Search results for: square root unscented Kalman filter

Authors: Jui-Chen Huang

Abstract:

This research used artificial intelligence method to explore elderly’s opinions on the reuse of telecare, its effect on their service quality, satisfaction and the relationship between customer perceived value and intention to reuse. This study conducted a questionnaire survey on the elderly. A total of 124 valid copies of a questionnaire were obtained. It adopted Backpropagation Network (BPN) to propose an effective and feasible analysis method, which is different from the traditional method. Two third of the total samples (82 samples) were taken as the training data, and the one third of the samples (42 samples) were taken as the testing data. The training and testing data RMSE (root mean square error) are 0.022 and 0.009 in the BPN, respectively. As shown, the errors are acceptable. On the other hand, the training and testing data RMSE are 0.100 and 0.099 in the regression model, respectively. In addition, the results showed the service quality has the greatest effects on the intention to reuse, followed by the satisfaction, and perceived value. This result of the Backpropagation Network method is better than the regression analysis. This result can be used as a reference for future research.

Keywords: artificial intelligence, backpropagation network (BPN), elderly, reuse, telecare

Procedia PDF Downloads 201

Authors: Yamani Amal, Lazaae Jamila, Elachouri Mostafa

Abstract:

Plants and their active agents – especially polyphenols – may have a principal role in the treatment of diseases that result from the defect of physiological antioxidant mechanisms. Bryonia dioica is well known in Moroccan traditional medicine for alleviatin pain and traiting many diseases. We have focused on plant belonging to Cucurbitaceae Family from around the world to understand their therapeutic uses and their potential antioxidant activities Although several biological activities and Chemical composition of Bryonia dioica are well characterized, no direct, in vitro study, of this natural product examined the antioxydant effect of the extract from the roots of Bryonia dioica. The aim of this study was to determine in vitro antioxidant activity of the B.dioica root, using antioxidant analysis methods based on determination of Hydroxyradical Scavenging, 1,1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazine (DPPH) radical scavenging, Hydrogenperoxide Scavenging and Nitric Oxide Scavenging. In this study, it was demonstrated, that, B. dioica root extract showed excellent antioxidant properties. This investigation showed that the roots of this plant contain potent natural scavengers R. It may represent an interesting source of antioxidant phenolics that may favour the extension of their cultivation as new source of natural antioxidants in addition to containing high quality proteins for human or animal nutrition. Therefore, there is need for all stakeholders on the Morocco to strive towards taking advantage of our enormous biodiversity resources to free our people from diseases, abject poverty and stagnation.

Keywords: Morocco, bryoniadioica, in vitro, antioxydant

Procedia PDF Downloads 376

Authors: N. P. Eswara Reddy, S. Thahir Basha

Abstract:

Here, we report the success stories of potential leaf, seed and root endophytes against soil borne as well as foliar plant pathogens which are nutritionally adequate and safe for consumption. Endophytes are the microorganisms that reside asymptomatically in the tissues of higher plants are a robust source of potential biocontrol agents and it is presumed that the survival ability of endophytes may be better when compared to phylloplane microflora. Of all the 68 putative leaf endophytes, the endophytes viz., EB9 (100%), and EB35 (100%) which were superior in controlling Colletotrichum gloeosporioides causing mango anthracnose were identified as Brevundimonas bullata (EB09) and Bacillus thuringiensis (EB35) and further delayed in ripening of mango fruits up to 21 days. As a part, the seed endophyte GSE-4 was identified as Archoromobacter spp. against Sclerotium rolfsii causing stem rot of groundnut and the root endophyte REB-8 against Rhizoctonia bataticola causing dry root rot of chickpea was identified as Bacillus subtilis. Both recorded least percent disease incidence (PDI) and increased plant growth promotion, respectively. Further, the novel Bacillus subtilis (SEB-2) against Macrophomina pahseolina causing charcoal rot of sunflower provides an ample scope for exploring the endophytes at large scale. The talc-based formulations of these endophytes developed can be commercialized after toxicological studies. At the bottom line these unexplored endophytes are the need of the hour against aggressive plant pathogens and to maintain the quality and abundance of food and feed and also to fetch marginal economy to the farmers will be discussed.

Keywords: endophytes, plant pathogens, commercialization, abundance of food

Procedia PDF Downloads 409

Authors: M. A. Gad, A. Z. Al-Herrawy

Abstract:

Microsporidia comprises various pathogenic species can infect humans by means of water. Moreover, chlorine disinfection of drinking-water has limitations against this protozoan pathogen. A total of 48 water samples were collected from two drinking water treatment plants having two different filtration systems (slow sand filter and rapid sand filter) during one year period. Samples were collected from inlet and outlet of each plant. Samples were separately filtrated through nitrocellulose membrane (142 mm, 0.45 µm), then eluted and centrifuged. The obtained pellet from each sample was subjected to DNA extraction, then, amplification using genus-specific primer for microsporidia. Each microsporidia-PCR positive sample was performed by two species specific primers for Enterocytozoon bieneusi and Encephalitozoon intestinalis. The results of the present study showed that the percentage of removal for microsporidia through different treatment processes reached its highest rate in the station using slow sand filters (100%), while the removal by rapid sand filter system was 81.8%. Statistically, the two different drinking water treatment plants (slow and rapid) had significant effect for removal of microsporidia. Molecular identification of microsporidia-PCR positive samples using two different primers for Enterocytozoon bieneusi and Encephalitozoon intestinalis showed the presence of the two pervious species in the inlet water of the two stations, while Encephalitozoon intestinalis was detected in the outlet water only. In conclusion, the appearance of virulent microsporidia in treated drinking water may cause potential health threat.

Keywords: removal, efficacy, microsporidia, drinking water treatment plants, PCR

Procedia PDF Downloads 197

Authors: Maru R., Singh V. P.

Abstract:

In this research, analytical study of the flexural strength of Concrete Filled Steel Tube (CFST) beams is carried out based on wide-range finite element models to obtain the better perspective for flexural strength achievement with the use of ABAQUS finite element program. This work adopts concrete damaged plasticity model to get the actual simulation of CFST under bending. To get the decent interaction between concrete and steel, normal and tangential surface interaction provided by ABAQUS is used with hard contact for normal surface interaction and for 0.65 friction coefficient for tangential surface interactions. In this study, rectangular and square CFST beam model cross-sections are adopted with its limits pertained to Eurocode specifications. To get the visualization for flexural strength of CFST beams, total of 74 rectangular CFST beams and 86 square CFST beams are used with four-point bending test setup and the length of the beam model as 1000mm. The grades of concrete and grades of steel are used as 30 MPa & 35MPa and 235 MPa and 275MPa respectively for both sections to get the confinement factor 0.583 to 2.833, steel ratio of 0.069 to 0.236 and length to depth ratio of 4.167 to 16.667. It was found based on this study that flexural strength of CFST beams falls around strain of 0.012. Eurocode provides the results harmonically with finite elemental results. It was also noted for square sections that reduction of steel ratio is not useful as compared to rectangular section although it increases moment capacity up to certain limits because for square sectional area similar to that of rectangular, it possesses lesser depth than rectangular sections. Also It can be said that effect of increment of grade of concrete can be achieved when thicker steel tube is present. It is observed that there is less increment in moment capacity initially but after D/b ratio 1.2, moment capacity of CFST beam rapidly.

Keywords: ABAQUS, CFST beams, flexural strength, four-point bending, rectangular and square sections

Procedia PDF Downloads 151

Authors: Shivalal Sharma, Sanjib K. Sharma, Madhab Lamsal

Abstract:

Background: The aim of this study was to evaluate the clinical and laboratory changes three months after full-mouth scaling and root planing (SRP) in periodontitis patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (DM). Methods: Forty-seven type 2 DM subjects with moderate to severe periodontitis were randomly divided into two groups. Treatment group (TG), 25 subjects, received full-mouth scaling and root planning; control group (CG), 22 subjects, received no treatment. At baseline and at the end of three months, glycated hemoglobin (HbA1c) values, fasting glucose, and clinical parameters like plaque index (PI), gingival index (GI), probing pocket depth (PPD), and clinical attachment level (CAL) were recorded in all the patients. Following SRP, the patients were enrolled in a monthly interval maintenance program for 3 months. Results: A statistically significant effect could be demonstrated for PI, GI, PPD, and CAL for the treatment group. HbA1c levels in the treatment group decreased significantly whereas the control group showed a slight but insignificant increase for these parameters. Conclusions: The results of this study showed that non-surgical periodontal treatment (SRP) is associated with improved glycemic control in type 2 DM patients and could be undertaken along with the standard measures for the diabetic patient care.

Keywords: periodontitis, type 2 diabetes mellitus, non-surgical periodontal therapy, SRP

Procedia PDF Downloads 288

Authors: Li Li, Kai-Hsuan Chu

Abstract:

It is well known that the real estate price depends on a lot of factors. Each house current value is dependent on the location, room number, transportation, living convenience, year and surrounding environments. Although, there are different experienced models for housing agent to estimate the price, it is a case by case study without overall dynamic variation investigation. However, many economic parameters may more or less influence the real estate price variation. Here, the influences of most macroeconomic parameters on real estate price are investigated individually based on least-square scheme and grey correlation strategy. Then those parameters are classified into leading indices, simultaneous indices and laggard indices. In addition, the leading time period is evaluated based on least square method. The important leading and simultaneous indices can be used to establish an artificial intelligent neural network model for real estate price variation prediction. The real estate price variation of Taipei, Taiwan during 2005 ~ 2017 are chosen for this research data analysis and validation. The results show that the proposed method has reasonable prediction function for real estate business reference.

Keywords: real estate price, least-square, grey correlation, macroeconomics

Procedia PDF Downloads 186

Authors: Hajer Rahali, Zied Hajaiej, Noureddine Ellouze

Abstract:

The goal of speech parameterization is to extract the relevant information about what is being spoken from the audio signal. In speech recognition systems Mel-Frequency Cepstral Coefficients (MFCC) and Relative Spectral Mel-Frequency Cepstral Coefficients (RASTA-MFCC) are the two main techniques used. It will be shown in this paper that it presents some modifications to the original MFCC method. In our work the effectiveness of proposed changes to MFCC called Modified Function Cepstral Coefficients (MODFCC) were tested and compared against the original MFCC and RASTA-MFCC features. The prosodic features such as jitter and shimmer are added to baseline spectral features. The above-mentioned techniques were tested with impulsive signals under various noisy conditions within AURORA databases.

Keywords: auditory filter, impulsive noise, MFCC, prosodic features, RASTA filter

Procedia PDF Downloads 413

Authors: Mahmood Naghizadeh, Maryam Memarian, Hourshad Irvash

Abstract:

Following the rise in the world population and the upward growth of urbanization, the design, planning, and management of the site scenery for the purpose of presentation and expansion of sustainable site scenery has turned to be the greatest concern to experts. Since the fundamental principles of the site scenery change more and less haphazardly over time, sustainable site scenery can be viewed as an ideal goal because both sustainability and dynamism come into view in urban site scenery and it wouldn’t be designed according to a set of pre-determined principles. Sustainable site scenery, as the ongoing interaction between idealism and pragmatism with sustainability factors, is a dynamic phenomenon created by bringing cultural, historical, social and natural scenery together. Such an interaction is not to subdue other factors but to reinforce the aforementioned factors. The sustainable site scenery is a persistently occurring event not only has attenuated over time but has gained strength. The sustainability of a site scenery or an event over time depends on its site identity which grows out of its continuous association with the past. The sustainability of a site scene or an event in a time frame intertwined with the identity of the place from past to present. This past history supports the present and future of the scene. The result of such a supportive role is the sustainability of site scenery. Isfahan Naqsh-e-Jahan Square is one of the most outstanding squares in the world and the best embodiment of Iranian site scenery architecture. This square is an arena that brings people together and a dynamic city center comprising various urban and religious complexes, spaces and facilities and is considered as one of the most favorable traditional urban space of Iran. Such a place can illustrate many factors related to sustainable site scenery. One the other hand, there are still no specific principles concerning sustainability in the architecture of site scenery. Meanwhile, sustainability is recognized as a rather modern view in architecture. The purpose of this research is to identify factors involved in sustainability in general and to examine their effects on site scenery architecture in particular. Finally, these factors will be studied with taking Naqsh-e-Jahan Square into account. This research adopts an analytic-descriptive approach that has benefited from the review of literature available in library studies and the documents related to sustainability and site scenery architecture. The statistical population used for the purpose of this research includes square constructed during the Safavid dynasty and Naqsh-e-Jahan Square was picked out as the case study. The purpose of this paper is to come up with a rough definition of sustainable site scenery and demonstrate this concept by analyzing it and recognizing the social, economic and ecological aspects of this project.

Keywords: Naqsh-e-Jahan Square, site scenery architecture, sustainability, sustainable site scenery

Procedia PDF Downloads 301

Authors: Hamdi Amroun, Yacine Benziani, Mehdi Ammi

Abstract:

In this paper, we want to determine whether the accurate prediction of nicotine concentration can be obtained by using a network of smart objects and an e-cigarette. The approach consists of, first, the recognition of factors influencing smoking cessation such as physical activity recognition and participant’s behaviors (using both smartphone and smartwatch), then the prediction of the configuration of the e-cigarette (in terms of nicotine concentration, power, and resistance of e-cigarette). The study uses a network of commonly connected objects; a smartwatch, a smartphone, and an e-cigarette transported by the participants during an uncontrolled experiment. The data obtained from sensors carried in the three devices were trained by a Long short-term memory algorithm (LSTM). Results show that our LSTM-based model allows predicting the configuration of the e-cigarette in terms of nicotine concentration, power, and resistance with a root mean square error percentage of 12.9%, 9.15%, and 11.84%, respectively. This study can help to better control consumption of nicotine and offer an intelligent configuration of the e-cigarette to users.

Keywords: Iot, activity recognition, automatic classification, unconstrained environment

Procedia PDF Downloads 211

Authors: Adam J. Carinci

Abstract:

Background: The opioid epidemic is the most pressing healthcare crisis of our time. There is increasing recognition that opioids have limited long-term efficacy and are associated with hyperalgesia, addiction, and increased morbidity and mortality. Therefore, alternative strategies to combat chronic pain are paramount. We initiated a multicenter retrospective case series to review the efficacy of DRG stimulation in facilitating opioid tapering, opioid discontinuation and as a viable alternative to chronic opioid therapy. Purpose: The dorsal root ganglion (DRG) plays a key role in the development and maintenance of pain. Recent innovations in neuromodulation, specifically, dorsal root ganglion stimulation, offers an effective alternative to opioids in the treatment of chronic pain. This retrospective case series demonstrates preliminary evidence that DRG stimulation facilitates opioid tapering, opioid discontinuation and presents a viable alternative to chronic opioid therapy. Procedure: This small multicenter retrospective case series provides preliminary evidence that DRG stimulation facilitates opioid weaning, opioid tapering and is a viable option to opioid therapy in the treatment of chronic pain. A retrospective analysis was completed. Visual analog scale pain scores and pain medication usage were collected at the baseline visit and after four weeks, 3 months and 6 months of treatment. Ten consecutive patients across two study centers were included. The pain was rated 7.38 at baseline and decreased to 1.50 at the 4-week follow-up, a reduction of 79.5%. All patients significantly decreased their opioid pain medication use with an average > 30% reduction in morphine equivalents and four were able to discontinue their medications entirely. Conclusion: This Retrospective case series demonstrates preliminary evidence that DRG stimulation facilitates opioid tapering, opioid discontinuation and presents a viable alternative to chronic opioid therapy.

Keywords: dorsal root ganglion, neuromodulation, opioid sparing, stimulation

Procedia PDF Downloads 103

Authors: Amir Halabianfar, Jamshid Razmjoo

Abstract:

In order to evaluate the competitive effects of Lambsqua on the germination and early growth of two wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) varieties, an experiment was conducted in laboratory conditions in researches of agronomy, College of agriculture, Isfahan University of Technology in 2015. A laboratory experiment was conducted on a factorial arrangement in a randomized complete design with four replications. Testing factors include two wheat cultivars (Flat and Atila -4) and three level of Lambsqua (Chenopodium album) extract (30, 60 and 90 percent) plus control with no extract. Twenty-five seeds of each wheat varieties were placed in petri dish, then the root extract of lambsqua, which was prepared previously at three levels, was poured on the seeds in each petri dish. The result showed that allelopathic effect of Lambsquarter on germination, root, and shoot dry weight of two varieties was highly significant. Among varieties, the Atila–4 showed minimum germination at 60% while the Flat showed minimum germination at 90% concentration. In case of root dry weight, Atila–4 was more suppressed as compared to Flat at 60% concentration but at 90% concentration, the both wheat varieties were reduced non-significantly. Shoot dry weight of Flat were decreased non-significantly concentrations except Atila -4 that was more reduced at 60 % than 90% concentration.

Keywords: allelopathy, Chenopodium album, extract, germination, wheat, early growth

Procedia PDF Downloads 170

Authors: Sajidullah Khan, Najeeb Ullah, Wang Yin Chai, Chai Soo See

Abstract:

In this paper, we propose an approach to remove impulse and Poisson noise from X-ray images. Many filters have been used for impulse noise removal from color and gray scale images with their own strengths and weaknesses but X-ray images contain Poisson noise and unfortunately there is no intelligent filter which can detect impulse and Poisson noise from X-ray images. Our proposed filter uses the upgraded layer discrimination approach to detect both Impulse and Poisson noise corrupted pixels in X-ray images and then restores only those detected pixels with a simple efficient and reliable one line equation. Our Proposed algorithms are very effective and much more efficient than all existing filters used only for Impulse noise removal. The proposed method uses a new powerful and efficient noise detection method to determine whether the pixel under observation is corrupted or noise free. Results from computer simulations are used to demonstrate pleasing performance of our proposed method.

Keywords: X-ray image de-noising, impulse noise, poisson noise, PRWF

Procedia PDF Downloads 369

Authors: Meghana Shankara, Priyadarshini Natarajan

Abstract:

Infrared (IR) spectroscopy has revolutionized the way we look at materials around us. Unraveling the pattern in the molecular spectra of materials to analyze the composition and properties of it has been one of the most interesting challenges in modern science. Applications of the IR spectrometry are numerous in the field’s pharmaceuticals, health, food and nutrition, oils, agriculture, construction, polymers, beverage, fabrics and much more limited only by the curiosity of the people. Near Infrared (NIR) spectrometry is applied robustly in analyzing the solids and liquid substances because of its non-destructive analysis method. In this paper, we have reviewed the application of NIR spectrometry in milk quality analysis and have presented the modes of measurement applied in NIRS measurement setup, Design of Experiment (DoE), classification/quantification algorithms used in the case of milk composition prediction like Fat%, Protein%, Lactose%, Solids Not Fat (SNF%) along with different approaches for adulterant identification. We have also discussed the important NIR ranges for the chosen milk parameters. The performance metrics used in the comparison of the various Chemometric approaches include Root Mean Square Error (RMSE), R^2, slope, offset, sensitivity, specificity and accuracy

Keywords: chemometrics, design of experiment, milk quality analysis, NIRS measurement modes

Procedia PDF Downloads 254

Authors: Raja Rajeswari K

Abstract:

Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM), a multi Carrier transmission technique that has been used in implementing the majority of wireless applications like Wireless Network Protocol Standards (like IEEE 802.11a, IEEE 802.11n), in telecommunications (like LTE, LTE-Advanced) and also in Digital Audio & Video Broadcast standards. The latest research and development in the area of orthogonal frequency division multiplexing, Universal Filtered Multi Carrier (UFMC) & Filtered OFDM (F-OFDM) has attracted lots of attention for wideband wireless communications. In this paper UFMC & F-OFDM system are implemented and comparative analysis are carried out in terms of M-ary QAM modulation scheme over Dolph-chebyshev filter & rectangular window filter and to estimate Bit Error Rate (BER) over Rayleigh fading channel.

Keywords: UFMC, F-OFDM, BER, M-ary QAM

Procedia PDF Downloads 157

Authors: Rachid Dehini, Brahim Berbaoui

Abstract:

The main objectives of shunt active power filter (SAPF) is to preserve the power system from unwanted harmonic currents produced by nonlinear loads, as well as to compensate the reactive power. The aim of this paper is to present a (PAPF) supplied by the Photovoltaic cells ,in such a way that the (PAPF) feeds the linear and nonlinear loads by harmonics currents and the excess of the energy is injected into the power system. In order to improve the performances of conventional (PAPF) This paper also proposes artificial neural networks (ANN) for harmonics identification and DC link voltage control. The simulation study results of the new (SAPF) identification technique are found quite satisfactory by assuring good filtering characteristics and high system stability.

Keywords: SAPF, harmonics current, photovoltaic cells, MPPT, artificial neural networks (ANN)

Procedia PDF Downloads 317

Authors: Dong Wook Lee, Seung Hyun Kim

Abstract:

Trial blasting is conducted to identify the characteristics of the blasting of the applicable ground before production blasting and to investigate various problems posed by blasting. The methods and pattern of production blasting are determined based on an analysis of the results of trial blasting. The bedrock in Jeju Island, South Korea is formed through the volcanic activities unlike the inland areas, composed of porous basalt. Trial blasting showed that the blast vibration frequency of sedimentary and metamorphic rocks in the inland areas is in a high frequency band of about 80 Hz while the blast vibration frequency of Jeju Island is in a low frequency band of 10~25 Hz. The frequency band is analyzed to be low due to the large cycle of blasting pattern as blast vibration passes through the layered structured ground layer where the rock formation and clickers irregularly repeat. In addition, the blast vibration equation derived from trial blasting was R: 0.885, S.E: 0.216 when applying the square root scaled distance (SRSD) relatively suitable for long distance, estimated at the confidence level of 95%.

Keywords: attenuation index, basaltic ground, blast vibration constant, blast vibration equation, clinker layer

Procedia PDF Downloads 271

Authors: C. P. Providakis, G. M. Angeli, M. J. Favvata, N. A. Papadopoulos, C. E. Chalioris, C. G. Karayannis

Abstract:

An effort for the detection of damages in the reinforcement bars of reinforced concrete members using PZTs is presented. The damage can be the result of excessive elongation of the steel bar due to steel yielding or due to local steel corrosion. In both cases the damage is simulated by considering reduced diameter of the rebar along the damaged part of its length. An integration approach based on both electromechanical admittance methodology and guided wave propagation technique is used to evaluate the artificial damage on the examined longitudinal steel bar. Two actuator PZTs and a sensor PZT are considered to be bonded on the examined steel bar. The admittance of the Sensor PZT is calculated using COMSOL 3.4a. Fast Furrier Transformation for a better evaluation of the results is employed. An effort for the quantification of the damage detection using the root mean square deviation (RMSD) between the healthy condition and damage state of the sensor PZT is attempted. The numerical value of the RSMD yields a level for the difference between the healthy and the damaged admittance computation indicating this way the presence of damage in the structure. Experimental measurements are also presented.

Keywords: concrete reinforcement, damage detection, electromechanical admittance, experimental measurements, finite element method, guided waves, PZT

Procedia PDF Downloads 241

Authors: Chia-Hao Chang, Geng-Gui Wang, Jee-Cheng Wu

Abstract:

The prediction of a landslide is a difficult task because it requires a detailed study of past activities using a complete range of investigative methods to determine the changing condition. In this research, first step, LiDAR 1-meter by 1-meter resolution of digital elevation model (DEM) was used to generate six environmental factors of landslide. Then, back-propagation neural networks (BPNN) was adopted to identify scarp, landslide areas and non-landslide areas. The BPNN uses 6 environmental factors in input layer and 1 output layer. Moreover, 6 landslide areas are used as training areas and 4 landslide areas as test areas in the BPNN. The hidden layer is set to be 1 and 2; the hidden layer neurons are set to be 4, 5, 6, 7 and 8; the learning rates are set to be 0.01, 0.1 and 0.5. When using 1 hidden layer with 7 neurons and the learning rate sets to be 0.5, the result of Network training root mean square error is 0.001388. Finally, evaluation of BPNN classification accuracy by the confusion matrix shows that the overall accuracy can reach 94.4%, and the Kappa value is 0.7464.

Keywords: digital elevation model, DEM, environmental factors, back-propagation neural network, BPNN, LiDAR

Procedia PDF Downloads 126

Authors: C. P. Providakis, G. M. Angeli, M. J. Favvata, N. A. Papadopoulos, C. E. Chalioris, C. G. Karayannis

Abstract:

An effort for the detection of damages in the reinforcement bars of reinforced concrete members using PZTs is presented. The damage can be the result of excessive elongation of the steel bar due to steel yielding or due to local steel corrosion. In both cases the damage is simulated by considering reduced diameter of the rebar along the damaged part of its length. An integration approach based on both electro-mechanical admittance methodology and guided wave propagation technique is used to evaluate the artificial damage on the examined longitudinal steel bar. Two actuator PZTs and a sensor PZT are considered to be bonded on the examined steel bar. The admittance of the Sensor PZT is calculated using COMSOL 3.4a. Fast Furrier Transformation for a better evaluation of the results is employed. An effort for the quantification of the damage detection using the root mean square deviation (RMSD) between the healthy condition and damage state of the sensor PZT is attempted. The numerical value of the RSMD yields a level for the difference between the healthy and the damaged admittance computation indicating this way the presence of damage in the structure. Experimental measurements are also presented.

Keywords: concrete reinforcement, damage detection, electromechanical admittance, experimental measurements, finite element method, guided waves, PZT

Procedia PDF Downloads 280

Authors: Shackira Am, Jos T. Puthur

Abstract:

The phytostabilization potential of a halophyte Acanthus ilicifolius L. has been evaluated with special attention to the nutritional as well as anatomical adaptations developed by the plant. Distribution of essential elements influenced by the excess Zn²⁺ ions in the root tissue was studied by FEG-SEM EDX microanalysis. Significant variations were observed in the uptake and allocation of mineral elements like Mg, P, K, S, Na, Si and Al in the root of A. ilicifolius. The increase in S is in correlation with the increased synthesis of glutathione which might be involved in the biosynthesis of phytochelatins. This in turn might be aiding the plant to tolerate the adverse environmental conditions by stabilizing the excess Zn in the root tissue itself. Moreover it is revealed that most of the Zn were accumulated towards the central region near the vascular tissue. Treatment with ZnSO₄ in A. ilicifolius caused significant increase in the number of glandular trichomes on the adaxial leaf surface as compared to the leaves of control plants. In addition to this, A. ilicifolius when treated with ZnSO₄, exhibited a deeply stained layer of cells immediate to the endodermis, forming more or less a ring like structure around the xylem vessels. Phloem cells in these plants were crushed/reduced in numbers. There were no such deeply stained cells forming a ring around the xylem vessels in the control plants. These adaptive responses make the plant a suitable candidate for the phytostabilization of Zn. In addition the nutritional adjustment of the plant equips them for a better survival under increased concentration of Zn²⁺.

Keywords: Acanthus ilicifolius, mineral elements, phytostabilization, zinc

Procedia PDF Downloads 149

Authors: Rym Saidi, Pape Alioune Ndiaye, Ibnyasser Ammar, Zineb Rchiad, Khalid Daoui, Issam Kadmiri Meftahi, Adnane Bargaz

Abstract:

Chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) is an important leguminous crop grown worldwide and plays a significant role in humans’ dietary consumption. Alongside nitrogen (N), low phosphorus (P) availability within agricultural soils is one of the major factors limiting chickpea growth and productivity. The combined application of beneficial bacterial inoculants and Rock P-fertilizer could boost chickpea performance and productivity, increasing P-utilization efficiency and minimizing nutrient losses under P-deficiency conditions. A greenhouse experiment was conducted to evaluate the response of chickpeas to two P-fertilizer forms (RP and TSP) under N2-fixer and P-solubilizer consortium inoculation to improve biological N fixation and P nutrition under P-deficient conditions. Under inoculation, chickpea chlorophyll content and chlorophyll fluorescence (RP+I and TSP+I) were increased compared to uninoculated treatments. The RP+I treatment increased both shoot and root dry weights by 48,80% and 72,68%, respectively, compared to the uninoculated RP fertilized control. Indeed, the bacterial consortium contributed to enhancing root morphological traits (e.g., root volume, surface area, and diameter) of all inoculated treatments versus the uninoculated treatments. Furthermore, soil available P and root inorganic P were significantly improved in RP+I by 162,84% and 73,24%, respectively, compared to uninoculated RP control. Our research outcomes suggest that the co-inoculation of chickpeas with N2-fixing, and P-solubilizing bacteria improves biomass yield and nutrient uptake. Eventually, enhancing chickpea agrophysiological performance, especially in restricted P-availability conditions.

Keywords: chickpea, consortium, beneficial bacterial inoculants, phosphorus deficiency, rock p-fertilizer, nutrient uptake

Procedia PDF Downloads 47

Authors: N. H. Adenan, M. S. M. Noorani

Abstract:

River flow prediction is an essential to ensure proper management of water resources can be optimally distribute water to consumers. This study presents an analysis and prediction by using nonlinear prediction method involving monthly river flow data in Tanjung Tualang from 1976 to 2006. Nonlinear prediction method involves the reconstruction of phase space and local linear approximation approach. The phase space reconstruction involves the reconstruction of one-dimensional (the observed 287 months of data) in a multidimensional phase space to reveal the dynamics of the system. Revenue of phase space reconstruction is used to predict the next 72 months. A comparison of prediction performance based on correlation coefficient (CC) and root mean square error (RMSE) have been employed to compare prediction performance for nonlinear prediction method, ARIMA and SVM. Prediction performance comparisons show the prediction results using nonlinear prediction method is better than ARIMA and SVM. Therefore, the result of this study could be used to developed an efficient water management system to optimize the allocation water resources.

Keywords: river flow, nonlinear prediction method, phase space, local linear approximation

Procedia PDF Downloads 399

Authors: Retius Chifurira

Abstract:

Logistic regression model is the most used regression model to predict meteorological drought probabilities. When the dependent variable is extreme, the logistic model fails to adequately capture drought probabilities. In order to adequately predict drought probabilities, we use the generalized linear model (GLM) with the quantile function of the generalized extreme value distribution (GEVD) as the link function. The method maximum likelihood estimation is used to estimate the parameters of the generalized extreme value (GEV) regression model. We compare the performance of the logistic and the GEV regression models in predicting drought probabilities for Zimbabwe. The performance of the regression models are assessed using the goodness-of-fit tests, namely; relative root mean square error (RRMSE) and relative mean absolute error (RMAE). Results show that the GEV regression model performs better than the logistic model, thereby providing a good alternative candidate for predicting drought probabilities. This paper provides the first application of GLM derived from extreme value theory to predict drought probabilities for a drought-prone country such as Zimbabwe.

Keywords: generalized extreme value distribution, general linear model, mean annual rainfall, meteorological drought probabilities

Procedia PDF Downloads 186

Authors: Bing-Wen Chen, Alvin W. Y. Su, Yu-Lin Wang

Abstract:

Electromyography (EMG) is one of the important indicators during exercise, as it is closely related to the level of muscle activations. This work quantifies the muscle conditions of the lower limbs in a constant workload exercise. Surface EMG signals of the vastus laterals (VL), vastus medialis (VM), rectus femoris (RF), gastrocnemius medianus (GM), gastrocnemius lateral (GL) and Soleus (SOL) were recorded from fourteen healthy males. The EMG signals were segmented in two phases: activation segment (AS) and relaxation segment (RS). Period entropy (PE), peak count (PC), zero crossing (ZC), wave length (WL), mean power frequency (MPF), median frequency (MDF) and root mean square (RMS) are calculated to provide the quantitative information of the measured EMG segments. The outcomes reveal that the PE, PC, ZC and RMS have significantly changed (p<.001); WL presents moderately changed (p<.01); MPF and MDF show no changed (p>.05) during exercise. The results also suggest that the RS is also preferred for performance evaluation, while the results of the extracted features in AS are usually affected directly by the amplitudes. It is further found that the VL exhibits the most significant changes within six muscles during pedaling exercise. The proposed work could be applied to quantify the stamina analysis and to predict the instant muscle status in athletes.

Keywords: electromyographic feature extraction, muscle status, pedaling exercise, relaxation segment

Procedia PDF Downloads 295

Authors: Okafor C. Uche, Agbo P. Ejiofor, Okezie C. Eziuche

Abstract:

This study provides a regeneration protocol for Treculia africana Decne (an endangered plant) through embryo culture. Mature zygotic embryos of T. africana were excised from the seeds aseptically and cultured on varied strengths (full, half and quarter) of Murashige and Skoog (MS) basal medium supplemented. All treatments experienced 100±0.00 percent sprouting except for half and quarter strengths. Plantlets in MS full strength had the highest fresh weight, leaf area, and longest shoot length when compared to other treatments. All explants in full, half, quarter strengths and control had the same number of leaves and sprout rate. Between the treatments, there was a significant difference (P>0.05) in their effect on the length of shoot and root, number of adventitious root, leaf area, and fresh weight. Full strength had the highest mean value in all the above-mentioned parameters and differed significantly (P>0.05) from others except in shoot length, number of adventitious roots, and root length where it did not differ (P<0.05) from half strength. The result of this study indicates that full strength MS basal medium offers a better option for the optimum growth for Treculia africana regeneration in vitro.

Keywords: medium strengths, Murashige and Skoog, Treculia africana, zygotic embryos

Procedia PDF Downloads 239

Authors: Ali Alzeyadi, Edward Loffill, Rafid Alkhaddar Ali Alattabi

Abstract:

Phosphate, ammonium, and nitrates are forms of nutrients; they are released from different sources. High nutrient levels contribute to the eutrophication of water bodies by accelerating the extraordinary growth of algae. Recently, many filtration and treatment systems were developed and used for different removal processes. Due to enhanced operational aspects for the up-flow, continuous, granular Media filter researchers became more interested in further developing this technology and its performance for nutrient removal from wastewater. Environmental factors significantly affect the filtration process performance, and understanding their impact will help to maintain the nutrient removal process. Phosphate removal by phosphate sorption materials PSMs and nitrogen removal biologically are the methods of nutrient removal that have been discussed in this paper. Hence, the focus on the factors that influence these processes is the scope of this work. The finding showed the presence of factors affecting both removal processes; the size, shape, and roughness of the filter media particles play a crucial role in supporting biofilm formation. On the other hand, all of which are effected on the reactivity of surface between the media and phosphate. Many studies alluded to factors that have significant influence on the biological removal for nitrogen such as dissolved oxygen, temperature, and pH; this is due to the sensitivity of biological processes while the phosphate removal by PSMs showed less affected by these factors. This review work provides help to the researchers in create a comprehensive approach in regards study the nutrient removal in up flow filtration systems.

Keywords: nitrogen biological treatment, nutrients, psms, upflow filter, wastewater treatment

Procedia PDF Downloads 306

Authors: Baljit Singh Khehra, Amar Partap Singh Pharwaha

Abstract:

Clusters of Microcalcifications (MCCs) are most frequent symptoms of Ductal Carcinoma in Situ (DCIS) recognized by mammography. Least-Square Support Vector Machine (LS-SVM) is a variant of the standard SVM. In the paper, LS-SVM is proposed as a classifier for classifying MCCs as benign or malignant based on relevant extracted features from enhanced mammogram. To establish the credibility of LS-SVM classifier for classifying MCCs, a comparative evaluation of the relative performance of LS-SVM classifier for different kernel functions is made. For comparative evaluation, confusion matrix and ROC analysis are used. Experiments are performed on data extracted from mammogram images of DDSM database. A total of 380 suspicious areas are collected, which contain 235 malignant and 145 benign samples, from mammogram images of DDSM database. A set of 50 features is calculated for each suspicious area. After this, an optimal subset of 23 most suitable features is selected from 50 features by Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO). The results of proposed study are quite promising.

Keywords: clusters of microcalcifications, ductal carcinoma in situ, least-square support vector machine, particle swarm optimization

Procedia PDF Downloads 347

Authors: Awet Araya

Abstract:

Cochliobolus sativus ((anamorphic stage: Bipolaris sorokiniana (synonyms: Helminthosporium sorokinianum, Drechslera sorokiniana, and Helminthosporium sativum)) is an important pathogen of cereal crops. Many other grass species are also hosts for this fungus. Yield losses have been reported from many regions, especially where barley and wheat are commercially cultivated. The fungus has a worldwide distribution. The pathogen causes root rot, seedling blight, spot blotch, head blight, and black point. Environmental conditions affect disease development. Most of the time, fungus survives as mycelia and conidia. Pseudothecium of the fungus is not commonly encountered and probably not important in the epidemiology of the disease. The fungus can be in seed, soil, or in plant parts. Crop rotation, proper fertilization, reducing other stress factors, fungicide treatments, and resistant cultivars may be used for the control of the disease.

Keywords: Cochliobolus sativus, barley, cultivars, root rot

Procedia PDF Downloads 214

Authors: Yixuan Wang, A. C. Y. Wong, J. M. Y. Chiu, S. G. Cheung

Abstract:

After being released into the ocean, microplastics (MPs) are quickly colonized by microbes. The biofilm that forms on MPs alters their characteristics and perplexes users, including filter-feeders, some of whom choose to eat MPs that have biofilm. It has been proposed that filter feeders like mussels and other bivalves could serve as bioindicators of MP pollution. Mussels are considered selective feeders with particle sorting capability. Two sizes (27-32 µm and 90-106 µm), shapes (microspheres and microfibers), and types (polyethylene, polystyrene and polyester) of MPs were available for the green mussel, Perna viridis, at three concentrations (100 P/ml, 1000 P/ml and 10,000 P/ml). These MPs were incubated in the sea for 0, 3 or 14 days for biofilm development. The presence of the biofilm significantly affected the ingestion of MPs, and the mussels preferred MPs with biofilm, with a higher preference observed for biofilm with a longer incubation period. Additionally, the ingestion rate varied with the interaction between the concentration, size and form of MPs. The findings are discussed in relation to the possibility that mussels serve as MP bioindicators.

Keywords: marine miroplastics, biofilm, bioindicator, green mussel perna viridis

Procedia PDF Downloads 41