Search results for: imprecise number

Authors: Christian Klettner, Ian Eames, Tristan Robinson

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Tsunami is characterised by their very long time periods and can have devastating consequences when these inundate through built-up coastal regions as in the 2004 Indian Ocean and 2011 Tohoku Tsunami. This work aims to investigate the effect of these long waves on the flow through and around a group of buildings, which are abstracted to circular cylinders. The research approach used in this study was using experiments and numerical simulations. Large-scale experiments were carried out at HR Wallingford. The novelty of these experiments is (I) the number of bodies present (up to 64), (II) the long wavelength of the input waves (80 seconds) and (III) the width of the tank (4m) which gives the unique opportunity to investigate three length scales, namely the diameter of the building, the diameter of the array and the width of the tank. To complement the experiments, dam break flow past the same arrays is investigated using three-dimensional numerical simulations in OpenFOAM. Dam break flow was chosen as it is often used as a surrogate for the tsunami in previous research and is used here as there are well defined initial conditions and high quality previous experimental data for the case of a single cylinder is available. The focus of this work is to better understand the effect of the solid void fraction on the force and flow through and around the array. New qualitative and quantitative diagnostics are developed and tested to analyse the complex coupled interaction between the cylinders.

Keywords: computational fluid dynamics, tsunami, forces, complex geometry

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Authors: Chao Jen-Chih, Hsu Kuo-Wei

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Climate change and natural disasters take effect on urban development. It has been discussed urban renewals can prevent natural disasters. Integrating green infrastructure and urban renewals may have great effect on adapting the impact of climate change. To highlight the economic value of green infrastructure development on urban renewals, some strategies need to be carry on to reduce environmental impact. A number of urban renewals studies has been conducted on right transfer, financial risk, urban renewal policy, and public participation. Little research has been devoted on the subject of the economic value of green infrastructure development on urban renewals. The purpose of this study is to investigate the affecting factors on the economic value of green infrastructure development on urban renewals. This study will present the benefits of green infrastructure development and summarize the critical factors of green infrastructure develop on urban renewals for real essence and non-real essence on economic value from literature. Our results indicate that factors of housing price, land value, floor area incentive, and facilitation of the construction industry affect the outcome of real essence economic value. Factors of enhancement of urban disaster prevention, improvement of urban environment and landscape, crime reduction, climate control, pollution reduction, biological diversity, health impacts, and leisure space affects the outcome of non-real essence economic value.

Keywords: economic value, green infrastructure, urban renewals, urban development

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Authors: Lizhou Chen, Abdelhamid Belgaid, Assem Elsayed, Xiaoming Yang

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Compression index is essential in foundation settlement calculation. The traditional method for determining compression index is consolidation test which is expensive and time consuming. Many researchers have used regression methods to develop empirical equations for predicting compression index from soil properties. Based on a large number of compression index data collected from consolidation tests, the accuracy of some popularly empirical equations were assessed. It was found that primary compression index is significantly overestimated in some equations while it is underestimated in others. The sensitivity analyses of soil parameters including water content, liquid limit and void ratio were performed. The results indicate that the compression index obtained from void ratio is most accurate. The ANOVA (analysis of variance) demonstrates that the equations with multiple soil parameters cannot provide better predictions than the equations with single soil parameter. In other words, it is not necessary to develop the relationships between compression index and multiple soil parameters. Meanwhile, it was noted that secondary compression index is approximately 0.7-5.0% of primary compression index with an average of 2.0%. In the end, the proposed prediction equations using power regression technique were provided that can provide more accurate predictions than those from existing equations.

Keywords: compression index, clay, settlement, consolidation, secondary compression index, soil parameter

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Authors: Yeonjune Kang

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A triangulation of a planar region is a partition of that region into triangles. In the finite element method, triangulations are often used as the grid underlying a computation. In order to be suitable as a finite element mesh, a triangulation must have well-shaped triangles, according to criteria that depend on the details of the particular problem. For instance, most methods require that all triangles be small and as close to the equilateral shape as possible. Stated differently, one wants to avoid having either thin or flat triangles in the triangulation. There are many triangulation procedures, a particular one being the one known as the longest edge bisection algorithm described below. Starting with a given triangle, locate the midpoint of the longest edge and join it to the opposite vertex of the triangle. Two smaller triangles are formed; apply the same bisection procedure to each of these triangles. Continuing in this manner after n steps one obtains a triangulation of the initial triangle into 2n smaller triangles. The longest edge algorithm was first considered in the late 70’s. It was shown by various authors that this triangulation has the desirable properties for the finite element method: independently of the number of iterations the angles of these triangles cannot get too small; moreover, the size of the triangles decays exponentially. In the present paper we consider a related triangulation algorithm we refer to as the largest angle bisection procedure. As the name suggests, rather than bisecting the longest edge, at each step we bisect the largest angle. We study the properties of the resulting triangulation and prove that, while the general behavior resembles the one in the longest edge bisection algorithm, there are several notable differences as well.

Keywords: angle bisectors, geometry, triangulation, applied mathematics

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Authors: A. Khan, H. Mahmood

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In Underwater Wireless Sensor Networks (UWSNs), sensor nodes close to water surface (final destination) are often preferred for selection as forwarders. However, their frequent selection makes them depleted of their limited battery power. In consequence, these nodes die during early stage of network operation and create energy holes where forwarders are not available for packets forwarding. These holes severely affect network throughput. As a result, system performance significantly degrades. In this paper, a routing protocol is proposed to avoid energy holes during packets forwarding. The proposed protocol does not require the conventional position information (localization) of holes to avoid them. Localization is cumbersome; energy is inefficient and difficult to achieve in underwater environment where sensor nodes change their positions with water currents. Forwarders with the lowest water pressure level and the maximum number of neighbors are preferred to forward packets. These two parameters together minimize packet drop by following the paths where maximum forwarders are available. To avoid interference along the paths with the maximum forwarders, a packet holding time is defined for each forwarder. Simulation results reveal superior performance of the proposed scheme than the counterpart technique.

Keywords: energy holes, interference, routing, underwater

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Authors: Oluyinka Ojedokun, S. E. Idemudia

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In Nigeria, statistics is a compulsory course required from all social sciences students as part of their academic training. However, a rising number of social sciences undergraduates usually express statistics anxiety. The prevalence of statistics anxiety among undergraduates in social sciences has created a growing concern for educators and researchers in the higher education institutions, mainly because this statistics anxiety adversely affects their performance in statistics and research methods courses. From a societal perspective it is important to reverse this trend. Although scholars and researchers have highlighted some psychosocial factors that influence statistics anxiety in students but few empirical studies exist on the association between personality traits of NEO five factors and statistics anxiety. It is in the light of this situation that this study was designed to assess the extent to which the personality traits of NEO five factors influence statistics anxiety of students in social sciences courses. The participants were 282 undergraduates in the faculty of social sciences at a state owned public university in Nigeria. The findings demonstrate that the personality traits contributing to statistics anxiety include openness to experience, conscientious, extraversion, and neuroticism. These results imply that statistics anxiety is related to individual differences in personality traits and suggest that certain aspects of statistics anxiety may be relatively stable and resistant to change. An effective and simple method to reduce statistics anxiety among social sciences students is to create awareness of the statistical and methodological requirements of the social sciences courses before commencement of their programmes.

Keywords: personality traits, statistics anxiety, social sciences, students

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Authors: Eman Mohamed Ali Elalwani

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The Libyan heritage buildings are currently facing a number of crises that pose a threat to their structural integrity, functionality, and overall performance. One of the challenges pertains to the loss of community identity, which has arisen due to the lack of awareness and unconscious behavior of the residents. An additional issue arises from inadequate site management practices, including the implementation of modern techniques and innovative building materials that are incompatible with structural elements, resulting in the deformation of certain sections of the buildings. The security concerns of the city, along with the ongoing civil conflict, fostered a conducive environment for violations, resulting in the vandalism of certain monuments in the city. However, the degradation of this valuable heritage is mainly attributed to the city's neglect and pollution. The elevated groundwater level resulting from pollution has led to erosion in the building's foundations. Mitigating these negative consequences through strategic interventions and rehabilitation is required to preserve this treasure. In order to assist the local community in recovering from those crises, this paper stated a viable strategy for promoting preservation efforts that aimed at safeguarding the heritage sites while also providing guidance to decision-makers and the local community on how to avoid these crises, preserve, enhance, and recognize the significance of the Libyan heritage.

Keywords: cultural heritage, historical buildings, Tripoli’s old city, Red Castle, crises, preservation

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Authors: Mateusz Paszko, Miroslaw Wendeker, Adam Majczak

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High temperature waste energy offers a number of management options. The most common energy recuperation systems, that are actually used to utilize energy from the high temperature sources are steam turbines working in a high pressure and temperature closed cycles. Due to the high costs of production of energy recuperation systems, especially rotary turbine discs equipped with blades, currently used solutions are limited in use with waste energy sources of temperature below 100 °C. This study presents the results of simulating the flow of the water vapor in various configurations of flow ducts in a reaction steam turbine based on Hero’s steam turbine. The simulation was performed using a numerical model and the ANSYS Fluent software. Simulation computations were conducted with use of the water vapor as an internal agent powering the turbine, which is fully safe for an environment in case of a device failure. The conclusions resulting from the conducted numerical computations should allow for optimization of the flow ducts geometries, in order to achieve the greatest possible efficiency of the turbine. It is expected that the obtained results should be useful for further works related to the development of the final version of a low drag steam turbine dedicated for low cost energy recuperation systems.

Keywords: energy recuperation, CFD analysis, waste energy, steam turbine

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Authors: Mustafa K. Yilmaz, Ahmet Kaplan, Murat Guven, Vildan Kesici

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Aviation industry influences the social and economic growth across the countries. Further, airline companies are highly affected by social, political, and financial crises and show a high degree of cyclicity in operational performance. Hence, this paper investigates the effects of available seat kilometers (ASK), revenue per kilometer (RPK), passenger load factor (PLF) as well as socio-political crisis on the number of passengers carried (PC) by Turkish Airlines company over the period of 2010M1-2018M12. To conduct the analysis, we employ fully modified ordinary least squares (FMOLS), dynamic ordinary least squares (DOLS), and canonical cointegration regression (CCR) techniques using monthly data. We use ASK, RPK, PLF as independent variables to identify the determinants of the PC, as a dependent variable. We also test the effect of the socio-political crisis. The results reveal that there is a significant and negative relationship between ASK and PC, while the relationship between RPK and PC is positive and significant. We also find that there is an insignificant relationship between PLF and PC. Further, we also find a negative effect of the crisis on the PC. These findings show although the crisis had an immediate effect on the operational performance of Turkish Airlines, the company recovered from the crisis and cope with the situation very promptly. Thus, this proves the resilience and agile management ability of the company.

Keywords: airline industry, operational performance, air traffic, socio-political crisis

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Authors: Jun Hong Lee

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Background: Many dementia patients complain insomnia and depressive mood, and hypnotics and antidepressants are being prescribed. As prevalence of dementia is increasing, insomnia and depressive mood are becoming more important. Objective: We evaluated insomnia and depression in outpatients of dementia center. Patients and Methods/Material and Methods: We reviewed medical records of the patients who visited outpatients clinic of NHIS Ilsan Hospital Dementia Center during 2016. Results: Total 716 patients are included; Subjective Memory Impairment (SMI) : 143 patients (20%), non-amnestic Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI): single domain 70 (10%), multiple domain 34 (5%), amnestic MCI: single domain 74 (10%), multiple domain 159 (22%), Early onset Alzheimer´s disease (AD): 9 (1%), AD 121 (17%), Vascular dementia: 62 (9%), Mixed dementia 44 (6%). Hypnotics and antidepressants are prescribed as follows; SMI : hypnotics 14 patients (10%), antidepressants 27 (19%), non-amnestic MCI: single domain hypnotics 9 (13%), antidepressants 12 (17%), multiple domain hypnotics 4 (12%), antidepressants 6 (18%), amnestic MCI: single domain hypnotics 10 (14%), antidepressants 16 (22%), multiple domain hypnotics 22 (14%), antidepressants 24 (15%), Early onset Alzheimer´s disease (AD): hypnotics 1 (11%), antidepressants 2 (22%), AD: hypnotics 10 (8%), antidepressants 36 (30%), Vascular dementia: hypnotics 8 (13%), antidepressants 20 (32%), Mixed dementia: hypnotics 4 (9%), antidepressants 17 (39%). Conclusion: Among the outpatients of Dementia Center, MCI and SMI are majorities, and the number of MCI patients are almost half. Depression is more prevalent in AD, and Vascular dementia than MCI and SMI, and about 22% of patients are being prescribed by antidepressants and 11% by hypnotics.

Keywords: insomnia, depression, dementia, antidepressants, hypnotics

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Authors: Fredrick Ishengoma, Leonard Mselle, Hector Mongi

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The growing number of mobile phone subscribers in Tanzania offers the government a new channel for the delivery of information and government services to citizens, thus mobile Government (m-Government). In Tanzania, m-Government services usage is in the early stages, and factors that influence its adoption are yet to be known. This study seeks to identify and understand the critical success factors (CSFs) that influence citizens’ behavioural intention (BI) to adopt m-Government services in Tanzania. The study employed the mobile services acceptance model (MSAM) and extends it with external factors relevant in the Tanzanian context. A survey questionnaire was used to collect primary data from users of m-Government services in Dar es salaam and Dodoma cities, and 253 responses were received. Data were analyzed by IBM-SPSS AMOS 23.0 software using structural equation modeling (SEM). The findings of the study indicate that perceived usefulness, trust, perceived mobility, power distance, quality of service, awareness, perceived cost, personal initiatives, and characteristics significantly influence the BI to adopt m-Government services. However, perceived ease of use was found statistically insignificant to predict BI. Furthermore, the interplay between CSFs, discussion on theoretical and practical implications that follow from the results are presented.

Keywords: adoption, critical success factors, structural equation modeling, m-Government, MSAM, Tanzania

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Authors: H. Salonen, E. Castagnoli, C. Vornanen-Winqvist, R. Mikkola, C. Duchaine, L. Morawska, J. Kurnitski

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A wide range of health effects among occupants are associated with the exposure to bioaerosols from fungal sources. Although the accurate role of these aerosols in causing the symptoms and diseases is poorly understood, the important effect of bioaerosol exposure on human health is well recognized. Thus, there is a need to determine all of the contributing factors related to the concentration of fungi in indoor air. In this study, we reviewed and summarized the different factors affecting the concentrations of viable fungi in school buildings. The literature research was conducted using Pubmed and Google Scholar. In addition, we searched the lists of references of selected articles. According to the literature, the main factors influencing the concentration of viable fungi in the school buildings are moisture damage in building structures, the season (temperature and humidity conditions), the type and rate of ventilation, the number and activities of occupants and diurnal variations. This study offers valuable information that can be used in the interpretation of the fungal analysis and to decrease microbial exposure by reducing known sources and/or contributing factors. However, more studies of different local factors contributing to the human microbial exposure in school buildings—as well as other type of buildings and different indoor environments—are needed.

Keywords: fungi, concentration, indoor, school, contributing factor

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Authors: Naci Büyükkaraciğan, Yildirim Akyol

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Large plants that covering the back and accumulate water of a river valley for energy production, drinking, irrigation water supply, economic benefits that serve many purposes, such as regulation of flood protection, are called dams. Place, in which unites in order to achieve an optimum balance between manpower for Lowest cost and economic as belonging to that structure to create machines, materials and construction of the project, is called as the site. Dam construction sites are combined sites in together in many businesses. Therefore, there can be found in the many workers and machines are many accidents in this type of construction sites. The necessity of systematic and scientific studies due to various reasons arises in order to be protected from conditions that could damage the health, During the execution of the work on construction sites. Occupational health and safety of the study, called the case, also in the European Union has begun to be addressed by weight since the 1980s. In particular, issued in 1989 89/391/EEC on occupational health and safety directive, occupational health and adopted the Directive within the framework of the security field, and then exposed to a large number of individual directive within this framework on the basis of the directive. Turkey's Law No. 6331 entered into force in June 2012 on the subject. In this study, measures related to the construction site of the dam should be taken with occupational safety and health have been examined and tried to put forward recommendations on the subject.

Keywords: civil engineering, dam, occupational safety and health, site organizations

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Authors: Zahra Zamanian, Alireza Zamanian, Jafar Hasanzadeh

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Background: Unwanted sound, as one of the most important physical factors in the majority of production units, imposes a great number of problems on the industrial workers. Sound is one of the environmental factors which can cause physical as well as psychological damages and also affects the individuals’ performance and productivity. Therefore, the present study aimed to determine the effect of noise exposure on human performance. Methods: The present study assessed the effect of noise on the performance of 50 students of Shiraz University of Medical Sciences (25 males and 25 females) at the sound pressures of 70, 90, and 110 dB by using two factors of physical features and the creation of different conditions of sound pressure source as well as applying Two-Arm coordination Test. Results: The results of the present study revealed no significant difference between male and female subjects as well as different conditions of creating sound pressure regarding the length of performance (p> 0.05). In addition, as the sound pressure increased, the length of performance increased, as well. According to the results, no significant difference was found between the performance at 70 and 90 dB. On the other hand, the performance at 110 dB was significantly different from the performance at 70 and 90 dB (p<0.05 and p<0.001). Conclusion: In general, as the sound pressure increases, the performance decreases which results in a considerable increase in the individuals’ rate of error.

Keywords: physical factors, two-arm coordination test, Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, noise

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Authors: Soraya Abtouche, Zeyneb Ghoualem, Syrine Daoudi, Lina Ouldmohamed, Xavier Assfeld

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This work reports density functional theory calculations of the optimized geometries, molecular reactivity, energy gap,and thermodynamic properties of the free base (H2P) and their Zn (II) metallated (ZnP), bearing one, two, or three carboxylic acid groups using the hybrid functional B3LYP, Cam-B3lYP, wb97xd with 6-31G(d,p) basis sets. When donating groups are attached to the molecular dye, the bond lengths are slightly decreased, which is important for the easy transfer of an electron from donating to the accepting group. For all dyes, the highest occupied molecular orbital/lowest occupied molecular orbital analysis results in positive outcomes upon electron injection to the semiconductor and subsequent dye regeneration by the electrolyte. The ionization potential increases with increasing conjugation; therefore, the compound dye attached to one carboxylic acid group has the highest ionization potential. The results show higher efficiencies of those sensitized with ZnP. These results have been explained, taking into account the electronic character of the metal ion, which acts as a mediator in the injection step, and, on the other hand, considering the number of anchoring groups to which it binds to the surface of TiO2.

Keywords: DSSC, porphyrin, TD-DFT, electronic properties, donor-acceptor groups

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Authors: Edu Marcelina, Sule Sheidu A., Nsor Eunice

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As open and distance education is gradually becoming an acceptable means of solving the problem of access in higher education, quality has now become one of the main concerns among institutions and stakeholders of open and distance learning (ODL) and the education sector in general. This study assessed the challenges of academic quality in the open and distance learning (ODL) education in Nigeria using Distance Learning Institute (DLI), University of Lagos and National Open University of Nigeria as a case. In carrying out the study, a descriptive survey research design was employed. A researcher-designed and validated questionnaire was used to elicit responses that translated to the quantitative data for this study. The sample comprised 665 students of the Distance Learning Institute (DLI), and National Open University of Nigeria (NOUN), carefully selected through the method of simple random sampling. Data collected from the study were analyzed using Chi-Square (X2) at 0.05 Level of significance. The results of the analysis revealed that; the use of ICT tools is a factor in ensuring quality in the Open and Distance Learning (ODL) operations; the quality of the materials made available to ODL students will determine the quality of education that will be received by the students; and the time scheduled for students for self-study, online lecturing/interaction and face to face study and the quality of education in Open and Distance Learning Institutions has a lot of impact on the quality of education the students receive. Based on the findings, a number of recommendations were made.

Keywords: open and distance learning, quality, ICT, face-to-face interaction

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Authors: C. G. Sawant, C. S. Patil

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The investigation was conducted during January 2016 on Farmer’s field at Nandur Madhyameshwar, Tq. Niphad, Dist. Nashik (Maharashtra: India) on bio-efficacy of newer insecticides against Plutella xylostella L. infesting cabbage. The cabbage crop (var. Saint) was raised according to package of practices except for plant protection measures. Six newer insecticides along with two conventional insecticides and one synthetic pyrethroid were applied twice at 30 and 55 days after transplanting. Insecticidal solutions were diluted in water (375-500 L ha-1) and applied using knapsack sprayer (16L) with hollow cone nozzle. Treatments included indoxacarb @ 40 g a.i.ha-1, spinosad @ 17.5 g a.i.ha-1, flubendiamide @18.24 g a.i. ha-1, diafenthiuron @ 300 g a. i. ha-1, emamectin benzoate @ 10 g a. i. ha-1, chlorantraniliprole @ 10 g a. i. ha-1, quinalphos @ 250 g a. i. ha-1, triazophos @ 500 g a. i. ha-1, bifenthrin @ 50 g a.i. ha-1 and untreated control. The larvae were counted on head and outside the head. Observations were recorded one day before spray (Precount) and 1,3,7,14 days after spray. Results revealed that all the insecticidal treatments were significantly superior over untreated control by recording lower larval count. Among the insecticidal treatments, significantly lowest number of larvae of diamondback moth was recorded in chlorantraniliprole @ 10 g a.i.ha-1 (1.00 larvae plant-1) followed by spinosad @ 17.5 g a.i. ha-1 (1.45 larvae plant-1 and flubendiamide 18.24 g a.i. ha-1(1.53 larvae plant-1). The efficacy of insecticides reflected on yield of marketable cabbage heads by recording 242.27 qt ha-1 (1:33.38) in the treatment of chlorantraniliprole @ 10 g a.i.ha-1. It was followed by spinosad @ 17.5 g a.i. ha-1 with 236.91 qt ha-1 (1:24.92) and flubendiamide 18.24 g a.i. ha-1 with 228.49 qt ha-1 (1:30.43).

Keywords: bio-efficacy, cabbage, chlorantraniliprole, Plutella xylostella L.

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Authors: M. Bevilacqua, F. E. Ciarapica, G. Marcucci

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Supply Chain Resilience has been broadly studied during the last decade, focusing the research on many aspects of Supply Chain performance. Consequently, different definitions of Supply Chain Resilience have been developed by the research community, drawing inspiration also from other fields of study such as ecology, sociology, psychology, economy et al. This way, the definitions so far developed in the extant literature are therefore very heterogeneous, and many authors have pointed out a lack of consensus in this field of analysis. The aim of this research is to find common points between these definitions, through the development of a framework of study: the Resilience Triangle. The Resilience Triangle is a tool developed in the field of civil engineering, with the objective of modeling the loss of resilience of a given structure during and after the occurrence of a disruption such as an earthquake. The Resilience Triangle is a simple yet powerful tool: in our opinion, it can summarize all the features that authors have captured in the Supply Chain Resilience definitions over the years. This research intends to recapitulate within this framework all these heterogeneities in Supply Chain Resilience research. After collecting a various number of Supply Chain Resilience definitions present in the extant literature, the methodology approach provides a taxonomy step with the scope of collecting and analyzing all the data gathered. The next step provides the comparison of the data obtained with the plotting of a disruption profile, in order to contextualize the Resilience Triangle in the Supply Chain context. The tool and the results developed in this research will allow to lay the foundation for future Supply Chain Resilience modeling and measurement work.

Keywords: supply chain resilience, resilience definition, supply chain resilience triangle

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Authors: Ekaterina Razuvalova, Konstantin Rudenko

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In this article the most successful examples of international visual and virtual reconstructions of historical and culture objects, which are based on informative and communicative technologies, are represented. 3D reconstructions can demonstrate outward appearance, visualize different hypothesis, connected to represented object. Virtual reality can give us any daytime and season, any century and environment. We can see how different people from different countries and different era lived; we can get different information about any object; we can see historical complexes in real city environment, which are damaged or vanished. These innovations confirm the fact, that 3D reconstruction is important in museum development. Considering the most interesting examples of visual and virtual reconstructions, we can notice, that visual reconstruction is a 3D image of different objects, historical complexes, buildings and phenomena. They are constant and we can see them only as momentary objects. And virtual reconstruction is some environment with its own time, rules and phenomena. These reconstructions are continuous; seasons, daytime and natural conditions can change there. They can demonstrate abilities of virtual world existence. In conclusion: new technologies give us opportunities to expand the boundaries of museum space, improve abilities of museum expositions, create emotional atmosphere of game immersion, which can interest visitor. Usage of network sources allows increasing the number of visitors and virtual reconstruction opportunities show creative side of museum business.

Keywords: computer technologies, historical reconstruction, museums, museum expositions, virtual reconstruction

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Authors: T. Hojageldiyev, Y. Bolmammedov

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Increasing evidence suggests late chronotype individuals are at increased risk of developing psychopathological conditions. Our previously conducted study aimed to know the distribution of chronotypes according to age revealed that evening-types reaching a peak at age 14. While there is growing number of studies evaluating associations between chronotype and affective symptoms, to our best knowledge there are no studies addressing the issue of prevalence of anhedonia according to age groups of people. The sample included 545 healthy students between 13-21 years old from secondary schools and universities of Turkmenistan. Self-report 14 item Snaith-Hamilton Pleasure Scale (SHAPS) was used to assess hedonic tone of students. SHAPS score of 3 or higher indicates the criteria for the anhedonia. According to similarity of hedonic capacity participants divided into three age groups. Group I (age 13-14-15) includes 206 students (92 female), group II (age 16-17) includes 256 students (111 female) and group III (age 18-19-20-21) includes 83 (37 female). Statistical analysis was performed using Microsoft Excel 2013 and GraphPad Prism 7.0 programs. According to results average SHAPS scores of group I is 1.93 ± 1.94, group II 1.08 ± 1.43 and group III 1.29 ± 1.62. Students with anhedonia in group I consisted 30.5%, in group II 13,2% and in group III 12.04%. There are no gender differences. According to questionnaire results, higher prevalence of anhedonia is at the age between 13-15 than other age groups, and hedonic capacity increases as the age of students increases (p < 0.05). As a result, distribution of evening-types according to age correlates with hedonic capacity which is evening-types tends to have lower hedonic capacity.

Keywords: anhedonia, age, chronotype, hedonic capacity

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Authors: Avijit Sengupta, Klarissa Ting Ting Cheng, Maffee Peng-Hui Wan

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This study investigates the influence of user factors and referent characteristics on representation types generated using the stereotype production method for designing icons. Sixty-eight participants of farming communities were asked to draw images based on sixteen feature referents. Significant statistical differences were found between the types of representations generated for contextual and context-independent referents. Strong correlations were observed between years of formal education and total number of abstract representations produced for both contextual and context-independent referents. However, representation characteristics were not influenced by other user factors such as participants’ experience with mobile phone and years of farming experience. A statistically significant tendency of making concrete representations was observed for both contextual and context-independent referents. These findings provide insights on community members’ involvement in icon design and suggest a consolidated icon design strategy based on population stereotype, particularly for under-served rural communities of India.

Keywords: abstract representation, concrete representation, participatory design, population stereotype

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Authors: Braimah Joseph Odunayo, Jiju Gillariose

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This paper is aimed at developing a sampling plan that uses information from precedent and successive lots for lot disposition with a pretention that the life-time of a particular product assumes a Log-logistic distribution. A Two-pronged Truncated Deferred Sampling Plan (TTDSP) for Log-logistic distribution is proposed when the testing is truncated at a precise time. The best possible sample sizes are obtained under a given Maximum Allowable Percent Defective (MAPD), Test Suspension Ratios (TSR), and acceptance numbers (c). A formula for calculating the operating characteristics of the proposed plan is also developed. The operating characteristics and mean-ratio values were used to measure the performance of the plan. The findings of the study show that: Log-logistic distribution has a decreasing failure rate; furthermore, as mean-life ratio increase, the failure rate reduces; the sample size increase as the acceptance number, test suspension ratios and maximum allowable percent defective increases. The study concludes that the minimum sample sizes were smaller, which makes the plan a more economical plan to adopt when cost and time of production are costly and the experiment being destructive.

Keywords: consumers risk, mean life, minimum sample size, operating characteristics, producers risk

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Authors: W. J. Zhang, Y. Q. Du, M. L. Wang

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Noninvasive diagnostics of diseases via breath analysis has attracted considerable scientific and clinical interest for many years and become more and more promising with the rapid advancement in nanotechnology and biotechnology. The volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in exhaled breath, which are mainly blood borne, particularly provide highly valuable information about individuals’ physiological and pathophysiological conditions. Additionally, breath analysis is noninvasive, real-time, painless and agreeable to patients. We have developed a wireless sensor array based on single-stranded DNA (ssDNA)-decorated single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNT) for the detection of a number of physiological indicators in breath. Eight DNA sequences were used to functionalize SWNT sensors to detect trace amount of methanol, benzene, dimethyl sulfide, hydrogen sulfide, acetone and ethanol, which are indicators of heavy smoking, excessive drinking, and diseases such as lung cancer, breast cancer, cirrhosis and diabetes. Our tests indicated that DNA functionalized SWNT sensors exhibit great selectivity, sensitivity, reproducibility, and repeatability. Furthermore, different molecules can be distinguished through pattern recognition enabled by this sensor array. Thus, the DNA-SWNT sensor array has great potential to be applied in chemical or bimolecular detection for the noninvasive diagnostics of diseases and health monitoring.

Keywords: breath analysis, diagnosis, DNA-SWNT sensor array, noninvasive

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Authors: Yu-Chih Wang, Chia-Yu Lai, Hsiao-Tien Liu, Yi-Ju Chen, Shao-Bin Cheng

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Liver transplant has been one of the curative treatment options for hepatocellular carcinomaunder certain oncological conditions. Two of the most validated criteria are from Milan in1996 and USCF in 2001, suggesting number and size limits of tumor without vascularinvasion or distant metastasis. We performed a retrospective cohort study of hepatocellular carcinoma patients undergoing livertransplant between August 2003 and December 2020 in our institute. Clinical andpathological characteristic, survival outcome, and recurrent pattern were analysed.UCSF criteria was applied for living donor transplantation, and Milan criteria was applied for deceased donor transplantation. Of 180 total patients, 52 cases(28.8%) with diagnosis of hepatocellular carcinoma, including26 living donor(LD) and 26 deceased donor(DD) liver transplant. Complete pathologicalremission was significantly more in the DD group(p=0.009). Pathological reports showed that30.8% of DD group exceeded Milan criteria, and 19.2% of LD group exceeded UCSFcriteria.After a median follow-up of 52.2 months, the 1-year, 3-year and 5-year overall survival was 87.6%, 74.1%, and 71.8%, respectively.Meanwhile, progression-free survival was 93.1%, 85.7%, and 81.6% for 1, 3, and 5-year, respectively, similar to that in Mazzaferro et al, 1996. We concluded that Liver transplant could be applied cautiously in expanded criteria for patent withhepatocellular carcinoma.

Keywords: liver transplant, milan criteria, UCSF criteria, living donor transplantation, deceased donor transplantation

Procedia PDF Downloads 136

Authors: Nasim Fallahi, Erasmo Carrera, Alfonso Pagani

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Variable angle tow describes the fibres which are curvilinearly steered in a composite lamina. Significantly, stiffness tailoring freedom of VAT composite laminate can be enlarged and enabled. Composite structures with curvilinear fibres have been shown to improve the buckling load carrying capability in contrast with the straight laminate composites. However, the optimal design and analysis of VAT are faced with high computational efforts due to the increasing number of variables. In this article, an efficient optimum solution has been used in combination with 1D Carrera’s Unified Formulation (CUF) to investigate the optimum fibre orientation angles for buckling analysis. The particular emphasis is on the LE-based CUF models, which provide a Lagrange Expansions to address a layerwise description of the problem unknowns. The first critical buckling load has been considered under simply supported boundary conditions. Special attention is lead to the sensitivity of buckling load corresponding to the fibre orientation angle in comparison with the results which obtain through the Genetic Algorithm (GA) optimization frame and then Artificial Neural Network (ANN) is applied to investigate the accuracy of the optimized model. As a result, numerical CUF approach with an optimal solution demonstrates the robustness and computational efficiency of proposed optimum methodology.

Keywords: beam structures, layerwise, optimization, variable stiffness

Procedia PDF Downloads 120

Authors: Nikolina Ribarić

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E-learning is most commonly defined as a set of applications and processes, such as Web-based learning, computer-based learning, virtual classrooms, and digital collaboration, that enable access to instructional content through a variety of electronic media. The main goal of an e-learning system is learning, and the way to evaluate the impact of an e-learning system is by examining whether students learn effectively with the help of that system. Testmoz is a program for online preparation of knowledge evaluation assignments. The program provides teachers with computer support during the design of assignments and evaluating them. Students can review and solve assignments and also check the correctness of their solutions. Research into the increase of motivation by the practice of providing teaching content by applying online tests prepared in the Testmoz program was carried out with students of the 8th grade of Ljubo Babić Primary School in Jastrebarsko. The students took the tests in their free time, from home, for an unlimited number of times. SPSS was used to process the data obtained by the research instruments. The results of the research showed that students preferred to practice teaching content and achieved better educational results in chemistry when they had access to online tests for repetition and practicing in relation to subject content which was checked after repetition and practicing in "the classical way" -i.e., solving assignments in a workbook or writing assignments in worksheets.

Keywords: chemistry class, e-learning, motivation, Testmoz

Procedia PDF Downloads 147

Authors: Giacomo Ciani

Abstract:

This paper reviews the impact of quantum noise on modern gravitational wave interferometers and explains how squeezed vacuum states are used to push the noise below the standard quantum limit. With the first detection of gravitational waves from a pair of colliding black holes in September 2015 and subsequent detections including that of gravitational waves from a pair of colliding neutron stars, the ground-based interferometric gravitational wave observatories LIGO and VIRGO have opened the era of gravitational-wave and multi-messenger astronomy. Improving the sensitivity of the detectors is of paramount importance to increase the number and quality of the detections, fully exploiting this new information channel about the universe. Although still in the commissioning phase and not at nominal sensitivity, these interferometers are designed to be ultimately limited by a combination of shot noise and quantum radiation pressure noise, which define an envelope known as the standard quantum limit. Despite the name, this limit can be beaten with the use of advanced quantum measurement techniques, with the use of squeezed vacuum states being currently the most mature and promising. Different strategies for implementation of the technology in the large-scale detectors, in both their frequency-independent and frequency-dependent variations, are presented, together with an analysis of the main technological issues and expected sensitivity gain.

Keywords: gravitational waves, interferometers, squeezed vacuum, standard quantum limit

Procedia PDF Downloads 138

Authors: Abdelkader T. Ahmed

Abstract:

Greywater is any wastewater draining from a household including kitchen sinks and bathroom tubs, except toilet wastes. Although this used water may contain grease, food particles, hair, and any number of other impurities, it may still be suitable for reuse after treatment. Greywater reusing serves two purposes including reduction the amount of freshwater needed to supply a household, and reduction the amount of wastewater entering sewer systems. This study aims to investigate and design a simple and cheap unit to treat the greywater in household via using ceramic membranes and reuse it in supplying water for toilet flushing. The study include an experimental program for manufacturing several tablet ceramic membranes from clay and sawdust with three different mixtures. The productivity and efficiency of these ceramic membranes were investigated by chemical and physical tests for greywater before and after filtration through these membranes. Then a treatment unit from this ceramic membrane was designed based on the experimental results of lab tests. Results showed that increase sawdust percent with the mixture increase the flow rate and productivity of treated water but decrease in the same time the water quality. The efficiency of the new ceramic membrane reached 95%. The treatment unit save 0.3 m3/day water for toilet flushing without need to consume them from the fresh water supply network.

Keywords: ceramic membranes, filtration, greywater, wastewater treatment

Procedia PDF Downloads 317

Authors: Nazia Shehzad

Abstract:

An icebreaker is a facilitation exercise intended to help a group to begin the process of forming themselves into a team. Icebreakers are commonly presented as a game to ‘warm up’ the group by helping the members to get to know each other. They often focus on sharing personal information such as names, hobbies, etc. Challenging icebreakers also have the ability to allow a group to be better prepared to complete its assigned tasks. For example, if the team's objective is to redesign a business process such as Accounts Payable, the icebreaker activity might take the team through a process analysis. The analysis could include the identification of failure points, challenging assumptions, and development of new solutions — all in a simpler and ‘safer’ setting where the team can practice the group dynamics which they will use to solve the assigned problem. Icebreakers help establish a positive environment and provide an opportunity for students to get to know one another and the instructor. Both are critical to the retention and success of students. There are a number of benefits of using ice-breakers activities in the classroom. It reduces both student and instructor anxiety prior to introducing the course, fosters in a powerful way both student-student and faculty-student interactions. It creates an environment where the learner is expected to participate and the instructor is willing to listen, actively engage students from the onset. It conveys the message that the instructor cares about getting to know the students and makes it easier for students to form relationships early in the semester so they can work together both in and out of class.

Keywords: actively engages students, facilitation exercise, faculty- student interactions, group dynamics, warm up

Procedia PDF Downloads 328

Authors: Muhammad Ganda Wiratama

Abstract:

XYZ company is one of the upstream chemical companies that produce chemical products such as NaOH, HCl, NaClO, VCM, EDC, and PVC for downstream companies. The products are shipped by land using trucks and sea lanes using ship mode. Especially for solid products such as flake caustic soda (F-NaOH) and PVC resin, the products are sold in loose bag packing and palletize packing (packed in pallet). The focus of this study is to increase the number of items that can be loaded in pallet packaging on the company's logistics vehicle. This is very difficult because on this packaging, the dimensions or size of the material to be loaded become larger and certainly much heavier than the loose bag packing. This factor causes the arrangement and handling of materials in the mode of transportation more difficult. In this case, it is difficult to load a different type of volume packing pallet dimension in one truck or container. By using the Cube-IQ software, it is hoped that the planning of stuffing activity material by pallet can become easier in optimizing the existing space with various possible combinations of possibilities. In addition, the output of this software can also be used as a reference for operators in the material handling include the order and orientation of materials contained in the truck or container. The more optimal contents of logistics cargo, then transportation costs can also be minimized.

Keywords: loading activity, container loading, palletize product, simulation

Procedia PDF Downloads 286