Search results for: distance regularized level set (DRLS) model

Authors: George Abu-Aqil, Leah Tsror, Elad Shufan, Shaul Mordechai, Mahmoud Huleihel, Ahmad Salman

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Pectobacterium and Dickeya spp which negatively affect a wide range of crops are the main causes of the aggressive diseases of agricultural crops. These aggressive diseases are responsible for a huge economic loss in agriculture including a severe decrease in the quality of the stored vegetables and fruits. Therefore, it is important to detect these pathogenic bacteria at their early stages of infection to control their spread and consequently reduce the economic losses. In addition, early detection is vital for producing non-infected propagative material for future generations. The currently used molecular techniques for the identification of these bacteria at the strain level are expensive and laborious. Other techniques require a long time of ~48 h for detection. Thus, there is a clear need for rapid, non-expensive, accurate and reliable techniques for early detection of these bacteria. In this study, infrared spectroscopy, which is a well-known technique with all its features, was used for rapid detection of Pectobacterium and Dickeya spp. at the strain level. The bacteria were isolated from potato plants and tubers with soft rot symptoms and measured by infrared spectroscopy. The obtained spectra were analyzed using different machine learning algorithms. The performances of our approach for taxonomic classification among the bacterial samples were evaluated in terms of success rates. The success rates for the correct classification of the genus, species and strain levels were ~100%, 95.2% and 92.6% respectively.

Keywords: soft rot enterobacteriaceae (SRE), pectobacterium, dickeya, plant infections, potato, solanum tuberosum, infrared spectroscopy, machine learning

Procedia PDF Downloads 84

Authors: Kamal Heidari

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Covid-19 has borne drastic effects on different areas of society, including the education area, in that it brought virtual education to the center of attention, as an alternative to in-person education. In virtual education, the importance of flipped learning doubles, as students are supposed to take the main responsibility of teaching/learning process; and teachers play merely a facilitative/monitoring role. Given the students’ responsibility in virtual flipped learning, students’ motivation plays a pivotal role in the effectiveness of this learning method. The L2 Motivational Self-System (L2MSS) model is a currently proposed model elaborating on students’ motivation based on three sub-components: ideal L2 self, ought-to L2 self, and L2 learning experience. Drawing on an exploratory sequential mixed-methods research design, this study probed the effect of virtual flipped learning (via SHAD platform) on 112 gifted and non-gifted students’ motivation based on the L2 MSS. This study uncovered that notwithstanding the point that virtual flipped learning improved both gifted and non-gifted students’ motivation, it differentially affected their motivation. In other words, gifted students mostly referred to ideal L2 self, while non-gifted ones referred to ought-to L2 self and L2 learning experience aspects of motivation.

Keywords: virtual flipped learning, giftedness, motivation, L2MSS

Procedia PDF Downloads 69

Authors: Wael Ata

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Tracked vehicles are exposed to severe operating conditions during their battlefield. The suspension system of such vehicles plays a crucial role in the mitigation of vibration transmitted from unevenness to vehicle hull and consequently to the crew. When the vehicles are crossing the road with high speeds, the driver is subjected to a high magnitude of vibration dose. This is because of the passive suspension system of the tracked vehicle lack the effectiveness to withstand induced vibration from irregular terrains. This paper presents vibration control of a semi-active seat suspension incorporating Magnetorheological (MR) damper fitted to a driver seat of an amphibious tracked vehicle (BMP-1). A half vehicle model featuring the proposed semi-active seat suspension is developed and its governing equations are derived. Two controllers namely; skyhook and fuzzy logic skyhook based to suppress the vibration dose at driver’s seat are formulated. The results show that the controlled MR suspension seat along with the vehicle model has substantially suppressed vibration levels at the driver’s seat under bump and sinusoidal excitations

Keywords: Tracked Vehicles, MR dampers, Skyhook controller, fuzzy logic controller

Procedia PDF Downloads 97

Authors: P. Mounnarath, U. Schmitz, Ch. Zhang

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Fragility analysis is an effective tool for the seismic vulnerability assessment of civil structures in the last several years. The design of the expansion joints according to various bridge design codes is almost inconsistent, and only a few studies have focused on this problem so far. In this study, the influence of the expansion joint clearances between the girder ends and the abutment backwalls on the seismic fragility assessment of continuous integral bridge frames is investigated. The gaps (ranging from 60 mm, 150 mm, 250 mm and 350 mm) are designed by following two different bridge design code specifications, namely, Caltrans and Eurocode 8-2. Five bridge models are analyzed and compared. The first bridge model serves as a reference. This model uses three-dimensional reinforced concrete fiber beam-column elements with simplified supports at both ends of the girder. The other four models also employ reinforced concrete fiber beam-column elements but include the abutment backfill stiffness and four different gap values. The nonlinear time history analysis is performed. The artificial ground motion sets, which have the peak ground accelerations (PGAs) ranging from 0.1 g to 1.0 g with an increment of 0.05 g, are taken as input. The soil-structure interaction and the P-Δ effects are also included in the analysis. The component fragility curves in terms of the curvature ductility demand to the capacity ratio of the piers and the displacement demand to the capacity ratio of the abutment sliding bearings are established and compared. The system fragility curves are then obtained by combining the component fragility curves. Our results show that in the component fragility analysis, the reference bridge model exhibits a severe vulnerability compared to that of other sophisticated bridge models for all damage states. In the system fragility analysis, the reference curves illustrate a smaller damage probability in the earlier PGA ranges for the first three damage states, they then show a higher fragility compared to other curves in the larger PGA levels. In the fourth damage state, the reference curve has the smallest vulnerability. In both the component and the system fragility analysis, the same trend is found that the bridge models with smaller clearances exhibit a smaller fragility compared to that with larger openings. However, the bridge model with a maximum clearance still induces a minimum pounding force effect.

Keywords: expansion joint clearance, fiber beam-column element, fragility assessment, time history analysis

Procedia PDF Downloads 418

Authors: Michaela Wang

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Since British established colonial settlements across the East Coast, Native Americans have suffered stark socio economic disparities in comparison to their neighboring communities. This paper employs the 1990, 2000, and 2010 United States Decennial Census to assess whether and to what extent the casino economy helped to close this socioeconomic gap between the Mohegan tribe and its surrounding community. These three Decennial Censuses cover two decades, from six years prior to the erection of Mohegan Sun casino to 14 years afterwards, including the Great Recession 2007-2009. Income, employment, education and housing parameters are selected as socio economic indicators. The profitable advent of the Mohegan Sun in 1996 dramatically improved the socio economic status of the Mohegan Tribe between 1990 and 2000. In fact, for most of these indicators––poverty, median household income, employment, home ownership, and car ownership––disparities shifted; tribal socioeconomic parameters improved from well below the level of New London County in 1990, to the same level or above the county rates in 2000. However, economic downturn in 2007-2009 Great Recession impacted Mohegan people remarkably. By 2010, disparities for household income, employment, home ownership, and car ownership returned. The casino bridged socio economic inequalities, but at the face of economic crises, the mono-product economy grew vulnerable.

Keywords: socio economic, indigenous, native American, disparity

Procedia PDF Downloads 91

Authors: Jiani Gao, Qingping Luo, Xinlei Fang

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In order to try to achieve better rights and interests for both doctors and patients in the new medical environment, the paper will focus on the renewal and development of medical buildings. In today's highly developed society, many factors have a profound guiding significance for the development of medical buildings. By doing social research, the paper has found that these factors come from all aspects. These factors include the optimization of traditional medical model, rapid alternation of medical technology and equipment, the reform of the social, medical security system, changes in the age structure of the population, the birth of intelligent medical care under the Internet, and the deepening of the concept of green sustainable building development, etc. The purpose of this paper is to capture sensitively these various factors that may affect the evolution of medical buildings in the context of the current era, and to put forward, by using an adaptable development strategy, some feasible suggestions on the design of medical buildings when facing these changes and challenges. Specifically speaking, the adaptable development strategy includes some basic principles and methods, such as using modular design, adopting scalable streamline, selecting a long-span structural system and using replaceable materials and components, etc.

Keywords: medical architecture, adaptable development, medical model, space design

Procedia PDF Downloads 144

Authors: Anna Lierova, Jitka Kasparova, Marcela Jelicova, Lucie Korecka, Zuzana Bilkova, Zuzana Sinkorova

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Hyaluronic acid (HA) is a simple linear, unbranched polysaccharide with a lot of exceptional physiological and chemical properties such as high biocompatibility and biodegradability, strong hydration and viscoelasticity that depend on the size of the molecule. It plays the important role in a variety of molecular events as tissue hydration, mechanical protection of tissues and as well as during inflammation, leukocyte migration, and extracellular matrix remodeling. Also, HA-based biomaterials, including HA scaffolds, hydrogels, thin membranes, matrix grafts or nanoparticles are widely use in various biomedical applications. Our goal is to determine the radioprotective effect of hyaluronic acid nanoparticles (HA NPs). We are investigating effect of ionizing radiation on stability of HA NPs, in vitro relative toxicity of nanoscale as well as effect on cell lines and specific surface receptors and their response to ionizing radiation. An exposure to ionizing radiation (IR) can irreversibly damage various cell types and may thus have implications for the level of the whole tissue. Characteristic manifestations are formation of over-granulated tissue, remodeling of extracellular matrix (ECM) and abortive wound healing. Damages are caused by either direct interaction with DNA and IR proteins or indirectly by radicals formed during radiolysis of water Accumulation and turnover of ECM are a hallmark of radiation induces lung injury, characterized by inflammation, repair or remodeling health pulmonary tissue. HA is a major component of ECM in lung and plays an important role in regulating tissue injury, accelerating tissue repair, and controlling disease outcomes. Due to that, HA NPs were applied to in vivo model (C57Bl/6J mice) before total body or partial thorax irradiation. This part of our research is targeting on effect of exogenous HA on the development and/or mitigating acute radiation syndrome and radiation induced lung injuries.

Keywords: hyaluronic acid, ionizing radiation, nanoparticles, radiation induces lung damages

Procedia PDF Downloads 154

Authors: Yen-Hui Chen, Terry Walker

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As the world experiences an energy crisis, investing in sustainable energy resources is a pressing mission for many countries. Microalgae-derived biodiesel has attracted intensive attention as an important biofuel, and microalgae Chlorella protothecoides lipid is recognized as a renewable source for microalgae-derived biodiesel production. Supercritical carbon dioxide (SC-CO₂) is a promising green solvent that may potentially substitute the use of organic solvents for lipid extraction; however, the efficiency of SC-CO₂ extraction may be affected by many variables, including temperature, pressure and extraction time individually or in combination. In this study, response surface methodology (RSM) was used to optimize the process parameters, including temperature, pressure and extraction time, on C. protothecoides lipid yield by SC-CO₂ extraction. A second order polynomial model provided a good fit (R-square value of 0.94) for the C. protothecoides lipid yield. The linear and quadratic terms of temperature, pressure and extraction time—as well as the interaction between temperature and pressure—showed significant effects on lipid yield during extraction. The optimal lipid yield from the model was predicted as the temperature of 59 °C, the pressure of 350.7 bar and the extraction time 2.8 hours. Under these conditions, the experimental lipid yield (25%) was close to the predicted value. The principal fatty acid methyl esters (FAME) of C. protothecoides lipid-derived biodiesel were oleic acid methyl ester (60.1%), linoleic acid methyl ester (18.6%) and palmitic acid methyl ester (11.4%), which made up more than 90% of the total FAMEs. In summary, this study indicated that RSM was useful to characterize the optimization the SC-CO₂ extraction process of C. protothecoides lipid yield, and the second-order polynomial model could be used for predicting and describing the lipid yield very well. In addition, C. protothecoides lipid, extracted by SC-CO₂, was suggested as a potential candidate for microalgae-derived biodiesel production.

Keywords: Chlorella protothecoides, microalgal lipids, response surface methodology, supercritical carbon dioxide extraction

Procedia PDF Downloads 427

Authors: Margareth E. Bolla, Ludfi Djakfar, Achmad Wicaksono

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The increase in the number of motorcycle users in Indonesia is in line with the increase in accidents involving motorcycles. Several previous studies have shown that humans are the biggest factor causing accidents, and the driver's personality factor will affect his behavior on the road. This study was conducted to see how a person's personality traits will affect the probability of having an accident while driving. The Big Five Inventory (BFI) questionnaire and the Honda Riding Trainer (HRT) simulator were used as measuring tools, while the analysis carried out was logistic regression analysis. The results of the descriptive analysis of the respondent's personality based on the BFI show that the majority of drivers have the dominant character of neuroticism (34%), while the smallest group is the driver with the dominant type of openness character (6%). The percentage of motorists who were not involved in an accident was 54%. The results of the logistic regression analysis form a mathematical model as follows Y = -3.852 - 0.288 X1 + 0.596 X2 + 0.429 X3 - 0.386 X4 - 0.094 X5 + 0.436 X6 + 0.162 X7, where the results of hypothesis testing indicate that the variables openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, neuroticism, history of traffic accidents and age at starting driving did not have a significant effect on the probability of a motorcyclist being involved in an accident.

Keywords: accidents, BFI, probability, simulator

Procedia PDF Downloads 131

Authors: Jonardan Koner

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The study attempts to find out the impact of infrastructural investment on state economic growth in India. It further tries to determine the magnitude of the impact of infrastructural investment on economic indicator, i.e., per-capita income (PCI) in Indian States. The study uses panel regression technique to measure the impact of infrastructural investment on per-capita income (PCI) in Indian States. Panel regression technique helps incorporate both the cross-section and time-series aspects of the dataset. In order to analyze the difference in impact of the explanatory variables on the explained variables across states, the study uses Fixed Effect Panel Regression Model. The conclusions of the study are that infrastructural investment has a desirable impact on economic development and that the impact is different for different states in India. We analyze time series data (annual frequency) ranging from 1991 to 2010. The study reveals that the infrastructural investment significantly explains the variation of economic indicators.

Keywords: infrastructural investment, multiple regression, panel regression techniques, economic development, fixed effect dummy variable model

Procedia PDF Downloads 356

Authors: Mustafa Kavraz

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This study investigated the differences in the objective parameters of sound depending on the changes in the lengths of the lateral surfaces of a space and on the replacement of the sound absorbers that are placed on these surfaces. To this end, three models of room were chosen. The widths and heights of these rooms were the same but the lengths of the rooms were changed. The smallest room was 8 m. wide and 10 m. long. The lengths of the other two rooms were 15 m. and 20 m. For each model, the differences in the objective parameters of sound were determined by keeping all the material in the space intact and by changing only the positions of the sound absorbers that were placed on the walls. The sound absorbers that were used on the walls were of two different sizes. The sound absorbers that were placed on the walls were 4 m and 8 m. long and story-height (3 m.). In all model room types, the sound absorbers were placed on the long walls in three different ways: at the end of the long walls where the long walls meet the front wall; at the end of the long walls where the long walls meet the back wall; and in the middle part of the long walls. Except for the specially placed sound absorbers, the ground, wall and ceiling surfaces were covered with three different materials. There were no constructional elements such as doors and windows on the walls. On the surfaces, the materials specified in the Odeon 10 material library were used as coating material. Linoleum was used as flooring material, painted plaster as wall coating material and gypsum boards as ceiling covering (2 layers with a total of 32 mm. thickness). These were preferred due to the fact that they are the commonly used materials for these purposes. This study investigated the differences in the objective parameters of sound depending on the changes in the lengths of the lateral surfaces of a space and on the replacement of the sound absorbers that are placed on these surfaces. To this end, three models of room were chosen. The widths and heights of these rooms were the same but the lengths of the rooms were changed. The smallest room was 8 m. wide and 10 m. long. The lengths of the other two rooms were 15 m. and 20 m. For each model, the differences in the objective parameters of sound were determined by keeping all the material in the space intact and by changing only the positions of the sound absorbers that were placed on the walls. The sound absorbers that were used on the walls were of two different sizes. The sound absorbers that were placed on the walls were 4 m and 8 m. long and story-height (3 m.). In all model room types, the sound absorbers were placed on the long walls in three different ways: at the end of the long walls where the long walls meet the front wall; at the end of the long walls where the long walls meet the back wall; and in the middle part of the long walls. Except for the specially placed sound absorbers, the ground, wall and ceiling surfaces were covered with three different materials. There were no constructional elements such as doors and windows on the walls. On the surfaces, the materials specified in the Odeon 10 material library were used as coating material. Linoleum was used as flooring material, painted plaster as wall coating material and gypsum boards as ceiling covering (2 layers with a total of 32 mm. thickness). These were preferred due to the fact that they are the commonly used materials for these purposes.

Keywords: sound absorber, room model, objective parameters of sound, jnd

Procedia PDF Downloads 360

Authors: Salam Saudagar, Ankit Kamboj, Niraj Mohan, Satgounda Patil, Nilesh Powar

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Task Assignment and Scheduling is a challenging Operations Research problem when there is a limited number of resources and comparatively higher number of tasks. The Cost Management team at Cummins needs to assign tasks based on a deadline and must prioritize some of the tasks as per business requirements. Moreover, there is a constraint on the resources that assignment of tasks should be done based on an individual skill level, that may vary for different tasks. Another constraint is for scheduling the tasks that should be evenly distributed in terms of number of working hours, which adds further complexity to this problem. The proposed greedy approach to solve assignment and scheduling problem first assigns the task based on management priority and then by the closest deadline. This is followed by an iterative selection of an available resource with the least allocated total working hours for a task, i.e. finding the local optimal choice for each task with the goal of determining the global optimum. The greedy approach task allocation is compared with a variant of Hungarian Algorithm, and it is observed that the proposed approach gives an equal allocation of working hours among the resources. The comparative study of the proposed approach is also done with manual task allocation and it is noted that the visibility of the task timeline has increased from 2 months to 6 months. An interactive dashboard app is created for the greedy assignment and scheduling approach and the tasks with more than 2 months horizon that were waiting in a queue without a delivery date initially are now analyzed effectively by the business with expected timelines for completion.

Keywords: assignment, deadline, greedy approach, Hungarian algorithm, operations research, scheduling

Procedia PDF Downloads 132

Authors: Jean Berger, Mohamed Barkaoui

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Discrete search path planning in time-constrained uncertain environment relying upon imperfect sensors is known to be hard, and current problem-solving techniques proposed so far to compute near real-time efficient path plans are mainly bounded to provide a few move solutions. A new information-theoretic –based open-loop decision model explicitly incorporating false alarm sensor readings, to solve a single agent military logistics search-and-delivery path planning problem with anticipated feedback is presented. The decision model consists in minimizing expected entropy considering anticipated possible observation outcomes over a given time horizon. The model captures uncertainty associated with observation events for all possible scenarios. Entropy represents a measure of uncertainty about the searched target location. Feedback information resulting from possible sensor observations outcomes along the projected path plan is exploited to update anticipated unit target occupancy beliefs. For the first time, a compact belief update formulation is generalized to explicitly include false positive observation events that may occur during plan execution. A novel genetic algorithm is then proposed to efficiently solve search path planning, providing near-optimal solutions for practical realistic problem instances. Given the run-time performance of the algorithm, natural extension to a closed-loop environment to progressively integrate real visit outcomes on a rolling time horizon can be easily envisioned. Computational results show the value of the approach in comparison to alternate heuristics.

Keywords: search path planning, false alarm, search-and-delivery, entropy, genetic algorithm

Procedia PDF Downloads 345

Authors: Annette McArthur

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The traditional model of teaching and learning, where ICT sits as a separate entity is not a model for a 21st century school. It is imperative that teaching and learning embraces technological advancements. The challenge in schools lies in shifting the mindset of teachers so they see ICT as integral to their teaching, learning and curriculum rather than a separate E-Learning curriculum stream. This research project investigates how the effective, planned, intentional integration of ICT into a STEM curriculum, can enable the shift in the teacher mindset. The project incorporated: • Developing a professional coaching relationship with key STEM teachers. • Facilitating staff professional development involving student centered project based learning pedagogy in the context of a STEM curriculum. • Facilitating staff professional development involving digital literacy. • Establishing a professional community where collaboration; sharing and reflection were part of the culture of the STEM community. • Facilitating classroom support for the effective delivery innovative STEM curriculum. • Developing STEM learning spaces where technologies were used to empower and engage learners to participate in student-centered, project-based learning.

Keywords: e-learning, ICT, project based learning, STEM

Procedia PDF Downloads 284

Authors: Rima A. Ajlouni

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The discovery of quasi-periodic structures in material science is revealing an exciting new class of symmetries, which has never been explored before. Due to their unique structural and visual properties, these symmetries are drawing interest from many scientific and design disciplines. Especially, in art and architecture, these symmetries can provide a rich source of geometry for exploring new patterns, forms, systems, and structures. However, the structural systems of these complicated symmetries are still posing a perplexing challenge. While much of their local order has been explored, the global governing system is still unresolved. Understanding their unique global long-range order is essential to their generation and application. The recent discovery of dodecagonal quasi-periodic patterns in historical Islamic architecture is generating a renewed interest into understanding the mathematical principles of traditional Islamic geometry. Astonishingly, many centuries before its description in the modern science, ancient artists, by using the most primitive tools (a compass and a straight edge), were able to construct patterns with quasi-periodic formations. These ancient patterns can be found all over the ancient Islamic world, many of which exhibit formations with 5, 8, 10 and 12 quasi-periodic symmetries. Based on the examination of these historical patterns and derived from the generating principles of Islamic geometry, a global multi-level structural model is presented that is able to describe the global long-range order of dodecagonal quasi-periodic formations in Islamic Architecture. Furthermore, this method is used to construct new quasi-periodic tiling systems as well as generating their deflation and inflation rules. This method can be used as a general guiding principle for constructing infinite patches of dodecagon-based quasi-periodic formations, without the need for local strategies (tiling, matching, grid, substitution, etc.) or complicated mathematics; providing an easy tool for scientists, mathematicians, teachers, designers and artists, to generate and study a wide range of dodecagonal quasi-periodic formations.

Keywords: dodecagonal, Islamic architecture, long-range order, quasi-periodi

Procedia PDF Downloads 390

Authors: Shan-Hong Ying, Ying-Fang Wang

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A surrogate approach was deployed for assessing exposures of multiple chemicals at the selected working area of coating processes and applied to assess the exposure concentration of similar exposed groups using the same chemicals but different formula ratios. For the selected area, 6 to 12 portable photoionization detector (PID) were placed uniformly in its workplace to measure its total VOCs concentrations (CT-VOCs) for 6 randomly selected workshifts. Simultaneously, one sampling strain was placed beside one of these portable PIDs, and the collected air sample was analyzed for individual concentration (CVOCi) of 5 VOCs (xylene, butanone, toluene, butyl acetate, and dimethylformamide). Predictive models were established by relating the CT-VOCs to CVOCi of each individual compound via simple regression analysis. The established predictive models were employed to predict each CVOCi based on the measured CT-VOC for each the similar working area using the same portable PID. Results show that predictive models obtained from simple linear regression analyses were found with an R2 = 0.83~0.99 indicating that CT-VOCs were adequate for predicting CVOCi. In order to verify the validity of the exposure prediction model, the sampling analysis of the above chemical substances was further carried out and the correlation between the measured value (Cm) and the predicted value (Cp) was analyzed. It was found that there is a good correction between the predicted value and measured value of each measured chemical substance (R2=0.83~0.98). Therefore, the surrogate approach could be assessed the exposure concentration of similar exposed groups using the same chemicals but different formula ratios. However, it is recommended to establish the prediction model between the chemical substances belonging to each coater and the direct-reading PID, which is more representative of reality exposure situation and more accurately to estimate the long-term exposure concentration of operators.

Keywords: exposure assessment, exposure prediction model, surrogate approach, TVOC

Procedia PDF Downloads 131

Authors: Inaam Nasrallah, Pascale Salameh, Abbas El-Outa, Assem Alkak, Rihab Nasr, Wafa Toufic Bawab

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Background: Hazardous Waste Management(HWM). is critical to human health outcomes and environmental protection. This study evaluated the knowledge regarding safety measures to be applied when collecting and storing waste in scientific laboratories of two universities in Lebanon.Method: A survey-based observational study was conducted in scientific laboratories of the public university and that of a private university, where a total of 309 participants were recruited.Result: The mean total knowledge score on safety measures of HWM was 9.02±4.34 (maximum attainable score, 13). Significant association (p<0.05) was found between knowledge score and job function, years of experience, educational level, professional status, work schedule, and training on proper HWM. Participants had adequate perceptions regarding the impact of HWM on health and the environment. Linear regression modeling revealed that knowledge score was significantly higher among bachelor level lab workers compared to those with doctoral degrees (p=0.043), full-time schedule workers versus part-timers (p=0.03), and among public university participants as compared to those of the private university (p<0.001).Conclusion: This study showed good knowledge concerning HWM in the scientific laboratoriesof the studied universities in Lebanon and a good awareness of the HWM on health and the environment. It highlights the importance of culture, attitude, and practice on proper HWM in the academic scientific laboratory.

Keywords: hasardous waste, safety measures, waste management, knwoledge score, scientific laboratory workers

Procedia PDF Downloads 184

Authors: Natalia Bustos Sierra, Katrien Tersago

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It is currently proven that both extremes of temperature are associated with increased mortality and that air pollution is associated with temperature. This relationship is complex, and in countries with important seasonal variations in weather such as Belgium, some effects can appear as non-significant when the analysis is done over the entire year. We, therefore, analyzed the effect of short-term outdoor air pollution exposure on cardiovascular mortality during the warmer and colder months separately. We used daily cardiovascular deaths from acute cardiovascular diagnostics according to the International Classification of Diseases, 10th Revision (ICD-10: I20-I24, I44-I49, I50, I60-I66) during the period 2008-2013. The environmental data were population-weighted concentrations of particulates with an aerodynamic diameter less than 10 µm (PM₁₀) and less than 2.5 µm (PM₂.₅) (daily average), nitrogen dioxide (NO₂) (daily maximum of the hourly average) and ozone (O₃) (daily maximum of the 8-hour running mean). A Generalized linear model was applied adjusting for the confounding effect of season, temperature, dew point temperature, the day of the week, public holidays and the incidence of influenza-like illness (ILI) per 100,000 inhabitants. The relative risks (RR) were calculated for an increase of one interquartile range (IQR) of the air pollutant (μg/m³). These were presented for the four hottest months (June, July, August, September) and coldest months (November, December, January, February) in Belgium. We applied both individual lag model and unconstrained distributed lag model methods. The cumulative effect of a four-day exposure (day of exposure and three consecutive days) was calculated from the unconstrained distributed lag model. The IQR for PM₁₀, PM₂.₅, NO₂, and O₃ were respectively 8.2, 6.9, 12.9 and 25.5 µg/m³ during warm months and 18.8, 17.6, 18.4 and 27.8 µg/m³ during cold months. The association with CV mortality was statistically significant for the four pollutants during warm months and only for NO₂ during cold months. During the warm months, the cumulative effect of an IQR increase of ozone for the age groups 25-64, 65-84 and 85+ was 1.066 (95%CI: 1.002-1.135), 1.041 (1.008-1.075) and 1.036 (1.013-1.058) respectively. The cumulative effect of an IQR increase of NO₂ for the age group 65-84 was 1.066 (1.020-1.114) during warm months and 1.096 (1.030-1.166) during cold months. The cumulative effect of an IQR increase of PM₁₀ during warm months reached 1.046 (1.011-1.082) and 1.038 (1.015-1.063) for the age groups 65-84 and 85+ respectively. Similar results were observed for PM₂.₅. The short-term effect of air pollution on cardiovascular mortality is greater during warm months for lower pollutant concentrations compared to cold months. Spending more time outside during warm months increases population exposure to air pollution and can, therefore, be a confounding factor for this association. Age can also affect the length of time spent outdoors and the type of physical activity exercised. This study supports the deleterious effect of air pollution on cardiovascular mortality (CV) which varies according to season and age groups in Belgium. Public health measures should, therefore, be adapted to seasonality.

Keywords: air pollution, cardiovascular, mortality, season

Procedia PDF Downloads 146

Authors: Nisith K. Datta, Rakesh Bharti

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The purpose of the study was to find out the effects of Aquatic and Land plyometric training on selected physical variables in intercollegiate male handball players. To achieve this purpose of the study, forty five handball players of Sardar Vallabhbhai National Institute of Technology, Surat, Gujarat were selected as players at random and their age ranged between 18 to 21 years. The selected players were divided into three equal groups of fifteen players each. Group I underwent Aquatic plyometric training, Group II underwent Land plyometric training and Group III Control group for three days per week for twelve weeks. Control Group did not participate in any special training programme apart from their regular activities as per their curriculum. The following physical fitness variables namely speed; leg explosive power and agility were selected as dependent variables. All the players of three groups were tested on selected dependent variables prior to and immediately after the training programme. The analysis of covariance was used to analyze the significant difference, if any among the groups. Since, three groups were compared, whenever the obtained ‘F’ ratio for adjusted post test was found to be significant, the Scheffe’s test to find out the paired mean differences, if any. The 0.05 level of confidence was fixed as the level of significance to test the ‘F’ ratio obtained by the analysis of covariance, which was considered as an appropriate. The result of the study indicates due to Aquatic and Land plyometric training on speed, explosive power, and agility has been improved significantly.

Keywords: aquatic training, explosive power, plyometric training, speed

Procedia PDF Downloads 379

Authors: Dewi Hardiningtyas Sugiono

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Concerning towards the quality of air comfort and safety to pedestrians in the University area should be increased as Indonesia economics booming. Hence, the University management needs guidelines of thermal comfort to innovate a new layout building. The objectives of this study is to investigate and then to evaluate the distribution of thermal comfort which is indicated by predicted mean vote (PMV) index at the University of Brawijaya (UB), Malang. The PMV figures are used to evaluate and to redesign the UB layout. The research is started with study literature and early survey to collect all information of building layout and building shape at the University of Brawijaya. The information is used to create a 3D model in CAD software. The model is simulated by Computational Fluid Dynamic (CFD) software to measure the PMV factors of air temperature, relative humidity and air speed in some locations. Validation is done by comparing between PMV value from observation and PMV value from simulation. The resuls of the research shows the most sensitive of microclimatic factors is air temperature surrounding the UB building. Finally, the research is successfully figure out the UB layout and provides further actions to increase the thermal comfort.

Keywords: thermal comfort, heat index (HI), CFD, layout

Procedia PDF Downloads 286

Authors: Takuya Suzuki, Atsushi Shirai, Takashi Seki

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Acupuncture therapy is one of the treatments in traditional Chinese medicine. Recently, some reports have shown the effectiveness of acupuncture. However, its full acceptance has been hindered by the lack of understanding on mechanism of the therapy. Acupuncture applied to Zusanli (ST-36) enhances blood flow volume in superior mesenteric artery (SMA), yielding peripheral vascular resistance – regulated blood flow of SMA dominated by the parasympathetic system and inhibition of sympathetic system. In this study, a lumped-parameter approximation model of blood flow in the systemic arteries was developed. This model was extremely simple, consisting of the aorta, carotid arteries, arteries of the four limbs and SMA, and their peripheral vascular resistances. Here, the individual artery was simplified to a tapered tube and the resistances were modelled by a linear resistance. We numerically investigated contribution of the peripheral vascular resistance of SMA to the systemic blood distribution using this model. In addition to the upstream end of the model, which correlates with the left ventricle, two types of boundary condition were applied; mean left ventricular pressure which correlates with blood pressure (BP) and mean cardiac output which corresponds to cardiac index (CI). We examined it to reproduce the experimentally obtained hemodynamic change, in terms of the ratio of the aforementioned hemodynamic parameters from their initial values before the acupuncture, by regulating the peripheral vascular resistances and the upstream boundary condition. First, only the peripheral vascular resistance of SMA was changed to show contribution of the resistance to the change in blood flow volume in SMA, expecting reproduction of the experimentally obtained change. It was found, however, this was not enough to reproduce the experimental result. Then, we also changed the resistances of the other arteries together with the value given at upstream boundary. Here, the resistances of the other arteries were changed simultaneously in the same amount. Consequently, we successfully reproduced the hemodynamic change to find that regulation of the upstream boundary condition to the value experimentally obtained after the stimulation is necessary for the reproduction, though statistically significant changes in BP and CI were not observed in the experiment. It is generally known that sympathetic and parasympathetic tones take part in regulation of whole the systemic circulation including the cardiac function. The present result indicates that stimulation to ST-36 could induce vasodilation of peripheral circulation of SMA and vasoconstriction of that of other arteries. In addition, it implies that experimentally obtained small changes in BP and CI induced by the acupuncture may be involved in the therapeutic response.

Keywords: acupuncture, hemodynamics, lumped-parameter approximation, modeling, systemic vascular resistance

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Authors: H. G. C. P. Dinesh, G. Tharshini, M. P. B. Ekanayake, G. M. R. I. Godaliyadda

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This paper presents a new spatial feature extraction method based on principle component analysis (PCA) and Fisher Discernment Analysis (FDA) for facial expression recognition. It not only extracts reliable features for classification, but also reduces the feature space dimensions of pattern samples. In this method, first each gray scale image is considered in its entirety as the measurement matrix. Then, principle components (PCs) of row vectors of this matrix and variance of these row vectors along PCs are estimated. Therefore, this method would ensure the preservation of spatial information of the facial image. Afterwards, by incorporating the spectral information of the eigen-filters derived from the PCs, a feature vector was constructed, for a given image. Finally, FDA was used to define a set of basis in a reduced dimension subspace such that the optimal clustering is achieved. The method of FDA defines an inter-class scatter matrix and intra-class scatter matrix to enhance the compactness of each cluster while maximizing the distance between cluster marginal points. In order to matching the test image with the training set, a cosine similarity based Bayesian classification was used. The proposed method was tested on the Cohn-Kanade database and JAFFE database. It was observed that the proposed method which incorporates spatial information to construct an optimal feature space outperforms the standard PCA and FDA based methods.

Keywords: facial expression recognition, principle component analysis (PCA), fisher discernment analysis (FDA), eigen-filter, cosine similarity, bayesian classifier, f-measure

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Authors: Jennifer Chen, Pei Y. Hsu, Yu W. Chen

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Groundwater resources play a vital role in regional water supply because over 1/3 of total demand is satisfied by groundwater resources. Because over-pumpage might cause environmental impact such as land subsidence, a sustainable management of groundwater resource is required. In this study, a blueprint of smart management for groundwater resource is proposed and planned. The framework of the smart management can be divided into two major parts, hardware and software parts. First, an internet of groundwater (IoG) which is inspired by the internet of thing (IoT) is proposed to observe the migration of groundwater usage and the associated response, groundwater levels. Second, algorithms based on data mining and signal analysis are proposed to achieve the goal of providing highly efficient management of groundwater. The entire blueprint is a 4-year plan and this year is the first year. We have finished the installation of 50 flow meters and 17 observation wells. An underground hydrological model is proposed to determine the associated drawdown caused by the measured pumpages. Besides, an alternative to the flow meter is also proposed to decrease the installation cost of IoG. An accelerometer and 3G remote transmission are proposed to detect the on and off of groundwater pumpage.

Keywords: groundwater management, internet of groundwater, underground hydrological model, alternative of flow meter

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Authors: L. Serrano-Lara, J.M Alba-Gómez

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Qubbet el–Hawa Project has been documented archaeological artifacts as 3d models by laser scanning technique since 2015. Currently, research has obtained the right methodology to develop a high accuracy photographic texture for each geometrical 3D model. Furthermore, the right methodology to attach the complete digital surrogate into a 3DPDF document has been obtained; it is used as a catalogue worksheet that brings archaeological data and, at the same time, allows us to obtain precise measurements, volume calculations and cross-section mapping of each scanned artifact. This validated archaeological documentation is the first step for dissemination, application as Qubbet el-Hawa Virtual Museum, and, moreover, multi-sensory experience through 3D print archaeological artifacts. Material culture from four funerary complexes constructed in West Aswan has become physical replicas opening the archaeological research process itself and offering creative possibilities on museology or educational projects. This paper shares a method of acquiring texture for scanning´s output product in order to achieve a 3DPDF archaeological cataloguing, and, on the other hand, to allow the colorfully 3D printing of singular archaeological artifacts. The proposed method has undergone two concrete cases, a polychrome wooden ushabti, and, a cartonnage mask belonging to a lady, bought recovered on intact tomb QH34aa. Both 3D model results have been implemented on three main applications, archaeological 3D catalogue, public dissemination activities, and the 3D artifact model in a bachelor education program. Due to those three already mentioned applications, productive interaction among spectator and three-dimensional artifact have been increased; moreover, functionality as archaeological documentation has been consolidated. Finding the right methodology to assign a specific color to each vector on the geometric 3D model, we had been achieved two essential archaeological applications. Firstly, 3DPDF as a display document for an archaeological catalogue, secondly, the possibility to obtain a colored 3d printed object to be displayed in public exhibitions. Obsolescences 3D models have become updated archaeological documentation of QH43aa tomb cultural material. Therefore, Qubbet el-Hawa Project has been actualized the educational potential of its results thanks to a multi-sensory experience that arose from 3d scanned´s archaeological artifacts.

Keywords: 3D printed, 3D scanner, Middle Kingdom, Qubbet el-Hawa necropolis, virtual archaeology

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Authors: Musa Akdere, Gunnar Seide, Thomas Gries

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Carbon fibres are fibrous materials with a carbon atom amount of more than 90%. They combine excellent mechanicals properties with a very low density. Thus carbon fibre reinforced plastics (CFRP) are very often used in lightweight design and construction. The precursor material is usually polyacrylonitrile (PAN) based and wet-spun. During the production of carbon fibre, the precursor has to be stabilized thermally to withstand the high temperatures of up to 1500 °C which occur during carbonization. Even though carbon fibre has been used since the late 1970s in aerospace application, there is still no general method available to find the optimal production parameters and the trial-and-error approach is most often the only resolution. To have a much better insight into the process the chemical reactions during stabilization have to be analyzed particularly. Therefore, a model of the chemical reactions (cyclization, dehydration, and oxidation) based on the research of Dunham and Edie has been developed. With the presented model, it is possible to perform a complete simulation of the fibre undergoing all zones of stabilization. The fiber bundle is modeled as several circular fibers with a layer of air in-between. Two thermal mechanisms are considered to be the most important: the exothermic reactions inside the fiber and the convective heat transfer between the fiber and the air. The exothermic reactions inside the fibers are modeled as a heat source. Differential scanning calorimetry measurements have been performed to estimate the amount of heat of the reactions. To shorten the required time of a simulation, the number of fibers is decreased by similitude theory. Experiments were conducted to validate the simulation results of the fibre temperature during stabilization. The experiments for the validation were conducted on a pilot scale stabilization oven. To measure the fibre bundle temperature, a new measuring method is developed. The comparison of the results shows that the developed simulation model gives good approximations for the temperature profile of the fibre bundle during the stabilization process.

Keywords: carbon fibre, coupled simulation, exothermic reactions, fibre-air-interface

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Authors: Eva Nedeliakova, Jaroslav Masek, Juraj Camaj

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This article describes the results of research focused on quality of railway freight transport services. Improvement of these services has a crucial importance in customer considering on the future use of railway transport. Processes filling the customer demands and output quality assessment were defined as a part of the research. In this, contribution is introduced the map of quality planning and the algorithm of applied methodology. It characterises a model which takes into account characters of transportation with linking a perception services quality in ordinary and extraordinary operation. Despite the fact that rail freight transport has its solid position in the transport market, lots of carriers worldwide have been experiencing a stagnation for a couple of years. Therefore, specific results of the research have a significant importance and belong to numerous initiatives aimed to develop and support railway transport not only by creating a single railway area or reducing noise but also by promoting railway services. This contribution is focused also on the application of dynamic quality models which represent an innovative method of evaluation quality services. Through this conception, time factor, expected and perceived quality in each moment of the transportation process can be taken into account.

Keywords: quality, railway, transport, service

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Authors: Hanmei Peng, Yiqun Wang, Mao Tan, Zhuocen Dai, Yongxin Su

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Efficient energy management in multi-microgrid distribution systems holds significant importance for enhancing the economic benefits of regional power grids. To better balance conflicts among various stakeholders, a two-stage game-based collaborative optimization approach is proposed in this paper, effectively addressing the realistic scenario involving both competition and collaboration among stakeholders. The first stage, aimed at maximizing individual benefits, involves constructing a non-cooperative tariff game model for the distribution network and surplus microgrid. In the second stage, considering power flow and physical line capacity constraints we establish a cooperative P2P game model for the multi-microgrid distribution system, and the optimization involves employing the Lagrange method of multipliers to handle complex constraints. Simulation results demonstrate that the proposed approach can effectively improve the system economics while harmonizing individual and collective rationality.

Keywords: cooperative game, collaborative optimization, multi-microgrid distribution system, non-cooperative game

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Authors: Doctor Akanle Florence Foluso

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Access to health care and people’s ability to having a responsible, satisfying and safe sexual life is clearly a defined human right of people with hearing impairment and others with disabilities this paper looks at disability and sexuality: a human right approach to sexual and reproductive health of the hearing impaired adolescents in developing countries. This paper investigates the extent to which the hearing impaired has a satisfying, safe sexual life and whether their human right in regards to information education is violated. The study population consists of all hearing impaired adolescents and young adults aged 10-24 years who are currently enrolled in the primary and secondary schools in Nigeria. A sample of 389 hearing impaired adolescents was selected, an adapted version of the illustrative questionnaire for interview – survey by Johncleland was used to collect the data. A correlation of 0.80 was obtained at p<0.05 level of significance. Teachers in the schools of the deaf who used sign language were used in the administration of the questionnaire. The data generated were analyzed using Frequency Counts, Percentages, Means and Standard Deviation to give a Summary on responses on access to information, education, voluntary testing and counselling and other reproductive services. This is to investigate if the sexual and reproductive right violated or protected. Findings show that a gap exists in the level of knowledge of SRH services, voluntary counselling because more than half the respondents are not aware of these services in their community. Access to information, education and health services are rights denied the hearing impaired. So their SRH rights are violated.

Keywords: sexual right diability, family planning, pregnancy, diability

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Authors: Sibongile Masemola

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In 2018, South Africa decriminalised recreational cannabis use and private cultivation, since then, cannabis businesses have been established to meet the demand. However, marketing activities remain limited in this industry, and businesses are unable to disseminate promotional messages, however, as a solution, firms can promote their brands and positioning instead of the actual product (Bick, 2015). Branding is essential to create differences among cannabis firms and to attract and keep customers (Abrahamsson, 2014). Building cannabis firms into brands can better position them in the mind of the consumer so that they become and remain competitive. The aim of this study was to explore how South African cannabis retailers can build brand equity in a stigmatised market, despite significant restrictions on marketing efforts. Keller’s (2001) customer-based brand equity (CBBE) model was used as the as the theoretical framework and explored how cannabis firms build their businesses into brands through developing their brand identity, meaning, performance, and relationships, and ultimately creating brand equity. The study employed a qualitative research method, using semi-structured in-depth interviews among 17 participants to gain insights from cannabis owners and marketers in the recreational cannabis environment. Most findings were presented according to the blocks of CBBE model. Furthermore, a conceptual framework named the stigma-based brand equity (SBBE) model was adapted from Keller’s CBBE model to include an additional building block that accounts for industry-specific characteristics unique to stigmatised markets. Findings revealed the pervasiveness of education and its significance to brand building in a stigmatised industry. Results also demonstrated the overall effect stigma has on businesses and their consumers due to the longstanding negative evaluations of cannabis. Hence, through stigma-bonding, brands can develop deep identity-related psychological bonds with their consumers that will potentially lead to strong brand resonance. This study aims to contribute business-relevant knowledge for firms operating in core-stigmatised markets under controlled marketing regulations by exploring how cannabis firms can build brand equity. Practically, this study presents recommendations for retailers in stigmatised markets on how to destigmatise, build brand identity, create brand meaning, elicit desired brand responses, and develop brand relationships – ultimately building brand equity.

Keywords: branding, brand equity, cannabis, organisational stigma

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Authors: Khaleel Alyahya, Faizah Alotaibi

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The coronavirus disease 19 (COVID-19) pandemic has caused an increase in general fear and anxiety around the globe. With the public health measures, including lockdown and travel restrictions, the COVID-19 period further resulted in a sudden increase in the vulnerability of people too ill mental health. This becomes greater among individuals who have a history of mental illness or are undergoing treatment and do not have easy access to medication and medical consultations. The study aims to measure the impact of COVID-19 and the degree of distress with the DASS scale on the mental health of residents living in Saudi Arabia. The study is a quantitative, observational, and cross-sectional conducted in Saudi Arabia to measure the impact of COVID-19 on the mental health of both citizens and residents of Saudi Arabia during pandemics. The study ran from February 2021 to June 2021, and a validated questionnaire was used. The targeted population of the study was Saudi citizens and non-Saudi residents. A sample size of 800 participants was calculated with a single proportion formula at 95% level of significance and 5% allowable error. The result revealed that participants who were always doing exercise experienced the lowest level of depression, anxiety, and stress. The highest prevalence of severe and extremely severe depression was among participants who sometimes do exercise at 53.2% for each. Similar results were obtained for anxiety and stress, where the extremely severe form was reported by those who sometimes did exercise at 54.8% and 72.2%, respectively. There was an inverse association between physical activity levels and levels of depression, anxiety, and stress during the COVID-19. Similarly, the levels of depression, anxiety, and stress differed significantly according to the exercise frequency during COVID-19.

Keywords: mental, COVID-19, pandemic, lockdown, depression, anxiety, stress

Procedia PDF Downloads 89