Search results for: population balance modeling

Authors: Liron Hoch

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Traditional religious and spiritual texts offer a surprising wealth of relevant theoretical and practical knowledge about human behavior. This wellspring may contribute significantly to expanding our current body of knowledge in the social sciences and criminology in particular. In Jewish religious texts, specifically by Maimonides, we can find profound analyses of human traits and guidelines for a normative way of life. Among other things, modern criminological literature attempts to link certain character traits and divergent behaviors. Using the hermeneutic phenomenological approach, we analyzed the writings of Maimonides, mainly Laws of Human Dispositions, in order to understand Moses ben Maimon's (1138–1204) view of character traits. The analysis yielded four themes: (1) Human personality between nature and nurture; (2) The complexity of human personality, imbalance and criminality; (3) Extremism as a way to achieve balance; and (4) The Middle Way, flexibility and common sense. These themes can serve therapeutic purposes, as well as inform a rehabilitation model. Grounded in a theoretical rationale about the nature of humans, this model is designed to direct individuals to balance their traits by self-reflection and constant practice of the Middle Way. The proposal we will present is that implementing this model may promote normative behavior and thus contribute to rehabilitating offenders.

Keywords: rehabilitation, traits, offenders, maimonides, middle way

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Authors: Sarita Kumari, Ranjit Kumar Upadhyay

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This paper deals with plankton-fish dynamics where the fish population is growing logistically and nonlinearly harvested. The interaction between phytoplankton and zooplankton population is considered to be Crowley-Martin type functional response. It has been assumed that phytoplankton grows logistically and is affected by a space-dependent growth rate. Conditions for the existence of a positive equilibrium point and their stability analysis (both local and global) have been discussed for the non-spatial system. We have discussed maximum sustainable yields as well as optimal harvesting policy for maximizing the economic gain. The stability and existence of Hopf –bifurcation analysis have been discussed for the spatial system. Different conditions for turning pattern formation have been established through diffusion-driven instability analysis. Numerical simulations have been carried out for both non-spatial and spatial models. Phase plane analysis, the largest Lyapunov exponent, and bifurcation theory are used to numerically analyzed the non-spatial system. Our study shows that spatial heterogeneity, the mortality rate of phytoplankton, and constant harvesting of the fish population each play an important role in the dynamical behavior of the marine system.

Keywords: optimal harvesting, pattern formation, spatial heterogeneity, Crowley-Martin functional response

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Authors: Kye Gilder, Kevin Shan, Amy Halseth, Steve Smith

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This study assessed the effect of prolonged-release naltrexone 32 mg/bupropion 360 mg (NB) on cardiovascular (CV) events in overweight/obese participants at elevated CV risk. Participants must lose ≥2% body weight at 16 wks, without a sustained increase in blood pressure, to continue drug. Only serious adverse events (SAE) and adverse events leading to discontinuation of study drug (AELDSD) were collected. The study was terminated early after second interim analysis with 50% of all CV events. Data on CV endpoints has been published. Current analyses focused on AEs in participants on antidepressants at baseline, as these individuals were excluded from Phase 3 trials. Intent-to-treat (ITT) population (placebo [PBO] N=4450, NB N=4455) was 54.5% female, 83.5% white, mean age of 61 yrs, mean BMI 37.3 kg/m2, 22.8% with a history of depression, 23.1% on antidepressants, including 15.4% on an SSRI. SAEs in participants receiving antidepressants was similar between NB (10.7%) and PBO (9.9%) and also similar to overall population (9.5% NB, 8.1% PBO). SAEs in those on SSRIs were similar, 10.1% NB and PBO 9.4%. For those on SSRIs or other antidepressants, AELDSDs were similar to overall population and were primarily GI disorders. Obesity increases the risk of developing depression. For participants taking NB and antidepressants, including SSRIs, there is a similar AE profile as the overall population and data revealed no evidence of an additional health risk with combined use.

Keywords: antidepressant, Contrave, Mysimba, obesity, pharmacotherapy

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Authors: Monika Lipska

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Drinking water is water with a very high quality, and as such represents only 2.5% of the total quantity of all water in the world. For many years we have observed continuous increase in its consumption as a result of many factors such as: Growing world population (7 billion in 2011r.), increase of human lives comfort and – above all – the economic growth. Due to the rocketing consumption and growing costs of production of water with such high-quality parameters, we experience accelerating interest in alternative sources of obtaining potable water. One of the ways of saving this valuable material is using rainwater in the Urban Building. With an exponentially growing demand, the acquisition of additional sources of water is necessary to maintain the proper balance of all ecosystems. The first part of the paper describes what rainwater is and what are its potential sources and means of use, while the main part of the article focuses on the description of the methods of obtaining water from rain on the example of new urban building in Poland. It describes the method and installations of rainwater in the new urban building (“MBJ2030”). The paper addresses also the issue of monitoring of the whole recycling systems as well as the particular quality indicators important because of identification of the potential risks to human health. The third part describes the legal arrangements concerning the recycling of rainwater existing in different European Union countries with particular reference to Poland on example the new urban building in Warsaw.

Keywords: rainwater, potable water, non-potable water, Poland

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Authors: Amr Abdel Azim Ali, G. A. Elsheikh, Moutaz Hegazy

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This paper presents verification of a modeling and simulation for a Spacecraft (SC) attitude and orbit control system. Detailed formulation of coupled SC orbital and attitude equations of motion is performed in order to achieve accepted accuracy to meet the requirements of multitargets tracking and orbit correction complex modes. Correction of the target parameter based on the estimated state vector during shooting time to enhance pointing accuracy is considered. Time-optimal nonlinear feedback control technique was used in order to take full advantage of the maximum torques that the controller can deliver. This simulation provides options for visualizing SC trajectory and attitude in a 3D environment by including an interface with V-Realm Builder and VR Sink in Simulink/MATLAB. Verification data confirms the simulation results, ensuring that the model and the proposed control law can be used successfully for large and fast tracking and is robust enough to keep the pointing accuracy within the desired limits with considerable uncertainty in inertia and control torque.

Keywords: attitude and orbit control, time-optimal nonlinear feedback control, modeling and simulation, pointing accuracy, maximum torques

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Authors: M. A. Effati, M. R. Hojjati, M. Razmdideh

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Nowadays, engine developments have focused on internal combustion engine design call for increased engine power, reduced engine size and improved fuel economy, simultaneously. In this paper, a novel design for combustion engine is proposed. Two combustion chambers were designed in two sides of cylinder. Piston was designed in a way that two sides of piston would transfer heat energy due to combustion to linear motion. This motion would convert to rotary motion through the designed mechanism connected to connecting rod. Connecting rod operation was analyzed to evaluate applied stress in 3000, 4500 and 6000 rpm. Boundary conditions including generated pressure in each side of cylinder in these 3 situations was calculated.

Keywords: combustion engine, design, finite element method, modeling

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Authors: John Kabuba

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The study investigated the implementation of the Neural Network (NN) techniques for prediction of the loading of Cu ions onto clinoptilolite. The experimental design using analysis of variance (ANOVA) was chosen for testing the adequacy of the Neural Network and for optimizing of the effective input parameters (pH, temperature and initial concentration). Feed forward, multi-layer perceptron (MLP) NN successfully tracked the non-linear behavior of the adsorption process versus the input parameters with mean squared error (MSE), correlation coefficient (R) and minimum squared error (MSRE) of 0.102, 0.998 and 0.004 respectively. The results showed that NN modeling techniques could effectively predict and simulate the highly complex system and non-linear process such as ion-exchange.

Keywords: clinoptilolite, loading, modeling, neural network

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Authors: Aya Rezgui, Lasaad Ajam, Belgacem Jalleli

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The Tunis soft soils present a difficult challenge as construction sites and for Geotechnical works. Currently, different techniques are used to improve such soil properties taking into account the environmental considerations. One of the recent methods is involving plastic wastes as a reinforcing materials. The present study pertains to the development of a numerical model for predicting the behavior of Tunis Soft soil (TSS) improved with recycled Monobloc chair wastes.3D numerical models for unreinforced TSS and reinforced TSS aims to evaluate settlement reduction and the values of consolidation times in oedometer conditions.

Keywords: Tunis soft soil, settlement, plastic wastes, finte -difference, FLAC3D modeling

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Authors: Fatemeh Nemati, Lucinda Leonard, Gwyn Lintern, Richard Thomson

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In this study, we will use modern numerical modeling approaches to estimate tsunami risks to the southern coast of British Columbia from landslides. Wave generation is to be simulated using the NHWAVE model, which solves the Navier-Stokes equations due to the more complex behavior of flow near the landslide source; far-field wave propagation will be simulated using the simpler model FUNWAVE_TVD with high-order Boussinesq-type wave equations, with a focus on the accurate simulation of wave propagation and regional- or coastal-scale inundation predictions.

Keywords: FUNWAVE-TVD, landslide-generated tsunami, NHWAVE, tsunami risk

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Authors: Behnaz Farahani, Razieh Sotoudeh, Ali Vahdani, Hamed Abdi

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Individual differences in eating behavior can cause underweight or overweight and obesity. Thus influencing factors on children’s eating behavior such as mothers’ feeding practices are needed to be more investigated. The goals of this survey are to evaluate the association of (i) parental pressure and children’s food avoidant tendency, (ii) parental restriction and children’s food approach tendency, (iii) modeling of healthy eating in front of children and their children’s eating behavior. 760 mothers of children aged 7-10 from schools in Isfahan were asked to complete questionnaires including Child Feeding Questionnaire, Children’s Eating Behavior Questionnaire, Modeling Questionnaire, and self-administered demographic questionnaire in which mothers reported their children’s height and weight as well. Of those mothers, 745 completed the questionnaires for the children’s index (mean age: 8.513±1.112) during the 2011-2012 school year. The results of this quantitative, descriptive, cross-sectional analysis indicated that “parental restriction” was positively associated with child food responsiveness (P,0.000) and food enjoyment (P,0.000) and surprisingly, it was positively associated with Food Fussiness(0.000) .Parental pressure to eat was positively associated with child satiety responsiveness (P,0.000), slowness (P,0.000), and fussiness (P,0.00) and negatively associated with Food responsiveness(p,0.000)and Enjoyment of food (p,0.002), modeling of healthy eating were positively associated with Enjoyment of food / q (p,0.000) and negatively with food fussiness (P,0.000). The results of this survey will improve interventions and maternal guidance on their feeding practices and their association with children’s eating behavior and weight.

Keywords: feeding practices, eating behavior, pressure to eat, restriction, modeling, satiety responsiveness, slowness in eating, food fussiness, food responsiveness, enjoyment of food

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Authors: Riddhi Jangid, Gajendra Pratap Singh

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Petri nets, a formalized modeling language that was introduced back around 50-60 years, have been widely used for modeling discrete event dynamic systems and simulating their behavior. Reachability analysis of Petri nets gives many insights into a modeled system. This idea leads us to study the reachability technique and use it in the reachability problem in the state space of reachable markings. With the same concept, Crisp Boolean Petri nets were defined in which the marking vectors that are boolean are distinct in the reachability analysis of the nets. We generalize the concept and define ‘Crisp’ Petri nets that generate the marking vectors exactly once in their reachability-based analysis, not necessarily Boolean.

Keywords: marking vector, n-vector, Petri nets, reachability

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Authors: Hummaira Qudsia Yousaf, Sidra Munawar

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The study aims to examine in which way entrepreneurial education and attitude affect the entrepreneur’s success with the help of an entrepreneurial mindset, professional growth, and innovation. The target population was the entrepreneurs of successful startups in Pakistan. Data was gathered through an e-questionnaire, and 230 responses were analyzed using the partial least square structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM). Resultantly, entrepreneurial education is an essential component for the development of an entrepreneurial mindset. Also, an entrepreneurial attitude is responsible for the entrepreneurial mindset, which enhances professional growth. Moreover, the study highlighted that innovation is as necessary as mindset and education are for entrepreneurs. Furthermore, the findings confirmed that professional growth brings innovation to the success of entrepreneurs. This study provides proof of how entrepreneurial education and attitude influence pupils’ success in making entrepreneurs. This study extends the scope of education by incorporating predictors, such as professional growth, innovation, and entrepreneurial success. The study is unique due to the usage of innovative techniques for professional growth that ultimately bring career success.

Keywords: entrepreneurial education, entrepreneurial attitude, entrepreneurial mindset, professional growth, entrepreneurial success, innovation

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Authors: Vishwambhar Prasad Sati

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India’s economy is agriculture dominated. About 70% of the total population depends on practicing agriculture. Out of an estimated 140.3 million ha net cultivated area, 79.44 million ha (57%) is rain-fed, contributing 44% of the total food grain production. Meanwhile, India ranks second and shares 11.3% of the arable land of the world. It means that India has a high potential to harness agricultural resources for present and future food security. However, about 21.9% of people are living below the poverty line, and similarly, a large number of people are deprived or insecure about food. This situation is most critical in rural areas, where about 70% population lives. The study examines the present status, future trends, and challenges of food and agriculture in India. Time series data of the last three decades was gathered from secondary sources on area, production, and yield of crops; irrigated area; production of major crops; area, production, and yield of crops in the major food-producing states of India; food storage and poverty. The data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, correlation methods, and a regression model. State-level data on area, production, and yield of crops and irrigation facilities were indexed into levels, and the potentials of food production in the major food-producing states were observed. It was noted that the progressive growth rate of food production is higher than the population, which means that food is enough to feed the population; however, it is not accessible to all optimally because of wastage, leakage, lack of food storage, and proper distribution of food. If food is stored and distributed properly, there would not be any food shortage in India, the study revealed.

Keywords: agriculture, food production, population growth, poverty, future trends

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Authors: Lei Ren, Michael Hartnett, Stephen Nash

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The abundant measured surface current from HF radar system in coastal area is assimilated into model to improve the modeling forecasting ability. A simple sequential data assimilation scheme, Direct Insertion (DI), is applied to update model forecast states. The influence of Direct Insertion data assimilation over time is analyzed at one reference point. Vector maps of surface current from models are compared with HF radar measurements. Root-Mean-Squared-Error (RMSE) between modeling results and HF radar measurements is calculated during the last four days with no data assimilation.

Keywords: data assimilation, CODAR, HF radar, surface current, direct insertion

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Authors: Hamid Reza Zeraatpisheh, Shamsoddin Hashemi, Farshad Negintaji

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This study has examined the effects of the architectural anatomy of opera hall on improving the quality of place identity. By measuring the effects of place identity on the inner aspects of human which are influenced by the physical and social environments it has investigated the results of a balance between internal and external environment. To assess the anatomical effects of urban landscape, two components of subjective landscape including perception and diversity and the component of objective landscape including form and order have been measured. The current survey is descriptive and the statistical population has been Shiraz which is a city in Iran. To analyze the data the SPSS software has been used. The results have been investigated in two levels of descriptive and inferential statistics. In the inferential statistics, Pearson correlation coefficient has been used to evaluate the research hypotheses. The results of this study indicate that between the dimensions of landscape, the component of the subjective landscape has the highest impact on the place identity and in the second place, an objective landscape has the impact on the place identity. Anatomical effects have an important role on improving the quality of place identity of Shiraz citizens and in order to enhance the place identity in the urban landscape it is also required that they will be inspired and operated.

Keywords: architectural anatomy, identity, place identity, urban landscape, perception

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Authors: Razi Khalafi

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Brain is the information processing center of the human body. Stimuli in form of information are transferred to the brain and then brain makes the decision on how to respond to them. In this research we propose a new partial differential equation which analyses the EEG signals and make a relationship between the incoming stimuli and the brain response to them. In order to test the proposed model, a set of external stimuli applied to the model and the model’s outputs were checked versus the real EEG data. The results show that this model can model the EEG signal well. The proposed model is useful not only for modeling of the EEG signal in case external stimuli but it can be used for the modeling of brain response in case of internal stimuli.

Keywords: Brain, stimuli, partial differential equation, response, eeg signal

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Authors: Dino Carpentras, Alejandro Dinkelberg, Michael Quayle

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Within agent-based modeling, opinion dynamics is the field that focuses on modeling people's opinions. In this prolific field, most of the literature is dedicated to the exploration of the two 'degrees of freedom' and how they impact the model’s properties (e.g., the average final opinion, the number of final clusters, etc.). These degrees of freedom are (1) the interaction rule, which determines how agents update their own opinion, and (2) the network topology, which defines the possible interaction among agents. In this work, we show that the third degree of freedom exists. This can be used to change a model's output up to 100% of its initial value or to transform two models (both from the literature) into each other. Since opinion dynamics models are representations of the real world, it is fundamental to understand how people’s opinions can be measured. Even for abstract models (i.e., not intended for the fitting of real-world data), it is important to understand if the way of numerically representing opinions is unique; and, if this is not the case, how the model dynamics would change by using different representations. The process of measuring opinions is non-trivial as it requires transforming real-world opinion (e.g., supporting most of the liberal ideals) to a number. Such a process is usually not discussed in opinion dynamics literature, but it has been intensively studied in a subfield of psychology called psychometrics. In psychometrics, opinion scales can be converted into each other, similarly to how meters can be converted to feet. Indeed, psychometrics routinely uses both linear and non-linear transformations of opinion scales. Here, we analyze how this transformation affects opinion dynamics models. We analyze this effect by using mathematical modeling and then validating our analysis with agent-based simulations. Firstly, we study the case of perfect scales. In this way, we show that scale transformations affect the model’s dynamics up to a qualitative level. This means that if two researchers use the same opinion dynamics model and even the same dataset, they could make totally different predictions just because they followed different renormalization processes. A similar situation appears if two different scales are used to measure opinions even on the same population. This effect may be as strong as providing an uncertainty of 100% on the simulation’s output (i.e., all results are possible). Still, by using perfect scales, we show that scales transformations can be used to perfectly transform one model to another. We test this using two models from the standard literature. Finally, we test the effect of scale transformation in the case of finite precision using a 7-points Likert scale. In this way, we show how a relatively small-scale transformation introduces both changes at the qualitative level (i.e., the most shared opinion at the end of the simulation) and in the number of opinion clusters. Thus, scale transformation appears to be a third degree of freedom of opinion dynamics models. This result deeply impacts both theoretical research on models' properties and on the application of models on real-world data.

Keywords: degrees of freedom, empirical validation, opinion scale, opinion dynamics

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Authors: Sujing Wang, Song Wang, Jian Zhang, Qiang Xu

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Flaring emissions during abnormal operating conditions such as plant start-ups, shut-downs, and upsets in chemical process industries (CPI) are usually significant. Flare minimization can help to save raw material and energy for CPI plants, and to improve local environmental sustainability. In this paper, a systematic methodology based on plant-wide dynamic simulation is presented for CPI plant flare minimizations under abnormal operating conditions. Since off-specification emission sources are inevitable during abnormal operating conditions, to significantly reduce flaring emission in a CPI plant, they must be either recycled to the upstream process for online reuse, or stored somewhere temporarily for future reprocessing, when the CPI plant manufacturing returns to stable operation. Thus, the off-spec products could be reused instead of being flared. This can be achieved through the identification of viable design and operational strategies during normal and abnormal operations through plant-wide dynamic scheduling, simulation, and optimization. The proposed study includes three stages of simulation works: (i) developing and validating a steady-state model of a CPI plant; (ii) transiting the obtained steady-state plant model to the dynamic modeling environment; and refining and validating the plant dynamic model; and (iii) developing flare minimization strategies for abnormal operating conditions of a CPI plant via a validated plant-wide dynamic model. This cost-effective methodology has two main merits: (i) employing large-scale dynamic modeling and simulations for industrial flare minimization, which involves various unit models for modeling hundreds of CPI plant facilities; (ii) dealing with critical abnormal operating conditions of CPI plants such as plant start-up and shut-down. Two virtual case studies on flare minimizations for start-up operation (over 50% of emission savings) and shut-down operation (over 70% of emission savings) of an ethylene plant have been employed to demonstrate the efficacy of the proposed study.

Keywords: flare minimization, large-scale modeling and simulation, plant shut-down, plant start-up

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Authors: Ahmed Elreedy, Ahmed Tawfik

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This investigation aims to assess the effect of inoculum to substrate ratio (ISR) and nitrogen to phosphorous balance on simultaneous biohydrogen and methane production from anaerobic decomposition of mono-ethylene glycol (MEG). Different ISRs were applied in the range between 2.65 and 13.23 gVSS/gCOD, whereas the tested N/P ratios were changed from 4.6 to 8.5; both under thermophilic conditions (55°C). The maximum obtained methane and hydrogen yields (MY and HY) of 151.86±10.8 and 22.27±1.1 mL/gCODinitial were recorded at ISRs of 5.29 and 3.78 gVSS/gCOD, respectively. Unlikely, the ammonification process, in terms of net ammonia produced, was found to be ISR and COD/N ratio dependent, reaching its peak value of 515.5±31.05 mgNH4-N/L at ISR and COD/N ratio of 13.23 gVSS/gCOD and 11.56. The optimum HY was enhanced by more than 1.45-fold with declining N/P ratio from 8.5 to 4.6; whereas, the MY was improved (1.6-fold), while increasing N/P ratio from 4.6 to 5.5 with no significant impact at N/P ratio of 8.5. The results obtained revealed that the methane production was strongly influenced by initial ammonia, compared to initial phosphate. Likewise, the generation of ammonia was markedly deteriorated from 535.25±41.5 to 238.33±17.6 mgNH4-N/L with increasing N/P ratio from 4.6 to 8.5. The kinetic study using Modified Gompertz equation was successfully fitted to the experimental outputs (R2 > 0.9761).

Keywords: mono-ethylene glycol, biohydrogen and methane, inoculum to substrate ratio, nitrogen to phosphorous balance, ammonification

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Authors: Patricia Portugal Marques de Carvalho Lourenço

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Mental Health, mental illnesses, and suicide are old topics made young. While broadly addressed on a global scale to various extents and degrees, mental health, mental disorders, and suicide remain to a large extent a, taboo in a number of societies such as the Chinese. The country’s report on mental health was scrutinized for an in-depth understanding of the prevalence of mental disorders domestically, emphasizing depression, which is more accentuated in rural settings than urban, affecting a significant number of students, retired individuals and that unemployed country-wise. Depression in China is linked to anxiety in younger years, both decreasing as the population grows in age. Mental health, mental disorders and suicide remain for the most part, “forgotten”, despite statistically significant and the media’s yet small efforts in educating the population about the terms i.e. through online/television dramas that approach the topics, trying to demystify them. Whereas crucial to openly address mental health, mental disorders, and suicide, the issues remain an ongoing challenge in China, where series draw light into a reality the media and the population do not broadly converse about. The media in general and the entertainment media, in particular, have a vital role in helping China acknowledge mental health, mental disorders and suicide, albeit having a long way to go in assisting the Chinese population in dealing with the health of their inner minds.

Keywords: mental health, mental disorders, suicide, media, China, Chinese entertainment

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Authors: Kai Jin, Hua Li, Qing Song

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Homeland security and border safety is an issue for any country. This paper takes the border security of US as an example to discuss the usage and efficiency of simulation tools in the homeland security application. In this study, available resources and different illegal infiltration parameters are defined, including their individual behavior and objective, in order to develop a model that describes border patrol system. A simulation model is created in Arena. This simulation model is used to study the dynamic activities in the border security. Possible factors that may affect the effectiveness of the border patrol system are proposed. Individual and factorial analysis of these factors is conducted and some suggestions are made.

Keywords: resource optimization, simulation, modeling, border security

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Authors: M. Y. Abubakar, Ipinjolu J. K., Yuzine B. Esa, Magawata I., Hassan W. A., Turaki A. A.

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Catfish (Heterobranchus spp.) is a major freshwater fish that are widely distributed in Nigeria waters and are gaining rapid aquaculture expansion. However, indiscriminate artificial crossbreeding of the species with others poses a threat to their biodiversity. There is a paucity of information about the genetic variability, hence this insight on the genetic variability is badly needed, not only for the species conservation but for aquaculture expansion. In this study, we tested the level of Genetic diversity, population differentiation and phylogenetic relationship analysis on 35 individuals of two populations of Heterobranchus bidorsalis and 29 individuals of three populations of Heterobranchus longifilis using the mitochondrial cytochrome c oxidase subunit I (mtDNA COI) gene sequence. Nucleotide sequences of 650 bp fragment of the COI gene of the two species were compared. In the whole 4 and 5 haplotypes were distinguished in the populations of H. bidorsalis & H. longifilis with accession numbers (MG334168 - MG334171 & MG334172 to MG334176) respectively. Haplotypes diversity indices revealed a range of 0.59 ± 0.08 to 0.57 ± 0.09 in H. bidorsalis and 0.000 to 0.001051 ± 0.000945 in H. longifilis population, respectively. Analysis of molecular variance (AMOVA) revealed no significant variation among H. bidorsalis population of the Niger & Benue Rivers, detected significant genetic variation was between the Rivers of Niger, Kaduna and Benue population of H. longifilis. Two main clades were recovered, showing a clear separation between H. bidorsalis and H. longifilis in the phylogenetic tree. The mtDNA COI genes studied revealed high gene flow between populations with no distinct genetic differentiation between the populations as measured by the fixation index (FST) statistic. However, a proportion of population-specific haplotypes was observed in the two species studied, suggesting a substantial degree of genetic distinctiveness for each of the population investigated. These findings present the description of the species character and accessions of the fish’s genetic resources, through gene sequence submitted in Genetic database. The data will help to protect their valuable wild resource and contribute to their recovery and selective breeding in Nigeria.

Keywords: AMOVA, genetic diversity, Heterobranchus spp., mtDNA COI, phylogenetic tree

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Authors: Saritdikhun Somasa

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3D printing fabrication has empowered many artists in many fields. Artists who work in stop motion, 3D modeling, toy design, product design, sculpture, and fine arts become one-stop shop operations–where they can design, prototype, and distribute their designs for commercial or fine art purposes. The author has developed a digital sculpting course that fosters digital software, peripheral hardware, and 3D printing with traditional sculpting concept techniques to address the complexities of this multifaceted process, allowing the students to produce complex 3d-printed work. The author will detail the preparation and planning for pre- to post-process 3D printing elements, including software, materials, space, equipment, tools, and schedule consideration for small to medium figurine design statues in a semester-long class. In addition, the author provides insight into teaching challenges in the non-studio space that requires students to work intensively on post-printed models to assemble parts, finish, and refine the 3D printed surface. Even though this paper focuses on the 3D printing processes and techniques for small to medium design statue projects for the Digital Media program, the author hopes the paper will benefit other fields of study such as craft practices, product design, and fine-arts programs. Other schools that might implement 3D printing and fabrication in their programs will find helpful information in this paper, such as a teaching plan, choices of equipment and materials, adaptation for non-studio spaces, and putting together a complete and well-resolved project for students.

Keywords: 3D digital modeling, 3D digital sculpting, 3D modeling, 3D printing, 3D digital fabrication

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Authors: Kita R. Ashman, Anthony R. Rendall, Matthew R. E. Symonds, Desley A. Whisson

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Forest cover is decreasing globally, chiefly due to the conversion of forest to agricultural landscapes. In contrast, the area under plantation forestry is increasing significantly. For wildlife occupying landscapes where native forest is the dominant land cover, plantations generally represent a lower value habitat; however, plantations established on land formerly used for pasture may benefit wildlife by providing temporary forest habitat and increasing connectivity. This study investigates the influence of landscape, site, and climatic factors on koala population density in far south-west Victoria where there has been extensive plantation establishment. We conducted koala surveys and habitat characteristic assessments at 72 sites across three habitat types: plantation, native vegetation blocks, and native vegetation strips. We employed a hierarchical modeling framework for estimating abundance and constructed candidate multinomial N-mixture models to identify factors influencing the abundance of koalas. We detected higher mean koala density in plantation sites (0.85 per ha) than in either native block (0.68 per ha) or native strip sites (0.66 per ha). We found five covariates of koala density and using these variables, we spatially modeled koala abundance and discuss factors that are key in determining large-scale distribution and density of koala populations. We provide a distribution map that can be used to identify high priority areas for population management as well as the habitat of high conservation significance for koalas. This information facilitates the linkage of ecological theory with the on-ground implementation of management actions and may guide conservation planning and resource management actions to consider overall landscape configuration as well as the spatial arrangement of plantations adjacent to the remnant forest.

Keywords: abundance modelling, arboreal mammals plantations, wildlife conservation

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Authors: Bojan Najdenov, Danco Davcev

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Reduction of traffic congestions and the effects of pollution and waste of resources that come with them has been a big challenge in the past decades. Having reliable systems to facilitate the process of modeling and prediction of traffic conditions would not only reduce the environmental pollution, but will also save people time and money. Social networks play big role of people’s lives nowadays providing them means of communicating and sharing thoughts and ideas, that way generating huge knowledge bases by crowdsourcing. In addition to that, crowdsourcing as a concept provides mechanisms for fast and relatively reliable data generation and also many services are being used on regular basis because they are mainly powered by the public as main content providers. In this paper we present the Social-NETS-Traffic-Control System (SNTCS) that should serve as a facilitator in the process of modeling and prediction of traffic congestions. The main contribution of our system is to integrate data from social networks as Twitter and also implements a custom created crowdsourcing subsystem with which users report traffic conditions using an android application. Our first experience of the usage of the system confirms that the integrated approach allows easy extension of the system with other social networks and represents a very useful tool for traffic control.

Keywords: traffic, congestion reduction, crowdsource, social networks, twitter, android

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Authors: K. Jagannath, Akhilesh Kotian, S. S. Sharma, Achutha Kini U., P. R. Prabhu

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Boiling process is characterized by the rapid formation of vapour bubbles at the solid–liquid interface (nucleate boiling) with pre-existing vapour or gas pockets. Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) is an important tool to study bubble dynamics. In the present study, CFD simulation has been carried out to determine the bubble detachment diameter and its terminal velocity. Volume of fluid method is used to model the bubble and the surrounding by solving single set of momentum equations and tracking the volume fraction of each of the fluids throughout the domain. In the simulation, bubble is generated by allowing water-vapour to enter a cylinder filled with liquid water through an inlet at the bottom. After the bubble is fully formed, the bubble detaches from the surface and rises up during which the bubble accelerates due to the net balance between buoyancy force and viscous drag. Finally when these forces exactly balance each other, it attains a constant terminal velocity. The bubble detachment diameter and the terminal velocity of the bubble are captured by the monitor function provided in FLUENT. The detachment diameter and the terminal velocity obtained is compared with the established results based on the shape of the bubble. A good agreement is obtained between the results obtained from simulation and the equations in comparison with the established results.

Keywords: bubble growth, computational fluid dynamics, detachment diameter, terminal velocity

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Authors: T. Mokhele, O. Mutanga, F. Ahmed

Abstract:

South Africa is one of the few countries that have stopped using the same Enumeration Areas (EAs) for census enumeration and dissemination. The advantage of this change is that confidentiality issue could be addressed for census dissemination as the design of geographic unit for collection is mainly to ensure that this unit is covered by one enumerator. The objective of this paper was to evaluate the performance of automated zone design output areas against non-zone design developed geographies using the 2001 census data, and 2011 census to some extent, as the main input. The comparison of the Automated Zone-design Tool (AZTool) census output areas with the Small Area Layers (SALs) and SubPlaces based on confidentiality limit, population distribution, and degree of homogeneity, as well as shape compactness, was undertaken. Further, SPSS was employed for validation of the AZTool output results. The results showed that AZTool developed output areas out-perform the existing official SAL and SubPlaces with regard to minimum population threshold, population distribution and to some extent to homogeneity. Therefore, it was concluded that AZTool program provides a new alternative to the creation of optimised census output areas for dissemination of population census data in South Africa.

Keywords: AZTool, enumeration areas, small areal layers, South Africa

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Authors: Zeliha Erdogan, Hatice Torcu Koc

Abstract:

The fish, Sarpa salpa (L.), is one of the main macroherbivores in the Mediterranean. A total of 600 Salema individuals were collected from around Gökçeada, Sea of Northern Aegean, between January 2014 and January 2015 in order to evaluate some information on the biology of the Salema population. For this aim, measurements of the Salema were obtained using a caliper. The age readings were made from otoliths. The population was composed of 6 age classes (I-VI). The total lengths and total weights of sampled fish were determined to be ranged from 12.5 to 33.1 cm and 33.57 to 559.33 g, respectively. Length-weight relationship for all individuals was calculated as W=0.0085*L3.1723, R2=0.9524. Growth parameters were determined as L∞= 35.55cm, k=0.31, t0= -9.2, '=2.60. As the sexual ratio was 1.08:1 (M: F), the Salema population consisted of 51.66% male and 47.5% female individuals. The highest average condition factors were observed for females in May (1.68) and for males in May (1.67). According to gonad somatic index values, the spawning period was determined twice a year in spring (April) and autumn (October). The highest average hepatosomatix index value was observed for all individuals in May and December. It was estimated that total (Z) mortality, natural (M) mortality, and fishing (F) mortality rates were Z=0.44 year-1, M=0.064 year-1 and F=0.38 year-1, respectively. As the exploitation rate was estimated as E=0.86, it can be shown that the Salema stock was highly influenced by overfishing.

Keywords: biology, sarpa salpa, Gökceada, meadows

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Authors: Elsa Lamy, Marília Prada, Ada Rocha, Cláudia Viegas

Abstract:

The traditional and widely used nutrition-focused approach to communicate with consumers is reductionist and makes it difficult for consumers to assess their food intake. Without sufficient nutrition knowledge and understanding, it would be difficult to choose a healthful diet based only on nutritional recommendations. This study aimed to evaluate the understanding of how food/nutritional information is presented in menus to Portuguese consumers, comparing the nutrient-focused approach (currently used Nutrition Declaration) and the new food-focused approach (the infographic). For data collection, a questionnaire was distributed online using social media channels. A main effect of format on ratings of meal balance and completeness (Fbalance(1,79) = 18.26, p < .001, ηp2 = .188; Fcompleteness(1,67) = 27.18, p < .001, ηp2 = .289). Overall, dishes paired with the nutritional information were rated as more balanced (Mbalance= 3.70, SE = .11; Mcompleteness = 4.00, SE = .14) than meals with the infographic representation (Mbalance = 3.14, SE = .11; Mcompleteness = 3.29, SE = .13). We also observed a main effect of the meal, F(3,237) = 48.90, p < .001, ηp2 = .382, such that M1 and M2 were perceived as less balanced than the M3 and M4, all p < .001. The use of a food-focused approach (infographic) helped participants identify the lack of balance in the less healthful meals (dishes M1 and M2), allowing for a better understanding of meals' compliance with recommendations contributing to better food choices and a healthier lifestyle.

Keywords: food labelling, food and nutritional recommendations, infographics, portions based information

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Authors: Michael Alsop, Hannah Heitz, Prathiba Natesan Batley, Marion Hambrick, Jason Immekus

Abstract:

The impacts of cultural engagement on individuals’ health and well-being have been well documented. The purposes of this study were to create an instrument to measure wellbeing constructs, including cultural wellbeing, and explore the relationships between cultural wellbeing and other wellbeing constructs (e.g., emotional, social, physical, spiritual). A sample of 358 participants attending concerts performed by a civic orchestra in the southeastern United States completed a questionnaire designed to measure eight wellbeing constructs. Split-half exploratory, confirmatory factor analyses resulted in the retention of four wellbeing constructs: general, emotional, financial, and cultural. Structural equation modeling showed statistically significant relationships between cultural wellbeing and other wellbeing constructs. In addition to the indirect effect of financial wellbeing on emotional and general wellbeing through cultural wellbeing, there were also direct statistically significant relationships (i.e., moderator). This highlights the importance of removing financial barriers to cultural engagement and the relationship between cultural wellbeing on emotional and general wellbeing. Additionally, the retained cultural wellbeing items focused primarily on community features, indicating the value of community-based cultural engagement opportunities.

Keywords: cultural wellbeing, cultural engagement, factor analysis, structural equation modeling

Procedia PDF Downloads 82