Search results for: Cheng Ling Tan
562 Residual Life Estimation of K-out-of-N Cold Standby System
Authors: Qian Zhao, Shi-Qi Liu, Bo Guo, Zhi-Jun Cheng, Xiao-Yue Wu
Abstract:
Cold standby redundancy is considered to be an effective mechanism for improving system reliability and is widely used in industrial engineering. However, because of the complexity of the reliability structure, there is little literature studying on the residual life of cold standby system consisting of complex components. In this paper, a simulation method is presented to predict the residual life of k-out-of-n cold standby system. In practical cases, failure information of a system is either unknown, partly unknown or completely known. Our proposed method is designed to deal with the three scenarios, respectively. Differences between the procedures are analyzed. Finally, numerical examples are used to validate the proposed simulation method.Keywords: cold standby system, k-out-of-n, residual life, simulation sampling
Procedia PDF Downloads 401561 A Simple Device for in-Situ Direct Shear and Sinkage Tests
Authors: A. Jerves, H. Ling, J. Gabaldon, M. Usoltceva, C. Couste, A. Agarwal, R. Hurley, J. Andrade
Abstract:
This work introduces a simple device designed to perform in-situ direct shear and sinkage tests on granular materials as sand, clays, or regolith. It consists of a box nested within a larger box. Both have open bottoms, allowing them to be lowered into the material. Afterwards, two rotating plates on opposite sides of the outer box will rotate outwards in order to clear regolith on either side, providing room for the inner box to move relative to the plates and perform a shear test without the resistance of the surrounding soil. From this test, Coulomb parameters, including cohesion and internal friction angle, as well as, Bekker parameters can be inerred. This device has been designed for a laboratory setting, but with few modications, could be put on the underside of a rover for use in a remote location. The goal behind this work is to ultimately create a compact, but accurate measuring tool to put onto a rover or any kind of exploratory vehicle to test for regolith properties of celestial bodies.Keywords: simple shear, friction angle, Bekker parameters, device, regolith
Procedia PDF Downloads 509560 Resistive Switching Characteristics of Resistive Random Access Memory Devices after Furnace Annealing Processes
Authors: Chi-Yan Chu, Kai-Chi Chuang, Huang-Chung Cheng
Abstract:
In this study, the RRAM devices with the TiN/Ti/HfOx/TiN structure were fabricated, then the electrical characteristics of the devices without annealing and after 400 °C and 500 °C of the furnace annealing (FA) temperature processes were compared. The RRAM devices after the FA’s 400 °C showed the lower forming, set and reset voltages than the other devices without annealing. However, the RRAM devices after the FA’s 500 °C did not show any electrical characteristics because the TiN/Ti/HfOx/TiN device was oxidized, as shown in the XPS analysis. From these results, the RRAM devices after the FA’s 400 °C showed the best electrical characteristics.Keywords: RRAM, furnace annealing (FA), forming, set and reset voltages, XPS
Procedia PDF Downloads 372559 Polypharmacy Overdose: Case Report on Mixed Overdose of Ramipril, Quetiapine, Lercanidipine and Duloxetine
Authors: Chui Ling Teng, R. Matsa
Abstract:
We report a case with combined overdose of Lercanidipine (non-dihydropyridine calcium channel blocker), Quetiapine (Atypical antipsychotic), Ramipril and Duloxetine. A 66-year old male presented to the Emergency Department 12-hours after the ingestion of 1.2g Lercanidipine, 3g Quetiapine, 280mg of Ramipril and 420mg of Duloxetine. He describes lethargic, drowsiness and was unable to pass any urine since overdosed. He was found to be bradycardic, hypotensive and anuric. He had refractory hypotension and anuric despite fluid resuscitation, glucagon therapy and intravenous naloxone. His care was escalated to Intensive care, requiring noradrenaline, adrenaline, vasopressin, and hyperinsulinaemic euglycaemia therapy. He achieved haemodynamic stability and kidney function improved gradually with the support received. The total length of therapy lasted for 30 horus in which individual therapy was weaned down based on the requirement. He was then transferred to medical ward for further psychiatric assessment. This is a the first repored case of mixed overdose with lercanidipine, Quetiapine, Rampmipril and Duloxetine.Keywords: calcium channel blocker, hyperinsulinaemic Euglycaemia therapy, lercanidipine, overdose
Procedia PDF Downloads 321558 A Survey of Crowdsourcing Technology
Authors: Qianjia Cheng, Hongquan Jiang
Abstract:
Crowdsourcing solves the problems that computers can't handle by integrating computers and the Internet. Its extensive knowledge sources, high efficiency and high quality, make crowdsourcing attract wide attention in industry and academia in recent years. The development of online crowdsourcing platforms such as Clickworker and Amazon Mechanical Turk(Mturk) tend to mature gradually. This paper sorts out the concept of crowdsourcing, sorts out the workflow of competitive crowdsourcing, summarizes the related technologies of crowdsourcing based on the workflow, quality control, cost control and delay control, introduces the typical crowdsourcing platform. Finally, we highlight some open problems of the current crowdsourcing and present some future research direction in this area.Keywords: application, crowdsourcing, crowdsourcing platform, system architecture
Procedia PDF Downloads 70557 Copper Removal from Synthetic Wastewater by a Novel Fluidized-bed Homogeneous Crystallization (FBHC) Technology
Authors: Cheng-Yen Huang, Yu-Jen Shih, Ming-Chun Yen, Yao-Hui Huang
Abstract:
This research developed a fluidized-bed homogeneous crystallization (FBHC) process to remove copper from synthetic wastewater in terms of recovery of highly pure malachite (Cu2(OH)2CO3) pellets. The experimental parameters of FBHC which included pH, molar ratio of copper to carbonate, copper loading, upper flowrate and bed height were tested in the absence of seed particles. Under optimized conditions, both the total copper removal (TR) and crystallization ratio (CR) reached 99%. The malachite crystals were characterized by XRD and SEM. FBHC was capable of treating concentrated copper (1600 ppm) wastewater and minimizing the sludge production.Keywords: copper, carbonate, fluidized-bed, crystallization, malachite
Procedia PDF Downloads 423556 Nanoindentation Behaviour and Microstructural Evolution of Annealed Single-Crystal Silicon
Authors: Woei-Shyan Lee, Shuo-Ling Chang
Abstract:
The nanoindentation behaviour and phase transformation of annealed single-crystal silicon wafers are examined. The silicon specimens are annealed at temperatures of 250, 350 and 450ºC, respectively, for 15 minutes and are then indented to maximum loads of 30, 50 and 70 mN. The phase changes induced in the indented specimens are observed using transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and micro-Raman scattering spectroscopy (RSS). For all annealing temperatures, an elbow feature is observed in the unloading curve following indentation to a maximum load of 30 mN. Under higher loads of 50 mN and 70 mN, respectively, the elbow feature is replaced by a pop-out event. The elbow feature reveals a complete amorphous phase transformation within the indented zone, whereas the pop-out event indicates the formation of Si XII and Si III phases. The experimental results show that the formation of these crystalline silicon phases increases with an increasing annealing temperature and indentation load. The hardness and Young’s modulus both decrease as the annealing temperature and indentation load are increased.Keywords: nanoindentation, silicon, phase transformation, amorphous, annealing
Procedia PDF Downloads 376555 Optimal Placement and Sizing of Energy Storage System in Distribution Network with Photovoltaic Based Distributed Generation Using Improved Firefly Algorithms
Authors: Ling Ai Wong, Hussain Shareef, Azah Mohamed, Ahmad Asrul Ibrahim
Abstract:
The installation of photovoltaic based distributed generation (PVDG) in active distribution system can lead to voltage fluctuation due to the intermittent and unpredictable PVDG output power. This paper presented a method in mitigating the voltage rise by optimally locating and sizing the battery energy storage system (BESS) in PVDG integrated distribution network. The improved firefly algorithm is used to perform optimal placement and sizing. Three objective functions are presented considering the voltage deviation and BESS off-time with state of charge as the constraint. The performance of the proposed method is compared with another optimization method such as the original firefly algorithm and gravitational search algorithm. Simulation results show that the proposed optimum BESS location and size improve the voltage stability.Keywords: BESS, firefly algorithm, PVDG, voltage fluctuation
Procedia PDF Downloads 323554 Characterization of the Dispersion Phenomenon in an Optical Biosensor
Authors: An-Shik Yang, Chin-Ting Kuo, Yung-Chun Yang, Wen-Hsin Hsieh, Chiang-Ho Cheng
Abstract:
Optical biosensors have become a powerful detection and analysis tool for wide-ranging applications in biomedical research, pharmaceuticals and environmental monitoring. This study carried out the computational fluid dynamics (CFD)-based simulations to explore the dispersion phenomenon in the microchannel of a optical biosensor. The predicted time sequences of concentration contours were utilized to better understand the dispersion development occurred in different geometric shapes of microchannels. The simulation results showed the surface concentrations at the sensing probe (with the best performance of a grating coupler) in respect of time to appraise the dispersion effect and therefore identify the design configurations resulting in minimum dispersion.Keywords: CFD simulations, dispersion, microfluidic, optical waveguide sensors
Procedia PDF Downloads 545553 Discrete Element Modeling on Bearing Capacity Problems
Authors: N. Li, Y. M. Cheng
Abstract:
In this paper, the classical bearing capacity problem is re-considered from discrete element analysis. In the discrete element approach, the bearing capacity problem is considered from the elastic stage to plastic stage to rupture stage (large displacement). The bearing capacity failure mechanism of a strip footing on soil is investigated, and the influence of micro-parameters on the bearing capacity of soil is also observed. It is found that the distinct element method (DEM) gives very good visualized results, and basically coincides well with that derived by the classical methods.Keywords: bearing capacity, distinct element method, failure mechanism, large displacement
Procedia PDF Downloads 366552 A Survey of Crowdsourcing Technology and Application
Authors: Qianjia Cheng, Hongquan Jiang
Abstract:
Crowdsourcing solves the problems that computers can't handle by integrating computers and the Internet. Its extensive knowledge sources, high efficiency, and high quality have made crowdsourcing attract wide attention in industry and academia in recent years. The development of online crowdsourcing platforms such as Clickworker, Amazon Mechanical Turk(Mturk) tends to mature gradually. This paper sorts out the concept of crowdsourcing, sorts out the workflow of competitive crowdsourcing, summarizes the related technologies of crowdsourcing based on workflow, quality control, cost control, and delay control, and introduces the typical crowdsourcing platform. Finally, we highlight some open problems of the current crowdsourcing and present some future research directions in this area.Keywords: application, crowdsourcing, crowdsourcing platform, system architecture
Procedia PDF Downloads 91551 Daily Dietary Intake and Cognitive Functioning among Population in Malaysia
Authors: Khor Khai Ling, Vashnarekha A/P Kumarasuriar, Tan Kok Wei, Ooi Pei Boon
Abstract:
The food pyramid had been stressed for years and used to promote a healthy diet. Recently, the Ministry of Health in Malaysia has changed the food pyramid structure. They moved fruits and vegetables to the bottom layer and encouraged citizens to consume more fruits and vegetables. Past research has shown that the amount of vegetables and fruits consumption has associated with cognitive health. However, Malaysians have yet to achieve the amount of fruit and vegetable intake as per recommendation. Thus, this study aims to investigate Malaysian’s habitual diet and cognitive functioning via a cross-sectional study. One hundred and ninety-three participants will be recruited via convenient sampling. A Food Frequency Questionnaire (FFQ) measures the habitual diet, and an online cognitive test measures attention, executive functioning, and memory objectively. The collected one hundred samples to the date of abstract submission, and the data collection is still in progress. This study will provide an insight to Malaysian about the diet pattern and its relationship with cognitive performance.Keywords: attention, cognitive, executive functioning, habitual diet, memory
Procedia PDF Downloads 203550 Reflection Performance of Truncated Pyramidal and Truncated Wedge Microwave Absorber Using Sugarcane Bagasse (SCB)
Authors: Liyana Zahid, Mohd Fareq Abd Malek, Ee Meng Cheng, Wei Wen Liu, Yeng Seng Lee, Muhammad Nadeem Iqbal, Fwen Hoon Wee
Abstract:
One of the parameters that affect the performance of microwave absorbers is the shape of the absorbers. This paper shows the performance (reflection loss) of truncated pyramidal and truncated wedge microwave absorbers in the range frequency between 8.2 to 12.4 GHz (X-Band) in simulation. The material used is sugarcane bagasse (SCB) which is one of the new materials that used to fabricate the microwave absorber. The complex permittivity was measured using Agilent dielectric probe technique. The designs were simulated using CST Microwave Studio Software. The reflection losses between these two shapes were compared.Keywords: microwave absorber, reflection loss, sugarcane bagasse (SCB), X-Band
Procedia PDF Downloads 352549 Optimization of Surface Coating on Magnetic Nanoparticles for Biomedical Applications
Authors: Xiao-Li Liu, Ling-Yun Zhao, Xing-Jie Liang, Hai-Ming Fan
Abstract:
Owing to their unique properties, magnetic nanoparticles have been used as diagnostic and therapeutic agents for biomedical applications. Highly monodispersed magnetic nanoparticles with controlled particle size and surface coating have been successfully synthesized as a model system to investigate the effect of surface coating on the T2 relaxivity and specific absorption rate (SAR) under an alternating magnetic field, respectively. Amongst, by using mPEG-g-PEI to solubilize oleic-acid capped 6 nm magnetic nanoparticles, the T2 relaxivity could be significantly increased by up to 4-fold as compared to PEG coated nanoparticles. Moreover, it largely enhances the cell uptake with a T2 relaxivity of 92.6 mM-1s-1 for in vitro cell MRI. As for hyperthermia agent, SAR value increase with the decreased thickness of PEG surface coating. By elaborate optimization of surface coating and particle size, a significant increase of SAR (up to 74%) could be achieved with a minimal variation on the saturation magnetization (<5%). The 19 nm magnetic nanoparticles with 2000 Da PEG exhibited the highest SAR of 930 W•g-1 among the samples, which can be maintained in various simulated physiological conditions. This systematic work provides a general strategy for the optimization of surface coating of magnetic core for high performance MRI contrast agent and hyperthermia agent.Keywords: magnetic nanoparticles, magnetic hyperthermia, magnetic resonance imaging, surface modification
Procedia PDF Downloads 510548 CFD Simulations to Study the Cooling Effects of Different Greening Modifications
Authors: An-Shik Yang, Chih-Yung Wen, Chiang-Ho Cheng, Yu-Hsuan Juan
Abstract:
The objective of this study is to conduct computational fluid dynamic (CFD) simulations for evaluating the cooling efficacy from vegetation implanted in a public park in the Taipei, Taiwan. To probe the impacts of park renewal by means of adding three pavilions and supplementary green areas on urban microclimates, the simulated results have revealed that the park having a higher percentage of green coverage ratio (GCR) tended to experience a better cooling effect. These findings can be used to explore the effects of different greening modifications on urban environments for achieving an effective thermal comfort in urban public spaces.Keywords: CFD simulations, Green Coverage Ratio, Urban heat island, Urban Public Park
Procedia PDF Downloads 493547 Prediction and Analysis of Human Transmembrane Transporter Proteins Based on SCM
Authors: Hui-Ling Huang, Tamara Vasylenko, Phasit Charoenkwan, Shih-Hsiang Chiu, Shinn-Ying Ho
Abstract:
The knowledge of the human transporters is still limited due to technically demanding procedure of crystallization for the structural characterization of transporters by spectroscopic methods. It is desirable to develop bioinformatics tools for effective analysis of available sequences in order to identify human transmembrane transporter proteins (HMTPs). This study proposes a scoring card method (SCM) based method for predicting HMTPs. We estimated a set of propensity scores of dipeptides to be HMTPs using SCM from the training dataset (HTS732) consisting of 366 HMTPs and 366 non-HMTPs. SCM using the estimated propensity scores of 20 amino acids and 400 dipeptides -as HMTPs, has a training accuracy of 87.63% and a test accuracy of 66.46%. The five top-ranked dipeptides include LD, NV, LI, KY, and MN with scores 996, 992, 989, 987, and 985, respectively. Five amino acids with the highest propensity scores are Ile, Phe, Met, Gly, and Leu, that hydrophobic residues are mostly highly-scored. Furthermore, obtained propensity scores were used to analyze physicochemical properties of human transporters.Keywords: dipeptide composition, physicochemical property, human transmembrane transporter proteins, human transmembrane transporters binding propensity, scoring card method
Procedia PDF Downloads 370546 CFD Simulations to Examine Natural Ventilation of a Work Area in a Public Building
Authors: An-Shik Yang, Chiang-Ho Cheng, Jen-Hao Wu, Yu-Hsuan Juan
Abstract:
Natural ventilation has played an important role for many low energy-building designs. It has been also noticed as a essential subject to persistently bring the fresh cool air from the outside into a building. This study carried out the computational fluid dynamics (CFD)-based simulations to examine the natural ventilation development of a work area in a public building. The simulated results can be useful to better understand the indoor microclimate and the interaction of wind with buildings. Besides, this CFD simulation procedure can serve as an effective analysis tool to characterize the airing performance, and thereby optimize the building ventilation for strengthening the architects, planners and other decision makers on improving the natural ventilation design of public buildings.Keywords: CFD simulations, natural ventilation, microclimate, wind environment
Procedia PDF Downloads 575545 Factors Affecting Aluminum Dissolve from Acidified Water Purification Sludge
Authors: Wen Po Cheng, Chi Hua Fu, Ping Hung Chen, Ruey Fang Yu
Abstract:
Recovering resources from water purification sludge (WPS) have been gradually stipulated in environmental protection laws and regulations in many nations. Hence, reusing the WPS is becoming an important topic, and recovering alum from WPS is one of the many practical alternatives. Most previous research efforts have been conducted on studying the amphoteric characteristic of aluminum hydroxide for investigating the optimum pH range to dissolve the Al(III) species from WPS, but it has been lack of reaction kinetics or mechanisms related discussion. Therefore, in this investigation, water purification sludge (WPS) solution was broken by ultrasound to make particle size of reactants smaller, specific surface area larger. According to the reaction kinetics, these phenomena let the dissolved aluminum salt quantity increased and the reaction rate go faster.Keywords: aluminum, acidification, sludge, recovery
Procedia PDF Downloads 631544 Three-Dimensional Positioning Method of Indoor Personnel Based on Millimeter Wave Radar Sensor
Authors: Chao Wang, Zuxue Xia, Wenhai Xia, Rui Wang, Jiayuan Hu, Rui Cheng
Abstract:
Aiming at the application of indoor personnel positioning under smog conditions, this paper proposes a 3D positioning method based on the IWR1443 millimeter wave radar sensor. The problem that millimeter-wave radar cannot effectively form contours in 3D point cloud imaging is solved. The results show that the method can effectively achieve indoor positioning and scene construction, and the maximum positioning error of the system is 0.130m.Keywords: indoor positioning, millimeter wave radar, IWR1443 sensor, point cloud imaging
Procedia PDF Downloads 116543 The Use of Fractional Brownian Motion in the Generation of Bed Topography for Bodies of Water Coupled with the Lattice Boltzmann Method
Authors: Elysia Barker, Jian Guo Zhou, Ling Qian, Steve Decent
Abstract:
A method of modelling topography used in the simulation of riverbeds is proposed in this paper, which removes the need for datapoints and measurements of physical terrain. While complex scans of the contours of a surface can be achieved with other methods, this requires specialised tools, which the proposed method overcomes by using fractional Brownian motion (FBM) as a basis to estimate the real surface within a 15% margin of error while attempting to optimise algorithmic efficiency. This removes the need for complex, expensive equipment and reduces resources spent modelling bed topography. This method also accounts for the change in topography over time due to erosion, sediment transport, and other external factors which could affect the topography of the ground by updating its parameters and generating a new bed. The lattice Boltzmann method (LBM) is used to simulate both stationary and steady flow cases in a side-by-side comparison over the generated bed topography using the proposed method and a test case taken from an external source. The method, if successful, will be incorporated into the current LBM program used in the testing phase, which will allow an automatic generation of topography for the given situation in future research, removing the need for bed data to be specified.Keywords: bed topography, FBM, LBM, shallow water, simulations
Procedia PDF Downloads 99542 Urban Spatial Experience Construction Strategies Under the Intervention of Online Media: A Case Study of Liziba Light Rail Station in Chongqing
Authors: Zhongde Wang, Fanwei Meng, Ling Yang
Abstract:
Today, social media deeply engages in urban spatial production in a ‘Disembedding’ form, allowing the public to ‘foresight’ physical spaces through online platforms and subsequently engage in corresponding ‘sight’ and visits, thus leading to the emergence of ‘Internet Celebrity Spots’. This paper delves into the laws of action of online media, focusing on experiences. From the perspectives of the public, space, and media, it thoroughly analyzes the experiential design strategies of Chongqing's Liziba Light Rail Station, including the construction of the experiential mainline capturing the matrix of public behavior, the creation of experiential sidelines leveraging spatial advantages, and the deepening of experiential touchpoints to promote media resonance. This analysis aims to provide insights and references for similar urban spaces to transition from ‘internet-famous’ to ‘real-famous’ attractions.Keywords: online media, urban space, disembedding, internet celebrity spots, experience design
Procedia PDF Downloads 68541 Thermal Performance of a Pair of Synthetic Jets Equipped in Microchannel
Authors: J. Mohammadpour, G. E. Lau, S. Cheng, A. Lee
Abstract:
Numerical study was conducted using two synthetic jet actuators attached underneath a micro-channel. By fixing the oscillating frequency and diaphragm amplitude, the effects on the heat transfer within the micro-channel were investigated with two synthetic jets being in-phase and 180° out-of-phase at different orifice spacing. There was a significant benefit identified with two jets being 180° out-of-phase with each other at the orifice spacing of 2 mm. By having this configuration, there was a distinct pattern of vortex forming which disrupts the main channel flow as well as promoting thermal mixing at high velocity within the channel. Therefore, this configuration achieved higher cooling performance compared to the other cases studied in terms of the reduction in the maximum temperature and cooling uniformity in the silicon wafer.Keywords: synthetic jets, microchannel, electronic cooling, computational fluid dynamics
Procedia PDF Downloads 199540 A Study of Emergency Nurses' Knowledge and Attitudes regarding Pain
Authors: Liqun Zou, Ling Wang, Xiaoli Chen
Abstract:
Objective: Through the questionnaire about emergency nurses’ knowledge and attitudes regarding pain management to understand whether they are well mastered and practiced the related knowledge about pain management, providing a reference for continuous improvement of the quality of nursing care in acute pain and for improving the effect of management on emergency pain patients. Method: The Chinese version questionnaire about KASRP (knowledge and attitudes survey regarding pain) was handed out to 132 emergency nurses to do a study about the knowledge and attitude of pain management. Meanwhile, SPSS17.0 was used to do a descriptive analysis and variance analysis on collected data. Results: The emergency nurses’ correct answer rate about KASRP questionnaire is from 25% to 65% and the average correct rate is (44.65 + 7.85)%. In addition, there are 10 to 26 items being given the right answer. Therefore, the average correct items are (17.86 ± 3.14). Moreover, there is no statistical significant on the differences about the correct rate for different age, gender and work experience to answer; however, the difference of the correct rate in different education background and the professional title is significant. Conclusion: There is a remarkable lack of knowledge and attitude towards pain management in emergency nurses, whose basic knowledge of pain is sufficient. Besides, there is a deviation between the knowledge of pain management and clinical practice, which needs to be improved.Keywords: emergency nurse, pain, KASRP questionnaire, pain management
Procedia PDF Downloads 252539 The Research of the Game Interface Improvement Due to the Game Operation Dilemma of Player in the Side-Scrolling Shooting Game
Authors: Shih-Chieh Liao, Cheng-Yan Shuai
Abstract:
The feature of a side-scrolling shooting game is facing the surrounding enemy and barraging in entire screen. The player will be in trouble when they are trying to do complicated operations because of the physical and system limitations of the joystick in the games. This study designed the prototype of a new type of arcade stick by focus group and assessed by the expert. By filtering the most representative, and build up the control system for the arcade stick, and testing time and bullets consumed in two experiments, try to prove it works in the game. Finally, the prototype of L-1 solves the dilemma of scroll shooting games when the player uses the arcade stick and improves the function of the arcade stick.Keywords: arcade stick, joystick, user interface, 2D STG
Procedia PDF Downloads 80538 A Study of the Influence of College Students’ Exercise and Leisure Motivations on the Leisure Benefits: Using Leisure Involvement as a Moderator
Authors: Chiung-En Huang, Cheng-Yu Tsai, Shane-Chung Lee
Abstract:
This study aim at the influence of college students’ exercise and leisure motivations on the leisure benefits while using the leisure involvement as a moderator. Whereby, the research tools used in this study included the application of leisure motivation scale, leisure involvement scale and leisure benefits scale, and a hierarchical regression analysis was performed by using a questionnaire-based survey, in which, a total of 1,500 copies of questionnaires were administered and 917 valid questionnaires were obtained, achieving a response rate of 61.13%. Research findings explore that leisure involvement has a moderating effect on the relationship between the leisure motivation and leisure benefits.Keywords: leisure motivation, leisure involvement, leisure benefits, moderator
Procedia PDF Downloads 369537 Determinants of E-Government Services Adoption from the African Students’ Perspective
Authors: Isaac Kofi Mensah, Jianing Mi, Cheng Feng
Abstract:
The patronage of e-government services (demand side of e-government) is vital to the successful implementation of e-government initiatives. The purpose of this study is to explore the predictors determining the willingness of African students in China to adopt and use e-government services. The Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT) will be used as the theoretical foundation for this research. Research instrument will be developed and administered to 500 African students in China. Factors such as performance expectancy, effort expectancy, social influence, facilitating conditions and culture will be investigated to determine its significant impact on the willingness to use e-government services. This study is a research in progress. The outcome of this study will provide valuable recommendations to improve the provision of public services through e-government.Keywords: e-government, e-government services, predictors, UTAUT
Procedia PDF Downloads 601536 The Changes of Functions of Leishan Miao New-Year in Southeast Guizhou
Authors: Lanyan Peng, Ling Chen
Abstract:
Leishan Miao New-Year is one of the grandest festivals in the southeastern of Guizhou Province in China. It was officially listed in the National Intangible Cultural Heritage List in 2008, as a traditional folk cultural activity organized by the local Miao people. With the rise of cultural tourism, after 19 years of exploration, the local government has successfully built Miao New-Year into a cultural card that is well-known at home and abroad. During the Miao New-Year period, it has attracted 3.8 million tourists and achieves a win-win situation in the economy and culture. However, tourism development has changed the living environment and living state of the local people. And it is accompanied by changes in the form of the festival, the content of the festival, and the local people’s needs and attitudes to the festival. This paper uses the field investigation method to achieve 410 questionnaires and 35 interviews, exploring the process and the reasons for changes of Leishan Miao New-Year’s cultural function. Among all the functions, the economic function, identity function, and entertainment function have been enhanced, and the marriage and love function has been extended. In the meanwhile, sacrificial function has been weakened. There are some trends in functions. The function of commemorating ancestor and self-entertainment has been changed to entertaining people and economic pursuit.Keywords: Miao New-Year, Miao nationality, festival function, changes
Procedia PDF Downloads 121535 Effects of the Amount of Static Stretching on the Knee Isokinetic Muscle Strength
Authors: Chungyu Chen, Hui-Ju Chang, Pei-Shan Guo, Huei-Ling Jhan, Yi-Ping Lin
Abstract:
The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of the amount of acutely static stretching on muscular strength and power. There were 15 males, and 7 females recruited voluntarily as the participants in the study. The mean age, body height, and weight of participants were 23.4 ± 2.8 years old, 171.0 ± 7.2 cm, and 65.7 ± 8.7 kg, respectively. Participants were repeated to stretch hamstring muscles 2 or 6 30-s bouts randomly on a separate day spaced 5-7 days apart in a passive, static, sit-and-reach stretching exercise. Before and after acutely static stretching, the Biodex System 4 Pro was used to acquire the peak torque, power, total work, and range of motion for right knee under the loading of 180 deg/s. The 2 (test-retest) × 2 (number of stretches) repeated measures two-way analysis of variance were used to compare the parameters of muscular strength/power (α = .05). The results showed that the peak torque, power, and total work increased significantly after acutely passive static stretching (ps < .05) in flexor and extensor of knee. But there were no significant differences found between the 2 and 6 30-s bouts hamstring muscles stretching (ps > .05). It indicated that the performance of muscular strength and power in knee flexion and extension do not inhibit following the increase of amount of stretching.Keywords: knee, power, flexibility, strength
Procedia PDF Downloads 280534 Component Comparison of Polyaluminum Chloride Produced from Various Methods
Authors: Wen Po Cheng, Chia Yun Chung, Ruey Fang Yu, Chao Feng Chen
Abstract:
The main objective of this research was to study the differences of aluminum hydrolytic products between two PACl preparation methods. These two methods were the acidification process of freshly formed amorphous Al(OH)3 and the conventional alkalization process of aluminum chloride solution. According to Ferron test and 27Al NMR analysis of those two PACl preparation procedures, the reaction rate constant (k) values and Al13 percentage of acid addition process at high basicity value were both lower than those values of the alkaline addition process. The results showed that the molecular structure and size distribution of the aluminum species in both preparing methods were suspected to be significantly different at high basicity value.Keywords: polyaluminum chloride, Al13, amorphous aluminum hydroxide, Ferron test
Procedia PDF Downloads 376533 Field Synergy Analysis of Combustion Characteristics in the Afterburner of Solid Oxide Fuel Cell System
Authors: Shing-Cheng Chang, Cheng-Hao Yang, Wen-Sheng Chang, Chih-Chia Lin, Chun-Han Li
Abstract:
The solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) is a promising green technology which can achieve a high electrical efficiency. Due to the high operating temperature of SOFC stack, the off-gases at high temperature from anode and cathode outlets are introduced into an afterburner to convert the chemical energy into thermal energy by combustion. The heat is recovered to preheat the fresh air and fuel gases before they pass through the stack during the SOFC power generation system operation. For an afterburner of the SOFC system, the temperature control with a good thermal uniformity is important. A burner with a well-designed geometry usually can achieve a satisfactory performance. To design an afterburner for an SOFC system, the computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulation is adoptable. In this paper, the hydrogen combustion characteristics in an afterburner with simple geometry are studied by using CFD. The burner is constructed by a cylinder chamber with the configuration of a fuel gas inlet, an air inlet, and an exhaust outlet. The flow field and temperature distributions inside the afterburner under different fuel and air flow rates are analyzed. To improve the temperature uniformity of the afterburner during the SOFC system operation, the flow paths of anode/cathode off-gases are varied by changing the positions of fuels and air inlet channel to improve the heat and flow field synergy in the burner furnace. Because the air flow rate is much larger than the fuel gas, the flow structure and heat transfer in the afterburner is dominated by the air flow path. The present work studied the effects of fluid flow structures on the combustion characteristics of an SOFC afterburner by three simulation models with a cylindrical combustion chamber and a tapered outlet. All walls in the afterburner are assumed to be no-slip and adiabatic. In each case, two set of parameters are simulated to study the transport phenomena of hydrogen combustion. The equivalence ratios are in the range of 0.08 to 0.1. Finally, the pattern factor for the simulation cases is calculated to investigate the effect of gas inlet locations on the temperature uniformity of the SOFC afterburner. The results show that the temperature uniformity of the exhaust gas can be improved by simply adjusting the position of the gas inlet. The field synergy analysis indicates the design of the fluid flow paths should be in the way that can significantly contribute to the heat transfer, i.e. the field synergy angle should be as small as possible. In the study cases, the averaged synergy angle of the burner is about 85̊, 84̊, and 81̊ respectively.Keywords: afterburner, combustion, field synergy, solid oxide fuel cell
Procedia PDF Downloads 137