Search results for: granular layers

Authors: Deokho Kim, Wonwoo Lee, Jaewoong Lee, Teresa Ng, Gun-Ill Lee, Jiwon Jeong

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This paper presents a method for improving object search accuracy using a deep learning model. A major limitation to provide accurate similarity with deep learning is the requirement of huge amount of data for training pairwise similarity scores (metrics), which is impractical to collect. Thus, similarity scores are usually trained with a relatively small dataset, which comes from a different domain, causing limited accuracy on measuring similarity. For this reason, this paper proposes a deep learning model that can be trained with a significantly small amount of data, a clustered data which of each cluster contains a set of visually similar images. In order to measure similarity distance with the proposed method, visual features of two images are extracted from intermediate layers of a convolutional neural network with various pooling methods, and the network is trained with pairwise similarity scores which is defined zero for images in identical cluster. The proposed method outperforms the state-of-the-art object similarity scoring techniques on evaluation for finding exact items. The proposed method achieves 86.5% of accuracy compared to the accuracy of the state-of-the-art technique, which is 59.9%. That is, an exact item can be found among four retrieved images with an accuracy of 86.5%, and the rest can possibly be similar products more than the accuracy. Therefore, the proposed method can greatly reduce the amount of training data with an order of magnitude as well as providing a reliable similarity metric.

Keywords: visual search, deep learning, convolutional neural network, machine learning

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Authors: Maria L. Swanson

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Language is a system which constantly changes and reflects social and cultural transformations of a speech community. If it is phonetic system, morphological patterns and syntactic arrangements undergo little charge and are not easily transferable from one language to another, the lexicon has a high degree of flexibility. Borrowings in Arabic have always been an interesting and important subject of study to various fields of linguistics, history and culturology, and there is quite number of works devoted to this subject (al-Khalīl, Sībawīḥ, Jeffery, Belkin, al-Maghribii, Holes, Stetkevich, el-Mawlūdī, between many others). At the same time, the history of borrowing has never been described as a process starting from its originating and up to the present time. Most of the researches study lexical and morphological adaptation of borrowed words for specific or several historical periods or delineate this process on the whole. Meanwhile, we have described the whole history of borrowings in Arabic with the brief depicting of lexical and morphological specifics for each historical period using quantitative method through dividing Arabic borrowings into several groups, basing on the specific of their adaptation of new vocabulary which is tightly related to the global transformations in the Arabic history. We explain reasons for borrowings of specific lexical layers for each historical period together with the description of its morphological specifics. We also use qualitative approach through performing statistics about the share of loan vocabulary in Arabic during different periods and the percentage of borrowings from donor languages. The history of a character and amount of borrowings is a good resource for theoretical and practical lexicography and morphology studies. It is also beneficial for researchers in the field of global and specific national, political and social developments, and different types of contacts.

Keywords: anthropological linguistics, borrowings, historical linguistics, sociolinguistics

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Authors: Kausar Alam, Mohammad Yazdi, Peiman Zogh, Ramin Motamed

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An earthquake is an unpredictable natural disaster. It induces liquefaction, which causes considerable damage to the structure, life support, and piping systems because of ground settlement. As a result, people are incredibly concerned about how to resolve the situation. Previous researchers adopted different ground improvement techniques to reduce the settlement of the structure during earthquakes. This study evaluates the effectiveness of lowering the water table as a technique to mitigate foundation settlement in liquefiable soil. The performance will be evaluated based on foundation settlement and the reduction of excessive pore water pressure. In this study, a scaled model was prepared based on a full-scale shale table experiment conducted at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD). The model ground consists of three soil layers having a relative density of 55%, 45%, and 90%, respectively. A shallow foundation is seated over an unsaturated crust layer. After preparation of the model ground, the water table was measured to be at 45, 40, and 35 cm (from the bottom). Then, the input motions were applied for 10 seconds, with a peak acceleration of 0.25g and a constant frequency of 2.73 Hz. Based on the experimental results, the effectiveness of the lowering water table in reducing the foundation settlement and excess pore water pressure was evident. The foundation settlement was reduced from 50 mm to 5 mm. In addition, lowering the water table as a mitigation measure is a cost-effective way to decrease liquefaction-induced building settlement.

Keywords: foundation settlement, ground water table, liquefaction, hake table test

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Authors: Ben Abderrahmane Ayoub El Fateh, Bnina Rachid

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A comprehensive comparison of antioxidant defenses in the dermis and epidermis and their response to exposure to ultraviolet (UV) irradiation has not previously been attempted. In this study, enzymic and non-enzymic antioxidants in epidermis and dermis of hairless mice were compared. Enzyme activities are presented both as units/gram of skin and units/milligram of protein; arguments are presented for the superiority of skin wet weight as a reference base. Catalase, glutathione peroxidase, and glutathione reductase (units/gram of skin) were higher in the epidermis than dermis by 49%, 86%, and 74%, respectively. Superoxide dismutase did not follow this pattern. Lipophilic antioxidants ( -tocopherol, ubiquinol 9, and ubiquinone 9) and hydrophilic antioxidants (ascorbic acid, dehydroascorbic acid, and glutathione) were 24–95% higher in the epidermis than in dermis. In contrast, oxidized glutathione was 60% lower in the epidermis than in dermis. Mice were irradiated with solar light to examine the response of these cutaneous layers to UV irradiation. After irradiation with 25 J/cm2 (UVA + UVB, from a solar simulator), 10 times the minimum erythemal dose, epidermal and dermal catalase and superoxide dismutase activities were greatly decreased. Tocopherol, ubiquinol 9, ubiquinone 9, ascorbic acid, dehydroascorbic acid, and reduced glutathione decreased in both epidermis and dermis by 26-93%. Oxidizedgiutathione showed a slight, non-significant increase. Because the reduction in total ascorbate and catalase was much more severe in the epidermis than dermis, it can be concluded that UV light is more damaging to the antioxidant defenses in the epidermis than in the dermis.

Keywords: antioxidant defenses, enzymic, epidermis, oxidizedgiutathione

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Authors: Mariem Saadi, Sabri Kanzari, Adel Zghibi

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In semi-arid areas like the Kairouan region, the constant irrigation with saline water and the overuse of groundwater resources, soils and aquifers salinization has become an increasing concern. In this study, a methodology has been developed to evaluate the groundwater contamination risk based on the unsaturated zone hydraulic properties. Two soil profiles with different ranges of salinity, one located in the north of the plain and another one in the south of plain (each 30 m deep) and both characterized by direct recharge of the aquifer were chosen. Simulations were conducted with Hydrus-1D code using measured precipitation data for the period 1998-2003 and calculated evapotranspiration for both chosen profiles. Four combinations of initial conditions of water content and salt concentration were used for the simulation process in order to find the best match between simulated and measured values. The success of the calibration of Hydrus-1D allowed the investigation of some scenarios in order to assess the contamination risk under different natural conditions. The aquifer risk contamination is related to the natural conditions where it increased while facing climate change and temperature increase and decreased in the presence of a clay layer in the unsaturated zone. Hydrus-1D was a useful tool to predict the groundwater level and quality in the case of a direct recharge and in the absence of any information related to the soil layers except for the texture.

Keywords: Hydrus-1D, Kairouan, salinization, semi-arid region, solute transport, unsaturated zone

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Authors: Nishant Rodrigues, Nicole Spanedda, Chilukuri K. Mohan, Arindam Chakraborty

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A crucial objective in quantum chemistry is the computation of the energy levels of chemical systems. This task requires electron-repulsion integrals as inputs, and the steep computational cost of evaluating these integrals poses a major numerical challenge in efficient implementation of quantum chemical software. This work presents a moment-based machine-learning approach for the efficient evaluation of electron-repulsion integrals. These integrals were approximated using linear combinations of a small number of moments. Machine learning algorithms were applied to estimate the coefficients in the linear combination. A random forest approach was used to identify promising features using a recursive feature elimination approach, which performed best for learning the sign of each coefficient but not the magnitude. A neural network with two hidden layers were then used to learn the coefficient magnitudes along with an iterative feature masking approach to perform input vector compression, identifying a small subset of orbitals whose coefficients are sufficient for the quantum state energy computation. Finally, a small ensemble of neural networks (with a median rule for decision fusion) was shown to improve results when compared to a single network.

Keywords: quantum energy calculations, atomic orbitals, electron-repulsion integrals, ensemble machine learning, random forests, neural networks, feature extraction

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Authors: Hyun-Jong Choi, Minjun Kwak, Doo-Won Seo, Sang-Kuk Woo, Sun-Dong Kim

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Solid Oxide Cell(SOC) systems can contribute to the transition to the hydrogen society by utilized as a power and hydrogen generator by the electrochemical reaction with high efficiency at high operation temperature (>750 ℃). La1-xSrxCo1-yFeyO3, which is an air electrode, is occurred stability degradations due to reaction and delamination with yittria stabilized zirconia(YSZ) electrolyte in a water electrolysis mode. To complement this phenomenon SOCs need gadolinium doped ceria(GDC) buffer layer between electrolyte and air electrode. However, GDC buffer layer requires a high sintering temperature and it causes a reaction with YSZ electrolyte. This study carried out low temperature sintering of GDC layer by applying Cu-oxide as a sintering aid. The effect of a copper additive as a sintering aid to lower the sintering temperature for the construction of solid oxide fuel cells (SOFCs) was investigated. GDC buffer layer with 0.25-10 mol% CuO sintering aid was prepared by reacting GDC power and copper nitrate solution followed by heating at 600 ℃. The sintering of CuO-added GDC powder was optimized by investigating linear shrinkage, microstructure, grain size, ionic conductivity, and activation energy of CuO-GDC electrolytes at temperatures ranging from 1100 to 1400 ℃. The sintering temperature of the CuO-GDC electrolyte decreases from 1400 ℃ to 1100 ℃ by adding the CuO sintering aid. The ionic conductivity of the CuO-GDC electrolyte shows a maximum value at 0.5 mol% of CuO. However, the addition of CuO has no significant effects on the activation energy of GDC electrolyte. GDC-LSCF layers were co-sintering at 1050 and 1100 ℃ and button cell tests were carried out at 750 ℃.

Keywords: Co-Sintering, GDC-LSCF, Sintering Aid, solid Oxide Cells

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Authors: Seon Yeong Byeon, Hwa Sung Shin

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Nanofibrous sheets are of interest in the beauty industries due to the properties of moisturizing, adhesion to skin and delivery of nutrient materials. The benefit and function of the cosmetic products should not be considered without safety thus a non-toxic manufacturing process is ideal when fabricating the products. In this study, we have developed cosmetic patches consisting of alginate and Spirulina extract, a marine resource which has antibacterial and antioxidant effects, without addition of harmful cross-linkers. The patches obtained their structural stabilities by layer-upon-layer electrospinning of an alginate layer on a formerly spread polycaprolactone (PCL) layer instead of crosslinking method. The morphological characteristics, release of Spirulina extract, water absorption, skin adhesiveness and cytotoxicity of the double-layered patches were assessed. The image of scanning electron microscopy (SEM) showed that the addition of Spirulina extract has made the fiber diameter of alginate layers thinner. Impregnation of Spirulina extract increased their hydrophilicity, moisture absorption ability and skin adhesive ability. In addition, wetting the pre-dried patches resulted in releasing the Spirulina extract within 30 min. The patches were detected to have no cytotoxicity in the human keratinocyte cell-based MTT assay, but rather showed increased cell viability. All the results indicate the bioactive and hydro-adhesive double-layered patches have an excellent applicability to bioproducts for personal skin care in the trend of ‘A mask pack a day’.

Keywords: alginate, cosmetic patch, electrospun nanofiber, polycaprolactone, Spirulina extract

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Authors: Tigist Girma Kidane, Yalew Dessalegn Asfaw

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Abstract: The current investigation aims to measure the longitudinal and transversal three-point bending tests of bamboo fibres polypropylene composites (BFPPCs) for the application of the automobile industry. Research has not been done on the properties of Ethiopian bamboo fibres for the utilization of composite development. The samples of bamboo plants have been harvested in 3–groups of age, 2–harvesting seasons, and 3–regions of bamboo species. Roll milling machine used for the extraction of bamboo fibres which has been developed by the authors. Chemical constituents measured using gravimetric methods. Unidirectional bamboo fibres prepreg has been produced using PP and hot press machine, then BFPPCs were produced using 6 layers of prepregs at automatic hot press machine. Age, harvesting month, and bamboo species have a statistically significant effect on the longitudinal and transverse flexural strength (FS), modulus of elasticity (MOE), and failure strain at α = 0.05 as evaluated by one-way ANOVA. 2–yrs old of BFPPCs have the highest FS and MOE, whereas November has the highest value of flexural properties. The highest to the lowest FS and MOE of BFPPCs has measured in Injibara, Mekaneselam, and Kombolcha, respectively. The transverse 3-point bending test has a lower FS and MOE compared to the longitudinal direction. The chemical constituents of Injibara, Mekaneselam, and Kombolcha have the highest to the lowest, respectively. 2-years old of bamboo fibres has the highest chemical constituent. The chemical constituents improved the flexural properties. Bamboo fibres in Ethiopia can be relevant for composite development, which has been applied in the area of requiring higher flexural properties.

Keywords: age, bamboo species, flexural properties, harvesting season, polypropylene

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Authors: Lingzhi Li, Jiankun Zhang, Tiantian Gu

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Hazard management that can prevent fatal accidents and property losses is a fundamental process during the buildings’ construction stage. However, due to lack of safety supervision resources and operational pressures, the conduction of hazard management is poor and ineffective in China. In order to improve the quality of construction safety management, it is critical to explore the use of information technologies to ensure that the process of hazard management is efficient and effective. After exploring the existing problems of construction hazard management in China, this paper develops the griddization management model for construction hazard management. First, following the knowledge grid infrastructure, the griddization computing infrastructure for construction hazards management is designed which includes five layers: resource entity layer, information management layer, task management layer, knowledge transformation layer and application layer. This infrastructure will be as the technical support for realizing grid management. Second, this study divides the construction hazards into grids through city level, district level and construction site level according to grid principles. Last, a griddization management process including hazard identification, assessment and control is developed. Meanwhile, all stakeholders of construction safety management, such as owners, contractors, supervision organizations and government departments, should take the corresponding responsibilities in this process. Finally, a case study based on actual construction hazard identification, assessment and control is used to validate the effectiveness and efficiency of the proposed griddization management model. The advantage of this designed model is to realize information sharing and cooperative management between various safety management departments.

Keywords: construction hazard, griddization computing, grid management, process

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Authors: Kothuri Sriraman, Mattupalli Komal Teja

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In this paper, a novel algorithm is proposed for the recognition of hulls in a hand written images that might be irregular or digit or character shape. Identification of objects and internal objects is quite difficult to extract, when the structure of the image is having bulk of clusters. The estimation results are easily obtained while going through identifying the sub-regional objects by using the SASK algorithm. Focusing mainly to recognize the number of internal objects exist in a given image, so as it is shadow-free and error-free. The hard clustering and density clustering process of obtained image rough set is used to recognize the differentiated internal objects, if any. In order to find out the internal hull regions it involves three steps pre-processing, Boundary Extraction and finally, apply the Hull Detection system. By detecting the sub-regional hulls it can increase the machine learning capability in detection of characters and it can also be extend in order to get the hull recognition even in irregular shape objects like wise black holes in the space exploration with their intensities. Layered hulls are those having the structured layers inside while it is useful in the Military Services and Traffic to identify the number of vehicles or persons. This proposed SASK algorithm is helpful in making of that kind of identifying the regions and can useful in undergo for the decision process (to clear the traffic, to identify the number of persons in the opponent’s in the war).

Keywords: chain code, Hull regions, Hough transform, Hull recognition, Layered Outline Extraction, SASK algorithm

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Authors: Mahmoud Y. Shokry, Rami M. El-Sherbiny

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This paper aims to highlight the role of some parameters that may be of a noticeable impact on numerical analysis/design of embankments. It presents the results of a three-dimensional (3-D) finite element analysis of a monitored earth embankment that was constructed on soft clay formation stabilized by cast in-situ piles using software PLAXIS 3D. A comparison between the predicted and the monitored responses is presented to assess the adequacy of the adopted numerical model. The model was used in the targeted parametric study. Moreover, a comparison was performed between the results of the 3-D analyses and the analytical solutions. This paper concluded that the effect of using mono pile caps led to decrease both the total and differential settlement and increased the efficiency of the piled embankment system. The study of using geogrids revealed that it can contribute in decreasing the settlement and maximizing the part of the embankment load transferred to piles. Moreover, it was found that increasing the stiffness of the geogrids provides higher values of tensile forces and hence has more effective influence on embankment load carried by piles rather than using multi-number of layers with low values of geogrid stiffness. The efficiency of the piled embankments system was also found to be greater when higher embankments are used rather than the low height embankments. The comparison between the numerical 3-D model and the theoretical design methods revealed that many analytical solutions are conservative and non-accurate rather than the 3-D finite element numerical models.

Keywords: efficiency, embankment, geogrids, soft clay

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Authors: Tuba Kizilirmak

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Distinct properties of porous metamaterials have been largely processed for biomedicine requiring a three-dimensional (3D) porous structure engaged with fine mechanical features, biodegradation ability, and biocompatibility. Applications of metamaterials are (i) porous orthopedic and dental implants; (ii) in vitro cell culture of metamaterials and bone regeneration of metamaterials in vivo; (iii) macro-, micro, and nano-level porous metamaterials for sensors, diagnosis, and drug delivery. There are some specific properties to design metamaterials for tissue engineering. These are surface to volume ratio, pore size, and interconnection degrees are selected to control cell behavior and bone ingrowth. In this study, additive manufacturing technique selective laser melting will be used to print the scaffolds. Selective Laser Melting prints the 3D components according to designed 3D CAD models and manufactured materials, adding layers progressively by layer. This study aims to design metamaterials with Ti6Al4V material, which gives benefit in respect of mechanical and biological properties. Ti6Al4V scaffolds will support cell attachment by conferring a suitable area for cell adhesion. This study will control the osteoblast cell attachment on Ti6Al4V scaffolds after the determination of optimum stiffness and other mechanical properties which are close to mechanical properties of bone. Before we produce the samples, we will use a modeling technique to simulate the mechanical behavior of samples. These samples include different lattice models with varying amounts of porosity and density.

Keywords: additive manufacturing, titanium lattices, metamaterials, porous metals

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Authors: Mirjana Ruppel, Rajendra Persad, Amit Bahl, Sanja Dogramadzi, Chris Melhuish, Lyndon Smith

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Multimodal image registration is a profoundly complex task which is why deep learning has been used widely to address it in recent years. However, two main challenges remain: Firstly, the lack of ground truth data calls for an unsupervised learning approach, which leads to the second challenge of defining a feasible loss function that can compare two images of different modalities to judge their level of alignment. To avoid this issue altogether we implement a generative adversarial network consisting of two registration networks GAB, GBA and two discrimination networks DA, DB connected by spatial transformation layers. GAB learns to generate a deformation field which registers an image of the modality B to an image of the modality A. To do that, it uses the feedback of the discriminator DB which is learning to judge the quality of alignment of the registered image B. GBA and DA learn a mapping from modality A to modality B. Additionally, a cycle-consistency loss is implemented. For this, both registration networks are employed twice, therefore resulting in images ˆA, ˆB which were registered to ˜B, ˜A which were registered to the initial image pair A, B. Thus the resulting and initial images of the same modality can be easily compared. A dataset of liver CT and MRI was used to evaluate the quality of our approach and to compare it against learning and non-learning based registration algorithms. Our approach leads to dice scores of up to 0.80 ± 0.01 and is therefore comparable to and slightly more successful than algorithms like SimpleElastix and VoxelMorph.

Keywords: cycle consistency, deformable multimodal image registration, deep learning, GAN

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Authors: C. Paglia, C. Mosca

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Synthetic resin floorsare often used in sport infrastructure. These organic materials are often in contact with a bituminous substrate, which in turn is placed on the ground. In this work, the damage of a basket resin field surface was characterized by means of visual inspection, optical microscopy, resin thickness measurements, adhesion strength, water vapor transmission capacity, capillary water adsorption, granulometry of the bituminous conglomerate, the surface properties, and the water ground infiltration speed. The infiltration speed indicates water pemeability. This was due to its composition: clean sand mixed with gravel. Relatively good adhesion was present between the synthetic resin and the bituminous layer. The adhesion resistance of the bituminous layer was relatively low. According to the required bitumoniousasphalt-concrete mixes AC 11 S, the placed material was more porous. Insufficient constipation was present. The spaces values were above the standard limits, while the apparent densities were lower compared to the conventional AC 11 mixtures. The microstructure outlines the high permeability and porosity of the bituminous layer. The synthetic resin wasvapourproof and did not exhibit capillary adsorption. It exhibited a lower thickness as required, and no multiple placing steps were observed. Multiple cavities were detected along with the interface between the bituminous layer and the resin coating with no intermediate layers. The layer for the pore filling in the bituminous surface was not properly applied. The swelling bubbles on the synthetic pavement were caused by the humidity in the bituminous layer. Water or humidity were present prior to the application of the resin, and the effect was worsened by the upward movement of the water from the ground.

Keywords: resin, floor, damage, durability

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Authors: Fadi Chammas, Saad Alkhaldi, Tariq Alghamdi, Stefano Alexandirs

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The operating conditions and corrosive nature of the process fluid in the Haradh and Hawiyah areas are subjecting facility piping to undesirable corrosion phenomena. Therefore, production headers inside remote headers have been internally cladded with high alloy material to mitigate the corrosion damage mechanism. Corrosion mitigation in the jump-over lines, constructed between the existing flowlines and the newly constructed facilities to provide operational flexibility, is proposed. This corrosion mitigation system includes the application of fusion bond epoxy (FBE) coating on the internal surface of the pipe and depositing corrosion-resistant alloy (CRA) weld layers at pipe and fittings ends to protect the carbon steel material. In addition, high alloy CRA weld material is used to deposit the girth weld between the 90-degree elbows and mating internally coated segments. A rigorous testing and qualification protocol was established prior to actual adoption at the Haradh and Hawiyah Field Gas Compression Program, currently being executed by Saudi Aramco. The proposed mitigation system, aimed at applying the cladding at the ends of the internally FBE coated pipes/elbows, will resolve field joint coating challenges, eliminate the use of approximately (1700) breakout flanges, and prevent the potential hydrocarbon leaks.

Keywords: pipelines, corrosion, cost-saving, project completion

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Authors: Samedin Mehmeti

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The rationale behind this study is considering combating and preventing the phenomenon of trafficking in human beings from a multidisciplinary perspective that involves many layers of the society. Trafficking in human beings is an abhorrent phenomenon highly affecting negatively the victims and their families in both human and material aspect, sometimes causing irreversible damages. The longer term effects of this phenomenon, in countries with a weak economic development and extremely young and dynamic population, such as Kosovo, without proper measures to prevented and control can cause tremendous damages in the society. Given the fact that a complete eradication of this phenomenon is almost impossible, efforts should be concentrated at least on the prevention and controlling aspects. Treating trafficking in human beings based on traditional police tactics, methods and proceedings cannot bring satisfactory results. There is no doubt that a multi-disciplinary approach is an irreplaceable requirement, in other words, a combination of authentic and functional proactive and reactive methods, techniques and tactics. Obviously, police must exercise its role in preventing and combating trafficking in human beings, a role sanctioned by the law, however, police role and contribution cannot by any means considered complete if all segments of the society are not included in these efforts. Naturally, civil society should have an important share in these collaborative and interactive efforts especially in preventive activities such as: awareness on trafficking risks and damages, proactive engagement in drafting appropriate legislation and strategies, law enforcement monitoring and direct or indirect involvement in protective and supporting activities which benefit the victims of trafficking etc.

Keywords: civil society, cooperation, police, human trafficking

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Authors: Zhao Cai-qi, Ma Jun

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Twin steel plates-concrete composite shear walls are composed of a pair of steel plate layers and a concrete layer sandwiched between them, which have the characteristics of both reinforced concrete shear walls and steel plate shear walls. Twin steel plates-composite shear walls contain very high ultimate bearing capacity and ductility, which have great potential to be applied in the super high-rise buildings and special structures. In this paper, we analyzed the basic characteristics and stress mechanism of the twin steel plates-composite shear walls. Specifically, we analyzed the effects of the steel plate thickness, wall thickness and concrete strength on the bearing capacity of the twin steel plates-composite shear walls. The analysis results indicate that：（1）the initial shear stiffness and ultimate shear-carrying capacity is not significantly affected by the thickness of concrete wall but by the class of concrete,（2）both factors significantly impact the shear distribution of the shear walls in ultimate shear-carrying capacity. The technique of twin steel plates-composite shear walls has been successfully applied in the construction of a 88-meter Huge Statue of Buddha located in Hunan Province, China. The analysis results and engineering experiences showed that the twin steel plates-composite shear walls have great potential for future research and applications.

Keywords: twin steel plates-concrete composite shear wall, huge statue of Buddha, shear capacity, initial lateral stiffness, overturning moment bearing

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Authors: Subham Kharel, Sudha Ravindranath, A. Vidya, B. Chandrasekaran, K. Ganesha Raj, T. Shesadri

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Digitization of urban features is a tedious and time-consuming process when done manually. In addition to this problem, Indian cities have complex habitat patterns and convoluted clustering patterns, which make it even more difficult to map features. This paper makes an attempt to classify urban objects in the satellite image using object-oriented classification techniques in which various classes such as vegetation, water bodies, buildings, and shadows adjacent to the buildings were mapped semi-automatically. Building layer obtained as a result of object-oriented classification along with already available building layers was used. The main focus, however, lay in the extraction of high-rise buildings using spatial technology, digital image processing, and modeling, which would otherwise be a very difficult task to carry out manually. Results indicated a considerable rise in the total number of buildings in the city. High-rise buildings were successfully mapped using satellite imagery, spatial technology along with logical reasoning and mathematical considerations. The results clearly depict the ability of Remote Sensing and GIS to solve complex problems in urban scenarios like studying urban sprawl and identification of more complex features in an urban area like high-rise buildings and multi-dwelling units. Object-Oriented Technique has been proven to be effective and has yielded an overall efficiency of 80 percent in the classification of high-rise buildings.

Keywords: object oriented classification, shadow extraction, high-rise buildings, satellite imagery, spatial technology

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Authors: Kusum Kumari, Ramesh Banoth, V. S. Reddy Channu

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Organic-inorganic perovskite solar cells (PrSCs) have emerged as a promising solar photovoltaic technology in terms of realizing high power conversion efficiency (PCE). However, their limited lifetime and poor device stability limits their commercialization in future. In this regard, interface engineering of the electron transport layer (ETL) using 2D materials have been currently used owing to their high carrier mobility, high thermal stability and tunable work function, which in turn enormously impact the charge carrier dynamics. In this work, we report an easy and effective way of simultaneously enhancing the efficiency of PrSCs along with the long-term stability through interface engineering via the incorporation of 2D-Molybdenum disulfide (2D-MoS₂, few layered nanoflakes) in mesoporous-Titanium dioxide (mp-TiO₂)scaffold electron transport buffer layer, and using poly 3-hexytheophene (P3HT) as hole transport layers. The PSCs were fabricated in ambient air conditions in device configuration, FTO/c-TiO₂/mp-TiO₂:2D-MoS₂/CH3NH3PbI3/P3HT/Au, with an active area of 0.16 cm². The best device using c-TiO₂/mp-TiO₂:2D-MoS₂ (0.5wt.%) ETL exhibited a substantial increase in PCE ~13.04% as compared to PCE ~8.75% realized in reference device fabricated without incorporating MoS₂ in mp-TiO₂ buffer layer. The incorporation of MoS₂ nanoflakes in mp-TiO₂ ETL not only enhances the PCE to ~49% but also leads to better device stability in ambient air conditions without encapsulation (retaining PCE ~86% of its initial value up to 500 hrs), as compared to ETLs without MoS₂.

Keywords: perovskite solar cells, MoS₂, nanoflakes, electron transport layer

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Authors: K. F. Khan, Samsuddin Khan

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The Paleoproterozoic phosphorite deposit of Sallopat block of Banswara district of Rajasthan belongs to kalinjara formation of lunavada group of Aravalli Super Group. The phosphorites are found to occur as massive, brecciated, laminated and stromatolitic associated with calcareous quartzite, interbedded dolomite and multi coloured chert. The phosphorites are showing alternate brown and grey coloured concentric rims which are composed of phosphate, calcite and quartz minerals. Petro-mineralogical studies of phosphorite samples using petrological microscope, XRD, FEG- SEM and EDX reveal that apatite-(CaF) and apatite-(CaOH) are phosphate minerals which are intermixed with minor amount of carbonate materials. Sporadic findings of the uniform tiny granules of partially anisotropic apatite-(CaF) along with dolomite, calcite, quartz, muscovite, zeolite and other gangue minerals have been observed with the replacement of phosphate material by quartz and carbonate. The presence of microbial filaments of organic matter and alternate concentric rims of stromatolitic structure may suggest that the deposition of the phosphate took place in shallow marine oxidizing environmental conditions leading to the formation of phosphorite layers as primary biogenic precipitates by bacterial or algal activities. Different forms and texture of phosphate minerals may be due to environmental vicissitudes at the time of deposition followed by some replacement processes and biogenic activities.

Keywords: apatite, petro-mineralogy, phosphorites, sallopat, stromatolites

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Authors: Moustafa Osman Mohammed

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This paper will explore formation of HCl aerosol at atmospheric boundary layers and encourages the uptake of environmental modeling systems (EMSs) as a practice evaluation of gaseous emissions (“framework measures”) from small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). The conceptual model predicts greenhouse gas emissions to ecological points beyond landfill site operations. It focuses on incorporation traditional knowledge into baseline information for both measurement data and the mathematical results, regarding parameters influence model variable inputs. The paper has simplified parameters of aerosol processes based on the more complex aerosol process computations. The simple model can be implemented to both Gaussian and Eulerian rural dispersion models. Aerosol processes considered in this study were (i) the coagulation of particles, (ii) the condensation and evaporation of organic vapors, and (iii) dry deposition. The chemical transformation of gas-phase compounds is taken into account photochemical formulation with exposure effects according to HCl concentrations as starting point of risk assessment. The discussion set out distinctly aspect of sustainability in reflection inputs, outputs, and modes of impact on the environment. Thereby, models incorporate abiotic and biotic species to broaden the scope of integration for both quantification impact and assessment risks. The later environmental obligations suggest either a recommendation or a decision of what is a legislative should be achieved for mitigation measures of landfill gas (LFG) ultimately.

Keywords: air pollution, landfill emission, environmental management, monitoring/methods and impact assessment

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Authors: Rasaq Bello, Grace Akintola Sunday, Yemi Sikiru Onifade

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Groundwater is required for the continuity of life and sustainability of the ecosystem. Hence, this research was purposed to assess groundwater quality for domestic use in Kaltungo Local Government Area, Gombe State. The work was also aimed at determining the thickness and resistivity of the topsoil, areas suitable for borehole construction, quality and potentials of groundwater in the study area. The study area extends from latitude N10015’38” - E11008’01” and longitude N10019’29” - E11013’05”. The data was acquired using the Vertical Electrical Sounding (VES) method and processed using IP12win software. Twenty (20) Vertical Electrical Soundings were carried out with a maximum current electrode separation (AB) of 150m. The VES curves generated from the data reveal that all the VES points have five to six subsurface layers. The first layer has a resistivity value of 7.5 to 364.1 Ωm and a thickness ranging from 0.8 to 7.4m, and the second layer has a resistivity value of 1.8 to 600.3 Ωm thickness ranging from 2.6 to 31.4m, the third layer has resistivity value of 23.3 to 564.4 Ωm thickness ranging from 10.3 to 77.8m, the fourth layer has resistivity value of 19.7 to 640.2 Ωm thickness ranging from 8.2m to 120.0m, the fifth layer has resistivity value of 27 to 234 Ωm thickness ranging from 8.2 to 53.7m and the six-layer is the layer that extended beyond the probing depth. The VES curves generated from the data revealed KQHA curve type for VES 1, HKQQ curve for VES 4, HKQ curve for VES 5, KHA curve for VES 11, QQHK curve for VES 12, HAA curve for VES 6 and VES 19, HAKH curve for VES 7, VES 8, VES 10 and VES 18, HKH curve for VES 2, VES 3, VES 9, VES 13, VES 14, VES 15, VES 16, VES 17 and VES 20. Values of the Coefficient of Anisotropy, Reflection Coefficient, and Resistivity Contrast obtained from the Dar-Zarrouk parameters indicated good water prospects for all the VES points in this study, with VES points 4, 9 and 18 having the highest prospects for groundwater exploration.

Keywords: formation parameters, groundwater, resistivity, resistivity contrast, vertical electrical sounding

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Authors: Deng Tingting

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The coordinated and integrated development of regions is an inevitable requirement for China to move towards high-quality, sustainable development. As one of the regions with the best economic foundation and the strongest economic strength in western China, it is a typical area with national importance and strong network connection characteristics in terms of the comprehensive effect of linking the inland hinterland and connecting the western and national urban networks. The integrated development of the Chengdu-Chongqing economic circle is of great strategic significance for the rapid and high-quality development of the western region. In the context of new urbanization, this paper takes 16 urban units within the economic circle as the research object, based on the 5-year panel data of population, regional economy, and spatial construction and development from 2016 to 2020, using the entropy method and Theil index to analyze the three target layers, and cause analysis. The research shows that there are temporal and spatial differences in the Chengdu-Chongqing economic circle, and there are significant differences between the core city and the surrounding cities. Therefore, by reforming and innovating the regional coordinated development mechanism, breaking administrative barriers, and strengthening the "polar nucleus" radiation function to release the driving force for economic development, especially in the gully areas of economic development belts, not only promote the coordinated development of internal regions but also promote the coordinated and sustainable development of the western region and take a high-quality development path.

Keywords: Chengdu-Chongqing economic circle, new urbanization, coordinated regional development, Theil Index

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Authors: Shivaji M. Sonawane, N. B. Chaure

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ZnTe is direct band gap, the P-type semiconductor with the high absorption coefficient of the order of 104cm-1 is suitable for solar cell development. It can be used as a low resistive ohmic contact to CdS/CdTe or tandem solar cell application. ZnTe and Cu-ZnTe thin film have been electrochemically synthesized on to fluorine-doped tin oxide coated glass substrates using three electrode systems containing Ag/AgCl, graphite and FTO as reference, counter and working electrode respectively were used to deposit the thin films. The aqueous electrolytic solution consist of 0.5M TeO2, 0.2M ZnSO4, and 0.1M Na3C6H5O7:2H2O, 0.1MC6H8O7:H2O and 0.1mMCuSO4 with PH 2.5 at room temperature was used. The reaction mechanism is studied in the cyclic voltammetry to identify the deposition potentials of ZnTe and Cu-ZnTe.The potential was optimized in the range -0,9 to -1,1 V. Vs Ag/AgCl reference electrode. The effect of deposition potential on the structural properties was studied by using X-ray diffraction. The X-ray diffraction result reveled cubic crystal structure of ZnTe with preferential (111) orientation with cubic structure. The surface morphology and film composition were analyzed by means of Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and Energy Dispersive Analysis of X- Rays (EDAX). The optical absorption measurement has been analyzed for the band gap determination of deposited layers about 2.26 eV by UV-Visible spectroscopy. The drastic change in resistivity has been observed due to incorporation of copper probably due to the diffusion of Cu into grain boundaries.

Keywords: ohmic back contact, zinc telluride, electrodeposition, photovoltaic devices

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Authors: Fazıl Gökgöz, Fahrettin Filiz

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Electricity prices have sophisticated features such as high volatility, nonlinearity and high frequency that make forecasting quite difficult. Electricity price has a volatile and non-random character so that, it is possible to identify the patterns based on the historical data. Intelligent decision-making requires accurate price forecasting for market traders, retailers, and generation companies. So far, many shallow-ANN (artificial neural networks) models have been published in the literature and showed adequate forecasting results. During the last years, neural networks with many hidden layers, which are referred to as DNN (deep neural networks) have been using in the machine learning community. The goal of this study is to investigate electricity price forecasting performance of the shallow-ANN and DNN models for the Turkish day-ahead electricity market. The forecasting accuracy of the models has been evaluated with publicly available data from the Turkish day-ahead electricity market. Both shallow-ANN and DNN approach would give successful result in forecasting problems. Historical load, price and weather temperature data are used as the input variables for the models. The data set includes power consumption measurements gathered between January 2016 and December 2017 with one-hour resolution. In this regard, forecasting studies have been carried out comparatively with shallow-ANN and DNN models for Turkish electricity markets in the related time period. The main contribution of this study is the investigation of different shallow-ANN and DNN models in the field of electricity price forecast. All models are compared regarding their MAE (Mean Absolute Error) and MSE (Mean Square) results. DNN models give better forecasting performance compare to shallow-ANN. Best five MAE results for DNN models are 0.346, 0.372, 0.392, 0,402 and 0.409.

Keywords: deep learning, artificial neural networks, energy price forecasting, turkey

Procedia PDF Downloads 283

Authors: Penrug Pengsombut, Worawut Hamarn, Teerawuth Suwannasri, Kittiphong Songrukkiat, Kanatip Ratanachoo

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PTT Public Company Limited or simply PTT has played an important role in strengthening national energy security of the Kingdom of Thailand by transporting natural gas to customers in power, industrial and commercial sectors since 1981. PTT has been constructing and operating natural gas pipeline system of over 4,500-km network length both onshore and offshore laid through different area classifications i.e., marine, forest, agriculture, rural, urban, and city areas. During project development phase, an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) is conducted and submitted to the Office of Natural Resources and Environmental Policy and Planning (ONEP) for approval before project construction commencement. Knowledge and experiences gained and revealed from EIA in the past projects definitely are developed to further advance EIA study process for newly 5th Transmission Natural Gas Pipeline Project (5TP) with approximately 415 kilometers length. The preferred pipeline route is selected and justified by SMARTi map, an advance digital one-map platform with consists of multiple layers geographic and environmental information. Sensitive area impact focus (SAIF) is a practicable impact assessment methodology which appropriate for a particular long distance infrastructure project such as 5TP. An environmental modeling simulation is adopted into SAIF methodology for impact quantified in all sensitive areas whereas other area along pipeline right-of-ways is typically assessed as an impact representative. Resulting time and cost deduction is beneficial to project for early start.

Keywords: environmental impact assessment, EIA, natural gas pipeline, sensitive area impact focus, SAIF

Procedia PDF Downloads 393

Authors: Ida Fatimawati Adi Badiozaman, Augustus Raymond Segar

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The Covid-19 pandemic transformed teaching contexts at an unprecedented level. Although studies have focused mainly on its impact on students, little is known about how emergency online teaching affects faculty members in higher education. Given that the pandemic has robbed teachers of opportunities for adequate preparation, it is vital to understand how teaching competencies were perceived in the crisis-response transition to online teaching and learning (OTL). Therefore, the study explores how academics perceive their readiness for OTL and what competencies were perceived to be central. Therefore, through a mixed-methods design, the study first explores through a survey how academics perceive their readiness for OTL and what competencies were perceived to be central. Emerging trends from the quantitative data of 330 academics (three public and three private Higher learning institutions) led to the formulation of interview guides for the subsequent qualitative phase. The authors use critical sensemaking (CSM) to analyse interviews with twenty-two teachers (n = 22) (three public; three private HEs) toward understanding the interconnected layers of influences they draw from as they make sense of their teaching competence. The sensemaking process reframed competence and readiness in that agentic competency emerged as crucial in shaping resilience and adaptability during the transition to OTL. The findings also highlight professional learningcriticalto teacher competence: course design, communication, time management, technological competence, and identity (re)construction. The findings highlight opportunities for strategic orientation to change during crisis. Implications for pedagogy and policy are discussed.

Keywords: online teaching, pedagogical competence, agentic competence, agency, technological competence

Procedia PDF Downloads 74

Authors: Afshin Keshvadi, Johari Endan, Haniff Harun, Desa Ahmad, Farah Saleena

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Experiments were conducted to develop a model for analyzing the ripening process of oil palm fresh fruits in relation to oil yield and oil quality of palm oil produced. This research was carried out on 8-year-old Tenera (Dura × Pisifera) palms planted in 2003 at the Malaysian Palm Oil Board Research Station. Fresh fruit bunches were harvested from designated palms during January till May of 2010. The bunches were divided into three regions (top, middle and bottom), and fruits from the outer and inner layers were randomly sampled for analysis at 8, 12, 16 and 20 weeks after anthesis to establish relationships between maturity and oil development in the mesocarp and kernel. Computations on data related to ripening time, oil content and oil quality were performed using several computer software programs (MSTAT-C, SAS and Microsoft Excel). Nine nonlinear mathematical models were utilized using MATLAB software to fit the data collected. The results showed mean mesocarp oil percent increased from 1.24 % at 8 weeks after anthesis to 29.6 % at 20 weeks after anthesis. Fruits from the top part of the bunch had the highest mesocarp oil content of 10.09 %. The lowest kernel oil percent of 0.03 % was recorded at 12 weeks after anthesis. Palmitic acid and oleic acid comprised of more than 73 % of total mesocarp fatty acids at 8 weeks after anthesis, and increased to more than 80 % at fruit maturity at 20 weeks. The Logistic model with the highest R2 and the lowest root mean square error was found to be the best fit model.

Keywords: oil palm, oil yield, ripening process, anthesis, fatty acids, modeling

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Authors: S. Naderizadeh, A. Athanassiou, I. S. Bayer

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This work describes a layer-by-layer spraying method to produce a non-wetting coating, based on thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU) and silica nanoparticles (Si-NPs). The main purpose of this work was to transform a hydrophilic polymer to superhydrophobic coating. The contact angle of pure TPU was measured about 77˚ ± 2, and water droplets did not roll away upon tilting even at 90°. But after applying a layer of Si-NPs on top of this, not only the contact angle increased to 165˚ ± 2, but also water droplets can roll away even below 5˚ tilting. The most important restriction in this study was the weak interfacial adhesion between polymer and nanoparticles, which had a bad effect on durability of the coatings. To overcome this problem, we used a very thin layer of graphene nanoplatelets (GNPs) as an interlayer between TPU and Si-NPs layers, followed by thermal treatment at 150˚C. The sample’s morphology and topography were characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), EDX analysis and atomic force microscopy (AFM). It was observed that Si-NPs embedded into the polymer phase in the presence of GNPs layer. It is probably because of the high surface area and considerable thermal conductivity of the graphene platelets. The contact angle value for the sample containing graphene decreased a little bit respected to the coating without graphene and reached to 156.4˚ ± 2, due to the depletion of the surface roughness. The durability of the coatings against abrasion was evaluated by Taber® abrasion test, and it was observed that superhydrophobicity of the coatings remains for a longer time, in the presence of GNPs layer. Due to the simple fabrication method and good durability of the coating, this coating can be used as a durable superhydrophobic coating for metals and can be produced in large scale.

Keywords: graphene, silica nanoparticles, superhydrophobicity, thermoplastic polyurethane

Procedia PDF Downloads 174