Search results for: fuzzy numbers

Authors: Kathy Stein, Mariola Lysson, Anja Schmidt, Beatrix Schumak, Sabine Specht, Hicham Bouabe, Jürgen Heesemann, Axel Roers, Joerg C. Kalff, Sven Wehner

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Objective: Postoperative ileus (POI) is a common complication of abdominal surgery. Monocyte infiltration is a hallmark of POI. The polarization of macrophages/monocytes in this process is not well understood. We aimed to investigate if and how M2 macrophage/monocyte differentiation is involved in POI pathogenesis. Design: POI was induced by intestinal manipulation (IM). C57Bl/6, CCR2-/-, IL-10 reporter (ITIB), IL-10-/- and LysMcre/IL-10fl/fl mice underwent IM. At various points in time leukocyte influx, gene and protein expression of cytokines, chemokines and M2 differentiation markers and intestinal motility were analyzed. Results: IM induced the postoperative expression of the M2 markers Arginase-1 and YM-1, predominantly in F4/80+Ly6C+ monocytes. Gene expression analyses indicated an IL-10-dependent, IL-4-independent M2 polarization of these monocytes. IL-10 dependency of M2 differentiation was confirmed in IL-10 deficient mice. Leukocytes, in the order of infiltrating monocytes, neutrophils, and resident macrophages were the main IL-10 producers during POI. IL-10 producing monocytes as well as M2 marker expression were almost absent in CCR2-deficient mice. However, postoperative IL-10 expression was not altered in CCR2-/- mice. The loss of M2 polarized monocytes neither protected CCR2-/- mice from nor affected resolution of POI. In contrast, IL-10 deficiency reduced postoperative neutrophil numbers and ameliorated POI. IL-10Ra expression was strongly induced in neutrophils but not in monocytes. Conclusion: We conclude that IL-10 counteracts POI resolution by activating IL-10Ra-expressing neutrophils in the late phase of disease while IL-10-dependent M2 differentiation is not pivotal to POI manifestation and resolution.

Keywords: interleukin-10, macrophages, neutrophils, postoperative ileus

Procedia PDF Downloads 356

Authors: Jiwon Park, Jihae Hur, Kukjae Kim, Hansoo Kim

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In this study, outriggers, which are horizontal structures connecting a building core to distant columns to increase the lateral stiffness of a tall building, are used to reduce differential axial shortening in a tall building. Therefore, the outriggers in tall buildings are used to serve the dual purposes of reducing the lateral displacement and reducing the differential axial shortening. Since the location of the outrigger greatly affects the effectiveness of the outrigger in terms of the lateral displacement at the top of the tall building and the maximum differential axial shortening, the optimum locations of the dual-purpose outriggers can be determined by an optimization method. Because the floors where the outriggers are installed are given as integer numbers, the conventional gradient-based optimization methods cannot be directly used. In this study, a piecewise quadratic interpolation method is used to resolve the integrality requirement posed by the optimum locations of the dual-purpose outriggers. The optimal solutions for the dual-purpose outriggers are searched by linear scalarization which is a popular method for multi-objective optimization problems. It was found that increasing the number of outriggers reduced the maximum lateral displacement and the maximum differential axial shortening. It was also noted that the optimum locations for reducing the lateral displacement and reducing the differential axial shortening were different. Acknowledgment: This research was supported by Basic Science Research Program through the National Research Foundation of Korea(NRF) funded by the Ministry of Science and ICT (NRF-2017R1A2B4010043) and financially supported by Korea Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport(MOLIT) as U-City Master and Doctor Course Grant Program.

Keywords: concrete structure, optimization, outrigger, tall building

Procedia PDF Downloads 177

Authors: N. Arunraj, C. P. V. Paul, D. M. D. Jayawardena, W. N. D. Fernando

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Traffic congestion with increased numbers of vehicles is already a serious issue for many countries. The absence of sufficient parking spaces adds to the issue. Motorists are forced to wait in long queues to park their vehicles. This adds to the inconvenience faced by a motorist, kept waiting for a slot allocation, manually done along with the parking payment calculation. In Sri Lanka, nowadays, parking systems use barcode technology to identify the vehicles at both the entrance and the exit points. Customer management is handled by the use of man power. A parking space is, generally permanently sub divided according to the vehicle type. Here, again, is an issue. Parking spaces are not utilized to the maximum. The current arrangement leaves room for unutilized parking spaces. Accordingly, there is a need to manage the parking space dynamically. As a vehicle enters the parking area, available space has to be assigned for the vehicle according to the vehicle type. The system, Automated Parking System (APS), provides an automated solution using RFID Technology to identify the vehicles. Simultaneously, an algorithm manages the space allocation dynamically. With this system, there is no permanent parking slot allocation for a vehicle type. A desktop application manages the customer. A Web application is used to manage the external users with their reservations. The system also has an android application to view the nearest parking area from the current location. APS is built using java and php. It uses LED panels to guide the user inside the parking area to find the allocated parking slot accurately. The system ensures efficient performance, saving precious time for a customer. Compared with the current parking systems, APS interacts with users and increases customer satisfaction as well.

Keywords: RFID, android, web based system, barcode, algorithm, LED panels

Procedia PDF Downloads 599

Authors: Abdelrady K. Nasr, Ezzat M. A. Noweer, Mahmoud M. Ramadan

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The root-knot nematode, Meloidogyne incognita Kofoid and White (Tylenchida: Heteroderidae), is one of the most important plant-parasitic nematodes attacking large numbers of vegetable and fruit plants in Egypt. Moreover, the soil predatory mites (Protogamasellopsisdenticus (Nasr), Gaeolaelaps longus (Hafez, El-Badry and Nasr) and Cosmolaelapskeni(Hafez, El-Badry and Nasr) are one of the excellent agents for biocontrol, this study was designed to evaluate the predation of the root-knot nematode (M. incognita) using water agar technique. The water agar medium was used as an experimental medium to rear both the mentioned mites and egg masses; these media allowed observe the development and predacious manner. The present study revealed that the predatory mites successfully developed and reproduced their egg masses. The mean life cycle of the tested mites P. denticus, G. longus, and C.keni were 10.33, 12.00, and 9.77 days, respectively. The mean total life span of the female of P. denticus, G. longus, and C. keni on egg-mases of M. incognita were obtained 63.44, 77.55 and 70.11 days, respectively, and the mean total fecundity of predatory mites, P. denticus, G.longus, and C. keni on egg-mases nematode were observed 62.66, 31.61 and 11.83 eggs, respectively. The mean total number of eggs laid by female P. denticus was significantly higher than other predatory mites, G. longus and C. keni. According to the obtained results, the tested predacious mites can be applied to combat the spreading of M. incognita in the agriculture field as a safe and effective biological control.

Keywords: biological control, plant-parasitic nematodes, predaceous mites, water agar

Procedia PDF Downloads 79

Authors: Sherehan Hamdalla

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Egypt has experienced a series of terrifying love crimes in the last few months. This ‘trend’ of love crimes started with a young man caught on video slaughtering his ex-girlfriend in the street in the city of El Mansoura. The crime shocked all Egyptian citizens at all levels; unfortunately, not less than three similar crimes took place in other different Egyptian cities with the same killing trigger. The characteristics and easy access and reach of social media consider the reason why it is one of the most crucial online communication channels; users utilize social media platforms for sharing and exchanging ideas, news, and many other activities; they can freely share posts that reflect their mindset or personal views regarding any issues, these posts are going viral in all social media account by reposting or numbers of shares for these posts to support the content included, or even to attack. The repetition of sharing certain posts could mobilize other supporters with the same point of view, especially when that crowd’s online participation is confronting a public opinion case’s consequences. The death of that young woman was followed by similar crimes in other cities, such as El Sharkia and Port Said. These love crimes provoked a massive wave of contention among all social classes in Egypt. Strangely, some were supporting the criminal and defending his side for several reasons, which the study will uncover. Facebook, the most popular social media platform for Egyptians, reflects the debate between supporters of the victim and supporters of the criminal. Facebook pages were created specifically to disseminate certain viewpoints online, for example, asking for the maximum penalty to be given to criminals. These pages aimed to mobilize the maximum number of supporters and to affect the outcome of the trials.

Keywords: love crimes, victim, criminal, social media

Procedia PDF Downloads 76

Authors: K. Godazandeh, K. Sadeghy

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In the present study, the effect of magnetic field on the hydrodynamic instability of Taylor-Couette flow between two concentric rotating cylinders has been numerically investigated. At the beginning the basic flow has been solved using continuity, Cauchy equations (with regards to Lorentz force) and the constitutive equations of a viscoelastic model called "Giesekus" model. Small perturbations, considered to be normal mode, have been superimposed to the basic flow and the unsteady perturbation equations have been derived consequently. Neglecting non-linear terms, the general eigenvalue problem obtained has been solved using pseudo spectral method (combination of Chebyshev polynomials). The objective of the calculations is to study the effect of magnetic fields on the onset of first mode of instability (axisymmetric mode) for different dimensionless parameters of the flow. The results show that the stability picture is highly influenced by the magnetic field. When magnetic field increases, it first has a destabilization effect which changes to stabilization effect due to more increase of magnetic fields. Therefor there is a critical magnetic number (Hartmann number) for instability of Taylor-Couette flow. Also, the effect of magnetic field is more dominant in large gaps. Also based on the results obtained, magnetic field shows a more considerable effect on the stability at higher Weissenberg numbers (at higher elasticity), while the "mobility factor" changes show no dominant role on the intense of suction and injection effect on the flow's instability.

Keywords: magnetic field, Taylor-Couette flow, Giesekus model, pseudo spectral method, Chebyshev polynomials, Hartmann number, Weissenberg number, mobility factor

Procedia PDF Downloads 390

Authors: Jhemson C. Elis, Alvin S. Magadia

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Our world is full of numbers, shapes, and figures that illustrate the wholeness of a thing. Indeed, this statement signifies that mathematics is everywhere. Mathematics in its broadest sense helps people in their everyday life that is why in education it is a must to be taken by the students as a subject. The study aims to determine the profile of the respondents in terms of gender and age, performance of the control and experimental groups in the pretest and posttest, impact of the instructional game used as instructional intervention in teaching algebra for high school students, significant difference between the level of performance of the two groups of respondents in their pre–test and post–test results, and the instructional intervention can be proposed. The descriptive method was also utilized in this study. The use of the certain approach was to that it corresponds to the main objective of this research that is to determine the effectiveness of the instructional game used as an instructional intervention in teaching algebra for high school students. There were 30 students served as respondents, having an equal size of the sample of 15 each while a greater number of female teacher respondents which totaled 7 or 70 percent and male were 3 or 30 percent. The study recommended that mathematics teacher should conceptualize instructional games for the students to learn mathematics with fun and enjoyment while learning. Mathematics education program supervisor should give training for teachers on how to conceptualize mathematics intervention for the students learning. Meaningful activities must be provided to sustain the student’s interest in learning. Students must be given time to have fun at the classroom through playing while learning since mathematics for them was considered as difficult. Future researcher must continue conceptualizing some mathematics intervention to suffice the needs of the students, and teachers should inculcate more educational games so that the discussion will be successful and joyful.

Keywords: instructional game in algebra, mathematical intervention, joyful, successful

Procedia PDF Downloads 597

Authors: Jemini Vyas, Oluwatobi Adeyoe, Jenny Branagan, Chandran Tanabalan, Aakash Pai

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Introduction: Radical prostatectomy and radiotherapy are both viable options for the treatment of localised prostate cancer. Over the years medicine has evolved towards a patient-centred approach. Patient decision-making is not motivated by clinical outcomes alone. Geographical location and ease of access to treating clinician are contributory factors. With the development of robotic surgery, prostatectomy has been centralised into tertiary centres. This has impacted on the distances that patients and their families are expected to travel. Methods: A single centre retrospective study was undertaken over a five-year period. All patients with localised prostate cancer, undergoing radical radiotherapy or prostatectomy were collected pre-centralisation. This was compared to the total number undergoing these treatments post centralisation. Results: Pre-centralisation, both radiotherapy and prostatectomy groups had to travel a median of less than five miles for treatment. Post-centralisation of pelvic surgery, prostatectomy patients had to travel a median of more than 40 miles, whilst travel distance for the radiotherapy group was unchanged. In the post centralisation cohort, there was a 63% decline in the number of patients undergoing radical prostatectomy per month from a mean of 5.1 to 1.9. The radical radiotherapy group had a concurrent 41% increase in patient numbers with a mean increase from 13.3 to 18.8 patients per month. Conclusion: Choice of radical treatment in localised prostate cancer is based on multiple factors. This study infers that local availability can influence choice of radical treatment. It is imperative that efforts are made to maintain accessibility to all viable options for prostate cancer patients, so that patient choice is not compromised.

Keywords: prostate, prostatectomy, radiotherapy, centralisation

Procedia PDF Downloads 96

Authors: Fatemeh Daneshvartarigh

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New technologies and applications have radically altered construction techniques in recent years. In order to anticipate how the building will act, perform, and appear, these technologies encompass a wide range of visualization, simulation, and analytic tools. These new technologies and applications have a considerable impact on completing construction projects in today's (architecture, engineering and construction)AEC industries. The rate of changes in BIM-related topics is different worldwide, and it depends on many factors, e.g., the national policies of each country. Therefore, there is a need for comprehensive research focused on a specific area with common characteristics. Therefore, one of the necessary measures to increase the use of this new approach is to examine the challenges and obstacles facing it. In this research, based on the Delphi method, at first, the background and related literature are reviewed. Then, using the knowledge obtained from the literature, a primary questionnaire is generated and filled by experts who are selected using snowball sampling. It covered the experts' attitudes towards implementing BIM in renovation projects and their view of the benefits and obstacles in this regard. By analyzing the primary questionnaire, the second group of experts is selected among the participants to be interviewed. The results are analyzed using Theme analysis. Six themes, including Management support, staff resistance, client willingness, Cost of software and implementation, the difficulty of implementation, and other reasons, are obtained. Then a final questionnaire is generated from the themes and filled by the same group of experts. The result is analyzed by the Fuzzy Delphi method, showing the exact ranking of the obtained themes. The final results show that management support, staff resistance, and client willingness are the most critical barrier to BIM usage in renovation projects.

Keywords: building information modeling, BIM, BIM implementation, BIM barriers, BIM in renovation

Procedia PDF Downloads 167

Authors: K. Parandhama Gowd

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Space technologies have changed the way we live in the present day society and manage many aspects of our daily affairs through Remote sensing, Navigation & Communications. Further, defense and military usage of spacecraft has increased tremendously along with civilian purposes. The number of satellites deployed in space in Low Earth Orbit (LEO), Medium Earth Orbit (MEO), and the Geostationary Orbit (GEO) has gone up. The dependency on remote sensing and operational capabilities are most invariably to be exploited more and more in future. Every country is acquiring spacecraft in one way or other for their daily needs, and spacecraft numbers are likely to increase significantly and create spacecraft traffic problems. The aim of this research paper is to propose innovative design concepts for adaptive spacecraft. The main idea here is to improve existing design methods of spacecraft design and development to further improve upon design considerations for futuristic adaptive spacecraft with inbuilt features for automatic adaptability and self-protection. In other words, the innovative design considerations proposed here are to have future spacecraft with self-organizing capabilities for orbital control and protection from anti-satellite weapons (ASAT). Here, an attempt is made to propose design and develop futuristic spacecraft for 2030 and beyond due to tremendous advancements in VVLSI, miniaturization, and nano antenna array technologies, including nano technologies are expected.

Keywords: satellites, low earth orbit (LEO), medium earth orbit (MEO), geostationary earth orbit (GEO), self-organizing control system, anti-satellite weapons (ASAT), orbital control, radar warning receiver, missile warning receiver, laser warning receiver, attitude and orbit control systems (AOCS), command and data handling (CDH)

Procedia PDF Downloads 296

Authors: María D. Groppa, Andrea Trentini, Myriam Zawoznik, Roxana Bigi, Carlos Nadra, Patricia L. Marconi

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In the present work, a remediation bioprocess based on the use of a local isolate of the microalgae Chlorella vulgaris immobilized in alginate beads is proposed. This process was shown to be effective for the reduction of several chemical and microbial contaminants present in Cildáñez stream, a water course that is part of the Matanza-Riachuelo Basin (Buenos Aires, Argentina). The bioprocess, involving the culture of the microalga in autotrophic conditions in a stirred-tank bioreactor supplied with a marine propeller for 6 days, allowed a significant reduction of Escherichia coli and total coliform numbers (over 95%), as well as of ammoniacal nitrogen (96%), nitrates (86%), nitrites (98%), and total phosphorus (53%) contents. Pb content was also significantly diminished after the bioprocess (95%). Standardized cytotoxicity tests using Allium cepa seeds and Cildáñez water pre- and post-remediation were also performed. Germination rate and mitotic index of onion seeds imbibed in Cildáñez water subjected to the bioprocess was similar to that observed in seeds imbibed in distilled water and significantly superior to that registered when untreated Cildáñez water was used for imbibition. Our results demonstrate the potential of this simple and cost-effective technology to remove urban-water contaminants, offering as an additional advantage the possibility of an easy biomass recovery, which may become a source of alternative energy.

Keywords: bioreactor, bioremediation, Chlorella vulgaris, Matanza-Riachuelo Basin, microalgae

Procedia PDF Downloads 250

Authors: Jinn-Jong Sheu, Cang-Fu Liang, Cheng-Hsien Yu

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This paper proposed the cold roll forming process and the die design methods for a 400mm by 400 mm square tube with 16 mm in thickness. The tubular blank made by cold roll forming is 508mm in diameter. The square tube roll forming process was designed considering the layout of rolls and the compression ratio distribution for each stand. The final tube corner radius and the edge straightness in the front end of the tube are to be controlled according to the tube specification. A five-stand forming design using four rolls at each stand was proposed to establish the base reference of square tube roll forming quality. Different numbers of pass and roll designs were proposed and compared to the base design in order to find the feasibility of increase pass number to improve the square tube quality. The proposed roll forming processes were simulated using FEM analysis. The thickness variations of the corner and the edge areas were examined. The maximum loads and the torques of each stand were calculated to study the power consumption of the roll forming machine. The simulation results showed the square tube thickness variations and concavity of the edge are acceptable with the JIS tube specifications for the base design. But the maximum loads and torques are very high. By changing the layout and the number of the rolls were able to obtain better tube geometry and decrease the maximum load and torque of each stand. This paper had shown the feasibility of designing the roll forming process and the layout of dies using FEM simulation. The obtained information is helpful to the roll forming machine design for a large size square tube making.

Keywords: cold roll forming, FEM analysis, roll forming die design, tube roll forming

Procedia PDF Downloads 311

Authors: Matthias Banholzer, Hagen Müller, Michael Pfitzner

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Gas internal combustion engines are widely used as propulsion systems or in power plants to generate heat and electricity. While there are different types of injection methods including the manifold port fuel injection and the direct injection, the latter has more potential to increase the specific power by avoiding air displacement in the intake and to reduce combustion anomalies such as backfire or pre-ignition. During the opening process of the injector, multiple flow regimes occur: subsonic, transonic and supersonic. To cover the wide range of Mach numbers a compressible pressure-based solver is used. While the standard Pressure Implicit with Splitting of Operators (PISO) method is used for the coupling between velocity and pressure, a high-resolution non-oscillatory central scheme established by Kurganov and Tadmor calculates the convective fluxes. A blending function based on the local Mach- and CFL-number switches between the compressible and incompressible regimes of the developed model. As the considered operating points are well above the critical state of the used fluids, the ideal gas assumption is not valid anymore. For the real gas thermodynamics, the models based on the Soave-Redlich-Kwong equation of state were implemented. The caloric properties are corrected using a departure formalism, for the viscosity and the thermal conductivity the empirical correlation of Chung is used. For the injector geometry, the dimensions of a diesel injector were adapted. Simulations were performed using different nozzle and needle geometries and opening curves. It can be clearly seen that there is a significant influence of all three parameters.

Keywords: high pressure gas injection, hybrid solver, hydrogen injection, needle opening process, real-gas thermodynamics

Procedia PDF Downloads 461

Authors: Vivian A. Galindo, Maria C. Galvis, Jaime R. Obando, Alvaro Guarin

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In Colombia, most of the roads of the national tertiary road network are unpaved roads with granular rolling surface. These are very important ways of guaranteeing the mobility of people, products, and inputs from the agricultural sector from the most remote areas to urban centers; however, it has not paid much attention to the search for alternatives to avoid the occurrence of deteriorations that occur shortly after its commissioning. In recent years, geosynthetics have been used satisfactorily to reinforce unpaved roads on soft soils, with geotextiles and geogrids being the most widely used. The interaction of the geogrid and the aggregate minimizes the lateral movement of the aggregate particles and increases the load capacity of the material, which leads to a better distribution of the vertical stresses, consequently reducing the vertical deformations in the subgrade. Taking into account the above, the research aimed at the mechanical behavior of the granular material, used in unpaved roads with and without the presence of geogrids, from the development of laboratory tests through the loaded wheel tester (LWT). For comparison purposes, the reinforced conditions and traffic conditions to which this type of material can be accessed in practice were simulated. In total four types of geogrids, were tested with granular material; this means that five test sets, the reinforced material and the non-reinforced control sample were evaluated. The results of the numbers of load cycles and depth rutting supported by each test body showed the influence of the properties of the reinforcement on the mechanical behavior of the assembly and the significant increases in the number of load cycles of the reinforced specimens in relation to those without reinforcement.

Keywords: geosynthetics, load wheel tester LWT, tertiary roads, unpaved road, vertical deformation

Procedia PDF Downloads 250

Authors: Yu-Ting Tsai, Chiun-Chieh Hsu, Yu-Chun Chu

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In recent years, due to the development of wireless network technology, many researchers have devoted to the study of wireless sensor networks. The applications of wireless sensor network mainly use the sensor nodes to collect the required information, and send the information back to the users. Since the sensed area is difficult to reach, there are many restrictions on the design of the sensor nodes, where the most important restriction is the limited energy of sensor nodes. Because of the limited energy, researchers proposed a number of ways to reduce energy consumption and balance the load of sensor nodes in order to increase the network lifetime. In this paper, we proposed the Energy-Balanced Clustering method with Auxiliary Members on Wireless Sensor Networks（EBCAM）based on the cluster routing. The main purpose is to balance the energy consumption on the sensed area and average the distribution of dead nodes in order to avoid excessive energy consumption because of the increasing in transmission distance. In addition, we use the residual energy and average energy consumption of the nodes within the cluster to choose the cluster heads, use the multi hop transmission method to deliver the data, and dynamically adjust the transmission radius according to the load conditions. Finally, we use the auxiliary cluster members to change the delivering path according to the residual energy of the cluster head in order to its load. Finally, we compare the proposed method with the related algorithms via simulated experiments and then analyze the results. It reveals that the proposed method outperforms other algorithms in the numbers of used rounds and the average energy consumption.

Keywords: auxiliary nodes, cluster, load balance, routing algorithm, wireless sensor network

Procedia PDF Downloads 274

Authors: Umugwaneza Francoise, Ntamazeze Janviere, Donghong Ding

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Entrepreneurship has been considered by majority people from developing world as “no other option” kind of career. Consequently, for a long time entrepreneurship in developing countries has been mainly practiced by people who have low or not at all formal education. Even today, to some extent, much of the actions taken by governments, donors and some societies have tendency to consider entrepreneurship as an instrument to lift up the most vulnerable population including uneducated women, school drop outers, people with disabilities and other groups who live with some sort of vulnerability. However, there is a shortage of knowledge based and know-how entrepreneurship in developing countries. Although, the entrepreneurship done with formal educated people would contribute indispensably and sustain the development, the low numbers of formal educated people become entrepreneurs in developing countries. Empirically, this paper investigated the influential factors affecting the entrepreneurial motivation, intentions and decision among African scientists and engineers postgraduate from china universities since 1995 to 2014. Results revealed that 39% are entrepreneurs, 43% work for private sectors and 18% work for governments. Only 6% of respondents are in technological entrepreneurship related to their field of graduation. Study location, mentors or research supervisors and life style are the major factors influenced their decisions to become entrepreneurs whereas complex financial systems and political instability pushed some to employments. Interestingly, significant number of entrepreneurs did not have any entrepreneurial intentions. This paper concludes with suggestions to policy makers and investors in order to encouraging technological entrepreneurs which will provide more opportunities, create jobs and improve people’s quality of life.

Keywords: technological entrepreneurship, entrepreneurial motivation, entrepreneurship decision making, entrepreneurship intentions, formal education

Procedia PDF Downloads 372

Authors: Fangfang Wang, Fan Qu

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Polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS), the most common endocrinopathy among women of reproductive age, is characterized by ovarian dysfunction, hyperandrogenism and reduced fecundity. The aim of this study is to investigate whether the circadian disruption is involved in pathogenesis of PCOS in androgen-induced animal model. We established a rat model of PCOS using single subcutaneous injection with testosterone propionate on the ninth day after birth, and confirmed their PCOS-like phenotypes with vaginal smears, ovarian hematoxylin and eosin (HE) staining and serum androgen measurement. The control group rats received the vehicle only. Gene expression was detected by real-time quantitative PCR. (1) Compared with control group, PCOS model rats of 10-week group showed persistently keratinized vaginal cells, while all the control rats showed at least two consecutive estrous cycles. (2) Ovarian HE staining and histological examination showed that PCOS model rats of 10-week group presented many cystic follicles with decreased numbers of granulosa cells and corpora lutea in their ovaries, while the control rats had follicles with normal layers of granulosa cells at various stages of development and several generations of corpora lutea. (3) In the 10-week group, serum free androgen index was notably higher in PCOS model rats than controls. (4) Disturbed mRNA expression patterns of core clock genes were found in ovaries of PCOS model rats of 10-week group. Abnormal expression of key genes associated with circadian rhythm in ovary may be one of the mechanisms for ovarian dysfunction in PCOS model rats induced by androgen.

Keywords: polycystic ovary syndrome, androgen, animal model, circadian disruption

Procedia PDF Downloads 230

Authors: Muhammad Naziru Yahaya, Mustapha Bashir Ayinde

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Noise has been recognized as a major source of pollution in many urban and semi-urban settlements. Noise pollution causes by vehicular movement in urban cities has reaches an alarming proportion due to continuous increases in vehicles and industrialization. This research aim to determine the geo-physical characteristics of the study area and to determine the level of noise generation and volume intensity in areas where noise levels are high within the metropolis and compare with NESREA and WHO standards. This study identified the various sources of noise, compared noise levels in various parts of the study area with recommended standards and determined the geo-physical characteristic of noise generated. A sound level meter Gm 1352, was used for the noise measurements. The study showed that the noise pollution levels measured in minimum noise level of 63.75 dBA and average maximum of 95.175 dBA, at some locations in Birnin Kebbi metropolis the noise level have exceeded the standard limits set by the World Health Organization (WHO), Federal Environment Protection Agency (FEPA). Results revealed that there was a considerable increase in noise pollution in First Bank roundabout and Haliru Abdu roundabout, attribute to high numbers of vehicular movement and road congestion within Birnin Kebbi. The study therefore concluded that there should be an enforcement and adherence to the regulation regarding noise pollution limit. The minimum average day noise level recorded was 67.225 dBA, and average maximum of 96.6 dBA is an indication that the noise level of Birnin Kebbi metropolis was highly unsatisfactory. Based on this, it is suggested that taking adequate measures and following the laid-down recommendations will reduce traffic noise to the barest minimum.

Keywords: decibel, noise level, pollution, sound level, traffic, highway

Procedia PDF Downloads 77

Authors: Armana Huq

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Railway networks have a significant role in the economy of any country. Similar to other transportation modes, many lives suffer from fatalities or injuries caused by accidents related to the railway. Railway accidents are not as common as roadway accidents yet they are more devastating and damaging than other roadway accidents. Despite that, issues related to railway accidents are not taken into consideration with significant attention as a major threat because of their less frequency compared to other accident categories perhaps. However, the Federal Railroad Administration reported nearly twelve thousand train accidents related to the railroad in the year 2014, resulting in more than eight hundred fatalities and thousands of injuries in the United States alone of which nearly one third fatalities resulted from railway crossing accidents. From an analysis of railway accident data of six years (2005-2010), it has been revealed that 344 numbers of the collision were occurred resulting 200 people dead and 443 people injured in Bangladesh. This paper includes a comprehensive overview of the railway safety situation in Bangladesh from 1998 to 2015. Each year on average, eight fatalities are reported in at-grade level crossings due to railway accidents in Bangladesh. In this paper, the number of railway accidents that occurred in Bangladesh has been presented and a fatality rate of 58.62% has been estimated as the percentage of total at-grade railway level crossing accidents. For this study, analysis of railway accidents in Bangladesh for the period 1998 to 2015 was obtained from the police reported accident database using MAAP (Microcomputer Accident Analysis Package). Investigation of the major contributing factors to the railway accidents has been performed using the Multinomial Logit model. Furthermore, hotspot analysis has been conducted using ArcGIS. Eventually, some suggestions have been provided to mitigate those accidents.

Keywords: safety, human factors, multinomial logit model, railway

Procedia PDF Downloads 148

Authors: S. M. Javad Davoodi, Mojtaba Shourian

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Groundwater table close to the ground surface causes major problems in construction and mining operation. One of the methods to control groundwater in such cases is using pumping wells. These pumping wells remove excess water from the site project and lower the water table to a desirable value. Although the efficiency of this method is acceptable, it needs high expenses to apply. It means even small improvement in a design of pumping wells can lead to substantial cost savings. In order to minimize the total cost in the method of pumping wells, a simulation-optimization approach is applied. The proposed model integrates MODFLOW as the simulation model with Firefly as the optimization algorithm. In fact, MODFLOW computes the drawdown due to pumping in an aquifer and the Firefly algorithm defines the optimum value of design parameters which are numbers, pumping rates and layout of the designing wells. The developed Firefly-MODFLOW model is applied to minimize the cost of the dewatering project for the ancient mosque of Kerman city in Iran. Repetitive runs of the Firefly-MODFLOW model indicates that drilling two wells with the total rate of pumping 5503 m3/day is the result of the minimization problem. Results show that implementing the proposed solution leads to at least 1.5 m drawdown in the aquifer beneath mosque region. Also, the subsidence due to groundwater depletion is less than 80 mm. Sensitivity analyses indicate that desirable groundwater depletion has an enormous impact on total cost of the project. Besides, in a hypothetical aquifer decreasing the hydraulic conductivity contributes to decrease in total water extraction for dewatering.

Keywords: groundwater dewatering, pumping wells, simulation-optimization, MODFLOW, firefly algorithm

Procedia PDF Downloads 294

Authors: Marc Solé, Francesc Giné, Magda Valls, Nina Bijedic

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What people say on social media has turned into a rich source of information to understand social behavior. Specifically, the growing use of Twitter social media for political communication has arisen high opportunities to know the opinion of large numbers of politically active individuals in real time and predict the global political tendencies of a specific country. It has led to an increasing body of research on this topic. The majority of these studies have been focused on polarized political contexts characterized by only two alternatives. Unlike them, this paper tackles the challenge of forecasting Spanish political trends, characterized by multiple political parties, by means of analyzing the Twitters Users political tendency. According to this, a new strategy, named Tweets Analysis Strategy (TAS), is proposed. This is based on analyzing the users tweets by means of discovering its sentiment (positive, negative or neutral) and classifying them according to the political party they support. From this individual political tendency, the global political prediction for each political party is calculated. In order to do this, two different strategies for analyzing the sentiment analysis are proposed: one is based on Positive and Negative words Matching (PNM) and the second one is based on a Neural Networks Strategy (NNS). The complete TAS strategy has been performed in a Big-Data environment. The experimental results presented in this paper reveal that NNS strategy performs much better than PNM strategy to analyze the tweet sentiment. In addition, this research analyzes the viability of the TAS strategy to obtain the global trend in a political context make up by multiple parties with an error lower than 23%.

Keywords: political tendency, prediction, sentiment analysis, Twitter

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Authors: Ammar Said Ahmed, M. Reissmann, R. Bortfeldt, G. A. Brockmann

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Milk protein genetic variants are of interest for characterizing domesticated mammalian species and breeds, and for studying associations with economic traits. The aim of this work was to analyze milk protein genetic variation in the Sudanese native cattle breeds, which have been gradually declining in numbers over the last years due to the breed substitution, and indiscriminate crossbreeding. The genetic variation at three milk protein genes αS1-casein (CSN1S1), αS2-casein (CSN1S2) and ƙ-casein (CSN3) was investigated in 250 animals belonging to five Bos indicus cattle breeds of Sudan (Butana, Kenana, White-nile, Erashy and Elgash). Allele specific primers were designed for five SNPs determine the CSN1S1 variants B and C, the CSN1S2 variants A and B, the CSN3 variants A, B and H. Allele, haplotype frequencies and genetic distances (D) were calculated and the phylogenetic tree was constructed. All breeds were found to be polymorphic for the studied genes. The CSN1S1*C variant was found very frequently (>0.63) in all analyzed breeds with highest frequency (0.82) in White-nile cattle. The CSN1S2*A variant (0.77) and CSN3*A variant (0.79) had highest frequency in Kenana cattle. Eleven haplotypes in casein gene cluster were inferred. Six of all haplotypes occurred in all breeds with remarkably deferent frequencies. The estimated D ranged from 0.004 to 0.049. The most distant breeds were White-nile and Kenana (D 0.0479). The results presented contribute to the genetic knowledge of indigenous cattle and can be used for proper definition and classification of the Sudanese cattle breeds as well as breeding, utilization, and potential development of conservation strategies for local breeds.

Keywords: milk protein, genetic variation, casein haplotype, Bos indicus

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Authors: Andrea Marcela Morales Reyes

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In the year 2000, the federal government of the United States of America enacted anti-trafficking legislation to prevent human trafficking, prosecute traffickers, and protect the victims. Since then, all 50 states have followed the federal government's example by enacting state-level anti-trafficking legislation. In order to fight human trafficking in the United States, it is paramount that this legislation is not only comprehensively enacted but also enforced. This study reviewed the anti-trafficking laws enacted in each of the 50 states and investigated the success of such laws by reporting the number of trafficking related prosecutions, cases identified, and victims protected. This study reviewed human trafficking reports issued by nonprofits, and state and federal level agencies. An increase in the number of cases investigated since the state laws have been passed reflects a moderate success in the fight against human trafficking in the U.S. This review also found that although every state has passed anti-trafficking legislation, many still lack a comprehensive approach to combat human trafficking; some states lack key provisions to prevent human trafficking, prosecute traffickers, and protect it victims. This, along with the lack of enforcement of the anti-trafficking plans included in each of the state legislations, has meant that the human trafficking cases investigated in fiscal year 2016 are not near the estimated numbers; which in turn suggests that this crime is still greatly unaccounted for. This study concludes that although important steps have been taken at the national and state level to combat human trafficking, the identification and prosecution of human trafficking cases still proves challenging in the United States.

Keywords: enforcement of laws, human trafficking, anti-trafficking legislation, United States

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Authors: Faisal Nouroz, Mukaramin Mukaramin

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Of the transposable elements (TEs), the retrotransposons are the most copious elements identified from many sequenced genomes. They have played a major role in genome evolution, rearrangement, and expansions based on their copy and paste mode of proliferation. They are further divided into LTR and Non-LTR retrotransposons. The purpose of the current study was to identify the LTR REs in sequenced Phoenix dactylifera genome and to study their structural diversity. A total of 150 P. dactylifera BAC sequences with > 60kb sizes were randomly retrieved from National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) database and screened for the presence of LTR retrotransposons. Seven bacterial artificial chromosomes (BAC) sequences showed full-length LTR Retrotransposons with 4 Copia and 3 Gypsy families having variable copy numbers in respective families. Reverse transcriptase (RT) domain was found as the most conserved domain among Copia and Gypsy superfamilies and was used to deduce evolutionary analysis. The amino acid residues among various RT sequences showed variability in their percentages indicating post divergence evolution. Amino acid Leucine was found in highest proportions followed by Lysine, while Methionine and Tryptophan were in lowest percentages. The phylogenetic analysis based on RT domains confirmed that although having most conserved RT regions, several evolutionary events occurred causing nucleotide polymorphisms and hence clustering of Gypsy and Copia superfamilies into their respective lineages. The study will be helpful in identification and annotation of these elements in other species and genera and their distribution patterns on chromosomes by fluorescent in situ hybridization techniques.

Keywords: transposable elements, Phoenix dactylifera, retrotransposons, phylogenetic analysis

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Authors: Olumayowa M. Olowe, Michael D. Asemoloye Odunayo J. Olawuyi, Hilda Vasanthakaalam

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Poor management of maize ear rot caused by fungal infection in Nigeria affected the quantity and quality of maize. This study, therefore, aims at characterizing and controlling Fusarium strains using arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi. Maize ear showing rot symptoms were obtained from some selected farms located at Ilesa East and West using random sampling technique. Isolation of Fusarium pathogen from infected maize grain was done using direct pour plate method on potato dextrose agar (PDA) and was characterized based on morphological and molecular ITS-amplification methods. The reaction of PVASYN8F2, T2LCOMP1STR SYN-W-1, and T2LCOMP4 maize varieties, to the Fusarium ear rot pathogens and biocontrol efficacy of the mycorrhizal fungi were assessed on growth, yield, agronomic parameters and symptoms observed. The strains; olowILH1 and olowILH2 identified as Fusarium napiforme were the most dominant and virulent pathogens associated with the maize. They showed genetic similarity with documented ear rot pathogens on NCBI with accession numbers Fusarium proliferatum KT224027, KT224023, and Fusarium sp AY237110. They both exhibited varying inhibitory effects on the three maize varieties compare to control (uninfected plant) which had better growth characteristics. It was also observed that strain olowILH1 was more virulent than olowILH2. T2LCOMP4 was generally more susceptible to both fungal strains compared to the other two maize (T2LCOMP1STR SYN-W-1 and T2LCOMP4 ). In all, strain olowILH1 was more virulent than olowILH2, and Glomus clarum had higher inhibitory pathogenic effect against Fusarium strains compared to G. deserticola.

Keywords: arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi, disease management, Fusarium strains, identification

Procedia PDF Downloads 173

Authors: M. D. Asemoloye, S. G. Jonathan, A. Rafiq, O. J. Olawuyi, D. O. Adejoye

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Calmodulin is one of the intracellular calcium proteins that regulates large spectrum of enzymes and cellular functions including metabolism of cyclic nucleotides and glycogen. The potentials of calmodulin gene in fungi necessitates their genetic response and their strong cassette of enzyme secretions for pesticide degradation. Therefore, this study was carried out to investigate the ‘Transcriptomic’ response of calmodulin encoding genes in Talaromyces fungi in response to 2, 2-dichlorovinyl dimethyl phosphate (DDVP or Dichlorvos) an organophosphate pesticide and γ-Hexachlorocyclohexane (Lindane) an organochlorine pesticide. Fungi strains isolated from rhizosphere from grasses rhizosphere in pesticide polluted sites were subjected to percentage incidence test. Two most frequent fungi were further characterized using ITS gene amplification (ITS1 and ITS4 combinations), they were thereafter subjected to In-vitro DDVP and lindane tolerance tests at different concentrations. They were also screened for presence and expression of calmodulin gene (caM) using RT-PCR technique. The two Talaromyces strains had the highest incidence of 50-72% in pesticide polluted site, they were both identified as Talaromyces astroroseus asemoG and Talaromyces purpurogenum asemoN submitted in NCBI gene-bank with accession numbers KY488464 and KY488468 respectively. T. astroroseus KY488464 tolerated DDVP (1.23±0.023 cm) and lindane (1.11±0.018 cm) at 25 % concentration while T. purpurogenum KY488468 tolerated DDVP (1.33±0.061 cm) and lindane (1.54±0.077 cm) at this concentration. Calmodulin gene was detected in both strains, but RT-PCR expression of caM gene revealed at 900-1000 bp showed an under-expression of caM in T. astrorosues KY488464 but overexpressed in T. purpurogenum KY488464. Thus, the calmodulin gene response of these fungal strains to both pesticides could be considered in monitoring the potentials of fungal strains to pesticide tolerance and bioremediation of pesticide in polluted soil.

Keywords: Calmodulin gene, pesticide, RT-PCR, talaromyces, tolerance

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Authors: V. R. Venugopal

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Human being evolved 200,000 years ago in an area which is now the Sahara desert and lived all along in the northern part of Africa. It was around 10,000 to15,00 years that he moved out of Africa. Various ancient civilizations – mainly the Egyptian, Mesopotamian, Indus valley and the Chinese yellow river valley civilizations - developed and perished till the beginning of the Christian era. Strangely the regions where all these civilizations flourished are no deserts. After the ancient civilizations the two major religions of the world the Christianity and Islam evolved. These too evolved in the regions of Jerusalem and Mecca which are now in the deserts of the present Israel and Saudi Arabia. Human activity since ancient age right from his origin was in areas which are now deserts. This is only because wherever Man lived in large numbers he has turned them into deserts. Unfortunately, this is not the case with the ancient days alone. Over the last 500 years the forest cover on the earth is reduced by 80 percent. Even more currently Just over the last forty decades human population has doubled but the number of bugs, beetles, worms and butterflies (micro fauna) have declined by 45%. Deforestation and defaunation are the first signs of desertification and Desertification is a process parallel to the extinction of life. There is every possibility that soon most of the earth will be in deserts. This writer has been involved in the process of forestation and increase of fauna as a profession since twenty years and this is a report of his efforts made in the process, the results obtained and concept generated to revert the ongoing desertification of this earth. This paper highlights how desertification can be reverted by applying these basic principles. 1) Man is not owner of this earth and has no right destroy vegetation and micro fauna. 2) Land owner shall not have the freedom to do anything that he wishes with the land. 3) The land that is under agriculture shall be reduced at least by a half. 4) Irrigation and modern technology shall be used for the forest growth also. 5) Farms shall have substantial permanent vegetation and the practice of all in all out shall stop.

Keywords: desertification, extinction, micro fauna, reverting

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Authors: T. Abdulkadir

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Most often, marking and assessment of multiple choice kinds of examinations have been opined by many as a cumbersome and herculean task to accomplished manually in Nigeria. Usually this may be in obvious nexus to the fact that mass numbers of candidates were known to take the same examination simultaneously. Eventually, marking such a mammoth number of booklets dared and dread even the fastest paid examiners who often undertake the job with the resulting consequences of stress and boredom. This paper explores the evolution, as well as the set aim to envision and transcend marking the Multiple Choice Objectives- type examination into a thing of creative recreation, or perhaps a more relaxing activity via the use of the mobile phone. A more “pragmatic” dimension method was employed to achieve this work, rather than the formal “in-depth research” based approach due to the “novelty” of the mobile-smartphone e-Marking Scheme discovery. Moreover, being an evolutionary scheme, no recent academic work shares a direct same topic concept with the ‘use of cell phone as an e-marking technique’ was found online; thus, the dearth of even miscellaneous citations in this work. Additional future advancements are what steered the anticipatory motive of this paper which laid the fundamental proposition. However, the paper introduces for the first time the concept of mobile-smart phone e-marking, the steps to achieve it, as well as the merits and demerits of the technique all spelt out in the subsequent pages.

Keywords: cell phone, e-marking scheme (eMS), mobile phone, mobile-smart phone, multiple choice objectives (MCO), smartphone

Procedia PDF Downloads 259

Authors: Xavier Bertrand, Alexandre Cayrel

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The early phase of an aircraft development is instrumental as it really drives the potential of a new concept. Any weakness in the high-level design (wing planform, moveable surfaces layout etc.) will be extremely difficult and expensive to recover later in the aircraft development process. Aerodynamic evaluation in this very early development phase is driven by two main criteria: a short lead-time to allow quick iterations of the geometrical design, and a high quality of the calculations to get an accurate & reliable assessment of the current status. These two criteria are usually quite contradictory. Actually, short lead time of a couple of hours from end-to-end can be obtained with very simple tools (semi-empirical methods for instance) although their accuracy is limited, whereas higher quality calculations require heavier/more complex tools, which obviously need more complex inputs as well, and a significantly longer lead time. At this point, the choice has to be done between accuracy and lead-time. A brand new approach has been developed within Airbus, aiming at obtaining quickly high quality evaluations of the aerodynamic of an aircraft. This methodology is based on a joint use of Surrogate Modelling and a lifting line code. The Surrogate Modelling is used to get the wing sections characteristics (e.g. lift coefficient vs. angle of attack), whatever the airfoil geometry, the status of the moveable surfaces (aileron/spoilers) or the high-lift devices deployment. From these characteristics, the lifting line code is used to get the 3D effects on the wing whatever the flow conditions (low/high Mach numbers etc.). This methodology has been applied successfully to a concept of medium range aircraft.

Keywords: aerodynamics, lifting line, surrogate model, CFD

Procedia PDF Downloads 359

Authors: Juan Manuel Uriarte Lopez, Hector Raul Guemez Gaxiola, Javier Alonso Romo Rubio, Juan Manuel Romo Valdez

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The objective of this investigation was to determine the influence of the use of recycled vegetable oil from restaurants in the productive performance of sows in lactation. Twenty-four hybrids lactating sows (Landrace x Yorkshire) were divided into three treatments with eight sows per treatment. On day 107 of gestation, the sows were moved to the mesh floor maternity cages in an environment regulated by the environment regulated (2.4 × 0.6 m) contained an area (2.4 × 0.5 m) for newborn pigs on each side, all diets were provided as a dry powder, and the sows received free access to water throughout the experimental period. After farrowing, the sows were fasted for 12 hours, the daily feed ration gradually increased, and the sows had ad libitum access to feed on the fourth day. The diets used were corn-soybean meal-based, containing 0 (CONT), recycled vegetable oil 1.0 % (RVOL), or recycled vegetable oil 1.5 % (RVOH) for 30 days. The diets contained similar calculated levels of crude protein and metabolizable energy and contained vitamins and minerals that exceeded National Research Council (1998) recommendations; sows were fed three times daily. On day 30, piglets were weaned, and performances of lactating sows and nursery piglets were recorded. Results indicated that average daily feed intake (5.58, 5.55, and 5.49 kg for CONT, RVOL, and RVO, respectively) of sows were not affected (P > 0.05) by different dietary. There was no difference in the average body weight of piglets on the day of birth, with 1.33, 1.36, and 1.35 kg, respectively (P > 0.05). There was no difference in average body weight of piglets on day 30, with 6.91, 6.75, and 7.05 kg, respectively 0.05) between treatments numbers of weaned piglets per sow (9.95, 9.80, and 9.80) were not affected by treatments (P > 0.05).In conclusion, the substitution of virgin vegetable oil for recycled vegetable oil in the diet does not affect the productive performance of lactating sows.

Keywords: lactating, sow, vegetable, oil

Procedia PDF Downloads 300