Search results for: machine learning applications

Authors: Y. Kamarulzaman, A. Madun, F. D. Yusop, N. Abdullah, N. K. Hoong

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In 2011, the Malaysian Government has initiated a nationwide project called 1BestariNet which will adopt the using of technology in teaching and learning, resulting in the construction of telecommunication towers inside the public schools’ premise. Using qualitative approach, this study investigated public perception of risks associated with the project, particularly the telecommunication towers. Data collection involved observation and in-depth interviews with 22 individuals consist of a segment of public that was anxious about the risks of radio frequency electromagnetic field (RFEMF) which include two employees of telecommunication companies (telcos) and five employees of Government agencies. Observation of the location of the towers at 10 public schools, a public forum, and media reports provide valuable information in our analysis. The study finds that the main concern is related to the health risks. This study also shows that it is not easy for the Government to manage public perception mainly because it involves public trust. We find that risk perception is related with public trust, as well as the perceived benefits and level of knowledge. Efficient communication and continuous engagement with the local communities help to build and maintain public trust, reduce public fear and anxiety, hence mitigating the risk perception among the public.

Keywords: risk perception, risk communication, trust, telecommunication tower, radio frequency electromagnetic field (RFEMF)

Procedia PDF Downloads 316

Authors: Jurica Hižak

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Getting to know the agents, i.e., identifying the free riders in a population, can be considered one of the main challenges in establishing cooperation. An ordinary memory-one agent such as Tit-for-tat may learn “who is who” in the population through direct interactions. Past experiences serve them as a landmark to know with whom to cooperate and against whom to retaliate in the next encounter. However, this kind of learning is risky and expensive. A cheaper and less painful way to detect free riders may be achieved by gossiping. For this reason, as part of this research, a special type of Tit-for-tat agent was designed – a “Gossip-Tit-for-tat” agent that can share data with other agents of its kind. The performances of both strategies, ordinary Tit-for-tat and Gossip-Tit-for-tat, against Always-defect have been compared in the finite-game framework of the Iterated Prisoner’s Dilemma via the Moran process. Agents were able to move in a random-walk fashion, and they were programmed to play Prisoner’s Dilemma each time they met. Moreover, at each step, one randomly selected individual was eliminated, and one individual was reproduced in accordance with the Moran process of selection. In this way, the size of the population always remained the same. Agents were selected for reproduction via the roulette wheel rule, i.e., proportionally to the relative fitness of the strategy. The absorption probability was calculated after the population had been absorbed completely by cooperators, which means that all the states have been occupied and all of the transition probabilities have been determined. It was shown that gossip increases absorption probabilities and therefore enhances the evolution of cooperation in the population.

Keywords: cooperation, gossip, indirect reciprocity, Moran process, prisoner’s dilemma, tit-for-tat

Procedia PDF Downloads 94

Authors: Elvin Karaaslan Klose

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In the field of Visual Culture, Art Education students are given the opportunity to discuss topics of interest that are closer to their own social life and media consumption habits. In contrast to the established corpus of literature and sources about Art History, educators are challenged to find topics and examples from Popular Culture and Contemporary Art that provide familiarity, depth and inspiration for students’ future practice, both as educators as well as artists. In order to establish a welcoming and fruitful discussion environment at the beginning of an introductory Visual Culture Education course with fourth year Art Education students, the class watched and subsequently discussed the movie “Vantage Point”. Using the descriptive method and content analysis; video recordings, discussion transcripts and learning diaries were summarized to highlight students’ critical points of view towards commonly experienced but rarely reflected on topics of Popular and Visual Culture. As an introduction into more theory-based forms of discussion, watching and intensely discussing a movie has proven useful by proving a combination of a familiar media type with an unfamiliar educational context. Resulting areas of interest have served as a starting point for later research, discussion and artistic production in the scope of an introductory Visual Culture Education course.

Keywords: visual culture, critical pedagogy, media literacy, art education

Procedia PDF Downloads 666

Authors: Arleta Rifati Nixha, Mustafa Arslan, Adem Ergün, Nahit Gencer

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Polyphenol oxidase (PPO), sometimes referred to as phenol oxidase, catecholase, phenolase, catechol oxidase, or even tyrosinase, is considered to be an o-dipenol. PPO (EC 1.14.18.1), a multifunctional copper containing enzyme, is widely distributed in nature. It catalyzes two distinct reactions of melanin synthesis: a hydroxylation of monophenols to o-diphenols (monophenolase activity) and an oxidation of o-diphenols to o-quinones (diphenolase activity), both using molecular oxygen. Additionaly, investigation demonstrated that various dermatological disorders, such as age spots and freckle, were caused by the accumulation of an excessive level of epidermal pigmentation. Tyrosinase has also been linked to Parkinson’s and other neurodegenerative diseases. Nitrogen heterocycles have received a great deal of attention in the literature because of biological properties. Especially, among these heterocyclic systems, pyridine containing compounds have been the subject of expanding research efforts in heteroaromatic and biological chemistry. The pyrido [2,3-d] pyrimidine heterocycles, which are those annelated to a pyrimidine ring, are important because of their wide range of biological and pharmaceutical applications (i.e., bronchodilators, vasodilators) and their anti-allergic, cardiotonic, antihypertensive, and hepatoprotective activities. In this study series of 12 new carbazole substituted pyridopyrimidine urea(thiourea) derivatives were synthesized and evaluated effect on PPO. Additionally, we presented structure-activity relationship analyses and theoretical calculations of the compounds.

Keywords: carbazole, pyridopyrimidine, urea, thiourea, tyrosinase inhibitors

Procedia PDF Downloads 430

Authors: Caner Koc, Dilara Gerdan Koc, Emrah Saka, H. Ibrahim Karagol

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The use of pesticides in agricultural activities is the most harmful to the environment and farmers' health, and it also has the greatest input prices, along with fertilizers. In this study, an electric, electrostatically charged, autonomous agricultural robot was developed, modeled, and prototyped and manufactured. It allows for sensitive pesticide applications with variable levels, has controllable spray nozzles, and uses camera distance sensors to detect and spray into tree canopies. The created prototype was produced with flexibility in mind. Two stages of prototype manufacture were completed. The initial stage involved designing and producing the flexible primary body of the autonomous vehicle. Detachable hanger assemblies are employed so that the main body robot can perform a variety of agricultural tasks. The design of the spraying devices and their fitting to the autonomous vehicle was completed as the second stage of the prototype. The built prototype spraying robot's itinerary was planned using the free, open-source program Mission Planner. PX4, telemetry, and RTK GPS are used to maneuver the autonomous car along the designated path. To avoid potential obstructions, the robot uses ultrasonic and lidar sensors. The developed autonomous vehicle's energy needs are intended to be met entirely by electric batteries. In the event that the batteries run out of power, the sockets are set up to be recharged both by using the generator and the main power source through the specifically constructed panel.

Keywords: autonomous agricultural robot, pesticide, smart farming, spraying, variable rate application

Procedia PDF Downloads 77

Authors: Gautam Kumar Saharia, Sagardeep Talukdar, Riki Dutta, Sudipta Nandy

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The physics-informed neural network (PINN) method opens up an approach for numerically solving nonlinear partial differential equations leveraging fast calculating speed and high precession of modern computing systems. We construct the PINN based on a strong universal approximation theorem and apply the initial-boundary value data and residual collocation points to weekly impose initial and boundary conditions to the neural network and choose the optimization algorithms adaptive moment estimation (ADAM) and Limited-memory Broyden-Fletcher-Golfard-Shanno (L-BFGS) algorithm to optimize learnable parameter of the neural network. Next, we improve the PINN with a weighted loss function to obtain both the bright and dark soliton solutions of the Fokas-Lenells equation (FLE). We find the proposed scheme of adjustable weight coefficients into PINN has a better convergence rate and generalizability than the basic PINN algorithm. We believe that the PINN approach to solve the partial differential equation appearing in nonlinear optics would be useful in studying various optical phenomena.

Keywords: deep learning, optical soliton, physics informed neural network, partial differential equation

Procedia PDF Downloads 66

Authors: Jyoti Rani, Ashima Anand, Shivendra Shivani

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In recent years, physiological signals obtained in telemedicine have been stored independently from patient information. In addition, people have increasingly turned to mobile devices for information on health-related topics. Major authentication and security issues may arise from this storing, degrading the reliability of diagnostics. This study introduces an approach to reversible watermarking, which ensures security by utilizing the electrocardiogram (ECG) signal as a carrier for embedding patient information. In the proposed work, Pan-Tompkins++ is employed to convert the 1D ECG signal into a 2D signal. The frequency subbands of a signal are extracted using RDWT(Redundant discrete wavelet transform), and then one of the subbands is subjected to MSVD (Multiresolution singular valued decomposition for masking. Finally, the encrypted watermark is embedded within the signal. The experimental results show that the watermarked signal obtained is indistinguishable from the original signals, ensuring the preservation of all diagnostic information. In addition, the DnCNN (Denoising convolutional neural network) concept is used to denoise the retrieved watermark for improved accuracy. The proposed ECG signal-based watermarking method is supported by experimental results and evaluations of its effectiveness. The results of the robustness tests demonstrate that the watermark is susceptible to the most prevalent watermarking attacks.

Keywords: ECG, VMD, watermarking, PanTompkins++, RDWT, DnCNN, MSVD, chaotic encryption, attacks

Procedia PDF Downloads 92

Authors: Mohammad Tayefeh Norooz, Amirhossein Kargarzadeh

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Overweight and obesity as an abnormality are health threatening factors. Body mass index (BMI) above 25 is referred to as overweight and above 30 as obese. Apollo Endosurgery, Inc., a pioneering company in endoscopy surgeries, is poised to revolutionize patient care with its minimally invasive treatment options. Some product solutions are designed to improve patient outcomes and redefine the future of healthcare. Weight gain post-weight-loss surgery may stem from an enlarged stomach opening, reducing fullness and increasing food intake. Apollo Endosurgery's OverStitch system, a minimally invasive approach, addresses this by using sutures to reduce stomach opening size. This reflects Apollo's commitment to transformative improvements in healing endoscopy, emphasizing a shift towards minimally invasive options. The system's versatility and precision in full-thickness suturing offer treatment alternatives, exemplified in applications like Endoscopic Sleeve Gastroplasty for reshaping obesity management. Apollo’s dedication to pioneering advancements suggests ongoing breakthroughs in minimally invasive surgery, positioning the OverStitch systems as a testament to innovation in patient care.

Keywords: apollo endosurgery, endoscopic sleeve gastroplasty, weight loss system, overstitch endoscopic suturing system, therapeutic, perforations, fistula

Procedia PDF Downloads 52

Authors: Li-Ju Chen, Hsiang-Lin Chan, Hsin-Yi Kathy Cheng, Hui-Ju Chen

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Stereotype behavior is one of the maladaptive syndromes of the individuals with autism. Most of the previous researches focused on the stereotype behavior with stimulating type, while less on the stereotype behavior about cognition (This research names it cognitive stereotype behavior; CSB). This research explored CSB and the rationality to explain CSB with imprinting phenomenon. After excluding the samples without CSB described, the data that came from 271 individuals with autism were recruited and analyzed with quantitative and qualitative analyses. This research discovers that : (1) Most of the individuals with autism originally came out CSB at 3 years old and more than a half of them appeared before 4 years old; The average age which firstly came out CSB was 6.10 years old, the average time insisting or ossifying CSB was 31.71 minutes each time and the average longest time which they last was 358.35 minutes (5.97 hours). (2) CSB demonstrates various aspects, this research classified them into 4 fields with 26 categories. They were categorized into sudden CSB or habitual CSB by imprinting performance. (3) Most of the autism commented that their CSBs were not necessary but they could not control them well. One-third of them appeared CSB suddenly and the first occurrence accompanied a strong emotional or behavioral response. (4) Whether respondent is the person with autism himself/herself or not was the critical element: on the awareness of the severity degree, disturbance degree, and the emotional /behavioral intensity at the first-time CSB happened. This study concludes imprinting could reasonably explain the phenomenon CSB forms. There are implications leading the individuals with autism and their family to develop coping strategies to promote individuals with autism having a better learning accomplishment and life quality in their future.

Keywords: autism, cognitive stereotype behavior, constructivism, imprinting, stereotype

Procedia PDF Downloads 123

Authors: Ahmad Mohsin, Syda Fatima, Falak Nawaz, Aman Ullah Khan

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Selection of an appropriate architectural style is vital to the success of target web service under development. The nature of architecture design and selection for service-oriented computing applications is quite different as compared to traditional software. Web Services have complex and rigorous architectural styles to choose. Due to this, selection for accurate architectural style for web services development has become a more complex decision to be made by architects. Architectural style selection is a multi-criteria decision and demands lots of experience in service oriented computing. Decision support systems are good solutions to simplify the selection process of a particular architectural style. Our research suggests a new approach using DSS for selection of architectural styles while developing a web service to cater FRs and NFRs. Our proposed DSS helps architects to select right web service architectural pattern according to the domain and non-functional requirements. In this paper, a rule base DSS has been developed using CLIPS (C Language Integrated Production System) to support decisions using multi-criteria requirements. This DSS takes architectural characteristics, domain requirements and software architect preferences for NFRs as input for different architectural styles in use today in service-oriented computing. Weighted sum model has been applied to prioritize quality attributes and domain requirements. Scores are calculated using multiple criterions to choose the final architecture style.

Keywords: software architecture, web-service, rule-based, DSS, multi-criteria requirements, quality attributes

Procedia PDF Downloads 353

Authors: K. Chethana, A. S. Guru Prasad, S. N. Omkar, B. Vadiraj, S. Asokan

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This paper describes an ab-initio design, development and calibration results of an Optical Sensor Ground Reaction Force Measurement Platform (OSGRFP) for gait and geriatric studies. The developed system employs an array of FBG sensors to measure the respective ground reaction forces from all three axes (X, Y and Z), which are perpendicular to each other. The novelty of this work is two folded. One is in its uniqueness to resolve the tri axial resultant forces during the stance in to the respective pure axis loads and the other is the applicability of inherently advantageous FBG sensors which are most suitable for biomechanical instrumentation. To validate the response of the FBG sensors installed in OSGRFP and to measure the cross sensitivity of the force applied in other directions, load sensors with indicators are used. Further in this work, relevant mathematical formulations are presented for extracting respective ground reaction forces from wavelength shifts/strain of FBG sensors on the OSGRFP. The result of this device has implications in understanding the foot function, identifying issues in gait cycle and measuring discrepancies between left and right foot. The device also provides a method to quantify and compare relative postural stability of different subjects under test, which has implications in post surgical rehabilitation, geriatrics and optimizing training protocols for sports personnel.

Keywords: balance and stability, gait analysis, FBG applications, optical sensor ground reaction force platform

Procedia PDF Downloads 399

Authors: J. Jebunnesa, Y. Budd, T. Mason

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COVID-19 changed the pedagogical expectations of early childhood education as many teachers across Australia had to quickly adapt to new teaching practices such as remote teaching. An important factor in the successful implementation of any new teaching and learning approach is teacher preparation, however, due to the pandemic, the transformation to remote teaching was immediate. A timely question to be asked is how early childhood teachers managed the transition from face-to-face teaching to remote teaching and what was learned through this time. This study explores the experiences of early childhood educators in Australia during COVID-19 lockdowns. Data were collected from an online survey conducted through the official Facebook forum of “Early Childhood Education and Care Australia,” and a constructivist grounded theory methodology was used to analyse the data. Initial research results suggest changing expectations of teachers’ roles and responsibilities during the lockdown, with a significant category related to transitioning teacher identities emerging. The concept of transitioning represents the shift from the role of early childhood educator to educational innovator, essential worker, social worker, and health officer. The findings illustrate the complexity of early childhood educators’ roles during the pandemic.

Keywords: changing role of teachers, constructivist grounded theory, lessons learned, teaching during COVID-19

Procedia PDF Downloads 92

Authors: In-Lee Choi, Min Jae Jeong, Jun Pill Baek, Ho-Min Kang

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As the consumption trends of vegetables become different from the past, it is increased using vegetable more convenience such as fresh-cut vegetables, sprouts, baby vegetables rather than an existing hole piece of vegetables. Selected baby vegetables have various functional materials but they have short shelf life. This study was conducted to improve storability by using suitable laser ablation OTR (oxygen transmission rate) films. Baby vegetable of endive (Cichorium endivia L.) and pak choi (Brassica rapa chinensis) for this research, around 10 cm height, cultivated in glass greenhouse during 3 weeks. Harvested endive and pak choi were stored at 8 ℃ for 5 days and were packed by PP (Polypropylene) container and covered different types of laser ablation OTR film (DaeRyung Co., Ltd.) such as 1,300 cc, 10,000 cc, 20,000 cc, 40,000 cc /m2•day•atm, and control (perforated film) with heat sealing machine (SC200-IP, Kumkang, Korea). All the samples conducted 5 times replication. Statistical analysis was carried out using a Microsoft Excel 2010 program and results were expressed as standard deviations. The fresh weight loss rate of both baby vegetables were less than 0.3 % in treated films as maximum weight loss rate. On the other hands, control in the final storage day had around 3.0 % weight loss rate and it followed decreasing quantity. Endive had less 2.0 % carbon dioxide contents as maximum contents in 20,000 cc and 40,000 cc. Oxygen contents was maintained between 17 and 20 % in endive, 19 and 20 % in pak choi. Ethylene concentration of both vegetables maintained little lower contents in 20,000 cc treatments than others at final storage day without statistical significance. In the case of hardness, 40,000 cc film was shown little higher value at both baby vegetables without statistical significance. Visual quality was good at 10,000 cc and 20,000 cc in endive and pak choi, and off-flavor was not appeard any off-flavor in both vegetables. Chlorophyll (SPAD-502, Minolta, Japan) value of endive was shown as similar result with initial in all treatments except 20,000 cc as little lower. And chlorophyll value of pak choi decreased in all treatments compared with initial value but was not shown significantly difference each other. Color of leaves (CR-400, Minolta, Japan) changed significantly in 40,000 cc at endive. In an event of pak choi, all the treatments started yellowing by increasing hunter b value, among them control increased substantially. As above the result, 10,000 cc film was most reasonable packaging film for storing at endive and 20,000 cc at pak choi with good quality.

Keywords: carbon dioxide, shelf-life, visual quality, pak choi

Procedia PDF Downloads 785

Authors: M. Y. Ismail, Arslan Kiyani

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Narrow bandwidth and high loss performance limits the use of reflectarray antennas in some applications. This article reports on the feasibility of employing strategic reflectarray resonant elements to characterize the reflectivity performance of reflectarrays in X-band frequency range. Strategic reflectarray resonant elements incorporating variable substrate thicknesses ranging from 0.016λ to 0.052λ have been analyzed in terms of reflection loss and reflection phase performance. The effect of substrate thickness has been validated by using waveguide scattering parameter technique. It has been demonstrated that as the substrate thickness is increased from 0.508mm to 1.57mm the measured reflection loss of dipole element decreased from 5.66dB to 3.70dB with increment in 10% bandwidth of 39MHz to 64MHz. Similarly the measured reflection loss of triangular loop element is decreased from 20.25dB to 7.02dB with an increment in 10% bandwidth of 12MHz to 23MHz. The results also show a significant decrease in the slope of reflection phase curve as well. A Figure of Merit (FoM) has also been defined for the comparison of static phase range of resonant elements under consideration. Moreover, a novel numerical model based on analytical equations has been established incorporating the material properties of dielectric substrate and electrical properties of different reflectarray resonant elements to obtain the progressive phase distribution for each individual reflectarray resonant element.

Keywords: numerical model, reflectarray resonant elements, scattering parameter measurements, variable substrate thickness

Procedia PDF Downloads 272

Authors: Bylhah Mugotitsa, Jim Todd, Agnes Kiragga, Jay Greenfield, Evans Omondi, Lukoye Atwoli, Reinpeter Momanyi

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The INSPIRE network aims to build an open, ethical, sustainable, and FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, Reusable) data science platform, particularly for longitudinal mental health (MH) data. While studies have been done at the clinical and population level, there still exists limitations in data and research in LMICs, which pose a risk of underrepresentation of mental disorders. It is vital to examine the existing longitudinal MH data, focusing on how FAIR datasets are. This landscape analysis aimed to provide both overall level of evidence of availability of longitudinal datasets and degree of consistency in longitudinal studies conducted. Utilizing prompters proved instrumental in streamlining the analysis process, facilitating access, crafting code snippets, categorization, and analysis of extensive data repositories related to depression, anxiety, and psychosis in Africa. While leveraging artificial intelligence (AI), we filtered through over 18,000 scientific papers spanning from 1970 to 2023. This AI-driven approach enabled the identification of 228 longitudinal research papers meeting inclusion criteria. Quality assurance revealed 10% incorrectly identified articles and 2 duplicates, underscoring the prevalence of longitudinal MH research in South Africa, focusing on depression. From the analysis, evaluating data and metadata adherence to FAIR principles remains crucial for enhancing accessibility and quality of MH research in Africa. While AI has the potential to enhance research processes, challenges such as privacy concerns and data security risks must be addressed. Ethical and equity considerations in data sharing and reuse are also vital. There’s need for collaborative efforts across disciplinary and national boundaries to improve the Findability and Accessibility of data. Current efforts should also focus on creating integrated data resources and tools to improve Interoperability and Reusability of MH data. Practical steps for researchers include careful study planning, data preservation, machine-actionable metadata, and promoting data reuse to advance science and improve equity. Metrics and recognition should be established to incentivize adherence to FAIR principles in MH research

Keywords: longitudinal mental health research, data sharing, fair data principles, Africa, landscape analysis

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Authors: Erhan Zor, Funda Copur, Asli I. Dogan, Haluk Bingol

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Current trends in the wide-scale sensing technologies rely on the development of miniaturized, rapid and easy-to-use sensing platforms. Quantum dots (QDs) with strong and easily tunable luminescence and high emission quantum yields have become a well-established photoluminescent nanomaterials for sensor applications. Although the majority of the reports focused on the cadmium-based QDs which have toxic effect on biological systems and eventually would cause serious environmental problems, carbon-based quantum dots (CQDs) that do not contain any toxic class elements have attracted substantial research interest in recent years. CQDs are small carbon nanostructures (less than 10 nm in size) with various unique properties and are widely-used in different fields during the last few years. In this respect, chiral nanostructures have become a promising class of materials in various areas such as pharmacology, catalysis, bioanalysis and (bio)sensor technology due to the vital importance of chirality in living systems. We herein report the synthesis of chiral CQDs with D- or L-tartaric acid as precursor materials. The optimum experimental conditions were examined and the purification procedure was performed using ethanol/water by column chromatography. The purified chiral CQDs were characterized by UV-Vis, FT-IR, XPS, PL and TEM techniques. The resultants display different photoluminescent characteristics due to the size and conformational difference. Considering the results, it can be concluded that chiral CQDs is expected to be used as optical chiral sensor in different platforms.

Keywords: carbon quantum dots, chirality, sensor, tartaric acid

Procedia PDF Downloads 236

Authors: Chen Bo, Wen Zengping

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Based on the results of previous studies, we focus on the research of real ground motion selection and scaling method for structural performance-based seismic evaluation using nonlinear dynamic analysis. The input of earthquake ground motion should be determined appropriately to make them compatible with the site-specific hazard level considered. Thus, an optimized selection and scaling method are established including the use of not only Monte Carlo simulation method to create the stochastic simulation spectrum considering the multivariate lognormal distribution of target spectrum, but also a spectral shape parameter. Its applications in structural fragility analysis are demonstrated through case studies. Compared to the previous scheme with no consideration of the uncertainty of target spectrum, the method shown here can make sure that the selected records are in good agreement with the median value, standard deviation and spectral correction of the target spectrum, and greatly reveal the uncertainty feature of site-specific hazard level. Meanwhile, it can help improve computational efficiency and matching accuracy. Given the important infection of target spectrum’s uncertainty on structural seismic fragility analysis, this work can provide the reasonable and reliable basis for structural seismic evaluation under scenario earthquake environment.

Keywords: ground motion selection, scaling method, seismic fragility analysis, spectral shape

Procedia PDF Downloads 287

Authors: Nagwa Mourad Abdelazeem, Marwa El-hussieny

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Multicomponent reactions (MCRs), one-pot reactions form products from more than two different starting compounds. (MCRs) are ideal reaction systems leading to high structural diversity and molecular complexity through a single transformation. (MCRs) have a lot of advantage such as higher yield, less waste generation, use of readily available starting materials and high atom. (MCRs) provide a rapid process for efficient synthesis of key structures in discovery of drug on the other hand silica sulfuric acid (SSA) has been used as an efficient heterogeneous catalyst for many organic transformations. (SSA) is low cost, ease of preparation, catalyst recycling, and ease of handling, so in this article we used 2-(thiophen-2-yl)-1H-indole, N-substituted anilines and aldehyde in the presence of silica sulfuric acid (SSA) as a catalyst in water as solvent at room temperature to prepare 3,3'-(phenylmethylene)bis(2-(thiophen-2-yl)-1H-indole) and N-methyl-4-(phenyl(2-(thiophen-2-yl)-1H-indol-3-yl)methyl)aniline derivatives Via one-pot reaction. Compound 2-(thiophen-2-yl)-1H-indole belongs to the ubiquitous class of indoles which enjoy broad synthetic, biological and industrial applications ]. Cancer is considered the first or second most common reason of death all through the world. So the synthesized compounds will be tested as anticancer. We expected the synthesized compounds will give good results comparison to the reference drug.

Keywords: aldehydes, aza-friedel-crafts reaction, indole, multicomponent reaction

Procedia PDF Downloads 86

Authors: Belete B. Beyene, Ayenew M. Mihirteu, Misganaw T. Ayana, Amogne W. Yibeltal

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Modification of synthetic porphyrins is one of the promising strategies in an attempt to get molecules with desired properties and applications. Here in, we report synthesis, photophysical characterization and antibacterial activity of 5, 10, 15, 20-tetrakis-(4- methoxy carbonyl phenyl) porphyrin M(II); where M = Co, Fe, Ni, Zn. Metallation of the ligand was confirmed by using UV–Vis spectroscopy and ESI-Ms measurement, in which the number of Q bands in absorption spectra of the ligand decreased from four to one or two as a result of metal insertion to the porphyrin core. The antibacterial activity study of the complexes toward two Gram-positive (Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus) and Streptococcus pyogenes (s. pyogenes)) and two Gram-negative (Escherichia coli (E. coli) and Klebsiella pneumoniae (K. pneumoniae)) bacteria by disc diffusion method showed a promising inhibitory activity. The complexes exhibited highest activities at highest concentration and were better than the activity of free base ligand, the salts, and blank solution. This could be explained on the basis of Overton's concept of cell permeability and Tweed's Chelation theory. An increased lipo-solubility enhances the penetration of the complexes into the lipid membrane and interferes with the normal activities of the bacteria. Our study, therefore, showed that the growth inhibitory effect of these metalloporphyrins is generally in order of ZnTPPCOOMe > NiTPPCOOMe > CoTPPCOOMe> FeTPPCOOMe, which may be attributed to the better lipophilicity and binding of the complex with the cellular components.

Keywords: porphyrins, metalloporphyrins, spectral property, antibacterial activity, synthesis

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Authors: Erol Karaca

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This study aims to analyze ceramic employees’ occupational health and safety training expectations. To that general objective, the study tries to examine whether occupational health and safety training expectations of ceramic employees meaningfully differentiate depending on demographic features and professional, social and economic conditions. For this purpose, the research data was collected through “Questionnaire of Occupational Health and Safety Training Expectation” (QSOHSTE) consisting of 25 open and close-ended questions developed by the researcher on the base of the literature review. QSOHSTE was applied to 125 ceramic employees working in Kutahya, Turkey. Data obtained from questionnaires were analyzed via SPSS 21. The findings, obtained from the study, revealed that employees’ agreement level to occupational health and safety training expectation statements is generally high-level. These findings also reveals that employees have various expectations about occupational health and safety training. These expectations are increasing sensitivity towards occupational health and safety training about the prevention of occupational accidents and diseases, contributing occupational health and safety training in establishing healthy and safe working environment, requiring occupational health and safety training before starting work, in case of changing working equipment and new technological applications, necessity of measurement and evaluation after occupational health and safety training. Besides these findings, employees’ agreement level to occupational health and safety training expectation statements also varies in terms of educational level, professional seniority, income level and perception of economic condition.

Keywords: occupational health and safety, occupational training, occupational expectation, professional seniority

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Authors: E. K. Hardwick, L. B. Siwela, J. G. Falconer, M. E. Mathibela, W. Rolfe

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Lithium-ion battery (LiB) demand has increased with the advancement in technologies. The applications include electric vehicles, cell phones, laptops, and many more devices. Typical components of the cathodes include lithium, cobalt, nickel, and manganese. Recycling the spent LiBs is necessary to reduce the ecological footprint of their production and use and to have a secondary source of valuable metals. A hydrometallurgical method was investigated for the recovery of cobalt and nickel from LiB cathodes. The cathodes were leached using a chloride solution. Ion exchange was then used to recover the chloro-complexes of the metals. The aim of the research was to determine the efficiency of a chloride leach, as well as ion exchange operating capacities that can be achieved for LiB recycling, and to establish the optimal operating conditions (ideal pH, temperature, leachate and eluant, flowrate, and reagent concentrations) for the recovery of the cathode metals. It was found that the leaching of the cathodes could be hindered by the formation of refractory metal oxides of cathode components. A reducing agent was necessary to improve the leaching rate and efficiency. Leaching was achieved using various chloride-containing solutions. The chloro-complexes were absorbed by the ion exchange resin and eluted to produce concentrated cobalt, nickel, lithium, and manganese streams. Chromatographic separation of these elements was achieved. Further work is currently underway to determine the optimal operating conditions for the recovery by ion exchange.

Keywords: cobalt, ion exchange, leachate formation, lithium-ion batteries, manganese, nickel

Procedia PDF Downloads 94

Authors: Ziya Uddin

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This paper deals with the theoretical and numerical investigation of magneto-hydrodynamic boundary layer flow of a nano fluid past a wedge shaped wick in heat pipe used for the cooling of electronic components and different type of machines. To incorporate the effect of nanoparticle diameter, concentration of nanoparticles in the pure fluid, nano thermal layer formed around the nanoparticle and Brownian motion of nano particles etc., appropriate models are used for the effective thermal and physical properties of nano fluids. To model the rotation of nano particles inside the base fluid, microfluidics theory is used. In this investigation ethylene glycol (EG) based nanofluids, are taken into account. The non-linear equations governing the flow and heat transfer are solved by using a very effective particle swarm optimization technique along with Runge-Kutta method. The values of heat transfer coefficient are found for different parameters involved in the formulation viz. nanoparticle concentration, nanoparticle size, magnetic field and wedge angle etc. It is found that the wedge angle, presence of magnetic field, nanoparticle size and nanoparticle concentration etc. have prominent effects on fluid flow and heat transfer characteristics for the considered configuration.

Keywords: nanofluids, wedge shaped wick, heat pipe, numerical modeling, particle swarm optimization, nanofluid applications, Heat transfer

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Authors: Ramesh Subramani, Mathivanan Narayanasamy, William Aalbersberg

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It is well accepted by last 35 years of research and on-going programmes that marine environment harbours abundant and unique biodiversity, which is currently playing as an important source in bioprospecting. It has become apparent that marine microorganisms are lead in the biodiscovery. Among marine organisms, actinobacteria are a target phylum for discovering novel antibiotics against increasing the multi-drug resistant human pathogens because of these taxa representing for novel genera and species. Marine actinomycetes are a proven source of new antibiotic leads and novel enzymes with important industrial applications. A total of 183 streptomycete and 25 non-streptomycete strains were isolated from different marine samples collected from north-eastern part of the Indian Ocean. Among them, 111 isolates displayed antibacterial activity against human pathogens and 151 exhibited antifungal activity against phytopathogens. Importantly, most of them produced various extracellular enzymes and 58 of them produced exopolysaccharides. Totally eight small bioactive compounds and a thermostable alkaline protease have been purified from a selected strain, Streptomyces fungicidicus. Besides, our on-going studies on non-streptomycete strains (rare actinomycetes) are most likely promising resource for new and unique compounds against current emerging drug-resistant pathogens. We have just recognised the chemical diversity in marine microorganisms. Therefore it is worthwhile to continue the exploration of marine microorganisms for new drug leads, novel enzymes and other bioprospecting research.

Keywords: bioactive compounds, industrial enzymes, marine actinobacteria, microbial metabolites, marine natural products

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Authors: A. A. Balkhi, G. M. Mir, Javid A. Sheikh

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To cater the demands of increasing traffic with new applications the cellular mobile networks face new changes in deployment in infrastructure for making cellular networks heterogeneous. To reduce overhead processing the densely deployed cells require smart behavior with self-organizing capabilities with high adaptation to the neighborhood. We propose self-organization of unused resources usually excessive unused channels of neighbouring cells with densely populated cells to reduce handover failure rates. The neighboring cells share unused channels after fulfilling some conditional candidature criterion using threshold values so that they are not suffered themselves for starvation of channels in case of any abrupt change in traffic pattern. The cells are classified as ‘red’, ‘yellow’, or ‘green’, as per the available channels in cell which is governed by traffic pattern and thresholds. To combat the deficiency of channels in red cell, migration of unused channels from under-loaded cells, hierarchically from the qualified candidate neighboring cells is explored. The resources are returned back when the congested cell is capable of self-contained traffic management. In either of the cases conditional sharing of resources is executed for enhanced traffic management so that User Equipment (UE) is provided uninterrupted services with high Quality of Service (QoS). The fuzzy logic-based simulation results show that the proposed algorithm is efficiently in coincidence with improved successful handoffs.

Keywords: candidate cell, channel sharing, fuzzy logic, handover, small cells

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Authors: Alok Khaware, Vinay Kumar Gupta, Jean Noel Pederzani

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Lifeboat launching from marine vessel or offshore platform is one of the important areas of research in offshore applications. With the advancement of computational fluid dynamic simulation (CFD) technology to solve fluid induced motions coupled with Six Degree of Freedom (6DOF), rigid body dynamics solver, it is now possible to predict the motion of the lifeboat precisely in different challenging conditions. Traditionally dynamic remeshing approach is used to solve this kind of problems, but remeshing approach has some bottlenecks to control good quality mesh in transient moving mesh cases. In the present study, an overset method with higher-order interpolation is used to simulate a lifeboat launched from an offshore platform into calm water, and volume of fluid (VOF) method is used to track free surface. Overset mesh consists of a set of overlapping component meshes, which allows complex geometries to be meshed with lesser effort. Good quality mesh with local refinement is generated at the beginning of the simulation and stay unchanged throughout the simulation. Overset mesh accuracy depends on the precise interpolation technique; the present study includes a robust and accurate least square interpolation method and results obtained with overset mesh shows good agreement with experiment.

Keywords: computational fluid dynamics, free surface flow, lifeboat launching, overset mesh, volume of fluid

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Authors: Nazanin Gerami, Shirin Adlparvar

Abstract:

In the present time in the laboratory, one can create an ionized gas, that is to say, plasma from room temperature up to ten times more than the temperature of the sun center (150,000,000). All these temperature spectrums of plasma have applications in different disciplines, including dentistry, medicine, science, surface treatment, nuclear waste disinfection, nuclear fusion technology, etc. However, for the sick of simplicity, all these plasma temperature spectrums are classified as cold or low-pressure non-thermal plasma and warm or high-pressure equilibrium plasma. The cold plasma, as we are interested in this paper, exists at lower ion and neutral temperatures with respect to electron temperature, but in the equilibrium plasma, the temperatures of ion and electron are fairly equal. The cold plasma is a partially ionized gas comprising ions, electrons, ultraviolet photons and reactive neutrals such as radicals, excited and ground-state molecules. Cold atmospheric pressure plasmas are widely used in diverse fields of dental medicine, such as the titanium surface of dental implants, which helps in reducing contact angle and supporting the spread of osteoblastic cells and is known to aid in osteoblastic proliferation and osseointegration, thus increasing the success rates of implants. This article focuses on the anticipated uses of a newly designed water-cooled adjustable cathode cold atmospheric pressure plasma Jet (CAPPJ) for titanium surface treatment in dental implant placement.

Keywords: CAPPJ, surface modification, osseointegration, plasma medicine, dentistry

Procedia PDF Downloads 138

Authors: Xinwen Zhu, Xingguang Li, Sun Yi

Abstract:

Crack is one of the most common damages in buildings, bridges, roads and so on, which may pose safety hazards. However, cracks frequently happen in structures of various materials. Traditional methods of manual detection and measurement, which are known as subjective, time-consuming, and labor-intensive, are gradually unable to meet the needs of modern development. In addition, crack detection and measurement need be safe considering space limitations and danger. Intelligent crack detection has become necessary research. In this paper, an efficient method for crack detection and quantification using a 3D sensor, LiDAR, and depth camera is proposed. This method works even in a dark environment, which is usual in real-world applications. The LiDAR rapidly spins to scan the surrounding environment and discover cracks through lasers thousands of times per second, providing a rich, 3D point cloud in real-time. The LiDAR provides quite accurate depth information. The precision of the distance of each point can be determined within around  ±3 cm accuracy, and not only it is good for getting a precise distance, but it also allows us to see far of over 100m going with the top range models. But the accuracy is still large for some high precision structures of material. To make the depth of crack is much more accurate, the depth camera is in need. The cracks are scanned by the depth camera at the same time. Finally, all data from LiDAR and Depth cameras are analyzed, and the size of the cracks can be quantified successfully. The comparison shows that the minimum and mean absolute percentage error between measured and calculated width are about 2.22% and 6.27%, respectively. The experiments and results are presented in this paper.

Keywords: LiDAR, depth camera, real-time, detection and measurement

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Authors: Ahmed R. Ballil

Abstract:

Heat exchangers are devices used to transfer heat between two fluids. These devices are utilized in many engineering and industrial applications such as heating, cooling, condensation and boiling processes. The fluids might be in direct contact (mixed), or they separated by a solid wall to avoid mixing. In the present paper, interactive computer-aided design of shell and tube heat exchangers is developed using Visual Basic computer code as a framework. This design is based on the Bell-Delaware method, which is one of the very well known methods reported in the literature for the design of shell and tube heat exchangers. Physical properties for either the tube or the shell side fluids are internally evaluated by calling on an enormous data bank composed of more than a hundred fluid compounds. This contributes to increase the accuracy of the present design. The international system of units is considered in the developed computer program. The present design has an added feature of being capable of performing modification based upon a preset design criterion, such that an optimum design is obtained at satisfying constraints set either by the user or by the method itself. Also, the present code is capable of giving an estimate of the approximate cost of the heat exchanger based on the predicted surface area of the exchanger evaluated by the program. Finally, the present thermal and hydraulic design code is tested for accuracy and consistency against some of existed and approved designs of shell and tube heat exchangers.

Keywords: bell-delaware method, heat exchangers, shell and tube, thermal and hydraulic design

Procedia PDF Downloads 142

Authors: Hameda Suwaed

Abstract:

Group work, time management and accepting others' opinions are practices rooted in the socio-political culture of democratic nations. In Libya, a country transitioning towards democracy, what is the impact of encouraging college students to use such practices in the English language classroom? How to encourage teachers to use such practices in educational system characterized by using traditional methods of teaching? Using action research and classroom research gathered data; this study investigates how teachers can use education to change their students' understanding of their roles in their society by enhancing their belonging to it. This study adjusts a model of change that includes giving students clear directions, sufficient motivation and supportive environment. These steps were applied by encouraging students to participate actively in the classroom by using group work and variety of activities. The findings of the study showed that following the suggested model can broaden students' perception of their belonging to their environment starting with their classroom and ending with their country. In conclusion, although this was a small scale study, the students' participation in the classroom shows that they gained self confidence in using practices such as group work, how to present their ideas and accepting different opinions. What was remarkable is that most students were aware that is what we need in Libya nowadays.

Keywords: educational change, students' motivation, group work, foreign language teaching

Procedia PDF Downloads 413

Authors: H. Solomon, A. Abdul-Latif, R. Baleh, I. Deiab, K. Khanafer

Abstract:

Aluminum foams were developed and tested due to their high energy absorption abilities for multifunctional applications. The aim of this research work was to investigate experimentally the effect of quasi-static biaxial loading complexity (combined compression-torsion) on the energy absorption capacity of highly uniform architecture open-cell aluminum foam manufactured by kelvin cell model. The two generated aluminum foams have 80% and 85% porosities, spherical-shaped pores having 11mm in diameter. These foams were tested by means of several square-section specimens. A patented rig called ACTP (Absorption par Compression-Torsion Plastique), was used to investigate the foam response under quasi-static complex loading paths having different torsional components (i.e., 0°, 37° and 53°). The main mechanical responses of the aluminum foams were studied under simple, intermediate and severe loading conditions. In fact, the key responses to be examined were stress plateau and energy absorption capacity of the two foams with respect to loading complexity. It was concluded that the higher the loading complexity and the higher the relative density, the greater the energy absorption capacity of the foam. The highest energy absorption was thus recorded under the most complicated loading path (i.e., biaxial-53°) for the denser foam (i.e., 80% porosity).

Keywords: open-cell aluminum foams, biaxial loading complexity, foams porosity, energy absorption capacity, characterization

Procedia PDF Downloads 117