Search results for: short circuit test

Authors: Sangguk Ahn, Youngyu Kim, Jaheon Gu, Gyoutae Park

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In this paper, we developed a dual gas leak instrument to detect Hydrocarbon (HC) and Monoxide (CO) gases. To two kinds of gases, it is necessary to design compact structure for sensors. And then it is important to draw sensing circuits such as measuring, amplifying and filtering. After that, it should be well programmed with robust, systematic and module coding methods. In center of them, improvement of accuracy and initial response time are a matter of vital importance. To manufacture distinguished gas leak detector, we applied intrinsically safe explosion-proof structure to lithium ion battery, main circuits, a pump with motor, color LCD interfaces and sensing circuits. On software, to enhance measuring accuracy we used numerical analysis such as Lagrange and Neville interpolation. Performance test result is conducted by using standard Methane with seven different concentrations with three other products. We want raise risk prevention and efficiency of gas safe management through distributing to the field of gas safety. Acknowledgment: This study was supported by Small and Medium Business Administration under the research theme of ‘Commercialized Development of a portable intrinsically safe explosion-proof type dual gas leak detector’, (task number S2456036).

Keywords: gas leak, dual gas detector, intrinsically safe, explosion proof

Procedia PDF Downloads 230

Authors: Alsu F. Saifitdinova, Alexey S. Komissarov, Svetlana A. Galkina, Elena I. Koshel, Maria M. Kulak, Stephen J. O'Brien, Elena R. Gaginskaya

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The mystery of sex determination is one of the most ancient and still not solved until the end so far. In many species, sex determination is genetic and often accompanied by the presence of dimorphic sex chromosomes in the karyotype. Genomic sequencing gave the information about the gene content of sex chromosomes which allowed to reveal their origin from ordinary autosomes and to trace their evolutionary history. Female-specific W chromosome in birds as well as mammalian male-specific Y chromosome is characterized by the degeneration of gene content and the accumulation of repetitive DNA. Tandem repeats complicate the analysis of genomic data. Despite the best efforts chicken W chromosome assembly includes only 1.2 Mb from expected 55 Mb. Supplementing the information on the sex chromosome composition not only helps to complete the assembly of genomes but also moves us in the direction of understanding of the sex-determination systems evolution. A whole-genome survey to the assembly Gallus_gallus WASHUC 2.60 was applied for repeats search in assembled genome and performed search and assembly of high copy number repeats in unassembled reads of SRR867748 short reads datasets. For cytogenetic analysis conventional methods of fluorescent in situ hybridization was used for previously cloned W specific satellites and specifically designed directly labeled synthetic oligonucleotide DNA probe was used for bioinformatically identified repetitive sequence. Hybridization was performed with mitotic chicken chromosomes and manually isolated giant meiotic lampbrush chromosomes from growing oocytes. A novel chicken W specific satellite (GGAAA)n which is not co-localizes with any previously described classes of W specific repeats was identified and mapped with high resolution. In the composition of autosomes this repeat units was found as a part of upstream regions of gonad specific protein coding sequences. These findings may contribute to the understanding of the role of tandem repeats in sex specific differentiation regulation in birds and sex chromosome evolution. This work was supported by the postdoctoral fellowships from St. Petersburg State University (#1.50.1623.2013 and #1.50.1043.2014), the grant for Leading Scientific Schools (#3553.2014.4) and the grant from Russian foundation for basic researches (#15-04-05684). The equipment and software of Research Resource Center “Chromas” and Theodosius Dobzhansky Center for Genome Bioinformatics of Saint Petersburg State University were used.

Keywords: birds, lampbrush chromosomes, sex chromosomes, tandem repeats

Procedia PDF Downloads 391

Authors: Mortez Alijani, Anas Osman

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Recently, the popularity of Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) has skyrocketed amidst the unprecedented events and the global pandemic, as they play a key role in both the security and health sectors, through surveillance, taking test samples, transportation of crucial goods and spreading awareness among civilians. However, the process of designing and producing such aerial robots is suppressed by the internal and external constraints that pose serious challenges. Landing is one of the key operations during flight, especially, the autonomous landing of UAVs on a moving platform is a scientifically complex engineering problem. Typically having a successful automatic landing of UAV on a moving platform requires accurate localization of landing, fast trajectory planning, and robust control planning. To achieve these goals, the information about the autonomous landing process such as the intersection point, the position of platform/UAV and inclination angle are more necessary. In this study, the mathematical approach to this problem in the X-Y axis based on the inclination angle and position of UAV in the landing process have been presented. The experimental results depict the accurate position of the UAV, intersection between UAV and moving platform and inclination angle in the landing process, allowing prediction of the intersection point.

Keywords: autonomous landing, inclination angle, unmanned aerial vehicles, moving platform, X-Y axis, intersection point

Procedia PDF Downloads 166

Authors: Paula Quiterio, Arlete Apolinario, Celia T. Sousa, Joao Azevedo, Paula Dias, Adelio Mendes, Joao P. Araujo

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Nowadays one of the mankind's greatest challenges has been the supply of low-cost and environmentally friendly energy sources as an alternative to non-renewable fossil fuels. Hydrogen has been considered a promising solution, representing a clean and low-cost fuel. It can be produced directly from clean and abundant resources, such as sunlight and water, using photoelectrochemical cells (PECs), in a process that mimics the nature´s photosynthesis. Hematite (alpha-Fe2O3) has attracted considerable attention as a promising photoanode for solar water splitting, due to its high chemical stability, nontoxicity, availability and low band gap (2.2 eV), which allows reaching a high thermodynamic solar-to-hydrogen efficiency of 16.8 %. However, the main drawbacks of hematite such as the short hole diffusion length and the poor conductivity that lead to high electron-hole recombination result in significant PEC efficiency losses. One strategy to overcome these limitations and to increase the PEC efficiency is to use 1D nanostructures, such as nanotubes (NTs) and nanowires (NWs), which present high aspect ratios and large surface areas providing direct pathways for electron transport up to the charge collector and minimizing the recombination losses. In particular, due to the ultrathin walls of the NTs, the holes can reach the surface faster than in other nanostructures, representing a key factor for the NTs photoresponse. In this work, we prepared hematite NWs and NTs, respectively by hydrothermal process and electrochemical anodization. For hematite NWs growing, we studied the effect of variable hydrothermal conditions, different annealing temperatures and time, and the use of Ti and Sn dopants on the morphology and PEC performance. The crystalline phase characterization by X-ray diffraction was crucial to distinguish the formation of hematite and other iron oxide phases, alongside its effect on the photoanodes conductivity and consequent PEC efficiency. The conductivity of the as-prepared NWs is very low, in the order of 10-5 S cm-1, but after doping and annealing optimization it increased by a factor of 105. A high photocurrent density of 1.02 mA cm-2 at 1.45 VRHE was obtained under simulated sunlight, which is a very promising value for this kind of hematite nanostructures. The stability of the photoelectrodes was also tested, presenting good stability after several J-V measurements over time. The NTs, synthesized by fast anodizations with potentials ranging from 20-100 V, presented a linear growth of the NTs pore walls, with very low thicknesses from 10 - 18 nm. These preliminary results are also very promising for the use of hematite photoelectrodes on PEC hydrogen applications.

Keywords: hematite, nanotubes, nanowires, photoelectrochemical cells

Procedia PDF Downloads 231

Authors: Shazmeen Maroof

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The study is motivated by a desire to investigate whether there is substance to claims that, relative to traditional donors, China disregards human rights considerations when allocating overseas aid. While the stated policy of the U.S. is that consideration of potential aid recipients’ respect for human rights is mandatory, some quantitative studies have cast doubt on whether this is reflected in actual allocations. There is a lack of academic literature that formally assesses the extent to which the two countries' aid allocations differ; which is essential to test whether the criticisms of China's aid policy in comparison to that of the U.S. are justified. Using data on two standard human rights measures, 'Political Terror Scale' and 'Civil Liberties', the study analyse the two donors’ aid allocations among 125 countries over the period 2000 to 2014. The bivariate analysis demonstrated that a significant share of China’s aid flow to countries with poor human rights record. At the same time, the U.S. seems little different in providing aid to these countries. The empirical results obtained from the Fractional Logit model also provided some support to the general pessimism regarding China’s provision of aid to countries with poor human rights record, yet challenge the optimists expecting better targeted aid from the U.S. These findings are consistent with the split between humanitarian and non-humanitarian aid and in the sample of countries whose human rights record is below some threshold level.

Keywords: China's aid policy, foreign aid allocation, human rights, United States Foreign Assistance Act

Procedia PDF Downloads 110

Authors: Saori Fujimoto, Hiromi Kawasaki, Mari Murakami, Yoko Ueno

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Background: Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) has been spreading throughout the world. In Japan, many nursing universities have conducted online clinical practices to secure students’ learning opportunities. In the field of women’s health nursing, even after the pandemic ended, it will be worthwhile to utilize online practice in declining birthrate and reducing the burden of mothers. This study examined the learning effects of conducting online visits for mothers with infants during the COVID-19 pandemic by nursing students to enhance the students’ ability to carry out the online practice even in ordinary times effectively. Methods: Students were divided into groups of three, and information on the mothers was assessed, and the visits were planned. After role-play was conducted by the students and teachers, an online visit was conducted. The analysis target was the self-evaluation score of nine students who conducted online visits in June 2020 and had consented to participate. The evaluation contents included three items for assessment, two items for planning, one item for ethical consideration, five items for nursing practice, and two items for evaluation. The self-evaluation score ranged from 4 (‘Can do with a little advice’) to 1 (‘Can’t do with a little advice’). A univariate statistical analysis was performed. This study was approved by the Ethical Committee for Epidemiology of Hiroshima University. Results: The items with the highest mean (standard deviation) scores were ‘advocates for the dignity and the rights of mothers’ (3.89 (0.31)) and ‘communication behavior needed to create a trusting relationship’ (3.89 (0.31)).’ Next were the ‘individual nursing practice tailored to mothers (3.78 (0.42))’ and ‘review own practice and work on own task (3.78 (0.42)).’ The mean (standard deviation) of the items by type were as follows: three assessment items, 3.26 (0.70), two planning items, 3.11 (0.49), one ethical consideration item, 3.89 (0.31), five nursing practice items, 3.56 (0.54), and two evaluation items, 3.67 (0.47). Conclusion: The highest self-evaluations were for ‘advocates for the dignity and the rights of mothers’ and ‘communication behavior needed to create a trusting relationship.’ These findings suggest that the students were able to form good relationships with the mothers by improving their ability to effectively communicate and by presenting a positive attitude, even when conducting health visits online. However, the self-evaluation scores for assessment and planning were lower than those of ethical consideration, nursing practice, and evaluation. This was most likely due to a lack of opportunities and time to gather information and the need to modify and add plans in a short amount of time during one online visit. It is necessary to further consider the methods used in conducting online visits from the following viewpoints: methods of gathering information and the ability to make changes through multiple visits.

Keywords: infants, learning effects, mothers, online visit practice

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Authors: Sidi Ahmed Maouloud, Cheikh Ba

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Much of West Africa’s cultural heritage is written in the Al-Soudani Arabic script, which was widely used in West Africa before the time of European colonization. This Al-Soudani Arabic script is an African version of the Maghrebi script, in particular, the Al-Mebssout script. However, the local African qualities were incorporated into the Al-Soudani script in a way that gave it a unique African diversity and character. Despite the existence of several Arabic datasets in Oriental script, allowing for the analysis, layout, and recognition of texts written in these calligraphies, many Arabic scripts and written traditions remain understudied. In this paper, we present a dataset of words from Al-Soudani calligraphy scripts. This dataset consists of 100 images selected from three different manuscripts written in Al-Soudani Arabic script by different copyists. The primary source for this database was the libraries of Boston University and Cambridge University. This dataset highlights the unique characteristics of the Al-Soudani Arabic script as well as the new challenges it presents in terms of automatic word recognition of Arabic manuscripts. An HTR system based on a hybrid ANN (CRNN-CTC) is also proposed to test this dataset. SAMRA is a dataset of annotated Arabic manuscript words in the Al-Soudani script that can help researchers automatically recognize and analyze manuscript words written in this script.

Keywords: dataset, CRNN-CTC, handwritten words recognition, Al-Soudani Arabic script, HTR, manuscripts

Procedia PDF Downloads 134

Authors: Mansur Abdulrasheed, Ibrahim I. Hussein, Ahmed M. Mubarak, Ahmed F. Umar

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This study was aimed at evaluating the phytochemical constituents and the antimicrobial activity of the seed oil of Moringa oleifera and garlic against some selected food-borne microorganisms (Staphylococcus aureus, Escherichia coli, Salmonella spp and Pseudomonas aeruginosa) using disc diffusion method. The results of the phytochemical screening revealed differences in the presence of the phytochemicals among the extracts. Saponins were detected in both Moringa oleifera and garlic seed oil, while alkaloid and tannins were observed in seed oil of garlic. Furthermore, the antibacterial assay results show that the seed oil of Moringa oleifera was inactive against all the tested organisms, even at 100 % concentration. In contrast, garlic oil was found to be active against all the tested organisms. The highest inhibition was observed in E. coli (12 mm) at 100 % concentration, while at 20 % concentration, Salmonella Sp and P. aeruginosa showed the least inhibiton (6 mm). The antimicrobial activity of the seed oil of garlic may be attributed to its phytochemicals components which were not detected in the seed oil of Moringa oleifera. The results of this study have shown the potentials of the seed oil of garlic as an antimicrobial agent more especially in foods, by inhibiting the growth of the test organisms, which range from food-borne pathogens to food spoilage organisms.

Keywords: antimicrobial, garlic, Moringa oleifera, food borne pathogens

Procedia PDF Downloads 509

Authors: Fernandes A. C. B. C. J., de Jesus V. C., Sepideh N., Vilela OFGG, Somarin K. K., França R., Pinheiro F. H. S. L.

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Objective: The purpose of this study was to look at the effect of pre-treatment of enamel with pumice and/or 37% phosphoric acid on the shear bond strength (SBS) of orthodontic tubes bonded to enamel while simultaneously evaluating the efficacy of orthodontic tubes bonded by self-etch primer (SEP). Materials and Methods: 39 of the crown halves were divided into 3 groups at random. Group, I was the control group utilizing both prophy paste and the conventional double etching pre-treatment method. Group II excluded the use of prophy paste prior to double etching. Group III excluded the use of both prophy paste and double etching and only utilized SEP. Bond strength of the orthodontic tubes was measured by SBS. One way ANOVA and Tukey’s HSD test were used to compare SBS values between the three groups. The statistical significance was set to p<0.05. Results: The difference in SBS values of groups I (36.672 ± 9.315 Mpa), II (34.242 ± 9.986 Mpa), and III (39.055 ± 5.565) were not statistically significant (P<0.05). Conclusion: This study suggested that the use of prophy paste or pre-acid etch of the enamel surface did not provide a statistically significant difference in SBS between the three groups.

Keywords: shear bond strength, orthodontic bracket, self-etch primer, pumice, prophy

Procedia PDF Downloads 181

Authors: Tippawan Nasawan

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The objective of this study is to find the replenishment policy in Assembly-to-Order manufacturing (ATO) which some of the major components have lead-time longer than customer lead-time. The variety of products, independent component demand, and long component lead-time are the difficulty that has resulted in the overstock problem. In addition, the ordering cost is trivial when compared to the cost of material of the major component. A conceptual design of the Decision Supporting System (DSS) has introduced to assist the replenishment policy. Component replenishment by using the variable which calls Available to Promise (ATP) for making the decision is one of the keys. The Poisson distribution is adopted to realize demand patterns in order to calculate Safety Stock (SS) at the specified Customer Service Level (CSL). When distribution cannot identify, nonparametric will be applied instead. The test result after comparing the ending inventory between the new policy and the old policy, the overstock has significantly reduced by 46.9 percent or about 469,891.51 US-Dollars for the cost of the major component (material cost only). Besides, the number of the major component inventory is also reduced by about 41 percent which helps to mitigate the chance of damage and keeping stock.

Keywords: Assembly-to-Order, Decision Supporting System, Component replenishment , Poisson distribution

Procedia PDF Downloads 129

Authors: Ali Sinan Soğancı

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Expansive soils are often encountered in many parts of the world, especially in arid and semi-arid fields. Such kind of soils, generally including active clay minerals in low water content, enlarge in volume by absorbing the water through the surface and cause a great harm to the light structures such as channel coating, roads and airports. The expansive soils were encountered on the path of Apa-Hotamış conveyance channel belonging to the State Hydraulic Works in the region of Konya. In the research done in this area, it is predicted that the soil has a swollen nature and the soil should be filled with proper granular equipment by digging the ground to 50-60 cm. In this study, for purpose of helping the other research to be done in the same area, it is thought that instead of replacing swollen soil with the granular soil, by stabilizing it with polypropylene fiber and using it its original place decreases effect of swelling percent, in this way the cost will be decreased. Therefore, a laboratory tests were conducted to study the effects of polypropylene fiber on swelling characteristics of expansive soil. Test results indicated that inclusion of fiber reduced swell percent of expansive soil. As the fiber content increased, the unconfined compressive strength was increased. Finally, it can be say that stabilization of expansive soils with polypropylene fiber is an effective method.

Keywords: expansive soils, polypropylene fiber, stabilization, swelling percent

Procedia PDF Downloads 520

Authors: Daniel Rosero, Johan S. Arana, Sebastian Arango, Alejandro Cruz, Isabel Gomez-Gutierrez, Peter Thomson

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Santiago de Cali is located in the southwestern Colombia in a high seismic hazard zone. About 50% of the city is on the banks of the Cauca River, which is the second most important hydric affluent in the country and whose alluvial deposits contain potentially liquefiable sands. Among the methods used to study a site's liquefaction potential is the finite elements method which use constitutive models to simulate the soil response for different load types. Among the different constitutive models, the Modified UBCSand stands out to study the seismic behavior of sands, and especially the liquefaction phenomenon. In this paper, the dynamic behavior of a potentially liquefiable sand of Santiago de Cali is studied by cyclic triaxial and CPTu tests. Subsequently, the behavior of the sand is simulated using the Modified UBCSand constitutive model, whose parameters are calibrated using the results of cyclic triaxial and CPTu tests. The above with the aim of analyze the constitutive model applicability for studying the geotechnical problems associated to liquefaction in the city.

Keywords: constitutive model, cyclic triaxial test, dynamic behavior, liquefiable sand, modified ubcsand

Procedia PDF Downloads 274

Authors: D. Sengani, N. Potgieter, P. E. L. Mojapelo

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Three bacteria species which comprise of Gram negative and Gram positive microorganisms were isolated and identified on the basis of morpho-cultural study, catalase tests, oxidase tests and biochemical characteristics were found belonging to different genera including Burkholderia cepacia, Pasteurella pneumotropica and Enterococcus faecalis. The main objective of this study was to isolate and identify PCB degrading bacteria from PCB contaminated soils and test them for their degradation ability of PCBs in natural habitat conditions. The results indicated an overall decrease of PCB concentration level with the gradient average ranging from 1.5 to 1.8 respectively. Enterococcus faecalis removed as much as 32% of PCBs in the contaminated soil samples. Whereas Pasteurella pneumotropica could remove 24% of PCBs, Burkholderia cepacia 21% of PCBs and the mixed culture removed 23%. Data showed that the three bacterial strains could tolerate high concentration of PCBs. The results provided the evidence that naturally occurring bacteria in soil contaminated with PCBs have the potential to degrade PCBs. Statistical analysis showed that there was a significant positive correlation between bacteria growth and treatment with a coefficient of (r) =0.1459 and p value < 0.001.

Keywords: bacteria, bioaccumulation, biodegradation, bioremediation, polychlorinated biphenyls

Procedia PDF Downloads 243

Authors: Shosh Kazaz, Shmuel Banai, Vered Zilberberg

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Optimizing high business performance and employee's well-being simultaneously often challenges organizations. 'TIP' intervention enables achieving them both as the given project demonstrates. Increasing outcomes and improving performance were the initial motivators for this explorative project, followed by a request of the head of the Cardiology department: 'I know we are the best at our clinical practice, but we need to take it further and break our own glass ceiling.' Two guided interventions were conducted in two different units within the department, designed to implement advanced managerial and business-oriented tools, along with 'soft tools' based on coaching psychology and particularly wellness coaching. The organ department multi-disciplinary teams were assembled, aiming to manage and lead the process: mapping the patients' flow, creating solutions, implementing, assessing, improving and assimilating them. Approximately four months later, without additional external resources, meaningful results emerged by the teams in terms of business and performance: shortening the hospitalization length at a given procedure (from 7 to 2.1 days); increasing the availability of Catheterization laboratory by 16% daily – resulting profitability raise; improving patients' journey and experience. A year later, those results are maintained. Furthermore, interviews with the participants revealed positive perceptions regarding the department; a higher sense of joyfulness, connectedness, belonging and a better department climate were reported. Additionally, participants reported a higher sense of fulfillment as opposed to their earliest skepticism and cynicism about their ability to enhance outcomes without more resources (budget and/or manpower), experiencing a mindset change toward the possibility of leading personal and professional growth processes. These reports were supported by analyzing a set of questionnaires that the participants completed, parallel to a control group of non-participating colleagues. Although the assessment was taken a year after the completion of the project and during 'covid-19th-3rd national quarantine, the results indicated a significant impact on several personal parameters associated with wellness, compared to the control group. The participants were higher in self-efficacy and organizational commitment; men were higher in resilience and optimism and women were higher in well-being. In conclusion, the 'TIP' relatively short intervention integrates advanced managerial and wellness coaching tools, empowers organizational resources: Team, Individual and Process and by that generates multi-impact measurable results in terms of employee's wellness parameters along with business performance and patient care.

Keywords: coaching, health and wellness, health management, leadership and well-being

Procedia PDF Downloads 184

Authors: S. Larbi, R. Bensaada, S. Djebali, A. Bilek

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The manufacture of composite parts is a major issue in many industrial domains. Polymer composite materials are ideal for structural applications where high strength-to-weight and stiffness-to-weight ratios are required. However, exposition to extreme environment conditions (temperature, humidity) affects mechanical properties of organic composite materials and lead to an undesirable degradation. Aging mechanisms in organic matrix are very diverse and vary according to the polymer and the aging conditions such as temperature, humidity etc. This paper studies the hygrothermal aging effect on the mechanical properties of fiber reinforced plastics laminates at 40 °C in different environment exposure. Two composite materials are used to conduct the study (carbon fiber/epoxy and glass fiber/vinyl ester with two stratifications for both the materials [904/04] and [454/04]). The experimental procedure includes a mechanical characterization of the materials in a virgin state and exposition of specimens to two environments (seawater and demineralized water). Absorption kinetics for the two materials and both the stratifications are determined. Three-point bending test is performed on the aged materials in order to determine the hygrothermal effect on the mechanical properties of the materials.

Keywords: FRP laminates, hygrothermal aging, mechanical properties, theory of laminates

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Authors: Jaime Carpio-García, Elena Blanco-Fernández, Jorge Rodríguez-Hernández, Daniel Castro-Fresno

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Geosynthetic mechanical behavior vs temperature or vs aging has been widely studied independently during the last years, both in laboratory and in outdoor conditions. This paper studies this behavior deeper, considering that geosynthetics have to perform adequately at different outdoor temperatures once they have been subjected to a certain degree of aging, and also considering the different geosynthetic structures made of the same material. This combining effect has been not considered so far, and it is important to ensure the performance of geosynthetics, especially where high temperatures are expected. In order to fill this gap, six commercial geosynthetics with different internal structures made of polypropylene (PP), high density polyethylene (HDPE), bitumen and polyvinyl chloride (PVC), or even a combination of some of them have been mechanically tested at mild temperature (20ºC or 23ºC) and at warm temperature (45ºC) before and after specific exposition to air at standardized high temperature in order to simulate 25 years of aging due to oxidation. Besides, for 45ºC tests, an innovative heating system during test for high deformable specimens is proposed. The influence of the combining effect of aging, structure and temperature in the product behavior have been analyzed and discussed, concluding that internal structure is more influential than aging in the mechanical behavior of a geosynthetic versus temperature.

Keywords: geosynthetics, mechanical behavior, temperature, aging, internal structure

Procedia PDF Downloads 72

Authors: Freddy Patricio Moncayo-Matute, Pablo Gerardo Peña-Tapia, Vázquez-Silva Efrén, Paúl Bolívar Torres-Jara, Diana Patricia Moya-Loaiza, Gabriela Abad-Farfán

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This study describes a clinical case and the results on the application of additive manufacturing for the surgical planning in the removal of a cranial spheno-orbital meningioma. It is verified that the use of personalized anatomical models and cutting guides helps to manage the cranial anomalies approach. The application of additive manufacturing technology: Fused Deposition Modeling (FDM), as a low-cost alternative, enables the printing of the test anatomical model, which in turn favors the reduction of surgery time, as well the morbidity rate reduction too. And the printing of the personalized cutting guide, which constitutes a valuable aid to the surgeon in terms of improving the intervention precision and reducing the invasive effect during the craniotomy. As part of the results, post-surgical follow-up is included as an instrument to verify the patient's recovery and the validity of the procedure.

Keywords: surgical planning, additive manufacturing, rapid prototyping, fused deposition modeling, custom anatomical model

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Authors: H. Mansor, S. B. Mohd-Noor, T. S. Gunawan, S. Khan, N. I. Othman, N. Tazali, R. B. Islam

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This paper provides a comparative study on the performances of standard PID and adaptive PID controllers tested on travel angle of a 3-Degree-of-Freedom (3-DOF) Quanser bench-top helicopter. Quanser, a well-known manufacturer of educational bench-top helicopter has developed Proportional Integration Derivative (PID) controller with Linear Quadratic Regulator (LQR) for all travel, pitch and yaw angle of the bench-top helicopter. The performance of the PID controller is relatively good; however its performance could also be improved if the controller is combined with adaptive element. The objective of this research is to design adaptive PID controller and then compare the performances of the adaptive PID with the standard PID. The controller design and test is focused on travel angle control only. Adaptive method used in this project is self-tuning controller, which controller’s parameters are updated online. Two adaptive algorithms those are pole-placement and deadbeat have been chosen as the method to achieve optimal controller’s parameters. Performance comparisons have shown that the adaptive (deadbeat) PID controller has produced more desirable performance compared to standard PID and adaptive (pole-placement). The adaptive (deadbeat) PID controller attained very fast settling time (5 seconds) and very small percentage of overshoot (5% to 7.5%) for 10° to 30° step change of travel angle.

Keywords: adaptive control, deadbeat, pole-placement, bench-top helicopter, self-tuning control

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Authors: Sadek Salah

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The determination of the strength characteristics of waste materials is essential when evaluating the stability of waste fills during initial placement and at the time of closure and rehabilitation of the landfill. Significant efforts, mostly experimental, have been deployed to date in attempts to quantify the mechanical properties of municipal wastes various stages of decomposition. Even though the studies and work done so far have helped in setting baseline parameters and characteristics for waste materials, inherent concerns remain as to the scalability of the findings between the laboratory and the field along with questions as to the suitability of the actual test conditions. These concerns are compounded by the complexity of the problem itself with significant variability in composition, placement conditions, and levels of decay of the various constituents of the waste fills. A complimentary, if not necessarily an alternative approach is to rely on field observations of behavior and instability of such materials. This paper describes an effort at obtaining relevant shear strength parameters from back-analyses of failures which have been observed at a major un-engineered waste fill along the Mediterranean shoreline. Results from the limit-equilibrium failure back-analyses are presented and compared to results from laboratory-scale testing on comparable waste materials.

Keywords: solid waste, shear strength, landfills, slope stability

Procedia PDF Downloads 243

Authors: Yusuf Kaygısız, Necmetti̇n Maraşlı

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Aluminum alloys are produced and used at various areas of industry and especially in the aerospace industry. The advantages of these alloys over traditional iron-based alloys are lightweight, corrosion resistance, and very good thermal and electrical conductivity. The aim of this work is to experimentally investigate the effect of growth rates on the eutectic spacings (λ), microhardness, tensile strength and electrical resistivity in Al–30wt.%Cu–6wt.%Mg eutectic alloy. Al–Cu–Mg eutectic alloy was directionally solidified at a constant temperature gradient (G=8.55 K/mm) with different growth rates, 9.43 to 173.3 µm/s by using a Bridgman-type furnace. The dependency of microstructure, microhardness, tensile strength and electrical resistivity for directionally solidified the Al-Cu-Mg eutectic alloy were investigated. Eutectic microstructure is consisting of regular Al2CuMg lamellar and Al2Cu rod phases with in the α (Al) solid solution matrix. The lamellar eutectic spacings were measured from transverse sections of the samples. It was found that the value of microstructures decrease with the increase the value the growth rates. The microhardness, tensile strength and electrical resistivity of the alloy also were measured from sample and relationships between them were experimentally analyzed by using regression analysis. According to present results, values tensile strength and electrical resistivity increase with increasing growth rates.

Keywords: directional solidification, aluminum alloys, microstructure, electrical properties, hardness test

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Authors: M. L. Ibrahim, A. Abdulhamid

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A surface active molecule synthesized by a rhizobacterial strain Bacillus lentus isolated from Cajanus cajan was investigated. The bioemulsifier was extracted, purified and partially characterized using standard methods. Surface properties of the bioemulsifier were determined by studying the emulsification index, solubility test and stability studies. Partial purification of the bioemulsifier was carried out using FT-IR analysis, Silica-gel column chromatography and thin layer chromatography. GC-MS analysis was carried out to detect the composition and mass of the lipids and esters. The isolate showed an emulsifying activity of 57% and surface activity of 36mm. The stability studies revealed that the bioemulsifier had better stability at temperature of 70oC, 8% pH and 8% NaCl concentration. FT-IR indicated the bioemulsifier to contain peptide and aliphatic chain, TLC revealed the compound to be ninhydrin positive and Column chromatography showed the presence of three amino acids namely; glutamine, valine and cysteine. GC-MS indicated the lipid moiety to contain aliphatic chain ranging from C9-C16 and two major peaks of 1,2-benzenedicarboxylic acid diethyl octyl ester. Therefore, surface active agent from Bacillus lentus can be used effectively in a wide range of applications such as in MEOR and in the biosynthesis of plasticizers for industrial uses.

Keywords: Bacillus lentus, bioemulsifiers, phthalic acid ester, Rhizosphere

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Authors: Alirıza Kaleli, M. Akif Ceviz, Erdoğan Güner, Köksal Erentürk

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The cyclic variations in spark ignition engines occurring especially under specific engine operating conditions make the maximum pressure variable for successive in-cylinder pressure cycles. Minimization of cyclic variations has a great importance in effectively operating near to lean limit, or at low speed and load. The cyclic variations may reduce the power output of the engine, lead to operational instabilities, and result in undesirable engine vibrations and noise. In this study, spark timing is controlled in order to reduce the cyclic variations in spark ignition engines. Firstly, an ARMAX model has developed between spark timing and maximum pressure using system identification techniques. By using this model, the maximum pressure of the next cycle has been predicted. Then, self-tuning minimum variance controller has been designed to change the spark timing for consecutive cycles of the first cylinder of test engine to regulate the in-cylinder maximum pressure. The performance of the proposed controller is illustrated in real time and experimental results show that the controller has a reliable effect on cycle to cycle variations of maximum cylinder pressure when the engine works under low speed conditions.

Keywords: cyclic variations, cylinder pressure, SI engines, self tuning controller

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Authors: Dona Primasari

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This study examines the antecedent variables of Government Financial Acccounting System (SAKD) implementation and its consequence. The antecedent variables are: decentralization of decision making, adaptation, and the manager support. The consequences are satisfaction and performance officer. This research represents the empirical test which used convenience sampling technics in data collection. The data were collected from 167 officers of local government in the Regional Coordinating Agency for Development of Cross County/City Region III Central Java Province. Data analysis used Structural Equation Model (SEM) with the AMOS 18.0 program. The result of hypothesis examination indicates that six raised hypothesis are accepted and two hypothesis are rejected.

Keywords: decentralization of decision making, adaptation officer, manager support, implementation of Government Accounting Financial System (SAKD), satisfaction and performance officer

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Authors: Puntarikorn Rungrattanakasin

Abstract:

Objectives: To develop the trigger tool to warn about the risk of bleeding as an adverse event from warfarin drug usage during admission in Medical Wards of Chumphae Hospital. Methods: A retrospective study was performed by reviewing the medical records for the patients admitted between June 1st,2020- May 31st, 2021. ADEs were evaluated by Naranjo’s algorithm. The international normalized ratio (INR) and events of bleeding during admissions were collected. Statistical analyses, including Chi-square test and Reciever Operating Characteristic (ROC) curve for optimal INR threshold, were used for the study. Results: Among the 139 admissions, the INR range was found to vary between 0.86-14.91, there was a total of 15 bleeding events, out of which 9 were mild, and 6 were severe. The occurrence of bleeding started whenever the INR was greater than 2.5 and reached the statistical significance (p <0.05), which was in concordance with the ROC curve and yielded 100 % sensitivity and 60% specificity in the detection of a bleeding event. In this regard, the INR greater than 2.5 was considered to be an optimal threshold to alert promptly for bleeding tendency. Conclusions: The INR value of greater than 2.5 (>2.5) would be an appropriate trigger tool to warn of the risk of bleeding for patients taking warfarin in Chumphae Hospital.

Keywords: trigger tool, warfarin, risk of bleeding, medical wards

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Authors: N. Adjlane, N. Haddad

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The American foulbrood is one of the most serious diseases that may affect brood of larvae and pupae stages. The causative organism is a gram positive bacterium Paaenibacillus larvae. American foulbrood infected apiaries suffer from severe economic losses, resulting from significant decreases in honeybee populations and honey production. The aim of this study was to detect Paenibacillus larvae in the remains collected at the bottom of the hive from the suspected hives by direct PCR and culture growth. A total of 56 suspected beehive wax debris samples collected in 40 different apiaries located in the central region of Algeria. MYPGP the culture medium is used during all the identifications of the bacterium. After positive results on samples, biochemical confirmation tests (test of catalase, presence hydrolysis of casein) and microscopic (gram stain) are used in order to verify the accuracy of the initial results. The QIAamp DNA Mini Kit is used to identify the DNA of Paaenibacillus larvae. Paaenibacillus larvae were identified in 14 samples out of 16 by the PCR. A suspected culture-negative sample was found positive through evaluation with PCR. This research is for the bacterium Paaenibacillus larvae in the debris of the colony is an effective method for diagnosis of the pathology of American foulbrood.

Keywords: Paenibacillus larvae, honeybee, PCR, microbiological method

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Authors: Xiaoqiang Fu, Baihao Li

Abstract:

In 1895, the failure of Sino-Japanese prompted the trend of comprehensive and systematic study of western pattern in China. In urban planning and construction, urban reform movement sprang up slowly, which aimed at renovating and reconstructing the traditional cities into modern cities similar to the concessions. During the movement, Chinese traditional city initiated a process of modern urban planning for its modernization. Meanwhile, the traditional planning morphology and system started to disintegrate, on the contrary, western form and technology had become the paradigm. Therefore, the improvement of existing cities had become the prototype of urban planning of early modern China. Currently, researches of the movement mainly concentrate on large cities, concessions, railway hub cities and some special cities resembling those. However, the systematic research about the large number of traditional small and medium-sized cities is still blank, up to now. This paper takes the improvement constructions of small and medium-sized cities in Southern region of Jiangsu Province as the research object. First of all, the criteria of small and medium-sized cities are based on the administrative levels of general office and cities at the county level. Secondly, the suitability of taking the Southern Jiangsu as the research object. The southern area of Jiangsu province called Southern Jiangsu for short, was the most economically developed region in Jiangsu, and also one of the most economically developed and the highest urbanization regions in China. As the most developed agricultural areas in ancient China, Southern Jiangsu formed a large number of traditional small and medium-sized cities. In early modern times, with the help of the Shanghai economic radiation, geographical advantage and powerful economic foundation, Southern Jiangsu became an important birthplace of Chinese national industry. Furthermore, the strong business atmosphere promoted the widespread urban improvement practices, which were incomparable of other regions. Meanwhile, the demonstration of Shanghai, Zhenjiang, Suzhou and other port cities became the improvement pattern of small and medium-sized city in Southern Jiangsu. This paper analyzes the reform movement of the small and medium-sized cities in Southern Jiangsu (1895-1927), including the subjects, objects, laws, technologies and the influence factors of politic and society, etc. At last, this paper reveals the formation mechanism and characteristics of urban improvement movement in early modern China. According to the paper, the improvement of small-medium city was a kind of gestation of the local city planning culture in early modern China，with a fusion of introduction and endophytism.

Keywords: early modern China, improvement of small-medium city, southern region of Jiangsu province, urban planning history of China

Procedia PDF Downloads 261

Authors: Farina Yasmin

Abstract:

Motivation is an important issue in an EFL setting where very little exposure to English in everyday life is clearly evident. In Bangladesh, English is taught as a foreign language. Language teachers cannot effectively teach a language if they do not understand the relationship between motivation and its effect on foreign language learning. The main purpose of this research is to explore the fact why HSC students are less motivated towards English language learning, what factors are affecting motivation, how to motivate them and the role of motivation in their success. The research questions were (a) what are the reasons of lack of motivation? and (b) what are the impacts of motivation on English language learning? The study was both qualitative and quantitative in nature. The data was collected via pretest - posttest, interviews, and a questionnaire on the five point Likert scale. Triangulation of the data was made for the validity of the research. The population of this research consisted of 50 HSC level students from Jatir Janak Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman Government College, Dhaka, Bangladesh. The data was analyzed with means, comparison and t-test. The results showed that there is a strong relation between motivation and success in foreign language learning. Finally, some pedagogical implications and suggestions were presented to arouse the students’ motivation to learn English.

Keywords: EFL, HSC, motivation, success

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Authors: Chaiwat Boonkaewwan, Anutian Suklek, Jatuporn Rattanasrisomporn, Autchara Kayan

Abstract:

Toll-like receptors (TLR) are conserved microbial sensing receptors located on cell surface that are able to detect different pathogens. The aim of the present study is to examine the expression of TLR gene in peripheral blood mononuclear cell of Betong (KU line) chicken. Blood samples were collected from healthy 12 Betong (KU line) chicken. PBMCs were isolated and maintained in RPMI1640 with 10% FBS, penicillin and streptomycin. Cell viability was determined by trypan blue dye exclusion test. The expression of TLRs gene was investigated by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) technique. Results showed that PBMCs viability from Betong (KU line) chicken was 95.38 ± 1.06%. From the study of TLRs gene expression, results indicated that there are expressions of TLR1.1 TLR1.2 TLR2.1 TLR2.2 TLR3 TLR4 TLR5 TLR 7 TLR15 and TLR21 in PBMCs of Betong (KU line) chicken. In conclusion, PBMCs isolated from blood of Betong (KU line) chicken had a high cell viability ( > 95%). The expression of TLRs in chicken was all found in PBMCs, which indicated that PBMC isolated from the blood of Betong (KU line) chicken can be used as an in vitro immune responses study.

Keywords: toll-like receptor, Betong (KU line) chicken, peripheral blood mononuclear cells

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Authors: Fathi Kallel, Ahmed Ben Hamida, Christian Berger-Vachon

Abstract:

In this paper, a Speech Enhancement Algorithm based on Multi-Band Spectral Subtraction (MBSS) principle is evaluated for Bilateral Cochlear Implant (BCI) users. Specifically, dual-channel noise power spectral estimation algorithm using Power Spectral Densities (PSD) and Cross Power Spectral Densities (CPSD) of the observed signals is studied. The enhanced speech signal is obtained using Dual-Channel Multi-Band Spectral Subtraction ‘DC-MBSS’ algorithm. For performance evaluation, objective speech assessment test relying on Perceptual Evaluation of Speech Quality (PESQ) score is performed to fix the optimal number of frequency bands needed in DC-MBSS algorithm. In order to evaluate the speech intelligibility, subjective listening tests are assessed with 3 deafened BCI patients. Experimental results obtained using French Lafon database corrupted by an additive babble noise at different Signal-to-Noise Ratios (SNR) showed that DC-MBSS algorithm improves speech understanding for single and multiple interfering noise sources.

Keywords: speech enhancement, spectral substracion, noise estimation, cochlear impalnt

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Authors: A. Mir, C. Aribi, B. Bezzazi

Abstract:

Work presented is interested in the characterization of the quasistatic mechanical properties and in fatigue of a composite laminated in jute/epoxy. The natural fibers offer promising prospects thanks to their interesting specific properties, because of their low density, but also with their bio deterioration. Several scientific studies highlighted the good mechanical resistance of the vegetable fiber composites reinforced, even after several recycling. Because of the environmental standards which become increasingly severe, one attends the emergence of eco-materials at the base of natural fibers such as flax, bamboo, hemp, sisal, jute. The fatigue tests on elementary vegetable fibers show an increase of about 60% of the rigidity of elementary fibers of hemp subjected to cyclic loading. In this study, the test-tubes manufactured by the method infusion have sequences of stacking of 0/90° and ± 45° for the shearing and tensile tests. The quasistatic tests reveal a variability of the mechanical properties of about 8%. The tensile fatigue tests were carried out for levels of constraints equivalent to half of the ultimate values of the composite. Once the fatigue tests carried out for well-defined values of cycles, a series of static tests of traction type highlights the influence of the number of cycles on the quasi static mechanical behavior of the laminate jute/epoxy.

Keywords: jute, epoxy resin, mechanical, static, dynamic behavior

Procedia PDF Downloads 245