Search results for: activity performance

Authors: Mahsa Mafi

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Encapsulation of Micrococcus Luteus (M. Luteus) in polymeric composites has been employed for the bioremediation, sequestration of metals and for the biodegradation of chemical pollutants and toxic components in waste water. Polymer composites in the form of nonwovens of nanofibers, or core/shell particles can provide a bacterial friendly environment for transfer of nutrients and metabolisms, with the least leakage of bacteria. M. Luteus is encapsulated in a hydrophilic core of poly (vinyl alcohol), following by synthesis or coating of a proper shell as a support to maintain the chemical and mechanical strength. The biological activity of bacteria is confirmed by Live/Dead analysis and agar plate tests. SEM and TEM analysis were utilized for morphological studies of polymer composites. As a result of the successful encapsulation of the alive bacteria in polymers, longer storage time in their functional state were achieved.

Keywords: Polymer composites, Bacteria encapsulation, Bioremediation, Waste water treatment

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Authors: Chansheng He, Zhongfu Wang, Xiao Bai, Jie Tian, Xin Jin

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Heterogeneity of soil hydraulic properties directly affects hydrological processes at different scales. Understanding heterogeneity of soil hydraulic properties such as soil moisture is therefore essential for modeling watershed ecohydrological processes, particularly in hard to access, topographically complex mountainous watersheds. This study maps spatial variations of soil moisture by in situ observation network that consists of sampling points, zones, and tributaries, and monitors corresponding hydrological variables of air and soil temperatures, evapotranspiration, infiltration, and runoff in the Upper Reach of the Heihe River Watershed, a second largest inland river (terminal lake) with a drainage area of over 128,000 km² in Northwest China. Subsequently, the study uses a hydrological model, SWAT (Soil and Water Assessment Tool) to simulate the effects of heterogeneity of soil moisture on watershed hydrological processes. The spatial clustering method, Full-Order-CLK was employed to derive five soil heterogeneous zones (Configuration 97, 80, 65, 40, and 20) for soil input to SWAT. Results show the simulations by the SWAT model with the spatially clustered soil hydraulic information from the field sampling data had much better representation of the soil heterogeneity and more accurate performance than the model using the average soil property values for each soil type derived from the coarse soil datasets. Thus, incorporating detailed field sampling soil heterogeneity data greatly improves performance in hydrologic modeling.

Keywords: heterogeneity, soil moisture, SWAT, up-scaling

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Authors: Ayad A. Abdulkafi, Shahir F. Nawaf, Mohammed K. Hussein, Ibrahim K. Sileh, Fouad A. Abdulkafi

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Visible light communication (VLC) is a new approach of optical wireless communication proposed to support the congested radio frequency (RF) spectrum. VLC systems are combined with orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) to achieve high rate transmission and high spectral efficiency. In this paper, we investigate the Pilot-Assisted Channel Estimation for DC biased Optical OFDM (PACE-DCO-OFDM) systems to reduce the effects of the distortion on the transmitted signal. Least-square (LS) and linear minimum mean-squared error (LMMSE) estimators are implemented in MATLAB/Simulink to enhance the bit-error-rate (BER) of PACE-DCO-OFDM. Results show that DCO-OFDM system based on PACE scheme has achieved better BER performance compared to conventional system without pilot assisted channel estimation. Simulation results show that the proposed PACE-DCO-OFDM based on LMMSE algorithm can more accurately estimate the channel and achieves better BER performance when compared to the LS based PACE-DCO-OFDM and the traditional system without PACE. For the same signal to noise ratio (SNR) of 25 dB, the achieved BER is about 5×10^-4 for LMMSE-PACE and 4.2×10^-3 with LS-PACE while it is about 2×10^-1 for system without PACE scheme.

Keywords: channel estimation, OFDM, pilot-assist, VLC

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Authors: Meltem Agar, Maisem Laabei, Hannah Leese, Pedro Estrela

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Pathogenic bacteria and the diseases they cause have become a global problem. Their early detection is vital and can only be possible by detecting the bacteria causing the disease accurately and rapidly. Great progress has been made in this field with the use of biosensors. Molecularly imprinted polymers have gain broad interest because of their excellent properties over natural receptors, such as being stable in a variety of conditions, inexpensive, biocompatible and having long shelf life. These properties make molecularly imprinted polymers an attractive candidate to be used in biosensors. In this study it is aimed to produce an aptamer-molecularly imprinted polymer based electrochemical sensor by utilizing the properties of molecularly imprinted polymers coupled with the enhanced specificity offered by DNA aptamers. These ‘apta-MIP’ sensors were used for the detection of Staphylococcus aureus and Escherichia coli. The experimental parameters for the fabrication of sensor were optimized, and detection of the bacteria was evaluated via Electrochemical Impedance Spectroscopy. Sensitivity and selectivity experiments were conducted. Furthermore, molecularly imprinted polymer only and aptamer only electrochemical sensors were produced separately, and their performance were compared with the electrochemical sensor produced in this study. Aptamer-molecularly imprinted polymer based electrochemical sensor showed good sensitivity and selectivity in terms of detection of Staphylococcus aureus and Escherichia coli. The performance of the sensor was assessed in buffer solution and tap water.

Keywords: aptamer, electrochemical sensor, staphylococcus aureus, molecularly imprinted polymer

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Authors: H. M. Anitha, Anusha N. Rao

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The current developments in technology and ideas have given entirely new dimensions to the field of research and education. New delivery methods are proposed which is an added feature to the engineering education. Particularly, more importance is given to new teaching practices such as Information and Communication Technologies (ICT). It is vital to adopt the new ICT methods which lead to the emergence of novel structure and mode of education. The flipped classroom, think pair share and peer instruction are the latest pedagogical methods which give students to learn the course. This involves students to watch video lectures outside the classroom and solve the problems at home. Students are engaged in group discussions in the classroom. These are the active learning methods wherein the students are involved diversely to learn the course. This paper gives a comprehensive study of past and present research which is going on with flipped classroom, thinks pair share activity and peer instruction.

Keywords: flipped classroom, think pair share, peer instruction, active learning

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Authors: Patrizia Frontera, Anastasia Macario, Sebastiano Candamano, Fortunato Crea, Pierluigi Antonucci

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The increasing of the world energy demand makes today biomass an attractive energy source, based on the minimizing of CO2 emission and on the global warming reduction purposes. Recently, COP-21, the international meeting on global climate change, defined the roadmap for sustainable worldwide development, based on low-carbon containing fuel. Hydrogen is an energy vector able to substitute the conventional fuels from petroleum. Ethanol for hydrogen production represents a valid alternative to the fossil sources due to its low toxicity, low production costs, high biodegradability, high H2 content and renewability. Ethanol conversion to generate hydrogen by a combination of partial oxidation and steam reforming reactions is generally called auto-thermal reforming (ATR). The ATR process is advantageous due to the low energy requirements and to the reduced carbonaceous deposits formation. Catalyst plays a pivotal role in the ATR process, especially towards the process selectivity and the carbonaceous deposits formation. Bimetallic or trimetallic catalysts, as well as catalysts with doped-promoters supports, may exhibit high activity, selectivity and deactivation resistance with respect to the corresponding monometallic ones. In this work, NiMoCo/GDC, NiMoCu/GDC and NiMoRe/GDC (where GDC is Gadolinia Doped Ceria support and the metal composition is 60:30:10 for all catalyst) have been prepared by impregnation method. The support, Gadolinia 0.2 Doped Ceria 0.8, was impregnated by metal precursors solubilized in aqueous ethanol solution (50%) at room temperature for 6 hours. After this, the catalysts were dried at 100°C for 8 hours and, subsequently, calcined at 600°C in order to have the metal oxides. Finally, active catalysts were obtained by reduction procedure (H2 atmosphere at 500°C for 6 hours). All sample were characterized by different analytical techniques (XRD, SEM-EDX, XPS, CHNS, H2-TPR and Raman Spectorscopy). Catalytic experiments (auto-thermal reforming of ethanol) were carried out in the temperature range 500-800°C under atmospheric pressure, using a continuous fixed-bed microreactor. Effluent gases from the reactor were analyzed by two Varian CP4900 chromarographs with a TCD detector. The analytical investigation focused on the preventing of the coke deposition, the metals sintering effect and the sulfur poisoning. Hydrogen productivity, ethanol conversion and products distribution were measured and analyzed. At 600°C, all tri-metallic catalysts show the best performance: H2 + CO reaching almost the 77 vol.% in the final gases. While NiMoCo/GDC catalyst shows the best selectivity to hydrogen whit respect to the other tri-metallic catalysts (41 vol.% at 600°C). On the other hand, NiMoCu/GDC and NiMoRe/GDC demonstrated high sulfur poisoning resistance (up to 200 cc/min) with respect to the NiMoCo/GDC catalyst. The correlation among catalytic results and surface properties of the catalysts will be discussed.

Keywords: catalysts, ceria, ethanol, gadolinia, hydrogen, Nickel

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Authors: S. Visetpotjanakit, N. Nakkaew

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Determination of ⁹⁰Sr in environmental samples has been widely developed with several radioanlytical methods and radiation measurement techniques since ⁹⁰Sr is one of the most hazardous radionuclides produced from nuclear reactors. Liquid extraction technique using di-(2-ethylhexyl) phosphoric acid (HDEHP) to separate and purify ⁹⁰Y and Cherenkov counting using liquid scintillation counter to determine ⁹⁰Y in secular equilibrium to ⁹⁰Sr was developed and performed at our institute, the Office of Atoms for Peace. The approach is inexpensive, non-laborious, and fast to analyse ⁹⁰Sr in environmental samples. To validate our analytical performance for the accurate and precise criteria, determination of ⁹⁰Sr using the IAEA-TEL-2016-04 ALMERA proficiency test samples were performed for statistical evaluation. The experiment used two spiked tap water samples and one naturally contaminated spruce needles sample from Austria collected shortly after the Chernobyl accident. Results showed that all three analyses were successfully passed in terms of both accuracy and precision criteria, obtaining “Accepted” statuses. The two water samples obtained the measured results of 15.54 Bq/kg and 19.76 Bq/kg, which had relative bias 5.68% and -3.63% for the Maximum Acceptable Relative Bias (MARB) 15% and 20%, respectively. And the spruce needles sample obtained the measured results of 21.04 Bq/kg, which had relative bias 23.78% for the MARB 30%. These results confirm our analytical performance of ⁹⁰Sr determination in water and spruce needles samples using the same developed method.

Keywords: ALMERA proficiency test, Cerenkov counting, determination of 90Sr, environmental samples

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Authors: Kuan-Wei Chen, Chien-Wei Chen, Tai-Ling Chang, Nan-Cheng Chen, Ching-Lin Hsieh, Gong-Hong Lin

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Background and Purposes: Deficits in sustained attention are common in patients with schizophrenia. Such impairment can limit patients to effectively execute daily activities and affect the efficacy of rehabilitation. The aims of this study were to examine the test-retest agreement, random measurement error, and practice effect of the Continuous Performance Test-Identical Pairs (CPT-IP) (a commonly used sustained attention test) in patients with schizophrenia. The results can provide empirical evidence for clinicians and researchers to apply a sustained attention test with sound psychometric properties in schizophrenia patients. Methods: We recruited patients with chronic schizophrenia to be assessed twice with 1 week interval using CPT-IP. The intra-class correlation coefficient (ICC) was used to examine the test-retest agreement. The percentage of minimal detectable change (MDC%) was used to examine the random measurement error. Moreover, the standardized response mean (SRM) was used to examine the practice effect. Results: A total of 56 patients participated in this study. Our results showed that the ICC was 0.82, MDC% was 47.4%, and SRMs were 0.36 for the CPT-IP. Conclusion: Our results indicate that CPT-IP has acceptable test-retests agreement, substantial random measurement error, and small practice effect in patients with schizophrenia. Therefore, to avoid overestimating patients’ changes in sustained attention, we suggest that clinicians interpret the change scores of CPT-IP conservatively in their routine repeated assessments.

Keywords: schizophrenia, sustained attention, CPT-IP, reliability

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Authors: Victor Bodell, Lukas Ekstrom, Somayeh Aghanavesi

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Fuel consumption (FC) is one of the key factors in determining expenses of operating a heavy-duty vehicle. A customer may therefore request an estimate of the FC of a desired vehicle. The modular design of heavy-duty vehicles allows their construction by specifying the building blocks, such as gear box, engine and chassis type. If the combination of building blocks is unprecedented, it is unfeasible to measure the FC, since this would first r equire the construction of the vehicle. This paper proposes a machine learning approach to predict FC. This study uses around 40,000 vehicles specific and o perational e nvironmental c onditions i nformation, such as road slopes and driver profiles. A ll v ehicles h ave d iesel engines and a mileage of more than 20,000 km. The data is used to investigate the accuracy of machine learning algorithms Linear regression (LR), K-nearest neighbor (KNN) and Artificial n eural n etworks (ANN) in predicting fuel consumption for heavy-duty vehicles. Performance of the algorithms is evaluated by reporting the prediction error on both simulated data and operational measurements. The performance of the algorithms is compared using nested cross-validation and statistical hypothesis testing. The statistical evaluation procedure finds that ANNs have the lowest prediction error compared to LR and KNN in estimating fuel consumption on both simulated and operational data. The models have a mean relative prediction error of 0.3% on simulated data, and 4.2% on operational data.

Keywords: artificial neural networks, fuel consumption, friedman test, machine learning, statistical hypothesis testing

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Authors: Shweta Dhindhwal

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Dopamine is an essential neurotransmitter in the central nervous system of all vertebrates and plays an important role in many processes such as motor function, learning and behavior, and sensory activity. One of the important functions of dopamine is release of pituitary hormones. It is synthesized from the amino acid tyrosine. Two types of dopamine receptors, D1-like and D2-like, have been reported in fish. The dopamine containing neurons are located in the olfactory bulbs, the ventral regions of the pre-optic area and tuberal hypothalamus. Distribution of the dopaminergic system has not been studied in the murrel, Channa punctatus. The present study deals with identification of D2 receptors in the brain of murrel. A phylogenetic tree has been constructed using partial sequence of D2 receptor. Distribution of putative dopaminergic neurons in the brain has been investigated. Also, formalin induced hypertrophy of neurosecretory cells in murrel has been studied.

Keywords: dopamine, fish, pre-optic area, murrel

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Authors: S. Raghibdoust, E. Kamari

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Research show that reduced functional hearing has a detrimental influence on the ability of an individual to establish proper phonological representations of words, since the phonological representations are claimed to mediate the conceptual processing of written words. Word processing efficiency is expected to decrease with a decrease in functional hearing. In other words, it is predicted that hearing individuals would be more capable of word processing than individuals with hearing loss, as their functional hearing works normally. Studies also demonstrate that the quality of the functional hearing affects reading comprehension via its effect on their word processing skills. In other words, better hearing facilitates the development of phonological knowledge, and can promote enhanced strategies for the recognition of written words, which in turn positively affect higher-order processes underlying reading comprehension. The aims of this study were to investigate and compare the effect of deafness on the participants’ abilities to process written words at the lexical and sentence levels through using two online and one offline reading comprehension tests. The performance of a group of 8 deaf male students (ages 8-12) was compared with that of a control group of normal hearing male students. All the participants had normal IQ and visual status, and came from an average socioeconomic background. None were diagnosed with a particular learning or motor disability. The language spoken in the homes of all participants was Persian. Two tests of word processing were developed and presented to the participants using OpenSesame software, in order to measure the speed and accuracy of their performance at the two perceptual and conceptual levels. In the third offline test of reading comprehension which comprised of semantically plausible and semantically implausible subject relative clauses, the participants had to select the correct answer out of two choices. The data derived from the statistical analysis using SPSS software indicated that hearing and deaf participants had a similar word processing performance both in terms of speed and accuracy of their responses. The results also showed that there was no significant difference between the performance of the deaf and hearing participants in comprehending semantically plausible sentences (p > 0/05). However, a significant difference between the performances of the two groups was observed with respect to their comprehension of semantically implausible sentences (p < 0/05). In sum, the findings revealed that the seriously impoverished sentence reading ability characterizing the profound deaf subjects of the present research, exhibited their reliance on reading strategies that are based on insufficient or deviant structural knowledge, in particular in processing semantically implausible sentences, rather than a failure to efficiently process written words at the lexical level. This conclusion, of course, does not mean to say that deaf individuals may never experience deficits at the word processing level, deficits that impede their understanding of written texts. However, as stated in previous researches, it sounds reasonable to assume that the more deaf individuals get familiar with written words, the better they can recognize them, despite having a profound phonological weakness.

Keywords: deafness, reading comprehension, reading strategy, word processing, subject and object relative sentences

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Authors: Shahram Payandeh

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This paper presents an overview of a model which can be used as a part of a decision support system when fusing information from multiple sensing environment. Data fusion has been widely studied in the past few decades and numerous frameworks have been proposed to facilitate decision making process under uncertainties. Multi-sensor data fusion technology plays an increasingly significant role during people tracking and activity recognition. This paper presents an overview of a quantum model as a part of a decision-making process in the context of multi-sensor data fusion. The paper presents basic definitions and relationships associating the decision-making process and quantum model formulation in the presence of uncertainties.

Keywords: quantum model, sensor space, sensor network, decision support

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Authors: Natanya Meyer, Johann Landsberg

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Globally, many women are still disadvantaged when it comes to business opportunities. Entrepreneurship development programs, specifically designed to assist women entrepreneurs, are assisting in solving this problem to a certain extent. The purpose of this study is to identify the factors that motivate females to start their own business. Females, from three different groups (2013, 2014, and 2015), who were all enrolled in a short learning program specifically designed for women in early start-up stage or intending to start a business, were asked what motivated them to start a business. The results indicated that, from all three groups, the majority of the women wanted to start a business to be independent and have freedom and to add towards a social goal. The results further indicated that, in general, women would enter into entrepreneurship activity due to pull factors rather than push factors.

Keywords: entrepreneurship programs, female entrepreneur-ship, motivational factors, South Africa

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Authors: Zahid Ahmad, Samia Yousaf

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The main purpose of this study is to evaluate and assess the financial position, operating performance, and recent outlook of the companies. This study investigates the impact of capital structure, dividend policy and sustainability on the value of firms of textile spinning sector of Pakistan which is listed on Pakistan stock exchange. The panel data technique has been applied to this group of textile sector which is textile spinning. This study covers the last ten years of time period. All the data related to the variables have been collected from the annual reports and financial statements of the textile sector firms. There are differently related determinants to measure the capital structure which are fixed assets turnover ratio, debt ratio, equity ratio, debt to equity ratio, assets tangibility, and shareholder’s equity. Dividend policy is being measured by two determinants which are earning per share (EPS) and dividend payout ratio. Sustainability is being measured by three suitable factors which are sales growth, gross profit margin ratio and firm size. These are three independent variables and their determinants of this study. Value of firm is measured through the return on asset (ROA). Capital structure is at the top of the list among all the three variables. According to the results of this research work, somewhere all the three variables generates positive and significant effect on the firm’s performance and its growth.

Keywords: capital structure, dividend policy, panel data, sustainability

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Authors: Dana Mohammed, Fatemah Abdullah, Hawraa Ali, Najat Al-Shaer, Rawan Al-Awadhi, , Magdy Helal

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We study the patient service performance at the emergency department of a major Kuwaiti public hospital, using discrete simulation and lean concepts. In addition to the common problems in such health care systems (over crowdedness, facilities planning and usage, scheduling and staffing, capacity planning) the emergency department suffered from several cultural and patient behavioural issues. Those contributed significantly to the system problems and constituted major obstacles in maintaining the performance in control. This led to overly long waiting times and the potential of delaying providing help to critical cases. We utilized the visual management tools to mitigate the impact of the patients’ behaviours and attitudes and improve the logistics inside the system. In addition a proposal is made to automate the date collection and communication within the department using RFID-based barcoding system. Discrete event simulation models were developed as decision support systems; to study the operational problems and assess achieved improvements. The simulation analysis resulted in cutting the patient delays to about 35% of their current values by reallocating and rescheduling the medical staff. Combined with the application of the visual management concepts, this provided the basis to improving patient service without any major investments.

Keywords: simulation, visual management, health care system, patient

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Authors: Meseret Berhanie Menkir

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The present study explores folk dance, one of the folklore texts, its symbols, and its therapeutic role. As a case, the study concentrates on Astrio-Mariam and Merkorios Bera, celebrated on January 30 and February 3 at Deresgie-Mariam Church in Ethiopia. By taking a qualitative stance, the study analyses the meaning of folk dance, explains its role, and describes its types. The data gathered through observation, interview, and focus group discussion techniques are documented in field notes, audio, and video. The data obtained is analyzed using structural-functionalism, psychoanalysis, and semiotics. Accordingly, community members of all ages (mainly the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church followers) participate in the performance. While the folk dance is a type of small group dance and group dance, the group has no feature of using men and women performing together. The folk dance's role is a form of healing and spiritual fulfilment besides entertainment. The folk dance also has sword dance characteristics; the study confirmed this feature in content and form. Moreover, the folk dance characterized by frequent shoulder and hand movements Wancha likleka (Horn-mug spin), Doro metet (Chicken drink), and sword dance depict wealth, heroism, and warfare. The instruments used in the performances are also alive, with religious symbols reaching from the drum, incense, and cross to the suffering of Jesus Christ from Hanna to Qeyafa, and references to the 12 Apostles.

Keywords: folk dance, festival, ritual, symbol, therapeutic

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Authors: Hatem Abou-Senna, Essam Radwan

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With increasing traffic and limited resources, accommodating left-turning traffic has been a challenge for traffic engineers as they seek balance between intersection capacity and safety; these are two conflicting goals in the operation of a signalized intersection that are mitigated through signal phasing techniques. Hence, to increase the left-turn capacity and reduce the delay at the intersections, the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) moves forward with a vision of optimizing intersection control using innovative intersection designs through the Transportation Systems Management & Operations (TSM&O) program. These alternative designs successfully eliminate the left-turn phase, which otherwise reduces the conventional intersection’s (CI) efficiency considerably, and divide the intersection into smaller networks that would operate in a one-way fashion. This study focused on the Crossover Displaced Left-turn intersections (XDL), also known as Continuous Flow Intersections (CFI). The XDL concept is best suited for intersections with moderate to high overall traffic volumes, especially those with very high or unbalanced left turn volumes. There is little guidance on determining whether partial XDL intersections are adequate to mitigate the overall intersection condition or full XDL is always required. The primary objective of this paper was to evaluate the overall intersection performance in the case of different partial XDL designs compared to a full XDL. The XDL alternative was investigated for 4 different scenarios; partial XDL on the east-west approaches, partial XDL on the north-south approaches, partial XDL on the north and east approaches and full XDL on all 4 approaches. Also, the impact of increasing volume on the intersection performance was considered by modeling the unbalanced volumes with 10% increment resulting in 5 different traffic scenarios. The study intersection, located in Orlando Florida, is experiencing recurring congestion in the PM peak hour and is operating near capacity with volume to a capacity ratio closer to 1.00 due to the presence of two heavy conflicting movements; southbound and westbound. The results showed that a partial EN XDL alternative proved to be effective and compared favorably to a full XDL alternative followed by the partial EW XDL alternative. The analysis also showed that Full, EW and EN XDL alternatives outperformed the NS XDL and the CI alternatives with respect to the throughput, delay and queue lengths. Significant throughput improvements were remarkable at the higher volume level with percent increase in capacity of 25%. The percent reduction in delay for the critical movements in the XDL scenarios compared to the CI scenario ranged from 30-45%. Similarly, queue lengths showed percent reduction in the XDL scenarios ranging from 25-40%. The analysis revealed how partial XDL design can improve the overall intersection performance at various demands, reduce the costs associated with full XDL and proved to outperform the conventional intersection. However, partial XDL serving low volumes or only one of the critical movements while other critical movements are operating near or above capacity do not provide significant benefits when compared to the conventional intersection.

Keywords: continuous flow intersections, crossover displaced left-turn, microscopic traffic simulation, transportation system management and operations, VISSIM simulation model

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Authors: Castells Pau, Poetsch Christophe

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The effect of gust and turbulence encounters on aircraft is a wide field of study which allows different approaches, from high-fidelity multidisciplinary simulations to more simplified models adapted to industrial applications. The typical main goal is to predict the gust loads on the aircraft in order to ensure a safe design and achieve certification. Another topic widely studied is the gust loads reduction through an active control law. The impact of gusts on aircraft handling qualities is of interest as well in the analysis of in-service events so as to evaluate the aircraft response and the performance of the flight control laws. Traditionally, gust loads and handling qualities are addressed separately with different models adapted to the specific needs of each discipline. In this paper, an assessment of the differences between both models is presented and a strategy to better account for the physics of gust encounters in a typical flight dynamics model is proposed based on the model used for gust loads analysis. The applied corrections aim to capture the gust unsteady aerodynamics and propagation as well as the effect of dynamic flexibility at low frequencies. Results from the gust loads model at different flight conditions and measures from real events are used for validation. An assessment of a possible extension of steady aerodynamic nonlinearities to low frequency range is also addressed. The proposed corrections provide meaningful means to evaluate the performance and possible adjustments of the flight control laws.

Keywords: flight dynamics, gust loads, handling qualities, unsteady aerodynamics

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Authors: Eti Mizrahi, Gizem İntepe

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The geographical location of Turkey that stretches from Asia to Europe and Russia to Africa makes it an important logistics hub in the region. Although logistics is a developing sector in Turkey, the stock market representation is still low with only two companies listed in Turkey’s stock exchange since 2010. In this paper, we use the daily values of these two listed stocks as a benchmark for the logistics sector. After modeling logistics stock prices, an empirical examination is conducted between the existing logistics indices and these stock prices. The paper investigates whether the measures of logistics stocks are correlated with newly available logistics indices. It also shows the reflection of the economic activity in the logistics sector on the stock exchange market. The results presented in this paper are the first analysis of the behavior of logistics indices and logistics stock prices for Turkey.

Keywords: forecasting, logistic stock exchange, modeling, Africa

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Authors: Yen-Mei Lee

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The concept of a knowledge-behavior gap has been discussed for several years. It is addressed that an individual’s knowledge does not sufficiently transfer to his or her actual actions. This concept is mostly focused on fields related to medicine or applied to health care issues to explain how people or patients connect their personal knowledge to actual health care behaviors. To our knowledge, seldomly has this research been applied to discuss people’s online information seeking behavior. In the current study, the main purpose is to investigate the relationship between web users’ personal values and their actual performances when seeking information on the Internet. The total number of twenty-eight participants, divided into one experienced group (n=14) and one novice group (n=14), were recruited and asked to complete a self-report questionnaire of fifty items related to information seeking actions and behaviors. During the execution, participants needed to rate the importance level (how important each item is) and the performance level (how often they actually do each item) from 1 to 10 points on each item. In this paper, the mean scores of the importance and the performance level are analyzed and discussed. The results show that there is a gap between web user’s knowledge and their actual online seeking behaviors. Both experienced group and novice group have higher average scores of the importance level (experienced group = 7.57, novice group = 6.01) than the actual performance level (experienced group = 6.89, novice group = 5.00) in terms of the fifty online information seeking actions. On the other hand, the experienced group perceives more importance of the fifty online seeking actions and performs actual behaviors better than the novice group. Moreover, experienced participants express a consistent result between their concept knowledge and actual behaviors. For instance, they feel extending a seeking strategy is important and frequently perform this action when seeking online. However, novice participants do not have a consistency between their knowledge and behaviors. For example, though they perceive browsing and judging information are less important than they get lost in the online information seeking process. However, in the actual behavior rating, the scores show that novices do browsing and judge information more often than they get lost when seeking information online. These results, therefore, help scholars and educators have a better understanding of the difference between experienced and novice web users regarding their concept knowledge and actual behaviors. In future study, figuring out how to narrow down the knowledge-behavior gap and create practical guidance for novice users to increase their online seeking efficiency is crucial. Not only could it help experienced users be aware of their actual information seeking behaviors, but also help the novice become mastery to concisely obtain information on the Internet.

Keywords: experienced web user, information seeking behavior, knowledge-behavior gap, novice, online seeking efficiency

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Authors: Daniela Salih Khidir, Mohamed G. Al Kuwari, Mercia V. Walt, Izzeldin J. Ibrahim

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Background: University-based physical activity interventions aim to establish durable social patterns during the transition to adulthood. This study is a comprehensive evaluation of a 3-year intervention-based program to increase the culture of physical activity (PA) routine in Qatar campuses community, using a holistic approach. Methodology: General assessment methods: formative evaluation-SIH Campuses logic model design, stakeholders’ identification; process evaluation-members’ step counts analyze and qualitative Appreciative Inquiry session (4-D model); daily steps categorized as: ≤5,000, inactive; 5,000-7,499 low active; ≥7,500, physically active; outcome evaluation - records 3 years interventions. Holistic PA interventions methods: walking interventions - pedometers distributions and walking competitions for students and staff; educational interventions - in campuses implementation of bilingual educational materials, lectures, video related to PA in prevention of non-communicable diseases (NCD); articles published online; monthly emails and sms notifications for pedometer use; mass media campaign - radio advertising, yearly pre/post press releases; community stakeholders interventions-biyearly planning/reporting/achievements rewarding/ qualitative meetings; continuous follow-up communication, biweekly steps reports. Findings: Results formative evaluation - SIH in Campuses logic model identified the need of PA awareness and education within universities, resources, activities, health benefits, program continuity. Results process evaluation: walking interventions: Phase 1: 5 universities recruited, 2352 members, 3 months competition; Phase 2: 6 new universities recruited, 1328 members in addition, 4 months competition; Phase 3: 4 new universities recruited in addition, 1210 members, 6 months competition. Results phase 1 and 2: 1,299 members eligible for analyzes: 800 females (62%), 499 males (38%); 86% non-Qataris, 14% Qatari nationals, daily step count 5,681 steps, age groups 18–24 (n=841; 68%) students, 25–64; (n=458; 35.3%) staff; 38% - low active, 37% physically active and 25% inactive. The AI main themes engaging stakeholders: awareness/education - 5 points (100%); competition, multi levels of involvement in SIH, community-based program/motivation - 4 points each (80%). The AI points represent themes’ repetition within stakeholders’ discussions. Results education interventions: 2 videos implementation, 35 000 educational materials, 3 online articles, 11 walking benefits lectures, 40 emails and sms notifications. Results community stakeholders’ interventions: 6 stakeholders meetings, 3 rewarding gatherings, 1 focus meeting, 40 individual reports, 18 overall reports. Results mass media campaign: 1 radio campaign, 7 press releases, 52 campuses newsletters. Results outcome evaluation: overall 2013-2016, the study used: 1 logic model, 3 PA holistic interventions, partnerships 15 universities, registered 4890 students and staff (aged 18-64 years), engaged 30 campuses stakeholders and 14 internal stakeholders; Total registered population: 61.5% female (2999), 38.5% male (1891), 20.2% (988) Qatari nationals, 79.8% (3902) non-Qataris, 55.5% (2710) students aged 18 – 25 years, 44.5% (2180) staff aged 26 - 64 years. Overall campaign 1,558 members eligible for analyzes: daily step count 7,923; 37% - low active, 43% physically active and 20% inactive. Conclusion: The study outcomes confirm program effectiveness and engagement of young campuses community, specifically female, in PA. The authors recommend implementations of 'holistic PA intervention program approach in Qatar' aiming to impact the community at national level for PA guidelines achievement in support of NCD prevention.

Keywords: campuses, evaluation, Qatar, step-count

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Authors: Cailyn Green

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Substance use counselors have a variety of fast-paced tasks and responsibilities. Professional resources are designed to support professionals in making their job duties easier and less stressful. The purpose of this research was to identify what types of resources would support addiction counselors in performing their job duties. Counselors often must jump in and facilitate a group counseling session with little to no time for prep. This causes stress and creates pressure to come up with a clinical group activity in little time. The researcher utilized qualitative interviews focused on identifying what types of resources would support addiction counselors in doing their jobs easier and effectively. The researcher visited 23 different addiction counseling facilities seeking participants for the interviews. Altogether 15 interviews were collected across six different substance-use counseling facilities. The interviews guided the researcher toward creating an open education resource (OER) of group activities for addiction counselors to utilize.

Keywords: addiction, counseling, resources, OER, treatment

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Authors: L. I. Izhar, T. Stathaki, K. Howell

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Analyzing and interpreting of thermograms have been increasingly employed in the diagnosis and monitoring of diseases thanks to its non-invasive, non-harmful nature and low cost. In this paper, a novel system is proposed to improve diagnosis and monitoring of morphoea skin disorder based on integration with the published lines of Blaschko. In the proposed system, image registration based on global and local registration methods are found inevitable. This paper presents a modified normalized gradient cross-correlation (NGC) method to reduce large geometrical differences between two multimodal images that are represented by smooth gray edge maps is proposed for the global registration approach. This method is improved further by incorporating an iterative-based normalized cross-correlation coefficient (NCC) method. It is found that by replacing the final registration part of the NGC method where translational differences are solved in the spatial Fourier domain with the NCC method performed in the spatial domain, the performance and robustness of the NGC method can be greatly improved. It is shown in this paper that the hybrid NGC method not only outperforms phase correlation (PC) method but also improved misregistration due to translation, suffered by the modified NGC method alone for thermograms with ill-defined jawline. This also demonstrates that by using the gradients of the gray edge maps and a hybrid technique, the performance of the PC based image registration method can be greatly improved.

Keywords: Blaschko’s lines, image registration, morphoea, thermal imaging

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Authors: Elias K. Maragos, Petros E. Maravelakis, Apostolos I. Linardis

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Health2020 is a promising framework of policies provided by the World Health Organization (WHO) and aiming to diminish the health and well-being inequalities among the citizens of the European Union (EU) countries. The major demographic, social and environmental changes, in addition to the resent economic crisis prevent the unobstructed and successful implementation of this framework. The unemployment rates and the percentage of people at risk of poverty have increased among the citizens of EU countries. At the same time, the adopted fiscal, economic policies do not help governments to serve their social role and mitigate social and health inequalities. In those circumstances, there is a strong pressure to organize all health system resources efficiently and wisely. In order to provide a unified and value-based framework of valuation, we propose a valuation framework using data envelopment analysis (DEA) and dynamic DEA. We believe that the adopted methodology could provide a robust tool which can capture the degree of success with which policies have been implemented and is capable to determine which of the countries developed the requested policies efficiently and which of the countries have been lagged. Using the proposed methodology, we evaluated the performance of 28 EU member-countries in relation to the Health2020 peripheral targets. We adopted several versions of evaluation, measuring the effectiveness and the efficiency of EU countries from 2011 to 2016. Our results showed stability in technological changes and revealed a group of countries which were benchmarks in most of the years for the inefficient countries.

Keywords: DEA, Health2020, health inequalities, malmquist index, policies evaluation, well-being

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Authors: Kamini Kaushal

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Medicinal plants of Ayurveda are effective in the treatment of cervical cancer. The aim of this paper is to assess anti cancerous activities of these medicinal plants against cancer. Most of the medicinal plants in Ayurveda are using to treat cervical cancer as name of disease as treatment of YONI VYAPADA. The selected plants has been studied scientifically in India and evidence based written since Vedic era. The compilation results showed potential anti cervical cancer activity of the tested plants. There plants are remaining under the dark due to lack of awareness, lack of popularity and barrier of language. Now this is the time to eye opener regarding the classical text and clinical evidences, so that we can give the hope to world's affected women from this disease. World is waiting for such type of remedy which is having zero side effects, low cost and effective.

Keywords: anti cancerous, cervical cancer, ayurveda, medicinal plants, scientific study, classical text

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Authors: Rawan Ashraf, Ahmed E. Gomaa, Gehan Safwat, Ayman Diab

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Background: Three-dimensional (3D) bio-printing has become a versatile and powerful method for generating a variety of biological constructs, including bone or extracellular matrix scaffolds endo- or epithelial, muscle tissue, as well as organoids. Aim of the study: Fabricate a low cost DIY 3D bio-printer to produce 3D bio-printed products such as anti-microbial packaging or multi-organs on chips. We demonstrate the alignment between two types of 3D printer technology (3D Bio-printer and DLP) on Multi-organ-on-a-chip (multi-OoC) devices fabrication. Methods: First, Design and Fabrication of the Syringe Unit for Modification of an Off-the-Shelf 3D Printer, then Preparation of Hydrogel based on natural polymers Sodium Alginate and Gelatin, followed by acquisition of the cell suspension, then modeling the desired 3D structure. Preparation for 3D printing, then Cell-free and cell-laden hydrogels went through the printing process at room temperature under sterile conditions and finally post printing curing process and studying the printed structure regards physical and chemical characteristics. The hard scaffold of the Organ on chip devices was designed and fabricated using the DLP-3D printer, following similar approaches as the Microfluidics system fabrication. Results: The fabricated Bio-Ink was based onHydrogel polymer mix of sodium alginate and gelatin 15% to 0.5%, respectively. Later the 3D printing process was conducted using a higher percentage of alginate-based hydrogels because of it viscosity and the controllable crosslinking, unlike the thermal crosslinking of Gelatin. The hydrogels were colored to simulate the representation of two types of cells. The adaption of the hard scaffold, whether for the Microfluidics system or the hard-tissues, has been acquired by the DLP 3D printers with fabricated natural bioactive essential oils that contain antimicrobial activity, followed by printing in Situ three complex layers of soft-hydrogel as a cell-free Bio-Ink to simulate the real-life tissue engineering process. The final product was a proof of concept for a rapid 3D cell culturing approaches that uses an engineered hard scaffold along with soft-tissues, thus, several applications were offered as products of the current prototype, including the Organ-On-Chip as a successful integration between DLP and 3D bioprinter. Conclusion: Multiple designs for the organ-on-a-chip (multi-OoC) devices have been acquired in our study with main focus on the low cost fabrication of such technology and the potential to revolutionize human health research and development. We describe circumstances in which multi-organ models are useful after briefly examining the requirement for full multi-organ models with a systemic component. Following that, we took a look at the current multi-OoC platforms, such as integrated body-on-a-chip devices and modular techniques that use linked organ-specific modules.

Keywords: 3d bio-printer, hydrogel, multi-organ on chip, bio-inks

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Authors: Oluwagbenga B. Fatile, Felix U. Idu, Olajide T. Sanya

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This paper reports the viability of developing Zn-27Al alloy matrix hybrid composites reinforced with alumina, graphite and fly ash (a solid waste byproduct of coal in thermal power plants). This research work was aimed at developing low cost-high performance Zn-27Al matrix composite with low density. Alumina particulates (Al2O3), graphite added with 0, 2, 3, 4, and 5 wt% fly ash were utilized to prepare 10wt% reinforcing phase with Zn-27Al alloy as matrix using two-step stir casting method. Density measurement estimated percentage porosity, tensile testing, micro hardness measurement, and optical microscopy were used to assess the performance of the composites produced. The results show that the hardness, ultimate tensile strength, and percent elongation of the hybrid composites decrease with increase in fly ash content. The maximum decrease in hardness and ultimate tensile strength of 13.72% and 15.25% respectively were observed for composite grade containing 5wt% fly ash. The percentage elongation of composite sample without fly ash is 8.9% which is comparable with that of the sample containing 2wt% fly ash with percentage elongation of 8.8%. The fracture toughness of the fly ash containing composites was, however, superior to those of composites without fly ash with 5wt% fly ash containing composite exhibiting the highest fracture toughness. The results show that fly ash can be utilized as complementary reinforcement in ZA-27 alloy matrix composite to reduce cost.

Keywords: fly ash, hybrid composite, mechanical behaviour, stir-cast

Procedia PDF Downloads 331

Authors: Dinesh Pathaka, Tomas Wagnera, J. M. Nunzib

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We investigated blends of MdPVV.PCBM.AIS for photovoltaic application. AgInSe2 powder was synthesized by sealing and heating the stoichiometric constituents in evacuated quartz tube ampule. Fine grinded AIS powder was dispersed in MD-MOPVV and PCBM with and without surfactant. Different concentrations of these particles were suspended in the polymer solutions and spin casted onto ITO glass. Morphological studies have been performed by atomic force microscopy and optical microscopy. The blend layers were also investigated by various techniques like XRD, UV-VIS optical spectroscopy, AFM, PL, after a series of various optimizations with polymers/concentration/deposition/ suspension/surfactants etc. XRD investigation of blend layers shows clear evidence of AIS dispersion in polymers. Diode behavior and cell parameters also revealed it. Bulk heterojunction hybrid photovoltaic device Ag/MoO3/MdPVV.PCBM.AIS/ZnO/ITO was fabricated and tested with standard solar simulator and device characterization system. The best performance and photovoltaic parameters we obtained was an open-circuit voltage of about Voc 0.54 V and a photocurrent of Isc 117 micro A and an efficiency of 0.2 percent using a white light illumination intensity of 23 mW/cm2. Our results are encouraging for further research on the fourth generation inorganic organic hybrid bulk heterojunction photovoltaics for energy. More optimization with spinning rate/thickness/solvents/deposition rates for active layers etc. need to be explored for improved photovoltaic response of these bulk heterojunction devices.

Keywords: thin films, photovoltaic, hybrid systems, heterojunction

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Authors: Siqi Fang, Jingxi Hou

Abstract:

Positive psychology and coaching psychology share a number of fundamental assumptions and common themes. Blending positive psychology, mindfulness, and coaching psychology, our work in team coaching with leaders enhances both leadership and team effectiveness. Although individual coaching has proven to be effective, this article advocates the benefits of leadership coaching in team settings, because durable changes in leadership behaviors are more likely to occur. Does leadership team coaching really work? Does it help improve senior leadership team effectiveness and productivity? This action research study answers these questions by tracking the progress of three typical senior leadership teams consisting of 31 executives participating in a six-month team coaching program. Assessments (pre- and post), workshops, and feedback based on ego development theories and mindfulness were applied to upgrade the senior leadership teams’ transformational stages and reframe their organizational leadership cultures. Results suggest that the team effectiveness of the three leadership teams increased up to 43 percent according to post-survey feedback from superior, direct report, and peers. Discussion is offered to show that senior leadership team coaching help teams to achieve a consensus on common purposes, establish a foundation of trust, improve collective skills, and promote efficient operation. All factors translate into better team performance. Implications of the results for future executive development programs are discussed and specific recommendations are provided.

Keywords: action research, ego development, mindfulness, senior leadership team coaching, team effectiveness, transformational stages

Procedia PDF Downloads 364

Authors: Siri Marthe Arbo, Afaf Saai, Sture Sørli, Mette Nedreberg

Abstract:

This work aims to establish a reliable approach for optimizing a Laser Metal Deposition (LMD) process for a critical maritime component, based on the material properties and structural performance required by the maritime industry. The component of interest is a water jet impeller, for which specific requirements for material properties are defined. The developed approach is based on the assessment of the effects of LMD process parameters on microstructure and material performance of standard AM 2205 duplex stainless steel powder. Duplex stainless steel offers attractive properties for maritime applications, combining high strength, enhanced ductility and excellent corrosion resistance due to the specific amounts of ferrite and austenite. These properties are strongly affected by the microstructural characteristics in addition to microstructural defects such as porosity and welding defects, all strongly influenced by the chosen LMD process parameters. In this study, the influence of deposition speed and heat input was evaluated. First, the influences of deposition speed and heat input on the microstructure characteristics, including ferrite/austenite fraction, amount of porosity and welding defects, were evaluated. Then, the achieved mechanical properties were evaluated by standard testing methods, measuring the hardness, tensile strength and elongation, bending force and impact energy. The measured properties were compared to the requirements of the water jet impeller. The results show that the required amounts of ferrite and austenite can be achieved directly by the LMD process without post-weld heat treatments. No intermetallic phases were observed in the material produced by the investigated process parameters. A high deposition speed was found to reduce the ductility due to the formation of welding defects. An increased heat input was associated with reduced strength due to the coarsening of the ferrite/austenite microstructure. The microstructure characterizations and measured mechanical performance demonstrate the great potential of the LMD process and generate a valuable database for the optimization of the LMD process for duplex stainless steels.

Keywords: duplex stainless steel, laser metal deposition, process optimization, microstructure, mechanical properties

Procedia PDF Downloads 212