Search results for: Yang Mills mass gap problem

Authors: Imèn Khanchouch, Malika Charrad, Mohamed Limam

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The interpretation of the quality of clusters and the determination of the optimal number of clusters is still a crucial problem in clustering. We focus in this paper on multi-SOM clustering method which overcomes the problem of extracting the number of clusters from the SOM map through the use of a clustering validity index. We then tested multi-SOM using real and artificial data sets with different evaluation criteria not used previously such as Davies Bouldin index, Dunn index and silhouette index. The developed multi-SOM algorithm is compared to k-means and Birch methods. Results show that it is more efficient than classical clustering methods.

Keywords: clustering, SOM, multi-SOM, DB index, Dunn index, silhouette index

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Authors: Marian Sagat, Mariana Remesikova

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In civil engineering, there is a problem how to industrially produce tensile membrane structures that are non-developable surfaces. Nondevelopable surfaces can only be developed with a certain error and we want to minimize this error. To that goal, the non-developable surfaces are cut into plates along to the geodesic curves. We propose a numerical algorithm for finding approximations of open geodesics on meshes and surfaces based on geodesic curvature flow. For practical reasons, it is important to automatize the choice of the time step. We propose a method for automatic setting of the time step based on the diagonal dominance criterion for the matrix of the linear system obtained by discretization of our partial differential equation model. Practical experiments show reliability of this method. Because approximation of the model is made by numerical method based on classic derivatives, it is necessary to solve obstacles which occur for meshes with sharp corners. We solve this problem for big family of meshes with sharp corners via special rotations which can be seen as partial unfolding of the mesh. In practical applications, it is required that the approximation of geodesic has its vertices only on the edges of the mesh. This problem is solved by a specially designed pointing tracking algorithm. We also partially solve the problem of finding geodesics on meshes with holes. We implemented the whole algorithm in Rhinoceros (commercial 3D computer graphics and computer-aided design software ). It is done by using C# language as C# assembly library for Grasshopper, which is plugin in Rhinoceros.

Keywords: geodesic, geodesic curvature flow, mesh, Rhinoceros software

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Authors: N. Bolong, J. Makinda, I. Saad

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Laboratory activities have produced benefits in student learning. With current drives of new technology resources and evolving era of education methods, renewal status of learning and teaching in laboratory methods are in progress, for both learners and the educators. To enhance learning outcomes in laboratory works particularly in engineering practices and testing, learning via hands-on by instruction may not sufficient. This paper describes and compares techniques and implementation of traditional (expository) with open-ended laboratory (problem-based) for two consecutive cohorts studying environmental laboratory course in civil engineering program. The transition of traditional to problem-based findings and effect were investigated in terms of course assessment student feedback survey, course outcome learning measurement and student performance grades. It was proved that students have demonstrated better performance in their grades and 12% increase in the course outcome (CO) in problem-based open-ended laboratory style than traditional method; although in perception, students has responded less favorable in their feedback.

Keywords: engineering education, open-ended laboratory, environmental engineering lab

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Authors: Natarajan Tirupattur Srinivasan

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Quantum mechanics( QM) and (special) relativity (SR) have indeed revolutionized the very thinking of physicists, and the spectacular successes achieved over a century due to these two theories are mind-boggling. However, there is still a strong disquiet among some physicists. While the mathematical structure of these two theories has been established beyond any doubt, their physical interpretations are still being contested by many. Even after a hundred years of their existence, we cannot answer a very simple question, “What is an electron”? Physicists are struggling even now to come to grips with the different interpretations of quantum mechanics with all their ramifications. However, it is indeed strange that the (special) relativity theory of Einstein enjoys many orders of magnitude of “acceptance”, though both theories have their own stocks of weirdness in the results, like time dilation, mass increase with velocity, the collapse of the wave function, quantum jump, tunnelling, etc. Here, in this paper, it would be shown that by postulating an intrinsic internal motion to these enigmatic electrons, one can build a fairly consistent picture of reality, revealing a very simple picture of nature. This is also evidenced by Schrodinger’s ‘Zitterbewegung’ motion, about which so much has been written. This leads to a helical trajectory of electrons when they move in a laboratory frame. It will be shown that the helix is a three-dimensional wave having all the characteristics of our familiar 2D wave. Again, the helix, being a geodesic on an imaginary cylinder, supports ‘quantization’, and its representation is just the complex exponentials matching with the wave function of quantum mechanics. By postulating the instantaneous velocity of the electrons to be always ‘c’, the velocity of light, the entire relativity comes alive, and we can interpret the ‘time dilation’, ‘mass increase with velocity’, etc., in a very simple way. Thus, this model unifies both QM and SR without the need for a counterintuitive postulate of Einstein about the constancy of the velocity of light for all inertial observers. After all, if the motion of an inertial frame cannot affect the velocity of light, the converse that this constant also cannot affect the events in the frame must be true. But entire relativity is about how ‘c’ affects time, length, mass, etc., in different frames.

Keywords: quantum reconstruction, special theory of relativity, quantum mechanics, zitterbewegung, complex wave function, helix, geodesic, Schrodinger’s wave equations

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Authors: Ayaz Ahmad

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In this work, we present the effect of noise on the solution of a partial differential equation (PDE) in three different setting. We shall first consider random initial condition for two nonlinear dispersive PDE the non linear Schrodinger equation and the Kortteweg –de vries equation and analyse their effect on some special solution , the soliton solutions.The second case considered a linear partial differential equation , the wave equation with random initial conditions allow to substantially decrease the computational and data storage costs of an algorithm to solve the inverse problem based on the boundary measurements of the solution of this equation. Finally, the third example considered is that of the linear transport equation with a singular drift term, when we shall show that the addition of a multiplicative noise term forbids the blow up of solutions under a very weak hypothesis for which we have finite time blow up of a solution in the deterministic case. Here we consider the problem of wave propagation, which is modelled by a nonlinear dispersive equation with noisy initial condition .As observed noise can also be introduced directly in the equations.

Keywords: drift term, finite time blow up, inverse problem, soliton solution

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Authors: Juan Harold Sosa-Arnao, Daniel José de Oliveira Ferreira, Caice Guarato Santos, Justo Emílio Alvarez, Leonardo Paes Rangel, Song Won Park

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A comprehensive CFD model is developed to represent heterogeneous combustion and two burner designs of supply sugar-cane bagasse into a furnace. The objective of this work is to compare the insertion and burning of a Brazilian south-eastern sugar-cane bagasse using a new swirl burner design against an actual geometry under operation. The new design allows control the particles penetration and scattering inside furnace by adjustment of axial/tangential contributions of air feed without change their mass flow. The model considers turbulence using RNG k-, combustion using EDM, radiation heat transfer using DTM with 16 ray directions and bagasse particle tracking represented by Schiller-Naumann model. The obtained results are favorable to use of new design swirl burner because its axial/tangential control promotes more penetration or more scattering than actual design and allows reproduce the actual design operation without change the overall mass flow supply.

Keywords: comprehensive CFD model, sugar-cane bagasse combustion, swirl burner, contributions

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Authors: Oscar Rubiano, Oscar Ortiz, Natalia Morales, Lida Alfonso, Johana Alvarado, Adriana Gutierrez, Daniel Botero

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Athletes who usually use protein supplements, are those who practice strength and power sports, whose goal is to achieve a large muscle mass. However, it has also been explored in sports or endurance activities such as cycling, and where despite requiring high power, prominent muscle development can impede good competitive performance due to the determinant of body mass for good performance of the athlete body. This research shows, the effect with protein supplements establishes a protein - muscle mass ratio, although in a lesser proportion the relationship between protein types and muscle power. Thus, we intend to explore as a first approximation, the behavior of muscle power in lower limbs after the intake of two protein supplements from different sources. The aim of the study was to describe the behavior of muscle power in lower limbs after the consumption of animal protein (AP) and vegetable protein (VP) in four route cyclists from 18 to 20 years of the Bogota cycling league. The methodological design of this study is quantitative, with a non-probabilistic sampling, based on a pre-experimental model. The jumping power was evaluated before and after the intervention by means of the squat jump test (SJ), Counter movement jump (CMJ) and Abalacov (AB). Cyclists consumed a drink with whey protein and a soy isolate after training four times a week for three months. The amount of protein in each cyclist, was calculated according to body weight (0.5 g / kg of muscle mass). The results show that subjects who consumed PV improved muscle strength and landing strength. In contrast, the power and landing force decreased for subjects who consumed PA. For the group that consumed PV, the increase was positive at 164.26 watts, 135.70 watts and 33.96 watts for the AB, SJ and CMJ jumps respectively. While for PA, the differences of the medians were negative at -32.29 watts, -82.79 watts and -143.86 watts for the AB, SJ and CMJ jumps respectively. The differences of the medians in the AB jump were positive for both the PV (121.61 Newton) and PA (454.34 Newton) cases, however, the difference was greater for PA. For the SJ jump, the difference for the PA cases was 371.52 Newton, while for the PV cases the difference was negative -448.56 Newton, so the difference was greater in the SJ jump for PA. In jump CMJ, the differences of the medians were negative for the cases of PA and PV, being -7.05 for PA and - 958.2 for PV. So the difference was greater for PA. The conclusion of this study shows that serum protein supplementation showed no improvement in muscle power in the lower limbs of the cyclists studied, which could suggest that whey protein does not have a beneficial effect on performance in terms of power, either, showed an impact on body composition. In contrast, supplementation with soy isolate showed positive effects on muscle power, body.

Keywords: animal protein (AP), muscle power, supplements, vegetable protein (VP)

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Authors: Muhammet Erbay

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The phenomenon of communication that has been studied by different disciplines has social, political and economical aspects. The scope of communication has extended from a traditional content to the modern world which is under the control of mass media. Nowadays, thanks to globalization and technological facilities, many companies, public or international institutions take advantage of new communication technologies and overhaul their policies. European Union (EU) is one of the effective institutions in this sphere. It aims to harmonize the communication infrastructure and policies of member countries which have gone through the process of political unification. It is a significant problem for the unification of EU to have legal restrictions or critical differences in communication facilities among countries while technology stands at the center of economic and social life. Therefore, EU institutions place a particular importance to their communication policies. Besides, communication processes have a vital importance in creating a European public opinion in the process of political integration. Based on the evaluation above, the aim of this paper is to analyze the cohesion process of Turkey that tries to take an active role in EU communication policies and has on-going negotiations. This article does not only confine itself to the technical details of communication policies but also aims to evaluate socio-political dimension of the process. Therefore, a corporate review has been featured in the study and Turkey's compliance process in communication policies on European Union has been evaluated by the means of deduction method. Some problematic areas have been identified in compliance process on communication policies such as human rights and minority rights, whereas compliance process on communication infrastructure and technology proceeds effectively.

Keywords: communication policies, European Union, integration, Turkey

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Authors: An-Shik Yang, Chiang-Ho Cheng, Jen-Hao Wu, Yu-Hsuan Juan

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Natural ventilation has played an important role for many low energy-building designs. It has been also noticed as a essential subject to persistently bring the fresh cool air from the outside into a building. This study carried out the computational fluid dynamics (CFD)-based simulations to examine the natural ventilation development of a work area in a public building. The simulated results can be useful to better understand the indoor microclimate and the interaction of wind with buildings. Besides, this CFD simulation procedure can serve as an effective analysis tool to characterize the airing performance, and thereby optimize the building ventilation for strengthening the architects, planners and other decision makers on improving the natural ventilation design of public buildings.

Keywords: CFD simulations, natural ventilation, microclimate, wind environment

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Authors: Ghada Moussa, Mamoud Owais

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Transit Route Network Design Problem (TrNDP) is the most important component in Transit planning, in which the overall cost of the public transportation system highly depends on it. The main purpose of this study is to develop a novel solution methodology for the TrNDP, which goes beyond pervious traditional sophisticated approaches. The novelty of the solution methodology, adopted in this paper, stands on the deterministic operators which are tackled to construct bus routes. The deterministic manner of the TrNDP solution relies on using linear and integer mathematical formulations that can be solved exactly with their standard solvers. The solution methodology has been tested through Mandl’s benchmark network problem. The test results showed that the methodology developed in this research is able to improve the given network solution in terms of number of constructed routes, direct transit service coverage, transfer directness and solution reliability. Although the set of routes resulted from the methodology would stand alone as a final efficient solution for TrNDP, it could be used as an initial solution for meta-heuristic procedures to approach global optimal. Based on the presented methodology, a more robust network optimization tool would be produced for public transportation planning purposes.

Keywords: integer programming, transit route design, transportation, urban planning

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Authors: Varsha Chorsiya, Pooja Aneja, Dhananjay Kaushik, Abhinav Yadav

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Intoduction: Women’s Health Initiatives (WHI) focuses on defining the risks and benefits of strategies that could potentially reduce the incidence of obesity, heart disease, breast cancer and colorectal cancer, and fractures in menopause women. The utility of the present research work determines to find the role of Hormone Replacement Therapy (HRT) in changing the different component of body composition during perimenopause period. Methods: A comparative cross-sectional study included 30 subjects, aged between 40 and 50 years which were assigned into 2 groups i.e. 15 subjects in HRT (Group A) and 15 subjects in non-HRT (Group B). The subjects were taken from the hospitals and clinics of Faridabad undergoing HRT in supervision of the consultant gynecologist. The informed consents were signed before including the participants in the study. The body composition and lipid profile were evaluated for all the subjects. Result and Discussion: The BMI, body density, percent body fats and fat mass in both groups showed statistically significant differences i.e. p < 0.05. Our study did not reveal any statistically significant difference between non-HRT and HRT for lipid profile composition of HDL, LDL, VLDL, ratio, triglycerides and total cholesterol although these indicators (LDL, VLDL, ratio, triglycerides and total cholesterol) showed difference clinically with a higher mean values for non-HRT as compared to HRT group. The mean value for HDL was higher for HRT group in contrast to non-HRT group. The result clearly showed that HRT group has a good lipid profile composition. Conclusion: In conclusion, our data show that HRT has statistically significant role in determining BMI, fat percent mass and fat mass. The lipid profile including LDL, HDL, VLDL, ratio, triglycerides and total cholesterol found to be clinically better in HRT group as compared to the non-HRT group. The rationale for non-significant lipid profile probably lie in the fact that hormonal changes need a particular time period and might become significant in post-menopausal period.

Keywords: body composition, hormone replacement therapy, perimenopause, women health

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Authors: Sophie Mills, Leila L. Touil, Richard Sisson

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Introduction: The TNM classification is the global standard for the staging of head and neck cancers. Accurate clinical-radiological staging of tumours (cTNM) is essential to predict prognosis, facilitate surgical planning and determine the need for other therapeutic modalities. This study aims to determine the accuracy of pre-operative cTNM staging using pathological TNM (pTNM) and consider possible causes of TNM stage migration, noting any variation throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. Materials and Methods: A retrospective cohort study examined records of patients with surgical management of head and neck cancer at a tertiary head and neck centre from November 2019 to November 2020. Data was extracted from Somerset Cancer Registry and histopathology reports. cTNM and pTNM were compared before and during the first wave of COVID-19, as well as with other potential prognostic factors such as tumour site and tumour stage. Results: 119 cases were identified, of which 52.1% (n=62) were male, and 47.9% (n=57) were female with a mean age of 67 years. Clinical and pathological staging differed in 54.6% (n=65) of cases. Of the patients with stage migration, 40.4% (n=23) were up-staged and 59.6% (n=34) were down-staged compared with pTNM. There was no significant difference in the accuracy of cTNM staging compared with age, sex, or tumour site. There was a statistically highly significant (p < 0.001) correlation between cTNM accuracy and tumour stage, with the accuracy of cTNM staging decreasing with the advancement of pTNM staging. No statistically significant variation was noted between patients staged prior to and during COVID-19. Conclusions: Discrepancies in staging can impact management and outcomes for patients. This study found that the higher the pTNM, the more likely stage migration will occur. These findings are concordant with the oncology literature, which highlights the need to improve the accuracy of cTNM staging for more advanced tumours.

Keywords: COVID-19, head and neck cancer, stage migration, TNM staging

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Authors: N. Isnaini, S. Wahjuningsih

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Fig fruit is the fruit of a tropical plant with content of flavanoids, vitamins A, C, and E which are antioxidants that effectively prevent and neutralize free radicals. This study was conducted to evaluate the supplementation of fig fruit extract in a physiological NaCl-based diluent on sperm motility and viability of native chicken semen after cooling. Semen was collected from 4 male mature chocks using massage method. Fresh semen evaluated for colour, pH, volume, concentration, mass motility, individual motility, life sperm and sperm abnormality. Semen was diluted with physiological NaCl-based extender supplemented with different levels of fig fruit extract (0, 10, 20 and 30 %) v/v with the ratio of 1 semen: 4 diluter. Semen used had mass motility of 2+ and motility of 70%. Immediately after dilution semen was stored in 3-5 °C and sperm motility and viability percentage were observed at 0, 12 and 24 h. The obtained data were analyze with Analysis of Variant (ANOVA) and Least Significant Difference were determined. The experiment was designed using completely random design (4 treatments and 10 replications). The results showed that the level of fig fruit extract had very significant effect (P < 0,01) on sperm motility and viability percentage in 0, 12 and 24 h of cooling. It can be concluded that the best fig fruit extract level for resulting optimal sperm motility and viability was 10%.

Keywords: chock, antioxidant, fig fruit extract, sperm

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Authors: Nader A. Al Theeb, Zaid Abu Manneh, Ibrahim Al-Qadi

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Traveling salesman problem (TSP) is a combinatorial integer optimization problem that asks "What is the optimal route for a vehicle to traverse in order to deliver requests to a given set of customers?”. It is widely used by the package carrier companies’ distribution centers. The main goal of applying the TSP in courier organizations is to minimize the time that it takes for the courier in each trip to deliver or pick up the shipments during a day. In this article, an optimization model is constructed to create a new TSP variant to optimize the routing in a courier organization with a consideration of congestion in Amman, the capital of Jordan. Real data were collected by different methods and analyzed. Then, concert technology - CPLEX was used to solve the proposed model for some random generated data instances and for the real collected data. At the end, results have shown a great improvement in time compared with the current trip times, and an economic study was conducted afterwards to figure out the impact of using such models.

Keywords: travel salesman problem, congestions, pick-up, integer programming, package carriers, service engineering

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Authors: W. S. Hsu, Y. Chiang, H. C. Chen, J. R. Wang, S. W. Chen, J. H. Yang, C. Shih

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Not only radiation materials, but also the normal chemical material stored in the power plant can cause a risk to the residents. In this research, the ALOHA code was used to perform the concentration analysis under the CO₂ storage burst or leakage conditions for Kuosheng nuclear power plant (NPP). The Final Safety Analysis Report (FSAR) and data were used in this study. Additionally, the analysis results of ALOHA code were compared with the R.G. 1.78 failure criteria in order to confirm the control room habitability. The comparison results show that the ALOHA result for burst case was 0.923 g/m³ which was below the criteria. However, the ALOHA results for leakage case was 11.3 g/m³.

Keywords: BWR, ALOHA, habitability, Kuosheng

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Authors: Jung-Min Yang

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Fault diagnosis of composite asynchronous sequential machines with parallel composition is addressed in this paper. An adversarial input can infiltrate one of two submachines comprising the composite asynchronous machine, causing an unauthorized state transition. The objective is to characterize the condition under which the controller can diagnose any fault occurrence. Two control configurations, state feedback and output feedback, are considered in this paper. In the case of output feedback, the exact estimation of the state is impossible since the current state is inaccessible and the output feedback is given as the form of burst. A simple example is provided to demonstrate the proposed methodology.

Keywords: asynchronous sequential machines, parallel composition, fault diagnosis, corrective control

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Authors: Sumalee Tientongdee

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In this study, it was aimed to investigate Physics achievement of the pre-service science teacher studying in general science program at Suan Sunandha Rajabhat University, Bangkok, Thailand. The program has provided the new curriculum that focuses on 21st-century skills development. Active learning approaches are used to teach in all subjects. One of the active learning approaches Peer Instruction, or PI was used in this study to teach physics of waves as a compulsory course. It was conducted in the second semester from January to May of 2017. The concept test was given to evaluate pre-service science teachers’ understanding in concept of waves. Problem-solving assessment form was used to evaluate their problem-solving skill. The results indicated that after they had learned through Peer Instruction in physics of waves course, their concepts in physics of waves was significantly higher at 0.05 confident levels. Their problem-solving skill from the whole class was at the highest level. Based on the group interview on the opinions of using Peer Instruction in Physics class, they mostly felt that it was very useful and helping them understand more about physics, especially for female students.

Keywords: peer instruction, physics of waves, pre-service science teacher, Suan Sunandha Rajabhat university

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Authors: Antonella Regueiro Fernandez

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This paper examines the issue of period poverty and the innovative approaches – or lack thereof – that national systems are using to tackle the issue. Through a systems-thinking and economical approach, the paper analyzes the intricate relationship between proper systemic change and sustainable innovations for this global problem. The first part of the research introduces period poverty and the lack of sustainable options currently in place to resolve the issue. The second part delves into a comparison of existing technologies – single-use and reusable period products -- and their benefits and deficiencies. It also provides a comparison of two countries and their existing solutions landscape (Scotland and the United States), arguing that while Scotland has provided an innovative national solution to the problem, it still lacks a proper assessment of the issue of sustainability, while the United States continues to lag in offering any holistic solution at all. The last part provides a conclusion to the research and affirms the importance of holistic policymaking approaches to issues of period poverty, which have the potential to truly benefit half of the world’s population while also encouraging environmental preservation.

Keywords: gender equity, sustainability, period poverty, SDGs, sustainable development

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Authors: Yuwaratu Syafira, Wahyu K. Y. Putra, Kusharisupeni Djokosujono

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Background/Objective: Body Mass Index (BMI) serves various purposes, including measuring the prevalence of obesity in a population, and also in formulating a patient’s diet at a hospital, and can be calculated with the equation = body weight (kg)/body height (m)². However, the BMI of an individual with difficulties in carrying their weight or standing up straight can not necessarily be measured. The aim of this study was to form a prediction model for the BMI of young adult students of Public Health Faculty of University of Indonesia. Subject/Method: This study used a cross sectional design, with a total sample of 132 respondents, consisted of 58 males and 74 females aged 21- 30. The dependent variable of this study was BMI, and the independent variables consisted of sex and anthropometric measurements, which included ulna length, arm length, tibia length, knee height, mid-upper arm circumference, and calf circumference. Anthropometric information was measured and recorded in a single sitting. Simple and multiple linear regression analysis were used to create the prediction equation for BMI. Results: The male respondents had an average BMI of 24.63 kg/m² and the female respondents had an average of 22.52 kg/m². A total of 17 variables were analysed for its correlation with BMI. Bivariate analysis showed the variable with the strongest correlation with BMI was Mid-Upper Arm Circumference/√Ulna Length (MUAC/√UL) (r = 0.926 for males and r = 0.886 for females). Furthermore, MUAC alone also has a very strong correlation with BMI (r = 0,913 for males and r = 0,877 for females). Prediction models formed from either MUAC/√UL or MUAC alone both produce highly accurate predictions of BMI. However, measuring MUAC/√UL is considered inconvenient, which may cause difficulties when applied on the field. Conclusion: The prediction model considered most ideal to estimate BMI is: Male BMI (kg/m²) = 1.109(MUAC (cm)) – 9.202 and Female BMI (kg/m²) = 0.236 + 0.825(MUAC (cm)), based on its high accuracy levels and the convenience of measuring MUAC on the field.

Keywords: body mass index, mid-upper arm circumference, prediction model, ulna length

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Authors: Meiling Yang, Shuguo Xie, Yilong Zhu

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Nowadays, due to diverse electric products and complex electromagnetic environment, the localization and troubleshooting of the electromagnetic radiation source is urgent and necessary especially on the condition of far field. However, based on the existing DOA positioning method, the system or devices are complex, bulky and expensive. To address this issue, this paper proposes a single antenna radiation source localization method. A single antenna moves to form a virtual antenna array combined with DOA and MUSIC algorithm to position accurately, meanwhile reducing the cost and simplify the equipment. As shown in the results of simulations and experiments, the virtual antenna array DOA estimation modeling is correct and its positioning is credible.

Keywords: virtual antenna array, DOA, localization, far field

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Authors: Shun Horikoshi, Tohru Kawabe

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This study presents performance analysis results of SMC (Sliding mode control) with changing the chattering functions applied to slip suppression problem of electric vehicles (EVs). In SMC, chattering phenomenon always occurs through high frequency switching of the control inputs. It is undesirable phenomenon and degrade the control performance, since it causes the oscillations of the control inputs. Several studies have been conducted on this problem by introducing some general saturation function. However, study about whether saturation function was really best and the performance analysis when using the other functions, weren’t being done so much. Therefore, in this paper, several candidate functions for SMC are selected and control performance of candidate functions is analyzed. In the analysis, evaluation function based on the trade-off between slip suppression performance and chattering reduction performance is proposed. The analyses are conducted in several numerical simulations of slip suppression problem of EVs. Then, we can see that there is no difference of employed candidate functions in chattering reduction performance. On the other hand, in slip suppression performance, the saturation function is excellent overall. So, we conclude the saturation function is most suitable for slip suppression sliding mode control.

Keywords: sliding mode control, chattering function, electric vehicle, slip suppression, performance analysis

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Authors: Wildan Syafitri

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The main purpose of the development is to embody public welfare. Its indication is shown by the increasing of the public prosperity in which it will be related to the consumption level as a consequence of the increasing of public income. One of the government’s efforts to increase public welfare is to create development equity in order to alleviate poor people. Poverty’s problem is not merely about the number and percentage of the poor people, but also it includes the gap and severity of poverty.the analysis method used is Benefit Incidence Analysis (BIA) that is an analysis method used to disclose the impact of government policy or individual access based on the income distribution in society. Further, the finding of the study revealed is that the highest number of the poor people in the village is those who are unemployed and have family members who are still in the Junior High School. The income distribution calculation shows a fairly good budget allocation applied with good mass ratio that is 0.31. In addition, the finding of this study also discloses that Indonesian Government policy to subsidize education cost for Elementary and Junior High School students has reached the right target. It is indicated by more benefits received by Elementary and Junior High School students who are poor and very poor than other income group.

Keywords: benefit incidence analysis, budget allocation, poverty, education

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Authors: Ronald Collins, Jonathon Coleman, Joel Dasari, George Holt, Carl Metelko, Matthew Murdoch, Alexander Morgan, Yan-Jie Schnellbach, Robert Mills, Gareth Edwards, Alexander Roberts

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At the Wylfa Magnox Power Plant between 2014–2016, the VIDARR prototype anti-neutrino detector was deployed. It is comprised of extruded plastic scintillating bars measuring 4 cm × 1 cm × 152 cm and utilised wavelength shifting fibres (WLS) and multi-pixel photon counters (MPPCs) to detect and quantify radiation. During deployment, it took cosmic muon data in accidental coincidence with the anti-neutrino measurements with the power plant site buildings obscuring the muon sky. Cosmic muons have a significantly higher probability of being attenuated and/or absorbed by denser objects, and so one-sided cosmic muon tomography was utilised to image the reactor site buildings. In order to achieve clear building outlines, a control data set was taken at the University of Liverpool from 2016 – 2018, which had minimal occlusion of the cosmic muon flux by dense objects. By taking the ratio of these two data sets and using GEANT4 simulations, it is possible to perform a one-sided cosmic muon tomography analysis. This analysis can be used to discern specific buildings, building heights, and features at the Wylfa reactor site, including the reactor core/reactor core shielding using ∼ 3 hours worth of cosmic-ray detector live time. This result demonstrates the feasibility of using cosmic muon analysis to determine a segmented detector’s location with respect to surrounding buildings, assisted by aerial photography or satellite imagery.

Keywords: anti-neutrino, GEANT4, muon, tomography, occlusion

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Authors: Zaid Jamal Saeed Almahmoud

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Our increasing reliance on electricity, with inefficient consumption trends, has resulted in several economical and environmental threats. These threats include wasting billions of dollars, draining limited resources, and elevating the impact of climate change. As a solution, the smart grid is emerging as the future power grid, with smart techniques to optimize power consumption and electricity generation. Minimizing the peak power consumption under a fixed delay requirement is a significant problem in the smart grid. In addition, matching demand to supply is a key requirement for the success of the future electricity. In this work, we consider the problem of minimizing the peak demand under appliances constraints by scheduling power jobs with uniform release dates and deadlines. As the problem is known to be NP-Hard, we propose two versions of a heuristic algorithm for solving this problem. Our theoretical analysis and experimental results show that our proposed heuristics outperform existing methods by providing a better approximation to the optimal solution. In addition, we consider dynamic pricing methods to minimize the peak load and match demand to supply in the smart grid. Our contribution is the proposal of generic, as well as customized pricing heuristics to minimize the peak demand and match demand with supply. In addition, we propose optimal pricing algorithms that can be used when the maximum deadline period of the power jobs is relatively small. Finally, we provide theoretical analysis and conduct several experiments to evaluate the performance of the proposed algorithms.

Keywords: heuristics, optimization, smart grid, peak demand, power supply

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Authors: Ceren Ince, Berkay Zafer Erdem, Shahram Derogar, Nabi Yuzer

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Fibre cement plates, often used in construction, generally are made using quartz as an inert material, cement as a binder and cellulose as a fibre. This paper first of all investigates the mechanical properties and durability of fibre cement plates when quartz is both partly and fully replaced with diatomite. Diatomite does not only have lower density compared to quartz but also has high pozzolanic activity. The main objective of this paper is the investigation of the effects of supplementary cementing materials (SCMs) on the short and long term mechanical properties and durability characteristics of fibre cement plates prepared using diatomite. Supplementary cementing materials such as ground granulated blast furnace slug (GGBS) and fly ash (FA) are used in this study. 10, 20, 30 and 40% of GGBS and FA are used as partial replacement materials to cement. Short and long term mechanical properties such as compressive and flexural strengths as well as capillary absorption, sorptivity characteristics and mass were investigated. Consistency and setting time at each replacement levels of SCMs were also recorded. The effects of using supplementary cementing materials on the carbonation and sulphate resistance of fibre cement plates were then experimented. The results, first of all, show that the use of diatomite as a full or partial replacement to quartz resulted in a systematic decrease in total mass of the fibre cement plates. The reduction of mass was largely due to the lower density and finer particle size of diatomite compared to quartz. The use of diatomite did not only reduce the mass of these plates but also increased the compressive strength significantly as a result of its high pozzolanic activity. The replacement levels of both GGBS and FA resulted in a systematic decrease in short term compressive strength with increasing replacement levels. This was essentially expected as the total heat of hydration is much lower in GGBS and FA than that of cement. Long term results however, indicated that the compressive strength of fibre cement plates prepared using both GGBS and FA increases with time and hence the compressive strength of plates prepared using SCMs is either equivalent or more than the compressive strength of plates prepared using cement alone. Durability characteristics of fibre cement plates prepared using SCMs were enhanced significantly. Measurements of capillary absorption and sopritivty characteristics were also indicated that the plates prepared using SCMs has much lower permeability compared to plates prepared cement alone. Much higher resistance to carbonation and sulphate attach were observed with plates prepared using SCMs. The results presented in this paper show that the use of SCMs does not only support the production of more sustainable construction materials but also enhances the mechanical properties and durability characteristics of fibre cement plates.

Keywords: diatomite, fibre, strength, supplementary cementing material

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Authors: Jean Berger, Nassirou Lo, Martin Noel

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Perfectly suited for natural or man-made emergency and disaster management situations such as flood, earthquakes, tornadoes, or tsunami, multi-target search path planning for a team of rescue agents is known to be computationally hard, and most techniques developed so far come short to successfully estimate optimality gap. A novel mixed-integer linear programming (MIP) formulation is proposed to optimally solve the multi-target multi-agent discrete search and rescue (SAR) path planning problem. Aimed at maximizing cumulative probability of successful target detection, it captures anticipated feedback information associated with possible observation outcomes resulting from projected path execution, while modeling agent discrete actions over all possible moving directions. Problem modeling further takes advantage of network representation to encompass decision variables, expedite compact constraint specification, and lead to substantial problem-solving speed-up. The proposed MIP approach uses CPLEX optimization machinery, efficiently computing near-optimal solutions for practical size problems, while giving a robust upper bound obtained from Lagrangean integrality constraint relaxation. Should eventually a target be positively detected during plan execution, a new problem instance would simply be reformulated from the current state, and then solved over the next decision cycle. A computational experiment shows the feasibility and the value of the proposed approach.

Keywords: search path planning, search and rescue, multi-agent, mixed-integer linear programming, optimization

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Authors: Svenja Pieritz, Jakab Pilaszanovich

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Collaborative Problem Solving (CPS) is recognized as being one of the most important skills of the 21st century with having a potential impact on education, job selection, and collaborative systems design. Therefore, CPS has been adopted in several standardized tests, including the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) in 2015. A significant challenge of evaluating CPS is the underlying interplay of cognitive and social skills, which requires a more holistic assessment. However, the majority of the existing tests are using a questionnaire-based assessment, which oversimplifies this interplay and undermines ecological validity. Two major difficulties were identified: Firstly, the creation of a controllable, real-time environment allowing natural behaviors and communication between at least two people. Secondly, the development of an appropriate method to collect and synthesize both cognitive and social metrics of collaboration. This paper proposes a more holistic and automated approach to the assessment of CPS. To address these two difficulties, a multiplayer problem-solving game called Sea of Light was developed: An environment allowing students to deploy a variety of measurable collaborative strategies. This controlled environment enables researchers to monitor behavior through the analysis of game actions and chat. The according solution for the statistical model is a combined approach of Natural Language Processing (NLP) and Bayesian network analysis. Social exchanges via the in-game chat are analyzed through NLP and fed into the Bayesian network along with other game actions. This Bayesian network synthesizes evidence to track and update different subdimensions of CPS. Major findings focus on the correlations between the evidences collected through in- game actions, the participants’ chat features and the CPS self- evaluation metrics. These results give an indication of which game mechanics can best describe CPS evaluation. Overall, Sea of Light gives test administrators control over different problem-solving scenarios and difficulties while keeping the student engaged. It enables a more complete assessment based on complex, socio-cognitive information on actions and communication. This tool permits further investigations of the effects of group constellations and personality in collaborative problem-solving.

Keywords: bayesian network, collaborative problem solving, game-based assessment, natural language processing

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Authors: William C. Alexander

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The oscillating water column (OSC) wave energy converter (WEC) with deep water reactance (DWR) consists of a large hollow sphere filled with seawater at the base, referred to as the ‘stabilizer’, a hollow cylinder at the top of the device, with a said cylinder having a bottom open to the sea and a sealed top save for an orifice which leads to an air turbine, and a long, narrow rod connecting said stabilizer with said cylinder. A small amount of ballast at the bottom of the stabilizer and a small amount of floatation in the cylinder keeps the device upright in the sea. The floatation is set such that the mean water level is nominally halfway up the cylinder. The entire device is loosely moored to the seabed to keep it from drifting away. In the presence of ocean waves, seawater will move up and down within the cylinder, producing the ‘oscillating water column’. This gives rise to air pressure within the cylinder alternating between positive and negative gauge pressure, which in turn causes air to alternately leave and enter the cylinder through said top-cover situated orifice. An air turbine situated within or immediately adjacent to said orifice converts the oscillating airflow into electric power for transport to shore or elsewhere by electric power cable. Said oscillating air pressure produces large up and down forces on the cylinder. Said large forces are opposed through the rod to the large mass of water retained within the stabilizer, which is located deep enough to be mostly free of any wave influence and which provides the deepwater reactance. The cylinder and stabilizer form a spring-mass system which has a vertical (heave) resonant frequency. The diameter of the cylinder largely determines the power rating of the device, while the size (and water mass within) of the stabilizer determines said resonant frequency. Said frequency is chosen to be on the lower end of the wave frequency spectrum to maximize the average power output of the device over a large span of time (such as a year). The upper portion of the device (the cylinder) moves laterally (surge) with the waves. This motion is accommodated with minimal loading on the said rod by having the stabilizer shaped like a sphere, allowing the entire device to rotate about the center of the stabilizer without rotating the seawater within the stabilizer. A full-scale device of this type may have the following dimensions. The cylinder may be 16 meters in diameter and 30 meters high, the stabilizer 25 meters in diameter, and the rod 55 meters long. Simulations predict that this will produce 1,400 kW in waves of 3.5-meter height and 12 second period, with a relatively flat power curve between 5 and 16 second wave periods, as will be suitable for an open-ocean location. This is nominally 10 times higher power than similar-sized WEC spar buoys as reported in the literature, and the device is projected to have only 5% of the mass per unit power of other OWC converters.

Keywords: oscillating water column, wave energy converter, spar bouy, stabilizer

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Authors: Juan Sepúlveda

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Energy is a fundamental component in sustainability, the access and use of this resource is related with economic growth, social improvements, and environmental impacts. In this sense, energy efficiency has been studied as a factor that enhances the positive impacts of energy in communities; however, the implementation of efficiency requires strong policy and strategies that usually rely on individual measures focused in independent dimensions. In this paper, the problem of energy efficiency as a multi-objective problem is studied, using scientometric analysis to discover trends and patterns that allow to identify the main variables and study approximations related with a further development of models to integrate energy efficiency and MCA into policy making for small communities.

Keywords: energy efficiency, MCA, scientometric, trends

Procedia PDF Downloads 355

Authors: Arifur Rahman, Ardeshir Amirkhani, Honghua Hu, Mark Molloy, Karen Vickery

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Introduction and Objectives: Staphylococcus aureus and coagulase-negative staphylococci comprises approximately 65% of infections associated with medical devices and are well known for their biofilm formatting ability. Biofilm-related infections are extremely difficult to eradicate owing to their high tolerance to antibiotics and host immune defences. Currently, there is no efficient method for early biofilm detection. A better understanding to enable detection of biofilm specific proteins in vitro and in vivo can be achieved by studying planktonic and different growth phases of biofilms using a proteome analysis approach. Our goal was to construct a reference map of planktonic and biofilm associated proteins of S. aureus. Methods: S. aureus reference strain (ATCC 25923) was used to grow 24 hours planktonic, 3-day wet biofilm (3DWB), and 12-day wet biofilm (12DWB). Bacteria were grown in tryptic soy broth (TSB) liquid medium. Planktonic growth was used late logarithmic bacteria, and the Centres for Disease Control (CDC) biofilm reactor was used to grow 3 days, and 12-day hydrated biofilms, respectively. Samples were subjected to reduction, alkylation and digestion steps prior to Multiplex labelling using Tandem Mass Tag (TMT) 10-plex reagent (Thermo Fisher Scientific). The labelled samples were pooled and fractionated by high pH RP-HPLC which followed by loading of the fractions on a nanoflow UPLC system (Eksigent UPLC system, AB SCIEX). Mass spectrometry (MS) data were collected on an Orbitrap Elite (Thermo Fisher Scientific) Mass Spectrometer. Protein identification and relative quantitation of protein levels were performed using Proteome Discoverer (version 1.3, Thermo Fisher Scientific). After the extraction of protein ratios with Proteome Discoverer, additional processing, and statistical analysis was done using the TMTPrePro R package. Results and Discussion: The present study showed that a considerable proteomic difference exists among planktonic and biofilms from S. aureus. We identified 1636 total extracellular secreted proteins, of which 350 and 137 proteins of 3DWB and 12DWB showed significant abundance variation from planktonic preparation, respectively. Of these, simultaneous up-regulation in between 3DWB and 12DWB proteins such as extracellular matrix-binding protein ebh, enolase, transketolase, triosephosphate isomerase, chaperonin, peptidase, pyruvate kinase, hydrolase, aminotransferase, ribosomal protein, acetyl-CoA acetyltransferase, DNA gyrase subunit A, glycine glycyltransferase and others we found in this biofilm producer. On the contrary, simultaneous down-regulation in between 3DWB and 12DWB proteins such as alpha and delta-hemolysin, lipoteichoic acid synthase, enterotoxin I, serine protease, lipase, clumping factor B, regulatory protein Spx, phosphoglucomutase, and others also we found in this biofilm producer. In addition, we also identified a big percentage of hypothetical proteins including unique proteins. Therefore, a comprehensive knowledge of planktonic and biofilm associated proteins identified by S. aureus will provide a basis for future studies on the development of vaccines and diagnostic biomarkers. Conclusions: In this study, we constructed an initial reference map of planktonic and various growth phase of biofilm associated proteins which might be helpful to diagnose biofilm associated infections.

Keywords: bacterial biofilms, CDC bioreactor, S. aureus, mass spectrometry, TMT

Procedia PDF Downloads 156