Search results for: Active Media User

Authors: S. C. Kattimani

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This article deals with the analysis of active constrained layer damping (ACLD) of smart multiferroic or magneto-electro-elastic doubly curved shells. The kinematics of deformations of the multiferroic doubly curved shell is described by a layer-wise shear deformation theory. A three-dimensional finite element model of multiferroic shells has been developed taking into account the electro-elastic and magneto-elastic couplings. A simple velocity feedback control law is employed to incorporate the active damping. Influence of layer stacking sequence and boundary conditions on the response of the multiferroic doubly curved shell has been studied. In addition, for the different orientation of the fibers of the constraining layer, the performance of the ACLD treatment has been studied.

Keywords: active constrained layer damping (ACLD), doubly curved shells, magneto-electro-elastic, multiferroic composite, smart structures

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Authors: Zahzouh Zoubir, Bouzaouit Azzeddine, Gahgah Mounir

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The use of more and more electronic power switches with a nonlinear behavior generates non-sinusoidal currents in distribution networks, which causes damage to domestic and industrial equipment. The multi-level shunt power active filter is subsequently shown to be an adequate solution to the problem raised. Nevertheless, the difficulty of adjusting the active filter DC supply voltage requires another technology to ensure it. In this article, a photovoltaic generator is associated with the DC bus power terminals of the active filter. The proposed system consists of a field of solar panels, three multi-level voltage inverters connected to the power grid and a non-linear load consisting of a six-diode rectifier bridge supplying a resistive-inductive load. Current control techniques of active and reactive power are used to compensate for both harmonic currents and reactive power as well as to inject active solar power into the distribution network. An algorithm of the search method of the maximum power point of type Perturb and observe is applied. Simulation results of the system proposed under the MATLAB/Simulink environment shows that the performance of control commands that reassure the solar power injection in the network, harmonic current compensation and power factor correction.

Keywords: Actif power filter, MPPT, pertub&observe algorithm, PV array, PWM-control

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Authors: Xinchen Zhu

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In the history of Chinese-language film, female stars’ acting is connected with issues of national ideology, consumerism, and sexual politics. In the 1980s, Taiwan entered a period of ‘soft authoritarianism’ in which the economy prospered politics became more democratic, and mass culture became more diverse. Film censorship was more flexible and sexual scenes were increasingly shown on screen. Female stars’ bodies were eroticized and commercialized through sexual and nude scenes and, by challenging conservative film censorship and social taboos, became the focus of mass media. This article will explore how discourses in mass media constructed the erotic images of female stars and, conversely, impacted film censorship, filmmakers and film actresses in 1980s’ Taiwan. This article will regard the eroticized female film stars’ acting as a ‘field’ of internal interaction and continuous reproduction, where the ideology of male dominance and voices of female film stars conflict with each other. Based on textual analysis of female stars’ sexual acting and the debate in mass media, the argument is that the eroticized female bodies were gazed upon on and off the screen. In the discourses of mass media, the artistry of actresses’ erotic acting was not only ignored, devalued and delegitimized, these stars were also labelled as ‘undressed star’ or ‘nude star’ and construed as victims of the film industry. However, the female stars were able to speak through mass media platforms, emphasizing their efforts in erotic acting and highlighting modern female subjectivity.

Keywords: sexual scenes, Taiwan female stars, erotic acting, discourses in mass media, female subjectivity

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Authors: Komal V. Aher, Sanjay B. Waykar

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Nowadays every individual having mobile device with them. In both computer vision and information retrieval Image search is currently hot topic with many applications. The proposed intelligent image search system is fully utilizing multimodal and multi-touch functionalities of smart phones which allows search with Image, Voice, and Text on mobile phones. The system will be more useful for users who already have pictures in their minds but have no proper descriptions or names to address them. The paper gives system with ability to form composite visual query to express user’s intention more clearly which helps to give more precise or appropriate results to user. The proposed algorithm will considerably get better in different aspects. System also uses Context based Image retrieval scheme to give significant outcomes. So system is able to achieve gain in terms of search performance, accuracy and user satisfaction.

Keywords: color space, histogram, mobile device, mobile visual search, multimodal search

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Authors: Eugene Mashapa

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The age of information has witnessed countless unprecedented technological developments, which signal the articulation of succinct technological capabilities that can match these cutting-edge technological trends. These changes have impacted patterns in the production, distribution, and consumption of media content, a space that the Film and Publication Board (FPB) is concerned with. Consequently, the FPB is keen to understand the nature and impact of these technological changes on media content regulation. This exploratory study sought to investigate how content regulators in high and middle-income economies have adapted to the changes in this space, seeking insights into innovations, technological and operational, that facilitate continued relevance during this fast-changing environment. The study is aimed at developing recommendations that could assist and inform the organisation in regulating media content as it evolves. Thus, the overall research strategy in this analysis is applied research, and the analytical model adopted is a mixed research design guided by both qualitative and quantitative research instruments. It was revealed in the study that the FPB was significantly impacted by the unprecedented technological advancements in the media regulation space. Additionally, there exists a need for the FPB to understand the current and future penetrations of 4IR technology in the industry and its impact on media governance and policy implementation. This will range from reskilling officials to align with the technological skills to developing technological innovations as well as adopting co-regulatory or self-regulatory arrangements together with content distributors, where more content is distributed in higher volumes and with increased frequency. Importantly, initiating an interactive learning process for both FPB employees and the general public can assist the regulator and improve FPB’s operational efficiency and effectiveness.

Keywords: media, regulation, technology, film and publications board

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Authors: Kaddari Faiza, Mazari Benyounes, Mihoub Youcef, Safa Ahmed

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Active filtering of electric power has now become a mature technology for reactive power and harmonic compensation caused by the proliferation of power electronics devices used for industrial, commercial and residential purposes. The aim of this study is to enhance the power quality by improving the performances of shunt active power filter in harmonic mitigation to obtain sinusoidal source currents with very weak ripples. A power circuit configuration and control scheme for shunt active power filter are described with an improved method for harmonics compensation using self-tuning-filter for harmonics identification and fuzzy logic control to generate reference current. Simulation results (using MATLAB/SIMULINK) illustrates the compensation characteristics of the proposed control strategy. Analysis of these results proves the feasibility and effectiveness of this method to improve the power quality and also show the performances of fuzzy logic control which provides flexibility, high precision and fast response. The total harmonic distortion (THD %) for the simulations found to be within the recommended imposed IEEE 519-1992 harmonic standard.

Keywords: Active Powers Filter (APF), Self-Tuning-Filter (STF), fuzzy logic control, hysteresis-band control

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Authors: Jonas Colin

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Standing at the vanguard of AI development, Alpha represents an unprecedented synthesis of logical rigor and human abstraction, meticulously crafted to mirror the user's unique persona and personality, a feat previously unattainable in AI development. Alpha, an avant-garde artefact in the realm of artificial intelligence, epitomizes a paradigmatic shift in personalized digital interaction, amalgamating user-specific dialogic patterns with the sophisticated algorithmic prowess of OpenAI's GPT-3.5 to engender a platform for enhanced metacognitive engagement and individualized user experience. Underpinned by a sophisticated algorithmic framework, Alpha integrates vast datasets through a complex interplay of neural network models and symbolic AI, facilitating a dynamic, adaptive learning process. This integration enables the system to construct a detailed user profile, encompassing linguistic preferences, emotional tendencies, and cognitive styles, tailoring interactions to align with individual characteristics and conversational contexts. Furthermore, Alpha incorporates advanced metacognitive elements, enabling real-time reflection and adaptation in communication strategies. This self-reflective capability ensures continuous refinement of its interaction model, positioning Alpha not just as a technological marvel but as a harbinger of a new era in human-computer interaction, where machines engage with us on a deeply personal and cognitive level, transforming our interaction with the digital world.

Keywords: chatbot, GPT 3.5, metacognition, symbiose

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Authors: Adrian Ionita, Ana-Maria Ghimes

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The lack of features, design and the lack of promoting an integrated booking application are some of the reasons why most online travel platforms only offer automation of old booking processes, being limited to the integration of a smaller number of services without addressing the user experience. This paper represents a practical study on how to improve travel applications creating user-profiles through data-mining based on neural networks and genetic algorithms. Choices made by users and their ‘friends’ in the ‘social’ network context can be considered input data for a recommendation engine. The purpose of using these algorithms and this design is to improve user experience and to deliver more features to the users. The paper aims to highlight a broader range of improvements that could be applied to travel applications in terms of design and service integration, while the main scientific approach remains the technical implementation of the neural network solution. The motivation of the technologies used is also related to the initiative of some online booking providers that have made the fact that they use some ‘neural network’ related designs public. These companies use similar Big-Data technologies to provide recommendations for hotels, restaurants, and cinemas with a neural network based recommendation engine for building a user ‘DNA profile’. This implementation of the ‘profile’ a collection of neural networks trained from previous user choices, can improve the usability and design of any type of application.

Keywords: artificial intelligence, big data, cloud computing, DNA profile, genetic algorithms, machine learning, neural networks, optimization, recommendation system, user profiling

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Authors: Lamiaa Shehata

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The current (COVID-19) pandemic is one of the international crises, and a lot of efforts have been directed toward the improvement of efficient vaccines, however vaccine hesitancy is one of the universal menaces that make the fulfillment of society immunity very hard. The World Health Organization acknowledges vaccine hesitancy as the society’s maximum risk to people's health protection, especially in little and moderate-revenue nations. Social media is strong in observing audience behaviors and evaluating the circulation, which would supply useful data for strategy makers. It has a significant function in spreading facts during the pandemic, it could assist to boost protective manners. The objective of this study is to determine the effects of social media exposure on vaccine hesitancy. Data were collected using a survey in a form of a structured questionnaire conducted during December 2021- January 2022 using convenient sampling techniques (680) in Egypt and the United Arab Emirates. The results revealed that there was a significant relationship between the high exposure to social media and the refusal of the Covid19 vaccine also, the percentage of the refusal of the vaccine is higher in Egypt, however, UAE forced people to take the vaccine. Furthermore, public attitudes toward COVID-19 vaccination vary from gender and region. In conclusion, policymakers must adjust their policies through the use of social media to immediate actions to vaccine-related news to support vaccination approval.

Keywords: COVID-19, hesitancy, social media, vaccine

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Authors: Balogun R. Ayodeji, Adefisan E. Adesanya, Adeyewa Z. Debo, E. C. Okogbue

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Deep convective systems during active periods of the West African monsoon season have not been properly investigated over better temporal and spatial resolution in West Africa. Deep convective systems are investigated over seven climatic zones of the West African sub-region, which are; west-coast rainforest, dry rainforest, Nigeria-Cameroon rainforest, Nigeria savannah, Central African and South Sudan (CASS) Savannah, Sudano-Sahel, and Sahel, using data from Tropical Rainfall Measurement Mission (TRMM) Precipitation Feature (PF) database. The vertical structure of the convective systems indicated by the presence of at least one 40 dBZ and reaching (attaining) at least 1km in the atmosphere showed strong core (highest frequency (%)) of reflectivity values around 2 km which is below the freezing level (4-5km) for all the zones. Echoes are detected above the 15km altitude much more frequently in the rainforest and Savannah zones than the Sudano and Sahel zones during active periods in March-May (MAM), whereas during active periods in June-September (JJAS) the savannahs, Sudano and Sahel zones convections tend to reach higher altitude more frequently than the rainforest zones. The percentage frequencies of deep convection indicated that the occurrences of the systems are within the range of 2.3-2.8% during both March-May (MAM) and June-September (JJAS) active periods in the rainforest and savannah zones. On the contrary, the percentage frequencies were found to be less than 2% in the Sudano and Sahel zones, except during the active-JJAS period in the Sudano zone.

Keywords: active periods, convective system, frequency, reflectivity

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Authors: M. Roberts

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We Are Undefeatable - is a mass marketing behaviour change campaign that aims to support the least active people living with long term health conditions to be more active. This is an important issue to address because people with long term conditions are an historically underserved community for the sport and physical activity sector and the least active of those with long term conditions have the most to gain in health and wellbeing benefits. The campaign has generated a significant change in the way physical activity is communicated and people with long term conditions are represented in the media and marketing. The goal is to create a social norm around being active. The campaign is led by a unique partnership of organisations: the Richmond Group of Charities (made up of Age UK, Alzheimer’s Society, Asthma + Lung UK, Breast Cancer Now, British Heart Foundation, British Red Cross, Diabetes UK, Macmillan Cancer Support, Rethink Mental Illness, Royal Voluntary Service, Stroke Association, Versus Arthritis) along with Mind, MS Society, Parkinson’s UK and Sport England, with National Lottery Funding. It is underpinned by the COM-B model of behaviour change. It draws on the lived experience of people with multiple long term conditions to shape the look and feel of the campaign and all the resources available. People with long term conditions are the campaign messengers, central to the ethos of the campaign by telling their individual stories of overcoming barriers to be active with their health conditions. The central messaging is about finding a way to be active that works for the individual. We Are Undefeatable is evaluated through a multi-modal approach, including regular qualitative focus groups and a quantitative evaluation tracker undertaken three times a year. The campaign has highlighted the significant barriers to physical activity for people with long term conditions. This has changed the way our partnership talks about physical activity but has also had an impact on the wider sport and physical activity sector, prompting an increasing departure from traditional messaging and marketing approaches for this audience of people with long term conditions. The campaign has reached millions of people since its launch in 2019, through multiple marketing and partnership channels including primetime TV advertising and promotion through health professionals and in health settings. Its diverse storytellers make it relatable to its target audience and the achievable activities highlighted and inclusive messaging inspire our audience to take action as a result of seeing the campaign. The We Are Undefeatable campaign is a blueprint for physical activity campaigns; it not only addresses individual behaviour change but plays a role in addressing systemic barriers to physical activity by sharing the lived experience insight to shape policy and professional practice.

Keywords: behaviour change, long term conditions, partnership, relatable

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Authors: Sajid Hussain

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The complex domain approach for image segmentation based on active contour has been designed, which deforms step by step to partition an image into numerous expedient regions. A novel region-based trigonometric complex pressure force function is proposed, which propagates around the region of interest using image forces. The signed trigonometric force function controls the propagation of the active contour and the active contour stops on the exact edges of the object accurately. The proposed model makes the level set function binary and uses Gaussian smoothing kernel to adjust and escape the re-initialization procedure. The working principle of the proposed model is as follows: The real image data is transformed into complex data by iota (i) times of image data and the average iota (i) times of horizontal and vertical components of the gradient of image data is inserted in the proposed model to catch complex gradient of the image data. A simple finite difference mathematical technique has been used to implement the proposed model. The efficiency and robustness of the proposed model have been verified and compared with other state-of-the-art models.

Keywords: image segmentation, active contour, level set, Mumford and Shah model

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Authors: Dimitrios Akrivos, Alexandros K. Antoniou

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This paper looks at the crucial role of the British news media in the construction of extreme pornography as a social problem, suggesting that this paved the way for the subsequent criminalization of such material through the introduction of the Criminal Justice and Immigration Act 2008. Focusing on the high-profile case of Graham Coutts, it examines the British national press’ reaction to Jane Longhurst’s murder through a qualitative content analysis of 251 relevant news articles. Specifically, the paper documents the key arguments expressed in the corresponding claims-making process. It considers the different ways in which the consequent ‘trial by media’ presented this exceptional case as the ‘tip of the iceberg’ and eventually translated into policy. The analysis sheds light on the attempts to ‘piggyback’ the issue of extreme pornography on child sexual abuse images as well as the textual and visual mechanisms used to establish an ‘us versus them’ dichotomy in the pertinent media discourse. Finally, the paper assesses the severity of the actual risk posed by extreme pornography, concluding that its criminalization should not merely be dismissed as the outcome of an institutionalized media panic.

Keywords: criminalization, extreme pornography, social problem, trial by media

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Authors: Rachid El Aidani, Phuong Nguyen-Tri, Toan Vu-Khanh

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The filter media in synthetic fibre is the most geotextile materials used in aerosol and drainage filtration, particularly for buildings soil reinforcement in civil engineering due to its appropriated properties and its low cost. However, the current understanding of the durability and stability of this material in real service conditions, especially under severe long-term conditions are completely limited. This study has examined the effects of the chemical aging of a filter media in polyester non-woven under different temperatures (50, 70 and 80˚C) and pH (2. 7 and 12). The effect of aging conditions on mechanical properties, morphology, permeability, thermal stability and molar weigh changes is investigated. The results showed a significant reduction of mechanical properties in term of tensile strength, puncture force and tearing forces of the filter media after chemical aging due to the chemical degradation. The molar mass and mechanical properties changes in different temperature and pH showed a complex dependence of material properties on environmental conditions. The SEM and AFM characterizations showed a significant impact of the thermal aging on the morphological properties of the fibers. Based on the obtained results, the lifetime of the material in different temperatures was determined by the use of the Arrhenius model. These results provide useful information to better understand phenomena occurring during chemical aging of the filter media and may help to predict the service lifetime of this material in real used conditions.

Keywords: nonwoven membrane, chemical aging, mechanical properties, lifetime, filter media

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Authors: Shola Haruna Adeosun, F. Adebiyi Ajoke, Odedeji Adeoye

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Video billboard advertising by networks and brand switching was conceived out of inquisition at the huge billboard advertising expenditures made by the three major GSM network operators in Nigeria. The study was anchored on Lagos State Metropolis with a current census population over 1,000,000. From this population, a purposive sample of 400 was adopted, and the questionnaire designed for the survey was carefully allocated to members of this ample in the five geographical zones of the city so that each rung of the society was well represented. The data obtained were analyzed using tables and simple percentages. The results obtained showed that subscribers of these networks were hardly influenced by the video billboard advertisements. They overwhelmingly showed that rather than the slogans of the GSM networks carried on the video billboards, it was the incentives to subscribers as well as the promotional strategies of these organizations that moved them to switch from one network to another. These switching lasted only as long as the incentives and promotions were in effect. The results of the study also seemed to rekindle the age-old debate on media effects, by the unyielding schools of the theory of ‘all-powerful media’, ‘the limited effects media’, ‘the controlled effects media’ and ‘the negotiated media influence’.

Keywords: evaluation, impact, video billboard, marketing, services

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Authors: Sheriff Folarin, Oluwafunke Folarin, Hadassah Hussaini, Victor Jubril, Olaniyi Ayodele

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Using a famous, unrestrained and fiery United States-based, Nigerian-owned Sahara Reporters as a case study, this paper examined the impact of online-based media on governance in Nigeria. The discourse is premised on the thesis that the internet has changed the face of journalism and that the mainstream but online-based media have made journalism more participatory than ever. Everyone who has something to say finds it easy to say it quickly and conveniently, unhinged or without being censored. This has made online journalism very popular and the number of online-based news platforms to be on the increase. As these platforms have given the citizens a means to interact and added to the content of the news, they have also succeeded in promoting partisanship. It thus becomes necessary to study the impact of the rabid news platform, Sahara Reporters, on governance in Africa’s biggest democracy, Nigeria. Few studies have examined the impact on governance of mainstream-online media platforms and those studies that did, have only focused on social media, such as Facebook and Twitter. This paper is a product of a bigger study, in which the research design entailed semi-structured interviews with participants from different sectors of the society and an analysis of contents from the Sahara Reporters website, from which data were collected. The findings revealed that through uncensored reporting and citizen participation on the platform of Sahara Reporters, there had been a significant people influence on governance in Nigeria, with government at two levels (national and state) sometimes shifting or yielding grounds, particularly from 2011-2016. The study also recognized the presence of counter-forces in the online community who want to discredit the information on the site. Through the lens of media dependency theory, the study concluded that the public now increasingly depends on online news media for information and the more news these media provide, the more the people depend on it, making it easy for them to influence governance.

Keywords: governance, media, online news, Sahara reporters

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Authors: Jinseon Song, Yongwan Park

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In this paper, propose method that can user’s position that based on database is built from single camera. Previous positioning calculate distance by arrival-time of signal like GPS (Global Positioning System), RF(Radio Frequency). However, these previous method have weakness because these have large error range according to signal interference. Method for solution estimate position by camera sensor. But, signal camera is difficult to obtain relative position data and stereo camera is difficult to provide real-time position data because of a lot of image data, too. First of all, in this research we build image database at space that able to provide positioning service with single camera. Next, we judge similarity through image matching of database image and transmission image from user. Finally, we decide position of user through position of most similar database image. For verification of propose method, we experiment at real-environment like indoor and outdoor. Propose method is wide positioning range and this method can verify not only position of user but also direction.

Keywords: positioning, distance, camera, features, SURF(Speed-Up Robust Features), database, estimation

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Authors: Lian Liu

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By analyzing the content of the New York Times' China-related energy reports, this study aims to explore the construction of China's national image by the mainstream media in the United States. The study analyzes three aspects of the coverage: topics, reporting tendencies, and countries involved. The results of the study show that economic issues are the main focus of the New York Times’ China-related energy coverage, followed by political issues and environmental issues. Overall, the coverage tendency was mainly negative, but positive coverage was dominated by science and technology issues. In addition, the study found that U.S.-China relations and Sino-Russian relations were important contexts for the construction of China's national image in the NYT's China-related energy coverage. These stories highlight China's interstate interactions with the United States, Japan, and Russia, which serve as important links in the coverage. The findings of this study reveal some characteristics and trends of the U.S. mainstream media's country image of China, which are important for a deeper understanding of the U.S.-China relationship and the media's influence on the construction of the country's image.

Keywords: media coverage, China, content analysis, visualization technology

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Authors: Amir Shafiee Kisomi, Mehrdad Mofidi

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Nowadays, fuel cells as a promising alternative for power source have been widely studied owing to their security, high energy density, low operation temperatures, renewable capability and low environmental pollutant emission. The nanoparticles of core-shell type could be widely described in a combination of a shell (outer layer material) and a core (inner material), and their characteristics are greatly conditional on dimensions and composition of the core and shell. In addition, the change in the constituting materials or the ratio of core to the shell can create their special noble characteristics. In this study, a fast technique for the fabrication of a Pd-Co/G/GCE modified electrode is offered. Thermal decomposition reaction of cobalt (II) formate salt over the surface of graphene/glassy carbon electrode (G/GCE) is utilized for the synthesis of Co nanoparticles. The nanoparticles of Pd-Co decorated on the graphene are created based on the following method: (1) Thermal decomposition reaction of cobalt (II) formate salt and (2) the galvanic replacement process Co by Pd2+. The physical and electrochemical performances of the as-prepared Pd-Co/G electrocatalyst are studied by Field Emission Scanning Electron Microscopy (FESEM), Energy Dispersive X-ray Spectroscopy (EDS), Cyclic Voltammetry (CV), and Chronoamperometry (CHA). Galvanic replacement method is utilized as a facile and spontaneous approach for growth of Pd nanostructures. The Pd-Co/G is used as an anode catalyst for ethanol oxidation in alkaline media. The Pd-Co/G not only delivered much higher current density (262.3 mAcm-2) compared to the Pd/C (32.1 mAcm-2) catalyst, but also demonstrated a negative shift of the onset oxidation potential (-0.480 vs -0.460 mV) in the forward sweep. Moreover, the novel Pd-Co/G electrocatalyst represents large electrochemically active surface area (ECSA), lower apparent activation energy (Ea), higher levels of durability and poisoning tolerance compared to the Pd/C catalyst. The paper demonstrates that the catalytic activity and stability of Pd-Co/G electrocatalyst are higher than those of the Pd/C electrocatalyst toward ethanol oxidation in alkaline media.

Keywords: thermal decomposition, nanostructures, galvanic replacement, electrocatalyst, ethanol oxidation, alkaline media

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Authors: Tomáš Ludík, Jiří Barta, Sabina Chytilová, Josef Navrátil

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Emergency management is a discipline of dealing with and avoiding risks. Appropriate emergency management software allows better management of these risks and has a direct influence on reducing potential negative impacts. Although there are several emergency management software products in the Czech Republic, they cover user requirements from the emergency management field only partially. Therefore, the paper focuses on the issues of requirement analysis within development of emergency management software. Analysis of the current state describes the basic features and properties of user requirements for software development as well as basic methods and approaches for gathering these requirements. Then, the paper presents more specific mechanisms for requirement analysis based on chosen software development approach: structured, object-oriented or agile. Based on these experiences it is designed new methodology for requirement analysis. Methodology describes how to map user requirements comprehensively in the field of emergency management and thus reduce misunderstanding between software analyst and emergency manager. Proposed methodology was consulted with department of fire brigade and also has been applied in the requirements analysis for their current emergency management software. The proposed methodology has general character and can be used also in other specific areas during requirement analysis.

Keywords: emergency software, methodology, requirement analysis, stakeholders, use case diagram, user stories

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Authors: Anu Soikkelii, Laura Sorri

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Finnish national research project, User- and Business-oriented Suburb Renovation Concept (KLIKK), was started in January 2012 and will end in June 2014. The perspective of energy efficiency is emphasised in the project, but also it addresses what improving the energy efficiency of suburban apartment buildings means from the standpoint of architecturally valuable buildings representing different periods. The project will also test the impacts of stricter energy efficiency requirements on renovation projects. The primary goal of the project is to develop a user-oriented, industrial, economic renovation concept for suburban apartment building renovation, extension and construction of additional storeys. The concept will make it possible to change from performance- and cost-based operation to novel service- and user-oriented, site-specifically tailored renovation methods utilizing integrated order and delivery chains.The present project is collaborating with Ministry of the Environment and participating cities in developing a new type of lighter town planning model for suburban renovations and in-fill construction. To support this, the project will simultaneously develop practices for environmental impact assessment tools in renovation and suburban supplementary and in-fill construction.

Keywords: energy efficiency, prefabrication, renovation concept, suburbs, sustainability, user-orientated

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Authors: Muhammad Shoaib

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Every society has a set of beliefs, norms, values, folkways, mores and laws. All the principles, customs, traditions and procedures of societies are directly or indirectly related to the religion of the society and changed with the passage of time by the mediation of democratic values attitudes and mass media influence. The main objective of the present study is to examine the effects of rational thinking values on forgiveness attitude by the mediation of democratic values and mass media attitude among family members. As many other developing settings, Pakistani society is undergoing a rapid and multifaceted social change, in which traditional thinking coexists and often clashes with modern thinking. Rational thinking attitude has great effects on the forgiveness attitude among family members as well as all the members of Pakistani society. For the present study 520 respondents were sampled from two urban areas of Punjab province; Lahore and Faisalabad, through proportionate random sampling technique. A survey method was used as a technique of data collection and an interview schedule was administered to collect information from the respondents. The results support that the net of other factors, favorable democratic values attitudes are positively associated rational thinking attitudes. The results also provide support that all other things equal, mass media attitudes also have a significant positive effect on rational thinking attitudes. Favorable democratic values attitudes have a significant net positive effect and the effect of mass media attitudes is positive and statistically highly significant. It shows that the effects of both democratic values attitudes and mass media attitudes diminish in magnitude when the rational thinking attitudes scale is included. However, the effect of democratic values remains highly significant. In comparison, the effect of mass media attitudes is only marginally significant.

Keywords: rationality, forgiveness, democratic values, mass media, attitudes, Pakistan

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Authors: Ari Istiany, Guspri Devi Artanti, M. Si

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Based on the results Riskesdas, it is known that breastfeeding awareness about the importance of exclusive breastfeeding is still low at only 15.3 %. These conditions resulted in a very infant at risk for infectious diseases, such as diarrhea and acute respiratory infection. Therefore, the aim of this study to evaluate the video development about exclusive breastfeeding as a nutrition education media for posyandu cadre. This research used development methods for making the video about exclusive breastfeeding. The study was conducted in urban areas Rawamangun, East Jakarta. Respondents of this study were 1 media experts from the Department of Educational Technology - UNJ, 2 subject matter experts from Department of Home Economics - UNJ and 20 posyandu cadres to assess the quality of the video. Aspects assessed include the legibility of text, image display quality, color composition, clarity of sound, music appropriateness, duration, suitability of the material and language. Data were analyzed descriptively likes frequency distribution table, the average value, and deviation standard. The result of this study showed that the average score assessment according to media experts, subject matter experts, and posyandu cadres respectively was 3.43 ± 0.51 (good), 4.37 ± 0.52 (very good) and 3.6 ± 0.73 (good). The conclusion is on exclusive breastfeeding video as feasible as a media for nutrition education. While suggestions for the improvement of visual media is multiply illustrations, add material about the correct way of breastfeeding and healthy baby pictures.

Keywords: exclusive breastfeeding, posyandu cadre, video, nutrition education

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Authors: Asteria Nsamba

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Social networking applications and tools have become compelling platforms for generating and sharing knowledge across the world. Social networking applications and tools refer to a variety of social media platforms which include Facebook, Twitter WhatsApp, blogs and Wikis. The most popular of these platforms are Facebook, with 2.41 billion active users on a monthly basis, followed by WhatsApp with 1.6 billion users and Twitter with 330 million users. These communication platforms have not only impacted social lives but have also impacted students’ learning, across different delivery modes in higher education: distance, conventional and blended learning modes. With this amount of interest in these platforms, knowledge sharing has gained importance within the context in which it is required. In open distance learning (ODL) contexts, social networking platforms can offer students and teachers the platform on which to create and share knowledge, and form learning collaborations. Thus, they can serve as support mechanisms to increase interactions and reduce isolation and loneliness inherent in ODL. Despite this potential and opportunity, research indicates that many ODL teachers are not inclined to using social media tools in learning. Although it is unclear why these tools are uncommon in these environments, concerns raised in the literature have indicated that many teachers have not mastered the art of teaching with technology. Using technological, pedagogical content knowledge (TPCK) and product quality theory, and Bloom’s Taxonomy as lenses, this paper is aimed at; firstly, assessing the quality of three social media applications: Facebook, Twitter and WhatsApp, in order to determine the extent to which they are suitable platforms for teaching and learning, in terms of content generation, information sharing and learning collaborations. Secondly, the paper demonstrates the application of teaching, learning and assessment using Bloom’s Taxonomy.

Keywords: distance education, quality, social networking tools, TPACK

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Authors: Jagdish Prasad Sahoo

Abstract:

The increase in active earth pressure during the event of an earthquake results sliding, overturning and tilting of earth retaining structures. In order to improve upon the stability of structures, the soil mass is often reinforced with various types of reinforcements such as metal strips, geotextiles, and geogrids etc. The stresses generated in the soil mass are transferred to the reinforcements through the interface friction between the earth and the reinforcement, which in turn reduces the lateral earth pressure on the retaining walls. Hence, the evaluation of earth pressure in the presence of seismic forces with an inclusion of reinforcements is important for the design retaining walls in the seismically active zones. In the present analysis, the effect of reinforcing horizontal layers of reinforcements in the form of sheets (Geotextiles and Geogrids) in sand used as backfill, on reducing the active earth pressure due to earthquake body forces has been studied. For carrying out the analysis, pseudo-static approach has been adopted by employing upper bound theorem of limit analysis in combination with finite elements and linear optimization. The computations have been performed with and out reinforcements for different internal friction angle of sand varying from 30 ° to 45 °. The effectiveness of the reinforcement in reducing the active earth pressure on the retaining walls is examined in terms of active earth pressure coefficient for presenting the solutions in a non-dimensional form. The active earth pressure coefficient is expressed as functions of internal friction angle of sand, interface friction angle between sand and reinforcement, soil-wall interface roughness conditions, and coefficient of horizontal seismic acceleration. It has been found that (i) there always exists a certain optimum depth of the reinforcement layers corresponding to which the value of active earth pressure coefficient becomes always the minimum, and (ii) the active earth pressure coefficient decreases significantly with an increase in length of reinforcements only up to a certain length beyond which a further increase in length hardly causes any reduction in the values active earth pressure. The optimum depth of the reinforcement layers and the required length of reinforcements corresponding to the optimum depth of reinforcements have been established. The numerical results developed in this analysis are expected to be useful for purpose of design of retaining walls.

Keywords: active, finite elements, limit analysis, presudo-static, reinforcement

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Authors: Behnaz Zolfaghari

Abstract:

In civilized societies, linguists seek to find suitable equivalents for scientific terms in the common language of their society. Many researches have conducted surveys about language of science on one hand and media discourse on the other, but the goal of this research is the comparative analysis of science discourse in Persian academic media and public discourse in the general Persian media by applying experimental meta-function as one of the four theoretical tools introduced by Holiday’s Systemic Functional Grammar .The said analysis aims to explore the processes that can convert the language in which scientific facts are published to a language well suited to the interested layman. The results of comparison show that these two discourses use differently six processes of experimental meta-function. Comparing the redundancy of different processes, the researcher tried to re-identify these differences in these two discourses and present a model for the procedures of converting science discourse to popularized discourse. This model can be useful for those journalists and textbook authors who want to restate scientific technical texts in a simple style for inexpert addresser including general people and students.

Keywords: systemic functional grammar, discourse analysis, science language, popularization, media discourse

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Authors: Elaf Ahmed, Shahid Rasul, Ohoud Alharbi, Peng Wang

Abstract:

Ultra-Small Nanoparticles of metals (USNPs) have attracted the attention from the perspective of both basic and developmental science in a wide range of fields. These NPs exhibit electrical, optical, magnetic, and catalytic phenomena. In addition, they are considered effective catalysts because of their enormously large surface area. Many chemical methods of synthesising USNPs are reported. However, the drawback of these methods is the use of different capping agents and ligands in the process of the production such as Polyvinylpyrrolidone, Thiol and Ethylene Glycol. In this research ultra-small nanoparticles of gold, palladium and platinum metal have been successfully produced using electrochemically active biofilm (EAB) after optimising the pH of the media. The production of ultra-small nanoparticles has been conducted in a reactor using a simple two steps method. Initially biofilm was grown on the surface of a carbon paper for 7 days using Shewanella Loihica bacteria. Then, biofilm was employed to synthesise platinum, palladium and gold nanoparticles in water using sodium lactate as electron donor without using any toxic chemicals at mild operating conditions. Electrochemically active biofilm oxidise the electron donor and produces electrons in the solution. Since these electrons are a strong reducing agent, they can reduce metal precursors quite effectively and quickly. The As-synthesized ultra-small nanoparticles have a size range between (2-7nm) and showed excellent catalytic activity on the degradation of methyl orange. The growth of metal USNPs is strongly related to the condition of the EAB. Where using low pH for the synthesis was not successful due to the fact that it might affect and destroy the bacterial cells. However, increasing the pH to 7 and 9, led to the successful formation of USNPs. By changing the pH value, we noticed a change in the size range of the produced NPs. The EAB seems to act as a Nano factory for the synthesis of metal nanoparticles by offering a green, sustainable and toxic free synthetic route without the use of any capping agents or ligands and depending only on their respiration pathway.

Keywords: electrochemically active biofilm, electron donor, shewanella loihica, ultra-small nanoparticles

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Authors: Kingsley Ononogbo, Ashiru Bello

Abstract:

The purpose of this study is to determine the factors responsible for the inclination of the youths of Bida to passive recreation, with a view to finding out whether their occupations influence their attitudes towards active recreation. Using the 5-point Likert scale, a total number of 267 participants were drawn from the two major wards in Bida town. They are Cheniyan and Nassarafu. Study evidence revealed that youths were constrained from participating in active recreation due to preoccupation with family responsibilities and lack of their choices of recreational facilities. The result of the Chi Square Test showed that the youths had positive attitudes towards physical exercises, while the Spearman’s Correlation (r=0.21) signifies a positive but weak correlation. The P- value, however, equals .7610 which is greater than 0.05 and, so significant. The study concluded by suggesting regular enlightenment programmes, focusing on the values of participating in active recreation, and building and maintenance of desired neighborhood recreation facilities for youths, as a measure to encourage them to take part in the active form of recreation.

Keywords: attitudes, Bida, recreation development, recreation of youth

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Authors: Wiyanti Fransisca Simanullang, Shinya Yamanaka

Abstract:

Grinding method was used to control the active site and to improve the specific surface area (SSA) of calcium oxide (CaO) derived from scallop shell as a sustainable resource. The dry grinding of CaO with acetone and tertiary butanol as a liquid additive was carried out using a planetary ball mill with a laboratory scale. The experiments were operated by stepwise addition with time variations to determine the grinding limit. The active site of CaO was measured by X-Ray Diffraction and FT-IR. The SSA variations of products with grinding time were measured by BET method. The morphology structure of CaO was observed by SEM. The use of liquid additive was effective for increasing the SSA and controlling the active site of CaO. SSA of CaO was increased in proportion to the amount of the liquid additive and the grinding time. The performance of CaO as a solid base catalyst for biodiesel production was tested in the transesterification reaction of used cooking oil to produce fatty acid methyl ester (FAME).

Keywords: active site, calcium oxide, grinding, specific surface area

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Authors: Ziraguen O. Williams, Shield B. Lin, Fouad N. Matari, Leslie J. Quiocho

Abstract:

In a task to assist NASA in analyzing the dynamic forces caused by operational countermeasures of an astronaut’s exercise platform impacting the spacecraft, feedback delay, and signal noise were added to a simulation model of an active-controlled vibration isolation system to regulate the movement of the exercise platform. Previous simulation work was conducted primarily via MATLAB/Simulink. Two additional simulation tools used in this study were Trick and MBDyn, NASA co-developed software simulation environments. Simulation results obtained from these three tools were very similar. All simulation results support the hypothesis that an active-controlled vibration isolation system outperforms a passive-controlled system even with the addition of feedback delay and signal noise to the active-controlled system. In this paper, squat exercise was used in creating excited force to the simulation model. The exciter force from a squat exercise was calculated from the motion capture of an exerciser. The simulation results demonstrate much greater transmitted force reduction in the active-controlled system than the passive-controlled system.

Keywords: control, counterweight, isolation, vibration

Procedia PDF Downloads 91