Search results for: mobile phone
Commenced in January 2007
Frequency: Monthly
Edition: International
Paper Count: 1774

Search results for: mobile phone

514 Ambient Notifications and the Interruption Effect

Authors: Trapond Hiransalee

Abstract:

The technology of mobile devices has changed our daily lives. Since smartphone have become a multi-functional device, many people spend unnecessary time on them, and could be interrupted by inappropriate notifications such as unimportant messages from social media. Notifications from smartphone could draw people’s attention and distract them from their priorities and current tasks. This research investigated that if the users were notified by their surroundings instead of smartphone, would it create less distraction and keep their focus on the present task. The experiment was a simulation of a lamp and door notification. Notifications related to work will be embedded in the lamp such as an email from a colleague. A notification that is useful when going outside such as weather information, traffic information, and schedule reminder will be embedded in the door. The experiment was conducted by sending notifications to the participant while he or she was working on a primary task and the working performance was measured. The results show that the lamp notification had fewer interruption effects than the smartphone. For the door notification, it was simulated in order to gain opinions and insights on ambient notifications from participants. Many participants agreed that the ambient notifications are useful and being informed by them could lessen the usage of their smartphone. The results and insights from this research could be used to guide the design process of ambient notifications.

Keywords: HCI, interaction, interaction design, usability testing

Procedia PDF Downloads 391
513 Modeling Solute Transport through Porous Media with Scale Dependent Dispersion

Authors: Teodrose Atnafu Abegaze, P. K. Sharma

Abstract:

In this study, an attempt has been made to study the behavior of breakthrough curves in both layered and mixed heterogeneous soil by conducting experiments in long soil columns. Sodium chloride has been used as a conservative tracer in the experiment. Advective dispersive transport equations, including equilibrium sorption and first-order degradation coefficients, are used for solute transport through mobile-immobile porous media. In order to do the governing equation for solute transport, there are explicit and implicit schemes for our condition; we use an implicit scheme to numerically model the solute concentration. Results of experimental breakthrough curves indicate that the behavior of observed breakthrough curves is approximately similar in both cases of layered and mixed soil, while earlier arrival of solute concentration is obtained in the case of mixed soil. It means that the types of heterogeneity of the soil media affect the behavior of solute concentration. Finally, it is also shown that the asymptotic dispersion model simulates the experimental data better than the constant and linear distance-dependent dispersion models.

Keywords: numerical method, distance dependant dispersion, reactive transport, experiment

Procedia PDF Downloads 47
512 Can We Develop a Practical and Applicable Ethic in Veterinary Health Care with a Universal Application and without Dogma?

Authors: Theodorus Holtzhausen

Abstract:

With a growing number of professionals in healthcare moving freely between countries and also in general a more mobile global workforce, awareness of cultural differences have become more urgent for health care workers to apply proper care. There is a slowly emerging trend in health care due to globalisation that may create a more uniform cultural base for administering healthcare, but it is still very vulnerable to being hijacked and misdirected by major commercial interests. Veterinary clinics and medical clinics promoting alternative remedies lacking evidence based support and simultaneously practicing medicine as a science have become more common. Such ‘holistic’ clinics see these remedies more as a belief system causing no harm with minimal impact but with added financial benefit to the facility. With the inarguable acceptance and realisation of the interconnection between evolutionary aspects of cognition, knowledge and culture as a global but vulnerable cognition-gaining process affecting us all, we can see the enormous responsibility we carry. Such a responsibility for creating global well-being calling for an universally applicable ethic. Such an ethic with the potential of having significant impact on our cognition gaining process.

Keywords: veterinary health care, ethics, wellbeing, veterinary clinics

Procedia PDF Downloads 628
511 Between Subscribers of Two Telecommunication Providers in Indonesia: Factors Involved in Customer Retention

Authors: Frista Dearetha Marasabessy, Usep Suhud, Mohammad Rizan

Abstract:

The study objective was to compare influencing factors on customer retention of two brands – SimPATI and IM3 – of telecommunication services owned by Telkomsel and Indosat, two giant mobile telecommunication providers in Indonesia. The authors applied predictor variables including perceived tariff, perceived quality, switching barriers, and customer satisfaction. These variables were used after reviewing literature in quantitative studies on consumer behaviour relating to telecommunication services. This study used indicators adopted and adapted from literature. The quantitative data were gathered in Jakarta, involving 205 subscribers of SimPATI and 202 subscribers of IM3. The authors selected respondents purposively. Data were analysed using both exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses. Two fitted models were developed confirming factors that were involved in customer retention as stated on the proposed model: perceived tariff, perceived quality, switching barriers, and customer satisfaction. However, parts of the hypotheses were rejected.

Keywords: customer retention, switching barriers, telecommunication providers, structural equation model, SimPATI, IM3, Indonesia

Procedia PDF Downloads 339
510 Analyzing the Perception of Students and Faculty Members on Social Media Use in Academic Activities: A Case Study of Beijing Normal University

Authors: Mcjerry A. Bekoe, Emile Uwamahoro

Abstract:

Social media has become the order of the day, in particular among the youth. It is widely used both formally and informally in the university communities with varied definitions both in the academic circles and in the public domain. In simple terms, it is a media upon which social interactions are carried. In this work social media denote mobile phones, and web-base applications use by students and institutions to construct, partake, and distribute both existing and new information in a digital setting through internet communication. The basic aim of conducting this study was to analyze the perception of students and faculty members Beijing Normal University on social media use in the academic setting and to contribute to the understanding of how university students use social media, the advantages and disadvantages of social media in education. The study was qualitative and employed open-ended interview questions developed to seek students’ perception of the effects of social media and administered based on purposive sampling. Document analysis was also done because of triangulation to ensure validity and reliability. The results show there are positive and negative impacts of social media use depending on how one uses it. Social media have the capability to become a priceless asset to aid their educational communication.

Keywords: academics, high education, interactions, social media

Procedia PDF Downloads 323
509 Optimization of SWL Algorithms Using Alternative Adder Module in FPGA

Authors: Tayab D. Memon, Shahji Farooque, Marvi Deshi, Imtiaz Hussain Kalwar, B. S. Chowdhry

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Recently single-bit ternary FIR-like filter (SBTFF) hardware synthesize in FPGA is reported and compared with multi-bit FIR filter on similar spectral characteristics. Results shows that SBTFF dominates upon multi-bit filter overall. In this paper, an optimized adder module for ternary quantized sigma-delta modulated signal is presented. The adder is simulated using ModelSim for functional verification the area-performance of the proposed adder were obtained through synthesis in Xilinx and compared to conventional adder trees. The synthesis results show that the proposed adder tree achieves higher clock rates and lower chip area at higher inputs to the adder block; whereas conventional adder tree achieves better performance and lower chip area at lower number of inputs to the same adder block. These results enhance the usefulness of existing short word length DSP algorithms for fast and efficient mobile communication.

Keywords: short word length (SWL), DSP algorithms, FPGA, SBTFF, VHDL

Procedia PDF Downloads 327
508 Risk Screening in Digital Insurance Distribution: Evidence and Explanations

Authors: Finbarr Murphy, Wei Xu, Xian Xu

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The embedding of digital technologies in the global economy has attracted increasing attention from economists. With a large and detailed dataset, this study examines the specific case where consumers have a choice between offline and digital channels in the context of insurance purchases. We find that digital channels screen consumers with lower unobserved risk. For the term life, endowment, and disease insurance products, the average risk of the policies purchased through digital channels was 75%, 21%, and 31%, respectively, lower than those purchased offline. As a consequence, the lower unobserved risk leads to weaker information asymmetry and higher profitability of digital channels. We highlight three mechanisms of the risk screening effect: heterogeneous marginal influence of channel features on insurance demand, the channel features directly related to risk control, and the link between the digital divide and risk. We also find that the risk screening effect mainly comes from the extensive margin, i.e., from new consumers. This paper contributes to three connected areas in the insurance context: the heterogeneous economic impacts of digital technology adoption, insurer-side risk selection, and insurance marketing.

Keywords: digital economy, information asymmetry, insurance, mobile application, risk screening

Procedia PDF Downloads 56
507 South Asia’s Political Landscape: Precipitating Terrorism

Authors: Saroj Kumar Rath

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India's Muslims represent 15 percent of the nation's population, the world's third largest group in any nation after Indonesia and Pakistan. Extremist groups like the Islamic State, Al Qaeda, the Taliban and the Haqqani network increasingly view India as a target. Several trends explain the rise: Terrorism threats in South Asia are linked and mobile - if one source is batted down, jihadists relocate to find another Islamic cause. As NATO withdraws from Afghanistan, some jihadists will eye India. Pakistan regards India as a top enemy and some officials even encourage terrorists to target areas like Kashmir or Mumbai. Meanwhile, a stream of Wahhabi preachers have visited India, offering hard-line messages; extremist groups like Al Qaeda and the Islamic State compete for influence, and militants even pay jihadists. Muslims as a minority population in India could offer fertile ground for the extremist recruiters. This paper argues that there is an urgent need for the Indian government to profile militants and examine social media sites to attack Wahhabi indoctrination while supporting education and entrepreneurship for all of India's citizens.

Keywords: Al Qaeda, terrorism, Islamic state, India, haqqani network, Pakistan, Taliban

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506 System and Method for Providing Web-Based Remote Application Service

Authors: Shuen-Tai Wang, Yu-Ching Lin, Hsi-Ya Chang

Abstract:

With the development of virtualization technologies, a new type of service named cloud computing service is produced. Cloud users usually encounter the problem of how to use the virtualized platform easily over the web without requiring the plug-in or installation of special software. The object of this paper is to develop a system and a method enabling process interfacing within an automation scenario for accessing remote application by using the web browser. To meet this challenge, we have devised a web-based interface that system has allowed to shift the GUI application from the traditional local environment to the cloud platform, which is stored on the remote virtual machine. We designed the sketch of web interface following the cloud virtualization concept that sought to enable communication and collaboration among users. We describe the design requirements of remote application technology and present implementation details of the web application and its associated components. We conclude that this effort has the potential to provide an elastic and resilience environment for several application services. Users no longer have to burden the system maintenances and reduce the overall cost of software licenses and hardware. Moreover, this remote application service represents the next step to the mobile workplace, and it lets user to use the remote application virtually from anywhere.

Keywords: virtualization technology, virtualized platform, web interface, remote application

Procedia PDF Downloads 267
505 Web and Android-Based Applications as a Breakthrough in Preventing Non-System Fault Disturbances Due to Work Errors in the Transmission Unit

Authors: Dhany Irvandy, Ary Gemayel, Mohammad Azhar, Leidenti Dwijayanti, Iif Hafifah

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Work safety is among the most important things in work execution. Unsafe conditions and actions are priorities in accident prevention in the world of work, especially in the operation and maintenance of electric power transmission. Considering the scope of work, operational work in the transmission has a very high safety risk. Various efforts have been made to avoid work accidents. However, accidents or disturbances caused by non-conformities in work implementation still often occur. Unsafe conditions or actions can cause these. Along with the development of technology, website-based applications and mobile applications have been widely used as a medium to monitor work in real-time and by more people. This paper explains the use of web and android-based applications to monitor work and work processes in the field to prevent work accidents or non-system fault disturbances caused by non-conformity of work implementation with predetermined work instructions. Because every job is monitored in real-time, recorded in time and documented systemically, this application can reduce the occurrence of possible unsafe actions carried out by job executors that can cause disruption or work accidents.

Keywords: work safety, unsafe action, application, non-system fault, real-time.

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504 Application of Liquid Chromatographic Method for the in vitro Determination of Gastric and Intestinal Stability of Pure Andrographolide in the Extract of Andrographis paniculata

Authors: Vijay R. Patil, Sathiyanarayanan Lohidasan, K. R. Mahadik

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Gastrointestinal stability of andrographolide was evaluated in vitro in simulated gastric (SGF) and intestinal (SIF) fluids using a validated HPLC-PDA method. The method was validated using a 5μm ThermoHypersil GOLD C18column (250 mm × 4.0 mm) and mobile phase consisting of water: acetonitrile; 70: 30 (v/v) delivered isocratically at a flow rate of 1 mL/min with UV detection at 228 nm. Andrographolide in pure form and extract Andrographis paniculata was incubated at 37°C in an incubator shaker in USP simulated gastric and intestinal fluids with and without enzymes. Systematic protocol as per FDA Guidance System was followed for stability study and samples were assayed at 0, 15, 30 and 60 min intervals for gastric and at 0, 15, 30, 60 min, 1, 2 and 3 h for intestinal stability study. Also, the stability study was performed up to 24 h to see the degradation pattern in SGF and SIF (with enzyme and without enzyme). The developed method was found to be accurate, precise and robust. Andrographolide was found to be stable in SGF (pH ∼ 1.2) for 1h and SIF (pH 6.8) up to 3 h. The relative difference (RD) of amount of drug added and found at all time points was found to be < 3%. The present study suggests that drug loss in the gastrointestinal tract takes place may be by membrane permeation rather than a degradation process.

Keywords: andrographolide, Andrographis paniculata, in vitro, stability, gastric, Intestinal HPLC-PDA

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503 Design and Implementation of Remote Application Virtualization in Cloud Environments

Authors: Shuen-Tai Wang, Ying-Chuan Chen, Hsi-Ya Chang

Abstract:

Cloud computing is a paradigm of computing that shifts the way computing has been done in the past. The users can use cloud resources such as application software or storage space from the cloud without needing to own them. This paper is focused on solutions that are anticipated to introduce IaaS idea to build cloud base services and enable the individual remote user's applications in cloud environments, which appear as if they are running on the end user's local computer. The available features of application delivery solution have been developed based on our previous research on the virtualization technology to offer applications independent of location so that the users can work online, offline, anywhere, with appropriate device and at any time. This proposed effort has the potential to positively provide an efficient, resilience and elastic environment for cloud service. Users no longer need to burden the system managers and drastically reduces the overall cost of hardware and software licenses. Moreover, this flexible remote application virtualization service represents the next significant step to the mobile workplace, and it lets users access their applications remotely through cloud services anywhere. This is also made possible by the low administrative costs as well as relatively inexpensive end-user terminals and reduced energy expenses.

Keywords: cloud computing, IaaS, virtualization, application delivery

Procedia PDF Downloads 265
502 Model of a Context-Aware Middleware for Mobile Workers

Authors: Esraa Moustafa, Gaetan Rey, Stephane Lavirotte, Jean-Yves Tigli

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With the development of Internet of Things and Web of Things, computing becomes more pervasive, invisible and present everywhere. In fact, in our environment, we are surrounded by multiple devices that deliver (web) services that meet the needs of the users. However, the mobility of these devices as the users has important repercussions that challenge software design of these applications because the variability of the environment cannot be anticipated at the design time. Thus, it will be interesting to dynamically discover the environment and adapt the application during its execution to the new contextual conditions. We, therefore, propose a model of a context-aware middleware that can address this issue through a monitoring service that is capable of reasoning and observation channels capable of calculating the context during the runtime. The monitoring service evaluates the pre-defined X-Query predicates in the context manager and uses Prolog to deduce the services needed to respond back. An independent Observation Channel for each different predicate is then dynamically generated by the monitoring service depending on the current state of the environment. Each channel sends its result directly to the context manager which consequently calculates the context based on all the predicates’ results while preserving the reactivity of the self-adaptive system.

Keywords: auto-adaptation, context-awareness, middleware, reasoning engine

Procedia PDF Downloads 233
501 Exploring a Teaching Model in Cultural Education Using Video-Focused Social Networking Apps: An Example of Chinese Language Teaching for African Students

Authors: Zhao Hong

Abstract:

When international students study Chinese as a foreign or second language, it is important for them to form constructive viewpoints and possess an open mindset on Chinese culture. This helps them to make faster progress in their language acquisition. Observations from African students at Liaoning Institute of Science and Technology show that by integrating video-focused social networking apps such as Tiktok (“Douyin”) on a controlled basis, students raise their interest not only in making an effort in learning the Chinese language, but also in the understanding of the Chinese culture. During the last twelve months, our research group explored a teaching model using selected contents in certain classroom settings, including virtual classrooms during lockdown periods due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Using interviews, a survey was conducted on international students from African countries at the Liaoning Institute of Science and Technology in Chinese language courses. Based on the results, a teaching model was built for Chinese language acquisition by entering the "mobile Chinese culture".

Keywords: Chinese as a foreign language, cultural education, social networking apps, teaching model

Procedia PDF Downloads 60
500 Intelligent Rainwater Reuse System for Irrigation

Authors: Maria M. S. Pires, Andre F. X. Gloria, Pedro J. A. Sebastiao

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The technological advances in the area of Internet of Things have been creating more and more solutions in the area of agriculture. These solutions are quite important for life, as they lead to the saving of the most precious resource, water, being this need to save water a concern worldwide. The paper proposes the creation of an Internet of Things system based on a network of sensors and interconnected actuators that automatically monitors the quality of the rainwater that is stored inside a tank in order to be used for irrigation. The main objective is to promote sustainability by reusing rainwater for irrigation systems instead of water that is usually available for other functions, such as other productions or even domestic tasks. A mobile application was developed for Android so that the user can control and monitor his system in real time. In the application, it is possible to visualize the data that translate the quality of the water inserted in the tank, as well as perform some actions on the implemented actuators, such as start/stop the irrigation system and pour the water in case of poor water quality. The implemented system translates a simple solution with a high level of efficiency and tests and results obtained within the possible environment.

Keywords: internet of things, irrigation system, wireless sensor and actuator network, ESP32, sustainability, water reuse, water efficiency

Procedia PDF Downloads 133
499 Central Solar Tower Model

Authors: Elmo Thiago Lins Cöuras Ford, Valentina Alessandra Carvalho do Vale

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It is presented a model of two subsystems of Central Solar Tower to produce steam in applications to help in energy consumption. The first subsystem consists of 24 heliostats constructed of adaptive and mobile metal structures to track the apparent movement of the sun on its focus and covered by 96 layers of mirror of 150 mm at width and 220 mm at length, totaling an area of concentration of 3.2 m². Thereby obtaining optical parameters essential to reflection of sunlight by the reflector surface and absorption of this light by focus located in the light receiver, which is inserted in the second subsystem, which is at the top of a tower. The tower was built in galvanized iron able to support the absorber, and a gas cylinder to cool the equipment. The area illuminated by the sun was 9 x 10-2m2, yielding a concentration factor of 35.22. It will be shown the processes of manufacture and assembly of the Mini-Central Tower proposal, which has as main characteristics the construction and assembly facilities, in addition to reduced cost. Data of tests to produce water vapor parameters are presented and determined to diagnose the efficiency of the mini-solar central tower. It will be demonstrated the thermal, economic and material viability of the proposed system.

Keywords: solar oven, solar cooker, composite material, low cost, sustainable development

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498 Assessment of Exploitation Vulnerability of Quantum Communication Systems with Phase Encryption

Authors: Vladimir V. Nikulin, Bekmurza H. Aitchanov, Olimzhon A. Baimuratov

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Quantum communication technology takes advantage of the intrinsic properties of laser carriers, such as very high data rates and low power requirements, to offer unprecedented data security. Quantum processes at the physical layer of encryption are used for signal encryption with very competitive performance characteristics. The ultimate range of applications for QC systems spans from fiber-based to free-space links and from secure banking operations to mobile airborne and space-borne networking where they are subjected to channel distortions. Under practical conditions, the channel can alter the optical wave front characteristics, including its phase. In addition, phase noise of the communication source and photo-detection noises alter the signal to bring additional ambiguity into the measurement process. If quantized values of photons are used to encrypt the signal, exploitation of quantum communication links becomes extremely difficult. In this paper, we present the results of analysis and simulation studies of the effects of noise on phase estimation for quantum systems with different number of encryption bases and operating at different power levels.

Keywords: encryption, phase distortion, quantum communication, quantum noise

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497 Application of Machine Learning Models to Predict Couchsurfers on Free Homestay Platform Couchsurfing

Authors: Yuanxiang Miao

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Couchsurfing is a free homestay and social networking service accessible via the website and mobile app. Couchsurfers can directly request free accommodations from others and receive offers from each other. However, it is typically difficult for people to make a decision that accepts or declines a request when they receive it from Couchsurfers because they do not know each other at all. People are expected to meet up with some Couchsurfers who are kind, generous, and interesting while it is unavoidable to meet up with someone unfriendly. This paper utilized classification algorithms of Machine Learning to help people to find out the Good Couchsurfers and Not Good Couchsurfers on the Couchsurfing website. By knowing the prior experience, like Couchsurfer’s profiles, the latest references, and other factors, it became possible to recognize what kind of the Couchsurfers, and furthermore, it helps people to make a decision that whether to host the Couchsurfers or not. The value of this research lies in a case study in Kyoto, Japan in where the author has hosted 54 Couchsurfers, and the author collected relevant data from the 54 Couchsurfers, finally build a model based on classification algorithms for people to predict Couchsurfers. Lastly, the author offered some feasible suggestions for future research.

Keywords: Couchsurfing, Couchsurfers prediction, classification algorithm, hospitality tourism platform, hospitality sciences, machine learning

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496 Exploring the Potential of Chatbots in Higher Education: A Preliminary Study

Authors: S. Studente, S. Ellis, S. F. Garivaldis

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We report upon a study introducing a chatbot to develop learning communities at a London University, with a largely international student base. The focus of the chatbot was twofold; to ease the transition for students into their first year of university study, and to increase study engagement. Four learning communities were created using the chatbot; level 3 foundation, level 4 undergraduate, level 6 undergraduate and level 7 post-graduate. Students and programme leaders were provided with access to the chat bot via mobile app prior to their study induction and throughout the autumn term of 2019. At the end of the term, data were collected via questionnaires and focus groups with students and teaching staff to allow for identification of benefits and challenges. Findings indicated a positive correlation between study engagement and engagement with peers. Students reported that the chatbot enabled them to obtain support and connect to their programme leader. Both staff and students also made recommendation on how engagement could be further enhanced using the bot in terms of; clearly specified purpose, integration with existing university systems, leading by example and connectivity. Extending upon these recommendations, a second pilot study is planned for September 2020, for which the focus will be upon improving attendance rates, student satisfaction and module pass rates.

Keywords: chatbot, e-learning, learning communities, student engagement

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495 α-Amylase Inhibitory Activity of Some Tunisian Aromatic and Medicinal Plants

Authors: Hamdi Belfeki, Belgacem Chandoul, Mnasser Hassouna, Mondher Mejri

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Aqueous and ethanolic extracts of eight Tunisian aromatic and medicinal plants (TAMP) were characterized by studying their composition in polyphenols and also their antiradical and antioxidant capacities. In absence and in the presence of the various extracts, α-amylase from Bacillus subtlis activity, was measured in order to detect a potential inhibition. The total contents of polyphenols and flavonoid vary in function of TAMP and the mobile phase used for the extraction (distilled water or ethanol). The ethanolic extracts showed the most significant antiradical and antioxidant activities. Only the extracts from Coriandrum sativum showed a significant inhibiting effect on the α-amylase activity. This inhibiting capacity could be correlated with the chemical profile of the two extracts, due to the fact that they have the greatest amount of total flavonoid. The ethanolic extract has the most important antioxidant and anti-radicalizing activities among the sixteen extracts studied. The inhibition kinetics of the two coriander extracts were evaluated by pre-incubation method, using Lineweaver-Burk’s equation, obtained by linearization of Michaeilis-Menten’s expression. The results showed that both extracts exercised a competitive inhibition mechanism.

Keywords: α-amylase, antioxidant activity, aromatic and medicinal plants, inhibition

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494 EZOB Technology, Biomass Gasification, and Microcogeneration Unit

Authors: Martin Lisý, Marek Baláš, Michal Špiláček, Zdeněk Skála

Abstract:

This paper deals with the issue of biomass and sorted municipal waste gasification and cogeneration using hot air turbo set. It brings description of designed pilot plant with electrical output 80 kWe. The generated gas is burned in secondary combustion chamber located beyond the gas generator. Flue gas flows through the heat exchanger where the compressed air is heated and consequently brought to a micro turbine. Except description, this paper brings our basic experiences from operating of pilot plant (operating parameters, contributions, problems during operating, etc.). The principal advantage of the given cycle is the fact that there is no contact between the generated gas and the turbine. So there is no need for costly and complicated gas cleaning which is the main source of operating problems in direct use in combustion engines because the content of impurities in the gas causes operation problems to the units due to clogging and tarring of working surfaces of engines and turbines, which may lead as far as serious damage to the equipment under operation. Another merit is the compact container package making installation of the facility easier or making it relatively more mobile. We imagine, this solution of cogeneration from biomass or waste can be suitable for small industrial or communal applications, for low output cogeneration.

Keywords: biomass, combustion, gasification, microcogeneration

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493 Biomass Gasification and Microcogeneration Unit–EZOB Technology

Authors: Martin Lisý, Marek Baláš, Michal Špiláček, Zdeněk Skála

Abstract:

This paper deals with the issue of biomass and sorted municipal waste gasification and cogeneration using hot-air turbo-set. It brings description of designed pilot plant with electrical output 80 kWe. The generated gas is burned in secondary combustion chamber located beyond the gas generator. Flue gas flows through the heat exchanger where the compressed air is heated and consequently brought to a micro turbine. Except description, this paper brings our basic experiences from operating of pilot plant (operating parameters, contributions, problems during operating, etc.). The principal advantage of the given cycle is the fact that there is no contact between the generated gas and the turbine. So there is no need for costly and complicated gas cleaning which is the main source of operating problems in direct use in combustion engines because the content of impurities in the gas causes operation problems to the units due to clogging and tarring of working surfaces of engines and turbines, which may lead as far as serious damage to the equipment under operation. Another merit is the compact container package making installation of the facility easier or making it relatively more mobile. We imagine, this solution of cogeneration from biomass or waste can be suitable for small industrial or communal applications, for low output cogeneration.

Keywords: biomass, combustion, gasification, microcogeneration

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492 AI-based Radio Resource and Transmission Opportunity Allocation for 5G-V2X HetNets: NR and NR-U Networks

Authors: Farshad Zeinali, Sajedeh Norouzi, Nader Mokari, Eduard Jorswieck

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The capacity of fifth-generation (5G) vehicle-to-everything (V2X) networks poses significant challenges. To ad- dress this challenge, this paper utilizes New Radio (NR) and New Radio Unlicensed (NR-U) networks to develop a heterogeneous vehicular network (HetNet). We propose a new framework, named joint BS assignment and resource allocation (JBSRA) for mobile V2X users and also consider coexistence schemes based on flexible duty cycle (DC) mechanism for unlicensed bands. Our objective is to maximize the average throughput of vehicles while guaranteeing the WiFi users' throughput. In simulations based on deep reinforcement learning (DRL) algorithms such as deep deterministic policy gradient (DDPG) and deep Q network (DQN), our proposed framework outperforms existing solutions that rely on fixed DC or schemes without consideration of unlicensed bands.

Keywords: vehicle-to-everything (V2X), resource allocation, BS assignment, new radio (NR), new radio unlicensed (NR-U), coexistence NR-U and WiFi, deep deterministic policy gradient (DDPG), deep Q-network (DQN), joint BS assignment and resource allocation (JBSRA), duty cycle mechanism

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491 Stationary Methanol Steam Reforming to Hydrogen Fuel for Fuel-Cell Filling Stations

Authors: Athanasios A. Tountas, Geoffrey A. Ozin, Mohini M. Sain

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Renewable hydrogen (H₂) carriers such as methanol (MeOH), dimethyl ether (DME), oxymethylene dimethyl ethers (OMEs), and conceivably ammonia (NH₃) can be reformed back into H₂ and are fundamental chemical conversions for the long-term viability of the H₂ economy due to their higher densities and ease of transportability compared to H₂. MeOH is an especially important carrier as it is a simple C1 chemical that can be produced from green solar-PV-generated H₂ and direct-air-captured CO₂ with a current commercially practical solar-to-fuel efficiency of 10% from renewable solar energy. MeOH steam reforming (MSR) in stationary systems next to H₂ fuel-cell filling stations can eliminate the need for onboard mobile reformers, and the former systems can be more robust in terms of attaining strict H₂ product specifications, and MeOH is a safe, lossless, and compact medium for long-term H₂ storage. Both thermal- and photo-catalysts are viable options for achieving the stable, long-term performance of stationary MSR systems.

Keywords: fuel-cell vehicle filling stations, methanol steam reforming, hydrogen transport and storage, stationary reformer, liquid hydrogen carriers

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490 Temporal Trends in the Urban Metabolism of Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

Authors: Naif Albelwi, Alan Kwan, Yacine Rezgui

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Cities with rapid growth face tremendous challenges not only to provide services to meet this growth but also to assure that this growth occurs in a sustainable way. The consumption of material, energy, and water resources is inextricably linked to population growth with a unique impact in urban areas, especially in light of significant investments in infrastructure to support urban development. Urban Metabolism (UM) is becoming popular as it provides a framework accounting the mass and energy flows through a city. The objective of this study is to determine the energy and material flows of Riyadh, Saudi Arabia using locally generated data from 1996 and 2012 and analyzing the temporal trends of energy and material flows. Preliminary results show that while the population of Riyadh grew 90% since 1996, the input and output flows have increased at higher rate. Results also show increasing in energy mobile consumption from 61k TJ in 1996 to 157k TJ in 2012 which points to Riyadh’s inefficient urban form. The study findings highlight the importance to develop effective policies for improving the use of resources.

Keywords: energy and water consumption, sustainability, urban development, urban metabolism

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489 Ubiquitous Life People Informatics Engine (U-Life PIE): Wearable Health Promotion System

Authors: Yi-Ping Lo, Shi-Yao Wei, Chih-Chun Ma

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Since Google launched Google Glass in 2012, numbers of commercial wearable devices were released, such as smart belt, smart band, smart shoes, smart clothes ... etc. However, most of these devices perform as sensors to show the readings of measurements and few of them provide the interactive feedback to the user. Furthermore, these devices are single task devices which are not able to communicate with each other. In this paper a new health promotion system, Ubiquitous Life People Informatics Engine (U-Life PIE), will be presented. This engine consists of People Informatics Engine (PIE) and the interactive user interface. PIE collects all the data from the compatible devices, analyzes this data comprehensively and communicates between devices via various application programming interfaces. All the data and informations are stored on the PIE unit, therefore, the user is able to view the instant and historical data on their mobile devices any time. It also provides the real-time hands-free feedback and instructions through the user interface visually, acoustically and tactilely. These feedback and instructions suggest the user to adjust their posture or habits in order to avoid the physical injuries and prevent illness.

Keywords: machine learning, wearable devices, user interface, user experience, internet of things

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488 Analyse of User Interface Design in Mobile Teaching Apps

Authors: Asma Ashoul

Abstract:

Nowadays, smartphones are playing a major role in our lives, by communicating with family, friends or using them to learn different things in life. Using smartphones to learn and teach today is something common to see in places like schools or colleges. Therefore, thinking about developing an app that teaches Arabic language may help some categories in society to learn a second language. For example, kids under the age of five or older would learn fast by using smartphones. The problem is based on the Arabic language, which is most like to be not used anymore. The developer assumed to develop an app that would help the younger generation on their learning the Arabic language. A research was completed about user interface design to help the developer choose appropriate layouts and designs. Developing the artefact contained different stages. First, analyzing the requirements with the client, which is needed to be developed. Secondly, designing the user interface design based on the literature review. Thirdly, developing and testing the application after it is completed contacting all the tools that have been used. Lastly, evaluation and future recommendation, which contained the overall view about the application followed by the client’s feedback. Gathering the requirements after having client meetings based on the interface design. The project was done following an agile development methodology. Therefore, this methodology helped the developer to manage to finish the work on time.

Keywords: developer, application, interface design, layout, Agile, client

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487 Classification of Emotions in Emergency Call Center Conversations

Authors: Magdalena Igras, Joanna Grzybowska, Mariusz Ziółko

Abstract:

The study of emotions expressed in emergency phone call is presented, covering both statistical analysis of emotions configurations and an attempt to automatically classify emotions. An emergency call is a situation usually accompanied by intense, authentic emotions. They influence (and may inhibit) the communication between caller and responder. In order to support responders in their responsible and psychically exhaustive work, we studied when and in which combinations emotions appeared in calls. A corpus of 45 hours of conversations (about 3300 calls) from emergency call center was collected. Each recording was manually tagged with labels of emotions valence (positive, negative or neutral), type (sadness, tiredness, anxiety, surprise, stress, anger, fury, calm, relief, compassion, satisfaction, amusement, joy) and arousal (weak, typical, varying, high) on the basis of perceptual judgment of two annotators. As we concluded, basic emotions tend to appear in specific configurations depending on the overall situational context and attitude of speaker. After performing statistical analysis we distinguished four main types of emotional behavior of callers: worry/helplessness (sadness, tiredness, compassion), alarm (anxiety, intense stress), mistake or neutral request for information (calm, surprise, sometimes with amusement) and pretension/insisting (anger, fury). The frequency of profiles was respectively: 51%, 21%, 18% and 8% of recordings. A model of presenting the complex emotional profiles on the two-dimensional (tension-insecurity) plane was introduced. In the stage of acoustic analysis, a set of prosodic parameters, as well as Mel-Frequency Cepstral Coefficients (MFCC) were used. Using these parameters, complex emotional states were modeled with machine learning techniques including Gaussian mixture models, decision trees and discriminant analysis. Results of classification with several methods will be presented and compared with the state of the art results obtained for classification of basic emotions. Future work will include optimization of the algorithm to perform in real time in order to track changes of emotions during a conversation.

Keywords: acoustic analysis, complex emotions, emotion recognition, machine learning

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486 Improvements of the Difficulty in Hospital Acceptance at the Scene by the Introduction of Smartphone Application for Emergency-Medical-Service System: A Population-Based Before-And-After Observation Study in Osaka City, Japan

Authors: Yusuke Katayama, Tetsuhisa Kitamura, Kosuke Kiyohara, Sumito Hayashida, Taku Iwami, Takashi Kawamura, Takeshi Shimazu

Abstract:

Background: Recently, the number of ambulance dispatches has been increasing in Japan and it is, therefore, difficult to accept emergency patients to hospitals smoothly and appropriately because of the limited hospital capacity. To facilitate the request for patient transport by ambulances and hospital acceptance, the emergency information system using information technology has been built up and introduced in various communities. However, its effectiveness has not been insufficiently revealed in Japan. In 2013, we developed a smartphone application system that enables the emergency-medical-service (EMS) personnel to share information about on-scene ambulance and hospital situation. The aim of this study was to assess the introduction effect of this application for EMS system in Osaka City, Japan. Methods: This study was a retrospective study with population-based ambulance records of Osaka Municipal Fire Department. This study period was six years from January 1, 2010 to December 31, 2015. In this study, we enrolled emergency patients that on-scene EMS personnel conducted the hospital selection for them. The main endpoint was difficulty in hospital acceptance at the scene. The definition of difficulty in hospital acceptance at the scene was to make >=5 phone calls by EMS personnel at the scene to each hospital until a decision to transport was determined. The definition of the smartphone application group was emergency patients transported in the period of 2013-2015 after the introduction of this application, and we assessed the introduction effect of smartphone application with multivariable logistic regression model. Results: A total of 600,526 emergency patients for whom EMS personnel selected hospitals were eligible for our analysis. There were 300,131 smartphone application group (50.0%) in 2010-2012 and 300,395 non-smartphone application group (50.0%) in 2013-2015. The proportion of the difficulty in hospital acceptance was 14.2% (42,585/300,131) in the smartphone application group and 10.9% (32,819/300,395) in the non-smartphone application group, and the difficulty in hospital acceptance significantly decreased by the introduction of the smartphone application (adjusted odds ration; 0.730, 95% confidence interval; 0.718-0.741, P<0.001). Conclusions: Sharing information between ambulance and hospital by introducing smartphone application at the scene was associated with decreasing the difficulty in hospital acceptance. Our findings may be considerable useful for developing emergency medical information system with using IT in other areas of the world.

Keywords: difficulty in hospital acceptance, emergency medical service, infomation technology, smartphone application

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485 Effects of Pressure and Temperature on the Extraction of Benzyl Isothiocyanate by Supercritical Fluids from Tropaeolum majus L. Leaves

Authors: Espinoza S. Clara, Gamarra Q. Flor, Marianela F. Ramos Quispe S. Miguel, Flores R. Omar

Abstract:

Tropaeolum majus L. is a native plant to South and Central America, used since ancient times by our ancestors to combat different diseases. Glucotropaeolonin is one of its main components, which when hydrolyzed, forms benzyl isothiocyanate (BIT) that promotes cellular apoptosis (programmed cell death in cancer cells). Therefore, the present research aims to evaluate the effect of the pressure and temperature of BIT extraction by supercritical CO2 from Tropaeolum majus L. The extraction was carried out in a supercritical fluid extractor equipment Speed SFE BASIC Brand: Poly science, the leaves of Tropaeolum majus L. were ground for one hour and lyophilized until obtaining a humidity of 6%. The extraction with supercritical CO2 was carried out with pressures of 200 bar and 300 bar, temperatures of 50°C, 60°C and 70°C, obtained by the conjugation of these six treatments. BIT was identified by thin layer chromatography using 98% BIT as the standard, and as the mobile phase hexane: dichloromethane (4:2). Subsequently, BIT quantification was performed by high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). The highest yield of oleoresin by supercritical CO2 extraction was obtained pressure 300 bar and temperature at 60°C; and the higher content of BIT at pressure 200 bar and 70°C for 30 minutes to obtain 113.615 ± 0.03 mg BIT/100 g dry matter was obtained.

Keywords: solvent extraction, Tropaeolum majus L., supercritical fluids, benzyl isothiocyanate

Procedia PDF Downloads 425