Search results for: sensing ability

Authors: Terkimbi Vange, Obed Abimiku, Lateef Lekan Bello, Lucky Omoigui

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In 2014 and 2015, eight maize inbred lines resistant to Striga hermonthica (Del) Benth were crossed in 8 x 8 half diallel (Griffing method 11, model 1). The eight parent inbred lines were planted out in a Randomized Complete Block Design (RCBD) with three replications at two different Striga infested environments (Lafia and Makurdi) during the late cropping season. The objectives were to determine the combining ability of Striga resistant maize inbred lines and identify suitable inbreds for hybrids development. The lines were used to estimate general combining ability (GCA), and specific combining ability (SCA) effects for Striga related parameters such as Striga shoot counts, Striga damage rating (SDR), plant height and grain yield and other agronomic traits. The result of combined ANOVA revealed that mean squares were highly significant for all traits except Striga damage rating (SDR1) at 8WAS and Striga emergence count (STECOI) at 8WAS. Mean squares for SCA were significantly low for all traits. TZSTR190 was the highest yielding parent, and TZSTR166xTZST190 was the highest yielding hybrid (cross). Parent TZSTR166, TZEI188, TZSTR190 and TZSTR193 shows significant (p < 0.05) positive GCA effects for grain yield while the rest had negative GCA effects for grain yield. Parent TZSTR166, TZEI188, TZSTR190, and TZSTR193 could be used for initiating hybrid development. Also, TZSTR166xTZSTR190 cross was the best specific combiner followed by TZEI188xTZSTR193, TZEI80xTZSTR193, and TZSTR190xTZSTR193. TZSTR166xTZSTR190 and TZSTR190xTZSTR193 had the highest SCA effects. However, TZEI80 and TZSTR190 manifested a high positive SCA effect with TZSTR166 indicating that these two inbreds combined better with TZSTR166.

Keywords: combining ability, Striga hermonthica, resistance, grain yield

Procedia PDF Downloads 245

Authors: Gannouni Sonia, Hammami Asma, Saidi Salwa, Rebai Noamen

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Water resources in Tunisia have experienced quantitative and qualitative degradation, especially when talking about wetlands and Sbekhas. Indeed, the objective of this work is to study the spatio-temporal evolution of salinity for 29 years (from 1987 to 2016). A study of the connection between surface water and groundwater is necessary to know the degree of influence of the Sebkha brines on the water table. The evolution of surface salinity is determined by remote sensing based on Landsat TM and OLI/TIRS satellite images of the years 1987, 2007, 2010, and 2016. The processing of these images allowed us to determine the NDVI(Normalized Difference Vegetation Index), the salinity index, and the surface temperature around Sebkha. In addition, through a geographic information system(GIS), we could establish a map of the distribution of salinity in the subsurface of the water table of Chott Mariem and Hergla/SidiBouAli/Kondar. The results of image processing and the calculation of the index and surface temperature show an increase in salinity downstream of in addition to the sebkha and the development of vegetation cover upstream and the western part of the sebkha. This richness may be due both to contamination by seawater infiltration from the barrier beach of Hergla as well as the passage of groundwater to the sebkha.

Keywords: spatio-temporal monitoring, salinity, satellite images, NDVI, sebkha

Procedia PDF Downloads 138

Authors: Safaa M. Hassan; Safwat S. Gabr, Mohamed F. Sadek

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This study is proposed for the lithological and iron oxides detection in the old mine areas of El-Bahariya Depression, Western Desert, using ASTER and Landsat-8 remote sensing data. Four old iron ore occurrences, namely; El-Gedida, El-Haraa, Ghurabi, and Nasir mine areas found in the El-Bahariya area. This study aims to find new high potential areas for iron mineralization around El-Baharyia depression. Image processing methods such as principle component analysis (PCA) and band ratios (b4/b5, b5/b6, b6/b7, and 4/2, 6/7, band 6) images were used for lithological identification/mapping that includes the iron content in the investigated area. ASTER and Landsat-8 visible and short-wave infrared data found to help mapping the ferruginous sandstones, iron oxides as well as the clay minerals in and around the old mines area of El-Bahariya depression. Landsat-8 band ratio and the principle component of this study showed well distribution of the lithological units, especially ferruginous sandstones and iron zones (hematite and limonite) along with detection of probable high potential areas for iron mineralization which can be used in the future and proved the ability of Landsat-8 and ASTER data in mapping these features. Minimum Noise Fraction (MNF), Mixture Tuned Matched Filtering (MTMF), pixel purity index methods as well as Spectral Ange Mapper classifier algorithm have been successfully discriminated the hematite and limonite content within the iron zones in the study area. Various ASTER image spectra and ASD field spectra of hematite and limonite and the surrounding rocks are compared and found to be consistent in terms of the presence of absorption features at range from 1.95 to 2.3 μm for hematite and limonite. Pixel purity index algorithm and two sub-pixel spectral methods, namely Mixture Tuned Matched Filtering (MTMF) and matched filtering (MF) methods, are applied to ASTER bands to delineate iron oxides (hematite and limonite) rich zones within the rock units. The results are validated in the field by comparing image spectra of spectrally anomalous zone with the USGS resampled laboratory spectra of hematite and limonite samples using ASD measurements. A number of iron oxides rich zones in addition to the main surface exposures of the El-Gadidah Mine, are confirmed in the field. The proposed method is a successful application of spectral mapping of iron oxides deposits in the exposed rock units (i.e., ferruginous sandstone) and present approach of both ASTER and ASD hyperspectral data processing can be used to delineate iron-rich zones occurring within similar geological provinces in any parts of the world.

Keywords: Landsat-8, ASTER, lithological mapping, iron exploration, western desert

Procedia PDF Downloads 151

Authors: Mary S. Ruppert-Stroescu, Minh Pham, Bruce Benjamin

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Sleep apnea is a condition where a person stops breathing and can lead to cardiovascular disease, hypertension, and stroke. In the United States, approximately forty percent of overnight sleep apnea detection tests are cancelled. The purpose of this study was to develop a textile-based sensing system that acquires biometric signals relevant to cardiovascular health, to transmit them wirelessly to a computer, and to quantitatively assess the signals for sleep apnea detection. Patient interviews, literature review and market analysis defined a need for a device that ubiquitously integrated into the patient’s lifestyle. A multi-disciplinary research team of biomedical scientists, apparel designers, and computer engineers collaborated to design a textile-based sensing system that gathers EKG, Sp02, and respiration, then wirelessly transmits the signals to a computer in real time. The electronic components were assembled from existing hardware, the Health Kit which came pre-set with EKG and Sp02 sensors. The respiration belt was purchased separately and its electronics were built and integrated into the Health Kit mother board. Analog ECG signals were amplified and transmitted to the Arduino™ board where the signal was converted from analog into digital. By using textile electrodes, ECG lead-II was collected, and it reflected the electrical activity of the heart. Signals were collected when the subject was in sitting position and at sampling rate of 250 Hz. Because sleep apnea most often occurs in people with obese body types, prototypes were developed for a man’s size medium, XL, and XXL. To test user acceptance and comfort, wear tests were performed on 12 subjects. Results of the wear tests indicate that the knit fabric and t-shirt-like design were acceptable from both lifestyle and comfort perspectives. The airflow signal and respiration signal sensors return good signals regardless of movement intensity. Future study includes reconfiguring the hardware to a smaller size, developing the same type of garment for the female body, and further enhancing the signal quality.

Keywords: sleep apnea, sensors, electronic textiles, wearables

Procedia PDF Downloads 278

Authors: Dimitra Das, Anuradha Mitra, Kalyan Kumar Chattopadhyay

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Organic polymers, constructed from light elements like carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, oxygen, sulphur, and boron atoms, are the emergent class of non-toxic, metal-free, environmental benign advanced materials. Covalent triazine-based polymers with a functional triazine group are significant class of organic materials due to their remarkable stability arising out of strong covalent bonds. They can conventionally form hydrogen bonds, favour π–π contacts, and they were recently revealed to be involved in interesting anion–π interactions. The present work mainly focuses upon the development of a single-crystalline, highly cross-linked triazine-based nitrogen-rich organic polymer with nanodendritic morphology and significant thermal stability. The polymer has been synthesized through hydrothermal treatment of melamine and ethylene glycol resulting in cross-polymerization via condensation-polymerization reaction. The crystal structure of the polymer has been evaluated by employing Rietveld whole profile fitting method. The polymer has been found to be composed of monoclinic melamine having space group P21/a. A detailed insight into the chemical structure of the as synthesized polymer has been elucidated by Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR) and Raman spectroscopic analysis. X-Ray Photoelectron Spectroscopic (XPS) analysis has also been carried out for further understanding of the different types of linkages required to create the backbone of the polymer. The unique rod-like morphology of the triazine based polymer has been revealed from the images obtained from Field Emission Scanning Electron Microscopy (FESEM) and Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM). Interestingly, this polymer has been found to selectively detect mercury (Hg²⁺) ions at an extremely low concentration through fluorescent quenching with detection limit as low as 0.03 ppb. The high toxicity of mercury ions (Hg²⁺) arise from its strong affinity towards the sulphur atoms of biological building blocks. Even a trace quantity of this metal is dangerous for human health. Furthermore, owing to its small ionic radius and high solvation energy, Hg²⁺ ions remain encapsulated by water molecules making its detection a challenging task. There are some existing reports on fluorescent-based heavy metal ion sensors using covalent organic frameworks (COFs) but reports on mercury sensing using triazine based polymers are rather undeveloped. Thus, the importance of ultra-trace detection of Hg²⁺ ions with high level of selectivity and sensitivity has contemporary significance. A plausible sensing phenomenon by the polymer has been proposed to understand the applicability of the material as a potential sensor. The impressive sensitivity of the polymer sample towards Hg²⁺ is the very first report in the field of highly crystalline triazine based polymers (without the introduction of any sulphur groups or functionalization) towards mercury ion detection through photoluminescence quenching technique. This crystalline metal-free organic polymer being cheap, non-toxic and scalable has current relevance and could be a promising candidate for Hg²⁺ ion sensing at commercial level.

Keywords: fluorescence quenching , mercury ion sensing, single-crystalline, triazine-based polymer

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Authors: Mohd Harun, Cini Varghese, Eldho Varghese, Seema Jaggi

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Hybridization crosses find a vital role in breeding experiments to evaluate the combining abilities of individual parental lines or crosses for creation of lines with desirable qualities. There are various ways of obtaining progenies and further studying the combining ability effects of the lines taken in a breeding programme. Some of the most common methods are diallel or two-way cross, triallel or three-way cross, tetra-allele or four-way cross. These techniques help the breeders to improve the quantitative traits which are of economical as well as nutritional importance in crops and animals. Amongst these methods, tetra-allele cross provides extra information in terms of the higher specific combining ability (sca) effects and the hybrids thus produced exhibit individual as well as population buffering mechanism because of the broad genetic base. Most of the common commercial hybrids in corn are either three-way or four-way cross hybrids. Tetra-allele cross came out as the most practical and acceptable scheme for the production of slaughter pigs having fast growth rate, good feed efficiency, and carcass quality. Tetra-allele crosses are mostly used for exploitation of heterosis in case of commercial silkworm production. Experimental designs involving tetra-allele crosses have been studied extensively in literature. Optimality of designs has also been considered as a researchable issue. In practical situations, it is advisable to include sca effects in the model as this information is needed by the breeder to improve economically and nutritionally important quantitative traits. Thus, a model that provides information regarding the specific traits by utilizing sca effects along with general combining ability (gca) effects may help the breeders to deal with the problem of various stresses. In this paper, a model for experimental designs involving tetra-allele crosses that incorporates both gca and sca has been defined. Optimality aspects of such designs have been discussed incorporating sca effects in the model. Orthogonality conditions have been derived for block designs ensuring estimation of contrasts among the gca effects, after eliminating the nuisance factors, independently from sca effects. User friendly SAS macro and web solution (webPTC) have been developed for the generation and analysis of such designs.

Keywords: general combining ability, optimality, specific combining ability, tetra-allele cross, webPTC

Procedia PDF Downloads 139

Authors: Shinji Kajiwara

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The basic ability of a vehicle is the ability to “run”, “turn” and “stop”. The safeness and comfort during a drive on various road surfaces and speed depends on the performance of these basic abilities of the vehicle. Stability and maneuverability of a vehicle is vital in automotive engineering. Stability of a vehicle is the ability of the vehicle to revert back to a stable state during a drive when faced with crosswind and irregular road conditions. Maneuverability of a vehicle is the ability of the vehicle to change direction during a drive swiftly based on the steering of the driver. The stability and maneuverability of a vehicle can also be defined as the driving stability of the vehicle. Since fossil fueled vehicle is the main type of transportation today, the environmental factor in automotive engineering is also vital. By improving the fuel efficiency of the vehicle, the overall carbon emission will be reduced thus reducing the effect of global warming and greenhouse gas on the Earth. Another main focus of the automotive engineering is the safety performance of the vehicle especially with the worrying increase of vehicle collision every day. With better safety performance on a vehicle, every driver will be more confidence driving every day. Next, let us focus on the “turn” ability of a vehicle. By improving this particular ability of the vehicle, the cornering limit of the vehicle can be improved thus increasing the stability and maneuverability factor. In order to improve the cornering limit of the vehicle, a study to find the balance between the steering systems, the stability of the vehicle, higher lateral acceleration and the cornering limit detection must be conducted. The aim of this research is to study and develop a new suspension system that that will boost the lateral acceleration of the vehicle and ultimately improving the cornering limit of the vehicle. This research will also study environmental factor and the stability factor of the new suspension system. The double wishbone suspension system is widely used in four-wheel vehicle especially for high cornering performance sports car and racing car. The double wishbone designs allow the engineer to carefully control the motion of the wheel by controlling such parameters as camber angle, caster angle, toe pattern, roll center height, scrub radius, scuff and more. The development of the new suspension system will focus on the ability of the new suspension system to optimize the camber control and to improve the camber limit during a cornering motion. The research will be carried out using the CAE analysis tool. Using this analysis tool we will develop a JSAE Formula Machine equipped with the double wishbone system and also the new suspension system and conduct simulation and conduct studies on performance of both suspension systems.

Keywords: automobile, camber thrust, cornering force, suspension

Procedia PDF Downloads 328

Authors: Strahinja Kovacevic, Milica Karadzic Banjac, Jasmina Vitas, Stefan Vukmanovic, Radomir Malbasa, Lidija Jevric, Sanja Podunavac-Kuzmanovic

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The present study deals with chemometric regression analysis of quality parameters and the radical scavenging ability of kombucha fermented kefir-like products obtained with winter savory (WS), peppermint (P), stinging nettle (SN) and wild thyme tea (WT) kombucha inoculums. Each analyzed sample was described by milk fat content (MF, %), total unsaturated fatty acids content (TUFA, %), monounsaturated fatty acids content (MUFA, %), polyunsaturated fatty acids content (PUFA, %), the ability of free radicals scavenging (RSA Dₚₚₕ, % and RSA.ₒₕ, %) and pH values measured after each hour from the start until the end of fermentation. The aim of the conducted regression analysis was to establish chemometric models which can predict the radical scavenging ability (RSA Dₚₚₕ, % and RSA.ₒₕ, %) of the samples by correlating it with the MF, TUFA, MUFA, PUFA and the pH value at the beginning, in the middle and at the end of fermentation process which lasted between 11 and 17 hours, until pH value of 4.5 was reached. The analysis was carried out applying univariate linear (ULR) and multiple linear regression (MLR) methods on the raw data and the data standardized by the min-max normalization method. The obtained models were characterized by very limited prediction power (poor cross-validation parameters) and weak statistical characteristics. Based on the conducted analysis it can be concluded that the resulting radical scavenging ability cannot be precisely predicted only on the basis of MF, TUFA, MUFA, PUFA content, and pH values, however, other quality parameters should be considered and included in the further modeling. This study is based upon work from project: Kombucha beverages production using alternative substrates from the territory of the Autonomous Province of Vojvodina, 142-451-2400/2019-03, supported by Provincial Secretariat for Higher Education and Scientific Research of AP Vojvodina.

Keywords: chemometrics, regression analysis, kombucha, quality control

Procedia PDF Downloads 147

Authors: Sofia Hartati

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This research is aimed at describing training in early childhood education program empirically, describing teachers ability to plan lessons empirically, and acquiring empirical data as well as analyzing the influence of guided and independent training toward teachers competence in planning early childhood learning program. The method used is an experiment. It collected data with a population of 76 early childhood educators in Tunjung Teja Sub District area through random sampling technique and grouped into two namely 38 people in an experiment class and 38 people in a controlled class. The technique used for data collections is a test. The result of the research shows that there is a significant influence between training for guided educators toward Teachers Ability toward Planning Early Childhood Learning Program. Guided training has been proven to improve the ability to comprehend planning a learning program. The ability to comprehend planning a learning program owned by teachers of early childhood program comprises of 1) determining the characteristics and competence of students prior to learning; 2) formulating the objective of the learning; 3) selecting materials and its sequences; 4) selecting teaching methods; 5) determining the means or learning media; 6) selecting evaluation strategy as a part of teachers pedagogic competence. The result of this research describes a difference in the competence level of teachers who have joined guided training which is relatively higher than the teachers who joined the independent training. Guided training is one of an effective way to improve the knowledge and competence of early childhood educators.

Keywords: competence, planning, teachers, training

Procedia PDF Downloads 269

Authors: Mamta Rana, K. K. Singh, Nisha Kumari

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The simulation models with its soil-weather-plant atmosphere interacting system are important tools for assessing the crops in changing climate conditions. The CERES-Wheat & Rice vs. 4.6 DSSAT was calibrated and evaluated for one of the major producers of wheat and rice state- Haryana, India. The simulation runs were made under irrigated conditions and three fertilizer applications dose of N-P-K to estimate crop yield and other growth parameters along with the phenological development of the crop. The genetic coefficients derived by iteratively manipulating the relevant coefficients that characterize the phenological process of wheat and rice crop to the best fit match between the simulated and observed anthesis, physological maturity and final grain yield. The model validated by plotting the simulated and remote sensing derived LAI. LAI product from remote sensing provides the edge of spatial, timely and accurate assessment of crop. For validating the yield and yield components, the error percentage between the observed and simulated data was calculated. The analysis shows that the model can be used to simulate crop yield and yield components for wheat and rice cultivar under different management practices. During the validation, the error percentage was less than 10%, indicating the utility of the calibrated model for climate risk assessment in the selected region.

Keywords: simulation model, CERES-wheat and rice model, crop yield, genetic coefficient

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Authors: Chunhua Liao, Jinfei Wang, Bo Shan, Yang Song, Yongjun He, Taifeng Dong

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Winter wheat is one of the main crops in Canada. Forecasting of within-field variability of yield in winter wheat at the early stages is essential for precision farming. However, the crop yield modelling based on high spatial resolution satellite data is generally affected by the lack of continuous satellite observations, resulting in reducing the generalization ability of the models and increasing the difficulty of crop yield forecasting at the early stages. In this study, the correlations between Sentinel-2 data (vegetation indices and reflectance) and yield data collected by combine harvester were investigated and a generalized multivariate linear regression (MLR) model was built and tested with data acquired in different years. It was found that the four-band reflectance (blue, green, red, near-infrared) performed better than their vegetation indices (NDVI, EVI, WDRVI and OSAVI) in wheat yield prediction. The optimum phenological stage for wheat yield prediction with highest accuracy was at the growing stages from the end of the flowering to the beginning of the filling stage. The best MLR model was therefore built to predict wheat yield before harvest using Sentinel-2 data acquired at the end of the flowering stage. Further, to improve the ability of the yield prediction at the early stages, three simple unsupervised domain adaptation (DA) methods were adopted to transform the reflectance data at the early stages to the optimum phenological stage. The winter wheat yield prediction using multiple vegetation indices showed higher accuracy than using single vegetation index. The optimum stage for winter wheat yield forecasting varied with different fields when using vegetation indices, while it was consistent when using multispectral reflectance and the optimum stage for winter wheat yield prediction was at the end of flowering stage. The average testing RMSE of the MLR model at the end of the flowering stage was 604.48 kg/ha. Near the booting stage, the average testing RMSE of yield prediction using the best MLR was reduced to 799.18 kg/ha when applying the mean matching domain adaptation approach to transform the data to the target domain (at the end of the flowering) compared to that using the original data based on the models developed at the booting stage directly (“MLR at the early stage”) (RMSE =1140.64 kg/ha). This study demonstrated that the simple mean matching (MM) performed better than other DA methods and it was found that “DA then MLR at the optimum stage” performed better than “MLR directly at the early stages” for winter wheat yield forecasting at the early stages. The results indicated that the DA had a great potential in near real-time crop yield forecasting at the early stages. This study indicated that the simple domain adaptation methods had a great potential in crop yield prediction at the early stages using remote sensing data.

Keywords: wheat yield prediction, domain adaptation, Sentinel-2, within-field scale

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Authors: Matheus Madureira Matos, Alexandre Rodrigues Farias

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Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) is a vital imaging technique used in both clinical and pre-clinical areas to obtain detailed anatomical and functional information. However, MRI scans can be expensive, time-consuming, and often require the use of anesthetics to keep animals still during the imaging process. Anesthetics are commonly administered to animals undergoing MRI scans to ensure they remain still during the imaging process. However, prolonged or repeated exposure to anesthetics can have adverse effects on animals, including physiological alterations and potential toxicity. Minimizing the duration and frequency of anesthesia is, therefore, crucial for the well-being of research animals. In recent years, various sampling trajectories have been investigated to reduce the number of MRI measurements leading to shorter scanning time and minimizing the duration of animal exposure to the effects of anesthetics. Compressed sensing (CS) and sampling trajectories, such as cartesian, spiral, and radial, have emerged as powerful tools to reduce MRI data while preserving diagnostic quality. This work aims to apply CS and cartesian, spiral, and radial sampling trajectories for the reconstruction of MRI of the abdomen of mice sub-sampled at levels below that defined by the Nyquist theorem. The methodology of this work consists of using a fully sampled reference MRI of a female model C57B1/6 mouse acquired experimentally in a 4.7 Tesla MRI scanner for small animals using Spin Echo pulse sequences. The image is down-sampled by cartesian, radial, and spiral sampling paths and then reconstructed by CS. The quality of the reconstructed images is objectively assessed by three quality assessment techniques RMSE (Root mean square error), PSNR (Peak to Signal Noise Ratio), and SSIM (Structural similarity index measure). The utilization of optimized sampling trajectories and CS technique has demonstrated the potential for a significant reduction of up to 70% of image data acquisition. This result translates into shorter scan times, minimizing the duration and frequency of anesthesia administration and reducing the potential risks associated with it.

Keywords: compressed sensing, magnetic resonance, sampling trajectories, small animals

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Authors: Hiromi Kawai

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This study investigates the nature of EFL older children’s L2 perceptive and productive abilities using classroom data, in order to find a pedagogical solution to the teaching of L2 sounds at an early stage of learning in a formal school setting. It is still inconclusive whether older children with only EFL formal school instruction at the initial stage of L2 learning are able to attain native-like perception and production in English within the very limited amount of exposure to the target language available. Based on the notion of the lack of study of EFL Japanese children’s acquisition of English segments, the researcher uses a model of L1 speech processing which was developed for investigating L1 English children’s speech and literacy difficulties using a psycholinguistic framework. The model is composed of input channel, output channel, and lexical representation, and examines how a child receives information from spoken or written language, remembers and stores it within the lexical representations and how the child selects and produces spoken or written words. Concerning language universality and language specificity in the language acquisitional process, the aim of finding any sound errors in L1 English children seemed to conform to the author’s intention to find abilities of English sounds in older Japanese children at the novice level of English in an EFL setting. 104 students in Grade 5 (between the ages of 10 and 11 years old) of an elementary school in Tokyo participated in this study. Four tests to measure their perceptive ability and three oral repetition tests to measure their productive ability were conducted with/without reference to lexical representation. All the test items were analyzed to calculate item facility (IF) indices, and correlational analyses and Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) were conducted to examine the relationship between the receptive ability and the productive ability. IF analysis showed that (1) the participants were better at perceiving a segment than producing a segment, (2) they had difficulty in auditory discrimination of paired consonants when one of them does not exist in the Japanese inventory, (3) they had difficulty in both perceiving and producing English vowels, and (4) their L1 loan word knowledge had an influence on their ability to perceive and produce L2 sounds. The result of the Multiple Regression Modeling showed that the two production tests could predict the participants’ auditory ability of real words in English. The result of SEM showed that the hypothesis that perceptive ability affects productive ability was supported. Based on these findings, the author discusses the possible explicit method of teaching English segments to EFL older children in a formal school setting.

Keywords: EFL older children, english segments, perception, production, speech processing system

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Authors: Siyu Wang, Anthony Ward

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Emotional intelligence (EI) is a well-established personal characteristic. It has been viewed as a critical factor which can influence an individual's academic achievement, ability to work and potential to succeed. When working in a group, EI is fundamentally connected to the group members' interaction and ability to work as a team. The ability of a group member to intelligently perceive and understand own emotions (Intrapersonal EI), to intelligently perceive and understand other members' emotions (Interpersonal EI), and to intelligently perceive and understand emotions between different groups (Cross-boundary EI) can be considered as Group emotional intelligence (Group EI). In this research, a more representative Group EI measurement approach, which incorporates the information of the composition of a group and an individual’s role in that group, is proposed. To demonstrate the claim of being more representative Group EI measurement approach, this study adopts a multi-method research design, involving a combination of both qualitative and quantitative techniques to establish a metric of Group EI. From the results, it can be concluded that by introducing the weight coefficient of each group member on group work into the measurement of Group EI, Group EI will be more representative and more capable of understanding what happens during teamwork than previous approaches.

Keywords: case study, emotional intelligence, group EI, multi-method research

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Authors: Aber Salem Aboalgasm, Rupert Ward

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Teaching art by digital means is a big challenge for the majority of teachers of art and artistic design courses in primary education schools. These courses can clearly identify relationships between art, technology and creativity in the classroom .The aim of this article is to present a modern way of teaching art, using digital tools in the art classroom in order to improve creative ability in pupils aged between 9 and 11 years; it also presents a conceptual model for creativity based on digital art. The model could be useful for pupils interested in learning drawing and using an e-drawing package, and for teachers who are interested in teaching their students modern digital art, and improving children’s creativity. This model is designed to show the strategy of teaching art through technology, in order for children to learn how to be creative. This will also help education providers to make suitable choices about which technological approaches they should choose to teach students and enhance their creative ability. To define the digital art tools that can benefit children develop their technical skills. It is also expected that use of this model will help to develop social interactive qualities that may improve intellectual ability.

Keywords: digital tools, motivation, creative activity, technical skill

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Authors: A. Saghatelyan, Sh. Asmaryan, G. Tepanosyan, V. Muradyan

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One of major concern to Armenia has been soil degradation emerged as a result of unsustainable management and use of grasslands, this in turn largely impacting environment, agriculture and finally human health. Hence, assessment of soil degradation is an essential and urgent objective set out to measure its possible consequences and develop a potential management strategy. Since recently, an essential tool for assessing pasture degradation has been remote sensing (RS) technologies. This research was done with an intention to measure preciseness of Linear spectral unmixing (LSU) and NDVI-SMA methods to estimate soil surface components related to degradation (fractional vegetation cover-FVC, bare soils fractions, surface rock cover) and determine appropriateness of these methods for mapping man-induced soil degradation in high mountain pastures. Taking into consideration a spatially complex and heterogeneous biogeophysical structure of the studied site, we used high resolution multispectral QuickBird imagery of a pasture site in one of Armenia’s rural communities - Nerkin Sasoonashen. The accuracy assessment was done by comparing between the land cover abundance data derived through RS methods and the ground truth land cover abundance data. A significant regression was established between ground truth FVC estimate and both NDVI-LSU and LSU - produced vegetation abundance data (R2=0.636, R2=0.625, respectively). For bare soil fractions linear regression produced a general coefficient of determination R2=0.708. Because of poor spectral resolution of the QuickBird imagery LSU failed with assessment of surface rock abundance (R2=0.015). It has been well documented by this particular research, that reduction in vegetation cover runs in parallel with increase in man-induced soil degradation, whereas in the absence of man-induced soil degradation a bare soil fraction does not exceed a certain level. The outcomes show that the proposed method of man-induced soil degradation assessment through FVC, bare soil fractions and field data adequately reflects the current status of soil degradation throughout the studied pasture site and may be employed as an alternate of more complicated models for soil degradation assessment.

Keywords: Armenia, linear spectral unmixing, remote sensing, soil degradation

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Authors: M. Rouhani, F. C. N. Hong, Y. R. Jeng

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The tribological performance of DLC films is limited by graphitization at elevated temperatures. Despite of numerous studies on the thermal stability of DLC films, a comprehensive in-situ characterization at elevated temperature is still lacking. In this study, DLC films were deposited using filtered cathodic arc vacuum method. Thermal stability of the films was characterized in-situally using a synchronized technique integrating Raman spectroscopy and depth-sensing measurements. Tests were performed in a high temperature chamber coupled with feedback control to make it possible to study the temperature effects in the range of 21 – 450 ̊C. Co-located SPM and Raman microscopy maps at different temperature over a specific area on the surface of the film were prepared. The results show that the thermal stability of the DLC films depends on their sp3 content. Films with lower sp3 content endure graphitization during the temperature-course used in this study. The graphitization is accompanied with significant changes in surface roughness and Raman spectrum of the film. Surface roughness of the films start to change even before graphitization transformation could be detected using Raman spectroscopy. Depth-sensing tests (nanoindentation, nano-scratch and wear) endorse the surface roughness change seen before graphitization occurrence. This in-situ study showed that the surface of the films is more sensitive to temperature rise compared to the bulk. We presume the changes observed in films hardness, surface roughness and scratch resistance with temperature rise, before graphitization occurrence, is due to surface relaxation.

Keywords: DLC film, nanoindentation, Raman spectroscopy, thermal stability

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Authors: Qamar Iqbal

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Companies strive to improve their forecasting methods to predict the fluctuations in customer demand. These fluctuation and variation in demand affect the manufacturing operations and can limit a company’s ability to fulfill customer demand on time. Companies keep the inventory buffer and maintain the stocking levels to reduce the impact of demand variation. A mid-size company deals with thousands of stock keeping units (skus). It is neither easy and nor efficient to control and manage each sku. Inventory classification provides a tool to the management to increase their ability to support customer demand. The paper presents a framework that shows how inventory classification can play a role to increase supply chain responsiveness. A case study will be presented to further elaborate the method both for build-to-order and build-to-forecast manufacturing environments. Results will be compared that will show which manufacturing setting has advantage over another under different circumstances. The outcome of this study is very useful to the management because this will give them an insight on how inventory classification can be used to increase their ability to respond to changing customer needs.

Keywords: inventory classification, supply chain responsiveness, forecast, manufacturing environment

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Authors: Shilpi, Indu Gaur, Neha Bhadauria, Susmita Goswami, Prabir K. Paul

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Cultivation and consumption of organically grown fruits and vegetables have increased by several folds. However, the presence of Human Enteric Pathogens on the surface of organically grown vegetables causing Gastro-intestinal diseases, are most likely due to contaminated water and fecal matter of farm animals. Human Enteric Pathogens are adapted to colonize the human gut, and also colonize plant surface. Microbes on plant surface communicate with each other to establish quorum sensing. The cross talk study is important because the enteric pathogens on phylloplane have been reported to mask the beneficial resident bacteria of plant. In the present study, HEPs and bacterial colonizers were identified using 16s rRNA sequencing. Microbial colonization patterns after interaction between Human Enteric Pathogens and natural bacterial residents on tomato phylloplane was studied. Tomato plants raised under aseptic conditions were inoculated with a mixture of Serratia fonticola and Klebsiella pneumoniae. The molecules involved in cross-talk between Human Enteric Pathogens and regular bacterial colonizers were isolated and identified using molecular techniques and HPLC. The colonization pattern was studied by leaf imprint method after 48 hours of incubation. The associated protein-protein interaction in the host cytoplasm was studied by use of crosslinkers. From treated leaves the crosstalk molecules and interaction proteins were separated on 1D SDS-PAGE and analyzed by MALDI-TOF-TOF analysis. The study is critical in understanding the molecular aspects of HEP’s adaption to phylloplane. The study revealed human enteric pathogens aggressively interact among themselves and resident bacteria. HEPs induced establishment of a signaling cascade through protein-protein interaction in the host cytoplasm. The study revealed that the adaptation of Human Enteric Pathogens on phylloplane of Solanum lycopersicum involves the establishment of complex molecular interaction between the microbe and the host including microbe-microbe interaction leading to an establishment of quorum sensing. The outcome will help in minimizing the HEP load on fresh farm produce, thereby curtailing incidences of food-borne diseases.

Keywords: crosslinkers, human enteric pathogens (HEPs), phylloplane, quorum sensing

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Authors: Y. Fekir, K. Mederbal, M. A. Hammadouche, D. Anteur

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The cultural park of the Ahaggar, occupying a large area of Algeria, is characterized by a rich wetlands area to be preserved and managed both in time and space. The management of a large area, by its complexity, needs large amounts of data, which for the most part, are spatially localized (DEM, satellite images and socio-economic information...), where the use of conventional and traditional methods is quite difficult. The remote sensing, by its efficiency in environmental applications, became an indispensable solution for this kind of studies. Remote sensing imaging data have been very useful in the last decade in very interesting applications. They can aid in several domains such as the detection and identification of diverse wetland surface targets, topographical details, and geological features... In this work, we try to extract automatically wetlands area using multispectral remotely sensed data on-board the Earth Observing 1 (EO-1) and Landsat satellite. Both are high-resolution multispectral imager with a 30 m resolution. The instrument images an interesting surface area. We have used images acquired over the several area of interesting in the National Park of Ahaggar in the south of Algeria. An Extraction Algorithm is applied on the several spectral index obtained from combination of different spectral bands to extract wetlands fraction occupation of land use. The obtained results show an accuracy to distinguish wetlands area from the other lad use themes using a fine exploitation on spectral index.

Keywords: multispectral data, EO1, landsat, wetlands, Ahaggar, Algeria

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Authors: Subham Kharel, Sudha Ravindranath, A. Vidya, B. Chandrasekaran, K. Ganesha Raj, T. Shesadri

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Digitization of urban features is a tedious and time-consuming process when done manually. In addition to this problem, Indian cities have complex habitat patterns and convoluted clustering patterns, which make it even more difficult to map features. This paper makes an attempt to classify urban objects in the satellite image using object-oriented classification techniques in which various classes such as vegetation, water bodies, buildings, and shadows adjacent to the buildings were mapped semi-automatically. Building layer obtained as a result of object-oriented classification along with already available building layers was used. The main focus, however, lay in the extraction of high-rise buildings using spatial technology, digital image processing, and modeling, which would otherwise be a very difficult task to carry out manually. Results indicated a considerable rise in the total number of buildings in the city. High-rise buildings were successfully mapped using satellite imagery, spatial technology along with logical reasoning and mathematical considerations. The results clearly depict the ability of Remote Sensing and GIS to solve complex problems in urban scenarios like studying urban sprawl and identification of more complex features in an urban area like high-rise buildings and multi-dwelling units. Object-Oriented Technique has been proven to be effective and has yielded an overall efficiency of 80 percent in the classification of high-rise buildings.

Keywords: object oriented classification, shadow extraction, high-rise buildings, satellite imagery, spatial technology

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Authors: Somtop Keawchuer

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This research aims to study (1) the relationship between competency-based learning and learning efficiency of new media communication students at Suan Sunandha University (2) the demographic factor effect on learning efficiency of students at Suan Sunandha University. This research method will use quantitative research; data was collected by questionnaires distributed to students from new media communication in management science faculty of Suan Sunandha Rajabhat University for 1340 sample by purposive sampling method. Data was analyzed by descriptive statistic including percentage, mean, standard deviation and inferential statistic including T-test, ANOVA and Pearson correlation for hypothesis testing. The results showed that the competency-based learning in term of ability to communicate, ability to think and solve the problem, life skills and ability to use technology has a significant relationship with learning efficiency in term of the cognitive domain, psychomotor domain and affective domain at the 0.05 level and which is in harmony with the research hypotheses.

Keywords: competency-based learning, learning efficiency, new media communication students, Suan Sunandha Rajabhat University

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Authors: Lingling Shui, Shuting Xie

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As alternatives to electronic devices, optically active structures from responsive nanomaterials offer great opportunity buildup smart functional sensors. Hereby, we report on droplet microfluidics enabled construction and application of photonic microcapsules (PMCs) for colorimetric temperature microsensors, enabling miniaturization for injectable local micro-area sensing and integration for large-area sensing. Monodispersed PMCs are produced by in-situ photopolymerization of hydrogel shells of cholesteric liquid crystal (CLC)-in-water-in-oil double emulsion droplets prepared using microfluidic devices, with controllable physical structures and chemical compositions. Constructed PMCs exhibit thermal responsive structural color according to the selective Bragg reflection of CLC’s periodical helical structures within the microdroplet’s spherical confinement. Constructed PMCs with tunable size and composition have been successfully applied for monitoring the living cell extracellular temperature via co-incubation with cell suspension, and for detecting human body temperature via a flexible device from assembled PMCs. These PMCs could be flexibly applied in either micro-environment or large-area surface, enabling wide applications for precision temperature monitoring biological activities (e.g. cells or organs), optoelectronic devices working conditions (e.g. temperature indicators under extreme conditions), and etc.

Keywords: droplet, microfluidics, assembly, soft materials, microsensor

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Authors: Djamil Guettiche, Ahmed Mekki, Tighilt Fatma-Zohra, Rachid Mahmoud

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The aim of this study was to synthesize and characterize conducting polymer composites of polypyrrole and graphene, including pristine and surface-treated graphene (PPy/GO, PPy/rGO, and PPy/rGO-ArCOOH), for use as sensitive elements in a homemade chemiresistive module for on-line detection of nitrogen oxides vapors. The chemiresistive module was prepared, characterized, and evaluated for performance. Structural and morphological characterizations of the composite were carried out using FTIR, Raman spectroscopy, and XRD analyses. After exposure to NO and NO₂ gases in both static and dynamic modes, the sensitivity, selectivity, limit of detection, and response time of the sensor were determined at ambient temperature. The resulting sensor showed high sensitivity, selectivity, and reversibility, with a low limit of detection of 1 ppm. A composite of polypyrrole and graphene functionalized with aryl 4-carboxy benzene diazonium salt was synthesized and characterized using FTIR, scanning electron microscopy, transmission electron microscopy, UV-visible, and X-ray diffraction. The PPy-rGOArCOOH composite exhibited a good electrical resistance response to NO₂ at room temperature and showed enhanced NO₂-sensing properties compared to PPy-rGO thin films. The selectivity and stability of the NO₂ sensor based on the PPy/rGO-ArCOOH nanocomposite were also investigated.

Keywords: conducting polymers, surface treated graphene, diazonium salt, polypyrrole, Nitrogen oxide sensing

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Authors: Ezri Coda, Kris Justine Miparanum, Relvin Jay Sale

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The study dealt on suicide risk level of college students in UM Tagum College. The primary goal of the study was to assess the level of suicide risk among students at the UM Tagum College in terms of perceived burdensomeness, low belongingness/social alienation and acquired ability to enact lethal self-injury utilizing quantitative non- experimental study with 380 students in UM Tagum College as respondents of the study. Mean was the statistical tools used for the data treatment. Moreover, the study aims to determine the mean of the level of the suicide risk assessment in terms of program, type of student, age, year level, civil status and gender, and lastly, to design an intervention program for those identified students with high suicide risk. Results showed a low level of suicide risk in terms of perceived burdensomeness, low belongingness/social alienation and acquired ability to enact lethal self-injury.

Keywords: suicide risk, perceived burdensomeness, low belongingness/social alienation, acquired ability to enact lethal self-injury, UM Tagum College, Philippines

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Authors: Lubna Alhinti, Heidi Christensen, Stuart Cunningham

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People with speech disorders may rely on augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) technologies to help them communicate. However, the limitations of the current AAC technologies act as barriers to the optimal use of these technologies in daily communication settings. The ability to communicate effectively relies on a number of factors that are not limited to the intelligibility of the spoken words. In fact, non-verbal cues play a critical role in the correct comprehension of messages and having to rely on verbal communication only, as is the case with current AAC technology, may contribute to problems in communication. This is especially true for people’s ability to express their feelings and emotions, which are communicated to a large part through non-verbal cues. This paper focuses on understanding more about the non-verbal communication ability of people with dysarthria, with the overarching aim of this research being to improve AAC technology by allowing people with dysarthria to better communicate emotions. Preliminary survey results are presented that gives an understanding of how people with dysarthria convey emotions, what emotions that are important for them to get across, what emotions that are difficult for them to convey, and whether there is a difference in communicating emotions when speaking to familiar versus unfamiliar people.

Keywords: alternative and augmentative communication technology, dysarthria, speech emotion recognition, VIVOCA

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Authors: Amr S. Fahil, Eman Ghoneim

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Egypt made significant efforts during the past few years to discover significant renewable energy sources. Regions in Egypt that have been identified for geothermal potential investigation include the Gulf of Suez and the Western Desert. One of the most promising sites for the development of Egypt's Northern Western Desert is Siwa Oasis. The geological setting of the oasis, a tectonically generated depression situated in the northernmost region of the Western desert, supports the potential for substantial geothermal resources. Field data obtained from 27 deep oil wells along the Western Desert included bottom-hole temperature (BHT) depth to basement measurements, and geological maps; data were utilized in this study. The major lithological units, elevation, surface gradient, lineaments density, and remote sensing multispectral and topographic were mapped together to generate the related physiographic variables. Eleven thematic layers were integrated in a geographic information system (GIS) to create geothermal maps to aid in the detection of significant potential geothermal spots along the Siwa Oasis and its vicinity. The contribution of total magnetic intensity data with reduction to the pole (RTP) to the first investigation of the geothermal potential in Siwa Oasis is applied in this work. The integration of geospatial data with magnetic field measurements showed a clear correlation between areas of high heat flow and magnetic anomalies. Such anomalies can be interpreted as related to the existence of high geothermal energy and dense rock, which also have high magnetic susceptibility. The outcomes indicated that the study area has a geothermal gradient ranging from 18 to 42 °C/km, a heat flow ranging from 24.7 to 111.3 m.W. k−1, a thermal conductivity of 1.3–2.65 W.m−1.k−1 and a measured amplitude temperature maximum of 100.7 °C. The southeastern part of the Siwa Oasis, and some sporadic locations on the eastern section of the oasis were found to have significant geothermal potential; consequently, this location is suitable for future geothermal investigation. The adopted method might be applied to identify significant prospective geothermal energy locations in other regions of Egypt and East Africa.

Keywords: magnetic data, SRTM, depth to basement, remote sensing, GIS, geothermal gradient, heat flow, thermal conductivity

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Authors: Sanjeeb Sutradhar, Archita Patnaik

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Histidine is one of the twenty-two naturally occurring essential amino acids exhibiting two conformations, L-histidine and D-histidine. D-Histidine is biologically inert, while L-histidine is bioactive because of its conversion to neurotransmitter or neuromodulator histamine in both brain as well as central nervous system. The deficiency of L-histidine causes serious diseases like Parkinson’s disease, epilepsy and the failure of normal erythropoiesis development. Gold nanocomposites are attractive materials due to their excellent biocompatibility and are easy to adsorb on the electrode surface. In the present investigation, hydrophobic fullerene-C60 was functionalized with homocysteine via nucleophilic addition reaction to make it hydrophilic and to successively make the nanocomposite with in-situ prepared gold nanoparticles with ascorbic acid as reducing agent. The electronic structure calculations of the AuNPs@Hcys-C60 nanocomposite showed a drastic reduction of HOMO-LUMO gap compared to the corresponding molecules of interest, indicating enhanced electron transportability to the electrode surface. In addition, the electrostatic potential map of the nanocomposite showed the charge was distributed over either end of the nanocomposite, evidencing faster direct electron transfer from nanocomposite to the electrode surface. This nanocomposite showed catalytic activity; the nanocomposite modified glassy carbon electrode showed a tenfold higher kₑt, the electron transfer rate constant than the bare glassy carbon electrode. Significant improvement in its sensing behavior by square wave voltammetry was noted.

Keywords: fullerene-C60, gold nanocomposites, L-Histidine, square wave voltammetry

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Authors: Talip Turkmen

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From the moment the first beats, the first step into the world mankind finds him in a struggle to survive. Most important case to win this fight is power. Power is one of the most common concepts which we encounter in our life. Mainly power is ability to reach desired results on someone else or ability to penetrate into the behavior of others. Throughout history merging technology and changing political trade-offs caused the change of concept of power. Receiving a state of multipolar new world order in the 21st century and increasing impacts of media have narrowed the limits of military power. With increasing globalization and peaceful diplomacy this gap, left by military power, has filled by soft power which has ability to persuade and attract. As concepts of power soft power also has not compromised yet. For that reason it is important to specify, sources of soft power, soft power strategies and limits of soft power. The purpose of this study was to analyze concept of soft power and importance of soft power in foreign relations. This project focuses on power, hard power and soft power relations, sources of soft power and strategies to gain soft power. Datas in this project was acquired from other studies on soft power and foreign relations. This paper was prepared in terms of concept and research techniques. As a result of data gained in this study the one of important topics in international relations is balance between soft power.

Keywords: soft power, foreign policy, national power, hard power

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Authors: Chia Jui Hsieh, Jyh Cheng Chen, Chih Wei Kuo, Ruei Teng Wang, Woei Chyn Chu

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Compressed sensing (CS) based computed tomographic (CT) reconstruction algorithm utilizes total variation (TV) to transform CT image into sparse domain and minimizes L1-norm of sparse image for reconstruction. Different from the traditional CS based reconstruction which only calculates x-coordinate and y-coordinate TV to transform CT images into sparse domain, we propose a multi-directional TV to transform tomographic image into sparse domain for low-dose reconstruction. Our method considers all possible directions of TV calculations around a pixel, so the sparse transform for CS based reconstruction is more accurate. In 2D CT reconstruction, we use eight-directional TV to transform CT image into sparse domain. Furthermore, we also use 26-directional TV for 3D reconstruction. This multi-directional sparse transform method makes CS based reconstruction algorithm more powerful to reduce noise and increase image quality. To validate and evaluate the performance of this multi-directional sparse transform method, we use both Shepp-Logan phantom and a head phantom as the targets for reconstruction with the corresponding simulated sparse projection data (angular sampling interval is 5 deg and 6 deg, respectively). From the results, the multi-directional TV method can reconstruct images with relatively less artifacts compared with traditional CS based reconstruction algorithm which only calculates x-coordinate and y-coordinate TV. We also choose RMSE, PSNR, UQI to be the parameters for quantitative analysis. From the results of quantitative analysis, no matter which parameter is calculated, the multi-directional TV method, which we proposed, is better.

Keywords: compressed sensing (CS), low-dose CT reconstruction, total variation (TV), multi-directional gradient operator

Procedia PDF Downloads 259