Search results for: total ownership cost

Authors: Neda Lovričević, Đilda Pečarić, Josip Pečarić

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The Jensen functional in its discrete form is brought in relation to the Csiszar divergence functional, this time via its monotonicity property. This approach presents a generalization of the previously obtained results that made use of interpolating Jensen-type inequalities. Thus the monotonicity property is integrated with the Zipf-Mandelbrot law and applied to f-divergences for probability distributions that originate from the Csiszar divergence functional: Kullback-Leibler divergence, Hellinger distance, Bhattacharyya distance, chi-square divergence, total variation distance. The Zipf-Mandelbrot and the Zipf law are widely used in various scientific fields and interdisciplinary and here the focus is on the aspect of the mathematical inequalities.

Keywords: Jensen functional, monotonicity, Csiszar divergence functional, f-divergences, Zipf-Mandelbrot law

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Authors: Mandeep Kaur, Fatehgarh Sahib

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The purpose of economic load dispatch is to allocate the required load demand between the available generation units such that the cost of operation is minimized. It is an optimization problem to find the most economical schedule of the generating units while satisfying load demand and operational constraints. The multiobjective optimization problem in which the engineer’s goal is to maximize or minimize not a single objective function but several objective functions simultaneously. The purpose of multiobjective problems in the mathematical programming framework is to optimize the different objective functions. Many approaches and methods have been proposed in recent years to solve multiobjective optimization problems. Weighting method has been applied to convert multiobjective optimization problems into scalar optimization. MATLAB 7.10 has been used to write the code for the complete algorithm with the help of genetic algorithm (GA). The validity of the proposed method has been demonstrated on a three-unit power system.

Keywords: economic load dispatch, genetic algorithm, generating units, multiobjective optimization, weighting method

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Authors: Nadia Ayub

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The purpose of the study was to explore the impact of personal identity on self-esteem among adolescents. Two hypotheses were tested in the study, i.e., personal identity effects on self-esteem; and gender difference in the variables of personal identity and self-esteem. The total of 300 (150 female; 150 male) adolescents participated in the study. Personal identity scale (Ayub, N., In Press), and self-esteem scale (Rosenberg, 1985) were administered. The findings of the study suggest that positive personal identity impact on self-esteem and gender difference was found on the variables of personal identity and self-esteem. In conclusion, the results of the study are beneficial for researchers, policymakers, psychologists. The strong positive personal identity and self-esteem help in healthy mental development not only in adolescence but throughout the life of individuals.

Keywords: personal identity, self-esteem, adolescents, positive psychology

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Authors: An-Jui. Li, Kelvin Lim, Chien-Kuo Chiu, Benson Hsiung

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This paper details the utilization of artificial intelligence (AI) in the field of slope stability whereby quick and convenient solutions can be obtained using the developed tool. The AI tool used in this study is the artificial neural network (ANN), while the slope stability analysis methods are the finite element limit analysis methods. The developed tool allows for the prompt prediction of the safety factors of fill slopes and their corresponding probability of failure (depending on the degree of variation of the soil parameters), which can give the practicing engineer a reasonable basis in their decision making. In fact, the successful use of the Extreme Learning Machine (ELM) algorithm shows that slope stability analysis is no longer confined to the conventional methods of modeling, which at times may be tedious and repetitive during the preliminary design stage where the focus is more on cost saving options rather than detailed design. Therefore, similar ANN-based tools can be further developed to assist engineers in this aspect.

Keywords: landslide, limit analysis, artificial neural network, soil properties

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Authors: Badla Oualid

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A great number of existing buildings are designed without seismic design criteria and detailing rules for dissipative structural behavior. Thus, it is of critical importance that the structures that need seismic retrofitting are correctly identified, and an optimal retrofitting is conducted in a cost effective fashion. Among the retrofitting techniques available, steel braces can be considered as one of the most efficient solution among seismic performance upgrading methods of RC structures. This paper investigates the seismic behavior of RC buildings strengthened with different types of steel braces, X-braced, inverted V braced, ZX braced, and Zipper braced. Static non linear pushover analysis has been conducted to estimate the capacity of three story and six story buildings with different brace-frame systems and different cross sections for the braces. It is found that adding braces enhances the global capacity of the buildings compared to the case with no bracing and that the X and Zipper bracing systems performed better depending on the type and size of the cross section.

Keywords: seismic design, strengthening, RC frames, steel bracing, pushover analysis

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Authors: I. Teotónio, C.O. Cruz, C.M. Silva, M. Manso

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Diverse stakeholders show different concerns when choosing green roof systems. Also, green roof solutions vary in their cost and performance. Therefore, decision-makers continually face the difficult task of balancing benefits against green roofs costs. Decision analysis methods, as multicriteria analysis, can be used when the decision‑making process includes different perspectives, multiple objectives, and uncertainty. The present study adopts a multicriteria decision model to evaluate the installation of green roofs in buildings, determining the solution with the best trade-off between costs and benefits in agreement with the preferences of the users/investors. This methodology was applied to a real decision problem, assessing the preferences between different green roof systems in an existing building in Lisbon. This approach supports the decision-making process on green roofs and enables robust and informed decisions on urban planning while optimizing buildings retrofitting.

Keywords: decision making, green roofs, investors preferences, multicriteria analysis, sustainable development

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Authors: Liliana Crăc, Nicolae Giorgi, Gheorghe Fometescu

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In Romania, billions of tonnes of wastes are generated yearly, an important amount being stored within industrial dumps that covers high soil areas and affects the environment quality, especially of ground and surface waters. Landfill represents in Romania the most important way for wastes removal, over 75% being generated every year, the costs with the dumps construction being considerable. In most of the cases, the wastes generated mainly by the energy industry, oil exploitation and metallurgy, are still considered wastes with NO-use, and their removal and neutralization represent for transport, handling and storing, high non-productive expenses which raise the cost of the useful products obtained. The paper presents a recycling idea of three types of wastes in order to use them for building materials manufacturing, by promoting ECOWASTES LIFE+ project, whose aim is to demonstrate that the recycling of waste from energy industry (coal combustion waste), petroleum extraction (drilling mud) and metallurgy (steelmaking slag) is technically feasible.

Keywords: fly ash, drilled solid wastes, metallurgical slag, recycling, building materials

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Authors: Ece Akca, Nebi Sumer, Heidi A. Wayment, Meliksah Demir

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This study compares a typical individualistic culture (the USA) and a relatively collectivist culture (Turkey) on the levels and personality predictors of the quiet ego. A total of 248 Turkish and 683 American university students completed the Quiet Ego Scale and the Big Five Personality Inventory. The moderating role of culture on the relationship between quiet ego and personality characteristics was investigated. Openness to experience was the strongest predictor of the quiet ego among both Turkish and the US samples. Whereas extraversion, conscientiousness, and agreeableness significantly predicted quiet ego in the US, lower levels of neuroticism were related to the quiet ego in Turkey. Results revealed that the effect of personality characteristics on quiet ego varied across cultures. Agreeableness in the US and neuroticism in Turkey seemed to be the critical predictor of quite ego. Results were discussed considering cultural values in Turkish and the USA context.

Keywords: agreeableness, big five personality, culture, neuroticism, quiet ego

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Authors: Charles Amoatey

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The issue of risk in the mining industry is a global phenomenon and the Ghanaian mining industry is not exempted. The main purpose of this study is to identify the critical risk factors affecting the mining industry. The study takes an integrated view of the mining industry by examining the contribution of various risk factors to mining project failure in Ghana. A questionnaire survey was conducted to solicit the critical risk factors from key mining practitioners. About 80 respondents from 11 mining firms participated in the survey. The study identified 22 risk factors contributing to mining project failure in Ghana. The five most critical risk factors based on both probability of occurrence and impact were: (1) unstable commodity prices, (2) inflation/exchange rate, (3) land degradation, (4) high cost of living and (5) government bureaucracy for obtaining licenses. Furthermore, the study found that risk assessment in the mining sector has a direct link with mining project sustainability. Mitigation measures for addressing the identified risk factors were discussed. The key findings emphasize the need for a comprehensive risk management culture in the entire mining industry.

Keywords: risk, assessment, mining, Ghana

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Authors: Miraz Hafiz Rossy

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As part of planning to address shortfalls in fresh water supply for the world, Sea water can be a huge source of fresh water. But Desalinating sea water to get fresh water could require a lots of fossil fuels. To save the fossil fuel in terms of save the green world but meet the up growing need for fresh water, a very useful but energy efficient method needs to be introduced. Vacuum desalination of sea water using only the Renewable energy can be an effective solution to this issue. Taking advantage of sensitivity of water's boiling point to air pressure a vacuum desalination water treatment plant can be designed which would only use sea water as feed water and solar energy as fuel to produce fresh drinking water. The study indicates that reducing the air pressure to a certain value water can be boiled at very low temperature. Using solar energy to provide the condensation and the vacuum creation would be very useful and efficient. Compared to existing resources, desalination is considered to be expensive, but using only renewable energy the cost can be reduced significantly. Despite its very few drawbacks, it can be considered a possible solution to the world's fresh water shortages.

Keywords: desalination, scarcity of fresh water, water purification, water treatment

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Authors: Srinivasulu Dasaiah, Kalyan Yakkala, Gangadhar Battala, Pavan Kumar Pindi, Ramakrishna Naidu Gurijala

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Tinospora cordifolia leaves biomass used for the removal fluoride from aqueous solutions. Batch biosorption technique was applied, pH, contact time, biosorbent dose and initial fluoride concentration was studied. The Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) and Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR) techniques used to study the surface characteristics and the presence of chemical functional groups on the biosorbent. Biosorption isotherm models and kinetic models were applied to understand the sorption mechanism. Results revealed that pH, contact time, biosorbent dose and initial fluoride concentration played a significant effect on fluoride removal from aqueous solutions. The developed biosorbent derived from Tinospora cordifolia leaves biomass found to be a low-cost biosorbent and could be used for the effective removal of fluoride in synthetic as well as real water samples.

Keywords: biosorption, contact time, fluoride, isotherms

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Authors: Peter G. Youssef, Saad M. Mahmoud, Raya K. AL-Dadah

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Many water desalination technologies have been developed but in general they are energy intensive and have high cost and adverse environmental impact. Recently, adsorption technology for water desalination has been investigated showing the potential of using low temperature waste heat (50-85oC) thus reducing energy consumption and CO2 emissions. This work mathematically compares the performance of an adsorption cycle that produces two useful effects namely, fresh water and cooling using two different adsorbents, silica-gel and an advanced zeolite material AQSOA-ZO2, produced by Mitsubishi plastics. It was found that at low chilled water temperatures, typically below 20oC, the AQSOA-Z02 is more efficient than silica-gel as the cycle can produce 5.8 m3 of fresh water per day and 50.1 Rton of cooling per tonne of AQSOA-ZO2. Above 20oC silica-gel is still better as the cycle production reaches 8.4 m3 per day and 62.4 Rton per tonne of silica-gel. These results show the potential of using the AQSOA-Z02 at low chilled water temperature for water desalination and cooling applications.

Keywords: adsorption, desalination, refrigeration, seawater

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Authors: Maturin Désiré Sop Sop, Didien Njumba Besende, Samuel Fosso Wamba

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This study seeks to examine the nexus between drinking water sources in the Kumba municipality and its related health implications vis-à-vis the recurrent incidences of waterborne diseases such as Typhoid, Cholera, Diarrhea, Dysentery, Hepatitis A and malaria. The study adopted a purposive sampling technique in which surveys were conducted between the months of June to December 2022. 150 questionnaires were retrieved from the 210 administered to the affected population of Kosala, Buea Road and Mambanda. Information for the study was collected using surveys, questionnaires, key informant interviews, the laboratory analysis of collected drinking water samples, the researcher’s direct observation as well and hospital reports on the prevalence of waterborne diseases. Water samples from the nearby streams and wells, which were communally used by the local population for drinking, and five slaughterhouses within the affected areas were laboratory tested to determine alterations in their chemical, physical and microbiological characteristics. The collected water samples from all the streams and wells used for drinking were tested for changes in properties such as temperature, turbidity, EC, pH, TDS, TSS, Cl, SO42-, PO43-, NO3-, Fe, Na, BOD, COD, DO, E.coli and total coliform concentration. These results were then compared with the WHO regulations for water quality. The results from the laboratory analysis of drinking water sources, which were at the same time used by the surrounding abattoirs revealed significant alterations in the water quality parameters such as temperature, turbidity, EC, pH, TDS, TSS, Cl, SO42-, PO43-, NO3-, Fe, Na, BOD, COD, DO, E.coli and total coliform concentration. This is due to the channeling of untreated wastes into the different drinking water points as well as the inter-use of dirty utensils such as buckets from slaughterhouses to fetch water from the streams and wells that serve as drinking water sources for the local population. On the human health aspect, the results were later compared with hospital data, and they revealed that the consumption of such contaminated water in the localities of Kosala, Mambanda, and Buea road negatively affected the local population because of the high incidences of Typhoid Cholera, Diarrhea, Dysentery, Hepatitis A and malaria. The poor management of drinking water sources pollutes streams and significantly exposes the local population to lots of waterborne diseases. Efforts should be made to provide clean pipe-borne water to the affected localities of Kumba as well as to ensure the proper management of wastes.

Keywords: drinking water, diseases, Kumba, municipality

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Authors: O. Arikan, C. Kocatepe, G. Ucar, Y. Hacialiefendioglu

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In this paper, influence of harmonics on medium voltage distribution system of Bogazici Electricity Distribution Inc. (BEDAS) which takes place at Istanbul/Turkey is investigated. A ring network consisting of residential loads is taken into account for this study. Real system parameters and measurement results are used for simulations. Also, probable working conditions of the system are analyzed for %50, %75 and %100 loading of transformers with similar harmonic contents. Results of the study are exhibited the influence of nonlinear loads on %THDV, P.F. and technical losses of the medium voltage distribution system.

Keywords: distribution system, harmonic, technical losses, power factor, total harmonic distortion, residential load, medium voltage

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Authors: Qiaoyun Yang

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Organizational scholars have paid enormous attention on how local governments manage their knowledge during the past two decades. Government knowledge management (KM) research recognizes that the management of knowledge flows and networks is critical to reforms on government service efficiency and the effect of administration. When dealing with complex affairs, all the limitations resulting from a lack of KM concept, processes and technologies among all the involved organizations begin to be exposed and further compound the processing difficulty of the affair. As a result, the challenges for individual or group knowledge sharing, knowledge digging and organizations’ collaboration in government's activities are diverse and immense. This analysis presents recent situation of government KM in China drawing from a total of more than 300 questionnaires and highlights important challenges that remain. The causes of the lapses in KM processes within and across the government agencies are discussed.

Keywords: KM processes, KM technologies, government, KM situation

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Authors: Akshata S. Malani, Anagha D. Chaudhari, Rajeshkumar U. Sambhe

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Nanotechnology in pristine sense refers to building of structures at atomic and molecular scale. Meticulously nanotechnology encompasses the nanomaterials with atleast one dimension size ranging from 1 to 100 nanometres.Unlike the literal meaning of its name, nanotechnology is a massive concept beyond imagination. This paper predominantly deals with relevance of nanotechnology in automotive industries. New generation of automotives looks at nanotechnology as an emerging trend of manufacturing revolution. Intricate shapes can be made out of fairly inexpensive raw materials instead of conventional fabrication process. Though the current era have enough technology to face competition, nanotechnology can give futuristic implications to pick up the modern pace. Nanotechnology intends to bridge the gap between automotives with superior technical performance and their cost fluctuation. Preliminarily, it is an area of great scientific interest and a major shaper of many new technologies. Nanotechnology can be an ideal building block for automotive industries, under constant evolution offering a very wide scope of activity. It possesses huge potential and is still in the embryonic form of research and development.

Keywords: nanotechnology, nanomaterials, manufacturing, automotive industry

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Authors: Abdelatif Gadoum, Djilali Benyoucef, Mouloudj Hadj, Alla Eddine Toubal Maamar, Mohamed Habib Allah Lahoual

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Hydrogen occurs naturally in the form of chemical compounds, most often in water and hydrocarbons. The main objective of this study is 2D modeling of hydrogen production in inductively coupled plasma in methane at low pressure. In the present model, we include the motions and the collisions of both neutral and charged particles by considering 19 species (i.e in total ; neutrals, radicals, ions, and electrons), and more than 120 reactions (electron impact with methane, neutral-neutral, neutral-ions and surface reactions). The results show that the rate conversion of methane reach 90% and the hydrogen production is about 30%.

Keywords: hydrogen production, inductively coupled plasma, fluid model, methane plasma

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Authors: Man Fung Ho, Lap So, Jiaqi Zhang, Yuheng Zhao, Huiyang Lu, Tat Shing Choi, K. Y. Michael Wong

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Nowadays, a tremendous amount of data is available in the transportation system, enabling the development of various machine learning approaches to make short-term latency predictions. A natural question is then the choice of relevant information to enable accurate predictions. Using traffic data collected from the Taiwan Freeway System, we consider the prediction of short-term latency of a freeway segment with a length of 17 km covering 5 measurement points, each collecting vehicle-by-vehicle data through the electronic toll collection system. The processed data include the past latencies of the freeway segment with different time lags, the traffic conditions of the individual segments (the accumulations, the traffic fluxes, the entrance and exit rates), the total accumulations, and the weekday latency profiles obtained by Gaussian process regression of past data. We arrive at several important conclusions about how data should be refined to obtain accurate predictions, which have implications for future system-wide latency predictions. (1) We find that the prediction of median latency is much more accurate and meaningful than the prediction of average latency, as the latter is plagued by outliers. This is verified by machine-learning prediction using XGBoost that yields a 35% improvement in the mean square error of the 5-minute averaged latencies. (2) We find that the median latency of the segment 15 minutes ago is a very good baseline for performance comparison, and we have evidence that further improvement is achieved by machine learning approaches such as XGBoost and Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM). (3) By analyzing the feature importance score in XGBoost and calculating the mutual information between the inputs and the latencies to be predicted, we identify a sequence of inputs ranked in importance. It confirms that the past latencies are most informative of the predicted latencies, followed by the total accumulation, whereas inputs such as the entrance and exit rates are uninformative. It also confirms that the inputs are much less informative of the average latencies than the median latencies. (4) For predicting the latencies of segments composed of two or three sub-segments, summing up the predicted latencies of each sub-segment is more accurate than the one-step prediction of the whole segment, especially with the latency prediction of the downstream sub-segments trained to anticipate latencies several minutes ahead. The duration of the anticipation time is an increasing function of the traveling time of the upstream segment. The above findings have important implications to predicting the full set of latencies among the various locations in the freeway system.

Keywords: data refinement, machine learning, mutual information, short-term latency prediction

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Authors: Md. Kamal Uddin, Abdul Shukor Juraimi, Md. Parvez Anwar

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Seawater with reduced herbicide could be considered as a low cost environment friendly alternative method for weed control in turfgrass. Different concentration of sea water in combination with trifloxysulfuron-sodium and quinclorac were used to determine weed control level in turfgrass field. The weed species S. diander, C. aromaticus, and C. rotundus except E. atrovirens were fully controlled when treated with ¾ recommended trifloxysulfuron–sodium with sea water, ¾ recommended trifloxysulfuron–sodium with ¾ sea water, ½ recommended trifloxysulfuron–sodium with sea water, ¾ recommended quinclorac with sea water and ¾ recommended quinclorac with ¾ sea water. Eragrostis atrovirens showed maximum 48% injury when treated with ¾ recommended trifloxysulfuron–sodium and sea water. Among the tested turf grasses, P. vaginatum showed only 8% injury to sea water in combination with ¾ recommended quinclorac, indicating greater salt tolerance. Zoysia japonica also showed no more than 14% injury when treated with sea water in combination with ¾ recommended trifloxysulfuron–sodium or quinclorac.

Keywords: sea water, trifloxysulfuron–sodium, quinclorac, turf

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Authors: Gabriela Silva-Maceda, Silvia Romero-Contreras

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Spanish is a more transparent language than English given that it has more direct correspondences between sounds and letters. It has become important to understand how decoding and linguistic comprehension contribute to reading comprehension in the framework of the widely known Simple View Model. This study aimed to identify the level of prediction by these two components in a sample of 1st to 4th grade children attending two schools in central Mexico (one public and one private). Within each school, ten children were randomly selected in each grade level, and their parents were asked about reading habits and socioeconomic information. In total, 79 children completed three standardized tests measuring decoding (pseudo-word reading), linguistic comprehension (understanding of paragraphs) and reading comprehension using subtests from the Clinical Evaluation of Language Fundamentals-Spanish, Fourth Edition, and the Test de Lectura y Escritura en Español (LEE). The data were analyzed using hierarchical regression, with decoding as a first step and linguistic comprehension as a second step. Results showed that decoding accounted for 19.2% of the variance in reading comprehension, while linguistic comprehension accounted for an additional 10%, adding up to 29.2% of variance explained: F (2, 75)= 15.45, p <.001. Socioeconomic status derived from parental questionnaires showed a statistically significant association with the type of school attended, X2 (3, N= 79) = 14.33, p =.002. Nonetheless when analyzing the Simple View components, only decoding differences were statistically significant (t = -6.92, df = 76.81, p < .001, two-tailed); reading comprehension differences were also significant (t = -3.44, df = 76, p = .001, two-tailed). When socioeconomic status was included in the model, it predicted a 5.9% unique variance, even when already accounting for Simple View components, adding to a 35.1% total variance explained. This three-predictor model was also significant: F (3, 72)= 12.99, p <.001. In addition, socioeconomic status was significantly correlated with the amount of non-textbook books parents reported to have at home for both adults (rho = .61, p<.001) and children (rho= .47, p<.001). Results converge with a large body of literature finding socioeconomic differences in reading comprehension; in addition this study suggests that these differences were also present in decoding skills. Although linguistic comprehension differences between schools were expected, it is argued that the test used to collect this variable was not sensitive to linguistic differences, since it came from a test to diagnose clinical language disabilities. Even with this caveat, results show that the components of the Simple View Model can predict less than a third of the variance in reading comprehension in Spanish. However, the results also suggest that a fuller model of reading comprehension is obtained when considering the family’s socioeconomic status, given the potential differences shown by the socioeconomic status association with books at home, factors that are particularly important in countries where inequality gaps are relatively large.

Keywords: decoding, linguistic comprehension, reading comprehension, simple view model, socioeconomic status, Spanish

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Authors: M. Černe, I. Palčić, D. Anđelini, D. Cvitan, N. Major, M. Lukić, S. Goreta Ban, D. Ban, T. Rijavec, A. Lapanje

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Context: In the Mediterranean basin, large quantities of lignocellulosic by-products, such as olive pomace (OP), are generated during olive processing on an annual basis. Due to the phytotoxic nature of OP, composting is recommended for its stabilisation to produce the end-product safe for agricultural use. Research Aim: This study aims to evaluate the applicability of olive pomace compost (OPC) for use as a soil amendment by considering its physical and chemical characteristics and microbiological parameters. Methodology: The OPC samples were collected from the surface and depth layers of the compost pile after 8 months. The samples were analyzed for their C/N, pH, EC, total phenolic content, residual oils, and elemental content, as well as colloidal properties and microbial community structure. The specific analytical approaches used are detailed in the poster. Findings: The results showed that the pH of OPC ranged from 7.8 to 8.6, while the electrical conductivity was from 770 to 1608 mS/cm. The levels of nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P), and potassium (K) varied within the ranges of 1.5 to 27.2 g/kg d.w., 1.6 to 1.8 g/kg d.w., and 6.5 to 7.5 g/kg d.w., respectively. The contents of potentially toxic metals such as chromium (Cr), copper (Cu), nickel (Ni), lead (Pb), and zinc (Zn) were below the EU limits for soil improvers. The microbial structure follows the changes of the gradient from the outer to the innermost layer with relatively low amounts of DNA. The gradient nature shows that it is needed to develop better strategies for composting surpassing the conventional approach. However, the low amounts of total phenols and oil residues indicated efficient biodegradation during composting. The carbon-to-nitrogen ratio (C/N) within the range of 13 to 16 suggested that OPC can be used as a soil amendment. Overall, the study suggests that composting can be a promising strategy for environmentally-friendly OP recycling. Theoretical Importance: This study contributes to the understanding of the use of OPC as a soil amendment and its potential benefits in resource recycling and reducing environmental burdens. It also highlights the need for improved composting strategies to optimize its process. Data Collection and Analysis Procedures: The OPC samples were taken from the compost pile and charasterised for selected chemical, physical and microbial parameters. The specific analytical procedures utilized are described in detail in the poster. Question Addressed: This study addresses the question of whether composting can be optimized to improve the biodegradation of OP. Conclusion: The study concludes that OPC has the potential to be used as a soil amendment due to its favorable physical and chemical characteristics, low levels of potentially toxic metals, and efficient biodegradation during composting. However, the results also suggest the need for improved composting strategies to improve the quality of OPC.

Keywords: olive pomace compost, waste valorisation, agricultural use, soil amendment

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Authors: Osamah Al Qadoori

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Using cloud computing in educational sectors grow rapidly in UAE. Initially, within Cloud-Learning Environment Students whenever and wherever can remotely join the online-classroom, on the other hand, Cloud-Based Learning is greatly decreasing the infrastructure and the maintenance cost. Nowadays in many schools (K-12), institutes, colleges as well as universities in UAE Cloud-Based Teaching and Learning environments gain a higher demand and concern. Many students don’t use the available online-educational resources effectively. The challenging question is to which extend these educational resources which are installed in the cloud environment are valuable and constructive? In this paper the researcher is seeking to design an expert agent prototype where the huge information being accommodated inside the cloud environment will go through expert filtration before going to be utilized by other clients (students). To achieve this goal, the focus of the present research would be on two different directions the educational human expertise and the automated-educational expert systems.

Keywords: cloud computing, cloud-learning environment, online-classroom, the educational human expertise, the automated-educational expert systems

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Authors: Bello Muhammad Dogon Kade

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The study was conducted to determine the effect of a treated groundnut (Arachis hypogaea) shell in a complete diet on blood metabolites and microbial load in fattening Yankasa rams. The study was conducted at the Teaching and Research Farm (Small Ruminants Unit of Animal Science Department, Faculty of Agriculture, Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria. Each kilogram of groundnut shell was treated with 5% urea and 5% lime for treatments 2 (UTGNS) and 3 (LTGNS), respectively. For treatment 4 (ULTGNS), 1 kg of groundnut shell was treated with 2.5% urea and 2.5% lime, but the shell in treatment 1 was not treated (UNTGNS). Sixteen Yankasa rams were used and randomly assigned to the four treatment diets with four animals per treatment in a completely randomized design (CRD). The diet was formulated to have 14% crude protein (CP) content. Rumen fluid was collected from each ram at the end of the experiment at 0 and 4 hours post-feeding. The samples were then put in a 30 ml bottle and acidified with 5 drops of concentrated sulphuric (0.1N H₂SO4) acid to trap ammonia. The results of the blood metabolites showed that the mean values of NH₃-N differed significantly (P<0.05) among the treatment groups, with rams in the ULTGNS diet having the highest significant value (31.96 mg/L). TVFs were significantly (P<0.05) higher in rams fed UNTGNS diet and higher in total nitrogen; the effect of sampling periods revealed that NH3N, TVFs and TP were significantly (P<0.05) higher in rumen fluid collected 4hrs post feeding among the rams across the treatment groups, but rumen fluid pH was significantly (p<0.05) higher in 0-hour post-feeding in all the rams in the treatment diets. In the treatment and sampling period’s interaction effects, animals on the ULTGNS diet had the highest mean values of NH3N in both 0 and 4 hours post-feeding and were significantly (P<0.5) higher compared to rams on the other treatment diets. Rams on the UTGNS diet had the highest bacteria load of 4.96X105/ml, which was significantly (P<0.05) higher than a microbial load of animals fed UNTGNS, LTGNS and ULTGNS diets. However, protozoa counts were significantly (P<0.05) higher in rams fed the UTGNS diet than those followed by the ULTGNS diet. The results showed that there was no significant difference (P>0.05) in the bacteria count of the animals at both 0 and 4 hours post-feeding. But rumen fungi and protozoa load at 0 hours were significantly (P<0.05) higher than at 4 hours post-feeding. The use of untreated ground groundnut shells in the diet of fattening Yankasa ram is therefore recommended.

Keywords: blood metabolites, microbial load, volatile fatty acid, ammonia, total protein

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Authors: Qinghua Zhang, Yanhe Zhu, Xiang Zhao, Yeqin Yang, Hongwei Jing, Guoan Zhang, Jie Zhao

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This paper presents a wearable reconfigurable supernumerary robotic limb with differential actuated joints, which is lightweight, compact and comfortable for the wearers. Compared to the existing supernumerary robotic limbs which mostly adopted series structure with large movement space but poor carrying capacity, a prototype with the series-parallel configuration to better adapt to different task requirements has been developed in this design. To achieve a compact structure, two kinds of cable-driven mechanical structures based on guide pulleys and differential actuated joints were designed. Moreover, two different tension devices were also designed to ensure the reliability and accuracy of the cable-driven transmission. The proposed device also employed self-designed bearings which greatly simplified the structure and reduced the cost.

Keywords: cable-driven, differential actuated joints, reconfigurable, supernumerary robotic limb

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Authors: Mareen Brosterhaus, Antje Hammer, Steffen Kalina, Stefan Grau, Anjali A. Roeth, Hany Ashmawy, Thomas Gross, Marcel Binnebosel, Wolfram T. Knoefel, Tanja Manser

Abstract:

Background: The identification of critical incidents in hospitals is an essential component of improving patient safety. To date, various methods have been used to measure and characterize such critical incidents. These methods are often viewed by physicians and nurses as external quality assurance, and this creates obstacles to the reporting events and the implementation of recommendations in practice. One way to overcome this problem is to use tools that directly involve staff in measuring indicators of quality and safety of care in the department. One such instrument is the global trigger tool (GTT), which helps physicians and nurses identify adverse events by systematically reviewing randomly selected patient records. Based on so-called ‘triggers’ (warning signals), indications of adverse events can be given. While the tool is already used internationally, its implementation in German hospitals has been very limited. Objectives: This study aimed to assess the feasibility and potential of the global trigger tool for identifying adverse events in German hospitals. Methods: A total of 120 patient records were randomly selected from two surgical, and one neurosurgery, departments of three university hospitals in Germany over a period of two months per department between January and July, 2017. The records were reviewed using an adaptation of the German version of the Institute for Healthcare Improvement Global Trigger Tool to identify triggers and adverse event rates per 1000 patient days and per 100 admissions. The severity of adverse events was classified using the National Coordinating Council for Medication Error Reporting and Prevention. Results: A total of 53 adverse events were detected in the three departments. This corresponded to adverse event rates of 25.5-72.1 per 1000 patient-days and from 25.0 to 60.0 per 100 admissions across the three departments. 98.1% of identified adverse events were associated with non-permanent harm without (Category E–71.7%) or with (Category F–26.4%) the need for prolonged hospitalization. One adverse event (1.9%) was associated with potentially permanent harm to the patient. We also identified practical challenges in the implementation of the tool, such as the need for adaptation of the global trigger tool to the respective department. Conclusions: The global trigger tool is feasible and an effective instrument for quality measurement when adapted to the departmental specifics. Based on our experience, we recommend a continuous use of the tool thereby directly involving clinicians in quality improvement.

Keywords: adverse events, global trigger tool, patient safety, record review

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Authors: Zhanzhao Fu, Chongyi Ling, Jinlan Wang

Abstract:

Water splitting and rechargeable air-based batteries are emerging as new renewable energy storage and conversion technologies. However, the discovery of suitable catalysts with high activity and low cost remains a great challenge. In this work, we report a single-atom trifunctional catalyst, namely Ti₃C₂O₂ supported single Pd atom (Pd1@Ti₃C₂O₂), for the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER), oxygen evolution reaction (OER) and oxygen reduction reaction (ORR). This catalyst is selected from 12 candidates and possesses low overpotentials of 0.22 V, 0.31 V and 0.34 V for the HER, OER and ORR, respectively, making it an excellent electrocatalyst for both overall water splitting and rechargeable air-based batteries. The superior OER and ORR performance originates from the optimal d band center of the supported Pd atom. Moreover, the excellent activity can be maintained even if the single Pd atoms aggregate into small clusters. This work offers new opportunities for advancing the renewable energy storage and conversion technologies and paves a new way for the development of multifunctional electrocatalysts.

Keywords: DFT, SACs, OER, ORR, HER

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Authors: Godfrey Omulo, Regina Birner, Karlheinz Koller, Thomas Daum

Abstract:

Conservation agriculture (CA) as a climate-resilient and sustainable practice have been carried out for over three decades in Zambia. However, its continued promotion and adoption has been predominantly on a small-scale basis. Despite the plethora of scholarship pointing to the positive benefits of CA in regard to enhanced yield, profitability, carbon sequestration and minimal environmental degradation, these have not stimulated commensurate agricultural extensification desired for Zambia. The objective of this study was to investigate the potential differences between mechanized conventional and conservation tillage practices on operation time, fuel consumption, labor costs, soil moisture retention, soil temperature and crop yield. An on-farm mechanized conservation agriculture (MCA) experiment arranged in a randomized complete block design with four replications was used. The research was conducted on a 15 ha of sandy loam rainfed land: soybeans on 7ha with plot dimensions of 24 m by 210 m and maize on 8ha with plot dimensions of 24 m by 250 m. The three tillage treatments were: residue burning followed by disc harrowing, ripping tillage and no-till. The crops were rotated in two subsequent seasons. All operations were done using a 60hp 2-wheel tractor, a disc harrow, a two-tine ripper and a two-row planter. Soil measurements and the agro-economic factors were recorded for two farming seasons. The season results showed that the yield of maize and soybeans under no-till and ripping tillage practices were not significantly different from the conventional burning and discing. But, there was a significant difference in soil moisture content between no-till (25.31SFU±2.77) and disced (11.91SFU±0.59) plots at depths from 10-60 cm. Soil temperature in no-till plots (24.59°C±0.91) was significantly lower compared to the disced plots (26.20°C±1.75) at the depths 15 cm and 45 cm. For maize, there was a significant difference in operation time between disc-harrowed (3.68hr/ha±1.27) and no-till (1.85hr/ha±0.04) plots, and a significant difference in cost of labor between disc-harrowed (45.45$/ha±19.56) and no-till (21.76$/ha) plots. There was no significant difference in fuel consumption between ripping and disc-harrowing and direct seeding. For soybeans, there was a significant difference in operation time between no-tillage (1.96hr/ha±0.31) and ripping (3.34hr/ha±0.53) and disc harrowing (3.30hr/ha±0.16). Further, fuel consumption and labor on no-till plots were significantly different from both the ripped and disc-harrowed plots. The high seed emergence percentage on maize disc-harrowed plot (93.75%±5.87) was not significantly different from ripping and no-till plots. Again, the high seed emergence percentage for the soybean ripped plot (93.75%±13.03) had no significant difference with discing and ripping. The results show that it is economically sound and timesaving to practice MCA and get viable yields compared to conventional farming. This research fills the gap on the potential of MCA in the context of Zambia and its profitability in incentivizing policymakers to invest in appropriate and sustainable machinery and implements for extensive agricultural production.

Keywords: climate-smart agriculture, labor cost, mechanized conservation agriculture, soil moisture, Zambia

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Authors: Mark Schudeleit, Christian Sieg, Ferit Küçükay

Abstract:

This publication focuses on the limits and potentials of 48V hybrid systems, which are especially due to the cost advantages an attractive alternative, compared to established high volt-age HEVs and thus will gain relevant market shares in the future. Firstly, at market overview is given which shows the current known 48V hybrid concepts and demonstrators. These topologies will be analyzed and evaluated regarding the system power and the battery capacity as well as their implemented hybrid functions. The potential in fuel savings and CO2 reduction is calculated followed by the customer-relevant dimensioning of the electric motor and the battery. For both measured data of the real customer operation is used. Subsequently, the CO2 saving potentials of the customer-oriented dimensioned powertrain will be presented for the NEDC and the customer operation. With a comparison of the newly defined drivetrain with existing 48V systems the question can be answered whether current systems are dimensioned optimally for the customer operation or just for legislated driving cycles.

Keywords: 48V hybrid systems, market comparison, requirements and potentials in customer operation, customer-oriented dimensioning, CO2 savings

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Authors: Rahmat Ali, Beenish Khan, Aftabullah, Abid A. Shah

Abstract:

This research is an attempt to investigate the wide range of events using acoustic emission (AE) sensors of the concrete cubes subjected to different stress condition loading and unloading of concrete cubes. A total of 27 specimens were prepared and tested including 18 cubic (6”x6”x6”) and nine cylindrical (4”x8”) specimens were molded from three batches of concrete using w/c of 0.40, 0.50, and 0.60. The compressive strength of concrete was determined from concrete cylinder specimens. The deterioration of concrete was evaluated using the occurrence of felicity and Kaiser effects at each stress condition. It was found that acoustic emission hits usually exceeded when damage increases. Additionally, the correlation between AE techniques and the load applied were determined by plotting the normalized values. The influence of w/c on sensitivity of the AE technique in detecting concrete damages was also investigated.

Keywords: acoustic emission, concrete, felicity ratio, sensors

Procedia PDF Downloads 346

Authors: Leyla Esfandiari

Abstract:

Rapid, sensitive detection of nucleic acid (NA) molecules of specific sequence is of interest for a range of diverse health-related applications such as screening for genetic diseases, detecting pathogenic microbes in food and water, and identifying biological warfare agents in homeland security. Sequence-specific nucleic acid detection platforms rely on base pairing interaction between two complementary single stranded NAs, which can be detected by the optical, mechanical, or electrochemical readout. However, many of the existing platforms require amplification by polymerase chain reaction (PCR), fluorescent or enzymatic labels, and expensive or bulky instrumentation. In an effort to address these shortcomings, our research is focused on utilizing the cutting edge nanotechnology and microfluidics along with resistive pulse electrical measurements to design and develop a cost-effective, handheld and highly-sensitive nanopore-based sensor for point-of-care medical diagnostics.

Keywords: diagnostics, nanopore, nucleic acids, sensor

Procedia PDF Downloads 448