Search results for: dynamic behavior
2454 Deciphering Suitability of Rhamnolipids as Emulsifying Agent for Hydrophobic Pollutants
Authors: Asif Jamal, Samia Sakindar, Ramla Rehman
Abstract:
Biosurfactants are amphiphilic surface active compounds obtained from natural resources such as plants and microorganisms. Because of their diverse physicochemical characteristics biosurfactant are replacing synthetic compounds in various commercial applications. In present study, a strain of P. aeruginosa was isolated from crude oil contaminated soil as efficient biosurfactant producers. The biosurfactant production was analyzed as a function of surface tension reduction, oil spreading capacity, emulsification index and hemolysis assay. This bacterial strain showed excellent emulsion activity of EI24 85%, surface tension reduction up to 28.6 mNm-1 and 7.0 mm oil displacement zone. Physicochemical and biological properties of extracted rhamnolipid were also investigated in current study. The chemical composition of product from strain PSS was analyzed by FTIR spectroscopy. The results revealed that extracted biosurfactant was rhamnolipid type in nature having RL-1 and RL-2 homologues. The surface behavior of rhamnolipid in aqueous phase was investigated varying extreme pH, temperature, salt conditions and with various hydrocarbons. The results indicated that biosurfactant produced by strain PSS Which showed stability during high temperature up to 121 C, salt concentrations up to 20% and pH range between (4—14). The emulsification activity with different hydrocarbons was also remarkable. It was concluded that rhamnolipid biosurfactant produced by strain PSS has excellent potential as emulsifying/remediation agent for broad range of hydrophobic pollutants.Keywords: P. aeruginosa, bioremediation, rhamnolipid, surfactants
Procedia PDF Downloads 2732453 Prevalence of Oral Tori in Malaysia: A Teaching Hospital Based Cross Sectional Study
Authors: Preethy Mary Donald, Renjith George
Abstract:
Oral tori are localized non-neoplastic protuberances of maxilla and mandible. Torus palatinus (TP) is found on the midline of the roof of mouth existing as single growth or in clusters. Torus mandibularis(TM) is located on the lingual aspect of the mandible commonly between canine and premolar region. Etiology of their presence was not clear and was found to be multifactorial. Their variations in relation to age, gender, ethnicity and also the characteristics of TP and TM have become the interest of multiple studies. The objectives of this study were to determine the prevalence of torus palatinus (TP) and torus mandibularis (TM) among patients who have visited outpatient department, Faculty of Dentistry, Melaka Manipal Medical College. 108 patients were examined for the presence of oral tori at the outpatient department, Faculty of Dentistry, Melaka-Manipal Medical College. Factors such as age, gender, ethnicity of the patients and size, shape, location of the oral tori were studied. For TP, Malays (62.96%) have been found to have the highest prevalence than Chinese (43.3%) and Indians (35.71%). For TM, Chinese (7.46%) had predominated compared to Malays (7.41%) and Indians (0%). There is no significant association between occurrence of TP and TM with age, gender and ethnicity. For Torus palatinus, the most common size was Grade 1(1-3mm), most common location was molar region, and the most common shape was spindle. For Torus mandibularis, the most frequent location was canine premolar region and exists in unilateral single or bilateral single fashion. The overall prevalence rates were 47.2% for TP and 6.48% for TM. However, there is no significant association between occurrence of TP and TM with age, gender and ethnicity. The results showed variations in clinical characteristics and support the findings that occurrence of tori is a dynamic phenomenon which is multifactorial owing to the environmental factors such as stress from occlusion and dietary habits. It could be due to the genetic make-up of the individual.Keywords: torus palatinus, torus mandibularis, age, gender
Procedia PDF Downloads 2702452 A Robotic “Puppet Master” Application to ASD Therapeutic Support
Authors: Sophie Sakka, Rénald Gaboriau
Abstract:
This paper describes a preliminary work aimed at setting a therapeutic support for autistic teenagers using three humanoid robots NAO shared by ASD (Autism Spectrum Disorder) subjects. The studied population had attended successfully a first year program, and were observed with a second year program using the robots. This paper focuses on the content and the effects of the second year program. The approach is based on a master puppet concept: the subjects program the robots, and use them as an extension for communication. Twenty sessions were organized, alternating ten preparatory sessions and ten robotics programming sessions. During the preparatory sessions, the subjects write a story to be played by the robots. During the robot programming sessions, the subjects program the motions to be realized to make the robot tell the story. The program was concluded by a public performance. The experiment involves five ASD teenagers aged 12-15, who had all attended the first year robotics training. As a result, a progress in voluntary and organized communication skills of the five subjects was observed, leading to improvements in social organization, focus, voluntary communication, programming, reading and writing abilities. The changes observed in the subjects general behavior took place in a short time, and could be observed from one robotics session to the next one. The approach allowed the subjects to draw the limits of their body with respect to the environment, and therefore helped them confronting the world with less anxiety.Keywords: autism spectrum disorder, robot, therapeutic support, rob'autism
Procedia PDF Downloads 2402451 Investigating Online Literacy among Undergraduates in Malaysia
Authors: Vivien Chee Pei Wei
Abstract:
Today we live in a scenario in which letters share space with images on screens that vary in size, shape, and style. The popularization of television, then the computer and now the e-readers, tablets, and smartphones made the electronic assume the role that previously was restricted to printed materials. Since the extensive use of new technologies to produce, disseminate, collect and access electronic publications began, the changes to reading has been intensified. To be able to read online, it involves more than just utilizing specific skills, strategies, and practices, but also in negotiating multiple information sources. In this study, different perspectives of digital reading are being explored in order to define the key aspects of the term. The focus is to explore how new technologies affect how undergraduates’ reading behavior, which in turn, gives readers different reading levels and engagement with the text and other support materials in the same media. There is also the importance of the relationship between reading platforms, reading levels and formats of electronic publications. The study looks at the online reading practices of about 100 undergraduates from a local university. The data collected using the survey and interviews with the respondents are analyzed thematically. Findings from this study found that both digital and traditional reading are interrelated, and should not be viewed as separate, but complementary to each other. However, reading online complicates some of the skills required by traditional reading. Consequently, in order to successfully read and comprehend multiple sources of information online, undergraduates need regular opportunities to practice and develop their skills as part of their natural reading practices.Keywords: concepts, digital reading, literacy, traditional reading
Procedia PDF Downloads 3072450 Torsional Behavior of Reinforced Concrete (RC) Beams Strengthened by Fiber Reinforced Cementitious Materials– a Review
Authors: Sifatullah Bahij, Safiullah Omary, Francoise Feugeas, Amanullah Faqiri
Abstract:
Reinforced concrete (RC) is commonly used material in the construction sector, due to its low-cost and durability, and allowed the architectures and designers to construct structural members with different shapes and finishing. Usually, RC members are designed to sustain service loads efficiently without any destruction. However, because of the faults in the design phase, overloading, materials deficiencies, and environmental effects, most of the structural elements will require maintenance and repairing over their lifetime. Therefore, strengthening and repair of the deteriorated and/or existing RC structures are much important to extend their life cycle. Various techniques are existing to retrofit and strengthen RC structural elements such as steel plate bonding, external pre-stressing, section enlargement, fiber reinforced polymer (FRP) wrapping, etc. Although these configurations can successfully improve the load bearing capacity of the beams, they are still prone to corrosion damage which results in failure of the strengthened elements. Therefore, many researchers used fiber reinforced cementitious materials due to its low-cost, corrosion resistance, and result in improvement of the tensile and fatigue behaviors. Various types of cementitious materials have been used to strengthen or repair structural elements. This paper has summarized to accumulate data regarding on previously published research papers concerning the torsional behaviors of RC beams strengthened by various types of cementitious materials.Keywords: reinforced concrete beams, strengthening techniques, cementitious materials, torsional strength, twisting angle
Procedia PDF Downloads 1142449 Application of Electrochromic Glazing for Reducing Peak Cooling Loads
Authors: Ranojoy Dutta
Abstract:
HVAC equipment capacity has a direct impact on occupant comfort and energy consumption of a building. Glazing gains, especially in buildings with high window area, can be a significant contributor to the total peak load on the HVAC system, leading to over-sized systems that mostly operate at poor part load efficiency. In addition, radiant temperature, which largely drives occupant comfort in glazed perimeter zones, is often not effectively controlled despite the HVAC being designed to meet the air temperature set-point. This is due to short wave solar radiation transmitted through windows, that is not sensed by the thermostat until much later when the thermal mass in the room releases the absorbed solar heat to the indoor air. The implication of this phenomenon is increased cooling energy despite poor occupant comfort. EC glazing can significantly eliminate direct solar transmission through windows, reducing both the space cooling loads for the building and improving comfort for occupants near glazing. This paper will review the exact mechanism of how EC glazing would reduce the peak load under design day conditions, leading to reduced cooling capacity vs regular high-performance glazing. Since glazing heat transfer only affects the sensible load, system sizing will be evaluated both with and without the availability of a DOAS to isolate the downsizing potential of the primary cooling equipment when outdoor air is conditioned separately. Given the dynamic nature of glazing gains due to the sun’s movement, effective peak load mitigation with EC requires an automated control system that can predict solar movement and radiation levels so that the right tint state with the appropriate SHGC is utilized at any given time for a given façade orientation. Such an automated EC product will be evaluated for a prototype commercial office model situated in four distinct climate zones.Keywords: electrochromic glazing, peak sizing, thermal comfort, glazing load
Procedia PDF Downloads 1252448 Numerical Simulation of Two-Dimensional Flow over a Stationary Circular Cylinder Using Feedback Forcing Scheme Based Immersed Boundary Finite Volume Method
Authors: Ranjith Maniyeri, Ahamed C. Saleel
Abstract:
Two-dimensional fluid flow over a stationary circular cylinder is one of the bench mark problem in the field of fluid-structure interaction in computational fluid dynamics (CFD). Motivated by this, in the present work, a two-dimensional computational model is developed using an improved version of immersed boundary method which combines the feedback forcing scheme of the virtual boundary method with Peskin’s regularized delta function approach. Lagrangian coordinates are used to represent the cylinder and Eulerian coordinates are used to describe the fluid flow. A two-dimensional Dirac delta function is used to transfer the quantities between the sold to fluid domain. Further, continuity and momentum equations governing the fluid flow are solved using fractional step based finite volume method on a staggered Cartesian grid system. The developed code is validated by comparing the values of drag coefficient obtained for different Reynolds numbers with that of other researcher’s results. Also, through numerical simulations for different Reynolds numbers flow behavior is well captured. The stability analysis of the improved version of immersed boundary method is tested for different values of feedback forcing coefficients.Keywords: Feedback Forcing Scheme, Finite Volume Method, Immersed Boundary Method, Navier-Stokes Equations
Procedia PDF Downloads 2992447 Fault Analysis of Ship Power System Comprising of Parallel Generators and Variable Frequency Drive
Authors: Umair Ashraf, Kjetil Uhlen, Sverre Eriksen, Nadeem Jelani
Abstract:
Although advancement in technology has increased the reliability and ease of work in ship power system, but these advancements are also adding complexities. Ever increasing non linear loads, like power electronics (PE) devices effect the stability of the system. Frequent load variations and complex load dynamics are due to the frequency converters and motor drives, these problem are more prominent when system is connected with the weak grid. In the ship power system major consumers are thruster motors for the propulsion. For the control operation of these motors variable frequency drives (VFD) are used, mostly VFDs operate on nominal voltage of the system. Some of the consumers in ship operate on lower voltage than nominal, these consumers got supply through step down transformers. In this paper the vector control scheme is used for the control of both rectifier and inverter, parallel operation of the synchronous generators is also demonstrated. The simulation have been performed with induction motor as load on VFD and parallel RLC load. Fault analysis has been performed first for the system which do not have VFD and then for the system with VFD. Three phase to the ground, single phase to the ground fault were implemented and behavior of the system in both the cases was observed.Keywords: non-linear load, power electronics, parallel operating generators, pulse width modulation, variable frequency drives, voltage source converters, weak grid
Procedia PDF Downloads 5662446 Adsorptive Membrane for Hemodialysis: Potential, Future Prospection and Limitation of MOF as Nanofillers
Authors: Musawira Iftikhar
Abstract:
The field of membrane materials is the most dynamic due to the constantly evolving requirements advancement of materials, to address challenges such as biocompatibility, protein-bound uremic toxins, blood coagulation, auto-immune responses, oxidative stress, and poor clearance of uremic toxins. Hemodialysis is a membrane filtration processes that is currently necessary for daily living of the patients with ESRD. Tens of millions of people with ESRD have benefited from hemodialysis over the past 60–70 years, both in terms of safeguarding life and a longer lifespan. Beyond challenges associated with the efficiency and separative properties of the membranes, ensuring hemocompatibility, or the safe circulation of blood outside the body for four hours every two days, remains a persistent challenge. This review explores the ongoing field of metal–Organic Frameworks (MOFs) and their applications in hemodialysis, offering a comprehensive examination of various MOFs employed to address challenges inherent in traditional hemodialysis methodologies. this This review included includes the experimental work done with various MOFs as a filler such as UiO-66, HKUST-1, MIL-101, and ZIF-8, which together lead to improved adsorption capacities for a range of uremic toxins and proteins. Furthermore, this review highlights how effectively MOF-based hemodialysis membranes remove a variety of uremic toxins, including p-cresol, urea, creatinine, and indoxyl sulfate and potential filler choices for the future. Future research efforts should focus on refining synthesis techniques, enhancing toxin selectivity, and investigating the long-term durability of MOF-based membranes. With these considerations, MOFs emerge as transformative materials in the quest to develop advanced and efficient hemodialysis technologies, holding the promise to significantly enhance patient outcomes and redefine the landscape of renal therapy.Keywords: membrane, hemodailysis, metal organic frameworks, seperation, protein adsorbtion
Procedia PDF Downloads 472445 Electroencephalography (EEG) Analysis of Alcoholic and Control Subjects Using Multiscale Permutation Entropy
Authors: Lal Hussain, Wajid Aziz, Sajjad Ahmed Nadeem, Saeed Arif Shah, Abdul Majid
Abstract:
Brain electrical activity as reflected in Electroencephalography (EEG) have been analyzed and diagnosed using various techniques. Among them, complexity measure, nonlinearity, disorder, and unpredictability play vital role due to the nonlinear interconnection between functional and anatomical subsystem emerged in brain in healthy state and during various diseases. There are many social and economical issues of alcoholic abuse as memory weakness, decision making, impairments, and concentrations etc. Alcoholism not only defect the brains but also associated with emotional, behavior, and cognitive impairments damaging the white and gray brain matters. A recently developed signal analysis method i.e. Multiscale Permutation Entropy (MPE) is proposed to estimate the complexity of long-range temporal correlation time series EEG of Alcoholic and Control subjects acquired from University of California Machine Learning repository and results are compared with MSE. Using MPE, coarsed grained series is first generated and the PE is computed for each coarsed grained time series against the electrodes O1, O2, C3, C4, F2, F3, F4, F7, F8, Fp1, Fp2, P3, P4, T7, and T8. The results computed against each electrode using MPE gives higher significant values as compared to MSE as well as mean rank differences accordingly. Likewise, ROC and Area under the ROC also gives higher separation against each electrode using MPE in comparison to MSE.Keywords: electroencephalogram (EEG), multiscale permutation entropy (MPE), multiscale sample entropy (MSE), permutation entropy (PE), mann whitney test (MMT), receiver operator curve (ROC), complexity measure
Procedia PDF Downloads 4872444 Towards an Eastern Philosophy of Religion: on the Contradictory Identity of Philosophy and Religion
Authors: Carlo Cogliati
Abstract:
The study of the relationship of philosophical reason with the religious domain has been very much a concern for many of the Western philosophical and theological traditions. In this essay, I will suggest a proposal for an Eastern philosophy of religion based on Nishida’s contradictory identity of the two: philosophy soku hi (is, and yes is not) religion. This will pose a challenge to the traditional Western contents and methods of the discipline. This paper aims to serve three purposes. First, I will critically assess Charlesworth’s typology of the relation between philosophy and religion in the West: philosophy as/for/against/about/after religion. I will also engage Harrison’s call for a global philosophy of religion(s) and argue that, although it expands the scope and the range of the questions to address, it is still Western in its method. Second, I will present Nishida’s logic of absolutely contradictory self-identity as the instrument to transcend the dichotomous pair of identity and contradiction: ‘A is A’ and ‘A is not A’. I will then explain how this ‘concrete’ logic of the East, as opposed to the ‘formal’ logic of the West, exhibits at best the bilateral dynamic relation between philosophy and religion. Even as Nishida argues for the non-separability of the two, he is also aware and committed to their mutual non-reducibility. Finally, I will outline the resulting new relation between God and creatures. Nishida in his philosophy soku hi religion replaces the traditional Western dualistic concept of God with the Eastern non-dualistic understanding of God as “neither transcendent nor immanent, and at the same time both transcendent and immanent.” God is therefore a self-identity of contradiction, nowhere and yet everywhere present in the world of creatures. God as absolute being is also absolute nothingness: the world of creatures is the expression of God’s absolute self-negation. The overreaching goal of this essay is to offer an alternative to traditional Western approaches to philosophy of religion based on Nishida’s logic of absolutely contradictory self-identity, as an example of philosophical and religious counter(influence). The resulting relationship between philosophy and religion calls for a revision of traditional concepts and methods. The outcome is not to reformulate the Eastern predilection to not sharply distinguish philosophical thought from religious enlightenment rather to bring together philosophy and religion in the place of identity and difference.Keywords: basho, Nishida Kitaro, shukyotetsugaku, soku hi, zettai mujunteki jikodoitsu no ronri
Procedia PDF Downloads 1822443 Student Project on Using a Spreadsheet for Solving Differential Equations by Euler's Method
Authors: Andriy Didenko, Zanin Kavazovic
Abstract:
Engineering students often have certain difficulties in mastering major theoretical concepts in mathematical courses such as differential equations. Student projects were proposed to motivate students’ learning and can be used as a tool to promote students’ interest in the material. Authors propose a student project that includes the use of Microsoft Excel. This instructional tool is often overlooked by both educators and students. An integral component of the experimental part of such a project is the exploration of an interactive spreadsheet. The aim is to assist engineering students in better understanding of Euler’s method. This method is employed to numerically solve first order differential equations. At first, students are invited to select classic equations from a list presented in a form of a drop-down menu. For each of these equations, students can select and modify certain key parameters and observe the influence of initial condition on the solution. This will give students an insight into the behavior of the method in different configurations as solutions to equations are given in numerical and graphical forms. Further, students could also create their own equations by providing functions of their own choice and a variety of initial conditions. Moreover, they can visualize and explore the impact of the length of the time step on the convergence of a sequence of numerical solutions to the exact solution of the equation. As a final stage of the project, students are encouraged to develop their own spreadsheets for other numerical methods and other types of equations. Such projects promote students’ interest in mathematical applications and further improve their mathematical and programming skills.Keywords: student project, Euler's method, spreadsheet, engineering education
Procedia PDF Downloads 1252442 Isolation, Preparation and Biological Properties of Soybean-Flaxseed Protein Co-Precipitates
Authors: Muhammad H. Alu’datt, Inteaz Alli
Abstract:
This study was conducted to prepare and evaluate the biological properties of protein co-precipitates from flaxseed and soybean. Protein was prepared by NaOH extraction through the mixing of soybean flour (Sf) and flaxseed flour (Ff) or mixtures of soybean extract (Se) and flaxseed extract (Fe). The protein co-precipitates were precipitated by isoelectric (IEP) and isoelectric-heating (IEPH) co-precipitation techniques. Effects of extraction and co-precipitation techniques on co-precipitate yield were investigated. Native-PAGE, SDS-PAGE were used to study the molecular characterization. Content and antioxidant activity of extracted free and bound phenolic compounds were evaluated for protein co-precipitates. Removal of free and bound phenolic compounds from protein co-precipitates showed little effects on the electrophoretic behavior of the proteins or the protein subunits of protein co-precipitates. Results showed that he highest protein contents and yield were obtained in for Sf-Ff/IEP co-precipitate with values of 53.28 and 25.58% respectively as compared to protein isolates and other co-precipitates. Results revealed that the Sf-Ff/IEP showed a higher content of bound phenolic compounds (53.49% from total phenolic content) as compared to free phenolic compounds (46.51% from total phenolic content). Antioxidant activities of extracted bound phenolic compounds with and without heat treatment from Sf-Ff/IEHP were higher as compared to free phenolic compounds extracted from other protein co-precipitates (29.68 and 22.84%, respectively).Keywords: antioxidant, phenol, protein co-precipitate, yield
Procedia PDF Downloads 2322441 Pharmacokinetics, Dosage Regimen and in Vitro Plasma Protein Binding of Danofloxacin following Intravenous Administration in Adult Buffaloes
Authors: Zahid Manzoor, Shaukat Hussain Munawar, Zahid Iqbal, Imran Ahmad Khan, Abdul Aziz, Hafiz Muhammad Qasim
Abstract:
The present study was aimed to investigate the pharmacokinetics behavior and optimal dosage regimen of danofloxacin in 8 adult healthy buffaloes of local breed (Nili Ravi) following single intravenous administration at the dose of 2.5 mg/kg body weight. Plasma drug concentrations at various time intervals were measured by HPLC method. In vitro plasma protein binding was determined employing the ultrafiltration technique. The distribution and elimination of danofloxacin was rapid, as indicated by the values (Mean±SD) of distribution half-life (t1/2α = 0.25±0.09 hours) and elimination half life (t1/2β = 3.26±0.43 hours), respectively. Volume of distribution at steady state (Vss) was 1.14±0.12 L/kg, displaying its extensive distribution into various body fluids and tissues. The high value of AUC (9.80±2.14 µg/ml.hr) reflected the vast area of the body covered by drug concentration. The mean residence time was noted to be 4.78±0.52 hours. On the basis of pharmacokinetic parameters, a suitable intravenous regimen for danofloxacin in adult buffaloes would be 6.5 mg/kg to be repeated after 12 hours intervals. The present study is the foremost pharmacokinetic study of danofloxacin in the local species which would provide the valueable contribution in the local manufacturing of danofloxacin in Pakistan in future.Keywords: danofloxacin, pharmacokinetics, plasma protein binding, buffaloes, dosage regimen
Procedia PDF Downloads 6052440 A Temporal QoS Ontology For ERTMS/ETCS
Authors: Marc Sango, Olimpia Hoinaru, Christophe Gransart, Laurence Duchien
Abstract:
Ontologies offer a means for representing and sharing information in many domains, particularly in complex domains. For example, it can be used for representing and sharing information of System Requirement Specification (SRS) of complex systems like the SRS of ERTMS/ETCS written in natural language. Since this system is a real-time and critical system, generic ontologies, such as OWL and generic ERTMS ontologies provide minimal support for modeling temporal information omnipresent in these SRS documents. To support the modeling of temporal information, one of the challenges is to enable representation of dynamic features evolving in time within a generic ontology with a minimal redesign of it. The separation of temporal information from other information can help to predict system runtime operation and to properly design and implement them. In addition, it is helpful to provide a reasoning and querying techniques to reason and query temporal information represented in the ontology in order to detect potential temporal inconsistencies. Indeed, a user operation, such as adding a new constraint on existing planning constraints can cause temporal inconsistencies, which can lead to system failures. To address this challenge, we propose a lightweight 3-layer temporal Quality of Service (QoS) ontology for representing, reasoning and querying over temporal and non-temporal information in a complex domain ontology. Representing QoS entities in separated layers can clarify the distinction between the non QoS entities and the QoS entities in an ontology. The upper generic layer of the proposed ontology provides an intuitive knowledge of domain components, specially ERTMS/ETCS components. The separation of the intermediate QoS layer from the lower QoS layer allows us to focus on specific QoS Characteristics, such as temporal or integrity characteristics. In this paper, we focus on temporal information that can be used to predict system runtime operation. To evaluate our approach, an example of the proposed domain ontology for handover operation, as well as a reasoning rule over temporal relations in this domain-specific ontology, are given.Keywords: system requirement specification, ERTMS/ETCS, temporal ontologies, domain ontologies
Procedia PDF Downloads 4112439 Effect of Early Therapeutic Intervention for the Children With Autism Spectrum Disorders: A Quasi Experimental Design
Authors: Sultana Razia
Abstract:
The number of children whose social, communication and behavior pattern is affected due to mental and developmental conditions is on the rise. Most of these conditions develop to uncontrollable levels because of ignorance and unaware about their child’s condition. The many myths surrounding mental or developmental conditions are a major cause of families of affected children to develop bitterness and to shy off from seeking appropriate help in time. Several early intervention programs have been put in place, and the number of beneficiaries of these programs is increasing by the day. This research seeks to look into early intervention programs and their effectiveness. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of early therapeutic intervention for the children with autism spectrum disorder. Participants were 140 children with autism spectrum disorder from Autism Corner in a selected rehabilitation center of Bangladesh. This study included children who are at age of 18-month to 36-month and who were taking occupational therapy and speech and language therapy from the autism center. They were primarily screened using M-CHAT; however, children with other physical disability or medical conditions excluded. 3-months interventions of 6 sessions per week are a minimum of 45-minutes long per session, one to one interaction followed by parent-led structured home-based therapy were provided. The results indicated that early intensive therapeutic intervention improve understanding, social skills and sensory skills. It can be concluded that therapeutic early intervention a positive effect on diminishing symptoms of Autism Spectrum Disorder.Keywords: M-CHAT, ASD, sensory cheeklist, OT
Procedia PDF Downloads 642438 Influence of Aluminum Content on the Microstructural, Mechanical and Tribological Properties of TiAlN Coatings for Using in Dental and Surgical Instrumentation
Authors: Hernan D. Mejia, Gilberto B. Gaitan, Mauricio A. Franco
Abstract:
420 steel is normally used in the manufacture of dental and surgical instrumentation, as well as parts in the chemical, pharmaceutical, and food industries, among others, where they must withstand heavy loads and often be in contact with corrosive environments, which leads to wear and deterioration of these steels in relatively short times. In the case of medical applications, the instruments made of this steel also suffer wear and corrosion during the repetitive sterilization processes due to the relatively low achievable hardness of just 50 HRC and its hardly acceptable resistance to corrosion. In order to improve the wear resistance of 420 steel, TiAlN coatings were deposited, increasing the aluminum content in the alloy by varying the power applied to the aluminum target of 900, 1100, and 1300 W. Evaluations using XRD, Micro Raman, XPS, AFM, SEM, and TEM showed a columnar growth crystal structure with an average thickness of 2 microns and consisting of the TiN and TiAlN phases, whose roughness and grain size decrease with a higher Al content. The AlN phase also appears in the sample deposited at 1300W. The hardness, determined by nanoindentation, initially increases with the aluminum content from 9.7 GPa to 17.1 GPa, but then decreases to 15.4 GPa for the sample with the highest aluminum content due to the appearance of hexagonal AlN and a decrease of harder TiN and TiAlN phases. It was observed that the wear coefficient had a contrary behavior, which took values of 2.7; 1.7 and 6.6x10⁻⁶ mm³/N.m, respectively. All the coated samples significantly improved the wear resistance of the uncoated 420 steel.Keywords: hard coatings, magnetron sputtering, TiAlN coatings, surgical instruments, wear resistance
Procedia PDF Downloads 1192437 Resort to Religious and Faith Healing Practices in the Pathway to Care for Mental Illness: A Study among Mappila Muslims of Malabar, Kerala
Authors: K. P. Farsana
Abstract:
Belief in supernatural causation of mental illnesses and resort to religious and faith healing as the method of intervention still continue in many parts of the world. The proposed study intended to find out the belief and causation on health and illness and utilization of religious and faith healing, its implications, and associated socio-cultural and religious factors among Mappila Muslims of Malabar, Kerala, a southern state of India.Thangals are the endogamous community in Kerala, of Yemeni heritage who claim direct descent from the Prophet Mohammed’s family. Because of their sacrosanct status, many Thangal works as religious healers in Malabar, Northern Kerala. Using the case of one Thangal healer as an illustration of the many religious healers in Kerala who engage in the healing practices, it is intended, in this paper to illustrate the religious and ritual healing practices among Mappila Muslims of Malabar. It was found that the majority of the Mappila Muslims believed in supernatural causation on illness, and majority of them consulted religious and faith healers for various health problems before seeking professional help, and a considerable proportion continued to believe in the healing efficiency of the religious and faith healing. A significant proportion of the population found religious and faith healing practices are supportive and more acceptable within the community. Religion and belief system play an important role in the heath seeking behavior of a person.Keywords: religious and faith healing, mental illness, Mappila Muslims, Malabar
Procedia PDF Downloads 1992436 Determination of Lithology, Porosity and Water Saturation for Mishrif Carbonate Formation
Authors: F. S. Kadhim, A. Samsuri, H. Alwan
Abstract:
Well logging records can help to answer many questions from a wide range of special interested information and basic petrophysical properties to formation evaluation of oil and gas reservoirs. The accurate calculations of porosity in carbonate reservoirs are the most challenging aspects of well log analysis. Many equations have been developed over the years based on known physical principles or on empirically derived relationships, which are used to calculate porosity, estimate lithology and water saturation; however these parameters are calculated from well logs by using modern technique in a current study. Nasiriya (NS) oilfield is one of giant oilfields in the Middle East, and the formation under study is the Mishrif carbonate formation which is the shallowest hydrocarbon bearing zone in the NS oilfield. Neurolog software (V5, 2008) was used to digitize the scanned copies of the available logs. Environmental corrections had been made as per Schlumberger charts 2005, which supplied in the Interactive Petrophysics software (IP, V3.5, 2008). Three saturation models have been used to calculate water saturation of carbonate formations, which are simple Archie equation, Dual water model, and Indonesia model. Results indicate that the Mishrif formation consists mainly of limestone, some dolomite and shale. The porosity interpretation shows that the logging tools have a good quality after making the environmental corrections. The average formation water saturation for Mishrif formation is around 0.4-0.6.This study is provided accurate behavior of petrophysical properties with depth for this formation by using modern software.Keywords: lithology, porosity, water saturation, carbonate formation, mishrif formation
Procedia PDF Downloads 3672435 Quantitative Analysis of Caffeine in Pharmaceutical Formulations Using a Cost-Effective Electrochemical Sensor
Authors: Y. T. Gebreslassie, Abrha Tadesse, R. C. Saini, Rishi Pal
Abstract:
Caffeine, known chemically as 3,7-dihydro-1,3,7-trimethyl-1H-purine-2,6-dione, is a naturally occurring alkaloid classified as an N-methyl derivative of xanthine. Given its widespread use in coffee and other caffeine-containing products, it is the most commonly consumed psychoactive substance in everyday human life. This research aimed to develop a cost-effective, sensitive, and easily manufacturable sensor for the detection of caffeine. Antraquinone-modified carbon paste electrode (AQMCPE) was fabricated, and the electrochemical behavior of caffeine on this electrode was investigated using cyclic voltammetry (CV) and square wave voltammetry (SWV) in a solution of 0.1M perchloric acid at pH 0.56. The modified electrode displayed enhanced electrocatalytic activity towards caffeine oxidation, exhibiting a two-fold increase in peak current and an 82 mV shift of the peak potential in the negative direction compared to an unmodified carbon paste electrode (UMCPE). Exploiting the electrocatalytic properties of the modified electrode, SWV was employed for the quantitative determination of caffeine. Under optimized experimental conditions, a linear relationship between peak current and concentration was observed within the range of 2.0 x 10⁻⁶ to 1.0× 10⁻⁴ M, with a correlation coefficient of 0.998 and a detection limit of 1.47× 10⁻⁷ M (signal-to-noise ratio = 3). Finally, the proposed method was successfully applied to the quantitative analysis of caffeine in pharmaceutical formulations, yielding recovery percentages ranging from 95.27% to 106.75%.Keywords: antraquinone-modified carbon paste electrode, caffeine, detection, electrochemical sensor, quantitative analysis
Procedia PDF Downloads 512434 Hierarchical Optimization of Composite Deployable Bridge Treadway Using Particle Swarm Optimization
Authors: Ashraf Osman
Abstract:
Effective deployable bridges that are characterized by an increased capacity to weight ratio are recently needed for post-disaster rapid mobility and military operations. In deployable bridging, replacing metals as the fabricating material with advanced composite laminates as lighter alternatives with higher strength is highly advantageous. This article presents a hierarchical optimization strategy of a composite bridge treadway considering maximum strength design and bridge weight minimization. Shape optimization of a generic deployable bridge beam cross-section is performed to achieve better stress distribution over the bridge treadway hull. The developed cross-section weight is minimized up to reserving the margins of safety of the deployable bridging code provisions. Hence, the strength of composite bridge plates is maximized through varying the plies orientation. Different loading cases are considered of a tracked vehicle patch load. The orthotropic plate properties of a composite sandwich core are used to simulate the bridge deck structural behavior. Whereas, the failure analysis is conducted using Tsai-Wu failure criterion. The naturally inspired particle swarm optimization technique is used in this study. The proposed technique efficiently reduced the weight to capacity ratio of the developed bridge beam.Keywords: CFRP deployable bridges, disaster relief, military bridging, optimization of composites, particle swarm optimization
Procedia PDF Downloads 1332433 Managerial Leadership Styles of Deans in Indonesian Universities
Authors: Jenny Ngo, Harry De Boer, Jurgen Enders
Abstract:
Indonesian higher education has experienced significant changes over the last decade. In 1999, the government published an overall strategy for decentralization and enhancement of local autonomy in many sectors, including (higher) education. Indonesian higher education reforms have forced universities to restructure their internal university governance to become more entrepreneurial. These new types of internal university governance are likely to affect the institutions’ leadership and management. This paper discusses the approach and findings of a study on the managerial leadership styles of deans in Indonesian universities. The study aims to get a better understanding of styles exhibited by deans manifested in their behaviors. Using the theories of reasoned action and planned behavior, in combination with the competing values framework, a large-scale survey was conducted to gather information on the deans’ behaviors, attitudes, subjective norms, and perceived behavioral control. Based on the responses of a sample of 218 deans, the study identifies a number of leadership styles: the Master, the Competitive Consultant, the Consensual Goal-Setter, the Focused Team Captain, and the Informed Trust-Builder style. The study demonstrates that attitudes are the primary determinant of the styles that were found. Perceived behavioral control is a factor that explains some managerial leadership styles. By understanding the attitudes of deans in Indonesian universities, and their leadership styles, universities can strengthen their management and governance, and thus improve their effectiveness.Keywords: deans, Indonesian higher education, leadership and management styles, decentralization
Procedia PDF Downloads 3422432 Internal Power Recovery in Cryogenic Cooling Plants, Part II: Compressor Development
Authors: Ambra Giovannelli, Erika Maria Archilei
Abstract:
The electrical power consumption related to refrigeration systems is evaluated to be in the order of 15% of the total electricity consumption worldwide. For this reason, in the last years several energy saving techniques have been suggested to reduce the power demand of refrigeration and air conditioning plants. The research work deals with the development of an innovative internal power recovery system for industrial cryogenic cooling plants. Such system is based on a Compressor-Expander Group (CEG). Both the expander and the compressor have been designed starting from automotive turbocharging components, strongly modified to take refrigerant fluid properties and specific system requirements into consideration. A preliminary choice of the machines (radial compressors and expanders) among existing components available on the market was realised according to the rules of the similarity theory. Once the expander was selected, it was strongly modified and performance verified by means of steady-state 3D CFD simulations. This paper focuses the attention on the development of the second CEG main component: the compressor. Once the preliminary selection has been done, the compressor geometry has been modified to take the new boundary conditions into account. In particular, the impeller has been machined to address the required total enthalpy increase. Such evaluation has been carried out by means of a simplified 1D model. Moreover, a vaneless diffuser has been added, modifying the shape of casing rear and front disks. To verify the performance of the modified compressor geometry and suggest improvements, a numerical fluid dynamic model has been set up and the commercial Ansys-CFX software has been used to perform steady-state 3D simulations. In this work, all the numerical results will be shown, highlighting critical aspects and suggesting further developments to increase compressor performance and flexibility.Keywords: vapour compression systems, energy saving, refrigeration plant, organic fluids, centrifugal compressor
Procedia PDF Downloads 2102431 Post-Structural Study of Gender in Shakespearean Othello from Butlerian Perspective
Authors: Muhammad Shakeel Rehman Hissam
Abstract:
This study aims at analyzing gender in Othello by applying Judith Butler’s Post-Structural theory of gender and gender performance. The analysis of the play provides us context by which we can examine what kinds of effects the drama have on understanding of the researchers regarding gender identity. The study sets out to examine that, is there any evidence or ground in Shakespearean selected work which leads to challenge the patriarchal taken for granted prescribed roles of gender? This would be the focal point in study of Othello that actions and performances of characters determine their gender identity rather than their sexuality. It argues that gender of Shakespearean characters has no constant, fixed and structural impression. On the contrary, they undergo consistent variations in their behavior and performance which impart fluidity and volatility to them. The focal point of the present study is Butler’s prominent work; Gender Trouble: Feminism and subversion of Identity and her post structural theory of Gender performativity as the theoretical underpinning of the text. It analyzes the selected play in Post-Structural gender perspective. The gender-centric plot of the play is riddled with fluidity of gender. The most fascinating aspect of the play is the transformations of genders on the basis of performances by different characters and through these transformations; gender identity is revealed and determined. The study reconstructs the accepted gender norms by challenging the traditional concept of gender that is based on sexual differences of characters.Keywords: post structural, gender, performativity, socio-cultural gender norms, binaries, Othello, Butler, identity
Procedia PDF Downloads 3672430 Arabic Lexicon Learning to Analyze Sentiment in Microblogs
Authors: Mahmoud B. Rokaya
Abstract:
The study of opinion mining and sentiment analysis includes analysis of opinions, sentiments, evaluations, attitudes, and emotions. The rapid growth of social media, social networks, reviews, forum discussions, microblogs, and Twitter, leads to a parallel growth in the field of sentiment analysis. The field of sentiment analysis tries to develop effective tools to make it possible to capture the trends of people. There are two approaches in the field, lexicon-based and corpus-based methods. A lexicon-based method uses a sentiment lexicon which includes sentiment words and phrases with assigned numeric scores. These scores reveal if sentiment phrases are positive or negative, their intensity, and/or their emotional orientations. Creation of manual lexicons is hard. This brings the need for adaptive automated methods for generating a lexicon. The proposed method generates dynamic lexicons based on the corpus and then classifies text using these lexicons. In the proposed method, different approaches are combined to generate lexicons from text. The proposed method classifies the tweets into 5 classes instead of +ve or –ve classes. The sentiment classification problem is written as an optimization problem, finding optimum sentiment lexicons are the goal of the optimization process. The solution was produced based on mathematical programming approaches to find the best lexicon to classify texts. A genetic algorithm was written to find the optimal lexicon. Then, extraction of a meta-level feature was done based on the optimal lexicon. The experiments were conducted on several datasets. Results, in terms of accuracy, recall and F measure, outperformed the state-of-the-art methods proposed in the literature in some of the datasets. A better understanding of the Arabic language and culture of Arab Twitter users and sentiment orientation of words in different contexts can be achieved based on the sentiment lexicons proposed by the algorithm.Keywords: social media, Twitter sentiment, sentiment analysis, lexicon, genetic algorithm, evolutionary computation
Procedia PDF Downloads 1782429 An Approach for Reliably Transforming Habits Towards Environmental Sustainability Behaviors Among Young Adults
Authors: Dike Felix Okechukwu
Abstract:
Studies and reports from authoritative sources such as the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) have stated that to effectively solve environmental sustainability challenges such as pollution, inappropriate waste disposal, and unsustainable consumption, there is a need for more research to seek solutions towards environmentally sustainable behavior. However, literature thus far reports only sporadic developments of TL in Environmental Sustainability because there are scarce reports showing the reliable process(es) to produce TL - for sustainability projects or otherwise. Nonetheless, a recently published article demonstrates how TL can be used to help young adults gain transformed mindsets and habits toward environmental sustainability behaviors and practices. This study, however, does not demonstrate, on a repeated basis, the dependability of the method or reliability of the procedures in using its proposed methodology to help young adults achieve transformed habits towards environmental sustainability behaviors, especially in diverse contexts. In this study, it is demonstrated, through repeated measures, a reliable process that can be used to achieve transformations in habits and mindsets toward environmental sustainability behaviors. To achieve this, the design adopted is multiple case studies and a thematic analysis techniques. Five cases in diverse contexts were used to analyze pieces of evidence of Transformative Learning Outcomes toward environmentally sustainable behaviors. Results from the study offer fresh perspectives on a reliable methodology that can be adopted to achieve Transformations in Habits and mindsets toward environmental sustainability behaviors.Keywords: environmental sustainability, transformative learning, behaviour, learning, education
Procedia PDF Downloads 892428 Using Autoencoder as Feature Extractor for Malware Detection
Authors: Umm-E-Hani, Faiza Babar, Hanif Durad
Abstract:
Malware-detecting approaches suffer many limitations, due to which all anti-malware solutions have failed to be reliable enough for detecting zero-day malware. Signature-based solutions depend upon the signatures that can be generated only when malware surfaces at least once in the cyber world. Another approach that works by detecting the anomalies caused in the environment can easily be defeated by diligently and intelligently written malware. Solutions that have been trained to observe the behavior for detecting malicious files have failed to cater to the malware capable of detecting the sandboxed or protected environment. Machine learning and deep learning-based approaches greatly suffer in training their models with either an imbalanced dataset or an inadequate number of samples. AI-based anti-malware solutions that have been trained with enough samples targeted a selected feature vector, thus ignoring the input of leftover features in the maliciousness of malware just to cope with the lack of underlying hardware processing power. Our research focuses on producing an anti-malware solution for detecting malicious PE files by circumventing the earlier-mentioned shortcomings. Our proposed framework, which is based on automated feature engineering through autoencoders, trains the model over a fairly large dataset. It focuses on the visual patterns of malware samples to automatically extract the meaningful part of the visual pattern. Our experiment has successfully produced a state-of-the-art accuracy of 99.54 % over test data.Keywords: malware, auto encoders, automated feature engineering, classification
Procedia PDF Downloads 642427 The Study of Ecological Seabirds in Algeria
Authors: A. Baaloudj, F. Samraoui, B. Samraoui
Abstract:
We have been studied the reproductive ecology and dispersal of Yellow-legged Gull Larus michahellis for three years 2009-2011. The study of the breeding ecology of the species was undertaken at the Srigina Island (Skikda). The mean clutch size was 2.64±0.62, 2.49±0.72 and 2.37±0.77eggsin the three study years 2009-2011 respectively. Hatching success was similar for the first two years of study (53% in 2009and 54% in 2010) but significantly lower in the third year (27% in 2011). The same trend was found for the fledging success, it was 33% and 32% in 2009and 2010respectivelyandonly 14% in 2011. Cannibalism and predation by cats were the two likely causes of low reproductive success in the third year. Regarding the species dispersal, we started a banding program of the yellow-legged gulls Larus michahellis michahellis in 2009, the first scheme of its kind in North Africa. Banding of chicks was initiated at Skikda and extended, a year later, to four other colonies located along the Algerian coast. Preliminary analysis of ringed yellow-legged gulls from Algerian colonies indicates that juveniles dispersed in a north-westerly direction to the Balearic Sea, the Bay of Biscay, the Alboran Sea and the western Atlantic coast from the Bay of Cadiz to the Galician shores. Preliminary data suggested two distinct routes: gulls from the eastern North African colonies moved N/NW to eastern Spain and overland to the Bay of Biscay, a pattern of dispersal previously reported for birds from Spanish and French western Mediterranean colonies. Juveniles from western colonies seemed also to move N/NW to the Alboran Sea and the Bay of Cadiz. In Spain, where most of the dispersal took place, data suggested that Algerian gulls occupied coastal areas which are used as aestivating refuges before returning to North Africa in late autumn and winter.Keywords: breeding ecology, population dynamic, dispersal, yellow-legged gull larus michahellis, sea bird, banding scheme, Srigina, Algeria
Procedia PDF Downloads 2002426 Rising Velocity of a Non-Newtonian Liquids in Capillary Tubes
Authors: Reza Sabbagh, Linda Hasanovich, Aleksey Baldygin, David S. Nobes, Prashant R. Waghmare
Abstract:
The capillary filling process is significantly important to study for numerous applications such as the under filling of the material in electronic packaging or liquid hydrocarbons seepage through porous structure. The approximation of the fluid being Newtonian, i.e., linear relationship between the shear stress and deformation rate cannot be justified in cases where the extent of non-Newtonian behavior of liquid governs the surface driven transport, i.e., capillarity action. In this study, the capillary action of a non-Newtonian fluid is not only analyzed, but also the modified generalized theoretical analysis for the capillary transport is proposed. The commonly observed three regimes: surface forces dominant (travelling air-liquid interface), developing flow (viscous force dominant), and developed regimes (interfacial, inertial and viscous forces are comparable) are identified. The velocity field along each regime is quantified with Newtonian and non-Newtonian fluid in square shaped vertically oriented channel. Theoretical understanding of capillary imbibition process, particularly in the case of Newtonian fluids, is relied on the simplified assumption of a fully developed velocity profile which has been revisited for developing a modified theory for the capillary transport of non-Newtonian fluids. Furthermore, the development of the velocity profile from the entrance regime to the developed regime, for different power law fluids, is also investigated theoretically and experimentally.Keywords: capillary, non-Newtonian flow, shadowgraphy, rising velocity
Procedia PDF Downloads 2002425 Determination of Surface Deformations with Global Navigation Satellite System Time Series
Authors: Ibrahim Tiryakioglu, Mehmet Ali Ugur, Caglar Ozkaymak
Abstract:
The development of GNSS technology has led to increasingly widespread and successful applications of GNSS surveys for monitoring crustal movements. However, multi-period GPS survey solutions have not been applied in monitoring vertical surface deformation. This study uses long-term GNSS time series that are required to determine vertical deformations. In recent years, the surface deformations that are parallel and semi-parallel to Bolvadin fault have occurred in Western Anatolia. These surface deformations have continued to occur in Bolvadin settlement area that is located mostly on alluvium ground. Due to these surface deformations, a number of cracks in the buildings located in the residential areas and breaks in underground water and sewage systems have been observed. In order to determine the amount of vertical surface deformations, two continuous GNSS stations have been established in the region. The stations have been operating since 2015 and 2017, respectively. In this study, GNSS observations from the mentioned two GNSS stations were processed with GAMIT/GLOBK (GNSS Analysis Massachusetts Institute of Technology/GLOBal Kalman) program package to create a coordinate time series. With the time series analyses, the GNSS stations’ behavior models (linear, periodical, etc.), the causes of these behaviors, and mathematical models were determined. The study results from the time series analysis of these two 2 GNSS stations shows approximately 50-80 mm/yr vertical movement.Keywords: Bolvadin fault, GAMIT, GNSS time series, surface deformations
Procedia PDF Downloads 162