Search results for: service cost

Authors: Yusuf Hesham Mohamed

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Introduction: Three-dimensional printing technology includes multiple procedures that fabricate three-dimensional objects through consecutively layering two-dimensional cross-sections on top of each other. 3D bioprinting is a promising field of 3D printing, which fabricates tissues and organs by accurately controlling the proper arrangement of diverse biological components. 3D bioprinting uses software and prints biological materials and their supporting components layer-by-layer on a substrate or in a tissue culture plate to produce complex live tissues and organs. 3D food printing is an emerging field of 3D bioprinting in which the 3D printed products are food products that are cheap, require less effort to produce, and have more desirable traits. The Aim of the Study is the development of an affordable 3D bioprinter by altering a locally made CNC instrument with an open-source platform to suit the 3D bio-printer purposes. Later, we went through applying the prototype in several applications regarding food technology and drug testing, including the organ-On-Chip. Materials and Methods: An off-the-shelf 3D printer was modified by designing and fabricating the syringe unit, which was designed on the basis of the Milli-fluidics system. Sodium alginate and gelatin hydrogels were prepared, followed by leaf cell suspension preparation from narrow sections of Fragaria’s viable leaves. The desired 3D structure was modeled, and 3D printing preparations took place. Cell-free and cell-laden hydrogels were printed at room temperature under sterile conditions. Post printing curing process was performed. The printed structure was further studied. Results: Positive results have been achieved using the altered 3D bioprinter where a 3D hydrogel construct of two layers made of the combination of sodium alginate to gelatin (15%: 0.5%) has been printed. DLP 3D printer was used to design the syringe component with a transparent PLA-Pro resin for the creation of a microfluidics system having two channels altered to the double extruder. The hydrogel extruder’s design was based on peristaltic pumps, which utilized a stepper motor. The design and fabrication were made using DIY-3D printed parts. Hard plastic PLA was the material utilized for printing. SEM was used to carry out the porous 3D construct imaging. Multiple physical and chemical tests were performed in order to ensure that the cell line was suitable for hosting. Fragaria plant was developed by suspending Fragaria’s cells from its leaves using the 3D bioprinter. Conclusion: 3D bioprinting is considered to be an emerging scientific field that can facilitate and improve many scientific tests and studies. Thus, having a 3D bioprinter in labs is considered to be an essential requirement. 3D bioprinters are very expensive; however, the fabrication of a 3D printer into a 3D bioprinter can lower the cost of the bioprinter. The 3D bioprinter implemented made use of peristaltic pumps instead of syringe-based pumps in order to extend the ability to print multiple types of materials and cells.

Keywords: scaffold, eco on chip, 3D bioprinter, DLP printer

Procedia PDF Downloads 88

Authors: Sanguk Nam, Van Ha Nguyen, Hanjung Song

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For low-power applications such as adapters for portable devices and USB chargers, the primary side regulation (PSR) fly-back converter is widely used in lieu of the conventional fly-back converter using opto-coupler because of its simpler structure and lower cost. In the literature, there has been studies focusing on the design of PSR circuit; however, the conventional sensing method in PSR circuit using RC delay has a lower accuracy as compared to the conventional fly-back converter using opto-coupler. In this paper, we propose a novel PWM/PFM controller using new sensing technique for the PSR fly-back converter which can control an accurate output voltage. The conventional PSR circuit can sense the output voltage information from the auxiliary winding to regulate the duty cycle of the clock that control the output voltage. In the sensing signal waveform, there has two transient points at time the voltage equals to Vout+VD and Vout, respectively. In other to sense the output voltage, the PSR circuit must detect the time at which the current of the diode at the output equals to zero. In the conventional PSR flyback-converter, the sensing signal at this time has a non-sharp-negative slope that might cause a difficulty in detecting the output voltage information since a delay of sensing signal or switching clock may exist which brings out an unstable operation of PSR fly-back converter. In this paper instead of detecting output voltage at a non-sharp-negative slope, a sharp-positive slope is used to sense the proper information of the output voltage. The proposed PRS circuit consists of a saw-tooth generator, a summing circuit, a sample and hold circuit and a peak detector. Besides, there is also the start-up circuit which protects the chip from high surge current when the converter is turned on. Additionally, to reduce the standby power loss, a second mode which operates in a low frequency is designed beside the main mode at high frequency. In general, the operation of the proposed PSR circuit can be summarized as following: At the time the output information is sensed from the auxiliary winding, a saw-tooth signal from the saw-tooth generator is generated. Then, both of these signals are summed using a summing circuit. After this process, the slope of the peak of the sensing signal at the time diode current is zero becomes positive and sharp that make the peak easy to detect. The output of the summing circuit then is fed into a peak detector and the sample and hold circuit; hence, the output voltage can be properly sensed. By this way, we can sense more accurate output voltage information and extend margin even circuit is delayed or even there is the existence of noise by using only a simple circuit structure as compared with conventional circuits while the performance can be sufficiently enhanced. Circuit verification was carried out using 0.35μm 700V Magnachip process. The simulation result of sensing signal shows a maximum error of 5mV under various load and line conditions which means the operation of the converter is stable. As compared to the conventional circuit, we achieved very small error only used analog circuits compare with conventional circuits. In this paper, a PWM/PFM controller using a simple and effective sensing method for PSR fly-back converter has been presented in this paper. The circuit structure is simple as compared with the conventional designs. The gained results from simulation confirmed the idea of the design

Keywords: primary side regulation, PSR, sensing technique, peak detector, PWM/PFM control, fly-back converter

Procedia PDF Downloads 317

Authors: Prajakta Patil, Yash Huzurbazar, Abhijeet Shinde

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Aim: To develop a treatment protocol for the management of tinnitus through multi-modality brain stimulation. Methodology: Present study included 33 adults with unilateral (31 subjects) and bilateral (2 subjects) chronic tinnitus with and/or without hearing loss independent of their etiology. The Treatment protocol included 5 consecutive sessions with follow-up of 6 months. Each session was divided into 3 parts: • Pre-treatment: a) Informed consent b) Pitch and loudness matching. • Treatment: Bimanual paper pen task with tinnitus masking for 30 minutes. • Post-treatment: a) Pitch and loudness matching b) Directive counseling and obtaining feedback. Paper-pen task is to be performed bimanually that included carrying out two different writing activities in different context. The level of difficulty of the activities was increased in successive sessions. Narrowband noise of a frequency same as that of tinnitus was presented at 10 dBSL of tinnitus for 30 minutes simultaneously in the ear with tinnitus. Result: The perception of tinnitus was no longer present in 4 subjects while in remaining subjects it reduced to an intensity that its perception no longer troubled them without causing residual facilitation. In all subjects, the intensity of tinnitus decreased by an extent of 45 dB at an average. However, in few subjects, the intensity of tinnitus also decreased by more than 45 dB. The approach resulted in statistically significant reductions in Tinnitus Functional Index and Tinnitus Handicap Inventory scores. The results correlate with pre and post treatment score of Tinnitus Handicap Inventory that dropped from 90% to 0%. Discussion: Brain mapping(qEEG) Studies report that there is multiple parallel overlapping of neural subnetworks in the non-auditory areas of the brain which exhibits abnormal, constant and spontaneous neural activity involved in the perception of tinnitus with each subnetwork and area reflecting a specific aspect of tinnitus percept. The paper pen task and directive counseling are designed and delivered respectively in a way that is assumed to induce normal, rhythmically constant and premeditated neural activity and mask the abnormal, constant and spontaneous neural activity in the above-mentioned subnetworks and the specific non-auditory area. Counseling was focused on breaking the vicious cycle causing and maintaining the presence of tinnitus. Diverting auditory attention alone is insufficient to reduce the perception of tinnitus. Conscious awareness of tinnitus can be suppressed when individuals engage in cognitively demanding tasks of non-auditory nature as the paper pen task used in the present study. To carry out this task selective, divided, sustained, simultaneous and split attention act cumulatively. Bimanual paper pen task represents a top-down activity which underlies brain’s ability to selectively attend to the bimanual written activity as a relevant stimulus and to ignore tinnitus that is the irrelevant stimuli in the present study. Conclusion: The study suggests that this novel treatment approach is cost effective, time saving and efficient to vanish the tinnitus or to reduce the intensity of tinnitus to a negligible level and thereby eliminating the negative reactions towards tinnitus.

Keywords: multi-modality brain stimulation, neural subnetworks, non-auditory areas, paper-pen task, top-down activity

Procedia PDF Downloads 128

Authors: Clemens Bulitta, Sasan Sadrizadeh, Sebastian Buhl

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Introduction: Ventilation technology in operating theatres (OT)is internationally regulated by dif-ferent standards, which define basic specifications for technical equipment and many times also the necessary operating and performance parameters. This confronts the operators of healthcare facilities with the question of finding the best ventilation and air conditioning system for the OT in order to achieve the goal of a large and robust surgicalworkzone with appropriate air quality and climate for patient safety and occupational health. Additionally, energy consumption and the potential need for clothing that limits transmission of bacteria must be considered as well as the total life cycle cost. However, the evaluation methodology of ventilation systems regarding these matters are still a topic of discussion. To date, there are neither any uniform standardized specifications nor any common validation criteria established. Thus, this study aimed to review data in the literature and add ourown research results to compare and assess the performance of different ventilations systems regarding infection preventive effects, energy efficiency, and staff comfort. Methods: We have conducted a comprehensive literature review on OT ventilation-related topics to understand the strengths and limitations of different ventilation systems. Furthermore, data from experimental assessments on OT ventilation systems at the University of Amberg-Weidenin Germany were in-cluded to comparatively assess the performance of Laminar Airflow (LAF), Turbulent Mixing Air-flow(TMA), and Temperature-controlled Airflow (TcAF) with regards to patient and occupational safety as well as staff comfort including indoor climate.CFD simulations from the Royal Institute of Technology in Sweden (KTH) were also studied to visualize the differences between these three kinds of ventilation systems in terms of the size of the surgical workzone, resilience to obstacles in the airflow, and energy use. Results: A variety of ventilation concepts are in use in the OT today. Each has its advantages and disadvantages, and thus one may be better suited than another depend-ing on the built environment and clinical workflow. Moreover, the proper functioning of OT venti-lation is also affected by multiple external and internal interfering factors. Based on the available data TcAF and LAF seem to provide the greatest effects regarding infection control and minimizing airborne risks for surgical site infections without the need for very tight surgical clothing systems. Resilience to obstacles, staff comfort, and energy efficiency seem to be favourable with TcAF. Conclusion: Based on literature data in current publications and our studies at the Technical Uni-versity of Applied Sciences Amberg-Weidenand the Royal Institute of Technoclogy, LAF and TcAF are more suitable for minimizing the risk for surgical site infections leading to improved clin-ical outcomes. Nevertheless, regarding the best management of thermal loads, atmosphere, energy efficiency, and occupational safety, overall results and data suggest that TcAF systems could pro-vide the economically most efficient and clinically most effective solution under routine clinical conditions.

Keywords: ventilation systems, infection control, energy efficiency, operating theatre, airborne infection risks

Procedia PDF Downloads 79

Authors: Banafsheh Nikmehr, Mohsen Bahrami, Yueqiang Song, Anuradha Koduru, Ayse K. Vuruskan, Hongkun Lu, Mallory Pitts, Tolga B. Mesen, Tamer M. Yalcinkaya

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The number of people who receive in vitro fertilization (IVF) treatment has increased on a startling trajectory over the past two decades. Despite advances in this field, particularly the introduction of intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) and the preimplantation genetic screening (PGS), the IVF success remains low. A major factor contributing to IVF failure is embryonic aneuploidy (abnormal chromosome content), which often results in miscarriage and birth defects. Although PGS is often used as the standard diagnostic tool to identify aneuploid embryos, it is an invasive approach that could affect the embryo development, and yet inaccessible to many patients due its high costs. As such, there is a clear need for a non-invasive cost-effective approach to identify euploid embryos for single embryo transfer (SET). The reported differences between morphokinetic behaviors of aneuploid and euploid embryos has shown promise to address this need. However, current literature is inconclusive and further research is urgently needed to translate current findings into clinical diagnostics. In this ongoing study, we found significant differences between morphokinetic behaviors of euploid and aneuploid embryos that provides important insights and reaffirms the promise of such behaviors for developing non-invasive methodologies. Methodology—A total of 242 embryos (euploid: 149, aneuploid: 93) from 74 patients who underwent IVF treatment in Carolinas Fertility Clinics in Winston-Salem, NC, were analyzed. All embryos were incubated in an EmbryoScope incubator. The patients were randomly selected from January 2019 to June 2021 with most patients having both euploid and aneuploid embryos. All embryos reached the blastocyst stage and had known PGS outcomes. The ploidy assessment was done by a third-party testing laboratory on day 5-7 embryo biopsies. The morphokinetic variables of each embryo were measured by the EmbryoViewer software (Uniesense FertiliTech) on time-lapse images using 7 focal depths. We compared the time to: pronuclei fading (tPNf), division to 2,3,…,9 cells (t2, t3,…,t9), start of embryo compaction (tSC), Morula formation (tM), start of blastocyst formation (tSC), blastocyst formation (tB), and blastocyst expansion (tEB), as well as intervals between them (e.g., c23 = t3 – t2). We used a mixed regression method for our statistical analyses to account for the correlation between multiple embryos per patient. Major Findings— The average age of the patients was 35.04 yrs. The average patient age associated with euploid and aneuploid embryos was not different (P = 0.6454). We found a significant difference in c45 = t5-t4 (P = 0.0298). Our results indicated this interval on average lasts significantly longer for aneuploid embryos - c45(aneuploid) = 11.93hr vs c45(euploid) = 7.97hr. In a separate analysis limited to embryos from the same patients (patients = 47, total embryos=200, euploid=112, aneuploid=88), we obtained the same results (P = 0.0316). The statistical power for this analysis exceeded 87%. No other variable was different between the two groups. Conclusion— Our results demonstrate the importance of morphokinetic variables as potential biomarkers that could aid in non-invasively characterizing euploid and aneuploid embryos. We seek to study a larger population of embryos and incorporate the embryo quality in future studies.

Keywords: IVF, embryo, euploidy, aneuploidy, morphokinteic

Procedia PDF Downloads 66

Authors: Theophilus Asante, Comfort Nyarko, Daniel Antwi

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Drug-resistant tuberculosis, together with the associated comorbidities like pulmonary fibrosis and silicosis, has been one of the most serious global public health threats that requires immediate action to curb or mitigate it. This prolongs hospital stays, increases the cost of medication, and increases the death toll recorded annually. Crinum asiaticum bulb (CAE) and betulin (BET) are known for their biological and pharmacological effects. Pharmacological effects reported on CAE include antimicrobial, anti-inflammatory, anti-pyretic, anti-analgesic, and anti-cancer effects. Betulin has exhibited a multitude of powerful pharmacological properties ranging from antitumor, anti-inflammatory, anti-parasitic, anti-microbial, and anti-viral activities. This work sought to investigate the anti-tuberculosis and resistant modulatory effects and also assess their effects on mitigating pulmonary fibrosis and silicosis. In the anti-tuberculosis and resistant modulatory effects, both CAE and BET showed strong antimicrobial activities (31.25 ≤ MIC ≤ 500) µg/ml against the studied microorganisms and also produced significant anti-efflux pump and biofilm inhibitory effects (ρ < 0.0001) as well as exhibiting resistance modulatory and synergistic effects when combined with standard antibiotics. Crinum asiaticum bulbs extract and betulin were shown to possess anti-pulmonary fibrosis effects. There was an increased survival rate in the CAE and BET treatment groups compared to the BLM-induced group. There was a marked decrease in the levels of hydroxyproline and collagen I and III in the CAE and BET treatment groups compared to the BLM-treated group. The treatment groups of CAE and BET significantly downregulated the levels of pro-fibrotic and pro-inflammatory cytokine concentrations such as TGF-β1, MMP9, IL-6, IL-1β and TNF-alpha compared to an increase in the BLM-treated groups. The histological findings of the lungs suggested the curative effects of CAE and BET following BLM-induced pulmonary fibrosis in mice. The study showed improved lung functions with a wide focal area of viable alveolar spaces and few collagen fibers deposition on the lungs of the treatment groups. In the anti-silicosis and pulmonoprotective effects of CAE and BET, the levels of NF-κB, TNF-α, IL-1β, IL-6 and hydroxyproline, collagen types I and III were significantly reduced by CAE and BET (ρ < 0.0001). Both CAE and BET significantly (ρ < 0.0001) inhibited the levels of hydroxyproline, collagen I and III when compared with the negative control group. On BALF biomarkers such as macrophages, lymphocytes, monocytes, and neutrophils, CAE and BET were able to reduce their levels significantly (ρ < 0.0001). The CAE and BET were examined for anti-oxidant activity and shown to raise the levels of catalase (CAT) and superoxide dismutase (SOD) while lowering the level of malondialdehyde (MDA). There was an improvement in lung function when lung tissues were examined histologically. Crinum asiaticum bulbs extract and betulin were discovered to exhibit anti-tubercular and resistance-modulatory properties, as well as the capacity to minimize TB comorbidities such as pulmonary fibrosis and silicosis. In addition, CAE and BET may act as protective mechanisms, facilitating the preservation of the lung's physiological integrity. The outcomes of this study might pave the way for the development of leads for producing single medications for the management of drug-resistant tuberculosis and its accompanying comorbidities.

Keywords: fibrosis, crinum, tuberculosis, antiinflammation, drug resistant

Procedia PDF Downloads 57

Authors: Kaustav Mukherjee

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In this paper we propose a Neural Style Transfer solution whereby we have created a Lightweight Separable Convolution Kernel Based GAN Architecture (SC-GAN) which will very useful for designing filter for Mobile Phone Cameras and also Edge Devices which will convert any image to its 2D ANIMATED COMIC STYLE Movies like HEMAN, SUPERMAN, JUNGLE-BOOK. This will help the 2D animation artist by relieving to create new characters from real life person's images without having to go for endless hours of manual labour drawing each and every pose of a cartoon. It can even be used to create scenes from real life images.This will reduce a huge amount of turn around time to make 2D animated movies and decrease cost in terms of manpower and time. In addition to that being extreme light-weight it can be used as camera filters capable of taking Comic Style Shots using mobile phone camera or edge device cameras like Raspberry Pi 4,NVIDIA Jetson NANO etc. Existing Methods like CartoonGAN with the model size close to 170 MB is too heavy weight for mobile phones and edge devices due to their scarcity in resources. Compared to the current state of the art our proposed method which has a total model size of 31 MB which clearly makes it ideal and ultra-efficient for designing of camera filters on low resource devices like mobile phones, tablets and edge devices running OS or RTOS. .Owing to use of high resolution input and usage of bigger convolution kernel size it produces richer resolution Comic-Style Pictures implementation with 6 times lesser number of parameters and with just 25 extra epoch trained on a dataset of less than 1000 which breaks the myth that all GAN need mammoth amount of data. Our network reduces the density of the Gan architecture by using Depthwise Separable Convolution which does the convolution operation on each of the RGB channels separately then we use a Point-Wise Convolution to bring back the network into required channel number using 1 by 1 kernel.This reduces the number of parameters substantially and makes it extreme light-weight and suitable for mobile phones and edge devices. The architecture mentioned in the present paper make use of Parameterised Batch Normalization Goodfellow etc al. (Deep Learning OPTIMIZATION FOR TRAINING DEEP MODELS page 320) which makes the network to use the advantage of Batch Norm for easier training while maintaining the non-linear feature capture by inducing the learnable parameters

Keywords: comic stylisation from camera image using GAN, creating 2D animated movie style custom stickers from images, depth-wise separable convolutional neural network for light-weight GAN architecture for EDGE devices, GAN architecture for 2D animated cartoonizing neural style, neural style transfer for edge, model distilation, perceptual loss

Procedia PDF Downloads 102

Authors: Shah Rucksana Akhter Urme

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Agriculture is the main source of food for human consumption and feeding the world huge population, the pressure of food supply is increasing day by day. Undoubtedly, quality strain, improved plantation, farming technology, synthetic fertilizer, readily available irrigation, insecticides and harvesting technology are the main factors those to meet up the huge demand of food consumption all over the world. However, depended on this limited resources and excess amount of consuming lands, water, fertilizers leads to the end of the resources and severe climate effects has been left for our future generation. Agriculture is the most responsible to global warming, emitting more greenhouse gases than all other vehicles largely from nitrous oxide released by from fertilized fields, and carbon dioxide from the cutting of rain forests to grow crops . Farming is the thirstiest user of our precious water supplies and a major polluter, as runoff from fertilizers disrupts fragile lakes, rivers, and coastal ecosystems across the globe which accelerates the loss of biodiversity, crucial habitat and a major driver of wildlife extinction. It is needless to say that we have to more concern on how we can save the nutrients of the soil, storage of the water and avoid excessive depends on synthetic fertilizer and insecticides. In this case, eco- friendly cultivation could be a potential alternative solution to minimize effects of agriculture in our environment. The objective of this review paper is about organic cultivation following in particular biotechnological process focused on bio-fertilizer and bio-pesticides. Intense practice of chemical pesticides, insecticides has severe effect on both in human life and biodiversity. This cultivation process introduces farmer an alternative way which is nonhazardous, cost effective and ecofriendly. Organic fertilizer such as tea residue, ashes might be the best alternative to synthetic fertilizer those play important role in increasing soil nutrient and fertility. Ashes contain different essential and non-essential mineral contents that are required for plant growth. Organic pesticide such as neem spray is beneficial for crop as it is toxic for pest and insects. Recycled and composted crop wastes and animal manures, crop rotation, green manures and legumes etc. are suitable for soil fertility which is free from hazardous chemicals practice. Finally water hyacinth and algae are potential source of nutrients even alternative to soil for cultivation along with storage of water for continuous supply. Inorganic practice of agriculture, consuming fruits and vegetables becomes a threat for both human life and eco-system and synthetic fertilizer and pesticides are responsible for it. Farmers that practice eco-friendly farming have to implement steps to protect the environment, particularly by severely limiting the use of pesticides and avoiding the use of synthetic chemical fertilizers, which are necessary for organic systems to experience reduced environmental harm and health risk.

Keywords: organic farming, biopesticides, organic nutrients, water storage, global warming

Procedia PDF Downloads 37

Authors: T. Ghatauray, J. Ingram, P. Holborn

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The transition from a ‘carbon rich’ fossil fuel dependent to a ‘sustainable’ and ‘renewable’ hydrogen based society will see the deployment of hydrogen fuel cells (HFC) in transport applications and in the generation of heat and power for buildings, as part of a decentralised power network. Many deployments will be low power HFCs for domestic combined heat and power (CHP) and commercial ‘transportable’ HFCs for environmental situations, such as lighting and telephone towers. For broad commercialisation of small fuel cells to be achieved there needs to be significant confidence in their safety in both domestic and environmental applications. Low power HFCs are housed in protective steel enclosures. Standard enclosures have plain rectangular ventilation openings intended for thermal management of electronics and not the dispersion of a buoyant gas. Degradation of the HFC or supply pipework in use could lead to a low-level leak and a build-up of hydrogen gas in the enclosure. Hydrogen’s wide flammable range (4-75%) is a significant safety concern, with ineffective enclosure ventilation having the potential to cause flammable mixtures to develop with the risk of explosion. Mechanical ventilation is effective at managing enclosure hydrogen concentrations, but drains HFC power and is vulnerable to failure. This is undesirable in low power and remote installations and reliable passive ventilation systems are preferred. Passive ventilation depends upon buoyancy driven flow, with the size, shape and position of ventilation openings critical for producing predictable flows and maintaining low buoyant gas concentrations. With environmentally sited enclosures, ventilation openings with pressed horizontal and angled louvres are preferred to protect the HFC and electronics inside. There is an economic cost to adding louvres, but also a safety concern. A question arises over whether the use of pressed louvre vents impairs enclosure passive ventilation performance, when compared to same opening area plain vents. Comparison small enclosure (0.144m³) tests of same opening area pressed louvre and plain vents were undertaken. A displacement ventilation arrangement was incorporated into the enclosure with opposing upper and lower ventilation openings. A range of vent areas were tested. Helium (used as a safe analogue for hydrogen) was released from a 4mm nozzle at the base of the enclosure to simulate a hydrogen leak at leak rates from 1 to 10 lpm. Helium sensors were used to record concentrations at eight heights in the enclosure. The enclosure was otherwise empty. These tests determined that the use of pressed and angled louvre ventilation openings on the enclosure impaired the passive ventilation flow and increased helium concentrations in the enclosure. High-level stratified buoyant gas layers were also found to be deeper than with plain vent openings and were within the flammable range. The presence of gas within the flammable range is of concern, particularly as the addition of the fuel cell and electronics in the enclosure would further reduce the available volume and increase concentrations. The opening area of louvre vents would need to be greater than equivalent plain vents to achieve comparable ventilation flows or alternative schemes would need to be considered.

Keywords: enclosure, fuel cell, helium, hydrogen safety, louvre vent, passive ventilation

Procedia PDF Downloads 251

Authors: Dimitrios Tzilopoulos, Panagiotis Symeonidis, Michael Loufakis, Dimosthenis Ioannidis, Dimitrios Tzovaras

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The domestic film industry in Greece has traditionally relied heavily on state support. While film productions are crucial for the country's economy, it has not fully capitalized on attracting and promoting foreign productions. The lack of motivation, organized state support for attraction and licensing, and the absence of location scouting have hindered its potential. Although recent legislative changes have addressed the first two of these issues, the development of a comprehensive location database and a search engine that would effectively support location scouting at the pre-production location scouting is still in its early stages. In addition to the expected benefits of the film, television, marketing, and multimedia industries, a location-scouting service platform has the potential to yield significant financial gains locally and nationally. By promoting featured places like cultural and archaeological sites, natural monuments, and attraction points for visitors, it plays a vital role in both cultural promotion and facilitating tourism development. This study introduces LOCATION3, an internet platform revolutionizing film production location management. It interconnects location providers, film crews, and multimedia stakeholders, offering a comprehensive environment for seamless collaboration. The platform's central geodatabase (PostgreSQL) stores each location’s attributes, while web technologies like HTML, JavaScript, CSS, React.js, and Redux power the user-friendly interface. Advanced functionalities, utilizing deep learning models, developed in Python, are integrated via Node.js. Visual data presentation is achieved using the JS Leaflet library, delivering an interactive map experience. LOCATION3 sets a new standard, offering a range of essential features to enhance the management of film production locations. Firstly, it empowers users to effortlessly upload audiovisual material enriched with geospatial and temporal data, such as location coordinates, photographs, videos, 360-degree panoramas, and 3D location models. With the help of cutting-edge deep learning algorithms, the application automatically tags these materials, while users can also manually tag them. Moreover, the application allows users to record locations directly through its user-friendly mobile application. Users can then embark on seamless location searches, employing spatial or descriptive criteria. This intelligent search functionality considers a combination of relevant tags, dominant colors, architectural characteristics, emotional associations, and unique location traits. One of the application's standout features is the ability to explore locations by their visual similarity to other materials, facilitated by a reverse image search. Also, the interactive map serves as both a dynamic display for locations and a versatile filter, adapting to the user's preferences and effortlessly enhancing location searches. To further streamline the process, the application facilitates the creation of location lightboxes, enabling users to efficiently organize and share their content via email. Going above and beyond location management, the platform also provides invaluable liaison, matchmaking, and online marketplace services. This powerful functionality bridges the gap between visual and three-dimensional geospatial material providers, local agencies, film companies, production companies, etc. so that those interested in a specific location can access additional material beyond what is stored on the platform, as well as access production services supporting the functioning and completion of productions in a location (equipment provision, transportation, catering, accommodation, etc.).

Keywords: deep learning models, film industry, geospatial data management, location scouting

Procedia PDF Downloads 47

Authors: Andy Alubaidy

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In this work, a robotic additive manufacturing system (RAMS) that is capable of three-dimensional (3D) printing in six degrees of freedom (DOF) with very high accuracy and virtually on any surface has been designed and built. One of the major shortcomings in existing 3D printer technology is the limitation to three DOF, which results in prolonged fabrication time. Depending on the techniques used, it usually takes at least two hours to print small objects and several hours for larger objects. Another drawback is the size of the printed objects, which is constrained by the physical dimensions of most low-cost 3D printers, which are typically small. In such cases, large objects are produced by dividing them into smaller components that fit the printer’s workable area. They are then glued, bonded or otherwise attached to create the required object. Another shortcoming is material constraints and the need to fabricate a single part using different materials. With the flexibility of a six-DOF robot, the RAMS has been designed to overcome these problems. A feeding mechanism using an adaptive Proportional-Integral-Derivative (PID) controller is utilized along with a national instrument compactRIO (NI cRIO), an ABB robot, and off-the-shelf sensors. The RAMS have the ability to 3D print virtually anywhere in six degrees of freedom with very high accuracy. It is equipped with an ABB IRB 120 robot to achieve this level of accuracy. In order to convert computer-aided design (CAD) files to digital format that is acceptable to the robot, Hypertherm Robotic Software Inc.’s state-of-the-art slicing software called “ADDMAN” is used. ADDMAN is capable of converting any CAD file into RAPID code (the programing language for ABB robots). The robot uses the generated code to perform the 3D printing. To control the entire process, National Instrument (NI) compactRIO (cRio 9074), is connected and communicated with the robot and a feeding mechanism that is designed and fabricated. The feeding mechanism consists of two major parts, cold-end and hot-end. The cold-end consists of what is conventionally known as an extruder. Typically, a stepper-motor is used to control the push on the material, however, for optimum control, a DC motor is used instead. The hot-end consists of a melt-zone, nozzle, and heat-brake. The melt zone ensures a thorough melting effect and consistent output from the nozzle. Nozzles are made of brass for thermo-conductivity while the melt-zone is comprised of a heating block and a ceramic heating cartridge to transfer heat to the block. The heat-brake ensures that there is no heat creep-up effect as this would swell the material and prevent consistent extrusion. A control system embedded in the cRio is developed using NI Labview which utilizes adaptive PID to govern the heating cartridge in conjunction with a thermistor. The thermistor sends temperature feedback to the cRio, which will issue heat increase or decrease based on the system output. Since different materials have different melting points, our system will allow us to adjust the temperature and vary the material.

Keywords: robotic, additive manufacturing, PID controller, cRIO, 3D printing

Procedia PDF Downloads 193

Authors: Viktor D. Dubrovin, Masoud Mollaee, Jie Zong, Xiushan Zhu, Nasser Peyghambarian

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Glasses doped with high rare-earth (RE) elements concentration attracted considerable attention since the middle of the 20th century due to their particular magneto-optical properties. Such glasses exhibit the Faraday effect in which the polarization plane of a linearly polarized light beam is rotated by the interaction between the incident light and the magneto-optical material. That effect found application in optical isolators that are useful for laser systems, which can prevent back reflection of light into lasers or optical amplifiers and reduce signal instability and noise. Glasses are of particular interest since they are cost-effective and can be formed into fibers, thus breaking the limits of traditional bulk optics requiring optical coupling for use with fiber-optic systems. The advent of high-power fiber lasers operating near 2µm revealed a necessity in the development of all fiber isolators for this region. Ce³⁺, Pr³⁺, Dy³⁺, and Tb³⁺ ions provide the biggest contribution to the Verdet constant value of optical materials among the RE. It is known that Pr³⁺ and Tb³⁺ ions have strong absorption bands near 2 µm, thus making Dy³⁺ and Ce³⁺ the only prospective candidates for fiber isolator operating in that region. Due to the high tendency of Ce³⁺ ions pass to Ce⁴⁺ during the synthesis, glasses with high cerium content usually suffers from Ce⁴⁺ ions absorption extending from visible to IR. Additionally, Dy³⁺ (₆H¹⁵/²) same as Ho³⁺ (⁵I₈) ions, have the largest effective magnetic moment (µeff = 10.6 µB) among the RE ions that starts to play the key role if the operating region is far from 4fⁿ→ 4fⁿ⁻¹5 d¹ electric-dipole transition relevant to the Faraday Effect. Considering the high effective magnetic moment value of Er³⁺ ions (µeff = 9.6 µB) that is 3rd after Dy³⁺/ Ho³⁺ and Tb³⁺, it is possible to assume that Er³⁺ doped glasses should exhibit Verdet constant value near 2µm that is comparable with one of Dy doped glasses. Thus, partial replacement of Dy³⁺ on Er³⁺ ions has been performed, keeping the overall concentration of Re₂O₃ equal to 70 wt.% (30.6 mol.%). Al₂O₃-B₂O₃-SiO₂-30.6RE₂O₃ (RE= Er, Dy) glasses had been synthesized, and their thermal, spectral, optical, structural, and magneto-optical properties had been studied. Glasses synthesis had been conducted in Pt crucibles for 3h at 1500 °C. The obtained melt was poured into preheated up to 400 °C mold and annealed from 800 oC to room temperature for 12h with 1h dwell. The mass of obtained glass samples was about 200g. Shown that the difference between crystallization and glass transition temperature is about 150 oC, even taking into account the fact that high content of RE₂O₃ leads to glass network depolymerization. Verdet constant of Al₂O₃-B₂O₃-SiO₂-30.6RE₂O₃ glasses for wavelength 1950 nm can reach more than 5.9 rad/(T*m), which is among the highest number reported for a paramagnetic glass at this wavelength. The refractive index value was found to be equal to 1.7545 at 633 nm. Our experimental results show that Al₂O₃-B₂O₃-SiO₂-30.6RE₂O₃ glasses with high Dy₂O₃ content are expected to be promising material for use as highly effective Faraday isolators and modulators of electromagnetic radiation in the 2μm region.

Keywords: oxide glass, magneto-optical, dysprosium, erbium, Faraday rotator, boron-aluminosilicate system

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Authors: Yi Li, Rui Lu, Lianjun Wang

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With the rapid development of chemical industry, the consumption of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) has increased extensively. In the process of VOCs production and application, plenty of them have been transferred to environment. As a result, it has led to pollution problems not only in soil and ground water but also to human beings. Thus, it is important to develop a sensitive and cost-effective analytical method for trace VOCs detection in environment. Surface-enhanced Raman Spectroscopy (SERS), as one of the most sensitive optical analytical technique with rapid response, pinpoint accuracy and noninvasive detection, has been widely used for ultratrace analysis. Based on the plasmon resonance on the nanoscale metallic surface, SERS technology can even detect single molecule due to abundant nanogaps (i.e. 'hot spots') on the nanosubstrate. In this work, a self-supported flexible silver nitrate (AgNO3)/ethylene-propylene copolymer (EPM) hybrid nanofibers was fabricated by electrospinning. After an in-situ chemical reduction using ice-cold sodium borohydride as reduction agent, numerous silver nanoparticles were formed on the nanofiber surface. By adjusting the reduction time and AgNO3 content, the morphology and dimension of silver nanoparticles could be controlled. According to the principles of solid-phase extraction, the hydrophobic substance is more likely to partition into the hydrophobic EPM membrane in an aqueous environment while water and other polar components are excluded from the analytes. By the enrichment of EPM fibers, the number of hydrophobic molecules located on the 'hot spots' generated from criss-crossed nanofibers is greatly increased, which further enhances SERS signal intensity. The as-prepared Ag/EPM hybrid nanofibers were first employed to detect common SERS probe molecule (p-aminothiophenol) with the detection limit down to 10-12 M, which demonstrated an excellent SERS performance. To further study the application of the fabricated substrate for monitoring hydrophobic substance in water, several typical VOCs, such as benzene, toluene and p-xylene, were selected as model compounds. The results showed that the characteristic peaks of these target analytes in the mixed aqueous solution could be distinguished even at a concentration of 10-6 M after multi-peaks gaussian fitting process, including C-H bending (850 cm-1), C-C ring stretching (1581 cm-1, 1600 cm-1) of benzene, C-H bending (844 cm-1 ,1151 cm-1), C-C ring stretching (1001 cm-1), CH3 bending vibration (1377 cm-1) of toluene, C-H bending (829 cm-1), C-C stretching (1614 cm-1) of p-xylene. The SERS substrate has remarkable advantages which combine the enrichment capacity from EPM and the Raman enhancement of Ag nanoparticles. Meanwhile, the huge specific surface area resulted from electrospinning is benificial to increase the number of adsoption sites and promotes 'hot spots' formation. In summary, this work provides powerful potential in rapid, on-site and accurate detection of trace VOCs using a portable Raman.

Keywords: electrospinning, ethylene-propylene copolymer, silver nanoparticles, SERS, VOCs

Procedia PDF Downloads 140

Authors: Monika Jurkeviciute, Amia Enam, Johanna Torres Bonilla, Henrik Eriksson

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Introduction: Many evaluations of eHealth interventions conclude that the evidence for improved clinical outcomes is limited, especially when the intervention is short, such as one year. Often, evaluation design does not address the feasibility of achieving clinical outcomes. Evaluations are designed to reflect upon clinical goals of intervention without utilizing the opportunity to illuminate effects on organizations and cost. A comprehensive design of evaluation can better support decision-making regarding the effectiveness and potential transferability of eHealth. Hence, the purpose of this paper is to present a feasible and comprehensive design of evaluation for eHealth intervention, including the design process in different contexts. Methodology: The situation of limited feasibility of clinical outcomes was foreseen in the European Union funded project called “DECI” (“Digital Environment for Cognitive Inclusion”) that is run under the “Horizon 2020” program with an aim to define and test a digital environment platform within corresponding care models that help elderly people live independently. A complex intervention of eHealth implementation into elaborate care models in four different countries was planned for one year. To design the evaluation, a participative approach was undertaken using Pettigrew’s lens of change and transformations, including context, process, and content. Through a series of workshops, observations, interviews, and document analysis, as well as a review of scientific literature, a comprehensive design of evaluation was created. Findings: The findings indicate that in order to get evidence on clinical outcomes, eHealth interventions should last longer than one year. The content of the comprehensive evaluation design includes a collection of qualitative and quantitative methods for data gathering which illuminates non-medical aspects. Furthermore, it contains communication arrangements to discuss the results and continuously improve the evaluation design, as well as procedures for monitoring and improving the data collection during the intervention. The process of the comprehensive evaluation design consists of four stages: (1) analysis of a current state in different contexts, including measurement systems, expectations and profiles of stakeholders, organizational ambitions to change due to eHealth integration, and the organizational capacity to collect data for evaluation; (2) workshop with project partners to discuss the as-is situation in relation to the project goals; (3) development of general and customized sets of relevant performance measures, questionnaires and interview questions; (4) setting up procedures and monitoring systems for the interventions. Lastly, strategies are presented on how challenges can be handled during the design process of evaluation in four different countries. The evaluation design needs to consider contextual factors such as project limitations, and differences between pilot sites in terms of eHealth solutions, patient groups, care models, national and organizational cultures and settings. This implies a need for the flexible approach to evaluation design to enable judgment over the effectiveness and potential for adoption and transferability of eHealth. In summary, this paper provides learning opportunities for future evaluation designs of eHealth interventions in different national and organizational settings.

Keywords: ehealth, elderly, evaluation, intervention, multi-cultural

Procedia PDF Downloads 295

Authors: Michael Brave, Mark Kroll, Steven Karch, Charles Wetli, Michael Graham, Sebastian Kunz, Dorin Panescu

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Background: Conducted electrical weapons (CEW) are now used in 107 countries and are a common law enforcement less-lethal force practice in the United Kingdom (UK), United States of America (USA), Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and others. Use of these devices is rarely temporally associated with the occurrence of sudden arrest-related deaths (ARD). Because such deaths are uncommon, few Medical Examiners (MEs) ever encounter one, and even fewer offices have established comprehensive investigative protocols. Without sufficient scientific data, the role, if any, played by a CEW in a given case is largely supplanted by conjecture often defaulting to a CEW-induced fatal cardiac arrhythmia. In addition to the difficulty in investigating individual deaths, the lack of information also detrimentally affects being able to define and evaluate the ARD cohort generally. More comprehensive, better information leads to better interpretation in individual cases and also to better research. The purpose of this presentation is to provide MEs with a comprehensive evidence-based checklist to assist in the assessment of CEW-ARD cases. Methods: PUBMED and Sociology/Criminology data bases were queried to find all medical, scientific, electrical, modeling, engineering, and sociology/criminology peer-reviewed literature for mentions of CEW or synonymous terms. Each paper was then individually reviewed to identify those that discussed possible bioelectrical mechanisms relating CEW to ARD. A Naranjo-type pharmacovigilance algorithm was also employed, when relevant, to identify and quantify possible direct CEW electrical myocardial stimulation. Additionally, CEW operational manuals and training materials were reviewed to allow incorporation of CEW-specific technical parameters. Results: Total relevant PUBMED citations of CEWs were less than 250, and reports of death extremely rare. Much relevant information was available from Sociology/Criminology data bases. Once the relevant published papers were identified, and reviewed, we compiled an annotated checklist of data that we consider critical to a thorough CEW-involved ARD investigation. Conclusion: We have developed an evidenced-based checklist that can be used by MEs and their staffs to assist them in identifying, collecting, documenting, maintaining, and objectively analyzing the role, if any, played by a CEW in any specific case of sudden death temporally associated with the use of a CEW. Even in cases where the collected information is deemed by the ME as insufficient for formulating an opinion or diagnosis to a reasonable degree of medical certainty, information collected as per the checklist will often be adequate for other stakeholders to use as a basis for informed decisions. Having reviewed the appropriate materials in a significant number of cases careful examination of the heart and brain is likely adequate. Channelopathy testing should be considered in some cases, however it may be considered cost prohibitive (aprox $3000). Law enforcement agencies may want to consider establishing a reserve fund to help manage such rare cases. The expense may stay the enormous costs associated with incident-precipitated litigation.

Keywords: ARD, CEW, police, TASER

Procedia PDF Downloads 328

Authors: Chun-Yu Chen, Kua-Rong Wu, Yu-Cheng Chen, Perng-Jy Tsai

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Cooking fumes are known containing polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and aldehydes, and some of them have been proven carcinogenic or possibly carcinogenic to humans. Considering their chronic health effects, long-term exposure data is required for assessing cooking workers’ lifetime health risks. Previous exposure assessment studies, due to both time and cost constraints, mostly were based on the cross-sectional data. Therefore, establishing a long-term exposure data has become an important issue for conducting health risk assessment for cooking workers. An approach was proposed in this study. Here, the generation rates of both PAHs and aldehydes from a cooking process were determined by placing a sampling train exactly under the under the exhaust fan under the both the total enclosure condition and normal operating condition, respectively. Subtracting the concentration collected by the former (representing the total emitted concentration) from that of the latter (representing the hood collected concentration), the fugitive emitted concentration was determined. The above data was further converted to determine the generation rates based on the flow rates specified for the exhaust fan. The determinations of the above generation rates were conducted in a testing chamber with a selected cooking process (deep-frying chicken nuggets under 3 L peanut oil at 200°C). The sampling train installed under the exhaust fan consisted respectively an IOM inhalable sampler with a glass fiber filter for collecting particle-phase PAHs, followed by a XAD-2 tube for gas-phase PAHs. The above was also used to sample aldehydes, however, installed with a filter pre-coated with DNPH, and followed by a 2,4-DNPH-cartridge for collecting particle-phase and gas-phase aldehydes, respectively. PAHs and aldehydes samples were analyzed by GC/MS-MS (Agilent 7890B), and HPLC-UV (HITACHI L-7100), respectively. The obtained generation rates of both PAHs and aldehydes were applied to the near-field/ far-field exposure model to estimate the exposures of cooks (the estimated near-field concentration), and helpers (the estimated far-field concentration). For validating purposes, both PAHs and aldehydes samplings were conducted simultaneously using the same sampling train at both near-field and far-field sites of the testing chamber. The sampling results, together with the use of the mixed-effect model, were used to calibrate the estimated near-field/ far-field exposures. In the present study, the obtained emission rates were further converted to emission factor of both PAHs and aldehydes according to the amount of food oil consumed. Applying the long-term food oil consumption records, the emission rates for both PAHs and aldehydes were determined, and the long-term exposure databanks for cooks (the estimated near-field concentration), and helpers (the estimated far-field concentration) were then determined. Results show that the proposed approach was adequate to determine the generation rates of both PAHs and aldehydes under various fan exhaust flow rate conditions. The estimated near-field/ far-field exposures, though were significantly different from that obtained from the field, can be calibrated using the mixed effect model. Finally, the established long-term data bank could provide a useful basis for conducting long-term exposure assessments for cooking workers exposed to PAHs and aldehydes.

Keywords: aldehydes, cooking oil fumes, long-term exposure assessment, modeling, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs)

Procedia PDF Downloads 117

Authors: Pampita Chakraborty, Sukumar Mukherjee

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This study was done to determine the bacteriological profile and antibiotic resistance of the isolates and to find out the potential risk factors for infection with multidrug-resistant organisms. Diabetic foot ulcer is a major medical, social, economic problem and a leading cause of morbidity and mortality, especially in the developing countries like India. 25 percent of all diabetic patients develop a foot ulcer at some point in their lives which is highly susceptible to infections and that spreads rapidly, leading to overwhelming tissue destruction and subsequent amputation. Infection with multidrug resistant organisms (MDRO) may increase the cost of management and may cause additional morbidity and mortality. Proper management of these infections requires appropriate antibiotic selection based on culture and antimicrobial susceptibility testing. Early diagnosis of microbial infections is aimed to institute the appropriate antibacterial therapy initiative to avoid further complications. A total of 200 Type 2 Diabetic Mellitus patients with infection were admitted at GD Hospital and Diabetes Institute, Kolkata. 60 of them who developed ulcer during the year 2013 were included in this study. A detailed clinical history and physical examination were carried out for every subject. Specimens for microbiological studies were obtained from ulcer region. Gram-negative bacilli were tested for extended spectrum Beta-lactamase (ESBL) production by double disc diffusion method. Staphylococcal isolates were tested for susceptibility to oxacillin by screen agar method and disc diffusion. Potential risk factors for MDRO-positive samples were explored. Gram-negative aerobes were most frequently isolated, followed by gram-positive aerobes. Males were predominant in the study and majority of the patients were in the age group of 41-60 years. The presence of neuropathy was observed in 80% cases followed by peripheral vascular disease (73%). Proteus spp. (22) was the most common pathogen isolated, followed by E.coli (17). Staphylococcus aureus was predominant amongst the gram-positive isolates. S.aureus showed a high rate of resistance to antibiotic tested (63.6%). Other gram-positive isolates were found to be highly resistant to erythromycin, tetracycline and ciprofloxacin, 40% each. All isolates were found to be sensitive to Vancomycin and Linezolid. ESBL production was noted in Proteus spp and E.coli. Approximately 70 % of the patients were positive for MDRO. MDRO-infected patients had poor glycemic control (HbA1c 11± 2). Infection with MDROs is common in diabetic foot ulcers and is associated with risk factors like inadequate glycemic control, the presence of neuropathy, osteomyelitis, ulcer size and increased the requirement for surgical treatment. There is a need for continuous surveillance of resistant bacteria to provide the basis for empirical therapy and reduce the risk of complications.

Keywords: diabetic foot ulcer, bacterial infection, multidrug-resistant organism, extended spectrum beta-lactamase

Procedia PDF Downloads 313

Authors: Bai-Chen Xie, Xian-Peng Chen

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China has become the world's largest energy producer and consumer, and its development of renewable energy is of great significance to global energy governance and the fight against climate change. The rapid growth of solar power in China could help achieve its ambitious carbon peak and carbon neutrality targets early. However, the non-technical costs of solar power in China are much higher than at international levels, meaning that inefficiencies are rooted in poor management and improper policy design and that efficiency distortions have become a serious challenge to the sustainable development of the renewable energy industry. Unlike fossil energy generation technologies, the output of solar power is closely related to the volatile solar resource, and the spatial unevenness of solar resource distribution leads to potential efficiency spatial distribution differences. It is necessary to develop an efficiency evaluation method that considers the volatility of solar resources and explores the mechanism of the influence of natural geography and social environment on the spatially varying characteristics of efficiency distribution to uncover the root causes of managing inefficiencies. The study sets solar resources as stochastic inputs, introduces a chance-constrained data envelopment analysis model combined with the directional distance function, and measures the solar resource utilization efficiency of 222 solar power plants in representative photovoltaic bases in northwestern China. By the meta-frontier analysis, we measured the characteristics of different power plant clusters and compared the differences among groups, discussed the mechanism of environmental factors influencing inefficiencies, and performed statistical tests through the system generalized method of moments. Rational localization of power plants is a systematic project that requires careful consideration of the full utilization of solar resources, low transmission costs, and power consumption guarantee. Suitable temperature, precipitation, and wind speed can improve the working performance of photovoltaic modules, reasonable terrain inclination can reduce land cost, and the proximity to cities strongly guarantees the consumption of electricity. The density of electricity demand and high-tech industries is more important than resource abundance because they trigger the clustering of power plants to result in a good demonstration and competitive effect. To ensure renewable energy consumption, increased support for rural grids and encouraging direct trading between generators and neighboring users will provide solutions. The study will provide proposals for improving the full life-cycle operational activities of solar power plants in China to reduce high non-technical costs and improve competitiveness against fossil energy sources.

Keywords: solar power plants, environmental factors, data envelopment analysis, efficiency evaluation

Procedia PDF Downloads 61

Authors: Hanee Ryu

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The former president Lee Myung-bak's administration of Korea presented “green growth” as a catchphrase from 2008. He declared “low-carbon, green growth” the nation's vision for the next decade according to United Nation Framework on Climate Change. The government designed omnidirectional policy for low-carbon and green growth with concentrating all effort of departments. The structural change was expected because this slogan is the identity of the government, which is strongly driven with the whole department. After his administration ends, the purpose of this paper is to quantify the policy effect and to compare with the value of the other OECD countries. The major target values under direct policy objectives were suggested, but it could not capture the entire landscape on which the policy makes changes. This paper figures out the policy impacts through comparing the value of ex-ante between the one of ex-post. Furthermore, each index level of Korea’s low-carbon and green growth comparing with the value of the other OECD countries. To measure the policy effect, indicators international organizations have developed are considered. Environmental Sustainable Index (ESI) and Environmental Performance Index (EPI) have been developed by Yale University’s Center for Environmental Law and Policy and Columbia University’s Center for International Earth Science Information Network in collaboration with the World Economic Forum and Joint Research Center of European Commission. It has been widely used to assess the level of natural resource endowments, pollution level, environmental management efforts and society’s capacity to improve its environmental performance over time. Recently OCED publish the Green Growth Indicator for monitoring progress towards green growth based on internationally comparable data. They build up the conceptual framework and select indicators according to well specified criteria: economic activities, natural asset base, environmental dimension of quality of life and economic opportunities and policy response. It considers the socio-economic context and reflects the characteristic of growth. Some selected indicators are used for measuring the level of changes the green growth policies have induced in this paper. As results, the CO2 productivity and energy productivity show trends of declination. It means that policy intended industry structure shift for achieving carbon emission target affects weakly in the short-term. Increasing green technologies patents might result from the investment of previous period. The increasing of official development aids which can be immediately embarked by political decision with no time lag present only in 2008-2009. It means international collaboration and investment to developing countries via ODA has not succeeded since the initial stage of his administration. The green growth framework makes the public expect structural change, but it shows sporadic effect. It needs organization to manage it in terms of the long-range perspectives. Energy, climate change and green growth are not the issue to be handled in the one period of the administration. The policy mechanism to transfer cost problem to value creation should be developed consistently.

Keywords: comparing ex-ante between ex-post indicator, green growth indicator, implication for green growth policy, measuring policy effect

Procedia PDF Downloads 424

Authors: Deepak Loura

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Production and productivity of several crops in the country continue to be adversely affected by biotic (e.g., Insect-pests and diseases) and abiotic (e.g., water temperature and salinity) stresses. Over-dependence on pesticides and other chemicals is economically non-viable for the resource-poor farmers of our country. Further, pesticides can potentially affect human and environmental safety. While traditional breeding techniques and proper- management strategies continue to play a vital role in crop improvement, we need to judiciously use biotechnology approaches for the development of genetically modified crops addressing critical problems in the improvement of crop plants for sustainable agriculture. Modern biotechnology can help to increase crop production, reduce farming costs, and improve food quality and the safety of the environment. Genetic engineering is a new technology which allows plant breeders to produce plants with new gene combinations by genetic transformation of crop plants for improvement of agronomic traits. Advances in recombinant DNA technology have made it possible to have genes between widely divergent species to develop genetically modified or genetically engineered plants. Plant genetic engineering provides the strength to harness useful genes and alleles from indigenous microorganisms to enrich the gene pool for developing genetically modified (GM) crops that will have inbuilt (inherent) resistance to insect pests, diseases, and abiotic stresses. Plant biotechnology has made significant contributions in the past 20 years in the development of genetically engineered or genetically modified crops with multiple benefits. A variety of traits have been introduced in genetically engineered crops which include (i) herbicide resistance. (ii) pest resistance, (iii) viral resistance, (iv) slow ripening of fruits and vegetables, (v) fungal and bacterial resistance, (vi) abiotic stress tolerance (drought, salinity, temperature, flooding, etc.). (vii) quality improvement (starch, protein, and oil), (viii) value addition (vitamins, micro, and macro elements), (ix) pharmaceutical and therapeutic proteins, and (x) edible vaccines, etc. Multiple genes in transgenic crops can be useful in developing durable disease resistance and a broad insect-control spectrum and could lead to potential cost-saving advantages for farmers. The development of transgenic to produce high-value pharmaceuticals and the edible vaccine is also under progress, which requires much more research and development work before commercially viable products will be available. In addition, molecular-aided selection (MAS) is now routinely used to enhance the speed and precision of plant breeding. Newer technologies need to be developed and deployed for enhancing and sustaining agricultural productivity. There is a need to optimize the use of biotechnology in conjunction with conventional technologies to achieve higher productivity with fewer resources. Therefore, genetic modification/ engineering of crop plants assumes greater importance, which demands the development and adoption of newer technology for the genetic improvement of crops for increasing crop productivity.

Keywords: biotechnology, plant genetic engineering, genetically modified, biotic, abiotic, disease resistance

Procedia PDF Downloads 48

Authors: Ahmed Elaksher, Islam Omar

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Accurate geometric relation algorithms are imperative in Earth and planetary satellite and aerial image processing, particularly for high-resolution images that are used for topographic mapping. Most of these satellites carry push-broom sensors. These sensors are optical scanners equipped with linear arrays of CCDs. These sensors have been deployed on most EOSs. In addition, the LROC is equipped with two push NACs that provide 0.5 meter-scale panchromatic images over a 5 km swath of the Moon. The HiRISE carried by the MRO and the HRSC carried by MEX are examples of push-broom sensor that produces images of the surface of Mars. Sensor models developed in photogrammetry relate image space coordinates in two or more images with the 3D coordinates of ground features. Rigorous sensor models use the actual interior orientation parameters and exterior orientation parameters of the camera, unlike approximate models. In this research, we generate a generic push-broom sensor model to process imageries acquired through linear array cameras and investigate its performance, advantages, and disadvantages in generating topographic models for the Earth, Mars, and the Moon. We also compare and contrast the utilization, effectiveness, and applicability of available photogrammetric techniques and softcopies with the developed model. We start by defining an image reference coordinate system to unify image coordinates from all three arrays. The transformation from an image coordinate system to a reference coordinate system involves a translation and three rotations. For any image point within the linear array, its image reference coordinates, the coordinates of the exposure center of the array in the ground coordinate system at the imaging epoch (t), and the corresponding ground point coordinates are related through the collinearity condition that states that all these three points must be on the same line. The rotation angles for each CCD array at the epoch t are defined and included in the transformation model. The exterior orientation parameters of an image line, i.e., coordinates of exposure station and rotation angles, are computed by a polynomial interpolation function in time (t). The parameter (t) is the time at a certain epoch from a certain orbit position. Depending on the types of observations, coordinates, and parameters may be treated as knowns or unknowns differently in various situations. The unknown coefficients are determined in a bundle adjustment. The orientation process starts by extracting the sensor position and, orientation and raw images from the PDS. The parameters of each image line are then estimated and imported into the push-broom sensor model. We also define tie points between image pairs to aid the bundle adjustment model, determine the refined camera parameters, and generate highly accurate topographic maps. The model was tested on different satellite images such as IKONOS, QuickBird, and WorldView-2, HiRISE. It was found that the accuracy of our model is comparable to those of commercial and open-source software, the computational efficiency of the developed model is high, the model could be used in different environments with various sensors, and the implementation process is much more cost-and effort-consuming.

Keywords: photogrammetry, push-broom sensors, IKONOS, HiRISE, collinearity condition

Procedia PDF Downloads 41

Authors: Rana Mohamed, Ahmed E. Gomaa, Gehan Safwat, Ayman Diab

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Background: Bio-fabrication is a multidisciplinary research field that combines several principles, fabrication techniques, and protocols from different fields. The open-source-software movement is a movement that supports the use of open-source licenses for some or all software as part of the broader notion of open collaboration. Additive manufacturing is the concept of 3D printing, where it is a manufacturing method through adding layer-by-layer using computer-aided designs (CAD). There are several types of AM system used, and they can be categorized by the type of process used. One of these AM technologies is Digital light processing (DLP) which is a 3D printing technology used to rapidly cure a photopolymer resin to create hard scaffolds. DLP uses a projected light source to cure (Harden or crosslinking) the entire layer at once. Current applications of DLP are focused on dental and medical applications. Other developments have been made in this field, leading to the revolutionary field 3D bioprinting. The open-source movement was started to spread the concept of open-source software to provide software or hardware that is cheaper, reliable, and has better quality. Objective: Modification of desktop 3D printer into 3D bio-printer and the integration of DLP technology and bio-fabrication to produce an antibacterial dental model. Method: Modification of a desktop 3D printer into a 3D bioprinter. Gelatin hydrogel and sodium alginate hydrogel were prepared with different concentrations. Rhizome of Zingiber officinale, Flower buds of Syzygium aromaticum, and Bulbs of Allium sativum were extracted, and extractions were selected on different levels (Powder, aqueous extracts, total oils, and Essential oils) prepared for antibacterial bioactivity. Agar well diffusion method along with the E. coli have been used to perform the sensitivity test for the antibacterial activity of the extracts acquired by Zingiber officinale, Syzygium aromaticum, and Allium sativum. Lastly, DLP printing was performed to produce several dental models with the natural extracted combined with hydrogel to represent and simulate the Hard and Soft tissues. Result: The desktop 3D printer was modified into 3D bioprinter using open-source software Marline and modified custom-made 3D printed parts. Sodium alginate hydrogel and gelatin hydrogel were prepared at 5% (w/v), 10% (w/v), and 15%(w/v). Resin integration with the natural extracts of Rhizome of Zingiber officinale, Flower buds of Syzygium aromaticum, and Bulbs of Allium sativum was done following the percentage 1- 3% for each extract. Finally, the Antimicrobial dental model was printed; exhibits the antimicrobial activity, followed by merging with sodium alginate hydrogel. Conclusion: The open-source movement was successful in modifying and producing a low-cost Desktop 3D Bioprinter showing the potential of further enhancement in such scope. Additionally, the potential of integrating the DLP technology with bioprinting is a promising step toward the usage of the antimicrobial activity using natural products.

Keywords: 3D printing, 3D bio-printing, DLP, hydrogel, antibacterial activity, zingiber officinale, syzygium aromaticum, allium sativum, panax ginseng, dental applications

Procedia PDF Downloads 67

Authors: Pablo Reche

Abstract:

Since 1980’s aquaculture has become the biggest economic activity in southern Chile, being Salmo salar and Oncorhynchus mykiss the main finfish species. High fish density makes both species prone to contract diseases, what drives the industry to big losses, affecting greatly the local economy. Three are the most concerning infective agents, the infectious salmon anemia virus (ISAv), the bacteria Piscirickettsia salmonis and the copepod Caligus rogercresseyi. To regulate the industry the government arranged the salmon farms within management areas named as barrios, which coordinate the fallowing periods and antibiotics treatments of their salmon farms. In turn, barrios are gathered into larger management areas, named as macrozonas whose purpose is to minimize the risk of disease transmission between them and to enclose the outbreaks within their boundaries. However, disease outbreaks still happen and transmission to neighbor sites enlarges the initial event. Salmon disease agents are mostly transported passively by local currents. Thus, to understand how transmission occurs it must be firstly studied the physical environment. In Chile, salmon farming takes place in the inner seas of the southernmost regions of western Patagonia, between 41.5ºS-55ºS. This coastal marine system is characterised by western winds, latitudinally modulated by the position of the South-Eats Pacific high-pressure centre, high precipitation rates and freshwater inflows from the numerous glaciers (including the largest ice cap out of Antarctic and Greenland). All of these forcings meet in a complex bathymetry and coastline system - deep fjords, shallow sills, narrow straits, channels, archipelagos, inlets, and isolated inner seas- driving an estuarine circulation (fast outflows westwards on surface and slow deeper inflows eastwards). Such a complex system is modelled on the numerical model MIKE3, upon whose 3D current fields particle-track-biological models (one for each infective agent) are decoupled. Each agent biology is parameterized by functions for maturation and mortality (reproduction not included). Such parameterizations are depending upon environmental factors, like temperature and salinity, so their lifespan will depend upon the environmental conditions those virtual agents encounter on their way while passively transported. CLIC (Connectivity-Langrangian–IFOP-Chile) is a service platform that supports the graphical visualization of the connectivity matrices calculated from the particle trajectories files resultant of the particle-track-biological models. On CLIC users can select, from a high-resolution grid (~1km), the areas the connectivity will be calculated between them. These areas can be barrios and macrozonas. Users also can select what nodes of these areas are allowed to release and scatter particles from, depth and frequency of the initial particle release, climatic scenario (winter/summer) and type of particle (ISAv, Piscirickettsia salmonis, Caligus rogercresseyi plus an option for lifeless particles). Results include probabilities downstream (where the particles go) and upstream (where the particles come from), particle age and vertical distribution, all of them aiming to understand how currently connectivity works to eventually propose a minimum risk zonation for aquaculture purpose. Preliminary results in Chiloe inner sea shows that the risk depends not only upon dynamic conditions but upon barrios location with respect to their neighbors.

Keywords: aquaculture zonation, Caligus rogercresseyi, Chilean Patagonia, coastal oceanography, connectivity, infectious salmon anemia virus, Piscirickettsia salmonis

Procedia PDF Downloads 134

Authors: Bill Wason

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143 Crude Palm Oil Coop mills on Sumatra Island are participating in a program to transfer land from defaulted estates to small farmers while improving the sustainability of palm production to allow for biofuel & food production. GCarbon will be working with farmers to transfer technology, fertilizer, and trees to double the yield from the current baseline of 3.5 tons to at least 7 tons of oil per ha (25 tons of fruit bunches). This will be measured via evaluation of yield comparisons between participant and non-participant farms. We will also capture methane from Palm Oil Mill Effluent (POME)throughbelt press filtering. Residues will be weighed and a formula used to estimate methane emission reductions based on methodologies developed by other researchers. GCarbon will also cover mill ponds with a non-permeable membrane and collect methane for energy or steam production. A system for accelerating methane production involving ozone and electro-flocculation will be tested to intensifymethane generation and reduce the time for wastewater treatment. A meta-analysis of research on sweet potatoes and sorghum as rotation crops will look at work in the Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil where5 ha. oftest plots of industrial sweet potato have achieved yields of 60 tons and 40 tons per ha. from 2 harvests in one year (100 MT/ha./year). Field trials will be duplicated in Bom Jesus Das Selvas, Maranhaothat will test varieties of sweet potatoes to measure yields and evaluate disease risks in a very different soil and climate of NE Brazil. Hog methane will also be captured. GCarbon Brazil, Coop Sisal, and an Australian research partner will plant several varieties of agave and use agronomic procedures to get yields of 880 MT per ha. over 5 years. They will also plant new varieties expected to get 3500 MT of biomass after 5 years (176-700 MT per ha. per year). The goal is to show that the agave can adapt to Brazil’s climate without disease problems. The study will include a field visit to growing sites in Australia where agave is being grown commercially for biofuels production. Researchers will measure the biomass per hectare at various stages in the growing cycle, sugar content at harvest, and other metrics to confirm the yield of sugar per ha. is up to 10 times greater than sugar cane. The study will look at sequestration rates from measuring soil carbon and root accumulation in various plots in Australia to confirm carbon sequestered from 5 years of production. The agave developer estimates that 60-80 MT of sequestration per ha. per year occurs from agave. The three study efforts in 3 different countries will define a feedstock pathway for jet fuel that involves very high yield crops that can produce 2 to 10 times more biomass than current assumptions. This cost-effective and less land intensive strategy will meet global jet fuel demand and produce huge quantities of food for net zero aviation and feeding 9-10 billion people by 2050

Keywords: zero emission SAF, methane capture, food-fuel integrated refining, new crops for SAF

Procedia PDF Downloads 79

Authors: Andrea N. Ofori-Boadu

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The purpose is to develop a conceptual model of subcontractor development practices and processes that strengthen the integration of subcontractors into construction supply chain systems for improved subcontractor performance on Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certified building projects. The construction management of a LEED project has an important objective of meeting sustainability certification requirements. This is in addition to the typical project management objectives of cost, time, quality, and safety for traditional projects; and, therefore increases the complexity of LEED projects. Considering that construction management organizations rely heavily on subcontractors, poor performance on complex projects such as LEED projects has been largely attributed to the unsatisfactory preparation of subcontractors. Furthermore, the extensive use of unique and non-repetitive short term contracts limits the full integration of subcontractors into construction supply chains and hinders long-term cooperation and benefits that could enhance performance on construction projects. Improved subcontractor development practices are needed to better prepare and manage subcontractors, so that complex objectives can be met or exceeded. While supplier development and supply chain theories and practices for the manufacturing sector have been extensively investigated to address similar challenges, investigations in the construction sector are not that obvious. Consequently, the objective of this research is to investigate effective subcontractor development practices and processes to guide construction management organizations in their development of a strong network of high performing subcontractors. Drawing from foundational supply chain and supplier development theories in the manufacturing sector, a mixed interpretivist and empirical methodology is utilized to assess the body of knowledge within literature for conceptual model development. A self-reporting survey with five-point Likert scale items and open-ended questions is administered to 30 construction professionals to estimate their perceptions of the effectiveness of 37 practices, classified into five subcontractor development categories. Data analysis includes descriptive statistics, weighted means, and t-tests that guide the effectiveness ranking of practices and categories. The results inform the proposed three-phased LEED subcontractor development program model which focuses on preparation, development and implementation, and monitoring. Highly ranked LEED subcontractor pre-qualification, commitment, incentives, evaluation, and feedback practices are perceived as more effective, when compared to practices requiring more direct involvement and linkages between subcontractors and construction management organizations. This is attributed to unfamiliarity, conflicting interests, lack of trust, and resource sharing challenges. With strategic modifications, the recommended practices can be extended to other non-LEED complex projects. Additional research is needed to guide the development of subcontractor development programs that strengthen direct involvement between construction management organizations and their network of high performing subcontractors. Insights from this present research strengthen theoretical foundations to support future research towards more integrated construction supply chains. In the long-term, this would lead to increased performance, profits and client satisfaction.

Keywords: construction management, general contractor, supply chain, sustainable construction

Procedia PDF Downloads 91

Authors: N. Naz, A. D. Domenico, M. N. Huda

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Soft Robotics is a rapidly growing multidisciplinary field where robots are fabricated using highly deformable materials motivated by bioinspired designs. The high dexterity and adaptability to the external environments during contact make soft robots ideal for applications such as gripping delicate objects, locomotion, and biomedical devices. The actuation system of soft robots mainly includes fluidic, tendon-driven, and smart material actuation. Among them, Soft Pneumatic Actuator, also known as SPA, remains the most popular choice due to its flexibility, safety, easy implementation, and cost-effectiveness. However, at present, most of the fabrication of SPA is still based on traditional molding and casting techniques where the mold is 3d printed into which silicone rubber is cast and consolidated. This conventional method is time-consuming and involves intensive manual labour with the limitation of repeatability and accuracy in design. Recent advancements in direct 3d printing of different soft materials can significantly reduce the repetitive manual task with an ability to fabricate complex geometries and multicomponent designs in a single manufacturing step. The aim of this research work is to design and analyse the Soft Pneumatic Actuator (SPA) utilizing both conventional casting and modern direct 3d printing technologies. The mold of the SPA for traditional casting is 3d printed using fused deposition modeling (FDM) with the polylactic acid (PLA) thermoplastic wire. Hyperelastic soft materials such as Ecoflex-0030/0050 are cast into the mold and consolidated using a lab oven. The bending behaviour is observed experimentally with different pressures of air compressor to ensure uniform bending without any failure. For direct 3D-printing of SPA fused deposition modeling (FDM) with thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU) and stereolithography (SLA) with an elastic resin are used. The actuator is modeled using the finite element method (FEM) to analyse the nonlinear bending behaviour, stress concentration and strain distribution of different hyperelastic materials after pressurization. FEM analysis is carried out using Ansys Workbench software with a Yeon-2nd order hyperelastic material model. FEM includes long-shape deformation, contact between surfaces, and gravity influences. For mesh generation, quadratic tetrahedron, hybrid, and constant pressure mesh are used. SPA is connected to a baseplate that is in connection with the air compressor. A fixed boundary is applied on the baseplate, and static pressure is applied orthogonally to all surfaces of the internal chambers and channels with a closed continuum model. The simulated results from FEM are compared with the experimental results. The experiments are performed in a laboratory set-up where the developed SPA is connected to a compressed air source with a pressure gauge. A comparison study based on performance analysis is done between FDM and SLA printed SPA with the molded counterparts. Furthermore, the molded and 3d printed SPA has been used to develop a three-finger soft pneumatic gripper and has been tested for handling delicate objects.

Keywords: finite element method, fused deposition modeling, hyperelastic, soft pneumatic actuator

Procedia PDF Downloads 61

Authors: Jai Bakliya, Palak Dhamecha

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Today customer satisfaction is given utmost priority be it any industry. But when it comes to hospitality industry this applies even more as they come in direct contact with customers while providing them services. Employee engagement is new concept adopted by Human Resource Department which impacts customer satisfactions. To satisfy your customers, it is necessary to see that the employees in the organisation are satisfied and engaged enough in their work that they meet the company’s expectations and contribute in the process of achieving company’s goals and objectives. After all employees is human capital of the organisation. Employee engagement has become a top business priority for every organisation. In this fast moving economy, business leaders know that having a potential and high-performing human resource is important for growth and survival. They recognize that a highly engaged manpower can increase innovation, productivity, and performance, while reducing costs related to retention and hiring in highly competitive talent markets. But while most executives see a clear need to improve employee engagement, many have yet to develop tangible ways to measure and tackle this goal. Employee Engagement is an approach which is applied to establish an emotional connection between an employee and the organisation which ensures the employee’s commitment towards his work which affects the productivity and overall performance of the organisation. The study was conducted in hospitality industry. A popular branded hotel was chosen as a sample unit. Data were collected, both qualitative and quantitative from respondents. It is found that employee engagement level of the organisation (Hotel) is quite low. This means that employees are not emotionally connected with the organisation which may in turn, affect performance of the employees it is important to note that in hospitality industry individual employee’s performance specifically in terms of emotional engagement is critical and, therefore, a low engagement level may contribute to low organisation performance. An attempt to this study was made to identify employee engagement level. Another objective to take this study was to explore the factors impeding employee engagement and to explore employee engagement facilitation. While in the hospitality industry where people tend to work for as long as 16 to 18 hours concepts like employee engagement is essential. Because employees get tired of their routine job and in case where job rotation cannot be done employee engagement acts as a solution. The study was conducted at Trident Hotel, Udaipur. It was conducted on the sample size of 30 in-house employees from 6 different departments. The various departments were: Accounts and General, Front Office, Food & Beverage Service, Housekeeping, Food & Beverage Production and Engineering. It was conducted with the help of research instrument. The research instrument was Questionnaire. Data collection source was primary source. Trident Udaipur is one of the busiest hotels in Udaipur. The occupancy rate of the guest over there is nearly 80%. Due the high occupancy rate employees or staff of the hotel used to remain very busy and occupied all the time in their work. They worked for their remuneration only. As a result, they do not have any encouragement for their work nor they are interested in going an extra mile for the organisation. The study result shows working environment factors including recognition and appreciation, opinions of the employee, counselling, feedback from superiors, treatment of managers and respect from the organisation are capable of increasing employee engagement level in the hotel. The above study result encouraged us to explore the factors contributed to low employee engagement. It is being found that factors such as recognition and appreciation, feedback from supervisors, opinion of the employee, counselling, feedback from supervisors, treatment from managers has contributed negatively to employee engagement level. Probable reasons for the low contribution are number of employees gave the negative feedback in accordance to the factors stated above of the organisation. It seems that the structure of organisation itself is responsible for the low contribution of employee engagement. The scope of this study is limited to trident hotel situated in the Udaipur. The limitation of the study was that that the results or findings were only based on the responses of respondents of Trident, Udaipur. And so the recommendations were also applicable in Trident, Udaipur and not to all the like organisations across the country. Through the data collected was further analysed, interpreted and concluded. On the basis of the findings, suggestions were provided to the hotel for improvisation.

Keywords: human resource, employee engagement, research, study

Procedia PDF Downloads 286

Authors: Shanaka Gunasekara, Maleen Jayasuriya, Nalin Harischandra, Lilantha Samaranayake, Gamini Dissanayake

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One serious facet of the worsening Human-Elephant conflict (HEC) in nations such as Sri Lanka involves elephant-train collisions. Endangered Asian elephants are maimed or killed during such accidents, which also often result in orphaned or disabled elephants, contributing to the phenomenon of lone elephants. These lone elephants are found to be more likely to attack villages and showcase aggressive behaviour, which further exacerbates the overall HEC. Furthermore, Railway Services incur significant financial losses and disruptions to services annually due to such accidents. Most elephant-train collisions occur due to a lack of adequate reaction time. This is due to the significant stopping distance requirements of trains, as the full braking force needs to be avoided to minimise the risk of derailment. Thus, poor driver visibility at sharp turns, nighttime operation, and poor weather conditions are often contributing factors to this problem. Initial investigations also indicate that most collisions occur in localised “hotspots” where elephant pathways/corridors intersect with railway tracks that border grazing land and watering holes. Taking these factors into consideration, this work proposes the leveraging of recent developments in Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) technology to detect elephants using an RGB/infrared capable camera around known hotspots along the railway track. The CNN was trained using a curated dataset of elephants collected on field visits to elephant sanctuaries and wildlife parks in Sri Lanka. With this vision-based detection system at its core, a prototype unit of an early warning system was designed and tested. This weatherised and waterproofed unit consists of a Reolink security camera which provides a wide field of view and range, an Nvidia Jetson Xavier computing unit, a rechargeable battery, and a solar panel for self-sufficient functioning. The prototype unit was designed to be a low-cost, low-power and small footprint device that can be mounted on infrastructures such as poles or trees. If an elephant is detected, an early warning message is communicated to the train driver using the GSM network. A mobile app for this purpose was also designed to ensure that the warning is clearly communicated. A centralized control station manages and communicates all information through the train station network to ensure coordination among important stakeholders. Initial results indicate that detection accuracy is sufficient under varying lighting situations, provided comprehensive training datasets that represent a wide range of challenging conditions are available. The overall hardware prototype was shown to be robust and reliable. We envision a network of such units may help contribute to reducing the problem of elephant-train collisions and has the potential to act as an important surveillance mechanism in dealing with the broader issue of human-elephant conflicts.

Keywords: computer vision, deep learning, human-elephant conflict, wildlife early warning technology

Procedia PDF Downloads 197

Authors: Kevin F. Hsu, Alvin Chua, Sarah X. Lin

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As a multilingual society, Singaporean names for different parts of the city have changed over time. Residents included Indigenous Malays, dialect-speakers from China, European settler-colonists, and Tamil-speakers from South India. Each group would name locations in their own languages. Today, as ancestral tongues are increasingly supplanted by English, contemporary Singaporeans’ understanding of once-common place names is disappearing. After demolition or redevelopment, some urban places will only exist in archival records or in human memory. United Nations conferences on the standardization of geographic names have called attention to how place names relate to identity, well-being, and a sense of belonging. The Singapore Place-Naming Project responds to these imperatives by capturing past and present place names through digitizing historical maps, mining archival records, and applying selective crowd-sourcing to trace the evolution of place names throughout the city. The project ensures that both formal and vernacular geographical names remain accessible to historians, city planners, and the public. The project is compiling a gazetteer, a geospatial archive of placenames, with streets, buildings, landmarks, and other points of interest (POI) appearing in the historic maps and planning documents of Singapore, currently held by the National Archives of Singapore, the National Library Board, university departments, and the Urban Redevelopment Authority. To create a spatial layer of information, the project links each place name to either a geo-referenced point, line segment, or polygon, along with the original source material in which the name appears. This record is supplemented by crowd-sourced contributions from civil service officers and heritage specialists, drawing from their collective memory to (1) define geospatial boundaries of historic places that appear in past documents, but maybe unfamiliar to users today, and (2) identify and record vernacular place names not captured in formal planning documents. An intuitive interface allows participants to demarcate feature classes, vernacular phrasings, time periods, and other knowledge related to historical or forgotten spaces. Participants are stratified into age bands and ethnicity to improve representativeness. Future iterations could allow additional public contributions. Names reveal meanings that communities assign to each place. While existing historical maps of Singapore allow users to toggle between present-day and historical raster files, this project goes a step further by adding layers of social understanding and planning documents. Tracking place names illuminates linguistic, cultural, commercial, and demographic shifts in Singapore, in the context of transformations of the urban environment. The project also demonstrates how a moderated, selectively crowd-sourced effort can solicit useful geospatial data at scale, sourced from different generations, and at higher granularity than traditional surveys, while mitigating negative impacts of unmoderated crowd-sourcing. Stakeholder agencies believe the project will achieve several objectives, including Supporting heritage conservation and public education; Safeguarding intangible cultural heritage; Providing historical context for street, place or development-renaming requests; Enhancing place-making with deeper historical knowledge; Facilitating emergency and social services by tagging legal addresses to vernacular place names; Encouraging public engagement with heritage by eliciting multi-stakeholder input.

Keywords: collective memory, crowd-sourced, digital heritage, geospatial, geographical names, linguistic heritage, place-naming, Singapore, Southeast Asia

Procedia PDF Downloads 95

Authors: Miroslava Cuperlovic-Culf, Lipu Wang, Ketty Boyle, Nadine Makley, Ian Burton, Anissa Belkaid, Mohamed Touaibia, Marc E. Surrette

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Metabolic changes are one of the major factors in the development of a variety of diseases in various species. Metabolism of agricultural plants is altered the following infection with pathogens sometimes contributing to resistance. At the same time, pathogens use metabolites for infection and progression. In humans, metabolism is a hallmark of cancer development for example. Quantified metabolomics data combined with other omics or clinical data and analyzed using various unsupervised and supervised methods can lead to better diagnosis and prognosis. It can also provide information about resistance as well as contribute knowledge of compounds significant for disease progression or prevention. In this work, different methods for metabolomics quantification and analysis from Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) measurements that are used for investigation of disease development in wheat and human cells will be presented. One-dimensional 1H NMR spectra are used extensively for metabolic profiling due to their high reliability, wide range of applicability, speed, trivial sample preparation and low cost. This presentation will describe a new method for metabolite quantification from NMR data that combines alignment of spectra of standards to sample spectra followed by multivariate linear regression optimization of spectra of assigned metabolites to samples’ spectra. Several different alignment methods were tested and multivariate linear regression result has been compared with other quantification methods. Quantified metabolomics data can be analyzed in the variety of ways and we will present different clustering methods used for phenotype determination, network analysis providing knowledge about the relationships between metabolites through metabolic network as well as biomarker selection providing novel markers. These analysis methods have been utilized for the investigation of fusarium head blight resistance in wheat cultivars as well as analysis of the effect of estrogen receptor and carbonic anhydrase activation and inhibition on breast cancer cell metabolism. Metabolic changes in spikelet’s of wheat cultivars FL62R1, Stettler, MuchMore and Sumai3 following fusarium graminearum infection were explored. Extensive 1D 1H and 2D NMR measurements provided information for detailed metabolite assignment and quantification leading to possible metabolic markers discriminating resistance level in wheat subtypes. Quantification data is compared to results obtained using other published methods. Fusarium infection induced metabolic changes in different wheat varieties are discussed in the context of metabolic network and resistance. Quantitative metabolomics has been used for the investigation of the effect of targeted enzyme inhibition in cancer. In this work, the effect of 17 β -estradiol and ferulic acid on metabolism of ER+ breast cancer cells has been compared to their effect on ER- control cells. The effect of the inhibitors of carbonic anhydrase on the observed metabolic changes resulting from ER activation has also been determined. Metabolic profiles were studied using 1D and 2D metabolomic NMR experiments, combined with the identification and quantification of metabolites, and the annotation of the results is provided in the context of biochemical pathways.

Keywords: metabolic biomarkers, metabolic network, metabolomics, multivariate linear regression, NMR quantification, quantified metabolomics, spectral alignment

Procedia PDF Downloads 319