are a function of the most recent process information. In fact, in the VP x-bar chart, the position of each sample point on the chart establishes the size of the next sample and the timeof its sampling. The synthetic x-barcontrol chartwhich integrates the x-bar chart and the conforming run length (CRL) chart, provides significant improvement in terms of detection power over the basic x-bar chart for all levels of mean shifts. In this paper, we introduce the syntheticVP x-bar control chart for monitoring changes in the process mean. To determine the design parameters, we used a statistical design based on the minimum out of control average run length (ARL) criteria. The optimal chart parameters of the proposed chart are obtained using the Markov chain approach. A numerical example is also done to show the performance of the proposed chart and comparing it with the other control charts. The results show that our proposed syntheticVP x-bar controlchart perform better than the synthetic x-bar controlchart for all shift parameter values. Also, the syntheticVP x-bar controlchart perform better than the VP x-bar control chart for the moderate or large shift parameter values.

Keywords: control chart, markov chain approach, statistical design, synthetic, variable parameter

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Authors: Choon Seong Ng, P. Petrick, C. L. Lau

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Background: Carbapenem-resistant isolates have been increasingly reported recently. Carbapenem stewardship is designed to optimize its usage particularly among medical wards with high prevalence of carbapenem prescriptions to combat such emerging resistance. Carbapenem stewardship programmes (CSP) can reduce antibiotic use but clinical outcome of such measures needs further evaluation. We examined this in a prospective manner using feedback mechanism. Methods: Our single-center prospective cohort study involved all carbapenem prescriptions across the medical wards (including medical patients admitted to intensive care unit) in a tertiary university hospital setting. The impact of such stewardship was analysed according to the accepted and the rejected groups. The primary endpoint was safety. Safety measure applied in this study was the death at 1 month. Secondary endpoints included length of hospitalisation and readmission. Results: Over the 19 months’ period, input from 144 carbapenem prescriptions was analysed on the basis of acceptance of our CSP recommendations on the use of carbapenems. Recommendations made were as follows : de-escalation of carbapenem; stopping the carbapenem; use for a short duration of 5-7 days; required prolonged duration in the case of carbapenem-sensitive Extended Spectrum Beta-Lactamases bacteremia; dose adjustment; and surgical intervention for removal of septic foci. De-escalation, shorten duration of carbapenem and carbapenem cessation comprised 79% of the recommendations. Acceptance rate was 57%. Those who accepted CSP recommendations had no increase in mortality (p = 0.92), had a shorter length of hospital stay (LOS) and had cost-saving. Infection-related deaths were found to be higher among those in the rejected group. Moreover, three rejected cases (6%) among all non-indicated cases (n = 50) were found to have developed carbapenem-resistant isolates. Lastly, Pitt’s bacteremia score appeared to be a key element affecting the carbapenem prescription’s behaviour in this trial. Conclusions: Carbapenem stewardship program in the medical wards not only saves money, but most importantly it is safe and does not harm the patients with added benefits of reducing the length of hospital stay. However, more time is needed to engage the primary clinical teams by formal clinical presentation and immediate personal feedback by senior Infectious Disease (ID) personnel to increase its acceptance.

Keywords: audit and feedback, carbapenem stewardship, medical wards, university hospital

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Authors: Sidali Khedidji, Riad Ladji, Noureddine Yassaa

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In this study, particulate matter (PM10) which are hazardous for environment and human health were investigated in Sour El Ghozlane suburban atmosphere at a sampling point from March 2013 to April 2013. Ambient concentration measurements of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons were carried out at a regional study of the cement industry in Sour El Ghozlane. During sampling, the airborne particulate matter was enriched onto PTFE filters by using a two medium volume samplers with or without a size-selective inlet for PM10 and TSP were used and each sampling period lasted approximately 24 h. The organic compounds were characterized using gas chromatography coupled with mass spectrometric detection (GC-MSD). Total concentrations for PAHs recorded in sour el ghozlane suburban ranged from 101 to 204 ng m-3. Gravimeter method was applied to the black smoke concentration data for Springer seasons. The 24 h average concentrations of PM10 and TSP of Sour El Ghozlane suburban atmosphere were found in the range 4.76–165.76 μg/m3 and 28.63–800.14 μg/m3, respectively, in the sampling period. Meteorological factors, such as (relative humidity and temperature) were typically found to be affecting PMs, especially PM10. Air temperature did not seem to be significantly affecting TSP and PM10 mass concentrations.The guide value fixed by the European Community «40 μg/m3» not to exceed 35 days, were exceeded in some samples. However, it should be noted that the value limit fixed by the Algerian regulations «80 μg/m3» has been exceeded in 3 samplers during the period study.

Keywords: PAHs, PM10, TSP, particulate matter, cement industry

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Authors: D. Kaczorek

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Internal insulation of external walls is often problematic due to increased moisture content in the wall and interstitial or surface condensation risk. In this paper, the hygrothermal performance of prefabricated, concrete, large panel, external wall typical for WK70 system, commonly used in Poland in the 70’s, with inside, additional insulation was investigated. Thermal insulation board made out of hygroscopic, natural materials with moisture buffer capacity and extruded polystyrene (EPS) board was used as interior insulation. Experience with this natural insulation is rare in Poland. The analysis was performed using WUFI software. First of all, the impact of various standard boundary conditions on the behavior of the different wall assemblies was tested. The comparison of results showed that the moisture class according to the EN ISO 13788 leads to too high values of total moisture content in the wall since the boundary condition according to the EN 15026 should be usually applied. Then, hygrothermal 1D-simulations were conducted by WUFI Pro for analysis of internally added insulation, and the weak point like the joint of the wall with the concrete ceiling was verified using 2D simulations. Results showed that, in the Warsaw climate and the indoor conditions adopted in accordance with EN 15026, in the tested wall assemblies, regardless of the type of interior insulation, there would not be any problems with moisture - inside the structure and on the interior surface.

Keywords: concrete large panel wall, hygrothermal simulation, internal insulation, moisture related issues

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Authors: Marianne Dæhlen

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Periods of apprenticeships are characteristic of many vocational educational training (VET) systems. In many countries, becoming a skilled worker implies that the journey starts with an application for apprenticeships at a company or another relevant training establishment. In Norway, where this study is conducted, VET students start their journey with two years of school-based training before applying for two years of apprenticeship. Previous research has shown that access to apprenticeships differs by family background (socio-economic, immigrant, etc.), gender, school grades, and region. The question we raise in this study is whether the status, reputation, or position of the vocational school contributes to VET students’ access to apprenticeships. Data and methods: Register data containing information about schools’ and VET students’ characteristics will be analyzed in multilevel regression analyses. At the school level, the data will contain information on school size, shares of immigrants and/or share of male/female students, and grade requirements for admission. At the VET-student level, the register contains information on e.g., gender, school grades, educational program/trade, obtaining apprenticeship or not. The data set comprises about 3,000 students. Results: The register data is expected to be received in November 2024 and consequently, any results are not present at the point of this call. The planned article is part of a larger research project granted from the Norwegian Research Council and will, accordingly to the plan, start up in December 2024.

Keywords: apprenticeships, VET-students’ characteristics, vocational schools, quantitative methods

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Authors: Miguel Limbert Ramos, Joseph Amado Galvez

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Background: The nasal septal cartilage is an autologous graft that is widely used in different otolaryngologic procedures of the different subspecialties, such as in septorhinoplasty and ear rehabilitation procedures. The cartilage can be easily accessed and harvested to be utilized for such procedures. However, the dimension of the nasal septal cartilage differs, corresponding to race, gender, and age. Measurements can be done via direct measurement of harvested septal cartilage in cadavers or utilizing radiographic imaging studies giving baseline measurement of the nasal septal cartilage distinct to every race. A preliminary baseline measurement of the dimensions of Filipino nasal septal cartilage was previously established by measuring harvested nasal septal cartilage in Filipino Malay cadavers. This study intends to reinforce this baseline measurement by utilizing computed tomography (CT) scans of adult Filipinos in a tertiary government hospital in the City of Manila, Philippines, which will cover a larger sampling population. Methods: The unit of observation and analysis will be the computed tomography (CT) scans of patients ≥ 18years old who underwent cranial, facial, orbital, paranasal sinus, and temporal bone studies for the year 2019. The measurements will be done in a generated best midsagittal image (155 subjects) which is a view through the midline of the cerebrum that is simultaneously viewed with its coronal and axial views for proper orientation. The view should reveal important structures that will be used to plot the anatomic boundaries, which will be measured by a DICOM image viewing software (RadiAnt). The measured area of nasal septal cartilage will be compared by gender and age. Results: The total area of the nasal septal cartilage is larger in males compared to females, with a mean value of 6.52 cm² and 5.71 cm², respectively. The harvestable nasal septal cartilage area is also larger in males with a mean value of 3.57 cm² compared to females with only a measured mean value of 3.13 cm². The total and harvestable area of the nasal septal cartilage is largest in the 18-30 year-old age group with a mean value of 6.47 cm² and 3.60 cm² respectively and tends to decrease with the advancement of age, which can be attributed to continuous ossification changes. Conclusion: The best time to perform septorhinoplasty and other otolaryngologic procedures which utilize the nasal septal cartilage as graft material is during post-pubertal age, hence surgeries should be avoided or delayed to allow growth and maturation of the cartilage. A computed tomography scan is a cost-effective and non-invasive tool that can provide information on septal cartilage areas prior to these procedures.

Keywords: autologous graft, computed tomography, nasal septal cartilage, septorhinoplasty

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Authors: Yan-Lin Liu, Cheng-Ting Shih, Jay Wu

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Tablet devices have been introduced into the medical environment in recent years. The performance of display can be varied based on the use of different hardware specifications and types of display technologies. Therefore, the differences between tablet devices and medical diagnostic LCDs have to be verified to ensure that image quality is not jeopardized for clinical diagnosis in a picture archiving and communication system (PACS). In this study, a set of randomized object test patterns (ROTPs) were developed, which included randomly located spheres in abdominal CT images. Five radiologists were asked to independently review the CT images on different generations of iPads and a diagnostic monochrome medical LCD monitor. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis was performed by using a five-point rating scale, and the average area under curve (AUC) and average reading time (ART) were calculated. The AUC values for the second generation iPad, iPad mini, iPad Air, and monochrome medical monitor were 0.712, 0.717, 0.725, and 0.740, respectively. The differences between iPads were not significant. The ARTs were 177 min and 127 min for iPad mini and medical LCD monitor, respectively. A significant difference appeared (p = 0.04). The results show that the iPads were slightly inferior to the monochrome medical LCD monitor. However, tablet devices possess advantages in portability and versatility, which can improve the convenience of rapid diagnosis and teleradiology. With advances in display technology, the applicability of tablet devices and mobile devices may be more diversified in PACS.

Keywords: tablet devices, PACS, receiver operating characteristic, LCD monitor

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Authors: Li Chin Law, Epaminondas Mastorakos, Mohd Roslee Othman, Antonis Trakakis

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The paper introduces an alternative concept of carbon capture for shipping by using pre-combustion carbon capture technology (Pre-CCS), which was proven to be less energy intensive than post-combustion carbon capture from the engine exhaust. Energy assessment on amine-based post-combustion CCS on LNG-fuelled ships showed that the energy efficiency of CCS ships reduced from 48% to 36.6%. Then, an energy assessment was carried out to compare the power and heat requirements of the most used hydrogen production methods and carbon capture technologies. Steam methane reformer (SMR) was found to be 20% more energy efficient and achieved a higher methane conversion than auto thermal reaction and methane decomposition. Next, pressure swing adsorber (PSA) has shown a lower energy requirement than membrane separation, cryogenic separation, and amine absorption in pre-combustion carbon capture. Hence, an integrated system combining SMR and PSA (SMR-PSA) with waste heat integration (WHR) was proposed. This optimized SMR-based integrated system has achieved 65% of CO₂ reduction with less than 7-percentage point of energy penalty (41.7% of energy efficiency). Further integration of post-combustion CCS with the SMR-PSA integrated system improved carbon capture rate to 86.3% with 9-percentage points of energy penalty (39% energy efficiency). The proposed system was shown to be able to meet the carbon reduction targets set by International Maritime Organization (IMO) with certain energy penalties.

Keywords: shipping, decarbonisation, alternative fuels, low carbon, hydrogen, carbon capture

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Authors: Egbo Anthonia Chinonyelum

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This study was designed to identify the extent of the influence of vocational guidance services on career choice of secondary school students in Enugu State. The study was guided by two research questions and two null hypotheses tested at 0.05 level of significance. A sample of 1,054 respondents made of teachers, students and counsellors drawn from the 34 secondary schools from the six educational zones of Enugu State Nigeria was used for the study. The researcher administered the research instruments generated from the randomly selected senior secondary schools from the six educational zones in Enugu State. The data collected from the respondents were analyzed using mean statistics drawn from the responses of senior secondary school students, counsellor and teacher to the questionnaire item. Four point scale was used to measure the opinion of the respondents, such that after the statistical analysis, those items in the questionnaire that have the mean rate of 2.5 and is of great level of influence on the career choice of students. While questionnaire item with the mean below 2.5 were taken as having little extent of influence on career choice of students. The findings in this work showed that there was little extent on the influence of vocational guidance on career choice, choice of subjects and positive attitude of students towards vocational guidance. Based on the findings the researcher recommended that government and other relevant authorities should help by creating the awareness of vocational guidance programme in Schools.

Keywords: vocation, guidance, counselling, services, career, choice

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Authors: Antonia Stanojević, Agnes Akkerman

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In contemporary society, economically active people typically spend most of their waking hours doing their job. Having that in mind, this research examines how socialization at the workplace shapes political preferences. Innovatively, it examines, in particular, the possible relationship between employees’ voice suppression by the employer and the formation of their political preferences. Since the employer is perceived as an authority figure, their behavior might induce spillovers to attitudes about political authorities and authoritarian governance. Therefore, a positive effect of suppression of voice by employers on employees' preference for authoritarian governance is expected. Furthermore, this relation is expected to be mediated by two mechanisms: system justification and power distance. Namely, it is expected that suppression of voice would create a power distance organizational climate and increase employees’ acceptance of unequal distribution of power, as well as evoke attempts of oppression rationalization through system justification. The hypotheses will be tested on the data gathered within the first wave of Work and Politics Dataset 2017 (N=6000), which allows for a wide range of demographic and psychological control variables. Although a cross-sectional analysis to be used at this point does not allow for causal inferences, the confirmation of expected relationships would encourage and justify further longitudinal research on the same panel dataset, in order to get a clearer image of the causal relationship between employers' suppression of voice and workers' political preferences.

Keywords: authoritarian values, political preferences, power distance, system justification, voice suppression

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Authors: M. Hadavi, Z. Hashemi

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Learning strategies play an important role in the development of language skills. Vocabulary learning strategies as the backbone of these strategies have become a major part of English language teaching. This study is a comparative analysis of Vocabulary Learning Strategies (VLS) use and preference among freshmen and senior EFL medical sciences students with different fields of study. 449 students (236 freshman and 213 seniors) participated in the study. 64.6% were female and 35.4% were male. The instrument utilized in this research was a questionnaire consisting of 41 items related to the students’ approach to vocabulary learning. The items were classified under eight sections as dictionary strategies, guessing strategies, study preferences, memory strategies, autonomy, note- taking strategies, selective attention, and social strategies. The participants were asked to answer each item with a 5-point Likert-style frequency scale as follows:1) I never or almost never do this, 2) I don’t usually do this, 3) I sometimes do this, 4) I usually do this, and 5)I always or almost always do this. The results indicated that freshmen students and particularly surgical technology students used more strategies compared to the seniors. Overall guessing and dictionary strategies were the most frequently used strategies among all the learners (p=0/000). The mean and standard deviation of using VLS in the students who had no previous history of participating in the private English language classes was less than the students who had attended these type of classes (p=0/000). Female students tended to use social and study preference strategies whereas male students used mostly guessing and dictionary strategies. It can be concluded that the senior students under instruction from the university have learned to rely on themselves and choose the autonomous strategies more, while freshmen students use more strategies that are related to the study preferences.

Keywords: vocabulary leaning strategies, medical sciences, students, linguistics

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Authors: Anton A. Bykov, Irina O. Glot, Igor N. Shardakov, Alexey P. Shestakov

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This paper presents the results of experimental and theoretical investigations of the mechanisms of crack formation in reinforced concrete beams subjected to quasi-static bending. The boundary-value problem has been formulated in the framework of brittle fracture mechanics and has been solved by using the finite-element method. Numerical simulation of the vibrations of an uncracked beam and a beam with cracks of different size serves to determine the pattern of changes in the spectrum of eigenfrequencies observed during crack evolution. Experiments were performed on the sequential quasistatic four-point bending of the beam leading to the formation of cracks in concrete. At each loading stage, the beam was subjected to an impulse load to induce vibrations. Two stages of cracking were detected. At the first stage the conservative process of deformation is realized. The second stage is an active cracking, which is marked by a sharp change in eingenfrequencies. The boundary of a transition from one stage to another is well registered. The vibration behavior was examined for the beams strengthened by carbon-fiber sheet before loading and at the intermediate stage of loading after the grouting of initial cracks. The obtained results show that the vibrodiagnostic approach is an effective tool for monitoring of cracking and for assessing the quality of measures aimed at strengthening concrete structures.

Keywords: crack formation, experiment, mathematical modeling, reinforced concrete, vibrodiagnostics

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Authors: Hany Elsaid Fawaz Abdallah

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This study presents a new artificial neural network(ANN) model to predict the Nusselt Number and pressure drop for the turbulent flow in a triangular corrugated plate heat exchanger for forced air and turbulent water flow. An experimental investigation was performed to create a new dataset for the Nusselt Number and pressure drop values in the following range of dimensionless parameters: The plate corrugation angles (from 0° to 60°), the Reynolds number (from 10000 to 40000), pitch to height ratio (from 1 to 4), and Prandtl number (from 0.7 to 200). Based on the ANN performance graph, the three-layer structure with {12-8-6} hidden neurons has been chosen. The training procedure includes back-propagation with the biases and weight adjustment, the evaluation of the loss function for the training and validation dataset and feed-forward propagation of the input parameters. The linear function was used at the output layer as the activation function, while for the hidden layers, the rectified linear unit activation function was utilized. In order to accelerate the ANN training, the loss function minimization may be achieved by the adaptive moment estimation algorithm (ADAM). The ‘‘MinMax’’ normalization approach was utilized to avoid the increase in the training time due to drastic differences in the loss function gradients with respect to the values of weights. Since the test dataset is not being used for the ANN training, a cross-validation technique is applied to the ANN network using the new data. Such procedure was repeated until loss function convergence was achieved or for 4000 epochs with a batch size of 200 points. The program code was written in Python 3.0 using open-source ANN libraries such as Scikit learn, TensorFlow and Keras libraries. The mean average percent error values of 9.4% for the Nusselt number and 8.2% for pressure drop for the ANN model have been achieved. Therefore, higher accuracy compared to the generalized correlations was achieved. The performance validation of the obtained model was based on a comparison of predicted data with the experimental results yielding excellent accuracy.

Keywords: artificial neural networks, corrugated channel, heat transfer enhancement, Nusselt number, pressure drop, generalized correlations

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Authors: V. Ayishwarya Bharathi, S. M. Hasker, J. Indhu, M. Mohamed Azarudeen, G. Gowthami, R. Vinoth Rajan, N. Vijayarangan

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Identification of water quality conditions in a river system based on limited observations is an essential task for meeting the goals of environmental management. The traditional method of water quality testing is to collect samples manually and then send to laboratory for analysis. However, it has been unable to meet the demands of water quality monitoring today. So a set of automatic measurement and reporting system of water quality has been developed. In this project specifies Water quality parameters collected by multi-parameter water quality probe are transmitted to data processing and monitoring center through GPRS wireless communication network of mobile. The multi parameter sensor is directly placed above the water level. The monitoring center consists of GPRS and micro-controller which monitor the data. The collected data can be monitor at any instant of time. In the pollution control board they will monitor the water quality sensor data in computer using Visual Basic Software. The system collects, transmits and processes water quality parameters automatically, so production efficiency and economy benefit are improved greatly. GPRS technology can achieve well within the complex environment of poor water quality non-monitored, and more specifically applicable to the collection point, data transmission automatically generate the field of water analysis equipment data transmission and monitoring.

Keywords: multiparameter sensor, GPRS, visual basic software, RS232

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Authors: Brandtner Patrick, Staberhofer Franz

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Logistics and Supply Chain Management are of crucial importance for organisational success. In the era of Digitalization, several implications and improvement potentials for these domains arise, which at the same time could lead to decreased competitiveness and could endanger long-term company success if ignored or neglected. However, empirical research on the issue of Digitalization and benefits purported to it by practitioners is scarce and mainly focused on single technologies or separate, isolated Supply Chain blocks as e.g. distribution logistics or procurement only. The current paper applies a holistic focus group approach to elaborate practitioner use cases at the nexus of the concepts of Supply Chain Management (SCM) and Digitalization. In the course of three focus group workshops with over 45 participants from more than 20 organisations, a comprehensive set of benefit entitlements and areas for improvement in terms of applying digitalization to SCM is developed. The main results of the paper indicate the relevance of Digitalization being realized in practice. In the form of seventeen concrete research action fields, the benefit entitlements are aggregated and transformed into potential starting points for future research projects in this area. The main contribution of this paper is an empirically grounded basis for future research projects and an overview of actual research action fields from practitioners’ point of view.

Keywords: digital supply chain, digital transformation, supply chain management, value networks

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Authors: Endalew Fufa Kufi

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One of the major concerns in educational provision and success determination is access to available opportunities. In that, girls’ access to education has been a point of concern, and more emphasis has come to be at the forefront regarding success. Researches have mostly been held on extremes such as equal access and success, but only a few works deal with process issues related to home and school interplay, issues of progress from lower to higher levels, and spatial conditions related to girls’ education. Hence, this survey assessed experiences in three countries of Africa: Ethiopia, Ghana, and Botswana regarding girls’ education in policy and practice as related to contextual matters in girls’ education. Contextual discourse analysis of qualitative design was used to materialize the study. From each country, five research works held 2010 onwards were purposively selected through criterion-sampling. On the policy aspect, workable documents were looked into. The findings denoted that educational access was of more stretch and generic nature, and the narration was dominated by institutional expectations, not identifying which group should benefit what. The researches largely dealt with either subject-specific dealings or access alone at large. Success studies, by far, dealt with a comparison of girls with boys rather than determinant-related projections. Moreover, the cultural representation of girls’ education had a very minimal part in both policy and researches. From that, it could be found that in-depth scrutiny on the individual, institutional, and leadership determinants of girls’ education would be necessary.

Keywords: determinants, girls, education, feminism

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Authors: Mengping Cheng, John Everatt, Alison Arrow, Amanda Denston

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Based on the available evidence, Chinese heritage language learners have a basic level of Chinese language proficiency with lower capability in literacy compared to speaking. Low levels of literacy are likely related to the lack of reading activities in current textbook-based pedagogy used in Chinese community schools. The present study aims to use Reading to Learn pedagogy which is a top-down language learning model and test the effectiveness of Reading to Learn on Chinese heritage learners’ written vocabulary acquisition. A quasi-experiment with the pre-test/post-test non-equivalent group design was conducted. The experimental group received Reading to Learn instructions and the control group had traditional textbook-based instructions. Participants were given Chinese characters tasks (a recognize-and-read task and a listen-and-point task), vocabulary tasks (a receptive vocabulary task and a productive vocabulary task) and a sentence cloze test in pre-tests and post-tests. Data collection is in progress and results will be available shortly. If the results show more improvement of Chinese written vocabulary in the experimental group than in the control group, it will be recommended that Reading to Learn pedagogy is valuable to be used to maintain and develop Chinese heritage language literacy.

Keywords: Chinese heritage language, experimental research, Reading to Learn pedagogy, vocabulary acquisition

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Authors: Abbas Ghahremani

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One of the most fundamental management issues in organizations and companies is the recruiting of efficient staff and compiling exact and perfect criteria for testing the applicants,which is guided and practiced by the manager of human resources of the organization. Obviously, each part of the organization seeks special features and abilities in the people apart from common features among all the staff in all units,which are called principal duties and abilities,and we will study them more. This article is trying to find out how we can identify the most efficient people among the applicants of employment by using proper methods of testing appropriate for the needs of different of employment by using proper methods of testing appropriate for the needs of different units of the organization and recruit efficient staff. Acceptable method for recruiting is to closely identify their characters from various aspects such as ability to communicate, flexibility, stress management, risk acceptance, tolerance, vision to future, familiarity with the art, amount of creativity and different thinking and by raising proper questions related with the above named features and presenting a questionnaire, evaluate them from various aspect in order to gain the proper result. According to the above explanations, it can be concluded which aspects of abilities and characteristics of a person must be evaluated in order to reduce any mistake in recruitment and approach an ideal result and ultimately gain an organized system according to the standards and avoid waste of energy for unprofessional personnel which is a marginal issue in the organizations.

Keywords: human resources management, staff recuiting, employment factors, efficient staff

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Authors: Y. Ghiassi-Farrokhfal

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The number of electric vehicles (EVs) is increasing worldwide. Replacing gas fueled cars with EVs reduces carbon emission. However, the extensive energy consumption of EVs stresses the energy systems, requiring non-green sources of energy (such as gas turbines) to compensate for the new energy demand caused by EVs in the energy systems. To make EVs even a greener solution for the future energy systems, new EV charging stations are equipped with solar PV panels and batteries. This will help serve the energy demand of EVs through the green energy of solar panels. To ensure energy availability, solar panels are combined with batteries. The energy surplus at any point is stored in batteries and is used when there is not enough solar energy to serve the demand. While EV charging stations equipped with solar panels and batteries are green and ecologically optimal, they might not be financially viable solutions, due to battery prices. To make the system viable, we should size the battery economically and operate the system optimally. This is, in general, a challenging problem because of the stochastic nature of the EV arrivals at the charging station, the available solar energy, and the battery operating system. In this work, we provide a mathematical model for this problem and we compute the return on investment (ROI) of such a system, which is designed to be ecologically and financially optimal. We also quantify the minimum required investment in terms of battery and solar panels along with the operating strategy to ensure that a charging station has enough energy to serve its EV demand at any time.

Keywords: solar energy, battery storage, electric vehicle, charging stations

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Authors: Elizabeth Chinyere Amadi

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Yeast (sacchoromyces cerevisiae) was isolated from the fermenting sap of raffia palm (Raphia hookeri) wine. Different concerntrations of the yeast isolate were used to produce bread samples – B, C, D, E, F containing (2, 3, 4, 5, 6) g of yeast isolate respectively, other ingredients were kept constant. Sample A, containing 2g of commercial baker yeast served as control. The proof heights, weights, volumes and specific volume of the dough and bread samples were determined. The bread samples were also subjected to sensory evaluation using a 9–point hedonic scale. Results showed that proof height increased with increased concentration of the yeast isolate; that is direct proportion. Sample B with the least concentration of the yeast isolate had the least loaf height and volume of 2.80c m and 200 cm³ respectively but exhibited the highest loaf weight of 205.50g. However, Sample A, (commercial bakers’ yeast) had the highest loaf height and volume of 5.00 cm and 400 cm³ respectively. The sensory evaluation results showed sample D compared favorably with sample A in all the organoleptic attributes-(appearance, taste, crumb texture, crust colour and overall acceptability) tested for (P< 0.05). It was recommended that 4g compressed yeast isolate per 100g flour could be used to proof dough as a substitute for commercial bakers’ yeast and produce acceptable bread loaves.

Keywords: isolation of yeast, performance evaluation of yeast, Raffia palm wine, used at different concentrations, proofing of bread dough

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Authors: Piyush Hajela

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Public spaces within Indian markets are vibrant, colorful and contain dimensions that make them attractive and therefore act as popular gathering spaces. Most of these public spaces emerge as squares, plazas of varied shapes and sizes spread at different locations within the market. These public spaces grow organically and are discovered by the people themselves as they respond positively to the collective human senses. On the other hand, there are the planned and designed public spaces as well that are less active. This research evaluates both the planned and the organically transformed public spaces in Indian markets from an Urban Design point of view. The purpose of such research is to provide a basis for design solutions to ensure the success of designed public spaces. The evaluation is done for identified Attributes, namely Comfort, Protection, Familiarity, Activities, Form, Legibility, Engagement, Safety, Accessibility, Environment and Transformations by which a Public Space attains its recognition. The evaluation is based on a rating done for forty-four parameters falling under eleven attributes of public space. An opinion survey of professionals is conducted for their priorities of attributes while designing Public spaces. A comparison is made to rank these attributes between Planned and Organically transformed Public spaces and, opinion of the professionals. After dues analysis, the research suggests the learning from the organically transformed Public spaces for ensuring the success of designed public spaces. The suggestions may be in the form of Design decisions or administrative regulations, or both for achieving the desirables.

Keywords: assessment, attributes, engagement, interaction

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Authors: Angela Fabris, Joerg Helbig

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Our paper deals with feature films set in Venice which focus on the influence of Italian life style on anglophone characters. Usually, these films emphasize the different cultures and mentalities of Italian and British (or American) people. More often than not, these encounters result in a profound change of the anglophone characters' attitude towards romance and sensuality. A case in point is David Lean's Summer Madness (UK 1955). This film recounts the love affair between the American tourist Jane Hudson (Katherine Hepburn) and the Venetian antique shop owner Renato de Rossi (Rossano Brazzi). Jane is a spinster in her mid-forties who longs for love and romance. The chance arrives when she meets Renato who feels attracted to her. Jane's immediate reaction, however, is to reject Renato's advances. What follows is a struggle between the strict morality of a puritan upbringing and the irresitable charm of Mediterranean temptations. Similar conflicts can be found in many other movies. Apart from Summer Madness we will discuss Aldo Lado's Chi l'ha vista morire? (It 1972), Nicolas Roeg's Don't Look Now (UK/It 1973) and Paul Schrader's The Comfort of Strangers (It/UK/USA 1990). Our paper raises the question whether or not these and other films present false stereotypes and chlichés. The paper is part of our large-scale research project which explores the history of erotic cinema in Italy and England.

Keywords: culture clash, erotic cinema, film, Venice

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Authors: L. F. Tamele Jr., G. Buonocore, H. F. Muiambo

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Asphalt binders play an essential role in the performance and properties of asphalt mixtures. The increase in heavy loads, greater traffic volume, and high tire pressure, combined with a substantial variation in daily and seasonal pavement temperatures, are the main responsible for the failure of asphalt pavements. To avoid or mitigate these failures, the present research proposes the use of thermoplastic polymers, HDPE and LLDPE, and nanoclay Dellite 43B for modification of asphalt in order to improve its thermomechanical and rheological properties. The nanocomposites were prepared by the solution intercalation method in a high shear mixer for a mixing time of 2 h, at 180℃ and 5000 rpm. The addition of Dellite 43B improved the physical, rheological, and thermal properties of asphalt, either separated or in the form of polymer/bitumen blends. The results of the physical characterization showed a decrease in penetration and an increase in softening point, thermal susceptibility, viscosity, and stiffness. On the other hand, thermal characterization showed that the nanocomposites have greater stability at higher temperatures by exhibiting greater amounts of residues and improved initial and final decomposition temperatures. Thus, the modification of asphalt by polymers and nanoclays seems to be a suitable solution for road pavement in countries which experiment with high temperatures combined with long heavy rain seasons.

Keywords: asphalt, nanoclay dellite 43B, polymer modified asphalt, thermal and rheological properties

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Authors: Naouel Zoghlami

Abstract:

Spoken-word recognition involves the simultaneous activation of potential word candidates which compete with each other for final correct recognition. In continuous speech, the activation-competition process gets more complicated due to speech reductions existing at word boundaries. Lexical processing is more difficult in L2 than in L1 because L2 listeners often lack phonetic, lexico-semantic, syntactic, and prosodic knowledge in the target language. In this study, we investigate the on-line lexical segmentation hypotheses that French listeners of L2 English form and then revise as subsequent perceptual evidence is revealed. Our purpose is to shed further light on the processes of L2 spoken-word recognition in context and better understand L2 listening difficulties through a comparison of skilled and unskilled reactions at the point where their working hypothesis is rejected. We use a variant of the gating experiment in which subjects transcribe an English sentence presented in increments of progressively greater duration. The spoken sentence was “And this amazing athlete has just broken another world record”, chosen mainly because it included common reductions and phonetic features in English, such as elision and assimilation. Our preliminary results show that there is an important difference in the manner in which proficient and less-proficient L2 listeners handle connected speech. Less-proficient listeners delay recognition of words as they wait for lexical and syntactic evidence to appear in the gates. Further statistical results are currently being undertaken.

Keywords: gating paradigm, spoken word recognition, online lexical segmentation, L2 listening

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