Search results for: modifiable areal unit problem (MAUP)
4467 Effect of a Stepwise Discontinuity on a 65 Degree Delta Wing
Authors: Nishit L. Sanil, Raza M. Khan
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Increasing lift effectively at higher angles of attack has always been a daunting challenge in aviation especially on a delta wing. These are used on military jet fighter planes and has some undesirable characteristics, notably flow separation at high angles of attack and high drag at low speeds. In order to solve this problem, a design modification is modeled on a delta wing which would increase the lift so that we can improve maneuverability. To attain an increase in the lift of a 65 degree delta wing at higher angles of attack, a step-wise discontinuity is created at the upper surface of the delta wing. A normal delta wing is validated for comparison which would thereby give us a measure of flow separation and coefficient of lift affected by the modification. The results obtained deliver a significant increase in lift at higher angles of attack thereby delaying stall. Hence the benefits of the modification would aid the potential designs of aircraft’s in the time to come.Keywords: coefficient of lift, delta wing, flow separation, step-wise discontinuity
Procedia PDF Downloads 3104466 Back Stepping Sliding Mode Control of Blood Glucose for Type I Diabetes
Authors: N. Tadrisi Parsa, A. R. Vali, R. Ghasemi
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Diabetes is a growing health problem in worldwide. Especially, the patients with Type 1 diabetes need strict glycemic control because they have deficiency of insulin production. This paper attempts to control blood glucose based on body mathematical body model. The Bergman minimal mathematical model is used to develop the nonlinear controller. A novel back-stepping based sliding mode control (B-SMC) strategy is proposed as a solution that guarantees practical tracking of a desired glucose concentration. In order to show the performance of the proposed design, it is compared with conventional linear and fuzzy controllers which have been done in previous researches. The numerical simulation result shows the advantages of sliding mode back stepping controller design to linear and fuzzy controllers.Keywords: bergman model, nonlinear control, back stepping, sliding mode control
Procedia PDF Downloads 3824465 Object Tracking in Motion Blurred Images with Adaptive Mean Shift and Wavelet Feature
Authors: Iman Iraei, Mina Sharifi
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A method for object tracking in motion blurred images is proposed in this article. This paper shows that object tracking could be improved with this approach. We use mean shift algorithm to track different objects as a main tracker. But, the problem is that mean shift could not track the selected object accurately in blurred scenes. So, for better tracking result, and increasing the accuracy of tracking, wavelet transform is used. We use a feature named as blur extent, which could help us to get better results in tracking. For calculating of this feature, we should use Harr wavelet. We can look at this matter from two different angles which lead to determine whether an image is blurred or not and to what extent an image is blur. In fact, this feature left an impact on the covariance matrix of mean shift algorithm and cause to better performance of tracking. This method has been concentrated mostly on motion blur parameter. transform. The results reveal the ability of our method in order to reach more accurately tracking.Keywords: mean shift, object tracking, blur extent, wavelet transform, motion blur
Procedia PDF Downloads 2114464 BigCrypt: A Probable Approach of Big Data Encryption to Protect Personal and Business Privacy
Authors: Abdullah Al Mamun, Talal Alkharobi
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As data size is growing up, people are became more familiar to store big amount of secret information into cloud storage. Companies are always required to need transfer massive business files from one end to another. We are going to lose privacy if we transmit it as it is and continuing same scenario repeatedly without securing the communication mechanism means proper encryption. Although asymmetric key encryption solves the main problem of symmetric key encryption but it can only encrypt limited size of data which is inapplicable for large data encryption. In this paper we propose a probable approach of pretty good privacy for encrypt big data using both symmetric and asymmetric keys. Our goal is to achieve encrypt huge collection information and transmit it through a secure communication channel for committing the business and personal privacy. To justify our method an experimental dataset from three different platform is provided. We would like to show that our approach is working for massive size of various data efficiently and reliably.Keywords: big data, cloud computing, cryptography, hadoop, public key
Procedia PDF Downloads 3204463 Detection Method of Federated Learning Backdoor Based on Weighted K-Medoids
Authors: Xun Li, Haojie Wang
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Federated learning is a kind of distributed training and centralized training mode, which is of great value in the protection of user privacy. In order to solve the problem that the model is vulnerable to backdoor attacks in federated learning, a backdoor attack detection method based on a weighted k-medoids algorithm is proposed. First of all, this paper collates the update parameters of the client to construct a vector group, then uses the principal components analysis (PCA) algorithm to extract the corresponding feature information from the vector group, and finally uses the improved k-medoids clustering algorithm to identify the normal and backdoor update parameters. In this paper, the backdoor is implanted in the federation learning model through the model replacement attack method in the simulation experiment, and the update parameters from the attacker are effectively detected and removed by the defense method proposed in this paper.Keywords: federated learning, backdoor attack, PCA, k-medoids, backdoor defense
Procedia PDF Downloads 1144462 Optimization of Switched Reluctance Motor for Drive System in Automotive Applications
Authors: A. Peniak, J. Makarovič, P. Rafajdus, P. Dúbravka
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The purpose of this work is to optimize a Switched Reluctance Motor (SRM) for an automotive application, specifically for a fully electric car. A new optimization approach is proposed. This unique approach transforms automotive customer requirements into an optimization problem, based on sound knowledge of a SRM theory. The approach combines an analytical and a finite element analysis of the motor to quantify static nonlinear and dynamic performance parameters, as phase currents and motor torque maps, an output power and power losses in order to find the optimal motor as close to the reality as possible, within reasonable time. The new approach yields the optimal motor which is competitive with other types of already proposed motors for automotive applications. This distinctive approach can also be used to optimize other types of electrical motors, when parts specifically related to the SRM are adjusted accordingly.Keywords: automotive, drive system, electric car, finite element method, hybrid car, optimization, switched reluctance motor
Procedia PDF Downloads 5214461 Spatial Suitability Assessment of Onshore Wind Systems Using the Analytic Hierarchy Process
Authors: Ayat-Allah Bouramdane
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Since 2010, there have been sustained decreases in the unit costs of onshore wind energy and large increases in its deployment, varying widely across regions. In fact, the onshore wind production is affected by air density— because cold air is more dense and therefore more effective at producing wind power— and by wind speed—as wind turbines cannot operate in very low or extreme stormy winds. The wind speed is essentially affected by the surface friction or the roughness and other topographic features of the land, which slow down winds significantly over the continent. Hence, the identification of the most appropriate locations of onshore wind systems is crucial to maximize their energy output and therefore minimize their Levelized Cost of Electricity (LCOE). This study focuses on the preliminary assessment of onshore wind energy potential, in several areas in Morocco with a particular focus on the Dakhla city, by analyzing the diurnal and seasonal variability of wind speed for different hub heights, the frequency distribution of wind speed, the wind rose and the wind performance indicators such as wind power density, capacity factor, and LCOE. In addition to climate criterion, other criteria (i.e., topography, location, environment) were selected fromGeographic Referenced Information (GRI), reflecting different considerations. The impact of each criterion on the suitability map of onshore wind farms was identified using the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP). We find that the majority of suitable zones are located along the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea. We discuss the sensitivity of the onshore wind site suitability to different aspects such as the methodology—by comparing the Multi-Criteria Decision-Making (MCDM)-AHP results to the Mean-Variance Portfolio optimization framework—and the potential impact of climate change on this suitability map, and provide the final recommendations to the Moroccan energy strategy by analyzing if the actual Morocco's onshore wind installations are located within areas deemed suitable. This analysis may serve as a decision-making framework for cost-effective investment in onshore wind power in Morocco and to shape the future sustainable development of the Dakhla city.Keywords: analytic hierarchy process (ahp), dakhla, geographic referenced information, morocco, multi-criteria decision-making, onshore wind, site suitability.
Procedia PDF Downloads 1694460 Flow Conservation Framework for Monitoring Software Defined Networks
Authors: Jesús Antonio Puente Fernández, Luis Javier Garcia Villalba
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New trends on streaming videos such as series or films require a high demand of network resources. This fact results in a huge problem within traditional IP networks due to the rigidity of its architecture. In this way, Software Defined Networks (SDN) is a new concept of network architecture that intends to be more flexible and it simplifies the management in networks with respect to the existing ones. These aspects are possible due to the separation of control plane (controller) and data plane (switches). Taking the advantage of this separated control, it is easy to deploy a monitoring tool independent of device vendors since the existing ones are dependent on the installation of specialized and expensive hardware. In this paper, we propose a framework that optimizes the traffic monitoring in SDN networks that decreases the number of monitoring queries to improve the network traffic and also reduces the overload. The performed experiments (with and without the optimization) using a video streaming delivery between two hosts demonstrate the feasibility of our monitoring proposal.Keywords: optimization, monitoring, software defined networking, statistics, query
Procedia PDF Downloads 3324459 Predicting Seoul Bus Ridership Using Artificial Neural Network Algorithm with Smartcard Data
Authors: Hosuk Shin, Young-Hyun Seo, Eunhak Lee, Seung-Young Kho
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Currently, in Seoul, users have the privilege to avoid riding crowded buses with the installation of Bus Information System (BIS). BIS has three levels of on-board bus ridership level information (spacious, normal, and crowded). However, there are flaws in the system due to it being real time which could provide incomplete information to the user. For example, a bus comes to the station, and on the BIS it shows that the bus is crowded, but on the stop that the user is waiting many people get off, which would mean that this station the information should show as normal or spacious. To fix this problem, this study predicts the bus ridership level using smart card data to provide more accurate information about the passenger ridership level on the bus. An Artificial Neural Network (ANN) is an interconnected group of nodes, that was created based on the human brain. Forecasting has been one of the major applications of ANN due to the data-driven self-adaptive methods of the algorithm itself. According to the results, the ANN algorithm was stable and robust with somewhat small error ratio, so the results were rational and reasonable.Keywords: smartcard data, ANN, bus, ridership
Procedia PDF Downloads 1674458 Study of Management of Waste Construction Materials in Civil Engineering Projects
Authors: Jalindar R. Patil, Harish P. Gayakwad
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The increased economic growth across the globe as well as urbanization in developing countries have led into extensive construction activities that generate large amounts of wastes. Material wastage in construction projects resulted into huge financial setbacks to builders and contractors. In addition to this, it may also cause significant effects over aesthetics, health, and the general environment. However in many cities across the globe where construction wastes material management is still a problem. In this paper, the discussion is all about the method for the management of waste construction materials. The objectives of this seminar are to identify the significant source of construction waste globally, to improve the performance of by extracting the major barriers construction waste management and to determine the cost impact on the construction project. These wastes needs to be managed as well as their impacts needs to be ascertained to pave way for their proper management. The seminar includes the details of construction waste management with the reference to construction project. The application of construction waste management in the civil engineering projects is to describe the reduction in the construction wastes.Keywords: civil engineering, construction materials, waste management, construction activities
Procedia PDF Downloads 5314457 Exploring the Possibility of Islamic Banking as a Viable Alternative to the Conventional Banking Model
Authors: Lavan Vickneson
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In today’s modern economy, the conventional banking model is the primary banking system used around the world. A significant problem faced by the conventional banking model is the recurring nature of banking crises. History’s record of the various banking crises, ranging from the Great Depression to the 2008 subprime mortgage crisis, is testament to the fact that banking crises continue to strike despite the preventive measures in place, such as bank’s minimum capital requirements and deposit guarantee schemes. If banking crises continue to occur despite these preventive measures, it necessarily follows that there are inherent flaws with the conventional banking model itself. In light of this, a possible alternative banking model to the conventional banking model is Islamic banking. To date, Islamic banking has been a niche market, predominantly serving Muslim investors. This paper seeks to explore the possibility of Islamic banking being more than just a niche market and playing a greater role in banking sectors around the world, by being a viable alternative to the conventional banking model.Keywords: bank crises, conventional banking model, Islamic banking, niche market
Procedia PDF Downloads 2824456 Clothes Identification Using Inception ResNet V2 and MobileNet V2
Authors: Subodh Chandra Shakya, Badal Shrestha, Suni Thapa, Ashutosh Chauhan, Saugat Adhikari
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To tackle our problem of clothes identification, we used different architectures of Convolutional Neural Networks. Among different architectures, the outcome from Inception ResNet V2 and MobileNet V2 seemed promising. On comparison of the metrices, we observed that the Inception ResNet V2 slightly outperforms MobileNet V2 for this purpose. So this paper of ours proposes the cloth identifier using Inception ResNet V2 and also contains the comparison between the outcome of ResNet V2 and MobileNet V2. The document here contains the results and findings of the research that we performed on the DeepFashion Dataset. To improve the dataset, we used different image preprocessing techniques like image shearing, image rotation, and denoising. The whole experiment was conducted with the intention of testing the efficiency of convolutional neural networks on cloth identification so that we could develop a reliable system that is good enough in identifying the clothes worn by the users. The whole system can be integrated with some kind of recommendation system.Keywords: inception ResNet, convolutional neural net, deep learning, confusion matrix, data augmentation, data preprocessing
Procedia PDF Downloads 1874455 Cyber Victimization: School Experience of Malaysian Cyberbullied Teenagers
Authors: Shireen Simon
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Cyberbullying among schoolchildren and teenagers became a hot issue discussed by Malaysian society. Cyberbullying is a new age of bullying because it uses the modern digital technology intentionally to hurt and degrade someone in the cyber world. Cyberbullying is a problem affecting many teenagers as they embrace online communication and interaction whereby virtual world with no borders. By adopting a qualitative approach, this study has captured 8 cyberbullied victims’ school experience. Even years after leaving school, these 8 cyberbullied victims remember how it feels to be bullied in the cyber world. The principal investigator also tries to identify the possibility factors that contribute to cyberbullying among these 8 victims. The result shows that these victims were bullied differently in cyber world. This study not just primarily focuses on cyberbullying issues among schoolchildren and teenagers; it also addresses the motives and causes of cyberbullying. Lastly, this article will be served as guidance for school teachers, parents and teenagers to prepare to tackle cyberbullying together. Cyberbullying is no laughing matter in our community, and it is time to spread the seeds of peace inspires others to do the same.Keywords: cyberbullying, cyber victimization, internet, school experience, teenagers
Procedia PDF Downloads 2874454 Landslide Hazard a Gigantic Problem in Indian Himalayan Region: Needs In-Depth Research to Minimize Disaster
Authors: Varun Joshi, M. S. Rawat
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The Indian Himalayan Region (IHR) is inherently fragile and susceptible to landslide hazard due to its extremely weak geology, highly rugged topography and heavy monsoonal rainfall. One of the most common hazards in the IHR is landslide, and this event is particularly frequent in Himalayan states of India i.e. Jammu & Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Sikkim, Manipur and Arunachal Pradesh. Landslides are mostly triggered by extreme rainfall events but the incidence increases during monsoon months (June to September). Natural slopes which are otherwise stable but they get destabilized due to anthropogenic activities like construction of various developmental activities and deforestation. These activities are required to fulfill the developmental needs and upliftment of societal status in the region. Landslides also trigger during major earthquakes and reported most observable and damaging phenomena. Studies indicate that the landslide phenomenon has increased many folds due to developmental activities in Himalayan region. Gradually increasing and devastating consequences of landslides turned into one of the most important hydro-geological hazards in Himalayan states especially in Uttarakhand and Sikkim states of India. The recent most catastrophic rainfall in June 2013 in Uttarakhand lead to colossal loss of life and property. The societal damage due to this incident is still to be recovered even after three years. Sikkim earthquake of September 2011 is witnessed for triggering of large number of coseismic landslides. The rescue and relief team faced huge problem in helping the trapped villagers in remote locations of the state due to road side blockade by landslides. The recent past incidences of landslides in Uttarakhand, as well as Sikkim states, created a new domain of research in terms of understanding the phenomena of landslide and management of disaster in such situation. Every year at many locations landslides trigger which force dwellers to either evacuate their dwelling or lose their life and property. The communication and transportation networks are also severely affected by landslides at several locations. Many times the drinking water supply disturbed and shortage of daily need household items reported during monsoon months. To minimize the severity of landslide in IHR requires in-depth research and developmental planning. For most of the areas in the present study, landslide hazard zonation is done on 1:50,000 scale. The land use planning maps on extensive basis are not available. Therefore, there is a need of large-scale landslide hazard zonation and land use planning maps. If the scientist conduct research on desired aspects and their outcome of research is utilized by the government in developmental planning then the incidents of landslide could be minimized, subsequent impact on society, life and property would be reduced. Along with the scientific research, there is another need of awareness generation in the region for stake holders and local dwellers to combat with the landslide hazard, if triggered in their location.Keywords: coseismic, Indian Himalayan Region, landslide hazard zonation, Sikkim, societal, Uttarakhand
Procedia PDF Downloads 2514453 Nonlinear Analysis with Failure Using the Boundary Element Method
Authors: Ernesto Pineda Leon, Dante Tolentino Lopez, Janis Zapata Lopez
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The current paper shows the application of the boundary element method for the analysis of plates under shear stress causing plasticity. In this case, the shear deformation of a plate is considered by means of the Reissner’s theory. The probability of failure of a Reissner’s plate due to a proposed index plastic behavior is calculated taken into account the uncertainty in mechanical and geometrical properties. The problem is developed in two dimensions. The classic plasticity’s theory is applied and a formulation for initial stresses that lead to the boundary integral equations due to plasticity is also used. For the plasticity calculation, the Von Misses criteria is used. To solve the non-linear equations an incremental method is employed. The results show a relatively small failure probability for the ranges of loads between 0.6 and 1.0. However, for values between 1.0 and 2.5, the probability of failure increases significantly. Consequently, for load bigger than 2.5 the plate failure is a safe event. The results are compared to those that were found in the literature and the agreement is good.Keywords: boundary element method, failure, plasticity, probability
Procedia PDF Downloads 3114452 A Brief Review of Urban Green Vegetation (Green Wall) in Reduction of Air Pollution
Authors: Masoumeh Pirhadi
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Air pollution is becoming a major health problem affecting millions. In support of this observation, the world health organization estimates that many people feel unhealthy due to pollution. This is a coupled fact that one of the main global sources of air pollution in cities is greenhouse gas emissions due heavy traffic. Green walls are developed as a sustainable strategy to reduce pollution by increasing vegetation in developed areas without occupying space in the city. This concept an offer advantageous environmental benefits and they can also be proposed for aesthetic purposes, and today they are used to preserve the urban environment. Green walls can also create environments that can promote a healthy lifestyle. Findings of multiple studies also indicate that Green infrastructure in cities is a strategy for improving air quality and increasing the sustainability of cities. Since these green solutions (green walls) act as porous materials that affect the diffusion of air pollution they can also act as a removing air vents that clean the air. Therefore, implementation of this strategy can be considered as a prominent factor in achieving a cleaner environment.Keywords: green vegetation, air pollution, green wall, urban area
Procedia PDF Downloads 1554451 Addressing the Exorbitant Cost of Labeling Medical Images with Active Learning
Authors: Saba Rahimi, Ozan Oktay, Javier Alvarez-Valle, Sujeeth Bharadwaj
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Successful application of deep learning in medical image analysis necessitates unprecedented amounts of labeled training data. Unlike conventional 2D applications, radiological images can be three-dimensional (e.g., CT, MRI), consisting of many instances within each image. The problem is exacerbated when expert annotations are required for effective pixel-wise labeling, which incurs exorbitant labeling effort and cost. Active learning is an established research domain that aims to reduce labeling workload by prioritizing a subset of informative unlabeled examples to annotate. Our contribution is a cost-effective approach for U-Net 3D models that uses Monte Carlo sampling to analyze pixel-wise uncertainty. Experiments on the AAPM 2017 lung CT segmentation challenge dataset show that our proposed framework can achieve promising segmentation results by using only 42% of the training data.Keywords: image segmentation, active learning, convolutional neural network, 3D U-Net
Procedia PDF Downloads 1564450 Data Quality Enhancement with String Length Distribution
Authors: Qi Xiu, Hiromu Hota, Yohsuke Ishii, Takuya Oda
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Recently, collectable manufacturing data are rapidly increasing. On the other hand, mega recall is getting serious as a social problem. Under such circumstances, there are increasing needs for preventing mega recalls by defect analysis such as root cause analysis and abnormal detection utilizing manufacturing data. However, the time to classify strings in manufacturing data by traditional method is too long to meet requirement of quick defect analysis. Therefore, we present String Length Distribution Classification method (SLDC) to correctly classify strings in a short time. This method learns character features, especially string length distribution from Product ID, Machine ID in BOM and asset list. By applying the proposal to strings in actual manufacturing data, we verified that the classification time of strings can be reduced by 80%. As a result, it can be estimated that the requirement of quick defect analysis can be fulfilled.Keywords: string classification, data quality, feature selection, probability distribution, string length
Procedia PDF Downloads 3184449 Design and Sensitivity Analysis of Photovoltaic/Thermal Solar Collector
Authors: H. M. Farghally, N. M. Ahmed, H. T. El-Madany, D. M. Atia, F. H. Fahmy
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Energy is required in almost every aspect of human activities and development of any nation in this world. Increasing fossil fuel price, energy security and climate change have important bearings on sustainable development of any nation. The renewable energy technology is considered one of the drastic approaches taken over the world to reduce the energy problem. The preservation of vegetables by freezing is one of the most important methods of retaining quality in agricultural products over long-term storage periods. Freezing factories show high demand of energy for both heat and electricity; the hybrid Photovoltaic/Thermal (PV/T) systems could be used in order to meet this requirement. This paper presents PV/T system design for freezing factory. Also, the complete mathematical modeling and Matlab Simulink of PV/T collector is introduced. The sensitivity analysis for the manufacturing parameters of PV/T collector is carried out to study their effect on the thermal and electrical efficiency.Keywords: renewable energy, hybrid PV/T system, sensitivity analysis, ecological sciences
Procedia PDF Downloads 2924448 Detection of Pharmaceutical Personal Protective Equipment in Video Stream
Authors: Michael Leontiev, Danil Zhilikov, Dmitry Lobanov, Lenar Klimov, Vyacheslav Chertan, Daniel Bobrov, Vladislav Maslov, Vasilii Vologdin, Ksenia Balabaeva
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Pharmaceutical manufacturing is a complex process, where each stage requires a high level of safety and sterility. Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) is used for this purpose. Despite all the measures of control, the human factor (improper PPE wearing) causes numerous losses to human health and material property. This research proposes a solid computer vision system for ensuring safety in pharmaceutical laboratories. For this, we have tested a wide range of state-of-the-art object detection methods. Composing previously obtained results in this sphere with our own approach to this problem, we have reached a high accuracy ([email protected]) ranging from 0.77 up to 0.98 in detecting all the elements of a common set of PPE used in pharmaceutical laboratories. Our system is a step towards safe medicine production.Keywords: sterility and safety in pharmaceutical development, personal protective equipment, computer vision, object detection, monitoring in pharmaceutical development, PPE
Procedia PDF Downloads 874447 Mesenteric Ischemia Presenting as Acalculous Cholecystitis: A Case Review of a Rare Complication and Aberrant Anatomy
Authors: Joshua Russell, Omar Zubair, Reuben Ndegwa
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Introduction: Mesenteric ischemia is an uncommon condition that can be challenging to diagnose in the acute setting, with the potential for significant morbidity and mortality. Very rarely has acute acalculous cholecystitis been described in the setting of mesenteric ischemia. Case: This was the case in a 78-year-old male, who initially presented with clinical and radiological evidence of small bowel obstruction, thought likely secondary to malignancy. The patient had a 6-week history of anorexia, worsening lower abdominal pain, and ~30kg of unintentional weight loss over a 12-month period and a CT- scan demonstrated a transition point in the distal ileum. The patient became increasingly hemodynamically unstable and peritonitic, and an emergency laparotomy was performed. Intra-operatively, however, no obvious transition point was identified, and instead, the gallbladder was markedly gangrenous and oedematous, consistent with acalculous cholecystitis. An open total cholecystectomy was subsequently performed. The patient was admitted to the Intensive Care Unit post-operatively and continued to deteriorate over the proceeding 48 hours, with two re-look laparotomies demonstrating progressively worsening bowel ischemia, initially in the distribution of the superior mesenteric artery and then the coeliac trunk. On review, the patient was found to have an aberrant right hepatic artery arising from the superior mesenteric artery. The extent of ischemia was considered non-survivable, and the patient was palliated. Discussion: Multiple theories currently exist for the underlying pathophysiology of acalculous cholecystitis, including biliary stasis, sepsis, and ischemia. This case lends further support to ischemia as the underlying etiology of acalculous cholecystitis. This is particularly the case when considered in the context of the patient’s aberrant right hepatic artery arising from the superior mesenteric artery, which occurs in 11-14% of patients. Conclusion: This case report adds further insight to the debate surrounding the pathophysiology of acalculous cholecystitis. It also presents acalculous cholecystitis as a complication of mesenteric ischemia that should always be considered, especially in the elderly patient and in the context of relatively common anatomical variations. Furthermore, the case brings to attention the importance of maintaining dynamic working diagnoses in the setting of evolving pathophysiology and clinical presentations.Keywords: acalculous cholecystitis, anatomical variation, general surgery, mesenteric ischemia
Procedia PDF Downloads 1914446 Initial Observations of the Utilization of Zoom Software for Synchronous English as a Foreign Language Oral Communication Classes at a Japanese University
Authors: Paul Nadasdy
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In 2020, oral communication classes at many universities in Japan switched to online and hybrid lessons because of the coronavirus pandemic. Teachers had to adapt their practices immediately and deal with the challenges of the online environment. Even for experienced teachers, this still presented a problem as many had not conducted online classes before. Simultaneously, for many students, this type of learning was completely alien to them, and they had to adapt to the challenges faced by communicating in English online. This study collected data from 418 first grade students in the first semester of English communication classes at a technical university in Tokyo, Japan. Zoom software was used throughout the learning period. Though there were many challenges in the setting up and implementation of Zoom classes at the university, the results indicated that the students enjoyed the format and made the most of the circumstances. This proved the robustness of the course that was taught in regular lessons and the adaptability of teachers and students to challenges in a very short timeframe.Keywords: zoom, hybrid lessons, communicative english, online teaching
Procedia PDF Downloads 844445 A Review of Methods for Handling Missing Data in the Formof Dropouts in Longitudinal Clinical Trials
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Much clinical trials data-based research are characterized by the unavoidable problem of dropout as a result of missing or erroneous values. This paper aims to review some of the various techniques to address the dropout problems in longitudinal clinical trials. The fundamental concepts of the patterns and mechanisms of dropout are discussed. This study presents five general techniques for handling dropout: (1) Deletion methods; (2) Imputation-based methods; (3) Data augmentation methods; (4) Likelihood-based methods; and (5) MNAR-based methods. Under each technique, several methods that are commonly used to deal with dropout are presented, including a review of the existing literature in which we examine the effectiveness of these methods in the analysis of incomplete data. Two application examples are presented to study the potential strengths or weaknesses of some of the methods under certain dropout mechanisms as well as to assess the sensitivity of the modelling assumptions.Keywords: incomplete longitudinal clinical trials, missing at random (MAR), imputation, weighting methods, sensitivity analysis
Procedia PDF Downloads 4154444 The Silent Tuberculosis: A Case Study to Highlight Awareness of a Global Health Disease and Difficulties in Diagnosis
Authors: Susan Scott, Dina Hanna, Bassel Zebian, Gary Ruiz, Sreena Das
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Although the number of cases of TB in England has fallen over the last 4 years, it remains an important public health burden with 1 in 20 cases dying annually. The vast majority of cases present in non-UK born individuals with social risk factors. We present a case of non-pulmonary TB presenting in a healthy child born in the UK to professional parents. We present a case of a healthy 10 year old boy who developed acute back pain during school PE. Over the next 5 months, he was seen by various health and allied professionals with worsening back pain and kyphosis. He became increasing unsteady and for the 10 days prior to admission to our hospital, he developed fevers. He was admitted to his local hospital for tonsillitis where he suffered two falls on account of his leg weakness. A spinal X-ray revealed a pathological fracture and gibbus formation. He was transferred to our unit for further management. On arrival, the patient had lower motor neurone signs of his left leg. He underwent spinal fixture, laminectomy and decompression. Microbiology samples taken intra-operatively confirmed Mycobacterium Tuberculosis. He had a positive Mantoux and T-spot and treatment were commenced. There was no evidence of immune compromise. The patient was born in the UK, had a BCG scar and his only travel history had been two years prior to presentation when he travelled to the Phillipines for a short holiday. The patient continues to have issues around neuropathic pain, mobility, pill burden and mild liver side effects from treatment. Discussion: There is a paucity of case reports on spinal TB in paediatrics and diagnosis is often difficult due to the non-specific symptomatology. Although prognosis on treatment is good, a delayed diagnosis can have devastating consequences. This case highlights the continued need for higher index of suspicion and diagnosis in a world with changing patterns of migration and increase global travel. Surgical intervention is limited to the most serious cases to minimise further neurological damage and improve prognosis. There remains the need for a multi-disciplinary approach to deal with challenges of treatment and rehabilitation.Keywords: tuberculosis, non-pulmonary TB, public health burden, diagnostic challenge
Procedia PDF Downloads 1934443 Durability Enhancement of CaSO4 in Repetitive Operation of Chemical Heat Pump
Authors: Y. Shiren, M. Masuzawa, H. Ohkura, T. Yamagata, Y. Aman, N. Kobayashi
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An important problem for the CaSO4/CaSO4・1/2H2O Chemical heat pump (CHP) is that the material is deactivated through repetitive reaction between hydration and dehydration in which the crystal phase of the material is transformed from III-CaSO4 to II-CaSO4. We investigated suppression on the phase change by adding a sulfated compound. The most effective material was MgSO4. MgSO4 doping increased the durability of CaSO4 in the actual CHP repetitive cycle of hydration/dehydration to 3.6 times that of undoped CaSO4. The MgSO4-doped CaSO4 showed a higher phase transition temperature and activation energy for crystal transformation from III-CaSO4 to II-CaSO4. MgSO4 doping decreased the crystal lattice size of CaSO4・1/2H2O and II-CaSO4 to smaller than that of undoped CaSO4. Modification of the crystal structure is considered to be related to the durability change in CaSO4 resulting from MgSO4 doping.Keywords: CaSO4, chemical heat pump, durability of chemical heat storage material, heat storage
Procedia PDF Downloads 5794442 Nonparametric Copula Approximations
Authors: Serge Provost, Yishan Zang
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Copulas are currently utilized in finance, reliability theory, machine learning, signal processing, geodesy, hydrology and biostatistics, among several other fields of scientific investigation. It follows from Sklar's theorem that the joint distribution function of a multidimensional random vector can be expressed in terms of its associated copula and marginals. Since marginal distributions can easily be determined by making use of a variety of techniques, we address the problem of securing the distribution of the copula. This will be done by using several approaches. For example, we will obtain bivariate least-squares approximations of the empirical copulas, modify the kernel density estimation technique and propose a criterion for selecting appropriate bandwidths, differentiate linearized empirical copulas, secure Bernstein polynomial approximations of suitable degrees, and apply a corollary to Sklar's result. Illustrative examples involving actual observations will be presented. The proposed methodologies will as well be applied to a sample generated from a known copula distribution in order to validate their effectiveness.Keywords: copulas, Bernstein polynomial approximation, least-squares polynomial approximation, kernel density estimation, density approximation
Procedia PDF Downloads 744441 Effect of Packing Ratio on Fire Spread across Discrete Fuel Beds: An Experimental Analysis
Authors: Qianqian He, Naian Liu, Xiaodong Xie, Linhe Zhang, Yang Zhang, Weidong Yan
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In the wild, the vegetation layer with exceptionally complex fuel composition and heterogeneous spatial distribution strongly affects the rate of fire spread (ROS) and fire intensity. Clarifying the influence of fuel bed structure on fire spread behavior is of great significance to wildland fire management and prediction. The packing ratio is one of the key physical parameters describing the property of the fuel bed. There is a threshold value of the packing ratio for ROS, but little is known about the controlling mechanism. In this study, to address this deficiency, a series of fire spread experiments were performed across a discrete fuel bed composed of some regularly arranged laser-cut cardboards, with constant wind speed and different packing ratios (0.0125-0.0375). The experiment aims to explore the relative importance of the internal and surface heat transfer with packing ratio. The dependence of the measured ROS on the packing ratio was almost consistent with the previous researches. The data of the radiative and total heat fluxes show that the internal heat transfer and surface heat transfer are both enhanced with increasing packing ratio (referred to as ‘Stage 1’). The trend agrees well with the variation of the flame length. The results extracted from the video show that the flame length markedly increases with increasing packing ratio in Stage 1. Combustion intensity is suggested to be increased, which, in turn, enhances the heat radiation. The heat flux data shows that the surface heat transfer appears to be more important than the internal heat transfer (fuel preheating inside the fuel bed) in Stage 1. On the contrary, the internal heat transfer dominates the fuel preheating mechanism when the packing ratio further increases (referred to as ‘Stage 2’) because the surface heat flux keeps almost stable with the packing ratio in Stage 2. As for the heat convection, the flow velocity was measured using Pitot tubes both inside and on the upper surface of the fuel bed during the fire spread. Based on the gas velocity distribution ahead of the flame front, it is found that the airflow inside the fuel bed is restricted in Stage 2, which can reduce the internal heat convection in theory. However, the analysis indicates not the influence of inside flow on convection and combustion, but the decreased internal radiation of per unit fuel is responsible for the decrease of ROS.Keywords: discrete fuel bed, fire spread, packing ratio, wildfire
Procedia PDF Downloads 1424440 Artificial Intelligence-Based Detection of Individuals Suffering from Vestibular Disorder
Authors: Dua Hişam, Serhat İkizoğlu
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Identifying the problem behind balance disorder is one of the most interesting topics in the medical literature. This study has considerably enhanced the development of artificial intelligence (AI) algorithms applying multiple machine learning (ML) models to sensory data on gait collected from humans to classify between normal people and those suffering from Vestibular System (VS) problems. Although AI is widely utilized as a diagnostic tool in medicine, AI models have not been used to perform feature extraction and identify VS disorders through training on raw data. In this study, three machine learning (ML) models, the Random Forest Classifier (RF), Extreme Gradient Boosting (XGB), and K-Nearest Neighbor (KNN), have been trained to detect VS disorder, and the performance comparison of the algorithms has been made using accuracy, recall, precision, and f1-score. With an accuracy of 95.28 %, Random Forest Classifier (RF) was the most accurate model.Keywords: vestibular disorder, machine learning, random forest classifier, k-nearest neighbor, extreme gradient boosting
Procedia PDF Downloads 694439 The Reality of Food Scarcity in Madhya Pradesh: Is It a Glimpse or Not?
Authors: Kalyan Sundar Som, Ghanshyam Prasad Jhariya
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Population growth is an important pervasive phenomenon in the world. Its survival depends upon many daily needs and food is one of them. Population factors play a decisive role in the human endeavor to attain food. Nutrition and health status compose integral part of human development and progress of a society. Therefore, the neglect any one of these components may leads to the deterioration of the quality of life. Food is also intimately related with economic growth and social progress as well as with political stability and peace. It refers to the availability of food and its access to it. It can be observed from global to local level. Food scarcity has emerged as a matter of great concern all over the world due to uncontrolled and unregulated growth of population .For this purpose this study try to find out the deficit or surplus production of food availability in terms of their total population in the study area. It also ascertains the population pressure, demand and supply of food stuff and demarcation of insecure areas.The data base of the study under discussion includes government published data regarding agriculture production, yield and cropped area in 2005-06 to 2011-12 available at commissioner land record Madhya Pradesh, Gwalior. It also includes the census of India for population data. For measuring food security or insecurity regions is based on the consumption of net food available in terms caloric value minus the consumption by the weighted total population. This approach has been adopted because the direct estimate of production and consumption is the only reliable way to ascertain food security in a unit area and to compare one area with another (Noor Mohammad, dec. 2002). The scenario in 2005-06 is 57.78 percent district has food insufficient in terms of their population. On the other hand after 5 years, there are only 22 % districts are deficit in term of food availability where Burhanpur is the most deficit (56 percent) district. While 20% district are highly surplus district in the state where Harda and Hoshangabad districts are very high surplus district (5 times and 3.95 times) in term of food availability(2011). The drastic change (agriculture transformation) is happen due government good intervention in the agricultural sector.Keywords: agriculture transformation, caloric value method, deficit or surplus region, population pressure
Procedia PDF Downloads 4394438 LWD Acquisition of Caliper and Drilling Mechanics in a Geothermal Well, A Case Study in Sorik Marapi Field – Indonesia
Authors: Vinda B. Manurung, Laila Warkhaida, David Hutabarat, Sentanu Wisnuwardhana, Christovik Simatupang, Dhani Sanjaya, Ashadi, Redha B. Putra, Kiki Yustendi
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The geothermal drilling environment presents many obstacles that have limited the use of directional drilling and logging-while-drilling (LWD) technologies, such as borehole washout, mud losses, severe vibration, and high temperature. The case study presented in this paper demonstrates a practice to enhance data logging in geothermal drilling by deploying advanced telemetry and LWD technologies. This operation is aiming continuous improvement in geothermal drilling operations. The case study covers a 12.25-in. hole section of well XX-05 in Pad XX of the Sorik Marapi Geothermal Field. LWD string consists of electromagnetic (EM) telemetry, pressure while drilling (PWD), vibration (DDSr), and acoustic calliper (ACAL). Through this tool configuration, the operator acquired drilling mechanics and caliper logs in real-time and recorded mode, enabling effective monitoring of wellbore stability. Throughout the real-time acquisition, EM-PPM telemetry had provided a three times faster data rate to the surface unit. With the integration of Caliper data and Drilling mechanics data (vibration and ECD -equivalent circulating density), the borehole conditions were more visible to the directional driller, allowing for better control of drilling parameters to minimize vibration and achieve optimum hole cleaning in washed-out or tight formation sequences. After reaching well TD, the recorded data from the caliper sensor indicated an average of 8.6% washout for the entire 12.25-in. interval. Washout intervals were compared with loss occurrence, showing potential for the caliper to be used as an indirect indicator of fractured intervals and validating fault trend prognosis. This LWD case study has given added value in geothermal borehole characterization for both drilling operation and subsurface. Identified challenges while running LWD in this geothermal environment need to be addressed for future improvements, such as the effect of tool eccentricity and the impact of vibration. A perusal of both real-time and recorded drilling mechanics and caliper data has opened various possibilities for maximizing sensor usage in future wells.Keywords: geothermal drilling, geothermal formation, geothermal technologies, logging-while-drilling, vibration, caliper, case study
Procedia PDF Downloads 130