Search results for: pile load test

Authors: Dafni Kalatzi Pantera

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How globalisation affects environmental activism? Existing research on this relationship focuses on the influence of the world polity on individuals’ willingness to participate in environmental movements. However, globalisation is a multidimensional process which promotes pro-environmental ideas through the world polity, but it also fosters economic growth which is considered antagonistic to the environment. This article models the way that globalisation as a whole affects individuals’ willingness to participate in environmental activism, and the main argument is that globalisation’s impact is conditional on political ideology. To test the above hypothesis, individual and country level data are used for European countries between 1981-2020. The results support the expectation of the article that although globalisation has a positive impact on individuals’ willingness to participate in environmental activism when it interacts with political ideology, its influence differs between ideological spectrums.

Keywords: environmental activism, globalisation, political ideology, world polity

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Authors: Razyeh Behbahani, Martin L. Plumer, Ivan Saika-Voivod

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Micromagnetic simulations based on the stochastic Landau-Lifshitz-Gilbert equation are used to calculate dynamic magnetic hysteresis loops relevant to magnetic hyperthermia applications. With the goal to effectively simulate room-temperature loops for large iron-oxide based systems at relatively slow sweep rates on the order of 1 Oe/ns or less, a coarse-graining scheme is proposed and tested. The scheme is derived from a previously developed renormalization-group approach. Loops associated with nanorods, used as building blocks for larger nanoparticles that were employed in preclinical trials (Dennis et al., 2009 Nanotechnology 20 395103), serve as the model test system. The scaling algorithm is shown to produce nearly identical loops over several decades in the model grain sizes. Sweep-rate scaling involving the damping constant alpha is also demonstrated.

Keywords: coarse-graining, hyperthermia, hysteresis loops, micromagnetic simulations

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Authors: Madina Tynybayeva, Sanya Zhumazhanova, Saltanat Kozhakhmetova, Merey Mussabayeva

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One of the leading indicators of the education quality is the level of students’ educational achievements. The processes of modernization of Kazakhstani education system have predetermined the need to improve the national system by assessing the quality of education. The results of assessment greatly contribute to addressing questions about the current state of the educational system in the country. The monitoring of students’ educational achievements (MEAS) is the systematic measurement of the quality of education for compliance with the state obligatory standard of Kazakhstan. This systematic measurement is independent of educational organizations and approved by the order of the Minister of Education and Scienceof Kazakhstan. The MEAS was conducted in the regions of Kazakhstanfor the first time in 2022 by the National Testing Centre. The measurement does not have legal consequences either for students or for educational organizations. Students’ achievements were measured in three subject areas: reading, mathematics and science literacy. MEAS was held for the first time in April this year, 105 thousand students from 1436 schools of Kazakhstan took part in the testing. The monitoring was accompanied by a survey of students, teachers, and school leaders. The goal is to identify which contextual factors affect learning outcomes. The testing was carried out in a computer format. The test tasks of MEAS are ranked according to the three levels of difficulty: basic, medium, and high. Fourth graders are asked to complete 30 closed-type tasks. The average score of the results is 21 points out of 30, which means 70% of tasks were successfully completed. The total number of test tasks for 9th grade students – 75 questions. The results of ninth graders are comparatively lower, the success rate of completing tasks is 63%. MEAS participants did not reveal a statistically significant gap in results in terms of the language of instruction, territorial status, and type of school. The trend of reducing the gap in these indicators is also noted in the framework of recent international studies conducted across the country, in particular PISA for schools in Kazakhstan. However, there is a regional gap in MOES performance. The difference in the values of the indicators of the highest and lowest scores of the regions was 11% of the success of completing tasks in the 4th grade, 14% in the 9thgrade. The results of the 4th grade students in reading, mathematics, and science literacy are: 71.5%, 70%, and 66.9%, respectively. The results of ninth-graders in reading, mathematics, and science literacy are 69.6%, 54%, and 60.8%, respectively. From the surveys, it was revealed that the educational achievements of students are considerably influenced by such factors as the subject competences of teachers, as well as the school climate and motivation of students. Thus, the results of MEAS indicate the need for an integrated approach to improving the quality of education. In particular, the combination of improving the content of curricula and textbooks, internal and external assessment of the educational achievements of students, educational programs of pedagogical specialties, and advanced training courses is required.

Keywords: assessment, secondary school, monitoring, functional literacy, kazakhstan

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Authors: Zorana Z. Jurinjak, Nataša B. Lukić, Christos G. Alexopoulos

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Although in the last few decades, English as a foreign language has been a compulsory subject in almost all colleges and universities in Serbia, students who enter the first year come with different levels of knowledge, which is immense task and a burden on teachers not only which literature and how to conduct classes in heterogeneous groups but also how to evaluate and assess the progress.This paper aims to discuss the issue of determining the target level of knowledge of English as a foreign language in higher education in Serbia due to the great need for these levels to equalize. The research was conducted at several colleges and universities where first-year students took a placement test, and we also carried out a review and comparison of the literature used in teaching English in those schools. We hope that this research will not only raise the awareness of those in charge when making curriculums, but also that ways will be found to assimilate these differences in knowledge and establish the criteria in assessment.

Keywords: higher education, EFL, levels of knowledge, evaluation, assessment

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Authors: Inyene Nathaniel Nkanta

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The present economic situation in Nigeria, with an increase in inflation rate due to the fall of crude oil prices and post covid-19 crisis, has increased the level of poverty and suffering in Nigeria, particularly the women. Against that backdrop, this research project is initiated to explore ways to empower women through entrepreneurship education and training to ameliorate the poverty level amongst women in Nigeria. A qualitative approach to data collection will be applied in this study and to test the assertions of this research project empirically, this research adopts a case study research method as this will enable me to obtain and probe ways women can be empowered through semi-structured interviews and focus groups. The result of this research project will provide an original perspective on human capital development, most importantly, the need for entrepreneurial education and entrepreneurial literature and practice.

Keywords: women, Nigeria, entrepreneurship education, Economic development, human capital

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Authors: F. Mohammadsadeghi

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Relevance of research: Axial compressors are used in both aircraft engine construction and ground-based gas turbine engines. The compressor is considered to be one of the main gas turbine engine units, which define absolute and relative indicators of engine in general. Failure of compressor often leads to drastic consequences. Therefore, safe (stable) operation must be maintained when using axial compressor. Currently, we can observe a tendency of increase of power unit, productivity, circumferential velocity and compression ratio of axial compressors in gas turbine engines of aircraft and ground-based application whereas metal consumption of their structure tends to fall. This causes the increase of dynamic loads as well as danger of damage of high load compressor or engine structure elements in general due to transient processes. In operating practices of aeronautical engineering and ground units with gas turbine drive the operational stability failure of gas turbine engines is one of relatively often failure causes what can lead to emergency situations. Surge occurrence is considered to be an absolute buckling failure. This is one of the most dangerous and often occurring types of instability. However detailed were the researches of this phenomenon the development of measures for surge before-the-fact prevention is still relevant. This is why the research of transient processes for axial compressors is necessary in order to provide efficient, stable and secure operation. The paper addresses the problem of automatic control system improvement by integrating the anti-surge algorithms for axial compressor of aircraft gas turbine engine. Paper considers dynamic exhaustion of gas dynamic stability of compressor stage, results of numerical simulation of airflow flowing through the airfoil at design and stalling modes, experimental researches to form the criteria that identify the compressor state at pre-surge mode detection. Authors formulated basic ways for developing surge preventing systems, i.e. forming the algorithms that allow detecting the surge origination and the systems that implement the proposed algorithms.

Keywords: axial compressor, rotation stall, Surg, unstable operation of gas turbine engine

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Authors: Daniel Nelson, Valeria La Saponara

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Material extrusion is an additive manufacturing modality that continues to show great promise in the ability to create low-cost, highly intricate, and exceedingly useful structural elements. As more capable and versatile filament materials are devised, and the resolution of manufacturing systems continues to increase, the need to understand and predict manufacturing-induced warping will gain ever greater importance. The following study presents an in situ remote sensing and data analysis construct that allows for the in situ mapping and quantification of surface displacements induced by residual stresses on a specified test structure. This proof-of-concept experimental process shows that it is possible to provide designers and manufacturers with insight into the manufacturing parameters that lead to the manifestation of these deformations and a greater understanding of the behavior of these warping events over the course of the manufacturing process.

Keywords: additive manufacturing, deformation, digital image correlation, fused filament fabrication, residual stress, warping

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Authors: Bhaveek Maini, Sanjay Dhanka, Surita Maini

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Electroencephalography (EEG) is used to classify several epileptic seizures worldwide. It is a very crucial task for the neurologist to identify the epileptic seizure with manual EEG analysis, as it takes lots of effort and time. Human error is always at high risk in EEG, as acquiring signals needs manual intervention. Disease diagnosis using machine learning (ML) has continuously been explored since its inception. Moreover, where a large number of datasets have to be analyzed, ML is acting as a boon for doctors. In this research paper, authors proposed two different ML models, i.e., logistic regression (LR) and Naïve Bayes (NB), to predict epileptic seizures based on general parameters. These two techniques are applied to the epileptic seizures recognition dataset, available on the UCI ML repository. The algorithms are implemented on an 80:20 train test ratio (80% for training and 20% for testing), and the performance of the model was validated by 10-fold cross-validation. The proposed study has claimed accuracy of 81.87% and 95.49% for LR and NB, respectively.

Keywords: epileptic seizure recognition, logistic regression, Naïve Bayes, machine learning

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Authors: Takwa Jahan

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Music can be used in ESL classroom to create a learning environment. As literature abounds with positive statements, music can be used as a vehicle for second language acquisition. Music can be applied as an instrument to help second language learners to acquire vocabulary, grammar, spelling and other four skills and to expand cultural knowledge. Vocabulary learning is perceived boring by learners. As listening to music and singing songs are enjoyable to students, it can be used effectively to acquire vocabulary in second language. This paper reports a study to find out how music exhilarates vocabulary acquisition as the learners stay relaxed and thus learning becomes more enjoyable. For conducting my research two groups of fifty students- music and non-music group were formed. Data were collected through class observation, test, questionnaires, and interview. The finding shows that music group acquired much amount of vocabulary than the non-music group. They enjoyed vocabulary learning activities based on listening songs.

Keywords: effective instrument, ESL classroom, music, relax environment, vocabulary learning

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Authors: Reza Rezaeipour Honarmandzad

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In this paper we propose an ANN for detection and localization of fatigue damage in aircraft structures. We used network of piezoelectric transducers for Lamb-wave measurements in order to calculate damage indices. Data gathered by the sensors was given to neural network classifier. A set of neural network electors of different architecture cooperates to achieve consensus concerning the state of each monitored path. Sensed signal variations in the ROI, detected by the networks at each path, were used to assess the state of the structure as well as to localize detected damage and to filter out ambient changes. The classifier has been extensively tested on large data sets acquired in the tests of specimens with artificially introduced notches as well as the results of numerous fatigue experiments. Effect of the classifier structure and test data used for training on the results was evaluated.

Keywords: ANN, fatigue damage, aircraft structures, piezoelectric transducers, lamb-wave measurements

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Authors: W. T. Hsu, H. L. Tsai

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The rapid aging of the population is a common trend in the world. However, the progress of modern medical technology has increased the average life expectancy. The global population structure has changed dramatically, and the elderly population has risen rapidly. In the face of rapid population growth, it must be noted issues of the aging population must face up to, which are the physiological, psychological, and social problems associated with aging. This study aims to investigate how insurance agents are actively dealing with an aging society, their own aging anxiety, and their exercise habits. Purposive sampling was the sampling method of this study, a total of 204 respondents were surveyed and 204 valid surveys were returned. The returned valid ratio was 100%. Statistical method included descriptive statistics, t-test, and one-way ANOVA. The results of the study found that the insurance agent’s age, seniority, exercise habits to aging anxiety are significantly different.

Keywords: insurance practitioners, aging anxiety, exercise habits, elderly

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Authors: Odenigbo Veronica Ngozi, Lorreta Chika Ukwuaba

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This study focuses on how the strengthening adult literacy program can help accelerate transformative strategies to end female genital mutilation (FGM) in Nigeria, specifically in Nsukka Local Government Area. The research delves into the definition of FGM, adult literacy programs, and how to achieve ending FGM to attain Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in 2030. It further discusses the practice of FGM in Nigeria and emphasizes the statement of the problem. The main aim of the study is to investigate how strengthening adult literacy programs can help accelerate transformative strategies to end FGM in Nigeria and achieve SDGs in 2030. The researchers utilized a survey research design to conduct the study in Nsukka L.G.A. The population was composed of 26 facilitators and adult learners in five adult learning centers in the area. The entire population was used as a sample, and structured questionnaires were employed to elicit information. The items on the questionnaire were face-validated by three experts, and the reliability of the instrument was verified using Cronbach Alpha Reliability Technique. The research questions were analyzed using means and standard deviation while the hypothesis was tested at 0.05 level of degree of significance using a t-test. The findings show that through adult literacy program acceleration of transformative strategies, the practices of FGM can be ended. Strengthening adult literacy programs is a good channel to end or stop FGM through the knowledge and skill acquired from the learning centers. The theoretical importance of the study lies in the fact that it highlights the role of adult literacy programs in accelerating transformative strategies to combat harmful cultural practices such as FGM. It further supports the importance of education and knowledge in achieving sustainable development goals by 2030. Structured questionnaires were distributed to an entire population of 26 facilitators and adult learners in five adult learning centers in Nsukka L.G.A. The questionnaire items were face–validated by three experts, and the reliability of the instrument was verified using Cronbach Alpha Reliability Technique. The research questions were analyzed using means and standard deviation, while the hypothesis was tested using a t-test at 0.05 level of degree of significance. The study addressed the question of how strengthening adult literacy programs can help accelerate transformative strategies to end FGM in Nigeria and achieve SDGs by 2030. In conclusion, the study found that adult literacy is a good tool to end FGM in Nigeria. The recommendations were that government, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), Community-based organizations (CBOs), and individuals should support the funding and establishment of adult literacy centers in communities so as to reach every illiterate parent or individual and acquire the knowledge and skill needed to understand the negative effect of FGM in the life of a girl child.

Keywords: adult literacy, female genital mutilation, learning centers, SDGs, strengthening

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Authors: Huey-Wen Chou, Shuo-Heng Liang

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This study focuses on studying college students’ multitasking with cellphones/laptops during lectures. In-class multitasking behavior is defined as the activities students engaged that are irrelevant to learning. This study aims to understand if students' learning engagement affects students' multitasking as well as to investigate the causes or motivations that contribute to the occurrence of multitasking behavior. Survey data were collected and analyzed by PLS method and multiple regression to test the research model and hypothesis. Major results include: 1. Students' multitasking motivation positively predicts students’ in-class multitasking. 2. Factors affecting multitasking in class, including efficiency, entertainment and social needs, significantly impact on multitasking. 3. Polychronic personality traits will positively predict students’ multitasking. 4. Students' classroom learning engagement negatively predicts multitasking. 5. Course attributes negatively predict student learning engagement and positively predict student multitasking.

Keywords: engagement, monochronic personality, multitasking, learning, personality traits

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Authors: Mahdi Azizzadeh, Ali Nabizadeh

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This paper investigates whether ownership structure has significant effects on dividend policy and the percentage of cash dividend payout ratio in Iranian companies listed on the Tehran Stock Exchange. We use a sample of 300 firm-years for 2010-2014. Results indicate that there is no significant relationship between family ownership and/or institutional ownership and dividend policy. Furthermore, there is no significant relationship between dividend policies in family-owned firms with high or low institutional ownership. However, our empirical test shows that family firms with a low level of institutional investors distribute more cash dividends on average than family firms with a high level of institutional ownership.

Keywords: family ownership, institutional ownership, dividend policy, dividend payout ratio

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Authors: Khenfer-Koummich Fatima, Mesbahi Larbi, Hendel Fatiha

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This paper presents a recognition system for isolated words like robot commands. It’s carried out by Time Delay Neural Networks; TDNN. To teleoperate a robot for specific tasks as turn, close, etc… In industrial environment and taking into account the noise coming from the machine. The choice of TDNN is based on its generalization in terms of accuracy, in more it acts as a filter that allows the passage of certain desirable frequency characteristics of speech; the goal is to determine the parameters of this filter for making an adaptable system to the variability of speech signal and to noise especially, for this the back propagation technique was used in learning phase. The approach was applied on commands pronounced in two languages separately: The French and Arabic. The results for two test bases of 300 spoken words for each one are 87%, 97.6% in neutral environment and 77.67%, 92.67% when the white Gaussian noisy was added with a SNR of 35 dB.

Keywords: TDNN, neural networks, noise, speech recognition

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Authors: Behnaz Mahdavi, Hamidreza Khodaei, Alireza Banitaba

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Conjugated Linoleic Acid is a group of long-chain unsaturated fatty acids with more than one double bond and a mixture of 28 isomers of Linoleic acid (C 18:2) and it is counted as one of the essential acids. The main purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of CLA on some reproductive hormones in rams. In this study, six rams 3 to 4 years old with an average weight of 90 kg were selected. Rams were randomly divided into 3 groups and were treated by CLA treatment for 30 days. The first group (as a control group) did not receive CLA, The second group received 0.5 gr and the third group received 1 gram of CLA. The blood testing was done on rams every 15 days using a 20 ml syringe. Data analysis was performed by SAS software. Also mean comparison was done using Duncan's test method (p<0.05). Obtained results showed that the serum concentration of testosterone hormone was decreased numerically as well as the concentration of FSH hormone however the concentration of LH was increased. Also, the CLA had a significant effect on Leptin concentration. CLA in oral form can reduce the concentration of testosterone in rams.

Keywords: CLA, ram, testosterone, conjugated linoleic acid

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Authors: Anita Bajpai, Sarah Duan, Ashlee Erskine, Shehzein Khan, Raymond Kramer

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Introduction: This research focuses on exploring the beneficial effects if any, of Vitamin-D in reducing the need for supplemental oxygen among hospitalized COVID-19 patients. Two questions are investigated – Q1)Doeshaving a healthy level of baselineVitamin-D 25-OH (≥ 30ng/ml) help,andQ2) does administering Vitamin-D therapy after-the-factduring inpatient hospitalization help? Methods/Study Design: This is a comprehensive, retrospective, observational study of all inpatients at RUHS from March through December 2020 who tested positive for COVID-19 based on real-time reverse transcriptase–polymerase chain reaction assay of nasal and pharyngeal swabs and rapid assay antigen test. To address Q1, we looked atall N1=182 patients whose baseline plasma Vitamin-D 25-OH was known and who needed supplemental oxygen. Of this, a total of 121 patients had a healthy Vitamin-D level of ≥30 ng/mlwhile the remaining 61 patients had low or borderline (≤ 29.9ng/ml)level. Similarly, for Q2, we looked at a total of N2=893 patients who were given supplemental oxygen, of which713 were not given Vitamin-D and 180 were given Vitamin-D therapy. The numerical value of the maximum amount of oxygen flow rate(dependent variable) administered was recorded for each patient. The mean values and associated standard deviations for each group were calculated. Thesetwo sets of independent data served as the basis for independent, two-sample t-Test statistical analysis. To be accommodative of any reasonable benefitof Vitamin-D, ap-value of 0.10(α< 10%) was set as the cutoff point for statistical significance. Results: Given the large sample sizes, the calculated statistical power for both our studies exceeded the customary norm of 80% or better (β< 0.2). For Q1, the mean value for maximumoxygen flow rate for the group with healthybaseline level of Vitamin-D was 8.6 L/min vs.12.6L/min for those with low or borderline levels, yielding a p-value of 0.07 (p < 0.10) with the conclusion that those with a healthy level of baseline Vitamin-D needed statistically significant lower levels of supplemental oxygen. ForQ2, the mean value for a maximum oxygen flow rate for those not administered Vitamin-Dwas 12.5 L/min vs.12.8L/min for those given Vitamin-D, yielding a p-valueof 0.87 (p > 0.10). We thereforeconcludedthat there was no statistically significant difference in the use of oxygen therapy between those who were or were not administered Vitamin-D after-the-fact in the hospital. Discussion/Conclusion: We found that patients who had healthy levels of Vitamin-D at baseline needed statistically significant lower levels of supplemental oxygen. Vitamin-D is well documented, including in a recent article in the Lancet, for its anti-inflammatory role as an adjuvant in the regulation of cytokines and immune cells. Interestingly, we found no statistically significant advantage for giving Vitamin-D to hospitalized patients. It may be a case of “too little too late”. A randomized clinical trial reported in JAMA also did not find any reduction in hospital stay of patients given Vitamin-D. Such conclusions come with a caveat that any delayed marginal benefits may not have materialized promptly in the presence of a significant inflammatory condition. Since Vitamin-D is a low-cost, low-risk option, it may still be useful on an inpatient basis until more definitive findings are established.

Keywords: COVID-19, vitamin-D, supplemental oxygen, vitamin-D in primary care

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Authors: Nadia Chagtmi, Nejla Rejab, Noureddine Boulejfen

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This paper presents a calibration approach based on artificial neural networks (ANN) to determine the envelop signal (I+jQ) of a six-port based receiver (SPR). The memory effects called also dynamic behavior and the nonlinearity brought by diode based power detector have been taken into consideration by the ANN. Experimental set-up has been performed to validate the efficiency of this method. The efficiency of this approach has been confirmed by the obtained results in terms of waveforms. Moreover, the obtained error vector magnitude (EVM) and the mean absolute error (MAE) have been calculated in order to confirm and to test the ANN’s performance to achieve I/Q recovery using the output voltage detected by the power based detector. The baseband signal has been recovered using ANN with EVMs no higher than 1 % and an MAE no higher than 17, 26 for the SPR excited different type of signals such QAM (quadrature amplitude modulation) and LTE (Long Term Evolution).

Keywords: six-port based receiver; calibration, nonlinearity, memory effect, artificial neural network

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Authors: Min Wang, Hui Tian

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Health promotion of high school students is essential for the construction of ‘Healthy China’, and increasing high school students’ physical activity is a must for their health promotion. School plays a crucial role in increasing high school students’ physical activity. Therefore, to have a comprehensive command of the school physical activity promotion strategies is of great significance for the health promotion of high school students in China and will shed some light on physical activity promotion worldwide. Literature review and interview survey are the main methods adopted for this research. It has been found that reforms of P.E. classes, improving the overall quality of P.E. teachers, and construction of school fields and facilities are among the major strategies to promote students’ physical activities. Even though it has been stipulated that primary and middle school students should take 3-4 times of P.E. classes per week, the execution is greatly influenced by the exam-oriented educational system. Randomly canceling P.E. classes or taking up the time to study other subjects is common, so it is difficult to guarantee the quantity of P.E. classes. According to national surveys, only 20%-40% of schools have 3-4 times of P.E. classes per week. In order to reduce the hindering effects of the exam-oriented educational system, a physical education test is included in the senior middle school entrance exam. The exam items include 1000m run for boys, 800m run for girls, and the basic skills for basketball/football/volleyball. The scores of the physical education test will greatly influence the admission of senior middle schools. China is now developing the ‘campus football’ policy and has established 20,000 football featured schools by 2017. Especially in these schools, football has become an important part of the students’ P.E. classes and a major means to promote students’ physical activity. As the Winter Olympics will be held in Beijing in 2022, China has promoted the ‘winter sports for all’ movement. The aim is to encourage 300 million people to winter sports, and the high school students are among the most potential participants. The primary and middle schools in Beijing have introduced winter sports to their P.E. curriculum, providing opportunities for the students to experience ice hockey and curling. Some Winter Olympics champions also go to the schools to popularize winter sports among the students. This greatly adds variety to the students’ physical activity regimen at school. In November 2017, seven ministries, including the General Administration of Sport of China and Ministry of Education of the People’s Republic of China, release Youth Sport Promotion Strategy. The strategy stipulates to strengthen the construction of youth sport facilities and implement the cultivation plan for P.E. teachers. It also emphasizes that school sport facilities should be open to students during holidays and vacations for free or at an affordable price. Overall speaking, the Chinese government stresses the importance of youth physical activity promotion and has issued a series of related policies and strategies, but the implementation still needs improvement.

Keywords: China, physical activity, promotion, school

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Authors: Dongho Kim, Sung Choi, Kyowoong Pee, Youngsik Cho, Seungwoo Jeong, Soo-Ho Kim

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This study is about the orbital TIG welding robot system which travels on the guide rail installed on the pipe, and welds and tracks the pipe seam using the LVS (Laser Vision Sensor) joint profile data. The orbital welding robot system consists of the robot, welder, controller, and LVS. Moreover we can define the relationship between welding travel speed and wire feed speed, and we can make the linear equation using the maximum and minimum amount of weld metal. Using the linear equation we can determine the welding travel speed and the wire feed speed accurately corresponding to the area of weld captured by LVS. We applied this orbital TIG welding robot system to the stainless steel or duplex pipe on DSME (Daewoo Shipbuilding and Marine Engineering Co. Ltd.,) shipyard and the result of radiographic test is almost perfect. (Defect rate: 0.033%).

Keywords: adaptive welding, automatic welding, pipe welding, orbital welding, laser vision sensor, LVS, welding D/B

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Authors: Cemile Kütmeç Yilmaz, Güler Duru Asiret, Gulcan Bagcivan

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The aim of this study was to evaluate the reliability and validity of the Turkish version of the Carer’s Assessment of Satisfaction Index (CASI-TR). The study was conducted between the dates of June 2016 and September 2017 at the Training and Research Hospital of Aksaray University with the caregiving family members of the inpatients with chronic diseases. For this study, the sample size was calculated as at least 10 individuals for each item (item number (30)X10=300). The study sample included 300 caregiving family members, who provided primer care for at least three months for a patient (who had at least one chronic disease and received inpatient treatment in general internal medicine and palliative care units). Data were collected by using a demographic questionnaire and CASI-TR. Descriptive statistics, and psychometric tests were used for the data analysis. Of those caregivers, 76.7% were female, 86.3% were 65 years old and below, 43.7% were primary school graduates, 87% were married, 86% were not working, 66.3% were housewives, and 60.3% defined their income status as having an income covering one’s expenses. Care recipients often had problems in terms of walking, sleep, balance, feeding and urinary incontinence. The Cronbach Alpha value calculated for the CASI-TR (30 items) was 0,949. Internal consistency coefficients calculated for subscales were: 0.922 for the subscale of ‘caregiver satisfaction related to care recipient’, 0.875 for the subscale of ‘caregiver satisfaction related to themselves’, and 0.723 for the subscale of ‘dynamics of interpersonal relations’. Factor analysis revealed that three factors accounted for 57.67% of the total variance, with an eigenvalue of >1. assessed in terms of significance, we saw that the items came together in a significant manner. The factor load of the items were between 0.311 and 0.874. These results show that the CASI-TR is a valid and reliable scale. The adoption of the translated CASI in Turkey is found reliable and valid to assessing the satisfaction of caregivers. CASI-TR can be used easily in clinics or house visits by nurses and other health professionals for assessing caregiver satisfaction from caregiving.

Keywords: carer’s assessment of satisfaction index, caregiver, validity, reliability

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Authors: Syeda Azeem Unnisa

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The present study was undertaken at Jawaharnagar Solid Waste Municipal Dumpsite, Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation, Telangana State, India in 2017 which generates 90,000 litres of leachate per day. The main objective of the leachate treatment was to remove organic compounds like color, suspended solids, ammonia and COD by coagulation-flocculation using polyaluminum chloride (PAC) as coagulant which has higher coagulant efficiency and relative low cost compared to the conventional coagulants. Jar test apparatus was used to conduct experiments for pH 7, rapid mixing speed 150 rpm for 3 minute, slow mixing speed 30 rpm for 20 minute and the settling time of 30 minute for different dosage of PAC (0.5, 1.0, 1.5, 2.0, 2.5, 3.0, 3.5, 4.0, 4.5 and 5.0 g/L). The highest percentage of removal of suspended solids, color, COD and ammonical nitrogen are 97%, 96%, 60% and 37% with PAC optimum dose of 2.0 g/l. The results indicate that the PAC was effective in leachate treatment which is very much suitable for high toxicity of waste and economically feasible for Indian conditions. The treated water can be utilized for other purpose apart from drinking.

Keywords: coagulant, leachate, polyaluminium chloride, treatment

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Authors: Z. Hamed, K. Sa'deya, E. Abdelrasheed, I. Mahamid

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The construction industry is one of the main sectors that play basic role in the urban and rural development of a society. It provides important ingredients for the development of an economy. However, many construction projects experience extensive cost overrun. This study was conducted to identify the causes of cost overrun in building construction contracts in Al Madinah, Saudi Arabia and test the importance of these causes from contractors' perspective. To achieve the study objectives, a questionnaire survey was conducted to identify and rank cost overrun causes from the perspective of contractors. The findings found that the top five cost overrun causes are: lack of experience in the line of work, lack of labor productivity, delay in payments, rework and material waste. It is hoped that the findings will guide efforts to improve the performance of construction industry in Saudi Arabia and other developing countries.

Keywords: building, contractor, cost increase, cost overrun

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Authors: Nader Hoveidae

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This paper investigates the seismic behavior of a new type of buckling restrained braces (BRBs) called "Short Core BRBs" in which a shorter core segment is used as an energy dissipating part and an elastic part is serially connected to the core. It seems that a short core BRB is easy to be fabricated, inspected and replaced after a severe earthquake. In addition, the energy dissipating capacity in a short core BRB is higher because of larger core strains. However, higher core strain demands result in high potential of low-cycle fatigue fracture. In this paper, a strategy is proposed to estimate the minimum core length in a short core BRBs. The seismic behavior of short core buckling restrained brace is experimentally examined. The results revealed that the short core buckling restrained brace is able to sustain large inelastic strains without any significant instability or strength degradation.

Keywords: short core, Buckling Restrained Brace, finite element analysis, cyclic test

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Authors: Omonov Jahongir Mahmatkulovic

Abstract:

Purpose: To study the significance of D-dimer (DD), prothrombin time (PT), activated partial thromboplastin time (APTT), thrombin time (TT), and fibrinogen coagulation parameters (Fg) in predicting the course, severity and prognosis of COVID-19. Source and method of research: From September 15, 2021, to November 5, 2021, 93 patients aged 25 to 60 with suspected COVID-19, who are under inpatient treatment at the multidisciplinary clinic of the Tashkent Medical Academy, were retrospectively examined. DD, PT, APTT, and Fg were studied in dynamics and studied changes. Results: Coagulation disorders occurred in the early stages of COVID-19 infection with an increase in DD in 54 (58%) patients and an increase in Fg in 93 (100%) patients. DD and Fg levels are associated with the clinical classification. Of the 33 patients who died, 21 had an increase in DD in the first laboratory study, 27 had an increase in DD in the second and third laboratory studies, and 15 had an increase in PT in the third test. The results of the ROC analysis of mortality showed that the AUC DD was three times 0.721, 0.801, and 0.844, respectively; PT was 0.703, 0.845, and 0.972. (P<0:01). Conclusion”: Coagulation dysfunction is more common in patients with severe and critical conditions. DD and PT can be used as important predictors of mortality from COVID-19.

Keywords: Covid19, DD, PT, Coagulogram analysis, APTT

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Authors: M. Manjunath, R. Rakesh, Y. T. Krishne Gowda, G. Panduranga Murthy

Abstract:

The availability of energy resources plays a vital role in the progress of a country. Over the last decades, there is an increase in the consumption of energy worldwide resulting in the depletion of fossil fuels. This necessitates dependency on other countries for energy resources. Therefore, a renewable eco-friendly alternate fuel is replaced in place of fossil fuel which can be vegetable oils as a substitute fuel for diesel. Since oils are more viscous it cannot be used directly in CI engines without any engine modification. Thus, a conversion of vegetable oils to biodiesel is done by a Transesterification process. The present paper is restricted to Biofuel substitute for diesel and which can be obtained from a number of edible and non-edible oil resources. The oil from these resources can be Transesterified by a suitable method depending on its FFA content for the production of biodiesel and that can be used to operate CI engine. In this work, an attempt is made to test the performance of CI engine using Transesterified peanut and sunflower oil methyl esters blends with diesel.

Keywords: SOME, POME, BMEP, BSFC, BTE

Procedia PDF Downloads 473

Authors: Wanting Zeng, Hsunling Bai

Abstract:

Silica was extracted from agriculture waste rice husk ash (RHA) and was used as the silica source for synthesis of RMCM-48 and RSBA-16. An alkali fusion process was utilized to separate silicate supernatant and the sediment effectively. The CTAB/Si and F127/Si molar ratio was employed to control the structure properties of the obtained RMCM-48 and RSBA-16 materials. The N2 adsorption-desorption results showed the micro-mesoporous RSBA-16 possessed high specific surface areas (662-1001 m2/g). All the obtained RSBA-16 materials were applied as the adsorbents for acetone adsorption. And the breakthrough tests clearly revealed that the RSBA-16(0.004) materials could achieve the highest acetone adsorption capacity of 186 mg/g under 1000 ppmv acetone vapor concentration at 25oC, which was also superior to ZSM-5 (71mg/g) and MCM-41 (157mg/g) under same test conditions. This can help to reduce the solid waste and the high adsorption performance of the obtained materials could consider as potential adsorbents for acetone adsorption.

Keywords: acetone, adsorption, micro-mesoporous material, rice husk ash (RHA), RSBA-16

Procedia PDF Downloads 342

Authors: O. Ahmed Apampa, Yinusa, A. Jimoh

Abstract:

The aim of this study was to develop an appropriate model for predicting the compaction behavior of lateritic soils and corn cob ash (CCA) stabilized lateritic soils. This was done by first adopting an equation earlier developed for fine-grained soils and subsequent adaptation by others and extending it to modified lateritic soil through the introduction of alpha and beta parameters which are polynomial functions of the CCA binder input. The polynomial equations were determined with MATLAB R2011 curve fitting tool, while the alpha and beta parameters were determined by standard linear programming techniques using the Solver function of Microsoft Excel 2010. The model so developed was a good fit with a correlation coefficient R2 value of 0.86. The paper concludes that it is possible to determine the optimum moisture content and the maximum dry density of CCA stabilized soils from the compaction test of the unmodified soil, and recommends that this procedure is extended to other binder stabilized lateritic soils to facilitate quick decision making in roadworks.

Keywords: compaction, corn cob ash, lateritic soil, stabilization

Procedia PDF Downloads 533

Authors: Md Abdullah Al Faruque

Abstract:

A very large percentage of bridge failures are attributed to scouring around bridge piers and this directly influences public safety. Experiments are carried out in a 12-m long rectangular open channel flume made of transparent tempered glass. A 300 mm thick bed made up of sand particles is leveled horizontally to create the test bed and a 50 mm hollow plastic cylinder is used as a model bridge pier. Tests are carried out with varying flow depths and velocities. Data points of various scour parameters such as scour depth, width, and length are collected based on different flow conditions and visual observations of changes in the stream bed downstream the bridge pier are also made as the scour progresses. Result shows that all three major flow characteristics (flow depth, Froude number and densimetric Froude number) have one way or other affect the scour profile.

Keywords: bridge pier scour, densimetric Froude number, flow depth, Froude number, sand

Procedia PDF Downloads 170

Authors: Priyanka Govender, S. Mtshali, Theresa Moonsamy, Zanele Mkwanazi, L. Mthembu

Abstract:

Chemically enhanced primary treatment (CEPT) can be used at wastewater works to improve the quality of the final effluent discharge, provided that the plant has spare anaerobic digestion capacity. CEPT can transfer part of the organic load to the digesters thereby effectively relieving the hydraulic loading on the plant and in this way can allow the plant to continue operating long after the hydraulic capacity of the plant has been exceeded. This can allow a plant to continue operating well beyond its original design capacity, requiring only fairly simple and inexpensive modifications to the primary settling tanks as well as additional chemical costs, thereby delaying or even avoiding the need for expensive capital upgrades. CEPT can also be effective at plants where high organic loadings prevent the wastewater discharge from meeting discharge standards, especially in the case of COD, phosphates and suspended solids. By increasing removals of these pollutants in the primary settling tanks, CEPT can enable the plant to conform to specifications without the need for costly upgrades. Laboratory trials were carried out recently at the Umbilo WWTW in Durban and these were followed by a baseline assessment of the current plant performance and a subsequent full scale trial on the Conventional plant i.e. West Plant. The operating conditions of the plant are described and the improvements obtained in COD, phosphate and suspended solids, are discussed. The PST and plant overall suspended solids removal efficiency increased by approximately 6% during the trial. Details regarding the effect that CEPT had on sludge production and the digesters are also provided. The cost implications of CEPT are discussed in terms of capital costs as well as operation and maintenance costs and the impact of Ferric chloride on the infrastructure was also studied and found to be minimal. It was concluded that CEPT improves the final quality of the discharge effluent, thereby improving the compliance of this effluent with the discharge license. It could also allow for a delay in upgrades to the plant, allowing the plant to operate above its design capacity. This will be elaborated further upon presentation.

Keywords: chemically enhanced, ferric, wastewater, primary

Procedia PDF Downloads 301