Search results for: urea deep placement

Authors: Thomas Monahan, Nicolas Gorius, Thanh Nguyen

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Exoplanet atmospheric parameters retrieval is a complex, computationally intensive, inverse modeling problem in which an exoplanet’s atmospheric composition is extracted from an observed spectrum. Traditional Bayesian sampling methods require extensive time and computation, involving algorithms that compare large numbers of known atmospheric models to the input spectral data. Runtimes are directly proportional to the number of parameters under consideration. These increased power and runtime requirements are difficult to accommodate in space missions where model size, speed, and power consumption are of particular importance. The use of traditional Bayesian sampling methods, therefore, compromise model complexity or sampling accuracy. The Atmospheric Retrievals conditional Generative Adversarial Network (ARcGAN) is a deep convolutional generative adversarial network that improves on the previous model’s speed and accuracy. We demonstrate the efficacy of artificial intelligence to quickly and reliably predict atmospheric parameters and present it as a viable alternative to slow and computationally heavy Bayesian methods. In addition to its broad applicability across instruments and planetary types, ARcGAN has been designed to function on low power application-specific integrated circuits. The application of edge computing to atmospheric retrievals allows for real or near-real-time quantification of atmospheric constituents at the instrument level. Additionally, edge computing provides both high-performance and power-efficient computing for AI applications, both of which are critical for space missions. With the edge computing chip implementation, ArcGAN serves as a strong basis for the development of a similar machine-learning algorithm to reduce the downlinked data volume from the Compact Ultraviolet to Visible Imaging Spectrometer (CUVIS) onboard the DAVINCI mission to Venus.

Keywords: deep learning, generative adversarial network, edge computing, atmospheric parameters retrieval

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Authors: Faizan Tariq, Moayid Ali Zaidi

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Facial emotion recognition algorithms are expanding rapidly now a day. People are using different algorithms with different combinations to generate best results. There are six basic emotions which are being studied in this area. Author tried to recognize the facial expressions using object detector algorithms instead of traditional algorithms. Two object detection algorithms were chosen which are Faster R-CNN and YOLO. For pre-processing we used image rotation and batch normalization. The dataset I have chosen for the experiments is Static Facial Expression in Wild (SFEW). Our approach worked well but there is still a lot of room to improve it, which will be a future direction.

Keywords: face recognition, emotion recognition, deep learning, CNN

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Authors: Dr., Suchita Daokar

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Background: Successful orthodontic treatment has always relied on anchorage. The stability of the implants depends on bone quantity, mini-implant design, and placement conditions. Out of the various methods of gaining stability, Platelet concentrations are gaining popularity for various reasons. PRF is a minimally invasive method, and there are various studies that has shown its role in enhancing the stability of general implants. However, there is no literature found regarding the effect of PRF in enhancing the stability of the orthodontic implant. Therefore, this study aimed to evaluate and assess the efficacy of PRF on the stability of the orthodontic implant. Methods: The study comprised of 9 subjects aged above 18 years of age. The split mouth technique was used; Group A (where implants were coated before insertion) and group B (implant were normally inserted). The stability of the implant was measured using resonance frequency analysis at insertion (T0), 24 hours (T1), 2 weeks (T2), at 4 weeks (T3), at 6 weeks (T4), and 8 weeks (T5) after insertion. Result: Statistically significant findings were found when group A was compared to group B using ANOVA test (p<0.05). The stability of the implant of group A at each time interval was greater than group B. The implant stability was high at T0 and reduces at T2, and increasing through T3 to T5. The stability was highest at T5. Conclusion: A chairside, minimally invasive procedure ofPRF coating on implants have shown promising results in improving the stability of orthodontic implants and providing scope for future studies.

Keywords: Orthodontic implants, stablity, resonance Frequency Analysis, pre

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Authors: Ketevan Goletiani, Parmen Khvedelidze

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discusses the importance of the topic, which is reflected in the advanced and developed countries in the formation of a new innovative stage of the distinctive mark of the modern world development. This phase includes the construction of the economy, which generates stockpiling and use is based. Intensifying the production and use of the results of new scientific and technical innovation has led to a sharp reduction in the cycle and accelerate the pace of product and technology updates. The world's leading countries in the development of innovative management systems for the formation of long-term and stable development of the socio-economic order conditions. The last years of the 20th century, the social and economic relations, modification, accelerating economic reforms, and profound changes in the system of the time. At the same time, the country should own place in the world geopolitical and economic space. Accelerated economic development tasks, the World Trade Organization, the European Union deep and comprehensive trade agreement, the new system of economic management, technical and technological renewal of production potential, and scientific fields in the share of the total volume of GDP growth requires new approaches. XX - XXI centuries Georgia's socio-economic changes is one of the urgent tasks in the form of a rise to the need for change, involving the use of natural resource-based economy to the latest scientific and technical achievements of an innovative and dynamic economy based on an accelerated pace. But Georgia still remains unresolved in many methodological, theoretical, and practical nature of the problem relating to the management of the economy in various fields for the development of innovative systems for optimal implementation. Therefore, the development of an innovative system for the formation of a complex and multi-problem, which is reflected in the following: countries should have higher growth rates than the geopolitical space of the neighboring countries that its competitors are. Formation of such a system is possible only in a deep theoretical research and innovative processes in the multi-level (micro, meso- and macro-levels) management on the basis of creation.

Keywords: georgia, innovative, socio-economic, innovative manage

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Authors: Pranjal Srivastava, Piyali Sengupta

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The performance of marine drilling risers is crucial in the offshore oil and gas industry to ensure safe drilling operation with minimum downtime. Experimental investigations on marine drilling risers are limited in the literature owing to the expensive and exhaustive test setup required to replicate the realistic riser model and ocean environment in the laboratory. Therefore, this study presents an analytical model of marine drilling riser for determining its fragility under ocean environmental loading. In this study, the marine drilling riser is idealized as a continuous beam having a concentric circular cross-section. Hydrodynamic loading acting on the marine drilling riser is determined by Morison’s equations. By considering the equilibrium of forces on the marine drilling riser for the connected and normal drilling conditions, the governing partial differential equations in terms of independent variables z (depth) and t (time) are derived. Subsequently, the Runge Kutta method and Finite Difference Method are employed for solving the partial differential equations arising from the analytical model. The proposed analytical approach is successfully validated with respect to the experimental results from the literature. From the dynamic analysis results of the proposed analytical approach, the critical design parameters peak displacements, upper and lower flex joint rotations and von Mises stresses of marine drilling risers are determined. An extensive parametric study is conducted to explore the effects of top tension, drilling depth, ocean current speed and platform drift on the critical design parameters of the marine drilling riser. Thereafter, incremental dynamic analysis is performed to derive the fragility functions of shallow water and deep-water marine drilling risers under ocean environmental loading. The proposed methodology can also be adopted for downtime estimation of marine drilling risers incorporating the ranges of uncertainties associated with the ocean environment, especially at deep and ultra-deepwater.

Keywords: drilling riser, marine, analytical model, fragility

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Authors: Yousif Mohamed Y. Abdallah

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This is an experimental study deals with detection, measurement and analysis of the periodic physiological organ motion during external beam radiotherapy; to improve the accuracy of the radiation field placement, and to reduce the exposure of healthy tissue during radiation treatments. The importance of this study is to detect the maximum path of the mobile structures during radiotherapy delivery, to define the planning target volume (PTV) and irradiated volume during both inspiration and expiration period and to verify the target volume. In addition to its role to highlight the importance of the application of Intense Guided Radiotherapy (IGRT) methods in the field of radiotherapy. The results showed (body contour was equally (3.17 + 0.23 mm), for left lung displacement reading (2.56 + 0.99 mm) and right lung is (2.42 + 0.77 mm) which the radiation oncologist to take suitable countermeasures in case of significant errors. In addition, the use of the image registration technique for automatic position control is predicted potential motion. The motion ranged between 2.13 mm and 12.2 mm (low and high). In conclusion, individualized assessment of tumor mobility can improve the accuracy of target areas definition in patients undergo Sterostatic RT for stage I, II and III lung cancer (NSCLC). Definition of the target volume based on a single CT scan with a margin of 10 mm is clearly inappropriate.

Keywords: respiratory motion, external beam radiotherapy, image processing, lung

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Authors: P. Christodoulou, M. Gerasimou, S. Mantzoukis, N. Varsamis, G. Kolliopoulou, N. Zotos

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Abstract— Purpose: The Intensive Care Unit (ICU) environment is conducive to the growth of microorganisms. A variety of microorganisms gain access to the intravascular area and are transported throughout the circulatory system. Therefore, examination of the catheters used in ICU patients is of paramount importance. Material and Method: The culture medium is a catheter tip, which is enriched with Tryptic soy broth (TSB). After one day of incubation, the broth is passaged in the following selective media: Blood, Mac conkey No. 2, chocolate, Mueller Hinton, Chapman, and Saboureaud agar. The above selective media is incubated for 2 days. After this period, if any number of microbial colonies is detected, gram staining is performed and then the microorganisms are identified by biochemical techniques in the automated Microscan (Siemens) system followed by a sensitivity test in the same system using the minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) technique. The sensitivity test is verified by a Kirby Bauer test. Results: In 2017, the Microbiology Laboratory received 84 catheters from the ICU. 42 were found positive. Of these, S. epidermidis was identified at 8, A. baumannii in 10, K. pneumoniae in 6, P. aeruginosa in 6, P. mirabilis in 3, S. simulans in 1, S. haemolyticus in 4, S. aureus in 3 and S. hominis in 1. Conclusions: The results show that the placement and maintenance of the catheters in ICU patients are relatively successful, despite the unfavorable environment of the unit.

Keywords: culture, intensive care unit, microorganisms, vascular catheters

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Authors: Siddharth Deshpande, Nihar Masurkar, Vallerinteavide Mavelli Girish, Malan Desai, Chester Drum

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Folding and stabilization of recombinant proteins remain a consistent challenge for industrial and therapeutic applications. Proteins derived from thermophilic bacteria often have superior expression and stability qualities. To develop a generalizable approach to protein folding and stabilization, we tested the hypothesis that wrapping a thermostable exoshell around a protein substrate would aid folding and impart thermostable qualities to the internalized substrate. To test the effect of internalizing a protein within a thermostable exoshell (tES), we tested in vitro folding and stability using green fluorescent protein (GFPuv), horseradish peroxidase (HRP) and renilla luciferase (rLuc). The 8nm interior volume of a thermostable ferritin assembly was engineered to accommodate foreign proteins and either present a positive, neutral or negative interior charge environment. We further engineered the tES complex to reversibly assemble and disassemble with pH titration. Template proteins were expressed as inclusion bodies and an in vitro folding protocol was developed that forced proteins to fold inside a single tES. Functional yield was improved 100-fold, 100-fold and 150-fold with use of tES for GFPuv, HRP and rLuc respectively and was highly dependent on the internal charge environment of the tES. After folding, functional proteins could be released from the tES folding cavity using size exclusion chromatography at pH 5.8. Internalized proteins were tested for improved stability against thermal, organic, urea and guanidine denaturation. Our results demonstrated that thermostable exoshells can efficiently refold and stabilize inactive aggregates into functional proteins.

Keywords: thermostable shell, in vitro folding, stability, functional yield

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Authors: Javier Muro, Anja Linstadter, Florian Manner, Lisa Schwarz, Stephan Wollauer, Paul Magdon, Gohar Ghazaryan, Olena Dubovyk

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Monitoring the trade-off between biomass production and biodiversity in grasslands is critical to evaluate the effects of management practices across environmental gradients. New generations of remote sensing sensors and machine learning approaches can model grasslands’ characteristics with varying accuracies. However, studies often fail to cover a sufficiently broad range of environmental conditions, and evidence suggests that prediction models might be case specific. In this study, biomass production and biodiversity indices (species richness and Fishers’ α) are modeled in 150 grassland plots for three sites across Germany. These sites represent a North-South gradient and are characterized by distinct soil types, topographic properties, climatic conditions, and management intensities. Predictors used are derived from Sentinel-1 & 2 and a set of topoedaphic variables. The transferability of the models is tested by training and validating at different sites. The performance of feed-forward deep neural networks (DNN) is compared to a random forest algorithm. While biomass predictions across gradients and sites were acceptable (r2 0.5), predictions of biodiversity indices were poor (r2 0.14). DNN showed higher generalization capacity than random forest when predicting biomass across gradients and sites (relative root mean squared error of 0.5 for DNN vs. 0.85 for random forest). DNN also achieved high performance when using the Sentinel-2 surface reflectance data rather than different combinations of spectral indices, Sentinel-1 data, or topoedaphic variables, simplifying dimensionality. This study demonstrates the necessity of training biomass and biodiversity models using a broad range of environmental conditions and ensuring spatial independence to have realistic and transferable models where plot level information can be upscaled to landscape scale.

Keywords: ecosystem services, grassland management, machine learning, remote sensing

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Authors: Sukru Merey, Caglar Sinayuc

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Gas hydrate deposits which are found in deep ocean sediments and in permafrost regions are supposed to be a fossil fuel reserve for the future. The Black Sea is also considered rich in terms of gas hydrates. It abundantly contains gas hydrates as methane (CH₄~80 to 99.9%) source. In this study, by using the literature, seismic and other data of the Black Sea such as salinity, porosity of the sediments, common gas type, temperature distribution and pressure gradient, the optimum gas production method for the Black Sea gas hydrates was selected as mainly depressurization method. Numerical simulations were run to analyze gas production from gas hydrate deposited in turbidites in the Black Sea by depressurization.

Keywords: CH4 hydrate, Black Sea hydrates, gas hydrate experiments, HydrateResSim

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Authors: Pau Rodriguez, Jordi Gonzalez, Josep M. Gonfaus, Xavier Roca

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Image sharing in social networks has increased exponentially in the past years. Officially, there are 600 million Instagrammers uploading around 100 million photos and videos per day. Consequently, there is a need for developing new tools to understand the content expressed in shared images, which will greatly benefit social media communication and will enable broad and promising applications in education, advertisement, entertainment, and also psychology. Following these trends, our work aims to take advantage of the existing relationship between text and personality, already demonstrated by multiple researchers, so that we can prove that there exists a relationship between images and personality as well. To achieve this goal, we consider that images posted on social networks are typically conditioned on specific words, or hashtags, therefore any relationship between text and personality can also be observed with those posted images. Our proposal makes use of the most recent image understanding models based on neural networks to process the vast amount of data generated by social users to determine those images most correlated with personality traits. The final aim is to train a weakly-supervised image-based model for personality assessment that can be used even when textual data is not available, which is an increasing trend. The procedure is described next: we explore the images directly publicly shared by users based on those accompanying texts or hashtags most strongly related to personality traits as described by the OCEAN model. These images will be used for personality prediction since they have the potential to convey more complex ideas, concepts, and emotions. As a result, the use of images in personality questionnaires will provide a deeper understanding of respondents than through words alone. In other words, from the images posted with specific tags, we train a deep learning model based on neural networks, that learns to extract a personality representation from a picture and use it to automatically find the personality that best explains such a picture. Subsequently, a deep neural network model is learned from thousands of images associated with hashtags correlated to OCEAN traits. We then analyze the network activations to identify those pictures that maximally activate the neurons: the most characteristic visual features per personality trait will thus emerge since the filters of the convolutional layers of the neural model are learned to be optimally activated depending on each personality trait. For example, among the pictures that maximally activate the high Openness trait, we can see pictures of books, the moon, and the sky. For high Conscientiousness, most of the images are photographs of food, especially healthy food. The high Extraversion output is mostly activated by pictures of a lot of people. In high Agreeableness images, we mostly see flower pictures. Lastly, in the Neuroticism trait, we observe that the high score is maximally activated by animal pets like cats or dogs. In summary, despite the huge intra-class and inter-class variabilities of the images associated to each OCEAN traits, we found that there are consistencies between visual patterns of those images whose hashtags are most correlated to each trait.

Keywords: emotions and effects of mood, social impact theory in social psychology, social influence, social structure and social networks

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Authors: Betty Kibirige

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Students entering the University of Zululand (UNIZULU) Science Faculty mostly come with skills that allow them to prepare for exams and pass them in order to satisfy requirements for entry into a tertiary Institution. Some students hail from deep rural schools with limited facilities, while others come from well-resourced schools. Personal experience has shown that it may take a student the whole time at a tertiary institution following the same skills as those acquired in high school as a sure means of entering the next level in their development, namely a postgraduate program. While it is apparent that at this point in human history, it is totally impossible to teach all the possible content in any one subject, many academics approach teaching and learning from the traditional point of view. It therefore became apparent to explore ways of developing a graduate that will be able to approach life with skills that allows them to navigate knowledge by applying conceptual and critical thinking skills. Recently, the Science Faculty at the University of Zululand introduced two Engineering programs. In an endeavour to approach the development of the Engineering graduate in this institution to be able to tackle problem-solving in the present-day excessive information availability, it became necessary to study and review approaches used by various academics in order to settle for a possible best approach to the challenge at hand. This paper focuses on the development of a deep rural child in a graduate with conceptual and critical thinking skills as major attributes possessed upon graduation. For this purpose, various approaches were studied. A combination of these approaches was repackaged to form an approach that may appear novel to UNIZULU and the rural child, especially for the Engineering discipline. The approach was checked by offering quiz questions to students participating in an engineering module, observing test scores in the targeted module and make comparative studies. Test results are discussed in the article. It was concluded that students’ graduate attributes could be tailored subconsciously to indeed include conceptual and critical thinking skills, but through more than one approach depending mainly on the student's high school background.

Keywords: graduate attributes, conceptual skills, critical thinking skills, traditional approach

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Authors: R. Begum, M. M. R. Jahangir, M. Jahiruddin, M. R. Islam, M. M. Rahman, M. B. Hossain, P. Hossain

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Quantifying carbon (C) sequestration in soils is necessary to help better understand the effect of agricultural practices on the C cycle. The estimated contribution of agricultural carbon dioxide (CO₂) and methane (CH₄) to global warming potential (GWP) has a wide range. The underlying causes of this huge uncertainty are the difficulties to predict the regional CO₂ and CH₄ loss due to the lack of experimental evidence on CO₂ and CH₄ emissions and associated drivers. The CH₄ and CO₂ emissions were measured in irrigated wheat in subtropical floodplain soils which have been under two soil disturbance levels (strip vs. conventional tillage; ST vs. CT being both with 30% residue retention) and three N fertilizer rates (60, 100, and 140% of the recommended N fertilizer dose, RD) in annual wheat (Triticum aestivum)-mungbean (Vigna radiata)-rice (Oryza sativa L) for seven consecutive years. The highest CH₄ and CO₂ emission peak was observed on day 3 after urea application in both tillages except CO₂ flux in CT. Nitrogen fertilizer application rate significantly influenced mean and cumulative CH₄ and CO₂ fluxes. The CH₄ and CO₂ fluxes decreased in an optimum dose of N fertilizer except for ST for CH₄. The CO₂ emission significantly showed higher emission at minimum (60% of RD) fertilizer application at both tillages. Soil microbial biomass carbon (MBC), organic carbon (SOC), Particulate organic carbon (POC), permanganate oxidisable carbon (POXC), basal respiration (BR) were significantly higher in ST which were negative and significantly correlated with CO₂. However, POC and POXC were positively and significantly correlated with CH₄ emission.

Keywords: carbon dioxide emissions, methane emission, nitrogen rate, tillage

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Authors: Ilma Robo, Saimir Heta, Edona Hasanaj, Vera Ostreni

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The hybrid layer, the way it is created and how it is protected against degradation over time, is the key to the clinical success of a composite restoration. The composite supports the dentinal structure exactly with the realized surface of microretension. Thus, this surface is in direct proportion to its size versus the duration of clinical use of composite dental restoration. Micro-retention occurs between dentin or acidified enamel and adhesive resin extensions versus pre-prepared spaces, such as hollow dentinal tubules. The way the adhesive resin binds to the acidified dentinal structure depends on the physical or chemical factors of this interrelationship between two structures with very different characteristics. During the acidification process, a precursor to the placement of the adhesive resin layer, activation of metaloproteinases of dental origin occurs, enzymes which are responsible for the degradation of the hybrid layer. These enzymes have expressed activity depending on the presence of Zn2 + or Ca2 + ions. There are several ways to inhibit these enzymes, and consequently, there are several ways to inhibit the degradation process of the hybrid layer. The study aims to evaluate chlorhexidine as a solution element, inhibitor of dentin activated metalloproteinases, as a result of the application of acidification. This study aims to look at this solution in advantage or contraindication theories, already published in the literature.

Keywords: hybrid layer, chlorhexidine, degradation, application

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Authors: Ola Hall, Ibrahim Wahab, Thorsteinn Rognvaldsson, Mattias Ohlsson

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The subfield of poverty and welfare estimation that applies machine learning tools and methods on satellite imagery is a nascent but rapidly growing one. This is in part driven by the sustainable development goal, whose overarching principle is that no region is left behind. Among other things, this requires that welfare levels can be accurately and rapidly estimated at different spatial scales and resolutions. Conventional tools of household surveys and interviews do not suffice in this regard. While they are useful for gaining a longitudinal understanding of the welfare levels of populations, they do not offer adequate spatial coverage for the accuracy that is needed, nor are their implementation sufficiently swift to gain an accurate insight into people and places. It is this void that satellite imagery fills. Previously, this was near-impossible to implement due to the sheer volume of data that needed processing. Recent advances in machine learning, especially the deep learning subtype, such as deep neural networks, have made this a rapidly growing area of scholarship. Despite their unprecedented levels of performance, such models lack transparency and explainability and thus have seen limited downstream applications as humans generally are apprehensive of techniques that are not inherently interpretable and trustworthy. While several studies have demonstrated the superhuman performance of AI models, none has directly compared the performance of such models and human readers in the domain of poverty studies. In the present study, we directly compare the performance of human readers and a DL model using different resolutions of satellite imagery to estimate the welfare levels of demographic and health survey clusters in Tanzania, using the wealth quintile ratings from the same survey as the ground truth data. The cluster-level imagery covers all 608 cluster locations, of which 428 were classified as rural. The imagery for the human readers was sourced from the Google Maps Platform at an ultra-high resolution of 0.6m per pixel at zoom level 18, while that of the machine learning model was sourced from the comparatively lower resolution Sentinel-2 10m per pixel data for the same cluster locations. Rank correlation coefficients of between 0.31 and 0.32 achieved by the human readers were much lower when compared to those attained by the machine learning model – 0.69-0.79. This superhuman performance by the model is even more significant given that it was trained on the relatively lower 10-meter resolution satellite data while the human readers estimated welfare levels from the higher 0.6m spatial resolution data from which key markers of poverty and slums – roofing and road quality – are discernible. It is important to note, however, that the human readers did not receive any training before ratings, and had this been done, their performance might have improved. The stellar performance of the model also comes with the inevitable shortfall relating to limited transparency and explainability. The findings have significant implications for attaining the objective of the current frontier of deep learning models in this domain of scholarship – eXplainable Artificial Intelligence through a collaborative rather than a comparative framework.

Keywords: poverty prediction, satellite imagery, human readers, machine learning, Tanzania

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Authors: Hongliang Ding, Ziqu Ouyang

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Under the basic national conditions that the energy structure is dominated by coal, it is of great significance to realize deep and flexible peak shaving of boilers in pulverized coal power plants, and maximize the consumption of renewable energy in the power grid, to ensure China's energy security and scientifically achieve the goals of carbon peak and carbon neutrality. With the promising self-preheating combustion technology, which had the potential of broad-load regulation and rapid response to load changes, this study mainly investigated the different load operation and rapid load-change characteristics of pulverized coal combustion. Four effective load-stabilization bases were proposed according to preheating temperature, coal gas composition (calorific value), combustion temperature (spatial mean temperature and mean square temperature fluctuation coefficient), and flue gas emissions (CO and NOx concentrations), on the basis of which the load-change rates were calculated to assess the load response characteristics. Due to the improvement of the physicochemical properties of pulverized coal after preheating, stable ignition and combustion conditions could be obtained even at a low load of 25%, with a combustion efficiency of over 97.5%, and NOx emission reached the lowest at 50% load, with the concentration of 50.97 mg/Nm3 (@6%O2). Additionally, the load ramp-up stage displayed higher load-change rates than the load ramp-down stage, with maximum rates of 3.30 %/min and 3.01 %/min, respectively. Furthermore, the driving force formed by high step load was conducive to the increase of load-change rate. The rates based on the preheating indicator attained the highest value of 3.30 %/min, while the rates based on the combustion indicator peaked at 2.71 %/min. In comparison, the combustion indicator accurately described the system’s combustion state and load changes, whereas the preheating indicator was easier to acquire, with a higher load-change rate, hence the appropriate evaluation strategy should depend on the actual situation. This study verified a feasible method for deep and flexible peak shaving of coal-fired power units, further providing basic data and technical supports for future engineering applications.

Keywords: clean coal combustion, load-change rate, peak shaving, self-preheating

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Authors: Suraj Mehrotra

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The stock market is a volatile, bustling marketplace that is a cornerstone of economics. It defines whether companies are successful or in spiral. A thorough understanding of it is important - many companies have whole divisions dedicated to analysis of both their stock and of rivaling companies. Linking the world of finance and artificial intelligence (AI), especially the stock market, has been a relatively recent development. Predicting how stocks will do considering all external factors and previous data has always been a human task. With the help of AI, however, machine learning models can help us make more complete predictions in financial trends. Taking a look at the stock market specifically, predicting the open, closing, high, and low prices for the next day is very hard to do. Machine learning makes this task a lot easier. A model that builds upon itself that takes in external factors as weights can predict trends far into the future. When used effectively, new doors can be opened up in the business and finance world, and companies can make better and more complete decisions. This paper explores the various techniques used in the prediction of stock prices, from traditional statistical methods to deep learning and neural networks based approaches, among other methods. It provides a detailed analysis of the techniques and also explores the challenges in predictive analysis. For the accuracy of the testing set, taking a look at four different models - linear regression, neural network, decision tree, and naïve Bayes - on the different stocks, Apple, Google, Tesla, Amazon, United Healthcare, Exxon Mobil, J.P. Morgan & Chase, and Johnson & Johnson, the naïve Bayes model and linear regression models worked best. For the testing set, the naïve Bayes model had the highest accuracy along with the linear regression model, followed by the neural network model and then the decision tree model. The training set had similar results except for the fact that the decision tree model was perfect with complete accuracy in its predictions, which makes sense. This means that the decision tree model likely overfitted the training set when used for the testing set.

Keywords: machine learning, testing set, artificial intelligence, stock analysis

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Authors: Lukasz Grzegorz Broda, Taiwo Oseni, Andrew Stranieri, Rodrigo Marino, Ronelle Welton, Mark Yates

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The oral health of residents in aged care centres in Australia is poor, contributing to infections, hospital admissions, and increased suffering. Although the use of electric toothbrushes has been deployed in many centres, smartbrushes that record and transmit information about brushing patterns and duration are not routinely deployed. Yet, the use of smartbrushes for aged care residents promises better oral care. Thus, a study aimed at investigating the appropriateness and suitability of a smartbrush for aged care residents is currently underway. Due to the peculiarity of the aged care setting, the incorporation of smartbrushes into residents’ care does require careful planning and design considerations. This paper describes an initial design process undertaken through the use of an actor to understand the important elements to be incorporated whilst installing a smartbrush for use in aged care settings. The design covers the configuration settings of the brush and app, including ergonomic factors related to brush and smartphone placement. A design science approach led to an installation re-design and a revised protocol for the planned study, the ultimate aim being to design installations to enhance perceived usefulness, ease of use, and attitudes towards the incorporation of smartbrushes for improving oral health care for aged care residents.

Keywords: smartbrush, applied computing, life and medical sciences, health informatics

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Authors: Theodore Gautier Le Jeune Bikoko, Jean Claude Tchamba, Sofiane Amziane

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This study focuses on the problem of collapsed buildings within the city of Douala over the past ten years, and more precisely, within the period from 2011 to 2020. It was carried out in a bid to ascertain the real causes of this phenomenon, which has become recurrent in the leading economic city of Cameroon. To achieve this, it was first necessary to review some works dealing with construction materials and technology as well as some case histories of structural collapse within the city. Thereafter, a statistical study was carried out on the results obtained. It was found that the causes of building collapses in the city of Douala are: Neglect of administrative procedures, use of poor quality materials, poor composition and confectioning of concrete, lack of Geotechnical study, lack of structural analysis and design, corrosion of the reinforcement bars, poor maintenance in buildings, and other causes. Out of the 46 cases of structural failure of buildings within the city of Douala, 7 of these were identified to have had no geotechnical study carried out, giving a percentage of 15.22%. It was also observed that out of the 46 cases of structural failure, 6 were as a result of lack of proper structural analysis and design, giving a percentage of 13.04%. Subsequently, recommendations and suggestions are made in a bid to placing particular emphasis on the choice of materials, the manufacture and casting of concrete, as well as the placement of the required reinforcements. All this guarantees the stability of a building.

Keywords: collapse buildings, Douala, structural collapse, Cameroon

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Authors: Murat Tosunoglu, Cigdem Gul, Nurcihan Hacioglu, Nurdan Tepeova

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Amphibian and Reptilian species are influenced by pollution and habitat destruction. Blood parameters of Amphibia species were particularly affected by the negative environmental conditions. Studied frog samples 36 clinically normal Pelophylax ridibundus individuals were captured along the Biga Stream between April–June 2014. When comparing our findings with the Turkish legislation (Water pollution control regulation), the 1. Locality of the Biga stream in terms of total coliform classified as "high quality water" (Coliform: 866.66 MPN/100 mL), while the 2. locality was a "contaminated water" (Coliform: 53266.66 MPN/100 mL). Blood samples of the live specimens were obtained in the laboratory within one day of their capture. The blood samples were taken from the etherized frogs by means of ventriculus punctures, via heparinized hematocrit capillaries. Hematological and biochemical analyses based on high quality water and contaminated water, respectively, are as follows: Red blood cell count (444210.52-426846.15 per cubic millimeter of blood), white blood cell count (4215.78-4684.61 per cubic millimeter of blood), hematocrit value (29.25-29.43 %), hemoglobin concentration (7.76-7.22 g/dl), mean corpuscular volume (637.64-719.99 fl), mean corpuscular hemoglobin (184.78-174.75 pg), mean corpuscular hemoglobin concentration (29.44-24.82 %), glucose (103.74-124.13 mg/dl), urea (87.68-81.72 mg/L), cholesterol (148.20-197.39 mg/dl), creatinine (0.29-0.28 mg/dl), uric acid (10.26-7.55 mg/L), albumin (1.13-1.39 g/dl), calcium (11.45-9.70 mg/dl), triglyceride (135.23-155.85 mg/dl), total protein (4.26-3.73 g/dl), phosphorus (6.83-17.86 mg/dl), and magnesium (0.95-1.06 mg/dl). The some hematological parameters in P. ridibundus specimens are given for the first time in this study. No water quality dependent variation was observed in clinic hematology parameters measured.

Keywords: Pelophylax ridibundus, hematological parameters, biochemistry, freshwater quality

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Authors: Li Maksym, Prabhakar M. N., Jung-Il Song

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In this study, a flame retardant and hydrophobic cotton textile were prepared by utilizing a renewable halogen-free bio-based solution based on chitosan, urea, and phytic acid, named bio-flame retardant liquid (BFL), through facile dip-coating technology. Deposition of BFL on the surface of the cotton was confirmed by Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy and scanning electron microscope coupled with energy-dispersive X-ray spectrometer. Thermal and flame retardant properties of the cottons were studied with thermogravimetric analysis, differential scanning calorimetry, vertical flame test, cone calorimeter test. Only with 8.8% of dry weight gain treaded cotton showed self-extinguish properties during fire test. Cone calorimeter test revealed a reduction of peak heat release rate from 203.2 to 21 kW/m2 and total heat release from 20.1 to 2.8 MJ/m2. Incidentally, BFL remarkably improved the thermal stability of flame retardant cotton from expressed in an enhanced amount of char at 700 °C (6.7 vs. 33.5%). BFL initiates the formation of phosphorous and silica contain char layer whichrestrains the propagation of heat and oxygen to unburned materialstrengthen by the liberation of non-combustible gases, which reduce the concentration of flammable volatiles and oxygen hence reducing the flammability of cotton. In addition, hydrophobicity and specific ignition test for upholstery application were performed. In conjunction, the proposed flame retardant cotton is potentially translatable to be utilized as upholstery materials in public transport.

Keywords: cotton farbic, flame retardancy, surface coating, intumescent mechanism

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Authors: F. Messaoudi, O. Haddad, R. Bouras, S. Kaci

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The development of self-compacting concrete (SCC) marks a huge step towards improved efficiency and working conditions on construction sites and in the precast industry. SCC flows easily into more complex shapes and through reinforcement bars, reduces the manpower required for the placement; no vibration is required to ensure correct compaction of concrete. This concrete contains a high volume of binder which is controlled by their rheological behavior. The paste consists of binders (Portland cement with or without supplementary cementitious materials), water, chemical admixtures and fillers. In this study, two series of tests were performed on self-compacting cement pastes made with marble waste additions as the mineral addition. The first series of this investigation was to determine the flow time of paste using Marsh cone, the second series was to determine the rheological parameters of the same paste namely yield stress and plastic viscosity using the rheometer Haake RheoStress 1. The results of this investigation allowed us to study the evolution of the yield stress, viscosity and the flow time Marsh cone paste as a function of the composition of the paste. A correlation between the results obtained on the flow test Marsh cone and those of the plastic viscosity on the mottled different cement pastes is proposed.

Keywords: adjuvant, rheological parameter, self-compacting cement pastes, waste marble

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Authors: Adnan Z. Mkhelif

Abstract:

Grammatical collocations (GCs) are word combinations containing a preposition or a grammatical structure, such as an infinitive (e.g. smile at, interested in, easy to learn, etc.). Such collocations tend to be difficult for Iraqi EFL university students (IUS) to master. To help address this problem, it is important to identify the factors causing it. This study aims at investigating the effects of L2 proficiency, frequency of GCs and their transparency on IUSs’ productive knowledge of GCs. The study involves 112 undergraduate participants with different proficiency levels, learning English in formal contexts in Iraq. The data collection instruments include (but not limited to) a productive knowledge test (designed by the researcher using the British National Corpus (BNC)), as well as the grammar part of the Oxford Placement Test (OPT). The study findings have shown that all the above-mentioned factors have significant effects on IUSs’ productive knowledge of GCs. In addition to establishing evidence of which factors of L2 learning might be relevant to learning GCs, it is hoped that the findings of the present study will contribute to more effective methods of teaching that can better address and help overcome the problems IUSs encounter in learning GCs. The study is thus hoped to have significant theoretical and pedagogical implications for researchers, syllabus designers as well as teachers of English as a foreign/second language.

Keywords: corpus linguistics, frequency, grammatical collocations, L2 vocabulary learning, productive knowledge, proficiency, transparency

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Authors: Peter Mayeso Jiyajiya

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The question of language and identity in the post-colonial Africa has resulted in the policy inconsistencies and perceived wayward practices regarding language use. The need to reside and situate oneself in the global village has alienated local identities, with most countries, Malawi in particular promoting exogenous colonial language(s) at the expense of local languages that mirror people’s identities. This has brought a mismatch between language policy and implementation. The resultant effect has been alienation of the ‘Self’ from one’s indigenous identity and creation of the ‘other’ in the foreign identity, and the undermining of the linguistic rights of the minority language speakers. The need to negotiate the identity and modernity in the global village is thus imperative. The paper attempts to review the language situation in Malawi in light of the growing desire for international integration vis-à-vis the cultivation and maintenance of national ethnolinguistic identity. It further highlights the dilemma that the promotion of vernacular languages is facing in the modern Malawi. It also examines the Malawi language policy and its implementation. The failures, challenges, and inconsistencies are discussed in order to negotiate the position of minority languages in the modern Malawi. The paper notes that identity construction and maintenance within the framework of language policy in Malawi is undermined by attitudinal factors towards one’s culture and language. The paper then provides suggestions of negotiating identity in Malawi within the framework of globalisation through the placement of premiums on the minority languages.

Keywords: identity, language policy, minority languages, vernacular language

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Authors: Hadi Rouhi Belvirdi

Abstract:

Reinforced concrete structures, in addition to bearing service loads and seismic effects, may also be subjected to impact loads resulting from unforeseen incidents. Understanding the behavior of these structures is crucial, as they serve to protect against such sudden loads and can significantly reduce damage and destruction. In examining the behavior of structures under such loading conditions, a total of eight specimens of single-layer reinforced concrete slabs were subjected to impact loading through the free fall of weights from specified heights. The weights and dimensions of the specimens were uniform, and the amount of reinforcement was consistent. By altering the slabs' overall shape and the reinforcement details, efforts were made to optimize the behavior of the slabs against impact loads. The results indicated that utilizing ductile features in the slabs increased their resistance to impact loading. However, the compressive strength of the reinforcement did not significantly enhance the flexural resistance. Assuming a constant amount of longitudinal steel, changes in the placement of tensile reinforcement led to a decrease in resistance. With a fixed amount of transverse steel, merely adjusting the angle of the transverse reinforcement could help control cracking and mitigate premature failures. An increase in compressive resistance beyond a certain limit resulted in local buckling of the compressive zone, subsequently decreasing the impact resistance.

Keywords: reinforced concrete slab, high-strength concrete, impact loading, impact resistance

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Authors: G. Nadirova, B. Aktaulova

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The main question of the research is- how did the Kazakhs manage to keep their religious thinking in the period of active propaganda of Soviet atheism, for seventy years of struggle against religion with the involvement of the scientific worldview as the primary means of proving the absence of the divine nature and materiality of the world? Our hypothesis is that In case of Kazakhstan the conservative female religious consciousness seems to have been a factor that helped to preserve the “everyday” religiousness of Kazakhs, which was far from deep theological contents of Islam, but able to revive in a short time after the decennia of proclaimed atheism.

Keywords: woman, religious thinking, Kazakhstan, soviet ideology, rituals, family

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Authors: Youtao Gao, Bingyu Jin, Tanran Zhao, Bo Xu

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The history of satellite navigation can be dated back to the 1960s. From the U.S. Transit system and the Russian Tsikada system to the modern Global Positioning System (GPS) and the Globalnaya Navigatsionnaya Sputnikovaya Sistema (GLONASS), performance of satellite navigation has been greatly improved. Nowadays, the navigation accuracy and coverage of these existing systems have already fully fulfilled the requirement of near-Earth users, but these systems are still beyond the reach of deep space targets. Due to the renewed interest in space exploration, a novel high-precision satellite navigation system is becoming even more important. The increasing demand for such a deep space navigation system has contributed to the emergence of a variety of new constellation architectures, such as the Lunar Global Positioning System. Apart from a Walker constellation which is similar to the one adopted by GPS on Earth, a novel constellation architecture which consists of libration point satellites in the Earth-Moon system is also available to construct the lunar navigation system, which can be called accordingly, the libration point satellite navigation system. The concept of using Earth-Moon libration point satellites for lunar navigation was first proposed by Farquhar and then followed by many other researchers. Moreover, due to the special characteristics of Libration point orbits, an autonomous orbit determination technique, which is called ‘Liaison navigation’, can be adopted by the libration point satellites. Using only scalar satellite-to-satellite tracking data, both the orbits of the user and libration point satellites can be determined autonomously. In this way, the extensive Earth-based tracking measurement can be eliminated, and an autonomous satellite navigation system can be developed for future space exploration missions. The method of state estimate is an unnegligible factor which impacts on the orbit determination accuracy besides type of orbit, initial state accuracy and measurement accuracy. We apply the extended Kalman filter(EKF) and the unscented Kalman filter(UKF) to determinate the orbits of Lagrangian navigation satellites. The autonomous orbit determination errors are compared. The simulation results illustrate that UKF can improve the accuracy and z-axis convergence to some extent.

Keywords: extended Kalman filter, autonomous orbit determination, unscented Kalman filter, navigation constellation

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Authors: Ana Miguel

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Purpose: Glaucoma is the second cause of worldwide blindness and the first cause of irreversible blindness. Trabeculectomy, the standard glaucoma surgery, has a success rate between 36.0% and 98.0% at three years and a high complication rate, leading to the development of different surgeries, micro-invasive glaucoma surgeries (MIGS). MIGS devices are diverse and have various indications, risks, and effectiveness. We intended to review MIGS’ surgical techniques, indications, contra-indications, and IOP effect. Methods: We performed a literature review of MIGS to differentiate the devices and their reported effectiveness compared to traditional surgery (tubes and blebs). We also conducted a video review of the last 1000 glaucoma surgeries of the author (including MIGS, but also trabeculectomy, deep sclerectomy, and tubes of Ahmed and Baerveldt) performed at glaucoma and advanced anterior segment fellowship in Canada and France, to describe preferred surgical techniques for each. Results: We present the videos with surgical techniques and pearls for each surgery. Glaucoma surgeries included: 1- bleb surgery (namely trabeculectomy, with releasable sutures or with slip knots, deep sclerectomy, Ahmed valve, Baerveldt tube), 2- MIGS with bleb, also known as MIBS (including XEN 45, XEN 63, and Preserflo), 3- MIGS increasing supra-choroidal flow (iStar), 4-MIGS increasing trabecular flow (iStent, gonioscopy-assisted transluminal trabeculotomy - GATT, goniotomy, excimer laser trabeculostomy -ELT), and 5-MIGS decreasing aqueous humor production (endocyclophotocoagulation, ECP). There was also needling (ab interno and ab externo) performed at the operating room and irido-zonulo-hyaloïdectomy (IZHV). Each technique had different indications and contra-indications. Conclusion: MIGS are valuable in glaucoma surgery, such as traditional surgery with trabeculectomy and tubes. All glaucoma surgery can be combined with phacoemulsification (there may be a synergistic effect on MIGS + cataract surgery). In addition, some MIGS may be combined for further intraocular pressure lowering effect (for example, iStents with goniotomy and ECP). A good surgical technique and postoperative management are fundamental to increasing success and good practice in all glaucoma surgery.

Keywords: glaucoma, migs, surgery, video, review

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Authors: Thuy Hanh Nguyen Thi

Abstract:

Since 1940, existentialism has penetrated into China and continued to profoundly influence contemporary Chinese literature. By the method of deep reading and text analysis, this article analyzes the existential feeling in Yan Lianke’s novels through various aspects: the Sisyphus senses, the narrative rationalization and the viewpoint of the dead. In addition to pointing out the characteristics of the existential sensation in the writer’s novels, the analysis of the article also provides an insight into the nature and depth of contemporary Chinese society.

Keywords: Yan Lianke, existentialism, the existential feeling, contemporary Chinese literature

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Authors: Mohd Fadzil Mohd Idris, Aida Nasirah Abdullah, Kalthom Husain, Hanipah Hussin

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Online campaigns reflect all the advantages; namely speed, low cost, accessibility, customization, interactivity, and persuasive ability over other media channels. Normally via websites, expensive campaigns could be done not only faster and cheaper, but also successfully. Web interactivity seems to be highly beneficial to ENGOs in advocating environmental campaigns and trigger interaction. This paper looks into the environmental online campaigns through websites of the environmental NGOs in Malaysia (MENGO); particularly on how is web interactivity structured and employed by the selected the MENGO to conduct campaigns on important issues and encourage dialogue among the audience. In this study, a quantitative method for website content analysis was conducted to investigate the availability of the coded units and to determine on which level(s) the units were placed. Twelve (12) interactivity features were coded, including the placement of units of analysis for interactivity category as units of analysis until the fourth level (Level 0-Level 3). The result demonstrates how the MENGO do not effectively structure and employ the web interactivity to conduct campaigns on important issues and encourage dialogue among the audience. It is suggested that the MENGO should redevelop the interactive website in order to effectively advocate environmental campaigns on important issues and encourage dialogue among the audience.

Keywords: environmental NGOs (ENGO), Malaysia environmental NGOs (MENGO), internet, website, online campaigns, web interactivity

Procedia PDF Downloads 437