Search results for: Yang Mills mass gap problem

Authors: Nadia Allouache

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Solar radiation is by far the largest and the most world’s abundant, clean and permanent energy source. The amount of solar radiation intercepted by the Earth is much higher than annual global energy use. The energy available from the sun is greater than about 5200 times the global world’s need in 2006. In recent years, many promising technologies have been developed to harness the sun's energy. These technologies help in environmental protection, economizing energy, and sustainable development, which are the major issues of the world in the 21st century. One of these important technologies is the solar cooling systems that make use of either absorption or adsorption technologies. The solar adsorption cooling systems are good alternative since they operate with environmentally benign refrigerants that are natural, free from CFCs, and therefore they have a zero ozone depleting potential (ODP). A numerical analysis of thermal and solar performances of an adsorption solar refrigerating system using different adsorbent/adsorbate pairs such as activated carbon AC35 and activated carbon BPL/Ammoniac; is undertaken in this study. The modeling of the adsorption cooling machine requires the resolution of the equation describing the energy and mass transfer in the tubular adsorber that is the most important component of the machine. The Wilson and Dubinin- Astakhov models of the solid-adsorbat equilibrium are used to calculate the adsorbed quantity. The porous medium is contained in the annular space and the adsorber is heated by solar energy. Effect of key parameters on the adsorbed quantity and on the thermal and solar performances are analysed and discussed. The performances of the system that depends on the incident global irradiance during a whole day depends on the weather conditions: the condenser temperature and the evaporator temperature. The AC35/methanol pair is the best pair comparing to the BPL/Ammoniac in terms of system performances.

Keywords: activated carbon-methanol pair, activated carbon-ammoniac pair, adsorption, performance coefficients, numerical analysis, solar cooling system

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Authors: Ahmad Masduki Bin Selamat

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Malaysia is becoming a developed country by the year 2020, the problem is that little is known about the perceptions and curricular values of Malaysian high school students who have taken Living Skills as a subject in the regular public school. How these students perceive technology in their daily lives, in the country’s development and in global context, is not known. The study involved form 4 students from four public schools in Petaling District. The study found that the Petaling District students’ knowledge of technology were good, where 76.6 % of them scored 50% marks and above during the achievement test. In addition, it was also found that only excellent and squatter students perceived technology education as important as a school subject, compared to those students from the urban area. It was found that students preferred business and entrepreneurship topics rather than the other Living Skills curriculum. The study suggests that students should be exposed to technology education from the early years of schooling (preschool to secondary). In addition, the acquisition of skills, the evaluation, revision and modification of the instruction as well as the curriculum should be enforced.

Keywords: technology education, living skills, curricular values, public schools

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Authors: Getachew Tilahun, Oluwole Makinde, David Malonza

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We propose and analyze a non-linear mathematical model for the transmission dynamics of pneumonia disease in a population of varying size. The deterministic compartmental model is studied using stability theory of differential equations. The effective reproduction number is obtained and also the local and global asymptotically stability conditions for the disease free and as well as for the endemic equilibria are established. The model exhibit a backward bifurcation and the sensitivity indices of the basic reproduction number to the key parameters are determined. Using Pontryagin’s maximum principle, the optimal control problem is formulated with three control strategies; namely disease prevention through education, treatment and screening. The cost effectiveness analysis of the adopted control strategies revealed that the combination of prevention and treatment is the most cost effective intervention strategies to combat the pneumonia pandemic. Numerical simulation is performed and pertinent results are displayed graphically.

Keywords: cost effectiveness analysis, optimal control, pneumonia dynamics, stability analysis, numerical simulation

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Authors: Abdulhakeem Yusuf, Yomi Monday Aiyesimi, Mohammed Jiya

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The failure in an ordinary heat transfer fluid to meet up with today’s industrial cooling rate has resulted in the development of high thermal conductivity fluid which nanofluids belongs. In this work, the problem of unsteady one dimensional laminar flow of an incompressible fluid within a parallel wall is considered with one wall assumed to be wavy. The model is presented in its rectangular coordinate system and incorporates the effects of thermophoresis and Brownian motion. The local similarity solutions were also obtained which depends on Soret number, Dufour number, Biot number, Lewis number, and heat generation parameter. The analytical solution is obtained in a closed form via the Adomian decomposition method. It was found that the method has a good agreement with the numerical method, and it is also established that the heat generation parameter has to be kept low so that heat energy are easily evacuated from the system.

Keywords: Adomian decomposition method, Biot number, Dufour number, nanofluid

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Authors: A. C. Dey, H. M. Ahsan

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Heterogeneous traffic composed of both motorized and non-motorized vehicles that are a common feature of urban Bangladeshi roads. Popular non-motorized vehicles include rickshaws, rickshaw-van, and bicycle. These modes performed an important role in moving people and goods in the absence of a dependable mass transport system. However, rickshaws play a major role in meeting the demand for door-to-door public transport services to the city dwellers. But there is no separate lane for non-motorized vehicles in this city. Non-motorized vehicles generally occupy the outermost or curb-side lanes, however, at intersections non-motorized vehicles get mixed with the motorized vehicles. That’s why the conventional models fail to analyze the situation completely. Microscopic traffic simulation software VISSIM 5.3, itself a lane base software but default behavioral parameters [such as driving behavior, lateral distances, overtaking tendency, CCO=0.4m, CC1=1.5s] are modified for calibrating a model to analyze the effects of non-motorized traffic at an intersection (Mirpur-10) in a non-lane based mixed traffic condition. It is seen from field data that NMV occupies an average 20% of the total number of vehicles almost all the link roads. Due to the large share of non-motorized vehicles, capacity significantly drop. After analyzing simulation raw data, significant variation is noticed. Such as the average vehicular speed is reduced by 25% and the number of vehicles decreased by 30% only for the presence of NMV. Also the variation of lateral occupancy and queue delay time increase by 2.37% and 33.75% respectively. Thus results clearly show the negative effects of non-motorized vehicles on capacity at an intersection. So special management technics or restriction of NMV at major intersections may be an effective solution to improve this existing critical condition.

Keywords: lateral occupancy, non lane based intersection, nmv, queue delay time, VISSIM 5.3

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Authors: Ke Fan, Edwin H. W. Chan

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Economic incentives of green building (GB) have been implemented to promote green building and address the market barriers. However, if developers could gain from the incentives, why not all the buildings are green? This paper aims to study this problem and provide a new perspective to look at the economic incentives. The theories of Transitional Gains Trap (TGP) and Transaction Cost Economics (TCE) are employed to explain the developers’ gains and losses from the economic incentives. This paper takes the GFA (gross floor area) concession incentive in Hong Kong, which is one of the most popular incentives, as the case to conduct in-depth case study and it did interview to validate the results. The results show that after implementing the GFA concession scheme, the benefit of the GFA concession is capitalized into land value. Therefore, developers have to bear the increased land cost, which supports the theory of the TGP. Even though, some developers are still not willing to participate in the incentive scheme because of high transaction costs (TCs).

Keywords: green building, economic incentives, transitional gains trap, transaction cost

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Authors: Farhana Tarannum

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Ambient (outdoor) air pollution is now recognized as an important problem, both nationally and worldwide. The concentrations of gaseous pollutants (SOx, NOx, CO and O3) have been determined from samples collected at Kallyanpur along Shamoli corridor in Dhaka city. Pollutants were determined in a sample collected at ground level and a roof of a 7-storied building. These pollutants are emitted largely from stationary sources like fossil fuel fired power plants, industrial plants, and manufacturing facilities as well as mobile sources. The incomplete combustion of fuel, wood and the Sulphur containing fuel used in the vehicles are one of the main causes of CO and SOx respectively in our natural environment. When the temperature of combustion in high enough and some of that nitrogen reacts with oxygen in the air, various nitrogen oxides (NOx) are then formed. The VOCs react with NOx in the presence of sunlight to form O3. UV Visible spectrophotometric method has been used for the determination of SOx, NOx and O3. The sensor type device was used for the estimation of CO. It was found that the air pollutants (CO, SOx, NOx and O3) of a sample collected at the roof of a building were lower compared to the ground level; it indicated that ground level people are mostly affected by the gaseous pollutants.

Keywords: gaseous pollutants, UV-visible spectrophotometry, ambient air quality, Dhaka city

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Authors: Miranda Enesi, Helena Grillo Mukli

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The English word-stock is extremely rich in synonyms which can be largely accounted for by the abundant borrowing. Translation problems encountered by translators in general are usually ‘transfer problems’. They face more difficulties in the interpretation of meaning from the source language text than lexical differences between languages. The aim of the study is to inspect the various strategies used in translating from English into Albanian specific words in the ‘A Farwell to arms’ novel. For this purpose, examples translated from English into Albanian were examined. The Albanian equivalents have shown that various strategies were used in order to overcome the problem of rendering words and expressions into the target language. Employed strategies were synonymy, modulation, transposition, calque and word for word translation. In addition, this paper shows that the strategy of translating using synonymy is mostly used. In this paper, an attempt is made to examine the nature of contextual synonymy in order to investigate its problematic nature regarding translation. Types of synonymy are analyzed and then examples from English and Albanian versions are provided to examine the overlap between them.

Keywords: equivalence, literal translation, paraphrasing, transfer problems, synonymy

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Authors: Aleksandra Czubak

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The need to present evidence in civil proceedings is essential for getting the right result. It is for this reason that it is particularly important for the parties to present the most relevant and convincing evidence to the Court. Therefore, parties often try to gain evidence, even when the acquisition of such evidence is in breach of the law. Firstly, there will be discussed how evidence is applied in the Polish civil process and the Polish regulations of the evidence proceedings; with specific reference to evidence of major importance in the developing world. Further, it will be discussed the controversies connected with the admission of illegally gained evidence in civil proceedings. The credibility of the various measures is circumstantial and can only be determined by factors related to the recognized problem. For that reason, it is not the amount of evidence, but the value and relevance of this evidence that should be considered in determining the right result. This paper will also consider whether the end justifies the means? How far should parties go in order to achieve a favorable sentence or to create stronger evidence? Methods of persuasion of the court, as well as the acquisition of evidence, are not always fair and moral. It is on this area of controversy that this essay will focus. This paper concludes by considering the value of evidence and the possibility of using it to achieve a just sentence. Examples are based on Polish law; nevertheless, they encompass ideas common to most civil jurisdictions.

Keywords: civil proceedings, Europe (Poland), evidence, law

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Authors: Jinan Fiaidhi, Sabah Mohammed

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Cross-domain learning in the medical field is a research challenge as many conditions, like in oncology imaging, use different imaging modalities. Moreover, in most of the medical learning applications, the sample training size is relatively small. Although few-shot learning (FSL) through the use of a Siamese neural network was able to be trained on a small sample with remarkable accuracy, FSL fails to be effective for use in multiple domains as their convolution weights are set for task-specific applications. In this paper, we are addressing this problem by enabling FSL to possess the ability to shift across domains by designing a two-layer FSL network that can learn individually from each domain and produce a shared features map with extra modulation to be used at the second layer that can recognize important targets from mix domains. Our initial experimentations based on mixed medical datasets like the Medical-MNIST reveal promising results. We aim to continue this research to perform full-scale analytics for testing our cross-domain FSL learning.

Keywords: Siamese neural network, few-shot learning, meta-learning, metric-based learning, thick data transformation and analytics

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Authors: Berkas Khaoula

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Based on selection characteristics, high-density polyethylene (HDPE) extruded pipes are among the most economical and durable materials as well-designed solutions for water and gas transmission systems. The main reasons for such a choice are the high quality-performance ratio and the long-term service durability under aggressive conditions. Due to inevitable interactions with soils of different chemical compositions and transported fluids, aggressiveness becomes a key factor in studying resilient strength and life prediction limits. This phenomenon is known as environmental stress cracking resistance (ESCR). In this work, the effect of 3 acidic environments (5% acetic, 20% hydrochloric and 20% sulfuric) on HDPE-100 samples (~10x11x24 mm3). The results presented in the form (Δm/m0, %) as a function of √t indicate that the absorption, in the case of strong acids (HCl and H2SO4), evolves towards negative values involving material losses such as antioxidants and some additives. On the other hand, acetic acid and deionized water (DW) give a form of linear Fickean (LF) and B types, respectively. In general, the acids cause a slow but irreversible alteration of the chemical structure, composition and physical integrity of the polymer. The DW absorption is not significant (~0.02%) for an immersion duration of 69 days. Such results are well accepted in actual applications, while changes caused by acidic environments are serious and must be subjected to particular monitoring of the OIT factor (Oxidation Induction Time). After 55 days of aging, the H2SO4 and HCl media showed particular values with a loss of % mass in the interval [0.025-0.038] associated with irreversible chemical reactions as well as physical degradations. This state is usually explained by hydrolysis of the polymer, causing the loss of functions and causing chain scissions. These results are useful for designing and estimating the lifetime of the tube in service and in contact with adverse environments.

Keywords: HDPE, environmental stress cracking, absorption, acid media, chemical aging

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Authors: Philip J. Purnell

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Innovators propose to use the Internet of Things to solve the problem of maintaining the cold chain during the transport of biopharmaceutical products. Sending a data logger with refrigerated goods is only useful to inform the recipient of the goods that they have either breached the cold chain and are therefore potentially spoiled or that they have not breached it and are therefore assumed to be in good condition. Connecting the data logger to the Internet of Things means that the supply chain manager will be informed in real-time of the exact location and the precise temperature of the material at any point on earth. Readable using a simple online interface, the supply chain manager will watch the progress of their material on a Google map together with accurate and crucially real-time temperature readings. The data logger will also send alarms to the supply chain manager if a cold chain breach becomes imminent allowing them time to contact the transporter and restore the cold chain before the material is affected. This development is expected to save billions of dollars in wasted biologics that currently arrive either spoiled or in an unreliable condition.

Keywords: internet of things, cold chain, data logger, transportation

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Authors: Yehya Elsayed, Sarah Dalibalta, Fareedah Alqtaishat, Ioline Gomes, Nagelle Fernandes

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Bakhour or Arabian incense is traditionally used to perfume houses, shops and clothing as part of cultural or religious practices in several Middle Eastern countries. Conventionally, Bakhour consists of a mixture of natural ingredients such as chips of agarwood (oud), musk and sandalwoods that are soaked in scented oil. Bakhour is usually burned by charcoal or by using gas or electric burners to produce the scented smoke. It is necessary to evaluate the impact of such practice on human health and environment especially that the burning of Bakhour is usually done on a regular basis and in closed areas without proper ventilation. Although significant amount of research has been reported in scientific literature on the chemical analysis of various types of incense smoke, unfortunately only very few of them focused specifically on the health impacts of Bakhour. Raw Bakhour samples, their smoke emissions and the ash residue were analyzed to assess the existence of toxic ingredients and their possible influence on health and the environment. Three brands of Bakhour samples were analyzed for the presence of harmful heavy metals and organic compounds. Thermal Desorption Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry (TD-GC-MS) was used to identify organic compounds while Inductively Coupled Plasma (ICP) and Scanning Electron Microscope-Energy Dispersive X-Ray Spectrometer (SEM-EDS) were used to analyze the presence of toxic and heavy metals. Organic compounds from the smoke were collected on specific tenax and activated carbon adsorption tubes. More than 850 chemical compounds were identified. The presence of 19 carcinogens, 23 toxins and 173 irritants were confirmed. Additionally, heavy metals were detected in amounts similar to those present in cigarettes. However, it was noticed that many of the detected compounds in the smoke lacked clinical studies on their health effects which shows the need for further clinical studies to be devoted to this area of study.

Keywords: Bakhour, incense smoke, pollution, indoor environment, health risk, chemical analysis

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Authors: Yehya Elsayed, Sarah Dalibalta, Fareedah Alqtaishat, Ioline Gomes, Nagelle Fernandes

Abstract:

Bakhour, or Arabian incense, is traditionally used to perfume houses, shops and clothing as part of cultural or religious practices in several Middle Eastern countries. Conventionally, Bakhour consists of a mixture of natural ingredients such as chips of agarwood (oud), musk and sandalwoods that are soaked in scented oil. Bakhour is usually burned by charcoal or by using gas or electric burners to produce the scented smoke. It is necessary to evaluate the impact of such practice on human health and environment especially that the burning of Bakhour is usually done on a regular basis and in closed areas without proper ventilation. Although significant amount of research has been reported in scientific literature on the chemical analysis of various types of incense smoke, unfortunately, only very few of them focused specifically on the health impacts of Bakhour. Raw Bakhour samples, their smoke emissions and the ash residue were analyzed to assess the existence of toxic ingredients and their possible influence on health and the environment. Three brands of Bakhour samples were analyzed for the presence of harmful heavy metals and organic compounds. Thermal Desorption Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry (TD-GC-MS) was used to identify organic compounds while Inductively Coupled Plasma (ICP) and Scanning Electron Microscope-Energy Dispersive X-Ray Spectrometer (SEM-EDS) were used to analyze the presence of toxic and heavy metals.. Organic compounds from the smoke were collected on specific tenax and activated carbon adsorption tubes. More than 850 chemical compounds were identified. The presence of 19 carcinogens, 23 toxins, and 173 irritants were confirmed. Additionally, heavy metals were detected in amounts similar to those present in cigarettes. However, it was noticed that many of the detected compounds in the smoke lacked clinical studies on their health effects which shows the need for further clinical studies to be devoted to this area of study.

Keywords: bakhour, incense smoke, pollution, indoor environment, health risk, chemical analysis

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Authors: Olesya Bolkhovskaya, Alexander Maltsev

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Antenna arrays are widely used in modern radio systems in sonar and communications. The solving of the detection problems of a useful signal on the background of noise is based on the GLRT method. There is a large number of problem which depends on the known a priori information. In this work, in contrast to the majority of already solved problems, it is used only difference spatial properties of the signal and noise for detection. We are analyzing the influence of the degree of non-coherence of signal and noise unhomogeneity on the performance characteristics of different GLRT statistics. The description of the signal and noise is carried out by means of the spatial covariance matrices C in the cases of different number of known information. The partially coherent signal is simulated as a plane wave with a random angle of incidence of the wave concerning a normal. Background noise is simulated as random process with uniform distribution function in each element. The results of investigation of degradation of performance characteristics for different cases are represented in this work.

Keywords: GLRT, Neumann-Pearson’s criterion, Test-statistics, degradation, spatial processing, multielement antenna array

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Authors: A. Hemmati, H. Mirsaeedghazi, M. Aboonajmi

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Carrot juice is one of the most nutritious foods that are consumed around the world. Large particles in carrot juice causing turbid appearance make some problems in the concentration process such as off-flavor due to the large particles burnt on the walls of evaporators. Microfiltration (MF) is a pressure driven membrane separation method that can clarify fruit juices without enzymatic treatment. Fouling is the main problem in the membrane process causing reduction of permeate flux. Ultrasound as a cleaning technique was applied at 20 kHz to reduce fouling in membrane clarification of carrot juice using dead-end MF system with polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) membrane. Results showed that application of ultrasound waves reduce diphasic characteristic of carrot juice and permeate flux increased. Evaluation of different membrane fouling mechanisms showed that application of ultrasound waves changed creation time of each fouling mechanism. Also, its behavior was changed with varying transmembrane pressure.

Keywords: Carrot juice, Dead end, Microfiltration, Ultrasound

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Authors: David Kaufman

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Despite the ‘silver Tsunami’ that is occurring worldwide, ageism is still a problem in modern society. As well, families are becoming increasingly separated geographically. This paper will discuss these issues and one potential solution - an online escape room game that is played by two players over the internet while talking to each other. The payers can be two seniors or one senior and one youth, e.g., a grandchild. Each player sees a different view of the game environment and players must collaborate in order to solve the puzzles presented and escape from the three rooms, all connected by a maze. The game was developed by Masters students at the Centre for Digital Media in Vancouver, BC in collaboration with a team of post-doctoral scholar, graduate students and faculty member, as well as 10 seniors who assisted. This paper will describe the game, development process and results of our pilot studies. The research study conducted comprises several stages: 1. several formative evaluation sessions with seniors to obtain feedback to assist further design, and 2. field testing of the game. Preliminary results have been extremely positive and results of our field tests will be presented in this paper.

Keywords: digital game, online escape room, intergenerational play, seniors

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Authors: Lukman Ahmad Jamil, Heather M. Wallace

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Introduction: Numerous epidemiological studies have shown a positive as well as negative association and no association in some cases between chronic use of calcium channel blockers and the increased risk of developing cancer. However, these associations were enmeshed with controversies in the absence of laboratory based studies to back up those claims. Aim: The aim of this study was to determine in mechanistic terms the association between the long-term administration of nifedipine and diltiazem and increased risk of developing cancer using the human embryonic kidney (HEK293) cell line. Methods: Cell counting using the Trypan blue dye exclusion and 3-4, 5-Dimethylthiazol-2-yl-2, 5-diphenyl-tetrazolium bromide (MTT) assays were used to investigate the effect of nifedipine and diltiazem on the growth pattern of HEK293 cells. Protein assay using modified Lowry method and analysis of intracellular polyamines concentration using Liquid Chromatography – Tandem Mass Spectrometry (LC-MS) were performed to ascertain the mechanism through which chronic use of nifedipine increases the risk of developing cancer. Results: Both nifedipine and diltiazem significantly increased the proliferation of HEK293 cells dose and time dependently. This proliferative effect after 24, 48 and 72-hour incubation period was observed at 0.78, 1.56 and 25 µM for nifedipine and 0.39, 1.56 and 25 µM for diltiazem, respectively. The increased proliferation of the cells was found to be statistically significantly (p<0.05). Furthermore, the increased proliferation of the cells induced by nifedipine was associated with the increase in the protein content and elevated intracellular polyamines concentration level. Conclusion: The chronic use of nifedipine is associated with increased proliferation of cells with concomitant elevation of polyamines concentration and elevated polyamine levels have been implicated in many malignant transformations and hence, these provide a possible explanation on the link between long term use of nifedipine and development of some human cancers. Further studies are needed to evaluate the cause of this association.

Keywords: cancer, nifedipine, polyamine, proliferation

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Authors: Yusuke Kuramitsu, Tomoaki Hashimoto, Hirokazu Tahara

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The control problem of underactuated spacecrafts has attracted a considerable amount of interest. The control method for a spacecraft equipped with less than three control torques is useful when one of the three control torques had failed. On the other hand, the quantized control of systems is one of the important research topics in recent years. The random dither quantization method that transforms a given continuous signal to a discrete signal by adding artificial random noise to the continuous signal before quantization has also attracted a considerable amount of interest. The objective of this study is to develop the control method based on random dither quantization method for stabilizing the rotational motion of a rigid spacecraft with two control inputs. In this paper, the effectiveness of random dither quantization control method for the stabilization of rotational motion of spacecrafts with two torque inputs is verified by numerical simulations.

Keywords: spacecraft control, quantized control, nonlinear control, random dither method

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Authors: Gerges Samaan Henin Abdalla

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New methods of providing banking services to the customer have been introduced, such as online banking. Banks have begun to consider electronic banking (e-banking) as a way to replace some traditional branch functions by using the Internet as a new distribution channel. Some consumers have at least one account at multiple banks and access these accounts through online banking. To check their current net worth, clients need to log into each of their accounts, get detailed information, and work toward consolidation. Not only is it time consuming, but it is also a repeatable activity with a certain frequency. To solve this problem, the concept of account aggregation was added as a solution. Account consolidation in e-banking as a form of electronic banking appears to build a stronger relationship with customers. An account linking service is generally referred to as a service that allows customers to manage their bank accounts held at different institutions via a common online banking platform that places a high priority on security and data protection. The article provides an overview of the account aggregation approach in e-banking as a new service in the area of e-banking.

Keywords: compatibility, complexity, mobile banking, observation, risk banking technology, Internet banks, modernization of banks, banks, account aggregation, security, enterprise development

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Authors: Pius Akindele Adeniyi

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The World's tropical forests are disappearing at an alarming rate of more than 200,000 ha per year as a result of deforestation due mainly to population pressures, economic growth, poor management and inappropriate policy. A forest policy determines the role of the sector in a nation's economy and it is formulated in accordance with the objectives of the national economic development. Urban forestry as a concept is relatively new in Nigeria when compared to European and American countries. It consists of growing of trees, shrubs and grass along streets, in parks, and around public or private buildings whose management rests in the hands of the public and private owners. Major urban centers in Nigeria are devoid of efficiently planned tree-planting programs. Hence, various factors militating against environmental improvements, such as climate and other agents of degradation, are highlighted for the necessary attention. The paper discusses the need for forest policy formulation and the objectives of forest policy. Elements of forest policy are also discussed and in particular, those peculiar to urbanization and degraded lands are Forest policy and land-use and policy implementation together with some problem issues in forest policy are discussed while recommendations are given on formulation of a forest policy.

Keywords: urban, forest, policy, environment, interaction, degraded

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Authors: John Zanetich

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Designing an educational activity that encourages inquiry and collaboration is key to engaging students in meaningful learning. Educational Information and Communications Technology (EICT) plays an important role in facilitating cooperative and collaborative learning in the classroom. The EICT also facilitates students’ learning and development of the critical thinking skills needed to solve real world problems. Projects and activities based on constructivism encourage students to embrace complexity as well as find relevance and joy in their learning. It also enhances the students’ capacity for creative and responsible real-world problem solving. Classroom activities based on constructivism offer students an opportunity to develop the higher–order-thinking skills of defining problems and identifying solutions. Participating in a classroom project is an activity for both acquiring experiential knowledge and applying new knowledge to practical situations. It also provides an opportunity for students to integrate new knowledge into a skill set using reflection. Classroom projects can be developed around a variety of learning objects including social media, knowledge management and learning communities. The construction of meaning through project-based learning is an approach that encourages interaction and problem-solving activities. Projects require active participation, collaboration and interaction to reach the agreed upon outcomes. Projects also serve to externalize the invisible cognitive and social processes taking place in the activity itself and in the student experience. This paper describes a classroom project designed to elicit interactions by helping students to unfreeze existing knowledge, to create new learning experiences, and then refreeze the new knowledge. Since constructivists believe that students construct their own meaning through active engagement and participation as well as interactions with others. knowledge management can be used to guide the exchange of both tacit and explicit knowledge in interpersonal interactions between students and guide the construction of meaning. This paper uses an action research approach to the development of a classroom project and describes the use of technology, social media and the active use of tacit knowledge in the college classroom. In this project, a closed group Facebook page becomes the virtual classroom where interaction is captured and measured using engagement analytics. In the virtual learning community, the principles of knowledge management are used to identify the process and components of the infrastructure of the learning process. The project identifies class member interests and measures student engagement in a learning community by analyzing regular posting on the Facebook page. These posts are used to foster and encourage interactions, reflect a student’s interest and serve as reaction points from which viewers of the post convert the explicit information in the post to implicit knowledge. The data was collected over an academic year and was provided, in part, by the Google analytic reports on Facebook and self-reports of posts by members. The results support the use of active tacit knowledge activities, knowledge management and social media to enhance the student learning experience and help create the knowledge that will be used by students to construct meaning.

Keywords: constructivism, knowledge management, tacit knowledge, social media

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Authors: Ahmed Chetouani

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Corrosion is a natural occurring process where it can be defined as the deterioration of materials properties due to its interaction with its environment. Corrosion can lead to failures in plant infrastructure and machines which are usually costly to repair. In terms of loss of contaminated products which will cause environmental damage and possibly costly in terms of human health. The driving force that causes metals to corrode is due to the natural consequence of their temporary existence in metallic form. There is a growing trend in utilizing plant extracts and pharmaceutical compounds as corrosion inhibitors. Exquisite identification of the essential oil of aerial parts of Pelargonium was obtained using hydrodistillation and identification using GC (gas chromatography) and GC/MS (gas chromatography-mass spectrometry). The oil was predominated by Citronellol (22.8%). The inhibitory effect of essential oil and extract of Pelargonium was estimated on the corrosion of mild steel in 1M hydrochloric acid (HCl) using weight loss, Electrochemical Impedance Spectroscopy (EIS) and Tafel polarization curves. Inhibition was found to increase with increasing concentration of the essential oil and extract of Pelargonium. The effect of temperature on the corrosion behaviour of mild steel in 1M HCl with addition of essential oil and extract was also studied and the thermodynamic parameters were determined and discussed. Values of inhibition efficiency were calculated from weight loss, Tafel polarization curves, and EIS. All results are in good agreement. Polarization curves showed that essential oil and extract of Pelargonium behave as mixed type inhibitors in hydrochloric acid. The results obtained showed that the essential oil and extract of Pelargonium could serve as an effective inhibitor of the corrosion of mild steel in Hydrochloric acid solution. To avoid any surprise of toxicity, the majority compounds have been studied by using POM analyses.

Keywords: corrosion inhibition, mild steel, pelargonium oil, extract, electrochemical system, hydrodistillation, side effects, POM Analyses

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Authors: B. Hossen, Y. Helmut

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Soil salinity is a major problem for the coastal region of Bangladesh, which has been increasing for the last four decades. Determination of soil salinity is essential for proper land use planning for agricultural crop production. The aim of the research is to estimate and monitor the soil salinity in the study area. Remote sensing can be an effective tool for detecting soil salinity in data-scarce conditions. In the research, Landsat 8 is used, which required atmospheric and radiometric correction, and nine soil salinity indices are applied to develop a soil salinity map. Ground soil salinity data, i.e., EC value, is collected as a printed map which is then scanned and digitized to develop a point shapefile. Linear regression is made between satellite-based generated map and ground soil salinity data, i.e., EC value. The results show that maximum R² value is found for salinity index SI 7 = G*R/B representing 0.022. This minimal R² value refers that there is a negligible relationship between ground EC value and salinity index generated value. Hence, these indices are not appropriate to assess soil salinity though many studies used those soil salinity indices successfully. Therefore, further research is necessary to formulate a model for determining the soil salinity in the coastal of Bangladesh.

Keywords: soil salinity, EC, Landsat 8, salinity indices, linear regression, remote sensing

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Authors: Vishwesh Kulkarni, Nikhil Bellarykar

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Cellular complexity stems from the interactions among thousands of different molecular species. Thanks to the emerging fields of systems and synthetic biology, scientists are beginning to unravel these regulatory, signaling, and metabolic interactions and to understand their coordinated action. Reverse engineering of biological networks has has several benefits but a poor quality of data combined with the difficulty in reproducing it limits the applicability of these methods. A few years back, many of the commonly used predictive algorithms were tested on a network constructed in the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae (S. cerevisiae) to resolve this issue. The network was a synthetic network of five genes regulating each other for the so-called in vivo reverse-engineering and modeling assessment (IRMA). The network was constructed in S. cereviase since it is a simple and well characterized organism. The synthetic network included a variety of regulatory interactions, thus capturing the behaviour of larger eukaryotic gene networks on a smaller scale. We derive a new set of algorithms by solving a nonlinear optimization problem and show how these algorithms outperform other algorithms on these datasets.

Keywords: synthetic gene network, network identification, optimization, nonlinear modeling

Procedia PDF Downloads 142

Authors: Giacomo Barbieri

Abstract:

In soilless culture, the management of the nutrient solution is the most important aspect for crop growing. Fertigation dose, frequency and nutrient concentration must be planned with the objective of reaching an optimal crop growth by limiting the utilized resources and the associated costs. The definition of efficient fertigation strategies is a complex problem since fertigation requirements vary on the basis of different factors, and crops are sensitive to small variations on fertigation parameters. To the best of author knowledge, a small-scale test bench that is flexible for both nutrient solution preparation and precise irrigation is currently missing, limiting the investigations in standard practices for soilless culture. Starting from the analysis of the state of the art, this paper proposes a small-scale system that is potentially able to concurrently test different fertigation strategies. The system will be designed and implemented throughout a three year project started on August 2018. However, due to the importance of the topic within current challenges as food security and climate change, this work is spread considering that may inspire other universities and organizations.

Keywords: soilless culture, fertigation, test bench, small-scale, automation

Procedia PDF Downloads 159

Authors: Jacob Seddlemeyer, Tahar Messadi, Hongmei Gu, Mahboobeh Hemmati

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The main purpose of this first tier of the study is to quantify and compare the embodied environmental impacts associated with alternative materials applied to Adohi Hall, a residence building at the University of Arkansas campus, Fayetteville, AR. This 200,000square foot building has5 stories builtwith mass timber and is compared to another scenario where the same edifice is built with a steel frame. Based on the defined goal and scope of the project, the materials respectivetothe respective to the two building options are compared in terms of Global Warming Potential (GWP), starting from cradle to the construction site, which includes the material manufacturing stage (raw material extract, process, supply, transport, and manufacture) plus transportation to the site (module A1-A4, based on standard EN 15804 definition). The consumedfossil fuels and emitted CO2 associated with the buildings are the major reason for the environmental impacts of climate change. In this study, GWP is primarily assessed to the exclusion of other environmental factors. The second tier of this work is to evaluate Tally’s performance in the decision-making process through the design phases, as well as determine its strengths and weaknesses. Tally is a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) tool capable of conducting a cradle-to-grave analysis. As opposed to other software applications, Tally is specifically targeted at buildings LCA. As a peripheral application, this software tool is directly run within the core modeling application platform called Revit. This unique functionality causes Tally to stand out from other similar tools in the building sector LCA analysis. The results of this study also provide insights for making more environmentally efficient decisions in the building environment and help in the move forward to reduce Green House Gases (GHGs) emissions and GWP mitigation.

Keywords: comparison, GWP, LCA, materials, tally

Procedia PDF Downloads 210

Authors: Aka S. Koffi, N’Goran Yao, Philippe Bastide, Denis Bruneau, Diby Kadjo

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Cocoa beans (Theobroma cocoa L.) are the main components for chocolate manufacturing. The beans must be correctly fermented at first. Traditional process to perform the first fermentation (lactic fermentation) often consists in confining cacao beans using banana leaves or a fermentation basket, both of them leading to a poor product thermal insulation and to an inability to mix the product. Box fermenter reduces this loss by using a wood with large thickness (e>3cm), but mixing to homogenize the product is still hard to perform. Automatic fermenters are not rentable for most of producers. Heat (T>45°C) and acidity produced during the fermentation by microbiology activity of yeasts and bacteria are enabling the emergence of potential flavor and taste of future chocolate. In this study, a cylindro-rotative fermenter (FCR-V1) has been built and coconut fibers were used in its structure to confine heat. An axis of rotation (360°) has been integrated to facilitate the turning and homogenization of beans in the fermenter. This axis permits to put fermenter in a vertical position during the anaerobic alcoholic phase of fermentation, and horizontally during acetic phase to take advantage of the mid height filling. For circulation of air flow during turning in acetic phase, two woven rattan with grid have been made, one for the top and second for the bottom of the fermenter. In order to reduce air flow during acetic phase, two airtight covers are put on each grid cover. The efficiency of the turning by this kind of rotation, coupled with homogenization of the temperature, caused by the horizontal position in the acetic phase of the fermenter, contribute to having a good proportion of well-fermented beans (83.23%). In addition, beans’pH values ranged between 4.5 and 5.5. These values are ideal for enzymatic activity in the production of the aromatic compounds inside beans. The regularity of mass loss during all fermentation makes it possible to predict the drying surface corresponding to the amount being fermented.

Keywords: cocoa fermentation, fermenter, microbial activity, temperature, turning

Procedia PDF Downloads 248

Authors: Selin Guney, Andres Riquelme

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Among the main purposes of optimal and efficient forecasts of agricultural commodity prices is to guide the firms to advance the economic decision making process such as planning business operations and marketing decisions. Governments are also the beneficiaries and suppliers of agricultural price forecasts. They use this information to establish a proper agricultural policy, and hence, the forecasts affect social welfare and systematic errors in forecasts could lead to a misallocation of scarce resources. Various empirical approaches have been applied to forecast commodity prices that have used different methodologies. Most commonly-used approaches to forecast commodity sectors depend on classical time series models that assume values of the response variables are precise which is quite often not true in reality. Recently, this literature has mostly evolved to a consideration of fuzzy time series models that provide more flexibility in terms of the classical time series models assumptions such as stationarity, and large sample size requirement. Besides, fuzzy modeling approach allows decision making with estimated values under incomplete information or uncertainty. A number of fuzzy time series models have been developed and implemented over the last decades; however, most of them are not appropriate for forecasting repeated and nonconsecutive transitions in the data. The modeling scheme used in this paper eliminates this problem by introducing Markov modeling approach that takes into account both the repeated and nonconsecutive transitions. Also, the determination of length of interval is crucial in terms of the accuracy of forecasts. The problem of determining the length of interval arbitrarily is overcome and a methodology to determine the proper length of interval based on the distribution or mean of the first differences of series to improve forecast accuracy is proposed. The specific purpose of this paper is to propose and investigate the potential of a new forecasting model that integrates methodologies for determining the proper length of interval based on the distribution or mean of the first differences of series and Fuzzy Time Series- Markov Chain model. Moreover, the accuracy of the forecasting performance of proposed integrated model is compared to different univariate time series models and the superiority of proposed method over competing methods in respect of modelling and forecasting on the basis of forecast evaluation criteria is demonstrated. The application is to daily corn and soybean prices observed at three commercially important North Carolina markets; Candor, Cofield and Roaring River for corn and Fayetteville, Cofield and Greenville City for soybeans respectively. One main conclusion from this paper is that using fuzzy logic improves the forecast performance and accuracy; the effectiveness and potential benefits of the proposed model is confirmed with small selection criteria value such MAPE. The paper concludes with a discussion of the implications of integrating fuzzy logic and nonarbitrary determination of length of interval for the reliability and accuracy of price forecasts. The empirical results represent a significant contribution to our understanding of the applicability of fuzzy modeling in commodity price forecasts.

Keywords: commodity, forecast, fuzzy, Markov

Procedia PDF Downloads 207

Authors: M. A. Medeiros, A. A. N. Dantas, F. A. N. França, R. F. Amaral

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There are several alternatives of coastal erosion control with geosynthetics. As an important stage of any Civil Engineering project, literature review is necessary in order to evaluate these alternatives and to guide the decisions. Ponta Negra beachfront has a very intensive urban pressure. In addition, a very short sand area induces high intensity erosion processes. Different attempts of solving the problem were already built. However, erosion issues are still an important concern since these structures collapsed. Geosynthetics present a great potential to be applied in this area. In order to study coastal erosion control alternatives with the use of geosynthetics, this paper presents a literature review about this subject. Several studies were collected in which beach conditions are similar to those found in Ponta Negra beach. It was possible to evaluate the alternatives that might be used in the area. Further studies include the application of such techniques in pilot areas and the evaluation of the erosion process. Finally, the best alternative for futures studies on Ponta Negra beach is geocontainers of geotextiles.

Keywords: geosynthetics, coastal erosion control, alternatives, Ponta Negra beach

Procedia PDF Downloads 136