Search results for: data structure

Authors: Ana Serafimovic, Karthik Devarajan

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Non-negative matrix factorization approximates a high dimensional non-negative matrix V as the product of two non-negative matrices, W and H, and allows only additive linear combinations of data, enabling it to learn parts with representations in reality. It has been successfully applied in the analysis and interpretation of high dimensional data arising in neuroscience, computational biology, and natural language processing, to name a few. The objective of this paper is to assess a hybrid algorithm for non-negative matrix factorization with multiplicative updates. The method aims to minimize the symmetric version of Kullback-Leibler divergence known as intrinsic information and assumes that the noise is signal-dependent and that it originates from an arbitrary distribution from the exponential family. It is a generalization of currently available algorithms for Gaussian, Poisson, gamma and inverse Gaussian noise. We demonstrate the potential usefulness of the new generalized algorithm by comparing its performance to the baseline methods which also aim to minimize symmetric divergence measures.

Keywords: non-negative matrix factorization, dimension reduction, clustering, intrinsic information, symmetric information divergence, signal-dependent noise, exponential family, generalized Kullback-Leibler divergence, dual divergence

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Authors: Vipul M. Patel, H. B. Mehta

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Closed Loop Pulsating Heat Pipe (CLPHP) is a passive two-phase heat transfer device having potential to achieve high heat transfer rates over conventional cooling techniques. It is found in electronics cooling due to its outstanding characteristics such as excellent heat transfer performance, simple, reliable, cost effective, compact structure and no external mechanical power requirement etc. Comprehensive understanding of the thermo-hydrodynamic mechanism of CLPHP is still lacking due to its contradictory results available in the literature. The present paper discusses the experimental study on 9 turn CLPHP. Inner and outer diameters of the copper tube are 2 mm and 4 mm respectively. The lengths of the evaporator, adiabatic and condenser sections are 40 mm, 100 mm and 50 mm respectively. Water is used as working fluid. The Filling Ratio (FR) is kept as 50% throughout the investigations. The gravitational effect is studied by placing the evaporator heater at different orientations such as horizontal (90 degree), vertical top (180 degree) and bottom (0 degree) as well as inclined top (135 degree) and bottom (45 degree). Heat input is supplied in the range of 10-50 Watt. Heat transfer mechanism is natural convection in the condenser section. Vacuum pump is used to evacuate the system up to 10^-5 bar. The results demonstrate the influence of input heat flux and gravity on the thermal performance of the CLPHP.

Keywords: CLPHP, gravity effect, start up, two-phase flow

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Authors: Seyed Habib A. Rahmati, Parsa Fallah Sheikhlari, Morteza Musakhani

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This paper studies the structure of financial investment and efficiency on the subway would be created between Hashtgerd and Qazvin in Iran. Regarding ascending rate of transportation between Tehran and Qazvin which directly air pollution, it clearly implies to public transportation requirement between these two cities near Tehran. The railway transportation like subway can help each country to terminate traffic jam which has some advantages such as speed, security, non-pollution, low cost of public transport, etc. This type of transportation needs national infrastructures which require enormous investment. It couldn’t implement without leading and managing funds and investments properly. In order to response 'needs', clear norms or normative targets have to be agreed and obviously it is important to distinguish costs from investment requirements critically. Implementation phase affects investment requirements and financing needs. So recognizing barrier related to investment and the quality of investment (what technologies and services are invested in) is as important as the amounts of investment. Different investment methods have mentioned as follows loan, leasing, equity participation, Line of financing, finance, usance, bay back. Alternatives survey before initiation and analyzing of risk management is one of the most important parts in this project. Observation of similar project cities each country has the own specification to choose investment method.

Keywords: subway project, project investment, project contract, project management

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Authors: Charles Owenda Omulo

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This study examines Occupational Health and Safety implications in flower farms in Central Uganda. An exploratory sequential mixed method design and methodology was employed, with multiple data collection methods, including interviews, focus group discussions, and surveys. The findings show that occupational health and safety issues remain a major problem in flower farms. While the majority of workers agreed that the farms provided them with protective equipment, the data collected from the workers point to either the improper use or ineffectiveness of this equipment. A number of workers reported skin irritations, sore and painful eyes, stiff necks, back pains, and occasional headaches that were presumably argued to have arisen from their work environment. The study also found that farms have been adjusting in an attempt to correct some of these anomalies. These included the use of biological approaches to control pests and diseases and restricting the use of some chemical formulations that are deemed to be harmful to applicators and the environment. Alongside these efforts, the study recommends increased vigilance by the flower farm owners in the provision of personal protective equipment to workers.

Keywords: flower farms, personal protective equipment, agrochemicals, rural communities, occupational health and safety

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Authors: Yanto Santosa, Windi Sugiharti

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Fires occur annually in oil palm plantations. The objective of the study was to identify the impact of fire on bird diversity in oil palm plantations. Data of bird diversity were collected using the line transect method. Data were collected from February to March 2017. To estimate species richness, we used the Margalef index, to determine the evenness of species richness between site, we used an Evenness index, and to estimate the similarity of bird communities between different habitat, we used the Sørensen index. The result showed that the number of bird species and species richness in the post burned area was higher than those in unburned area. Different results were found for the Evenness Index, where the value was higher in unburned area that was in post burned area. These results indicate that fires did not decrease bird diversity as alleged by many parties whom stated that fires caused species extinction. Fire trigger the emerging of belowground plant and population of insects as a sources of food for the bird community. This result is consistent with several research findings in the United States and Australia that used controlled fires as one of regional management tools.

Keywords: bird, fire, index of similarity, oil palm, species diversity

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Authors: I. Ben Kaddour, S. Larbaoui

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Since their first synthesis, the Silicoaluminophosphates materials have proved their efficiency as a good adsorbent and catalyst in several environmental and energetic applications. In this work, the photocatalytic hydrogen production from water splitting reactions has been conducted under visible radiations in the presence of a series of iron and/or titanium-containing microporous silico-alumino-phosphates materials synthesized by hydrothermal method, using triethylamine as an organic structuring agent to obtain the AFI structure type. These photo-catalysts were then characterized by various physicochemical methods to determine their structural, textural and morphological properties such as X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier transformed infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) coupled with X rays microanalysis, nitrogen adsorption measurements, UV-visible diffuse reflectance spectroscopy (UV-Vis-DRS), and X-rays photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and the analysis revealed that these materials have significant photocatalytic properties. The hydrogen production process has been followed by photoelectrochemical characterization (PEC). The results showed that hydrogen is the only gas produced, and the reaction takes place in the conduction band where water is reduced to hydrogen. The electron recombination has also been avoided, as holes are entrapped using hole scavengers. In addition, these catalysts have been shown to remain stable during reuse for up to five cycles.

Keywords: photocatalysis, SAPO-5, hydrothermal synthesis, hydrogen production

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Authors: Prapoj Na Bangchang

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The research aimed to study the satisfaction of Suan Sunandha Rajabhat University students towards the university radio station which broadcasts in both analog on FM 97.25 MHz and online via the university website. The sample used in this study consists of undergraduate students year 1 to year 4 from 6 faculties i.e. Faculty of Education, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, Faculty of Management Science and Faculty of Industrial Technology, and Faculty of Fine and Applied Arts totaling 200 students. The tools used for data collection is survey. Data analysis applied statistics that are percentage, mean and standard deviation. The results showed that Suan Sunandha Rajabhat University students were satisfied to the place of listening service, followed by channels of broadcasting that cover both analog signals on 97.25 MHz FM and online via the Internet. However, the satisfaction level of the content offered was very low. Most of the students want the station to improve the content. Entertainment content was requested the most, followed by sports content. The lowest satisfaction level is with the broadcasting quality through analog signal. Most students asked the station to improve on the issue. However, overall, Suan Sunandha Rajabhat University students were satisfied with the university radio station broadcasted online via the university website.

Keywords: satisfaction, students, radio station, Suan Sunandha Rajabhat University

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Authors: Kirti, Samanta Sekhar Khora

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Inflation serves different purposes in different organisms and adds beauty to their behavioral attributes. Pufferfishes are also known as blowfish, swellfish, and globefish due to their remarkable ability to puff themselves up like a balloon when threatened. This ability to inflate can be correlated with anatomical features that are unique to pufferfishes. Pufferfish skin provides a rigid framework to support the body contents and a flexible covering to allow whatever changes are necessary for remarkable inflation mechanism. Skin, the outer covering of animals is made up of collagen fibers arranged in more or less ordered arrays. The ventral skin of pufferfish stretches more than dorsal skin during inflation. So, this study is of much of the interest in comparing the structure and mechanical properties of these two skin regions. The collagen fibers were found to be arranged in different ordered arrays for ventral and dorsal skin and concentration of fibers were also found to be different for these two skin parts. Scanning electron microscopy studies of the ventral skin showed a unidirectional arrangement of the collagen fibers, which provide more stretching capacity. Dorsal skin, on the other hand, has an orthogonal arrangement of fibers. This provides more stiffness to the ventral skin at the time of inflation. In this study, the possible role of collagen fibers was determined which significantly contributed to the remarkable inflation mechanism of pufferfishes.

Keywords: collagen, histology, inflation, pufferfish, scanning electron microscopy, Small-Angle X-Ray Scattering (SAXS), transmission electron microscopy

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Authors: Haidy N. Salem, Nada O. Kamel, Shahinaz N. Hassan, Sherif M. Elhefnawy

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Aim: to assess the effect of using turmeric powder extract on changes of tooth color with extra-coronal and intra-coronal bleaching methods. Methods: Turmeric powder extract was weighted and mixed with two different hydrogen peroxide concentrations (3% and 6%) to be used as a bleaching agent. Thirty teeth were allocated into three groups (n=10): Group A: Bleaching agent (6%) was applied on the labial surface, Group B: Bleaching agent (3%) was applied inside the pulp chamber and Group C: Extra and intra-coronal bleaching techniques were used (6% and 3% respectively). A standardized access cavity was opened in the palatal surface of each tooth in both Groups B and C. Color parameters were measured using a spectrophotometer. Results: A statistically significant difference in color difference values (∆E*) and enamel brightness (∆L*) was found between Group C and each of Groups A and B. There was no statistically significant difference in (∆E*) and (∆L*) between Group A and Group B. The highest mean value of (∆E*) and (∆L*) was found in Group C, while the least mean value was found in Group B. Conclusion: Bleaching the external and internal tooth structure with low concentrations of hydrogen peroxide solution mixed with turmeric extract has a promising effect in color enhancement.

Keywords: bleaching, hydrogen peroxide, spectrophotometer, turmeric

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Authors: Sarma Binti Aralas

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The relationship between property rights and trade specialization is examined for developing and developed countries using panel data analysis. Property rights is measured using the international property rights index while trade specialization is measured using the comparative advantage index. Cross country differences in property rights are hypothesized to lead to differences in trade specialization. Based on the argument that a weak protection of natural resources implies greater trade in resource-intensive goods, developing countries with less defined property rights are hypothesized to have a comparative advantage in resource-based exports while countries with more defined property rights will not have an advantage in resource-intensive goods. Evidence suggests that developing countries with weaker environmental protection index but are rich in natural resources do specialize in the trade of resource-intensive goods. The finding suggests that institutional frameworks to increase the stringency of environmental protection of resources may be needed to diversify exports away from the trade of resource-intensive goods.

Keywords: environmental protection, panel data, renewable resources, trade specialization

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Authors: Farhana Nosheen, Maleeha Fatima

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This study on Afghan refugee women living in Punjab, Pakistan, shows a strong relationship between poor socio-economic status and lower nutritional health status. Pakistan is one of the significant countries accepting refugees from the Afghan war. Universally, refugees are vulnerable to food security and basic life necessities. The in-hand study aimed to investigate food insecurity among afghan refugees who recently migrated to Pakistan. Purposive sampling technique was employed to collect the data from afghan women refugees settled in refugee camp settled in Capital city Islamabad, Pakistan. Data was collected through an interview tool. It revealed from data that the majority of women were underweight, about 74.7% in their reproductive years, which is an alarming situation for the forthcoming children and families. It is also shown that There’s a strong impact of their income level, education, dietary habits and food insecurity on their overall health status. It can also be observed in their Body Mass Index and in their physical appearance; they also show extremely poor levels of hemoglobin which is directly indicated anemic condition, especially iron deficiency anemia among the young Afghan refugee women. The illiteracy rate is about 93.33% among the selected participants as well as a majority of this population has 10-12 family size in comparison with their income level of about 10,000-15,000 Pakistani rupees per month, which can hardly meet their daily food expenditure. Adequate food is rarely accessible to young girls and women due to fewer national and international food aids program available in Pakistan. The majority have pale yellowish skin color (due to low iron content) along with clear white eyes (low hemoglobin level), thin hairs (protein deficiency) and spoon-shaped nails (a direct indicator of low iron level). Data showed a significant relation between appetite and BMI as their appetite is very low, which is directly indicated in their underweight body condition. About 56.67% of the participants had Urinary Tract Infections. The main causes included personal unhygienic conditions and lack of washrooms as well as drinking water facilities in their refugee camps. It is suggested that National and international food aid programs should cater to the nutritional demands of women refugees in the world to protect them from food insecurities as well as future researchers should find out better ways of analysis and treatment plans for such kind of communities who are highly prone to nutritional deficiencies and lack of basic supplies.

Keywords: food insecurity, refugees, women, vulnerable

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Authors: Arthur D. Wiedemann, Christopher Fuller, Kyle A. Pascioni

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With the introduction of electric motors, small unmanned aerial vehicle designers have to consider trade-offs between acoustic noise and thrust generated. Currently, there are few low-computational tools available for predicting acoustic noise emitted by a propeller into the far-field. Artificial neural networks offer a highly non-linear and adaptive model for predicting isolated and interactive tonal noise. But neural networks require large data sets, exceeding practical considerations in modeling experimental results. A methodology known as physics guided machine learning has been applied in this study to reduce the required data set to train the network. After building and evaluating several neural networks, the best model is investigated to determine how the network successfully predicts the acoustic waveform. Lastly, a post-network transfer function is developed to remove discontinuity from the predicted waveform. Overall, methodologies from physics guided machine learning show a notable improvement in prediction performance, but additional loss functions are necessary for constructing predictive networks on small datasets.

Keywords: aeroacoustics, machine learning, propeller, rotor, neural network, physics guided machine learning

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Authors: Qi Lu, Jian Deng, Daishun Huang, Chao Guo

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The lead cooled fast reactor is considered as one of the most potential Generation IV nuclear systems due to the low working pressure, the appreciable neutron economy, and the considerable passive characteristics. Meanwhile, the lead bismuth eutectic (LBE) has the related advantages of lead with the weaker corrosiveness, which has been paid much attention by recent decades. Moreover, the sub-channel code is a necessary analysis tool for the reactor thermal-hydraulic design and safety analysis, which has been developed combined with the accumulation of LBE experimental data and the understanding of physical phenomena. In this study, a sub-channel code available for LBE was developed, and the corresponding geometric characterization method of typical sub-channels was described in detail, especially for for the fuel assembly with wire spacer. As for this sub-channel code, the transversal thermal conduction through gap was taken into account. In addition, the physical properties, the heat transfer model, the flow resistance model and the turbulent mixing model were analyzed. Finally, the thermal-hydraulic experiments of LBE conducted on THEADES (THErmal-hydraulics and Ads DESign) were selected as the evaluation data of this sub-channel code, including 19 rods with wire spacer, and the calculated results were in good agreement with the experimental results.

Keywords: lead bismuth eutectic, sub-channel code, wire spacer, transversal thermal conduction

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Authors: Ahmed Mudi, Bala Zakar

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The paper assesses the impact of safe motherhood initiative on maternal health of women in Gumel Local Government Area of Jigawa State. The work will specifically concentrate on the background on safe motherhood scheme and maternal health of women. The objective of this paper is to assess the level of safe motherhood scheme in Gumel local government area, to find out the level of maternal health in Gumel local government as well as to determine the impact of safe motherhood scheme on maternal health on women in Gumel Local Government Area Jigawa State. Various literature on the topic are reviewed, the paper adopts survey design and use questionnaire to collect data from the respondent. The study comprises 350 women selected from six rural communities in Gumel using random sampling techniques, and the data was analysed by simple frequency and percentage. The research concluded that safe motherhood initiative has a significant impact on the maternal health of women in Gumel Local Government Area of Jigawa State. Finally, suitable recommendations were given on how to improve the scheme to ensure better maternal health in the region.

Keywords: action, assessment, maternal health, safe motherhood, surgery

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Authors: Murast Dicleli, Ali SalemMilani

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In this paper, a summary of analytical and experimental studies into the behavior of a new hysteretic damper, designed for seismic protection of structures is presented. The Multi-directional Torsional Hysteretic Damper (MRSD) is a patented invention in which a symmetrical arrangement of identical cylindrical steel cores is so configured as to yield in torsion while the structure experiences planar movements due to earthquake shakings. The new device has certain desirable properties. Notably, it is characterized by a variable and controllable-via-design post-elastic stiffness. The mentioned property is a result of MRSD’s kinematic configuration which produces this geometric hardening, rather than being a secondary large-displacement effect. Additionally, the new system is capable of reaching high force and displacement capacities, shows high levels of damping, and very stable cyclic response. The device has gone through many stages of design refinement, multiple prototype verification tests and development of design guide-lines and computer codes to facilitate its implementation in practice. Practicality of the new device, as offspring of an academic sphere, is assured through extensive collaboration with industry in its final design stages, prototyping and verification test programs.

Keywords: seismic, isolation, damper, adaptive stiffness

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Authors: Ahmad Shukri Mohd Noor, Emma Ahmad Sirajudin, Rabiei Mamat

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Pertaining to a particular Marine interest, the process of data sampling could take years before a study can be concluded. Therefore, the need for a robust backup system for the data is invariably implicit. In recent advancement of Marine applications, more functionalities and tools are integrated to assist the work of the researchers. It is anticipated that this modality will continue as research scope widens and intensifies and at the same to follow suit with current technologies and lifestyles. The convenience to collect and share information these days also applies to the work in Marine research. Therefore, Marine system designers should be aware that high availability is a necessary attribute in Marine repository applications as well as a robust backup system for the data. In this paper, the approach to high availability is related both to hardware and software but the focus is more on software. We consider a NABTIC repository system that is primitively built on a single server and does not have replicated components. First, the system is decomposed into separate modules. The modules are placed on multiple servers to create a distributed system. Redundancy is added by placing the copies of the modules on different servers using Neighbor Caring Environment System(NCES) technique. NCER is utilizing parallel replication components mechanism. A background monitoring is established to check servers’ heartbeats to confirm their aliveness. At the same time, a critical adaptive threshold is maintained to make sure a failure is timely detected using Adaptive Fault Detection (AFD). A confirmed failure will set the recovery mode where a selection process will be done before a fail-over server is instructed. In effect, the Marine repository service is continued as the fail-over masks a recent failure. The performance of the new prototype is tested and is confirmed to be more highly available. Furthermore, the downtime is not noticeable as service is immediately restored automatically. The Marine repository system is said to have achieved fault tolerance.

Keywords: availability, fault detection, replication, fault tolerance, marine application

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Authors: Natasha Goh, Sebastian Brown

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Purpose: This case report describes an unusual presentation of uveal melanoma. Method: Case notes, imaging, and histopathological specimen were reviewed for this case report. Result: The patient is a 62-year-old lady of Chinese heritage who had been receiving follow-up at the eye clinic of a tertiary hospital. She had a longstanding history of poor vision in her right eye after sustaining trauma to the eye at age 3. She was found to have a carotid-cavernous sinus fistula in the right eye in 2009 and underwent stenting in China. Unfortunately, this was unsuccessful and resulted in a painful blind eye. She had represented with headaches, worsening eye pain, and ptosis in Sydney in 2016. Her CT angiogram showed a calcified vascular structure in the orbit and globe, and she was offered a digital subtraction angiography by the neurosurgical team, which she ultimately declined. She had since been followed up at the eye clinic for the pthisical eye. Due to chronic ocular pain and recurrent conjunctivitis, the decision was made for an evisceration in 2021. The specimen was sent for routine histopathological examination and returned positive for uveal melanoma. The patient was subsequently referred to a melanoma center for further follow-up, which comprised serial imaging and radiotherapy treatment. Conclusion: Clinicians should bear in mind that uveal melanomas may present in a longstanding phthisical eye and in patients with no or little apparent risk factors.

Keywords: uveal melanoma, pthisical eye, carotid cavernous fistula, uveal melanoma risk factors

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Authors: Belkacem Selma, Boumediene Selma, Tourkia Guerzou, Abbes Labdelli

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Natural disasters have occurred and will continue to cause human and material damage. Therefore, the idea of "preventing" natural disasters will never be possible. However, their prediction is possible with the advancement of technology. Even if natural disasters are effectively inevitable, their consequences may be partly controlled. The rapid growth and progress of artificial intelligence (AI) had a major impact on the prediction of natural disasters and risk assessment which are necessary for effective disaster reduction. The Earthquakes prediction to prevent the loss of human lives and even property damage is an important factor; that is why it is crucial to develop techniques for predicting this natural disaster. This present study aims to analyze the ability of artificial neural networks (ANNs) to predict earthquakes that occur in a given area. The used data describe the problem of high energy (higher than 10^4J) seismic bumps forecasting in a coal mine using two long walls as an example. For this purpose, seismic bumps data obtained from mines has been analyzed. The results obtained show that the ANN with high accuracy was able to predict earthquake parameters; the classification accuracy through neural networks is more than 94%, and that the models developed are efficient and robust and depend only weakly on the initial database.

Keywords: earthquake prediction, ANN, seismic bumps

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Authors: Hamid Sharif, Nazish Saleem Abbas, Muhammad Haris Jamil

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Visible light communication is an emerging technology for almost a decade now; there is a growing need for VLC systems to overcome the challenges faced by radio frequency RF communication systems. With the advancement in the development of solid-state sources, in the future would replace incandescent and fluorescent light sources. These solid-state devices are not only to be used for illumination but can also be employed for communication and navigational purposes. The replacement of conventional illumination sources with highly efficient light-emitting diodes (LED's) (generally white light) will reduce energy consumption as well as environmental pollution. White LEDs dissipate very less power as compared to conventional light sources. The use of LED's is not only beneficial in terms of power consumption, but it also has an intrinsic capability for indoor wireless communication as compared to indoor RF communication. It is considerably low in cost to operate than the RF systems such as Wi-Fi routers, allows convenient means of reusing the bandwidth, and there is a huge potential for high data rate transmissions with enhanced data security. This paper provides an overview of some of the current challenges with VLC and proposes a possible solution to deal with these challenges; it also examines some joint protocols to optimize the joint illumination and communication functionality.

Keywords: visible light communication, line of sight, root mean square delay spread, light emitting diodes

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Authors: Darsh N. Patel, Eric Olson

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Fractals can be found everywhere, whether it be the shape of a leaf or a system of blood vessels. Fractals are used to help study and understand different physical and mathematical processes; however, their artistic nature is also beautiful to simply explore. This project explores fractals generated by a cubically convergent extension to Newton's method. With this iteration as a starting point, a complex plane spanning from -2 to 2 is created with a color wheel mapped onto it. Next, the polynomial whose roots the fractal will generate from is established. From the Fundamental Theorem of Algebra, it is known that any polynomial has as many roots (counted by multiplicity) as its degree. When generating the fractals, each root will receive its own color. The complex plane can then be colored to indicate the basins of attraction that converge to each root. From a computational point of view, this project’s code identifies which points converge to which roots and then obtains fractal images. A zoom path into the fractal was implemented to easily visualize the self-similar structure. This path was obtained by selecting keyframes at different magnifications through which a path is then interpolated. Using parallel processing, many images were generated and condensed into a video. This project illustrates how practical techniques used for scientific visualization can also have an artistic side.

Keywords: fractals, cubic method, Julia programming language, basin of attraction

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Authors: Diana Cunha, Catarina Coelho, Ana Paula Relvas, Elisabeth Kastenholz

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Context: Tourist experiences have a recognized impact on the well-being of individuals. However, studies on the specific benefits of tourist experiences for families are scattered across different disciplines. This study aims to systematically review the literature to synthesize the evidence on the benefits of tourist experiences for families. Research Aim: The main objective is to systematize the evidence in the literature regarding the benefits of tourist experiences for families. Methodology: A systematic literature review was conducted using Nvivo, analyzing 33 scientific studies obtained from various databases. The search terms used were "family"/ "couple" and "tourist experience". The studies included quantitative, qualitative, mixed methods, and literature reviews. All works prior to the year 2000 were excluded, and the search was restricted to full text. A language filter was also used, considering articles in Portuguese, English, and Spanish. For NVivo analysis, information was coded based on both deductive and inductive perspectives. To minimize the subjectivity of the selection and coding process, two of the authors discussed the process and agreed on criteria that would make the coding more objective. Once the coding process in NVivo was completed, the data relating to the identification/characterization of the works were exported to the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPPS), to characterize the sample. Findings: The results highlight that tourist experiences have several benefits for family systems, including the strengthening of family and marital bonds, the creation of family memories, and overall well-being and life satisfaction. These benefits contribute to both immediate relationship quality improvement and long-term family identity construction and transgenerational transmission. Theoretical Importance: This study emphasizes the systemic nature of the effects and relationships within family systems. It also shows that no harm was reported within these experiences, with only some challenges related to positive outcomes. Data Collection and Analysis Procedures: The study collected data from 33 scientific studies published predominantly after 2013. The data were analyzed using Nvivo, employing a systematic review approach. Question Addressed: The study addresses the question of the benefits of tourist experiences for families and how these experiences contribute to family functioning and individual well-being. Conclusion: Tourist experiences provide opportunities for families to enhance their interpersonal relationships and create lasting memories. The findings suggest that formal interventions based on evidence could further enhance the potential benefits of these experiences and be a valuable preventive tool in therapeutic interventions.

Keywords: family systems, individual and family well-being, marital satisfaction, tourist experiences

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Authors: Haruna Shola Adeosun, Lekan M. Togunwa, Ajoke F. Adebiyi

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This paper examines the impact of social media on Nigerian Youths particularly in Nigeria. This study reviewed secondary sources data. The research adopted survey method which involves the use of questionnaire that was administered to gather primary data analysis and presentation were done with the use of tables, figures, percentages and chi-square were used to test the hypotheses formulated. The study revealed that social media consumers, especially Facebook are prone to the benefits or risks aspect of its contents. At this expense, what user derived, seeks, sought and gains from such media depend on the motive they are being used for. The study also revealed that users have the tendency to be positively influenced through heavy or over exposure to numerous contents that are damaging and harmful. This means that social media usage may be considered as good or bad. As its contents may or may not subject consumers to vulnerable use depending on what is saved from it. The study recommends that the use of Facebook should be subjected to gate keeping and monitoring in order to control the activities of users that embrace depression, bullying, sexing and sexual harassment as a way of life. Parents should close watch on their children and caution them towards cultivating the habit of over exposure to social sites so at to protect them form risks social media poses.

Keywords: evaluation, impact, soocial media, nigerian youths

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Authors: Amber Jamal, Imran Siddiqui, Syed Tanveer Iqbal

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This review is aimed to shed some light on problems constructing a theory of spacetime and geometry in terms of all quantum degrees of freedom called ‘Quantum Gravity’. Such a theory, which is effective at all scales of distances and energies, describes the enigma of the beginning of the Universe, its possible end, and reducing to general relativity at large distances but in a semi-classical approximation. Furthermore, the theory of quantum gravity also describes the Universe as a whole and provides a description of most fundamental questions that have puzzled scientists for decades, such as: what is space, what is time, and what is the fundamental structure of the Universe, is the spacetime discrete, if it is, where does the continuum of spacetime come from at low energies and macroscopic scales and where does it emerge from its fundamentally discrete building blocks? Quantum Field Theory (QFT) is a framework which describes the microscopic properties and dynamics of the basic building blocks of any condensed matter system. In QFT, atoms are quanta of continuous fields. At smaller scales or higher energies, the continuum description of spacetime fails. Therefore, a new description is required in terms of microscopic constituents (atoms or molecules). The objective of this scientific endeavor is to discuss the above-mentioned problems rigorously and to discuss possible way-out of the problems.

Keywords: QFT, quantum degrees of freedom, quantum gravity, semi-classical approximation

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Authors: Huang Bai-Cheng

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When deploying the Oriented Fast and Rotated Binary Robust Independent Elementary Feature (BRIEF) (ORB) extraction algorithm on field-programmable gate arrays (FPGA), the access of global storage for 31×31 pixel patches of the features has become the bottleneck of the system efficiency. Therefore, a feature zone strategy has been proposed. Zones are searched as features are detected. Pixels around the feature zones are extracted from global memory and distributed into patches corresponding to feature coordinates. The proposed FPGA structure is targeted on a Xilinx FPGA development board of Zynq UltraScale+ series, and multiple datasets are tested. Compared with the streaming pixel patch extraction method, the proposed architecture obtains at least two times acceleration consuming extra 3.82% Flip-Flops (FFs) and 7.78% Look-Up Tables (LUTs). Compared with the non-streaming one, the proposed architecture saves 22.3% LUT and 1.82% FF, causing a latency of only 0.2ms and a drop in frame rate for 1. Compared with the related works, the proposed strategy and hardware architecture have the superiority of keeping a balance between FPGA resources and performance.

Keywords: feature extraction, real-time, ORB, FPGA implementation

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Authors: Sudkhanoung Ritruechai, Somrak Choovanichwong, Kruawon Tiengtom, Peanchanan Leeudomwong

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The purposes of this qualitative research were to study the recovery experience of people with bipolar disorder and also to propose a development approach to the Bipolar Friends Club. The participants were eight people with bipolar disorder for six to twenty years (four women and four men). They have been members of the Bipolar Friends Club for two to ten years. They have no mental symptoms in order to provide sufficient information about their recovery experiences and have returned to everyday life with their family, community, and work. The data were collected by doing an in-depth interview. Two interviews were done, each from 45-90 minutes and four to five weeks apart. The researcher sent the results of the preliminary data analysis to the participants two to three days beforehand. Confirmation of the results of the preliminary data analysis from the first interview was done at the second interview. The research study found that the participants had a positive experience of being a Bipolar Club member. The club continued its activities following Recovery Oriented Service: ROS to the participants. As a result, they recovered in eight areas as follows. 1) Intellectual: The wisdom of joining the group has brought knowledge and experiences from an exchange with others in self-care as well as a positive thinking in life. 2) Social: The participants have set up a group to take care of each other and to do activities which have brought warmth. Their social network which was normally little has also been increased. 3) Spiritual: The concept of religion has been used to lead the life of the participants. 4) Occupational: One participant is a student while the others do work. All of them have done well. 5) Environmental: The participants would be able to adapt to the environment and cope with their problems better. 6) Physical: Most female participants have difficulties with losing weight which leads them saying that they are ‘not fully recovered’. 7) Emotional: The participants feel calmer than before entering the club. They have also developed more tolerance to problems. 8) Financial: The participants would be able to control their spending by themselves and with the help of their family members. The people with bipolar disorder have suggested that the services of the club are perfect and should be continued. The results of the study encourage the Bipolar Friends Club, as well as other clubs/associations that support the recovery of patients. Consideration of the recovery has highlighted the need for ongoing and various life-enhancing programs for the caregivers and their loved ones with bipolar disorder. Then, they would be able to choose the program that suits their needs to improve their life.

Keywords: people with bipolar disorder, recovery, club, experience

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Authors: Apinya Mungaomklang, Natakamol Lookkham

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The purpose of this research is to study the characteristics of the graduates based on Thailand Qualification Framework (TQF) of the Faculty of Industrial Technology, Suan Sunandha Rajabhat University. The population of the research was employers/entrepreneurs/supervisors of students who were doing Professional Experiences course in their respective organizations during semester 1/2012. Data were collected during the month of September 2012 from the total number of 100 people. The tool used in this research was a questionnaire developed by the research team. Data were analyzed using percentage, mean and standard deviation using a computer program. The results showed that most of the surveyed organizations were private companies. The program with most students doing Professional Experiences course was Safety Technology and Occupational Health. The nature of work that most students did was associated with the document. Employers/ entrepreneurs/employers’ opinions on the characteristics of the graduates based on TQF received high scores. Cognitive skills received the highest score, followed by interpersonal relationships and responsibilities, ethics and moral, numerical analysis skills, communication and information technology skills, and knowledge, respectively.

Keywords: graduates characteristics, Thailand Qualification Framework, employers, entrepreneurs

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Authors: Jamshaid Ul Rahman, Faiza Makhdoom, Dianchen Lu

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Activation functions play a decisive role in determining the capacity of Deep Neural Networks (DNNs) as they enable neural networks to capture inherent nonlinearities present in data fed to them. The prior research on activation functions primarily focused on the utility of monotonic or non-oscillatory functions, until Growing Cosine Unit (GCU) broke the taboo for a number of applications. In this paper, a Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) model named as ASU-CNN is proposed which utilizes recently designed activation function ASU across its layers. The effect of this non-monotonic and oscillatory function is inspected through feature map visualizations from different convolutional layers. The optimization of proposed network is offered by Adam with a fine-tuned adjustment of learning rate. The network achieved promising results on both training and testing data for the classification of CIFAR-10. The experimental results affirm the computational feasibility and efficacy of the proposed model for performing tasks related to the field of computer vision.

Keywords: amplifying sine unit, activation function, convolutional neural networks, oscillatory activation, image classification, CIFAR-10

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Authors: Fatemeh Abdollahi, Munn-Sann Lye, Jamshid Yazdani Charati, Mehran Zarghami

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Background: In March 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared the outbreak of a new coronavirus disease, COVID-19, as a public health concern and pandemic. This situation is generating psychological consequences such as stress, anxiety, depression, and intimate partner violence (IPV) throughout the population. This is a brief note on the magnitude of this threat and different ways for abused women to minimize the effects of it in their daily life. Methods: A literature review was conducted using the MEDLINE, PSYCHINFO, and SCIENCE DIRECT databases. The keywords used included intimate partner violence, abuse, victims, pandemic, quarantine, coronavirus, and COVID-19. A Google search was also conducted using these words to identify reports published in non-indexed health care and social science journals. The literature search was restricted to English language studies. Results: The prevalence of IPV and its consequences are rising during such a pandemic. Having sufficient support from healthcare workers and acquaintances is critical for women in such circumstances. Conclusion: Community members, healthcare providers, governments, and policymakers should be informed of the increased risk of IPV during such a pandemic. They should provide a supporting structure for abused women. Social networking is also a good approach that could help abusive women during this situation.

Keywords: covid-19, intimate partner violence, pandemic, women

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Authors: M. Elham Ghabouli

Abstract:

Intermediate cities which also called medium size cities have an important role in the process of globalization. It is argued that, in some cases this type of cities may be depopulated or in otherwise may be transformed as the periphery of metropolitans so that the personal identity of the city and its local cultural heritage could suffer from its neighbor metropolitan. Over the last decades, the role of tourism in development process and the cultural heritage is increased. The effect of tourism in socio-economic growth makes motivation for study on tourism development in regional and urban planning process. Tourism potentially has a specific role in promoting sustainable development especially by its economic and socio-cultural effects. The positive role of tourism in local development and in cultural heritage should be empowered by urban and regional planning. Damavand is an intermediate city located in Tehran province, Iran. Considering its local specific characteristic like social structure, antiquities and natural monuments made a suitable case study for studying on urban tourism planning method. Focusing on recognition of historical and cultural heritage of Damavand, this paper tried to peruse cultural-historical heritage protecting issue through “base plan methodology” which is introduced as a first step of urban planning for intermediate cities.

Keywords: urban planning, tourism, cultural heritage, intermediate cities

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Authors: H. Meddah, M. Berediaf-Bourahla, B. El-Djouzi, N. Bourahla

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Shear walls made of cold formed steel are used as lateral force resisting components in residential and low-rise commercial and industrial constructions. The seismic design analysis of such structures is often complex due to the slenderness of members and their instability prevalence. In this context, a simplified modeling technique across the panel is proposed by using the finite element method. The approach is based on idealizing the whole panel by a nonlinear shear link element which reflects its shear behavior connected to rigid body elements which transmit the forces to the end elements (studs) that resist the tension and the compression. The numerical model of the shear wall panel was subjected to cyclic loads in order to evaluate the seismic performance of the structure in terms of lateral displacement and energy dissipation capacity. In order to validate this model, the numerical results were compared with those from literature tests. This modeling technique is particularly useful for the design of cold formed steel structures where the shear forces in each panel and the axial forces in the studs can be obtained using spectrum analysis.

Keywords: cold-formed steel, cyclic loading, modeling technique, nonlinear analysis, shear wall panel

Procedia PDF Downloads 279