Search results for: water based paints

Authors: Hossam Abdelrahman, Sama Rostom, Reem Yassein, Yara Mohamed, Salma Salah, Nour Awny

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In today’s environment, people are becoming increasingly interested in their appearance. However, they are afraid of their unknown appearance after a plastic surgery or treatment. Accidents, burns and genetic problems such as bowing of body parts of people have a negative impact on their mental health with their appearance and this makes them feel uncomfortable and underestimated. The approach presents a revolutionary deep learning-based image inpainting method that analyses the various picture structures and corrects damaged images. In this study, A model is proposed based on the in-painting of medical images with Stable Diffusion Inpainting method. Reconstructing missing and damaged sections of an image is known as image inpainting is a key progress facilitated by deep neural networks. The system uses the input of the user of an image to indicate a problem, the system will then modify the image and output the fixed image, facilitating for the patient to see the final result.

Keywords: generative adversarial network, large mask inpainting, stable diffusion inpainting, plastic surgery

Procedia PDF Downloads 62

Authors: K. Yahia, A. Ghoggal, A. Titaouine, S. E. Zouzou, F. Benchabane

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This paper deals with the problem of stator faults diagnosis in induction motors. Using the discrete wavelet transform (DWT) for the current Park’s vector modulus (CPVM) analysis, the inter-turn short-circuit faults diagnosis can be achieved. This method is based on the decomposition of the CPVM signal, where wavelet approximation and detail coefficients of this signal have been extracted. The energy evaluation of a known bandwidth detail permits to define a fault severity factor (FSF). This method has been tested through the simulation of an induction motor using a mathematical model based on the winding-function approach. Simulation, as well as experimental, results show the effectiveness of the used method.

Keywords: Induction Motors (IMs), Inter-turn Short-Circuits Diagnosis, Discrete Wavelet Transform (DWT), Current Park’s Vector Modulus (CPVM)

Procedia PDF Downloads 547

Authors: Jinan Fiaidhi, Sabah Mohammed, Petros Zezos

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Capsule endoscopy (CE) is an established noninvasive diagnostic modality in investigating small bowel disease. CE has a pivotal role in assessing patients with suspected bleeding or identifying evidence of active Crohn's disease in the small bowel. However, CE produces lengthy videos with at least eighty thousand frames, with a frequency rate of 2 frames per second. Gastroenterologists cannot dedicate 8 to 15 hours to reading the CE video frames to arrive at a diagnosis. This is why the issue of analyzing CE videos based on modern artificial intelligence techniques becomes a necessity. However, machine learning, including deep learning, has failed to report robust results because of the lack of large samples to train its neural nets. In this paper, we are describing a thick data approach that learns from a few anchor images. We are using sound datasets like KVASIR and CrohnIPI to filter candidate frames that include interesting anomalies in any CE video. We are identifying candidate frames based on feature extraction to provide representative measures of the anomaly, like the size of the anomaly and the color contrast compared to the image background, and later feed these features to a decision tree that can classify the candidate frames as having a condition like the Crohn's Disease. Our thick data approach reported accuracy of detecting Crohn's Disease based on the availability of ulcer areas at the candidate frames for KVASIR was 89.9% and for the CrohnIPI was 83.3%. We are continuing our research to fine-tune our approach by adding more thick data methods for enhancing diagnosis accuracy.

Keywords: thick data analytics, capsule endoscopy, Crohn’s disease, siamese neural network, decision tree

Procedia PDF Downloads 131

Authors: Akram Salah Eddine Belaidi, Said Kenai, El-Hadj Kadri, Benchaâ Benabed, Hamza Soualhi

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Self-compacting concrete (SCC) was developed in the middle of the 1980’s in Japan. SCC flows alone under its dead weight and consolidates itself without any entry of additional compaction energy and without segregation. As an integral part of a SCC, self-compacting mortars (SCM) may serve as a basis for the mix design of concrete since the measurement of the rheological properties of SCCs. This paper discusses the effect of using natural pozzolana (PZ) and marble powder (MP) in two alternative systems ratios PZ/MP = 1 and 1/3 of the performance of the SCC. A total of 11 SCC’s were prepared having a constant water-binder (w/b) ratio of 0.40 and total cementitious materials content of 475 kg/m3. Then, the fresh properties of the mortars were tested for mini-slump flow diameter and mini-V-funnel flow time for SCMs and Slumps flow test, L-Box height ratio, V-Funnel flow time and sieve stability for SCC. Moreover, the development in the compressive strength was determined at 3, 7, 28, 56, and 90 days. Test results have shown that using of ternary blends improved the fresh properties of the mixtures. The compressive strength of SCC at 90 days with 30% of PZ and MP was similar to those of ordinary concrete use in situ.

Keywords: self-compacting mortar, self-compacting concrete, natural pozzolana, marble powder, rheology, compressive strength

Procedia PDF Downloads 357

Authors: Jianning Tang, Trevor Hocksun Kwan, Xiaofeng Wu

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With the increasing demand for space use in multiple sectors (navigation, telecommunication, imagery, etc.), the deployment and maintenance demand of satellites are growing. Considering the high launching cost and the restrictions on weight and size of the payload when using launch vehicle, the technique of on-orbit manufacturing has obtained more attention because of its significant potential to support future space missions. 3D printing is the most promising manufacturing technology that could be applied in space. However, due to the lack of autonomous quality assessment, the operation of conventional 3D printers still relies on human presence to supervise the printing process. This paper is proposed to develop an automatic 3D reconstruction system aiming at detecting failures on the 3D printed objects through application of point cloud technology. Based on the data obtained from the point cloud, the 3D printer could locate the failure and repair the failure. The system will increase automation and provide 3D printing with more feasibilities for space use without human interference.

Keywords: 3D printing, quality assessment, point cloud, on-orbit manufacturing

Procedia PDF Downloads 105

Authors: Tamar Lazariashvili

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The paper examines the market of bioproducts in the world and in Georgia. The experience of European countries in the field of production of bioproducts is shown, the level of interest of the population in these products is presented, and the tendency of the demand for them to grow is evaluated. Objectives. The purpose of the research is to identify modern challenges and develop recommendations for development opportunities based on the analysis of the European and local market of organic products. Methodologies. General and specific methods are used in the research process: comparative analysis, induction, deduction. A desk study has been conducted. Findings. It has been revealed that the production of organic products in Georgia is significantly behind the European requirements, in the market of organic products of Georgia there is a formation of a layer of consumers who are in favor of healthy food and are ready to pay a different price. Conclusions. Based on the analysis of the bioproducts market, appropriate recommendations are proposed, namely, the introduction of innovative technologies; financial and legal support by the state; provision of consulting services on the tax system; Elimination of asymmetric information in the market and others.

Keywords: bioproducts market, European experience, production of bioproducts, layer of consumers.

Procedia PDF Downloads 52

Authors: Sishen Wang

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Chinese rural industry development is the major task currently during rapid urbanization. Development of potentiality assessment, evaluate the overall suitability of each village for further industrial development, could offer reference for policy makers, especially considering the limited data available in Chinese rural regions. The study focuses on 157 official villages in Fuliang County and evaluates their development potentiality by their topography, transportation condition, population, income of villagers, infrastructure and environmental conditions. Land cover changes for Fuliang county and surrounding areas of each village is also investigated for reference. The final development potentiality of each village was calculated by adding different weighted scores of different categories. Besides, inverse distance weighting (IDW) images for both final score of development potentiality and each factor were made and compared to help to understand the final result. The study found that village in the southern and northern regions have higher development potentiality than villages in the eastern and western regions, mainly because of higher income of villagers, good accessibilities and a large amount of population size. In addition, the Fuliang county was divided into five regions based on final result and policy reference for the development of each region were put forward individually. In addition, three suggestions were made for better local development potentiality: Firstly, the transportation accessibility needs to be improved in the northern regions by building more public transit system there. Secondly, the environmental conditions and infrastructure conditions in the eastern region of the county need some improvement. Thirdly, some encouragement and job opportunities should beset up in the western regions to attract labor force to move in and settle down.

Keywords: development potentiality, Fuliang GIS-Based, GIS, official village

Procedia PDF Downloads 100

Authors: Bry X., Trottier C., Mortier F., Cornu G., Verron T.

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We address component-based regularization of a Multivariate Generalized Linear Model (MGLM). A set of random responses Y is assumed to depend, through a GLM, on a set X of explanatory variables, as well as on a set T of additional covariates. X is partitioned into R conceptually homogeneous blocks X1, ... , XR , viewed as explanatory themes. Variables in each Xr are assumed many and redundant. Thus, Generalised Linear Regression (GLR) demands regularization with respect to each Xr. By contrast, variables in T are assumed selected so as to demand no regularization. Regularization is performed searching each Xr for an appropriate number of orthogonal components that both contribute to model Y and capture relevant structural information in Xr. We propose a very general criterion to measure structural relevance (SR) of a component in a block, and show how to take SR into account within a Fisher-scoring-type algorithm in order to estimate the model. We show how to deal with mixed-type explanatory variables. The method, named THEME-SCGLR, is tested on simulated data.

Keywords: Component-Model, Fisher Scoring Algorithm, GLM, PLS Regression, SCGLR, SEER, THEME

Procedia PDF Downloads 384

Authors: Pornthip Seangsanga

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Sepsis or septic shock needs urgent care because it is a cause of the high mortality rate if patients do not receive timely treatment. Songkhla Hospital does not have a clear system or clinical practice guidelines for treatment of patients with severe sepsis or septic shock, which contributes to the said problem.To compare clinical outcomes based on the protocol after using the clinical guidelines between the Emergency Room, Intensive Care Unit, and the Ward. This quasi-experimental study was conducted on the population and 50 subjects who were diagnosed with severe sepsis or septic shock from December 2013 to May 2014. The data were collected using a nursing care and referring record form for patients with severe sepsis or septic shock at Songkhla Hospital. The record form had been tested for its validity by three experts, and the IOC was 1.The mortality rate in patients with severe sepsis or septic shock who were moved from the ER to the ICU was significantly lower than that of those patients moved from the Ward to the ICU within 48 hours. This was because patients with severe sepsis or septic shock who were moved from the ER to the ICU received more fluid within the first six hours according to the protocol which helped patients to have adequate tissue perfusion within the first six hours, and that helped improve blood flow to the kidneys, and the patients’ urine was found to be with a higher quantity of 0.5 cc/kg/hr, than those patients who were moved from the Ward to the ICU. This study shows that patients with severe sepsis or septic shock need to be treated immediately. Using the clinical practice guidelines along with timely diagnosis and treatment based on the sepsis bundle in giving sufficient and suitable amount of fluid to help improve blood circulation and blood pressure can clearly prevent or reduce severity of complications.

Keywords: clinical practice guidelines, caring, septic shock, sepsis bundle protocol

Procedia PDF Downloads 285

Authors: Liping Yang, Curran Crawford, Jr. Ren, Zhengyi Ren

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Considering the cost evaluation and the stress analysis, a fuzzy satisfactory optimization (FSO) method has been developed for a hybrid composite flywheel. To evaluate the cost, the cost coefficients of the flywheel components are obtained through calculating the weighted sum of the scores of the material manufacturability, the structure character, and the material price. To express the satisfactory degree of the energy, the cost, and the mass, the satisfactory functions are proposed by using the decline function and introducing a satisfactory coefficient. To imply the different significance of the objectives, the object weight coefficients are defined. Based on the stress analysis of composite material, the circumferential and radial stresses are considered into the optimization formulation. The simulations of the FSO method with different weight coefficients and storage energy density optimization (SEDO) method of a flywheel are contrasted. The analysis results show that the FSO method can satisfy different requirements of the designer and the FSO method with suitable weight coefficients can replace the SEDO method.

Keywords: flywheel energy storage, fuzzy, optimization, stress analysis

Procedia PDF Downloads 330

Authors: Ebrahim Hassan Kapeel, Ahmed Mohsen Kamel, Hossan Hendy, Yehia Z. Elhalwagy

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Interest in autopilot design has been raised intensely as a result of recent advancements in Unmanned Aerial vehicles (UAVs). Due to the enormous number of applications that UAVs can achieve, the number of applied control theories used for them has increased in recent years. These small fixed-wing UAVs are suffering high non-linearity, sensitivity to disturbances, and coupling effects between their channels. In this work, the nonlinear dynamic inversion (NDI) control lawisdesigned for a nonlinear small fixed-wing UAV model. The NDI is preferable for varied operating conditions, there is no need for a scheduling controller. Moreover, it’s applicable for high angles of attack. For the designed flight controller validation, a nonlinear Modified PI-D controller is performed with our model. A comparative study between both controllers is achieved to evaluate the NDI performance. Simulation results and analysis are proposed to illustrate the effectiveness of the designed controller based on NDI.

Keywords: UAV dynamic model, attitude control, nonlinear PID, dynamic inversion

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Authors: Nihel Dib, Redouane Bachir, Ghezlane Berrahou, Chaima Zoulikha Tabet Zatla, Sumeya Bedrane, Ginessa Blanco Montilla, Jose Juan Calvino Gamez

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In recent decades, the world’s population has rapidly increased annually, resulting in the consumption of huge amounts of conventional non-renewable petroleum-based resources at an alarming rate. The scarcity of such resources will shut down the corresponding industries and consequently have negative effects on the well-being of humanity. Accordingly, to combat the forthcoming crises and to serve the ever-growing demands, seeking potentially sustainable resources such as geothermal, wind, solar, and biomass has become an active field of study. Currently, lignocellulosic biomass, one of the world’s most plentiful resources, is acknowledged as a cost-effective material that has drawn great interest from many researchers since it has substantial energy potential as well as containing useful C5 and C6 sugars. These C5 and C6 sugars are the key reactants for the production of the valuable 16-platform chemicals such as 5-hydroxymethyl furfural, furfural, levulinic acid, succinic acid, and fumaric acid, all of which are crucial intermediates for synthesizing high-value bio-based chemicals and polymers. Succinic acid (SA) has been predicted to make a significant contribution to the global bio-based economy soon since it serves as a C4 building block that is used in a wide spectrum of industries, including biopolymers, solvents, and pharmaceuticals. In the present work, we modify the HDL MgAl with Zr to try to create acid sites on the supports and deposit gold by deposition precipitation with urea with a low gold content (0.25%). The catalyst was used to produce succinic acid by selective oxidation of furfuraldehyde with hydrogen peroxide under mild reaction conditions.

Keywords: hydrotalcite, catalysis, gold, biomass, furfural, oxidation

Procedia PDF Downloads 58

Authors: Hamid R. Lashgarian Azad, Seyed N. Shetab Boushehri

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Wireless sensor networks (WSN) have become progressively popular due to their wide range of applications. Wireless Sensor Network is made of numerous tiny sensor nodes that are battery-powered. It is a very significant problem to maximize the lifetime of wireless sensor networks. In this paper, we propose a two-stage protocol based on an imperialist competitive algorithm (2S-ICA) to solve a sensor network optimization problem. The energy of the sensors can be greatly reduced and the lifetime of the network reduced by long communication distances between the sensors and the sink. We can minimize the overall communication distance considerably, thereby extending the lifetime of the network lifetime through connecting sensors into a series of independent clusters using 2SICA. Comparison results of the proposed protocol and LEACH protocol, which is common to solving WSN problems, show that our protocol has a better performance in terms of improving network life and increasing the number of transmitted data.

Keywords: wireless sensor network, imperialist competitive algorithm, LEACH protocol, k-means clustering

Procedia PDF Downloads 82

Authors: Muneeb Ahmad, Ali Raza

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A computational method inspired by the immune system (IS) is presented, leveraging its shared characteristics of robustness, fault tolerance, scalability, and adaptability with swarm intelligence. This method aims to showcase flocking behaviors in a swarm of robots (SR). The innate part of the IS offers a variety of reactive and probabilistic cell functions alongside its self-regulation mechanism which have been translated to enable swarming behaviors. Although, the research is specially focused on flocking behaviors in a variety of simulated environments using e-puck robots in a physics-based simulator (CoppeliaSim); the artificial innate immune system (AIIS) can exhibit other swarm behaviors as well. The effectiveness of the immuno-inspired approach has been established with extensive experimentations, for scalability and adaptability, using standard swarm benchmarks as well as the immunological regulatory functions (i.e., Dendritic Cells’ Maturity and Inflammation). The AIIS-based approach has proved to be a scalable and adaptive solution for emulating the flocking behavior of SR.

Keywords: artificial innate immune system, flocking swarm, immune system, swarm intelligence

Procedia PDF Downloads 85

Authors: Sonjida Mustafia

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Glass-ceramic is a material that contains both the properties of glass and ceramic within. They always contain a residual glassy phase and one or more embedded crystalline phases. Ceramic tiles are very popular in the world because of their high structural strength, low absorption, increased hygiene, and hot and cold insulation. Glass-ceramic materials are used to produce marble-like floor and wall tiles. There are a huge amount of waste materials like rice husk ash (RHA), waste iron, waste glass, and other industrial solid waste in Bangladesh, which can be used to produce glass-ceramic floor and wall tiles. The raw materials (rice husk ash, waste glass, and k-feldspar) are a mixture, and the mixture is melted to form glass frit at 1175°C. The frits are grained to require fine particle size. The powder is moistened in 7-8% water with sodium silicate. The green glass-ceramic tiles were fired at different temperatures (800–1100°C) for a soaking time of 1 hour to form glass-ceramic tiles and to study the sintering-crystallization process. The results reveal that the modulus of rupture increases with increasing sintering temperature and reaches the highest value (95.25Mpa) at 925°C. Glossiness and linear shrinkage increase with increasing temperature.

Keywords: rice husk ash, waste glass, glass-ceramic, modulus of rupture, glossiness, linear shrinkage, micro-structure

Procedia PDF Downloads 75

Authors: Akshat Kumar, Vidushi

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This paper identifies 27 KOIs, 26 of which are currently classified as candidates and one as false positives that have a high probability of being confirmed. For this purpose, 11 machine learning algorithms were implemented on the cumulative kepler dataset sourced from the NASA exoplanet archive; it was observed that the best-performing model was HistGradientBoosting and XGBoost with a test accuracy of 93.5%, and the lowest-performing model was Gaussian NB with a test accuracy of 54%, to test model performance F1, cross-validation score and RUC curve was calculated. Based on the learned models, the significant characteristics for confirm exoplanets were identified, putting emphasis on the object’s transit and stellar properties; these characteristics were namely koi_count, koi_prad, koi_period, koi_dor, koi_ror, and koi_smass, which were later considered to filter out the potential KOIs. The paper also calculates the Earth similarity index based on the planetary radius and equilibrium temperature for each KOI identified to aid in their classification.

Keywords: Kepler objects of interest, exoplanets, space exploration, machine learning, earth similarity index, transit photometry

Procedia PDF Downloads 47

Authors: Nimisha Elsa Koshy, Varun P. Gopi, V. I. Thajudin Ahamed

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The entire visualization of GastroIntestinal (GI) tract is not possible with conventional endoscopic exams. Wireless Capsule Endoscopy (WCE) is a low risk, painless, noninvasive procedure for diagnosing diseases such as bleeding, polyps, ulcers, and Crohns disease within the human digestive tract, especially the small intestine that was unreachable using the traditional endoscopic methods. However, analysis of massive images of WCE detection is tedious and time consuming to physicians. Hence, researchers have developed software methods to detect these diseases automatically. Thus, the effectiveness of WCE can be improved. In this paper, a novel textural feature extraction method is proposed based on Contourlet transform and Log Gabor filter to distinguish ulcer regions from normal regions. The results show that the proposed method performs well with a high accuracy rate of 94.16% using Support Vector Machine (SVM) classifier in HSV colour space.

Keywords: contourlet transform, log gabor filter, ulcer, wireless capsule endoscopy

Procedia PDF Downloads 527

Authors: Marizia Roberta Rasoanandrasana, Hery Lisy Tiana. Ranarijaona, Herintsitohaina Razakamanarivo, Eric Delaitre, Nandrianina Ramifehiarivo

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Madagascar is one of the producer’s countries of world's fine cocoa. Cocoa-based agroforestry systems (CBAS) plays a very important economic role for over 75% of the population in the north of Madagascar, the island's main cocoa-producing area. It is also viewed as a key factor in the deforestation of local protected areas. It is therefore urgent to establish a compromise between cocoa production and forest conservation in this region which is difficult due to a lack of accurate cocoa agro-systems data. In order to fill these gaps and to response to these socio-economic and environmental concerns, this study aims to describe CBAS by providing precise data on their characteristics and to establish a typology. To achieve this, 150 farms were surveyed and observed to characterize CBAS based on 11 agronomic and 6 socio-economic data. Also, 30 representative plots of CBAS among the 150 farms were inventoried for providing accurate ecological data (6 variables) as an additional data for the typology determination. The results showed that Madagascar’s CBAS systems are generally extensive and practiced by smallholders. Four types of cocoa-based agroforestry system were identified, with significant differences between the following variables: yield, planting age, cocoa density, density of associated trees, preceding crop, associated crops, Shannon-Wiener indices and species richness in the upper stratum. Type 1 is characterized by old systems (>45 years) with low crop density (425 cocoa trees/ha), installed after conversion of crops other than coffee (> 50%) and giving low yields (427 kg/ha/year). Type 2 consists of simple agroforestry systems (no associated crop 0%), fairly young (20 years) with low density of associated trees (77 trees/ha) and low species diversity (H'=1.17). Type 3 is characterized by high crop density (778 trees/ha and 175 trees/ha for cocoa and associated trees respectively) and a medium level of species diversity (H'=1.74, 8 species). Type 4 is particularly characterized by orchard regeneration method involving replanting and tree lopping (100%). Analysis of the potential of these four types has identified Type 4 as a promising practice for sustainable agriculture.

Keywords: conservation, practices, productivity, protect areas, smallholder, trade-off, typology

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Authors: Kyunghun Kang, Sangwoo Oh, Yongha Hwang

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PDMS (Polydimethylsiloxane)-based microfluidic device has been recently applied to area of biomedical research, tissue engineering, and diagnostics because PDMS is low cost, nontoxic, optically transparent, gas-permeable, and especially biocompatible. Generally, PDMS microfluidic devices are fabricated by conventional soft lithography. Microfabrication requires expensive cleanroom facilities and a lot of time; however, only two-dimensional or simple three-dimensional structures can be fabricated. In this study, we introduce fabricating method for complex three-dimensional microfluidic channels using soluble wax mold. Using the 3D printing technique, we firstly fabricated three-dimensional mold which consists of soluble wax material. The PDMS pre-polymer is cast around, followed by PDMS casting and curing. The three-dimensional casting mold was removed from PDMS by chemically dissolved with methanol and acetone. In this work, two preliminary experiments were carried out. Firstly, the solubility of several waxes was tested using various solvents, such as acetone, methanol, hexane, and IPA. We found the combination between wax and solvent which dissolves the wax. Next, side effects of the solvent were investigated during the curing process of PDMS pre-polymer. While some solvents let PDMS drastically swell, methanol and acetone let PDMS swell only 2% and 6%, respectively. Thus, methanol and acetone can be used to dissolve wax in PDMS without any serious impact. Based on the preliminary tests, three-dimensional PDMS microfluidic channels was fabricated using the mold which was printed out using 3D printer. With the proposed fabricating technique, PDMS-based microfluidic devices have advantages of fast prototyping, low cost, optically transparence, as well as having complex three-dimensional geometry. Acknowledgements: This research was supported by Supported by a Korea University Grant and Basic Science Research Program through the National Research Foundation of Korea(NRF).

Keywords: microfluidic channel, polydimethylsiloxane, 3D printing, casting

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Authors: Thedy Yogasara, Fredy Agus

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In designing a product, it is currently crucial to focus not only on the product’s usability based on performance measures, but also on user experience (UX) that includes pragmatic and hedonic aspects of product use. These aspects play a significant role in fulfillment of user needs, both functionally and psychologically. Pragmatic quality refers to as product’s perceived ability to support the fulfillment of behavioral goals. It is closely linked to functionality and usability of the product. In contrast, hedonic quality is product’s perceived ability to support the fulfillment of psychological needs. Hedonic quality relates to the pleasure of ownership and use of the product, including stimulation for personal development and communication of user’s identity to others through the product. This study evaluates the pragmatic and hedonic aspects of gaming mice G600 and Razer Krait using AttrakDiff tool to create an improved design that is able to generate positive UX. AttrakDiff is a method that measures pragmatic and hedonic scores of a product with a scale between -3 to +3 through four attributes (i.e. Pragmatic Quality, Hedonic Quality-Identification, Hedonic Quality-Stimulation, and Attractiveness), represented by 28 pairs of opposite words. Based on data gathered from 15 participants, it is identified that gaming mouse G600 needs to be redesigned because of its low grades (pragmatic score: -0.838, hedonic score: 1, attractiveness score: 0.771). The redesign process focuses on the attributes with poor scores and takes into account improvement suggestions collected from interview with the participants. The redesigned mouse G600 is evaluated using the previous method. The result shows higher scores in pragmatic quality (1.929), hedonic quality (1.703), and attractiveness (1.667), indicating that the redesigned mouse is more capable of creating pleasurable experience of product use.

Keywords: AttrakDiff, hedonic aspect, pragmatic aspect, product design, user experience

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Authors: Dehini Rachid, Ferdi Brahim

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The shunt active power filter (SAPF) is not destined only to improve the power factor, but also to compensate the unwanted harmonic currents produced by nonlinear loads. This paper presents a SAPF with identification and control method based on artificial neural network (ANN). To identify harmonics, many techniques are used, among them the conventional p-q theory and the relatively recent one the artificial neural network method. It is difficult to get satisfied identification and control characteristics by using a normal (ANN) due to the nonlinearity of the system (SAPF + fast nonlinear load variations). This work is an attempt to undertake a systematic study of the problem to equip the (SAPF) with the harmonics identification and DC link voltage control method based on (ANN). The latter has been applied to the (SAPF) with fast nonlinear load variations. The results of computer simulations and experiments are given, which can confirm the feasibility of the proposed active power filter.

Keywords: artificial neural networks (ANN), p-q theory, harmonics, total harmonic distortion

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Authors: Marina Stramarkou, Sofia Papadaki, Maria Kaloupi, Ioannis Batzakas

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Biofouling is a complex problem of the aquaculture industry, as it reduces the efficiency of the equipment and causes significant losses of cultured organisms. Nowadays, the current antifouling methods are proved to be labor intensive, have limited lifetime and use toxic substances that result in fish mortality. Several species of marine algae produce a wide variety of biogenic compounds with antibacterial and antifouling properties, which are effective in the prevention and control of biofouling and can be incorporated in antifouling coatings. In the present work, Fucus spiralis, a species of macro algae, and Chlorella vulgaris, a well-known species of microalgae, were used for the isolation and recovery of bioactive compounds, belonging to groups of fatty acids, lipopeptides and amides. The recovery of the compounds was achieved through the application of the ultrasound- assisted extraction, an environmentally friendly method, using green, non-toxic solvents. Moreover, the coating of the antifouling agents was done by innovative encapsulation and coating methods, such as electro-hydrodynamic process. For the encapsulation of the bioactive compounds natural matrices were used, such as polysaccharides and proteins. Water extracts that were incorporated in protein matrices were considered the most efficient antifouling coating.

Keywords: algae, electrospinning, fatty acids, ultrasound-assisted extraction

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Authors: Ifeyinwa Victor-Uadiale, Georgina Pearson, Sophie Witter, D. Reidpath

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Introduction: Smoking, alcohol misuse, unhealthy diet, and physical inactivity are the primary drivers of noncommunicable diseases (NCD), including cardiovascular diseases, cancers, respiratory diseases, and diabetes, worldwide. Collectively, these diseases are the leading cause of all global deaths, most of which are premature, affecting people between 30 and 70 years. Empirical evidence suggests that these risk behaviors can be modified by community-based interventions (CBI). However, there is little insight into the mechanisms and contextual factors of successful community interventions that impact risk behaviours for chronic diseases. This study examined “Under what circumstances, for whom, and how, do community-based interventions modify smoking, alcohol use, unhealthy diet, and physical inactivity among adults”. Adopting the Capability (C), Opportunity (O), Motivation (M), Behavior (B) (COM-B) framework for behaviour change, it sought to: (1) identify the mechanisms through which CBIs could reduce tobacco use and alcohol consumption and increase physical activity and the consumption of healthy diets and (2) examine the contextual factors that trigger the impact of these mechanisms on these risk behaviours among adults. Methods: Pawson’s realist review method was used to examine the literature. Empirical evidence and theoretical understanding were combined to develop a realist program theory that explains how CBIs influence NCD risk behaviours. Documents published between 2002 and 2020 were systematically searched in five electronic databases (CINAHL, Cochrane Library, Medline, ProQuest Central, and PsycINFO). They were included if they reported on community-based interventions aimed at cardiovascular diseases, cancers, respiratory diseases, and diabetes in a global context; and had an outcome targeted at smoking, alcohol, physical activity, and diet. Findings: Twenty-nine scientific documents were retrieved and included in the review. Over half of them (n = 18; 62%) focused on three of the four risk behaviours investigated in this review. The review identified four mechanisms: capability, opportunity, motivation, and social support that are likely to change the dietary and physical activity behaviours in adults given certain contexts. There were weak explanations of how the identified mechanisms could likely change smoking and alcohol consumption habits. In addition, eight contextual factors that may affect how these mechanisms impact physical activity and dietary behaviours were identified: suitability to work and family obligations, risk status awareness, socioeconomic status, literacy level, perceived need, availability and access to resources, culture, and group format. Conclusion: The findings suggest that CBIs are likely to improve the physical activity and dietary habits of adults if the intervention function seeks to educate, incentivize, change the environment, and model the right behaviours. The review applies and advances theory, realist research, and the design and implementation of community-based interventions for NCD prevention.

Keywords: community-based interventions, noncommunicable disease, realist program theory, risk behaviors

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Authors: Iris Vural Gursel, Jonathan Moncada, Ernst Worrell, Andrea Ramirez

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In order to achieve the transition from a fossil to bio-based economy, biomass needs to replace fossil resources in meeting the world’s energy and chemical needs. This calls for development of biorefinery systems allowing cost-efficient conversion of biomass to chemicals. In biorefinery systems, feedstock is converted to key intermediates called platforms which are converted to wide range of marketable products. The C6 sugars platform stands out due to its unique versatility as precursor for multiple valuable products. Among the different potential routes from C6 sugars to bio-based chemicals, 1,3-butadiene and ε-caprolactam appear to be of great interest. Butadiene is an important chemical for the production of synthetic rubbers, while caprolactam is used in production of nylon-6. In this study, ex-ante techno-economic performance of 1,3-butadiene and ε-caprolactam routes from C6 sugars were assessed. The aim is to provide insight from an early stage of development into the potential of these new technologies, and the bottlenecks and key cost-drivers. Two cases for each product line were analyzed to take into consideration the effect of possible changes on the overall performance of both butadiene and caprolactam production. Conceptual process design for the processes was developed using Aspen Plus based on currently available data from laboratory experiments. Then, operating and capital costs were estimated and an economic assessment was carried out using Net Present Value (NPV) as indicator. Finally, sensitivity analyses on processing capacity and prices was done to take into account possible variations. Results indicate that both processes perform similarly from an energy intensity point of view ranging between 34-50 MJ per kg of main product. However, in terms of processing yield (kg of product per kg of C6 sugar), caprolactam shows higher yield by a factor 1.6-3.6 compared to butadiene. For butadiene production, with the economic parameters used in this study, for both cases studied, a negative NPV (-642 and -647 M€) was attained indicating economic infeasibility. For the caprolactam production, one of the cases also showed economic infeasibility (-229 M€), but the case with the higher caprolactam yield resulted in a positive NPV (67 M€). Sensitivity analysis indicated that the economic performance of caprolactam production can be improved with the increase in capacity (higher C6 sugars intake) reflecting benefits of the economies of scale. Furthermore, humins valorization for heat and power production was considered and found to have a positive effect. Butadiene production was found sensitive to the price of feedstock C6 sugars and product butadiene. However, even at 100% variation of the two parameters, butadiene production remained economically infeasible. Overall, the caprolactam production line shows higher economic potential in comparison to that of butadiene. The results are useful in guiding experimental research and providing direction for further development of bio-based chemicals.

Keywords: bio-based chemicals, biorefinery, C6 sugars, economic analysis, process modelling

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Authors: Yiqiong Yuan, Jun Sun, Dongmei Zhou, Jianan Sun

Abstract:

In this paper, we presented a Multi-Objective Random Drift Particle Swarm Optimization algorithm (MORDPSO-CD) based on RDPSO and crowding distance sorting to improve the convergence and distribution with less computation cost. MORDPSO-CD makes the most of RDPSO to approach the true Pareto optimal solutions fast. We adopt the crowding distance sorting technique to update and maintain the archived optimal solutions. Introducing the crowding distance technique into MORDPSO can make the leader particles find the true Pareto solution ultimately. The simulation results reveal that the proposed algorithm has better convergence and distribution

Keywords: multi-objective optimization, random drift particle swarm optimization, crowding distance sorting, pareto optimal solution

Procedia PDF Downloads 243

Authors: Sanat K. Dash, Rama S. Verma, Sarit K. Das

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A logarithmic microfluidic shear device was designed and fabricated for cellular mechanotransduction studies. The device contains four cell culture chambers in which flow was modulated to achieve a logarithmic increment. Resistance values were optimized to make the device compact. The network of resistances was developed according to a unique combination of series and parallel resistances as found via optimization. Simulation results done in Ansys 16.1 matched the analytical calculations and showed the shear stress distribution at different inlet flow rates. Fabrication of the device was carried out using conventional photolithography and PDMS soft lithography. Flow profile was validated taking DI water as working fluid and measuring the volume collected at all four outlets. Volumes collected at the outlets were in accordance with the simulation results at inlet flow rates ranging from 1 ml/min to 0.1 ml/min. The device can exert fluid shear stresses ranging four orders of magnitude on the culture chamber walls which will cover shear stress values from interstitial flow to blood flow. This will allow studying cell behavior in the long physiological range of shear stress in a single run reducing number of experiments.

Keywords: microfluidics, mechanotransduction, fluid shear stress, physiological shear

Procedia PDF Downloads 118

Authors: Hemabushan K., Manikandan

Abstract:

In a swirl atomizer, fluid undergoes a swirling motion as a result of centrifugal force created by opposed tangential inlets in the swirl chamber. The angular momentum of fluid continually increases as it reaches the exit orifice and forms a hollow sheet. Which disintegrates to form ligaments and droplets respectively as it flows downstream. This type of atomizers used in rocket injectors and oil burner furnaces. In this present investigation a swirl atomizer with two opposed tangential inlets has been designed. Water as working fluid, experiments had been conducted for the fluid injection pressures in regime of 0.033 bar to 0.519 bar. The fluid has been pressured by a 0.5hp pump and regulated by a pressure regulator valve. Injection pressure of fluid has been measured by a U-tube mercury manometer. The spray pattern and the droplets has been captured with a high resolution camera in black background with a high intensity flash highlighting the fluid. The unprocessed images were processed in ImageJ processing software for measuring the droplet diameters and its shape characteristics along the downstream. The parameters such as mean droplet diameter and distribution, wave pattern, rupture distance and spray angle were studied for this atomizer. The above results were compared with theoretical results and also analysed for deviation with design parameters.

Keywords: swirl atomizer, injector, spray, SWIRL

Procedia PDF Downloads 475

Authors: Debanjan Dey, Tamal Banerjee, Kaustubha Mohanty

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Global scalar properties are calculated based on higher occupied molecular orbital (HOMO) and lower unoccupied molecular orbital (LUMO) energy to study the interaction between ionic liquids with Bituminous and Anthracite coal using density function theory (DFT) method. B3LYP/6-31G* calculation predicts HOMO-LUMO energy gap, electronegativity, global hardness, global softness, chemical potential and global softness for individual compounds with their clusters. HOMO-LUMO interaction, electron delocalization, electron donating and accepting is the main source of attraction between individual compounds with their complexes. Cation used in this study: 1-butyl-1-methylpyrrolidinium [BMPYR], 1-methyl -3-propylimmidazolium [MPIM], Tributylmethylammonium [TMA] and Tributylmethylphosphonium [MTBP] with the combination of anion: bis(trifluromethylsulfonyl)imide [Tf2N], methyl carbonate [CH3CO3], dicyanamide [N(CN)2] and methylsulfate [MESO4]. Basically three-tier approach comprising HOMO/LUMO energy, Scalar quantity and infinite dilution activity coefficient (IDAC) by sigma profile generation with COSMO-RS (Conductor like screening model for real solvent) model was chosen for simultaneous interaction. [BMPYR]CH3CO3] (1-butyl-1-methylpyrrolidinium methyl carbonate) and [MPIM][CH3CO3] (1-methyl -3-propylimmidazolium methyl carbonate ) are the best effective ILs on the basis of HOMO-LUMO band gap for Anthracite and Bituminous coal respectively and the corresponding band gap is 0.10137 hartree for Anthracite coal and 0.12485 hartree for Bituminous coal. Further ionic liquids are screened quantitatively with all the scalar parameters and got the same result based on CH-π interaction which is found for HOMO-LUMO gap. To check our findings IDAC were predicted using quantum chemical based COSMO-RS methodology which gave the same trend as observed our scalar quantity calculation. Thereafter a qualitative measurement is doing by sigma profile analysis which gives complementary behavior between IL and coal that means highly miscible with each other.

Keywords: coal-ionic liquids cluster, COSMO-RS, DFT method, HOMO-LUMO interaction

Procedia PDF Downloads 279

Authors: Jaime Martín-de-Nicolás, David Mata-Moya, Nerea del-Rey-Maestre, Pedro Gómez-del-Hoyo, María-Pilar Jarabo-Amores

Abstract:

Ship detection is nowadays quite an important issue in tasks related to sea traffic control, fishery management and ship search and rescue. Although it has traditionally been carried out by patrol ships or aircrafts, coverage and weather conditions and sea state can become a problem. Synthetic aperture radars can surpass these coverage limitations and work under any climatological condition. A fast CFAR ship detector based on a robust statistical modeling of sea clutter with respect to sea states in SAR images is used. In this paper, the minimum SNR required to obtain a given detection probability with a given false alarm rate for any sea state is determined. A Gaussian target model using real SAR data is considered. Results show that SNR does not depend heavily on the class considered. Provided there is some variation in the backscattering of targets in SAR imagery, the detection probability is limited and a post-processing stage based on morphology would be suitable.

Keywords: SAR, generalized gamma distribution, detection curves, radar detection

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Authors: Alaka Padhye, S. P. Kane

Abstract:

The following study considers some variations made to the secretary problem (SP). In a multiple criteria secretary problem (MCSP), the selection of a unit is based on two independent characteristics. The units that appear before an observer are known say N, the best rank of a unit being N. A unit is selected, if it is better with respect to either first or second or both the characteristics. When the number of units is large and due to constraints like time and cost, the observer might want to stop earlier instead of inspecting all the available units. Let the process terminate at r2th unit where r1Keywords: joint distribution, marginal distribution, real ranks, secretary problem, selection criterion, two tailed secretary problem

Procedia PDF Downloads 263