Search results for: t tree representation

Authors: Adriano Trono, Federico Pinto, Diego Turello, Marcelo A. Ceballos

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Numerical modeling of dynamic soil-structure interaction problems requires an adequate representation of the unbounded characteristics of the ground, material non-linearity of soils, and geometrical non-linearities such as large displacements due to rocking of the structure. In order to account for these effects simultaneously, it is often required that the equations of motion are solved in the time domain. However, boundary conditions in conventional finite element codes generally present shortcomings in fully absorbing the energy of outgoing waves. In this sense, the Perfectly Matched Layers (PML) technique allows a satisfactory absorption of inclined body waves, as well as surface waves. However, the PML domain is inherently unstable, meaning that it its instability does not depend upon the discretization considered. One way to stabilize the PML domain is to use multiaxial stretching functions. This development is questionable because some Jacobian terms of the coordinate transformation are not accounted for. For this reason, the resulting absorbing layer element is often referred to as "uncorrected M-PML” in the literature. In this work, the strong formulation of the "corrected M-PML” absorbing layer is proposed using multiaxial stretching functions that incorporate all terms of the coordinate transformation. The results of the stable model are compared with reference solutions obtained from extended domain models.

Keywords: mixed finite elements, multiaxial stretching functions, perfectly matched layer, soil-structure interaction

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Authors: Mbah Fidelix Njong, Sabi Emile Forkwa

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Social cognition is an aspect of social psychology that focuses on how people process, store and apply information about others and social situations. It lay emphasis on how cognitive processes play in our social interactions. In this article, we try to show how culture can influence our ways of thinking about others, how we feel and interact with the world around us. Social cognitive processes involve perceiving people and how we learn about the people around us. It concerns the mental processes of remembering, thinking and attending to other people with different cultural backgrounds and how we attend to certain information about the world. Especially in an educational setting, students’ learning processes are most often than not influenced by their cultural background. We can also talk of social schemas. That’s people’s mental representation of social patterns and norms. This involves information about the societal role and the expectations of individuals within a group. These cognitive processes can also be influence by culture. There are important cultural differences in social cognition. In any social situation, two individuals may have different interpretations. Each person brings in a unique background of experiences, knowledge, social influence, feelings and cultural variations. Cultural differences can also affect how people interpret social situations. The same social behavior in one cultural setting might have completely different meaning and interpretation if observed or applied in another culture. However, as people interpret behaviors and bring out meaning from the interpretations, they act based on their beliefs about situations they are confronted with. This helps to reinforce and reproduce the cultural norms that influence their social cognition.

Keywords: social cognition, social schema, cultural influence, psychology

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Authors: U. V. Okpala

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Flood is an overflow of water that submerges or ‘drowns’ land. In developing countries it occurs as a result of blocking of natural and man-made drainages and poor maintenance of water dams/reservoirs which seldom give way after persistent heavy down pours. In coastal lowlands and swamp lands, flooding is aided mainly by blocked channels and indiscriminate sand fling of coastal swamp areas and natural drainage channel for urban development/constructions. In this paper, the causes of flood and possible scientific, technological, political, economic and social impacts of flood disaster on the environment a case study of Anambra State have been studied. Often times flooding is caused by climate change, especially in the developed economy where scientific mitigating options are highly employed. Researchers have identified Green Houses Gases (GHG) as the cause of global climate change. The recent flood disaster in Anambra State which caused physical damage to structures, social dislocation, contamination of clean drinking water, spread of water-borne diseases, shortage of crops and food supplies, death of non-tolerant tree species, disruption in transportation system, serious economic loss and psychological trauma is a function of climate change. There is need to encourage generation of renewable energy sources, use of less carbon intensive fuels and other energy efficient sources. Carbon capture/sequestration, proper management of our drainage systems and good maintenance of our dams are good option towards saving the environment.

Keywords: flooding, climate change, carbon capture, energy systems

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Authors: M. F. Nawaz, S. Gul, T. H. Farooq, M. T. Siddiqui, M. Asif, I. Ahmad, N. K. Niazi

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In Pakistan, major demands of fuel wood and timber wood are fulfilled by agroforestry. However, the information regarding economic significance of agroforestry and its productivity in Pakistan is still insufficient and unreliable. Survey of field conditions to examine the agroforestry status at local level helps us to know the future trends and to formulate the policies for sustainable wood supply. The objectives of this research were to examine the actual status and potential of agroforestry and to point out the barriers that are faced by farmers in the adoption of agroforestry. Research was carried out in Chiniot district, Pakistan because it is the famous city for furniture industry that is largely dependent on farm trees. A detailed survey of district Chiniot was carried out from 150 randomly selected farmer respondents using multi-objective oriented and pre-tested questionnaire. It was found that linear tree planting method was more adopted (45%) as compared to linear + interplanting (42%) and/or compact planting (12.6%). Chi-square values at P-value <0.5 showed that age (11.35) and education (17.09) were two more important factors in the quick adoption of agroforestry as compared to land holdings (P-value of 0.7). The major reason of agroforestry adoption was to obtain income, fodder and fuelwood. The most dominant species in farmlands was shisham (Dalbergia sissoo) but since last five years, mostly farmers were growing Sufeida (Eucalyptus camaldulensis), kikar (Acacia nilotica) and popular (Populus deltoides) on their fields due to “Shisham die-back” problem. It was found that agro-forestry can be increased by providing good quality planting material to farmers and improving wood markets.

Keywords: agroforestry, trees, services, agriculture, farmers

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Authors: Mina Ganji Morad, Maziar Azadisoleimanieh, Sina Ganji Morad

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A green roof is formed by green plants alive and has many positive impacts in the regional climatic, as well as indoor. Green roof system to prevent solar radiation plays a role in the cooling space. The cooling is done by reducing thermal fluctuations on the exterior of the roof and by increasing the roof heat capacity which cause to keep the space under the roof cool in the summer and heating rate increases during the winter. A roof garden is one of the recommended ways to reduce energy consumption in large cities. Despite the scale of the city green roofs have effective functions, such as beautiful view of city and decontaminating the urban landscape and reduce mental stress, and in an exchange of energy and heat from outside to inside spaces. This article is based on a review of 20 articles and 10 books and valid survey results on the positive effects of green roofs to prevent energy waste in the building. According to these publications, three of the conventional roof, green roof typical and green roof with certain administrative details (layers of glass) and the use of resistant plants and shrubs have been analyzed and compared their heat transfer. The results of these studies showed that one of the best green roof systems for mountainous climate is tree and shrub system that in addition to being resistant to climate change in mountainous regions, will benefit from the other advantages of green roof. Due to the severity of climate change in mountainous areas it is essential to prevent the waste of buildings heating and cooling energy. Proper climate design can greatly help to reduce energy.

Keywords: green roof, heat transfer, reducing energy consumption, mountainous areas, sustainable architecture

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Authors: Daniel José de Oliveira Ferreira, Juan Harold Sosa-Arnao, Bruno Cássio Moreira, Leonardo Paes Rangel, Song Won Park

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The comprehensive CFD models have been used to represent and study the heterogeneous combustion of biomass. In the present work, the operation of a global flue gas circuit in the sugar-cane bagasse combustion, from wind boxes below primary air grate supply, passing by bagasse insertion in swirl burners and boiler furnace, to boiler bank outlet is simulated. It uses five different meshes representing each part of this system located in sequence: wind boxes and grate, boiler furnace, swirl burners, super heaters and boiler bank. The model considers turbulence using standard k-ε, combustion using EDM, radiation heat transfer using DTM with 16 ray directions and bagasse particle tracking represented by Schiller-Naumann model. The results showed good agreement with expected behavior found in literature and equipment design. The more detailed results view in separated parts of flue gas system allows to observe some flow behaviors that cannot be represented by usual simplifications like bagasse supply under homogeneous axial and rotational vectors and others that can be represented using new considerations like the representation of 26 thousand grate orifices by 144 rectangular inlets.

Keywords: comprehensive CFD model, sugar-cane bagasse combustion, sugar-cane bagasse grate boiler, axial

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Authors: Mathias Ebot, Päivi Harinen

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This article focuses on challenges of parenthood for Sub-Saharan African fathers in Finland. In this analysis Finland represents a Nordic welfare society where family relationships are strongly guided by national family policies and discourses. These policies are based on both traditional ideas of a proper Finnish family, as well as on the contemporary waves of female liberation and emphasis on children’s rights. We analyze how especially Cameroonian fathers perceive their parenthood positions and how they characterize and frame their fathering experiences in relation to the mainstream sociopolitical, cultural and national representations of fatherhood in Finland. The analysis is based on interviews and narrative reports collected among Cameroonian fathers living in Finland with their African spouses. The scrutiny shows that in the context where the mainstream cultural and national family representation is created by equality between parents and also between parents and their children, and where “good fatherhood” is created by embodied presence and warm relationships with children these fathers have difficulties: They have to fulfill another fatherhood duty – bread-winning – and thus ensure their labor possibilities all the time, from very marginalized positions of the labor market. When comparing their fatherhood position with the one in Cameroon they also feel embarrassed as the Finnish educational system teaches and encourages their children to challenge their authority as up-raising adults, which in Cameroon could not be possible.

Keywords: Cameroonian fathers, perception, fathering experiences, Finland

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Authors: Nahla H. Alaswadko, Rayya A. Hassan, Bayar N. Mohammed

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Empirical deterministic models have been developed to predict roughness progression of heavy duty spray sealed pavements for a dataset representing rural arterial roads. The dataset provides a good representation of the relevant network and covers a wide range of operating and environmental conditions. A sample with a large size of historical time series data for many pavement sections has been collected and prepared for use in multilevel regression analysis. The modelling parameters include road roughness as performance parameter and traffic loading, time, initial pavement strength, reactivity level of subgrade soil, climate condition, and condition of drainage system as predictor parameters. The purpose of this paper is to report the approaches adopted for models development and validation. The study presents multilevel models that can account for the correlation among time series data of the same section and to capture the effect of unobserved variables. Study results show that the models fit the data very well. The contribution and significance of relevant influencing factors in predicting roughness progression are presented and explained. The paper concludes that the analysis approach used for developing the models confirmed their accuracy and reliability by well-fitting to the validation data.

Keywords: roughness progression, empirical model, pavement performance, heavy duty pavement

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Authors: Jill Garner, Belinda Lange, Sheila Lennon, Maayken van den Berg

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Currently, there are approximately one billion people worldwide affected by a neurological condition. Many of whom are assessed and treated by a physiotherapist in a variety of settings. There is a lack of consensus in the literature related to what is clinically assessed by physiotherapists in people with neurological conditions. This study aimed to explore assessment in people with neurological conditions, including how health care setting, experience, and therapeutic approach, may influence neurological assessment. A national survey targeted Australian physiotherapists who assess adults with neurological conditions as part of their clinical practice. The survey consisted of 39 questions and was distributed to physiotherapists through the Australian Physiotherapy Association, and Chief Allied Health Officers across Australia and advertised on the National Neurological Physiotherapy Facebook page. In total, 395 respondents consented to the survey from all states within Australia. Most respondents were female (85.4%) with a mean (SD) age of 35.7 years. Respondents reported working clinically in acute, community, outpatients, and community settings. Stroke was the most assessed condition (58.0%). There is variability in domains assessed by Australian physiotherapists, with common inclusions of balance, muscle strength, gait, falls and safety, function, goal setting, range of movement, pain, coordination, activity tolerance, postural alignment and symmetry and upper limb. There is little evidence to support what physiotherapists assess in practice, in different settings, and in different states within Australia and not enough information to develop a decision tree regarding what is important for assessment in different settings. Further research is needed to explore this area and develop a consensus around best practices.

Keywords: physiotherapy, neurological, assessment, domains

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Authors: Berhanu Keno Terfa

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To realize the consequences of urbanization, accurate, and up-to-date representation of the urban landscape patterns is critical for urban planners and policymakers. Thus, the study quantitatively characterized the spatiotemporal composition and configuration of the urban landscape and urban expansion process in Dire Dawa City, Ethiopia, form the year 2006 to 2018. The integrated approaches of various sensors satellite data, Spot (2006) and Sentinel 2 (2018) combined with landscape metrics analysis was employed to explore the pattern, process, and overall growth status in the city. The result showed that the built-up area had increased by 62% between 2006 and 2018, at an average annual increment of 3.6%, while the other land covers were lost significantly due to urban expansion. The highest urban expansion has occurred in the northwest direction, whereas the most fragmented landscape pattern was recorded in the west direction. Overall, the analysis showed that Dire Dawa City experienced accelerated urban expansion with a fragmented and complicated spatiotemporal urban landscape patterns, suggesting a strong tendency towards sprawl over the past 12 years. The findings in the study could help planners and policy developers to insight the historical dynamics of the urban region for sustainable development.

Keywords: zonal metrics, multi-temporal, multi-resolution, urban growth, remote sensing data

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Authors: Michael Adedotun Oke

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This paper, therefore, under study the various multiplier usages of the different Animal Dungs, from the animals such as Rabbits, Cows, Fishes, Sheep, and Poultry manure in the areas council of the Federal Capital Territory Abuja, Nigeria. Thus the various observations, with the pictorial representation, that was taken with the field survey from the different farms in Gwagawalada. Shows that the rabbits dungs are being used in some of the vegetables and crop farms, which serves as the nutrients, reduces the cost of production, ensure profitability, which also increases the different vegetative growth, early maturity, and the development of the crop and this is also applicable to some crops like maize, sweet potatoes. While the manure of the poultry products are being incorporated to fish ponds and the cows dungs are being used to serve as some manure to some certain crops, e.g. Okro, Maize, Pepper. Which provides the necessary nutritious values, but the various number of quantity of different bags of the various application are lacking, and the time of usage, it is also a life germane questions, which there are needs for further adaptive research, that will be involved and the reintroduction of new technology, that will be used in terms of the different methodology such as broadcasting and ring applications, of the dungs at large, while the seasons of the various applications. Thus the paper, therefore, suggested a training programs and production of manuals that will guide the various applications and usage and the effective dissemination of the various used of the simple technology, that will advances and teaching of a new mode of and the time of applications and the various quantity to used, during the applications.

Keywords: animals, usage, livestock, dungs, feaces, gwagawalada

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Authors: M. Tomaschko

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The integration of technology in educational settings has gained a lot of interest. Especially the use of mobile devices and accompanying mobile applications can offer great potentials to complement traditional education with new technologies and enrich students’ learning in various ways. Nevertheless, the usability of the deployed mathematics application is an indicative factor to exploit the full potential of technology enhanced learning because directing cognitive load toward using an application will likely inhibit effective learning. For this reason, the purpose of this research study is the identification of possible usability issues of the mobile GeoGebra Graphing Calculator application. Therefore, eye tracking in combination with task scenarios, think aloud method, and a SUS questionnaire were used. Based on the revealed usability issues, the mobile application was iteratively redesigned and assessed in order to verify the success of the usability improvements. In this paper, the identified usability issues are presented, and recommendations on how to overcome these concerns are provided. The main findings relate to the conception of a mathematics keyboard and the interaction design in relation to an equation editor, as well as the representation of geometrical construction tools. In total, 12 recommendations were formed to improve the usability of a mobile graphing calculator application. The benefit to be gained from this research study is not only the improvement of the usability of the existing GeoGebra Graphing Calculator application but also to provide helpful hints that could be considered from designers and developers of mobile math applications.

Keywords: GeoGebra, graphing calculator, math education, smartphone, usability

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Authors: Tran Duong Nguyen, Marwan Shagar, Qinghao Zeng, Aras Maqsoodi, Pardis Pishdad, Eunhwa Yang

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Construction supply chain management (CSCM) involves the collaboration of many disciplines and actors, which generates vast amounts of data. However, inefficient, fragmented, and non-standardized data storage often hinders this data exchange. The industry has adopted building information modeling (BIM) -a digital representation of a facility's physical and functional characteristics to improve collaboration, enhance transmission security, and provide a common data exchange platform. Still, the volume and complexity of data require tailored information categorization, aligning with stakeholders' preferences and demands. To address this, artificial intelligence (AI) can be integrated to handle this data’s magnitude and complexities. This research aims to develop an integrated and efficient approach for data exchange in CSCM by utilizing AI. The paper covers five main objectives: (1) Investigate existing framework and BIM adoption; (2) Identify challenges in data exchange; (3) Propose an integrated framework; (4) Enhance data transmission security; and (5) Develop data exchange in CSCM. The proposed framework demonstrates how integrating BIM and other technologies, such as cloud computing, blockchain, and AI applications, can significantly improve the efficiency and accuracy of data exchange in CSCM.

Keywords: construction supply chain management, BIM, data exchange, artificial intelligence

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Authors: Neil Jolly, Louisa Beukes, Santiago Benito-SaEz

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Kei-apple is a tree found on the African continent. Limited information exists on the effect of alcoholic and acetous fermentation on the phytochemicals. The fruit has increased L-malic, ascorbic, and phenolic acids. Juice was co-inoculated with Schizosaccharomyces pombe and Saccharomyces cerevisiae to induce alcoholic fermentation and acetous fermentation using acetic acid bacteria. Saccharomyces cerevisiae+S. pombe wines and vinegars had highest pH. Total acidity, soluble solids and L-malic acid decreased during alcoholic and acetous fermentation with highest in S. cerevisiae wines and vinegars. Volatile acidity was highest in S. pombe vinegars but not different from S. cerevisiae and S. cerevisiae+S. pombe. Gallic acid was highest in S. pombe wines and vinegars. Syringic acid was highest in S. cerevisiae wines and vinegars. S. cerevisiae+S. pombe wines were highest in caffeic, p-coumaric and protocatechuic acids. Schizosaccharomyces pombe vinegars were highest in caffeic and p-coumaric acids. Ferulic and sinapic acids were highest in S. pombe and S. cerevisiae wines, respectively. Chlorogenic acid was most abundant in both wines and vinegars. Saccharomyces cerevisiae+S. pombe and S. cerevisiae had a positive effect on most phenolic acids. Saccharomyces cerevisiae +acetic acid bacteria had an increased effect on syringic and chlorogenic acids. Schizosaccharomyces pombe+acetic acid bacteria resulted in an increase in gallic, caffeic and p-coumaric acids. Acetic acid bacteria had minimal performance with respect to volatile acidity production in comparison to commercial vinegars. Acetic acid bacteria selection should therefore be reconsidered and the decrease of certain phenolic acids during acetous fermentation needs to be investigated.

Keywords: acetic acid bacteria, liquid chromatography, phenolics, saccharomyces cerevisiae, schizosaccharomyces pombe

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Authors: Stewart A. Keir, Faik A. Hamad

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This study aims to use both analytical and experimental methods of analysis to examine the accuracy of Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) models that can then be used for more complex analyses, accurately representing more elaborate flow phenomena such as internal shockwaves and boundary layers. The geometry used in the analytical study and CFD model is taken from the experimental rig. The analytical study is undertaken using isentropic and adiabatic relationships and the output of the analytical study, the 'shockwave location tool', is created. The results from the analytical study are then used to optimize the redesign an experimental rig for more favorable placement of pressure taps and gain a much better representation of the shockwaves occurring in the divergent section of the nozzle. The CFD model is then optimized through the selection of different parameters, e.g. turbulence models (Spalart-Almaras, Realizable k-epsilon & Standard k-omega) in order to develop an accurate, robust model. The results from the CFD model can then be directly compared to experimental and analytical results in order to gauge the accuracy of each method of analysis. The CFD model will be used to visualize the variation of various parameters such as velocity/Mach number, pressure and turbulence across the shock. The CFD results will be used to investigate the interaction between the shock wave and the boundary layer. The validated model can then be used to modify the nozzle designs which may offer better performance and ease of manufacture and may present feasible improvements to existing high-speed flow applications.

Keywords: CFD, nozzle, fluent, gas dynamics, shock-wave

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Authors: Rivindu Nethmin Bandara Menik Hitihamy Mudiyanselage, Matthias Hank Haeusler, Ben Doherty

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Investors and clients in the Architectural, Engineering and Construction industry find it difficult to understand complex datasets and reports with little to no graphic representation. The stakeholders examined in this paper include designers, design clients and end-users. Communicating embodied carbon information graphically and concisely can aid with decision support early in a building's life cycle. It is essential to create a common visualisation approach as the level of knowledge about embodied carbon varies between stakeholders. The tool, designed in conjunction with Bates Smart, condenses Tally Life Cycle Assessment data to a carbon hot-spotting visualisation, highlighting the sections with the highest amounts of embodied carbon. This allows stakeholders at every stage of a given project to have a better understanding of the carbon implications with minimal effort. It further allows stakeholders to differentiate building elements by their carbon values, which enables the evaluation of the cost-effectiveness of the selected materials at an early stage. To examine and build a decision-support tool, an action-design research methodology of cycles of iterations was used along with precedents of embodied carbon visualising tools. Accordingly, the importance of visualisation and Building Information Modelling are also explored to understand the best format for relaying these results.

Keywords: embodied carbon, visualisation, summarisation, data filtering, early-stage decision-making, materiality

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Authors: Sajjad Jafari

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Background and Aim: The use of herbal medicines has a long history. Today, due to the resistance of microorganisms to antibiotics and antimicrobial substances, herbal medicines have attracted attention due to their significant antimicrobial effects and low toxicity. This study aims to systematically review the antimicrobial effects of different plant extracts (Quercus infectoria) as possible candidates for treating infectious diseases. Material and Methods: The present study is a review study by searching reputable scientific databases such as PubMed, Google Scholar, Scopus, and Web of Science from 2000 to 2023 using the keywords Antimicrobial, Quercus infectoria, Medicinal herbal, Infectious diseases the latest information obtained. Results: In this study, 45 articles were found and reviewed. Quercus infectoria is a small tree native to Greece, Asia Minor, and Iran. Quercus is a plant genus in the family of Fagaceae. This species is generally known under the name ‘‘baloot” in Iran and is commonly used as a medicinal plant. The extracts used included water, hydro-alcoholic, ethanol, methanol. This plant had high inhibition activity and a lethal effect on gram-positive and gram-negative bacteria of ATCC strains, hospital, and resistant strains. Therefore, in addition to antibacterial effects, antiparasitic and antifungal effects. The seed of the plant was the most used and the most effective antimicrobial extract among the ethanol and methanol extracts. Conclusion: The findings of this study suggest that Quercus infectoria has significant antimicrobial effects against a wide range of microorganisms. This makes it a potential candidate for the development of new antimicrobial drugs. Further research is needed to confirm the efficacy and safety of Quercus infectoria in clinical trials.

Keywords: antimicrobial, Quercus infectoria, medicinal herbal, infectious diseases

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

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

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

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Authors: Sammy Kibor, Filip Huyghe, Marc Kochzius, James Kairo

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Goldstripe Sardinella, Sardinella gibbosa, (Bleeker, 1849) is a commercially and ecologically important small pelagic fish common in the Western Indian Ocean region. The present study aimed to assess genetic diversity and population structure of the species in the Kenya-Tanzania transboundary area using mtDNA and msDNA markers. Some 630 bp sequence in the mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) Cytochrome C Oxidase I (COI) and five polymorphic microsatellite DNA loci were analyzed. Fin clips of 309 individuals from eight locations within the transboundary area were collected between July and December 2018. The S. gibbosa individuals from the different locations were distinguishable from one another based on the mtDNA variation, as demonstrated with a neighbor-joining tree and minimum spanning network analysis. None of the identified 22 haplotypes were shared between Kenya and Tanzania. Gene diversity per locus was relatively high (0.271-0.751), highest Fis was 0.391. The structure analysis, discriminant analysis of Principal component (DAPC) and the pair-wise (FST = 0.136 P < 0.001) values after Bonferroni correction using five microsatellite loci provided clear inference on genetic differentiation and thus evidence of population structure of S. gibbosa along the Kenya-Tanzania coast. This study shows a high level of genetic diversity and the presence of population structure (Φst =0.078 P < 0.001) resulting to the existence of four populations giving a clear indication of minimum gene flow among the population. This information has application in the designing of marine protected areas, an important tool for marine conservation.

Keywords: marine connectivity, microsatellites, population genetics, transboundary

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Authors: A. Degale Desta, Cheng Jian

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Deep learning application in computer vision is rapidly advancing, giving it the ability to monitor the public and quickly identify potentially anomalous behaviour from crowd scenes. Therefore, the purpose of the current work is to improve the performance of safety of people in crowd events from panic behaviour through introducing the innovative idea of Aggregation of Ensembles (AOE), which makes use of the pre-trained ConvNets and a pool of classifiers to find anomalies in video data with packed scenes. According to the theory of algorithms that applied K-means, KNN, CNN, SVD, and Faster-CNN, YOLOv5 architectures learn different levels of semantic representation from crowd videos; the proposed approach leverages an ensemble of various fine-tuned convolutional neural networks (CNN), allowing for the extraction of enriched feature sets. In addition to the above algorithms, a long short-term memory neural network to forecast future feature values and a handmade feature that takes into consideration the peculiarities of the crowd to understand human behavior. On well-known datasets of panic situations, experiments are run to assess the effectiveness and precision of the suggested method. Results reveal that, compared to state-of-the-art methodologies, the system produces better and more promising results in terms of accuracy and processing speed.

Keywords: action recognition, computer vision, crowd detecting and tracking, deep learning

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Authors: J. Dharmaraj, C. Gunasekaran

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Invertebrates are the reliable ecological indicators of disturbance of the forest ecosystems and they respond to environment changes more quickly than other fauna. Among these the terrestrial invertebrates are vital to functioning ecosystems, contributing to processes such as decomposition, nutrient cycling and soil fertility. The natural ecosystems of the forests have been subject to various types of disturbances, which lead to decline of flora and fauna. The comparative diversity of micro-arthropods in natural forest, wattle plantation and eucalyptus plantations were studied in Nilgiris. The study area was divided in to five major sites (Emerald (Site-I), Thalaikundha (Site-II), Kodapmund (Site-III), Aravankad (Site-IV), Kattabettu (Site-V). The research was conducted during period from March 2014 to August 2014. The leaf and soil samples were collected and isolated by using Berlese funnel extraction methods. Specimens were isolated and identified according to their morphology (Balogh 1972). In the present study results clearly showed the variation in soil pH, NPK (Major Nutrients) and organic carbon among the study sites. The chemical components of the leaf litters of the plantation decreased the diversity of micro-arthropods and decomposition rate leads to low amount of carbon and other nutrients present in the soil. Moreover eucalyptus and wattle plantations decreases the availability of the ground water source to other plantations and micro-arthropods and hences affects the soil fertility. Hence, the present study suggests to minimize the growth of wattle and eucalyptus tree plantations in the natural areas which may help to reduce the decline of forests.

Keywords: micro-arthropods, assemblage, berlese funnel, morphology, NPK, nilgiris

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Authors: D. Kliaugaitė, J. K, Staniškis

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In this study tree types of multilayer gas barrier plastic packaging films were compared using life cycle assessment as a tool for resource efficient and environmentally low-impact materials selection. The first type of multilayer packaging film (PET-AlOx/LDPE) consists of polyethylene terephthalate with barrier layer AlOx (PET-AlOx) and low density polyethylene (LDPE). The second type of polymer film (PET/PE-EVOH-PE) is made of polyethylene terephthalate (PET) and co-extrusion film PE-EVOH-PE as barrier layer. And the third one type of multilayer packaging film (PET-PVOH/LDPE) is formed from polyethylene terephthalate with barrier layer PVOH (PET-PVOH) and low density polyethylene (LDPE). All of analyzed packaging has significant impact to resource depletion, because of raw materials extraction and energy use and production of different kind of plastics. Nevertheless the impact generated during life cycle of functional unit of II type of packaging (PET/PE-EVOH-PE) was about 25% lower than impact generated by I type (PET-AlOx/LDPE) and III type (PET-PVOH/LDPE) of packaging. Result revealed that the contribution of different gas barrier type to the overall environmental problem of packaging is not significant. The impact are mostly generated by using energy and materials during raw material extraction and production of different plastic materials as plastic polymers material as PE, LDPE and PET, but not gas barrier materials as AlOx, PVOH and EVOH. The LCA results could be useful in different decision-making processes, for selecting resource efficient and environmentally low-impact materials.

Keywords: life cycle assessment, polymer packaging, resource efficiency, materials extraction, polyethylene terephthalate

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Authors: Sonia Bernardo Correia

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This paper is part of ongoing research that aims to understand the role of gender in the composition of the Portuguese contemporary art world and the possibilities and limits to the success of the professional paths of women and men artists. The field of visual arts is gender-sensitive as it differentiates the positions occupied by artists in terms of visibility and recognition. Women artists occupy a peripheral space, which may hinder the progression of their professional careers. Based on the collection of data on the participation of artists in Portuguese exhibitions, art fairs, auctions, and art awards between 2012 and 2019, the goal of this study is to portray female artists’ participation as a condition of professional, social, and cultural visibility. From the analysis of a significant sample of institutions from the artistic field, it was possible to observe that the works of female authors are under exhibited, never exceeding one-third of the total of exhibitions. Male artists also enjoy a comfortable majority as gallery artists (around 70%) and as part of institutional collections (around 80%). However, when analysing the younger age cohorts of artists by gender, it appears that there is representation parity, which may be a good sign of change. The data shows that there are persistent gender inequalities in accessing the artist profession. Women are not yet occupying positions of exposure, recognition, and legitimation in the market similar to those of their male counterparts, suggesting that they may face greater obstacles in experiencing successful professional trajectories.

Keywords: inequalities, invisibility of the woman artist, gender, visual arts

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Authors: Michael G. Pantelyat

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Fundamental basics of pure and applied research in the area of magneto-thermo-mechanical numerical analysis and design of innovative electromagnetic devices (modern induction heaters, novel thermoelastic actuators, rotating electrical machines, induction cookers, electrophysical devices) are elaborated. Thus, mathematical models of magneto-thermo-mechanical processes in electromagnetic devices taking into account main interactions of interrelated phenomena are developed. In addition, graphical representation of coupled (multiphysics) phenomena under consideration is proposed. Besides, numerical techniques for nonlinear problems solution are developed. On this base, effective numerical algorithms for solution of actual problems of practical interest are proposed, validated and implemented in applied 2D and 3D computer codes developed. Many applied problems of practical interest regarding modern electrical engineering devices are numerically solved. Investigations of the influences of various interrelated physical phenomena (temperature dependences of material properties, thermal radiation, conditions of convective heat transfer, contact phenomena, etc.) on the accuracy of the electromagnetic, thermal and structural analyses are conducted. Important practical recommendations on the choice of rational structures, materials and operation modes of electromagnetic devices under consideration are proposed and implemented in industry.

Keywords: electromagnetic devices, multiphysics, numerical analysis, simulation and design

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Authors: Robson da C. Santos, Carlos Henrique de A. S. P. Coutinho, Lucas Moreira Dias, Gerson Gomes Cunha

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The article refers to the development of an augmented reality 3D display, through the control of servo motors and projection of image with aid of video projector on the model. Augmented Reality is a branch that explores multiple approaches to increase real-world view by viewing additional information along with the real scene. The article presents the broad use of electrical, electronic, mechanical and industrial automation for geospatial visualizations, applications in mathematical models with the visualization of functions and 3D surface graphics and volumetric rendering that are currently seen in 2D layers. Application as a 3D display for representation and visualization of Digital Terrain Model (DTM) and Digital Surface Models (DSM), where it can be applied in the identification of canyons in the marine area of the Campos Basin, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The same can execute visualization of regions subject to landslides, as in Serra do Mar - Agra dos Reis and Serranas cities both in the State of Rio de Janeiro. From the foregoing, loss of human life and leakage of oil from pipelines buried in these regions may be anticipated in advance. The physical design consists of a table consisting of a 9 x 16 matrix of servo motors, totalizing 144 servos, a mesh is used on the servo motors for visualization of the models projected by a retro projector. Each model for by an image pre-processing, is sent to a server to be converted and viewed from a software developed in C # Programming Language.

Keywords: visualization, 3D models, servo motors, C# programming language

Procedia PDF Downloads 342

Authors: A. E. Kobryn

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We present both descriptive and predictive modeling of structural properties of blends of PCBM or organic-inorganic hybrid perovskites of the type CH3NH3PbX3 (X=Cl, Br, I) with P3HT, P3BT or squaraine SQ2 dye sensitizer, including adsorption on TiO2 clusters having rutile (110) surface. In our study, we use a methodology that allows computing the microscopic structure of blends on the nanometer scale and getting insight on miscibility of its components at various thermodynamic conditions. The methodology is based on the integral equation theory of molecular liquids in the reference interaction site representation/model (RISM) and uses the universal force field. Input parameters for RISM, such as optimized molecular geometries and charge distribution of interaction sites, are derived with the use of the density functional theory methods. To compare the diffusivity of the PCBM in binary blends with P3HT and P3BT, respectively, the study is complemented with MD simulation. A very good agreement with experiment and the reports of alternative modeling or simulation is observed for PCBM in P3HT system. The performance of P3BT with perovskites, however, seems as expected. The calculated nanoscale morphologies of blends of P3HT, P3BT or SQ2 with perovskites, including adsorption on TiO2, are all new and serve as an instrument in rational design of organic/hybrid photovoltaics. They are used in collaboration with experts who actually make prototypes or devices for practical applications.

Keywords: multiscale theory and modeling, nanoscale morphology, organic-inorganic halide perovskites, three dimensional distribution

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Authors: Alessandro Giardino

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The Iranian Revolution has been the object of numberless historical and semi-fictional accounts, often providing a monolithic perspective on the events, due to the westerner positioning of those recounting them. Against this tradition, two contemporary French-Iranian novels "Disoriental" (2016) by Negar Djavadi and "Marx and The Doll" (2017) by Maryam Madjidi have offered readers a female-oriented and interestingly layered representation of the Iranian Revolution, hence addressing the responsibilities and misconceptions of Western countries. Furthermore, these two women writers have shed light on the disenchantment of the Iranian intellectual class vis-à-vis the foundation of the Islamic Republic, by particularly focusing on the deterioration of women’s rights, as well as the repression of political, ethnical, religious and sexual minorities. By a psycholinguistic and semasiological analysis of the two novels by Djavadi and Madjidi, this essay will focus on alternative accounts of the revolution in order to reflect upon the role of intersectional literature to the understanding of history. More specifically, as both women, refugees, and bi-cultural writers, Djavadi and Madjidi unearthed moments and figures of the revolution which had disappeared from the prevalent narrative. In doing so, however, these two writers resorted to entirely opposite styles of writing that, it will be argued, stem from different types of female resistance. In defining these two approaches as a "narrative resistance" and a "photographic resistance," the essay will elucidate the dependence of these writers’ language on generational and psychological factors, but it will also stir a reflection on their different communicative strategies.

Keywords: Iranian revolution, French-Iranian, intersectionality, literature, women writers

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Authors: Muhammad Fadli Muslimin

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Negeri Para Bedebah is known as one of the works of Tere Liye, an Indonesia author. In the literary works, the fiction as always tries to reflect the reality of the society where the author or the social groups lived in. The essential or nature of society is generally a reality while literary work is fiction and both of them are social fact. Negeri Para Bedebah is a novel fiction which is a social fact and which holds an important role in reality. It is more likely as the representation of social, economy and politic aspects in Indonesia. The purpose of this study is to reveal the world view of Tere Liye throughout novel Negeri Para Bedebah. By analyzing the object using genetic structuralism Lucien Goldmann which chiefly focuses on world view, it is stated that the literary work is an structure and it has homology with the structure in society. The structure of literary work is not chiefly homolog to the structure of society but homolog to the world view which is growing and developing inside the society. The methodological research used in this paper is a dialectic method which focuses on the starting and ending points lied in the literary text by paying attention to the coherent meanings. The result of this study is that Tere Liye shows us his world view about the structure of the society where he is living in, but one is an imaginative form of the world and the homology to the reality itself.

Keywords: homology, literary work, society, structure, world view

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Authors: Luísa P. Cruz-Lopes, Hugo Costa e Silva, Idalina Domingos, José Ferreira, Luís Teixeira de Lemos, Bruno Esteves

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The liquefaction process of cork based tree barks has led to an increase of interest due to its potential innovation in the lumber and wood industries. In this particular study the bark of Quercus cerris (Turkish oak) is used due to its appreciable amount of cork tissue, although of inferior quality when compared to the cork provided by other Quercus trees. This study aims to optimize alkaline catalysis liquefaction conditions, regarding several parameters. To better comprehend the possible chemical characteristics of the bark of Quercus cerris, a complete chemical analysis was performed. The liquefaction process was performed in a double-jacket reactor heated with oil, using glycerol and a mixture of glycerol/ethylene glycol as solvents, potassium hydroxide as a catalyst, and varying the temperature, liquefaction time and granulometry. Due to low liquefaction efficiency resulting from the first experimental procedures a study was made regarding different washing techniques after the filtration process using methanol and methanol/water. The chemical analysis stated that the bark of Quercus cerris is mostly composed by suberin (ca. 30%) and lignin (ca. 24%) as well as insolvent hemicelluloses in hot water (ca. 23%). On the liquefaction stage, the results that led to higher yields were: using a mixture of methanol/ethylene glycol as reagents and a time and temperature of 120 minutes and 200 ºC, respectively. It is concluded that using a granulometry of <80 mesh leads to better results, even if this parameter barely influences the liquefaction efficiency. Regarding the filtration stage, washing the residue with methanol and then distilled water leads to a considerable increase on final liquefaction percentages, which proves that this procedure is effective at liquefying suberin content and lignocellulose fraction.

Keywords: liquefaction, Quercus cerris, polyalcohol liquefaction, temperature

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Authors: Onaza Ajmal

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The purpose of the study is to explore the power relations linguistically and visually with reference to the representation of gender, race, violence, and empowerment through male characters and female superheroes from the two selected Marvel comics, Ms. Marvel (2014) and Captain Marvel (2019-). The study also aims to elaborate on the different cultural backgrounds of female superheroes and their choices and behaviors concerning the male characters. Moreover, it also seeks to explore whether the female superheroes reassert or resists the established gender roles. Using the tenets of critical discourse analysis (CDA) and feminist critical discourse analysis (FCDA) by Lazar (2005), the study analyzed the power relations from a feminist viewpoint. The linguistic analysis of textual features such as ‘adjectives’, ‘lexical items’, ‘metaphors’, and ‘use of pronouns’, etc., found in the selected comics is carried out under the framework of CDA given by Fairclough (1989). Kress and van Leeuwen's model of reading images (2006) are used to analyze the visual images in this study. The findings of the study show that despite the empowering nature of female superheroes, the unequal power relations between male and female characters are established linguistically and visually, which further sustains and reinforces the racial and patriarchal gender ideologies in the selected comics. Moreover, it is recommended that the female representations in the feminist themes of empowerment with respect to the Pakistani female superheroes should also be explored for further research.

Keywords: feminist critical discourse analysis, patriarchal gender ideology, power relations, superhero comics

Procedia PDF Downloads 174