Search results for: middle war and post war architecture

Authors: Juan Torralba

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Student digital artifacts were investigated, utilizing a qualitative exploratory research design to understand the ways in which students represented their knowledge of seventh-grade proportionality concepts as they participated in maker-based activities that culminated in the creation of digital 3-dimensional models of their dream homes. Representations of the geometric and numeric dimensions of proportionality were analyzed in the written, verbal, and visual data collected from the students. A directed content analysis approach was utilized in the data analysis, as this work aimed to build upon existing research in the field of maker-based STEAM Education. The results from this work show that students can represent their understanding of proportional reasoning through open-ended written responses more accurately than through verbal descriptions or digital artifacts. The geometric and numeric dimensions of proportionality and their respective components of attributes of similarity representation and percents, rates, and ratios representations were the most represented by the students than any other across the data, suggesting a maker-based instructional approach to teaching proportionality in the middle grades may be promising in helping students gain a solid foundation in those components. Recommendations for practice and research are discussed.

Keywords: learning through making, maker-based education, maker education in the middle grades, making in mathematics, the maker movement

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Authors: Feng Huang, Carlos G. Ochoa, Haitao Zhao

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Poyang Lake, the largest freshwater lake in China, is located at the middle-lower reaches of the Yangtze River basin. It has great value in socioeconomic development and is internationally recognized as an important lacustrine and wetland ecosystem with abundant biodiversity. Impacted by ongoing climate change and anthropogenic activities, especially the regulation of the Three Gorges Reservoir since 2003, Poyang Lake has experienced significant water regime evolution, resulting in challenges for the management of water resources and the environment. Quantifying the contribution of hydrologic and topographic changes to water regime alteration is necessary for policymakers to design effective adaption strategies. Long term hydrologic data were collected and the back-propagation neural networks were constructed to simulate the lake water level. The impacts of hydrologic and topographic changes were differentiated through scenario analysis that considered pre-impact and post-impact hydrologic and topographic scenarios. The lake water regime was characterized by hydrologic indicators that describe monthly water level fluctuations, hydrologic features during flood and drought seasons, and frequency and rate of hydrologic variations. The results revealed different contributions of hydrologic and topographic changes to different features of the lake water regime.Noticeable changes were that the water level declined dramatically during the period of reservoir impoundment, and the drought was enhanced during the dry season. The hydrologic and topographic changes exerted a synergistic effect or antagonistic effect on different lake water regime features. The findings provide scientific reference for lacustrine and wetland ecological protection associated with water regime alterations.

Keywords: back-propagation neural network, scenario analysis, water regime, Poyang Lake

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Authors: Achim Kampker, Heiner Hans Heimes, Mathias Ordung, Nemanja Sarovic

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A key component of the drive train of electric vehicles is the lithium-ion battery system. Among various other components, such as the battery management system or the thermal management system, the battery system mostly consists of several cells which are integrated mechanically as well as electrically. Due to different vehicle concepts with regards to space, energy and power specifications, there is a variety of different battery systems. The corresponding assembly lines are specially designed for each battery concept. Minor changes to certain characteristics of the battery have a disproportionally high effect on the set-up effort in the form of high change-related costs. This paper will focus on battery systems which are made out of battery cells with a prismatic format. The product architecture and the assembly process will be analyzed in detail based on battery concepts of existing electric cars and key variety-causing drivers will be identified. On this basis, several measures will be presented and discussed on how to change the product architecture and the assembly process in order to reduce change-related costs.

Keywords: assembly, automotive industry, battery system, battery concept

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Authors: Zahra Asgar Pour

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Two types of Ti-Al-containing zeolitic beads with an average diameter of 450 to 750 µm and hierarchical porosity were synthesized using a hard template method and tested as heterogeneous catalysts in the epoxidation of cycloalkenes (i.e. cyclohexene and cis-cyclooctene) with aqueous hydrogen peroxide (H₂O₂) or tert-butyl hydroperoxide(TBHP) as the oxidant agent. The first type of zeolitic beads was prepared by hydrothermal treatment of a primarygel (containing the Si, Ti, and Al precursors) in the presence of porous anion-exchange resin beads as the hard shaping template. After calcination, these beads (Ti-Al-Beta-HDT-B) consisted of both crystalline zeolite Beta and an amorphous silicate phase. The second type of zeolitic beads (Ti-Beta-PS-deAl-14.4-B) was obtained by post-synthesis dealumination of Al-containing zeolite Beta beads using 14.4 M HNO₃, followed by Ti grafting (3 wt% per gram of zeolite). The prepared materials were characterised by means of XRD, N2-physisorption, UV-vis, XRF, SEM, and TEM and tested as heterogeneous epoxidation catalysts. This post-synthetically prepared catalyst demonstrated higher activity (cyclohexene conversion of 22.7 % and epoxide selectivity of 33.5 %) after 5 h at60 °C, which emanates from the crystalline structure and higher degrees of hydrophobicity. In addition, the post-synthetically prepared beads were prone to partial Ti leaching in the presence of H₂O₂, whereas they showed to be resistant against Ti leaching using tert-butyl hydroperoxide as the oxidant agent.

Keywords: epoxidation, structured catalysts, hierarchical porosity, bead-shape catalysts

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Authors: Fatimah A. Alhomaid

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A total of 40 one day-old LSL chicks (Lohman Selected Loghorn) were used in this study. In 20 days-old chicks, the bursa was formed of mucosa, musculosa and serosa. Its lamina propria was lymphoid in nature. After hatching, the bursa continued to grow and became fully developed at the 30th day post- hatching. It appeared as a blind sac. Its lumen was occupied by 12-13 mucosal folds. Each fold was lined by tall columnar or pseudo- stratified columnar epithelium. Its core was made of lamina propria infiltrated by a large number of lymphoid follicles. Most follicles possessed an outer corona surrounding a germinal center. At the age of 6 weeks physiological regression of the bursa was observed. The lymphoid follicles were decreased in size, the lymphocytes were depleted and the interfollicular stroma became obvious, thicker and more fibrous. Fibrosis of the lymphoid follicles was frequently seen in some sections at the age of 30 weeks.

Keywords: Bursa of fabricius, lymphocytes, cloacal Bursa

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Authors: Thomas S. Abia II, Citlali Garcia-Saucedo

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A continuous copper precipitation treatment (CCPT) system was conceived at Intel Chandler Site to serve as a first-of-kind (FOK) facility-scale waste copper (Cu), nickel (Ni), and manganese (Mn) co-precipitation facility. The process was designed to treat highly variable wastewater discharged from a substrate packaging research factory. The paper discusses metals co-precipitation induced by internal changes for manufacturing facilities that lack the capacity for hardware expansion due to real estate restrictions, aggressive schedules, or budgetary constraints. Herein, operating parameters such as pH and oxidation reduction potential (ORP) were examined to analyze the ability of the CCPT System to immobilize various waste metals. Additionally, influential factors such as influent concentrations and retention times were investigated to quantify the environmental variability against system performance. A total of 2,027 samples were analyzed and statistically evaluated to measure the performance of CCPT that was internally retrofitted for Mn abatement to meet environmental regulations. In order to enhance the consistency of the influent, a separate holding tank was cannibalized from another system to collect and slow-feed the segregated Mn wastewater from the factory into CCPT. As a result, the baseline influent Mn decreased from 17.2+18.7 mg¹L^-1 at pre-pilot to 5.15+8.11 mg¹L^-1 post-pilot (70.1% reduction). Likewise, the pre-trial and post-trial average influent Cu values to CCPT were 52.0+54.6 mg¹L^-1 and 33.9+12.7 mg¹L^-1, respectively (34.8% reduction). However, the raw Ni content of 0.97+0.39 mg¹L^-1 at pre-pilot increased to 1.06+0.17 mg¹L^-1 at post-pilot. The average Mn output declined from 10.9+11.7 mg¹L^-1 at pre-pilot to 0.44+1.33 mg¹L^-1 at post-pilot (96.0% reduction) as a result of the pH and ORP operating setpoint changes. In similar fashion, the output Cu quality improved from 1.60+5.38 mg¹L^-1 to 0.55+1.02 mg¹L^-1 (65.6% reduction) while the Ni output sustained a 50% enhancement during the pilot study (0.22+0.19 mg¹L^-1 reduced to 0.11+0.06 mg¹L^-1). pH and ORP were shown to be significantly instrumental to the precipitative versatility of the CCPT System.

Keywords: copper, co-precipitation, industrial wastewater treatment, manganese, optimization, pilot study

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Authors: Chitraporn Boonthanom, Pailin Sisookho

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The Sexual Literacy Training Teachers Program (SLTTP) based on sexual health problems in Thai students includes sexual development, sexual hygiene, high-risk behaviors, Sexual Transmitter Infections and HIV/AIDS, unwanted pregnancy, unsafe abortion, and sexual abuse that increase among Thai students. The training aimed at providing teachers with the sexuality knowledge, sexuality information access skills, communication skill to effectively teach in their class. 28 teachers were participated from schools in Bangkok metropolitan and Nakorn Patom province. The result show the mean score of the pre-test was 8.46 (SD=1.77) and the post-test was 10.13 (SD=2.34). The post-training results were found to be higher than pre–training results but not significant. As teachers are increasing the sexual literacy is very important for Thai students.

Keywords: sexual literacy, teachers, training, sexuality education

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Authors: Iis Diatin, Yani Hadiroseyani, Muhammad Mujahid, Ahmad Teduh, Juang R. Matangaran

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One of silica quarry managed by a mining company is located at Sukabumi District of West Java Province Indonesia with an area of approximately 70 hectares. Since 2013 this company stopped the mining activities. The company tries to restore the ecosystem post-mining with rehabilitation activities such as reclamation and revegetation of their ex-mining area. After three years planting the area the trees grown well. Not only planting some tree species but also some cover crop has covered the soil surface. There are two settling ponds located in the middle of the ex-mining area. Those settling pond were built in order to prevent the effect of acid mine drainage. Acid mine drainage (AMD) or the acidic water is created when sulphide minerals are exposed to air and water and through a natural chemical reaction produce sulphuric acid. AMD is the main pollutant at the open pit mining. The objective of the research was to analyze the effect of revegetation on water quality change at the settling pond. The physical and chemical of water quality parameter were measured and analysed at site and at the laboratory. Physical parameter such as temperature, turbidity and total organic matter were analyse. Also heavy metal and some other chemical parameter such as dissolved oxygen, alkalinity, pH, total ammonia nitrogen, nitrate and nitrite were analysed. The result showed that the acidity of first settling pond was higher than that of the second settling pond. Both settling pond water’s contained heavy metal. The turbidity and total organic matter were the parameter of water quality which become better after revegetation.

Keywords: acid mine drainage, ex-mining area, revegetation, settling pond, water quality

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Authors: Zhou Xiaowen China, Zhang Sanming China

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Neighbourhood space as a very important part of city spaces, is an organic combination of material environment and spiritual achievement in people’ daily life, and has a real impact upon the sustainable development of the whole city. Looking back on the past 2014 World Architecture Festival (WAF), 4 out of 35winning buildings were neighbourhood designs, and all of them mentioned about space-sharing and sustainable development. In this paper, three award-winning cases were studied, including the world building of the year—the chapel (Vietnam, A21 studio), The Carve (Norway, A-Lab) and House for Trees (Vietnam, Vo Trong Nghia Architects). Urban context, planning, space construction and sustainable technology were discussed. Based on those, it was discovered that passive energy-saving technologies have been paid more and more attention, sharing space has been designed ingeniously, and the architectural forms of them reflect social inclusion and equity. This paper is aimed at summarizing the excellent works on the Festival and providing reference for the future design.

Keywords: neighbourhood design, 2014 World Architecture Festival (WAF), sustainable development, space-sharing

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Authors: Himanshu Lal, Bipasha Ghosh, Arun Srivastava

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A pilot study of indoor air quality in terms of bioaerosol (fungus and bacteria) and few selective microbial volatile organic compounds (MVOCs) was carried out in different indoor sections of a library for two seasons, namely monsoon and post monsoon. Bioaerosol sampling was carried out using Anderson six stage viable sampler at a flow rate of 28.3 L/min while MVOCs were collected on activated charcoal tubes ORBOTM 90 Carboxen 564.Collected MVOCs were desorbed using carbon disulphide (CS2) and analysed by GC-FID. Microscopic identification for fungus was only carried out. Surface dust was collected by sterilised buds and cultured to identify fungal contaminants. Unlike bacterial size distribution, fungal bioaerosol concentration was found to be highest in the fourth stage in different sections of the library. In post monsoon season both fungal bioaerosol (710 to 3292cfu/m3) and bacterial bioaerosol (298 to 1475cfu/m3) were fund at much greater concentration than in monsoon. In monsoon season unlike post monsoon, I/O ratio for both the bioaerosol fractions was more than one. Rain washout could be the reason of lower outdoor concentration in monsoon season. On the contrary most of the MVOCs namely 1-hexene, 1-pentanol and 1-octen-3-ol were found in the monsoon season instead of post monsoon season with the highest being 1-hexene with 7.09µg/m3 concentration. Among the six identified fungal bioaerosol Aspergillus, Cladosporium and Penicillium were found in maximum concentration while Aspergillus niger, Curvuleria lunata, Cladosporium cladosporioides and Penicillium sp., was indentified in surface dust samples. According to regression analysis apart from environmental factors other factors also played an important role. Thus apart from outdoor infiltration and human sources, accumulated surface dust mostly on organic materials like books, wooden furniture and racks can be attributed to being one of the major sources of both fungal bioaerosols as well as MVOCs found in the library.

Keywords: bacteria, Fungi, indoor air, MVOCs

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Authors: Long-Shan Wu, Ming-Chen Ko, Chien-Chang Ho, Po-Fu Lee, Li-Yun Chen, Ching-Yu Tseng

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The purpose of this study was to determine whether progressive aerobic exercise intensity effects the changes in insulin resistance indicators among obese college students in Taiwan. Forty-eight obese subjects [body mass index (BMI) ≧ 27 kg/m2, aged 18-26 years old] were randomized into four equal groups (n = 12): light-intensity training group (LITG): 40-50% of their heart rate reserve (HRR); middle-intensity training group (MITG): 50-70% of their HRR; high-intensity training group (HITG): 70-80% of their HRR, and control group (CG). The aerobic exercise training program was performed 60 minutes per day on a treadmill three days/week in a training period of 12 weeks. All subjects’ anthropometric data, blood biochemical parameters, and health-related physical fitness components were measured at baseline and after 12 weeks. At baseline, all insulin resistance indicators did not differ significantly among the four groups (p > 0.05). After 12-week exercise intervention, the HITG had significantly more changes in insulin level than the MITG, LITG, and CG. Our findings suggested that a short-term aerobic exercise program can play an important role in improving insulin resistance indicators; either middle-intensity training significantly increases the insulin level, but the high-intensity exercise training program effectively improves obese college students’ insulin resistance.

Keywords: aerobic training, exercise intensity, insulin resistance, obesity

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Authors: Thanura Randula Abeywardena

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This study recognized the effectiveness of cold-water immersion recovery post exhaustive short-term exercise. The purpose of this study was to understand if 16- 20°C of cold-water immersion would be beneficial in a tropical environment to achieve optimal recovery in sprint swim performance in comparison to 10-15°C of water immersion. Two 100m-sprint swim performance times were measured along with blood lactate (BLa), heart rate (HR) and rate of perceived exertion (RPE) in a 25m swimming pool with full body head out horizontal water immersions of 10-15°C, 16-20°C and 29-32°C (pool temperature) for 10 minutes followed by 5 minutes of seated passive rest outside; in between the two swim performances. Twelve well-trained adult swimmers (5 male and 5 female) within the top twenty in the Sri Lankan national swimming championships in 100m Butterfly and Freestyle in the years 2020 & 2021 volunteered for this study. One-way ANOVA analysis (p<0.05) suggested performance time, Bla and HR had no significant differences between the 3 conditions after the second sprint; however, RPE was significantly different with p=0.034 between 10-15°C and 16-20°C immersion conditions. The study suggested that the recovery post the two cold-water immersion conditions were similar in terms of performance and physiological factors; however, the 16-20°C temperature had a better “feel good” factor post sprint 2. Further study is recommended as there was participant bias with the swimmers not reaching optimal levels in sprint 1. Therefore, they might have possibly fully recovered before sprint 2, invalidating the physiological effect of recovery.

Keywords: hydrotherapy, blood lactate, fatigue, recovery, sprint-performance, sprint-swimming

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Authors: Kuan-Han Lin, Kuan-Yin Lin, Ka-Chun Siu

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The purpose of this systematic review was to determine the impact of post-traumatic stress disorders (PTSD) symptom or depressive symptoms on return to work (RTW) after occupational injury. The original articles of clinical trials and observational studies from PubMed, MEDLINE, and PsycINFO between January 1980 and November 2016 were retrieved. Two reviewers evaluated the abstracts identified by the search criteria for full-text review. To be included in the final analysis, studies were required to use either intervention or observational study design to examine the association between psychiatric symptoms and RTW. A modified checklist designed by Downs & Black and Crombie was used to assess the methodological quality of included study. A total of 58 articles were identified from the electronic databases after duplicate removed. Seven studies fulfilled the inclusion criteria and were critically reviewed. The rates of RTW in the included studies were reported to be 6% to 63.6% among workers after occupational injuries. This review found that post-traumatic stress symptom and depressive symptoms were negatively associated with RTW. Although the impact of psychiatric symptoms on RTW after occupational injury remains poorly understood, this review brought up the important information that injured workers with psychiatric symptoms had poor RTW outcome. Future work should address the effective management of psychiatric factors affecting RTW among workers.

Keywords: depressive symptom, occupational injury, post-traumatic stress disorder, return to work

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Authors: Mehdi Assefi, Keihan Hataminezhad

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One of the efficient architectures for exploring the resources in wireless ad-hoc networks is contact-based architecture. In this architecture, each node assigns a unique zone for itself and each node keeps all information from inside the zone, as well as some from outside the zone, which is called contact. Reducing the overlap between different zones of a node and its contacts increases its performance, therefore Edge Method (EM) is designed for this purpose. Contacts selected by EM do not have any overlap with their sources, but for choosing the contact a vast amount of information must be transmitted. In this article, we will offer a new protocol for contact selection, which is called PEM. The objective would be reducing the volume of transmitted information, using Non-Uniform Dissemination Probabilistic Protocols. Consumed energy for contact selection is a function of the size of transmitted information between nodes. Therefore, by reducing the content of contact selection message using the PEM will decrease the consumed energy. For evaluation of the PEM we applied the simulation method. Results indicated that PEM consumes less energy compared to EM, and by increasing the number of nodes (level of nodes), performance of PEM will improve in comparison with EM.

Keywords: wireless ad-hoc networks, contact selection, method for CARD, energy-efficient

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Authors: Ayten Tahirli

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Settlements and grave monuments discovered by archeological excavations conducted in Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic have a special place in studying the Ancient history of Azerbaijan between the 4th century B.C. and the 3rd century A.C. From this point of view, the archeological excavations and investigations conducted at Oglankala, Goshatapa, Babatapa, Pusyan, Agvantapa, Meydantapa and other monuments in Nakhchivan have a specific place. From this point of view, the conclusions of archeological research conducted at the Oglankala settlement enable studying of Nakhchivan history, economic life and trade relationships broadly. Oglankala, which is located on Garatapa Mountain with a space of 50 ha, was the largest fortress in Nakhchivan and one of the largest fortresses in the South Caucasus during the Middle Iron Age. The territory where the monument is located is very important in terms of keeping Sharur Lowland, which has great importance for agriculture and is the most productive territory in Nakhchivan, where Arpachay passes starting from the Lesser Caucasus. During the excavations between 1988 and 1989 at Oglankala, covering the fortress's history belonging to the Early and Middle Iron Ages, indisputable proofs showing that the territory was an important political center were discovered at that territory. Oglankala was the capital city of an independent government during the Middle Iron Age. It maintained economic and cultural relationships with the neighboring Urartu Government and was the capital city of a city government covered by a strong protection system in the centuries after the collapse of the Achaemenid Empire. It is need say that broader archeological excavations at Oglankala City were first started by Vali Bakhshaliyev, the Department Head of the Institute of History, Ethnography and Archeology of ANAS Nakhchivan Branch. Between 1988 and 1989, V.B. Bakhshaliyev conducted an excavation within an area of 320 square meters at Oglankala. Since 2006, Oglankala has become a research object for the International Azerbaijan-USA archeological expedition. In 2006, Lauren Ristvet from Pennsylvania State University, Veli Bakhshaliyev from the Nakhchivan Branch of Azerbaijan National Academy of Sciences and Safar Ashurov from Baku Office of Azerbaijan National Academy of Sciences, together with their other colleagues and students, started to study the ancient history of that magic area. During the archeological research conducted by an international expedition between 2008 and 2011 under the supervision of Vali Bakhshaliyev, the remnants of a palace and the protective walls of a citadel constructed between late 9th century B.C. and early 8th century A.C. were discovered in that residential area. It was found out that Oglankala was the capital city of a small government established at Sharur Lowland during the Middle Iron Age and struggled against the Urartu by establishing a union with the local tribes. That government had a specific cuneiform script. Between the 4th and 2nd centuries B.C., Oglankala and the territory it covered was one of the major political centers of the Atropathena Government.

Keywords: Nakhchivan, Oglankala, settlement, ceramic, archaeological excavation

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Authors: Shihab Aldin Al Riyami, Khosrow Ebrahim, Sajad Ahmadizad

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Hemodynamic changes and ventricular loading during exercise lead to left ventricular (LV) hypertrophy. In athletes, volume load induces enlargement of the LV internal diameter and a proportional increase of wall thickness; while, pressure load would induce thickening of the ventricular wall. These adaptations are not similar in all athletes and are related to the types of sport. Volleyball players have different types of activity and roles based on their playing. Therefore, their physiological adaptations and requirements are different. The aim of the current study was to investigate the LV adaptationsinelite volleyball players based on their playing position. Sixty male elite volleyball players (age, 30.55±3.64 years)from Brazil, Serbia, Poland, Iran, Colombia, Cameroon, Japan, Egypt, Qatar, and Tunisia were investigated (from all five volleyball play positions). All participants had the experience of at least 3 years of participation at a professional level and international tournaments. LV characteristics were evaluated and measured using the echocardiography technique. Statistical analyses revealed significant differences (P<0.05)among the five groups of players forLV internal dimension (LVID), posterior wall thickness (PWT), and intact ventricular septum (IVS). Post-hoc analysis showed that opposite position players had significant higher value of LVID, PWT, and IVS when compared with other players, including outside hitter, middle blocker, setter, and libero (p<0.05). Additionally, in libero players, PWT was significantly lower when compared with other players (p<0.05). Based on the findings of the present study, it is concluded that LV adaptations in volleyball players are related to their playing position and that the opposite players had the highest LV adaptations when compared to other positions.

Keywords: athletes, cardiac adaptations, echocardio graphy, heart, sport

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Authors: Kaustav Mukherjee

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In this paper we propose a Neural Style Transfer solution whereby we have created a Lightweight Separable Convolution Kernel Based GAN Architecture (SC-GAN) which will very useful for designing filter for Mobile Phone Cameras and also Edge Devices which will convert any image to its 2D ANIMATED COMIC STYLE Movies like HEMAN, SUPERMAN, JUNGLE-BOOK. This will help the 2D animation artist by relieving to create new characters from real life person's images without having to go for endless hours of manual labour drawing each and every pose of a cartoon. It can even be used to create scenes from real life images.This will reduce a huge amount of turn around time to make 2D animated movies and decrease cost in terms of manpower and time. In addition to that being extreme light-weight it can be used as camera filters capable of taking Comic Style Shots using mobile phone camera or edge device cameras like Raspberry Pi 4,NVIDIA Jetson NANO etc. Existing Methods like CartoonGAN with the model size close to 170 MB is too heavy weight for mobile phones and edge devices due to their scarcity in resources. Compared to the current state of the art our proposed method which has a total model size of 31 MB which clearly makes it ideal and ultra-efficient for designing of camera filters on low resource devices like mobile phones, tablets and edge devices running OS or RTOS. .Owing to use of high resolution input and usage of bigger convolution kernel size it produces richer resolution Comic-Style Pictures implementation with 6 times lesser number of parameters and with just 25 extra epoch trained on a dataset of less than 1000 which breaks the myth that all GAN need mammoth amount of data. Our network reduces the density of the Gan architecture by using Depthwise Separable Convolution which does the convolution operation on each of the RGB channels separately then we use a Point-Wise Convolution to bring back the network into required channel number using 1 by 1 kernel.This reduces the number of parameters substantially and makes it extreme light-weight and suitable for mobile phones and edge devices. The architecture mentioned in the present paper make use of Parameterised Batch Normalization Goodfellow etc al. (Deep Learning OPTIMIZATION FOR TRAINING DEEP MODELS page 320) which makes the network to use the advantage of Batch Norm for easier training while maintaining the non-linear feature capture by inducing the learnable parameters

Keywords: comic stylisation from camera image using GAN, creating 2D animated movie style custom stickers from images, depth-wise separable convolutional neural network for light-weight GAN architecture for EDGE devices, GAN architecture for 2D animated cartoonizing neural style, neural style transfer for edge, model distilation, perceptual loss

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Authors: Reshmita Nath

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In this study, we investigate the spatiotemporal characteristics of drought in India and its impact on agriculture during the summer season (April to September). For our analysis, we have used Standardized Precipitation Evapotranspiration Index (SPEI) datasets between 1982 and 2012 at six-month timescale. Based on the criteria SPEI<-1 we obtain the vulnerability map and have found that the Humid subtropical Upper Middle Gangetic Plain (UMGP) region is highly drought prone with an occurrence frequency of 40-45%. This UMGP region contributes at least 18-20% of India’s annual cereal production. Not only the probability, but the region becomes more and more drought-prone in the recent decades. Moreover, the cereal production in the UMGP has experienced a gradual declining trend from 2000 onwards and this feature is consistent with the increase in drought affected areas from 20-25% to 50-60%, before and after 2000, respectively. The higher correlation coefficient (-0.69) between the changes in cereal production and drought affected areas confirms that at least 50% of the agricultural (cereal) losses is associated with drought. While analyzing the individual impact of precipitation and surface temperature anomalies on SPEI (6), we have found that in the UMGP region surface temperature plays the primary role in lowering of SPEI. The linkage is further confirmed by the correlation analysis between the SPEI (6) and surface temperature rise, which exhibits strong negative values in the UMGP region. Higher temperature might have caused more evaporation and drying, which therefore increases the area affected by drought in the recent decade.

Keywords: drought, agriculture, SPEI, Indo-Gangetic plain

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Authors: Faizan Sultan

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Non-government organizations (NGOs) in Pakistan have the potential to deliver services such as health, education, and rural development through targeting the most vulnerable communities of society. Having this significant importance, NGOs are facing numerous challenges in service delivery. So, there is a need to identify the challenges NGOs face in community development, particularly post-conflict development. The current study has analyzed the social and political constraints in development projects in the post-conflict region of the Swat district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. The objectives of this study are “What are the social and political constraints faced by the nongovernmental organizations in the implementation of development aid Projects in post-conflict development of Swat and to examine the challenges in coordination mechanism between government departments, NGOs, and community in reconstruction activities”. This research is based upon both the quantitative and qualitative data that is being gathered from the NGO representatives, government officials, and community members who were involved in post-conflict development interventions in the Swat region. A purposive sampling technique was used to select respondents from the community members/activists (25 in number) and government and NGO officials (10 in number). Based on analysis against our objectives, NGOs have faced numerous constraints such as Insecurity, Negative Perceptions about NGOs, restrictions on women's mobility, government policies and regulations, lack of coordination and networking, trust deficit, and political interference while implementing their project interventions. These findings concluded that constraints have affected project implementation to a greater extent, including women's participation, involvement of marginalized populations, and equal distribution of resources. In the Swat region, NGOs cannot openly discuss sensitive projects such as human rights, gender-based projects, or women empowerment as these issues are very sensitive to the local community due to their cultural values. The community may not allow their females to go outside their homes as this region is a male-dominated society. Similarly, lack of communication and poor networking for the arrangements of the project meetings were also the major constraints.

Keywords: national disaster management authority, millennium development goals, provincial disaster management authority, provincial reconstruction, rehabilitation and settlement authority

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Authors: Tewodros Abate Alemayehu, Abebe Getahun, Akewake Geremew, Dawit Solomon Demeke, John Recha, Dawit Solomon, Gebremedihin Ambaw, Fasil Dawit Moges

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The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of supplementation of zinc oxide (ZnO) nanoparticles and Mannan-oligosaccharide (MOS) on growth performance, feed utilization, fatty acid profiles, hematology, and intestinal morphology of Chamo strain Nile tilapia Oreochromis niloticus (L.) fry reared at optimal temperature (28.62 ± 0.11 ⁰C). Nile tilapia fry (initial weight 1.45 ± 0.01g) were fed basal diet/control diet (Diet-T1), 6 g kg-¹ MOS supplemented diet (Diet-T2), 4 mg ZnO-NPs supplemented diet (Diet-T3), 4 mg ZnO-Bulk supplemented diet (Diet-T4), a combination of 6 g kg-¹ MOS and 4 mg ZnO-Bulk supplemented diet (Diet-T5) and combination of 6 g kg-¹ MOS and 4 mg ZnO-NPs supplemented diet (Diet-T6). Randomly, duplicate aquariums for each diet were assigned and hand-fed to apparent satiation three times daily (08:00, 12:00, and 16:00) for 12 weeks. Fish fed MOS, ZnO-NPs, and a combination of MOS and ZnO-Bulk supplemented diet had higher weight gain, Daily Growth Rate (DGR), and Specific Growth Rate (SGR) than fish fed the basal diet and other feeding groups, although the effect was not significant. According to the GC analysis, Nile tilapia was supplemented with 6 g kg-¹ MOS, 4 mg ZnO-NPs, or a combination of ZnO-NPs, and MOS showed the highest content of EPA, DHA, and higher ratios of PUFA/SFA than other feeding groups. Mean villi length in the proximal and middle portion of the Nile tilapia intestine was affected significantly (p<0.05) by diet. Fish fed Diet-T2 and Diet-T3 had significantly higher villi lengths in the proximal and middle portions of the intestine compared to other feeding groups. The inclusion of additives significantly improved goblet numbers at the proximal, middle, and distal portions of the intestine. Supplementation of additives had also improved some hematological parameters compared with control groups. In conclusion, dietary supplementation of additives MOS and ZnO-NPs could confer benefits on growth performance, fatty acid profiles, hematology, and intestinal morphology of Chamo strain Nile tilapia.

Keywords: chamo strain nile tilapia, fatty acid profile, hematology, intestinal morphology, MOS, ZnO-Bulk, ZnO-NPs

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Authors: Hasnizan Aksah, Adi Irfan Che Ani

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Refurbished historic government buildings should perform as intended to support the organization’s goals that enhance occupant satisfaction. However, these buildings may have issues associated with functional performance evaluation. The aim of this study is to develop a Post Occupancy Evaluation (POE) sustainability assessment tool for functional performance evaluation of refurbished historic government buildings. Developing an assessment tool requires a strategic methodology for a logical and cohesive tool that incorporating relevant theories and practical experiences. In this study, mixed method approaches use to collect all necessary data to achieve the objectives of this study. The design of sampling involves are interviews and survey questionnaires to relevant professionals in order to evaluate the criteria and problem encircled in functional performance evaluation. Then, the involvement of expert panels is required in establishing the assessment tool. During the process of investigation on the functional performance criteria, it was discovered that is seen to be critical in aspects of comfort, safety, and services. The proposed assessment tool has a significant role in providing opportunities for the improvement of building performance especially on functional performance for the future historic government building refurbishment project. It is hoped that the tool developed from this study will give benefits to related professionals, public agencies, local municipality, and relevant interested parties in historic building management.

Keywords: refurbished historic government buildings, functional performance, Post Occupancy Evaluation, sustainability

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Authors: Muhammad Saeed, Nazeer Ahmed, Mukhtar Alam, Fazli Subhan, Muhammad Adnan, Fazli Wahid, Hidayat Ullah, Rafiullah

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The present experiment evaluated different synthetic insecticides against Jassid (Amrasca devastations) on pea crop at Agriculture Research Institute Tarnab, Peshawar Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. The field was prepared to cultivate okra crop in Randomized Complete Block (RCB) Design having six treatments with four replications. Plant to plant and row to row distance was kept at 15 cm and 30 cm, respectively. Pre and post spray data were recorded randomly from the top, middle and bottom leaves of five selected plants. Five synthetic insecticides, namely Confidor (Proponil), a neonicotinoid insecticide, Chlorpyrifos (chlorinated organophosphate (OP) insecticide), Lazer (dinitroaniline) (Pendimethaline), Imidacloprid (neonicotinoids insecticide) and Thiodan (Endosulfan, organochlorine insecticide), were used against infestation of aphids, pea pod borer, stem fly, leaf minor and pea weevil. Each synthetic insecticide showed significantly more effectiveness than control (untreated plots) but was non-significant among each other. The lowest population density was recorded in the plot treated with synthetic insecticide i.e. Confidor (0.6175 liter.ha-1) (4.24 aphids plant⁻¹) which is followed by Imidacloprid (0.6175 liter.ha⁻¹) (4.64 pea pod borer plant⁻¹), Thiodan (1.729 liter.ha⁻¹) (4.78 leaf minor plant⁻¹), Lazer (2.47 liter.ha-1) (4.91 pea weevil plant⁻¹), Chlorpyrifos (1.86 liter.ha⁻¹) (5.11 stem fly plant⁻¹), respectively while the highest population was recorded from the control plot. It is concluded from the data that the residual effect decreases with time after the application of spray, which may be less dangerous to the environment and human beings and can effectively manage this dread.

Keywords: okra crop, jassids, Confidor, imidacloprid, chlorpyrifos, laser, Thiodan

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Authors: Ephrem Getahun, Shengwen Qi, Songfeng Guo, Yu Zou, Melesse Alemayehu

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Residual shear characteristics of slide soil profile sections (SSPS) were examined using ring shear tests to know the relative residual shear behaviors among the sections of slide soil. The multistage-multiphase shearing techniques were employed to perform the experiment for each soil specimen continuously towards large displacements. The grain distribution analysis of SSPS samples was characterized by coarsening upward from bottom slip to the top sections; however, the slip surface was considered as a sheared zone that endorses their low shear resistance for failure. There is an average range of 1-2.5 mm axial displacement on each stage of loadings and phases of shearing that depicts the significant effect of dilation and compression of soil specimen. The middle section has the largest consolidation percentage (10-29%), and vertical displacement compared to other sections and showed high shear strengthening behavior having maximum shear stress of 189kPa at 240kPa loading compared to basal and top sections. It is found that the middle section of SSPS has relatively high shear resistance behavior for large displacement shearing. The residual shear assessment indicates that there is a significant influence of large displacement and rate on the friction coefficient behaviors; it resulted in shear weakening effect to attain their residual condition.

Keywords: comparison, displacements, residual shear stress, shear behavior, slide soils

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Authors: Farhan Ahmad Atif, Abd Ur Rehman, Muhammad Babir

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Dietary cation anion difference (DCAD) is an important aspect of dairy nutrition, especially in the transition period. Sahiwal cattle is the highest milk producing breed among Zebu cattle. We planned first study on transition Sahiwal cattle to determine the effects of feeding varying levels of negative DCAD. For this purpose, twenty pregnant cows (at the 250th day of gestation) were selected and randomly divided into 5 groups comprising four animals each. Five iso-caloric (2100 Kcal) and iso-nitrogenous (12%) diets were formulated and each diet was allotted to each group. The animals received positive DCAD diet served as control. Diets were supplemented with NutriCAB® to attain 0, -15, -30 and -45 DCAD levels. Experimental diets were fed at ad-libitum upto parturition and data regarding feed intake were recorded on daily. Post-partum incidence of milk fever, dystocia, retention of placenta (RP), mastitis as well as milk production, milk fat percentage and serum Ca levels were recorded. Urine and blood pH were determined weekly during the last month of pregnancy. Results showed that prepartum feed intake and blood pH were not affected (P > 0.05), while urine pH was significantly reduced (P < 0.05) by lowering DCAD levels. Post parturient blood calcium level linearly increased (P < 0.05) with decreasing DCAD. Pre-partum negative DCAD feeding had no effect (P > 0.05) on post-parturient milk production and fat percentage. However, parturient related problems decreased with decreasing DCAD feeding. It was concluded that negative DCAD feeding raised serum calcium level and reduced the incidence of post-parturient problems in Sahiwal cattle.

Keywords: dairy cattle, transition, metabolic diseases, reproductive disorders, incidence

Procedia PDF Downloads 186

Authors: Min Wang, Hui Tian

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Health promotion of high school students is essential for the construction of ‘Healthy China’, and increasing high school students’ physical activity is a must for their health promotion. School plays a crucial role in increasing high school students’ physical activity. Therefore, to have a comprehensive command of the school physical activity promotion strategies is of great significance for the health promotion of high school students in China and will shed some light on physical activity promotion worldwide. Literature review and interview survey are the main methods adopted for this research. It has been found that reforms of P.E. classes, improving the overall quality of P.E. teachers, and construction of school fields and facilities are among the major strategies to promote students’ physical activities. Even though it has been stipulated that primary and middle school students should take 3-4 times of P.E. classes per week, the execution is greatly influenced by the exam-oriented educational system. Randomly canceling P.E. classes or taking up the time to study other subjects is common, so it is difficult to guarantee the quantity of P.E. classes. According to national surveys, only 20%-40% of schools have 3-4 times of P.E. classes per week. In order to reduce the hindering effects of the exam-oriented educational system, a physical education test is included in the senior middle school entrance exam. The exam items include 1000m run for boys, 800m run for girls, and the basic skills for basketball/football/volleyball. The scores of the physical education test will greatly influence the admission of senior middle schools. China is now developing the ‘campus football’ policy and has established 20,000 football featured schools by 2017. Especially in these schools, football has become an important part of the students’ P.E. classes and a major means to promote students’ physical activity. As the Winter Olympics will be held in Beijing in 2022, China has promoted the ‘winter sports for all’ movement. The aim is to encourage 300 million people to winter sports, and the high school students are among the most potential participants. The primary and middle schools in Beijing have introduced winter sports to their P.E. curriculum, providing opportunities for the students to experience ice hockey and curling. Some Winter Olympics champions also go to the schools to popularize winter sports among the students. This greatly adds variety to the students’ physical activity regimen at school. In November 2017, seven ministries, including the General Administration of Sport of China and Ministry of Education of the People’s Republic of China, release Youth Sport Promotion Strategy. The strategy stipulates to strengthen the construction of youth sport facilities and implement the cultivation plan for P.E. teachers. It also emphasizes that school sport facilities should be open to students during holidays and vacations for free or at an affordable price. Overall speaking, the Chinese government stresses the importance of youth physical activity promotion and has issued a series of related policies and strategies, but the implementation still needs improvement.

Keywords: China, physical activity, promotion, school

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Authors: Ahmad Helman Hamdani, Diana Putri Hamdiana

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The Sajau coal measures of Berau Basin, northeastern Kalimantan were deposited within a range of facies associations spanning a spectrum of settings from fluvial to marine. The transitional to terrestrial coal measures are dominated by siliciclastics, but they also contain three laterally extensive marine bands (mudstone). These bands act as marker horizons that enable correlation between fully marine and terrestrial facies. Examination of this range of facies and their sedimentology has enabled the development of a high-resolution sequence stratigraphic framework. Set against the established backdrop of third-order Sajau transgression, nine fourth-order sequences are recognized. Results show that, in the composite sequences, peat accumulation predominantly correlates in transitional areas with early transgressive sequence sets (TSS) and highstand sequence set (HSS), while in more landward areas it correlates with the middle TSS to late highstand sequence sets (HSS). Differences in peat accumulation regimes within the sequence stratigraphic framework are attributed to variations in subsidence and background siliciclastic input rates in different depositional settings, with these combining to produce differences in the rate of accommodation change. The preservation of coal resources in the middle to late HSS in this area was most likely related to the rise of the regional base level throughout the Sajau.

Keywords: sequence stratigraphy, coal, Pliocene, Berau basin

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Authors: Ahmed Amin Mousa, M. Abd El Salam

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The current study presents a proposed program for acquisition the skills and techniques needed to produce concept cartoon. The proposed program has been prepared for non-specialist students who have never used neither graphics nor animating software. It was presented to postgraduates in Faculty of Education for Early Childhood, Cairo University, during the spring term of the 2014-2015 academic year. The program works in three different aspects: Drawing and images editing, sound manipulation, and creating animation. In addition, the researchers have prepared a questionnaire for measuring the quality of the concept cartoons produced by the students. The questionnaire was used as a pre-test and post-test, and at the end of the study, a significant difference was determined in favour of post-test results.

Keywords: cartoon, concept cartoon, kindergarten, animation

Procedia PDF Downloads 435

Authors: Leyla Sattarzadeh, Shahin Fathi Molk Kian, Maghsoud Peeri, Mohammadali Azarbaijani, Hasan Matin Homaee

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Inflammation by various mechanisms may cause atherosclerosis. Systemic circulating inflammatory markers such as C-reactive protein (CRP), pro-inflammatory cytokines such as Interleukin-6 (IL-6), vascular inflammatory markers as adhesion molecules like Intracellular Adhesion Molecule-1 (ICAM-1) and Vascular Cell Adhesion Molecule-1 (VCAM-1) are the predictors of cardiovascular diseases. Regarding the conflicting results about the effect of different patterns of resistance exercise training on these inflammatory markers, present study aimed to examine the effect of different patterns of eight week resistance exercise training on CRP, IL-6, ICAM-1 and VCAM-1 levels in healthy untrained women. 56 healthy volunteered untrained female university students (aged: 21 ± 3 yr., Body Mass Index: 21.5 ± 3.5 kg/m²) were selected purposefully and divided into four groups. At the end of training protocol and after subject drop during the protocol, upper body exercise training (n=11), lower body (n=12) and whole body resistance exercise training group (n=11) completed the eight weeks of training period although the control group (n=7) did anything. Blood samples gathered pre and post-experimental period and CRP, IL-6, ICAM-1 and VCAM-1 levels were evaluated using special laboratory kits, then the difference of pre and post values of each indices analyzed using one-way analysis of variance (α < 0.05). The results of one way ANOVA for difference of pre and post values of CRP, ICAM-1 and VCAM-1 showed no significant changes due to the exercise training, but there were significant differences between groups about IL-6. Tukey post- hoc test indicated that there is significant difference between the differences of pre and post values of IL-6 between lower body exercise training group and control group, and eight weeks of lower body exercise training lead to significant changes in IL-6 values. There were no changes in anthropometric indices. The findings show that the different patterns of upper, lower and whole body exercise training by involving the different amounts of muscles altered the IL-6 values in lower body exercise training group probably because of engaging the bigger amount of muscles, but showed any significant changes about CRP, ICAM-1 and VCAM-1 probably due to intensity and duration of exercise or the lower levels of these markers at baseline of healthy people.

Keywords: resistance training, C-reactive protein, interleukin-6, intracellular adhesion molecule-1, vascular cell adhesion molecule-1

Procedia PDF Downloads 138

Authors: Sue Hershberger Yoder, Jon Yoder

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“The appearance does not hide the essence, it reveals it; it is the essence.”—Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness Three decades ago, transarchitect Marcos Novak developed an early form of algorithmic animation he called “liquid architecture.” In that project, digitally floating forms morphed seamlessly in cyberspace without claiming to evolve or improve. Change itself was seen as inevitable. And although some imagistic moments certainly stood out, none was hierarchically privileged over another. That project challenged longstanding assumptions about creativity and artistic genius by posing infinite parametric possibilities as inviting alternatives to traditional notions of stability, originality, and evolution. Through ephemeral processes of printing, milling, and projecting, the exhibition “Liquid Illumination” destabilizes the solid foundations of fashion and architecture. The installation is neither worn nor built in the conventional sense, but—like the sensual art forms of fashion and architecture—it is still radically embodied through the logics and techniques of design. Appearances are everything. Surface pattern and color are no longer understood as minor afterthoughts or vapid carriers of dubious content. Here, they become essential but ever-changing aspects of precisely fabricated images. Fourteen silk “colorways” (a term from the fashion industry) are framed selections from ongoing experiments with intricate pattern and complex color configurations. Whether these images are printed on fabric, milled in foam, or illuminated through projection, they explore and celebrate the untapped potentials of the surficial and superficial. Some components of individual prints appear to float in front of others through stereoscopic superimpositions; some figures appear to melt into others due to subtle changes in hue without corresponding changes in value; and some layers appear to vibrate via moiré effects that emerge from unexpected pattern and color combinations. The liturgical atmosphere of Liquid Illumination is intended to acknowledge that, like the simultaneously sacred and superficial qualities of rose windows and illuminated manuscripts, artistic and religious ideologies are also always malleable. The intellectual provocation of this paper pushes the boundaries of current thinking concerning viable applications for fashion print designs and architectural images—challenging traditional boundaries between fine art and design. The opportunistic installation of digital printing, CNC milling, and video projection mapping in a gallery that is normally reserved for fine art exhibitions raises important questions about cultural/commercial display, mass customization, digital reproduction, and the increasing prominence of surface effects (color, texture, pattern, reflection, saturation, etc.) across a range of artistic practices and design disciplines.

Keywords: fashion, print design, architecture, projection mapping, image, fabrication

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Authors: Moein Izadi, Ali Mohammadzadeh

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Detection of damaged parts of roads after earthquake is essential for coordinating rescuers. In this study, an approach is presented for the semi-automatic detection of damaged roads in a city using pre-event vector maps and both pre- and post-earthquake QuickBird satellite images. Damage is defined in this study as the debris of damaged buildings adjacent to the roads. Some spectral and texture features are considered for SVM classification step to detect damages. Finally, the proposed method is tested on QuickBird pan-sharpened images from the Bam City earthquake and the results show that an overall accuracy of 81% and a kappa coefficient of 0.71 are achieved for the damage detection. The obtained results indicate the efficiency and accuracy of the proposed approach.

Keywords: SVM classifier, disaster management, road damage detection, quickBird images

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