Search results for: real time digital simulator

Authors: Michele Gattullo, Vito M. Manghisi, Alessandro Evangelista, Enricoandrea Laviola

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In this work, we explored the use of Augmented Reality (AR) to support students in laboratory lectures in Distance Learning (DL), designing an application that proved to be ready for use next semester. AR could help students in the understanding of complex concepts as well as increase their motivation in the learning process. However, despite many prototypes in the literature, it is still less used in schools and universities. This is mainly due to the perceived limited advantages to the investment costs, especially regarding changes needed in the teaching modalities. However, with the spread of epidemiological emergency due to SARS-CoV-2, schools and universities were forced to a very rapid redefinition of consolidated processes towards forms of Distance Learning. Despite its many advantages, it suffers from the impossibility to carry out practical activities that are of crucial importance in STEM ("Science, Technology, Engineering e Math") didactics. In this context, AR perceived advantages increased a lot since teachers are more prepared for new teaching modalities, exploiting AR that allows students to carry on practical activities on their own instead of being physically present in laboratories. In this work, we designed an AR application for the support of engineering students in the understanding of assembly drawings of complex machines. Traditionally, this skill is acquired in the first years of the bachelor's degree in industrial engineering, through laboratory activities where the teacher shows the corresponding components (e.g., bearings, screws, shafts) in a real machine and their representation in the assembly drawing. This research aims to explore the effectiveness of AR to allow students to acquire this skill on their own without physically being in the laboratory. In a preliminary phase, we interviewed students to understand the main issues in the learning of this subject. This survey revealed that students had difficulty identifying machine components in an assembly drawing, matching between the 2D representation of a component and its real shape, and understanding the functionality of a component within the machine. We developed a mobile application using Unity3D, aiming to solve the mentioned issues. We designed the application in collaboration with the course professors. Natural feature tracking was used to associate the 2D printed assembly drawing with the corresponding 3D virtual model. The application can be displayed on students’ tablets or smartphones. Users could interact with selecting a component from a part list on the device. Then, 3D representations of components appear on the printed drawing, coupled with 3D virtual labels for their location and identification. Users could also interact with watching a 3D animation to learn how components are assembled. Students evaluated the application through a questionnaire based on the System Usability Scale (SUS). The survey was provided to 15 students selected among those we participated in the preliminary interview. The mean SUS score was 83 (SD 12.9) over a maximum of 100, allowing teachers to use the AR application in their courses. Another important finding is that almost all the students revealed that this application would provide significant power for comprehension on their own.

Keywords: augmented reality, distance learning, STEM didactics, technology in education

Procedia PDF Downloads 124

Authors: Dnaya Soukaina

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It’s over six decades that Reverse logistics had appeared as a research area, and it is emerging again and again in the scientific fields. As reverse logistics presents real potential for value recovery and environmental impacts decrease, it’s still necessary to extend this concept more in the industrial and commercial field especially in developing countries. The process of reverse logistics is a progression of steps beginning with the customer and finishing with the organization or even the customer, however the issue is that this cycle must be adjustable to the organization concerned, in addition of legislative, operational, financial and social obstacles. Literature had demonstrated that there are many other uncertainties while the implementation of this process that vary in function of the sector concerned and the kind of activity. Besides, even if literature is developing this topic over the last years, reseraches about uncertainties quantification in reverse logistics process still being few. the paper has the objective to fill this gap, and carry out a study to identify sustainable strategies that can be adapted to different industrial or commercial sectors to facilitate the implementation of reverse logistics.

Keywords: reverse logistics, implementation, unceratinties quantification, mathematical model

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Authors: Samira Khalil, Adib Saad, Malek Ali

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The aim of this research is to determine fish species belonging to the order Pleuronectiforme fish found in Syrian marine water confirm or deny the continuity of the previously registered species, and record the unregistered species that appeared during this research for the first time. The research was carried out in the Laboratory of Marine Sciences, Faculty of Agriculture (Tishreen University); fish samples were collected periodically (bi-monthly) from fishermen in landing areas along the Syrian coast caught from depths (3m to 700m), using various mediums. An appropriate hand is available to fishermen on the Syrian coast (cliff bottom, fixed nets, enclosure nets, shelf nest, and manual disposal network; 451 individuals were captured and studied during the research period. During this study, it was found that the Syrian water includes 15 species, including one species recorded for the first time. On the eastern coast of the Mediterranean, it is Pegusa impar.

Keywords: pleuronectiformes, Syrian coast, flatfish, mediterranean

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Authors: Eirini Arvanitaki

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The popular romance novel has the ability to withstand the test of time by carefully adjusting its contents to the twenty-first century and modern society. At the same time, it manages to preserve unaltered its traditional foundations (heteronormativity, heterosexual love, monogamy). This paper focuses on the projection of the hero’s masculinity in a selection of post-millennial popular romance narratives and attempts to discover if, and to what extent, this projection reinforces or challenges patriarchal ideas about gender. In the majority of these narratives, the hero is often presented as a hegemonic alpha male. However, hegemonic masculinity is not a fixed concept. Rather, it is subject to continuous change, which allows for the emergence of various dominant masculinities. With this in mind, and through a close textual analysis approach and a gender reading of romance narratives, the paper suggests that to a certain extent, the romance hero could be described as a platform onto which different forms of dominant masculinity are displayed and highlights that these masculinities do not necessarily clash, depend on, or function as a prerequisite for each other.

Keywords: gender, literary projections, masculinity, twenty-first century popular romance narratives

Procedia PDF Downloads 132

Authors: Tiee-Jian Wu, Chih-Yuan Hsu

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Mode estimation is an important task, because it has applications to data from a wide variety of sources. We propose a semi-parametric approach to estimate the mode of an unknown continuous multivariate density function. Our approach is based on a weighted average of a parametric density estimate using the Box-Cox transform and a non-parametric kernel density estimate. Our semi-parametric mode estimate improves both the parametric- and non-parametric- mode estimates. Specifically, our mode estimate solves the non-consistency problem of parametric mode estimates (at large sample sizes) and reduces the variability of non-parametric mode estimates (at small sample sizes). The performance of our method at practical sample sizes is demonstrated by simulation examples and two real examples from the fields of climatology and image recognition.

Keywords: Box-Cox transform, density estimation, mode seeking, semiparametric method

Procedia PDF Downloads 279

Authors: Fatih Tarlak

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Predictive microbiology can be considered as an important field in food microbiology in which it uses predictive models to describe the microbial growth in different food products. Predictive models estimate the growth of microorganisms quickly, efficiently, and in a cost-effective way as compared to traditional methods of enumeration, which are long-lasting, expensive, and time-consuming. The mathematical models used in predictive microbiology are mainly categorised as primary and secondary models. The primary models are the mathematical equations that define the growth data as a function of time under a constant environmental condition. The secondary models describe the effects of environmental factors, such as temperature, pH, and water activity (aw) on the parameters of the primary models, including the maximum specific growth rate and lag phase duration, which are the most critical growth kinetic parameters. The combination of primary and secondary models provides valuable information to set limits for the quantitative detection of the microbial spoilage and assess product shelf-life.

Keywords: shelf-life, growth model, predictive microbiology, simulation

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Authors: R. K. Chaurasiya, N. D. Londhe, S. Ghosh

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The study of the electrical signals produced by neural activities of human brain is called Electroencephalography. In this paper, we propose an automatic and efficient EEG signal classification approach. The proposed approach is used to classify the EEG signal into two classes: epileptic seizure or not. In the proposed approach, we start with extracting the features by applying Discrete Wavelet Transform (DWT) in order to decompose the EEG signals into sub-bands. These features, extracted from details and approximation coefficients of DWT sub-bands, are used as input to Principal Component Analysis (PCA). The classification is based on reducing the feature dimension using PCA and deriving the support-vectors using Support Vector Machine (SVM). The experimental are performed on real and standard dataset. A very high level of classification accuracy is obtained in the result of classification.

Keywords: discrete wavelet transform, electroencephalogram, pattern recognition, principal component analysis, support vector machine

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Authors: Jorge Gonzalez-Camus

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In this work is proved the existence of at least one minimal and maximal mild solutions to the Cauchy problem, for fractional evolution equation of neutral type, involving a general kernel. An operator A generating a resolvent family and integral resolvent family on a Banach space X and a kernel belonging to a large class appears in the equation, which covers many relevant cases from physics applications, in particular, the important case of time - fractional evolution equations of neutral type. The main tool used in this work was the Kuratowski measure of noncompactness and fixed point theorems, specifically Darbo-type, and an iterative method of lower and upper solutions, based in an order in X induced by a normal cone P. Initially, the equation is a Cauchy problem, involving a fractional derivate in Caputo sense. Then, is formulated the equivalent integral version, and defining a convenient functional, using the theory of resolvent families, and verifying the hypothesis of the fixed point theorem of Darbo type, give us the existence of mild solution for the initial problem. Furthermore, the existence of minimal and maximal mild solutions was proved through in an iterative method of lower and upper solutions, using the Azcoli-Arzela Theorem, and the Gronwall’s inequality. Finally, we recovered the case derivate in Caputo sense.

Keywords: fractional evolution equations, Volterra integral equations, minimal and maximal mild solutions, neutral type equations, non-local in time equations

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Authors: Muhammad Saqlain, Nazar Abbas Saqib, Muazzam A. Khan

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Heart Failure (HF) has become the major health problem in our society. The prevalence of HF has increased as the patient’s ages and it is the major cause of the high mortality rate in adults. A successful identification and progression of HF can be helpful to reduce the individual and social burden from this syndrome. In this study, we use a real data set of cardiac patients to propose a classification model for the identification and progression of HF. The data set has divided into three age groups, namely young, adult, and old and then each age group have further classified into four classes according to patient’s current physical condition. Contemporary Data Mining classification algorithms have been applied to each individual class of every age group to identify the HF. Decision Tree (DT) gives the highest accuracy of 90% and outperform all other algorithms. Our model accurately diagnoses different stages of HF for each age group and it can be very useful for the early prediction of HF.

Keywords: decision tree, heart failure, data mining, classification model

Procedia PDF Downloads 398

Authors: Chanhoe Kang, Changhyun Lee, Seock-Hee Jun, Yeong-Tae Oh

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Offshore floating structure under the various environmental conditions maintains a fixed position by mooring system. Environmental conditions, vessel motions and mooring loads are applied to mooring lines as the dynamic tension. Because global responses of mooring system in deep water are specified as wave frequency and low frequency response, they should be calculated from the time-domain analysis due to non-linear dynamic characteristics. To take into account all mooring loads, environmental conditions, added mass and damping terms at each time step, a lot of computation time and capacities are required. Thus, under the premise that reliable fatigue damage could be derived through reasonable analysis method, it is necessary to reduce the analysis cases through the sensitivity studies and appropriate assumptions. In this paper, effects in fatigue are studied for spread mooring system connected with oil FPSO which is positioned in deep water of West Africa offshore. The target FPSO with two Mbbls storage has 16 spread mooring lines (4 bundles x 4 lines). The various sensitivity studies are performed for environmental loads, type of responses, vessel offsets, mooring position, loading conditions and riser behavior. Each parameter applied to the sensitivity studies is investigated from the effects of fatigue damage through fatigue analysis. Based on the sensitivity studies, the following results are presented: Wave loads are more dominant in terms of fatigue than other environment conditions. Wave frequency response causes the higher fatigue damage than low frequency response. The larger vessel offset increases the mean tension and so it results in the increased fatigue damage. The external line of each bundle shows the highest fatigue damage by the governed vessel pitch motion due to swell wave conditions. Among three kinds of loading conditions, ballast condition has the highest fatigue damage due to higher tension. The riser damping occurred by riser behavior tends to reduce the fatigue damage. The various analysis results obtained from these sensitivity studies can be used for a simplified fatigue analysis of spread mooring line as the reference.

Keywords: mooring system, fatigue analysis, time domain, non-linear dynamic characteristics

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Authors: Phuong Nguyen, Trung Tran

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Along with the global ongoing energy transition, Vietnam has indicated a strong commitment in the last COP events on the zero-carbon emission target. However, it is a real challenge for the nation to replace fossil-fired power plants by a significant amount of renewable energy sources (RES) while maintaining security of supply. The unpredictability and variability of RES would cause technical issues for supply-demand balancing, network congestions, system balancing, among others. It is crucial to take these into account while planning the future grid infrastructure. This study will address both generation and transmission adequacy and reveal a comprehensive analysis about the impact of ongoing energy transition on the development of Vietnam power system in 2030. This will provide insight for creating an secure, stable, and affordable pathway for the country in upcoming years.

Keywords: generation adequacy, transmission adequacy, security of supply, energy transition

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Authors: Kenneth Harper

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Blockchain technology presents solutions for managing healthcare data, addressing critical challenges in privacy, integrity, and access. This paper explores how privacy-preserving technologies, such as zero-knowledge proofs (ZKPs) and homomorphic encryption (HE), enhance decentralized healthcare platforms by enabling secure computations and patient data protection. An examination of the mathematical foundations of these methods, their practical applications, and how they meet the evolving demands of healthcare data security is unveiled. Using real-world examples, this research highlights industry-leading implementations and offers a roadmap for future applications in secure, decentralized healthcare ecosystems.

Keywords: blockchain, cryptography, data privacy, decentralized data management, differential privacy, healthcare, healthcare data security, homomorphic encryption, privacy-preserving technologies, secure computations, zero-knowledge proofs

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Authors: Kumaresh Selvakumar, Man Young Kim

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Selective catalytic reduction (SCR) converts the nitrogen oxides with the aid of a catalyst by adding aqueous urea into the exhaust stream. In this work, the urea water droplets are sprayed over the exhaust gases by treating with Lagrangian particle tracking. The evaporation of ammonia from a single droplet of urea water solution is investigated computationally by convection-diffusion controlled model. The conversion to ammonia due to thermolysis of urea water droplets is measured downstream at different sections using finite rate/eddy dissipation model. In this paper, the mixer installed at the upstream enhances the distribution of ammonia over the entire domain which is calculated for different time steps. Calculations are made within the respective duration such that the complete decomposition of urea is possible at a much shorter residence time.

Keywords: convection-diffusion controlled model, lagrangian particle tracking, selective catalytic reduction, thermolysis

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Authors: Takashi Shimizu, Tomoaki Hashimoto

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Recently, crystal growth technologies have made progress by the requirement for the high quality of crystal materials. To control the crystal growth dynamics actively by external forces is useuful for reducing composition non-uniformity. In this study, a control method based on model predictive control using thermal inputs is proposed for crystal growth dynamics of semiconductor materials. The control system of crystal growth dynamics considered here is governed by the continuity, momentum, energy, and mass transport equations. To establish the control method for such thermal fluid systems, we adopt model predictive control known as a kind of optimal feedback control in which the control performance over a finite future is optimized with a performance index that has a moving initial time and terminal time. The objective of this study is to establish a model predictive control method for crystal growth dynamics of semiconductor materials.

Keywords: model predictive control, optimal control, process control, crystal growth

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Authors: Valeria Dilcheva, Svetlozara Petkova, Ivelin Vladov

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Nemathodes of the genus Trichinella are zoonotic parasites with a cosmopolitan distribution. More than 100 species of mammals, birds and reptiles are involved in the natural cycle of this nematode. At present, T. spiralis, T. pseudospiralis, and T. britovi have been found in Bulgaria. The existence of natural wildlife and domestic reservoirs of Trichinella spp. can be a serious threat to human health. Three trichinella isolates caused human trichinella infection outbreaks from three regions of Sofia City Province were used for the research: sample No. 1 - Ratus norvegicus, sample No. 2 – domestic pig (Sus scrofa domestica), sample No. 3 - domestic pig (Sus scrofa domestica). Trichinella larvae of the studied species were isolated via digestive method (pepsin, hydrochloric acid, water) at 37ºC by standard procedure and were determined by gender (male and female) based on their morphological characteristics. As a reference trichinella species were used: T. spiralis, T. pseudospiralis, T. nativa and T. britovi. Single male and female larvae of the three isolates were crossed with single male and female larvae of the reference trichinella species as well as reciprocally. As a result of cross-breeding, offspring of muscular larvae with T. spiralis and T. britovi were obtained, while in experiments with T. pseudospiralis and T. nativa, trichinella larvae were not found in the laboratory mice. The results obtained in the control groups indicate that the trichinella larvae used from the isolates and the four trichinella species are infective. Also, the infective ability of the F1 offspring from the successful cross-breeding between isolates and reference species was investigated. Through the data obtained in the experiment was found that isolates No. 1 and No. 2 belong to the species T. spiralis, and isolate No. 3 belongs to the species T. britovi. The results were confirmed by PCR and real-time PCR analysis. Thus the presence and circulation of the species T. spiralis and T. britovi in Bulgaria was confirmed. Probably the rodents (rats) are involved in the distribution of T. spiralis in urban environment. The species T. britovi found in a domestic pig speaks of some contact with wild animals for which T. britovi is characteristic. The probable reason is that a large number of farmers in Bulgaria practice the free-range breeding of domestic pigs. Part of the farmers also used as food for domestic pigs waste products from the game (foxes, jackals, bears, wolves) and probably thus the infection was obtained. The distribution range of trichinella species in Bulgaria is not strictly outlined. It is believed that T. spiralis is most common in domestic animals and T. britovi and T. pseudospiralis are characteristic of wildlife. To answer the question whether wild and synanthropic animals are infected with the same or different trichinella species, which species predominate in nature and what their distribution among different hosts is, further research is required.

Keywords: cross-breeding, Sofia, trichinellosis, Trichinella britovi, Trichinella spiralis

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Authors: Ying Ying Liu, Austin Cooke, Parimala Thulasiraman

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Internet of Things (IoT) has attracted a recent spark in research on Internet of Vehicles (IoV). In this paper, we focus on one research area in IoV: preserving location privacy of vehicle data. We discuss existing location privacy preserving techniques and provide a scheme for evaluating these techniques under IoV traffic condition. We propose a different strategy in applying Differential Privacy using k-d tree data structure to preserve location privacy and experiment on real world Gowalla data set. We show that our strategy produces differentially private data, good preservation of utility by achieving similar regression accuracy to the original dataset on an LSTM (Long Term Short Term Memory) neural network traffic predictor.

Keywords: differential privacy, internet of things, internet of vehicles, location privacy, privacy preservation scheme

Procedia PDF Downloads 173

Authors: J. Chamorro-Servent, S. Tassani, M. A. Gonzalez-Ballester, L. J. Roca, J. Romeu, O. Camara

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Electromagnetic and microwave imaging (MWI) have been used in medical imaging in the last years, being the most common applications of breast cancer and stroke detection or monitoring. In those applications, the subject or zone to observe is surrounded by a number of antennas, and the Nyquist criterium can be satisfied. Additionally, the space between the antennas (transmitting and receiving the electromagnetic fields) and the zone to study can be prepared in a homogeneous scenario. However, this may differ in other cases as could be intracardiac catheters, stomach monitoring devices, pelvic organ systems, liver ablation monitoring devices, or uterine fibroids’ ablation systems. In this work, we analyzed different MWI algorithms to find the most suitable method for dealing with an intrabody scenario. Due to the space limitations usually confronted on those applications, the device would have a cylindrical configuration of a maximum of eight transmitters and eight receiver antennas. This together with the positioning of the supposed device inside a body tract impose additional constraints in order to choose a reconstruction method; for instance, it inhabitants the use of well-known algorithms such as filtered backpropagation for diffraction tomography (due to the unusual configuration with probes enclosed by the imaging region). Finally, the difficulty of simulating a realistic non-homogeneous background inside the body (due to the incomplete knowledge of the dielectric properties of other tissues between the antennas’ position and the zone to observe), also prevents the use of Born and Rytov algorithms due to their limitations with a heterogeneous background. Instead, we decided to use a time-reversed algorithm (mostly used in geophysics) due to its characteristics of ignoring heterogeneities in the background medium, and of focusing its generated field onto the scatters. Therefore, a 2D time-reversed finite difference time domain was developed based on the time-reversed approach for microwave breast cancer detection. Simultaneously an in-silico testbed was also developed to compare ground-truth dielectric properties with corresponding microwave imaging reconstruction. Forward and inverse problems were computed varying: the frequency used related to a small zone to observe (7, 7.5 and 8 GHz); a small polyp diameter (5, 7 and 10 mm); two polyp positions with respect to the closest antenna (aligned or disaligned); and the (transmitters-to-receivers) antenna combination used for the reconstruction (1-1, 8-1, 8-8 or 8-3). Results indicate that when using the existent time-reversed method for breast cancer here for the different combinations of transmitters and receivers, we found false positives due to the high degrees of freedom and unusual configuration (and the possible violation of Nyquist criterium). Those false positives founded in 8-1 and 8-8 combinations, highly reduced with the 1-1 and 8-3 combination, being the 8-3 configuration de most suitable (three neighboring receivers at each time). The 8-3 configuration creates a region-of-interest reduced problem, decreasing the ill-posedness of the inverse problem. To conclude, the proposed algorithm solves the main limitations of the described intrabody application, successfully detecting the angular position of targets inside the body tract.

Keywords: FDTD, time-reversed, medical imaging, microwave imaging

Procedia PDF Downloads 118

Authors: Anupam Sibal

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Apollo Quality Program(AQP) was launched across the Apollo Group of Hospitals to address the four patient safety areas; Safety during Clinical Handovers, Medication Safety, Surgical Safety and the six International Patient Safety Goals(IPSGs) of JCI. A measurable, online, quality dashboard covering 20 process and outcome parameters was devised for monthly monitoring. The expected outcomes were also defined and categorized into green, yellow and red ranges. An audit methodology was also devised to check the processes for the measurable dashboard. Documented clinical handovers were introduced for the first time at many locations for in-house patient transfer, nursing-handover, and physician-handover. Prototype forms using the SBAR format were made. Patient-identifiers, read-back for verbal orders, safety of high-alert medications, site marking and time-outs and falls risk-assessment were introduced for all hospitals irrespective of accreditation status. Measurement of Surgical-Site-Infection (SSI) for 30 days postoperatively, was done. All hospitals now tracked the time of administration of antimicrobial prophylaxis before surgery. Situations with high risk of retention of foreign body were delineated and precautionary measures instituted. Audit of medications prescribed in the discharge summaries was made uniform. Formularies, prescription-audits and other means for reduction of medication errors were implemented. There is a marked increase in the compliance to processes and patient safety outcomes. Compliance to read-back for verbal orders rose from 86.83% in April’11 to 96.95% in June’15, to policy for high alert medications from 87.83% to 98.82%, to use of measures to prevent wrong-site, wrong-patient, wrong procedure surgery from 85.75% to 97.66%, to hand-washing from 69.18% to 92.54%, to antimicrobial prophylaxis within one hour before incision from 79.43% to 93.46%. Percentage of patients excluded from SSI calculation due to lack of follow-up for the requisite time frame decreased from 21.25% to 10.25%. The average AQP scores for all Apollo Hospitals improved from 62 in April’11 to 87.7 in Jun’15.

Keywords: clinical handovers, international patient safety goals, medication safety, surgical safety

Procedia PDF Downloads 254

Authors: M. Brahim, I. Bahri, Y. Bernard

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Traveling Wave Ultrasonic Motor (TWUM) is a compact, precise, and silent actuator generating high torque at low speed without gears. Moreover, the TWUM has a high holding torque without supply, which makes this motor as an attractive solution for holding position of robotic arms. However, their nonlinear dynamics, and the presence of load-dependent dead zones often limit their use. Those issues can be overcome in closed loop with effective and precise controllers. In this paper, robust H-infinity (H∞) and discrete time RST position controllers are presented. The H∞ controller is designed in continuous time with additional weighting filters to ensure the robustness in the case of uncertain motor model and external disturbances. Robust RST controller based on the pole placement method is also designed and compared to the H∞. Simulink model of TWUM is used to validate the stability and the robustness of the two proposed controllers.

Keywords: piezoelectric motors, position control, H∞, RST, stability criteria, robustness

Procedia PDF Downloads 239

Authors: Dino Carpentras, Paul J. Maher, Caoimhe O'Reilly, Michael Quayle

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Opinion dynamics is a sub-field of agent-based modeling that focuses on people’s opinions and their evolutions over time. Despite the rapid increase in the number of publications in this field, it is still not clear how to apply these models to real-world scenarios. Indeed, there is no agreement on how people update their opinion while interacting. Furthermore, it is not clear if different topics will show the same dynamics (e.g., more polarized topics may behave differently). These problems are mostly due to the lack of experimental validation of the models. Some previous studies started bridging this gap in the literature by directly measuring people’s opinions before and after the interaction. However, these experiments force people to express their opinion as a number instead of using natural language (and then, eventually, encoding it as numbers). This is not the way people normally interact, and it may strongly alter the measured dynamics. Another limitation of these studies is that they usually average all the topics together, without checking if different topics may show different dynamics. In our work, we collected data from 200 participants on 5 unpolarized topics. Participants expressed their opinions in natural language (“agree” or “disagree”). We also measured the certainty of their answer, expressed as a number between 1 and 10. However, this value was not shown to other participants to keep the interaction based on natural language. We then showed the opinion (and not the certainty) of another participant and, after a distraction task, we repeated the measurement. To make the data compatible with opinion dynamics models, we multiplied opinion and certainty to obtain a new parameter (here called “continuous opinion”) ranging from -10 to +10 (using agree=1 and disagree=-1). We firstly checked the 5 topics individually, finding that all of them behaved in a similar way despite having different initial opinions distributions. This suggested that the same model could be applied for different unpolarized topics. We also observed that people tend to maintain similar levels of certainty, even when they changed their opinion. This is a strong violation of what is suggested from common models, where people starting at, for example, +8, will first move towards 0 instead of directly jumping to -8. We also observed social influence, meaning that people exposed with “agree” were more likely to move to higher levels of continuous opinion, while people exposed with “disagree” were more likely to move to lower levels. However, we also observed that the effect of influence was smaller than the effect of random fluctuations. Also, this configuration is different from standard models, where noise, when present, is usually much smaller than the effect of social influence. Starting from this, we built an opinion dynamics model that explains more than 80% of data variance. This model was also able to show the natural conversion of polarization from unpolarized states. This experimental approach offers a new way to build models grounded on experimental data. Furthermore, the model offers new insight into the fundamental terms of opinion dynamics models.

Keywords: experimental validation, micro-dynamics rule, opinion dynamics, update rule

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Authors: M. Shaker, S. Minaei, M. H. Khoshtaghaza, A. Banakar, A. Jafari

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In this study a system of machine vision and singulation was developed to separate paddy from rice and determine paddy husking and rice breakage percentages. The machine vision system consists of three main components including an imaging chamber, a digital camera, a computer equipped with image processing software. The singulation device consists of a kernel holding surface, a motor with vacuum fan, and a dimmer. For separation of paddy from rice (in the image), it was necessary to set a threshold. Therefore, some images of paddy and rice were sampled and the RGB values of the images were extracted using MATLAB software. Then mean and standard deviation of the data were determined. An Image processing algorithm was developed using MATLAB to determine paddy/rice separation and rice breakage and paddy husking percentages, using blue to red ratio. Tests showed that, a threshold of 0.75 is suitable for separating paddy from rice kernels. Results from the evaluation of the image processing algorithm showed that the accuracies obtained with the algorithm were 98.36% and 91.81% for paddy husking and rice breakage percentage, respectively. Analysis also showed that a suction of 45 mmHg to 50 mmHg yielding 81.3% separation efficiency is appropriate for operation of the kernel singulation system.

Keywords: breakage, computer vision, husking, rice kernel

Procedia PDF Downloads 372

Authors: S. Agheb, G. Ledwich, G.Walker, Z.Tong

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Frequency control has become more of concern for reliable operation of interconnected power systems due to the integration of low inertia renewable energy sources to the grid and their volatility. Also, in case of a sudden fault, the system has less time to recover before widespread blackouts. Electric Vehicles (EV)s have the potential to cooperate in the Emergency Frequency Regulation (EFR) by a nonlinear control of the power system in case of large disturbances. The time is not adequate to communicate with each individual EV on emergency cases, and thus, an aggregate model is necessary for a quick response to prevent from much frequency deviation and the occurrence of any blackout. In this work, an aggregate of EVs is modelled as a big virtual battery in each area considering various aspects of uncertainty such as the number of connected EVs and their initial State of Charge (SOC) as stochastic variables. A control law was proposed and applied to the aggregate model using Lyapunov energy function to maximize the rate of reduction of total kinetic energy in a two-area network after the occurrence of a fault. The control methods are primarily based on the charging/ discharging control of available EVs as shunt capacity in the distribution system. Three different cases were studied considering the locational aspect of the model with the virtual EV either in the center of the two areas or in the corners. The simulation results showed that EVs could help the generator lose its kinetic energy in a short time after a contingency. Earlier estimation of possible contributions of EVs can help the supervisory control level to transmit a prompt control signal to the subsystems such as the aggregator agents and the grid. Thus, the percentage of EVs contribution for EFR will be characterized in the future as the goal of this study.

Keywords: emergency frequency regulation, electric vehicle, EV, aggregation, Lyapunov energy function

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Authors: Manon Frédout, Laëtitia Bucari, Mathias Aloui, Gaëtan Duhamel, Olivier Rovellotti, Javier Blanco

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Ecosystems must be resilient to ensure cleaner air, better water and soil quality, and thus healthier citizens. Technology can be an excellent tool to support urban ecosystem restoration projects, especially when based on Open Source and promoting Open Data. This is the goal of the ecoTeka application: one single digital tool for tree management which allows decision-makers to improve their urban forestry practices, enabling more responsible urban planning and climate change adaptation. EcoTeka provides city councils with three main functionalities tackling three of their challenges: easier biodiversity inventories, better green space management, and more efficient planning. To answer the cities’ need for reliable tree inventories, the application has been first built with open data coming from the websites OpenStreetMap and OpenTrees, but it will also include very soon the possibility of creating new data. To achieve this, a multi-source algorithm will be elaborated, based on existing artificial intelligence Deep Forest, integrating open-source satellite images, 3D representations from LiDAR, and street views from Mapillary. This data processing will permit identifying individual trees' position, height, crown diameter, and taxonomic genus. To support urban forestry management, ecoTeka offers a dashboard for monitoring the city’s tree inventory and trigger alerts to inform about upcoming due interventions. This tool was co-constructed with the green space departments of the French cities of Alès, Marseille, and Rouen. The third functionality of the application is a decision-making tool for urban planning, promoting biodiversity and landscape connectivity metrics to drive ecosystem restoration roadmap. Based on landscape graph theory, we are currently experimenting with new methodological approaches to scale down regional ecological connectivity principles to local biodiversity conservation and urban planning policies. This methodological framework will couple graph theoretic approach and biological data, mainly biodiversity occurrences (presence/absence) data available on both international (e.g., GBIF), national (e.g., Système d’Information Nature et Paysage) and local (e.g., Atlas de la Biodiversté Communale) biodiversity data sharing platforms in order to help reasoning new decisions for ecological networks conservation and restoration in urban areas. An experiment on this subject is currently ongoing with Montpellier Mediterranee Metropole. These projects and studies have shown that only 26% of tree inventory data is currently geo-localized in France - the rest is still being done on paper or Excel sheets. It seems that technology is not yet used enough to enrich the knowledge city councils have about biodiversity in their city and that existing biodiversity open data (e.g., occurrences, telemetry, or genetic data), species distribution models, landscape graph connectivity metrics are still underexploited to make rational decisions for landscape and urban planning projects. This is the goal of ecoTeka: to support easier inventories of urban biodiversity and better management of urban spaces through rational planning and decisions relying on open databases. Future studies and projects will focus on the development of tools for reducing the artificialization of soils, selecting plant species adapted to climate change, and highlighting the need for ecosystem and biodiversity services in cities.

Keywords: digital software, ecological design of urban landscapes, sustainable urban development, urban ecological corridor, urban forestry, urban planning

Procedia PDF Downloads 66

Authors: Francisco Reyes, Hector Ramirez

Abstract:

In the coastal zones are home to mangrove swamps, coral reefs, and seagrass ecosystems, which are the most biodiverse and fragile on the planet. These areas support a great diversity of marine life; they are also extraordinarily important for humans in the provision of food, water, wood, and other associated goods and services; they also contribute to climate regulation. The lack of an automated model that generates information on the dynamics of changes in coastlines and coastal erosion is identified as a central problem. Coastlines were determined from 1984 to 2020 on the Google Earth platform Engine from Landsat and Sentinel images, using the Normalized Differential Water Index (MNDWI) and Digital Shoreline Analysis System (DSAS) v5.0. Starting from the 2020 coastline, the 10-year prediction (Year 2031) was determined with the erosion of 238.32 hectares and an accretion of 181.96 hectares, while the 20-year prediction (Year 2041) will be presented an erosion of 544.04 hectares and an accretion of 133.94 hectares. The erosion and accretion of Playa Muelle in the municipality of Puerto Colombia were established, which will register the highest value of erosion. The coverage that presented the greatest change was that of artificialized Territories.

Keywords: coastline, coastal erosion, MNDWI, Google Earth Engine, Colombia

Procedia PDF Downloads 113

Authors: Guesh Simretab Gebremedhin, Saumya Rajan Jena

Abstract:

In this work, a septic B-spline scheme has been used to simplify the process of solving an approximate solution of the generalized Rosenau-regularized long-wave equation (GR-RLWE) with initial boundary conditions. The resulting system of first-order ODEs has dealt with Butcher’s fifth order Runge-Kutta (BFRK) approach without using finite difference techniques for discretizing the time-dependent variables at each time level. Here, no transformation or any kind of linearization technique is employed to tackle the nonlinearity of the equation. Two test problems have been selected for numerical justifications and comparisons with other researchers on the basis of efficiency, accuracy, and results of the two invariants Mᵢ (mass) and Eᵢ (energy) of some motion that has been used to test the conservative properties of the proposed scheme.

Keywords: septic B-spline scheme, Butcher's fifth order Runge-Kutta approach, error norms, generalized Rosenau-RLW equation

Procedia PDF Downloads 58

Authors: İsmail Karaca, Ömer Söner

Abstract:

The use of advanced methods has been increasing day by day in the maritime sector, which is one of the sectors least affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. It is aimed to minimize accidents, especially by using advanced methods in the investigation of marine accidents. This research aimed to conduct an exploratory statistical analysis of particular ship accidents in the Transport Safety Investigation Center of Turkey database. 46 ship accidents, which occurred between 2010-2018, have been selected from the database. In addition to the availability of a reliable and comprehensive database, taking advantage of the robust statistical models for investigation is critical to improving the safety of ships. Thus, descriptive analysis has been used in the research to identify causes and conditional factors related to different types of ship accidents. The research outcomes underline the fact that environmental factors and day and night ratio have great influence on ship safety.

Keywords: descriptive analysis, maritime industry, maritime safety, ship accident statistics

Procedia PDF Downloads 132

Authors: Rana S. Alghamdi

Abstract:

Play in early childhood education has been stifled across the world due to an overemphasis on academic achievement and a reduced focus on physical play and motor development. In Saudi Arabia, teachers reticent to allocate more time to play for fear of retribution from parents and administrators that children are losing academic seat time. This practice has proven to be detrimental to the social, emotional, physical, and cognitive development of children. Teachers are pressured to prioritize Arabic, math, and science while providing minimal time for physical activities. Administrators tend to push for an ever-increasing emphasis on academia in order to achieve higher test scores. However, young children often find it difficult to concentrate if they are not able to get out energy through physical play. Furthermore, many youth educators are not qualified to oversee physical activities, and many facilities are unprepared for safe, outdoor play. This results in children getting little to no outdoor activity. They are stuck in a strict academic regimen that may dampen the creativity and imagination easily fostered through cooperative play. For a stronger educational system and more well-rounded students, Saudi schools should enact policies that extend the number of required hours dedicated to outdoor and physical play. They should also offer training for unqualified teachers. This training should focus on the benefits of physical play and instruct them on how to facilitate these activities safely and effectively. School administrators must focus on providing adequate equipment and safe environments for the purpose of outdoor play and education. In doing so, they will be setting their students up for a successful future and improving their abilities in all aspects of education.

Keywords: early childhood education, play, outdoor, Saudi Arabia

Procedia PDF Downloads 147

Authors: Sumeet Kumar, C. V. Krishnamurthy, Krishnan Balasubramaniam

Abstract:

Normal spectral emissivity of Al 6061 alloys with different surface finishes was experimentally measured at 833°K. Four different samples were prepared by polishing the surfaces of the alloy by 80, 220, 600 grit sizes of SiC abrasive papers and diamond paste. The samples were heated in air for 6 h at 833°K, and the emissivity was measured during the process from pyrometers operating at wavelengths of 3.9, 5.14 and 7.8 μm. The results indicated that the emissivity was increasing with heating time and the rate of increase was rapid during the initial stage of heating in comparison with the later stage. This appears to be because of the parabolic rate law followed by the process of oxidation. Further, it is found that the increase in emissivity with heating time was higher for rough surfaces than that for polished surfaces. Both the results were analyzed at all the three wavelengths, and qualitatively similar results were obtained for all of them. In this way emissivity of the alloy can be increased by roughening the surfaces and heating it at high temperature until the surfaces are oxidized.

Keywords: aluminum alloy, high temperature, normal spectral emissivity, surface roughness

Procedia PDF Downloads 218

Authors: M. Dagim Yoseph, M. K. Savage, A. D. Jolly, C. J. Ebinger

Abstract:

Whakaari/White Island has been the most active New Zealand volcano in the 21st century, producing small phreatic and phreatomagmatic eruptions, which are hard to predict. The most recent eruption occurred in 2019, tragically claiming the lives of 22 individuals and causing numerous injuries. We employed shear-wave splitting analyses to investigate variations in anisotropy between 2018 and 2020, during quiescence, unrest, and the eruption. We examined spatial and temporal variations in 3499 shear-wave splitting and 2656 V_p/V_s ratio measurements. Comparing shear-wave splitting parameters from similar earthquake paths across different times indicates that the observed temporal changes are unlikely to result from variations in earthquake paths through media with spatial variability. Instead, these changes may stem from variations in anisotropy over time, likely caused by changes in crack alignment due to stress or varying fluid content.

Keywords: background seismic waves, fast orientations, seismic anisotropy, V_p/V_s ratio

Procedia PDF Downloads 43

Authors: Beriache Abderazik

Abstract:

It is clear that the psychological effects of noise and physiological eloquent on the workers, what will inevitably affect the performance of both productivity and efficiency in all its aspects, industrial noise became among the most prominent modern professional problems, That require study and analysis in order to arrive at solutions and ways that you can reduce the effects of industrial noise. These factors, in addition to other reasons, made us try in this research to know the real impact of industrial noise on the professional satisfaction of workers. In light of this title we have identified the following general problem: - Is the professional satisfaction factor varies depending on the noise level in the work environment? For the purpose of ascertaining the veracity of the assumptions, we have a comparative study between two samples of equal workers, the first sample is working under the influence of industrial noise severe about (100 Db), and the second sample is working under the influence of industrial noise is low (about 63 Db), and applied them test the professional satisfaction. The results support the hypotheses and confirm all sincerity.

Keywords: industrial noise, job satisfaction, the psychological effects of noise, work environment

Procedia PDF Downloads 569