Search results for: Hilbert C*-module

Authors: Tzen-Ying Ling

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Recently, the resilience of dwellings in urban areas has been deliberated, as to accommodate the growing demand for changing the demography and rapid urbanization. The need to incorporate sustainability and cleaner production thinking have intensified to mitigate climate risks and satisfy the demand for housing. The modular thinking satisfies both the pressing call for fast-tracked housing stocks; while meeting the goal of more sustainable production. In the other side, the importance of the dwelling as a podium for well-being and social connectedness are sought to explore the key human/environment design thinking for the modular system in dwelling. We argue the best practice incorporates the concept of systemic components thinking. The fieldwork reported in this paper illustrates the process of the case study in a modular dwelling unit prototype development; focusing on the systemic frame system design process and adjustment recommendation hereafter. Using a case study method, the study identified that: (1) inclusive human dimensional factoring through systemic design thinking results in affordable implementations possibilities. (2) The environmental dimension encourages the place-based solution suited for the locality and the increasing demand for dwelling in the urban system. (3) Prototype design consideration avails module system component as dwelling construction alternative. (4) Building code often acts as an inhibitor for such dwelling units by the restriction in lot sizes and units placement. The demand for fast-track dwelling construction and cleaner production decisively outweighs the code inhibition; we further underscored the sustainability implication of the alternative prototype as the core of this study. The research suggests that modular thinking results in a resilient solution suited for the locality and the increasing demand for dwelling in the urban system.

Keywords: system prototype, urban resilience, human/environment dimension, modular thinking, dwelling alternative

Procedia PDF Downloads 161

Authors: Katalin Gocze, Vanda A Nemes, Charlotte Briest

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Introduction: Premenstrual syndrome (PMS) is a psychoneuroendocrinological disorder adversely affecting life-quality for over 80% of hormonally active women. PMS has a negative impact on women’s daily life in terms of work, interpersonal relationships and leisure time activities. The aim of our study was to evaluate the effects of a yoga intervention focusing on the female pelvic area. Materials and methods: 34 women (ages 18-40) with PMS (Premenstrual Syndrome Screening Tool) and no previous experience in yoga were recruited and randomly assigned to either the yoga or the control group. The intervention consisted of 90’ yoga sessions twice a week and a daily 15’ self-practice module with carefully chosen yogic exercises addressing the reproductive organs by toning the pelvic floor and opening the hips as well as relieving stress and improving concentration. Severity of symptoms of PMS was assessed at the beginning and after the 8-week-long intervention. Pre- and post-program data collection included physical and psychological parameters and the evaluation of ACOQ PMS questionnaire and daily symptom diary. Results: Age and educational background were similar in the control and intervention group with an overall mean age of 29.11±4.78 years. PSST scores significantly improved in the yoga group (p=0.002), while difference in the control group’s pre and post-program values were non-significant (p=0.38). Perception and tolerance of anxiety and stress was significantly better after the intervention (p=0.008). As for changes in physical symptoms distinct improvement was registered for breast tenderness (p=0.028) and for meteorism (p=0.015). Discussion: Yoga’s success originates from the synergic positive effects of stress relief and regular physical activity. Benefits (both mental and physical) of strategically planned, focused yoga practice are apparent even after shorter time periods and can help women with PMS manage or eliminate symptoms in order to improve their life-quality.

Keywords: life-quality, physical symptoms, premenstrual syndrome, psychological impact, yoga

Procedia PDF Downloads 108

Authors: Xin Li, Ji-Yang Yu, Yue-Hua Niu, Lu-Yuan Wang

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As an inevitable chain of the space data acquirement system, space-borne storage system based on Nand Flash has gradually been implemented in spacecraft. In face of massive, parallel and varied data on board, efficient data management become an important issue of storage research. Face to the requirements of high-performance and reliability in Nand Flash storage system, a combination of hardware and file system design can drastically increase system dependability, even for missions with a very long duration. More sophisticated flash storage concepts with advanced operating systems have been researched to improve the reliability of Nand Flash storage system on satellites. In this paper, architecture of file system with multi-channel data acquisition and storage on board is proposed, which obtains large-capacity and high-performance with the combine of intra-channel pipeline and device partition in Nand Flash. Multi-channel data in different rate are stored as independent files with parallel-storage system in device partition, which assures the high-effective and reliable throughput of file treatments. For massive and high-speed data storage, an efficiency assessment model is established to calculate the bandwidth formula of intra-channel pipeline. Information tables designed in Magnetoresistive RAM (MRAM) hold the management of bad block in Nand Flash and the arrangement of file system address for the high-reliability of data storage. During the full-load test, the throughput of 3D PLUS Module 160Gb Nand Flash can reach 120Mbps for store and reach 120Mbps for playback, which efficiently satisfies the requirement of multi-channel data acquisition in Satellite. Compared with previous literature, the results of experiments verify the advantages of the proposed system.

Keywords: device partition architecture, intra-channel pipelining, nand flash, parallel storage

Procedia PDF Downloads 282

Authors: Maroua Sbiti, Karim Beddiar, Djaoued Beladjine, Romuald Perrault

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Productivity is decreasing in construction compared to the manufacturing industry. It seems that the sector is suffering from organizational problems and have low maturity regarding technological advances. High international competition due to the growing context of globalization, complex projects, and shorter deadlines increases these challenges. Field employees are more exposed to coordination problems than design officers. Execution collaboration is then a major issue that can threaten the cost, time, and quality completion of a project. Initially, this paper will try to identify field professional requirements as to address building management process weaknesses such as the unreliability of scheduling, the fickleness of monitoring and inspection processes, the inaccuracy of project’s indicators, inconsistency of building documents and the random logistic management. Subsequently, we will focus our attention on providing solutions to improve scheduling, inspection, and hours tracking processes using emerging lean tools and field mobility applications that bring new perspectives in terms of cooperation. They have shown a great ability to connect various field teams and make informations visual and accessible to planify accurately and eliminate at the source the potential defects. In addition to software as a service use, the adoption of the human resource module of the Enterprise Resource Planning system can allow a meticulous time accounting and thus make the faster decision making. The next step is to integrate external data sources received from or destined to design engineers, logisticians, and suppliers in a holistic system. Creating a monolithic system that consolidates planning, quality, procurement, and resources management modules should be our ultimate target to build the construction industry supply chain.

Keywords: lean, last planner system, field mobility applications, construction productivity

Procedia PDF Downloads 103

Authors: L. Sun, T. Hargreaves, Z. Ahmad

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Newly-qualified Foundation Year 1 doctors in the United Kingdom are frequently expected to perform practical skills involving the upper limb in clinical practice (for example, venipuncture, cannulation, and blood gas sampling). However, a move towards systems-based undergraduate medical education in the United Kingdom often precludes or limits dedicated time to anatomy teaching with cadavers or prosections, favouring only applied anatomy in the context of pathology. The authors hypothesised that detailed anatomical knowledge may consequently be adversely affected, particularly with respect to long-term retention. A simple picture quiz and accompanying questionnaire testing the identification of 7 upper limb surface landmarks was distributed to a total of 98 final year medical students from two universities - one with a systems-based curriculum, and one with a dedicated longitudinal dissection-based anatomy module in the first year of study. Students with access to dissection and prosection-based anatomy teaching performed more strongly, with a significantly higher rate of correct identification of all but one of the landmarks. Furthermore, it was notable that none of the students who had previously undertaken a systems-based course scored full marks, compared with 20% of those who had participated in the more dedicated anatomy course. This data suggests that a traditional, dissection-based approach to undergraduate anatomy teaching is superior to modern system-based curricula, in terms of aiding long-term retention of anatomical knowledge pertinent to newly-qualified doctors. The authors express concern that this deficit in proficiency could be detrimental to patient care in clinical practice, and propose that, where dissection-led anatomy teaching is not available, further anatomy revision modules are implemented throughout undergraduate education to aid knowledge retention and support clinical excellence.

Keywords: dissection, education, surface anatomy, upper limb

Procedia PDF Downloads 120

Authors: A. Aulinger, A. M. Backes, J. Bieser, V. Matthias, M. Quante

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High concentrations of particles pose a threat to human health. Thus, legal maximum concentrations of PM10 and PM2.5 in ambient air have been steadily decreased over the years. In central Europe, the inorganic species ammonium sulphate and ammonium nitrate make up a large fraction of fine particles. Many studies investigate the influence of emission reductions of sulfur- and nitrogen oxides on aerosol concentration. Here, we focus on the influence of ammonia (NH3) emissions. While emissions of sulphate and nitrogen oxides are quite well known, ammonia emissions are subject to high uncertainty. This is due to the uncertainty of location, amount, time of fertilizer application in agriculture, and the storage and treatment of manure from animal husbandry. For this study, we implemented a crop growth model into the SMOKE emission model. Depending on temperature, local legislation, and crop type individual temporal profiles for fertilizer and manure application are calculated for each model grid cell. Additionally, the diffusion from soils and plants and the direct release from open and closed barns are determined. The emission data was used as input for the Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) model. Comparisons to observations from the EMEP measurement network indicate that the new ammonia emission module leads to a better agreement of model and observation (for both ammonia and ammonium). Finally, the ammonia emission model was used to create emission scenarios. This includes emissions based on future European legislation, as well as a dynamic evaluation of the influence of different agricultural sectors on particle formation. It was found that a reduction of ammonia emissions by 50% lead to a 24% reduction of total PM2.5 concentrations during winter time in the model domain. The observed reduction was mainly driven by reduced formation of ammonium nitrate. Moreover, emission reductions during winter had a larger impact than during the rest of the year.

Keywords: ammonia, ammonia abatement strategies, ctm, seasonal impact, secondary aerosol formation

Procedia PDF Downloads 337

Authors: Gherbi Khadidja

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In the Mediterranean region, water resources are limited and very unevenly distributed in space and time. The main objective of this project is the development of a wireless network for the management of water resources in northern Algeria, the Mitidja plain, which helps farmers to irrigate in the most optimized way and solve the problem of water shortage in the region. Therefore, we will develop an aid tool that can modernize and replace some traditional techniques, according to the real needs of the crops and according to the soil conditions as well as the climatic conditions (soil moisture, precipitation, characteristics of the unsaturated zone), These data are collected in real-time by sensors and analyzed by an algorithm and displayed on a mobile application and the website. The results are essential information and alerts with recommendations for action to farmers to ensure the sustainability of the agricultural sector under water shortage conditions. In the first part: We want to set up a wireless sensor network, for precise management of water resources, by presenting another type of equipment that allows us to measure the water content of the soil, such as the Watermark probe connected to the sensor via the acquisition card and an Arduino Uno, which allows collecting the captured data and then program them transmitted via a GSM module that will send these data to a web site and store them in a database for a later study. In a second part: We want to display the results on a website or a mobile application using the database to remotely manage our smart irrigation system, which allows the farmer to use this technology and offers the possibility to the growers to access remotely via wireless communication to see the field conditions and the irrigation operation, at home or at the office. The tool to be developed will be based on satellite imagery as regards land use and soil moisture. These tools will make it possible to follow the evolution of the needs of the cultures in time, but also to time, and also to predict the impact on water resources. According to the references consulted, if such a tool is used, it can reduce irrigation volumes by up to up to 40%, which represents more than 100 million m3 of savings per year for the Mitidja. This volume is equivalent to a medium-size dam.

Keywords: optimal irrigation, soil moisture, smart irrigation, water management

Procedia PDF Downloads 93

Authors: Massy Guillaume

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Introduction: The implementation of creativity in educational policies or curricula raises several issues, including the evaluation of creativity and the means to do so. This doctoral research focuses on the appropriation and transposition of creativity assessment models by future teachers. Our objective is to identify the elements of the models that are most transferable to practice in order to improve their implementation in the students' curriculum while seeking to create a new model for assessing creativity in the school environment. Methods: In order to meet our objective, this preliminary quantitative exploratory study by questionnaire was conducted at two points in the participants' training: at the beginning of the training module and throughout the practical work. The population is composed of 40 people of diverse origins with an average age of 26 (s:8,623) years. In order to be as close as possible to our research objective and to test our questionnaires, we set up a pre-test phase during the spring semester of 2022. Results: The results presented focus on aspects of the OECD Creative Competencies Assessment Model. Overall, 72% of participants support the model's focus on skill levels as appropriate for the school context. More specifically, the data indicate that the separation of production and process in the rubric facilitates observation by the assessor. From the point of view of transposing the grid into teaching practice, the participants emphasised that production is easier to plan and observe in students than in the process. This difference is reinforced by a lack of knowledge about certain concepts such as innovation or risktaking in schools. Finally, the qualitative results indicate that the addition of multiple levels of competencies to the OECD rubric would allow for better implementation in the classroom. Conclusion: The identification by the students of the elements allowing the evaluation of creativity in the school environment generates an innovative approach to the training contents. These first data, from the test phase of our research, demonstrate the difficulty that exists between the implementation of an evaluation model in a training program and its potential transposition by future teachers.

Keywords: creativity, evaluation, schooling, training

Procedia PDF Downloads 87

Authors: Kiana Zeighami, Morteza Ozlati Moghadam

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Designing a high accuracy and high precision motion controller is one of the important issues in today’s industry. There are effective solutions available in the industry but the real-time performance, smoothness and accuracy of the movement can be further improved. This paper discusses a complete solution to carry out the movement of three stepper motors in three dimensions. The objective is to provide a method to design a fully integrated System-on-Chip (SOC)-based motion controller to reduce the cost and complexity of production by incorporating Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) into the design. In the proposed method the FPGA receives its commands from a host computer via wireless internet communication and calculates the motion trajectory for three axes. A profile generator module is designed to realize the interpolation algorithm by translating the position data to the real-time pulses. This paper discusses an approach to implement the linear interpolation algorithm, since it is one of the fundamentals of robots’ movements and it is highly applicable in motion control industries. Along with full profile trajectory, the triangular drive is implemented to eliminate the existence of error at small distances. To integrate the parallelism and real-time performance of FPGA with the power of Central Processing Unit (CPU) in executing complex and sequential algorithms, the NIOS II soft-core processor was added into the design. This paper presents different operating modes such as absolute, relative positioning, reset and velocity modes to fulfill the user requirements. The proposed approach was evaluated by designing a custom-made FPGA board along with a mechanical structure. As a result, a precise and smooth movement of stepper motors was observed which proved the effectiveness of this approach.

Keywords: 3-axis linear interpolation, FPGA, motion controller, micro-stepping

Procedia PDF Downloads 196

Authors: Ziaullah, Shah Wahab Ali

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Micro-grid equipped with heterogeneous energy resources present the idea of small scale distributed energy management (DEM). DEM helps in minimizing the transmission and operation costs, power management and peak load demands. Micro-grids are collections of small, independent controllable power-generating units and renewable energy resources. Micro-grids also motivate to enable active customer participation by giving accessibility of real-time information and control to the customer. The capability of fast restoration against faulty situation, integration of renewable energy resources and Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) make micro-grid as an ideal system for distributed power systems. Micro-grids can have a bank of energy storage devices. The energy management system of micro-grid can perform real-time energy forecasting of renewable resources, energy storage elements and controllable loads in making proper short-term scheduling to minimize total operating costs. We present a review of existing micro-grids optimization objectives/goals, constraints, solution approaches and tools used in micro-grids for energy management. Cost-benefit analysis of micro-grid reveals that cooperation among different micro-grids can play a vital role in the reduction of import energy cost and system stability. Cooperative micro-grids energy trading is an approach to electrical distribution energy resources that allows local energy demands more control over the optimization of power resources and uses. Cooperation among different micro-grids brings the interconnectivity and power trading issues. According to the literature, it shows that open area of research is available for cooperative micro-grids energy trading. In this paper, we proposed and formulated the efficient energy management/trading module for interconnected micro-grids. It is believed that this research will open new directions in future for energy trading in cooperative micro-grids/interconnected micro-grids.

Keywords: distributed energy management, information and communication technologies, microgrid, energy management

Procedia PDF Downloads 365

Authors: Azzi Mohammed Amin

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Summary: This note aims to demonstrate the impact that comes out of electronic commerce to improve the quality of banking services and to answer the questions raised in the problem; it also aims to find out the methods applied in the banks to improve the quality of banking. And it identified a conceptual framework for electronic commerce and electronic banking. In addition, the inclusion of case study includes the Algerian Popular Credit Bank to measure the impact of electronic commerce on the quality of banking services. Has been focusing on electronic banking services as a field of modern knowledge, including fields characterized by high module in content and content, where banking management concluded that the service and style of electronic submission is the only area to compete and improve their quality. After studying the exploration of some of the banks operating in Algeria, and concluded that the majority relies sites, especially on the Internet, to introduce themselves and their affiliates as well as the definition of customer coverage for traditional and electronic, which are still at the beginning of the road where only some plastic cards, e-Banking, Bank of cellular, ATM and fast transfers. The establishment of an electronic network that requires the use of an effective banking system overall settlement of all economic sectors also requires the Algerian banks to be ready to receive this technology through the modernization of management and modernization of services (expand the use of credit cards, electronic money, and expansion of the Internet). As well as the development of the banking media to contribute to the dissemination of electronic banking culture in the community. Has been reached that the use of the communications revolution has made e-banking services inevitable impose itself in determining the future of banks and development, has also been reached that there is the impact of electronic commerce on the improvement of banking services through the provision of the information base and extensive refresher on-site research and development, and apply strategies Marketing, all of which help banks to increase the performance of its services, despite the presence of some of the risks of the means of providing electronic service and not the nature of the service itself and clear impact also by changing the shape or location of service from traditional to electronic which works to reduce and the costs of providing high-quality service and thus access to the largest segment.

Keywords: e-commerce, e-banking, impact e-commerce, B2C

Procedia PDF Downloads 82

Authors: T. Frawley, G. O'Kelly

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The UCD School of Nursing, Midwifery and Health Systems Higher Diploma in Mental Health (HDMH) nursing programme commenced in January 2017. Forty students successfully completed the programme. Programme evaluation was conducted from the outset. Research ethics approval was granted by the UCD Human Research Ethics Committee – Sciences in November 2016 (LS-E-16-163). Plan for Sustainability: Each iteration of the programme continues to be evaluated and adjusted accordingly. Aims: The ultimate purpose of the HDMH programme is to prepare registered nurses (registered children’s nurse (RCN), registered nurse in intellectual disability (RNID) and registered general nurse (RGN)) to function as effective registered psychiatric nurses in all settings which provide care and treatment for people experiencing mental health difficulties. Curriculum evaluation is essential to ensure that the programme achieves its purpose, that aims and expected outcomes are met and that required changes are highlighted for the programme’s continuing positive development. Methods: Both quantitative and qualitative methods were used in the evaluation. A series of questionnaires were used (the majority pre and post programme) to determine student perceptions of the programme, behaviour and attitudinal change from commencement to completion. These included the student assessment of learning gains (SALG); mental health knowledge schedule (MAKS); mental health clinician attitudes scale (MICA); reported and intended behaviour scale (RIBS); and community attitudes towards the mentally ill (CAMI). In addition, student and staff focus groups were conducted. Evaluation methods also incorporated module feedback. Outcome/Results: The evaluation highlighted a very positive response in relation to the achievement of programme outcomes and preparation for future work as registered psychiatric nursing. Some areas were highlighted for further development, which have been taken cognisance of in the 2019 iteration of the programme.

Keywords: learning gains, mental health, nursing, stigma

Procedia PDF Downloads 128

Authors: Marie Sams, Kate Barnett-Richards, Jacqui Speculand, Gemma Tombs

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Business education in the United Kingdom has seen a number of improvements over the years in moving from delivering traditional chalk and talk lectures to using digital technologies and inviting guest lectures from industry to deliver sessions for students. Engaging topical industry talks to enhance course delivery is generally seen as a positive aspect of enhancing curriculum, however it is acknowledged that perhaps there are better ways in which industry can contribute to the quality of business programmes. Additionally, there is a consensus amongst UK industry managers that a bigger involvement in designing and inputting into business curriculum will have a greater impact on the quality of business ready graduates. Funded by the Disruptive Media Learning Lab at Coventry University in the UK, a project (SOPI - Student Online Projects with Industry) was initiated to enable students to work in project teams to respond and engage with real problems and challenges faced by five managers in various industries including retail, events and manufacturing. Over a semester, approximately 200 students were given the opportunity to develop their management, facilitation, problem solving and reflective skills, whilst having some exposure to real challenges in industry with a focus on supply chain and project management. Face to face seminars were re-designed to enable students to work on live issues in a competitive environment, and were guided to consider the theoretical aspects of their module delivery to underpin the solutions that they were generating. Dialogue between student groups and managers took place using Google+ community; an online social media tool which enables private discussions to take place and can be accessed on mobile devices. Results of the project will be shared in how this development has added value to students experience and understanding of the two subject areas. Student reflections will be analysed and evaluated to assess how the project has contributed to their perception of how the theoretical nature of these two business subjects are applied in practical situations.

Keywords: business, education, industry, projects

Procedia PDF Downloads 172

Authors: Helen Coronel, Will Brewer, Peggy Bergeron, Clarissa Hall, Victoria Casson

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Simulation-based training provides the nurse practitioner (NP) student with a safe and controlled environment in which they can practice a real-life scenario. This type of learning fosters critical thinking skills essential to practice. The expectation of this study was that students would have an increase in their competency and confidence after performing the simulation. Approximately 8.4% of Americans suffer from depression. The state of Alabama is ranked 47th out of 50 for access to mental health care. As a result of this significant shortage of mental health providers, primary care providers are frequently put in the position of screening for and treating mental health conditions, such as depression. Family nurse practitioners are often utilized as primary care providers, making their ability to assess, diagnose and treat these disorders a necessary skill. The expected outcome of this simulation is an increase in confidence, competency and the empowerment of the nurse practitioner student’s ability to assess, diagnose and treat a common mood disorder they may encounter in practice. The Kirkpatrick Module was applied for this study. A non-experimental design using descriptive statistical analysis was utilized. The simulation was based on a common psychiatric mood disorder frequently observed in primary care and mental health clinics. Students were asked to watch a voiceover power point presentation prior to their on-campus simulation. The presentation included training on the assessment, diagnosis, and treatment of a patient with depression. Prior to the simulation, the students completed a pre-test, then participated in the simulation, and completed a post-test when done. Apple iPads were utilized to access a simulated health record. Major findings of the study support an increase in students’ competency and confidence when assessing, diagnosing, and treating an adult patient with depression.

Keywords: advanced practice, nurse practitioner, simulation, primary care, depression

Procedia PDF Downloads 85

Authors: Hossam Ali-Hassan, Michael Bliemel

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This poster reflects upon our experiences using INNOV8, IBM’s Business Process Management (BPM) simulation game, in online MBA and undergraduate MIS classes over a period of 2 years. The game is designed to gives both business and information technology players a better understanding of how effective BPM impacts an entire business ecosystem. The game includes three different scenarios: Smarter Traffic, which is used to evaluate existing traffic patterns and re-route traffic based on incoming metrics; Smarter Customer Service where players develop more efficient ways to respond to customers in a call centre environment; and Smarter Supply Chains where players balance supply and demand and reduce environmental impact in a traditional supply chain model. We use the game as an experiential learning tool, where students have to act as managers making real time changes to business processes to meet changing business demands and environments. The students learn how information technology (IT) and information systems (IS) can be used to intelligently solve different problems and how computer simulations can be used to test different scenarios or models based on business decisions without having to actually make the potentially costly and/or disruptive changes to business processes. Moreover, when students play the three different scenarios, they quickly see how practical process improvements can help meet profitability, customer satisfaction and environmental goals while addressing real problems faced by municipalities and businesses today. After spending approximately two hours in the game, students reflect on their experience from it to apply several BPM principles that were presented in their textbook through the use of a structured set of assignment questions. For each final scenario students submit a screenshot of their solution followed by one paragraph explaining what criteria you were trying to optimize, and why they picked their input variables. In this poster we outline the course and the module’s learning objectives where we used the game to place this into context. We illustrate key features of the INNOV8 Simulation Game, and describe how we used them to reinforce theoretical concepts. The poster will also illustrate examples from the simulation, assignment, and learning outcomes.

Keywords: experiential learning, business process management, BPM, INNOV8, simulation, game

Procedia PDF Downloads 320

Authors: Dar-Bin Shieh, Gwo-Bin Lee, Chen-Ming Chang, Chen Sheng Yeh, Chih-Chia Huang, Tsung-Ju Li

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Mitochondrial defects have a significant impact in many human diseases and aging associated phenotypes. The pathogenic mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) mutations are diverse and usually present as heteroplasmic. mtDNA 4977bps deletion is one of the common mtDNA defects, and the ratio of mutated versus normal copy is significantly associated with clinical symptoms thus their quantitative detection has become an important unmet needs for advanced disease diagnosis and therapeutic guidelines. This study revealed a Micro-electro-mechanical-system (MEMS) enabled automatic microfluidic chip that only required minimal sample. The system integrated multiple laboratory operation steps into a Lab-on-a-Chip for high-sensitive and prompt measurement. The entire process including magnetic nanoparticle based mtDNA extraction in chip, mutation selective photonic DNA cleavage, and nanoparticle accelerated photonic quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR). All subsystems were packed inside a miniature three-dimensional micro structured system and operated in an automatic manner. Integration of magnetic beads with microfluidic transportation could promptly extract and enrich the specific mtDNA. The near infrared responsive magnetic nanoparticles enabled micro-PCR to be operated by pulse-width-modulation controlled laser pulsing to amplify the desired mtDNA while quantified by fluorescence intensity captured by a complementary metal oxide system array detector. The proportions of pathogenic mtDNA in total DNA were thus obtained. Micro capillary electrophoresis module was used to analyze the amplicone products. In conclusion, this study demonstrated a new magnetophotonic based qPCR MEMS system that successfully detects and quantify specific disease related DNA mutations thus provides a promising future for rapid diagnosis of mitochondria diseases.

Keywords: mitochondrial DNA, micro-electro-mechanical-system, magnetophotonics, PCR

Procedia PDF Downloads 207

Authors: Asowata Osamede, Christo Pienaar, Johan Bekker

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Mismatch in electrical energy (power) or outage from commercial providers, in general, does not promote development to the public and private sector, these basically limit the development of industries. The necessity for a well-structured photovoltaic (PV) system is of importance for an efficient and cost-effective monitoring system. The major renewable energy potential on earth is provided from solar radiation and solar photovoltaics (PV) are considered a promising technological solution to support the global transformation to a low-carbon economy and reduction on the dependence on fossil fuels. Solar arrays which consist of various PV module should be operated at the maximum power point in order to reduce the overall cost of the system. So power regulation and conditioning circuits should be incorporated in the set-up of a PV system. Power regulation circuits used in PV systems include maximum power point trackers, DC-DC converters and solar chargers. Inappropriate choice of power conditioning device in a basic off-grid PV system can attribute to power loss, hence the need for a right choice of power conditioning device to be coupled with the system of the essence. This paper presents the design and implementation of a power conditioning devices in order to improve the overall yield from the availability of solar energy and the system’s total efficiency. The power conditioning devices taken into consideration in the project includes the Buck and Boost DC-DC converters as well as solar chargers with MPPT. A logging interface circuit (LIC) is designed and employed into the system. The LIC is designed on a printed circuit board. It basically has DC current signalling sensors, specifically the LTS 6-NP. The LIC is consequently required to program the voltages in the system (these include the PV voltage and the power conditioning device voltage). The voltage is structured in such a way that it can be accommodated by the data logger. Preliminary results which include availability of power as well as power loss in the system and efficiency will be presented and this would be used to draw the final conclusion.

Keywords: tilt and orientation angles, solar chargers, PV panels, storage devices, direct solar radiation

Procedia PDF Downloads 123

Authors: Alessandra Chiara Maraschin, Estelle Trengove

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In South Africa, only 23% of engineering students attain their degrees in the minimum time of 4 years. This begs the question: Why is the 4-year throughput rate so low? Improving the throughput rate is crucial in assisting students to the shortest possible path to completion. The Electrical Engineering programme has a fixed curriculum and students must pass all courses in order to graduate. In South Africa, as is the case in several other countries, many students rely on external funding such as bursaries from companies in industry. If students fail a course, they often lose their bursaries, and most might not be able to fund their 'repeating year' fees. It is thus important to improve the throughput rate, since for many students, graduating from university is a way out of poverty for an entire family. In Electrical Engineering, it has been found that the Software Development I course (an introduction to C++ programming) is a significant hurdle course for students and has been found to have a low pass rate. It has been well-documented that students struggle with this type of course as it introduces a number of new threshold concepts that can be challenging to grasp in a short time frame. In an attempt to mitigate this situation, a part-time night-school for Software Development I was introduced in 2015 as an intervention measure. The course includes all the course material from the Software Development I module and allows students who failed the course in first semester a second chance by repeating the course through taking the night-school course. The purpose of this study is to determine whether the introduction of this intervention course could be considered a success. The success of the intervention is assessed in two ways. The study will first look at whether the night-school course contributed to improving the pass rate of the Software Development I course. Secondly, the study will examine whether the intervention contributed to improving the overall throughput from the 2nd year to the 3rd year of study at a South African University. Second year academic results for a sample of 1216 students have been collected from 2010-2017. Preliminary results show that the lowest pass rate for Software Development I was found to be in 2017 with a pass rate of 34.9%. Since the intervention course's inception, the pass rate for Software Development I has increased each year from 2015-2017 by 13.75%, 25.53% and 25.81% respectively. To conclude, the preliminary results show that the intervention course is a success in improving the pass rate of Software Development I.

Keywords: academic performance, electrical engineering, engineering education, intervention course, low pass rate, software development course, throughput

Procedia PDF Downloads 155

Authors: Paolo Sassi, Jorge Freiria, Gabriel Usera

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In this work, a finite volume fluid flow solver is coupled with a discrete element method module for the simulation of the dynamics of free and elastic bodies in interaction with the fluid and between themselves. The open source fluid flow solver, caffa3d.MBRi, includes the capability to work with nested overlapping grids in order to easily refine the grid in the region where the bodies are moving. To do so, it is necessary to implement a recognition function able to identify the specific mesh block in which the device is moving in. The set of overlapping finer grids might be displaced along with the set of bodies being simulated. The interaction between the bodies and the fluid is computed through a two-way coupling. The velocity field of the fluid is first interpolated to determine the drag force on each object. After solving the objects displacements, subject to the elastic bonding among them, the force is applied back onto the fluid through a Gaussian smoothing considering the cells near the position of each object. The fishnet is represented as lumped masses connected by elastic lines. The internal forces are derived from the elasticity of these lines, and the external forces are due to drag, gravity, buoyancy and the load acting on each element of the system. When solving the ordinary differential equations system, that represents the motion of the elastic and flexible bodies, it was found that the Runge Kutta solver of fourth order is the best tool in terms of performance, but requires a finer grid than the fluid solver to make the system converge, which demands greater computing power. The coupled solver is demonstrated by simulating the interaction between the fluid, an elastic fishnet and a set of free bodies being captured by the net as they are dragged by the fluid. The deformation of the net, as well as the wake produced in the fluid stream are well captured by the method, without requiring the fluid solver mesh to adapt for the evolving geometry. Application of the same strategy to the simulation of elastic structures subject to the action of wind is also possible with the method presented, and one such application is currently under development.

Keywords: computational fluid dynamics, discrete element method, fishnets, nested overlapping grids

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Authors: Salah Belaidi

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We have carried out extensive and in-depth research to search for bioactive compounds based on Algerian plants. A selection of 50 ligands from Algerian medicinal plants. Several compounds used in herbal medicine have been drawn using Marvin Sketch software. We determined the three-dimensional structures of the ligands with the MMFF94 force field in order to prepare these ligands for molecular docking. The 3D protein structure of the SARS-CoV-2 main protease was taken from the Protein Data Bank. We used AutoDockVina software to apply molecular docking. The hydrogen atoms were added during the molecular docking process, and all the twist bonds of the ligands were added using the (ligand) module in the AutoDock software. The COVID-19 main protease (Mpro) is a key enzyme that plays a vital role in viral transcription and mediating replication, so it is a very attractive drug target for SARS-CoV-2. In this work, an evaluation was carried out on the biologically active compounds present in these selected medicinal plants as effective inhibitors of the protease enzyme of COVID-19, with an in-depth computational calculation of the molecular docking using the Autodock Vina software. The top 7 ligands: Phloroglucinol, Afzelin, Myricetin-3-O- rutinosidTricin 7-neohesperidoside, Silybin, Silychristinthat and Kaempferol are selected among the 50 molecules studied which are Algerian medicinal plants, whose selection is based on the best binding energy which is relatively low compared to the reference molecule with binding affinities of -9.3, -9.3, -9, -8.9, -8 .5, 8.3 and -8.3 kcal mol-1 respectively. Then, we analyzed the ADME properties of the best7 ligands using the web server SwissADME. Two ligands (Silybin, Silychristin) were found to be potential candidates for the discovery and design of novel drug inhibitors of the protease enzyme of SARS-CoV-2. The stability of the two ligands in complexing with the Mpro protease was validated by molecular dynamics simulation; they revealed a stable trajectory in both techniques, RMSD and RMSF, by showing molecular properties with coherent interactions in molecular dynamics simulations. Finally, we conclude that the Silybin ligand forms a more stable complex with the Mpro protease compared to the Silychristin ligand.

Keywords: COVID-19, medicinal plants, molecular docking, ADME properties, molecular dynamics

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Authors: Tsu-Yin Wu, Jenni Hoffman, Lydia McMurrows, Sarah Lally

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Recent events of the Flint Water Crisis and elevated lead levels in Detroit public school water have highlighted a specific public health disparity and shown the need for better education of healthcare providers on lead education. Identifying children and pregnant women with a high risk for lead poisoning and ensuring lead testing is completed is critical. The purpose of this study is to explore the impact of an educational intervention on knowledge and confidence levels among nursing students enrolled in the prelicensure Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN) and Registered Nurse to BSN program (R2B). The study used both quantitative and qualitative research methods to assess the impact of multi-modal pedagogy on knowledge and confidence of lead screening and prevention among prelicensure and R2B nursing students. The students received lead poisoning and prevention content in addition to completing an e-learning module developed by the Pediatric Environmental Health Specialty Units. A total of 115 students completed the pre-and post-test instrument that consisted of demographic, lead knowledge, and confidence items. Despite the increase of total knowledge, three dimensions of lead poisoning, and confidence from pre- to post-test scores for both groups, there was no statistical significance on the increase between prelicensure and R2B students. Thematic analysis of qualitative data showed five themes from participants' learning experiences: lead exposure, signs and symptoms of lead poisoning, screening and diagnosis, prevention, and policy and statewide issues. The study is limited by a small sample and participants recalling some correct answers from the pretest, thus, scoring higher on the post-test. The results contribute to the minimally existent literature examining a critical public health concern regarding lead health exposure and prevention education of nursing students. Incorporating such content area into the nursing curriculum is essential in ensuring that such public health disparities are mitigated.

Keywords: lead poisoning, emerging public health issue, community health, nursing edducation

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Authors: Imran Khan Swati, Mohammad Younas

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This work aims to explore the potential applications of polymeric hydrophobic membranes and green ionic liquids (ILs). Protic and aprotic ILs were synthesized in the lab., characterized, and tested for CO₂/N₂ and CO₂/CH₄ separation using hydrophobic polymeric membranes via supported ionic liquid membrane (SILM). ILs were verified by FTIR spectroscopy. The SILMs were stable at room temperature up to 0.5 MPa. For CO₂, [BSmim][tos] had the greatest coefficient of solubility and permeability, along with all ILs. At 0.5 MPa, IL [BSmim][tos] was found with a selectivity of 56.2 and 47.5 for pure CO₂/N₂ and CO₂/CH₄, respectively. The ILs synthesized for this study are rated as [BSmim][tos]>[BSmpy][tos]>[Bmim][Cl]>[Bpy][Cl] based on their SILM separation performance. Furthermore, high values of selectivity of [BSmim][tos] and [BSmpy][tos] support the use of ILs for CO₂ separation using SILMs. The study was extended to synthesize and test the ammonium-based ILs, [2-HEA][f] and [2-HEA][Hs]. These ILs achieved 50 % less selectivity for CO₂/N₂ as compared to [BSmim][tos] and [BSmpy][tos]. Nevertheless, the permeability of CO₂ achieved with [2-HEA][f] and [2-HEA][Hs] is more than 20 times higher than the [BSmim][tos] and [BSmpy][tos]. Later, the CO₂/N₂ permeability and selectivity study was extended using a flat sheet membrane contactor with recirculated IL. The contact angle effects, liquid entry pressure (LEP), initial CO₂ concentration, and type of solvents and membrane material on the CO₂ capture efficiency and membrane wetting in the post-combustion capture (PCC) process have been experimentally investigated and evaluated. Polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) has shown the most hydrophobic property with 6-170 loss in the contact angle. Furthermore, [Omim][BF4] and [Bmim][BF6] have exhibited only 5-8 % loss in LEP using PTFE membrane support. The CO₂ capture efficiency has been achieved as 80.8-99.8 % in different combinations of ILs and membrane support, keeping all other variables constant. While increasing CO₂ concentration from 15 to 45 % vol., an increase of nearly three folds in the CO₂ mass transfer flux was observed. The combination of [Omim][BF4] and PTFE membrane witnessed good long-term stability with only a 20 % loss in CO₂ capture efficiency in 480 min of continuous operation. A 3- D simulation model for non-dispersive solvent absorption in membrane contactors provides insight into the optimum design of a separation system for a specific application minimizing the overall cost and making the process environment-friendly.

Keywords: Post-combustion CO2 capture, membrane synthesis, process development, permeability and selectivity, ionic liquids

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Authors: Valerie Follonier, Henrike Hamelmann, Jean-Michel Jullien

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The Distance Learning University in Switzerland (UniDistance) is offering bachelor and master courses as well as further education programs. The professors and their assistants work at traditional Swiss universities and are giving their courses at UniDistance following a blended learning and flipped classroom approach. A standardized course evaluation by the students has been established as a component of a quality improvement process. The students’ feedback enables the stakeholders to identify areas of improvement, initiate professional development for the teaching teams and thus continuously augment the quality of instruction. This paper describes the evaluation process, the tools involved and how the approach involving all stakeholders helps forming a culture of quality in teaching. Additionally, it will present the first evaluation results following the new process. Two software tools have been developed to support all stakeholders in the process of the semi-annual formative evaluation. The first tool allows to create the survey and to assign it to the relevant courses and students. The second tool presents the results of the evaluation to the stakeholders, providing specific features for the teaching teams, the dean, the directorate and EDUDL+ (Educational development unit distance learning). The survey items were selected in accordance with the e-learning strategy of the institution and are formulated to support the professional development of the teaching teams. By reviewing the results the teaching teams become aware of the opinion of the students and are asked to write a feedback for the attention of their dean. The dean reviews the results of the faculty and writes a general report about the situation of the faculty and the possible improvements intended. Finally, EDUDL+ writes a final report summarising the evaluation results. A mechanism of adjustable warnings allows it to generate quality indicators for each module. These are summarised for each faculty and globally for the whole institution in order to increase the vigilance of the responsible. The quality process involves changing the indicators regularly to focus on different areas each semester, to facilitate the professional development of the teaching teams and to progressively augment the overall teaching quality of the institution.

Keywords: continuous improvement process, course evaluation, distance learning, software tools, teaching quality

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Authors: K. Eryilmaz, G. Mercanoglu

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Aim: Purification of the final product, which is the last step in the synthesis of lanthanide-labeled peptide compounds, can be accomplished by different methods. Among these methods, the two most commonly used methods are C18 solid phase extraction (SPE) and weak cation exchanger cartridge elution. SPE C18 solid phase extraction method yields high purity final product, while elution from the weak cation exchanger cartridge is pH dependent and ineffective in removing colloidal impurities. The aim of this work is to develop an additional purification method for the lanthanide-labeled peptide compound in cases where the desired radionuclidic and radiochemical purity of the final product can not be achieved because of pH problem or colloidal impurity. Material and Methods: For colloidal impurity formation, 3 mL of water for injection (WFI) was added to 30 mCi of 177LuCl3 solution and allowed to stand for 1 day. 177Lu-DOTATATE was synthesized using EZAG ML-EAZY module (10 mCi/mL). After synthesis, the final product was mixed with the colloidal impurity solution (total volume:13 mL, total activity: 40 mCi). The resulting mixture was trapped in SPE-C18 cartridge. The cartridge was washed with 10 ml saline to remove impurities to the waste vial. The product trapped in the cartridge was eluted with 2 ml of 50% ethanol and collected to the final product vial via passing through a 0.22μm filter. The final product was diluted with 10 mL of saline. Radiochemical purity before and after purification was analysed by HPLC method. (column: ACE C18-100A. 3µm. 150 x 3.0mm, mobile phase: Water-Acetonitrile-Trifluoro acetic acid (75:25:1), flow rate: 0.6 mL/min). Results: UV and radioactivity detector results in HPLC analysis showed that colloidal impurities were completely removed from the 177Lu-DOTATATE/ colloidal impurity mixture by purification method. Conclusion: The improved purification method can be used as an additional method to remove impurities that may result from the lanthanide-peptide synthesis in which the weak cation exchange purification technique is used as the last step. The purification of the final product and the GMP compliance (the final aseptic filtration and the sterile disposable system components) are two major advantages.

Keywords: lanthanide, peptide, labeling, purification, radionuclide, radiopharmaceutical, synthesis

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Authors: William Marquis, Fang Dong

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There has been a growing concern in recent years over the economic and social effects of adult video gaming. It has been estimated that the number of people who played video games during the COVID-19 pandemic is close to three billion, and there is evidence that this form of entertainment is here to stay. Many people are concerned that this growing use of time could crowd out time that could be spent on alternative forms of entertainment with family, friends, sports, and other social activities that build community. For example, recent studies of children suggest that playing videogames crowds out time that could be spent on homework, watching TV, or in other social activities. Similar studies of adults have shown that video gaming is negatively associated with earnings, time spent at work, and socializing with others. The primary objective of this paper is to examine how time adults spend on video gaming could displace time they could spend working and on activities that enhance their health and well-being. We use data from the American Time Use Survey (ATUS), maintained by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, to analyze the effects of time-use decisions on three measures of well-being. We pool the ATUS Well-being Module for multiple years, 2010, 2012, 2013, and 2021, along with the ATUS Activity and Who files for these years. This pooled data set provides three broad measures of well-being, e.g., health, life satisfaction, and emotional well-being. Seven variants of each are used as a dependent variable in different multivariate regressions. We add to the existing literature in the following ways. First, we investigate whether the time adults spend in video gaming crowds out time spent working or in social activities that promote health and life satisfaction. Second, we investigate the relationship between adult gaming and their emotional well-being, also known as negative or positive affect, a factor that is related to depression, health, and labor market productivity. The results of this study suggest that the time adult gamers spend on video gaming has no effect on their supply of labor, a negligible effect on their time spent socializing and studying, and mixed effects on their emotional well-being, such as increasing feelings of pain and reducing feelings of happiness and stress.

Keywords: online gaming, health, social capital, emotional wellbeing

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Authors: Madia Safdar, G. Amjad Hussain, Mashhood Ahmad

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One of the major challenges of today’s era is peak demand which causes stress on the transmission lines and also raises the cost of energy generation and ultimately higher electricity bills to the end users, and it was used to be managed by the supply side management. However, nowadays this has been withdrawn because of existence of potential in the demand side management (DSM) having its economic and- environmental advantages. DSM in domestic load can play a vital role in reducing the peak load demand on the network provides a significant cost saving. In this paper the potential of demand response (DR) in reducing the peak load demands and electricity bills to the electric users is elaborated. For this purpose the domestic appliances are modeled in MATLAB Simulink and controlled by a module called energy management controller. The devices are categorized into controllable and uncontrollable loads and are operated according to real-time tariff pricing pattern instead of fixed time pricing or variable pricing. Energy management controller decides the switching instants of the controllable appliances based on the results from optimization algorithms. In GAMS software, the MILP (mixed integer linear programming) algorithm is used for optimization. In different cases, different constraints are used for optimization, considering the comforts, needs and priorities of the end users. Results are compared and the savings in electricity bills are discussed in this paper considering real time pricing and fixed tariff pricing, which exhibits the existence of potential to reduce electricity bills and peak loads in demand side management. It is seen that using real time pricing tariff instead of fixed tariff pricing helps to save in the electricity bills. Moreover the simulation results of the proposed energy management system show that the gained power savings lie in high range. It is anticipated that the result of this research will prove to be highly effective to the utility companies as well as in the improvement of domestic DR.

Keywords: controllable and uncontrollable domestic loads, demand response, demand side management, optimization, MILP (mixed integer linear programming)

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Authors: Neslihan Demirci, Serdar Durdağı

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Mycobacterium tuberculosis is still a worldwide disease-causing agent that, according to WHO, led to the death of 1.5 million people from tuberculosis (TB) in 2020. The bacteria reside in macrophages located specifically in the lung. There is a known quadruple drug therapy regimen for TB consisting of isoniazid (INH), rifampin (RIF), pyrazinamide (PZA), and ethambutol (EMB). Over the past 60 years, there have been great contributions to treatment options, such as recently approved delamanid (OPC67683) and bedaquiline (TMC207/R207910), targeting mycolic acid and ATP synthesis, respectively. Also, there are natural compounds that can block the tryptophanyl-tRNA synthetase (TrpRS) enzyme, chuangxinmycin, and indolmycin. Yet, already the drug resistance is reported for those agents. In this study, the newly released TrpRS enzyme structure is investigated for potential inhibitor drugs from already synthesized molecules to help the treatment of resistant cases and to propose an alternative drug for the quadruple drug therapy of tuberculosis. Maestro, Schrodinger is used for docking and molecular dynamic simulations. In-house library containing ~8000 compounds among FDA-approved indole-containing compounds, a total of 57 obtained from the ChemBL were used for both ATP and tryptophan binding pocket docking. Best of indole-containing 57 compounds were subjected to hit expansion and compared later with virtual screening workflow (VSW) results. After docking, VSW was done. Glide-XP docking algorithm was chosen. When compared, VSW alone performed better than the hit expansion module. Best scored compounds were kept for ten ns molecular dynamic simulations by Desmond. Further, 100 ns molecular dynamic simulation was performed for elected molecules according to Z-score. The top three MMGBSA-scored compounds were subjected to steered molecular dynamic (SMD) simulations by Gromacs. While SMD simulations are still being conducted, ponesimod (for multiple sclerosis), vilanterol (β₂ adrenoreceptor agonist), and silodosin (for benign prostatic hyperplasia) were found to have a significant affinity for tuberculosis TrpRS, which is the propulsive force for the urge to expand the research with in vitro studies. Interestingly, top-scored ponesimod has been reported to have a side effect that makes the patient prone to upper respiratory tract infections.

Keywords: drug repurposing, molecular dynamics, tryptophanyl-tRNA synthetase, tuberculosis

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Authors: Paul Shize Li, Frank Alber

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A fundamental task of clinical genomics is to unravel the functions of genes and their associations with disorders. Although experimental biology has made efforts to discover and elucidate the molecular mechanisms of individual genes in the past decades, still about 40% of human genes have unknown functions, not to mention the diseases they may be related to. For those biologists who are interested in a particular gene with unknown functions, a powerful computational method tailored for inferring the functions and disease relevance of uncharacterized genes is strongly needed. Studies have shown that genes strongly linked to each other in multiple biological networks are more likely to have similar functions. This indicates that the densely connected subgraphs in multiple biological networks are useful in the functional and phenotypic annotation of uncharacterized genes. Therefore, in this work, we have developed an integrative network approach to identify the frequent local clusters, which are defined as those densely connected subgraphs that frequently occur in multiple biological networks and consist of the query gene that has few or no disease or function annotations. This is a local clustering algorithm that models multiple biological networks sharing the same gene set as a three-dimensional matrix, the so-called tensor, and employs the tensor-based optimization method to efficiently find the frequent local clusters. Specifically, massive public gene expression data sets that comprehensively cover dynamic, physiological, and environmental conditions are used to generate hundreds of gene co-expression networks. By integrating these gene co-expression networks, for a given uncharacterized gene that is of biologist’s interest, the proposed method can be applied to identify the frequent local clusters that consist of this uncharacterized gene. Finally, those frequent local clusters are used for function and disease annotation of this uncharacterized gene. This local tensor clustering algorithm outperformed the competing tensor-based algorithm in both module discovery and running time. We also demonstrated the use of the proposed method on real data of hundreds of gene co-expression data and showed that it can comprehensively characterize the query gene. Therefore, this study provides a new tool for annotating the uncharacterized genes and has great potential to assist clinical genomic diagnostics.

Keywords: local tensor clustering, query gene, gene co-expression network, gene annotation

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Authors: Vaidehi Murarka, Sneha Mehta, Dishant Upadhyay

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Our project topic is “Alphabet Recognition using pixel probability distribution”. The project uses techniques of Image Processing and Machine Learning in Computer Vision. Alphabet recognition is the mechanical or electronic translation of scanned images of handwritten, typewritten or printed text into machine-encoded text. It is widely used to convert books and documents into electronic files etc. Alphabet Recognition based OCR application is sometimes used in signature recognition which is used in bank and other high security buildings. One of the popular mobile applications includes reading a visiting card and directly storing it to the contacts. OCR's are known to be used in radar systems for reading speeders license plates and lots of other things. The implementation of our project has been done using Visual Studio and Open CV (Open Source Computer Vision). Our algorithm is based on Neural Networks (machine learning). The project was implemented in three modules: (1) Training: This module aims “Database Generation”. Database was generated using two methods: (a) Run-time generation included database generation at compilation time using inbuilt fonts of OpenCV library. Human intervention is not necessary for generating this database. (b) Contour–detection: ‘jpeg’ template containing different fonts of an alphabet is converted to the weighted matrix using specialized functions (contour detection and blob detection) of OpenCV. The main advantage of this type of database generation is that the algorithm becomes self-learning and the final database requires little memory to be stored (119kb precisely). (2) Preprocessing: Input image is pre-processed using image processing concepts such as adaptive thresholding, binarizing, dilating etc. and is made ready for segmentation. “Segmentation” includes extraction of lines, words, and letters from the processed text image. (3) Testing and prediction: The extracted letters are classified and predicted using the neural networks algorithm. The algorithm recognizes an alphabet based on certain mathematical parameters calculated using the database and weight matrix of the segmented image.

Keywords: contour-detection, neural networks, pre-processing, recognition coefficient, runtime-template generation, segmentation, weight matrix

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Authors: Sreejith Jayachandran, Mojtaba Ghods, Morteza Mohammadzaheri

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The modern busy world is running behind new embedded technologies based on computers and software; meanwhile, some people forget to do their health condition and regular medical check-ups. Some of them postpone medical check-ups due to a lack of time and convenience, while others skip these regular evaluations and medical examinations due to huge medical bills and hospital expenses. Engineers and medical experts have come together to give birth to a new device in the telemonitoring system capable of monitoring, checking, and evaluating the health status of the human body remotely through the internet for the needs of all kinds of people. The remote health monitoring device is a microcontroller-based embedded unit. Various types of sensors in this device are connected to the human body, and with the help of an Arduino UNO board, the required analogue data is collected from the sensors. The microcontroller on the Arduino board processes the analogue data collected in this way into digital data and transfers that information to the cloud, and stores it there, and the processed digital data is instantly displayed through the LCD attached to the machine. By accessing the cloud storage with a username and password, the concerned person’s health care teams/doctors and other health staff can collect this data for the assessment and follow-up of that patient. Besides that, the family members/guardians can use and evaluate this data for awareness of the patient's current health status. Moreover, the system is connected to a Global Positioning System (GPS) module. In emergencies, the concerned team can position the patient or the person with this device. The setup continuously evaluates and transfers the data to the cloud, and also the user can prefix a normal value range for the evaluation. For example, the blood pressure normal value is universally prefixed between 80/120 mmHg. Similarly, the RHMS is also allowed to fix the range of values referred to as normal coefficients. This IoT-based miniature system (11×10×10) cm³ with a low weight of 500 gr only consumes 10 mW. This smart monitoring system is manufactured with 100 GBP, which can be used not only for health systems, it can be used for numerous other uses including aerospace and transportation sections.

Keywords: embedded technology, telemonitoring system, microcontroller, Arduino UNO, cloud storage, global positioning system, remote health monitoring system, alert system

Procedia PDF Downloads 73