Search results for: rate of fertilizer application

Authors: Medani Prasad Rijal

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The study outlines the impacts of decentralized forest policy on natural Sal (shorea robusta) forests in the Terai region of Nepal. The government has implemented community forestry program to manage the forest resources and improve the livelihood of local people collectively. The forest management authorities such as conserve, manage, develop and use of forest resources were shifted to the local communities, however, the ownership right of the forestland retained by the government. Local communities took the decision on harvesting, distribution, and sell of forest products by fixing the prices independently. The local communities were putting the low value of forest products and distributed among the user households on the name of collective decision. The decision of low valuation is devaluating the worth of forest products. Therefore, the study hypothesized that decision-making capacities are equally prominent next to the decentralized policy and program formulation. To accomplish the study, individual to group level discussions and questionnaire survey methods were applied with executive committee members and user households. The study revealed that the local intuition called Community Forest User Group (CFUG) committee normally took the decisions on consensus basis. Considering to the access and affording capacity of user households having poor economic backgrounds, low pricing mechanism of forest products has been practiced, even though the Sal timber is far expensive in the local market. The local communities thought that low pricing mechanism is accessible to all user households from poor to better off households. However, the analysis of forest products distribution opposed the assumption as most of the Sal timber, which is the most valuable forest product of community forest only purchased by the limited households of better economic conditions. Since the Terai region is heterogeneous by socio-economic conditions, better off households always have higher affording capacity and possibility of taking higher timber benefits because of low price mechanism. On the other hand, the minimum price rate of forest products has poor contribution in community fund collection. Consequently, it has poor support to carry out poverty alleviation activities to poor people. The local communities have been fixed Sal timber price rate around three times cheaper than normal market price, which is a strong evidence of forest product devaluation itself. Finally, the study concluded that the capacity building of local executives as the decision-makers of natural Sal forests is equally indispensable next to the policy and program formulation for effective decentralized forest management. Unilateral decentralized forest policy may devaluate the forest products rather than devolve of power to the local communities and empower to them.

Keywords: community forestry program, decentralized forest policy, Nepal, Sal forests, Terai

Procedia PDF Downloads 333

Authors: Farid Saeidi, Serkan Dag

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In this study, fracture analysis of a fibrous composite laminate with variable fiber spacing is carried out using Jk-integral method. The laminate is assumed to be under thermal loading. Jk-integral is formulated by using the constitutive relations of plane orthotropic thermoelasticity. Developed domain independent form of the Jk-integral is then integrated into the general purpose finite element analysis software ANSYS. Numerical results are generated so as to assess the influence of variable fiber spacing on mode I and II stress intensity factors, energy release rate, and T-stress. For verification, some of the results are compared to those obtained using displacement correlation technique (DCT).

Keywords: Jk-integral, Variable Fiber Spacing, Thermoelasticity, T-stress, Finite Element Method, Fibrous Composite.

Procedia PDF Downloads 388

Authors: Radia Bernaoui, Mohamed Hassoun

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Our survey deals a theme of the measurement of the management knowledge of actors in Algerian agricultural sector, through a study carried out with professionals affiliated to agro-alimentary 'agribusinesses'. Taking into account the creation of a national device of information on the agronomic research in Algeria, the aim is to analyze their informational practices and to assess how they rate the sharing of knowledge and the process of collective intelligence. The results of our study reveal a more crucial need: The creation a suitable framework to the division of the knowledge, to produce 'knowledge shared social' where the scientific community could interact with firms. It is a question of promoting processes for the adaptation and the spreading of knowledge, through a partnership between the R&D sector and the production one, to increase the competitiveness of the firms, even the sustainable development of the country.

Keywords: knowledge management, pole of competitiveness, knowledge management, economy of knowledge, agro-alimentary, agribusiness, information system, Algeria

Procedia PDF Downloads 334

Authors: Neelam Kadyan

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Global environmental change is happening at an alarming rate in the present world. Floods, Tsunamis’, Avalanches, Change in Weather patterns, Rise in sea temperature, Landslides, are only few evidences of this change. To regulate such alarming growth of global change in environment certain regulatory system or mechanism is required. Nuisance,negligence,absolute liability,strict liability and trespass are some of the effective common law principles which are helpful in environmental problems. What we need today is sufficient law and adequate machinery to enforce the legal standards. Without law environmental standards cannot be enforced and once again there is need to adopt the common law approach in solving the problem of environmental change as through this approach the affected person can get compensation and as the same time it puts check on wrongdoer.

Keywords: global environmental problems, nuisance, negligence, trespass, strict liability, absolute liability

Procedia PDF Downloads 567

Authors: Evgeny Chugunnyy, Alena Gerasimova, Kirill Chernyavskiy, Alexander Krasnov

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One of the primary component of Continuous deployment (CD) is a binary artifact repository — the place where artifacts are stored with metadata in a structured way. The binary artifact repository manager (BARM) is a software, which implements this repository logic and exposes a public application programming interface (API) for managing these artifacts. Almost every programming language ecosystem has its own artifact repository kind. During creating Artipie — BARM constructor and server, we analyzed and implemented a lot of different artifact repositories. In this paper we present criterias for comparing artifact repositories, and analyze the most popular repositories using these metrics. We also describe some of the notable features of different repositories. This paper aimed to help people who are creating, maintaining or optimizing software repository and CI tools.

Keywords: artifact, repository, continuous deployment, build automation, artifacts management

Procedia PDF Downloads 151

Authors: Ahmad Kayvani Fard, Gordon Mckay, Muataz Hussien

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Adsorption/sorption is believed to be one of the optimal processes for the removal of heavy metals from water due to its low operational and capital cost as well as its high removal efficiency. Different materials have been reported in literature as adsorbent for heavy metal removal in waste water such as natural sorbents, organic polymers (synthetic) and mineral materials (inorganic). The selection of adsorbents and development of new functional materials that can achieve good removal of heavy metals from water is an important practice and depends on many factors, such as the availability of the material, cost of material, and material safety and etc. In this study we reported the synthesis of doped Activated carbon and Carbon nanotube (CNT) with different loading of metal oxide nanoparticles such as Fe2O3, Fe3O4, Al2O3, TiO2, SiO2 and Ag nanoparticles and their application in removal of heavy metals, hydrocarbon, and organics from waste water. Commercial AC and CNT with different loadings of mentioned nanoparticle were prepared and effect of pH, adsorbent dosage, sorption kinetic, and concentration effects are studied and optimum condition for removal of heavy metals from water is reported. The prepared composite sorbent is characterized using field emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM), high transmission electron microscopy (HR-TEM), thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), X-ray diffractometer (XRD), the Brunauer, Emmett and Teller (BET) nitrogen adsorption technique, and Zeta potential. The composite materials showed higher removal efficiency and superior adsorption capacity compared to commercially available carbon based adsorbent. The specific surface area of AC increased by 50% reaching up to 2000 m2/g while the CNT specific surface area of CNT increased by more than 8 times reaching value of 890 m2/g. The increased surface area is one of the key parameters along with surface charge of the material determining the removal efficiency and removal efficiency. Moreover, the surface charge density of the impregnated CNT and AC have enhanced significantly where can benefit the adsorption process. The nanoparticles also enhance the catalytic activity of material and reduce the agglomeration and aggregation of material which provides more active site for adsorbing the contaminant from water. Some of the results for treating wastewater includes 100% removal of BTEX, arsenic, strontium, barium, phenolic compounds, and oil from water. The results obtained are promising for the use of AC and CNT loaded with metal oxide nanoparticle in treatment and pretreatment of waste water and produced water before desalination process. Adsorption can be very efficient with low energy consumption and economic feasibility.

Keywords: carbon nanotube, activated carbon, adsorption, heavy metal, water treatment

Procedia PDF Downloads 234

Authors: Zoltan Sebestyen, Eszter Barta-Rajnai, Emma Jakab, Zsuzsanna Czegeny

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Extraction of the energy content of lignocellulosic biomass is one of the possible pathways to reduce the greenhouse gas emission derived from the burning of the fossil fuels. The application of the bioenergy can mitigate the energy dependency of a country from the foreign natural gas and the petroleum. The diversity of the plant materials makes difficult the utilization of the raw biomass in power plants. This problem can be overcome by the application of thermochemical techniques. Pyrolysis is the thermal decomposition of the raw materials under inert atmosphere at high temperatures, which produces pyrolysis gas, biooil and charcoal. The energy content of these products can be exploited by further utilization. The differences in the chemical and physical properties of the raw biomass materials can be reduced by the use of torrefaction. Torrefaction is a promising mild thermal pretreatment method performed at temperatures between 200 and 300 °C in an inert atmosphere. The goal of the pretreatment from a chemical point of view is the removal of water and the acidic groups of hemicelluloses or the whole hemicellulose fraction with minor degradation of cellulose and lignin in the biomass. Thus, the stability of biomass against biodegradation increases, while its energy density increases. The volume of the raw materials decreases so the expenses of the transportation and the storage are reduced as well. Biooil is the major product during pyrolysis and an important by-product during torrefaction of biomass. The composition of biooil mostly depends on the quality of the raw materials and the applied temperature. In this work, thermoanalytical techniques have been used to study the qualitative and quantitative composition of the pyrolysis and torrefaction oils of a woody (black locust) and two herbaceous samples (rape straw and wheat straw). The biooil contains C5 and C6 anhydrosugar molecules, as well as aromatic compounds originating from hemicellulose, cellulose, and lignin, respectively. In this study, special emphasis was placed on the formation of the lignin monomeric products. The structure of the lignin fraction is different in the wood and in the herbaceous plants. According to the thermoanalytical studies the decomposition of lignin starts above 200 °C and ends at about 500 °C. The lignin monomers are present among the components of the torrefaction oil even at relatively low temperatures. We established that the concentration and the composition of the lignin products vary significantly with the applied temperature indicating that different decomposition mechanisms dominate at low and high temperatures. The evolutions of decomposition products as well as the thermal stability of the samples were measured by thermogravimetry/mass spectrometry (TG/MS). The differences in the structure of the lignin products of woody and herbaceous samples were characterized by the method of pyrolysis-gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (Py-GC/MS). As a statistical method, principal component analysis (PCA) has been used to find correlation between the composition of lignin products of the biooil and the applied temperatures.

Keywords: pyrolysis, torrefaction, biooil, lignin

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Authors: José L. Jiménez

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The use of technology in the classroom is an issue that is constantly evolving. Digital age students learn differently than their teachers did, so now the teacher should be constantly evolving their methods and teaching techniques to be more in touch with the student. In this paper a case study presents how were used some of these technologies by accompanying a classroom course, this in order to provide students with a different and innovative experience as their teacher usually presented the activities to develop. As students worked in the various activities, they increased their digital skills by employing unknown tools that helped them in their professional training. The twenty-first century teacher should consider the use of Information and Communication Technologies in the classroom thinking in skills that students of the digital age should possess. It also takes a brief look at the history of distance education and it is also highlighted the importance of integrating technology as part of the student's training.

Keywords: digital tools, on-line learning, social networks, technology

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Authors: Selami Şahin

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In this paper, in order to achieve sufficient bit error rate (BER) according to zenith angle of the satellite to ground station, SNR requirement is investigated utilizing pulse position modulation (PPM). To realize explicit results, all parameters such as link distance, Rytov variance, scintillation index, wavelength, aperture diameter of the receiver, Fried's parameter and zenith angle have been taken into account. Results indicate that after some parameters are determined since the constraints of the system, to achieve desired BER, required SNR values are in wide range while zenith angle changes from small to large values. Therefore, in order not to utilize high link margin, either SNR should adjust according to zenith angle or link should establish with predetermined intervals of the zenith angle.

Keywords: Free-space optical communication, optical downlink channel, atmospheric turbulence, wireless optical communication

Procedia PDF Downloads 402

Authors: Hatem Hamdy Ghieth

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In the recent time many fires happened in many skeleton buildings. The fire may be continues for a long time. This fire may cause a collapse of the building. This collapse may be happened due to the time of exposure to fire as well as the rate of the loading to the carrying elements. In this research a laboratory study for reinforced concrete columns under effect of fire with temperature reaches (650 ْ C) on the behavior of columns which loaded with axial load and with exposing to fire temperature only from all sides of columns. the main parameters of this study are level of load applying to the column, and the temperature applied to the fire, this temperatures was 500oC and 650oc. Nine concrete columns with dimensions 20x20x100 cms were casted one of these columns was tested to determine the ultimate load while the least were fired according to the experimental schedule.

Keywords: columns, fire duration, concrete strength, level of loading

Procedia PDF Downloads 440

Authors: Siu Hua Chang, Ayub Md Som, Jagannathan Krishnan

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The kinetics of Cu(II) transport through a bulk liquid membrane with different membrane materials was investigated in this work. Three types of membrane materials were used: Fresh cooking oil, waste cooking oil, and kerosene each of which was mixed with di-2-ethylhexylphosphoric acid (carrier) and tributylphosphate (modifier). Kinetic models derived from the kinetic laws of two consecutive irreversible first-order reactions were used to study the facilitated transport of Cu(II) across the source, membrane, and receiving phases of bulk liquid membrane. It was found that the transport kinetics of Cu(II) across the source phase was not affected by different types of membrane materials but decreased considerably when the membrane materials changed from kerosene, waste cooking oil to fresh cooking oil. The rate constants of Cu(II) removal and recovery processes through the bulk liquid membrane were also determined.

Keywords: transport kinetics, Cu(II), bulk liquid membrane, waste cooking oil

Procedia PDF Downloads 429

Authors: Benjamin Castillo, Luis Pastenes, Fernando Cerdova

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The contamination of food by microbial agents is a common problem in the industry, especially regarding the elaboration of animal source products. Incorrect manipulation of the machinery or on the raw materials can cause a decrease in production or an epidemiological outbreak due to intoxication. In order to improve food product quality, different methods have been used to reduce or, at least, to slow down the growth of the pathogens, especially deteriorated, infectious or toxigenic bacteria. These methods are usually carried out under low temperatures and short processing time (abiotic agents), along with the application of antibacterial substances, such as bacteriocins (biotic agents). This, in a controlled and efficient way that fulfills the purpose of bacterial control without damaging the final product. Therefore, the objective of the present study is to design a secondary mathematical model that allows the prediction of both the biotic and abiotic factor impact associated with animal source food processing. In order to accomplish this objective, the authors propose a three-dimensional differential equation model, whose components are: bacterial growth, release, production and artificial incorporation of bacteriocins and changes in pH levels of the medium. These three dimensions are constantly being influenced by the temperature of the medium. Secondly, this model adapts to an idealized situation of cross-contamination animal source food processing, with the study agents being both the animal product and the contact surface. Thirdly, the stochastic simulations and the parametric sensibility analysis are compared with referential data. The main results obtained from the analysis and simulations of the mathematical model were to discover that, although bacterial growth can be stopped in lower temperatures, even lower ones are needed to eradicate it. However, this can be not only expensive, but counterproductive as well in terms of the quality of the raw materials and, on the other hand, higher temperatures accelerate bacterial growth. In other aspects, the use and efficiency of bacteriocins are an effective alternative in the short and medium terms. Moreover, an indicator of bacterial growth is a low-level pH, since lots of deteriorating bacteria are lactic acids. Lastly, the processing times are a secondary agent of concern when the rest of the aforementioned agents are under control. Our main conclusion is that when acclimating a mathematical model within the context of the industrial process, it can generate new tools that predict bacterial contamination, the impact of bacterial inhibition, and processing method times. In addition, the mathematical modeling proposed logistic input of broad application, which can be replicated on non-meat food products, other pathogens or even on contamination by crossed contact of allergen foods.

Keywords: bacteriocins, cross-contamination, mathematical model, temperature

Procedia PDF Downloads 145

Authors: Manoj Gupta, Nirmendra Singh Bhadauria

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Most of the applications in image processing require high spatial and high spectral resolution in a single image. For example satellite image system, the traffic monitoring system, and long range sensor fusion system all use image processing. However, most of the available equipment is not capable of providing this type of data. The sensor in the surveillance system can only cover the view of a small area for a particular focus, yet the demanding application of this system requires a view with a high coverage of the field. Image fusion provides the possibility of combining different sources of information. In this paper, we have decomposed the image using DTCWT and then fused using average and hybrid of (maxima and average) pixel level techniques and then compared quality of both the images using PSNR.

Keywords: image fusion, DWT, DT-CWT, PSNR, average image fusion, hybrid image fusion

Procedia PDF Downloads 606

Authors: Nadjiba Mezıou-Cheboutı, Amel Merabet, Yahia Cheboutı, Nassima Behidj, Fatima-Zohra Bıssaad et Salahedine Doumandjı

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Among the Anacardiaceae, the fruit (Pistacia vera L.) is the only species that produces edible fruits. The introduction of real pistachio was made in the early sixties by an FAO program in Algeria in several regions in the northern part of Algeria: Tlemcen, Sidi Bel Abbes, Batna, Bouira M'sila . Chemical analyzes of seeds pistachios were made on seeds from an orchard that localizes to Bechloul (Bouira) located in bioclimatic sub-humid temperate winter floor. Analyzes reveal dry matter content of 3.60 ± 0.45%, the water rate is 7.21 ± 0.36%. However, the fat content is 46.00 ± 0.90%, in average blood sugar, it is 4.02 ± 0.47%, the protein reached 29.88 ± 0.76%. Given the very interesting that high-fat food nutritional values, culture pistachio must be considered for its extension in Algeria.

Keywords: pistachio, dry matter, fat, sugar, protein

Procedia PDF Downloads 356

Authors: Nadia Fatima Zahra Malki

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The aim of the study is to show the role of total Quality Management on firm performance, research relied on the views of a sample managers working in the Marinel pharmaceutical company. The research aims to achieve many objectives, including increasing awareness of the concepts of Total Quality Management on Firm Performance, especially in the manufacturing firm, providing a future vision of the possibility of success, and the actual application of the Principles of Total Quality Management in the manufacturing company. The research adopted a default model was built after a review and analysis of the literature review in the context of one hypothesis's main points at the origin of a group of sub-hypotheses. The research presented a set of conclusions, and the most important of these conclusions was that there is a relationship between the Principles of TQM and Firm Performance.

Keywords: total quality management, competitive advantage, companies, objectives

Procedia PDF Downloads 66

Authors: J. Zhang, K. Agyapong-Kodua

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Digital factory based on visual design and simulation has emerged as a mainstream to reduce digital development life cycle. Some basic industrial systems are being integrated via semantic modelling, and products (P) matching process (P)-resource (R) requirements are designed to fulfill current customer demands. Nevertheless, product design is still limited to fixed product models and known knowledge of product engineers. Therefore, this paper presents a rapid reconfiguration method based on semantic technologies with PPR ontologies to reuse known and unknown knowledge. In order to avoid the influence of big data, our system uses a cloud manufactory and distributed database to improve the efficiency of querying meeting PPR requirements.

Keywords: semantic technologies, factory system, digital factory, cloud manufactory

Procedia PDF Downloads 488

Authors: Sahar Dehghan, Yeganeh Mousavi Jahromi, Ghahraman Abdoli

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Since tax revenues are one of the most important sources of government revenue, it is essential to consider increasing taxpayers' compliance. One of the factors that can affect the taxpayers' compliance is the structure of the crimes and incentives envisaged in the tax law. In this research, by using the 'prospect theory', the effects of changes in the rate of crimes and the tax incentive in the direct tax law on the taxpayer’s compliance behavior have been investigated. To determine the preferences and preferences of taxpayer’s in the business sector and their degree of sensitivity to fines and incentives, a questionnaire with mixed gamble structure is designed. Estimated results using the Hierarchical Bayesian method indicate that the taxpayer’s that have been tested in this study are more sensitive to the incentives in the direct tax law, and the tax administration can use this to increase the level of collected tax and increase the level of compliance.

Keywords: tax compliance, prospect theory, value function, mixed gamble

Procedia PDF Downloads 175

Authors: A. U. Haque, W. Asrar, A. A. Omar, E. Sulaeman, J. S Mohamed Ali

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Open jet testing is a valuable testing technique which provides the desired results with reasonable accuracy. It has been used in past for the airships and now has recently been applied for the hybrid ones, having more non-buoyant force coming from the wings, empennage and the fuselage. In the present review work, an effort has been done to review the challenges involved in open jet testing. In order to shed light on the application of this technique, the experimental results of two different configurations are presented. Although, the aerodynamic results of such vehicles are unique to its own design; however, it will provide a starting point for planning any future testing. Few important testing areas which need more attention are also highlighted. Most of the hybrid buoyant aerial vehicles are unconventional in shape and there experimental data is generated, which is unique to its own design.

Keywords: open jet testing, aerodynamics, hybrid buoyant aerial vehicles, airships

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Authors: Peng Li, Chuanri Li, Tao Li

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Reliability allocation is quite important during early design and development stages for a system to apportion its specified reliability goal to subsystems. This paper improves the reliability fuzzy allocation method and gives concrete processes on determining the factor set, the factor weight set, judgment set, and multi-grade fuzzy comprehensive evaluation. To determine the weight of factor set, the modified trapezoidal numbers are proposed to reduce errors caused by subjective factors. To decrease the fuzziness in the fuzzy division, an approximation method based on linear programming is employed. To compute the explicit values of fuzzy numbers, centroid method of defuzzification is considered. An example is provided to illustrate the application of the proposed reliability allocation method based on fuzzy arithmetic.

Keywords: reliability allocation, fuzzy arithmetic, allocation weight, linear programming

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Authors: Zubair Ahmad

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Specific activities of the natural radionuclides 238U, 232Th and 40K were measured by using γ - ray spectrometric technique in soil samples collected from the city of Dhanbad, which is located near coal mines. Mean activity values for 238U, 232Th and 40K were found to be 60.29 Bq/kg, 64.50 Bq/kg and 481.0 Bq/kg, respectively. Mean radium equivalent activity, absorbed dose rate, outdoor dose, external hazard index, internal hazard index, for the area under study were determined as 189.53 Bq/kg, 87.21 nGy/h, 0.37 mSv/y, 0.52 and 0.64, respectively. The annual effective dose to the general public was found 0.44 mSv/y. This value lies well below the limit of 1 mSv/y as recommended by International Commission on Radiological Protection. Measured values were found safe for environment and public health.

Keywords: coal city Dhanbad, gamma-ray spectroscopy, natural radioactivity, soil samples

Procedia PDF Downloads 269

Authors: Farhan Alam Farhan Alam, Fatah Nugroho, Setyawan Wahyu Pradana

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Tan Malaka was a great Indonesian Marxism thinker. His idea of Marxism give encouragement to the struggle for Indonesian independence. Furthermore, it refers to what Marx said as the flexibility of a Marxist. Tan Malaka developed the Marxist theory against what have already existed so that Marxism can be harmonized and compatible with the context of Indonesia. For example, Tan Malaka initiated the cooperation between the Marxist movement and Pan-Islamism. The collaboration of Islam with Marxism which is so contradictive at that time was seen by Tan Malaka as a necessity in order to against capitalism. By using study literature and historiography methods, this paper attempts to analyze the application of the Marxism theory in the Tan Malaka’s perspective in Indonesia today in order to counter capitalism currently. His perspective combines Marxism with Islam as a solid collaboration of ideology.

Keywords: Indonesia, Marxism, Islam, Marxist theory, Tan Malaka

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Authors: Muhammad Umair Shahid, Abdul Rehman, Mudassir Mukhtar, Muhammad Nauman

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The smart antenna is the prominent technology that has become known in recent years to meet the growing demands of wireless communications. In an overcrowded atmosphere, its application is growing gradually. A methodical evaluation of the performance of Fixed Beamforming algorithms for smart antennas such as Multiple Sidelobe Canceller (MSC), Maximum Signal-to-interference ratio (MSIR) and minimum variance (MVDR) has been comprehensively presented in this paper. Simulation results show that beamforming is helpful in providing optimized response towards desired directions. MVDR beamformer provides the most optimal solution.

Keywords: fixed weight beamforming, array pattern, signal to interference ratio, power efficiency, element spacing, array elements, optimum weight vector

Procedia PDF Downloads 185

Authors: Sophio Kobauri, Temur Kantaria, Nina Kulikova, David Tugushi, Ramaz Katsarava

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The elaboration of effective drug delivery vehicles is still topical nowadays since targeted drug delivery is one of the most important challenges of the modern nanomedicine. The last decade has witnessed enormous research focused on synthetic cationic polymers (CPs) due to their flexible properties, in particular as non-viral gene delivery systems, facile synthesis, robustness, not oncogenic and proven gene delivery efficiency. However, the toxicity is still an obstacle to the application in pharmacotherapy. For overcoming the problem, creation of new cationic compounds including the polymeric nano-size particles – nano-containers (NCs) loading with different pharmaceuticals and biologicals is still relevant. In this regard, a variety of NCs-based drug delivery systems have been developed. We have found that amino acid-based biodegradable polymers called as pseudo-proteins (PPs), which can be cleared from the body after the fulfillment of their function are highly suitable for designing pharmaceutical NCs. Among them, one of the most promising are NCs made of biodegradable Cationic PPs (CPPs). For preparing new cationic NCs (CNCs), we used CPPs composed of positively charged amino acid L-arginine (R). The CNCs were fabricated by two approaches using: (1) R-based homo-CPPs; (2) Blends of R-based CPPs with regular (neutral) PPs. According to the first approach NCs we prepared from CPPs 8R3 (composed of R, sebacic acid and 1,3-propanediol) and 8R6 (composed of R, sebacic acid and 1,6-hexanediol). The NCs prepared from these CPPs were 72-101 nm in size with zeta potential within +30 ÷ +35 mV at a concentration 6 mg/mL. According to the second approach, CPPs 8R6 was blended in organic phase with neutral PPs 8L6 (composed of leucine, sebacic acid and 1,6-hexanediol). The NCs prepared from the blends were 130-140 nm in size with zeta potential within +20 ÷ +28 mV depending on 8R6/8L6 ratio. The stability studies of fabricated NCs showed that no substantial change of the particle size and distribution and no big particles’ formation is observed after three months storage. In vitro biocompatibility study of the obtained NPs with four different stable cell lines: A549 (human), U-937 (human), RAW264.7 (murine), Hepa 1-6 (murine) showed both type cathionic NCs are biocompatible. The obtained data allow concluding that the obtained CNCs are promising for the application as biodegradable drug delivery vehicles. This work was supported by the joint grant from the Science and Technology Center in Ukraine and Shota Rustaveli National Science Foundation of Georgia #6298 'New biodegradable cationic polymers composed of arginine and spermine-versatile biomaterials for various biomedical applications'.

Keywords: biodegradable polymers, cationic pseudo-proteins, nano-containers, drug delivery vehicles

Procedia PDF Downloads 156

Authors: Panda Krouse

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This work is a marriage of the science of Applied Behavioral Analysis and an educator’s look at Neuroscience. The focus is integrating what we know about the anatomy of the brain in autism and evidence-based practices in education. It is a bold attempt to present links between neurological research and the application of evidence-based practices in education. In researching for this work, no discovery of articles making these connections was made. Consideration of the areas of structural differences in the brain are aligned with evidence-based strategies. A brief literary review identifies how identified areas affect overt behavior, which is what, as educators, is what we can see and measure. Giving further justification and validation of our practices in education from a second scientific field is significant for continued improvement in intervention for students on the autism spectrum.

Keywords: autism, evidence based practices, neurological differences, education intervention

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Authors: Wei Li, Tuo Yang

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In order to satisfy the real-time and accurate requirements of cigarette smoke detection in complex scenes, a cigarette smoke detection technology based on the combination of deep learning and color features was proposed. Firstly, based on the color features of cigarette smoke, the suspicious cigarette smoke area in the image is extracted. Secondly, combined with the efficiency of cigarette smoke detection and the problem of network overfitting, a network model for cigarette smoke detection was designed according to YOLOV3 algorithm to reduce the false detection rate. The experimental results show that the method is feasible and effective, and the accuracy of cigarette smoke detection is up to 99.13%, which satisfies the requirements of real-time cigarette smoke detection in complex scenes.

Keywords: deep learning, computer vision, cigarette smoke detection, YOLOV3, color feature extraction

Procedia PDF Downloads 87

Authors: L. Strauta, S. Muižniece-Brasava

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Even though legumes possess high nutritional value and have a rather high protein content for plant origin products, they are underutilized mostly due to their lengthy cooking time. To increase the presence of legume-based products in human diet, new extruded products were made of cow peas (Vigna unguiculata (L.) Walp.). But as it is known, adding different moisture content to flour before extrusion can change the physical properties of the extruded product. Experiments were carried out to estimate the optimal moisture content for cow pea extrusion. After extrusion, the pH level had dropped from 6.7 to 6.5 and the lowest hardness rate was observed in the samples with additional 9 g 100g^-1 of moisture - 28±4N, but the volume mass of the samples with additional 9 g100g^-1 of water was 263±3 g L^-1; all samples were approximately 7±1mm long.

Keywords: cow pea, extrusion–cooking, moisture, size

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Authors: Mokhtar Nikgoo

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Civil engineering is one of the disciplines that shows the application of science in creating construction and civil engineering. That is, everything that returns to the population of a country, such as dams, airports, roads, bridges, towers, tunnels, telecommunication towers, buildings resistant to earthquakes, floods and fires, power plants and light, cheap and quality materials for construction. And the construction is included in the scope of work of the civil engineer. Civil engineering covers a wide range of tasks. That is, for the construction of buildings, bridges, towers, tunnels, roads, silos, or sewage networks, an efficient civil engineer is needed at the beginning, in addition to complying with the technical and operational aspects, he also works economically. Because being economical is a principle in civil engineering. Is. This field at the undergraduate level has three majors: civil-building, civil-mapping and civil-water.

Keywords: civil engineering, construction, surveying, mapping, pile

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Authors: Austyn Snowden

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Aim: To examine the construct validity of the Trait Emotional Intelligence Questionnaire Short form. Background: Emotional intelligence involves the identification and regulation of our own emotions and the emotions of others. It is therefore a potentially useful construct in the investigation of recruitment and retention in nursing and many questionnaires have been constructed to measure it. Design: Secondary analysis of existing dataset of responses to TEIQue-SF using concurrent application of Rasch analysis and confirmatory factor analysis. Method: First year undergraduate nursing and computing students completed Trait Emotional Intelligence Questionnaire-Short Form. Responses were analysed by synthesising results of Rasch analysis and confirmatory factor analysis.

Keywords: emotional intelligence, rasch analysis, factor analysis, nurse recruiters

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Authors: Rupan Preet Kaur

Abstract:

This article reviewed the potential of artificial intelligence in the field of identity and access management (IAM) and identity governance and administration (IGA), the most critical pillars of any organization. The power of leveraging AI in the most complex and huge user base environment was outlined by simplifying and streamlining the user access approvals and re-certifications without any impact on the user productivity and at the same time strengthening the overall compliance of IAM landscape. Certain challenges encountered in the current state were detailed where majority of organizations are still lacking maturity in the data integrity aspect. Finally, this paper concluded that within the realm of possibility, users and application owners can reap the benefits of unified approach provided by AI to improve the user experience, improve overall efficiency, and strengthen the risk posture.

Keywords: artificial intelligence, machine learning, user access review, access approval

Procedia PDF Downloads 94

Authors: Vinod Kumar Arya

Abstract:

Creep analysis of a thick-walled composite anisotropic cylinder under internal pressure and considering large strains is presented. Using a threshold creep law for composite materials, expressions for stresses, strains, and strain rates are derived for several anisotropic cases. Numerical results, presented through several graphs and tables, depict the effect of anisotropy on the stress, strain, and strain rate distributions. Since for a specific type of material anisotropy described in the paper, these quantities are found to have the lowest values at the inner radius (the potential location of cylinder failure), it is concluded that by employing such an anisotropic material for the design of a thick-walled cylinder a longer service life for the cylinder may be achieved.

Keywords: creep, composites, large strains, thick-walled cylinders, anisotropy

Procedia PDF Downloads 151