Search results for: weld repair rate in joint and linear basis

Authors: Mariya Salihu Ingawa, Sani Suleiman Isah

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The assessment of Integrated Information System (IIS) in organisation is an important initiative to enable the Information System (IS) managers, as well as top management to understand the success status of their investment in IS integration efforts. However, without a proper assessment, an organisation will not know its IIS status, which may affect their judgment on what action should be taken onwards. Current research on IIS assessment is lacking and those related literature on IIS assessment focus more on assessing the technical aspect of IIS. It is argued that assessing technical aspect alone is inadequate since organisational and strategic aspects in IIS should also be considered. Current methods, techniques and tools used by vendors for IIS assessment also are lack of comprehensive measures to fully assess the Integrated Information System in term of technical, organisational and strategic domains. The purpose of this study is to establish critical success factors for measuring success of an Integrated Information System. These factors are used as the basis for constructing an approach to comprehensively assess IIS in an organisation. A comprehensive list of success factors for IIS assessment, established from literature, was initially presented. An expert surveys using both manual and online methods were conducted to verify the factors. Based on the factors, an instrument for IIS assessment was constructed. The results from a case study indicate that through comprehensive assessment approach, not only the level of success been known, but also reveals the contributing factors. This research contributes to the field of Information Systems specifically in the area of Integrated Information System assessment.

Keywords: integrated information system, expert surveys, organisation, assessment

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Authors: Ali Asghar Sotoudeh

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Mediation Diplomacy has emerged as one of the main pillars of China's foreign policy goals and practices, and Beijing has established itself as a peacekeeping force in regional conflicts and crises such as Afghanistan, Syria, Sudan, Yemen, and the Arab-Israeli peace process. China is deepening and intensifying its diplomatic interventions in the Middle East and trying to shape the security and political developments in the Middle East. On the other hand, economically, China has become one of the most important trading partners with Middle Eastern governments. China is also seeking to expand its foreign policy and economic interests in the Middle East through the New Silk Road initiative and has signed cooperation agreements with 17 Arab countries. In this regard, due to the importance of the subject, this research focuses on answering this question; what is the basis of China's political mediation and economic expansionism in the Middle East? In parallel with this question, this study follows the hypothesis that the mediating role of peace is a legitimate way for China to intervene in Middle East political crises, Without causing China to deviate from its traditional guiding principles based on non-interference in the internal affairs of other actors in the international system. This policy also promotes the security of economic interests and increases the country's political influence in the Middle East. The research method is descriptive-analytical based on the qualitative method, and the data collection method is library and internet resources.

Keywords: China, middle east, political mediation, economic expansionism

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Authors: Samaneh Abolli, Kamyar Yaghmaeian, Ali Arab Aradani, Mahmood Alimohammadi

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The main route of fluoride uptake is drinking water. Fluoride absorption in the acceptable range (0.5-1.5 mg L-¹) is suitable for the body, but it's too much consumption can have irreversible health effects. To compare fluoride concentration with the WHO guidelines, 112 water samples were taken from groundwater aquifers in 22 villages of Garmsar County, the central part of Iran, during 2018 to 2019.Fluoride concentration was measured by the SPANDS method, and its non-carcinogenic impacts were calculated using EDI and HQ. The statistical population was divided into four categories of infant, children, teenagers, and adults. Linear regression and Spearman rank correlation coefficient tests were used to investigate the relationships between the well's depth and fluoride concentration in the water samples. The annual mean concentrations of fluoride in 2018 and2019 were 0.75 and 0.64 mg -¹ and, the fluoride mean concentration in the samples classifying the cold and hot seasons of the studied years was 0.709 and 0.689 mg L-¹, respectively. The amount of fluoride in 27% of the samples in both years was less than the acceptable minimum (0.5 mg L-¹). Also, 11% of the samples in2018 (6 samples) had fluoride levels higher than 1.5 mg L-¹. The HQ showed that the children were vulnerable; teenagers and adults were in the next ranks, respectively. Statistical tests showed a reverse and significant correlation (R2 = 0.02, < 0.0001) between well depth and fluoride content. The border between the usefulness/harmfulness of fluoride is very narrow and requires extensive studies.

Keywords: fluoride, groundwater, health risk assessment, hazard quotient, Garmsar

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Authors: Abigail Bentley, Audrey Prost, Nayreen Daruwalla, Apoorwa Gupta, David Osrin

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BACKGROUND: Intimate partner violence (IPV) can impact a woman’s physical, reproductive and mental health, including common mental disorders such as anxiety and depression. However, people other than an intimate partner may also perpetrate violence against women in the family, particularly in India. This study aims to investigate the relationship between experiences of violence perpetrated by the husband and other members of the wider household and symptoms of common mental disorders in women residing in informal settlement (slum) areas of Mumbai. METHODS: Experiences of violence were assessed through a detailed cross-sectional survey of 598 women, including questions about specific acts of emotional, economic, physical and sexual violence across different time points in the woman’s life and the main perpetrator of each act. Symptoms of common mental disorders were assessed using the 12-item General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-12). The GHQ-12 scores were divided into four groups and the relationship between experiences of each type of violence in the last 12 months and GHQ-12 score group was analyzed using ordinal logistic regression, adjusted for the woman’s age and clustering. RESULTS: 482 (81%) women consented to interview. On average, they were 28.5 years old, had completed 7 years of education and had been married 9 years. 88% were Muslim and 47% lived in joint and 53% in nuclear families. 44% of women had experienced at least one act of violence in their lifetime (33% emotional, 22% economic, 23% physical, 12% sexual). 7% had a high GHQ-12 score (6 or above). For violence experiences in the last 12 months, the odds of being in the highest GHQ-12 score group versus the lower groups combined were 13.1 for emotional violence, 6.5 for economic, 5.7 for physical and 6.3 for sexual (p<0.001 for all outcomes). DISCUSSION: The high level of violence reported across the lifetime could be due to the detailed assessment of violent acts at multiple time points and the inclusion of perpetrators within the family other than the husband. Each type of violence was associated with greater odds of a higher GHQ-12 score and therefore more symptoms of common mental disorders. Emotional violence was far more strongly associated with symptoms of common mental disorders than physical or sexual violence. However, it is not possible to attribute causal directionality to the association. Further work to investigate the relationship between differing severity of violence experiences and women’s mental health and the components of emotional violence that make it so strongly associated with symptoms of common mental disorders would be beneficial.

Keywords: common mental disorders, family violence, India, informal settlements, mental health, violence against women

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Authors: Abdoulaye Diop, Nahid Emad, Thierry Winter, Mohamed Hilia

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Data assets protection is a crucial issue in the cybersecurity field. Companies use logical access control tools to vault their information assets and protect them against external threats, but they lack solutions to counter insider threats. Nowadays, insider threats are the most significant concern of security analysts. They are mainly individuals with legitimate access to companies information systems, which use their rights with malicious intents. In several fields, behavior anomaly detection is the method used by cyber specialists to counter the threats of user malicious activities effectively. In this paper, we present the step toward the construction of a user and entity behavior analysis framework by proposing a behavior anomaly detection model. This model combines machine learning classification techniques and graph-based methods, relying on linear algebra and parallel computing techniques. We show the utility of an ensemble learning approach in this context. We present some detection methods tests results on an representative access control dataset. The use of some explored classifiers gives results up to 99% of accuracy.

Keywords: cybersecurity, data protection, access control, insider threat, user behavior analysis, ensemble learning, high performance computing

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Authors: Klio Monokrousou, Maria Giannopoulou

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Urban areas, as they have been developed and operate today, are areas of accumulation of a significant amount of people and a large number of activities that generate desires and reasons for traveling. The territorial expansion of the cities as well as the need to preserve the importance of the central city areas lead to the continuous increase of transportation needs which in the limited urban space results in creating serious traffic and operational problems. The modern perception of urban planning is directed towards more holistic approaches and integrated policies that make it economically competitive, socially just and more environmentally friendly. Over the last 25 years, the goal of sustainable transport development has been central to the agenda of any plan or policy for the city. The modern planning of urban space takes into account the economic and social aspects of the city and the importance of the environment to sustainable urban development. In this context, the European Union promotes direct or indirect related interventions according to the cohesion and environmental policies; many countries even had the chance to actually test them. This paper is part of a wider research still in progress and it explores the methods and processes that have been developed towards this direction and presents a review and systematic presentation of this work. The ultimate purpose of this research is to effectively use this review to create a decision making methodological framework which can be the basis of a useful operational tool for sustainable urban planning.

Keywords: methods, sustainable urban development, urban mobility, methodological framework

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Authors: A. Ghodbane, M. Saad, J. F. Boland, C. Thibeault

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Historically, actuators’ redundancy was used to deal with faults occurring suddenly in flight systems. This technique was generally expensive, time consuming and involves increased weight and space in the system. Therefore, nowadays, the on-line fault diagnosis of actuators and accommodation plays a major role in the design of avionic systems. These approaches, known as Fault Tolerant Flight Control systems (FTFCs) are able to adapt to such sudden faults while keeping avionics systems lighter and less expensive. In this paper, a (FTFC) system based on the Geometric Approach and a Reconfigurable Flight Control (RFC) are presented. The Geometric approach is used for cosmic ray fault reconstruction, while Sliding Mode Control (SMC) based on Lyapunov stability theory is designed for the reconfiguration of the controller in order to compensate the fault effect. Matlab®/Simulink® simulations are performed to illustrate the effectiveness and robustness of the proposed flight control system against actuators’ faulty signal caused by cosmic rays. The results demonstrate the successful real-time implementation of the proposed FTFC system on a non-linear 6 DOF aircraft model.

Keywords: actuators’ faults, fault detection and diagnosis, fault tolerant flight control, sliding mode control, geometric approach for fault reconstruction, Lyapunov stability

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Authors: S. Neelima, P. S. Subramanyam

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A distribution system is an interface between the bulk power system and the consumers. Among these systems, radial distributions system is popular because of low cost and simple design. In distribution systems, the voltages at buses reduces when moved away from the substation, also the losses are high. The reason for a decrease in voltage and high losses is the insufficient amount of reactive power, which can be provided by the shunt capacitors. But the placement of the capacitor with an appropriate size is always a challenge. Thus, the optimal capacitor placement problem is to determine the location and size of capacitors to be placed in distribution networks in an efficient way to reduce the power losses and improve the voltage profile of the system. For this purpose, in this paper, two stage methodologies are used. In the first stage, the load flow of pre-compensated distribution system is carried out using ‘dimension reducing distribution load flow algorithm (DRDLFA)’. On the basis of this load flow the potential locations of compensation are computed. In the second stage, Genetic Algorithm (GA) technique is used to determine the optimal location and size of the capacitors such that the cost of the energy loss and capacitor cost to be a minimum. The above method is tested on IEEE 9 and 34 bus system and compared with other methods in the literature.

Keywords: dimension reducing distribution load flow algorithm, DRDLFA, genetic algorithm, electrical distribution network, optimal capacitors placement, voltage profile improvement, loss reduction

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Authors: Bi Zhao

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Neural network technology has greatly improved the output of machine translation in terms of both fluency and accuracy, which greatly increases its appeal for young users. The present exploratory study aims to find out how the Chinese undergraduates perceive and use machine translation in their daily life. A survey is conducted to collect data from 100 undergraduate students from multiple Chinese universities and with varied academic backgrounds, including arts, business, science, engineering, and medicine. The survey questions inquire about their use (including frequency, scenarios, purposes, and preferences) of and attitudes (including trust, quality assessment, justifications, and ethics) toward machine translation. Interviews and tasks of evaluating machine translation output are also employed in combination with the survey on a sample of selected respondents. The results indicate that Chinese undergraduate students use machine translation on a daily basis for a wide range of purposes in academic, communicative, and entertainment scenarios. Most of them have preferred machine translation tools, but the availability of machine translation tools within a certain scenario, such as the embedded machine translation tool on the webpage, is also the determining factor in their choice. The results also reveal that despite the reportedly limited trust in the accuracy of machine translation output, most students lack the ability to critically analyze and evaluate such output. Furthermore, the evidence is revealed of the inadequate awareness of ethical responsibility as machine translation users among Chinese undergraduate students.

Keywords: Chinese undergraduates, machine translation, trust, usage

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Authors: Nusrat T. Chowdhury, M. F. Baki, A. Azab

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The production planning problem is concerned with specifying the optimal quantities to produce in order to meet the demand for a prespecified planning horizon with the least possible expenditure. Making the right decisions in production planning will affect directly the performance and productivity of a manufacturing firm, which is important for its ability to compete in the market. Therefore, developing and improving solution procedures for production planning problems is very significant. In this paper, we develop a Dantzig-Wolfe decomposition of a multi-item hierarchical production planning problem with capacity constraint and present a column generation approach to solve the problem. The original Mixed Integer Linear Programming model of the problem is decomposed item by item into a master problem and a number of subproblems. The capacity constraint is considered as the linking constraint between the master problem and the subproblems. The subproblems are solved using the dynamic programming approach. We also propose a multi-step iterative capacity allocation heuristic procedure to handle any kind of infeasibility that arises while solving the problem. We compare the computational performance of the developed solution approach against the state-of-the-art heuristic procedure available in the literature. The results show that the proposed heuristic-based decomposition approach improves the solution quality by 20% as compared to the literature.

Keywords: inventory, multi-level capacitated lot-sizing, emission control, setup carryover

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Authors: George Adomako Kumi

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The response of structural members, when subjected to various forms of non-proportional loading, plays a major role in the overall stability and integrity of a structure. This research seeks to present the outcome of a finite element investigation conducted by the use of finite element programming software ABAQUS to validate the experimental results of elastic and inelastic behavior and strength of beam-columns subjected to axial loading, biaxial bending, and torsion under ambient temperature conditions. The application of the rigorous and highly complicated ABAQUS finite element software will seek to account for material, non-linear geometry, deformations, and, more specifically, the contact behavior between the beam-columns and support surfaces. Comparisons of the three-dimensional model with the results of actual tests conducted and results from a solution algorithm developed through the use of the finite difference method will be established in order to authenticate the veracity of the developed model. The results of this research will seek to provide structural engineers with much-needed knowledge about the behavior of steel beam columns and their response to various non-proportional loading conditions under ambient temperature conditions.

Keywords: beam-columns, axial loading, biaxial bending, torsion, ABAQUS, finite difference method

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Authors: M. Kosacka, I. Kudelska

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Vehicle is one of the most influential and complex product worldwide, which affects people’s life, state of the environment and condition of the economy (all aspects of sustainable development concept) during each stage of lifecycle. With the increase of vehicles’ number, there is growing potential for management of End of Life Vehicle (ELV), which is hazardous waste. From one point of view, the ELV should be managed to ensure risk elimination, but from another point, it should be treated as a source of valuable materials and spare parts. In order to obtain materials and spare parts, there are established recycling networks, which are an example of sustainable policy realization at the national level. The basic object in the polish recycling network is dismantling facility. The output material streams in dismantling stations include waste, which very often generate costs and spare parts, that have the biggest potential for revenues creation. Both outputs are stored into warehouses, according to the law. In accordance to the revenue creation and sustainability potential, it has been placed a strong emphasis on storage process. We present the concept of storage method, which takes into account the specific of the dismantling facility in order to support decision-making process with regard to the principles of sustainable development. The method was developed on the basis of case study of one of the greatest dismantling facility in Poland.

Keywords: dismantling, end of life vehicles, sustainability, storage

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Authors: Rana Sawaya, Jalal Halwani, Isam Bashour, Nada Nehme

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Mismanagement of municipal solid wastes in Lebanon might lead to serious environmental problems, especially that a big portion of mixed wastes including putrescible is transferred to Naameh landfill. One of the consequences of municipal solid waste deposition is the production of landfill leachate, which if unproperly treated will threaten the main crucial matrices such as soil, water, and air. The main aim of this one of a kind study is to assess the risk posed to groundwater as a result of leachate infiltration on off-site wells especially after stoppage of Naameh landfill's operation end of the year 2016 and initiation of the capping process which is still ongoing and will be finalized in December 2019. For this purpose, nine representative points around the landfill were selected to undergo physicochemical and microbial analysis on a seasonal basis (every three months). The study extended from the year 2014 until the end of the year 2016 (closure of Naameh landfill). The preliminary data obtained are statistically analyzed using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) and was found in conformity with international and Lebanese norms. Thus, the study will be extended an additional year, especially after the finalization of capping and the results obtained, will enable us to propose new techniques and tools (treatment systems) in water resources management depending on the direction of its usage (domestic, irrigation, drinking).

Keywords: contamination, groundwater, leachate, Lebanon, solid waste

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Authors: Subzar Ahmad Bhat, Saraswati Setia, V. K.Sehgal

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During the past earthquakes, open ground storey buildings have performed poorly due to the soft storey defect. Indian Standard IS 1893:2002 allows analysis of open ground storey buildings without considering infill stiffness but with a multiplication factor 2.5 in compensation for the stiffness discontinuity. Therefore, the aim of this paper is to check the applicability of the multiplication factor of 2.5 and study behaviour of the structure after the application of the multiplication factor. For this purpose, study is performed on models considering infill stiffness using SAP 2000 (Version 14) by linear static analysis and response spectrum analysis. Total seven models are analysed and designed for the range of multiplication factor ranging from 1.25 to 2.5. The value of multiplication factor equal to 2.5 has been found on the higher side, resulting in increased dimension and percentage of reinforcement without significant enhancement beyond a certain multiplication factor. When the building with OGS is designed for values of MF higher than 1.25 considering infill stiffness soft storey effect shifts from ground storey to first storey. For the analysis of the OGS structure best way to analysis the structure is to analyse it as the frame with stiffness and strength of the infill taken into account. The provision of infill walls in the upper storeys enhances the performance of the structure in terms of displacement and storey drift controls.

Keywords: open ground storey, multiplication factor, IS 1893:2002 provisions, static analysis, response spectrum analysis, infill stiffness, equivalent strut

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Authors: Kerem Rızvanoglu, Serhat Güney, Betül Aydoğan, Emre Kızılkaya, Ayşegül Boyalı, Onurcan Güden

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This study investigates the urban experience of international students coming to Istanbul with exchange programs and reveals how locative media applications accompany their urban experiences. The sample of the research consists of international students who lived, perceived, and conceived the city on a daily basis during the academic year of 2022. Focusing on this particular sample would demonstrate the opportunities and authentic experiences offered by the city as well as the prevalent urban problems for the foreigners. In this regard, international students' urban experience in Istanbul, the blockages they encounter as resident tourists, the hotspots that the city offers, and the role of locative media in enriching the urban experience are the main axes to be evaluated. In the first step of the multi-staged research, we conduct an online qualitative survey with a sample; then, we evaluate the data obtained from the survey using cluster analysis to identify the urban experience, consumption habits, and tastes. In the final stage, digital ethnographic fieldwork will be carried out with representative personas identified by the cluster analysis. With this field research on the urban experience accompanied by locative media applications, suggestions will be developed by evaluating the opportunities these applications offer to enrich the urban practice of foreigners.

Keywords: digital ethnography, international students, locative media applications, urban experience

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Authors: Luis F. Bianchessi, Gustavo G. Shimamoto, Matthieu Tubino

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The use of biodiesel has been diffused in Brazil and all over the world by the trading of biodiesel (B100). In Brazil, the diesel oil currently being sold is a blend, containing 7% biodiesel (B7). In this context, it is necessary to develop methods capable of identifying this blend composition, especially regarding the biodiesel quality used for making these blends. In this study, hydrogen nuclear magnetic resonance spectra (1H-NMR) are proposed as a form of identifying and confirming the quality of type B10 blends (10% of biodiesel and 90% of diesel). Furthermore, the presence of vegetable oils, which may be from fuel adulteration or as an evidence of low degree of transesterification conversion during the synthesis of B100, may also be identified. Mixtures of diesel, vegetable oils and their respective biodiesel were prepared. Soybean oil and macauba kernel oil were used as raw material. The diesel proportion remained fixed at 90%. The other proportion (10%) was varied in terms of vegetable oil and biodiesel. The 1H-NMR spectra were obtained for each one of the mixtures, in order to find a correlation between the spectra and the amount of biodiesel, as well as the amount of residual vegetable oil. The ratio of the integral of the methylenic hydrogen H-2 of glycerol (exclusive of vegetable oil) with respect to the integral of the olefinic hydrogens (present in vegetable oil and biodiesel) was obtained. These ratios were correlated with the percentage of vegetable oil in each mixture, from 0% to 10%. The obtained correlation could be described by linear relationships with R2 of 0.9929 for soybean biodiesel and 0.9982 for macauba kernel biodiesel. Preliminary results show that the technique can be used to monitor the biodiesel quality in commercial diesel-biodiesel blends, besides indicating possible adulteration.

Keywords: biodiesel, diesel, biodiesel quality, adulteration

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Authors: Zahid O. Alibrahim, Craig D. Williams, Clive L. Roberts

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The study area (Ecton mining area) is located in the southern part of the Peak District in Derbyshire, England. It is bounded by the River Manifold from the west. This area has been mined for a long period. As a result, huge amounts of potentially toxic metals were released into the surrounding area and are most likely to be a significant source of heavy metal contamination to the local soil, water and vegetation. In order to appraise the potential heavy metal pollution in this area, 37 topsoil samples (5-20 cm depth) were collected and analysed for their total content of Cu, Pb, Zn, Mn, Cr, Ni and V using ICP (Inductively Coupled Plasma) optical emission spectroscopy. Multivariate Geospatial analyses using the GIS technique were utilised to draw geochemical maps of the metals of interest over the study area. A few hotspot points, areas of elevated concentrations of metals, were specified, which are presumed to be the results of anthropogenic activities. In addition, the soil’s environmental quality was evaluated by calculating the Mullers’ Geoaccumulation index (I geo), which suggests that the degree of contamination of the investigated heavy metals has the following trend: Pb > Zn > Cu > Mn > Ni = Cr = V. Furthermore, the potential ecological risk, using the enrichment factor (EF), was also specified. On the basis of the calculated amount or the EF, the levels of pollution for the studied metals in the study area have the following order: Pb>Zn>Cu>Cr>V>Ni>Mn.

Keywords: enrichment factor, geoaccumulation index, GIS, heavy metals, multivariate analysis

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Authors: Abdulnasir Hossen, Alaa Barhoum, Deepali Jaju, V. Gowri, L. Al-Kharusi, M. Hassan, K. Al-Hashmi

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Preeclampsia is a pregnancy disorder associated with increase in blood pressure and excess amount of protein in the urine. HRV analysis has been used by many researchers to identify preeclamptic pregnancy from normal pregnancy. A study in this regard to identify preeclamptic pregnancy in Oman from normal pregnant was conducted on 40 subjects (20 patients and 20 normal). The subjects were collected from two hospitals in Oman. A Fast Fourier transform (FFT) spectral analysis has shown that patients with preeclamptic pregnancy have a reduction in the power of the HF band and an increase in the power of the LF band of HRV compared with subjects with normal pregnancy. The accuracy of identification obtained was 80%.

Keywords: preelampsia, pregnancy hypertension, normal pregnant, FFT, spectral analysis, HRV

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Authors: Aisling Davies, Ciara Greene

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Over the past decade the phenomenon of mind-wandering in cognitive tasks has attracted widespread scientific attention. Research indicates that mind-wandering occurrences can be detected through behavioural responses in the Sustained Attention to Response Task (SART) and several studies have attributed a specific pattern of responding around an error in this task to an observable effect of a mind-wandering state. SART behavioural responses are also widely accepted as indices of sustained attention and of general attention lapses. However, evidence suggests that these same patterns of responding may be attributable to other factors associated with more focused states and that it may also be possible to distinguish the two states within the same task. To use behavioural responses in the SART to study mind-wandering, it is essential to establish both the SART parameters that would increase the likelihood of errors due to mind-wandering, and exactly what type of responses are indicative of mind-wandering, neither of which have yet been determined. The aims of this study were to compare different versions of the SART to establish which task would induce the most mind-wandering episodes and to determine whether mind-wandering related errors can be distinguished from errors during periods of focus, by behavioural responses in the SART. To achieve these objectives, 25 Participants completed four modified versions of the SART that differed from the classic paradigm in several ways so to capture more instances of mind-wandering. The duration that trials were presented for was increased proportionately across each of the four versions of the task; Standard, Medium Slow, Slow, and Very Slow and participants intermittently responded to thought probes assessing their level of focus and degree of mind-wandering throughout. Error rates, reaction times and variability in reaction times decreased in proportion to the decrease in trial duration rate and the proportion of mind-wandering related errors increased, until the Very Slow condition where the extra decrease in duration no longer had an effect. Distinct reaction time patterns around an error, dependent on level of focus (high/low) and level of mind-wandering (high/low) were also observed indicating four separate attention states occurring within the SART. This study establishes the optimal duration of trial presentation for inducing mind-wandering in the SART, provides evidence supporting the idea that different attention states can be observed within the SART and highlights the importance of addressing other factors contributing to behavioural responses when studying mind-wandering during this task. A notable finding in relation to the standard SART, was that while more errors were observed in this version of the task, most of these errors were during periods of focus, raising significant questions about our current understanding of mind-wandering and associated failures of attention.

Keywords: attention, mind-wandering, trial duration rate, Sustained Attention to Response Task (SART)

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Authors: Mitakshara Sharma, Sonal Sharma

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Vesiculobullous diseases are heterogeneous group of dermatological disorders with protean manifestations. The most important technique for the patients with vesiculobullous diseases is conventional histopathology and confirmatory tests like direct immunofluorescence (DIF) and indirect immunofluorescence (IIF). DIF has been used for decades to investigate pathophysiology and in the diagnosis. It detects molecules such as immunoglobulins and complement components. It is done on the perilesional skin. Diagnosis of DIF test depends on features like primary site of the immune deposits, class of immunoglobulin, number of immune deposits and deposition at other sites. The aim of the study is to correlate DIF with clinical and histopathological findings and to analyze the utility of DIF in the diagnosis of these disorders. It is a retrospective descriptive study conducted for 2 years from 2015 to 2017 in Department of Pathology, GTB Hospital on perilesional punch biopsies of vesiculobullous lesions. Biopsies were sent in Michael’s medium. The specimens were washed, frozen and incubated with fluorescein isothiocyanate (FITC) tagged antihuman antibodies IgA, IgG, IgM, C3 & F and were viewed under fluorescent microscope. Out of 401 skin biopsies submitted for DIF, 285 were vesiculobullous diseases, in which the most common was Pemphigus vulgaris (34%) followed by Bullous pemphigoid (21.5%), Dermatitis herpetiformis (16%), Pemphigus foliaceus (11.9%), Linear IgA disease (11.9%), Epidermolysisbullosa (2.39%) and Pemphigus herpetiformis (1.7%). We will be presenting the DIF findings in the all these vesiculobullous diseases. DIF in conjugation with histopathology gives the best diagnostic yield in these lesions. It also helps in the diagnosis whenever there is a clinical and histopathological overlap.

Keywords: antibodies, direct immunofluorescence, pemphigus, vesiculobullous

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Authors: Alsahli Abdulaziz Abdullah, Hameed Ullah Khan

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Software development nowadays is more and more using global ways of development instead of normal development enviroment where development occur in one location. This paper is a aimed to propose a Requirement Engineering framework to support Global Software Development environment with regards to all requirment engineering activities from elicitation to fially magning requirment change. Global software enviroment is more and more gaining better reputation in software developmet with better quality is resulting from developing in this eviroment yet with lower cost.However, failure rate developing in this enviroment is high due to inapproprate requirment development and managment.This paper will add to the software engineering development envrioments discipline and many developers in GSD will benefit from it.

Keywords: global software development environment, GSD, requirement engineering, FreGsd, computer engineering

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Authors: D. C. Soares, J. T. S. Santos, D. G. Costa, A. K. S. Abud, T. P. Nunes, A. V. D. Figueiredo, A. M. de Oliveira Junior

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Mangabeira (Hancornia speciosa Gomes), a native plant in Brazil, is found growing spontaneously in various regions of the country. The high perishability of tropical fruits such as mangaba, causes it to be necessary to use technologies that promote conservation, aiming to increase the shelf life of this fruit and add value. The objective of this study was to compare the mangabas lyophilisation curves behaviours with different sizes and maturation stages. The fruits were freeze-dried for a period of approximately 45 hours at lyophilizer Liotop brand, model L -108. It has been considered large the fruits between 38 and 58 mm diameter and small, between 23 and 28 mm diameter and the two states of maturation, intermediate and mature. Large size mangabas drying curves in both states of maturation were linear behaviour at all process, while the kinetic drying curves related to small fruits, independent of maturation state, had a typical behaviour of drying, with all the well-defined steps. With these results it was noted that the time of lyophilisation was suitable for small mangabas, a fact that did not happen with the larger one. This may indicate that the large mangabas require a longer time to freeze until reaches the equilibrium level, as it happens with the small fruits, going to have constant moisture at the end of the process. For both types of fruit were analysed water activity, acidity, protein, lipid, and vitamin C before and after the process.

Keywords: freeze dryer, mangaba, conservation, chemical characteristics

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Authors: Hatthaphone Silimanotham, Michael Henry

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The effective maintenance of road bridge infrastructure is becoming a widely researched topic in the civil engineering field. Deterioration is one of the main issues in bridge performance, and it is necessary to understand how bridges deteriorate to optimally plan budget allocation for bridge maintenance. In Laos, many bridges are in a deteriorated state, which may affect the performance of the bridge. Due to bridge deterioration, the Ministry of Public Works and Transport is interested in the deterioration model to allocate the budget efficiently and support the bridge maintenance planning. A deterioration model can be used to predict the bridge condition in the future based on the observed behavior in the past. This paper analyzes the available inspection data of road bridges on the road classifications network to build deterioration prediction models for the main bridge type found at the provincial level (concrete slab, concrete girder, and steel truss) using probabilistic deterioration modeling by linear regression method. The analysis targets there has three bridge types in the 18 provinces of Laos and estimates the bridge deterioration rating for evaluating the bridge's remaining life. This research thus considers the relationship between the service period and the bridge condition to represent the probability of bridge condition in the future. The results of the study can be used for a variety of bridge management tasks, including maintenance planning, budgeting, and evaluating bridge assets.

Keywords: deterioration model, bridge condition, bridge management, probabilistic modeling

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Authors: J. Marx, D. Smazna, R. Adelung, B. Fiedler

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Aerographite is a 3D interconnected carbon foam. Its tetrapodal morphology is based on the zinc oxide (ZnO) template structure, which is replicated in the chemical vapour deposition (CVD) into a hollow carbon structure. This replication process is analyzed in ex-situ studies via interrupted synthesis and the observation of the reaction progress by using scanning electron (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and Raman spectroscopy techniques. Based on the epitaxial growth process, with a layer-by-layer growth behaviour of the wall thickness or number of layers and the catalytical graphitization of the deposited amorphous carbon into graphitic carbon by zinc, a growth model is created. The properties of aerographite, such as the electrical conductivity is dependent on the graphitization and number of layer (wall thickness). Wall thicknesses between 3 nm and 22 nm are achieved by a controlled stepwise reduction of the synthesis time on the basis of the developed growth model, and by a further thermal treatment at 1800 °C the graphitization of the presented carbon foam is modified. The variation of the wall thickness leads to an optimum defect density (ID/IG ratio) and the graphitization to an improvement in the electrical conductivity. Furthermore, a metallic conducting behaviour of untreated and 1800 °C treated aerographite can be observed. Due to these structural and defective modifications, a fundamental structural-property equation for the description of their influences on the electrical conductivity is developed.

Keywords: electrical conductivity, electron microscopy (SEM/TEM), graphitization, wall thickness

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Authors: Gyongyver Csapo, Andrea Czibor

Abstract:

Machiavellianism is a personality trait based on the exploitation and deception of others. Machiavellian individuals are motivated to gain and to maintain power with the help of their strategic thinking, manipulation tactics, and interpersonal skills. Consequently, Machiavellianism is treated as a personality trait that can affect an individual’s career and work-related behavior. The aim of our research is to provide a narrative psychological approach to Machiavellianism in order to get a more comprehensive picture about the attitudes, values, and work-related behaviors of Machiavellian individuals. In this study, semi-structured interviews were made with employees (N=275) about their work-related experiences. Additionally, participants completed questionnaires about their turnover intention and perceived stress. The interviews were examined with narrative psychological content analysis and thematic analyzes. Based on the thematic analysis, mentioning of two topics (recognition at work and control) were associated with Machiavellianism. Scientific narrative psychological content analysis showed a negative association between Machiavellianism and positive emotions. Turnover intention and the magnitude of perceived work-related stress showed a significant positive correlation with Machiavellianism. In this study, qualitative and quantitative methodologies were combined in order to get a deeper insight of Machiavellianism from an organizational psychological perspective. Our research can contribute to a better understanding of this personality trait and provides an excellent basis for further investigations.

Keywords: machiavellianism, narrative psychology, turnover intention, work-related stress

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Authors: Nadia Samantha Zuñiga-Peña, Norberto Hernández-Romero, Omar Aguilar-Mejia, Salatiel García-Nava

Abstract:

Using unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) for load transport has gained significant importance in various sectors due to their ability to improve efficiency, reduce costs, and access hard-to-reach areas. Although UAVs offer numerous advantages for load transport, several complications and challenges must be addressed to exploit their potential fully. Complexity relays on UAVs are underactuated, non-linear systems with a high degree of coupling between their variables and are subject to forces with uncertainty. One of the biggest challenges is modeling and controlling the system formed by UAVs carrying a load. In order to solve the controller problem, in this work, a hybridization of Neural Network and Hunger Games Search (HGS) metaheuristic algorithm is developed and implemented to find the parameters of the Super Twisting Sliding Mode Controller for the 8 degrees of freedom model of UAV with payload. The optimized controller successfully tracks the UAV through the three-dimensional desired path, demonstrating the effectiveness of the proposed solution. A comparison of performance shows the superiority of the neural network HGS (NNHGS) over the HGS algorithm, minimizing the tracking error by 57.5 %.

Keywords: neural networks, hunger games search, super twisting sliding mode controller, UAVs.

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Authors: Nancy Bartekian, Kaelan Vazquez, Christine Reyna

Abstract:

Immigrants coming into the United States of America may justify the American system (political, economic, healthcare, criminal justice) and see it as functional. This may be explained because they may come from countries that are even more unstable than the U.S. and/or come here to benefit from the promise of the “American dream” -a narrative that they might be more likely to believe in if they were willing to undergo the costly and sometimes dangerous process to immigrate. Conversely, native-born Americans, as well as immigrants who may have lived in America for a longer period of time, would have more experiences with the various broken systems in America that are dysfunctional, fail to provide adequate services equitably, and/or are steeped in systemic racism and other biases that disadvantage lower-status groups. Thus, our research expects that system justification would decrease, and condemnation would increase with more time spent in the U.S. for immigrant groups. We predict that a) those not born in the U.S. will be more likely to justify the system, b) they will also be less likely to condemn the system, and c) the longer an immigrant has been in the U.S. the less likely they will to justify, and more they will to condemn the system. We will use a mixed-model multivariate analysis of covariance (MANCOVA) and control for race, income, and education. We will also run linear regression models to test if there is a relationship between the length of time in the United States and a decrease in system justification, and length of time and an increase in system condemnation for those not born in the U.S. We will also conduct exploratory analyses to see if the predicted patterns are more likely within certain systems over other systems (political, economic, healthcare, criminal justice).

Keywords: immigration, system justification, system condemnation, system qualification

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Authors: Nedjar Abdelhadi

Abstract:

The pharmaceutical industry is one of the most important structures and foundations for the management and development of the modern world, especially the advanced part of it, meaning that there are some exceptions for third-world countries. The world today has witnessed radical transformations and changes, some of which made it better and some of which affected the path of its growth. At the beginning of my research, there was a detailed presentation overview of the current situation of the world in terms of growth and development, and it proceeded through that overview as the introduction to my research. The first chapter had divided into three sections; each topic was unique to one of the new methods of manufacturing, deducing and developing medicines Several examples of various recently developed medicines were used The second chapter dealt with the defects and shortcomings that pioneers and drug makers at various levels, as well as various regions and major companies, suffer from on the basis that they are international, especially those specialized in the manufacture of medicines related to viruses and chronic diseases, as well as incurable. As for the third chapter, it was devoted to marketing methods, methods of achieving sales, as well as the basics of spreading medicines and preparing the minds of consumers. Through my research, the one concluded that the current world has become completely different from the world we used to know, and it means by saying the field of manufacturing, selling and marketing medicines. It was noted that one of the biggest factors that affected the change in the field of medicine was the corona disaster. At the end of my research, I was left with nothing but to show the importance and necessity of the pharmaceutical industry and its effective role, not only in the development of mankind, but its main role is in the survival of mankind.

Keywords: health, diseases, medicine, epidemics

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Authors: Yaser E. Hawas, Md. Didarul Alam

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Rollover crashes are complex events entailing interactions of driver, road, vehicle, and environmental factors. The primary objective of this paper is to present an empirical approach that can be used to characterise the rollover crashes and to identify some of the important factors that may lead to rollovers. Among the studied factors are the vehicle types and the rollover occurrence rate after hitting various barrier types. The carried analysis indicated that 71% of the rollover crashes occurred after impact and the type of rollover initiation is “trip/turn over” (nearly 50%). It was also found that light trucks (LTVs) vehicles are more likely to rollover than the sedan vehicles. Barrier impacts are associated with increased incidence of rollover.

Keywords: empirical, hitting barrier, in-depth crash investigation, rollover, severe crash

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Authors: M. Grifoni, G. Petruzzelli, M. Barbafieri, I. Rosellini, B. Pezzarossa, F. Pedron

Abstract:

Evapotranspiration (ET) covers are an alternative cover system that utilizes water balance approach to maximize the ET process to reduce the contaminants leaching through the soil profile. Microcosm tests allow to identify in a short time the most suitable plant species to be used as alternative covers, their survival capacity, and simultaneously the transpiration and evaporation rate of the cover in a specific contaminated soil. This work shows the soil characterization and ET results of microcosm tests carried out on two contaminated soils by using Triticum durum and Helianthus annuus species. The data indicated that transpiration was higher than evaporation, supporting the use of plants as alternative cover at this contaminated site.

Keywords: contaminated sites, evapotranspiration cover, evapotranspiration, microcosm experiments

Procedia PDF Downloads 275