Search results for: Cahn-Hilliard method

Authors: Lo Kar Yin, Law Ka Mei

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Architectural, engineering, construction and operations (AECO) industry practitioners have been well adapting to the dynamic construction market from the fundamental training of its discipline. As further triggered by the pandemic since 2019, great steps are taken in virtual environment and the best collaboration is strived with project teams without boundaries. With adoption of Building Information Modeling-based approach and qualitative analysis, this paper is to review quantity take-off and cost estimation process through modeling techniques in liaison with suppliers, fabricators, subcontractors, contractors, designers, consultants and services providers in the construction industry value chain for automatic project cost budgeting, project cost control and cost evaluation on design options of in-situ reinforced-concrete construction and Modular Integrated Construction (MiC) at design stage, variation of works and cash flow/spending analysis at construction stage as far as practicable, with a view to sharing the findings for enhancing mutual trust and co-operation among AECO industry practitioners. It is to foster development through a common prototype of design and build project delivery method in NEC Engineering and Construction Contract (ECC) Options A and C.

Keywords: building information modeling, cost estimation, quantity take-off, modeling techniques

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Authors: Talal Alhajri, Mahmood M. Tahir, Khaled Alenezi, Mohamad Ragaee

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This work presents the experimental tests carried out to evaluate the behaviour of different types of shear connectors proposed for cold formed steel (CFS) section integrated with ferrocement slab as potential used for composite beam. Ten push-out test specimens of cold-formed steel lipped channel sections connected with ferrocement slab were tested. Three types of shear connectors were studied comprised of bolts, self-drilling-screw and bar angle. The connection behavior is analysed in terms of its load-slip relationship and the failure mode. The parametric studies were performed to investigate the effect on the shear connector’s capacity by varying the number of layers of wire mesh used in ferrocement slab and types of shear connector used. An analytical analysis using ANSYS program and theoretical analysis (Eurocode 4) were carried out to verify the experiment results. The results show that the experimental, theoretical, and numerical values proved to have good agreement with each other.

Keywords: cold-formed steel, composite beam, ferrocement, finite element method, push-out test, shear connector

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Authors: Sachin Saxena, Manju Srivastava

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The present study describes a stable, highly sensitive and selective analytical sensor. Fe-BTC was synthesized at room temperature using the noble Iron-trimesate system. The high surface area of as synthesized Fe-BTC proved MOFs as ideal modifiers for glassy carbon electrode. The characterization techniques such as TGA, XRD, FT-IR, BET (BET surface area= 1125 m2/gm) analysis explained the electrocatalytic behaviour of Fe-BTC towards these two drugs. The material formed is cost effective and exhibit higher catalytic behaviour towards analyte systems. The synergism between synthesized Fe-BTC and electroanalytical techniques helped in developing a highly sensitive analytical method for studying the redox fate of ARP and RZ, respectively. Cyclic voltammetry of ferricyanide system proved Fe-BTC/GCE with an increase in 132% enhancement in peak current value as compared to that of GCE. The response characteristics of cyclic voltammetry (CV) and square wave voltammetry (SWV) revealed that the ARP and RZ could be effectively accumulated at Fe-BTC/GCE. On the basis of the electrochemical measurements, electrode dynamics parameters have been evaluated. Present study opens up new field of applications of MOFs modified GCE for drug sensing.

Keywords: MOFs, anti-psychotic, electrochemical sensor, anti-migraine drugs

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Authors: Tai-Young Park, Yangjin Park

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Introduction: This study analyzed a family therapy case involving a female client in her thirties with panic disorder (PD) in South Korea. We identified five stages of the psychological process in the development of PD and examined external situations, family dynamics, and psychological experiences at each stage. Method: The client, mother, sister, and husband participated in therapy. Researchers analyzed the transcripts, notes, and video recordings of the therapy sessions. A thematic analysis was used to examine the data and display our findings using a network. Results: The developmental process of PD was as follows: (1) formation of anxiety, (2) sheltered life, (3) crisis, (4) loss of safe haven, and (5) inner breakdown. Conclusion: The family dynamics that developed as a result of coping with external situations in each stage contributed to clients’ psychological experiences. These psychological experiences triggered anxiety, which led to the development of PD. Moreover, this study empirically suggests that family dynamics can be associated with a person’s internal experiences that could lead to PD. Our findings highlight the significance of functional family dynamics and coping patterns when facing difficult external situations or crises.

Keywords: developmental process, family therapy, panic disorder, psychological dynamics

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Authors: Noratiqah Mohd Ariff, Abdul Aziz Jemain, Mohd Aftar Abu Bakar

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The construction of Intensity-Duration-Frequency (IDF) curves is one of the most common and useful tools in order to design hydraulic structures and to provide a mathematical relationship between rainfall characteristics. IDF curves, especially those in Peninsular Malaysia, are often built using moving windows of rainfalls. However, these windows do not represent the actual rainfall events since the duration of rainfalls is usually prefixed. Hence, instead of using moving windows, this study aims to find regionalized distributions for IDF curves of extreme rainfalls based on storm events. Homogeneity test is performed on annual maximum of storm intensities to identify homogeneous regions of storms in Peninsular Malaysia. The L-moment method is then used to regionalized Generalized Extreme Value (GEV) distribution of these annual maximums and subsequently. IDF curves are constructed using the regional distributions. The differences between the IDF curves obtained and IDF curves found using at-site GEV distributions are observed through the computation of the coefficient of variation of root mean square error, mean percentage difference and the coefficient of determination. The small differences implied that the construction of IDF curves could be simplified by finding a general probability distribution of each region. This will also help in constructing IDF curves for sites with no rainfall station.

Keywords: IDF curves, L-moments, regionalization, storm events

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Authors: Habtamu Abdisa

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In nature, water may not be free from contaminants due to its polar nature. But, more than this, the environmental water is highly polluted by manmade activities from industrial, agricultural, recreation, shipping, and domestic sites, thereby increasing the shortage of freshwater for designated purposes. Therefore, in the face of water scarcity, human beings are enforced to look at all the existing opportunities to get an adequate amount of freshwater resources. The most probable water resource is wastewater, from which the water can be recovered to serve designated purposes (for industrial, agricultural, drinking, and other domestic uses). Present-day, the most preferable method for recovering water from different wastewater streams for re-use is membrane technology. This paper looks at the progressive development of membrane technology in wastewater treatment. The applications of pressure-driven membrane separation technology (microfiltration, ultrafiltration, nano-filtration, reverse osmosis, and tissue purification) and no pressure membrane separation technology (semipermeable membrane, liquefiedfilm, and electro-dialysis) and also ion-exchange were reviewed. More than all, the technology for converting environmental water pollutants into energy is of considerable attention. Finally, recommendations for future research relating to the application of membrane technology in wastewater treatment were made. Also, further research recommendation about membrane fouling and cleaning was made.

Keywords: environmental pollution, membrane technology, water quality, wastewater

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Authors: Amin Nakhostin-Ansari, Samaneh Akbarour, Khosro Sadeghniiat Haghighi, Zahra Banafsheh Alemohammad, Farnaz Etesam, Arezu Najafi, Mahnaz Khalafehnilsaz

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Introduction: The outbreak of coronavirus disease has considerably burdened the healthcare system in Iran. This study aimed to evaluate the characteristics of insomnia experienced by the general Iranian population during the COVID-19 pandemic. Method: A scale(FCV-19) was used for Fear of COVID-19, Insomnia Severity Index (ISI), Patient Health Questionnaire-2 (PHQ-2), and Generalized Anxiety Disorder Scale-2 (GAD-2) for detailed characterization of insomnia and its patterns Results: In total, 675 people with insomnia with the mean age of 40.28 years (SD=11.15) participated in this study. Prevalence of difficulty initiating sleep (DIS), difficulty maintaining sleep (DMS), and early morning awakening (EMA) were 91.4%, 86.7%, and 77%, respectively. DIS, DMS, and EMA were more common in people with depression and anxiety. FCV-19 score was higher in those with more severe types of DIS, DMS, and EMA (P<0.001). FCV-19 was a risk factor for all patterns of insomnia (OR=1.19, 1.12, 1.02 for DIS, DMS, and EMA, respectively). Conclusion: fear of COVID-19 is a major factor to insomnia patterns. Investigation of COVID-19 fear in people with insomnia and the addition of attributed relieving or management strategies to conventional management of insomnia are reasonable approaches to improve the sleep condition of people in the pandemic.

Keywords: insomnia, difficulty maintaining sleep, COVID-19, Coronavirus

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Authors: Faranak Omidian

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The aim of this research was to examine the quality of education service at master's level in the Islamic Azad University of Dezful. In terms of objective, this is an applied research and in regard to methodology, it is a descriptive analytical research. The statistical population included all students of master's degree in the Islamic Azad University of Dezful. The sample size was determined using stratified random sampling method in different fields of study. The research questionnaire is the translated version of standardized Abdullah's HEdPERF 41-item scale which is based on a 5-point Likert scale. In order to determine the validity, the translated questionnaire was given to the professors of educational sciences. The correlation among all questions has been regarded at a value of 0.644. The results showed that the quality of educational service at master's level in this university, based on chi-square goodness of fit test, was equal to 73.36 and its degree of freedom was 2 at a significant level of 0.001, indicating the low desirability of the services. According to Friedman test, academic responsiveness has been reported to be in a higher status than other dimensions with an average rank of 3.94 while accessibility, with an average rank of 2.15, has been in the lowest status from master's students' viewpoint.

Keywords: educational service quality, master's level, Iranian university

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Authors: T. D. Tran, H. Schlegel, R. Neugebauer

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Ball screws are an important component in machine tools. In mechatronic systems and machine tools, a ball screw has to work usually at a high speed. Otherwise the axial compliance of the ball screw, in combination with the inertia of the slide, the motor, the coupling and the screw, will cause an oscillation resonance, which limits the systems bandwidth and consequently influences performance of the motion controller. In this paper, the modal analysis method by measuring and analysing the vibrating parameters of the ball screw system to determine the dynamic characteristic of existing structures is used. On the one hand, the results of this study were obtained by the theoretical analysis and the modal testing of a ball screw system test station with the help of an impact hammer, respectively using excitation by motor. The experimental study showed oscillating forms of the ball screw for each frequency and obtained eigenfrequencies of the ball screw system. On the other hand, in this research a simulation with the help of the numerical modal analysis in order to analyse the oscillation and to find the eigenfrequencies of the ball screw system is used. Furthermore, the model order reduction by modal reduction and also according to Guyan is carried out. On the basis of these results a secure and also rapid commissioning of the control loops with regard to operating in their optimal function is targeted.

Keywords: modal analysis, ball screw, controller system, machine tools

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Authors: Mawande Dlali

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This paper examines the request strategies in commuter discourse involving taxi drivers and passengers in Khayelitsha as well as the responses to these requests. The present study considers requests in commuter transport as face threatening acts (FTAs), hence the need for the commuter crew to strategically shape their communicative actions to achieve their overall discourse goal of getting passengers to perform actions that are in their own interest with minimum resistance or confrontation. The crew presents itself by using communicative devices that prompt the passengers to evaluate it positively as warm, friendly, and respectful. However, the passengers' responses to requests range from compliance to resistance depending on their interpretation of the speaker’s motive and the probable social consequences. Participant observation by the researcher was the main method of collecting examples of requests and responses to the requests. Unstructured interviews and informal discussions were made with randomly selected taxi drivers and commuters. The findings and explanations presented in this article revealed the predominance of polite requests as speech acts in taxi discourse in Khayelitsha. This research makes a contribution to the contemporary pragmatics study of African languages in urban context.

Keywords: face threatening acts, speech acts, request strategies, discourse

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Authors: Rasha S. Kamal, Reham I. El-Shazly, Reem K. Farag

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Green nano-branched structural compounds were synthesized by adding 1% by weight of clay nanoparticle to different moles ratios of either dodecyl acrylate or triethylenetetramine using a simple one-pot method. The synthesized nano polymers were provided with different terminations. In order to confirm the chemical structure of the produced nanocomposites, FTIR and 1HNMR spectroscopy were performed. Additionally, Dynamic Light Scattering (DLS) analysis was used to assess the size and dispersion of the produced branching nano polymers. Using a Gel-permeation chromatograph, the molecular weights of the produced modified green nano hyperbranched polymer with various terminations were determined. the prepared nano samples with different molar feed ratios dodecyl acrylate: triethylenetetramine (DDA: TETA) was designed as An, Bn, Cn, Dn and En. Moreover, the synthesized compounds are expressed as viscosity index improvers (VII); The VI rises when prepared additive concentrations in the solution improve, as does the VI as prepared hyperbranched polymers' triethylenetetramine content rises, and the most effective VI is (E). All of the synthesized green hyperbranched nanocomposites have Newtonian rheological behavior as their rheological behavior.

Keywords: green hyperbranched polymer, DLS, viscosity index improver, Michael addition, nano clay

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Authors: Dan Wang

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Sandplay therapy is a Jungian psychological therapy developed by Dora Kalff in 1956. In sandplay therapy, the client first makes a sandtray with various miniatures and then has a communication with the therapist based on the sandtray. The special method makes sandplay therapy has great assessment potential. With regarding that the core treatment hypothesis of sandplay therapy - the self-healing power, is very similar to resilience. This study tries to use sandplay to evaluate psychological resilience. Participants are 107 undergraduates recruited from three public universities in China who were required to make an initial sandtray and to complete the Ego-Resiliency Scale (ER89) respectively. First, a 28- category General Sandtray Coding Manual (GSCM) was developed based on literature on sandplay therapy. Next, using GSCM to code the 107 initial sandtrays and conducted correlation analysis and regression analysis between all GSCM categories and ER89. Results show three categories (i.e., vitality, water types, and relationships) of sandplay account for 36.6% of the variance of ego-resilience and form the four-point Likert-type Sandtray Projective Test of Resilience (SPTR). Finally, it is found that SPTR dimensions and total score all have good inter-rater reliability, ranging from 0.89 to 0.93. This study provides an alternative approach to measure psychological resilience and can help to guide clinical social work.

Keywords: sandplay therapy, psychological resilience, measurement, college students

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Authors: Meng Sun, Bin Wei

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In the past decades, design-build has become a more popular project delivery system especially for the large scaled infrastructure project in North America. It provides a one-stop shopping system for the client therefore improves the efficiency of construction, and reduces the risks and overall cost for the clients. Compared to the project with traditional delivery method, design-build project requires contractor and designer to work together efficiently to deliver the best-value solutions through the construction process. How to facilitate a solid integration and efficient interaction between contractor and designer often affects the schedule, budget and quality of the construction therefore becomes a key factor to the success of a design-build project. This paper presents a concept of using modern mobile cloud technology to provide an integrated solution during the design-build construction. It uses mobile cloud architecture to provide a platform for real-time field progress, change request approval, job progress log, and project time entry with devices integration for field information and communications. The paper uses a real filed change notice as an example to demonstrate how mobile cloud technology applies in a design-build project and how it can improve the project efficiency.

Keywords: cloud, design-build, field change notice, mobile application

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Authors: Ashraf Ali, Kriti Upadhyay, Puja Sohal, Anant Mohan, Randeep Guleria

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Background: Gene silencing by aberrant promoter hypermethylation is common in lung cancer and is an initiating event in its development. Aim: To evaluate the gene promoter hypermethylation frequency in serum and tissue of lung cancer patients. Method: 95 newly diagnosed untreated advance stage lung cancer patients and 50 cancer free matched controls were studied. Bisulfite modification of tissue and serum DNA was done; modified DNA was used as a template for methylation-specific PCR analysis. Survival was assessed for one year. Results: Of 95 patients, 82% were non-small cell lung cancer (34% squamous cell carcinoma, 34% non-small cell lung cancer and 14% adenocarcinoma) and 18% were small cell lung cancer. Biopsy revealed that tissue of 89% and 75% of lung cancer patients and 85% and 52% of controls had promoter hypermethylated for MGMT (p=0.35) and p16(p<0.001) gene, respectively. In serum, 33% and 49% of lung cancer patients and 28% and 43% controls were positive for MGMT and p16 gene. No significant correlation was found between survival and clinico-pathological parameters. Conclusion: High gene promoter methylation frequency of p16 gene in tissue biopsy may be linked with early stages of carcinogenesis. Appropriate follow-up is required for confirmation of this finding.

Keywords: lung cancer, MS- PCR, methylation, molecular biology

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Authors: Rutanachai Thaipratum

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Free radicals are atoms or molecules with unpaired electrons. Many diseases are caused by free radicals. Normally, free radical formation is controlled naturally by various beneficial compounds known as antioxidants. Several analytical methods have been used for qualitative and quantitative determination of antioxidants, and each has its own specificity. This project aimed to evaluate antioxidant activity of ethanolic and aqueous extracts from the rice paddy herb (Limnophila aromatica (Lam.) Merr.) measured by DPPH and Hydroxyl radical scavenging method. The results showed that averaged antioxidant activity measured in ethanolic extract (µmol Ascorbic acid equivalent/g fresh mass) were 67.09± 4.99 and 15.55±4.82 as determined by DPPH and Hydroxyl radical scavenging activity assays, respectively. Averaged antioxidant activity measured in aqueous extract (µmol Ascorbic acid equivalent/g fresh mass) were 21.08±1.25 and 10.14±3.94 as determined by DPPH and Hydroxyl radical scavenging activity assays respectively.

Keywords: free radical, antioxidant, rice paddy herb, Limnophila aromatica (Lam.) Merr.

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Authors: Ahmad Badawi Saluy

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This study aims to develop strategies for the prevention or elimination of environmental pollution as well as changes in external variables of the environment in order to implement the environmental management system ISO 14001:2004 by integrating analysis of environmental issues data, RKL-RPL transactional data and regulation as part of ERP on the management dashboard. This research uses a quantitative descriptive approach with analysis method comparing with air quality standard (PP 42/1999, LH 21/2008), water quality standard (permenkes RI 416/1990, KepmenLH 51/2004, kepmenLH 55/2013 ), and biodiversity indicators. Based on the research, the parameters of RPL monitoring have been identified, among others, the quality of emission air (SO₂, NO₂, dust, particulate) due to the influence of fuel quality, combustion performance in a combustor and the effect of development change around the generating area. While in water quality (TSS, TDS) there was an increase due to the flow of water in the cooling intake carrying sedimentation from the flow of Banjir Kanal Timur. Including compliance with the ISO 14001:2004 clause on application design significantly contributes to the improvement of the quality of power plant management.

Keywords: environmental management systems, power plant management, regulatory compliance , enterprises resource planning

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Authors: Andi Aliah Hidayani, Asmi Citra Malina A. R. Tassakka, Andi Parenrengi

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Vanname Shrimp is one of the high yielding varieties that are more resistant to virus attacks. However, now this shrimp more death due to virus attack such as white spot disease caused by white spot syndrome virus (WSSV). Various efforts have done to prevent the disease, like immunostimulatory, probiotics, and vaccine. White spot syndrome virus (WSSV) envelope protein VP19 gene is important because of its involvement in the system infection of shrimp. This study aimed to isolate and characterize an envelope protein VP19 – encoding gene of WSSV using WSSV infected Vanname Shrimp sample from some areas in South Sulawesi (Pangkep, Barru and Pinrang). The genomic of DNA were isolated from shrimp muscle using DTAB-CTAB method. Isolation of gene encoding envelope protein VP19 WSSV ws successfully performed with the results of the length of DNA fragment was 387 bp. The results of homology analysis using BLASTn homology suggested that these isolates genes from Barru, Pangkep and Pinrang have closest relationship with isolates from Mexican.

Keywords: vanname, shrimp, WSSV, viral protein 19

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Authors: M. Z. Abdul Rofiq Badril Rizal

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This research is aimed to know the improvement of students’ English writing skill by using brainstorming technique. The technique used in writing is able to help the students’ difficulties in generating ideas and to lead the students to arrange the ideas well as well as to focus on the topic developed in writing. The research method used is classroom action research. The data sources of the research are an English teacher who acts as an observer and the students of class X.MIA5 consist of 35 students. The test result and observation are collected as the data in this research. Based on the research result in cycle one, the percentage of students who reach minimum accomplishment criteria (MAC) is 76.31%. It shows that the cycle must be continued to cycle two because the aim of the research has not accomplished, all of the students’ scores have not reached MAC yet. After continuing the research to cycle two and the weaknesses are improved, the process of teaching and learning runs better. At the test which is conducted in the end of learning process in cycle two, all of the students reach the minimum score and above 76 based on the minimum accomplishment criteria. It means the research has been successful and the percentage of students who reach minimum accomplishment criteria is 100%. Therefore, the writer concludes that brainstorming technique is able to improve the students’ English writing skill at the tenth grade of SMAN 2 Jember.

Keywords: brainstorming technique, improving, writing skill, knowledge and innovation engineering

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Authors: Sirilak Kongkaew, Pathumwadee Yodmanee, Nopporn Kaiyawet, Arthitaya Meeprasert, Thanyada Rungrotmongkol, Toshikatsu Kaburaki, Hiroshi Noguchi, Fujio Takeuch, Nawee Kungwan, Supot Hannongbua

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Behçet’s disease (BD) is a genetic autoimmune expressed by multisystemic inflammatory disorder mostly occurred at the skin, joints, gastrointestinal tract, and genitalia, including ocular, oral, genital, and central nervous systems. Most BD patients in Japan and Korea were strongly indicated by the genetic factor namely HLA-B*51 (especially, HLA-B*51:01) marker in HMC class I, while HLA-A*26:01 allele has been detected from the BD patients in Greek, Japan, and Taiwan. To understand the selective binding of the MICA-TM peptide towards the HLAs associated with BD, the molecular dynamics simulations were applied on the four HLA alleles (B*51:01, B*35:01, A*26:01, and A*11:01) in complex with such peptide. As a result, the key residues in the binding groove of HLA protein which play an important role in the MICA-TM peptide binding and stabilization were revealed. The Van der Waals force was found to be the main protein-protein interaction. Based on the binding free energy prediction by MM/PBSA method, the MICA-TM peptide interacted stronger to the HLA alleles associated to BD in the identical class by 7-12 kcal/mol. The obtained results from the present study could help to differentiate the HLA alleles and explain a source of Behçet’s disease.

Keywords: Behçet’s disease, MD simulations, HMC class I, autoimmune

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Authors: Xinke Huang, Huan Wang, Lidong Guo, Changbin Ju, Runbiao Liu, Shanshan Meng, Yibo Wang, Honghua Xu

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Large-scale photovoltaic (PV) generation system connected to HVDC grid has many advantages compared to its counterpart of AC grid. DC connection can solve many problems that AC connection faces, such as the grid-connection and power transmission, and DC connection is the tendency. DC/DC converter as the most important device in the system has become one of the hot spots recently. The paper proposes a centralized DC/DC converter which uses Boost Full Bridge Isolated DC/DC Converter(BFBIC) topology and combination through input parallel output series(IPOS) method to improve power capacity and output voltage to match with the HVDC grid voltage. Meanwhile, it adopts input current sharing control strategy to realize input current and output voltage balance. A ±30kV/1MW system is modeled in MATLAB/SIMULINK, and a downscaled ±10kV/200kW DC/DC converter platform is built to verify the proposed topology and control strategy.

Keywords: photovoltaic generation, cascaded dc/dc converter, galvanic isolation, high-voltage, direct current (HVDC)

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Authors: Sawsan J. Al-Husseini

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Transformational leadership (TL) has been found to have an important influence on knowledge and knowledge management (KM). It can contribute to organizational learning, employees’ creativity, encourage followers to participate in educational programs and develop the skills needed to achieve exceptional performance. This research sought to examine the impact of TL on knowledge donating and collecting and the differences between these impacts in public and private higher education institutes (HEIs) in Iraq. A mixed method approach was taken and 580 valid responses were collected to test the causal relationships between the factors, then 12 interviews were conducted with the leaders of HEIs to give more insight of the findings from quantitative stage. Employing structural equation modelling with AMOS v.24, the research found that TL would be ideal in an educational context, promoting knowledge sharing activities in both sectors. The interviews revealed differences between public and private HEIs in terms of the effects relationships. Guidelines are developed for academics as well as leaders and provided evidence to support the use of TL to encourage knowledge sharing activities within higher education in developing countries particularly Iraq.

Keywords: transformational leadership, knowledge sharing, higher education, multi-group

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Authors: Alessandra Marcelletti, Giovanni Trovato

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Corruption in public offices is found to be the reflection of country-specific features, however, the exact magnitude and the statistical significance of its determinants effect has not yet been identified. The paper aims to propose an estimation method to measure the impact of country fundamentals on corruption, showing that covariates could differently affect the extent of corruption across countries. Thus, we exploit a model able to take into account different factors affecting the incentive to ask or to be asked for a bribe, coherently with the use of the Corruption Perception Index. We assume that discordant results achieved in literature may be explained by omitted hidden factors affecting the agents' decision process. Moreover, assuming homogeneous covariates effect may lead to unreliable conclusions since the country-specific environment is not accounted for. We apply a Finite Mixture Model with concomitant variables to 129 countries from 1995 to 2006, accounting for the impact of the initial conditions in the socio-economic structure on the corruption patterns. Our findings confirm the hypothesis of the decision process of accepting or asking for a bribe varies with specific country fundamental features.

Keywords: Corruption, Finite Mixture Models, Concomitant Variables, Countries Classification

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Authors: Mehdi Fuladipanah

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Sensitivity analysis as a technique is applied to determine influential input factors on model output. Variance-based sensitivity analysis method has more application compared to other methods because of including linear and non-linear models. In this paper, van Rijn’s movable bed roughness formula was selected to evaluate because of its reasonable results in sandy rivers. This equation contains four variables as: flow depth, sediment size,bBed form height and bed form length. These variable’s importance was determined using the first order of Fourier Amplitude Sensitivity Test. Sensitivity index was applied to evaluate importance of factors. The first order FAST based sensitivity indices test, explain 90% of the total variance that is indicating acceptance criteria of FAST application. More value of this index is indicating more important variable. Results show that bed form height, bed form length, sediment size and flow depth are more influential factors with sensitivity index: 32%, 24%, 19% and 15% respectively.

Keywords: sdensitivity analysis, variance, movable bed roughness formula, Sandy River

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Authors: Shi Yu Wang, Qian Wei Zhang, He Li, Hao Han He, Yun Bo Li

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The spatial controls of electromagnetic (EM) waves have always been a research hot spot in recent years. And the rapid development of metasurface-based technologies has provided more freedoms for manipulating the EM waves. Here we propose the design of reconfigurable and non-reciprocal metasurface with independent controls of transmission gain, attenuation and phase. The proposed meta-atom mainly consists of the cascaded textures including the receiving antenna, the middle layer in which the power amplifiers (PAs), programmable attenuator and phase shifter locate, and the transmitting antenna. The programmable attenuator and phase shifter can realize the dynamic controls of transmission amplitude and phase independently, and the PA devices in the meta-atom can actualize the performance of non-reciprocal transmission. The proposed meta-atom is analyzed applying field-circuit co-simulation and a sample of the meta-atom is fabricated and measured under using two standard waveguides. The measured results verify the ability of the independent manipulation for transmission amplitude and phase of the proposed the meta-atom and the design method has been verified very well correspondingly.

Keywords: active circuits, independent controls of multiple electromagnetic features, non-reciprocal electromagnetic transmission, reconfigurable and programmable

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Authors: O. Altuntaş, A. Güral

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The hardness-microstructure relationships of spherical cementite in bainitic matrix obtained by a different heat treatment cycles carried out to high carbon powder metallurgy (P/M) steel were investigated. For this purpose, 1.5 wt.% natural graphite powder admixed in atomized iron powders and the mixed powders were compacted under 700 MPa at room temperature and then sintered at 1150 °C under a protective argon gas atmosphere. The densities of the green and sintered samples were measured via the Archimedes method. A density of 7.4 g/cm³ was obtained after sintering and a density of 94% was achieved. The sintered specimens having primary cementite plus lamellar pearlitic structures were fully quenched from 950 ^°C temperature and then over-tempered at 705 °C temperature for 60 minutes to produce spherical-fine cementite particles in the ferritic matrix. After by this treatment, these samples annealed at 735 °C temperature for 3 minutes were austempered at 300 °C salt bath for a period of 1 to 5 hours. As a result of this process, it could be able to produced spherical cementite particle in the bainitic matrix. This microstructure was designed to improve wear and toughness of P/M steels. The microstructures were characterized and analyzed by SEM and micro and macro hardness.

Keywords: powder metallurgy steel, bainite, cementite, austempering and spheroidization heat treatment

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Authors: Yuntao Liu, Lei Wang, Haoran Xia

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Machine learning has shown extensive applications in the development of classification models for autism spectrum disorder (ASD) using neural image data. This paper proposes a fusion multi-modal classification network based on a graph neural network. First, the brain is segmented into 116 regions of interest using a medical segmentation template (AAL, Anatomical Automatic Labeling). The image features of sMRI and the signal features of fMRI are extracted, which build the node and edge embedding representations of the brain map. Then, we construct a dynamically updated brain map neural network and propose a method based on a dynamic brain map adjacency matrix update mechanism and learnable graph to further improve the accuracy of autism diagnosis and recognition results. Based on the Autism Brain Imaging Data Exchange I dataset(ABIDE I), we reached a prediction accuracy of 74% between ASD and TD subjects. Besides, to study the biomarkers that can help doctors analyze diseases and interpretability, we used the features by extracting the top five maximum and minimum ROI weights. This work provides a meaningful way for brain disorder identification.

Keywords: autism spectrum disorder, brain map, supervised machine learning, graph network, multimodal data, model interpretability

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Authors: Tripatjot S. Panag, J. S. Dhillon

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The lifetime of a wireless sensor network can be effectively increased by using scheduling operations. Once the sensors are randomly deployed, the task at hand is to find the largest number of disjoint sets of sensors such that every sensor set provides complete coverage of the target area. At any instant, only one of these disjoint sets is switched on, while all other are switched off. This paper proposes a heuristic search method to find the maximum number of disjoint sets that completely cover the region. A population of randomly initialized members is made to explore the solution space. A set of heuristics has been applied to guide the members to a possible solution in their neighborhood. The heuristics escalate the convergence of the algorithm. The best solution explored by the population is recorded and is continuously updated. The proposed algorithm has been tested for applications which require sensing of multiple target points, referred to as point coverage applications. Results show that the proposed algorithm outclasses the existing algorithms. It always finds the optimum solution, and that too by making fewer number of fitness function evaluations than the existing approaches.

Keywords: coverage, disjoint sets, heuristic, lifetime, scheduling, Wireless sensor networks, WSN

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Authors: Meng-Tzu Cheng, Louisa Rosenheck, Chen-Yen Lin, Eric Klopfer

Abstract:

The purpose of the research is to explore some of the ways in which gameplay data can be analyzed to yield results that feedback into the learning ecosystem. Back-end data for all users as they played an MMOG, The Radix Endeavor, was collected, and this study reports the analyses on a specific genetics quest by using the data mining techniques, including the decision tree method. In the study, different reasons for quest failure between participants who eventually succeeded and who never succeeded were revealed. Regarding the in-game tools use, trait examiner was a key tool in the quest completion process. Subsequently, the results of decision tree showed that a lack of trait examiner usage can be made up with additional Punnett square uses, displaying multiple pathways to success in this quest. The methods of analysis used in this study and the resulting usage patterns indicate some useful ways that gameplay data can provide insights in two main areas. The first is for game designers to know how players are interacting with and learning from their game. The second is for players themselves as well as their teachers to get information on how they are progressing through the game, and to provide help they may need based on strategies and misconceptions identified in the data.

Keywords: MMOG, decision tree, genetics, gaming-learning interaction

Procedia PDF Downloads 337

Authors: Muhammad Arif Mahmood, Andrei C. Popescu, Mihai Oane, Diana Chioibascu, Carmen Ristoscu, Ion N. Mihailescu

Abstract:

Powder flow and temperature distributions are recognized as influencing factors during laser melting deposition (LMD) process, that not only affect the consolidation rate but also characteristics of the deposited layers. Herewith, two simplified analytical models will be presented to simulate the powder flow with the inclusion of powder particles size distribution in Gaussian form, under three powder jet nozzles, and temperature analyses during LMD process. The output of the 1st model will serve as the input in the 2nd model. The models will be validated with experimental data, i.e., weight measurement method for powder particles distribution and infrared imaging for temperature analyses. This study will increase the cost-efficiency of the LMD process by adjustment of the operating parameters for reaching optimal powder debit and energy. This research has received funds under the Marie Sklodowska-Curie grant agreement No. 764935, from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program.

Keywords: laser additive manufacturing, powder particles size distribution in Gaussian form, powder stream distribution, temperature analyses

Procedia PDF Downloads 117

Authors: R. Ramesh, K. K. Shivaraman

Abstract:

The main aim of this paper is to handle the energy requirement in an efficient manner by merging the advanced digital communication and control technologies for smart grid applications. In order to reduce user home load during peak load hours, utility applies several incentives such as real-time pricing, time of use, demand response for residential customer through smart meter. However, this method provides inconvenience in the sense that user needs to respond manually to prices that vary in real time. To overcome these inconvenience, this paper proposes a convolutional neural network (CNN) with k-means clustering machine learning model which have ability to forecast energy requirement in short term, i.e., hour of the day or day of the week. By integrating our proposed technique with home energy management based on Bluetooth low energy provides predicted value to user for scheduling appliance in advanced. This paper describes detail about CNN configuration and k-means clustering algorithm for short-term energy forecasting.

Keywords: convolutional neural network, fuzzy logic, k-means clustering approach, smart home energy management

Procedia PDF Downloads 284