Search results for: quality of food

Authors: I-En Lin, Feng-Jung Yang

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In addition to kidney transplant, renal replacement therapy involves hemodialysis and peritoneal dialysis (PD). PD possesses advantages such as maintaining stable physiological blood status and blood pressure, alleviating anemia, and improving mobility, which make it an ideal method for at-home dialysis treatment. However, potential danger still exists despite the numerous advantages of PD, particularly when patients require dialysis exchange four to five times a day, during which improper operation can easily lead to peritonitis. The process of draining and filling is called an exchange and takes about 30 to 40 minutes. Connecting the transfer set requires sterile technique. Transfer set may require a new cap each time that it disconnects from the bag after an exchange. There are many chances to get infection due to unsafe behavior (ex: hand tremor, poor eyesight and weakness, cap fall-down). The proposed semi-automatic connection mechanism used in the PD can greatly reduce infection chances. This light-weight connection device is portable. The device also does not require using throughout the entire process. It is capable of significantly improving quality of life. Therefore, it is very promising to adopt in home care application.

Keywords: automatic connection, catheter, glomerulonephritis, peritoneal dialysis

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Authors: Kaushalendra K. Khadanga, Lee Hee Hyol

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Passenger comfort has been paramount in the design of suspension systems of high speed cars. To analyze the effect of vibration on vehicle ride quality, a vertical model of a six degree of freedom railway passenger vehicle, with front and rear suspension, is built. It includes car body flexible effects and vertical rigid modes. A second order linear shaping filter is constructed to model Gaussian white noise into random rail excitation. The temporal correlation between the front and rear wheels is given by a second order Pade approximation. The complete track and the vehicle model are then designed. An active secondary suspension system based on a Linear Quadratic Gaussian (LQG) optimal control method is designed. The results show that the LQG control method reduces the vertical acceleration, pitching acceleration and vertical bending vibration of the car body as compared to the passive system.

Keywords: active suspension, bending vibration, railway vehicle, vibration control

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Authors: Yung Gi Wu

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With the growing of computer and network, digital data can be spread to anywhere in the world quickly. In addition, digital data can also be copied or tampered easily so that the security issue becomes an important topic in the protection of digital data. Digital watermark is a method to protect the ownership of digital data. Embedding the watermark will influence the quality certainly. In this paper, Vector Quantization (VQ) is used to embed the watermark into the image to fulfill the goal of data hiding. This kind of watermarking is invisible which means that the users will not conscious the existing of embedded watermark even though the embedded image has tiny difference compared to the original image. Meanwhile, VQ needs a lot of computation burden so that we adopt a fast VQ encoding scheme by partial distortion searching (PDS) and mean approximation scheme to speed up the data hiding process. The watermarks we hide to the image could be gray, bi-level and color images. Texts are also can be regarded as watermark to embed. In order to test the robustness of the system, we adopt Photoshop to fulfill sharpen, cropping and altering to check if the extracted watermark is still recognizable. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed system can resist the above three kinds of tampering in general cases.

Keywords: data hiding, vector quantization, watermark, color image

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Authors: H. Shokouhmand, M. Degheh, B. Sajadi, H. Sobhani

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The induct ultraviolet germicidal irradiation (UVGI) systems are broadly used nowadays and their utilization is widened every day. Even though these systems are not applicable individually, they are very suitable supplements for the traditional filtration systems. The amount of inactivated microorganisms is dependent on the air velocity, lamp power, fluence rate distribution, and also germicidal susceptibility of microorganisms. In this paper, these factors are investigated utilizing an air-microorganism two-phase numerical model. The eulerian-lagrangian method was used to have more detailed information on the history of each particle. The UVGI system was modeled in three steps including: 1) modeling the air flow, 2) modeling the discrete phase of particles, 3) modeling the UV intensity field, and 4) modeling the particle inactivation. The results from modeling different lamp arrangements and powers showed that the system functions better at more homogeneous irradiation distribution. Since increasing the air flow rate of the device results in increasing of particle inactivation rate, the optimal air velocity shall be adjusted in accordance with the microorganism production rate, and the air quality requirement using the curves represented in this paper.

Keywords: CFD, microorganism, two-phase flow, ultraviolet germicidal irradiation

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Authors: Marzieh Yassin, Masoud Rashed, Soheil Mansour Sohani, Reza Salehi

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Background: Hip arthroplasty is one of the surgical methods to improve symptoms in patients with hip osteoarthritis. The use of electroacupuncture and TENS reduces pain, increases range of motion and improves performance. Methods: In this clinical trial study, 30 patients after hip arthroplasty were randomly divided into two groups: electroacupuncture (n=16) with exercise therapy and TENS with exercise therapy (n=14). Severity of pain, quality of life, range of motion, edema and function were evaluated in two groups before and after the interventions. Interventions of 10 sessions (three sessions per week) were conducted for two groups. The significance level in all tests was below 0.05. Results: The results showed that both groups improved all of the symptoms after the intervention (p≤0.05), although there was no statistically significant difference between the two groups in terms of effectiveness (p≥0.05). Conclusion: The results showed that both methods improve symptoms in patients after surgery. According to this study, electroacupuncture is suggested as a new method effective for the treatment of people with post-Total Hip Arthroplasty.

Keywords: electroacupuncture, physical performance, total hip arthroplasty, TENS

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Authors: Brittany L. Kang

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One familiar theory of the origin of multiple personalities focuses on how symptoms of trauma or abuse are central causes, as seen in paradigmatic examples of the condition. The theory states that multiple personalities constitute a congenital condition, as babies all exhibit multiplicity, and that generally alters only remain separated due to trauma. In more typical cases, the alters converge and become a single identity; only in cases of trauma, according to this account, do the alters remain separated. This theory is misleading in many aspects, the most prominent being that not all multiple personality patients are victims of child abuse or trauma, nor are all cases of multiple personality observed in early childhood. The use of this criterion also causes clinical problems, including an inability to identify multiple personalities through the variety of symptoms and traits seen across observed cases. These issues present a need for revision in the currently applied criterion in order to separate the notion of child abuse and to be able to better understand the origins of multiple personalities itself. Identifying multiplicity through the application of identity theories will improve the current criterion, offering a bridge between identifying existing cases and understanding their origins. We begin by applying arguments from Wiggins, who held that each personality within a multiple was not a whole individual, but rather characters who switch off. Wiggins’ theory is supported by observational evidence of how such characters are differentiated. Alters of older ages are seen to require different prescription lens, in addition to having different handwriting. The alters may also display drastically varying styles of clothing, preferences in food, their gender, sexuality, religious beliefs and more. The definitions of terms such as 'personality' or 'persons' also become more distinguished, leading to greater understanding of who is exactly able to be classified as a patient of multiple personalities. While a more common meaning of personality is a designation of specific characteristics which account for the entirety of a person, this paper argues from Wiggins’ theory that each 'personality' is in fact only partial. Clarification of the concept in question will allow for more successful future clinical applications.

Keywords: identification, multiple personalities, origin, Wiggins' theory

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Authors: Abdulkadir Mustapha Gana, Musa Baba Adamu, Edimeh Augustine Jr

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There are growing concerns over the astronomical decline inquality of teaching and learning amongst youths especially in developing countries, and handful research have been conducted in this regard. However, results from many of these studies revealed similar findings which all pointed to the steady decline in quality of teaching and learning across the globe. One common factor attributed for this drawback was the new media due to the evolution and advancement of technology as studies have revealed. In the beginning, what was then the new media (broadcast media of radio and television) was singled out as being responsible for diverting people’s attention from reading; particularly television. At present times, it was revealed that the social media and internet connectivity were responsible for diverting the attention of many, thus distracting attentions from reading. However, it is pertinent to note that the devastating effects, social media platforms have a couple of tools that could improve reading by extension teaching and learning amongst students. Therefore, this study reviewed the literature on the advantageous aspect of social media to reading and learning; whilst laying emphasis on how youths can utilize social media to improve their reading habits.

Keywords: ebook, reading, learning, students

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Authors: Stefan Werrlich, Phuc-Anh Nguyen, Kai Nitsche, Gunther Notni

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Augmented Reality (AR) is a strong growing research topic. This innovative technology is interesting for several training domains like education, medicine, military, sports and industrial use cases like assembly and maintenance tasks. AR can help to improve the efficiency, quality and transfer of training tasks. Due to these reasons, AR becomes more interesting for big companies and researchers because the industrial domain is still an unexplored field. This paper presents the research proposal of a PhD thesis which is done in cooperation with the BMW Group, aiming to explore head-mounted display (HMD) based training in industrial environments. We give a short introduction, describing the motivation, the underlying problems as well as the five formulated research questions we want to clarify along this thesis. We give a brief overview of the current assembly training in industrial environments and present some AR-based training approaches, including their research deficits. We use the Design Science Research (DSR) framework for this thesis and describe how we want to realize the seven guidelines, mandatory from the DSR. Furthermore, we describe each methodology which we use within that framework and present our approach in a comprehensive figure, representing the entire thesis.

Keywords: assembly, augmented reality, research proposal, training

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Authors: Mahmood Salahi, Fatemeh Abbasi

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Increasing urbanization will be one of the defining features of the 21st century. This produces particular environmental challenges, but also creates opportunities for urban development that can contribute to broader goals of improving the quality of life for urban residents while achieving greater levels of global sustainability. Half of the world’s population already lives in urban areas, with a growing number of these people living in towns and cities in low and middle-income countries. As well as being a demographic phenomenon, urbanisation is intricately linked with economic, social and environmental transitions. The increasing proportion of the world’s population living in urban areas has been driven by the growing concentration of new investment and employment opportunities. In general, nations with the most rapid and sustained economic growth have urbanized most.2 Urban centres provide opportunities for a range of social and cultural activities, as well as being critical for innovations in science, technology and education. Indeed, urban areas are of critical importance for social and economic development: as the Cities Alliance recognizes, 'only sustained urban growth has the capacity to lift both rural and urban populations out of poverty'.

Keywords: environment, urban planning, management, urbanization

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Authors: Tamás Hartványi, Ferenc Tóth

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European telecommunication distribution center performance is measured by service lead time and quality. Operation model is CTO (customized to order) namely, a high mix customization of telecommunication network equipment and parts. CTO operation contains material receiving, warehousing, network and server assembly to order and configure based on customer specifications. Variety of the product and orders does not support mass production structure. One of the success factors to satisfy customer is to have a proper aggregated planning method for the operation in order to have optimized human resources and highly efficient asset utilization. Research will investigate several methods and find proper way to have an order book simulation where practical optimization problem may contain thousands of variables and the simulation running times of developed algorithms were taken into account with high importance. There are two operation research models that were developed, customer demand is given in orders, no change over time, customer demands are given for product types, and changeover time is constant.

Keywords: CTO, aggregated planning, demand simulation, changeover time

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Authors: Hacer Sule Gonul, Vedat Uyak

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Intensive use of pesticides in agricultural activity causes mixing of these compounds into water sources with surface flow. Especially after the 1970s, a number of limitations imposed on the use of chlorinated pesticides that have a carcinogenic risk potential and regulatory limit have been established. These chlorinated pesticides discharge to water resources, transport in the water and land environment and accumulation in the human body through the food chain raises serious health concerns. Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) have attracted considerable attention from on all because of their excellent mechanical, electrical, and environmental characteristics. Due to CNT particles' high degree of hydrophobic surfaces, these nanoparticles play critical role in the removal of water contaminants of natural organic matters, pesticides and phenolic compounds in water sources. Health concerns associated with chlorinated pesticides requires the removal of such contaminants from aquatic environment. Although the use of aldrin and atrazine was restricted in our country, repatriation of illegal entry and widespread use of such chemicals in agricultural areas cause increases for the concentration of these chemicals in the water supply. In this study, the compounds of chlorinated pesticides such as aldrin and atrazine compounds would be tried to eliminate from drinking water with carbon nanotube adsorption method. Within this study, 2 different types of CNT would be used including single-wall (SWCNT) and multi-wall (MWCNT) carbon nanotubes. Adsorption isotherms within the scope of work, the parameters affecting the adsorption of chlorinated pesticides in water are considered as pH, contact time, CNT type, CNT dose and initial concentration of pesticides. As a result, under conditions of neutral pH conditions with MWCNT respectively for atrazine and aldrin obtained adsorption capacity of determined as 2.24 µg/mg ve 3.84 µg/mg. On the other hand, the determined adsorption capacity rates for SWCNT for aldrin and atrazine has identified as 3.91 µg/mg ve 3.92 µg/mg. After all, each type of pesticide that provides superior performance in relieving SWCNT particles has emerged.

Keywords: pesticide, drinking water, carbon nanotube, adsorption

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Authors: Bernard Doherty, Andrew Jelfs, Aveek Dasgupta, Patrick Holden

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Many companies have moved to agile and hybrid agile methodologies where portions of the Software Design Life-cycle (SDLC) and Software Test Life-cycle (STLC) can be time boxed in order to enhance delivery speed, quality and to increase flexibility to changes in software requirements. Despite widespread proliferation of agile practices, implementation often fails due to lack of adequate project management support, decreased motivation or fear of increased interaction. Consequently, few organizations effectively adopt agile processes with tailoring often required to integrate agile methodology in large scale environments. This paper provides an overview of the challenges in implementing an innovative large-scale tailored realization of the agile methodology termed the Agile Factory Model (AFM), with the aim of comparing and contrasting issues of specific importance to organizations undertaking large scale agile development. The conclusions demonstrate that agile practices can be effectively translated to a globally distributed development environment.

Keywords: agile, agile factory model, globally distributed development, large-scale agile

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Authors: C. Catalina Zapata, Z. Claudia Montoya

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Transplant from hematopoietic parents (THP) or medulla (MT) is a procedure used to replace the medulla that does not work as part of a disease or when it is destroyed either by a treatment of high medication doses against cancer or by radiation. The transplant process has three stages, a stage prior to transplant, during and after the transplant. It is held with the help of an interdisciplinary team, including nursing, carrying out mainly educative procedures to warrant the adhesion and the changes in lifestyles needed to whom will undergo this procedure. The aim of the study was to assess the results of an educative procedure by nursing, on adult patients subjected to a transplant from hematopoietic parents at a high complexity institution of Medellin city, Colombia. This study had an observational longitudinal design. According to the rules of protocol, the educative activity must be held on all patients joining the procedure. Four instruments were designed in order to collect all the information. One of them to measure the sociodemographic variables, another one to measure self-care practices, another one to measure transplant knowledge and its cares and the other one to measure the 30-day post-transplant complications. The last three instruments were applied before and after the educative procedure. A univaried analysis was carried out but the bivaried analysis was not carried out since there were not statistically meaningful differences before and after. Within the results, ten patients were evaluated. The average age was 38.2 (13.38 SD – standard deviation), 8/10 were men. Some self-care practices such us having pets and plants and consuming some specific food as well as little use of UV protection are all present in this type of patients and are not modified after the procedure. In measuring the knowledge, something stands out among the answers. It is the fact that some patients do not know what the medulla is, the nature of separating wastes at home and the need to consult about vomit and nausea. The most frequent complications during the first thirty days were: nausea, vomit, fever, and rash. They are considered to be expected within this period. Patients do not exhibit differences in their level of knowledge before and after the educative procedure by nursing. The patients’ self-care practices do not involve all the necessary ones to avoid complications. During the first 30 days, most of the complications are typical of the transplant process from hematopoietic parents.

Keywords: bone marrow transplant, education, family, nursing, patients, Transplantation of hematopoietic progenitors

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Authors: Zintle Kolo, Ndiko Ludidi

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The enzymatic activity of p-coumarate 3-hydroxylase (C3H) synthesize caffeic acid from p-coumaric acid. We recently showed that exogenously applied caffeic acid confers salinity tolerance in soybean (Glycine max) by inducing antioxidant enzymatic activity to promote enhanced scavenging or reactive oxygen species, thus limiting salinity-induced oxidative stress. Recent evidence also establishes that pre-treatment of plants with exogenously supplied caffeic acid improves plant tolerance to osmotic stress by improving plant antioxidant capacity and enhancing biosynthesis of compatible solutes. We aimed to identify a C3H in maize (Zea mays) and evaluate the effect of drought on the spatial and temporal expression of the gene encoding the candidate maize C3H (ZmC3H). Primary sequence analysis shows that ZmC3H shares 71% identity with an Arabidopsis thaliana C3H that is implicated in the control of Arabidopsis cell expansion, growth, and responses to stress. In silico ZmC3H promoter analysis reveals the presence of cis-acting elements that interact with transcription factors implicated in plant responses to drought. Spatial expression analysis by semi-quantitative RT-PCR shows that ZmC3H is expressed in both leaves and roots under normal conditions. However, drought represses the expression of ZmC3H in leaves whereas it up-regulates its expression in roots. These changes in ZmC3H expression correlate with the changes in the content of caffeic acid in maize in response to drought. We illustrate the implications of these changes in the expression of the gene in relation to maize responses to drought and discuss the potential of regulating caffeic acid biosynthesis towards genetic improvement of maize tolerance to drought stress. These findings have implications for food security because of the potential of the implications of the study for drought tolerance in maize.

Keywords: caffeic acid, drought-responsive expression, maize drought tolerance, p-coumarate 3-hydroxylase

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Authors: Choonoh Lee, Seyeon Park, Dongyun Kang, Jaehyeong Choi, Soojee Kim, Younggeun Kim

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Market Kurly is the first South Korean online grocery retailer that guarantees same-day, overnight shipping. More than 1.6 million customers place an average of 4.7 million orders and add 3 to 14 products into a cart per month. The company has sold almost 30,000 kinds of various products in the past 6 months, including food items, cosmetics, kitchenware, toys for kids/pets, and even flowers. The company is operating and expanding multiple dry, cold, and frozen fulfillment centers in order to store and ship these products. Due to the scale and complexity of the fulfillment, pick-pack-ship processes are planned and operated in batches, and thus, the planning that decides the batch of the customers’ orders is a critical factor in overall productivity. This paper introduces a metaheuristic optimization method that reduces the complexity of batch processing in a fulfillment center. The method is an iterative genetic algorithm with heuristic creation and evolution strategies; it aims to group similar orders into pick-pack-ship batches to minimize the total number of distinct products. With a well-designed approach to create initial genes, the method produces streamlined plans, up to 13.5% less complex than the actual plans carried out in the company’s fulfillment centers in the previous months. Furthermore, our digital-twin simulations show that the optimized plans can reduce 3% of operation time for packing, which is the most complex and time-consuming task in the process. The optimization method implements a multithreading design on the Spring framework to support the company’s warehouse management systems in near real-time, finding a solution for 4,000 orders within 5 to 7 seconds on an AWS c5.2xlarge instance.

Keywords: fulfillment planning, genetic algorithm, online grocery retail, optimization

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Authors: Md. Golam Mostafa

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This paper describes the use of Koha open source library management software for information management in university libraries of Bangladesh. Manual record keeping is a time-consuming and tedious task, which may lead to errors frequently. To maintain the quality of services, any organization needs to manage with the help of a computerized system. The advent of information technology paved the way for library computerization. This paper has provided a short history as well as the present ongoing development of the library computerization system in Bangladesh, which has developed as a library management software Koha on the basis of research and development. Koha integrated library systems (ILS) software is very user friendly open source software. It refers to software in which the source code is freely available for others to view, amend, and adapt. Koha integrated library systems maintained by and used by libraries all over the world. In this context, this paper will analyze Koha library management software, which proves appropriate for the present necessities of library management in Bangladesh. At last, result from the study has been analyzed using different tables and graphs.

Keywords: Koha Open Source Software, integrated library system, RFID facilities, university libraries, Bangladesh

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Authors: Turki Alotaibi

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Student counseling programs can provide many benefits to students in schools all around the world. In theory, the government of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (Saudi Arabia) has committed itself to school counseling programs in educational institutions throughout the country. Student counselors face a number of burdens and obstacles that impact student counseling programs. It is also widely known that Saudi Arabia has extremely high prevalence rates for overweight and obesity, anxiety and depression, and diabetes in children. It has also been demonstrated that teachers and staff are inadequately prepared when dealing with health issues relating to diabetes in schools in Saudi Arabia. This study will clearly demonstrate how student counselors in Saudi Arabia could become 'New Educators' in Saudi schools in relation to these health issues. This would allow them to leverage their position as student counselor to improve the management of these health issues in Saudi schools, to improve the quality of care provided to school children, and to overcome burdens and obstacles that are currently negatively affecting student counseling in Saudi schools.

Keywords: anxiety and depression, diabetes, overweight and obesity, policy recommendations, student counseling, The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

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Authors: Mehdi Seifollahi, Ashkan Forootan, Sajjad Bahrami Reyhan

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Due to the complexity of olefinic plants, various environmental pollutants exist such as NO_x, CO₂, Tar Water, and most importantly Spent Caustic. In this paper, instead of investigating ways of treating this pollutant, we evaluated the production in relation to plant’s variable items. We primarily discussed the factors affecting the quality of the output spent caustic such as impurities in the feed of olefin plant, the amount of injected dimethyl disulfide (DMDS) in furnaces, variation in feed composition, differences among gas temperatures and the concentration of caustic solution at the bottom of the tower. The results of the laboratory proved that in the formation of Red Oil, 1,3butadiene and acetaldehyde followed free radical and aldol condensation mechanism respectively. By increasing the injection rate of DMDS, Mercaptide amount increases in the effluent. In addition, pyrolysis gasoline accumulation is directly related to caustic concentration in the tower. Increasing naphtenes in the liquid feed augments the amount of 1,3butadiene, as one of the sources of Red Oil formation. By increasing the oxygenated compound in the feed, the rate of acetaldehyde formation, as the main source of Red Oil formation, increases.

Keywords: olefin, spent caustic, red oil, caustic wash tower

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Authors: Saman Javadi, Mohammad Hassan Mahmoudi, Fatemeh Jafari, Aminreza Neshat

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Urmia Lake’s water level has been dropped during the past decade. Although the most common reason in studies was declared climate change, but observation of adjacent lake (like Van in Turkey) is not the same as the common reason. Most of studies were focused on climate and land use change, but groundwater resource as one of the most important element is negligible. Due to population and agriculture activities growth, exploration of groundwater resource has been increased. In as much as continued decline of water levels can lead to saltwater intrusion, reduce stream discharge near outcrop regions and threaten groundwater quality, aquifers of this region were affected by saltwater intrusion of Urmia Lake. In this research comparison of saltwater intrusion into eastern and western coastal aquifer was studied. In conclusion eastern aquifers are in a critical situation; vice versa the western ones are in a better situation. Thus applying management of groundwater operation would be necessary for eastern aquifers.

Keywords: coastal aquifer, groundwater over-exploration, saltwater intrusion, Urmia Lake

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Authors: Aisha Khodijah Kholib Jati, Suharni Mohamad, Azlan Husin, Wan Suriana Wan Ab Rahman

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Introduction: Toxoplasmosis is caused by an obligate intracellular parasite, Toxoplasma gondii (T. gondii). It is commonly asymptomatic in normal individual, but it can be fatal to immunocompromised patients as it can lead to severe complications such as encephalitis, chorioetinitis and myocarditis. Objective: The aim of the study was to determine the seroprevalence of toxoplasmosis and its association with socio-demographic and behavioral characteristics among hemato-oncology patients in Hospital USM. Methods: In this cross-sectional study, 56 hemato-oncology patients were screened for immunoglobulin M (IgM) antibodies, immunoglobulin G (IgG) antibodies, and IgG avidity of T. gondii by using ELISA Kit (BioRad, USA). For anti-T. gondii IgG antibody, titer ≥ 9 IU/ml was considered as recent infection, while for IgM, ratio ≥ 1.00 was considered as reactive for the anti-T. gondii IgM antibodies. Low avidity index is considered as recent infection within 20 weeks while high avidity considered as past infection. T. gondii exposure, socio-demographic and behavioral characteristics was assessed by a questionnaire and interview. Results: A total of 28 (50.0%) hemato-oncology patients were seropositive for T. gondii antibodies. Out of that total, 27 (48.21%) patients were IgG+/IgM- and one patient (1.79%) was IgG+/IgM+ with high avidity index. Univariate analysis showed that age, gender, ethnicity, marital status, educational level, employment status, stem cell transplant, blood transfusion, close contact with cats, water supply, and consumption of undercooked meat were not significantly associated with Toxoplasma seropositivity rate. Discussion: The seropositivity rate of IgG anti-T. gondii was high among hemato-oncology patients in Hospital USM. With impaired immune system, these patients might have a severe consequence if the infection reactivated. Therefore, screening for anti-T. gondii may be considered in the future. Moreover, health programme towards healthy food and good hygiene practice need to be implemented.

Keywords: immunocompromised, seroprevalence, socio-demographic, toxoplasmosis

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Authors: Bassem Boshra Thabet, Mohammed Ibrahim Elsabagh, Mohammad Adly Talaat

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The number of cellular mobile phone users has increased enormously worldwide over the last two decades. Consequently, the monitoring of the performance of the Mobile Network Operators (MNOs) in terms of network coverage and broadband signal strength has become vital for both of the MNOs and regulators. This monitoring helps telecommunications operators and regulators keeping the market playing fair and most beneficial for users. However, the adopted methodologies to facilitate this continuous monitoring process are still problematic regarding cost, effort, and reliability. This paper introduces My Operator Coverage (MOC) system that is using Internet of Things (IoT) concepts and tools to monitor the MNOs performance using a crowd-sourced real-time methodology. MOC produces robust and reliable geographical maps for the user-perceived quality of the MNOs performance. MOC is also meant to enrich the telecommunications regulators with concrete, and up-to-date information that allows for adequate mobile market management strategies as well as appropriate decision making.

Keywords: mobile performance monitoring, crowd-sourced applications, mobile broadband performance, cellular networks monitoring

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Authors: Alazar G. Ejigu

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Cities have traditionally been designed for and by men. Despite positive changes in this regard, contemporary cities appear to offer limited options and experiences to women in their everyday life. There are differences regarding the quality of space. Distressed or disadvantaged areas often have less access to urban qualities, such as services, parks, and public places, than more privileged ones. The most attractive meeting-places are located centrally, whereas many suburban areas lack these elements. By focusing on young women living in multi-ethnic working-class suburban areas in Stockholm - a group generally ignored and disadvantaged; the study aims to examine various forms of inequality or equality in three selected neighborhoods. Spatial data was collected through walk-along with the young girls, inventory of the places, and geodata made available by Statistics Sweden (SCB). The combined data was analyzed with the help of Geographic Information Systems (GIS). In line with Crenshaw - one of the forerunners of intersectional thinking – the project departs from the idea that if we address the needs of those who are disadvantaged and restructure urban space accordingly, then others will benefit too. Thus, working our way towards a more equal city.

Keywords: GIS, segregation, gender equality, urban planning

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Authors: O. J. Ajayi, J. H. Tsado, F. Olah

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The study analyzed the effect of information and communication technology (ICT) usage on cassava farmers in Otukpo local government area of Benue state, Nigeria. Primary data was collected from 120 randomly selected cassava farmers using multi-stage sampling technique. A structured questionnaire and interview schedule was employed to generate data. Data were analyzed using descriptive (frequency, mean and percentage) and inferential statistics (OLS (ordinary least square) and Chi-square). The result revealed that majority (78.3%) were within the age range of 21-50 years implying that the respondents were within the active age for maximum production. 96.8% of the respondents had one form of formal education or the other. The sources of ICT facilities readily available in area were radio(84.2%), television(64.2%) and mobile phone(90.8%) with the latter being the most relied upon for cassava farming. Most of the farmers were aware (98.3%) and had access (95.8%) to these ICT facilities. The dependence on mobile phone and radio were highly relevant in cassava stem selection, land selection, land preparation, cassava planting technique, fertilizer application and pest and disease management. The value of coefficient of determination (R2) indicated an 89.1% variation in the output of cassava farmers explained by the inputs indicated in the regression model implying that, there is a positive and significant relationship between the inputs and output. The results also indicated that labour, fertilizer and farm size were significant at 1% level of probability while ICT use was significant at 10%. Further findings showed that finance (78.3%) was the major constraint associated with ICT use. Recommendations were made on strengthening the use of ICT especially contemporary ones like the computer and internet among farmers for easy information sourcing which can boost agricultural production, improve livelihood and subsequently food security. This may be achieved by providing credit or subsidies and information centres like telecentres and cyber cafes through government assistance or partnership.

Keywords: ICT, cassava farmers, inputs, output

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Authors: Ahmed Metawea, Rodrigo Soto, Majeida Kharejesh, Gavin Walker, Ahmad B. Albadarin

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In this study, towards a green approach, we have investigated the effect of operating conditions of solvent assessed twin-screw extruder (TSE) for the production of 4, 4-bipyridine (1-dimensional coordinated polymer (1D)) based coordinated polymer using cobalt nitrate as a metal precursor with molar ratio 1:1. Different operating parameters such as solvent percentage, screw speed and feeding rate are considered. The resultant product is characterized using offline characterization methods, namely Powder X-ray diffraction (PXRD), Raman spectroscopy and scanning electron microscope (SEM) in order to investigate the product purity and surface morphology. A lower feeding rate increased the product’s quality as more resident time was provided for the reaction to take place. The most important influencing factor was the amount of liquid added. The addition of water helped in facilitating the reaction inside the TSE by increasing the surface area of the reaction for particles

Keywords: MOFS, multivariate analysis, process optimization, chemometric

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Authors: Prasenjit Singha, Ajay Kumar Shukla

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To produce high-quality steel in larger volumes, dynamic control of composition and temperature throughout the process is essential. In this paper, we developed a mass transfer model based on thermodynamics to simulate the ladle metallurgy steel-making process using FactSage and its macro facility. The overall heat and mass transfer processes consist of one equilibrium chamber, two non-equilibrium chambers, and one adiabatic reactor. The flow of material, as well as heat transfer, occurs across four interconnected unit chambers and a reactor. We used the macro programming facility of FactSage™ software to understand the thermochemical model of the secondary steel making process. In our model, we varied the oxygen content during the process and studied their effect on the composition of the final hot metal and slag. The model has been validated with respect to the plant data for the steel composition, which is similar to the ladle metallurgy steel-making process in the industry. The resulting composition profile serves as a guiding tool to optimize the process of ladle metallurgy in steel-making industries.

Keywords: desulphurization, degassing, factsage, reactor

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Authors: N. R. N. Mendis, S. N. Silva

Abstract:

Introduction: Patient satisfaction of services provided by primary care health services depends on many factors. One key factor in this depends on is the nursing services received in primary care. Since majority of the primary care in Sri Lanka is provided by the private sector, it is important to assess patient satisfaction on this. Objective: To assess the satisfaction among the public on nurses working in dispensaries in Sri Lanka. Methods: A descriptive study was done on 200 individual selected using convenient sampling among dispensaries in Gampaha district, Sri Lanka. Results: 59.3% of the sample had long term illnesses or disabilities and all of them preferred speaking to a nurse. 70.9% of the sample used to make appointments with nurses while 57.8% out of them were comfortable in discussing their health concerns. 98.9 % agreed that they get individual attention by the nurses. Majority of the sample that is 34.2% spends around 20 minutes with the nurse without even making any pay. Significantly, the whole sample believes that the nurses are professional and admits that the care given is of high quality. All 100% of the sample said that the nurses could understand their concerns while 93.5% admitted that it was very useful in their recovery. Conclusions: Majority of the public were very much satisfied with the nurses and their practice at the dispensaries.

Keywords: health education, nurses practices, patient satisfaction, primary care

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Authors: C. Temaneh-Nyah

Abstract:

Electromagnetic compatibility (EMC) is the ability of a Radio Communication Equipment (RCE) to operate with a desired quality of service in a given Electromagnetic Environment (EME) and not to create harmful interference with other RCE. This paper presents an algorithm which improves the simulation speed of estimating EMC of RCE in a complex EME, based on a stage by stage frequency-energy criterion of filtering. This algorithm considers different interference types including: Blocking and intermodulation. It consist of the following steps: simplified energy criterion where filtration is based on comparing the free space interference level to the industrial noise, frequency criterion which checks whether the interfering emissions characteristic overlap with the receiver’s channels characteristic and lastly the detailed energy criterion where the real channel interference level is compared to the noise level. In each of these stages, some interference cases are filtered out by the relevant criteria. This reduces the total number of dual and different combinations of RCE involved in the tedious detailed energy analysis and thus provides an improved simulation speed.

Keywords: electromagnetic compatibility, electromagnetic environment, simulation of communication network

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Authors: Naman Singla, Ajay Pal Singh Chauhan

Abstract:

As the demand for providing high bit rate and high bandwidth is increasing at a rapid rate so there is a need to see in this problem and finds a technology that provides high bit rate and also high bandwidth. One possible solution is by use of optical fiber. Optical fiber technology provides high bandwidth in THz. But the disadvantage of optical fiber is of high cost and not used everywhere because it is not possible to reach all the locations on the earth. Also high maintenance required for usage of optical fiber. It puts a lot of cost. Another technology which is almost similar to optical fiber is Free Space Optics (FSO) technology. FSO is the line of sight technology where modulated optical beam whether infrared or visible is used to transfer information from one point to another through the atmosphere which works as a channel. This paper concentrates on analyzing the performance of FSO in terms of bit error rate (BER) and quality factor (Q) using different modulation techniques like non return to zero on off keying (NRZ-OOK), differential phase shift keying (DPSK) and differential quadrature phase shift keying (DQPSK) using OptiSystem software. The findings of this paper show that FSO system based on DQPSK modulation technique performs better.

Keywords: attenuation, bit rate, free space optics, link length

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Authors: Salisu Umar

Abstract:

Fruits are a seasonal crop and get spoiled quickly. They are dried to be preserved for a long period. The natural drying process requires more time. The investment on space requirement and infrastructure is large, and cannot be afforded by a middle class farmer. Therefore there is a need for a comparatively small unit with reduced drying times, which can be afforded by a middle class farmer. A controlled environment suitable for fruit drying is developed within a closed chamber and is a three step process. Firstly, the infrared light is used internally to preheated the fruit to speedily remove the water content inside the fruit for fast drying. Secondly, hot air of a specified temperature is blown inside the chamber to maintain the humidity below a specified level and exhaust the humid air of the chamber. Thirdly the microcontroller idles disconnecting the power to the chamber after the weight of the fruits is reduced to a known value of its original weight. This activates a buzzer for duration of ten seconds to indicate the end of the drying process. The results obtained indicate that the system is significantly reducing the drying time without affecting the quality of the fruits compared with the existing dryers.

Keywords: fruit, fuzzy controller, microcontroller, temperature, weight and humidity

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Authors: Ruyuf Y. Alnafisah, Nouf S. Alammari, Amani S. Alqahtani

Abstract:

Background: Beverage choice can have implications for the risk of non-communicable diseases. However, there is a lack of knowledge in assessing the nutritional content of these beverages. This study aims to describe the nutrient content of pre-packaged beverages available in the Saudi market. Design: Data were collected from the Saudi Branded Food Data-base (SBFD). Nutrient content was standardized in terms of units and reference volumes to ensure consistency in analysis. Results: A total of 1490 beverages were analyzed. The highest median levels of the majority of nutrients were found among dairy products; energy (68.4(43-188]kcal/100 ml in a milkshake); protein (8.2(0.5-8.2]g/100 ml in yogurt drinks); total fat (2.1(1.3-3.5]g/100 ml in milk); saturated fat (1.4(0-1.4]g/100 ml in yogurt drinks); cholesterol (30(0-30]mg/100 ml in yogurt drinks); sodium (65(65-65].4mg/100 ml in yogurt drinks); and total sugars (12.9(7.5-27]g/100 ml in milkshake). Carbohydrate level was the highest in nectar (13(11.8-14.2] g/100ml]; fruits drinks (12.9(11.9-13.9] g/100ml), and sparkling juices (12.9(8.8-14] g/100ml). The highest added sugar level was observed among regular soft drinks (12(10.8-14] g/100ml). The average rate of nutrient declaration was 60.95%. Carbo-hydrate had the highest declaration rate among nutrients (99.1%), and yogurt drinks had the highest declaration rate among beverage categories (92.7%). The median content of vitamins A and D in dairy products met the mandatory addition levels. Conclusion: This study provides valuable insights into the nutrient content of pre-packaged beverages in the Saudi market. It serves as a foundation for future research and monitoring. The findings of the study support the idea of taxing sugary beverages and raise concerns about the health effects of high sugar in fruit juices. Despite the inclusion of vitamins D and A in dairy products, the study highlights the need for alternative strategies to address these deficiencies.

Keywords: pre-packaged beverages, nutrients content, nutrients declaration, daily percentage value, mandatory addition of vitamins

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