Search results for: sources evaluation

Authors: Chuanzhi Chen, Wenjing Yu

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Parabolic cylindrical deployable antenna has the characteristics of wide cutting width, strong directivity, high gain, and easy automatic beam scanning. While, due to its large size, high flexibility, and strong coupling, the deployment process of parabolic cylindrical deployable antenna presents such problems as unsynchronized deployment speed, large local deformation and discontinuous switching of deployment state. A large deployable parabolic cylindrical antenna is taken as the research object, and the problem of unfolding process instability of cylindrical antenna is studied in the paper, which is caused by multiple factors such as multiple closed loops, elastic deformation, motion friction, and gap collision. Firstly, the multi-flexible system dynamics model of large-scale parabolic cylindrical antenna is established to study the influence of friction and elastic deformation on the stability of large multi-closed loop antenna. Secondly, the evaluation method of antenna expansion stability is studied, and the quantitative index of antenna configuration design is proposed to provide a theoretical basis for improving the overall performance of the antenna. Finally, through simulation analysis and experiment, the development dynamics and stability of large-scale parabolic cylindrical antennas are verified by in-depth analysis, and the principles for improving the stability of antenna deployment are summarized.

Keywords: multibody dynamics, expandable parabolic cylindrical antenna, stability, flexible deformation

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Authors: Sharareh Hekmat, Michelle Lane

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Pregnancy during adolescence affects both the growth and development of mother and baby, particularly in low socioeconomic and food insecure areas. This mixed methods study is aimed at discovering a need for a community-based probiotic yogurt program to assist pregnant women in the Mukuru slum Nairobi, Kenya. Surveys were conducted with pregnant women (14-25 years old, n=43), which included questionnaires on dietary intake, food access, and health/quality of life perception. The frequency and means procedure was used to analyze maternal characteristics, Women’s Dietary Diversity Score (WDDS) and Household Hunger Scale. 24-hour recalls were analyzed via ESHA Food Processor, and median nutrient intakes were reported as a percent of recommendations. An environmental scan was conducted to assess food availability, accessibility, and quality. WDDS reflected a low-moderate diet variation (3.86 food groups out of 9, SD ± 1.3) among the women. The 24-hour recall suggested an inadequate intake of many nutrients, most significantly B12, potassium and calcium. 86% of women reported little to no household hunger. However, the environmental scan revealed low quality and poor sanitation of food. This study provides evidence that a probiotic program would be desirable, and contribute to the nutritional status of women in the Mukuru community.

Keywords: dietary diversity, pregnant women, probiotics, urban slum, Kenya

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Authors: Gia Sirbiladze

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Route planning problems are among the activities that have the highest impact on logistical planning, transportation, and distribution because of their effects on efficiency in resource management, service levels, and client satisfaction. In extreme conditions, the difficulty of vehicle movement between different customers causes the imprecision of time of movement and the uncertainty of the feasibility of movement. A feasibility level of vehicle movement on the closed route of the disaster-streaking zone is defined for the construction of an objective function. Experts’ evaluations of the uncertain parameters in q-rung ortho-pair fuzzy numbers (q-ROFNs) are presented. A fuzzy bi-objective combinatorial optimization problem of fuzzy vehicle routine problem (FVRP) is constructed based on the technique of possibility theory. The FVRP is reduced to the bi-criteria partitioning problem for the so-called “promising” routes which were selected from the all-admissible closed routes. The convenient selection of the “promising” routes allows us to solve the reduced problem in real-time computing. For the numerical solution of the bi-criteria partitioning problem, the -constraint approach is used. The main results' support software is designed. The constructed model is illustrated with a numerical example.

Keywords: q-rung ortho-pair fuzzy sets, facility location selection problem, multi-objective combinatorial optimization problem, partitioning problem

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Authors: Farid Eltom A. E., Mustafa Abdul-Halim, Abdalla Markaz, Sami Atta, Mohamed Azhari, Ahmed Rashed

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Smart environment sensors integrated with ‘Internet of Things’ (IoT) technology can provide a new concept in tracking, sensing, and monitoring objects in the environment. The aim of the study is to evaluate the farm environmental monitoring system based on (IoT) and to realize the automated management of agriculture and the implementation of precision production. Until now, irrigation monitoring operations in Sudan have been carried out using traditional methods, which is a very costly and unreliable mechanism. However, by utilizing soil moisture sensors, irrigation can be conducted only when needed without fear of plant water stress. The result showed that software application allows farmers to display current and historical data on soil moisture and nutrients in the form of line charts. Design measurements of the soil factors: moisture, electrical, humidity, conductivity, temperature, pH, phosphorus, and potassium; these factors, together with a timestamp, are sent to the data server using the Lora WAN interface. It is considered scientifically agreed upon in the modern era that artificial intelligence works to arrange the necessary procedures to take care of the terrain, predict the quality and quantity of production through deep analysis of the various operations in agricultural fields, and also support monitoring of weather conditions.

Keywords: smart environment, monitoring systems, IoT, LoRa Gateway, center pivot

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Authors: Rivindu Nethmin Bandara Menik Hitihamy Mudiyanselage, Matthias Hank Haeusler, Ben Doherty

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Investors and clients in the Architectural, Engineering and Construction industry find it difficult to understand complex datasets and reports with little to no graphic representation. The stakeholders examined in this paper include designers, design clients and end-users. Communicating embodied carbon information graphically and concisely can aid with decision support early in a building's life cycle. It is essential to create a common visualisation approach as the level of knowledge about embodied carbon varies between stakeholders. The tool, designed in conjunction with Bates Smart, condenses Tally Life Cycle Assessment data to a carbon hot-spotting visualisation, highlighting the sections with the highest amounts of embodied carbon. This allows stakeholders at every stage of a given project to have a better understanding of the carbon implications with minimal effort. It further allows stakeholders to differentiate building elements by their carbon values, which enables the evaluation of the cost-effectiveness of the selected materials at an early stage. To examine and build a decision-support tool, an action-design research methodology of cycles of iterations was used along with precedents of embodied carbon visualising tools. Accordingly, the importance of visualisation and Building Information Modelling are also explored to understand the best format for relaying these results.

Keywords: embodied carbon, visualisation, summarisation, data filtering, early-stage decision-making, materiality

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Authors: Sara S. Fouad, Omneya Messallam

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In 1818, a seventy-five kilometer long canal was dug (called the Mahmoudiyah canal) connecting between Alexandria city in Egypt and the western branch of the Nile. It was a productive resource and vital to its environment, context, transportation, and recreation. It played a significant role in people’s lives and Alexandria city’s shape. The canal, which was the main vein of goods’ transporting from Alexandria’s seaport to the different parts of Egypt, was still in use today as a major source of clear water in the city. But nowadays, Mahmoudiyah canal is converting into ‘dead waterway’. The canal became sources of pollution as a result of solid and industrial waste thus causing many diseases, destroying communities and biodiversity, with urban invasion, the loss of community aesthetic value and healthy environment. Therefore, this paper aims to propose an urban strategy, as a solution to revive the forgotten canal, through recreating a cultural promenade on its shore. The main aim of this research is to formulate decent quality of life, unpolluted space, an area gathering the city space for nature, tourism and investments. As a case study, this paper investigates Mahmoudiyah canal through urban and ecological analyses, aiming to design an urban strategy for reviving it by creating a cultural promenade enriched with public spaces and green areas, which can most probably enhance the quality of life, city re-living and development. Community participation is also considered as vital and intrinsic implementation stage. The empirical research involved using several data assembly methods such as interviews, mental mapping, structural observations and questionnaires. The paper ends with a set of conclusions leading to proposals for the Mahmoudiyah canal revitalization considering the complex challenges and processes of sustainable regeneration focusing on city’s rehabilitation and lost identity.

Keywords: Mahmoudiyah canal, community aesthetic value, city re-living, cultural promenade

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Authors: Atul Srivastava, D. V. Gowda

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Enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli (ETEC) infection is one of the major causes contributing to the development of diarrhoea in adults and children in developing countries. To date, no preventive/treatment strategy showed promising results, which could be due to the lack of potent vaccines, and/or due to the development of resistance of ETEC to antibiotics. Therefore, in the present investigation, a novel porous Sodium Alginate (SA) tablet formulation loaded with F4 fimbriae antigen was developed and tested for efficacy against ETEC infections in piglet models. Pre-compression parameters of the powder mixes and post compression parameters of tablets have been evaluated and results were found to be satisfactory. Loading of F4 fimbrial antigens in to the tablets was achieved by inducing pores in the tablets via the sublimation of camphor followed by incubation with purified F4 fimbriae. The loaded tablets have been coated with Eudragit L100 to protect the F4 fimbriae from (a) highly acidic gastric environment; (b) proteolytic cleavage by pepsin; and (c) to promote subsequent release in the intestine. Evaluation of developed F4 fimbrial tablets in a Pig model demonstrated induction of mucosal immunity, and a significant reduction of F4+ E. coli in faeces. Therefore, F4 fimbriae loaded porous tablets could be a novel oral vaccination candidate to induce mucosal and systemic immunity against ETEC infections.

Keywords: porous tablets, sublimation, f4 fimbriae, eudragit l100, vaccination

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Authors: P. Efstathiou, E. Kouskouni, S. Papanikolaou, K. Karageorgou, Z. Manolidou, Tseroni Maria, A. Efstathiou, V. Karyoti, I. Agrafa

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Aim: Aim of this study was to evaluate the reduction on Intensive Care Unit (ICU) microbial flora after the antimicrobial copper alloy (Cu+) implementation as well as the effect on financial-epidemiological operation parameters. Methods: Medical, epidemiological and financial data in two time periods, before and after the implementation of copper (Cu 63% - Zn 37%, low lead) were recorded and analyzed in a general ICU. The evaluated parameters were: the importance of patients' admission (Acute Physiology and Chronic Health Evaluation - APACHE II and Simplified Acute Physiology Score - SAPS), microbial flora's record in the ICU before and after the implementation of Cu+ as well as the impact on epidemiological and ICU's operation financial parameters. Results: During December 2010 and March 2011 and respectively during December 2011 and March 2012 comparative results showed statistically significant reduction on the microbial flora (CFU/ml) by 95% and the use of antimicrobial medicine (per day per patient) by 30% (p = 0,014) as well as patients hospitalization time and cost. Conclusions: The innovative implementation of antimicrobial copper in ICUs contributed to their microbial flora significant reduction and antimicrobial drugs use reduction with the apparent positive effect (decrease) in both patient’s hospitalization time and cost. Under the present circumstances of economic crisis, survey results are of highest importance and value.

Keywords: antimicrobial copper, financial benefits, ICU, cost reduction

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Authors: Mohammad Rostami Mehr, Seyed Arya Mir Rashed, Arndt Lueder, Magdalena Missler-Behr

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This paper represents the conception that complex problems do not necessarily need a similar complex solution in order to cope with the complexity. Furthermore, a simple solution based on established methods can provide a sufficient way to deal with the complexity. To verify this conception, the presented paper focuses on the field of change management as a part of the new product development process in the automotive sector. In this field, dealing with increasing complexity is essential, while only non-flexible rigid processes that are not designed to handle complexity are available. The basic methodology of this paper can be divided into four main sections: 1) analyzing the complexity of the change management, 2) literature review in order to identify potential solutions and methods, 3) capturing and implementing expertise of experts from the change management field of an automobile manufacturing company and 4) systematical comparison of the identified methods from literature and connecting these with defined requirements of the complexity of the change management in order to develop a solution. As a practical outcome, this paper provides a method to capture the complexity of engineering changes (EC) and includes it within the EC evaluation process, following case-related process guidance to cope with the complexity. Furthermore, this approach supports the conception that dealing with complexity is possible while utilizing rather simple and established methods by combining them into a powerful tool.

Keywords: complexity management, new product development, engineering change management, flexibility

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Authors: Faeze omid, Morteza Banakar

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Background: The COVID-19 pandemic has had a significant impact on global health and healthcare systems, including oral health. The lockdown measures implemented in many countries have led to changes in oral health behaviors, access to dental care, and the delivery of dental services. However, the extent of these changes and their effects on oral health outcomes remains unclear. This systematic review aims to synthesize the available evidence on the state of oral health after the COVID-19 lockdown. Methods: We conducted a systematic search of electronic databases (PubMed, Embase, Scopus, and Web of Science) and grey literature sources for studies reporting on oral health outcomes after the COVID-19 lockdown. We included studies published in English between January 2020 and March 2023. Two reviewers independently screened the titles, abstracts, and full texts of potentially relevant articles and extracted data from included studies. We used a narrative synthesis approach to summarize the findings. Results: Our search identified 23 studies from 12 countries, including cross-sectional surveys, cohort studies, and case reports. The studies reported on changes in oral health behaviors, access to dental care, and the prevalence and severity of dental conditions after the COVID-19 lockdown. Overall, the evidence suggests that the lockdown measures had a negative impact on oral health outcomes, particularly among vulnerable populations. There were decreases in dental attendance, increases in dental anxiety and fear, and changes in oral hygiene practices. Furthermore, there were increases in the incidence and severity of dental conditions, such as dental caries and periodontal disease, and delays in the diagnosis and treatment of oral cancers. Conclusion: The COVID-19 pandemic and associated lockdown measures have had significant effects on oral health outcomes, with negative impacts on oral health behaviors, access to care, and the prevalence and severity of dental conditions. These findings highlight the need for continued monitoring and interventions to address the long-term effects of the pandemic on oral health.

Keywords: COVID-19, oral health, systematic review, dental public health

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Authors: Robbie C. Murchison, Ibrahim Küçükdemiral, Andrew Cowell

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Thermal effects are the largest source of dimensional error in precision machining, and a major proportion is caused by ambient temperature variation. The use of coolant is a primary means of mitigating these effects, but there has been limited work on coolant temperature control. This research critically explored whether CNC-machine coolant refrigeration systems adapted to actively compensate for ambient temperature variation could increase machining accuracy. Accuracy data were collected from operators’ checklists for a CNC 5-axis mill and statistically reduced to bias and precision metrics for observations of one day over a sample period of 27 days. Temperature data were collected using three USB dataloggers in ambient air, the chiller inflow, and the chiller outflow. The accuracy and temperature data were analysed using Pearson correlation, then the thermodynamics of the system were described using system identification with MATLAB. It was found that 75% of thermal error is reflected in the hot coolant temperature but that this is negligibly dependent on ambient temperature. The effect of the coolant refrigeration process on hot coolant outflow temperature was also found to be negligible. Therefore, the evidence indicated that it would not be beneficial to adapt coolant chillers to compensate for ambient temperature variation. However, it is concluded that hot coolant outflow temperature is a robust and accessible source of thermal error data which could be used for prevention strategy evaluation or as the basis of other thermal error strategies.

Keywords: CNC manufacturing, machine-tool, precision machining, thermal error

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Authors: Khanday Pervaiz Ahmad

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It was in 19th century when the Indian educated class started to reform their socio-religious set up as an imperative to respond to the challenges put forward by the colonial empire. The colonial discourse on India from the very beginning was gendered, as the colonized society was feminized and its ‘effeminate’ character, as opposed to ‘colonial masculinity’ was held to be a justification for its loss of independence. The ‘women health figure’ is prominently in these gender discourses. The women’s health received a much place in the colonial discourse. Lack of health consciousness, illiteracy, and belief in myths, rituals and superstitions were deemed the main factors taken as an indicator of miserable condition of Indian women’s health. As the low position of women caused shame to the natives, reforming the condition of women, its health occupied a major place in their intellectual as well as activist engagements. Magazines (journals) for women began to appear in various Indian languages in the mid to late 19th century with Bengal leading the front. These sources (Magazines) like Harm, Tehzib un Niswan, Saheli, Khatoon etc. are essential for the study of the emergence of an ideology of respectable domesticity in Indian Muslim upper middle class. Similarly for the study of development of Women’s health consciousness, women’s magazines are very essential. These earliest women Urdu magazines were first started by men, and then followed by the women’s own magazines. Various health issues, like pregnancy, child-rearing, menstruation, midwives training, Pardah, and health etc. were discussed at a time when it was impossible to discuss them in public sphere. These women magazines were brave pioneers, expanding the frontiers of women’s roles, and consciousness at a time when those frontiers were severely limited. This paper will try to focus on how women responded to the question of colonial discourse about their bodies. How health consciousness developed among Indian Muslim women and in what way it contributed in the development of feminist consciousness in South Asian Muslim Women community.

Keywords: Ashraf class, khatoon, haram women, feminism

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Authors: Matza Gusto Andika, Syariefatunnisa

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Hanger at the arch bridges is an important part to transfer load on the bridge deck onto the arch. Bridges are subjected to several types of loadings, such as dead load, temperature load, wind load, moving loads etc. Usually the hanger bridge has a typical bluff body shape such as circle, square, H beam, etc. When flow past bluff body, the flow separates from the body surface generating an unsteady broad wake. These vortices are shed to the wake periodically with some frequency that is related to the undisturbed wind speed and the size of the cross-section body by the well-known Strouhal relationship. The dynamic characteristic and hanger shape are crucial for the evaluation of vortex induced vibrations and structural vibrations. The effect of vortex induced vibration is not catastrophic as a flutter phenomenon, but it can make fatigue failure to the structure. Wind tunnel tests are conducted to investigate the VIV and galloping effect at circle, hexagonal, and H beam bluff body for hanger bridge. From this research, the hanger bridge with hexagonal shape has a minimum vibration amplitude due to VIV phenomenon compared to circle and H beam. However, when the wind bruises the acute angle of hexagon shape, the vibration amplitude of bridge hanger with hexagonal shape is higher than the other bluff body.

Keywords: vortex induced vibration, hanger bridge, wind tunnel, galloping

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Authors: Andres F. Ramirez, Carlos F. Valencia

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The increasing interest in renewable energies strategies application and the path for diminishing the use of carbon related energy sources have encouraged the development of novel strategies for integration of solar energy into the electricity network. A correct inclusion of the fluctuating energy output of a photovoltaic (PV) energy system into an electric grid requires improvements in the forecasting and simulation methodologies for solar energy potential, and the understanding not only of the mean value of the series but the associated underlying stochastic process. We present a methodology for synthetic generation of solar irradiance (shortwave flux) and air temperature bivariate time series based on copula functions to represent the cross-dependence and temporal structure of the data. We explore the advantages of using this nonlinear time series method over traditional approaches that use a transformation of the data to normal distributions as an intermediate step. The use of copulas gives flexibility to represent the serial variability of the real data on the simulation and allows having more control on the desired properties of the data. We use discrete zero mass density distributions to assess the nature of solar irradiance, alongside vector generalized linear models for the bivariate time series time dependent distributions. We found that the copula autoregressive methodology used, including the zero mass characteristics of the solar irradiance time series, generates a significant improvement over state of the art strategies. These results will help to better understand the fluctuating nature of solar energy forecasting, the underlying stochastic process, and quantify the potential of a photovoltaic (PV) energy generating system integration into a country electricity network. Experimental analysis and real data application substantiate the usage and convenience of the proposed methodology to forecast solar irradiance time series and solar energy across northern hemisphere, southern hemisphere, and equatorial zones.

Keywords: copula autoregressive, solar irradiance forecasting, solar energy forecasting, time series generation

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Authors: Jeonghyun Chang, Taegeun Lee, Heungsup Sung, Yoon-Seon Lee, Youn-Jung Kim, Mi-Na Kim

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Background: Safety device has been applied to improve safety and performance of blood culture practice. BD vacutainer® Safety-Lokᵀᴹ blood collection sets with pre-attached holder (Safety-Lok) (BD, USA) was evaluated in the emergency room (ER) of a tertiary care hospital. Methods: From April to June 2017, interns and nurses in ER were surveyed for blood culture practices with a questionnaire before and after 2 or 3 weeks of experience of Safety-Lok. All of them participated in exercise workshop for 1 hour combined with video education prior to the initial survey. The blood volume, positive and contamination rates of Safety-Lok-drawn (SD) blood cultures were compared to those of overall blood cultures. Results: Eighteen interns and 30 nurses were enrolled. As a result of the initial survey, interns had higher rates of needlestick incidence (27.8%), carriage of the blood-filled syringe with needle (88.9%) and lower rates of vacutainer use (38.9%) than nurses (13.3%, 53.3%, and 60.0%). Interns preferred to use safety devices (88.9%) rather than nurses (40.0%). The number of overall blood cultures and SD blood cultures was 9,053 and 555, respectively. While the overall blood volume of aerobic bottles was 2.6±2.1 mL, those of SD blood cultures were 5.0±3.0 mL in aerobic bottles and 6.0±3.0 mL in anaerobic bottles. Positive and contamination rates were 6.5% and 0.72% with SD blood cultures and 6.2% and 0.3% with overall blood cultures. Conclusions: The introduction of the safety device would encourage healthcare workers to collect adequate blood volume as well as lead to safer practices in the ER.

Keywords: blood culture, needlestick, safety device, volume

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Authors: Bo Jin

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A variety of process equipment having flow in and out is widely used in industrial land-based cryogenic facilities. In some of this equipment, such as vapor-liquid separator, a liquid level is established during the steady operation. As the implementation of such industrial processes extends to off-shore floating facilities, it is important to investigate the effect of sea motion on the process equipment partially filled with liquid. One important aspect to consider is the occurrence of sloshing therein. The flow characteristics are different from the classical study of sloshing, where the fluid is enclosed inside a vessel (e.g., storage tank) with no flow in or out. Liquid inside process equipment continuously flows in and out of the system. To understand this key difference, a Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) model is developed to simulate the liquid motion inside a partially filled cylinder with and without continuous flow in and out. For a partially filled vertical cylinder without any continuous flow in and out, the CFD model is found to be able to capture the well-known sloshing behavior documented in the literature. For the cylinder with a continuous steady flow in and out, the CFD simulation results demonstrate that the continuous flow suppresses sloshing. Given typical cryogenic fluid has very low viscosity, an analysis based on potential flow theory is developed to explain why flow into and out of the cylinder changes the natural frequency of the system and thereby suppresses sloshing. This analysis further validates the CFD results.

Keywords: computational fluid dynamics, CFD, cryogenic process equipment, off-shore floating processes, sloshing

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Authors: Mukesh Singh Mer, Brij Lal Attri, Raj Narayan, Anil Kumar

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Postharvest studies were conducted under the concept that fruit do not qualify for the fresh market may be used as a source of bioactive compounds. One peach (Prunus persica cvs Red June) were evaluated for their photochemical content and antioxidant capacity during the ripening and over ripening periods (advanced senescence) for 12 and 15 d, respectively. Firmness decreased rapidly during this period from an initial pre –ripe stage of 5.85 lb/in2 for peach until the fruit reached the fully ripe stage of lb/in2. In this study we evaluate the varietal performance in respect of the quality beyond fresh market eating and nutrition levels. The varieties are (T-1 F-16-23), (T-2 Florda king), (T-3 Nectarine), (T-4 Red June). The result pertaining are there the highest fruit length (68.50 mm), fruit breadth (71.38 mm), fruit weight (186.11 g) found in T4 Red June and fruit firmness (8.74 lb/in 2) found in T3-Nectarine. The acidity (1.66 %), ascorbic acid (440 mg/100 g), reducing sugar (19.77 %) and total sugar (51.73 %) found in T4- Red June, T-2 Florda King, T-3 Nectarine at harvesting time but decrease in fruit length ( 60.81 mm), fruit breadth (51.84 mm), fruit weight (143.03 g) found in T4 Red June and fruit firmness (6.29 lb/in 2) found in T3-Nectarine. The acidity (0.80 %), ascorbic acid (329.50 mg/100 g), reducing sugar (34.03 %) and total sugar (26.97 %) found in T1- F-16-23, T-2 Florda King, T-1 F-16-23 and T-3 Nectarine after 15 days in freeze conditions when will have been since reached beyond market. The study reveals that the size and yield good in Red June and the nutritional value higher in Florda King and Nectarine peach. Fruit firmness remained unchanged afterwards. In addition, total soluble solids in peach were basically similar during the ripening and over ripening periods. Further research on secondary metabolism regulation during ripening and advanced senescence is needed to obtain fruit as enriched dietary sources of bioactive compounds or for its use in alternative high value health markets including dietary supplements, functional foods cosmetics and pharmaceuticals.

Keywords: metabolism, acidity, ascorbic acid, pharmaceuticals

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Authors: Siti Nur Muhamad, Mohamad Abu Ubaidah Amir, Adenen Shuhada Abdul Aziz, Siti Sarah Mohd Isnan, Ainul Husna Abdul Rahman, Nur Afiqah Rosly, Roshamida Abd Jamil

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The International Convention for the Control and Management of Ships’ Ballast Water and Sediments (BWM Convention) will commencing on 8 September 2017 after ratified by 51 States in September 2016. However, there is no value recovered for the treated ballast water as it simply discharged during de-ballasting. In order to evaluate value creation of treated ballast water, three seawater applications which are seawater toilet flushing, cooling tower and desalination was studied and compared with treated ballast seawater. An exploratory study was conducted in Singapore as a case study as this country is facing water scarcity issues and a busy port in the world which received more than 28 billion m3 of ballast water in 2015. Surprisingly the treatment technology between seawater toilet flushing and ballast water management has similarity as both applications use screening and disinfection process and quality standard and analysis between treated ballast water with seawater applications found that seawater toilet flushing have the same quality parameter with treated ballast water. Thus, the treated ballast water can replace the raw seawater for seawater desalination. As such, with reduction of cost for screen unit, desalination water can exceed water production by NEWater in Singapore as the cost can recover the energy needed for desalination. It can conclude that treated ballast water has high recovery value and can be reused in seawater application.

Keywords: ballast water treatment, desalination, BWM convention, ballast water management

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Authors: Sambit Supriya Dash, Rahul Ravi R, Vikram Ramanan, Vinayak Malhotra

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Combustion in itself is a complex phenomenon that involves the interaction and interplay of multiple phenomena, the combined effect of which gives rise to the common flame that we see and use in our daily life applications from cooking to propelling our vehicles to space. The most important thing that goes unnoticed about these flames is the effect of the various phenomena from its surrounding environment that affects its behavior and properties. These phenomena cause a variety of energy interactions that lead to various types of energy transformations which in turn affect the flame behavior. This paper focuses on experimentally investigating the effect of one such phenomenon, which is the acoustics or sound energy on diffusion flames. The subject in itself is extensively studied upon as thermo-acoustics globally, whereas the current work focuses on studying its effect on soot formation on diffusion flames. The said effect is studied in this research work by the use of a butane as fuel, fitted with a nozzle that houses 3 arrays consisting of 4 holes each that are placed equidistant to each other and the resulting flame impinged with sound from two independent and similar sound sources that are placed equidistant from the centre of the flame. The entire process is systematically video graphed using a 60 fps regular CCD and analysed for variation in flame heights and flickering frequencies where the fuel mass flow rate is maintained constant and the configuration of entrainment holes and frequency of sound are varied, whilst maintaining constant ambient atmospheric conditions. The current work establishes significant outcomes on the effect of acoustics on soot formation; it is noteworthy that soot formation is the main cause of pollution and a major cause of inefficiency of current propulsion systems. This work is one of its kinds, and its outcomes are widely applicable to commercial and domestic appliances that utilize combustion for energy generation or propulsion and help us understand them better, so that we can increase their efficiency and decrease pollution.

Keywords: thermoacoustics, entrainment, propulsion system, efficiency, pollution

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Authors: Kathryn L. Duncan, Charles A. Kuntz, Alessandra C. Santamaria, James O. Simcock

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Access to megavoltage radiation therapy for small animals is limited in many locations around the world. This can preclude the use of palliative radiation therapy for the treatment of appendicular osteosarcoma in dogs. The objective of this study was to retrospectively assess the adverse effects and survival times of dogs with appendicular osteosarcoma that were treated with hypofractionated orthovoltage radiation therapy and adjunctive carboplatin chemotherapy administered via a single subcutaneous infusion. Medical records were reviewed retrospectively to identify client-owned dogs with spontaneously occurring appendicular osteosarcoma that was treated with palliative orthovoltage radiation therapy and a single subcutaneous infusion of carboplatin. Data recorded included signalment, tumour location, results of diagnostic imaging, haematologic and serum biochemical analyses, adverse effects of radiation therapy and chemotherapy, and survival times. Kaplan-Meier survival analysis was performed, and log-rank analysis was used to determine the impact of specific patient variables on survival time. Twenty-three dogs were identified that met the inclusion criteria. Median survival time for dogs was 182 days. Eleven dogs had adverse haematologic effects, 3 had adverse gastrointestinal effects, 6 had adverse effects at the radiation site and 7 developed infections at the carboplatin infusion site. No statistically significant differences were identified in survival times based on sex, tumour location, development of infection, or pretreatment serum alkaline phosphatase. Median survival time and incidence of adverse effects were comparable to those previously reported in dogs undergoing palliative radiation therapy with megavoltage or cobalt radiation sources and conventional intravenous carboplatin chemotherapy. The use of orthovoltage palliative radiation therapy may be a reasonable alternative to megavoltage radiation in locations where access is limited.

Keywords: radiotherapy, veterinary oncology, chemotherapy, osteosarcoma

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Authors: Saksham

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Concrete's versatility and affordability make it a highly competitive building material capable of meeting diverse requirements. However, the increasing demands placed on structures and the need for enhanced durability and performance have driven the development of distinct cementitious materials and concrete composites. One significant aspect of this advancement is the utilization of waste materials from industries, such as fly ash, to improve concrete's properties. Fly ash, a byproduct of coal combustion can enhance concrete's strength and durability while reducing environmental impact. Additionally, steel fibers can enhance concrete's toughness and crack resistance, contributing to improved structural performance. The experimental study aims to optimize the proportion of ingredients in M30-grade concrete, incorporating fly ash and steel fibers. By varying fly ash content (10% to 30%) and steel fiber dosage (0% to 1.5%), the research seeks to determine the optimal combination for achieving the desired compressive strength. Two sets of experiments are conducted: one focusing on varying fly ash content while keeping steel fiber dosage constant, and the other focusing on varying steel fiber dosage while keeping other parameters fixed. Through systematic testing, molding, curing, and evaluation according to specified standards, the research aims to analyze the impact of fly ash and steel fibers on concrete's compressive strength. The findings have the potential to inform engineers about optimized concrete mix designs that balance performance, cost-effectiveness, and sustainability, advancing toward more resilient and environmentally friendly building practices.

Keywords: concrete, sustainability, durability, compressive strength

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Authors: Ergun Sakalar, Kubra Bilgic

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In the last decades, real-time PCR has become a reliable tool preferred to use in many laboratories for pathogen detection. This technique allows for monitoring target amplification via fluorescent molecules besides admit of quantitative analysis by enabling of convert outcomes of thermal cycling to digital data. Sensitivity and traceability of real-time PCR are based on measuring of fluorescence that appears only when fluorescent reporter dye bound to specific target DNA.The fluorescent reporter systems developed for this purpose are divided into two groups. The first group consists of intercalator fluorescence dyes such as SYBR Green, EvaGreen which binds to double-stranded DNA. On the other hand, the second group includes fluorophore-labeled oligonucleotide probes that are separated into three subgroups due to differences in mechanism of action; initial primer-probes such as Cyclicons, Angler®, Amplifluor®, LUX™, Scorpions, and the second one hydrolysis probes like TaqMan, Snake assay, finally hybridization probes, for instance, Molecular Beacons, Hybprobe/FRET, HyBeacon™, MGB-Eclipse, ResonSense®, Yin-Yang, MGB-Pleiades. In addition nucleic acid analogues, an increase of probe affinity to target site is also employed with fluorescence-labeled probes. Consequently, abundant real-time PCR detection chemistries are chosen by researcher according to the field of application, mechanism of action, advantages, and proper structures of primer/probes.

Keywords: fluorescent dye, food safety, molecular probes, nucleic acid analogues

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Authors: Armaghan Moravej Aleali, Seyed Mahmoud Latifi, Homeira Rashidi

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Objective: High blood pressure in a risk factor for some disease like stroke, coronary heart disease, and renal failure. High blood pressure in children is an increasing health problem. The aim of this present was to determine prevalence of hypertension and pre-hypertension age between 10 to 17 years old. Material & Methods: This descriptive-analytic study was conducted using multiphase sampling method in Ahvaz (Southwest of Iran). A questionnaire include: height, weight, and body mass index, systolic and diastolic blood pressures filled for each participant. Blood pressure was measured twice for each person. For the diagnosis of hypertension, the fourth report of the Diagnosis, Evaluation, and Treatment of High Blood Pressure in Children and Adolescents of the National Health Institute of United States was used. Results: The subject participants of the study were 1707children and adolescents including 922 boys (54%) and 785 girls 46%). The prevalence of high blood pressure was 1.7% (boys 2.5% girls 0.8%). The prevalence of pre-hypertension was 9 % (7.6% in boys, 10.6% in girls). The mean systolic and diastolic blood pressures increased with increasing body mass index. Conclusion: In this study, the prevalence of high blood pressure was found to be lower than other studies in our country. The prevalence of the high blood pressure in boys was significantly higher than girls. This study, like other studies, showed a high correlation between being overweight and an increase in systolic and diastolic blood pressure.

Keywords: hypertension, pre-hypertension, childhood, adolescence

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Authors: Vaibhav Singh Parihar

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Incidents of serious offenses being committed by children are increasing day by day thereby becoming a matter of great concern. The involvement of a 17-year-old boy in the incident that took place on 16th December 2012 (most commonly known as ‘Nirbhaya Case’)wherein a 23-year-old girl was brutally gang-raped and thrown out of the moving bus, took the entire nation by shock. Previously, the legislation dealing with juvenile delinquency in India considered a child to be juvenile if he/she was below the age of 18 years. As a consequence, the accused who was just six months short of attaining the age of 18 years was convicted for only three years. The primary objective of the study is to understand the gravity as to why the need for distinguishing a child and juvenile arose in this time and to what extent legislations are successful in this regard. It initially explains the history and evolution of juvenile legislation in India and the provisions contained in the Indian Constitution. It then goes on to explain the causes of juvenile delinquency in India. Further, the study focuses on the latest trends that have developed in juvenile delinquency, explaining how the Nirbhaya Case led to the amendments made to the Juvenile Justice Act, 2010. Also, it focuses on the Child Rights and Child Protection and the stand taken by the National Human Rights Commission and the international community. An attempt has been made to settle the debate as to whether the juvenile justice system in India is reformative or punitive. The need for amendment in the Juvenile Justice Act is also highlighted. The outcome of the study suggests that the legislation relating to juvenile delinquency have not been able to achieve the desired results. The age determination method in our system has been given paramount importance. The maximum punishment prescribed, even for heinous crimes, is only three years. Also, the reformative style of punishment is not adequate and more emphasis should be laid on penalization. Finally, the author concludes that the legislation has failed at creating a deterrent effect. It is suggested to strengthen the role of government authorities and to sensitize people in this regard to increase community participation. A non-doctrinal and analytical approach has been adopted and secondary sources of data have been relied upon by the author for conducting the research for the study.

Keywords: child, delinquency, juvenile, Nirbhaya case

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Authors: Mayowa Philips Ibitola, Akinade-Solomon Olorunfemi, Abe Oluwaseun Banji

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Heavy minerals studies were carried out on eighteen sediment samples from Ologe lagoon located at Lagos Barrier complex, with the aim of evaluating the heavy mineral deposits and determining the provenance of the sediments. The samples were subjected to grain analysis techniques in order to collect the finest grain size. Separation of heavy minerals from the samples was done with the aid of bromoform to enable petrographic analyses of the heavy mineral suite, under the polarising microscope. The data obtained from the heavy mineral analysis were used in preparing histograms and pie chart, from which the individual heavy mineral percentage distribution and ZTR index were derived. The percentage composition of the individual heavy mineral analyzed are opaque mineral 63.92%, Zircon 12.43%, Tourmaline 5.79%, Rutile 13.44%, Garnet 1.74% and Staurolite 3.52%. The calculated zircon, tourmaline, rutile index in percentage (ZTR) varied between 76.13 -92.15%, average garnet-zircon index (GZI), average rutile-zircon index (RuZI) and average staurolite-zircon index values in all the stations are 16.18%, 54.33%, 25.11% respectively. The mean ZTR index percentage value is 85.17% indicates that the sediments within the lagoon are mineralogically matured. The high percentage of zircon, rutile, and tourmaline indicates an acid igneous rock source for the sediments. However, the low percentage of staurolite, rutile and garnet occurrence indicates sediment of metamorphic rock source input.

Keywords: lagoon, provenance, heavy mineral, ZTR index

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Authors: Jie Zhao, Meng Su

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Image recognition, as one of the most critical technologies in computer vision, works to help machine-like robotics understand a scene, that is, if deployed appropriately, will trigger the revolution in remote sensing and industry automation. With the developments of AI technologies, there are many prevailing and sophisticated neural networks as technologies developed for image recognition. However, computer vision platforms as hardware, supporting neural networks for image recognition, as crucial as the neural network technologies, need to be more congruently addressed as the research subjects. In contrast, different computer vision platforms are deterministic to leverage the performance of different neural networks for recognition. In this paper, three different computer vision platforms – Jetson Nano(with 4GB), a standalone laptop(with RTX 3000s, using CUDA), and Google Colab (web-based, using GPU) are explored and four prominent neural network architectures (including AlexNet, VGG(16/19), GoogleNet, and ResNet(18/34/50)), are investigated. In the context of pairwise usage between different computer vision platforms and distinctive neural networks, with the merits of recognition accuracy and time efficiency, the performances are evaluated. In the case study using public imageNets, our findings provide a nuanced perspective on optimizing image recognition tasks across Edge-AI platforms, offering guidance on selecting appropriate neural network structures to maximize performance under hardware constraints.

Keywords: alexNet, VGG, googleNet, resNet, Jetson nano, CUDA, COCO-NET, cifar10, imageNet large scale visual recognition challenge (ILSVRC), google colab

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Authors: Sheng Huang, Xin Zhao, Xiaofeng Gao, Tao Zhou, Shijin Dai, Youcai Zhao

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Adsorption of heavy metal pollutants (Zn, Cd, Pb, Cr, Cu) and organic pesticide (phorate, dithiophosphate diethyl, triethyl phosphorothioate), along with their multi-contamination on the surface of industrial construction & demolition waste (C&D waste) was investigated. Brick powder was selected as the appropriate waste while its maximum equilibrium adsorption amount of heavy metal under single controlled contamination matrix reached 5.41, 0.81, 0.45, 1.13 and 0.97 mg/g, respectively. Effects of pH and spiking dose of ICDW was also investigated. Equilibrium adsorption amount of organic pesticide varied from 0.02 to 0.97 mg/g, which was negatively correlated to the size distribution and hydrophilism. Existence of organic pesticide on surface of ICDW caused various effects on the heavy metal adsorption, mainly due to combination of metal ions and the floccule formation along with wrapping behaviors by pesticide pollutants. Adsorption of Zn was sharply decreased from 7.1 to 0.15 mg/g compared with clean ICDW and phorate contaminated ICDW, while that of Pb, Cr and Cd experienced an increase- then decrease procedure. On the other hand, runoff of pesticide contaminants was investigated under 25 mm/h simulated rainfall. Results showed that the cumulative runoff amount fitted well with curve obtained from a power function, of which r2=0.95 and 0.91 for 1DAA (1 day between contamination and runoff) and 7DAA, respectively. This study helps provide evaluation of industrial construction and demolition waste contamination into aquatic systems.

Keywords: adsorption mechanism, industrial construction waste, metals, pesticide, runoff

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Authors: Mohammad Bqoor, Mohammad Hamdan, Isam Janajreh, Sufian Abedrabbo

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This extensive theoretical study on a novel Ionized Gas Thermoelectric Generator (IG-TEG) system has shown the ability of continuous energy extracting from the thermal energy of ambient air around standard room temperature and even below. This system does not need a temperature gradient in order to work, unlike the other TEGs that use the Seebeck effect, and therefore this new system can be utilized in sustainable energy systems, as well as in green cooling solutions, by extracting energy instead of wasting energy in compressing the gas for cooling. This novel system was designed based on Static Ratchet Potential (SRP), which is known as a spatially asymmetric electric potential produced by an array of positive and negative electrodes. The ratchet potential produces an electrical current from the random Brownian Motion of charged particles that are driven by thermal energy. The key parameter of the system is particle transportation, and it was studied under the condition of flashing ratchet potentials utilizing several methods and examined experimentally, ensuring its functionality. In this study, a different approach is pursued to estimate particle transportation by evaluating the charged particle distribution and applying the other conditions of the SRP, and showing continued energy harvesting potency from the particles’ transportation. Ultimately, power levels of 10 Watt proved to be achievable from a 1 m long system tube of 10 cm radius.

Keywords: thermoelectric generator, ratchet potential, Brownian ratchet, energy harvesting, sustainable energy, green technology

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Authors: Samah Oda, Asmaa Khafaga, Mohammed Hashim, Asmaa Khamis

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Toxicity of hydroxyurea (HU), a treatment for certain tumors, polycythemia, and thrombocytosis, was evaluated in rats in one-month toxicity study. Sixty male albino rats were equally classified into four groups. Rats received daily oral gavage of HU in 0, 250, 500, and 750 mg/kg b.wt. Chemical and histopathological assessment of liver, lung, spleen, and bone marrow was performed at 10, 20, and 30 days of the experiment. No significant change was reported in alanine aminotransferase (ALT), aspartate aminotransferase (AST), globulin, and albumin/ globulin ratio during the experiment. Significant decreases in alkaline phosphatase (ALP) and total albumin were reported in rats received 500 and 750 mg/kg b.wt of HU. In addition, total cholesterol level increased significantly after 10 days; however, it significantly decreased after 20 and 30 days of the experiment. Moreover, hepatocytic vacuolation and necrosis with portal inflammatory infiltrates were reported along experimental periods. Pulmonary congestion, hemorrhage, interstitial mononuclear infiltration, peribronchitis, and bronchial epithelial necrosis were also reported. Severe lymphocytic necrosis in spleen and severe loss of hematopoietic cells and replacement with corresponding adipose tissue in bone marrow tissues was demonstrated. In conclusion, HU could be able to induce severe dose and time-dependent hepato-pulmonary toxicity and lymphoid depression in rats.

Keywords: hydroxyurea, hepato-pulmonary toxicity, lymphoid depression, histopathology

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Authors: Ji Hun Choi, Seung Un Chae, Kyeong Suk Cho

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Synthetic resins are widely used in various fields including electricity, engineering, construction and agriculture. Many of interior and exterior finishing materials for buildings are synthetic resin products. In this study, full-scale fire tests were conducted on polyvinyl chloride, polypropylene and urethane in accordance with the “ISO 9705: Fire test - Full-scale room test for surface products” to measure heat release rate, toxic gas emission and smoke production rate. Based on the tests, fire growth pattern and fire risk were analyzed. Findings from the tests conducted on polyvinyl chloride and urethane are as follows. The total heat release rate and total smoke production rate of polyvinyl chloride were 98.89MW and 5284.41m2, respectively and its highest CO2 concentration was 0.149%. The values obtained from the test with urethane were 469.94 MW, 3396.28 m2 and 1.549%. While heat release rate and CO2 concentration were higher in urethane implying its high combustibility, smoke production rate was 1.5 times higher in polyvinyl chloride. Follow-up tests are planned to be conducted to accumulate data for the evaluation of heat emission and fire risk associated with synthetic resins.

Keywords: synthetic resins, fire test, full-scale test, heat release rate, smoke production rate, polyvinyl chloride, polypropylene, urethane

Procedia PDF Downloads 427