Search results for: teaching and learning model

Authors: Rim Ben Kalifa, Sabra Habli, Nejla Mahjoub Saïd, Hervé Bournot, Georges Le Palec

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The present study treats different phenomena taking place in a configuration of air jet impinging on a flat surface in a coflow stream. A Computational Fluid Dynamics study is performed using the Reynolds-averaged Navier–Stokes equations by means of the Reynolds Stress Model (RSM) second order turbulent closure model. The results include mean and turbulent velocities and quantify the large effects of the coflow stream on an impinging air jet. The study of the jet in a no-directed coflow stream shows the presence of a phenomenon of recirculation near the flat plate. The influence of the coflow velocity ratio on the behavior of an impinging plane jet was also numerically investigated. The coflow stream imposed noticeable restrictions on the spreading of the impinging jet. The results show that the coflow stream decreases considerably the entrainment of air jet.

Keywords: turbulent jet, turbulence models, coflow stream, velocity ratio

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Authors: Bruno Vilić Belina, Jadranko Matuško

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The rapid development of cyber-physical systems significantly influences modern control systems introducing a whole new range of applications of control systems but also putting them under new challenges to ensure their resiliency to possible cyber attacks, either in the form of data integrity attacks or deception attacks. This paper presents a model predictive approach to the control of cyber-physical systems robust to cyber attacks. We assume that a cyber attack can be modelled as an additive disturbance that acts in the measuring channel. For such a system, we designed a tube-based predictive controller based. The performance of the designed controller has been verified in Matlab/Simulink environment.

Keywords: control systems, cyber attacks, resiliency, robustness, tube based model predictive control

Procedia PDF Downloads 51

Authors: June-Jei Kuo, Yi-Chuan Hsieh

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Because of the rapid growth of information technology, more and more libraries introduce the new information retrieval systems to enhance the users’ experience, improve the retrieval efficiency, and increase the applicability of the library resources. Nevertheless, few of them are discussed the usability from the users’ aspect. The aims of this study are to understand that the scenario of the information retrieval system utilization, and to know why users are willing to continuously use the web-scale discovery system to improve the web-scale discovery system and promote their use of university libraries. Besides of questionnaires, observations and interviews, this study employs both Information System Success Model introduced by DeLone and McLean in 2003 and the flow theory to evaluate the system quality, information quality, service quality, use, user satisfaction, flow, and continuing to use web-scale discovery system of students from National Chung Hsing University. Then, the results are analyzed through descriptive statistics and structural equation modeling using AMOS. The results reveal that in web-scale discovery system, the user’s evaluation of system quality, information quality, and service quality is positively related to the use and satisfaction; however, the service quality only affects user satisfaction. User satisfaction and the flow show a significant impact on continuing to use. Moreover, user satisfaction has a significant impact on user flow. According to the results of this study, to maintain the stability of the information retrieval system, to improve the information content quality, and to enhance the relationship between subject librarians and students are recommended for the academic libraries. Meanwhile, to improve the system user interface, to minimize layer from system-level, to strengthen the data accuracy and relevance, to modify the sorting criteria of the data, and to support the auto-correct function are required for system provider. Finally, to establish better communication with librariana commended for all users.

Keywords: web-scale discovery system, discovery system, information system success model, flow theory, academic library

Procedia PDF Downloads 86

Authors: Muhammad Ahsan

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The effective decommissioning of oil and gas fields and related assets is one of the most important challenges facing the oil and gas industry today and in the future. Decommissioning decisions can no longer be avoided by the operators and the industry as a whole. Decommissioning yields no return on investment and carries significant regulatory liabilities. The main objective of this paper is to provide an approach and mechanism for the estimation of emissions associated with decommissioning of Oil and Gas fields. The model uses gate to gate approach and considers field life from development phase up to asset end life. The model incorporates decommissioning processes which includes; well plugging, plant dismantling, wellhead, and pipeline dismantling, cutting and temporary fabrication, new manufacturing from raw material and recycling of metals. The results of the GHG emissions during decommissioning phase are 2.31x10-2 Kg CO2 Eq. per Mcf of the produced natural gas. Well plug and abandonment evolved to be the most GHG emitting activity with 84.7% of total field decommissioning operational emissions.

Keywords: LCA (life cycle analysis), gas field, decommissioning, emissions

Procedia PDF Downloads 176

Authors: Dalila Lino

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The power of play for learning and development in early childhood education is beyond question. The main goal of this study is to analyse how three contemporary early childhood pedagogical approaches, the High Scope, the Modern School Movement (MEM) and the Pedagogy of Participation integrate play in their curriculum development. From this main goal the following objectives emerged: (i) to characterize how play is integrated in the daily routine of the pedagogical approaches under study; (ii) to analyse the teachers’ role during children’s playing situations; (iii) to identify the types of play that children are more often involved. The methodology used is the qualitative approach and is situated under the interpretative paradigm. Data is collected through semi-structured interviews to 30 preschool teachers and through observations of typical daily routines. The participants are 30 Portuguese preschool classrooms attending children from 3 to 6 years and working with the High Scope curriculum (10 classrooms), the MEM (10 classrooms) and the Pedagogy of Participation (10 classrooms). The qualitative method of content analysis was used to analyse the data. To ensure confidentiality, no information is disclosed without participants' consent, and the interviews were transcribed and sent to the participants for a final revision. The results show that there are differences how play is integrated and promoted in the three pedagogical approaches. The teachers’ role when children are at play varies according the pedagogical approach adopted, and also according to the teachers’ understanding about the meaning of play. The study highlights the key role that early childhood curriculum models have to promote opportunities for children to play, and therefore to be involved in meaningful learning.

Keywords: curriculum models, early childhood education, pedagogy, play

Procedia PDF Downloads 193

Authors: Nadia A. Mohamed, Zakaria El-Khayat, Wagdy K. B. Khalil, Mehrez E. El-Naggar

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Drug nephrotoxicity is still a problem for patients who have taken drugs for elongated periods or permanently. Ultrasound-assisted sol−gel method was used to prepare hollow structured poroussilica nanoemulsion loaded with sodium salicylate as a model drug. The work was extended to achieve the target of the current work via investigating the protective role of this nanoemulsion model as anti-inflammatory drug or ginger for its antioxidant effect against cisplatin-induced nephrotoxicity in male albino rats. The results clarify that the nanoemulsion model was synthesized using ultrasonic assisted with small size and well stabilization as proved by TEM and DLS analysis. Additionally, blood urea nitrogen (BUN), Serum creatinine (SC) and Urinary total protein (UTP) were increased, and the level of creatinine clearance (Crcl) was decreased. All those were met with disorders in oxidative stress and downregulation in the expression of the nephrin gene. Also, histopathological changes of the kidney tissue were observed. These changes back to normal by treatment with silica nanoparticles loaded sodium salicylate (Si-Sc-NPs), ginger or both. Conclusions oil/water nanoemulsion of (Si-Sc NPs) and ginger showed a protective and promising preventive strategy against nephrotoxicity due to their antioxidant and anti-inflammatory effects, and that offers a new approach in attenuating drug induced nephrotoxicity.

Keywords: sodium salicylate nanoencapsulation, nephrin mRNA, drug nephrotoxicity, cisplatin, experimental rats

Procedia PDF Downloads 191

Authors: N. M. Amin, W. N. A. W. Sulaiman

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The effectiveness of the seismic response between 3D solid elements model and simplified beam elements model has been investigated. At present, the studies of the numerical modelling using 3D solid element are minimal due to numerical software constraint. The finite element analysis using 3D solid element was chosen to study displacement response of laminated rubber bearing (LRB) during high intensity Kobe earthquake. In this research a simply supported bridge (single span), fixed at support was analysed by using transient analysis subjected to real time history loading of Kobe earthquake.

Keywords: laminated rubber bearing, solid element, simplified beam element, transient analysis

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Authors: Qiang Wang, Hongyang Yu

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Multi-human 3D pose estimation is a challenging task in computer vision, which aims to recover the 3D joint locations of multiple people from multi-view images. In contrast to traditional methods, which typically only use color (RGB) images as input, our approach utilizes both color and depth (D) information contained in RGB-D images. We also employ a transformer-based model as the backbone of our approach, which is able to capture long-range dependencies and has been shown to perform well on various sequence modeling tasks. Our method is trained and tested on the Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) Panoptic dataset, which contains a diverse set of indoor and outdoor scenes with multiple people in varying poses and clothing. We evaluate the performance of our model on the standard 3D pose estimation metrics of mean per-joint position error (MPJPE). Our results show that the transformer-based approach outperforms traditional methods and achieves competitive results on the CMU Panoptic dataset. We also perform an ablation study to understand the impact of different design choices on the overall performance of the model. In summary, our work demonstrates the effectiveness of using a transformer-based approach with RGB-D images for multi-human 3D pose estimation and has potential applications in real-world scenarios such as human-computer interaction, robotics, and augmented reality.

Keywords: multi-human 3D pose estimation, RGB-D images, transformer, 3D joint locations

Procedia PDF Downloads 65

Authors: Jolly Puri, Shiv Prasad Yadav

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Multi-component data envelopment analysis (MC-DEA) is a popular technique for measuring aggregate performance of the decision making units (DMUs) along with their components. However, the conventional MC-DEA is limited to crisp input and output data which may not always be available in exact form. In real life problems, data may be imprecise or fuzzy. Therefore, in this paper, we propose (i) a fuzzy MC-DEA (FMC-DEA) model in which shared and undesirable fuzzy resources are incorporated, (ii) the proposed FMC-DEA model is transformed into a pair of crisp models using cut approach, (iii) fuzzy aggregate performance of a DMU and fuzzy efficiencies of components are defined to be fuzzy numbers, and (iv) a numerical example is illustrated to validate the proposed approach.

Keywords: multi-component DEA, fuzzy multi-component DEA, fuzzy resources, decision making units (DMUs)

Procedia PDF Downloads 392

Authors: Xiaojiao Duan, Zhaoxia Yi, Maria Assumpta Komugabe, Munirpallam A. Venkataramanan

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This study explores stakeholders' perceptions and use of AI in university admissions using a conceptual model. The model suggests that AI expertise mediates the relationship between various factors (positions, experience, perceived benefits, concerns) and the desire to adopt AI. By reviewing existing research, the study identifies variables, correlations, and research gaps. The findings highlight the influence of institutional positions, AI expertise, knowledge, perceived advantages, and concerns on attitudes and intentions toward AI implementation. The review provides a framework for future research, emphasizes ethical AI use, and offers practical insights for admissions stakeholders.

Keywords: artificial intelligence, college admissions, ethical considerations, technology adoption, perceptions of AI

Procedia PDF Downloads 35

Authors: Osung Im, Neha Yadav, Eui Hoon Lee, Joong Hoon Kim

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Artificial Neural Network (ANN) approach is commonly used in lots of fields for forecasting. In water resources engineering, forecast of water level or inflow of reservoir is useful for various kind of purposes. Due to advantages of ANN, many papers were written for inflow prediction in river networks, but in this study, ANN is used in urban sewer networks. The growth of severe rain storm in Korea has increased flood damage severely, and the precipitation distribution is getting more erratic. Therefore, effective pump operation in pump station is an essential task for the reduction in urban area. If real time inflow of pump station reservoir can be predicted, it is possible to operate pump effectively for reducing the flood damage. This study used ANN model for pump station reservoir inflow prediction using upstream sewer depth data. For this study, rainfall events, sewer depth, and inflow into Banpo pump station reservoir between years of 2013-2014 were considered. Feed – Forward Back Propagation (FFBF), Cascade – Forward Back Propagation (CFBP), Elman Back Propagation (EBP) and Nonlinear Autoregressive Exogenous (NARX) were used as ANN model for prediction. A comparison of results with ANN model suggests that ANN is a powerful tool for inflow prediction using the sewer depth data.

Keywords: artificial neural network, forecasting, reservoir inflow, sewer depth

Procedia PDF Downloads 299

Authors: Reza Ziaie Moayed, Saeideh Mohammadi

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Soft soil is used in many of civil engineering projects like coastal, marine and road projects. Because of low shear strength and stiffness of soft soils, large settlement and low bearing capacity will occur under superstructure loads. This will make the civil engineering activities more difficult and costlier. In the case of soft soils, improvement is a suitable method to increase the shear strength and stiffness for engineering purposes. In recent years, the artificial cementation of soil by cement and lime has been extensively used for soft soil improvement. Cement stabilization is a well-established technique for improving soft soils. Artificial cementation increases the shear strength and hardness of the natural soils. On the other hand, in soft soils, the use of piles to transfer loads to the depths of ground is usual. By using cement treated soil around the piles, high bearing capacity and low settlement in piles can be achieved. In the present study, lateral bearing capacity of short piles in cemented soils is investigated by numerical approach. For this purpose, three dimensional (3D) finite difference software, FLAC 3D is used. Cement treated soil has a strain hardening-softening behavior, because of breaking of bonds between cement agent and soil particle. To simulate such behavior, strain hardening-softening soil constitutive model is used for cement treated soft soil. Additionally, conventional elastic-plastic Mohr Coulomb constitutive model and linear elastic model are used for stress-strain behavior of natural soils and pile. To determine the parameters of constitutive models and also for verification of numerical model, the results of available triaxial laboratory tests on and insitu loading of piles in cement treated soft soil are used. Different parameters are considered in parametric study to determine the effective parameters on the bearing of the piles on cemented treated soils. In the present paper, the effect of various length and height of the artificial cemented area, different diameter and length of the pile and the properties of the materials are studied. Also, the effect of choosing a constitutive model for cemented treated soils in the bearing capacity of the pile is investigated.

Keywords: bearing capacity, cement-treated soils, FLAC 3D, pile

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Authors: Majed Alshaibani

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Social media has emerged as a serious contender to TV news networks in Saudi Arabia. The growing usage of social media as a source of news and information has led to significant impact on the content presented by the news networks in Saudi Arabia. This study explored the various ways in which social media has influenced content aired on Saudi news networks. Data were collected by using semi structured interviews with 13 journalists and content editors working for four Saudi TV news networks and six senior academic experts on TV and media teaching in Saudi universities. The findings of the study revealed that social media has affected four aspects of the content on Saudi TV news networks. As a result the content aired on Saudi news networks is more neutral, real time, diverse in terms of sources and includes content on broader subjects and from different parts of the world. This research concludes that social media has contributed positively and significantly to improving the content on Saudi TV news networks.

Keywords: TV news networks, Saudi Arabia, social media, media content

Procedia PDF Downloads 215

Authors: S. Mondal, L. M. Olsen-Kettle, L. Gross

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Fracture propagation and damage evolution are extremely important for many industrial applications including mining industry, composite materials, earthquake simulations, hydraulic fracturing. The influence of pre-existing flaws and rock heterogeneity on the processes and mechanisms of rock fracture has important ramifications in many mining and reservoir engineering applications. We simulate the damage evolution and fracture propagation in an isotropic sandstone specimen containing a pre-existing 3-D surface flaw in different configurations under uniaxial compression. We apply a damage model based on the unified strength theory and solve the solid deformation and damage evolution equations using the Finite Element Method (FEM) with tetrahedron elements on unstructured meshes through the simulation software, eScript. Unstructured meshes provide higher geometrical flexibility and allow a more accurate way to model the varying flaw depth, angle, and length through locally adapted FEM meshes. The heterogeneity of rock is considered by initializing material properties using a Weibull distribution sampled over a cubic grid. In our model, we introduce a length scale related to the rock heterogeneity which is independent of the mesh size. We investigate the effect of parameters including the heterogeneity of the elastic moduli and geometry of the single flaw in the stress strain response. The generation of three typical surface cracking patterns, called wing cracks, anti-wing cracks and far-field cracks were identified, and these depend on the geometry of the pre-existing surface flaw. This model results help to advance our understanding of fracture and damage growth in heterogeneous rock with the aim to develop fracture simulators for different industry applications.

Keywords: finite element method, heterogeneity, isotropic damage, uniaxial compression

Procedia PDF Downloads 203

Authors: Abeer M. Orabi

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Midwives are being seen as a key factor in returning birth care to a normal physiologic process that is woman-centered. On the other hand, more needs to be done to increase access for every woman to professional midwifery care. Because of the nature of the midwifery specialty, the magnitude of the effect that can result from a lack of knowledge if midwives make a mistake in their care has the potential to affect a large number of the birthing population. So, the development, running, and management of midwifery educational programs should follow international standards and come after a thorough community needs assessment. At the same time, the number of accredited midwifery educational programs needs to be increased so that larger numbers of midwives will be educated and qualified, as well as access to skilled midwifery care will be increased. Indeed, the selection of promising midwives is important for the successful completion of an educational program, achievement of the program goals, and retention of graduates in the field. Further, the number of schooled midwives in midwifery education programs, their background, and their experience constitute some concerns in the higher education industry. Basically, preceptors and clinical sites are major contributors to the midwifery education process, as educational programs rely on them to provide clinical practice opportunities. In this regard, the selection of clinical training sites should be based on certain criteria to ensure their readiness for the intended training experiences. After that, communication, collaboration, and liaison between teaching faculty and field staff should be maintained. However, the shortage of clinical preceptors and the massive reduction in the number of practicing midwives, in addition to unmanageable workloads, act as significant barriers to midwifery education. Moreover, the medicalized approach inherent in the hospital setting makes it difficult to practice the midwifery model of care, such as watchful waiting, non-interference in normal processes, and judicious use of interventions. Furthermore, creating a motivating study environment is crucial for avoiding unnecessary withdrawal and retention in any educational program. It is well understood that research is an essential component of any profession for achieving its optimal goal and providing a foundation and evidence for its practices, and midwifery is no exception. Midwives have been playing an important role in generating their own research. However, the selection of novel, researchable, and sustainable topics considering community health needs is also a challenge. In conclusion, ongoing education and research are the lifeblood of the midwifery profession to offer a highly competent and qualified workforce. However, many challenges are being faced, and barriers are hindering their improvement.

Keywords: barriers, challenges, midwifery education, educational programs

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Authors: C. C. Lv, Y. L. Sun, D. W. Zuo

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Cemented carbide balls are usually implemented in industry under the environment of high speed, high temperature, corrosiveness and strong collisions. However, its application is limited due to high fabrication cost, processing efficiency and quality. A novel eccentric lapping method with two rotatable lapping plates was proposed in this paper. A mathematical model was constructed to analyze the influence of each design parameter on this lapping method. To validate this new lapping method, an orthogonal experiment was conducted with cemented carbide balls (YG6). The simulation model was verified and the optimal lapping parameters were derived. The results show that the surface roundness of the balls reaches to 0.65um from 2um in 1 hour using this lapping method. So, using this novel lapping method, it can effectively improve the machining precision and efficiency of cemented carbide balls.

Keywords: cemented carbide balls, eccentric lapping, high precision, lapping tracks, V-groove

Procedia PDF Downloads 386

Authors: Vishwas Goel, Kapil Surve, Somnath Basu

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In-situ alloying in steel during the electro-slag remelting (ESR) process has already been achieved by the addition of necessary ferroalloys into the electro-slag remelting mold. However, the use of commercially available ferroalloys during ESR processing is often found to be financially less favorable, in comparison with the conventional alloying techniques. However, a process of alloying steel with elements like chromium and manganese using the electro-slag remelting route is under development without any ferrochrome addition. The process utilizes in-situ reduction of refined mineral chromite (Cr₂O₃) and resultant enrichment of chromium in the steel ingot produced. It was established in course of this work that this process can become more advantageous over conventional alloying techniques, both economically and environmentally, for applications which inherently demand the use of the electro-slag remelting process, such as manufacturing of superalloys. A key advantage is the lower overall CO₂ footprint of this process relative to the conventional route of production, storage, and the addition of ferrochrome. In addition to experimentally validating the feasibility of the envisaged reactions, a mathematical model to simulate the reduction of chromium (III) oxide and transfer to chromium to the molten steel droplets was also developed as part of the current work. The developed model helps to correlate the amount of chromite input and the magnitude of chromium alloying that can be achieved through this process. Experiments are in progress to validate the predictions made by this model and to fine-tune its parameters.

Keywords: alloying element, chromite, electro-slag remelting, ferrochrome

Procedia PDF Downloads 207

Authors: Saeedeh Imani Moqadam, Ilya Bobrov, Jérémy Epp, Nils Ellendt, Lutz Mädler

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High entropy alloys (HEAs), having adjustable properties and enhanced stability compared with intermetallic compounds, are solid solution alloys that contain more than five principal elements with almost equal atomic percentage. The concept of producing such alloys pave the way for developing advanced materials with unique properties. However, the synthesis of such alloys may require advanced processes with high cooling rates depending on which alloy elements are used. In this study, the micro spheres of different diameters of HEAs were generated via a drop-on-demand droplet generator and subsequently solidified during free-fall in an argon atmosphere. Such droplet generators can generate individual droplets with high reproducibility regarding droplet diameter, trajectory and cooling while avoiding any interparticle momentum or thermal coupling. Metallography as well as X-ray diffraction investigations for each diameter of the generated metallic droplets where then carried out to obtain information about the microstructural state. To calculate the cooling rate of the droplets, a droplet cooling model was developed and validated using model alloys such as CuSn%6 and AlCu%4.5 for which a correlation of secondary dendrite arm spacing (SDAS) and cooling rate is well-known. Droplets were generated from these alloys and their SDAS was determined using quantitative metallography. The cooling rate was then determined from the SDAS and used to validate the cooling rates obtained from the droplet cooling model. The application of that model on the HEA then leads to the cooling rate dependency and hence to the identification of process windows for the synthesis of these alloys. These process windows were then compared with cooling rates obtained in processes such as powder production, spray forming, selective laser melting and casting to predict if a synthesis is possible with these processes.

Keywords: cooling rate, drop-on-demand, high entropy alloys, microstructure, single droplet generation, X-ray Diffractometry

Procedia PDF Downloads 195

Authors: Titanilla Komenda, Viktorio Malisa

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In this paper, the influence of diversity-related factors on the design of collaborative scenarios is analysed. Based on the evaluation, a framework for simulating human-robot-collaboration is presented that considers both human factors as well as the overall system performance. The implementation of the model is shown on a real-life scenario from industry and validated in terms of traceability, safety and physical limitations. By comparing scenarios that consider diversity with those only meeting system performance, an overall understanding of individually adapted human-robot-collaborative workspaces is reached. A diversity-related guideline for human-robot-collaborations provides a summary of the research and aids in optimizing future applications. Finally, limitations and future amendments of the model are discussed.

Keywords: diversity, human-machine system, human-robot collaboration, simulation

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Authors: Serdal Pamuk, Irem Cay

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Our model is based on the theory of reinforced random walks coupled with Michealis-Menten mechanisms which view endothelial cell receptors as the catalysts for transforming both tumor and macrophage derived tumor angiogenesis factor (TAF) into proteolytic enzyme which in turn degrade the basal lamina. The model consists of two main parts. First part has seven differential equations (DE’s) in one space dimension over the capillary, whereas the second part has the same number of DE’s in two space dimensions in the extra cellular matrix (ECM). We connect these two parts via some boundary conditions to move the cells into the ECM in order to initiate capillary formation. But, when does this movement begin? To address this question we estimate the thresholds that activate the transport equations in the capillary. We do this by using steady-state analysis of TAF equation under some assumptions. Once these equations are activated endothelial, pericyte and macrophage cells begin to move into the ECM for the initiation of angiogenesis. We do believe that our results play an important role for the mechanisms of cell migration which are crucial for tumor angiogenesis. Furthermore, we estimate the long time tendency of these three cells, and find that they tend to the transition probability functions as time evolves. We provide our numerical solutions which are in good agreement with our theoretical results.

Keywords: angiogenesis, capillary formation, mathematical analysis, steady-state, transition probability function

Procedia PDF Downloads 146

Authors: Latif Yanar, Muammer Kaçan

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Decision support systems are getting more important in many fields of science and technology and used effectively especially when the problems to be solved are complicated with many criteria. In this kind of problems one of the main challenges for the decision makers are that sometimes they cannot produce a countable data for evaluating the criteria but the knowledge and sense of experts. In recent years, fuzzy set theory and fuzzy logic based decision models gaining more place in literature. In this study, a decision support model to determine a country to build naval base is proposed and the application of the model is performed, considering Turkish Navy by the evaluations of Turkish Navy officers and academicians of international relations departments of various Universities located in Istanbul. The results achieved from the evaluations made by the experts in our model are calculated by a decision support tool named DESTEC 1.0, which is developed by the authors using C Sharp programming language. The tool gives advices to the decision maker using Analytic Hierarchy Process, Analytic Network Process, Fuzzy Analytic Hierarchy Process and Fuzzy Analytic Network Process all at once. The calculated results for five foreign countries are shown in the conclusion.

Keywords: decision support system, analytic hierarchy process, fuzzy analytic hierarchy process, analytic network process, fuzzy analytic network process, naval base, country selection, international relations

Procedia PDF Downloads 573

Authors: Diane M. Bender

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In design education, professional education is delivered in a studio, where students learn and understand their discipline. This learning methodology culminates in a final review, where students present their work before instructors and invited reviewers, known as jurors. These jurors are recognized experts who add a wide diversity of opinions in their feedback to students. This feedback can be provided in multiple formats, mainly a verbal critique of the work. To better understand how these expert reviewers prepare for a studio review, a survey was distributed to reviewers at a multi-disciplinary design school within the United States. Five design disciplines are involved in this case study: architecture, graphic design, industrial design, interior design, and landscape architecture. Respondents (n=122) provided information about if and how they received training on how to critique and participate in a final review. Common forms of training included mentorship, modeled behavior from other designers/past professors, workshops on critique from the instructing faculty prior to the crit session, and by being a practicing design professional. Respondents also gave feedback about how much the instructor provided course materials prior to the review in order to better prepare for student interaction. Finally, respondents indicated if they had interaction, and in what format, with students prior to the final review. Typical responses included participation in studio desk crits, a midterm jury member, meetings with students, and email or social media correspondence. While the focus of this study is the studio review, the findings are equally applicable to other disciplines. Suggestions will be provided on how to improve the preparation of guests in the learning process and how their interaction can positively influence student engagement.

Keywords: critique, design, education, evaluation, juror

Procedia PDF Downloads 69

Authors: Paul Dunst, Ing. Tobias Hemsel, Ing. Habil. Walter Sextro

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The use of fine powders with high cohesive and adhesive properties leads to challenges during transport, mixing and dosing in industrial processes, which have not been satisfactorily solved so far. Due to the increased contact forces at the transporting parts (e. g. pipe-wall and transport screws), conventional transport systems and also vibratory conveyors reach their limits. Often, flowability increasing additives that need to be removed again in later process steps are the only option to achieve wanted transport results. A rather new ultrasound-assisted powder transport system showed to overcome some of the issues by manipulating the effective friction between powder and transport pipe. Within this contribution, the transport mechanism will be introduced shortly, together with preliminary transport results. As the tangential force of the transport pipe and the powder is the main influencing factor within the transport process, a test stand for measuring tangential forces of a powder-wall contact in the presence of an ultrasonic vibration orthogonal to the contact plane was built. Measurements for a sample powder show that the effective tangential force can already be significantly reduced at very low ultrasonic amplitude. As a result of the measurements, an empirical model for the relationship of tangential force, contact parameters and ultrasonic excitation is presented. This model was used to adjust the driving parameters of the powder transport system, resulting in better performance.

Keywords: powder transport, ultrasound, friction, friction manipulation, vibratory conveyor

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Authors: M. Meenasaranya, S. Saravanan

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Nonlinear stability analysis is carried out to determine the effect of surface temperature modulation in an infinite horizontal porous layer heated from below. The layer is saturated by an electrically conducting, viscous, incompressible and Newtonian fluid. The Brinkman model is used for momentum equation, and the Boussinesq approximation is invoked. The system is assumed to be bounded by rigid boundaries. The energy theory is implemented to find the global exponential stability region of the considered system. The results are analysed for arbitrary values of modulation frequency and amplitude. The existence of subcritical instability region is confirmed by comparing the obtained result with the known linear result. The vertical magnetic field is found to stabilize the system.

Keywords: Brinkman model, energy method, magnetic field, surface temperature modulation

Procedia PDF Downloads 377

Authors: Razieh Khalafi

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Myocardial infarction (MI) or acute myocardial infarction (AMI), commonly known as a heart attack, occurs when blood flow stops to part of the heart causing damage to the heart muscle. An ECG can often show evidence of a previous heart attack or one that's in progress. The patterns on the ECG may indicate which part of your heart has been damaged, as well as the extent of the damage. In chaos theory, the correlation dimension is a measure of the dimensionality of the space occupied by a set of random points, often referred to as a type of fractal dimension. In this research by considering ECG signal as a random walk we work on forecasting the oncoming heart attack by analyzing the ECG signals using the correlation dimension. In order to test the model a set of ECG signals for patients before and after heart attack was used and the strength of model for forecasting the behavior of these signals were checked. Results shows this methodology can forecast the ECG and accordingly heart attack with high accuracy.

Keywords: heart attack, ECG, random walk, correlation dimension, forecasting

Procedia PDF Downloads 521

Authors: Esmat Noroozi, Elahe Sarfi, Farha Hosseinzadeh Lotfi

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Examining the impacts of data modification is considered as sensitivity analysis. A lot of studies have considered the data modification of inputs and outputs in DEA. The issues which has not heretofore been considered in DEA sensitivity analysis is modification in the number of inputs and (or) outputs and determining the impacts of this modification in the status of efficiency of DMUs. This paper is going to present systems that show the impacts of adding one or multiple inputs or outputs on the status of efficiency of DMUs and furthermore a model is presented for recognizing the minimum number of inputs and (or) outputs from among specified inputs and outputs which can be added whereas an inefficient DMU will become efficient. Finally the presented systems and model have been utilized for a set of real data and the results have been reported.

Keywords: data envelopment analysis, efficiency, sensitivity analysis, input, out put

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Authors: Sobia Mushtaq, Firdaus E. Bareen, Asma Tayyeb

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This study conducted to investigate the metal biosorption potential of indigenous Trichoderma species (T. harzianum KS05T01, T. longibrachiatum KS09T03, Trichoderma sp KS17T09., T. viridi KS17T011, T. atrobruneo KS21T014, and T. citrinoviride) that have been isolated from contaminated soil of Kasur Tannery Waste Management Agency. The effect of different biosorption parameters as initial metal ion concentration, pH, contact time , and temperature of incubation was investigated on the biosorption potential of these species. The metal removal efficiency and (E%) and metal uptake capacity (mg/g) increased along with the increase of initial metal concentration in media. The Trichoderma species can tolerate and survive under heavy metal stress up to 800mg/L. Among the two isotherm models were applied on the biosorption data, Langmuir isotherm model and Freundlich isotherm model, maximum correlation coefficients values (R 2 ) of 1was found for Langmuir model, which showed the better fitted model for the Trichoderma biosorption. The metal biosorption was increased with the increase of temperature and pH of the media. The maximum biosorption was observed between 25-30 o C and at pH 6.-7.5, while the biosorption rate was increased from 3-6 days of incubation, and then the rate of biosorption was slowed down. The biosorption data was better fitted for Pseudo kinetic first order during the initial days of biosorption. Thermodynamic parameters as standard Gibbs free energy (G), standard enthalpy change (H), and standard entropy (S) were calculated. The results confirmed the heavy metal biosorption by Trichoderma species was endothermic and spontaneous reaction in nature. The FTIR spectral analysis and SEM-EDX analysis of the treated and controlled mycelium revealed the changes in the active functional sites and morphological variations of the outer surface. The data analysis envisaged that high metal tolerance exhibited by Trichoderma species indicates its potential as efficacious and successful mediator for bioremediation of the heavy metal polluted environments.

Keywords: heavy metal, fungal biomass, biosorption, kinetics

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Authors: Dua K. S. Y. Klaas, Monzur A. Imteaz, Ika Sudiayem, Elkan M. E. Klaas, Eldav C. M. Klaas

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Developing tailored management strategies to ensure the sustainability of groundwater resource under climate and demographic changes is critical for tropical karst island, where relatively small watershed and highly porous soil nature make this natural resource highly susceptible and thus very sensitive to those changes. In this study, long-term impacts of climate variability on groundwater recharge and discharge at the Oemau spring, Rote Island, Indonesia were investigated. Following calibration and validation of groundwater model using MODFLOW code, groundwater flow was simulated for period of 2020-2090 under HadCM3 global model climate (GCM) scenarios, using input data of weather variables downscaled by Statistical Downscaling Model (SDSM). The reported analysis suggests that the sustainability of groundwater resources will be adversely affected by climate change during dry years. The area is projected to variably experience 2.53-22.80% decrease of spring discharge. A subsequent comprehensive set of management strategies as palliative and adaptive efforts was proposed to be implemented by relevant stakeholders to assist the community dealing with water deficit during the dry years. Three main adaptive strategies, namely socio-cultural, technical, and ecological measures, were proposed by incorporating physical and socio-economic characteristics of the area. This study presents a blueprint for assessing groundwater sustainability under climate change scenarios and developing tailored management strategies to cope with adverse impacts of climate change, which may become fundamental necessities across other tropical karst islands in the future.

Keywords: climate change, groundwater, management strategies, tropical karst island, Rote Island, Indonesia

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Authors: Diana Santiago, Tania Lisboa, Sophie Lee, Alexander P. Demos, Monica C. S. Vasconcelos

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Memorization has long been recognized as an arduous and anxiety-evoking task for musicians, and yet, it is an essential aspect of performance. Research shows that musicians are often not taught how to memorize. While memorization and practice strategies of professionals have been studied, little research has been done to examine how student musicians learn to practice and memorize music in different cultural settings. We present the process of developing and testing a questionnaire of music memorization and musical practice for student musicians in the UK and Brazil. A survey was developed for a cross-cultural research project aiming at examining how young orchestral musicians (aged 7–18 years) in different learning environments and cultures engage in instrumental practice and memorization. The questionnaire development included members of a UK/US/Brazil research team of music educators and performance science researchers. A pool of items was developed for each aspect of practice and memorization identified, based on literature, personal experiences, and adapted from existing questionnaires. Item development took the varying levels of cognitive and social development of the target populations into consideration. It also considered the diverse target learning environments. Items were initially grouped in accordance with a single underlying construct/behavior. The questionnaire comprised three sections: a demographics section, a section on practice (containing 29 items), and a section on memorization (containing 40 items). Next, the response process was considered and a 5-point Likert scale ranging from ‘always’ to ‘never’ with a verbal label and an image assigned to each response option was selected, following effective questionnaire design for children and youths. Finally, a pilot study was conducted with young orchestral musicians from diverse learning environments in Brazil and the United Kingdom. Data collection took place in either one-to-one or group settings to facilitate the participants. Cognitive interviews were utilized to establish response process validity by confirming the readability and accurate comprehension of the questionnaire items or highlighting the need for item revision. Internal reliability was investigated by measuring the consistency of the item groups using the statistical test Cronbach’s alpha. The pilot study successfully relied on the questionnaire to generate data about the engagement of young musicians of different levels and instruments, across different learning and cultural environments, in instrumental practice and memorization. Interaction analysis of the cognitive interviews undertaken with these participants, however, exposed the fact that certain items, and the response scale, could be interpreted in multiple ways. The questionnaire text was, therefore, revised accordingly. The low Cronbach’s Alpha scores of many item groups indicated another issue with the original questionnaire: its low level of internal reliability. Several reasons for each poor reliability can be suggested, including the issues with item interpretation revealed through interaction analysis of the cognitive interviews, the small number of participants (34), and the elusive nature of the construct in question. The revised questionnaire measures 78 specific behaviors or opinions. It can be seen to provide an efficient means of gathering information about the engagement of young musicians in practice and memorization on a large scale.

Keywords: cross-cultural, memorization, practice, questionnaire, young musicians

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Authors: S. Ping Ho, R. Dahal

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The global economy has drastically changed how firms operate and compete. Although the construction industry is ‘local’ by its nature, the internationalization of the construction industry has become an inevitable reality. As a result of global competition, staying domestic is no longer safe from competition and, on the contrary, to grow and become an MNE (multi-national enterprise) becomes one of the important strategies for a firm to survive in the global competition. For the successful entrance into competing markets, the firms need to re-define their competitive advantages and re-identify the sources of the competitive advantages. A firm’s initiation of internationalization is not necessarily a result of strategic planning but also involves certain idiosyncratic events that pave the path leading to a firm’s internationalization. For example, a local firm’s incidental or unintentional collaboration with an MNE can become the initiating point of its internationalization process. However, because of the intensive competition in today’s global movement, many firms were compelled to initiate their internationalization as a strategic response to the competition. Understandingly stepping in in the process of internationalization and appropriately implementing the strategies (in the process) at different stages lead the construction firms to a successful internationalization journey. This study is carried out to develop a model of the internationalization process, which derives appropriate strategies that the construction firms can implement at each stage. The proposed model integrates two major and complementary views of internationalization and expresses the dynamic process of internationalization in three stages, which are the pre-international (PRE) stage, the foreign direct investment (FDI) stage, and the multi-national enterprise (MNE) stage. The strategies implied in the proposed model are derived, focusing on capability building, market locations, and entry modes based on the resource-based views: value, rareness, imitability, and substitutability (VRIN). With the proposed dynamic process model the potential construction firms which are willing to expand their business market area can be benefitted. Strategies for internationalization, such as core competence strategy, market selection, partner selection, and entry mode strategy, can be derived from the proposed model. The internationalization process is expressed in two different forms. First, we discuss the construction internationalization process, identify the driving factor/s of the process, and explain the strategy formation in the process. Second, we define the stages of internationalization along the process and the corresponding strategies in each stage. The strategies may include how to exploit existing advantages for the competition at the current stage and develop or explore additional advantages appropriate for the next stage. Particularly, the additionally developed advantages will then be accumulated and drive forward the firm’s stage of internationalization, which will further determine the subsequent strategies, and so on and so forth, spiraling up the stages of a higher degree of internationalization. However, the formation of additional strategies for the next stage does not happen automatically, and the strategy evolution is based on the firm’s dynamic capabilities.

Keywords: construction industry, dynamic capabilities, internationalization process, internationalization strategies, strategic management

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