Search results for: physical performance

Authors: Sungwon Jung

Abstract:

The percentage of 20 years or older apartment houses in South Korea is approximately 20% (1.55 million houses), and the explosive increase of aged houses is expected around the first planned new towns. Accordingly, we should prepare for social issues such as difficulty of housing lease and degradation of housing performance. The improvement of performance of aged houses is essential for achieving the national energy and carbon reduction goals, and we should develop techniques to respond to the changing construction environment. Furthermore, we should develop a performance evaluation system that is appropriate for the demands of residents such as the improvement of remodeling floor plan by performance improvement in line with the residence type of the housing vulnerable groups such as low-income group and elderly people living alone. For this purpose, remodeling techniques and business models optimized for the target complexes must be spread through the development of various business models. In addition, it is necessary to improve the remodeling business by improving the laws and systems related to the improvement of the residential performance and to prepare techniques to respond to the increasing business demands. In other words, performance improvement and evaluation and knowledge systems need to be researched as new issues related to remodeling that has not been addressed in the existing research.

Keywords: remodelling, performance evaluation, web-based system, big data

Procedia PDF Downloads 209

Authors: Neha Gupta

Abstract:

Landslide vulnerability is considered as the crucial parameter for the assessment of landslide risk. The term vulnerability defined as the damage or degree of elements at risk of different dimensions, i.e., physical, social, economic, and environmental dimensions. Himalaya region is very prone to multi-hazard such as floods, forest fires, earthquakes, and landslides. With the increases in fatalities rates, loss of infrastructure, and economy due to landslide in the Himalaya region, leads to the assessment of vulnerability. In this study, a methodology to measure the combination of vulnerability dimension, i.e., social vulnerability, physical vulnerability, and environmental vulnerability in one framework. A combined result of these vulnerabilities has rarely been carried out. But no such approach was applied in the Indian Scenario. The methodology was applied in an area of east Sikkim Himalaya, India. The physical vulnerability comprises of building footprint layer extracted from remote sensing data and Google Earth imaginary. The social vulnerability was assessed by using population density based on land use. The land use map was derived from a high-resolution satellite image, and for environment vulnerability assessment NDVI, forest, agriculture land, distance from the river were assessed from remote sensing and DEM. The classes of social vulnerability, physical vulnerability, and environment vulnerability were normalized at the scale of 0 (no loss) to 1 (loss) to get the homogenous dataset. Then the Multi-Criteria Analysis (MCA) was used to assign individual weights to each dimension and then integrate it into one frame. The final vulnerability was further classified into four classes from very low to very high.

Keywords: landslide, multi-criteria analysis, MCA, physical vulnerability, social vulnerability

Procedia PDF Downloads 288

Authors: Sowntharya L.

Abstract:

Aerodynamics is the most important factor when it comes to resistive forces such as lift, drag and side forces acting on the vehicle. In passenger vehicles, reducing the drag will not only unlock the door for higher achievable speed but will also reduce the fuel consumption of the vehicle. Generally, tyre contributes significantly to the overall aerodynamics of the vehicle. Hence, understanding the air-flow behaviour around the tyre is vital to optimize the aerodynamic performance in the early stage of design process. Nowadays, aerodynamic simulation employing Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) is gaining more importance as it reduces the number of physical wind-tunnel experiments during vehicle development process. This research develops a methodology to predict aerodynamic drag of a standalone tyre using Numerical CFD Solver and to validate the same using a wind tunnel experiment. A parametric study was carried out on different tread pattern tyres such as slick, circumferential groove & patterned tyre in stationary and rotating boundary conditions. In order to represent wheel rotation contact with the ground, moving reference frame (MRF) approach was used in this study. Aerodynamic parameters such as drag lift & air flow behaviour around the tire were simulated and compared with experimental results.

Keywords: aerodynamics, CFD, drag, MRF, wind-tunnel

Procedia PDF Downloads 180

Authors: Pin-Ju Juan, Peng-Yu Juan, Yi-Shan Chen

Abstract:

The main purpose of this paper is to present a fuzzy Analytic Network Process (ANP) model for the hostel organizational performance selection. In this article, we created 39 criteria for selecting hostel organizational performance acquired from literature's review and experts method practical investigations, and the methods of fuzzy analytic network process are used to consolidate decision-makers’ assessments about criteria weightings. Finally, we selected organizational performance of a hostel in Taiwan to determine the effectiveness of the proposed evaluation model in this paper.

Keywords: Fuzzy ANP, hostel, organizational performance, strategy management

Procedia PDF Downloads 175

Authors: Yosr Ghozzi

Abstract:

The Cyber-Physical Systems terminology has been well received by the industrial community and specifically appropriated in educational settings. Indeed, our latest educational activities are based on the development of experimental platforms on an industrial scale. In fact, we built a collaborative learning model because of an international market study that led us to place ourselves at the heart of this technology. To align with these findings, a competency-based approach study was conducted, and program content was revised by reflecting the projectbased approach. Thus, this article deals with the development of educational devices according to a generated curriculum and specific educational activities while respecting the repository of skills adopted from what constitutes the educational cyber-physical production systems and the laboratories that are compliant and adapted to them. The implementation of these platforms was systematically carried out in the school's workshops spaces. The objective has been twofold, both research and teaching for the students in mechatronics and logistics of the electromechanical department. We act as trainers and industrial experts to involve students in the implementation of possible extension systems around multidisciplinary projects and reconnect with industrial projects for better professional integration.

Keywords: education 4.0, competency-based learning, teaching factory, project-based learning, cyber-physical systems, industry 4.0

Procedia PDF Downloads 78

Authors: M. H. Arslan, U. K. Sahin, H. Acikgoz-Tufan, I. Gocek, I. Erdem

Abstract:

Various exterior factors have perpetual effects on textile materials during wear, use and laundering in everyday life. In accordance with their frequency of use, textile materials are required to be laundered at certain intervals. The medium in which the laundering process takes place have inevitable detrimental physical and chemical effects on textile materials caused by the unique parameters of the process inherently existing. Connatural structures of various textile materials result in many different physical, chemical and mechanical characteristics. Because of their specific structures, these materials have different behaviors against several exterior factors. By modeling the behavior of commercial and test textiles as group-wise against laundering process, it is possible to disclose the relation in between these two groups of materials, which will lead to better understanding of their behaviors in terms of similarities and differences against the washing parameters of the laundering. Thus, the goal of the current research is to examine the behavior of two groups of textile materials as commercial textiles and as test textiles towards the main washing machine parameters during laundering process such as temperature, load quantity, mechanical action and level of water amount by concentrating on shrinkage, pilling, sewing defects, collar abrasion, the other defects other than sewing, whitening and overall properties of textiles. In this study, cotton fabrics were preferred as commercial textiles due to the fact that garments made of cotton are the most demanded products in the market by the textile consumers in daily life. Full factorial experimental set-up was used to design the experimental procedure. All profiles always including all of the commercial and the test textiles were laundered for 20 cycles by commercial home laundering machine to investigate the effects of the chosen parameters. For the laundering process, a modified version of ‘‘IEC 60456 Test Method’’ was utilized. The amount of detergent was altered as 0.5% gram per liter depending on varying load quantity levels. Datacolor 650®, EMPA Photographic Standards for Pilling Test and visual examination were utilized to test and characterize the textiles. Furthermore, in the current study the relation in between commercial and test textiles in terms of their performance was deeply investigated by the help of statistical analysis performed by MINITAB® package program modeling their behavior against the parameters of the laundering process. In the experimental work, the behaviors of both groups of textiles towards washing machine parameters were visually and quantitatively assessed in dry state.

Keywords: behavior against washing machine parameters, performance evaluation of textiles, statistical analysis, commercial and test textiles

Procedia PDF Downloads 336

Authors: Seema Sharma Kaushik, Dhananjoy Shaw

Abstract:

Various length dimensions of the body have been a variable of interest in the research areas of kinanthropometry. However the inclusion of length measurements in various studies remains restricted to reflect characteristics of a particular game/sport at a particular time. Hence, the present investigation was conducted to study various length dimensions correlates of a longitudinal physical conditioning program on Indian male youth. The study was conducted on 90 Indian male youth. The sample was equally divided into three groups namely, progressive load training (PLT), constant load training (CLT) and no load training (NL). The variables included sitting height, leg length, arm length and foot length. The study was conducted by adopting the multi group repeated measure design. Three different groups were measured four times after completion of each of the three meso-cycles of six-weeks duration each. The measurements were taken using the standard landmarks and procedures. Mean, standard deviation and analysis of co-variance were computed to analyze the data statistically. The post-hoc analysis was conducted for the significant F-ratios at 0.05 level. The study concluded that the followed longitudinal physical conditioning program had significant effect on various length dimensions of Indian male youth.

Keywords: Indian male youth, longitudinal, length dimensions, physical conditioning

Procedia PDF Downloads 136

Authors: Muammer Kaya

Abstract:

The main purpose of this article is to provide a comprehensive review of various physical and chemical processes for electronic waste (e-waste) recycling, their advantages and shortfalls towards achieving a cleaner process of waste utilization, with especial attention towards extraction of metallic values. Current status and future perspectives of waste printed circuit boards (PCBs) recycling are described. E-waste characterization, dismantling/ disassembly methods, liberation and classification processes, composition determination techniques are covered. Manual selective dismantling and metal-nonmetal liberation at – 150 µm at two step crushing are found to be the best. After size reduction, mainly physical separation/concentration processes employing gravity, electrostatic, magnetic separators, froth floatation etc., which are commonly used in mineral processing, have been critically reviewed here for separation of metals and non-metals, along with useful utilizations of the non-metallic materials. The recovery of metals from e-waste material after physical separation through pyrometallurgical, hydrometallurgical or biohydrometallurgical routes is also discussed along with purification and refining and some suitable flowsheets are also given. It seems that hydrometallurgical route will be a key player in the base and precious metals recoveries from e-waste. E-waste recycling will be a very important sector in the near future from economic and environmental perspectives.

Keywords: e-waste, WEEE, recycling, metal recovery, hydrometallurgy, pirometallurgy, biometallurgy

Procedia PDF Downloads 330

Authors: Sarantos Psycharis

Abstract:

Physical Computing, as an instructional model, is applied in the framework of the Engineering Pedagogy to teach “transversal/cross-cutting ideas” in a STEM content approach. Labview and Arduino were used in order to connect the physical world with real data in the framework of the so called Computational Experiment. Tertiary prospective engineering educators were engaged during their course and Computational Thinking (CT) concepts were registered before and after the intervention across didactic activities using validated questionnaires for the relationship between self-efficacy, computer programming, and CT concepts when STEM content epistemology is implemented in alignment with the Computational Pedagogy model. Results show a significant change in students’ responses for self-efficacy for CT before and after the instruction. Results also indicate a significant relation between the responses in the different CT concepts/practices. According to the findings, STEM content epistemology combined with Physical Computing should be a good candidate as a learning and teaching approach in university settings that enhances students’ engagement in CT concepts/practices.

Keywords: arduino, computational thinking, computer programming, Labview, self-efficacy, STEM

Procedia PDF Downloads 92

Authors: Kuni Vergauwen, Ivan P. J. Huijnen, Astrid Depuydt, Jasmine Van Regenmortel, Mira Meeus

Abstract:

A lower activity level and imbalanced activity pattern are frequently observed in persons with chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) / myalgic encephalomyelitis (ME) due to debilitating fatigue and post-exertional malaise (PEM). Identification of measurement instruments to evaluate the activity level and pattern is therefore important. The objective is to identify measurement instruments suited to evaluate the activity level and/or pattern in patients with CFS/ME and review their psychometric properties. A systematic literature search was performed in the electronic databases PubMed and Web of Science until 12 October 2016. Articles including relevant measurement instruments were identified and included for further analysis. The psychometric properties of relevant measurement instruments were extracted from the included articles and rated based on the COnsensus-based Standards for the selection of health Measurement INstruments (COSMIN) checklist. The review was performed and reported according to the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) statement. A total of 49 articles and 15 unique measurement instruments were found, but only three instruments were evaluated in patients with CFS/ME: the Chronic Fatigue Syndrome-Activity Questionnaire (CFS-AQ), Activity Pattern Interview (API) and International Physical Activity Questionnaire-Short Form (IPAQ-SF), three self-report instruments measuring the physical activity level. The IPAQ-SF, CFS-AQ and API are all equally capable of evaluating the physical activity level, but none of the three measurement instruments are optimal to use. No studies about the psychometric properties of activity monitors in patients with CFS/ME were found, although they are often used as the gold standard to measure the physical activity pattern. More research is needed to evaluate the psychometric properties of existing instruments, including the use of activity monitors.

Keywords: chronic fatigue syndrome, data collection, physical activity, psychometrics

Procedia PDF Downloads 211

Authors: Taknaz Banihashemi, Jiangang Fei, Peggy Shu-Ling Chen

Abstract:

Reverse logistics (RL) is a part of the logistics of companies and its aim is to reclaim value from the returned products in an environmentally friendly manner. In recent years, RL has attracted significant attention among both practitioners and academics due to environmental directives and governmental legislation, consumer concerns and social responsibilities for environment, awareness of the limits of natural resources and economic potential. Sustainability development is considered as a critical goal for organisations due to its impact on competitive advantage. With growing environmental concerns and legal regulations related to green and sustainability issues, product disposition through RL can be considered as an environmental, economic and social sound way to achieve sustainable development. When employed properly, RL can help firms to improve their sustainability performance. The aim of this paper is to investigate the sustainability issues in the context of RL in the perspective of the triple-bottom-line approach. Content analysis was used to collect the information. The findings show that there is a research gap to investigate the relationship between RL and sustainability performance. Most of the studies have focused on performance evaluation of RL by considering the factors related to economic and environmental performance. RL can have significant effects on social issues along with economic and environmental issues. The inclusion of the social aspect in the sustainability performance will provide a complete and holistic picture of how RL may impact on the sustainability performance of firms. Generally, there is a lack of research on investigating the relationship between RL and sustainability by integrating the three pillars of triple-bottom-line sustainability performance. This paper provides academics and researchers a broad view of the correlations between RL and sustainability performance.

Keywords: verse Logistics, review, sustainability, sustainability performance

Procedia PDF Downloads 134

Authors: Jatesh Kathpalia, Subhash Chander

Abstract:

Violence against women has spread into a global epidemic. This has debilitating effect over the performance of women. Due to deep-rooted values, traditional Indian culture women fear the consequences of reporting violence and declare an unwillingness to subject themselves to the shame of being identified as battered women. Main interest was to study types of domestic violence which women face and to encourage them to report the matter. The study involved understanding the nature, extent and types of domestic violence. Two hundred rural women respondents were selected at random, interview schedule was prepared, and victims afflicted with domestic violence were identified. Data were collected and analyzed for different forms of domestic violence faced by women. 60% of the respondents faced domestic violence in different forms. Out of 120 women who were affected, 92.5% faced emotional, 90.8% faced verbal, 49.1% faced economic and 58.3% faced physical violence. 45.0% faced violence within three months of the marriage. Out of these, only 6.6% reported the violence to the police. Frequently faced forms of violence were slapping (27.1%), beating (24.3%) and starvation (25.7%). Number of women who were not allowed to spend money of their own stood at 30.5%. About 50% victims of emotional violence were facing constant criticism by their in-laws. Significant association was found between age, education and socio-economic status of the respondents and domestic violence. Rural women in Haryana face grave problem of domestic violence which need to be curbed for improving condition of women in society.

Keywords: domestic violence against women, economic, emotional, physical and verbal violence, marriage, rural women

Procedia PDF Downloads 374

Authors: M. A. Adejumobi, J. O. Ojediran

Abstract:

The aim of irrigation is to recharge the available water in the soil. Quality of irrigation water is essential for the yield and quality of crops produced, maintenance of soil productivity and protection of the environment. The analysis of irrigation water arises as a need to know the impact of irrigation water on the yield of crops, the effect, and the necessary control measures to rectify the effect of this for optimum production and yield of crops. This study was conducted to assess the quality of irrigation water with its performance on crop planted, in Josepdam irrigation scheme Bacita, Nigeria. Field visits were undertaken to identify and locate water supply sources and collect water samples from these sources; X1 Drain, Oshin, River Niger loop and Ndafa. Laboratory experiments were then undertaken to determine the quality of raw water from these sources. The analysis was carried for various parameters namely; physical and chemical analyses after water samples have been taken from four sources. The samples were tested in laboratory. Results showed that the raw water sources shows no salinity tendencies with SAR values less than 1me/l and Ecvaules at Zero while the pH were within the recommended range by FAO, there are increase in potassium and sulphate content contamination in three of the location. From this, it is recommended that there should be proper monitoring of the scheme by conducting analysis of water and soil in the environment, preferable test should be carried out at least one year to cover the impact of seasonal variations and to determine the physical and chemical analysis of the water used for irrigation at the scheme.

Keywords: irrigation, salinity, raw water quality, scheme

Procedia PDF Downloads 414

Authors: Rashi Jain

Abstract:

The Wireless Body Area Networks (WBANs) is an emerging interdisciplinary area where small sensors are placed on/within the human body. These sensors monitor the physiological activities and vital statistics of the body. The data from these sensors is aggregated and communicated to a remote doctor for immediate attention or to a database for records. On 6 Feb 2012, the IEEE 802.15.6 task group approved the standard for Body Area Network (BAN) technologies. The standard proposes the physical and MAC layer for the WBANs. The work provides an introduction to WBANs and overview of the physical and MAC layers of the standard. The physical layer specifications have been covered. A comparison of different protocols used at MAC layer is drawn. An introduction to the network layer and security aspects of the WBANs is made. The WBANs suffer certain limitations such as regulation of frequency bands, minimizing the effect of transmission and reception of electromagnetic signals on the human body, maintaining the energy efficiency among others. This has slowed down their implementation.

Keywords: vehicular networks, sensors, MicroController 8085, LTE

Procedia PDF Downloads 243

Authors: Marjeta Misigoj Durakovic, Maroje Soric, Lovro Stefan

Abstract:

Background and aim: Physical inactivity has been linked with increased morbidity and premature mortality and adolescence has been recognised as the critical period for a decline in physical activity (PA) level. In order to properly direct interventions aimed at increasing PA, high-risk groups of individuals should be identified. Therefore, the aim of this study is to describe gender differences in: a) PA level; b) weekly PA patterns. Methods: This investigation is a part of the CRO-PALS study which is an on-going longitudinal study conducted in a representative sample of urban youth in Zagreb (Croatia). CRO-PALS involves 903 adolescents and for the purpose of this study data from a subgroup of 190 participants with information on objective PA level were analysed (116 girls; mean age [SD]=15.6[0.3] years). Duration of moderate and vigorous PA was measured during 5 consecutive by a multiple-sensor physical activity monitor (SenseWear Armband, BodyMedia inc., Pittsburgh, USA). Gender differences in PA level were evaluated using independent samples t-test. Differences in school week and weekend levels of activity were assessed using mixed ANOVA with gender as between-subjects factor. The amount of vigorous PA had to be log-transformed to achieve normality in the distribution. Results: Boys were more active than girls. Duration of moderate-to-vigorous PA averaged 111±44 min/day in boys and 80±38 min/day in girls (mean difference=31 min/day, 95%CI=20-43 min/day). Vigorous PA was 2.5 times higher in boys compared to girls (95%CI=1.9-3.5). Participants were more active during school days than on weekends. The magnitude of the difference in moderate-to-vigorous PA was similar in both gender (p value for time*gender interaction = 0.79) and averaged 19 min/day (95%CI=11-27 min/day). Similarly, vigorous PA was 36% lower on weekends compared with school days (95%CI=22-46%) with no gender difference (p value for time*gender interaction = 0.52). Conclusion: PA level was higher in boys than in girls throughout the week. Still, in both boys and girls, the amount of PA reduced markedly on weekends compared with school days.

Keywords: adolescence, multiple-sensor physical activity monitor, physical activity level, weekly physical activity pattern

Procedia PDF Downloads 244

Authors: Jianyang Zhu, Lin Jiang, Tixian Tian

Abstract:

Inspired by the increasing interesting on the wind power associated with production of clear electric power, a numerical experiment is applied to investigate the aerodynamic performance of straight type vertical axis wind turbine with different thickness and solidity, where the incompressible Navier-Stokes (N-S) equations coupled with dynamic mesh technique is solved. By analyzing the flow field, as well as energy coefficient of different thickness and solidity turbine, it is found that the thickness and solidity can significantly influence the performance of vertical axis wind turbine. For the turbine under low tip speed, the mean energy coefficient increase with the increasing of thickness and solidity, which may improve the self starting performance of the turbine. However for the turbine under high tip speed, the appropriate thickness and smaller solidity turbine possesses better performance. In addition, delay stall and no interaction of the blade and previous separated vortex are observed around appropriate thickness and solidity turbine, therefore lead better performance characteristics.

Keywords: vertical axis wind turbine, N-S equations, dynamic mesh technique, thickness, solidity

Procedia PDF Downloads 248

Authors: Bencharif Meriem, Sersar Ibrahim, Djaafri Zineb

Abstract:

Introduction and purpose of the study: Education plays a fundamental role in the lives of young people, but what about their physical well-being as they spend long hours sitting at school? School inactivity is a problem that deserves particular attention because it can have significant repercussions on the health and development of students. The aim of this study was to describe and evaluate the physical activity of students in different practices in class, at recess and in the canteen. Material and methods: A physical activity diary and an anthropometric measurement sheet (weight, height) were provided to 123 school-aged adolescents. The measurements were carried out according to international recommendations. The statistical tests were carried out with the R software. 3.2.4. The significance threshold retained was 0.05. Results and Statistical Analysis: One hundred and twenty-three students agreed to participate in the study. Their average age was 16.5±1.60 years. Overweight was present in 8.13% and obesity in 4.06%. For the practice of physical activity, during physical education and sports classes, all students played sports with an average of 1.94±1.00 hours/week, of which 74.00% sweated or were out of breath during these hours of physical activity. It was also noted that boys practiced sports more than girls (p<0.0001). Each day, on average, students spent 39.78±37.85 min walking or running during recess. On the other hand, they spent, on average 4.25±2.65 hours sitting per day in class, at recess, in the canteen, etc., without counting the time spent in front of a screen. The increasing use of screens has become a major concern for parents and educators. On average, students spent approximately 42.90±38.41 min per day using screens in class, at recess, in the canteen and at home. (computer, tablet, telephone, video games, etc.) and therefore to a prolonged sedentary lifestyle. On average, students sat for more than 1.5 hours without moving for at least 2 minutes in a row approximately 1.72±0.71 times per day. Conclusion: These students spent many hours sitting at school. This prolonged inactivity can have negative consequences on their health, including problems with posture and cardiovascular health. It is crucial that schools, educators and parents collaborate to promote more active learning environments where students can move more and thus contribute to their overall well-being. It's time to rethink how we approach education and student health to give them a healthier, more active future.

Keywords: physical acivity, sedentarity, adolescents, school

Procedia PDF Downloads 49

Authors: Lauren Currell, Gemma Hurst

Abstract:

Introduction: The present study experimentally investigated the impact of attractive Instagram images on female’s body image. It also examined whether physical appearance perfectionism and cognitive coping predicted body image following upward comparisons to idealised bodies on Instagram. Methods: One-hundred and fifty-eight females (mean age 24.35 years) were randomly assigned to an experimental (where they compared their bodies to those of Instagram models) or control condition (where they critiqued landscape painting). All participants completed measures on physical appearance perfectionism, cognitive coping, and pre- and post-measures of body image. Results: Comparing one’s body to idealised bodies on Instagram resulted in increased appearance and weight dissatisfaction and decreased confidence, compared to the control condition. Physical appearance perfectionism and cognitive coping both predicted body image outcomes for the experimental condition. Discussion: Clinical implications, such as the prevention and treatment of body dissatisfaction, are discussed. Strengths and limitations of the current study are also noted, and suggestions for future research are provided.

Keywords: perfectionism, cognitive coping, body image, social media

Procedia PDF Downloads 72

Authors: Ruba Hamed, Khaled Hussainey, Basiem Al-Shattarat, Wasim Al-Shattarat

Abstract:

This paper examines how the influence of mandating corporate social responsibility reporting (CSR) on subsequent financial performance through accounting-based measures and market-based measures. We provide evidence about the negative impact of reporting CSR voluntarily on the firm’s future performance due to the increased spending on and costs related to such activities. On the contrary, mandating CSR reporting enhances firms’ future performance by signalling to the market about the firm’s positive stance towards sustainability issues in the UK. Our findings are of interest to regulation setters and stakeholders with respect to mandatory CSR reporting and provide further insight and feedback into accounting and reporting practices.

Keywords: accounting-based performance, mandatory CSR, mandatory regulation, market-based performance

Procedia PDF Downloads 108

Authors: Dhananjoy Shaw, Seema Sharma (Kaushik)

Abstract:

Anthropometry helps in associating the physical properties of an individual with their racial, cultural, and psychological attributes. Numerous research studies have included different skeletal diameters as a variable. However, most of the studies suggest their inclusion describing specific characteristics/traits of the body. However, there seems to be a scarcity of literature related to the effect of any kind of longitudinal physical training on human skeletal diameters. Hence, the present investigation was conducted to study the variability of covariance of selected skeletal diameters of females in a longitudinal physical training programme. The sample for the study was 78 college going students of the University of Delhi, classified equally in three groups, i.e. viz. (a) Progressive load of training or conditioning group coded as PLT; (b) Constant load of training or non-conditioning group coded as CLT; and (c) No-load or control or sedentary group coded as NL. Collectively, mean age of the sample was 19.54±1.79 years. The randomly selected samples were given maximum consideration to maintain their homogeneity. The variables included biacromial diameter, biiliocristal diameter, bitrochantaerion diameter, humeral bicondylar, femoral bicondylar, wrist diameter, ankle diameter, and foot breadth. Multi-group repeated measure design was adopted for the experimentation. Each group was measured four times after completion of each of the three meso-cycles of six-weeks duration. The measurements were taken following the standard landmarks and procedures. Mean, standard deviation, analysis of co-variance and its post-hoc analysis were computed to analyze the data statistically. The study concluded that both the progressive and constant load of physical training bring changes in the selected skeletal diameters of females. It also reflected the increase due to growth also along with training.

Keywords: longitudinal, physical training, skeletal diameters, step progression load

Procedia PDF Downloads 113

Authors: Anwaar Anwar Tayel

Abstract:

Background: Rheumatic arthritis (RA) affect all aspects of patients' life, lead to various degrees of disability, and ultimately has a profound impact on the social, economic, psychological, and sexual aspects of the patient's life. Aim of the study: Identify physical, psychological, and sexual implications of rheumatoid arthritis among women in reproductive age. In addition to investigating the correlations between physical functional disability, psychological problems, and sexual dysfunction.Settings: The study was conducted at Rheumatology Clinic at the Main University Hospital of Alexandria. Subjects: Purposive sample was chosen from women patients with rheumatoid arthritis to be subjects of this study (n=250). Tools: Four tools were used to collect data. Tool I: Socio-demographic questionnaire. Tool II: Stanford Health Assessment Questionnaire Disability Index (HAQ- DI). Tool III: Depression Anxiety Stress Scale (DASS). Tool IV: The Sexual Dysfunction Questionnaire (SDQ) Results: The majority of the studied women suffer from severe physical disability, extreme level of depression, anxiety, and about half of them had an extreme level of stress. Also, the majority of the studied women had a severe level of sexual dysfunction. Also, statistically significant correlations between women's physical disability index, psychological problems, and sexual dysfunction were detected. Conclusion: The findings from this study confirm that women patients with RA suffer from multiple negative implications on the physical, psychological and sexual functions. Recommendations: Provide ongoing support to the patients from the time of diagnosis throughout their care and management. To help them to manage their pain and disabilities, improve their sexual function, promote their mental health, and optimize psychosocial functioning

Keywords: pysical, spycholgical, sexual, implication, rheumatic arthritis

Procedia PDF Downloads 112

Authors: B. G. Abiona, T. D. Odetayo, S. O. Adeogun, O. E. Fakoya

Abstract:

This study determined the effects of workplace power on employees’ job performance in selected federal universities of agriculture in Nigeria. Two hundred and twenty-seven (227) employees were randomly drawn from the selected universities through a multistage sampling procedure. The mean age of the employees was 38 years, mostly (60.8%) male. Results indicated that the overall job performance was significantly influenced by an expert (b = 0.287, p<0.01) and legitimate power (b = -0.279, p<0.05). The findings clearly showed that supervisor has considerable professional experience to draw from in helping subordinates to do their work better because they have specialized training in their field of study, and subordinates prefer to do what the supervisor suggests because of their professional expertise, which greatly influences employees’ job performance. A policy that will ensure transparency in all administrative procedures, with a formal line of authority that will enhance the thriving of legitimate power, should be established within organisation is recommended.

Keywords: workplace power, employees, job performance, agricultural unversities

Procedia PDF Downloads 67

Authors: Konstantinos Metaxiotis, Konstantinos Liagkouras

Abstract:

The objective of this study is to examine the performance of three well-known multiobjective evolutionary algorithms for solving optimization problems. The first algorithm is the Non-dominated Sorting Genetic Algorithm-II (NSGA-II), the second one is the Strength Pareto Evolutionary Algorithm 2 (SPEA-2), and the third one is the Multiobjective Evolutionary Algorithms based on decomposition (MOEA/D). The examined multiobjective algorithms are analyzed and tested on the ZDT set of test functions by three performance metrics. The results indicate that the NSGA-II performs better than the other two algorithms based on three performance metrics.

Keywords: MOEAs, multiobjective optimization, ZDT test functions, evolutionary algorithms

Procedia PDF Downloads 449

Authors: Yue-Tzu Yang, Peng-Jen Chen

Abstract:

The present study deals with the numerical optimization of wavy channel with the help of genetic algorithm (GA). Three design variables related to the wave amplitude (A), the wavelength (λ) and the channel aspect ratio (α) are chosen and their ranges are decided through preliminary calculations of three-dimensional Navier-stokes and energy equations. A parametric study is also performed to show the effects of different design variables on the overall performance of the wavy channel. Objective functions related to the heat transfer and pressure drop, performance factor (PF) is formulated to analyze the performance of the wavy channel. The numerical results show that the wave amplitude and the channel aspect ratio have significant effects on the thermal performance. It can improve the performance of the wavy channels by increasing wave amplitude or decreasing the channel aspect ratio. Increasing wavelengths have no significant effects on the heat transfer performance.

Keywords: wavy channel, genetic algorithm, optimization, numerical simulation

Procedia PDF Downloads 281

Authors: Dusittorn Ngamying

Abstract:

This investigation of Mon Dance is focused on using in Pathum Thani Province’s tradition and has the following objectives: 1) to study the background of Mon dance in Pathum Thani Province; 2) to study Mon dance in Pathum Thani Province; 3) to study of using Mon Dance in Pathum Thani province’s tradition. This qualitative research was conducted in Pathum Thani provinces (the central of Thailand). Data was collected from a documentary study and field data by means of observation, interview and group discussion. Workshops were also held with a total of 100 attendees, comprised of 20 key informants, 40 casual informants and 40 general informants. Data was validated using a triangulation technique and findings are presented using descriptive analysis. The results of the studied showed that the historical background of Mon dance in Pathum Thani Province initiated during the war evacuation from Martaban (south of Burma) to settle down in Sam Khok, Pathum Thani Province in Ayutthaya period to Rattanakosin. The study found that Mon dance typically consists of 12 dancing process. The melodies have 12 songs. Piphat Mon (Mon traditional music ensemble) was used in the performance. The costume was dressed on Mon traditional. The performers were 6-12 women and depending on the employer’s demands. Length of the performance varied from the duration of music orchestration. Rituals and Customs were paying homage to teachers before the performance. The offerings were composed of flowers, incense sticks, candles, money gifts which were well arranged on a tray with pedestal, and also liquors, tobaccos and pure water for asking propitiousness. To using Mon Dance in Pathum Thani Province’s tradition, was found that it commonly performed in the funeral ceremonial tradition at present because the physical postures of the performance were graceful and exquisite as approved conservative. In addition, the value since the ancient time had believed that Mon Dance was the sacred thing considered as the dignity glorification especially for funeral ceremonies of the priest or royal hierarchy classes. However, Mon dance was continued to use in the traditions associated with Mon people activities in Pathum Thani Province, for instance, customary welcome for honor guest and Songkran Festival.

Keywords: Mon dance, Pathum Tani Province, tradition, triangulation technique

Procedia PDF Downloads 578

Authors: Michelle V. Tomczak, Reyhaneh Bakhtiari, Aaron Granley, Anthony Singhal

Abstract:

Objective: Cannabis and cocaine are associated with a range of mental and physical effects that can impair aspects of human behavior. Driving is a complex cognitive behavior that is an essential part of everyday life and can be broken down into many subcomponents, each of which can uniquely impact road safety. With the growing movement of jurisdictions to legalize cannabis, there is an increased focus on impairment and driving. The purpose of this study was to identify driving-related cognitive-performance deficits that are impacted by recreational drug use. Design and Methods: With the assistance of law enforcement agencies, we recruited over 300 participants under the influence of various drugs including cannabis and cocaine. These individuals performed a battery of computer-based tasks scientifically proven to be re-lated to on-road driving performance and designed to test response-speed, memory processes, perceptual-motor skills, and decision making. Data from a control group with healthy non-drug using adults was collected as well. Results: Compared to controls, the drug group showed def-icits in all tasks. The data also showed clear differences between the cannabis and cocaine groups where cannabis users were faster, and performed better on some aspects of the decision-making and perceptual-motor tasks. Memory performance was better in the cocaine group for simple tasks but not more complex tasks. Finally, the participants who consumed both drugs performed most similarly to the cannabis group. Conclusions: Our results show distinct and combined effects of cannabis and cocaine on human performance relating to driving. These dif-ferential effects are likely related to the unique effects of each drug on the human brain and how they distinctly contribute to mental states. Our results have important implications for road safety associated with driver impairment.

Keywords: driving, cognitive impairment, recreational drug use, cannabis and cocaine

Procedia PDF Downloads 107

Authors: Narender Singh Thakur, Sunil Chamoli

Abstract:

The use of roughness geometry in the rectangular channel duct is an effective technique to enhance the rate of heat transfer to the working fluid. The present research concentrates on the performance comparison of a rectangular channel with different roughness geometry of the test plate. The performance enhancement is compared by considering the statistical correlations developed by the various investigators for Nusselt number and friction factor. Among all the investigated geometries multiple v-shaped rib roughened rectangular channel found thermo hydraulically better than other investigated geometries under similar current and operating conditions.

Keywords: nusselt number, friction factor, thermohydraulic, performance parameter

Procedia PDF Downloads 398

Authors: Gayathri P. Nair

Abstract:

The focus of this study is to identify whether the board structure has any significant impact on the firm performance and finding out any evidence of being listed in the Fortune 500 list compiled and published by the American business magazine, Fortune and published globally by Time Inc., as the world’s wealthiest companies. The list has been released based on the ranking obtained for the total revenues for the respective fiscal year which has ended on or before March 31st. The study has been conducted on the Indian companies that were listed in the Fortune 500 list for the past 10 years. This study employs a logical regression between the variables, firm performance and board composition as mentioned in the clause 49 of companies act 1956 and 2013. For getting the firm performance, ROA has selected as the key performance metric, as it focuses the management attention on the assets required to run the business. The highlight of the study is that the tools had been applied between public and private sector firms so that, it reveals whether the board composition is helping out to maintain the position in the list. In addition, the findings reveal that apart from independent directors, all other variables have significant impact on firm performance.

Keywords: board structure, Fortune 500 company, firm performance, India

Procedia PDF Downloads 216

Authors: Hussain Bunyan, Wesam Ali

Abstract:

In this paper we will study the performance of a Silicon Photovoltaic (PV) system with different tilt angle arrangement in Kuwait (latitude 30˚ N). In this study the PV system is installed facing south, collecting maximum solar radiation at noon, and their angles are from 00 to 900 respectively, during full year at the Solstice and Equinox periods and aiming for a higher angle than 300 with competitive output power. The results show that the performance and the output power of the PV system with 50˚ tilt angle, is equivalent to the latitude tilt angle (30˚) during a full year.

Keywords: photovoltaic model, tilt angle, solar collector, PV system performance, State of Kuwait

Procedia PDF Downloads 499

Authors: Hussain Bunyan, Wesam Ali

Abstract:

In this paper we will study the performance of a Silicon Photovoltaic (PV) system with different tilt angle arrangement in Kuwait (latitude 30˚ N). In the study the PV system is installed facing South, collecting maximum solar radiation at noon, and their angles are from 00 to 900 respectively, during full year at the Solstice and Equinox periods, aiming for a higher angle than 300 with competitive output power. The results show that the performance and the output power of the PV system with 50˚ tilt angle, is equivalent to the latitude tilt angle (30˚) during a full year.

Keywords: photovoltaic model, tilt angle, solar collector, PV system performance, State of Kuwait

Procedia PDF Downloads 473