Search results for: news selection

Authors: T. Lydon, A. McNabola, P. Coughlan

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Energy consumption in the water distribution network (WDN) is a well established problem equating to the industry contributing heavily to carbon emissions, with 0.9 kg CO2 emitted per m3 of water supplied. It is indicated that 85% of energy wasted in the WDN can be recovered by installing turbines. Existing potential in networks is present at small capacity sites (5-10 kW), numerous and dispersed across networks. However, traditional turbine technology cannot be scaled down to this size in an economically viable fashion, thus alternative approaches are needed. This research aims to enable energy recovery potential within the WDN by exploring the potential of pumps-as-turbines (PATs), to realise this potential. PATs are estimated to be ten times cheaper than traditional micro-hydro turbines, presenting potential to contribute to an economically viable solution. However, a number of technical constraints currently prohibit their widespread use, including the inability of a PAT to control pressure, difficulty in the selection of PATs due to lack of performance data and a lack of understanding on how PATs can cater for fluctuations as extreme as +/- 50% of the average daily flow, characteristic of the WDN. A PAT prototype is undergoing testing in order to identify the capabilities of the technology. Results of preliminary testing, which involved testing the efficiency and power potential of the PAT for varying flow and pressure conditions, in order to develop characteristic and efficiency curves for the PAT and a baseline understanding of the technologies capabilities, are presented here: •The limitations of existing selection methods which convert BEP from pump operation to BEP in turbine operation was highlighted by the failure of such methods to reflect the conditions of maximum efficiency of the PAT. A generalised selection method for the WDN may need to be informed by an understanding of impact of flow variations and pressure control on system power potential capital cost, maintenance costs, payback period. •A clear relationship between flow and efficiency rate of the PAT has been established. The rate of efficiency reductions for flows +/- 50% BEP is significant and more extreme for deviations in flow above the BEP than below, but not dissimilar to the reaction of efficiency of other turbines. •PAT alone is not sufficient to regulate pressure, yet the relationship of pressure across the PAT is foundational in exploring ways which PAT energy recovery systems can maintain required pressure level within the WDN. Efficiencies of systems of PAT energy recovery systems operating conditions of pressure regulation, which have been conceptualise in current literature, need to be established. Initial results guide the focus of forthcoming testing and exploration of PAT technology towards how PATs can form part of an efficiency energy recovery system.

Keywords: energy recovery, pump-as-turbine, water distribution network, water distribution network

Procedia PDF Downloads 248

Authors: Seyed Esmail Seyedi Bariran, Khairul Salleh Mohamed Sahari

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Apparent quality defects such as warpage, shrinkage, weld line, etc. are such an irresistible phenomenon in mass production of auto plastic appearance parts. These frequently occurred manufacturing defects should be satisfied concurrently so as to achieve a final product with acceptable quality standards. Determining the significant control factors that simultaneously affect multiple quality characteristics can significantly improve the optimization results by eliminating the deviating effect of the so-called ineffective outliers. Hence, a robust quantitative approach needs to be developed upon which major control factors and their level can be effectively determined to help improve the reliability of the optimal processing parameter design. Hence, the primary objective of current study was to develop a systematic methodology for selection of significant control factors (SCF) relevant to multiple quality optimization of auto plastic appearance part. Auto bumper was used as a specimen with the most identical quality and production characteristics to APAP group. A preliminary failure modes and effect analysis (FMEA) was conducted to nominate a database of pseudo significant significant control factors prior to the optimization phase. Later, CAE simulation Moldflow analysis was implemented to manipulate four rampant plastic injection quality defects concerned with APAP group including warpage deflection, volumetric shrinkage, sink mark and weld line. Furthermore, a step-backward elimination searching method (SESME) has been developed for systematic pre-optimization selection of SCF based on hierarchical orthogonal array design and priority-based one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA). The development of robust parameter design in the second phase was based on DOE module powered by Minitab v.16 statistical software. Based on the F-test (F 0.05, 2, 14) one-way ANOVA results, it was concluded that for warpage deflection, material mixture percentage was the most significant control factor yielding a 58.34% of contribution while for the other three quality defects, melt temperature was the most significant control factor with a 25.32%, 84.25%, and 34.57% contribution for sin mark, shrinkage and weld line strength control. Also, the results on the he least significant control factors meaningfully revealed injection fill time as the least significant factor for both warpage and sink mark with respective 1.69% and 6.12% contribution. On the other hand, for shrinkage and weld line defects, the least significant control factors were holding pressure and mold temperature with a 0.23% and 4.05% overall contribution accordingly.

Keywords: plastic injection moulding, quality optimization, FMEA, ANOVA, SESME, APAP

Procedia PDF Downloads 338

Authors: Stephen Olusanmi Akintayo, Ilesanmi Fadahunsi

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The ability of Lactic acid bacteria (LAB) to grow and survive in milk is being exploited in industrial and biotechnological applications. Although considerable studies have been reported on the fermentation of milk, however, not so much work has been documented on the selection of LAB strains from milk of the Nigerian local cattle breeds for their starter culture potentials. A total of 110 LAB were isolated from raw milk of Sokoto gudali cattle breed. The isolates were screened for their proteolytic activities on skimmed milk media with isolates A07, F06 and A01 showing the highest zone of clearance of 18.5mm, 18.5mm, and 18.0mm respectively and were selected for the studies of their growth in different constituents of milk. A01, F06, and A07 were identified as Pediococcus acidilactici, Lactococcus raffinolactis, and Leuconostoc mesenteriodes respectively using cultural, biochemical, physiological and molecular characterization techniques. Leuconostoc mesenteriodes showed the highest growth in all the milk components that were used in this study. The three LAB species selected showed a growth range of 6.46 log cfu/ml to 10.91 log cfu/ml in lactose with Leuconostoc mesenteriodes showing the highest growth of 10.91 log cfu/ml while Pediococcus acidilactici recorded the lowest growth of 9.78 log cfu/ml. In medium containing leucine as the only amino acid, the viable counts of Pediococcus acidilactici, Lactococcus raffinolactis and Leuconostoc mesenteriodes in log cfu/ml at zero hour were 6.39, 6.36 and 6.38 respectively which increased to 9.31 log cfu/ml, 9.21 log cfu/ml, 9.92 log cfu/ml respectively after 24 hours. Similarly, in all other substrates (casein, lysine, glutamic acid, aspartic acid, stearic acid and oleic acid ) tested in this study, Leuconostoc mesenteriodes showed the highest growth. It was observed that the highest quantity of lactic acid (15.31mg/ml) was produced by Leuconostoc mesenteriodes. The same trend was also observed in the production of diacetyl and hydrogen peroxide by the three tested microorganisms. Due to its ability to grow maximally in milk components, Leuconostoc mesenteriodes shows potential as starter culture for milk fermentation.

Keywords: Leuconostoc mesenteriodes, lactic acid bacteria, Sokoto gudali, starter culture

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Authors: Wei Liu, Xionghui Zhou, Qiang Niu, Yunhao Ni

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3D part library is an ideal approach to reuse the existing design and thus facilitates the modeling process, which will enhance the efficiency. In this paper, we implemented the thought on the SolidWorks platform. The system supports the functions of type and parameter selection, 3D template driving and part assembly. Finally, BOM is exported in Excel format. Experiment shows that our method can satisfy the requirement of die and mold designers.

Keywords: part library, SolidWorks, automatic assembly, intelligent

Procedia PDF Downloads 377

Authors: Bonginkosi A. Thango, Jacobus A. Jordaan, Agha F. Nnachi

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In this day and age, there is a proliferate concern from all governments across the globe to barricade the environment from greenhouse gases, which absorb infrared radiation. As a result, solar photovoltaic (PV) electricity has been an expeditiously growing renewable energy source and will eventually undertake a prominent role in the global energy generation. The selection and purchasing of energy-efficient transformers that meet the operational requirements of the solar photovoltaic energy generation plants then become a part of the Independent Power Producers (IPP’s) investment plan of action. Taking these into account, this paper proposes a procedure that put into effect the intricate financial analysis necessitated to precisely evaluate the transformer service lifetime no-load and load loss factors. This procedure correctly set forth the transformer service lifetime loss factors as a result of a solar PV plant’s sporadic generation profile and related levelized costs of electricity into the computation of the transformer’s total ownership cost. The results are then critically compared with the conventional transformer total ownership cost unaccompanied by the emission costs, and demonstrate the significance of the sporadic energy generation nature of the solar PV plant on the total ownership cost. The findings indicate that the latter play a crucial role for developers and Independent Power Producers (IPP’s) in making the purchase decision during a tender bid where competing offers from different transformer manufactures are evaluated. Additionally, the susceptibility analysis of different factors engrossed in the transformer service lifetime cost is carried out; factors including the levelized cost of electricity, solar PV plant’s generation modes, and the loading profile are examined.

Keywords: solar photovoltaic plant, transformer, total ownership cost, loss factors

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Authors: Khayrullina Yulia Sergeevna, Tokareva Goulsine Shavkatovna

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The article analyzes the modern major railway hubs as a main part of the Urban Nodal Area (UNA). The term was introduced into the theory of urban planning at the end of the XX century. Tokareva G.S. jointly with Gutnov A.E. investigated the structure-forming elements of the city. UNA is the basic unit, the "cell" of the city structure. Specialization is depending on the position in the frame or the fabric of the city. This is related to feature of its organization. Spatial and functional features of UNA proposed to investigate in this paper. The base object for researching are railway hubs as connective nodes of inner and extern-city communications. Research used a stratified sampling type with the selection of typical objects. Research is being conducted on the 14 railway hubs of the native and foreign experience of the largest cities with a population over 1 million people located in one and close to the Russian climate zones. Features of the organization identified in the complex research of functional and spatial characteristics based on the hypothesis of the existence of dual characteristics of the organization of urban nodes. According to the analysis, there is using the approximation method that enable general conclusions of a representative selection of the entire population of railway hubs and it development’s area. Results of the research show specific ratio of functional and spatial organization of UNA based on railway hubs. Based on it there proposed typology of spaces and urban nodal areas. Identification of spatial diversity and functional organization’s features of the greatest railway hubs and it development’s area gives an indication of the different evolutionary stages of formation approaches. It help to identify new patterns for the complex and effective design as a prediction of the native hub’s development direction.

Keywords: urban nodal area, railway hubs, features of structural, functional organization

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Authors: Phatthanan Chaiyabut

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The purposes of this research were to identify the perception of customers towards Krung Thai Bank’s image and to understand the customer attitude towards Krung Thai Bank’s image in Bangkok, Thailand. This research utilized quantitative approach and used questionnaire as data collection tool. A sample size of 420 respondents was selected by simple random sampling. The findings revealed that the majority of respondents received information, news, and feeds concerning the bank through televisions the most. This information channel had significantly influenced on the customers and their decisions to utilize the bank’s products and services. From the information concerning the attitudes towards overall image of the bank, it was found that the majority respondents rated the bank’s image at the good level. The top three average attitudes included the bank’s images in supports government's monetary policies, being renowned and stable, and contributing in economical amendments and developments, with the mean average of 4.01, 3.96 and 3.81 respectively. The attitudes toward the images included a business leader in banking, marketing, and competitions. Offering prompt services, and provided appropriate servicing time were rated moderate with the attitudes of 3.36 and 3.30 respectively.

Keywords: attitude, image, Krung Thai Bank, perception

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Authors: Parisa Bagheri Tookanlou

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In this paper, we analyze a product line design problem faced by a manufacturing firm where the product line consists of a customized product in addition to a standard product and is offered in a market in which customers are heterogeneous on aesthetic attributes of the product. The customization level of a product is defined by the fraction of aesthetic attributes of the product that the manufacturer chooses to customize. In contrast to the existing literature on product line design that predominantly assumes deterministic demand, we consider the presence of demand uncertainty and frame the product line design problem in a single period (news vendor) setting. We examine the effect of demand uncertainty on product line decisions. Furthermore, we also examine how product line decisions are influenced by channel structure. While we use the centralized channel as a benchmark, we consider the decentralized dual channel where the customized product is sold through an online channel owned by the manufacturer and the standard product is sold through a retailer. We introduce a supply contract between the manufacturer and the retailer for improving channel efficiency and coordinate the distribution channel.

Keywords: product line design, demand uncertainty, customization level, distribution channel

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Authors: K. Sathishkumar, V. Thiagarasu

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Due to recent advances in DNA microarray technology, it is now feasible to obtain gene expression profiles of tissue samples at relatively low costs. Many scientists around the world use the advantage of this gene profiling to characterize complex biological circumstances and diseases. Microarray techniques that are used in genome-wide gene expression and genome mutation analysis help scientists and physicians in understanding of the pathophysiological mechanisms, in diagnoses and prognoses, and choosing treatment plans. DNA microarray technology has now made it possible to simultaneously monitor the expression levels of thousands of genes during important biological processes and across collections of related samples. Elucidating the patterns hidden in gene expression data offers a tremendous opportunity for an enhanced understanding of functional genomics. However, the large number of genes and the complexity of biological networks greatly increase the challenges of comprehending and interpreting the resulting mass of data, which often consists of millions of measurements. A first step toward addressing this challenge is the use of clustering techniques, which is essential in the data mining process to reveal natural structures and identify interesting patterns in the underlying data. This work presents an analysis of several clustering algorithms proposed to deals with the gene expression data effectively. The existing clustering algorithms like Support Vector Machine (SVM), K-means algorithm and evolutionary algorithm etc. are analyzed thoroughly to identify the advantages and limitations. The performance evaluation of the existing algorithms is carried out to determine the best approach. In order to improve the classification performance of the best approach in terms of Accuracy, Convergence Behavior and processing time, a hybrid clustering based optimization approach has been proposed.

Keywords: microarray technology, gene expression data, clustering, gene Selection

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Authors: Adamu Usman, Grace Stanley Balami

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Pearl millet (Pennisetum glaucum L. R. Br.) is a cereal cultivated in arid and semi-arid areas of the world. It supports more than 100 million people around the world. Parasitic weed (Striga hermonthica Del. Benth) is a major constraint to its production. Estimated yield losses are put at 10 - 95% depending on variety, ecology and cultural practices. Potentials in selection of traits in pearl millets for grain yield have been reported and it depends on genotypic variability and heritability among landraces. Variability and heritability among cultivars could offer opportunities for improvement. The study was conducted to determine the genetic variability among cultivars and estimate broad sense heritability among grain yield and related traits. F1 breeding populations were generated with 9 parental cultivars, viz; Ex-Gubio, Ex-Monguno, Ex-Baga as males and PEO 5984, Super-SOSAT, SOSAT-C88, Ex-Borno and LCIC9702 as females through Line × Tester mating during 2017 dry season at Lushi Irrigation Station, Bauchi Metropolitan in Bauchi State, Nigeria. The F1 population and the parents were evaluated during cropping season of 2018 at Bauchi and Maiduguri. Data collected were subjected to analysis of variance. Results showed significant difference among cultivars and among traits indicating variability. Number of plants at emergence, days to 50% flowering, days to 100% flowering, plant height, panicle length, number of plants at harvest, Striga count at 90 days after sowing, panicle weight and grain yield were significantly different. Significant variability offer opportunity for improvement as superior individuals can be isolated. Genotypic variance estimates of traits were largely greater than environmental variances except in plant height and 1000 seed weight. Environmental variances were low and in some cases negligible. The phenotypic variances of all traits were higher than genotypic variances. Similarly phenotypic coefficient of variation (PCV) was higher than genotypic coefficient of variation (GCV). High heritability was found in days to 50% flowering (90.27%), Striga count at 90 days after sowing (90.07%), number of plants at harvest (87.97%), days to 100% flowering (83.89%), number of plants at emergence (82.19%) and plant height (73.18%). Greater heritability estimates could be due to presence of additive gene. The result revealed wider variability among genotypes and traits. Traits having high heritability could easily respond to selection. High value of GCV, PCV and heritability estimates indicate that selection for these traits are possible and could be effective.

Keywords: variability, heritability, phenotypic, genotypic, striga

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Authors: Selvam M., Vadthya Poornachandar, Surender Singh

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These Reclaimed Asphalt Pavement (RAP) aggregates are generally dumped in the open area after the demolition of Asphalt Pavements. The utilization of RAP aggregates in cement concrete pavements may provide several socio-economic-environmental benefits and could embrace the circular economy. The cross recycling of RAP aggregates in the concrete pavement could reduce the consumption of virgin aggregates and saves the fertile land. However, the structural, as well as functional properties of RAP-concrete could be significantly lower than the conventional Pavement Quality Control (PQC) pavements. This warrants judicious selection of RAP fraction (coarse and fine aggregates) along with the accurate proportion of the same for PQC highways. Also, the selection of the RAP fraction and its proportion shall not be solely based on the mechanical properties of RAP-concrete specimens but also governed by the structural and functional behavior of the pavement system. In this study, an effort has been made to predict the optimum RAP fraction and its corresponding proportion for cement concrete pavements by considering the low-volume and high-volume roads. Initially, the effect of inclusions of RAP on the fresh and mechanical properties of concrete pavement mixes is mapped through an extensive literature survey. Almost all the studies available to date are considered for this study. Generally, Indian Roads Congress (IRC) methods are the most widely used design method in India for the analysis of concrete pavements, and the same has been considered for this study. Subsequently, fatigue damage analysis is performed to evaluate the required safe thickness of pavement slab for different fractions of RAP (coarse RAP). Consequently, the performance of RAP-concrete is predicted by employing the AASHTO-1993 model for the following distresses conditions: faulting, cracking, and smoothness. The performance prediction and total cost analysis of RAP aggregates depict that the optimum proportions of coarse RAP aggregates in the PQC mix are 35% and 50% for high volume and low volume roads, respectively.

Keywords: concrete pavement, RAP aggregate, performance prediction, pavement design

Procedia PDF Downloads 150

Authors: Kenneth Fon Mbah, Arash Habibi Lashkari, Ali A. Ghorbani

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Phishing e-mails are a security issue that not only annoys online users, but has also resulted in significant financial losses for businesses. Phishing advertisements and pornographic e-mails are difficult to detect as attackers have been becoming increasingly intelligent and professional. Attackers track users and adjust their attacks based on users’ attractions and hot topics that can be extracted from community news and journals. This research focuses on deceptive Phishing attacks and their variants such as attacks through advertisements and pornographic e-mails. We propose a framework called Phishing Alerting System (PHAS) to accurately classify e-mails as Phishing, advertisements or as pornographic. PHAS has the ability to detect and alert users for all types of deceptive e-mails to help users in decision making. A well-known email dataset has been used for these experiments and based on previously extracted features, 93.11% detection accuracy is obtainable by using J48 and KNN machine learning techniques. Our proposed framework achieved approximately the same accuracy as the benchmark while using this dataset.

Keywords: phishing e-mail, phishing detection, anti phishing, alarm system, machine learning

Procedia PDF Downloads 328

Authors: Lois Cheung

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This article examines the impact of League Tables on non-elite universities in the English higher education system. The purpose of this study is to explore the use of rankings in strategic planning by low-ranked universities in this highly competitive higher education market. A sample of non-elite universities was selected for a content analysis based on the measures used by The Guardian rankings. Interestingly, these universities care about their rankings within a single national system. The content analysis appears to be an effective approach to investigating the presence of such influences. It is particularly noteworthy that all sampled universities use these measure terminologies in their strategic plans, missions and news coverage on their institutional web-pages. This analysis may be an example of the key challenges that many low-ranking universities in England are probably facing in the highly competitive and diversified higher education market. These universities use rankings to communicate with their stakeholders, mainly students, in order to fill places to secure their major source of funding. The study concludes with comments on the likely effects of the rankings paradigm in undermining the contributions of non-elite universities.

Keywords: League tables, measures, post-1992 universities, ranking, strategy

Procedia PDF Downloads 172

Authors: Manju Kanu, Subrata Sinha, Surabhi Johari

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Viral proteins of Ebola viruses belong to one of the best studied viruses; however no effective prevention against EBOV has been developed. Epitope-based vaccines provide a new strategy for prophylactic and therapeutic application of pathogen-specific immunity. A critical requirement of this strategy is the identification and selection of T-cell epitopes that act as vaccine targets. This study describes current methodologies for the selection process, with Ebola virus as a model system. Hence great challenge in the field of ebola virus research is to design universal vaccine. A combination of publicly available bioinformatics algorithms and computational tools are used to screen and select antigen sequences as potential T-cell epitopes of supertypes Human Leukocyte Antigen (HLA) alleles. MUSCLE and MOTIF tools were used to find out most conserved peptide sequences of viral proteins. Immunoinformatics tools were used for prediction of immunogenic peptides of viral proteins in zaire strains of Ebola virus. Putative epitopes for viral proteins (VP) were predicted from conserved peptide sequences of VP. Three tools NetCTL 1.2, BIMAS and Syfpeithi were used to predict the Class I putative epitopes while three tools, ProPred, IEDB-SMM-align and NetMHCII 2.2 were used to predict the Class II putative epitopes. B cell epitopes were predicted by BCPREDS 1.0. Immunogenic peptides were identified and selected manually by putative epitopes predicted from online tools individually for both MHC classes. Finally sequences of predicted peptides for both MHC classes were looked for common region which was selected as common immunogenic peptide. The immunogenic peptides were found for viral proteins of Ebola virus: epitopes FLESGAVKY, SSLAKHGEY. These predicted peptides could be promising candidates to be used as target for vaccine design.

Keywords: epitope, b cell, immunogenicity, ebola

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Authors: Muktadir Ahmed, Sayed Akhlakur Rahaman, Mridha Shihab Mahmud

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The parents of Bangladesh have scarcity of knowledge about children play. Most of them do not know which toys are perfect for their children. Appropriate toys for playing is one of the most significant parts of children development from early age, besides for proper amelioration of children’s mental growth and brain capacities, toys play an emergent role. So selection of proper toy for children is very important. A toy forms the sagacity of a child and instructs child’s attitude. In this era of globalization to keep pace with everything children toys are also going forward but in a deleterious way. Maximum toys are now battery-driven and for this psychological developments of children are not increasing in effective way; therefore, pedagogical toys are proper selection. This type of toy inspires the wisdom and helps a child to reveal himself/herself. Pedagogical toys are attractive to children and help to stimulate their imagination. Pedagogical toys help them to build senso-motoric skills and hand-eye coordination. In this study, some children divided into two groups, one group played with pedagogical toys and another group played with conventional toys. This study is going to exhibit the difference between pedagogical and conventional toys for kids. The main aim of this study is to reveal the potency of pedagogical toy for children. To implement this study two Daycare Centers (DCC) Projapoti 1 & 3 of Mymensingh city had chosen. Every DCC having 1.5-6 years old children but for this study 2-5 years old children had been selected. The children of Projapoti-1 played with pedagogical toys and the children of Projapoti-2 played with conventional toys. After 6 weeks of study, the children of Projapoti-1 proved that they have improved their skills more than those children of Projapoti-3 who were playing with conventional toys. The children of Projapoti-1 have developed their touch sensation, muscular movement, imitation power, hand-eye coordination whereas the children of Projapoti-3 have only developed their muscular movement fairly (while running after battery driven toys) which is not better than those children of Projapoti-1. They cannot imitate like the children of Projapoti-1. They just had fun from playing virtual games, battery driven toys, watching cartoons etc. Actually, it is not possible to develop a child’s brain without pedagogical toy.

Keywords: brain development, mental growth, pedagogical toys, play for children

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Authors: Mohammad Enayet Hossain, Nur Farhah Mahadi

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The global COVID-19 pandemic has contaminated millions of people at a startling rate. The COVID-19 pandemic came out of mediocre and has since spread all over the world, causing to record 5 million deaths worldwide in just a few months. The economic crisis has triggered a global contraction, leading to an economic collapse expected over 2020-2021. This study examines whether Islamic social finance can effectively mitigate the dangers of humanitarian catastrophes. The study provides a multirange method for maximizing the advantage of Islamic social financings tools such as zakat and waqf. The information, documents, and data for this study are gathered using a qualitative method. The study employed ongoing research, literature review, news stories, reports, and trusted online sources. Eventually, this may add to knowledge by examining the role of Islamic social finance in the current Covid-19 crisis. The findings have consequences for governments and policymakers who want to solve the COVID-19 problem with Islamic social finance ideas and solutions, thereby enhancing people's social well-being and the global economy's development.

Keywords: covid-19 pandemic, Islamic social finance, zakat, waqf

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Authors: Abdul Wohab

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Context: The role of religion in the transformation of Bangladesh society has been significant since 1975. There has been a rise in religious presence, particularly Islam, in both private and public spheres supported by the state apparatuses. In 2009, a 'secular' political party came into power for the second time since independence and initiated the modernization of religious education systems. This research focuses on the transformation observed among the educated middle class who now prefer their children to attend modern, English medium madrasas that offer both religion-based and secular education. Research Aim: This research aims to investigate two main questions: a) what motivates the educated middle class to send their children to madrasa education? b) To what extent can it be argued that Bangladeshi society is transforming from its secular nature to being more religious?Methodology: The research applies a combination of primary and secondary methods. Case studies serve as the primary method, allowing for an in-depth exploration of the motivations of the educated middle class. The secondary method involves analyzing published news articles, op-eds, and websites related to madrasa education, as well as studying the reading syllabus of Aliya and Qwami madrasas in Bangladesh. Findings: Preliminary findings indicate that the educated middle class chooses madrasa education for reasons such as remembering and praying for their departed relatives, keeping their children away from substance abuse, fostering moral and ethical values, and instilling respect for seniors and relatives. The research also reveals that religious education is believed to help children remain morally correct according to the Quran and Hadith. Additionally, the establishment of madrasas in Bangladesh is attributed to economic factors, with demand and supply mechanisms playing a significant role. Furthermore, the findings suggest that government-run primary education institutions in rural areas face more challenges in enrollment compared to religious educational institutions like madrasas. Theoretical Importance: This research contributes to the understanding of societal transformation and the role of religion in this process. By examining the case of Bangladesh, it provides insights into how religion influences education choices and societal values. Data Collection and Analysis Procedures: Data for this research is collected through case studies, including interviews and observations of educated middle-class families who send their children to madrasas. In addition, analysis is conducted on relevant published materials such as news articles, op-eds, and websites. The reading syllabus of Aliya and Qwami madrasas is also analyzed to gain a comprehensive understanding of the education system. Questions Addressed: The research addresses two questions: a) what motivates the educated middle class to choose madrasa education for their children? b) To what extent can it be argued that Bangladeshi society is transforming from its secular nature to being more religious?Conclusion: The preliminary findings of this research highlight the motivations of the educated middle class in opting for madrasa education, including the desire to maintain religious traditions, promote moral values, and provide a strong foundation for their children. It also suggests that Bangladeshi society is experiencing a transformation towards a more religious orientation. This research contributes to the understanding of societal changes and the role of religion within Bangladesh, shedding light on the complex dynamics between religion and education.

Keywords: madrasa education, transformation, Bangladesh, religion and society, education

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Authors: Aman Berhe, Camille Guinaudeau, Claude Barras

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In order to facilitate information seeking in large collections of multimedia documents with long and progressive content (such as broadcast news or TV series), one can extract the semantic links that exist between semantically coherent parts of documents, i.e., scenes. The links can then create a coherent collection of scenes from which it is easier to perform content analysis, topic extraction, or information retrieval. In this paper, we focus on TV series structuring and propose two approaches for scene linking at different levels of granularity (episode and season): a fuzzy online clustering technique and a graph-based community detection algorithm. When evaluated on the two first seasons of the TV series Game of Thrones, we found that the fuzzy online clustering approach performed better compared to graph-based community detection at the episode level, while graph-based approaches show better performance at the season level.

Keywords: multimedia collection structuring, progressive content, scene linking, fuzzy clustering, community detection

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Authors: David A. Harness

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Natural evolution of ATP cognitive systems is to meet AI peer review standards. ATP process of axiom selection from Mizar to prove a conjecture would be further refined, as in all human and machine learning, by solving the real world problem of the proposed AI peer review challenge: Determine which conjecture forms the higher confidence level constructive proof between Standard Model of Physics SU(n) lattice gauge group operation vs. present non-standard 4D GEM EOS SU(n) lattice gauge group spatially extended operation in which the photon and electron are the first two trace angular momentum invariants of a gravitoelectromagnetic (GEM) energy momentum density tensor wavetrain integration spin-stress pressure-volume equation of state (EOS), initiated via 32 lines of Mathematica code. Resulting gravitoelectromagnetic spectrum ranges from compressive through rarefactive of the central cosmological constant vacuum energy density in units of pascals. Said self-adjoint group operation exclusively operates on the stress energy momentum tensor of the Einstein field equations, introducing quantization directly on the 4D spacetime level, essentially reformulating the Yang-Mills virtual superpositioned particle compounded lattice gauge groups quantization of the vacuum—into a single hyper-complex multi-valued GEM U(1) × SU(1,3) lattice gauge group Planck spacetime mesh quantization of the vacuum. Thus the Mizar corpus already contains all of the axioms required for relevant DeepMath premise selection and unambiguous formal natural language parsing in context deep learning.

Keywords: automated theorem proving, constructive quantum field theory, information theory, neural networks

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Authors: Van Huong Do, Simon Walton, German Amaya, Madeline Batsiokis, Sally Catt, Andrew Taylor-Robinson

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Identification of the most suitable stages of bovine in vitro-derived blastocysts (early, expanded and hatching) prior to vitrification is a straightforward process that facilitates the decision as to which blastocyst stage to use for transfer of fresh and vitrified embryos. Research on in vitro evaluation of suitable stages has shown that the more advanced developmental stage of blastocysts is recommended for fresh embryo transfer while the earlier stage is proposed for embryo transfer following vitrification. There is, however, limited information on blastocyst stages using in vivo assessment. Hence, the aim of the present study was to determine the optimal stage of a blastocyst for vitrification and embryo transfer through a two-step procedure of embryo transfer followed by pregnancy testing at 35, 60 and 90 days of pregnancy. 410 good quality oocytes aspirated by the ovum pick-up technique from 8 donor cows were subjected to in vitro embryo production, vitrification and embryo transfer. Good quality embryos were selected, subjected to vitrification and embryo transfer. Subsequently, 77 vitrified embryos at different blastocyst stages were transferred to synchronised recipient cows. The overall cleavage and blastocyst rates of oocytes were 68.8% and 41.7%, respectively. In addition, the fertility and blastocyst production of 6 bulls used for in vitro fertilization was examined and shown to be statistically different (P<0.05). Results of ongoing pregnancy trials conducted at 35 days, 60 days and 90 days will be discussed. However, preliminary data indicate that individual bulls demonstrate distinctly different fertility performance in vitro. Findings from conception rates would provide a useful tool to aid selection of bovine in vitro-derived embryos for vitrification and embryo transfer in commercial settings.

Keywords: blastocyst, embryo transfer, in vitro-derived embryos, ovum pick-up, vitrification

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Authors: Ali Aydin, Mert Sudagidan, Aysen Coban, Alparslan Kadir Devrim

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Pseudomonas spp. (specifically, P. fluorescens and P. fragi) are considered the principal spoilage microorganisms of refrigerated poultry meats. The higher the level psychrophilic spoilage Pseudomonas spp. on carcasses at the end of processing lead to decrease the shelf life of the refrigerated product. The aim of the study was the identification of psychrophilic Pseudomonas spp. having proteolytic and lipolytic activities from poultry meats by 16S rRNA and rpoB gene sequencing, investigation of protease and lipase related genes and determination of proteolytic activity of Pseudomonas spp. In the of isolation procedure, collected chicken meat samples from local markets and slaughterhouses were homogenized and the lysates were incubated on Standard method agar and Skim Milk agar for selection of proteolytic bacteria and tributyrin agar for selection of lipolytic bacteria at +4 °C for 7 days. After detection of proteolytic and lipolytic colonies, the isolates were firstly analyzed by biochemical tests such as Gram staining, catalase and oxidase tests. DNA gene sequencing analysis and comparison with GenBank revealed that 126 strong enzyme Pseudomonas spp. were identified as predominantly P. fluorescens (n=55), P. fragi (n=42), Pseudomonas spp. (n=24), P. cedrina (n=2), P. poae (n=1), P. koreensis (n=1), and P. gessardi (n=1). Additionally, protease related aprX gene was screened in the strains and it was detected in 69/126 strains, whereas, lipase related lipA gene was found in 9 Pseudomonas strains. Protease activity was determined using commercially available protease assay kit and 5 strains showed high protease activity. The results showed that psychrophilic Pseudomonas strains were present in chicken meat samples and they can produce important levels of proteases and lipases for food spoilage to decrease food quality and safety.

Keywords: Pseudomonas, chicken meat, protease, lipase

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Authors: Jaspreet Singh, Gurvinder Singh, Prabhsimran Singh, Rajinder Singh, Prithvipal Singh, Karanjeet Singh Kahlon, Ravinder Singh Sawhney

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Morphological evaluation of Indian languages is one of the burgeoning fields in the area of Natural Language Processing (NLP). The evaluation of a language is an eminent task in the era of information retrieval and text mining. The extraction and classification of knowledge from text can be exploited for sentiment analysis and morphological evaluation. This study coalesce morphological evaluation and sentiment analysis for the task of classification of farmer suicide cases reported in Punjab state of India. The pre-processing of Punjabi text involves morphological evaluation and normalization of Punjabi word tokens followed by the training of proposed model using deep learning classification on Punjabi language text extracted from online Punjabi news reports. The class-wise accuracies of sentiment prediction for four negatively oriented classes of farmer suicide cases are 93.85%, 88.53%, 83.3%, and 95.45% respectively. The overall accuracy of sentiment classification obtained using proposed framework on 275 Punjabi text documents is found to be 90.29%.

Keywords: deep neural network, farmer suicides, morphological processing, punjabi text, sentiment analysis

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Authors: Valentina Bonetti

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Exergy analysis successfully helps optimizing processes in various sectors. In the built environment, a second-law approach can enhance potential interactions between constructions and their surrounding environment and minimise fossil fuel requirements. Despite the research done in this field in the last decades, practical applications are hard to encounter, and few integrated exergy simulators are available for building designers. Undoubtedly, an obstacle for the diffusion of exergy methods is the strong dependency of results on the definition of its 'reference state', a highly controversial issue. Since exergy is the combination of energy and entropy by means of a reference state (also called "reference environment", or "dead state"), the reference choice is crucial. Compared to other classical applications, buildings present two challenging elements: They operate very near to the reference state, which means that small variations have relevant impacts, and their behaviour is dynamical in nature. Not surprisingly then, the reference state definition for the built environment is still debated, especially in the case of dynamic assessments. Among the several characteristics that need to be defined, a crucial decision for a dynamic analysis is between a fixed reference environment (constant in time) and a variable state, which fluctuations follow the local climate. Even if the latter selection is prevailing in research, and recommended by recent and widely-diffused guidelines, the fixed reference has been analytically demonstrated as the only choice which defines exergy as a proper function of the state in a fluctuating environment. This study investigates the impact of that crucial choice: Fixed or variable reference. The basic element of the building energy chain, the envelope, is chosen as the object of investigation as common to any building analysis. Exergy fluctuations in the building envelope of a case study (a typical house located in a Mediterranean climate) are confronted for each time-step of a significant summer day, when the building behaviour is highly dynamical. Exergy efficiencies and fluxes are not familiar numbers, and thus, the more easy-to-imagine concept of exergy storage is used to summarize the results. Trends obtained with a fixed and a variable reference (outside air) are compared, and their meaning is discussed under the light of the underpinning dynamical energy analysis. As a conclusion, a fixed reference state is considered the best choice for dynamic exergy analysis. Even if the fixed reference is generally only contemplated as a simpler selection, and the variable state is often stated as more accurate without explicit justifications, the analytical considerations supporting the adoption of a fixed reference are confirmed by the usefulness and clarity of interpretation of its results. Further discussion is needed to address the conflict between the evidence supporting a fixed reference state and the wide adoption of a fluctuating one. A more robust theoretical framework, including selection criteria of the reference state for dynamical simulations, could push the development of integrated dynamic tools and thus spread exergy analysis for the built environment across the common practice.

Keywords: exergy, reference state, dynamic, building

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Authors: Soumava Boral, Sanjay K. Chaturvedi, Ian Howard, Kristoffer McKee, V. N. A. Naikan

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Due to strict regulations from government to enhance the possibilities of sustainability practices in industries, and noting the advances in sustainable manufacturing practices, it is necessary that the associated processes are also sustainable. Maintenance of large scale and complex machines is a pivotal task to maintain the uninterrupted flow of manufacturing processes. Appropriate maintenance practices can prolong the lifetime of machines, and prevent associated breakdowns, which subsequently reduces different cost heads. Selection of the best maintenance strategies for such machines are considered as a burdensome task, as they require the consideration of multiple technical criteria, complex mathematical calculations, previous fault data, maintenance records, etc. In the era of the fourth industrial revolution, organizations are rapidly changing their way of business, and they are giving their utmost importance to sensor technologies, artificial intelligence, data analytics, automations, etc. In this work, the effectiveness of several maintenance strategies (e.g., preventive, failure-based, reliability centered, condition based, total productive maintenance, etc.) related to a large scale and complex gearbox, operating in a steel processing plant is evaluated in terms of economic, social, environmental and technical criteria. As it is not possible to obtain/describe some criteria by exact numerical values, these criteria are evaluated linguistically by cross-functional experts. Fuzzy sets are potential soft-computing technique, which has been useful to deal with linguistic data and to provide inferences in many complex situations. To prioritize different maintenance practices based on the identified sustainable criteria, multi-criteria decision making (MCDM) approaches can be considered as potential tools. Multi-Attributive Ideal Real Comparative Analysis (MAIRCA) is a recent addition in the MCDM family and has proven its superiority over some well-known MCDM approaches, like TOPSIS (Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution) and ELECTRE (ELimination Et Choix Traduisant la REalité). It has a simple but robust mathematical approach, which is easy to comprehend. On the other side, due to some inherent drawbacks of Intuitionistic Fuzzy Sets (IFS) and Pythagorean Fuzzy Sets (PFS), recently, the use of Fermatean Fuzzy Sets (FFSs) has been proposed. In this work, we propose the novel concept of FF-MAIRCA. We obtain the weights of the criteria by experts’ evaluation and use them to prioritize the different maintenance practices according to their suitability by FF-MAIRCA approach. Finally, a sensitivity analysis is carried out to highlight the robustness of the approach.

Keywords: Fermatean fuzzy sets, Fermatean fuzzy MAIRCA, maintenance strategy selection, sustainable manufacturing, MCDM

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Authors: Setapo Moloi, Jun-Ichiro Giorgos Tsutsumi

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South Africa’s need for the provision of housing within its major city centres, specifically Gauteng Province (GP), is a major concern. Initiatives for converting misused/ unused buildings to suitable housing for residents who work in the city as well as prospective citizens are currently underway, one aspect that is needed currently, is the re-possession of these buildings repurposing, into housing communities for quality low cost mixed density housing and for this process to have minimal strain on existing infrastructure like energy, emission reduction etc. Unfortunately, there are instances in Johannesburg, the country’s economic capital, with 2017 estimates claiming that 700 buildings lay unused or misused due to issues that will be discussed in this paper, these then become hubs for illegal activity and are an unacceptable form of shelter. It can be argued that the provision of inner-city social housing is lacking, but not due to the unavailability of funding or usable land and buildings, but that these assets are not being used appropriately nor to their full potential. Currently the GP government has mandated the re-purposing of all buildings that meet their criteria (structural stability, feasibility, adaptability, etc.) with the intention of inviting interested parties to propose conversions of the buildings into densified social housing. Going forward, the proposed focus is creation of social housing communities within existing buildings which may be retrofitted with sustainable technologies, green design strategies and principles, aiming for the finished buildings to achieve ‘Net-Zero/Positive’ status. A Net-Zero building, according to The Green Building Council of South Africa (GBCSA) is a building which manages to produce resources it needs to function, and reduces wastage, emissions and demand of these resources during its lifespan. The categories which GBCSA includes are carbon, water, waste and ecology, this may include material selection, construction methods, etc.

Keywords: adaptive reuse, conversion, net-zero, social housing, sustainable communities

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Authors: Jeff Chak-Fu Wong, Tony Chun Yin Yip

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The transition from secondary school to university seems exciting for many first-year students but can be more challenging than expected. Enabling instructors to know students’ learning habits and styles enhances their understanding of the students’ learning backgrounds, allows teachers to provide better support for their students, and has therefore high potential to improve teaching quality and learning, especially in any mathematics-related courses. The aim of this research is to collect students’ data using online surveys, to analyze students’ factors using learning analytics and educational data mining and to discover the characteristics of the students at risk of falling behind in their studies based on students’ previous academic backgrounds and collected data. In this paper, we use correlation-based distance methods and mutual information for measuring student factor relationships. We then develop a factor network using the Minimum Spanning Tree method and consider further study for analyzing the topological properties of these networks using social network analysis tools. Under the framework of mutual information, two graph-based feature filtering methods, i.e., unsupervised and supervised infinite feature selection algorithms, are used to analyze the results for students’ data to rank and select the appropriate subsets of features and yield effective results in identifying the factors affecting students at risk of failing. This discovered knowledge may help students as well as instructors enhance educational quality by finding out possible under-performers at the beginning of the first semester and applying more special attention to them in order to help in their learning process and improve their learning outcomes.

Keywords: students' academic performance, correlation-based distance method, social network analysis, feature selection, graph-based feature filtering method

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Authors: A. W. Chalmers, O. M. van den Broek

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This article examines the relationship between the global financial crisis and corporate social responsibility activities of financial services firms. It challenges the general consensus in existing studies that firms, when faced with economic hardship, tend to jettison CSR commitments. Instead, and building on recent insights into the institutional determinants of CSR, it is argued that firms are constrained in their ability to abandon CSR by the extent to which they are subject to intense public scrutiny by regulators and the news media. This argument is tested in the context of the European sovereign debt crisis drawing on a unique dataset of 170 firms in 15 different countries over a six-year period. Controlling for a battery of alternative explanations and comparing financial service providers to firms operating in other economic sectors, results indicate considerable evidence supporting the main argument. Rather than abandoning CSR during times of economic hardship, financial industry firms ramp up their CSR commitments in order to manage their public image and foster public trust in light of intense public scrutiny.

Keywords: corporate social responsibility (CSR), public scrutiny, global financial crisis, financial services firms

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Authors: Peter Olasupo Ogunjuyigbe, Sarafa Shittu

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This paper emphasizes the relevance of conjugal relationship and spousal communication towards enhancing men’s involvement in contraceptive use among the Yorubas of South Western Nigeria. An understanding of males influence and the role they play in reproductive decision making can throw better light on mechanisms through which egalitarianness of husband/wife decision making influences contraceptive use. The objective of this study was to investigate how close conjugal relationships can be a good indicator of joint decision making among couples using data derived from a survey conducted in three states of South Western Nigeria. The study sample consisted of five hundred and twenty one (521) male respondents aged 15-59 years and five hundred and forty seven (547) female respondents aged 15-49 years. The study used both quantitative and qualitative approached to elicit information from the respondents. In order that the study would be truly representative of the towns, each of the study locations in the capital cities was divided into four strata: The traditional area, the migrant area, the mixed area (i.e. traditional and migrant), and the elite area. In the rural areas, selection of the respondents was by simple random sampling technique. However, the random selection was made in such a way that all the different parts of the locations were represented. Generally, the data collected were analysed at univariate, bivariate, and multivariate levels. Logistic regression models were employed to examine the interrelationships between male reproductive behaviour, conjugal relationship and contraceptive use. The study indicates that current use of contraceptive is high among this major ethnic group in Nigeria because of the improved level of communication among couples. The problem, however, is that men still have lower exposure rate when it comes to question of family planning information, education and counseling. This has serious implications on fertility regulation in Nigeria.

Keywords: behavior, conjugal, communication, counseling, spouse

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Authors: A. Ozel

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The ductile to brittle transition temperature is a very important criterion that is used for selection of materials in some applications, especially in low-temperature conditions. For that reason, in this study transition temperature of as-cast and austempered unalloyed ductile iron in the temperature interval from -60 to +100 degrees C have been investigated. The microstructures of samples were examined by light microscope. The impact energy values obtained from the experiments were found to depend on the austempering time and temperature.

Keywords: Austempered Ductile Iron (ADI), Charpy test, microstructure, transition temperature

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Authors: Milena Gojny-Zbierowska

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In the last decades psychological tests have been gaining in popularity as a method used for evaluating personnel, and they bring consulting companies solid profits rising by up to 10% each year. The market is offering a growing range of tools for the assessment of personality. Tests are used in organizations mainly in the recruitment and selection of staff. This paper is an attempt to initially diagnose the state of the use of psychological tests in Polish companies on the basis of empirical research.

Keywords: psychological tests, personality, content analysis, NEO FFI, big five personality model

Procedia PDF Downloads 349