Search results for: animal identification system

Authors: José Eduardo García-Mendiola

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In this work, a phenomenological approach to computational modeling of analogy processing is carried out. The paper goes through the consideration of the structure of the analogy, based on the possibility of sustaining the genesis of its elements regarding Husserl's genetic theory of association. Among particular processes which take place in order to get analogical inferences, there is one which arises crucial for enabling efficient base cases retrieval through long-term memory, namely analogical transference grounded on familiarity. In general, it has been argued that analogical reasoning is a way by which a conscious agent tries to determine or define a certain scope of objects and relationships between them using previous knowledge of other familiar domain of objects and relations. However, looking for a complete description of analogy process, a deeper consideration of phenomenological nature is required in so far, its simulation by computational programs is aimed. Also, one would get an idea of how complex it would be to have a fully computational account of the analogy elements. In fact, familiarity is not a result of a mere chain of repetitions of objects or events but generated insofar as the object/attribute or event in question is integrable inside a certain context that is taking shape as functionalities and functional approaches or perspectives of the object are being defined. Its familiarity is generated not by the identification of its parts or objective determinations as if they were isolated from those functionalities and approaches. Rather, at the core of such a familiarity between entities of different kinds lays the way they are functionally encoded. So, and hoping to make deeper inroads towards these topics, this essay allows us to consider that cognitive-computational perspectives can visualize, from the phenomenological projection of the analogy process reviewing achievements already obtained as well as exploration of new theoretical-experimental configurations towards implementation of analogy models in specific as well as in general purpose machines.

Keywords: analogy, association, encoding, retrieval

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Authors: Fátima Farinha, Miguel J. Oliveira, Gina Matias, Armando Inverno, Jânio Monteiro, Cristiano Cabrita

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In the last decades, the construction of swimming pools for recreational activities has grown exponentially in southern Europe. Swimming pools are used both for private use in villas and for collective use in hotels or condominiums. However, they have a high environmental impact, mainly in terms of water and energy consumption, being used for a short period of time, depending significantly on favorable atmospheric conditions. Contrary to what would be expected, not enough research has been conducted to reduce the negative impact of this equipment. In this context, this work proposes and analyses technological measures to reduce the environmental impacts of swimming pools, such as thermal insulation of the tank, water balance in order to detect leaks and optimize the backwash process, integration of renewable energy generation, and a smart control system that meets the requirements of the user. The work was developed within the scope of the Ecopool+++ project, which aims to create innovative heated pools with reduced thermal losses and integration of SMART energy plus water management systems. The project is in the final phase of its development, with very encouraging results.

Keywords: swimming pools, sustainability, thermal losses, water management system

Procedia PDF Downloads 81

Authors: Chryssa Thermolia, Ekaterini S. Bei, Stelios Sotiriadis, Kostas Stravoskoufos, Euripides G. M. Petrakis

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Moving into a new era of healthcare, new tools and devices are developed to extend and improve health services, such as remote patient monitoring and risk prevention. In this concept, Internet of Things (IoT) and Cloud Computing present great advantages by providing remote and efficient services, as well as cooperation between patients, clinicians, researchers and other health professionals. This paper focuses on patients suffering from bipolar disorder, a brain disorder that belongs to a group of conditions called effective disorders, which is characterized by great mood swings.We exploit the advantages of Semantic Web and Cloud Technologies to develop a patient monitoring system to support clinicians. Based on intelligently filtering of evidence-knowledge and individual-specific information we aim to provide treatment notifications and recommended function tests at appropriate times or concluding into alerts for serious mood changes and patient’s non-response to treatment. We propose an architecture, as the back-end part of a cloud platform for IoT, intertwining intelligence devices with patients’ daily routine and clinicians’ support.

Keywords: bipolar disorder, intelligent systems patient monitoring, semantic web technologies, healthcare

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Authors: Rakesh Kumar Meena, Tanushree Chatterjee

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Okra (Abelmoschus esculentas L. Moench) or lady’s finger is an important vegetable crop belonging to the Malvaceae family. Unfortunately, production and productivity of Okra are majorly affected by Yellow Vein mosaic virus (YVMV). The AO: 189 (resistant parent) X AO: 191(susceptible parent) used for the development of mapping population. The mapping population has 143 individuals (F₂:F₃). Population was characterized by physiological and pathological observations. Screening of 360 DNA markers was performed to survey for parental polymorphism between the contrasting parents’, i.e., AO: 189 and AO: 191. Out of 360; 84 polymorphic markers were used for genotyping of the mapping population. Total markers were distributed into four linkage groups (LG1, LG2, LG3, and LG4). LG3 covered the longest span (106.8cM) with maximum number of markers (27) while LG1 represented the smallest linkage group in terms of length (71.2cM). QTL identification using the composite interval mapping approach detected two prominent QTLs, QTL1 and QTL2 for resistance against YVMV disease. These QTLs were placed between the marker intervals of NBS-LRR72-Path02 and NBS-LRR06- NBS-LRR65 on linkage group 02 and linkage group 04 respectively. The LOD values of QTL1 and QTL2 were 5.7 and 6.8 which accounted for 19% and 27% of the total phenotypic variation, respectively. The findings of this study provide two linked markers which can be used as efficient diagnostic tools to distinguish between YVMV resistant and susceptible Okra cultivars/genotypes. Lines identified as highly resistant against YVMV infection can be used as donor lines for this trait. This will be instrumental in accelerating the trait improvement program in Okra and will substantially reduce the yield losses due to this viral disease.

Keywords: Okra, yellow vein mosaic virus, resistant, linkage map, QTLs

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Authors: Abdulrahman H. Alrashidi

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Kuwait Oil Company provides health care services through Ahmadi hospital for oil sector employee and their families. Due to increasing number of entitled patients in Ahmadi hospital, the company starts health insurance option in 2010. In addition, a new Ahmadi hospital decided to build to accumulate all entitled patients. Operation and management of new Ahmadi hospital investigated in this research. In order to maintain the high quality of medical services and satisfaction rate among oil sector community and reducing the operation cost. Six operation and management options evaluated in order to implement in new Ahmadi hospital. Qualitative Risk assessment method used to investigate proposed options for operation and management of new Ahmadi hospital. Evaluation criteria consist of quality of medical services, operation cost and satisfaction rate among oil sector community. Results show that using the same operation and management system in existing Ahmadi hospital with new Ahmadi hospital will bring cost higher. This approach brings risk to KOC. Results from risk assessment show that partially operated new Ahmadi hospital is the best opportunity to meet the objectives of KOC’s medical group.

Keywords: Kuwait Oil Company, new Ahmadi hospital, operation and management, risk assessment

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Authors: Mridula Korde

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The terahertz band is the main pillar of 6G wireless communication system. It is difficult to meet the high data rate of 1Tbps by millimeter frequency support systems. The terahertz band suffers huge propagation loss limiting wireless distance. Terahertz band imposes ultra massive multiple input multiple output antenna (UM-MIMO) systems which produce high array gain with narrow beamforming. The conventional methods for MIMO beamforming are Analog and Digital beamforming. The fully digital beamforming methods utilize dedicated structure of DAC/ADC and RF chains. These structures increase hardware complexity and are power hungry. The analog beamforming structures utilize ADC/DAC with phase shifters with less hardware complexity but support less data rates. As a result, a hybrid beamforming method can be adapted for UM-MIMO systems. This paper will investigate challenges in hybrid beamforming architecture which will address the low spatial degrees of freedom (SDoF) limitation in Terahertz (THz) Communication. The flexible hardware connections are proposed, in order to switch the system in an adaptive manner so as to minimize the power requirements.

Keywords: 6G, terahertz communication, beamforming, challenges

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Authors: M. Macchiaroli, L. Dolores, V. Pellecchia

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With the recent Resolution n. 580/2019/R/idr, the Italian Regulatory Authority for Energy, Networks, and Environment (ARERA) for the Urban Water Management has introduced, for water managements characterized by persistent critical issues regarding the planning and organization of the service and the implementation of the necessary interventions for the improvement of infrastructures and management quality, a new mechanism for determining tariffs: the regulatory scheme of Convergence. The aim of this regulatory scheme is the overcoming of the Water Service Divided in order to improve the stability of the local institutional structures, technical quality, contractual quality, as well as in order to guarantee transparency elements for Users of the Service. Convergence scheme presupposes the identification of the cost items to be considered in the tariff in parametric terms, distinguishing three possible cases according to the type of historical data available to the Manager. The study, in particular, focuses on operations that have neither data on tariff revenues nor data on operating costs. In this case, the Manager's Constraint on Revenues (VRG) is estimated on the basis of a reference benchmark and becomes the starting point for defining the structure of the tariff classes, in compliance with the TICSI provisions (Integrated Text for tariff classes, ARERA's Resolution n. 665/2017/R/idr). The proposed model implements the recent studies on optimization models for the definition of tariff classes in compliance with the constraints dictated by TICSI in the application of the Convergence mechanism, proposing itself as a support tool for the Managers and the local water regulatory Authority in the decision-making process.

Keywords: decision-making process, economic evaluation of projects, optimizing tools, urban water management, water tariff

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Authors: Swapnila V. Vanshiv, Hemant P. Joshi, Atul B. Aware

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Current study illustrates the formulation of floating microspheres for purpose of gastroretention of Dipyridamole which shows pH dependent solubility, with the highest solubility in acidic pH. The formulation involved hollow microsphere preparation by using solvent evaporation technique. Concentrations of rate controlling polymer, hydrophilic polymer, internal phase ratio, stirring speed were optimized to get desired responses, namely release of Dipyridamole, buoyancy of microspheres, entrapment efficiency of microspheres. In the formulation, the floating microspheres were prepared by using ethyl cellulose as release retardant and HPMC as a low density hydrophilic swellable polymer. Formulated microspheres were evaluated for their physical properties such as particle size and surface morphology by optical microscopy and SEM. Entrapment efficiency, floating behavior and drug release study as well the formulation was evaluated for in vivo gastroretention in rabbits using gamma scintigraphy. Formulation showed 75% drug release up to 10 hr with entrapment efficiency of 91% and 88% buoyancy till 10 hr. Gamma scintigraphic studies revealed that the optimized system was retained in the gastric region (stomach) for a prolonged period i.e. more than 5 hr.

Keywords: Dipyridamole microspheres, gastroretention, HPMC, optimization method

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Authors: K. Jafar, R. Nazar, A. Ishak, I. Pop

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The present analysis considers the steady stagnation point flow and heat transfer towards a permeable sheet in an upper-convected Maxwell (UCM) electrically conducting fluid, with a constant magnetic field applied in the transverse direction to flow, and a local heat generation within the boundary layer with a heat generation rate proportional to (T-T_inf)^p. Using a similarity transformation, the governing system of partial differential equations is first transformed into a system of ordinary differential equations, which is then solved numerically using a finite-difference scheme known as the Keller-box method. Numerical results are obtained for the flow and thermal fields for various values of the shrinking/stretching parameter lambda, the magnetic parameter M, the elastic parameter K, the Prandtl number Pr, the suction parameter s, the heat generation parameter Q, and the exponent p. The results indicate the existence of dual solutions for the shrinking sheet up to a critical value lambda_c whose value depends on the value of M, K, and s. In the presence of internal heat absorbtion (Q<0), the surface heat transfer rate decreases with increasing p but increases with parameter Q and s, when the sheet is either stretched or shrunk.

Keywords: magnetohydrodynamic (MHD), boundary layer flow, UCM fluid, stagnation point, shrinking sheet

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Authors: M. Yazdani, J. F. Carragher

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Citrus gall wasp (CGW), Bruchophagus fellis (Hym: Eurytomidae), is an Australian native insect pest. CGW has now become a problem of national concern, threatening the viability of the entire Australian citrus industry. However, CGW appears to exhibit a preference for certain citrus species; growers report that grapefruit and lemons are most severely infested, with oranges and mandarins affected to a lesser extent. Given the specificity of the host plant-insect interactions, it is speculated that plant volatiles may play a significant role in host recognition. To address whether plant volatiles is involved in host plant preference by CGW we tested the behavioral response of CGW to plants in a wind tunnel. The result showed that CGW had significantly higher preference to grapefruit and lemon than other cultivars and the least preference was recorded to mandarin (Chi-square test, P<0.001). Because CGW exhibited a detectable choice further studies were undertaken to identify the components of the volatiles from each species. We trapped the volatile chemicals emitted by a 30 cm tip of each plant onto a solid Porapak matrix. Eluted extracts were then analysed by Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry (GCMS) and the presumptive identity of the major compounds from each species inferred from the MS library. Although the same major compounds existed in all of the cultivars, the relative ratios of them differed between species. Next, we will validate the identity of the key volatiles using authentic standards and establish their ability to elicit olfactory responses in CGW in wind tunnel and field experiments. Identification of semiochemicals involved in host location by CGW is of interest not only from an ecological perspective but also for the development of novel pest control strategies.

Keywords: Citrus gall wasp, Bruchophagus fellis, volatiles, semiochemicals, IPM

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Authors: M. Kamal Elbokl

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The beneficial effects of reinforcing the subgrade soil in pavement system with randomly distributed polypropylene fibers were investigated. For this issue, two types of soils and one type of fiber were selected. Proctor, CBR and unconfined compression tests were conducted on unreinforced samples as well as reinforced ones at different concentrations and aspect ratio of fibers. OMC, CBR and modulus of elasticity were investigated and thereby, the optimum value of aspect ratio and fiber content were determined. The static and repeated triaxial tests were also conducted to study the behaviour of fiber reinforced soils under both static and repeated loading. The results indicated that CBR values of reinforced sand and clay were 3.1 and 4.2 times of their unreinforced values respectively. The modulus of elasticity of fiber reinforced soils has increased by 100% for silty sandy soil and 60.20% for silty clay soil due to fiber reinforcement. The reinforced soils exhibited higher failure stresses in the static triaxial tests than the unreinforced ones due to the apparent bond developed between soil particle and the fiber. Fiber reinforcement of subgrade soils can play an important role in control the rut formation in the pavement system.

Keywords: polypropylene fibers, CBR, static triaxial, cyclic triaxial, resilient strain, permanent strain

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Authors: Arnab Mondal, Sanjeev Kumar Sharma, Ranjit Kumar Upadhyay

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We study the spatiotemporal dynamics of a neuronal cable. The processes of one- dimensional (1D) and 2D diffusion are considered for a single variable, which is the membrane voltage, i.e., membrane voltage diffusively interacts for spatiotemporal pattern formalism. The recovery and other variables interact through the membrane voltage. A 3D Leech-Heart (LH) model is introduced to investigate the nonlinear responses of an excitable neuronal cable. The deterministic LH model shows different types of firing properties. We explore the parameter space of the uncoupled LH model and based on the bifurcation diagram, considering v_k2_ashift as a bifurcation parameter, we analyze the 1D diffusion dynamics in three regimes: bursting, regular spiking, and a quiescent state. Depending on parameters, it is shown that the diffusive system may generate regular and irregular bursting or spiking behavior. Further, it is explored a 2D diffusion acting on the membrane voltage, where different types of patterns can be observed. The results show that the LH neurons with different firing characteristics depending on the control parameters participate in a collective behavior of an information processing system that depends on the overall network.

Keywords: bifurcation, pattern formation, spatio-temporal dynamics, stability analysis

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Authors: Daniel M. Wolff, Patricia Gray, Rafael de la Parra Venegas

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An unsupervised machine listening system is constructed and applied to a dataset of 17,195 30-second marine hydrophone recordings. The system is then heuristically supplemented with anecdotal listening, contextual recording information, and supervised learning techniques to reduce the number of false positives. Features for classification are assembled by extracting the following data from each of the audio files: the spectral centroid, root-mean-squared values for each frequency band of a 10-octave filter bank, and mel-frequency cepstral coefficients in 5-second frames. In this way both time- and frequency-domain information are contained in the features to be passed to a clustering algorithm. Classification is performed using the k-means algorithm and then a k-nearest neighbors search. Different values of k are experimented with, in addition to different combinations of the available feature sets. Hypothesized class labels are 'primarily anthrophony' and 'primarily biophony', where the best class result conforming to the former label has 104 members after heuristic pruning. This demonstrates how a large audio dataset has been made more tractable with machine learning techniques, forming the foundation of a framework designed to acoustically monitor and gauge biological and anthropogenic activity in a marine environment.

Keywords: anthrophony, hydrophone, k-means, machine learning

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Authors: Maha Bakakri, Rachid Tadili, Fatiha Lemmini

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Morocco is one of the few countries that have kept their traditional crafts, despite the competition of modern industry and its impact on manual labor. Therefore the optimization of energy consumption becomes an obligation and this is the purpose of this document. In this work we present some characteristics of the furnace studied, its operating principle and the experimental measurements of the evolutions of the temperatures inside and outside the walls of the furnace, values which will be used later in the calculation of its thermal losses. In order to determine the major source of the thermal losses of the furnace we have established the heat balance of the furnace. The energy consumed, the useful energy and the thermal losses through the walls and the chimney of the furnace are calculated thanks to the experimental measurements which we realized for several firings. The results show that the energy consumption of this type of furnace is very high and that the main source of energy loss is mainly due to the heat losses of the combustion gases that escape from the furnace by the chimney while the losses through the walls are relatively small. it have opted for energy recovery as a solution where we can recover some of the heat lost through the use of a heat exchanger system using a double tube introduced into the flue gas exhaust stack compartment. The study on the heat recovery system is presented and the heat balance inside the exchanger is established. In this paper we also present the numerical modeling of heat transfer by conduction through the walls of the furnace. A numerical model has been established based on the finite volume method and the double scan method. It makes it possible to determine the temperature profile of the furnace and thus to calculate the thermal losses of its walls and to deduce the thermal losses due to the combustion gases. Validation of the model is done using the experimental measurements carried out on the furnace. The results obtained in this work, relating to the energy consumed during the operation of the furnace are important and are part of the energy efficiency framework that has become a key element in global energy policies. It is the fastest and cheapest way to solve energy, environmental and economic security problems.

Keywords: energy cunsumption, energy recovery, modeling, energy eficiency

Procedia PDF Downloads 53

Authors: K. Nikovics, D. Riccobono, M. Oger, H. Morin, L. Barbier, T. Poyot, X. Holy, A. Bendahmane, M. Drouet, A. L. Favier

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Muscle regeneration after injury (as irradiation) is of great importance. However, the molecular and cellular mechanisms are still unclear. Cytokines are believed to play fundamental role in the different stages of muscle regeneration. They are secreted by many cell populations, but the predominant producers are macrophages and helper T cells. On the other hand, it has been shown that adipose tissue derived stromal/stem cell (ASC) injection could improve muscle regeneration. Stem cells probably induce the coordinated modulations of gene expression in different macrophage cells. Therefore, we investigated the patterns and timing of changes in gene expression of different cytokines occurring upon stem cells loading. Muscle regeneration was studied in an irradiated muscle of minipig animal model in presence or absence of ASC treatment (irradiated and treated with ASCs, IRR+ASC; irradiated not-treated with ASCs, IRR; and non-irradiated no-IRR). We characterized macrophage populations by immunolabeling in the different conditions. In our study, we found mostly M2 and a few M1 macrophages in the IRR+ASC samples. However, only few M2b macrophages were noticed in the IRR muscles. In addition, we found intensive fibrosis in the IRR samples. With in situ hybridization and immunolabeling, we analyzed the cytokine expression of the different macrophages and we showed that M2d macrophage are the most abundant in the IRR+ASC samples. By in situ hybridization, strong expression of the transforming growth factor β (TGF-β) was observed in the IRR+ASC but very week in the IRR samples. But when we analyzed TGF-β level with immunolabeling the expression was very different: many M2 macrophages showed week expression in IRR+ASC and few cells expressing stronger level in IRR muscles. Therefore, we investigated the MMP expressions in the different muscles. Our data showed that the M2 macrophages of the IRR+ASC muscle expressed MMP2 proteins. Our working hypothesis is that MMP2 expression of the M2 macrophages can decrease fibrosis in the IRR+ASC muscle by capturing TGF-β.

Keywords: adipose tissue derived stromal/stem cell, cytokine, macrophage, muscle regeneration

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Authors: Leonardo C. Pacheco-Londoño, Nataly J Galan-Freyle, Lisandro Pacheco-Lugo, Antonio Acosta-Hoyos, Elkin Navarro, Gustavo Aroca-Martinez, Karin Rondón-Payares, Alberto C. Espinosa-Garavito, Samuel P. Hernández-Rivera

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At the Life Science Research Center at Simon Bolivar University, a primary focus is the diagnosis of various diseases, and the use of gold nanoparticles (Au-NPs) in diverse biomedical applications is continually expanding. In the present study, Au-NPs were employed as substrates for Surface-Enhanced Raman Spectroscopy (SERS) aimed at diagnosing kidney diseases arising from Lupus Nephritis (LN), preeclampsia (PC), and Hypertension (H). Discrimination models were developed for distinguishing patients with and without kidney diseases based on the SERS signals from urine samples by partial least squares-discriminant analysis (PLS-DA). A comparative study of the Raman signals across the three conditions was conducted, leading to the identification of potential metabolite signals. Model performance was assessed through cross-validation and external validation, determining parameters like sensitivity and specificity. Additionally, a secondary analysis was performed using machine learning (ML) models, wherein different ML algorithms were evaluated for their efficiency. Models’ validation was carried out using cross-validation and external validation, and other parameters were determined, such as sensitivity and specificity; the models showed average values of 0.9 for both parameters. Additionally, it is not possible to highlight this collaborative effort involved two university research centers and two healthcare institutions, ensuring ethical treatment and informed consent of patient samples.

Keywords: SERS, Raman, PLS-DA, kidney diseases

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Authors: Yared Yitagesu Tilahun

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Every nation, developed or developing, relies on transportation, but Addis Abeba City's transportation service is impacted by a number of variables. The current study's objectives are to determine the factors that influence transportation and gauge consumer satisfaction with such services in Addis Abeba. Customers and employees of Addis Ababa's transportation service authority would be the study's target group. 40 workers of the authority would be counted as part of the 310 000 clients that make up the population of the searcher service. Using a straightforward random selection technique, the researcher only chose 99 customers and 28 staff from this enormous group due to the considerable cost and time involved. Data gathering and analysis options included both quantitative and qualitative approaches. The results of this poll show that young people between the ages of 18 and 25 make up the majority of respondents (51.6%). The majority of employees and customers indicated that they are not satisfied with Addis Ababa's overall transportation system. The Addis Abeba Transportation Authority prioritizes client happiness by providing fair service. The company should have a system in place for managing time, resources, and people effectively. It should also provide employees the opportunity to contribute to client handling policies.

Keywords: transportation, customer satisfaction, services, determinants

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Authors: T. H. Young, S. J. Huang, Y. S. Chiu

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This paper investigates the parametric stability of an axially moving web subjected to nonuniform in-plane edge excitations on two opposite, simply-supported edges. The web is modeled as a viscoelastic plate whose constitutive relation obeys the Kelvin-Voigt model, and the in-plane edge excitations are expressed as the sum of a static tension and a periodical perturbation. Due to the in-plane edge excitations, the moving plate may bring about parametric instability under certain situations. First, the in-plane stresses of the plate due to the nonuniform edge excitations are determined by solving the in-plane forced vibration problem. Then, the dependence on the spatial coordinates in the equation of transverse motion is eliminated by the generalized Galerkin method, which results in a set of discretized system equations in time. Finally, the method of multiple scales is utilized to solve the set of system equations analytically if the periodical perturbation of the in-plane edge excitations is much smaller as compared with the static tension of the plate, from which the stability boundaries of the moving plate are obtained. Numerical results reveal that only combination resonances of the summed-type appear under the in-plane edge excitations considered in this work.

Keywords: axially moving viscoelastic plate, in-plane periodic excitation, nonuniformly distributed edge tension, dynamic stability

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Authors: Mirco Tarozzi, Giacomo Pignagnoli, Andrea Benedetti

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Structural systems are often subjected to degradation processes due to different kind of phenomena like unexpected loadings, ageing of the materials and fatigue cycles. This is true especially for bridges, in which their safety evaluation is crucial for the purpose of a design of planning maintenance. This paper discusses the experimental evaluation of the stiffness reduction from frequency changes due to uniform damage scenario. For this purpose, a 1:4 scaled bridge has been built in the laboratory of the University of Bologna. It is made of concrete and its cross section is composed by a slab linked to four beams. This concrete deck is 6 m long and 3 m wide, and its natural frequencies have been identified dynamically by exciting it with an impact hammer, a dropping weight, or by walking on it randomly. After that, a set of loading cycles has been applied to this bridge in order to produce a uniformly distributed crack pattern. During the loading phase, either cracking moment and yielding moment has been reached. In order to define the relationship between frequency variation and loss in stiffness, the identification of the natural frequencies of the bridge has been performed, before and after the occurrence of the damage, corresponding to each load step. The behavior of breathing cracks and its effect on the natural frequencies has been taken into account in the analytical calculations. By using a sort of exponential function given from the study of lot of experimental tests in the literature, it has been possible to predict the stiffness reduction through the frequency variation measurements. During the load test also crack opening and middle span vertical displacement has been monitored.

Keywords: concrete bridge, damage detection, dynamic test, frequency shifts, operational modal analysis

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Authors: Rawan Al-Nemari, Abdulrahman Al-Senaidy, Abdelhabib Semlali

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Background and objectives: The most common cause of death in women worldwide is breast cancer. Regarding all chemotherapy disadvantages and side effects, it’s becoming necessary to identify natural products that target cancer cells with lesser harmful side effects on non-targeted cells and biological environment. Different parts of A. squamosa L., commonly known as custard apple, show varied therapeutic effects. The objective of this study is to investigate in vitro and in vivo, the anti-cancer activity of A. squamosa leaves extract. Methods: The physiological responses using MTT, nucleus staining, and LDH assays were used to evaluate cell survival and proliferation in both ER+ and ER- cells when they were exposed to extract. Monolayer wound repair assay was used to investigate the effect of extracts on cell migration. Apoptotic gene’s expression was investigated by real-time polymerase chain reaction. To study the effect of the extract on the size of tumor, breast cancer induced rats were used. Results: A. squamosa leaves extract showed high anti-proliferative and cytotoxicity effects against different breast cancer cell lines with high concentration, 100 ug/ml. The extracts have reduced the cells wound closure. Polymerase chain reaction revealed downregulation of Bcl-2 and upregulation of Bax. In breast cancer model animal developed in our laboratory, after 4 weeks treatment, treated groups have shown smaller tumor size in comparison with control group (n=4). Conclusion: These results suggest that A. squamosa leaves extract has anti-cancer activity against breast cancer in both in vitro and in vivo, and it may be developed as a potential novel agent to treat breast cancer.

Keywords: apoptosis, breast cancer, migration, proliferation

Procedia PDF Downloads 133

Authors: Muhammad Maisam Abbas, Salman Tariq, Usama Riaz, Muhammad Tanveer, Humaira Abdul Ghafoor

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Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) refers to a developmental disorder that impairs an individual's communication and interaction ability. Individuals feel difficult to read facial expressions while communicating or interacting. Facial Expression Recognition (FER) is a unique method of classifying basic human expressions, i.e., happiness, fear, surprise, sadness, disgust, neutral, and anger through static and dynamic sources. This paper conducts a comprehensive comparison and proposed optimal method for a continued research project—a system that can assist people who have Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) in recognizing facial expressions. Comparison has been conducted on three supervised learning algorithms EigenFace, FisherFace, and LBPH. The JAFFE, CK+, and TFEID (I&II) datasets have been used to train and test the algorithms. The results were then evaluated based on variance, standard deviation, and accuracy. The experiments showed that FisherFace has the highest accuracy for all datasets and is considered the best algorithm to be implemented in our system.

Keywords: autism spectrum disorder, ASD, EigenFace, facial expression recognition, FisherFace, local binary pattern histogram, LBPH

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Authors: Ashish Ashish

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In the last few decades, the discrete chaos of difference equations has gained a massive attention of academicians and scholars due to its tremendous applications in each and every branch of science, such as cryptography, traffic control models, secure communications, weather forecasting, and engineering. In this article, a generalized logistic discrete map is established and discrete chaos is reported through period doubling bifurcation, period three orbit and Lyapunov exponent. It is interesting to see that the generalized logistic map exhibits superior chaos due to the presence of an extra degree of freedom of an ordered parameter. The period doubling bifurcation and Lyapunov exponent are demonstrated for some particular values of parameter and the discrete chaos is determined in the sense of Devaney's definition of chaos theoretically as well as numerically. Moreover, the study discusses an extended chaos based image encryption and decryption scheme in cryptography using this novel system. Surprisingly, a larger key space for coding and more sensitive dependence on initial conditions are examined for encryption and decryption of text messages, images and videos which secure the system strongly from external cyber attacks, coding attacks, statistic attacks and differential attacks.

Keywords: chaos, period-doubling, logistic map, Lyapunov exponent, image encryption

Procedia PDF Downloads 135

Authors: Elysa V. Largo, Lormaine Anne A. Branzuela, Julie Marisol D. Pagalilauan, Neil C. Concibido, Monet Concepcion M. Detras

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The energy demand in the country is increasing; thus, nuclear energy is recently mandated to add to the energy mix. The Philippines has the Bataan Nuclear Power Plant (BNPP), which can be a source of nuclear energy; however, it has not been operated since the completion of its construction. Thus, evaluating the safety of BNPP is vital. This study explored the possible deviations that may occur in the operation of a nuclear power plant with a pressurized water reactor, which is similar to BNPP, through a virtual process hazard analysis (PHA) using the hazard and operability (HAZOP) technique. Temperature, pressure, and flow were used as parameters. A total of 86 causes of various deviations were identified, wherein the primary system and line from reactor coolant pump to reactor vessel are the most critical system and node, respectively. A total of 348 scenarios were determined. The critical events are radioactive leaks due to nuclear meltdown and sump overflow that could lead to multiple worker fatalities, one or more public fatalities, and environmental remediation. There were existing safeguards identified; however, further recommendations were provided to have additional and supplemental barriers to reduce the risk.

Keywords: PSM, PHA, HAZOP, nuclear power plant

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Authors: Adel Salem Bahakeem, Ahmad Jamal, Mir Md. Maruf Morshed, Elwaleed Awad Khidir

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Direct Current (DC) servo motors, or simply DC motors, play an important role in many industrial applications such as manufacturing of plastics, precise positioning of the equipment, and operating computer-controlled systems where speed of feed control, maintaining the position, and ensuring to have a constantly desired output is very critical. These parameters can be controlled with the help of control systems such as the Proportional Integral Derivative (PID) controller. The aim of the current work is to investigate the effects of Proportional (P) and Integral (I) controllers on the steady state and transient response of the DC motor. The controller gains are varied to observe their effects on the error, damping, and stability of the steady and transient motor response. The current investigation is conducted experimentally on a servo trainer CE 110 using analog PI controller CE 120 and theoretically using Simulink in MATLAB. Both experimental and theoretical work involves varying integral controller gain to obtain the response to a steady-state input, varying, individually, the proportional and integral controller gains to obtain the response to a step input function at a certain frequency, and theoretically obtaining the proportional and integral controller gains for desired values of damping ratio and response frequency. Results reveal that a proportional controller helps reduce the steady-state and transient error between the input signal and output response and makes the system more stable. In addition, it also speeds up the response of the system. On the other hand, the integral controller eliminates the error but tends to make the system unstable with induced oscillations and slow response to eliminate the error. From the current work, it is desired to achieve a stable response of the servo motor in terms of its angular velocity subjected to steady-state and transient input signals by utilizing the strengths of both P and I controllers.

Keywords: DC servo motor, proportional controller, integral controller, controller gain optimization, Simulink

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Authors: Maryam Savari, Mohamad Nizam Ayub, Ainuddin Wahid Abdul Wahab

Abstract:

Game-based Learning (GBL) is an alternative that provides learners with an opportunity to experience a volatile environment in a safe and secure place. A volatile environment requires a different technique to facilitate learning and prevent injury and other hazards. Subjects involving elasticity are always considered hazardous and can cause injuries,for instance a bouncing ball. Elasticity is a topic that necessitates hands-on practicality for learners to experience the effects of elastic objects. In this paper the scope is to investigate the natural interaction between learners and elastic objects in a safe environment using GBL. During interaction, the potentials of natural contact in the process of learning were explored and gestures exhibited during the learning process were identified. GBL was developed using Kinect technology to teach elasticity to primary school children aged 7 to 12. The system detects body gestures and defines the meanings of motions exhibited during the learning process. The qualitative approach was deployed to constantly monitor the interaction between the student and the system. Based on the results, it was found that Natural Interaction GBL (Ni-GBL) is engaging for students to learn, making their learning experience more active and joyful.

Keywords: elasticity, Game-Based Learning (GBL), kinect technology, natural interaction

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Authors: Pablo Ignacio Hernández Arango, Niels Lindemeyer

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Chlorine, as Sodium Hypochlorite (NaClO) solution in water, is an effective, worldwide spread, and economical substance to eliminate germs in the water. The disinfection potential of chlorine lies in its ability to degrade the outer surfaces of bacterial cells and viruses. This contribution reports the main parameters of the brine electrolysis for the production of NaClO, which is afterward used for the disinfection of water either for drinking or recreative uses. Herein, the system design was simulated, optimized, build, and tested based on titanium electrodes. The process optimization considers the whole process, from the salt (NaCl) dilution tank in order to maximize its operation time util the electrolysis itself in order to maximize the chlorine production reducing the energy and raw material (salt and water) consumption. One novel idea behind this optimization process is the modification of the flow pattern inside the electrochemical reactors. The increasing turbulence and residence time impact positively the operations figures. The operational parameters, which are defined in this study were compared and benchmarked with the parameters of actual commercial systems in order to validate the pertinency of those results.

Keywords: electrolysis, water disinfection, sodium hypochlorite, process optimization

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Authors: Aliya Sekenova, Vyacheslav Ogay

Abstract:

The derivation of human induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) from somatic cells by direct reprogramming opens wide perspectives in the regenerative medicine. It means the possibility to develop the personal and, consequently, any immunologically compatible cells for applications in cell-based therapy. The purpose of our study was to develop the technology for the production of NK cells from T cell-derived induced pluripotent stem cells (TiPSCs) for subsequent application in adoptive cancer immunotherapy. Methods: In this study iPSCs were derived from peripheral blood T cells using Sendai virus vectors expressing Oct4, Sox2, Klf4 and c-Myc. Pluripotent characteristics of TiPSCs were examined and confirmed with alkaline phosphatase staining, immunocytochemistry and RT-PCR analysis. For NK cell differentiation, embryoid bodies (EB) formed from (TiPSCs) were cultured in xenogeneic serum-free medium containing human serum, IL-3, IL-7, IL-15, SCF, FLT3L without using M210-B4 and AFT-024 stromal feeder cells. After differentiation, NK cells were characterized with immunofluorescence analysis, flow cytometry and cytotoxicity assay. Results: Here, we for the first time demonstrate that TiPSCs can effectively differentiate into functionally active NK cells without M210-B4 and AFT-024 xenogeneic stroma cells. Immunofluorescence and flow cytometry analysis showed that EB-derived cells can differentiate into a homogeneous population of NK cell expressing high levels of CD56, CD45 and CD16 specific markers. Moreover, these cells significantly express killing activation receptors such as NKp44 and NKp46. In the comparative analysis, we observed that NK cells derived using feeder-free culture system have more high killing activity against K-562 tumor cells, than NK cells derived by feeder-dependent method. Thus, we think that our obtained data will be useful for the development of large-scale production of NK cells for translation into cancer immunotherapy.

Keywords: induced pluripotent stem cells, NK cells, T cells, cell diffentiation, feeder cell-free culture system

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Authors: Subhash Nerella, Ziyuan Guan, Azra Bihorac, Parisa Rashidi

Abstract:

Intensive care units (ICUs) provide care to critically ill patients in severe and life-threatening conditions. However, patient monitoring in the ICU is limited by the time and resource constraints imposed on healthcare providers. Many critical care indices such as mobility are still manually assessed, which can be subjective, prone to human errors, and lack granularity. Other important aspects, such as environmental factors, are not monitored at all. For example, critically ill patients often experience circadian disruptions due to the absence of effective environmental “timekeepers” such as the light/dark cycle and the systemic effect of acute illness on chronobiologic markers. Although the occurrence of delirium is associated with circadian disruption risk factors, these factors are not routinely monitored in the ICU. Hence, there is a critical unmet need to develop systems for precise and real-time assessment through novel enabling technologies. We have developed the mobility and circadian disruption quantification system (Mobi-DiQ) by augmenting biomarker and clinical data with pervasive sensing data to generate mobility and circadian cues related to mobility, nightly disruptions, and light and noise exposure. We hypothesize that Mobi-DiQ can provide accurate mobility and circadian cues that correlate with bedside clinical mobility assessments and circadian biomarkers, ultimately important for delirium risk assessment and prevention. The collected multimodal dataset consists of depth images, Electromyography (EMG) data, patient extremity movement captured by accelerometers, ambient light levels, Sound Pressure Level (SPL), and indoor air quality measured by volatile organic compounds, and the equivalent CO₂ concentration. For delirium risk assessment, the system recognizes mobility cues (axial body movement features and body key points) and circadian cues, including nightly disruptions, ambient SPL, and light intensity, as well as other environmental factors such as indoor air quality. The Mobi-DiQ system consists of three major components: the pervasive sensing system, a data storage and analysis server, and a data annotation system. For data collection, six local pervasive sensing systems were deployed, including a local computer and sensors. A video recording tool with graphical user interface (GUI) developed in python was used to capture depth image frames for analyzing patient mobility. All sensor data is encrypted, then automatically uploaded to the Mobi-DiQ server through a secured VPN connection. Several data pipelines are developed to automate the data transfer, curation, and data preparation for annotation and model training. The data curation and post-processing are performed on the server. A custom secure annotation tool with GUI was developed to annotate depth activity data. The annotation tool is linked to the MongoDB database to record the data annotation and to provide summarization. Docker containers are also utilized to manage services and pipelines running on the server in an isolated manner. The processed clinical data and annotations are used to train and develop real-time pervasive sensing systems to augment clinical decision-making and promote targeted interventions. In the future, we intend to evaluate our system as a clinical implementation trial, as well as to refine and validate it by using other data sources, including neurological data obtained through continuous electroencephalography (EEG).

Keywords: deep learning, delirium, healthcare, pervasive sensing

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Authors: Hongjian Jia

Abstract:

A finite-length cylindrical shell with a spherical cap is a typical engineering approximation model of actual underwater targets. The research on the omni-directional acoustic scattering characteristics of this target model can provide a favorable basis for the detection and identification of actual underwater targets. The elastic resonance characteristics of the target are the results of the comprehensive effect of the target length, shell-thickness ratio and materials. Under the conditions of different materials and geometric dimensions, the coincidence resonance characteristics of the target have obvious differences. Aiming at this problem, this paper obtains the omni-directional acoustic scattering field of the underwater hemispherical cylindrical shell by numerical calculation and studies the influence of target geometric parameters (length, shell-thickness ratio) and material parameters on the coincidence resonance characteristics of the target in turn. The study found that the formant interval is not a stable value and changes with the incident angle. Among them, the formant interval is less affected by the target length and shell-thickness ratio and is significantly affected by the material properties, which is an effective feature for classifying and identifying targets of different materials. The quadratic polynomial is utilized to fully fit the change relationship between the formant interval and the angle. The results show that the three fitting coefficients of the stainless steel and aluminum targets are significantly different, which can be used as an effective feature parameter to characterize the target materials.

Keywords: hemispherical cylindrical shell;, fine echo characteristics;, geometric and material parameters;, formant interval

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Authors: Omar Al Denali, Abdelaziz Badi

Abstract:

The ASTM A516 Grade 70 steel is a suitable material used for the fabrication of boiler pressure vessels working in moderate and lower temperature services, and it has good weldability and excellent notch toughness. The post-weld heat treatment (PWHT) or stress-relieving heat treatment has significant effects on avoiding the martensite transformation and resulting in high hardness, which can lead to cracking in the heat-affected zone (HAZ). An adaptive neuro-fuzzy inference system (ANFIS) was implemented to predict the material tensile strength of post-weld heat treatment (PWHT) experiments. The ANFIS models presented excellent predictions, and the comparison was carried out based on the mean absolute percentage error between the predicted values and the experimental values. The ANFIS model gave a Mean Absolute Percentage Error of 0.556 %, which confirms the high accuracy of the model.

Keywords: prediction, post-weld heat treatment, adaptive neuro-fuzzy inference system, mean absolute percentage error

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