Search results for: inverse square law

Authors: Adre Dwi Wiratama, Budi Sampurna, Syougie Ali, Djunadi

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Background: Even though safety is a priority in Commercial Aviation (CA) operations, fatal fixed-wing aircraft accidents still occur frequently in Indonesia. Objective: This research aims to determine factors associated with fatal and non-fatal CA fixed-wing aircraft accidents in Indonesia. Methods: The research used a cross-sectional design, which was carried out in July 2023. It included all final reports on fixed-wing aircraft accidents published by the Indonesian National Transportation Safety Committee (KNKT). Analysis was conducted using chi-square and Fisher’s exact test methods using IBM SPSS software version 29.0. Results: Out of 52 final reports, 25 were fatal. The study found that factors associated with a higher risk of fatal accidents are pilots in command with CPL, unpressurized aircraft, single-engine aircraft, aircraft with MTOW less than 5,700kg, accidents occurring at weekends, accidents occurring outside of airport premises, CFIT occurrences, and the cruise phase of flight. The factor associated with non-fatal accidents is the landing phase. Conclusion: Efforts such as enhancing pilot training and certification processes, implementing stricter safety regulations for small, unpressurized, single-engine aircraft, and increasing safety measures during weekends and specific phases of flight can reduce future fatal accidents.

Keywords: fatal accident, fixed-wing aircraft, commercial aviation

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Authors: Raheleh Saifiabolhassan

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After the post-industrial era, when a wide variety of foods and drinks are readily available everywhere, the motive has shifted from meeting basic nutritional needs to enjoy the eating experience. Today, behavioral environmental studies are an essential branch of science when it comes to understanding, analyzing, and evaluating how humans react to the environment. Similarly, these studies explore customer-influencing factors and the effectiveness of restaurant designs. To facilitate a pleasant dining experience, the authors focused on acoustics, flexibility, and lighting. In this study, 2700 square feet of surface area was used to plan a restaurant (called Mesineh) based on behavioral science, considering many factors related to the interaction between the building and the users, such as flexibility and privacy, acoustics, and light. Environment psychology considerations in architectural design have been lacking for several decades. To fill this gap, the author evaluated environmental psychology standards and applied them to Mesineh's design. A sense of nostalgia will be felt by customers of the Mesineh restaurant thanks to its interior design, which combines historical elements with contemporary elements. Additionally, vernacular Persian architectural elements were incorporated into a modern context to fulfill the behavioral science component of interior design.

Keywords: Mesineh restaurant, interior design, behavioral sciences, environment psychology, traditional persian architecture

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Authors: Ebobo Urowoli Christiana

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The Nigerian Prison Service statistics of 2007; 2009 revealed that though crime in the past was ascribed to men, but today there is a steady increase in the population of women involved in crime. This study focused on the investigation of female criminality in Lagos State: A case of Armed Robbery. Its major objective was to find out if there is an increase or decrease in female involvement in armed robbery and its growth rate. The major research question is 'Is there an increase in the perpetration of armed robbery by females in Lagos State?' the null hypotheses is 'There is no significant increase in the perpetration of armed robbery by females in Lagos State.' As a result, this study adopted the survey design, purposive sampling method and a sample size of 120 respondents. The rational choice theory was used to explain the reason for female involvement in armed robbery. Both primary and secondary data was generated for this study; the primary data was collected from the criminal records in Lagos State Police Command, Panti while the Quantitative data was collected using the questionnaire from 120 female detainees and inmates. The data collected was analyzed using the simple frequency tables and percentages and chi square was used to test for relationships. The study revealed a persistent rise in the prevalence of female armed robbery and recommended that youths should be equipped with educational/vocational skills in order to lead responsible lives.

Keywords: criminality, armed robbery, female, police commands, panti, nature

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Authors: Sai Sankalp Vemavarapu

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This paper discusses the application of machine learning in the field of transportation engineering for predicting engineering properties of pavement more accurately and efficiently. Predicting the elastic properties aid us in assessing the current road conditions and taking appropriate measures to avoid any inconvenience to commuters. This improves the longevity and sustainability of the pavement layer while reducing its overall life-cycle cost. As an example, we have implemented differential evolution (DE) in the back-calculation of the elastic modulus of multi-layered pavement. The proposed DE global optimization back-calculation approach is integrated with a forward response model. This approach treats back-calculation as a global optimization problem where the cost function to be minimized is defined as the root mean square error in measured and computed deflections. The optimal solution which is elastic modulus, in this case, is searched for in the solution space by the DE algorithm. The best DE parameter combinations and the most optimum value is predicted so that the results are reproducible whenever the need arises. The algorithm’s performance in varied scenarios was analyzed by changing the input parameters. The prediction was well within the permissible error, establishing the supremacy of DE.

Keywords: cost function, differential evolution, falling weight deflectometer, genetic algorithm, global optimization, metaheuristic algorithm, multilayered pavement, pavement condition assessment, pavement layer moduli back calculation

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Authors: Siti Rahmah Fitrianti, Mela Milani

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Inadequate of water intake has negative effects on the health of the body, which can cause kidney failure and death. One of the factors that can affect someone intake of water is level of knowledge about the importance of water intake itself. A good knowledge of the daily water intake can increase the awareness of daily needed of water intake. Therefore, researchers initiated a study on the relationship of water intake to the level of knowledge related with water intake in food workers, at “Puspa” Hospital. Type of this research is quantitative research with cross-sectional approach. The research data was collected by measuring the independent and dependent variable at a time. This study took place in the food production unit of Nutrition Installation in "Puspa" Hospital, Jakarta in October 2016. The population target in this study were workers in food production unit aged 30-64 years. The instrument was a questionnaire question regarding water intake and 24 hours food recall. The result is 78.6% of respondents have less knowledge about the importance of water intake. Meanwhile, as many as 85.7% of respondents have adequate water intake. Tested by Chi-Square test, showed that no significant relationship between water intake with the level of knowledge related to water intake in workers of food production unit. Adequate intake of water in food workers commonly may be not caused by the level of knowledge related to water intake, but it may be cause of work environment factor which has a high temperature.

Keywords: food production unit, food workers, level of knowledge, water intake

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Authors: Parvin Abedi, Fatemeh Malchi, Mina Iravani, Elham Maraghi, Eesa Mohammadi, Najmieh Saadati

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Background: Adolescent pregnancy has major health and social consequences and can lead to adverse maternal and neonatal outcomes. Objectives: The objective of this study was to evaluate the impact of group prenatal care (GPNC) of adolescents on their maternal and neonatal outcomes. Methods: In this study, 294 adolescent pregnant women (aged 15-19) were randomly assigned into two groups of prenatal care (n=147) and individual prenatal care (IPNC) (n=147). Participants in the intervention group received GPNC at 16-20 weeks of gestational age, while the control group received (IPNC). The data were analyzed using the Chi-square test, independent t-test, and linear and logistic tests. Results: As far as weight gain was concerned, 91.7% and 62.1% of the participants in the GPNC and IPNC groups had an appropriate weight gain during pregnancy, respectively OR 6.72 (95% CI 3.40, 13.26). In the GPNC group, 79.2% of participants had exclusive breastfeeding in the first 6 weeks after childbirth and while this rate was 49.7% in the IPNC group, OR 3.92 (95% CI 2.36, 6.64). Preterm birth was observed in 3.4% of the participants in the GPNC group as opposed to 9.5% in the IPNC group OR 6.17 (95% CI 0.73, 51.93). Conclusion: Adolescent women in GPNC have more appropriate weight gain and a higher rate of exclusive breastfeeding compared to adolescent women in IPNC. Group prenatal care could be considered a viable method of care for adolescent pregnant women.

Keywords: group prenatal car, adolescents pregnant women, pregnancy outcomes, neonatal outcomes

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Authors: Matza Gusto Andika, Syariefatunnisa

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Hanger at the arch bridges is an important part to transfer load on the bridge deck onto the arch. Bridges are subjected to several types of loadings, such as dead load, temperature load, wind load, moving loads etc. Usually the hanger bridge has a typical bluff body shape such as circle, square, H beam, etc. When flow past bluff body, the flow separates from the body surface generating an unsteady broad wake. These vortices are shed to the wake periodically with some frequency that is related to the undisturbed wind speed and the size of the cross-section body by the well-known Strouhal relationship. The dynamic characteristic and hanger shape are crucial for the evaluation of vortex induced vibrations and structural vibrations. The effect of vortex induced vibration is not catastrophic as a flutter phenomenon, but it can make fatigue failure to the structure. Wind tunnel tests are conducted to investigate the VIV and galloping effect at circle, hexagonal, and H beam bluff body for hanger bridge. From this research, the hanger bridge with hexagonal shape has a minimum vibration amplitude due to VIV phenomenon compared to circle and H beam. However, when the wind bruises the acute angle of hexagon shape, the vibration amplitude of bridge hanger with hexagonal shape is higher than the other bluff body.

Keywords: vortex induced vibration, hanger bridge, wind tunnel, galloping

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Authors: Mati Ullah, Shams Ur Rahman

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The purpose of this research study is to investigate the effect of macroeconomic and bank-specific factors on credit risk in Islamic banking in Pakistan. The future of financial institutions largely depends on how well they manage risks. Credit risk is an important type of risk affecting the banking sector. The current study has taken quarterly data for the period of 6 years, from 1st July 2014 to 30 Jun 2020. The data set consisted of secondary data. Data was extracted from the websites of the State Bank and World Bank and from the financial statements of the concerned banks. In this study, the Ordinary least square model was used for the analysis of the data. The results supported the hypothesis that macroeconomic factors and bank-specific factors have a significant effect on credit risk. Macroeconomic variables, Inflation and exchange rates have positive significant effects on credit risk. However, gross domestic product has a negative significant relationship with credit risk. Moreover, the corporate rate has no significant relation with credit risk. Internal variables, size, management efficiency, net profit share income and capital adequacy have been proven to influence positively and significantly the credit risk. However, loan to deposit-has a negative insignificance relationship with credit risk. The contribution of this article is that similar conclusions have been made regarding the influence of banking factors on credit risk.

Keywords: credit risk, Islamic banks, macroeconomic variables, banks specific variable

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Authors: Seyyedeh Faezeh Miralami, Sahar Sayyadchapari, Mona Laleh, Zahra Poursafar

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Tiling patterns are magnificent display of decoration in Islamic period. They transform the dusty and dreary facades to splendid and ornate ones. Due to ideological factors and elements of Azari style decorations, geometrical patterns and vegetative designs became prevalent and pervasive in religious sites like mosques. Objectives: The objective of this research is a study of tiling patterns in Tabriz Kaboud mosque, as a splendid work of architecture in Azari style. In this study, the geometrical designs and tiling patterns employed in the mosque decorations are examined and analyzed. Method: The research is based on a descriptive analysis method. Data and information are collected based on documents library and field study. Then, polished and brushed, the study resulted in an illustrative conclusion. Findings: In religious sites such as mosques, geometry represents ‘divination’ in Christian theology and ‘Unity with God’ or ‘Tawhid’ in Islamic terminology. In other words, science, literature, architecture, and all forms of human expression and representation are pointed towards one cause, unity or divination. Tiling patterns of Kaboud Mosque, mostly hexagonal, circular, square and triangle, form outstanding architectonic features which recount a story, a narration of divination or unification with the One.

Keywords: tiling, Azari style, Tabriz Kaboud Mosque, Islamic architecture

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Authors: Christian Skowronski, Andrew Shanholtzer, Brent Yelton, Muayad Almahariq, Daniel J. Krauss

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Prostate cancer has the third highest incidence rate and is the second leading cause of cancer death for men in the United States. Of the diagnostic tools available for intermediate-risk prostate cancer, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) provides superior soft tissue delineation serving as a valuable tool for both diagnosis and treatment planning. Currently, there is minimal data regarding the practical utility of MRI for evaluation of intermediate-risk prostate cancer. As such, the National Comprehensive Cancer Network’s guidelines indicate MRI as optional in intermediate-risk prostate cancer evaluation. This project aims to elucidate whether MRI affects radiation treatment decisions for intermediate-risk prostate cancer. This was a retrospective study evaluating 210 patients with intermediate-risk prostate cancer, treated with definitive radiotherapy at our institution between 2019-2020. NCCN risk stratification criteria were used to define intermediate-risk prostate cancer. Patients were divided into two groups: those with pretreatment prostate MRI, and those without pretreatment prostate MRI. We compared the use of external beam radiotherapy, brachytherapy alone, brachytherapy boost, and androgen depravation therapy between the two groups. Inverse probability of treatment weighting was used to match the two groups for age, comorbidity index, American Urologic Association symptoms index, pretreatment PSA, grade group, and percent core involvement on prostate biopsy. Wilcoxon Rank Sum and Chi-squared tests were used to compare continuous and categorical variables. Of the patients who met the study’s eligibility criteria, 133 had a prostate MRI and 77 did not. Following propensity matching, there were no differences between baseline characteristics between the two groups. There were no statistically significant differences in treatments pursued between the two groups: 42% vs 47% were treated with brachytherapy alone, 40% vs 42% were treated with external beam radiotherapy alone, 18% vs 12% were treated with external beam radiotherapy with a brachytherapy boost, and 24% vs 17% received androgen deprivation therapy in the non-MRI and MRI groups, respectively. This analysis suggests that pretreatment MRI does not significantly impact radiation therapy or androgen deprivation therapy decisions in patients with intermediate-risk prostate cancer. Obtaining a pretreatment prostate MRI should be used judiciously and pursued only to answer a specific question, for which the answer is likely to impact treatment decision. Further follow up is needed to correlate MRI findings with their impacts on specific oncologic outcomes.

Keywords: magnetic resonance imaging, prostate cancer, definitive radiotherapy, gleason score 7

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Authors: Abdullah Pandang, Mantasiah Rivai, Nur Fadhilah Umar, Azam Arifyadi

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This study aims to measure the validity of the politeness behaviour scale and obtain a model that fits the scale. The researcher developed the Politeness Behavior on Communicating (PBC) scale. The research method uses descriptive quantitative by developing the PBC scale. The population in this study were students in three provinces, namely South Sulawesi, West Sulawesi, and Central Sulawesi, recorded in the 2022/2023 academic year. The sampling technique used stratified random sampling by determining the number of samples using the Slovin formula. The sample of this research is 1200 students. This research instrument uses the PBC scale, which consists of 5 (five) indicators: self-regulation of compensation behaviour, self-efficacy of compensation behaviour, fulfilment of social expectations, positive feedback, and no strings attached. The PBC scale consists of 34 statement items. The data analysis technique is divided into two types: the validity test on the correlated item values and the item reliability test referring to Cronbach's and McDonald's alpha standards using the JASP application. Furthermore, the data were analyzed using confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and exploratory factor analysis (EFA). The results showed that the adaptation of the Politeness Behavior on Communicating (PBC) scale was on the Fit Index with a chi-square value (711,800/375), RMSEA (0.53), GFI (0.990), CFI (0.987), GFI (0.985).

Keywords: polite behavior in communicating, positive communication, exploration factor analysis, confirmatory factor analysis

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Authors: Alper Taner, Yesim Benal Oztekin, Huseyin Duran

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In this study, an Artificial Neural Network (ANN) was developed in order to classify barley varieties. For this purpose, physical properties of barley varieties were determined and ANN techniques were used. The physical properties of 8 barley varieties grown in Turkey, namely thousand kernel weight, geometric mean diameter, sphericity, kernel volume, surface area, bulk density, true density, porosity and colour parameters of grain, were determined and it was found that these properties were statistically significant with respect to varieties. As ANN model, three models, N-l, N-2 and N-3 were constructed. The performances of these models were compared. It was determined that the best-fit model was N-1. In the N-1 model, the structure of the model was designed to be 11 input layers, 2 hidden layers and 1 output layer. Thousand kernel weight, geometric mean diameter, sphericity, kernel volume, surface area, bulk density, true density, porosity and colour parameters of grain were used as input parameter; and varieties as output parameter. R2, Root Mean Square Error and Mean Error for the N-l model were found as 99.99%, 0.00074 and 0.009%, respectively. All results obtained by the N-l model were observed to have been quite consistent with real data. By this model, it would be possible to construct automation systems for classification and cleaning in flourmills.

Keywords: physical properties, artificial neural networks, barley, classification

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Authors: Zhuoyuan Wang, Benson T. H. Lim, Imriyas Kamardeen

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Effective service quality management has long been touted as a means of improving project and organisational performance. Particularly, in construction projects, main contractors are often seen as a broker between clients and subcontractors, and their service quality is thus associated with the overall project affinity and outcomes. While a considerable amount of research has focused on the aspect of clients-main contractors, very little research has been done to explore the effect of contractors’ service quality on subcontractors’ behaviours and so project outcomes. In addressing this gap, this study surveyed 97 subcontractors in the Chinese Construction industry and data was analysed using the Partial Least Square (PLS) Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) technique. The overall findings reveal that subcontractors categorised main contractors’ service quality into three dimensions: assurance; responsiveness; reliability and empathy. Of these, it is found that main contractors’ ‘assurance’ and ‘responsiveness’ positively influence subcontractors’ intention to engage in contractual behaviours. The results further show that the subcontractors’ intention to engage in organizational citizenship behaviours is associated with how flexible and committed the main contractors are in reliability and empathy. Collectively, both subcontractors’ contractual and organizational citizenship behaviours positively influence the overall project outcomes. In conclusion, the findings inform contractors different strategies towards managing and gaining subcontractors’ behaviour commitment in a socially connected, yet complex and uncertain, business environment.

Keywords: construction firms, organisational citizenship behaviour, service quality, social exchange theory

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Authors: Jean Marriz M. Manzano, Marc D. Rosales, Magdaleno R. Vasquez Jr., Maria Theresa G. De Leon

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This paper discusses the effects of surface roughness on a cantilever beam vibrational energy harvester. A silicon sample was fabricated using MEMS fabrication processes. When etching silicon using deep reactive ion etching (DRIE) at large etch depths, rougher surfaces are observed as a result of increased response in process pressure, amount of coil power and increased helium backside cooling readings. To account for the effects of surface roughness on the characteristics of the cantilever beam, finite element method (FEM) modeling was performed using actual roughness data from fabricated samples. It was found that when etching about 550um of silicon, root mean square roughness parameter, Sq, varies by 1 to 3 um (at 100um thick) across a 6-inch wafer. Given this Sq variation, FEM simulations predict an 8 to148 Hz shift in the resonant frequency while having no significant effect on the output power. The significant shift in the resonant frequency implies that careful consideration of surface roughness from fabrication processes must be done when designing energy harvesters.

Keywords: deep reactive ion etching, finite element method, microelectromechanical systems, multiphysics analysis, surface roughness, vibrational energy harvester

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Authors: Hamed Movahedizadeh, Annuar Md Nassir, Mehdi Karimimalayer, Navid Samimi Sedeh, Ehsan Bagherpour

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The aim of this paper is to evaluate Tehran’s Stock Exchange (TSE) performance regarding with impact of four macroeconomic factors including world crude Oil Price (OP), World Gold Price (GP), Consumer Price Index (CPI) and total Supplied Oil by Iran (SO) from January 2006 to December 2012 that Iran faced with economic and oil sanctions. Iran's exports of crude oil and lease condensate reduced to roughly 1.5 million barrels per day (bbl/d) in 2012, compared to 2.5 million bbl/d in 2011 due to hard sanctions. Monthly data are collected and subjected to a battery of tests through ordinary least square by EViews7. This study found that gold price and oil price are positively correlated with stock returns while total oil supplied and consumer price index have negative relationship with stock index, however, consumer price index tends to become insignificant in stock index. While gold price and consumer price index have short run relationship with TSE index at 10% of significance level this amount for oil price is significant at 5% and there is no significant short run relationship between supplied oil and Tehran stock returns. Moreover, this study found that all macroeconomic factors have long-run relationship with Tehran Stock Exchange Index.

Keywords: consumer price index, gold price, macroeconomic, oil price, sanction, stock market, supplied oil

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Authors: Duong Cong Chinh, Shiao-Shing Chen, Le Quang Huy

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Membrane distillation (MD) is actually claimed to be a cost-effective separation process when waste heat, alternative energy sources, or wastewater are used. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study that a thermophilic anaerobic granular bioreactor is integrated with membrane distillation (ThAnMDB) was investigated. In this study, the laboratory scale anaerobic bioreactor (1.2 litter) was set-up. The bioreactor was maintained at temperature 55 ± 2°C, hydraulic retention time = 0.5 days, organic loading rates of 7 and 10 kg chemical oxygen demand (COD) m³/day. Side-stream direct contact membrane distillation with the polytetrafluoroethylene membrane area was 150 cm². The temperature of the distillate was kept at 25°C. Results show that distillate flux was 19.6 LMH (Liters per square meter per hour) on the first day and gradually decreased to 6.9 LMH after 10 days, and the membrane was not wet. Notably, by directly using the heat from the thermophilic anaerobic for MD separation process, all distilled water from wastewater was reuse as fresh water (electrical conductivity < 120 µs/cm). The ThAnMDB system showed its high pollutant removal performance: chemical oxygen demand (COD) from 99.6 to 99.9%, NH₄⁺ from 60 to 95%, and PO₄³⁻ complete removal. In addition, methane yield was from 0.28 to 0.34 lit CH₄/gram COD removal (80 – 97% of the theoretical) demonstrated that the ThAnMDB system was quite stable. The achievement of the ThAnMDB is not only in removing pollutants and reusing wastewater but also in absolutely unnecessarily adding alkaline to the anaerobic bioreactor system.

Keywords: high rate anaerobic digestion, membrane distillation, thermophilic anaerobic, wastewater reuse

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Authors: Feng Yang

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Machine learning (ML), especially deep learning (DL), has been extensively applied to many applications in recently years and gained great success in solving different problems, including scientific problems. However, conventional ML/DL methodologies are purely data-driven which have the limitations, such as need of ample amount of labelled training data, lack of consistency to physical principles, and lack of generalizability to new problems/domains. Recently, there is a growing consensus that ML models need to further take advantage of prior knowledge to deal with these limitations. Physics-informed machine learning, aiming at integration of physics/domain knowledge into ML, has been recognized as an emerging area of research, especially in the recent 2 to 3 years. In this work, physics-informed ML, specifically physics-informed neural network (NN), is employed and implemented to estimate the displacements at x, y, z directions in a solid mechanics problem that is controlled by equilibrium equations with boundary conditions. By incorporating the physics (i.e. the equilibrium equations) into the learning process of NN, it is showed that the NN can be trained very efficiently with a small set of labelled training data. Experiments with different settings of the NN model and the amount of labelled training data were conducted, and the results show that very high accuracy can be achieved in fulfilling the equilibrium equations as well as in predicting the displacements, e.g. in setting the overall displacement of 0.1, a root mean square error (RMSE) of 2.09 × 10−4 was achieved.

Keywords: deep learning, neural network, physics-informed machine learning, solid mechanics

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Authors: Nanine Fouche

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The Cape Flats is a low-lying sand-covered expanse of approximately 460 square kilometres, situated to the southeast of the central business district of Cape Town in the Western Cape of South Africa. The aeolian sands masking this area are often loose and compressible in the upper 1m to 1.5m of the surface, and there is a general exceedance of the maximum allowable settlement in these sands. The settlement of shallow foundations on Cape Flats sands is commonly predicted using the results of in-situ tests such as the SPT or DPSH due to the difficulty of retrieving undisturbed samples for laboratory testing. Varying degrees of accuracy and reliability are associated with these methods. More recently, shear wave velocity (Vs) profiles obtained from seismic testing, such as continuous surface wave tests (CSW), are being used for settlement prediction. Such predictions have the advantage of considering non-linear stress-strain behaviour of soil and the degradation of stiffness with increasing strain. CSW tests are rarely executed in the Cape Flats, whereas SPT’s are commonly performed. For this reason, and to facilitate better settlement predictions in Cape Flats sand, equations representing shear wave velocity (Vs) as a function of SPT blow count (N60) and vertical effective stress (v’) were generated by statistical regression of site investigation data. To reveal the most appropriate method of overburden correction, analyses were performed with a separate overburden term (Pa/σ’v) as well as using stress corrected shear wave velocity and SPT blow counts (correcting Vs. and N60 to Vs1and (N1)60respectively). Shear wave velocity profiles and SPT blow count data from three sites masked by Cape Flats sands were utilised to generate 80 Vs-SPT N data pairs for analysis. Investigated terrains included sites in the suburbs of Athlone, Muizenburg, and Atlantis, all underlain by windblown deposits comprising fine and medium sand with varying fines contents. Elastic settlement analysis was also undertaken for the Cape Flats sands, using a non-linear stepwise method based on small-strain stiffness estimates, which was obtained from the best Vs-N60 model and compared to settlement estimates using the general elastic solution with stiffness profiles determined using Stroud’s (1989) and Webb’s (1969) SPT N60-E transformation models. Stroud’s method considers strain level indirectly whereasWebb’smethod does not take account of the variation in elastic modulus with strain. The expression of Vs. in terms of N60 and Pa/σv’ derived from the Atlantis data set revealed the best fit with R2 = 0.83 and a standard error of 83.5m/s. Less accurate Vs-SPT N relations associated with the combined data set is presumably the result of inversion routines used in the analysis of the CSW results showcasing significant variation in relative density and stiffness with depth. The regression analyses revealed that the inclusion of a separate overburden term in the regression of Vs and N60, produces improved fits, as opposed to the stress corrected equations in which the R2 of the regression is notably lower. It is the correction of Vs and N60 to Vs1 and (N1)60 with empirical constants ‘n’ and ‘m’ prior to regression, that introduces bias with respect to overburden pressure. When comparing settlement prediction methods, both Stroud’s method (considering strain level indirectly) and the small strain stiffness method predict higher stiffnesses for medium dense and dense profiles than Webb’s method, which takes no account of strain level in the determination of soil stiffness. Webb’s method appears to be suitable for loose sands only. The Versak software appears to underestimate differences in settlement between square and strip footings of similar width. In conclusion, settlement analysis using small-strain stiffness data from the proposed Vs-N60 model for Cape Flats sands provides a way to take account of the non-linear stress-strain behaviour of the sands when calculating settlement.

Keywords: sands, settlement prediction, continuous surface wave test, small-strain stiffness, shear wave velocity, penetration resistance

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Authors: Y. T. Gebreslassie, Abrha Tadesse, R. C. Saini, Rishi Pal

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Caffeine, known chemically as 3,7-dihydro-1,3,7-trimethyl-1H-purine-2,6-dione, is a naturally occurring alkaloid classified as an N-methyl derivative of xanthine. Given its widespread use in coffee and other caffeine-containing products, it is the most commonly consumed psychoactive substance in everyday human life. This research aimed to develop a cost-effective, sensitive, and easily manufacturable sensor for the detection of caffeine. Antraquinone-modified carbon paste electrode (AQMCPE) was fabricated, and the electrochemical behavior of caffeine on this electrode was investigated using cyclic voltammetry (CV) and square wave voltammetry (SWV) in a solution of 0.1M perchloric acid at pH 0.56. The modified electrode displayed enhanced electrocatalytic activity towards caffeine oxidation, exhibiting a two-fold increase in peak current and an 82 mV shift of the peak potential in the negative direction compared to an unmodified carbon paste electrode (UMCPE). Exploiting the electrocatalytic properties of the modified electrode, SWV was employed for the quantitative determination of caffeine. Under optimized experimental conditions, a linear relationship between peak current and concentration was observed within the range of 2.0 x 10⁻⁶ to 1.0× 10⁻⁴ M, with a correlation coefficient of 0.998 and a detection limit of 1.47× 10⁻⁷ M (signal-to-noise ratio = 3). Finally, the proposed method was successfully applied to the quantitative analysis of caffeine in pharmaceutical formulations, yielding recovery percentages ranging from 95.27% to 106.75%.

Keywords: antraquinone-modified carbon paste electrode, caffeine, detection, electrochemical sensor, quantitative analysis

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Authors: Alia Alghosoun, Nabil El Moçayd, Mohammed Seaid

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Modeling dam-break flows over non-flat beds requires an accurate representation of the topography which is the main source of uncertainty in the model. Therefore, developing robust and accurate techniques for reconstructing topography in this class of problems would reduce the uncertainty in the flow system. In many hydraulic applications, experimental techniques have been widely used to measure the bed topography. In practice, experimental work in hydraulics may be very demanding in both time and cost. Meanwhile, computational hydraulics have served as an alternative for laboratory and field experiments. Unlike the forward problem, the inverse problem is used to identify the bed parameters from the given experimental data. In this case, the shallow water equations used for modeling the hydraulics need to be rearranged in a way that the model parameters can be evaluated from measured data. However, this approach is not always possible and it suffers from stability restrictions. In the present work, we propose an adaptive optimal control technique to numerically identify the underlying bed topography from a given set of free-surface observation data. In this approach, a minimization function is defined to iteratively determine the model parameters. The proposed technique can be interpreted as a fractional-stage scheme. In the first stage, the forward problem is solved to determine the measurable parameters from known data. In the second stage, the adaptive control Ensemble Kalman Filter is implemented to combine the optimality of observation data in order to obtain the accurate estimation of the topography. The main features of this method are on one hand, the ability to solve for different complex geometries with no need for any rearrangements in the original model to rewrite it in an explicit form. On the other hand, its achievement of strong stability for simulations of flows in different regimes containing shocks or discontinuities over any geometry. Numerical results are presented for a dam-break flow problem over non-flat bed using different solvers for the shallow water equations. The robustness of the proposed method is investigated using different numbers of loops, sensitivity parameters, initial samples and location of observations. The obtained results demonstrate high reliability and accuracy of the proposed techniques.

Keywords: erodible beds, finite element method, finite volume method, nonlinear elasticity, shallow water equations, stresses in soil

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Authors: Gubiani Rino, Nicola Zucchiatti, Da Broi Ugo, Bietresato Marco

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The problem of vibrations in agriculture is very important due to the different types of machinery used for the different types of soil in which work is carried out. One of the most commonly used machines is the tractor, where the phenomenon has been studied for a long time by measuring the whole body and placing the sensor on the seat. However, this measurement system does not take into account the characteristics of the drivers, such as their body index (BMI), their gender (male, female) or the muscle fatigue they are subjected to, which is highly dependent on their age for example. The aim of the research was therefore to place sensors not only on the seat but along the spinal column to check the transmission of vibration on drivers with different BMI on different tractors and at different travel speeds and of different genders. The test was also done using wearable sensors such as a dynamometer applied to the muscles, the data of which was correlated with the vibrations produced by the tractor. Initial data show that even on new tractors with pneumatic seats, the vibrations attenuate little and are still correlated with the roughness of the track travelled and the forward speed. Another important piece of data are the root-mean square values referred to 8 hours (A(8)x,y,z) and the maximum transient vibration values (MTVVx,y,z) and, the latter, the MTVVz values were problematic (limiting factor in most cases) and always aggravated by the speed. The MTVVx values can be lowered by having a tyre-pressure adjustment system, able to properly adjust the tire pressure according to the specific situation (ground, speed) in which a tractor is operating.

Keywords: fatigue, effect vibration on health, tractor driver vibrations, vibration, muscle skeleton disorders

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Authors: Reza Sabbagh, Linda Hasanovich, Aleksey Baldygin, David S. Nobes, Prashant R. Waghmare

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The capillary filling process is significantly important to study for numerous applications such as the under filling of the material in electronic packaging or liquid hydrocarbons seepage through porous structure. The approximation of the fluid being Newtonian, i.e., linear relationship between the shear stress and deformation rate cannot be justified in cases where the extent of non-Newtonian behavior of liquid governs the surface driven transport, i.e., capillarity action. In this study, the capillary action of a non-Newtonian fluid is not only analyzed, but also the modified generalized theoretical analysis for the capillary transport is proposed. The commonly observed three regimes: surface forces dominant (travelling air-liquid interface), developing flow (viscous force dominant), and developed regimes (interfacial, inertial and viscous forces are comparable) are identified. The velocity field along each regime is quantified with Newtonian and non-Newtonian fluid in square shaped vertically oriented channel. Theoretical understanding of capillary imbibition process, particularly in the case of Newtonian fluids, is relied on the simplified assumption of a fully developed velocity profile which has been revisited for developing a modified theory for the capillary transport of non-Newtonian fluids. Furthermore, the development of the velocity profile from the entrance regime to the developed regime, for different power law fluids, is also investigated theoretically and experimentally.

Keywords: capillary, non-Newtonian flow, shadowgraphy, rising velocity

Procedia PDF Downloads 204

Authors: Tio Novita Efriani

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Public sector organizations work in a complex and risky environment. Since the beginning of 2000s, the public sector has paid attention to the need for an effective risk management. The Indonesian public sector has also concerned about this issue and in 2008 it enacted the Government Regulation that gives mandate for the implementation of risk management in government organizations. This paper investigates risk management implementation in the Indonesian public sector organizations and the role of transformational leadership and internal audit activities. Data was collected via survey. A total of 202 effective responses (30% response rate) from employees in 34 government ministries were statistically analyzed by using Partial least square structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) and the software was SmartPLS 3.0. All the constructs were lower order, except for the risk management implementation construct, which was treated as a second-order construct. A two-stage approach was employed in the analysis of the higher order component. The findings revealed that transformational leadership positively influence risk management implementation. The findings also found that the core and legitimate roles of internal audit in risk management positively affect the implementation of risk management. The final finding showed that internal auditing mediates a relationship between transformational leadership and risk management implementation. These results suggest that the implementation of risk management in the Indonesian public sector was significantly supported by internal auditors and leadership. The findings confirm the importance of transformational leadership and internal audit in the public sector risk management strategies.

Keywords: Indonesian public sector, internal audit, risk management, transformational leadership

Procedia PDF Downloads 202

Authors: Hafsat Mustapha Hanga

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The purpose of the this study was to investigate the effect of broken home on students' academic performance. Therefore, it focused on academic performance and Parental care of the student from and intact home from a cognitive motivational perceptive. The broken and intact home and also to find out if they differ in parental care this is done by using 376 subjects out of the population of 21,378. The sample was obtained using stratified random sampling techniques as the population contained sub-groups the study design was ex-post facto. The data was collected using 3 kind of instruments. To test the first and second hypotheses. Junior secondary school placement examination result was obtained to test the academic performance of the boys fron broken home and boys from and boys from intact home and then girl from broken home and girls from intact home.T-Test was used in the analysis of first and second hypotheses. For the third hypotheses two different kind of questionnaires were developed, the first was used to identify student that are from broken home while the second was for testing parental care between the subject. Chi-square was used to analyze the third hypotheses. Alkh the three 3 hypotheses were tested and rejected and were all in favor of student from intact home. The study found that there was a significant difference in the academic performance of the boys from brokeb and boys from intact home. When boys from intact home better then those boys from broken home. It also reveals that a student from a intact from intact home receives good parental care, love and concern than those from broken home.on the strength of these findings the need to establish an institution which will help those parent who have parenting problems was stressed and also the need to foster. Home school partnership was also stressed and advocate.

Keywords: broken homes, academic performance, parental care, foster

Procedia PDF Downloads 463

Authors: Mohammed Mashrei

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Ferrocement is a type of thin reinforced concrete made of cement-sand matrix with closely spaced relatively small diameter wire meshes, with or without steel bars of small diameter called skeletal steel. This work concerns on the behavior of square ferrocement slabs of dimensions (500) mm x (500) mm and 30 mm subjected to a central load. This study includes testing thirteen ferrocement slabs. The main variables considered in the experimental work are the number of wire mesh layers, percentage of silica fume and the presence of steel fiber. The effects of these variables on the behavior and load carrying capacity of tested slabs under central load were investigated. From the experimental results, it is found that by increasing the percentage of silica fume from (0 to 1.5, 3, 4.5 and 6) of weight of cement the ultimate loads are affected. Also From this study, it is observed that the load carrying capacity increases with the presence of steel fiber reinforcement, the ductility is high in the case of steel fibers. The increasing wire mesh layer from six to ten layers increased the load capacity by 76%. Also, a reduction in width of crack with increasing in number of cracks in the samples that content on steel fibers comparing with samples without steel fibers was observed from the results.

Keywords: ferrocement, fibre, silica fume, slab, strength

Procedia PDF Downloads 235

Authors: Sergio Curilef, Boris Atenas

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Systems with long-range interactions are very common in nature. They are observed from the atomic scale to the astronomical scale and exhibit anomalies, such as inequivalence of ensembles, negative heat capacity, ergodicity breaking, nonequilibrium phase transitions, quasistationary states, and anomalous diffusion. These anomalies are exacerbated when special initial conditions are imposed; in particular, we use the so-called water bag initial conditions that stand for a uniform distribution. Several theoretical and practical implications are discussed here. A potential energy inspired by dipole-dipole interactions is proposed to build the dipole-type Hamiltonian mean-field model. As expected, the dynamics is novel and general to the behavior of systems with long-range interactions, which is obtained through molecular dynamics technique. Two plateaus sequentially emerge before arriving at equilibrium, which are corresponding to two different quasistationary states. The first plateau is a type of quasistationary state the lifetime of which depends on a power law of N and the second plateau seems to be a true quasistationary state as reported in the literature. The general behavior of the model according to its dynamics and thermodynamics is described. Using numerical simulation we characterize the mean kinetic energy, caloric curve, and the diffusion law through the mean square of displacement. The present challenge is to characterize the distributions in phase space. Certainly, the equilibrium state is well characterized by the Gaussian distribution, but quasistationary states in general depart from any Gaussian function.

Keywords: dipole-type interactions, dynamics and thermodynamics, mean field model, quasistationary states

Procedia PDF Downloads 211

Authors: Isaac Owusu Asante, Yushi Jiang, Hailin Tao

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Live streaming marketing, the new electronic commerce element, became an optional marketing channel following the COVID-19 pandemic. Many sellers have leveraged the features presented by live streaming to increase sales. Studies on live streaming have focused on gaming and consumers’ loyalty to brands through live streaming, using interview questionnaires. This study, however, was conducted to measure real-time observable interactions between consumers and sellers. Based on the affordance theory, this study conceptualized constructs representing the interactive features and examined how they drive consumers’ purchase willingness during live streaming sessions using 1238 datasets from Amazon Live, following the manual observation of transaction records. Using structural equation modeling, the ordinary least square regression suggests that live viewers, new followers, live chats, and likes positively affect purchase willingness. The Sobel and Monte Carlo tests show that new followers, live chats, and likes significantly mediate the relationship between live viewers and purchase willingness. The study introduces a new way of measuring interactions in live streaming commerce and proposes a way to manually gather data on consumer behaviors in live streaming platforms when the application programming interface (API) of such platforms does not support data mining algorithms.

Keywords: livestreaming marketing, live chats, live viewers, likes, new followers, purchase willingness

Procedia PDF Downloads 81

Authors: Anurag Tripathi, Sanad Khandelwal

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Age and gender determination are required in forensic for victim identification. There is secondary dentine deposition throughout life, resulting in decreased pulp volume and size. Evaluation of pulp volume using Cone Beam Computed Tomography (CBCT)is a noninvasive method to evaluate the age and gender of an individual. The study was done to evaluate the efficacy of pulp volume method in the determination of age and gender.Aims/Objectives: The study was conducted to estimate age and determine sex by measuring tooth pulp volume with the help of CBCT. An observational study of one year duration on CBCT data of individuals was conducted in Lucknow. Maxillary central incisors (CI) and maxillary canine (C) of the randomly selected samples were assessed for measurement of pulp volume using a software. Statistical analysis: Chi Square Test, Arithmetic Mean, Standard deviation, Pearson’s Correlation, Linear & Logistic regression analysis. Results: The CBCT data of Ninety individuals with age range between 18-70 years was evaluated for pulp volume of central incisor and canine (CI & C). The Pearson correlation coefficient between the tooth pulp volume (CI & C) and chronological age suggested that pulp volume decreased with age. The validation of the equations for sex determination showed higher prediction accuracy for CI (56.70%) and lower for C (53.30%).Conclusion: Pulp volume obtained from CBCT is a reliable indicator for age estimation and gender prediction.

Keywords: forensic, dental age, pulp volume, cone beam computed tomography

Procedia PDF Downloads 99

Authors: Sumrina Kousar

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Objective: The aim of this study was to observe the effect of fortification of expressed human breast milk with olive oil and skimmed milk in improving weight gain in very low birth weight neonates and shortening their length of hospital stay. Study Design and place: A randomized controlled trial was carried out at the Combined Military Hospital Lahore from March 2018 to March 2019. Methods: Neonates admitted with very low birth weight and gestational age of < 34 weeks were included in the study. Sixty babies were enrolled using non-probability consecutive sampling; a random number table was used to allocate them into a fortification group and a control group. The control group received expressed milk alone, while olive oil 1 ml twice daily and skimmed milk 1 gram in every third feed were added to expressed milk in the fortification group. Data was analyzed on SPSS 20. Proportions were compared by applying the chi-square test. An independent sample t-test was applied for comparing means. A p-value of ≤ 0.05 was considered significant. Results: The study comprised of 60 neonates, with 30 in each of the groups. Weight gain was 24.83±5.63 in the fortification group and 11.72±3.95 in the control group (p =< 0.001). Mean hospital stay was 20.5716.511 in the fortification group and 27.678.89 in the control group (p =< 0.043). Conclusion: Olive oil and skimmed milk fortification of breast milk was effective for weight gain and reducing the length of hospital stay in very low birth weight neonates.

Keywords: fortification, olive oil, skimmed milk, weight gain

Procedia PDF Downloads 168

Authors: Sanjaya N. Munasinghe, R. Gnanasekeram, Dimuthu Tennakoon

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During the last few years there has been a dramatic increase in the number of motorcyclists in Sri Lankan roads and thus an increase of motorcycle accidents (MCAs) with a heavy death and casualty toll. Extremity injuries due to MCAs cause a heavy burden on government hospitals. However, data on MCA injuries are limited. This study tries to determine the relationship between extremity injuries with protective gears and clothing motorcycle riders were wearing at the time of the accident. Data were collected from 410 motorcycle riders and passengers involved with MCAs and admitted to orthopedic and emergency observation wards in Teaching Hospital Kurunegala with extremity injuries between 1st February 2015 and 31st July 2015 using an interviewer administered questioner. Data were analyzed using SPSS version 17.0. Distal radial fracture is the most common upper extremity injury (12%), and Tibial fracture is the most common and severe lower extremity injury (23%). Very few participants were wearing safety gloves (2%) and jackets (10%). Most of the participants were wearing slippers (66%), short sleeved upper clothing (96%) and light cloth trousers (49%). According to Chi-square test associations were found between footwear and foot injuries (p-value - 0.001, Cramer's v-value - 0.203) and safety jacket and upper extremity injuries (p-value - 0.002, Cramer's v-value - 0.177). The results indicate that using safety gear can minimize the number of injuries in MCA victims. Thus it is necessary to ensure that motorcycle riders and pillion riders use proper safety gear.

Keywords: extremity injuries, fractures, motorcycle accidents, safety gear

Procedia PDF Downloads 294