Search results for: ordering time

Authors: Andres Portocarrero Bonifaz, Caterina Sandra Camarena Rodriguez, Ricardo Palma Esparza, Nicolas Antonio Romero Carlos

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Reference levels for common X-rays procedures have been set in many protocols. In Peru, during quality control tests, the dose tolerance is set by these international recommendations. Nevertheless, further studies can be made to assess the national reality and relate dose levels with different parameters such as kV, mA/mAs, exposure time, type of processing (digital, digitalized or conventional), etc. In this paper three radiologic procedures were taken into account for study, general X-rays (fixed and mobile), intraoral X-rays (fixed, mobile and portable) and mammography. For this purpose, an Unfors Xi detector was used; the dose was measured at a focus - detector distance which varied depending on the procedure, and was corrected afterward to find the surface entry dose. The data used in this paper was gathered over a period of over 3 years (2015-2018). In addition, each X-ray machine was taken into consideration only once. The results hope to achieve a new standard which reflects the local practice, and address the issues of the ‘Bonn Call for Action’ in Peru. For this purpose, the 75% percentile of the dose of each radiologic procedure was calculated. In future quality control services, those machines with dose values higher than the selected threshold should be informed that they surpass the reference dose levels established in comparison other radiological centers in the country.

Keywords: general X-rays, intraoral X-rays, mammography, reference dose levels

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Authors: Salah Hassab Elnaby, Omnia Hamdy, Aziza Ahmed Hassan, Salwa Abdelkawi, Ibrahim Abdelhalim

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Laser corneal reshaping has been proposed as a successful treatment of many refraction disorders. However, some physical and chemical demonstrations of the laser effect upon interaction with the corneal tissue are still not fully explained. Therefore, different computational and mathematical models have been implemented to predict the depth of the ablated channel and calculate the ablation threshold and the local temperature rise. In the current paper, we present a modified model that aims to answer some of the open questions about the ablation threshold, the ablation rate, and the physical and chemical mechanisms of that action. The proposed model consists of three parts. The first part deals with possible photochemical reactions between the incident photons and various components of the cornea (collagen, water, etc.). Such photochemical reactions may end by photo-ablation or just the electronic excitation of molecules. Then a chemical reaction is responsible for the ablation threshold. Finally, another chemical reaction produces fragments that can be cleared out. The model takes into account all processes at the same time with different probabilities. Moreover, the effect of applying different laser wavelengths that have been studied before, namely the common excimer laser (193-nm) and the solid state lasers (213-nm & 266-nm), has been investigated. Despite the success and ubiquity of the ArF laser, the presented results reveal that a carefully designed 213-nm laser gives the same results with lower operational drawbacks. Moreover, the use of mode locked laser could also decrease the risk of heat generation and diffusion.

Keywords: UV lasers, mathematical model, corneal ablation, photochemical ablation

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Authors: Maciej Pieńkowski

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Lean Management is nowadays one of the most dominating management concepts within industrial and service environment, providing compelling business benefits to many companies. At the same time, its application in the non-governmental organizations has not been extensively researched yet. Filling this gap will address clear necessity of efficient management system in NGO environment and significantly improve operational performance of many organizations. The goal of the research is to verify effectiveness of Lean Management implementation in the non-governmental organizations, based on Wrocław Food Bank case study. The case study describes a Lean Management implementation project within analyzed organization. During the project, Wrocław Food Bank went through full 5-step Lean Thinking processes, which consist of value identification, value stream mapping, creation of flow, establishing pull and seeking perfection. The research contains a detailed summary of each of those steps and provides with information regarding results of their implementation. The major findings of the study indicate, that application of Lean Management in NGO environment is possible, however physical implementation of its guidelines can be strongly impeded by multiple constraints, which non-governmental organizations are facing. Due to challenges like limited resources, project based activities and lack of traditional supplier-customer relationship, many NGOs may fail in their efforts to implement Lean Management. Successful Lean application requires therefore strong leadership commitment, which would drive transformation to remove barriers and obstacles.

Keywords: lean management, non-governmental organizations, continuous improvement, lean thinking

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Authors: Anne Mette Nyvad, Ken Ramshøj Christensen

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In the syntax literature, it has standardly been assumed that relative clauses and complement wh-clauses are islands for extraction in English, and that constraints on extraction from syntactic islands are universal. However, the Mainland Scandinavian languages has been known to provide counterexamples. Previous research on Danish has shown that neither relative clauses nor embedded questions are strong islands in Danish. Instead, extraction from this type of syntactic environment is degraded due to structural complexity and it interacts with nonstructural factors such as the frequency of occurrence of the matrix verb, the possibility of temporary misanalysis leading to semantic incongruity and exposure over time. We argue that these facts can be accounted for with parametric variation in the availability of CP-recursion, resulting in the patterns observed, as Danish would then “suspend” the ban on movement out of relative clauses and embedded questions. Given that Danish does not seem to adhere to allegedly universal syntactic constraints, such as the Complex NP Constraint and the Wh-Island Constraint, what happens in L2 English? We present results from a study investigating how native Danish speakers judge extractions from island structures in L2 English. Our findings suggest that Danes transfer their native language parameter setting when asked to judge island constructions in English. This is compatible with the Full Transfer Full Access Hypothesis, as the latter predicts that Danish would have difficulties resetting their [+/- CP-recursion] parameter in English because they are not exposed to negative evidence.

Keywords: syntax, islands, second language acquisition, danish

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Authors: Joseph Amponsah

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This research proposes an equation to predict and determine the momentum source equation term after factoring in the radial friction between the fluid and the blades and the impeller's propulsive power. This research aims to look at how CFD software can be used to predict the effect of flows in nuclear reactor stirred tanks through a momentum source equation and the concentration distribution of tracers that have been introduced in reactor tanks. The estimated findings, including the dimensionless concentration curves, power, and pumping numbers, dimensionless velocity profiles, and mixing times 4, were contrasted with results from tests in stirred containers. The investigation was carried out in Part I for vessels that were agitated by one impeller on a central shaft. The two types of impellers employed were an ordinary Rushton turbine and a 6-bladed 45° pitched blade turbine. The simulations made use of numerous reference frame techniques and the common k-e turbulence model. The impact of the grid type was also examined; unstructured, structured, and unique user-defined grids were looked at. The CFD model was used to simulate the flow field within the Rushton turbine nuclear reactor stirred tank. This method was validated using experimental data that were available close to the impeller tip and in the bulk area. Additionally, analyses of the computational efficiency and time using MRF and SM were done.

Keywords: Ansys fluent, momentum equation, CFD, prediction

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Authors: Harinder Singh

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The paper sheds light on the perceptions of the uninsured workers employed in the urban informal sector of India, towards the health insurance. In addition to this, it also explores the association of the identified perceptions with household decisions to enroll for health insurance schemes in India. Firstly the data taken from the primary survey of the uninsured workers employed in the urban informal sector was analyzed using exploratory factor analysis to evaluate the perceptions. Thereafter, logistic regression was employed to determine the association of the identified perceptions regarding the enrollment. Our study identifies twelve perceptions related to the health insurance enrollment of the uninsured workers employed in the urban informal sector of India. The study demonstrates that perceptions have the strongest association with the voluntary enrollment. These specifically relate to the lack of awareness about the need to buy health insurance; comprehensive coverage; income constraint; future contingencies and social obligations; lack of information; availability of subsidized government health care; linkage with government hospitals and preference for government schemes. Conclusions: Along with the food security, health security has become a crying need of the workers employed in the informal sector and the time has come to scale up the health insurance schemes for them in the country. Policy makers or marketers of health insurance policies should recognize the household perceptions as a potential barrier and try to develop a health insurance package as per the actual needs of the informal sector (low income) in India.

Keywords: association, enrollment, health insurance, informal sector, perceptions, uninsured

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Authors: Adriano Trono, Federico Pinto, Diego Turello, Marcelo A. Ceballos

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Numerical modeling of dynamic soil-structure interaction problems requires an adequate representation of the unbounded characteristics of the ground, material non-linearity of soils, and geometrical non-linearities such as large displacements due to rocking of the structure. In order to account for these effects simultaneously, it is often required that the equations of motion are solved in the time domain. However, boundary conditions in conventional finite element codes generally present shortcomings in fully absorbing the energy of outgoing waves. In this sense, the Perfectly Matched Layers (PML) technique allows a satisfactory absorption of inclined body waves, as well as surface waves. However, the PML domain is inherently unstable, meaning that it its instability does not depend upon the discretization considered. One way to stabilize the PML domain is to use multiaxial stretching functions. This development is questionable because some Jacobian terms of the coordinate transformation are not accounted for. For this reason, the resulting absorbing layer element is often referred to as "uncorrected M-PML” in the literature. In this work, the strong formulation of the "corrected M-PML” absorbing layer is proposed using multiaxial stretching functions that incorporate all terms of the coordinate transformation. The results of the stable model are compared with reference solutions obtained from extended domain models.

Keywords: mixed finite elements, multiaxial stretching functions, perfectly matched layer, soil-structure interaction

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Authors: Mohamed Habila, Ahmed Mohamed El-Toni, Mohamed Sheikh Moshab, Abdulrhman Al-Awadi, Zeid AL Othman

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Water pollution with dyes is a critical environmental issue because off the huge amount of dyes disbarred annually, which cause severe damage for the ecosystem and human life. The main raison for this severs pollution is the rapid industrial development which led to more production of harmful pollutants. on the other hand, the core shell based magnetic materials have showed amazing character for controlling the material synthesis with the targeted structure to enhance the adsorptive removal of pollutants. Herein, the Fe3O4core-meso SiO2/TiO2 double shell have been prepared for methylene blue dye adsorption. the preparation procedure is controlled to prepare the magnetic core with further coating layers from silica and titania. The prepared Fe3O4core-meso SiO2/TiO2 double shell showed adsorption capacity for methylene blue removal about 50 mg/g at pH 6 after 80 min contact time form 50 ppm methylene blue solution. The adsorption process of methylene blue onto Fe3O4core-meso SiO2/TiO2 double shell was well fitted with the pseudo-second-order kinetic model and freundlish isotherm, indicating a quick and multilayer adsorption mechanism.

Keywords: magnetic core, silica shell, titania shell, water treatment, methylene blue, solvo-thermal process, adsorption

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Authors: Mahua Banerjee, Debtanu Maiti

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Zero-tillage cultivation is a farming practice that reduces costs while maintaining harvests and protecting the environment. Innovative partnerships among researchers, farmers, and other actors in the agricultural value chain have enabled the adoption of zero-tillage to sow rice in the Indo-Gangetic Plains, increasing farmers' incomes, fostering more sustainable use of soil and water, and providing a platform for cropping diversification and the introduction of other resource-conserving practices. A field experiment was conducted in the farmer’s field of Ausgram I Block, Burdwan, West Bengal, India under sandy loam soil with soil pH of 5.2, which is low in Nitrogen, medium in Phosphorus and Potassium. There were three techniques of tillage-T1: Zero tillage in Rice, T2: conventional tillage in Rice, T3: Rice grown with Drum seeder and three varieties namely V1: MTU 7029 V2-MTU 1010, V3: Pratikha thus making nine treatment combinations which were replicated thrice and the experiment was laid out in Factorial Randomised Block Design. Among the three varieties, rice variety MTU 7029 gave higher yield in all the tillage techniques. The highest yield was obtained under Zero tillage followed by conventional tillage. From economic analysis it was revealed that the benefit:cost ratio was higher in Zero tillage and rice cultivation by drum seeder. Zero-till is increasingly being adopted because it gives more yield at less cost, saves labour and farmer time. Farmers will be interested in this technology once they overcome their tillage biases.

Keywords: economics, Indo-Gangetic plain, rice, zero tillage, yield

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Authors: Elona Saliaj

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The registration of real estate in Albania after the 90's has been a long process in time and with high cost for the country. Passing the registration system from a centralized system to a free market private system, it’s accompanied by legal uncertainties that have led to economic instability. The reforms that have been undertaken in terms of property rights have been numerous and continuous throughout the years. But despite the reforms, the system of registration of real estate, has failed to be standards requirements established by the European Union. The completion of initial registration of real estate, legal treatment of previous owners or legalization of illegal constructions remain among the main problems that prevent the development of the country in its economic sector. The performance of the registration of real estate system and dealing with issues that have appeared in the Court of First Instance, the civil section of the Albanian constitute the core of handling this analysis. This paper presents a detailed analysis on the registration system that is chosen to be applied in our country for real estate. In its content it is also determined the institution that administrates these properties, the management technique and the law that determinate its functionality. The strategy is determined for creating a modern and functional registration system and for the country remains a challenge to achieve. Identifying practical problems and providing their solutions are also the focus of reference in order to improve and modernize this important system to a state law that aims to become a member of the European Union.

Keywords: real estates registration system, comparative aspects, cadastral area, property certificate, legal reform

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Authors: Narendra Nath Patra

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Several recent studies reinforce the existence of a thick molecular disc in galaxies along with the dynamically cold thin disc. Assuming a two-component molecular disc, we model the disc of NGC 6946 as a four-component system consists of stars, HI, thin disc molecular gas, and thick disc molecular gas in vertical hydrostatic equilibrium. Following, we set up the joint Poisson-Boltzmann equation of hydrostatic equilibrium and solve it numerically to obtain a three-dimensional density distribution of different baryonic components. Using the density solutions and the observed rotation curve, we further build a three-dimensional dynamical model of the molecular disc and consecutively produce simulated CO spectral cube and spectral width profile. We find that the simulated spectral width profiles distinguishably differs for different assumed thick disc molecular gas fraction. Several CO spectral width profiles are then produced for different assumed thick disc molecular gas fractions and compared with the observed one to obtain the best fit thick disc molecular gas fraction profile. We find that the thick disc molecular gas fraction in NGC 6946 largely remains constant across its molecular disc with a mean value of 0.70 +/- 0.09. We also estimate the amount of extra-planar molecular gas in NGC 6946. We find 60% of the total molecular gas is extra-planar at the central region, whereas this fraction reduces to ~ 35% at the edge of the molecular disc. With our method, for the first time, we estimate the thick disc molecular gas fraction as a function of radius in an external galaxy with sub-kpc resolution.

Keywords: galaxies: kinematics and dynamic, galaxies: spiral, galaxies: structure , ISM: molecules, molecular data

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Authors: Mandeep Kataria, Ritu Narula, Navneet Kaur

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Asparagine is vital amino acid which is required for the development of brain and it regulates the equilibrium of central nervous system. Asparagine is the chief amino acid that forms acrylamide in baked food by reacting with reducing sugars at high temperature ( Millard Reaction i.e. amino acids and sugars give new flavors at high temperature). It can also be a parameter of freshness in fruit juices because on storage of juices at 37°C caused an 87% loss in the total free amino acids and major decrease was recorded in asparagine contents. With this significance of monitoring asparagine, in the present work a biosensor for determining asparagine in fruit juices is developed. For the construction of biosensor L-asparaginase enzyme (0.5 IU) was co-immobilized with phenol red on TEOS chitosan sol-gel plastic disc and fixed on the fiber optic tip. Tip was immersed in a cell having 5ml of substrate and absorption was noted at response time of 5 min with 10-1 - 10-10 M concentrations of asparagine at 538 nm. L-asparaginase was extracted and from Solanum nigrum Asparagine biosensor was applied fruit juices on the monitoring asparagine contents. L-asparagine concentration found to be present in fruit juices like Guava Juice, Apple Juice, Mango Juice, Litchi juice, Strawberry juice, Pineapple juice Lemon juice, and Orange juice. Hence the developed biosensor has commercial aspects in quality insurance of fruit juices.

Keywords: fiber optic biosensor, chitosan, teos, l-asparaginase

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Authors: Junjie Liu, David Selby, Mark Obermajer, Andy Mort

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The inaugural application of Re-Os dating, which is based on the beta decay of 187Re to 187Os with a long half-life of 41.577 ± 0.12 Byr and initially used for sulphide minerals and organic rich rocks, to petroleum systems was performed on bitumen of the Polaris Mississippi Valley Type Pb-Zn deposit, Canada. To further our understanding of the Re-Os system and its application to petroleum systems, here we present a study on Duvernay Petroleum System, Western Canadian Sedimentary Basin. The Late Devonian Duvernay Formation organic-rich shales are the only source of the petroleum system. The Duvernay shales reached maturation only during the Laramide Orogeny (80 – 35 Ma) and the generated oil migrated short distances into the interfingering Leduc reefs and overlying Nisku carbonates with no or little secondary alteration post oil-generation. Although very low in Re and Os, the asphaltenes of Duvernay-sourced Leduc and Nisku oils define a Laramide Re-Os age. In addition, the initial Os isotope compositions of the oil samples are similar to that of the Os isotope composition of the Duvernay Formation at the time of oil generation, but are very different to other oil-prone intervals of the basin, showing the ability of the Os isotope composition as an inorganic oil-source correlation tool. In summary, the ability of the Re-Os geochronometer to record the timing of oil generation and trace the source of an oil is confirmed in the Re-Os study of Duvernay Petroleum System.

Keywords: Duvernay petroleum system, oil generation, oil-source correlation, Re-Os

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Authors: S. Girish, N. Ajay

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Permeation properties have been widely used to quantify durability characteristics of concrete for assessing long term performance and sustainability. The processes of deterioration in concrete are mediated largely by water. There is a strong interest in finding a better way of assessing the material properties of concrete in terms of durability. Water sorptivity is a useful single material property which can be one of the measures of durability useful in service life planning and prediction, especially in severe environmental conditions. This paper presents the results of the comparative study of sorptivity of Self-Compacting Concrete (SCC) with conventionally vibrated concrete. SCC is a new, special type of concrete mixture, characterized by high resistance to segregation that can flow through intricate geometrical configuration in the presence of reinforcement, under its own mass, without vibration and compaction. SCC mixes were developed for the paste contents of 0.38, 0.41 and 0.43 with fly ash as the filler for different cement contents ranging from 300 to 450 kg/m3. The study shows better performance by SCC in terms of capillary absorption. The sorptivity value decreased as the volume of paste increased. The use of higher paste content in SCC can make the concrete robust with better densification of the micro-structure, improving the durability and making the concrete more sustainable with improved long term performance. The sorptivity based on secondary absorption can be effectively used as a durability index to predict the time duration required for the ingress of water to penetrate the concrete, which has practical significance.

Keywords: self-compacting concrete, service life prediction, sorptivity, volume of paste

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Authors: Stephen Vera, Tabitha Black, Charalambos Cleanthous, Ryan Sain

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A gender comparison of USA commercial pilots’ demographics and views of CRM, social desirability and locus of control were surveyed. The Aviation safety locus of control (ASLOC) was used to measure external (ASLOC-E) or internal (ASLOC-I) aviation safety locus of control. The gender differences were explored using the ASLOC scores as a categorical variable. A differential comparison of crew resource management (CRM), based on the Federal Aviation Administration’s (FAA) guidelines was conducted. The results indicated that the proportion of female to male respondents matches the current ratio of USA commercial pilots. Moreover, there were no significant differences regarding overall education and the total number of communication classes one took. Regarding CRM issues, there were no significant differences on their views regarding the roles of the PIC, stress, time management, and managing a flight team. The females scored significantly lower on aeronautical decision making (ADM) and communications. There were no significant differences on either the Balanced Inventory of Desirable Responding (BIDR) impression management (IM) or self-deceptive enhancement (SDE). Although there were no overall significant differences on the ASLOC, the females did score higher on the internal subscale than did the males. An additional comparison of socially desirable responding indicates that all scores may be invalid, especially from the female respondents.

Keywords: social desirability, safety locus of control, crew resource management, commercial pilots

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Authors: Sasan Aryaee, Mahdi Ravanshadnia

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Naturally, any activity is associated with risk, and humans have understood this concept from very long times ago and seek to identify its factors and sources. On the one hand, proper risk management can cause problems such as delays and unforeseen costs in the development projects, temporary or permanent loss of services, getting lost or information theft, complexity and limitations in processes, unreliable information caused by rework, holes in the systems and many such problems. In the present study, a model has been presented to rank the environmental risks of oil and gas projects. The statistical population of the study consists of all executives active in the oil and gas fields, that the statistical sample is selected randomly. In the framework of the proposed method, environmental risks of oil and gas projects were first extracted, then a questionnaire based on these indicators was designed based on Likert scale and distributed among the statistical sample. After assessing the validity and reliability of the questionnaire, environmental risks of oil and gas projects were ranked using the VIKOR method of multiple-criteria decision-making. The results showed that the best options for HSE planning of oil and gas projects that caused the reduction of risks and personal injury and casualties and less than other options is costly for the project and it will add less time to the duration of implementing the project is the entering of dye to the environment when painting the generator pond and the presence of the rigger near the crane.

Keywords: ranking, multi-criteria decision making, oil and gas projects, HSEmanagement, environmental risks

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Authors: C. Babu Rao, Pandian Chelliah

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Owing to their reliability, a number of fluorescent spectra based fiber optic sensors have been developed for detection and identification of hazardous chemicals such as explosives, narcotics etc. In High security regions, such as airports, it is important to monitor simultaneously multiple locations. This calls for deployment of a portable sensor at each location. However, the selectivity and sensitivity of these techniques depends on the spectral resolution of the spectral analyzer. The better the resolution the larger the repertoire of chemicals that can be detected. A portable unit will have limitations in meeting these requirements. Optical fibers can be employed for collecting and transmitting spectral signal from the portable sensor head to a sensitive central spectral analyzer (CSA). For multipoint sensing, optical multiplexing of multiple sensor heads with CSA has to be adopted. However with multiplexing, when one sensor head is connected to CSA, the rest may remain unconnected for the turn-around period. The larger the number of sensor heads the larger this turn-around time will be. To circumvent this imitation, we propose in this paper, an optical encoding methodology to use multiple portable sensor heads connected to a single CSA. Each portable sensor head is assigned an unique address. Spectra of every chemical detected through this sensor head, are encoded by its unique address and can be identified at the CSA end. The methodology proposed is demonstrated through a simulation using Matlab SIMULINK.

Keywords: optical encoding, fluorescence, multipoint sensing

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Authors: S. Asad Ali Gillani, Ahmed Toumi, Anaclet Turatsinze

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After a certain period of time, the degradation of concrete structures is unavoidable. For large concrete areas, thin bonded cement-based overlay is a suitable rehabilitation technique. Previous research demonstrated that durability of bonded cement-based repairs is always a problem and one of its main reasons is deboning at interface. Since durability and efficiency of any repair system mainly depend upon the bond between concrete substrate and repair material, the bond between concrete substrate and repair material can be improved by increasing the surface roughness. The surface roughness can be improved by performing surface treatment of the concrete substrate to enhance mechanical interlocking which is one of the basic mechanisms of adhesion between two surfaces. In this research, bond tensile strength of cement-based overlays having substrate surface prepared using different techniques has been characterized. In first step cement based substrate was prepared and then cured for three months. After curing two different types of the surface treatments were performed on this substrate; cutting and sandblasting. In second step overlay was cast on these prepared surfaces, which were cut and sandblasted surfaces. The overlay was also cast on the surface without any treatment. Finally, bond tensile strength of cement-based overlays was evaluated in direct tension test and the results are discussed in this paper.

Keywords: concrete substrate, surface preparation, overlays, bond tensile strength

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Authors: Oktawia Braniewicz

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The phenomenon of emigration and migration increasingly affects Poland's borders as well. For this reason, it is necessary to examine the level of protection of Human Rights in Polish Centres for Foreigners. The field study covered 11 centers for Foreigners in the provinces Kujawsko-Pomorskie Region, Lubelskie Region, Lodzkie Region, Mazowieckie Region and Podlaskie Region. Photographic documentation of living and social conditions, conversations with center employees and refugees allow to show a comprehensive picture of the situation prevailing in Centres for Foreigners. The object of reflection will be, in particular, the standards resulting from art. 8 and 13 of the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms and article 2 of Protocol No. 1 to the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms. The degree of realization of the right to education and the right to respect for family and private life will be shown. Issues related to learning the Polish language, access to a professional translator and psychological help will also be approximated. Learning Polish is not obligatory, which causes problems with assimilation and integration with other members of the new community. In centers for foreigners, there are no translators - a translator from an external company is rented if necessary. The waiting time for an interpreter makes the refugees feel anxious, unable to communicate with the employees of the centers (this is a situation in which the refugees do not know either English, Polish or Russian). Psychologist's help is available on designated days of the week. There is no separate specialist in child psychology, which is a serious problem.

Keywords: human rights, Polish centres, foreigners, fundamental freedoms

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Authors: Rong Wang, Sandra Hasanefendic, Elizabeth von Hauff, Bart Bossink

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Technological learning and learning curve models have been continuously used to estimate the photovoltaics (PV) cost development over time for the climate mitigation targets. They can integrate a number of technological learning sources which influence the learning process. Yet the accuracy and realistic predictions for cost estimations of PV development are still difficult to achieve. This paper develops four hypothetical-alternative learning curve models by proposing different combinations of technological learning sources, including both local and global technology experience and the knowledge stock. This paper specifically focuses on the non-linear relationship between the costs and technological learning source and their dynamic interaction and uses the system dynamics approach to predict a more accurate PV cost estimation for future development. As the case study, the data from China is gathered and drawn to illustrate that the learning curve model that incorporates both the global and local experience is more accurate and realistic than the other three models for PV cost estimation. Further, absorbing and integrating the global experience into the local industry has a positive impact on PV cost reduction. Although the learning curve model incorporating knowledge stock is not realistic for current PV cost deployment in China, it still plays an effective positive role in future PV cost reduction.

Keywords: photovoltaic, system dynamics, technological learning, learning curve

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Authors: Carrollyne Aasen, Laverne Seales

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With increased Latinx communities within the United States, specifically in California, and more universities receiving designations of Hispanic-Serving institutions, Spanish programs have evolved to include more targeted and applicable practical skills. The Spanish program in the Languages and Cultures Department at California Lutheran University incorporated an interdisciplinary project with the Communication Department to create student-generated Spanish-language news inserts, which serve as a sister publication to the English-language student newspaper, The Echo. California Lutheran University is a Hispanic-Serving Institution, meaning it is an accredited undergraduate institution with full-time Hispanic/Latinx students equivalent to at least 25 percent of the total students enrolled. As a Hispanic Serving Institution with growing numbers of bilingual students, faculty, staff, and community members, the need for more information aimed at Hispanic/Latinx communities increased, resulting in the opportunity to reflect topics of interest by community members. This project was developed to fulfill the Spanish program's goals for proficiency by using the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages guidelines and the university's need to support students and the community's voices. This article describes the stages from inception to production and the incorporation of journalism principles into the Spanish curriculum.

Keywords: interdisciplinary, media, foreign languages, HSI

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Authors: Tariq Aljuneidi, Akif Asil Bulgak

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Remanufacturing may be defined as the process of bringing used products to “like-new” functional state with warranty to match, and it is one of the most popular product end-of-life scenarios. An efficient remanufacturing network lead to an efficient design of sustainable manufacturing enterprise. In remanufacturing network, products are collected from the customer zone, disassembled and remanufactured at a suitable remanufacturing facility. In this respect, another issue to consider is how the returned product to be remanufactured, in other words, what is the best layout for such facility. In order to achieve a sustainable manufacturing system, Cellular Manufacturing System (CMS) designs are highly recommended, CMSs combine high throughput rates of line layouts with the flexibility offered by functional layouts (job shop). Introducing the CMS while designing a remanufacturing network will benefit the utilization of such a network. This paper presents and analyzes a comprehensive mathematical model for the design of Dynamic Cellular Remanufacturing Systems (DCRSs). In this paper, the proposed model is the first one to date that consider CMS and remanufacturing system simultaneously. The proposed DCRS model considers several manufacturing attributes such as multi-period production planning, dynamic system reconfiguration, duplicate machines, machine capacity, available time for workers, worker assignments, and machine procurement, where the demand is totally satisfied from a returned product. A numerical example is presented to illustrate the proposed model.

Keywords: cellular manufacturing system, remanufacturing, mathematical programming, sustainability

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Authors: K. Doi, T. Nishimura, H. Fujimoto

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The number of people who become visually impaired and do not have sufficient tactile experiences has increased by various disease. Especially, many acquired visually impaired persons due to accidents, disorders, and aging cannot adequately read Braille. It is known that learning Braille requires a great deal of time and the acquisition of various skills. In our previous studies, we reported one of the problems in learning Braille. Concretely, the standard Braille size is too small for Braille beginners. And also we are short of the objective data regarding easily readable Braille size. Therefore, it is necessary to conduct various experiments for evaluating Braille size that would make learning easier for beginners. In this study, for the purpose of investigating easy-to-read conditions of vertical and horizontal dot spacing for beginners, we conducted one Braille reading experiment. In this our experiment, we prepared test pieces by use of our original Braille printer with controlling function of Braille size. We specifically considered Braille beginners with acquired visual impairments who were unfamiliar with Braille. Therefore, ten sighted subjects with no experience of reading Braille participated in this experiment. Size of vertical and horizontal dot spacing was following conditions. Each dot spacing was 2.0, 2.3, 2.5, 2.7, 2.9, 3.1mm. The subjects were asked to read one Braille character with controlled Braille size. The results of this experiment reveal that Braille beginners can read Braille accurately and quickly when both vertical and horizontal dot spacing are 3.1 mm or more. This knowledge will be helpful data in considering Braille size for acquired visually impaired persons.

Keywords: paper-based Braille, vertical and horizontal dot spacing, readability, acquired visual impairment, Braille beginner

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Authors: Qiaosi Li, Frankie Kwan Kit Wong, Tung Fung

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Lightweight unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) loading with novel sensors offers a low cost approach for data acquisition in complex environment. This study established a framework for applying UAV system in complex environment quick mapping and assessed the performance of UAV-based hyperspectral image and digital surface model (DSM) derived from photogrammetric point clouds for 13 species classification in wetland area Mai Po Inner Deep Bay Ramsar Site, Hong Kong. The study area was part of shallow bay with flat terrain and the major species including reedbed and four mangroves: Kandelia obovata, Aegiceras corniculatum, Acrostichum auerum and Acanthus ilicifolius. Other species involved in various graminaceous plants, tarbor, shrub and invasive species Mikania micrantha. In particular, invasive species climbed up to the mangrove canopy caused damage and morphology change which might increase species distinguishing difficulty. Hyperspectral images were acquired by Headwall Nano sensor with spectral range from 400nm to 1000nm and 0.06m spatial resolution image. A sequence of multi-view RGB images was captured with 0.02m spatial resolution and 75% overlap. Hyperspectral image was corrected for radiative and geometric distortion while high resolution RGB images were matched to generate maximum dense point clouds. Furtherly, a 5 cm grid digital surface model (DSM) was derived from dense point clouds. Multiple feature reduction methods were compared to identify the efficient method and to explore the significant spectral bands in distinguishing different species. Examined methods including stepwise discriminant analysis (DA), support vector machine (SVM) and minimum noise fraction (MNF) transformation. Subsequently, spectral subsets composed of the first 20 most importance bands extracted by SVM, DA and MNF, and multi-source subsets adding extra DSM to 20 spectrum bands were served as input in maximum likelihood classifier (MLC) and SVM classifier to compare the classification result. Classification results showed that feature reduction methods from best to worst are MNF transformation, DA and SVM. MNF transformation accuracy was even higher than all bands input result. Selected bands frequently laid along the green peak, red edge and near infrared. Additionally, DA found that chlorophyll absorption red band and yellow band were also important for species classification. In terms of 3D data, DSM enhanced the discriminant capacity among low plants, arbor and mangrove. Meanwhile, DSM largely reduced misclassification due to the shadow effect and morphological variation of inter-species. In respect to classifier, nonparametric SVM outperformed than MLC for high dimension and multi-source data in this study. SVM classifier tended to produce higher overall accuracy and reduce scattered patches although it costs more time than MLC. The best result was obtained by combining MNF components and DSM in SVM classifier. This study offered a precision species distribution survey solution for inaccessible wetland area with low cost of time and labour. In addition, findings relevant to the positive effect of DSM as well as spectral feature identification indicated that the utility of UAV-borne hyperspectral and photogrammetry deriving 3D data is promising in further research on wetland species such as bio-parameters modelling and biological invasion monitoring.

Keywords: digital surface model (DSM), feature reduction, hyperspectral, photogrammetric point cloud, species mapping, unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV)

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Authors: Carolina Pereira Lobato Costa, Cristina Pascual-González, Monica Echeverry, Javier LLorca, Carlos Gonzáléz, Juan Pedro Fernández-Bláquez

Abstract:

Although the potential of PLA self-reinforced composites for bone applications, not much literature addresses optimal manufacturing conditions. In this regard, this paper describes the woven self-reinforced PLA composites manufacturing processes: the commingling of yarns, weaving, and hot pressing and characterizes the manufactured laminates. Different structures and properties can be achieved by varying the hot compaction process parameters (pressure, holding time, and temperature). The specimens manufactured were characterized in terms of thermal properties (DSC), microstructure (C-scan optical microscope and SEM), strength (tensile test), and biocompatibility (MTT assays). Considering the final device, 155 ℃ for 10 min at 2 MPa act as the more appropriate hot pressing parameters. The laminate produced with these conditions has few voids/porosity, a tensile strength of 30.39 ± 1.21 MPa, and a modulus of 4.09 ± 0.24 GPa. Subsequently to the tensile testing was possible to observe fiber pullout from the fracture surfaces, confirming that this material behaves as a composite. From the results, no single laminate can fulfill all the requirements, being necessary to compromise in function of the priority property. Further investigation is required to improve materials' mechanical performance. Subsequently, process parameters and materials configuration can be adjusted depending on the place and type of implant to suit its function.

Keywords: woven fabric, self-reinforced polymer composite, poly(lactic acid), biodegradable

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Authors: Osung Im, Neha Yadav, Eui Hoon Lee, Joong Hoon Kim

Abstract:

Artificial Neural Network (ANN) approach is commonly used in lots of fields for forecasting. In water resources engineering, forecast of water level or inflow of reservoir is useful for various kind of purposes. Due to advantages of ANN, many papers were written for inflow prediction in river networks, but in this study, ANN is used in urban sewer networks. The growth of severe rain storm in Korea has increased flood damage severely, and the precipitation distribution is getting more erratic. Therefore, effective pump operation in pump station is an essential task for the reduction in urban area. If real time inflow of pump station reservoir can be predicted, it is possible to operate pump effectively for reducing the flood damage. This study used ANN model for pump station reservoir inflow prediction using upstream sewer depth data. For this study, rainfall events, sewer depth, and inflow into Banpo pump station reservoir between years of 2013-2014 were considered. Feed – Forward Back Propagation (FFBF), Cascade – Forward Back Propagation (CFBP), Elman Back Propagation (EBP) and Nonlinear Autoregressive Exogenous (NARX) were used as ANN model for prediction. A comparison of results with ANN model suggests that ANN is a powerful tool for inflow prediction using the sewer depth data.

Keywords: artificial neural network, forecasting, reservoir inflow, sewer depth

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Authors: S. Cobos-Guzman

Abstract:

This paper presents the results of a mechatronic design based on a 4-wheel omnidirectional mobile robot that can be used in indoor logistic applications. The low-level control has been selected using two open-source hardware (Raspberry Pi 3 Model B+ and Arduino Mega 2560) that control four industrial motors, four ultrasound sensors, four optical encoders, a vision system of two cameras, and a Hokuyo URG-04LX-UG01 laser scanner. Moreover, the system is powered with a lithium battery that can supply 24 V DC and a maximum current-hour of 20Ah.The Robot Operating System (ROS) has been implemented in the Raspberry Pi and the performance is evaluated with the selection of the sensors and hardware selected. The mechatronic system is evaluated and proposed safe modes of power distribution for controlling all the electronic devices based on different tests. Therefore, based on different performance results, some recommendations are indicated for using the Raspberry Pi and Arduino in terms of power, communication, and distribution of control for different devices. According to these recommendations, the selection of sensors is distributed in both real-time controllers (Arduino and Raspberry Pi). On the other hand, the drivers of the cameras have been implemented in Linux and a python program has been implemented to access the cameras. These cameras will be used for implementing a deep learning algorithm to recognize people and objects. In this way, the level of intelligence can be increased in combination with the maps that can be obtained from the laser scanner.

Keywords: autonomous, indoor robot, mechatronic, omnidirectional robot

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Authors: Yu Zhao, Rainer Gruenheid, Gerhard Bauch

Abstract:

In the microwave and millimeter-wave transmission region, substrate-integrated waveguide (SIW) is a very promising candidate for the development of circuits and components. It facilitates the transmission at the data rates in excess of 200 Gbit/s. An SIW mimics a rectangular waveguide by approximating the closed sidewalls with a via fence. This structure suppresses the low frequency components and makes the channel of the SIW a bandpass or high pass filter. This channel characteristic impedes the conventional baseband transmission using non-return-to-zero (NRZ) pulse shaping scheme. Therefore, mixers are commonly proposed to be used as carrier modulator and demodulator in order to facilitate a passband transmission. However, carrier modulation is not an energy efficient solution, because modulation and demodulation at high frequencies consume a lot of energy. For the first time to our knowledge, this paper proposes a spectrum shaping scheme of low complexity for the channel of SIW, namely spread reshaping code. It aims at matching the spectrum of the transmit signal to the channel frequency response. It facilitates the transmission through the SIW channel while it avoids using carrier modulation. In some cases, it even does not need equalization. Simulations reveal a good performance of this scheme, such that, as a result, eye opening is achieved without any equalization or modulation for the respective transmission channels.

Keywords: bandpass channel, eye-opening, switching frequency, substrate-integrated waveguide, spectrum shaping scheme, spread reshaping code

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Authors: Nicolae Bold, Daniel Nijloveanu

Abstract:

The idea of cropping-system is a method used by farmers. It is an environmentally-friendly method, protecting the natural resources (soil, water, air, nutritive substances) and increase the production at the same time, taking into account some crop particularities. The combination of this powerful method with the concepts of genetic algorithms results into a possibility of generating sequences of crops in order to form a rotation. The usage of this type of algorithms has been efficient in solving problems related to optimization and their polynomial complexity allows them to be used at solving more difficult and various problems. In our case, the optimization consists in finding the most profitable rotation of cultures. One of the expected results is to optimize the usage of the resources, in order to minimize the costs and maximize the profit. In order to achieve these goals, a genetic algorithm was designed. This algorithm ensures the finding of several optimized solutions of cropping-systems possibilities which have the highest profit and, thus, which minimize the costs. The algorithm uses genetic-based methods (mutation, crossover) and structures (genes, chromosomes). A cropping-system possibility will be considered a chromosome and a crop within the rotation is a gene within a chromosome. Results about the efficiency of this method will be presented in a special section. The implementation of this method would bring benefits into the activity of the farmers by giving them hints and helping them to use the resources efficiently.

Keywords: chromosomes, cropping, genetic algorithm, genes

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Authors: Yue Shuai Zhao, Rong Ping Shao, Wei Sun, Guo Hua Ren, Yong Wang, Li Chen Sun

Abstract:

A large-scale cryopump (DN1250) used in large vacuum leak detecting system was designed and its performance experimentally investigated by Beijing Institute of Spacecraft Environment Engineering. The cryopump was cooled by four closed cycle helium refrigerators (two dual stage refrigerators and two single stage refrigerators). Detailed numerical analysis of the heat transfer in the first stage array and the second stage array were performed by using computational fluid dynamic method (CFD). Several design parameters were considered to find the effect on the temperature distribution and the cooldown time. The variation of thermal conductivity and heat capacity with temperature was taken into account. The thermal analysis method based on numerical techniques was introduced in this study, the heat transfer in the first stage array and the second stage cryopanel was carefully analyzed to determine important considerations in the thermal design of the cryopump. A performance test system according to the RNEUROP standards was built to test main performance of the cryopump. The experimental results showed that the structure of first stage array which was optimized by the method could meet the requirement of the cryopump well. The temperature of the cryopanel was down to 10K within 300 min, and the result of the experiment was accordant with theoretical analysis' conclusion. The test also showed that the pumping speed for N2 of the pump was up to 57,000 L/s, and the crossover was over than 300,000 Pa•L.

Keywords: cryopump, temperature distribution, thermal analysis, CFD Simulation

Procedia PDF Downloads 304