Search results for: sustainable design

Authors: A. Mollafilabi, A. Koocheki, P. Rezvani Moghaddam, M. Nassiri Mahalati

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In order to study the effects of corm weights and times of corm lifting saffron in different planting beds, an experiment was conducted as Factorial layout based on a Randomized Complete Block Design with three replications at the Fadak Research Center of Agricultural Research in Food Science during 2010. Treatments were two corm weights (8-10, 10 < g), two planting beds (stone wool and peat moss) and five levels of lifting time (mi-June, early July, mid-July, early August and mid-August). No. of corms were 457 corms.m-2 and for 40 days and were stored for 90 days in incubation, 85% relative humidity and 25°C temperature in the darkness. Then, saffron corms were transferred to growth chamber with 17 °C in 8 hours light and 16 hours darkness. Characteristics were number of flower, fresh weight of flower, dry weight of flower, fresh and dry weight of stigma, fresh and dry weight of style, fresh and dry weight of stigma+style and Picrocrocin, Safronal and Crocin contents of saffron were measured. Results showed that the corm weight, bed type and time of corm lifting had significant effects on economical yield of saffron such as picked flowers, dry weight of stigma and fresh weight of flowers. The highest saffron economical yield was obtained in interaction of corm weight, 10 g, peat moss and lifting time in mid-June as much as 5.2 g.m-2. This yield is 11 fold of average yield of Iranian farms. Picrocrocin, Safranal and Crocin contents was graded as excellent thread in peat moss under controlled conditions compared with ISO Standard of 203.

Keywords: corm density, dry stigma, safranal-flowering, yield saffron

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Authors: R. Al-Dujele, K. A. Cashell

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A tubular flange girder is an I-shaped steel girder with either one of both of the usual flat flange plates replaced with a hollow section. Typically, these hollow sections are either rectangular or circular in shape. Concrete filled tubular flange girders (CFTFGs) are unconventional I-shaped beams that use a hollow structural section as the top flange which is filled with concrete. The resulting section offers very high lateral torsional buckling strength and stiffness compared with conventional steel I-beams of similar depth, width and weight, typically leading to a reduction in lateral bracing requirements. This paper is focussed on investigating the ultimate capacity of concrete filled rectangular tubular flange girders (CFRTFGs). These are complex members and their behaviour is governed by a number of inter-related parameters. The FE model is developed using ABAQUS software, 3-D finite element (FE) model for simply supported CFRTFGs subjected to two point loads applied at the third-span points is built. An initial geometrical imperfection of (L/1000), as well as geometrical and material nonlinearities, are introduced into the model, where L denotes the span of the girder. In this numerical model, the concrete and steel materials are modelled using eight-node solid and four-node shell elements, respectively. In addition to the FE model, simplified analytical expressions for the flexural capacity are also proposed, and the results are compared to those from the FE analyses. The analytical expressions, which are suitable for design, are also shown to be capable of providing an accurate depiction of the bending moment capacity.

Keywords: concrete-filled rectangular tubular flange girders, ultimate capacity, confining effect, finite element analysis

Procedia PDF Downloads 147

Authors: Somaye Ghafarpour, Kamran Yazdanbakhsh, Mohamad Reza Zarbakhsh, Simin Hosseinian, Samira Ghafarpour

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Unsatisfactory sleep quality is one of the most common complications of pregnancy, which can predispose mothers to postpartum depression, requiring implementing effective psychological interventions to prevent and modify behaviors accentuating sleep problems. This study was a randomized clinical controlled trial with a pre-test/post-test design aiming to investigate the effectiveness of sleep behavioral interventions during the third trimester of pregnancy on sleep quality and postpartum depression. A total of 50 pregnant mothers in the 26-30 weeks of pregnancy suffering from sleep problems (based on the score obtained from the Pittsburgh Sleep Questionnaire) were randomized into two groups (control and intervention, n= 25 per group). The data were collected using interviews, the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI), and the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS) were used. The participants in the intervention group received eight 60-minute sessions of combinational training for behavioral therapy techniques. At the end of the intervention and four weeks after delivery, sleep quality and postpartum depression were evaluated. Considering that the Kolmogorov Smirnov test confirmed the normal distribution of the data, the independent t-test and analysis of covariance were used to analyze the data, showing that the behavioral interventions were effective on the overall sleep quality after delivery (p=0.001); however, no statistically significant effects were observed on postpartum depression, the sub-scales of sleep disorders, and daily functioning (p>0.05). Considering the potential effectiveness of behavioral interventions in improving sleep quality and alleviating insomnia symptoms, it is recommended to implement such measures as an effective intervention to prevent or treat these problems during prenatal and postnatal periods.

Keywords: behavioral interventions, sleep quality, postpartum depression, pregnancy, delivery

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Authors: Dorcas Matowe

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Inequality in health care for racial and ethnic minorities continues to be a growing concern for many Americans. Some of the barriers hindering the elimination of health disparities include lack of insurance, socioeconomic status (SES), and racism. This study will specifically focus on the association between some of these factors- health care access, which includes insurance coverage and frequency of doctor visits, race, ethnicity, and health status. The purpose of this study will be to address the following questions: is having health insurance associated with increased doctor visits? Are racial and ethnic minorities with health insurance more or less likely to see a doctor? Is the association between having health insurance moderated by being an ethnic minority? Given the current implications of the 2010 Affordable Care Act, this study will highlight the need to prioritize health care access for minorities and confront institutional racism. Critical Race Theory (CRT) will demonstrate how racism has reinforced these health disparities. This quantitative study design will analyze secondary data from the 2015 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) questionnaire, a telephone survey conducted annually in all 50 states and three US territories by state health departments in conjunction with the Center for Disease Control (CDC). Non-identifying health-related data is gathered annually from over 400,000 adults 18 years and above about their health status and use of preventative services. Through Structural Equation Modeling (SEM), the relationship between the predictor variables of health care access, race, and ethnicity, the criterion variable of health status, and the latent variables of emotional support and life satisfaction will be examined. It is hypothesized that there will be an interaction between certain racial and ethnic minorities who went to see a doctor, had insurance coverage, experienced racism, and the quality of their health status, emotional support, and life satisfaction.

Keywords: ethnic minorities, health disparities, health access, racism

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Authors: Simon Mauma Efange

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The main aims of this research were to describe, in co-relational terms, the relationship, if any, between reading comprehension and academic achievement in science studied at the secondary level and, secondly, to find out possible trends in gender differences, such as whether boys would perform better than girls or vice versa. This research employed a quantitative design. Two kinds of instruments were employed: the Oxford Online Placement Test and the Local Assessment System Test. The Oxford Online Placement Test assesses students' English level quickly and easily. The results of these tests were subjected to statistical analysis using a special statistical software called SPSS. Statistical tools such as mean, standard deviation, percentages, frequencies, t-tests, and Pearson’s coefficient of correlation were used for the analysis of the results. Results of the t-test showed that the means are significantly different. Calculating the p-value revealed that the results were extremely statistically significant at p <.05. The value of r (Pearson correlation coefficient) was 0.2868. Although technically there is a positive correlation, the relationship between the variables is only weak (the closer the value is to zero, the weaker the relationship). However, in conclusion, calculations from the t-test using SPSS revealed that the results were statistically significant at p <.05, confirming a relationship between the two variables, and high scores in reading will give rise to slightly high scores in science. The research also revealed that having a high score in reading comprehension doesn’t necessarily mean having a high score in science or vice versa. Female subjects performed much better than male subjects in both tests, which is in line with the literature reviewed for this research.

Keywords: achievement in science, achievement in English, and bilingual students, relationship

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Authors: Samuel Asiedu-Addo, Jonathan Annan, Yarhands Dissou Arthur

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The study aims to explore the relational effect of lecturers’ personal attribute on student’s interest in statistics. In this study personal attributes of lecturers’ such as lecturer’s dynamism, communication strategies and rapport in the classroom as well as applied knowledge during lecture were examined. Here, exploratory research design was used to establish the effect of lecturer’s personal attributes on student’s interest. Data were analyzed by means of confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modeling (SEM) using the SmartPLS 3 program. The study recruited 376 students from the faculty of technical and vocational education of the University of Education Winneba Kumasi campus, and Ghana Technology University College as well as Kwame Nkrumah University of science and Technology. The results revealed that personal attributes of an effective lecturer were lecturer’s dynamism, rapport, communication and applied knowledge contribute (52.9%) in explaining students interest in statistics. Our regression analysis and structural equation modeling confirm that lecturers personal attribute contribute effectively by predicting student’s interest of 52.9% and 53.7% respectively. The paper concludes that the total effect of a lecturer’s attribute on student’s interest is moderate and significant. While a lecturer’s communication and dynamism were found to contribute positively to students’ interest, they were insignificant in predicting students’ interest. We further showed that a lecturer’s personal attributes such as applied knowledge and rapport have positive and significant effect on tertiary student’s interest in statistic, whilst lecturers’ communication and dynamism do not significantly affect student interest in statistics; though positively related.

Keywords: student interest, effective teacher, personal attributes, regression and SEM

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Authors: Gagan Kumar, Koijam M. Devi, Amarendra K. Sarma, Dibakar Roy Chowdhury

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Research in metamaterials has been gaining momentum over the past decade owing to its ability in controlling electromagnetic wave properties through careful design at the sub-wavelength scale. The metamaterials have led to several important phenomena which are useful in a variety of applications. One such phenomenon is the electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT) effect in which a narrow transparency region is created in an otherwise absorptive spectrum. In our work, we explore plasmon induced transparency (PIT) in terahertz metamaterials which is analogues to EIT effect. The PIT effect is achieved using the plasmonic metamaterials in which a unit cell is comprised of two C (2C) shaped resonators and a cut-wire (CW). When terahertz wave of a particular polarization is normally incident on the proposed metamaterials geometry, it strongly couples with the cut wire, resulting in the excitation of the bright mode. However due to the specific polarization of the incident beam, the fundamental modes of the C-shaped resonators are not excited by the incident terahertz, hence they are termed as the dark mode. The PIT effect occurs as a result of interference between the bright and the dark mode. In order to observe PIT effect, both the bright and dark modes should have similar resonant frequencies with a little deviation. We further have examined that the PIT window can be modulated by displacing the C-shaped resonators w.r.t. the cut-wire. The numerical observations for different coupling configurations can be explained through an equivalent lumped element circuit model. Moving ahead the PIT effect is further explored in a metamaterial comprising of a cross like structure and four C-shaped resonators. For such configuration, equally strong PIT effect is observed for two orthogonally polarized lights. Therefore, such metamaterials demonstrate a polarization independent PIT response w.r.t the incident terahertz radiation. The proposed study could be significant in the development of slow light devices and polarization independent sensing applications.

Keywords: terahertz, metamaterial, split ring resonator, plasmon

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Authors: Hilmi Rafet Yüncü

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Today Internet has very important role to promote products and services all over the world. Companies and destinations in tourism industry use Internet to sell and to promote their core products to directly potential tourists. Internet technologies have redefined the relationships between tourists, tourism companies, and travel agents. The new relationship allows for accessing and tapping tourism information and services. Internet technologies ensure new opportunities to available for the tourism industry, including travel accommodation, and tourist destination organizations. Websites are important devices to the marketing of a destination. Most people make a research about the destination before arriving via internet. Governments have a considerable role in the process of marketing tourism destinations. Governments make policies and regulations; furthermore, they help to market destinations to potential tourists. Governments have a comprehensive overview of the sector to see changes in tourism market and design better policies, programs and marketing plans. At the same time, governments support developing of alternative tourism in the country with regulations and marketing tools. The aim of this study is to analyse of an Internet website of governmental tourism portal in Turkey to determine effectiveness about gastronomy tourism. The Turkish government has established a culture portal for foreign and local tourists. The Portal provides local and general information about tourism attractions of cities and Turkey. There are 81 official cities in Turkey and all these cities are conducted to analyse to determine how effective marketing is done by Turkish Government in the manner of gastronomy tourism. A content analysis will be conducted to Internet website of the portal with food content, recipes and gastronomic feature of cities.

Keywords: culture portal, gastronomy tourism, government, Turkey

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Authors: Gunay Imanguliyeva

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Burnout is one of the concerning issues in education. The present paper aimed to explore the concept of burnout among program directors and faculty working in three higher education institutions (HEIs) in Azerbaijan and identify the factors contributing to burnout and the possible consequences of this syndrome on research participants’ professional and personal life. The researcher believed that if the concept of burnout was defined precisely and explored among more faculty, administration, and educational institutions, university leadership may have looked for the ways to support program directors and faculty, which would increase job satisfaction and decrease turnover. An exploratory qualitative research design was chosen for this study. The conceptual framework of this study was based on the Maslach Burnout Inventory. The instruments of the research were semi-structured interviews, observation, and document review. Three EFL (Teaching English as a Foreign Language) instructors and three program directors of the English Language Department working in three higher educational institutions in Azerbaijan participated in this study. The major findings of this study showed that both program directors and faculty suffered from burnout. Though they were aware of the factors that caused burnout, they did not know how to deal with this feeling. While research participants had high feeling of Emotional Exhaustion and Depersonalization, they had a low feeling of Personal Accomplishment. The researcher suggests that further research is important to measure the level of burnout and to enable HEIs to increase the productivity of program directors’ and faculty’s work as well as decrease the rate of retention in future. Also, in order to help program directors and faculty to cope with burnout, the research recommends the university leadership to meet their psycho-social needs, emotional-physical needs, and personal-intellectual needs. Keywords: burnout, emotional exhaustion, factors, well-being, higher education

Keywords: burnout, well-being, higher education, factors

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Authors: Huseyin A. Yavasoglu, Yusuf Ziya Tengiz, Ali Göksenli

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In this study, an automatic feeding machine for different type and class of bovine animals is designed. Daily nutrition of a bovine consists of grass, corn, straw, silage, oat, wheat and different vitamins and minerals. The amount and mixture amount of each of the nutrition depends on different parameters of the bovine. These parameters are; age, sex, weight and maternity of the bovine, also outside temperature. The problem in a farm is to constitute the correct mixture and amount of nutrition for each animal. Faulty nutrition will cause an insufficient feeding of the animal concluding in an unhealthy bovine. To solve this problem, a new automatic feeding machine is designed. Travelling of the machine is performed by four tires, which is pulled by a tractor. The carrier consists of eight bins, which each of them carries a nutrition type. Capacity of each unit is 250 kg. At the bottom of each chamber is a sensor measuring the weight of the food inside. A funnel is at the bottom of each chamber by which open/close function is controlled by a valve. Each animal will carry a RFID tag including ID on its ear. A receiver on the feeding machine will read this ID and by given previous information by the operator (veterinarian), the system will detect the amount of each nutrition unit which will be given to the selected animal for feeding. In the system, each bin will open its exit gate by the help of the valve under the control of PLC (Programmable Logic Controller). The amount of each nutrition type will be controlled by measuring the open/close time. The exit canals of the bins are collected in a reservoir. To achieve a homogenous nitration, the collected feed will be mixed by a worm gear. Further the mixture will be transported by a help of a funnel to the feeding unit of the animal. The feeding process can be performed in 100 seconds. After feeding of the animal, the tractor pulls the travelling machine to the next animal. By the help of this system animals can be feeded by right amount and mixture of nutrition

Keywords: bovine, feeding, nutrition, transportation, automatic

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Authors: Adu Micheal Kwaku, Lamptey Shirley

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Cowpea (Vigna unguiculata (L.) Walpis) is a major food grain legume in Ghana and plays a significant role in consumer diets. Drought in rain-fed crop production is known to cause substantial crop yield reduction due to their negative impacts on plant growth, physiology, and reproduction. There are various ways of reducing the effect of drought or addressing the problem of drought stress, including irrigation, breeding, and mulching. Among these three ways of reducing the effect of drought stress, the cheapest and quickest method is mulching. The broad objective of this project is to determine the influence of mulching on the performance of cowpea. The experiment was conducted at Planting for future garden located at Nyankpala Campus of the University for Development Studies (UDS), comprising five treatments (black plastic, rice hull, groundnut hull, dry grass mulch, and control). The treatments were evaluated in a Randomized Complete Block Design (RCBD) with three replications. The result shows that black plastic mulch increased soil moisture by 1, 8, 15, and 24% compared to rice hull, groundnut hull, dry grass, and control, respectively. Increased soil moisture translated into black plastic mulch increasing grain yield by 8, 25, 39, and 46% compared to groundnut hull, rice hull, dry grass and control, respectively. However, black plastic mulch increased the cost of production, resulting in decreased net returns compared to the other treatment. This study recommends the use of rice and groundnut hull as mulching material to improve soil moisture, grain yield, and profit of smallholder cowpea farmers and also because they are almost free and available.

Keywords: mulch, plastic mulch, cowpea, growth response

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Authors: D. Kuvshinov, A. Siswanto, W. Zimmerman

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A phorbol-12-myristate-13-acetate (TPA) is a synthetic analogue of phorbol ester (PE), a natural toxic compound of Euphorbiaceae plant. The oil extracted from plants of this family is useful source for primarily biofuel. However this oil can also be used as a food stock due to its significant nutrition content. The limitations for utilizing the oil as a food stock are mainly due to a toxicity of PE. Nowadays a majority of PE detoxification processes are expensive as include multi steps alcohol extraction sequence. Ozone is considered as a strong oxidative agent. It reaction with PE it attacks the carbon double bond of PE. This modification of PE molecular structure results into nontoxic ester with high lipid content. This report presents data on development of simple and cheap PE detoxification process with water application as a buffer and ozone as reactive component. The core of this new technique is a simultaneous application of new microscale plasma unit for ozone production and patented gas oscillation technology. In combination with a reactor design the technology permits ozone injection to the water-TPA mixture in form of microbubbles. The efficacy of a heterogeneous process depends on diffusion coefficient which can be controlled by contact time and interface area. The low velocity of rising microbubbles and high surface to volume ratio allow fast mass transfer to be achieved during the process. Direct injection of ozone is the most efficient process for a highly reactive and short lived chemical. Data on the plasma unit behavior are presented and influence of the gas oscillation technology to the microbubbles production mechanism has been discussed. Data on overall process efficacy for TPA degradation is shown.

Keywords: microbubble, ozonolysis, synthetic phorbol ester, chemical engineering

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Authors: Khaled M. Khader, Mamdouh I. Elimy

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Reducing energy consumption became the major concern for all countries of the world during the recent decades. In general, power saving is currently the nominal goal of most industrial countries. It is well known that fossil fuels are the main pillar of development of world countries. Unfortunately, the increased rate of fossil fuel consumption will lead to serious problems caused by an expected depletion of fuels. Moreover, dangerous gases and vapors emission lead to severe environmental problems during fuel burning. Consequently, most engineering sectors especially the mechanical sectors are looking for improving any machine accompanied by reducing its energy consumption. Crank-Rocker planar mechanism is the most applied in mechanical systems. Besides, it is one of the most significant parts of the machines for obtaining the oscillatory motion. The transmission angle of this mechanism can be considered as an optimum value when its extreme values are equally varied around 90°. In addition, the transmission angle plays an important role in decreasing the required driving power and improving the dynamic properties of the mechanism. Hence, appropriate selection of mechanism links lengthens, which assures optimum transmission angle leads to decreasing the driving power. Moreover, mechanism's links manufactured from composite materials afford link's lightweight, which decreases the required driving torque. Furthermore, wear and corrosion problems can be treated through using composite links instead of using metal ones. This paper is dealing with improving the performance of crank-rocker mechanism using composite links due to their flexural elastic modulus values and stiffness in addition to high damping of composite materials.

Keywords: Composite Material, Crank-Rocker Mechanism, Transmission angle, Design techniques, Power Saving

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Authors: Alabi Olushola John, Ogbiko Anthonia, Tsado Daniel Nma, Mbajiorgu Ejike Felix, Adama Theophilus Zubairu

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A total of thirty (30) goats weighting between 5.8 and 7.3 kg were used to determine the growth performance, body linear measurements and body condition score of Semi intensively manged Savanna Brown goats fed enzyme treated sawdust diets (ETSD). They divided into five dietary treatments (T) groups with three replications using a completely randomized design. Treatment one (1) comprises of animals fed diet on 0 % enzyme treated sawdust while Treatment 2 (T2), Treatment 3 (T3), Treatment 4 (T4) and Treatment 5 (T5) comprises of animals fed diets containing 10, 20, 30 and 40 % enzyme treated sawdust diets, respectively. The study lasted 16 weeks. Data on growth performance parameters, body linear measurement (height at wither, body length, chest girth, hind leg length, foreleg length, facial length) and body condition score were collected and analyzed using one way analysis of variance. No significant difference (p>0.05) was observed in the all growth performance parameters and linear body measurements. However, significant difference was observed in body length and daily body length gains with highest value observed in animals fed the control diets (7.38 and 0.08 cm respectively) and animals on 30 % ETSD (7.25 and 0.07 cm respectively) and lowest values (4.75 and 0.05 cm respectively) were observed in animals fed 10 % ETSD among the treatment groups. It was, therefore, concluded that enzyme treated sawdust can be used in the diets of Savanna Brown goats up to 40 % replacement for maize offal since this treatment improved the body length and daily body length gains.

Keywords: performance, sawdust, enzyme treated, semi-intensively, replacement

Procedia PDF Downloads 107

Authors: Shravani Itkelwar, Deepak Tewari, Bhaskar Natarajan

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The energy consumption data plays a vital role in energy efficiency policy design, implementation, and impact assessment. Any demand-side energy management intervention's success relies on the availability of accurate, comprehensive, granular, and up-to-date data on energy consumption. The Building sector, including residential and commercial, is one of the largest consumers of energy in India after the Industrial sector. With economic growth and increasing urbanization, the building sector is projected to grow at an unprecedented rate, resulting in a 5.6 times escalation in energy consumption till 2047 compared to 2017. Therefore, energy efficiency interventions will play a vital role in decoupling the floor area growth and associated energy demand, thereby increasing the need for robust data. In India, multiple institutions are involved in the collection and dissemination of data. This paper focuses on energy consumption data management in the building sector in India for both residential and commercial segments. It evaluates the robustness of data available through administrative and survey routes to estimate the key performance indicators and identify critical data gaps for making informed decisions. The paper explores several issues in the data, such as lack of comprehensiveness, non-availability of disaggregated data, the discrepancy in different data sources, inconsistent building categorization, and others. The identified data gaps are justified with appropriate examples. Moreover, the paper prioritizes required data in order of relevance to policymaking and groups it into "available," "easy to get," and "hard to get" categories. The paper concludes with recommendations to address the data gaps by leveraging digital initiatives, strengthening institutional capacity, institutionalizing exclusive building energy surveys, and standardization of building categorization, among others, to strengthen the management of building sector energy consumption data.

Keywords: energy data, energy policy, energy efficiency, buildings

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Authors: Adjmal Ghaur, Christoph Peschel, Iris Dienwiebel, Lukas Haneke, Leilei Du , Laurin Profanter, Tobias Placke, Martin Winter

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In recent years, lithium-ion batteries (LIBs)are widely used in electric vehicles (EVs) and mobile energy storage devices (ESDs), which has led to higher requirements for energy density. To fulfill these requirements, tremendous attention has been paid to design advanced LIBs with various siliconactive materials as alternative negative electrodes to replace graphite (372 mAh g⁻¹)due to their high theoretical gravimetric capacity (4200mAh g⁻¹). However, silicon as potential anode material suffers from huge volume changes during charging and discharging and has poor electronicconductivity which negatively impacts the long-term performance and preventshigh silicon contents from practical application. Additionally, an unstable crystalline silicon structure tends to pulverization during the (de)lithiation process. To compensate for the volume changes, alleviate pulverization, and maintain high electronicconductivity, silicon-doped graphite composites with protecting coating layers are a promising approach. In this context, phosphazene compounds are investigated concerning their silicon protecting properties in silicon-doped graphite composites. In detail, electrochemical performance measurements in pouch full-cells(NCM523||SiOx/C), supressing gas formation properties, and post-mortem analyzes were carried out to characterize phosphazene compounds as additive materials. The introduction of the dual-additive approach in state-of-the-art electrolytes leads to synergistic effects between FEC and phosphazene compounds which accelerate the durability of silicon particles and results in enhanced electrochemical performance.

Keywords: silicon, phosphazene, solid electrolyte interphase, electrolyte, gasmeasurements

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Authors: Meril Kate Mariano, Billy Joel Almarinez Divina Amalin, Jose Isagani Janairo

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The scale insects Aspidiotus destructor and Aspidiotus rigidus exhibit notable scale covers made of wax which provides protection against water loss and is capable to resist wetting, thus making them a desirable model for biomimetic designs. Their waxy covers enable them to infest mainly leaves of coconut trees despite the harsh wind and rain. This study aims to describe and compare the micro morphological characters on the surfaces of their scale covers consequently, how these micro structures affect their wetting properties. Scanning electron microscope was used for the surface characterization while an optical contact angle meter was employed in the wetting measurement. The scale cover of A. destructor is composed of multiple overlapping layers of wax that is arranged regularly while that of A. rigidus is composed of a uniform layer of wax with much more prominent wax ribbons irregularly arranged compared to the former. The protrusions found on the two organisms are formed by the wax ribbons that differ in arrangement with their height being A. destructor (3.57+1.29) < A. rigidus (4.23+1.22) and their density A. destructor (15+2.94) < A. rigidus (18.33+2.64). These morphological measurements could affect the contact angle (CA θ) measurement of A. destructor (102.66+9.78°) < A. rigidus (102.77 + 11.01°) wherein the assessment that the interaction of the liquid to the microstructures of the substrate is a large factor in the wetting properties of the insect scales is realized. The calculated surface free energy of A. destructor (38.47 mJ/m²) > A. rigidus (31.02 mJ/m²) shows inverse proportionality with the CA measurement. The dispersive interaction between the surface and liquid is more prevalent compared to the polar interaction for both Aspidiotus species, which was observed using the Fowkes method. The results of this study have possible applications to be a potential biomimetic design for various industries such as textiles and coatings.

Keywords: Aspidiotus spp., biomimetics, contact angle, surface characterization, wetting behavior

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Authors: Lucas Bublitz, Michael Herdrich

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By achieving the first commercialization approval in San Francisco the Autonomous Driving (AD) industry proves the technology maturity of the SAE L4 AD systems and the corresponding software and hardware stack. This milestone reflects the upcoming phase in the industry, where the focus is now about scaling and supervising larger autonomous vehicle (AV) fleets in different operation areas. This requires an operation framework, which organizes and assigns responsibilities to the relevant AV technology and operation stakeholders from the AV system provider, the Remote Intervention Operator, the MaaS provider and regulatory & approval authority. This holistic operation framework consists of technological, processual, and organizational activities to ensure safe operation for fully automated vehicles. Regarding the supervision of large autonomous vehicle fleets, a major focus is on the continuous field monitoring. The field monitoring approach must reflect the safety and security criticality of incidents in the field during driving operation. This includes an automatic containment approach, with the overall goal to avoid safety critical incidents and reduce downtime by a malfunction of the AD software stack. An End-to-end (E2E) field monitoring approach detects critical faults in the field, uses a knowledge-based approach for evaluating the safety criticality and supports the automatic containment of these E/E faults. Applying such an approach will ensure the scalability of AV fleets, which is determined by the handling of incidents in the field and the continuous regulatory compliance of the technology after enhancing the Operational Design Domain (ODD) or the function scope by Functions on Demand (FoD) over the entire digital product lifecycle.

Keywords: field monitoring, incident management, multicompliance management for AI in AD, root cause analysis, database approach

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Authors: Bruno R. A. Oliveira, Italo V. V. Braga, Jonas P. Reges, Luiz P. O. Santos, Sidney C. Duarte, Emilson R. R. Melo, Auzuir R. Alexandria

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This project aims to building a controlled greenhouse, or for better understanding, a structure where one can maintain a given range of temperature values (°C) coming from radiation emitted by an incandescent light, as previously defined, characterizing as a kind of on-off control and a differential, which is the plotting of temperature versus time graphs assisted by MATLAB software via serial communication. That way it is possible to connect the stove with a computer and monitor parameters. In the control, it was performed using a PIC 16F877A microprocessor which enabled convert analog signals to digital, perform serial communication with the IC MAX232 and enable signal transistors. The language used in the PIC's management is Basic. There are also a cooling system realized by two coolers 12V distributed in lateral structure, being used for venting and the other for exhaust air. To find out existing temperature inside is used LM35DZ sensor. Other mechanism used in the greenhouse construction was comprised of a reed switch and a magnet; their function is in recognition of the door position where a signal is sent to a buzzer when the door is open. Beyond it exist LEDs that help to identify the operation which the stove is located. To facilitate human-machine communication is employed an LCD display that tells real-time temperature and other information. The average range of design operating without any major problems, taking into account the limitations of the construction material and structure of electrical current conduction, is approximately 65 to 70 ° C. The project is efficient in these conditions, that is, when you wish to get information from a given material to be tested at temperatures not as high. With the implementation of the greenhouse automation, facilitating the temperature control and the development of a structure that encourages correct environment for the most diverse applications.

Keywords: greenhouse, microcontroller, temperature, control, MATLAB

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Authors: Fatemeh Babaeian, Nemai Chandra Karmakar

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Chipless RFID system is a wireless system for tracking and identification which use passive tags for encoding data. The advantage of using chipless RFID tag is having a planar tag which is printable on different low-cost materials like paper and plastic. The printed tag can be attached to different items in the labelling level. Since the price of chipless RFID tag can be as low as a fraction of a cent, this technology has the potential to compete with the conventional optical barcode labels. However, due to the passive structure of the tag, data processing of the reflection signal is a crucial challenge. The captured reflected signal from a tag attached to an item consists of different components which are the reflection from the reader antenna, the reflection from the item, the tag structural mode RCS component and the antenna mode RCS of the tag. All these components are summed up in both time and frequency domains. The effect of reflection from the item and the structural mode RCS component can distort/saturate the frequency domain signal and cause difficulties in extracting the desired component which is the antenna mode RCS. Therefore, it is required to study the reflection of the tag in both time and frequency domains to have a better understanding of the nature of the captured chipless RFID signal. The other benefits of this study can be to find an optimised encoding technique in tag design level and to find the best processing algorithm the chipless RFID signal in decoding level. In this paper, the reflection from a typical backscattered chipless RFID tag with six resonances is analysed, and different components of the signal are separated in both time and frequency domains. Moreover, the time domain signal corresponding to each resonator of the tag is studied. The data for this processing was captured from simulation in CST Microwave Studio 2017. The outcome of this study is understanding different components of a measured signal in a chipless RFID system and a discovering a research gap which is a need to find an optimum detection algorithm for tag ID extraction.

Keywords: antenna mode RCS, chipless RFID tag, resonance, structural mode RCS

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Authors: B. O. Diyaolu

Abstract:

The stadium transcends a field of play to cultural heritage of a club especially when there is security of life and property and a conducive environment with exciting media facilities, CCTV and adequate field of play. Football fans love watching their clubs’ matches especially when nothing discourages their presence in the stadium. This study investigated the influence of security on fans’ attendance during Nigeria Professional Football League matches. Descriptive survey research design was used and the population consists of all Nigeria Professional Football League fans. Simple random sampling technique was used to pick a state from the six geo-political zones. 600 respondents comprising male and female fans were sampled from the ten selected vendors’ stands in each selected state. A structured questionnaire on Security and Fan attendance scale (SFAS) was used. The instrument consists of two sections. Section A seeks information on demographic data of the respondents, while section B was used to elicit information on security and fans’ attendance. The modified instrument which consists of 20 items has a reliability coefficient of 0.73. The hypothesis was tested at 0.05 significance level. The completed questionnaire was collated, coded and analyzed using descriptive statistics of frequency counts and percentage and inferential statistics of chi-square (X²). Findings of this study revealed that adequate security significantly influences fan attendance during Nigeria Professional Football League matches. There is no sport that can develop if the facilities in use are inadequate. Improving the condition of the stadium in Nigeria is paramount to the development of the Nigeria Professional Football League. All stakeholders in the organization of the League must put into consideration the need to improve the standard of the stadium as it will help to increase the attendance of fans during matches. Only the standard ones should be used during matches.

Keywords: adequate security, fans attendance, football fans, football stadium, Nigeria professional football league

Procedia PDF Downloads 119

Authors: Wichai Srisud, Shunnawat Pungbangkradee, Sukanya Chaemchoy

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This research study aims to analyze and assess school management guidelines designed to enhance the level of Student School Engagement of students at Bangkok Christian College, according to three following primary objectives: 1) to evaluate the level of Student School Engagement among Bangkok Christian College students, 2) to examine the Priority Needs Index of school management for promoting an optimum level of Student School Engagement among Bangkok Christian College students, and 3) to develop additional guidelines for school management to further enhance the level of Student School Engagement of Bangkok Christian College students. The research was conducted using Explanatory Design research methodology, with data obtained from a sample comprised of 291 students and 6 administrative personnel. The research findings indicated that: 1) The overall level of Student School Engagement was high. Emotional engagement averaged at the highest level, followed by Behavioral Engagement and Cognitive Engagement, respectively. 2) The Priority Needs Index of school management for promoting Student School Engagement of Bangkok Christian College students was examined, revealing that Evaluation averaged at the highest PNI level, followed by Planning and Implementation, respectively. 3) Guidelines for school management to enhance Student School Engagement of Bangkok Christian College students should consist of four approaches: 3.1) A Cognitive Engagement Enhancing Approach, which must include (1) fostering students’ problem-solving flexibility, and their ability to devise solutions for overcoming potential challenges, and (2) encouraging students to deal effectively with academic setbacks, rather than becoming overwhelmed by what they may perceive as failures, 3.2) An Emotional Engagement Enhancing Approach, cultivating students’ interests, aspirations and goals in learning to maximize emotional investment in their academic pursuits, and 3.3) A Behavioral Engagement Enhancing Approach, for elevating students’ focus and attentiveness during learning, and improving their ability to avoid distractions during study time.

Keywords: school engagement, guidelines for school management

Procedia PDF Downloads 64

Authors: Amina Ottozbeer, Nazanin Derakhshan

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Emotion regulation, a transdiagnostic process, is often impaired in individuals with high trait anxiety due to compromised executive functioning and attentional control. Recent research underscores the importance of studying individual differences and contextual factors in understanding the adaptability of emotion regulation processes, particularly in those with high trait anxiety. Prior studies have emphasized the role of self-efficacy in promoting positive cognitive flexibility outcomes and mitigating executive function impairments in highly anxious individuals. Accordingly, the objective of this study was to examine the moderating influence of attentional control, cognitive flexibility, and self-efficacy on the relationship between trait anxiety and emotion regulation. Using a correlational design, an online study was conducted with a sample of 82 participants (mean age: 22 years). Self-report questionnaires measured individual difference variables. The Classic Stroop Task assessed attentional control as an objective measure of cognitive flexibility . The findings revealed three significant interactions. Firstly, high cognitive flexibility and self-efficacy were linked to reduced expressive suppression in individuals with low trait anxiety. Secondly, elevations in cognitive flexibility and self-efficacy were associated with increased suppression in those with high trait anxiety. Thirdly, high trait anxiety was associated with reduced attentional control. The results suggest that typically adaptive processes can yield different outcomes in highly anxious populations, highlighting the need to explore additional variables that could alter the impact of cognitive flexibility and self-efficacy on emotion regulation in individuals with high anxiety. These findings have significant clinical implications, emphasizing the need to consider individual differences in emotion regulation and trait anxiety to inform more effective psychological treatments.

Keywords: attentional control, trait anxiety, emotional dysregulation, transdiagnostic, individual differences

Procedia PDF Downloads 32

Authors: A. Van Staden, N. Purcell

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Spelling development is complex and multifaceted and relies on several cognitive-linguistic processes. This paper explored the spelling difficulties of English second language learners with auditory processing delays. This empirical study aims to address these issues by means of an intervention design. Specifically, the objectives are: (a) to develop and implement a multi-sensory spelling program for second language learners with auditory processing difficulties (APD) for a period of 6 months; (b) to assess the efficacy of the multi-sensory spelling program and whether this intervention could significantly improve experimental learners' spelling, phonological awareness, and processing (PA), rapid automatized naming (RAN), working memory (WM), word reading and reading comprehension; and (c) to determine the relationship (or interplay) between these cognitive and linguistic skills (mentioned above), and how they influence spelling development. Forty-four English, second language learners with APD were sampled from one primary school in the Free State province. The learners were randomly assigned to either an experimental (n=22) or control group (n=22). During the implementation of the spelling program, several visual, tactile and kinesthetic exercises, including the utilization of fingerspelling were introduced to support the experimental learners’ (N = 22) spelling development. Post-test results showed the efficacy of the multi-sensory spelling program, with the experimental group who were trained in utilising multi-sensory coding and fingerspelling outperforming learners from the control group on the cognitive-linguistic, spelling and reading measures. The results and efficacy of this multi-sensory spelling program and the utilisation of fingerspelling for hearing second language learners with APD open up innovative perspectives for the prevention and targeted remediation of spelling difficulties.

Keywords: English second language spellers, auditory processing delays, spelling difficulties, multi-sensory intervention program

Procedia PDF Downloads 138

Authors: Zhibo Zhao, Horst Hahn, Robert Kruk, Abhisheck Sarkar

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High entropy oxides (HEOs), based on the incorporation of multiple-principal cations into the crystal lattice, offer the possibility to explore previously inaccessible oxide compositions and unconventional properties. Here it is demonstrated that despite the chemical complexity of HEOs external stimuli, such as epitaxial strain, can selectively stabilize certain magneto-electronic states. Epitaxial (Co₀.₂Cr₀.₂Fe₀.₂Mn₀.₂Ni₀.₂)₃O₄-HEO thin films are grown in three different strain states: tensile, compressive, and relaxed. A unique coexistence of rocksalt and spinel-HEO phases, which are fully coherent with no detectable chemical segregation, is revealed by transmission electron microscopy. This dual-phase coexistence appears as a universal phenomenon in (Co₀.₂Cr₀.₂Fe₀.₂Mn₀.₂Ni₀.₂)₃O₄ epitaxial films. Prominent changes in the magnetic anisotropy and domain structure highlight the strain-induced bidirectional control of magnetic properties in HEOs. When the films are relaxed, their magnetization behavior is isotropic, similar to that of bulk materials. However, under tensile strain, the hardness of the out-of-plane (OOP) axis increases significantly. On the other hand, compressive straining results in an easy OOP magnetization and a maze-like magnetic domain structure, indicating perpendicular magnetic anisotropy. Generally, this study emphasizes the adaptability of the high entropy design strategy, which, when combined with coherent strain engineering, opens additional prospects for fine-tuning properties in oxides.

Keywords: high entropy oxides, thin film, strain tuning, perpendicular magnetic anistropy

Procedia PDF Downloads 49

Authors: Gracia V. Navarro, Maria V. Gonzalez, Carlos G. Reed

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The eudaimonic perspective in philosophy and psychology suggests that a good life is closely related to developing oneself in order to contribute to the well-being and happiness of other people and of the world as a whole. Educational psychology can help to achieve this through the design and validation of educative models. Since 2004, the University of Concepcion and other Chilean universities apply an educative model to train socially responsible professionals, people that in the exercise of their profession contribute to generate equity for the development and assess the impacts of their decisions, opting for those that serve the common good. The main aim is to identify if a relationship exists between achieved learning, attitudes toward social responsibility, self-attribution of socially responsible behavior, value type, professional behavior observed and, participation in a specific model to train socially responsible (SR) professionals. The Achieved Learning and Attitudes Toward Social Responsibility Questionnaire, interview with employers and Values Questionnaire and Self-attribution of SR Behavior Questionnaire is applied to 394 students and graduates, divided into experimental and control groups (trained and not trained under the educative model), in order to identify the professional behavior of the graduates. The results show that students and graduates perceive cognitive, affective and behavioral learning, with significant differences in attitudes toward social responsibility and self-attribution of SR behavior, between experimental and control. There are also differences in employers' perceptions about the professional practice of those who were trained under the model and those who were not. It is concluded that the educative model has an impact on the learning of social responsibility and educates for a full life. It is also concluded that it is necessary to identify mediating variables of the model effect.

Keywords: educative model, good life, professional social responsibility, values

Procedia PDF Downloads 267

Authors: Fatma Abidi, Taoufik Harizi, Slah Msahli, Faouzi Sakli

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Nine different Tunisian handmade carpets were used for the investigation. The raw material of the carpet pile yarns was wool. The influence of the different structure parameters (linear density and pile height) on the carpet compression was investigated. Carpets were tested under dynamic loading in order to evaluate and observe the thickness loss and carpet behavior under dynamic loads. To determine the loss of pile height under dynamic loading, the pile height carpets were measured. The test method was treated according to the Tunisian standard NT 12.165 (corresponds to the standard ISO 2094). The pile height measurements are taken and recorded at intervals up to 1000 impacts (measures of this study were made after 50, 100, 200, 500, and 1000 impacts). The loss of pile height is calculated using the variation between the initial height and those measured after the number of reported impacts. The experimental results were statistically evaluated using Design Expert Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) software. As regards the deformation, results showed that both of the structure parameters of the pile yarn and the pile height have an influence. The carpet with the higher pile and the less linear density of pile yarn showed the worst performance. Results of a polynomial regression analysis are highlighted. There is a good correlation between the loss of pile height and the impacts number of dynamic loads. These equations are in good agreement with measured data. Because the prediction is reasonably accurate for all samples, these equations can also be taken into account when calculating the theoretical loss of pile height for the considered carpet samples. Statistical evaluations of the experimen¬tal data showed that the pile material and number of impacts have a significant effect on mean thickness and thickness loss variations.

Keywords: Tunisian handmade carpet, loss of pile height, dynamic loads, performance

Procedia PDF Downloads 321

Authors: Parker Townes, Aisouda Savadlou, Shoshana Weiss, Marina Jarenova, Suzzane Ferris, Dan Devoe, Russel Schachar, Scott Patten, Tomas Lange, Marlena Colasanto, Holly McGinn, Paul Arnold

Abstract:

Some research suggests obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is associated with impaired executive functioning: higher-level mental processes involved in carrying out tasks and solving problems. Relevant literature was identified systematically through online databases. Meta-analyses were conducted for task performance metrics reported by at least two articles. Results were synthesized by the executive functioning domain measured through each performance metric. Heterogeneous literature was identified, typically involving few studies using consistent measures. From 29 included studies, analyses were conducted on 33 performance metrics from 12 tasks. Results suggest moderate associations of working memory (two out of five tasks presented significant findings), planning (one out of two tasks presented significant findings), and visuospatial abilities (one out of two tasks presented significant findings) with OCD in youth. There was inadequate literature or contradictory findings for other executive functioning domains. These findings suggest working memory, planning, and visuospatial abilities are impaired in pediatric OCD, with mixed results. More work is needed to identify the effect of age and sex on these results. Acknowledgment: This work was supported by the Alberta Innovates Translational Health Chair in Child and Youth Mental Health. The funders had no role in the design, conducting, writing, or decision to submit this article for publication.

Keywords: obsessive-compulsive disorder, neurocognition, executive functioning, adolescents, children

Procedia PDF Downloads 101

Authors: M. Jaenen, M. de Bouw, A. Verdonck, M. Leus

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During the interwar period artificial materials were often preferred, but many Antwerp architects relied on the application of wood for most of the interior finishing works and furnishings. Archival, literature and on site research of interwar suburban townhouses and the Belgian wood and furniture industry gave a new insight to the application of wood in the interwar interior. Many interwar designers favored the decorative values in all treatments of wood because of its warmth, comfort, good-wearing, and therefore, economic qualities. For the creation of a successful modern interior the texture and surface of the wood becomes as important as the color itself. This aesthetics valuation was the result of the modernization of the wood industry. The development of veneer and plywood gave the possibility to create strong, flat, long and plain wooden surfaces which are capable of retaining their shape. Also the modernization of cutting machines resulted in high quality and diversity in texture of veneer. The flat and plain plywood surfaces were modern decorated with all kinds of veneer-sliced options. In addition, wood species from the former Belgian Colony Congo were imported. Limba (Terminalia superba), kambala (Chlorophora excelsa), mubala (Pentaclethra macrophylla) and sapelli (Entandrophragma cylindricum) were used in the interior of many Antwerp interwar suburban town houses. From the thirties onwards Belgian wood firms established modern manufactures in Congo. There the local wood was dried, cut and prepared for exportation to the harbor of Antwerp. The presence of all kinds of strong and decorative Congolese wood products supported its application in the interwar interior design. The Antwerp architects combined them in their designs for doors, floors, stairs, built-in-furniture, wall paneling and movable furniture.

Keywords: Antwerp, congo, furniture, interwar

Procedia PDF Downloads 227

Authors: Selim A., Albasher N., Bakrmom G., Alanzi S.

Abstract:

Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) is a chronic functional bowel disorder characterized by abdominal discomfort or pain and associated with alteration in frequency and/or form of bowel habit among other symptoms. This diagnosis is associated with increased levels of psychological distress, maladaptive coping, genetic risk factors, abnormal small and colonic intestine transit, change in stool frequency or form and abdominal discomfort or pain. Aim: The aim of the study was to assess psychological alarm among individuals suffering from Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS). Methods: A cross-sectional correlational research design was used to conduct the current study. A convenience sample of 504 participants was included in the present study. Data were collected using a self-report questionnaire. The questionnaire included socio-demographic data, ROME III to identify Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS) and Psychological Alarm Questionnaire. Results: Out of 504 participants who reported abdominal discomfort, 297 (58.9 %) participants met the diagnostic criteria of IBS. The mean age of the IBS participants was 30.16 years, females composed 75.1% of the IBS participants, and 55.2% did not seek medical help. Psychological alarms such as feeling anxious, feeling depressed, having suicidal ideations, bodily pain, having impaired functioning due to pain and feeling unable to cope with pain were significantly high among IBS individuals when compared to individuals not suffering from IBS. Psychological alarms such as feeling anxious, feeling depressed, having suicidal ideations, bodily pain, having impaired functioning due to pain and feeling unable to cope with pain were significantly high among IBS individuals compared to individuals not suffering from IBS. Conclusion: IBS is highly associated with significant psychological alarms including depression, anxiety and suicidal ideas.

Keywords: abdominal pain , irritable bowel syndrome, distress, psychological alarms

Procedia PDF Downloads 191