Search results for: membrane potential

Authors: Maryam Kiani

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The aim of this study was to investigate the influence of nanoparticles additive on the properties of fly ash-based geopolymer. The geopolymer samples were prepared using fly ash as the primary source material, along with an alkali activator solution and different concentrations of carbon black additive. The effects of nanoparticles flexural strength, water absorption, and micro-structural properties of the cured samples. The results revealed that the inclusion of nanoparticles additive significantly enhanced the mechanical and electrical properties of the geopolymer binder. Micro-structural analysis using scanning electron microscopy (SEM) revealed a more compact and homogeneous structure in the geopolymer samples with nanoparticles. The dispersion of nanoparticles particles within the geopolymer matrix was observed, suggesting improved inter-particle bonding and increased density. Overall, this study demonstrates the positive impact of nanoparticles additive on the qualities of fly ash-based geopolymer, emphasizing its potential as an effective enhancer for geopolymer binder applications for the development of construction and infrastructure for energy buildings.

Keywords: fly-ash, geopolymer, energy buildings, nanotechnology

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Authors: Zhipeng Dong, Jing Guo

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Graphene-semiconductor contacts have been extensively studied recently, both as a stand-alone diode device for potential applications in photodetectors and solar cells, and as a building block to vertical transistors. Graphene is a two-dimensional nanomaterial with vanishing density-of-states at the Dirac point, which differs from conventional metal. In this work, image-charge-induced barrier lowering (BL) in graphene-semiconductor contacts is studied and compared to that in metal Schottky contacts. The results show that despite of being a semimetal with vanishing density-of-states at the Dirac point, the image-charge-induced BL is significant. The BL value can be over 50% of that of metal contacts even in an intrinsic graphene contacted to an organic semiconductor, and it increases as the graphene doping increases. The dependences of the BL on the electric field and semiconductor dielectric constant are examined, and an empirical expression for estimating the image-charge-induced BL in graphene-semiconductor contacts is provided.

Keywords: graphene, semiconductor materials, schottky barrier, image charge, contacts

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Authors: Mladen Dragičević, Mirjana Pejić Bach, Vanja Šimičević

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The purpose of this paper is to develop models that would enable predicting student success. These models could improve allocation of students among colleges and optimize the newly introduced model of government subsidies for higher education. For the purpose of collecting data, an anonymous survey was carried out in the last year of undergraduate degree student population using random sampling method. Decision trees were created of which two have been chosen that were most successful in predicting student success based on two criteria: Grade Point Average (GPA) and time that a student needs to finish the undergraduate program (time-to-degree). Decision trees have been shown as a good method of classification student success and they could be even more improved by increasing survey sample and developing specialized decision trees for each type of college. These types of methods have a big potential for use in decision support systems.

Keywords: data mining, knowledge discovery in databases, prediction models, student success

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Authors: Bhargavi G., Arathi R. Shankar

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Transmitter and receiver closer to every other, which creates the twin benefits of better-nice links and more spatial reuse. In a network with nomadic customers, this inevitably includes deploying greater infrastructure, normally in the form of microcells, hot spots, disbursed antennas, or relays. A less pricey alternative is the recent concept of femtocells, additionally known as domestic base stations that are facts get admission to points installed by means of domestic users to get higher indoor voice and records insurance. Femtocells have the potential to offer excessive exceptional community get entry to indoor customers at low cost, even as concurrently reducing the load. gift femtocells that perform in 4G can also be extended for 5G sub-6 GHz band. Designing the femtocell in mmWave band of 5G may have many blessings in terms of bandwidth availability and coverage. Multiband microstrip patch antennas can be considered as a low value and prominent antennas in designing the femtocells because the single antenna helps multiple frequency.

Keywords: 5G, mmWave, antennas, wireless communications, femtocell

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Authors: Mohood A. Bamidele, Fadairo O. Olokesunsi, Muhammed A. Yunus

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This research work focuses on tourism and poverty alleviation in Osun State, it delves in the tourism resources of the state and strategic framework that has been put in place to manage the cultural base tourism that is most prominent in the state. The major instrument used for data collection was questionnaire which was designed for the area and data collected were analyzed using statistical table and chi-square analysis. The result revealed that tourism is under development in Osun State and the tourism potential of the state is yet to be exploited, this is due to lack of appropriate policy to master the development and management of tourism resources, poor publicity, awareness, and lack of adequate basic infrastructure. The research work, therefore, recommended, that, there should be proper and appropriate policy, and that the government should take a leading step to develop tourism in Osun State by creating a workable environment to the private sector and given a substantial budgetary allocation to the tourism in the state.

Keywords: appropriate policy, poor publicity, poverty alleviation, substantial budgetary allocation

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Authors: Hannah M. Russell

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‘The Attach Project’ (TAP), is an educational intervention aimed at improving educational and socio-emotional outcomes for children who are looked after. TAP is underpinned by Attachment Theory and is adapted from Dyadic Developmental Psychotherapy (DDP), which is a treatment for children and young people impacted by complex trauma and disorders of attachment. TAP has been implemented in primary schools in Northern Ireland throughout the 2018/19 academic year. During this time, a design and implementation study has been conducted to assess the promise of effectiveness for the future dissemination and ‘scaling-up’ of the programme for a larger, randomised control trial. TAP has been designed specifically for implementation in a school setting and is comprised of a whole school element and a more individualised Key Adult-Key Child pairing. This design and implementation study utilises a mixed-methods research design consisting of quantitative, qualitative, and observational measures with stakeholder input and involvement being considered an integral component. The use of quantitative measures, such as self-report questionnaires prior to and eight months following the implementation of TAP, enabled the analysis of the strengths and direction of relations between the various components of the programme, as well as the influence of implementation factors. The use of qualitative measures, incorporating semi-structured interviews and focus groups, enabled the assessment of implementation factors, identification of implementation barriers, and potential methods of addressing these issues. Observational measures facilitated the continual development and improvement of ‘TAP training’ for school staff. Preliminary findings have provided evidence of promise for the effectiveness of TAP and indicate the potential benefits of introducing this type of attachment-based intervention across other educational settings. This type of intervention could benefit not only children who are looked after but all children who may be impacted by complex trauma or disorders of attachment. Furthermore, findings from this study demonstrate that it is possible for children to form a secondary attachment relationship with a significant adult in school. However, various implementation factors which should be addressed were identified throughout the study, such as the necessity of protected time being introduced to facilitate the development of a positive Key Adult- Key Child relationship. Furthermore, additional ‘re-cap’ training is required in future dissemination of the programme, to maximise ‘attachment friendly practice’ in the whole staff team. Qualitative findings have also indicated that there is a general opinion across school staff that this type of Key Adult- Key Child pairing could be more effective if it was introduced as soon as children begin primary school. This research has provided ample evidence for the need to introduce relationally based interventions in schools, to help to ensure that children who are looked after, or who are impacted by complex trauma or disorders of attachment, can thrive in the school environment. In addition, this research has facilitated the identification of important implementation factors and barriers to implementation, which can be addressed prior to the ‘scaling-up’ of TAP for a robust, randomised controlled trial.

Keywords: attachment, complex trauma, educational interventions, implementation

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Authors: Paula Costa, Ana Picado, Filomena Pinto, Justina Catarino

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Environmental impact associated with large scale shale gas development is of major concern to the public, policy makers and other stakeholders. To assess this impact on the atmosphere, it is important to monitoring ambient air quality prior to and during all shale gas operation stages. Baseline observations can provide a standard of the pre-shale gas development state of the environment. The lack of baseline concentrations was identified as an important knowledge gap to assess the impact of emissions to the air due to shale gas operations. In fact baseline monitoring of air quality are missing in several regions, where there is a strong possibility of future shale gas exploration. This makes it difficult to properly identify, quantify and characterize environmental impacts that may be associated with shale gas development. The implementation of a baseline air monitoring program is imperative to be able to assess the total emissions related with shale gas operations. In fact, any monitoring programme should be designed to provide indicative information on background levels. A baseline air monitoring program should identify and characterize targeted air pollutants, most frequently described from monitoring and emission measurements, as well as those expected from hydraulic fracturing activities, and establish ambient air conditions prior to start-up of potential emission sources from shale gas operations. This program has to be planned for at least one year accounting for ambient variations. In the literature, in addition to GHG emissions of CH4, CO2 and nitrogen oxides (NOx), fugitive emissions from shale gas production can release volatile organic compounds (VOCs), aldehydes (formaldehyde, acetaldehyde) and hazardous air pollutants (HAPs). The VOCs include a.o., benzene, toluene, ethyl benzene, xylenes, hexanes, 2,2,4-trimethylpentane, styrene. The concentrations of six air pollutants (ozone, particulate matter (PM), carbon monoxide (CO), nitrogen oxides (NOx), sulphur oxides (SOx), and lead) whose regional ambient air levels are regulated by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), are often discussed. However, the main concern in the emissions to air associated to shale gas operations, seems to be the leakage of methane. Methane is identified as a compound of major concern due to its strong global warming potential. The identification of methane leakage from shale gas activities is complex due to the existence of several other CH4 sources (e.g. landfill, agricultural activity or gas pipeline/compressor station). An integrated monitoring study of methane emissions may be a suitable mean of distinguishing the contribution of different sources of methane to ambient levels. All data analysis needs to be carefully interpreted taking, also, into account the meteorological conditions of the site. This may require the implementation of a more intensive monitoring programme. So, it is essential the development of a low-cost sampling strategy, suitable for establishing pre-operations baseline data as well as an integrated monitoring program to assess the emissions from shale gas operation sites. This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 640715.

Keywords: air emissions, baseline, green house gases, shale gas

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Authors: Fahed Alrshoudi

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Saudi Arabia is ranked the third of the largest suppliers of Dates worldwide (about 28.5 million palm trees), producing more than 2 million tons of dates yearly. These trees produce large quantity of dates palm seeds (DPS) which can be considered literally as a waste. The date seeds are stiff, therefore, it is possible to utilize DPS as coarse aggregates in lightweight concrete for certain structural applications and to participate at reusing the waste. The use of DPS as coarse aggregate in concrete can be an alternative choice as a partial replacement of the stone aggregates (SA). This paper reports the influence of partially replaced stone aggregates with DPS on the hardened properties of concrete performance. Based on the experimental results, the DPS has the potential use as an acceptable alternative aggregates in producing structural lightweight concrete members, instead of stone aggregates.

Keywords: compressive strength, tensile Strength, date palm seeds, aggregate

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Authors: A. Sgobba, C. Meskell

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The feasibility of on-site electricity production from solar and wind and the resulting load management for a specific manufacturing plant in Ireland are assessed. The industry sector accounts directly and indirectly for a high percentage of electricity consumption and global greenhouse gas emissions; therefore, it will play a key role in emission reduction and control. Manufacturing plants, in particular, are often located in non-residential areas since they require open spaces for production machinery, parking facilities for the employees, appropriate routes for supply and delivery, special connections to the national grid and other environmental impacts. Since they have larger spaces compared to commercial sites in urban areas, they represent an appropriate case study for evaluating the technical and economic viability of energy system integration with low power density technologies, such as solar and wind, for on-site electricity generation. The available open space surrounding the analysed manufacturing plant can be efficiently used to produce a discrete quantity of energy, instantaneously and locally consumed. Therefore, transmission and distribution losses can be reduced. The usage of storage is not required due to the high and almost constant electricity consumption profile. The energy load of the plant is identified through the analysis of gas and electricity consumption, both internally monitored and reported on the bills. These data are not often recorded and available to third parties since manufacturing companies usually keep track only of the overall energy expenditures. The solar potential is modelled for a period of 21 years based on global horizontal irradiation data; the hourly direct and diffuse radiation and the energy produced by the system at the optimum pitch angle are calculated. The model is validated using PVWatts and SAM tools. Wind speed data are available for the same period within one-hour step at a height of 10m. Since the hub of a typical wind turbine reaches a higher altitude, complementary data for a different location at 50m have been compared, and a model for the estimate of wind speed at the required height in the right location is defined. Weibull Statistical Distribution is used to evaluate the wind energy potential of the site. The results show that solar and wind energy are, as expected, generally decoupled. Based on the real case study, the percentage of load covered every hour by on-site generation (Level of Autonomy LA) and the resulting electricity bought from the grid (Expected Energy Not Supplied EENS) are calculated. The economic viability of the project is assessed through Net Present Value, and the influence the main technical and economic parameters have on NPV is presented. Since the results show that the analysed renewable sources can not provide enough electricity, the integration with a cogeneration technology is studied. Finally, the benefit to energy system integration of wind, solar and a cogeneration technology is evaluated and discussed.

Keywords: demand, energy system integration, load, manufacturing, national grid, renewable energy sources

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Authors: Viana Hassan

Abstract:

Each year, 600 million tourists travelled abroad to practice several types of tourism. Nowadays, whatever is the type of tourism practiced it considered as a real public health problem which can contribute the spread of several diseases such as AIDS, H1N1, NDM1 With regard to HIV/AIDS, Lebanon is always considered as a low HIV prevalence country. However, the potential risks associated with the mobility of the population, migration and tourism. The total number of cases reported by the ministry of health since 1989 until the end of 2011 is of 1455 cases, with an average of 85 new cases per year over the last three years. The main reason of the increased number is Travel and migration which represent 50% of the risks reported by cumulative cases. Given the interest of this kind of epidemic it would be interesting to study the Evolution of HIV/ AIDS and its relation with travel and tourism The main aim of this research is to study in general the relation between tourism and health, more specific to understand the relation between Tourism and AIDS, the problem of the transmission of HIV in Lebanon, the ways of contamination and the countries in which these people are contaminated.

Keywords: AIDS, tourism, health, Lebanon

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Authors: Ghazi Faisal Najmuldeen, Noridah Abdullah, Mimi Sakinah

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Bioethanol is an alcohol made by fermentation, mostly from carbohydrates, Cellulosic biomass, derived from non-food sources, such as castor shell waste, is also being developed as a feedstock for ethanol production Cellulose extracted from biomass sources is considered the future feedstock for many products due to the availability and eco-friendly nature of cellulose. In this study, castor shell (CS) biowaste resulted from the extraction of Castor oil from castor seeds was evaluated as a potential source of cellulose. The cellulose was extracted after pretreatment process was done on the CS. The pretreatment process began with the removal of other extractives from CS, then an alkaline treatment, bleaching process with hydrogen peroxide, and followed by a mixture of acetic and nitric acids. CS cellulose was analysed by infrared absorption spectroscopy (FTIR), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), and thermogravimetric analysis (TGA). The result showed that the overall process was adequate to produce cellulose with high purity and crystallinity from CS waste. The cellulose was then hydrolyzed to produce glucose and then fermented to bioethanol.

Keywords: bioethanol, castor shell, cellulose, biowaste

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Authors: Krzysztof Malczewski

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Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) reconstruction algorithm using compressed sensing is presented in this paper. It is exhibited that the offered approach improves MR images spatial resolution in circumstances when highly undersampled k-space trajectories are applied. Compressed Sensing (CS) aims at signal and images reconstructing from significantly fewer measurements than were conventionally assumed necessary. Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) is a fundamental medical imaging method struggles with an inherently slow data acquisition process. The use of CS to MRI has the potential for significant scan time reductions, with visible benefits for patients and health care economics. In this study the objective is to combine super-resolution image enhancement algorithm with CS framework benefits to achieve high resolution MR output image. Both methods emphasize on maximizing image sparsity on known sparse transform domain and minimizing fidelity. The presented algorithm considers the cardiac and respiratory movements.

Keywords: super-resolution, MRI, compressed sensing, sparse-sense, image enhancement

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Authors: Adriano Valdes-Gomez, Francisco Javier Sevilla

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We devise a numerical algorithm to simulate the diffusion of a Brownian particle restricted to the surface of a three-dimensional sphere when the particle is under the effects of an external potential that is coupled linearly. It is obtained using elementary geometry, yet, it converges, in the weak sense, to the solutions to the Smoluchowski equation. Rotations on the sphere, which are the analogs of linear displacements in euclidean spaces, are calculated using algebraic operations and then by a proper scaling, which makes the algorithm efficient and quite simple, especially to what may be the short-time propagator approach. Our findings prove that the global effects of curvature are taken into account in both dynamic and stationary processes, and it is not restricted to work in configuration space, neither restricted to the overdamped limit. We have generalized it successfully to simulate the Kramers or the Ornstein-Uhlenbeck process, where it is necessary to work directly in phase space, and it may be adapted to other two dimensional surfaces with non-constant curvature.

Keywords: diffusion on the sphere, Fokker-Planck equation on the sphere, non equilibrium processes on the sphere, numerical methods for diffusion on the sphere

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Authors: J. P. Makwana, A. K. Joshi, Rajesh N. Patel, Darshil Patel

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Recently, fluidized bed gasification becomes an attractive technology for power generation due to its higher efficiency. The main objective pursued in this work is to investigate the producer gas production potential from sized biomass (sawdust and pigeon pea) by applying the air gasification technique. The size of the biomass selected for the study was in the range of 0.40-0.84 mm. An experimental study was conducted using a fluidized bed gasifier with 210 mm diameter and 1600 mm height. During the experiments, the fuel properties and the effects of operating parameters such as gasification temperatures 700 to 900 °C, equivalence ratio 0.16 to 0.46 were studied. It was concluded that substantial amounts of producer gas (up to 1110 kcal/m3) could be produced utilizing biomass such as sawdust and pigeon pea by applying this fluidization technique. For both samples, the rise of temperature till 900 °C and equivalence ratio of 0.4 favored further gasification reactions and resulted into producer gas with calorific value 1110 kcal/m3.

Keywords: sized biomass, fluidized bed gasifier, equivalence ratio, temperature profile, gas composition

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Authors: Cherity A. Ysquierdo, Pia U. Olafson, Donald B. Thomas

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Musca domestica L. were collected from cattle diagnosed with bovine ringworm to evaluate the potential of the house fly to disseminate Trichophyton verrucosum E. Bodin, a fungal dermatophyte that is the causative agent for ringworm in cattle. Fungal isolates were cultured from 45 individual flies on supplemented Sabouraud dextrose agar, and isolates were identified using morphological and microscopic approaches. Each isolate was further identified by PCR amplification of the ribosomal DNA locus with fungal specific primers and subsequent amplicon sequencing. No T. verrucosum were identified using these approaches. However, 36 different fungal species representing 17 genera were cultured from these flies, including several allergenic and pathogenic species. Several species within the fungal orders Hypocreales, Microascales, Onygenales, Saccharomycetales, Xylaniales, and Agaricales were observed for the first time on house flies. The most frequent fungus recovered was Cladosporium cladosporoides, which is known to be a ubiquitous, airborne allergen.

Keywords: bovine ringworm, Cladosporium, dermatophyte, Musca domestica

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Authors: Reisy Tane

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Asthma is the common health problems in adolescents. Self-management is one way to improve health status in adolescent with asthma. Mobile technology has the potential to improve self-management in adolescents with asthma. Objective: the aim of this study to determine the effectiveness of using the mobile technology Asthma Action Plan to improve self management. Method: this study is Systematic review approach using PRISM template. The literature search started on first September 2017 by using electronic data Pro Quest and Google Scholars with keywords ‘Mobile AAP’ and ‘Adolescent Asthma’. Results and Conclusion: M-AAP is effective to improve adolescent self-management with asthma because it is easy to use and provide information appropriately. The improvement of self-management in teenagers will enhance the quality of life of adolescents with asthma. The recommendation of this study is the addition of parental control content in the application appropriate with Family Centered Care (FCC) philosophy on pediatric nursing. In addition, it is expected the development of applications for other chronic diseases such as diabetes mellitus and congestive heart failure.

Keywords: asthma, mobile AAP, adolescent, self-management

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Authors: Toleen Alaqqad, Kadi Alshabramiy, Suad Zaafarany, Basma Musallam

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CADmapper is a significant tool of software for transforming geographic data into realistic CAD drawings. It speeds up and simplifies the conversion process by automating it. This allows architects, urban planners, engineers, and geographic information system (GIS) experts to solely concentrate on the imaginative and scientific parts of their projects. While the future incorporation of AI has the potential for further improvements, CADmapper's current capabilities make it an indispensable asset in the business. It covers a combination of 2D and 3D city and urban area models. The user can select a specific square section of the map to view, and the fee is based on the dimensions of the area being viewed. The procedure is straightforward: you choose the area you want, then pick whether or not to include topography. 3D architectural data (if available), followed by selecting whatever design program or CAD style you want to publish the document which contains more than 200 free broad town plans in DXF format. If you desire to specify a bespoke area, it's free up to 1 km2.

Keywords: cadmaper, gdata, 2d and 3d data conversion, automated cad drawing, urban planning software

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Authors: Hoyoung Lee, Dong-Kyu Kim, Seung-Young Kho, R. Eddie Wilson

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This study quantifies a decrement in freeway capacity during rainfall. Traffic and rainfall data were gathered from Highway Agencies and Wunderground weather service. Three inter-urban freeway sections and its nearest weather stations were selected as experimental sites. Capacity analysis found reductions of maximum and mean pre-breakdown flow rates due to rainfall. The Kruskal-Wallis test also provided some evidence to suggest that the variance in the pre-breakdown flow rate is statistically insignificant. Potential application of this study lies in the operation of real time traffic management schemes such as Variable Speed Limits (VSL), Hard Shoulder Running (HSR), and Ramp Metering System (RMS), where speed or flow limits could be set based on a number of factors, including rainfall events and their intensities.

Keywords: capacity randomness, flow breakdown, freeway capacity, rainfall

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Authors: Wellemans Isabelle, Remmelink Myriam, Foucart Annick, Rusu Stefan, Compère Christophe

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Primary pulmonary meningioma (PPM) is a very rare tumor, and its occurrence has been reported only sporadically. Multiple PPMs are even more exceptional, and herein, we report, to the best of our knowledge, the fourth case, focusing on the clinicopathological features of the tumor. Moreover, the possible relationship between the use of progesterone–only contraceptives and the development of these neoplasms will be discussed. Case Report: We report a case of a 51-year-old female presenting three solid pulmonary nodules, with the following localizations: right upper lobe, middle lobe, and left lower lobe, described as incidental findings on computed tomography (CT) during a pre-bariatric surgery check-up. The patient revealed no drinking or smoking history. The physical exam was unremarkable except for the obesity. The lesions ranged in size between 6 and 24 mm and presented as solid nodules with lobulated contours. The largest lesion situated in the middle lobe had mild fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG) uptake on F-18 FDG positron emission tomography (PET)/CT, highly suggestive of primary lung neoplasm. For pathological assessment, video-assisted thoracoscopic middle lobectomy and wedge resection of the right upper nodule was performed. Histological examination revealed relatively well-circumscribed solid proliferation of bland meningothelial cells growing in whorls and lobular nests, presenting intranuclear pseudo-inclusions and psammoma bodies. No signs of anaplasia were observed. The meningothelial cells expressed diffusely Vimentin, focally Progesterone receptors and were negative for epithelial (cytokeratin (CK) AE1/AE3, CK7, CK20, Epithelial Membrane Antigen (EMA)), neuroendocrine markers (Synaptophysin, Chromogranin, CD56) and Estrogenic receptors. The proliferation labelling index Ki-67 was low (<5%). Metastatic meningioma was ruled out by brain and spine magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans. The third lesion localized in the left lower lobe was followed-up and resected three years later because of its slow but significant growth (14 mm to 16 mm), alongside two new infra centimetric lesions. Those three lesions showed a morphological and immunohistochemical profile similar to previously resected lesions. The patient was disease-free one year post-last surgery. Discussion: Although PPMs are mostly benign and slow-growing tumors with an excellent prognosis, they do not present specific radiological characteristics, and it is difficult to differentiate it from other lung tumors, histopathologic examination being essential. Aggressive behavior is associated with atypical or anaplastic features (WHO grades II–III) The etiology is still uncertain and different mechanisms have been proposed. A causal connection between sexual hormones and meningothelial proliferation has long been suspected and few studies examining progesterone only contraception and meningioma risk have all suggested an association. In line with this, our patient was treated with Levonorgestrel, a progesterone agonist, intra-uterine device (IUD). Conclusions: PPM, defined by the typical histological and immunohistochemical features of meningioma in the lungs and the absence of central nervous system lesions, is an extremely rare neoplasm, mainly solitary and associating, and indolent growth. Because of the unspecific radiologic findings, it should always be considered in the differential diagnosis of lung neoplasms. Regarding multiple PPM, only three cases are reported in the literature, and this is the first described in a woman treated by a progesterone-only IUD to the best of our knowledge.

Keywords: pulmonary meningioma, multiple meningioma, meningioma, pulmonary nodules

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Authors: W. Sun, W. Wen, J. Lu, A. A. Becker

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In this work, methods for determining creep properties which can be used to represent the full life until failure from miniature specimen creep tests based on analytical solutions are presented. Examples used to demonstrate the application of the methods include a miniature rectangular thin beam specimen creep test under three-point bending and a miniature two-material tensile specimen creep test subjected to a steady load. Mathematical expressions for deflection and creep strain rate of the two specimens were presented for the Kachanov-Rabotnov creep damage model. On this basis, an inverse procedure was developed which has potential applications for deriving the full life creep damage constitutive properties from a very small volume of material, in particular, for various microstructure constitutive  regions, e.g. within heat-affected zones of power plant pipe weldments. Further work on validation and improvement of the method is addressed.

Keywords: creep damage property, miniature specimen, inverse approach, finite element modeling

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Authors: Livia Calcagni

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Most of the largest cities in the world are located in areas that are vulnerable to coastal erosion and flooding, both linked to climate change and rising sea levels (RSL). Nevertheless, more and more people are moving to these vulnerable areas as cities keep growing. Architects, engineers and policy makers are called to rethink the way we live and to provide timely and adequate responses not only by investigating measures to improve the urban fabric, but also by developing strategies capable of planning change, exploring unusual and resilient frontiers of living, such as floating architecture. Since the beginning of the 21st century we have seen a dynamic growth of water-based architecture. At the same time, the shortage of land available for urban development also led to reclaim the seabed or to build floating structures. In light of these considerations, time is ripe to consider floating architecture not only as a full-fledged building typology but especially as a full-fledged adaptation solution for RSL. Currently, there is no global international legal framework for urban development on water and there is no structured performance based building design (PBBD) approach for floating architecture in most countries, let alone national regulatory systems. Thus, the research intends to identify the technological, morphological, functional, economic, managerial requirements that must be considered in a the development of the PBBD framework conceived as a meta-design tool. As it is expected that floating urban development is mostly likely to take place as extension of coastal areas, the needs and design criteria are definitely more similar to those of the urban environment than of the offshore industry. Therefor, the identification and categorization of parameters takes the urban-architectural guidelines and regulations as the starting point, taking the missing aspects, such as hydrodynamics, from the offshore and shipping regulatory frameworks. This study is carried out through an evidence-based assessment of performance guidelines and regulatory systems that are effective in different countries around the world addressing on-land and on-water architecture as well as offshore and shipping industries. It involves evidence-based research and logical argumentation methods. Overall, this paper highlights how inhabiting water is not only a viable response to the problem of RSL, thus a resilient frontier for urban development, but also a response to energy insecurity, clean water and food shortages, environmental concerns and urbanization, in line with Blue Economy principles and the Agenda 2030. Moreover, the discipline of architecture is presented as a fertile field for investigating solutions to cope with climate change and its effects on life safety and quality. Future research involves the development of a decision support system as an information tool to guide the user through the decision-making process, emphasizing the logical interaction between the different potential choices, based on the PBBD.

Keywords: adaptation measures, floating architecture, performance based building design, resilient architecture, rising sea levels

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Authors: Analise Borg, Paul Micallef

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Over the past few years, the online multimedia collection has grown at a fast pace. Several companies showed interest to study the different ways to organize the amount of audio information without the need of human intervention to generate metadata. In the past few years, many applications have emerged on the market which are capable of identifying a piece of music in a short time. Different audio effects and degradation make it much harder to identify the unknown piece. In this paper, an audio fingerprinting system which makes use of a non-parametric based algorithm is presented. Parametric analysis is also performed using Gaussian Mixture Models (GMMs). The feature extraction methods employed are the Mel Spectrum Coefficients and the MPEG-7 basic descriptors. Bin numbers replaced the extracted feature coefficients during the non-parametric modelling. The results show that non-parametric analysis offer potential results as the ones mentioned in the literature.

Keywords: audio fingerprinting, mapping algorithm, Gaussian Mixture Models, MFCC, MPEG-7

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Authors: Sakapas Saengchai

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This research has objective to study and analysis, expending linkage of trading border of Thai-Myanmar and the way of development trading of Thai-Myanmar border. There are advantage of competition in ASEAN Community on collection data and observation, in-depth interview, group conversation and exchange opinion of public agency, entrepreneur and people. Result of study found that main development of border trade is 1) Cross-border service should be development infrastructure of land telecommunication, sea has support economics of cross-border trade, 2) International consumption service should be expand service with Myanmar and India for linkage with entrepreneur and trading from international to Thailand, 3) Establish business for provide service has development cooperation of logistics via Andaman of Thailand, and 4) Mobility personnel, exchange personnel including labor for development potential of border trade has competition advantage.

Keywords: border trade, development, service, ASEAN

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Authors: Anastasis D. Petrou

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Innovation and strategy discussions do highlight open innovation as a new paradigm in business. Yet, a number of stumbling blocks in the form of closed innovation principles weaved into the fabric of a traditional business model stand in the way of the new paradigm’s momentum to increase value in various business contexts. The paper argues that businesses considering an engagement with the open innovation paradigm would need to take steps to improve their multiplicative, absorptive and relational capabilities, respectively. The needed improvements would amount to a business model evolutionary transformation and eventually bring about a paradigm overhaul in business. The transformation is worth staging over time to ensure that open innovation is developed across interconnected and partnered areas of strategic importance. This article develops an open innovation strategy (OIS) capabilities model, and employs examples from different industries to briefly discuss OIS’s potential to augment business value in a number of suggested areas for future research.

Keywords: close innovation, open innovation paradigm, open innovation strategy (OIS) paradigm, OIS capabilities model, multiplicative capability, absorptive capability, relational capability

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Authors: Matthieu-P. Schapranow

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Recruitment of participants for clinical trials requires the screening of a big number of potential candidates, i.e. the testing for trial-specific inclusion and exclusion criteria, which is a time-consuming and complex task. Today, a significant amount of time is spent on identification of adequate trial participants as their selection may affect the overall study results. We introduce a unique patient eligibility metric, which allows systematic ranking and classification of candidates based on trial-specific filter criteria. Our web application enables real-time analysis of patient data and assessment of candidates using freely definable inclusion and exclusion criteria. As a result, the overall time required for identifying eligible candidates is tremendously reduced whilst additional degrees of freedom for evaluating the relevance of individual candidates are introduced by our contribution.

Keywords: in-memory technology, clinical trials, screening, eligibility metric, data analysis, clustering

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Authors: Sujosh Nandi, Proshanta Guha

Abstract:

Synthetic plastics are preferred for food packaging due to high strength, stretch-ability, good water vapor and gas barrier properties, transparency and low cost. However, environmental pollution generated by these synthetic plastics is a major concern of modern human civilization. Therefore, use of biodegradable polymers as a substitute for synthetic non-biodegradable polymers are encouraged to be used even after considering drawbacks related to mechanical and barrier properties of the films. Starch is considered one of the potential raw material for the biodegradable polymer, encounters poor water barrier property and mechanical properties due to its hydrophilic nature. That apart, recrystallization of starch molecules occurs during aging which decreases flexibility and increases elastic modulus of the film. The recrystallization process can be minimized by blending of other hydrocolloids having similar structural compatibility, into the starch matrix. Therefore, incorporation of guar gum having a similar structural backbone, into the starch matrix can introduce a potential film into the realm of biodegradable polymer. However, hydrophilic nature of both starch and guar gum, water barrier property of the film is low. One of the prospective solution to enhance this could be modification of the potato starch/guar gum (PSGG) composite film using cross-linker. Over the years, several cross-linking agents such as phosphorus oxychloride, sodium trimetaphosphate, etc. have been used to improve water vapor permeability (WVP) of the films. However, these chemical cross-linking agents are toxic, expensive and take longer time to degrade. Therefore, naturally available carboxylic acid (tartaric acid, malonic acid, succinic acid, etc.) had been used as a cross-linker and found that water barrier property enhanced substantially. As per our knowledge, no works have been reported with tartaric acid and succinic acid as a cross-linking agent blended with the PSGG films. Therefore, the objective of the present study was to examine the changes in water vapor barrier property and mechanical properties of the PSGG films after cross-linked with tartaric acid (TA) and succinic acid (SA). The cross-linkers were blended with PSGG film-forming solution at four different concentrations (4, 8, 12 & 16%) and cast on teflon plate at 37°C for 20 h. From the fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) study of the developed films, a band at 1720cm-1 was observed which is attributed to the formation of ester group in the developed films. On the other hand, it was observed that tensile strength (TS) of the cross-linked film decreased compared to non-cross linked films, whereas strain at break increased by several folds. Moreover, the results depicted that tensile strength diminished with increasing the concentration of TA or SA and lowest TS (1.62 MPa) was observed for 16% SA. That apart, maximum strain at break was also observed for TA at 16% and the reason behind this could be a lesser degree of crystallinity of the TA cross-linked films compared to SA. However, water vapor permeability of succinic acid cross-linked film was reduced significantly, but it was enhanced significantly by addition of tartaric acid.

Keywords: cross linking agent, guar gum, organic acids, potato starch

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Authors: Saad Alkentar, Abdulkareem Assalem

Abstract:

Recognizing small targets has always posed a significant challenge in image analysis. Over long distances, the image signal-to-noise ratio tends to be low, limiting the amount of useful information available to detection systems. Consequently, visual target recognition becomes an intricate task to tackle. In this study, we introduce a Track Before Detect (TBD) approach that leverages target trajectory information (coordinates) to effectively distinguish between noise and potential targets. By reframing the problem as a multivariate time series classification, we have achieved remarkable results. Specifically, our TBD method achieves an impressive 97% accuracy in separating target signals from noise within a mere half-second time span (consisting of 10 data points). Furthermore, when classifying the identified targets into our predefined categories—airplane, drone, and bird—we achieve an outstanding classification accuracy of 96% over a more extended period of 1.5 seconds (comprising 30 data points).

Keywords: small targets, drones, trajectory information, TBD, multivariate time series

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Authors: Samaneh Abolli, Mahmood Alimohammadi

Abstract:

The survey analyzed 71 bottled water brands in Tehran, Iran, examining 10 physicochemical parameters and 16 heavy metals. The water quality index (WQI) approach was used to assess water quality, and methods such as carcinogen risk (CR) and hazard index (HI) were employed to evaluate health risks. The results indicated that the bottled water had good quality overall, but some brands were of poor or very poor quality. The study also revealed significant human health risks, especially for children, due to the presence of minerals and heavy metals in bottled water. Correlation analyses and risk assessments for various substances were conducted, providing valuable insights into the potential health impacts of the analyzed bottled water.

Keywords: bottled wate, rwater quality index, health risk assessment, contamination degree, heavy metal evaluation index

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Authors: Kashish Sareen, Jatinder Singh Bal

Abstract:

The use of wireless sensor networks (WSNs) has grown vastly in the last era, pointing out the crucial need for scalable and energy-efficient routing and data gathering and aggregation protocols in corresponding large-scale environments. Wireless Sensor Networks have now recently emerged as a most important computing platform and continue to grow in diverse areas to provide new opportunities for networking and services. However, the energy constrained and limited computing resources of the sensor nodes present major challenges in gathering data. The sensors collect data about their surrounding and forward it to a command centre through a base station. The past few years have witnessed increased interest in the potential use of wireless sensor networks (WSNs) as they are very useful in target detecting and other applications. However, hierarchical clustering protocols have maximum been used in to overall system lifetime, scalability and energy efficiency. In this paper, the state of the art in corresponding hierarchical clustering approaches for large-scale WSN environments is shown.

Keywords: clustering, DLCC, MLCC, wireless sensor networks

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Authors: Florian Gschösser, Walter Purrer

Abstract:

The paper shows examples for the (environmental) optimization of production processes for asphalt mixtures applied for typical road pavements in Austria and Switzerland. The conducted “from-cradle-to-gate” LCA firstly analyzes the production one cubic meter of asphalt and secondly all material production processes for exemplary highway pavements applied in Austria and Switzerland. It is shown that environmental impacts can be reduced by the application of reclaimed asphalt pavement (RAP) and by the optimization of specific production characteristics, e.g. the reduction of the initial moisture of the mineral aggregate and the reduction of the mixing temperature by the application of low-viscosity and foam bitumen. The results of the LCA study demonstrate reduction potentials per cubic meter asphalt of up to 57 % (Global Warming Potential–GWP) and 77 % (Ozone depletion–ODP). The analysis per square meter of asphalt pavement determined environmental potentials of up to 40 % (GWP) and 56 % (ODP).

Keywords: asphalt mixtures, environmental potentials, life cycle assessment, material production

Procedia PDF Downloads 515