Search results for: porosity level

Authors: Ming-Wei Wu, Zih-Jie Lin

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Liquid phase sintering (LPS) is a feasible means for decreasing the porosity of powder metallurgy (PM) Fe-based material without substantially increase the production cost. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of 0.6 wt% boron on the densification of PM 304L stainless steel by LPS. The results indicated that the increase in the sintered density of 304L+0.6B steel is obvious after 1250 ºC sintering, and eutectic structures with borides are observed at the interfaces of the raw steel powders. Differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) results show that liquid is generated at 1244ºC during sintering. The boride in the eutectic structure is rich in boron and chromium atoms and is deficient in nickel atoms, as identified by electron probe micro-analyzer (EPMA). Furthermore, the sintered densities of 304L and 304L+0.6B steels sintered at 1300 ºC are 6.99 g/cm3 and 7.69 g/cm3, respectively, indicating that boron is a suitable alloying element for facilitating LPS of PM 304L stainless steel.

Keywords: powder metallurgy, liquid phase sintering, stainless steel, boron, microstructure

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Authors: Joanna Kochanska, Dagmara Gornicka, Anna Burduk

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The article examines the process of implementing a new assembly line in a manufacturing enterprise of the household appliances industry area. At the initial stages of the project, a decision was made that one of its foundations should be the concept of lean management. Because of that, eliminating as many errors as possible in the first phases of its functioning was emphasized. During the start-up of the line, there were identified and documented all production losses (from serious machine failures, through any unplanned downtime, to micro-stops and quality defects). During 6 weeks (line start-up period), all errors resulting from problems in various areas were analyzed. These areas were, among the others, production, logistics, quality, and organization. The aim of the work was to analyze the occurrence of production failures during the initial phase of starting up the line and to propose a method for determining their critical level during its full functionality. There was examined the repeatability of the production losses in various areas and at different levels at such an early stage of implementation, by using the methods of statistical process control. Based on the Pareto analysis, there were identified the weakest points in order to focus improvement actions on them. The next step was to examine the effectiveness of the actions undertaken to reduce the level of recorded losses. Based on the obtained results, there was proposed a method for determining the critical failures level in the studied areas. The developed coefficient can be used as an alarm in case of imbalance of the production, which is caused by the increased failures level in production and production support processes in the period of the standardized functioning of the line.

Keywords: production failures, level of production losses, new production line implementation, assembly line, statistical process control

Procedia PDF Downloads 117

Authors: Ammal M. Metwally, Lobna A. ElEtreby, Rehan M. Saleh, Ghada Abdrabou, Somia I. Salama, Amira Orabi, Mohamed Abdelrahman

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Hepatitis C virus infection is a public health threat in Egypt. To control infection, efforts should be spent to encourage healthy behavior. This study aimed to assess the level of behavioral development in order to create a positive environment for the adoption of the recommended behaviors. The study was conducted over one year from Jan. 2011 till Jan. 2012. Knowledge, attitude and behavior of 540 HCV patients and 102 of their contacts were assessed and the level of behavioral development was determined. The study revealed that the majority of patients and contacts knew that HCV infection is dangerous with perceived concern for early diagnosis and treatment. More than 75% knew the correct modes of transmission. The assessment showed positive attitudes towards the recommended practices with the intention to adopt those practices. Strategies to create opportunities to continue the recommended behaviors should be adopted together with the reinforcement of social support.

Keywords: hepatitis C virus, level of behavioral development, recommended behaviors

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Authors: Yulistiani Yulistiani, Wenny Nilamsari, Laurin Winarso, Rizkiya Rizkiya, Zamrotul Izzah, Budi Suprapti, Arif Bachtiar

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Approximately, a million new cases of TB have been found out per year, making Indonesia as the second greatest country with TBC after India. Nevertheless, until now, there are still many patients failure to conventional therapy with oral anti tuberculosis. Thus, the discovery of supplement therapy is urgently needed. Many studies showed that probiotic had the positive impact in lung diseases, diarrhea, pneumonia and it was attributed to its capability to balance the level of cytokine pro-inflammatory and anti-inflammatory. It was demonstrated in active disease the production of IFN-γ is strongly depressed and IL-10 level increases. This study aimed to investigate the effect of probiotic (multi strains) and vitamin B complex supplementation on IFN-γ and IL-10 level in patients with TB infection during intensive phase therapy. A randomized controlled trial, open labeled was conducted in TB patients with the following criteria: 1) age 18-55 years old 2) receiving oral antituberculosis during intensive therapy 3) not using probiotic, vitamin B1, B6, B12 2 weeks before enrollment 4) willing to participate in this study and signed an informed consent. While, patients with HIV, pregnant, had the history of diabetes mellitus, using corticosteroid or other immunosuppressants were excluded. IFN-γ and IL-10 levels were drawn before observation and after a month observation. The assay was performed by ELISA. There were seven patients in treated group and five patients in controlled group obtained in this study. Between groups, there was no statistical difference in comorbid, age, and disease duration. The mean level of IFN-γ after a month observation increased in treated group and controlled group, which were 31.47 ± 105.46 pg/ml and 15.09 ± 24.23 pg/ml, respectively (p> 0.005). Although, there were not statistically different, treated group showed a greater increase of IFN-γ level than that of the controlled group. IFN-γ plays an important role in immune response to Mycobacterium Tuberculosis, by activating macrofag, monosit and furthermore killing Mycobacterium Tuberculosis. Thus the level was expected to increase after supplementation with probiotic and Vitamin B complex. While the mean level of IL-10 also increased after one month observation in the treated group and controlled group (4.28 ± 12.29 pg/ml and 5.77± 6.21 pg/ml, respectively) (p>0.005). To be compared, the increased level of IL-10 in the treated group were lower than the controlled group, although it was not statistically different. IL-10 is a cytokine anti-inflammatory, thus, the level after the observation was expected to decrease. In this study, a month therapy of probiotic and vitamin B complex was not able to demonstrate the decrease of the IL-10 level. It is suggested to prolong observation up to 2 months, because, in intensive phase, the level of cytokine anti-inflammatory is very high, so the longer therapy is needed. It is indicated that supplementation therapy with probiotic and vitamin B complex to Oral Anti-Tuberculosis may have a positive effect on increasing IFN-γ level and slowing the progression of IL-10.

Keywords: TB Infection, IFN-γ, IL-10, probiotic, vitamin B complex

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Authors: Diane Ghanem, Oscar Covarrubias, Ridge Maxson, Samir Sabharwal, Babar Shafiq

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Introduction: Web-based resources serve as a fundamental educational platform for orthopaedic trauma patients; however, they are notoriously written at a high grade reading level and are often too complicated for patients to benefit from them. The aim of this study is to perform an updated assessment of the readability of the AAOS trauma-related educational articles and compare their readability with that of injury-specific patient education materials developed by the OTA. Methods: All forty-six trauma-related articles on the AAOS patient education website were analyzed for readability. Two independent reviewers used the (1) Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level (FKGL) and the (2) Flesch Reading Ease (FRE) algorithms to calculate the readability level. Mean readability scores were compared across body part categories. One-sample t-test was done to compare mean FKGL with the recommended 6th-grade readability level and the average American adult reading level. Two-sample t-test was used to compare the readability scores of the AAOS trauma-related articles to those of the OTA. Results: The average FKGL and FRE for the AAOS articles were 8.9±0.74 and 57.2±5.8, respectively. All articles were written above the 6th-grade reading level. The average readability of the AAOS articles was significantly greater than the recommended 6th-grade and average American adult reading level. The average FKGL (8.9±0.74 vs 8.1±1.14) and FRE (57.2±5.8 vs 65.6±6.6) for all AAOS articles was significantly greater compared to that of OTA articles. Excellent agreement was observed between raters for the FKGL 0.956 (95%CI 0.922 - 0.975) and FRE 0.993 (95%CI 0.987 – 0.996). Discussion: Our findings suggest that, after almost a decade, the readability of the AAOS trauma-related articles remains unchanged. The AAOS and OTA trauma patient education materials have high readability levels and may be too difficult for patient comprehension. A need remains to improve the readability of these commonly used trauma education materials.

Keywords: american ocademy of orthopaedic surgeons, FKGL, FRE, orthopaedic trauma association, patient education, readability

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Authors: Mohamad Sharif bin Mustaffa, Maizatul Akmam binti Abu Bakar, Mohd Harriszamani bin Abu Bakar

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Most teens who gave birth to an illegitimate child will suffer from depression. This depression issues arising from the incident itself which contains the teen will feel ashamed because labeled as immoral, apart from that most teenagers go through this episode without support from their spouse or family. Teens also face the possibility of a large part with the will be born babies because the issue of too young and needs to go back to school. Teens also can not make a decision on the future of the baby later because they are too immature and no baby care skills other than financial issues, where young people themselves are still dependent on their family. This paper will look at how to apply neurofeedback can be used to see the level of depression experienced by teenagers who get pregnant out of wedlock. Play therapy that will help improve adolescent focus will be used for this purpose. Each level experienced by teenagers going through the phase of easy-to-high difficulty level. Apart from that a recovery module will also be developed as a whole to reduce the level of depression to enable the youth to perform routine healthy activities and can go back to school with cheerful feeling, motivated and active.

Keywords: neurofeedback, depression, pregnant, adolescent, illegitimate

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Authors: Samia Hachemi, Abdelhafid Ounis, W. Heriheri

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This paper presents an experimental investigation of high temperatures applied to normal and high performance concrete made with natural coarse aggregates. The experimental results of physical and mechanical properties were compared with those obtained with recycled brick aggregates produced by replacing 30% of natural coarse aggregates by recycled brick aggregates. The following parameters: compressive strength, concrete mass loss, apparent density and water porosity were examined in this experiment. The results show that concrete could be produced by using recycled brick aggregates and reveals that at high temperatures recycled aggregate concrete preformed similar or even better than natural aggregate concrete.

Keywords: high temperature, compressive strength, mass loss, recycled brick aggregate

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Authors: Hanna Corsini

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This article provides an analysis of counter-hegemonic movements and their consequences for the neoliberal world order at the international level. Even if calls for change are becoming louder, current research on populist forces at the domestic level in comparative politics is lacking an investigation of the international dimensions of the rise of such movements. At the same time, in the International Relations field, the focus still remains on the surge of challengers at the global level, while the national one stays neglected. This paper argues that to fill this gap as identified in the academic literature, the concept of hegemony, and more precisely, as deployed by Antonio Gramsci, can bear some interesting insights. An adaptation to the 21st century of Gramsci’s concept is proposed, highlighting the explanatory power that key concepts of his theoretical framework have. Transposing it to contemporary politics provides precious elements for an in-depth understanding of counter-hegemonic movements and the consequences of their rise for the neoliberal world order. In an era of disruption and turmoil in national politics, International Relations theory cannot avoid to engage with this dimension. However, populism as a theoretical concept lacks the capacity to go beyond the domestic border. It is therefore essential to create a dialogue between these two fields. Ultimately, the paper claims that (counter-)hegemony is crucial to build a bridge between the international and the domestic level.

Keywords: counter-hegemonic movements, Gramsci, hegemony, international relations

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Authors: Aeslina Binti Abdul Kadir, Ahmad Shayuti Bin Abdul Rahim

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Brick is one of the most common masonry units used as building material. Due to the demand, different types of waste have been investigated to be incorporated into the bricks. Many types of sludge have been incorporated in fired clay brick for example marble sludge, stone sludge, water sludge, sewage sludge, and ceramic sludge. The utilization of these waste materials in fired clay bricks usually has positive effects on the properties such as lightweight bricks with improved shrinkage, porosity, and strength. This paper reviews on utilization of different types of sludge wastes into fired clay bricks. Previous investigations have demonstrated positive effects on the physical and mechanical properties as well as less impact towards the environment. Thus, the utilizations of sludge waste could produce a good quality of brick and could be one of alternative disposal methods for the sludge wastes.

Keywords: fired clay brick, sludge waste, compressive strength, shrinkage, water absorption

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Authors: O. Gsib, U. Peirera, C. Egles, S. A. Bencherif

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In skin regenerative medicine, one of the critical issues is to produce a three-dimensional scaffold with optimized porosity for dermal fibroblast infiltration and neovascularization, which exhibits high mechanical properties and displays sufficient wound healing characteristics. In this study, we report on the synthesis and characterization of macroporous sequential interpenetrating polymer networks (IPNs) combining skin wound healing properties of fibrin with the excellent physical properties of polyethylene glycol (PEG). Fibrin fibers serve as a provisional biologically active network to promote cell adhesion and proliferation while PEG provides the mechanical stability to maintain the entire 3D construct. After having modified both PEG and Serum Albumin (used for promoting enzymatic degradability) by adding methacrylate residues (PEGDM and SAM, respectively), Fibrin/PEGDM-SAM sequential IPNs were synthesized as follows: Macroporous sponges were first produced from PEGDM-SAM hydrogels by a freeze-drying technique and then rehydrated by adding the fibrin precursors. Environmental Scanning Electron Microscopy (ESEM) and Confocal Laser Scanning Microscopy (CLSM) were used to characterize their microstructure. Human dermal fibroblasts were cultivated during one week in the constructs and different cell culture parameters (viability, morphology, proliferation) were evaluated. Subcutaneous implantations of the scaffolds were conducted on five-week old male nude mice to investigate their biocompatibility in vivo. We successfully synthesized interconnected and macroporous Fibrin/PEGDM-SAM sequential IPNs. The viability of primary dermal fibroblasts was well maintained (above 90%) after 2 days of culture. Cells were able to adhere, spread and proliferate in the scaffolds suggesting the suitable porosity and intrinsic biologic properties of the constructs. The fibrin network adopted a spider web shape that covered partially the pores allowing easier cell infiltration into the macroporous structure. To further characterize the in vitro cell behavior, cell proliferation (EdU incorporation, MTS assay) is being studied. Preliminary histological analysis of animal studies indicated the persistence of hydrogels even after one-month post implantation and confirmed the absence of inflammation response, good biocompatibility and biointegration of our scaffolds within the surrounding tissues. These results suggest that our Fibrin/PEGDM-SAM IPNs could be considered as potential candidates for dermis regenerative medicine. Histological analysis will be completed to further assess scaffold remodeling including de novo extracellular matrix protein synthesis and early stage angiogenesis analysis. Compression measurements will be conducted to investigate the mechanical properties.

Keywords: fibrin, hydrogels for dermal reconstruction, polyethylene glycol, semi-interpenetrating polymer network

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Authors: V. J. Pillewan, D. N. Raut, K. N. Patil, D. K. Shinde

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Forging, milling, turning, grinding and shaping etc. are the various industrial manufacturing processes which generate the metal waste. Grinding is extensively used in the finishing operation. The waste generated contains significant impurities apart from the metal particles. Due to these significant impurities, it becomes difficult to process and gets usually dumped in the landfills which create environmental problems. Therefore, it becomes essential to reuse metal waste to create value added products. Powder injection molding process is used for producing the porous metal matrix framework. This paper discusses the presented design of the porous framework to be used for the liquid filter application. Different parameters are optimized to obtain the better strength framework with variable porosity. Carbon nanotubes are used as reinforcing materials to enhance the strength of the metal matrix framework.

Keywords: grinding waste, powder injection molding (PIM), carbon nanotubes (CNTs), matrix composites (MMCs)

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Authors: Somtop Keawchuer

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The purpose of the research is to study the level of social responsibility among the undergraduate students of the faculty of Management Science, Suan Sunandha Rajabhat University. The research also studies the factors affecting social responsibility of the undergraduate students. The research methodology applied a self-administered questionnaire as a quantitative method. A convenience sampling was used to distribute the questionnaire. Finally, 350 questionnaires were received for data analysis. Data were analyzed by using descriptive statistics including percentage, mean, standard deviation, and inferential statistics including regression analysis for hypothesis testing. The results indicated that the level of social responsibility of the students was at a good level. In addition, internal and external factors were related to social responsibility of the undergraduate students with the statistical significance level of 0.05.

Keywords: internal and external factors, social responsibility, Suan Sunandha Rajabhat University, undergraduate students

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Authors: Zehai Yu, Hui Zhu, Linglong Lin, Huawei Liang, Biao Yu, Weixin Huang

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With the development of intelligent vehicle systems, a high-precision road map is increasingly needed in many aspects. The automatic lane lines extraction and modeling are the most essential steps for the generation of a precise lane-level road map. In this paper, an automatic lane-level road map generation system is proposed. To extract the road markings on the ground, the multi-region Otsu thresholding method is applied, which calculates the intensity value of laser data that maximizes the variance between background and road markings. The extracted road marking points are then projected to the raster image and clustered using a two-stage clustering algorithm. Lane lines are subsequently recognized from these clusters by the shape features of their minimum bounding rectangle. To ensure the storage efficiency of the map, the lane lines are approximated to cubic polynomial curves using a Bayesian estimation approach. The proposed lane-level road map generation system has been tested on urban and expressway conditions in Hefei, China. The experimental results on the datasets show that our method can achieve excellent extraction and clustering effect, and the fitted lines can reach a high position accuracy with an error of less than 10 cm.

Keywords: curve fitting, lane-level road map, line recognition, multi-thresholding, two-stage clustering

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Authors: Okike Benjamin, Garba Ejd

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Today, it has been observed security of information along the superhighway is often compromised by those who are not authorized to have access to such information. In order to ensure the security of information along the superhighway, such information should be encrypted by some means to conceal the real meaning of the information. There are many encryption techniques out there in the market. However, some of these encryption techniques are often easily decrypted by adversaries. The researcher has decided to develop an encryption technique that may be more difficult to decrypt. This may be achieved by splitting the message to be encrypted into parts and encrypting each part separately and swapping the positions before transmitting the message along the superhighway. The method is termed Merged Irregular Transposition Cipher. Also, the research would determine the complexity level in respect to the number of splits of the message.

Keywords: transposition cipher, merged irregular cipher, encryption, complexity level

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Authors: Feng Li, Qian Peng

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The mass start speed skating (MSSS) is a new event for the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Olympics and will be an official race for the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics. Considering that the event rankings were based on points gained on laps, it is worthwhile to investigate the pacing behavior on each lap that directly influences the ranking of the race. The aim of this study was to detect the pacing behavior and performance on MSSS regarding skaters’ level (SL), competition stage (semi-final/final) (CS) and gender (G). All the men's and women's races in the World Cup and World Championships were analyzed in the 2018-2019 and 2019-2020 seasons. As a result, a total of 601 skaters from 36 games were observed. ANOVA for repeated measures was applied to compare the pacing behavior on each lap, and the three-way ANOVA for repeated measures was used to identify the influence of SL, CS, and G on pacing behavior and total time spent. In general, the results showed that the pacing behavior from fast to slow were cluster 1—laps 4, 8, 12, 15, 16, cluster 2—laps 5, 9, 13, 14, cluster 3—laps 3, 6, 7, 10, 11, and cluster 4—laps 1 and 2 (p=0.000). For CS, the total time spent in the final was less than the semi-final (p=0.000). For SL, top-level skaters spent less total time than the middle-level and low-level (p≤0.002), while there was no significant difference between the middle-level and low-level (p=0.214). For G, the men’s skaters spent less total time than women on all laps (p≤0.048). This study could help to coach staff better understand the pacing behavior regarding SL, CS, and G, further providing references concerning promoting the pacing strategy and decision making before and during the race.

Keywords: performance analysis, pacing strategy, winning strategy, winter Olympics

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Authors: Mousa Bani Baker, Raed Abendeh, Zaidoon Abu Salem, Hesham Ahmad

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This research paper was commissioned to discuss the Jordanian marble, which is a non-foliated metamorphic rock composed of recrystallized carbonate minerals, most commonly calcite or dolomite. Geologists use the term "marble" to refer to metamorphosed limestone; however, stonemasons use the term more broadly to encompass unmetamorphised limestone. Marble is commonly used for sculpture and as a building material. The marble has many uses; one of them is using the white marble that has been prized for its use in sculptures since classical times. This preference has to do with its softness, relative isotropy and homogeneity, and a relative resistance to shattering. Another use of it is the construction marble which is “a stone which is composed of calcite, dolomite or serpentine which is capable of taking a polish” Marble Institute of America. This report focuses most about the marble in Jordan and its properties: rock definition, physical properties, the marble occurrences in Jordan, types of Jordanian marble and their prices and test done on this marble.

Keywords: marble, metamorphic, non-foliated, compressive strength, recrystallized, Moh’s hardness, abrasion, absorption, modulus of rupture, porosity

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Authors: Stephens Oluyemi Adetunji, Nel Norma Margaret, Naidu Narainsamy

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Empathy has been identified by researchers to be a crucial factor in helping adolescents to refrain from delinquent behavior. Adolescent delinquent behavior is a social problem that has become a source of concern to parents, psychologists, educators, correctional services, researchers as well as governments of nations. Empathy is a social skill that enables an individual to understand and to share another’s emotional state. An individual with a high level of empathy will avoid any act or behavior that will affect another person negatively. The need for this study is predicated on the fact that delinquent adolescent behavior could lead to adult criminality. This, in the long run, has the potential of resulting in an increase in crime rate thereby threatening public safety. It has therefore become imperative to explore the level of empathy of delinquent adolescents who have committed crime and are awaiting trial. It is the conjecture of this study that knowledge of the empathy level of delinquent adolescents will provide an opportunity to design an intervention strategy to remediate the deficit. This study was therefore designed to determine the level of empathy of delinquent adolescents. In addition, this study provides a better understanding of factors that may prevent adolescents from developing delinquent behavior, in this case, delinquents’ empathy levels. In the case of participants who have a low level of empathy, remediation strategies to improve their empathy level would be designed. Two research questions were raised to guide this study. A mixed methods research design was employed for the study. The sample consists of fifteen male adolescents who are between 13-18 years old with a mean age of 16.5 years old. The participants are adolescents who are awaiting trial. The non-probability sampling technique was used to obtain the sample for the quantitative study while purposive sampling was used in the case of the qualitative study. A self–report questionnaire and structured interview were used to assess the level of empathy of participants. The data obtained was analysed using the simple percentages for the quantitative data and transcribing the qualitative data. The result indicates that most of the participants have low level of empathy. It is also revealed that there is a difference in the empathy level on the basis of whether they are from parents living together and those whose parents are separated. Based on the findings of this study, it is recommended that the level of empathy of participants be improved through training and emphasizing the importance of stimulating family environment for children. It is also recommended that programs such as youth mentoring and youth sheltering be established by the government of South Africa to address the menace of delinquent adolescents.

Keywords: adolescents, behavior, delinquents, empathy

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Authors: Handan Ertaş

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The aim of the study is to determine the relationship between organizational trust level and organizational justice of Municipality officials. Correlational method has been used via descriptive survey model and Organizational Justice Perception Scale, Organizational Trust Inventory and Interpersonal Trust Scale have been applied to 353 participants who work in Konya Metropolitan Municipality and central district municipalities in the study. Frequency as statistical method, Independent Samples t test for binary groups, One Way-ANOVA analyses for multi-groups and Pearson Correlation analysis have been used to determine the relation in the data analysis process. It has been determined in the outcomes of the study that participants have high level of organizational trust, “Interpersonal Trust” is in the first place and there is a significant difference in the favor of male officials in terms of Trust on the Organization Itself and Interpersonal Trust. It has also been understood that officials in district municipalities have higher perception level in all dimensions, there is a significant difference in Trust on the Organization sub-dimension and work status is an important factor on organizational trust perception. Moreover, the study has shown that organizational justice implementations are important in raising trust of official on the organization, administrator and colleagues, and there is a parallel relation between Organizational Trust components and Organizational Trust dimensions.

Keywords: organizational trust level, organizational justice perceptions, staff, Konya

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Authors: V. Davaakhuu, D. Tserendagva, D. Amarsaikhan, T. Altanstetseg

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In this study we aimed to detect main risk factors for diabetes in Mongolia and obtain data we used survey modified questionnaire. Survey data were obtained from 634 valid nurses (day work nurses-317, shift work nurses-317). Participants who were pregnant, less than 20 years old and no check for fasting glucose level were excluded from the survey in order to determine the risk factors of diabetes. Our study result shows the main risk factors of diabetes were physical inactivity, overweight and obesity, alcohol and tobacco use and lack of vegetable and fruit consumption. Peripheral blood glucose level was normal in subjects with BMI 26.28 ± 0.56, but 20 % of the subjects with normal blood glucose level were obese. Blood glucose level was higher in subjects with BMI 28.63 ± 2.32 and 36 % of them were obese. According to our study results, 3.62% of the surveyed population were identified having no diabetes risk factors, 52.3% were at risk, 28.8% were in higher risk for diabetes by the WHO criteria. In general, the prevalence of blood glucose were especially higher in shift work nurses.

Keywords: day work nurses, shift work nurses, BMI, WHR

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Authors: Bo Yang, Christopher Monterola

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Urban intersection control without the use of the traffic light has the potential to vastly improve the efficiency of the urban traffic flow. For most proposals in the literature, such lightless intersection control depends on the mass market commercialization of highly intelligent autonomous vehicles (AV), which limits the prospects of near future implementation. We present an efficient lightless intersection traffic control scheme that only requires Level 1 AV as defined by NHTSA. The technological barriers of such lightless intersection control are thus very low. Our algorithm can also accommodate a mixture of AVs and conventional vehicles. We also carry out large scale numerical analysis to illustrate the feasibility, safety and robustness, comfort level, and control efficiency of our intersection control scheme.

Keywords: intersection control, autonomous vehicles, traffic modelling, intelligent transport system

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Authors: Bilge Meral Koc, Elvan Yilmaz Akyuz, Tugce Ozlu

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This study aimed to discover the effects of coconut oil intake and diet therapy on anthropometric measurements, biochemical findings and irisin levels in overweight individuals. Materials and Methods: Overweight individuals (n=44, 19-30 years) without any chronic disease were included. In this randomized controlled crossover study, the participants were divided into two groups (Group 1: 23 people, Group 2: 21 people). In the first phase, Group 1 received diet therapy to lose 0.5-1 kg of weight per week and 20 mL of coconut oil/day, while Group 2 only received diet therapy. In the second phase, Group 1 received diet therapy while Group 2 received diet therapy and 20 mL of coconut oil/day. Anthropometric measurements were taken four times. Irisin was measured four times by enzyme-linked immunosorbent (ELISA) method and other biochemical findings were measured twice. Statistical analysis was made on SPSS 20. Results: The irisin level decreased significantly when the participants only took coconut oil (p≤0.05). There was a significant decrease in the participants' body weight, body mass index (BMI) level and body fat percentage (p≤0.01). Insulin, total cholesterol, low density lipoproteins (LDL) cholesterol, and triglyceride (TG) levels of all participants decreased significantly (p≤0.05). There was no significant difference in irisin level due to body weight loss (p≤0.05); coconut oil provided a significant decrease in irisin level (p≤0.05). Conclusion: Diet therapy and weight loss did not have an effect on irisin level, but coconut oil alone was found to reduce irisin level. Coconut oil had no impact on anthropometric and biochemical findings.

Keywords: coconut oil, diet therapy, irisin, overweight

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Authors: Helen Pushkarskaya, Michael Smithson, Jane E. Joseph, Christine Corbly, Ifat Levy

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Studies of decision making under uncertainty generally focus on imprecise information about outcome probabilities (“ambiguity”). It is not clear, however, whether conflicting information about outcome probabilities affects decision making in the same manner as ambiguity does. Here we combine functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) and a simple gamble design to study this question. In this design, the levels of ambiguity and conflict are parametrically varied, and ambiguity and conflict gambles are matched on both expected value and variance. Behaviorally, participants avoided conflict more than ambiguity, and attitudes toward ambiguity and conflict did not correlate across subjects. Neurally, regional brain activation was differentially modulated by ambiguity level and aversion to ambiguity and by conflict level and aversion to conflict. Activation in the medial prefrontal cortex was correlated with the level of ambiguity and with ambiguity aversion, whereas activation in the ventral striatum was correlated with the level of conflict and with conflict aversion. This novel double dissociation indicates that decision makers process imprecise and conflicting information differently, a finding that has important implications for basic and clinical research.

Keywords: decision making, uncertainty, ambiguity, conflict, fMRI

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Authors: Kanikanun Photchong, Phusit Phukamchanoad

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The objective of this research is to study the people’s level of participation in activities of the community, their satisfaction towards the community, the attachment they have to the community, factors that influence the attachment, as well as the characteristics of the relationships of military families’ of the Royal Guards community of Dusit District. The method used was non-probability sampling by quota sampling according to people’s age. The determined age group was 18 years or older. One set of a sample group was done per family. The questionnaires were conducted by 287 people. Snowball sampling was also used by interviewing people of the community, starting from the Royal Guards Community’s leader, then by 20 of the community’s well-respected persons. The data was analyzed by using descriptive statistics, such as arithmetic mean and standard deviation, as well as by inferential statistics, such as Independent - Samples T test (T-test), One-Way ANOVA (F-test), Chi-Square. Descriptive analysis according to the structure of the interview content was also used. The results of the research is that the participation of the population in the Royal Guards Community in various activities is at a medium level, with the average participation level during Mother’s and Father’s Days. The people’s general level of satisfaction towards the premises of the Royal Guards Community is at the highest level. The people were most satisfied with the transportation within the community and in contacting with people from outside the premises. The access to the community is convenient and there are various entrances. The attachment of the people to the Royal Guards Community in general and by each category is at a high level. The feeling that the community is their home rated the highest average. Factors that influence the attachment of the people of the Royal Guards Community are age, status, profession, income, length of stay in the community, membership of social groups, having neighbors they feel close and familiar with, and as well as the benefits they receive from the community. In addition, it was found that people that participate in activities have a high level of positive relationship towards the attachment of the people to the Royal Guards Community. The satisfaction of the community has a very high level of positive relationship with the attachment of the people to the Royal Guards Community. The characteristics of the attachment of military families’ is that they live in big houses that everyone has to protect and care for, starting from the leader of the family as well as all members. Therefore, they all love the community they live in. The characteristics that show the participation of activities within the community and the high level of satisfaction towards the premises of the community will enable the people to be more attached to the community. The people feel that everyone is close neighbors within the community, as if they are one big family.

Keywords: community attachment, community satisfaction, royal guards community, activities of the community

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Authors: Natthiya Nuchanang, Pannarunsri Inpayung

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The study of participation in student affair activity, Faculty of Management Science of Suan Sunandha Rajabhat University, these objective were 1) to study of need and attention activity of SUT student 2) to study of participation and sufficient of student affair activity and advantage of student participation. The populations were 400 undergrad students year 1st-4th. The data were analyzed by descriptive statistics. The result found that; 1. The need of participate activity of students was medium level. Environment Conservation club and Badminton club were high level of experience for student. 2. The need and attention of activity were sufficient for student. Almost problems were not having enough time. 3. The advantages of activity were high level.4. The satisfaction of students for student affair unit was high level. Major problem that students do not attend, the tired from studying, Where the activity is not permitting, activities are not interesting and activity implementation overhead.

Keywords: faculty of management science, Suan Sunandha Rajabhat university, satisfaction in activities of student affairs, students’ participation

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Authors: S. Shaaban, T. McNamara, S. Hudson

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This paper reports on the performance of deliberately unbalanced, reliable, non-automated and assembly lines that merge, whose workstations differ in terms of their mean operation times. Simulations are carried out on 5- and 8-station lines with 1, 2 and 4 buffer capacity units, % degrees of line imbalance of 2, 5 and 12, and 24 different patterns of means imbalance. Data on two performance measures, namely throughput and average buffer level were gathered, statistically analysed and compared to a merging balanced line counterpart. It was found that the best configurations are a balanced line arrangement and a monotone decreasing order for each of the parallel merging lines, with the first generally resulting in a lower throughput and the second leading to a lower average buffer level than those of a balanced line.

Keywords: average buffer level, merging lines, simulation, throughput, unbalanced

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Authors: Regina Tedjasulaksana, Maria Martina Nahak, A. A. Gede Agung, Ni Made Widhiasti

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Strategic effort to realize the empowerment of community in school is through the peer group approach so that it needs to choose the students who are trained as the’ little dentist’ in order to have the cognitive and skills to participate in the school dental health effort (UKGS) program, such as providing oral health education to the other students. Aim: To assessed the effectiveness of peer group approach to enhance the oral health knowledge level of schoolchildren at primary school in Klungkung, Bali. Methods: Experimental study using the pre-post test without control group design. The differences of knowledge levels, tooth brushing behavior and oral hygiene status (using PHP-M index) of 10 students before and after trained as the little dentists were analyzed using paired t-test. The correlations between knowledge level and tooth brushing behavior and correlations between tooth brushing behavior and oral hygiene before and after trained as the little dentists were analyzed using Spearman. Furthermore, the trained little dentists provide oral health education to 102 students of grade 1 to 5 at their school once a week for 3 months. The students’ knowledge level scores of each grade were taken every 21 days as many as three times The difference of it was analyzed using Repeated Measured. Result: The mean scores among all little dentists before and after training for each of knowledge level were each 63.05 + 5.62 and 85.00 + 7.81, tooth brushing behavior were each 31.00 + 14.49 and 100.00 + 0.00 and oral hygiene status using PHP-M index were each 32.80 + 10.17 and 11.40 + 8.01. The knowledge level, tooth brushing behavior and oral hygiene status of 10 students before and after trained as the little dentists were different significantly (p<0.05). Before and after trained as the little dentists it showed that significant correlations between knowledge level with tooth brushing behavior (p<0.05) and significant correlations between tooth brushing behavior and oral hygiene (p<0.05). The mean scores of knowledge level among all students before (pre-test) and after (post-test (1),(2),(3)) getting oral health education from little dentists for each, of grade 1 were 40.00 + 17.97; 67.85 + 18.88; 81.72 +26.48 and 70.00 + 22.87, grade 2 were 40.00 + 17.97; 67.85 + 18.88; 81.72 + 26.48 and 70.00 + 22.87, grade 3 were 65.83 + 23.94; 72.50 + 26.08; 80.41 + 24.93 and 83.75 + 19.74, grade 4 were 88.57 + 12.92; 90.71 + 9.97; 92.85 + 10.69 and 93.57 + 6.33 and grade 5 were 86.66 + 13.40; 93.33 + 9.16; 94.16 + 10.17 and 98.33 + 4.81. The students’ knowledge level of grade 1,2 and 3 before and after getting oral health education from little dentists showed significant different (p<0.05), meanwhile there was no significant different on grade 4 and 5 (p<0.05) although mean scores showed an increase. Conclusion: Peer group approach can be used to enhance the oral health knowledge level of schoolchildren at primary school in Klungkung, Bali.

Keywords: small dentists, oral health, peer group approach, school children

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Authors: Hai Nguyen Tien

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On the basis of the structure of alluvial sediments explained by echo sounding data and remote sensing images, the following results can be given: The estuary of Lam river (from Ben Thuy bridge to Cua Hoi) is divided into 3 channel (location is calculated according to the river bank on the Nghe An province) : i) channel I (from Ben Thuy bridge to Hung Hoa) is the branching river; ii) channel II (from Hung Hoa to Nghi Thai is a channel develops in a meandering direction with a concave side toward Ha Tinh province; iii) channel III, from Nghi Thai to Cua Hoi is a channel develops in a meandering direction with a concave side toward Nghe An province. This estuary area is formed in the period from after the sea level dropped below 0m (current water level) to the present: i) Chanel II developed moving towards Ha Tinh provnce; ii) Chanel III developed moving towards Nghe An province; iii) In chanel I, a second river branch is formed because the flow of river cuts through the Hong Lam- Hong Nhat mudflat, at the same time creating an island. Morphological characteristics of the estuary area of Lam River are the main result of erosion and deposition activities corresponding to two water levels: low water level below 0 m and water level 0 m (current water level). Characteristics of the sediment layers on the riverbed in the estuary can be used to determine the sea levels in Late Holocene–Present.

Keywords: Lam River, development, Cua Hoi, river morphology

Procedia PDF Downloads 116

Authors: Jung-Il Suh, Hong-Gun Park, Jae-Eun Oh

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Recently, the use of long-span precast concrete (PC) construction has increased in modular construction such as storage buildings and parking facilities. When applying long span PC member, reducing weight of long span PC member should be conducted considering lifting capacity of crane and self-weight of PC member and use of structural lightweight concrete made by lightweight aggregate (LWA) can be considered. In the process of lightweight concrete production, segregation and bleeding could occur due to difference of specific gravity between cement (3.3) and lightweight aggregate (1.2~1.8) and reducing weight of binder is needed to prevent the segregation between binder and aggregate. Also, lightweight precast concrete made by cementitious materials such as fly ash and ground granulated blast furnace (GGBFS) which is lower than specific gravity of cement as a substitute for cement has been studied. When only using fly ash for cementless binder alkali-activation of fly ash is most important chemical process in which the original fly ash is dissolved by a strong alkaline medium in steam curing with high-temperature condition. Because curing condition is similar with environment of precast member production, additional process is not needed. Na-based chloride generally used as a strong alkali activator has a practical problem such as high pH toxicity and high manufacturing cost. Instead of Na-based alkali activator calcium hydroxide [Ca(OH)2] and sodium hydroxide [Na2CO3] might be used because it has a lower pH and less expensive than Na-based alkali activator. This study explored the influences on Ca(OH)2-Na2CO3-activated fly ash system in its microstructural aspects and strength and permeability using powder X-ray analysis (XRD), thermogravimetry (TGA), mercury intrusion porosimetry (MIP). On the basis of microstructural analysis, the conclusions are made as follows. Increase of Ca(OH)2/FA wt.% did not affect improvement of compressive strength. Also, Ca(OH)2/FA wt.% and Na2CO3/FA wt.% had little effect on specific gravity of saturated surface dry (SSD) and absolute dry (AD) condition to calculate water absorption. Especially, the binder is appropriate for structural lightweight concrete because specific gravity of the hardened paste has no difference with that of lightweight aggregate. The XRD and TGA/DTG results did not present considerable difference for the types and quantities of hydration products depending on w/b ratio, Ca(OH)2 wt.%, and Na2CO3 wt.%. In the case of higher molar quantity of Ca(OH)2 to Na2CO3, XRD peak indicated unreacted Ca(OH)2 while DTG peak was not presented because of small quantity. Thus, presence of unreacted Ca(OH)2 is too small quantity to effect on mechanical performance. As a result of MIP, the porosity volume related to capillary pore depends on the w/b ratio. In the same condition of w/b ratio, quantities of Ca(OH)2 and Na2CO3 have more influence on pore size distribution rather than total porosity. While average pore size decreased as Na2CO3/FA w.t% increased, the average pore size increased over 20 nm as Ca(OH)2/FA wt.% increased which has inverse proportional relationship between pore size and mechanical properties such as compressive strength and water permeability.

Keywords: Ca(OH)2, compressive strength, microstructure, fly ash, Na2CO3, water absorption

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Authors: Rahman Davtalab

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Florida is one of the most vulnerable states to natural disasters among the 50 states of the USA. The state exposed by tropical storms, hurricanes, storm surge, landslide, etc. Besides, the mentioned natural phenomena, global warming, sea-level rise, and other anthropogenic environmental changes make a very complicated and unpredictable system for decision-makers. In this study, we tried to highlight the effects of climate change and sea-level rise on surface water and groundwater systems for three different geographical locations in Florida; Main Canal of Jacksonville Beach (in the northeast of Florida adjacent to the Atlantic Ocean), Grace Lake in central Florida, far away from surrounded coastal line, and Mc Dill in Florida and adjacent to Tampa Bay and Mexican Gulf. An integrated hydrologic and hydraulic model was developed and simulated for all three cases, including surface water, groundwater, or a combination of both. For the case study of Main Canal-Jacksonville Beach, the investigation showed that a 76 cm sea-level rise in time horizon 2060 could increase the flow velocity of the tide cycle for the main canal's outlet and headwater. This case also revealed how the sea level rise could change the tide duration, potentially affecting the coastal ecosystem. As expected, sea-level rise can raise the groundwater level. Therefore, for the Mc Dill case, the effect of groundwater rise on soil storage and the performance of stormwater retention ponds is investigated. The study showed that sea-level rise increased the pond’s seasonal high water up to 40 cm by time horizon 2060. The reliability of the retention pond is dropped from 99% for the current condition to 54% for the future. The results also proved that the retention pond could not retain and infiltrate the designed treatment volume within 72 hours, which is a significant indication of increasing pollutants in the future. Grace Lake case study investigates the effects of climate change on groundwater recharge. This study showed that using the dynamically downscaled data of the groundwater recharge can decline up to 24% by the mid-21st century.

Keywords: groundwater, surface water, Florida, retention pond, tide, sea level rise

Procedia PDF Downloads 173

Authors: Xinyuan Liu, Xiaojun Jing, Yuan He, Junsheng Mu

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Aspect-based Sentiment Analysis (ABSA) has attracted much attention due to its capacity to determine the sentiment polarity of the certain aspect in a sentence. In previous works, great significance of the interaction between aspect and sentence has been exhibited in ABSA. In consequence, a Multi-Level Attentional Networks (MLAN) is proposed. MLAN consists of four parts: Embedding Layer, Encoding Layer, Multi-Level Attentional (MLA) Layers and Final Prediction Layer. Among these parts, MLA Layers including Aspect Level Attentional (ALA) Layer and Interactive Attentional (ILA) Layer is the innovation of MLAN, whose function is to focus on the important information and obtain multiple levels’ attentional weighted representation of aspect and sentence. In the experiments, MLAN is compared with classical TD-LSTM, MemNet, RAM, ATAE-LSTM, IAN, AOA, LCR-Rot and AEN-GloVe on SemEval 2014 Dataset. The experimental results show that MLAN outperforms those state-of-the-art models greatly. And in case study, the works of ALA Layer and ILA Layer have been proven to be effective and interpretable.

Keywords: deep learning, aspect-based sentiment analysis, attention, natural language processing

Procedia PDF Downloads 126