Search results for: lightweighting structural system

Authors: Linyu Wang, Furui Huo, Jianhong Xiang

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The Doppler shift generated by high-speed movement and multipath effects in the channel are the main reasons for the generation of a time-frequency doubly-selective (DS) channel. There is severe inter-carrier interference (ICI) in the DS channel. Channel estimation for an orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) system over a DS channel is very difficult. The simultaneous orthogonal matching pursuit algorithm under distributed compressive sensing theory (DCS-SOMP) has been used in channel estimation for OFDM systems over DS channels. However, the reconstruction accuracy of the DCS-SOMP algorithm is not high enough in the low SNR stage. To solve this problem, in this paper, we propose an improved DCS-SOMP algorithm based on the inner product difference comparison operation (DCS-DCSOMP). The reconstruction accuracy is improved by increasing the number of candidate indexes and designing the comparison conditions of inner product difference. We combine the DCS-DCSOMP algorithm with the basis expansion model (BEM) to reduce the complexity of channel estimation. Simulation results show the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm and its advantages over other algorithms.

Keywords: OFDM, doubly selective, channel estimation, compressed sensing

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Authors: K. Benyounes, A. Benmounah

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Cement-based grouts has been used successfully to repair cracks in many concrete structures such as bridges, tunnels, buildings and to consolidate soils or rock foundations. In the present study, the rheological characterization of cement grout with water/binder ratio (W/B) is fixed at 0.5. The effect of the replacement of cement by bentonite (2 to 10 % wt) in presence of superplasticizer (0.5 % wt) was investigated. Several rheological tests were carried out by using controlled-stress rheometer equipped with vane geometry in temperature of 20°C. To highlight the influence of bentonite and superplasticizer on the rheological behavior of grout cement, various flow tests in a range of shear rate from 0 to 200 s-1 were observed. Cement grout showed a non-Newtonian viscosity behavior at all concentrations of bentonite. Three parameter model Herschel-Bulkley was chosen for fitting of experimental data. Based on the values of correlation coefficients of the estimated parameters, The Herschel-Bulkley law model well described the rheological behavior of the grouts. Test results showed that the dosage of bentonite increases the viscosity and yield stress of the system and introduces more thixotropy. While the addition of both bentonite and superplasticizer with cement grout improve significantly the fluidity and reduced the yield stress due to the action of dispersion of SP.

Keywords: rheology, cement grout, bentonite, superplasticizer, viscosity, yield stress

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Authors: Li Yongyi

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In order to explore the distribution of geological disasters within the expressway area of Shaanxi Province, the Analytic Hierarchy Process theory is applied based on the geographic information system technology platform, and the ground elevation, rainfall, vegetation coverage and other indicators are selected for analysis, and the expressway area is sensitive Sexual evaluation. The results show that the highway area disasters in Shaanxi Province are mainly distributed in the southern mountainous areas and are dominated by landslides; the disaster area ratio basically increases with the increase in ground elevation, surface slope, surface undulation, rainfall, and vegetation coverage. The increase in the distance from the river shows a decreasing trend; after grading the disaster sensitivity within 5km of the expressway, the extremely sensitive area, the highly sensitive area, the medium sensitive area, the low sensitive area, and the extremely low sensitive area respectively account for 8.17%、15.80%、22.99%、26.22%、26.82%. Highly sensitive road areas are mainly distributed in southern Shaanxi.

Keywords: highway engineering, sensitivity, analytic hierarchy process, geological hazard, road area

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Authors: Hammad Khan, Wookeun Bae

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The objective of this study was to optimize and control the highly loaded and efficient nitrite production having suitability for autotrophic and heterotrophic denitritation. A lab scale CSTR for partial and full nitritation was operated to treat the livestock manure digester liquor having an ammonium concentration of ~600 mg-NH4+-N/L and biodegradable contents of ~0.35 g-COD/L. The experiments were performed at 30°C, pH: 8.0, DO: 1.5 mg/L and SRT ranging from 7-20 days. After 125 days operation, >95% nitrite buildup having the ammonium loading rate of ~3.2 kg-NH4+-N/m3-day was seen with almost complete ammonium conversion. On increasing the loading rate further (i-e, from 3.2-6.2 kg-NH4+-N/m3-day), stability of the system remained unaffected. On decreasing the pH from 8 to 7.5 and further 7.2, removal rate can be easily controlled as 95%, 75%, and even 50%. Results demonstrated that nitritation stability and desired removal rates are controlled by a balance of simultaneous inhibition by FA & FNA, pH effect and DO limitation. These parameters proved to be effective even to produce an appropriate influent for anammox. In addition, a mathematical model, identified through the occurring biological reactions, is proposed to optimize the full and partial nitritation process. The proposed model present relationship between pH, ammonium and produced nitrite for full and partial nitritation under the varying concentrations of DO, and simultaneous inhibition by FA and FNA.

Keywords: stable nitritation, high loading, autrophic denitritation, hetrotrophic denitritation

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Authors: Lalla Nezha Lakmiti, Abdelkahar Zahid

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Due to the setbacks on the international scene and the wave of cacophonic financial scandals affecting large international groups, the new Islamic finance industry is not immune despite its initial resistance. The purpose of this paper is to understand and analyze the meaning of the Corporate Governance (CG) concept in Moroccan Islamic banking systems with specific reference to their institutions. The research objective is to identify also the path taken and adopted by these banks recently set up in Morocco. The foundation is rooted in shari'a, in particular, no stakeholder (the shareholding approach) must be harmed, and the ethical value is reflected into these parties’ behavior. We chose a qualitative method, semi-structured interviews where six managers provided answers about their banking systems. Since these respondents held a senior position (directors) within their organizations, it is felt that they are well placed and have the necessary knowledge to provide us with information to answer the questions asked. The results identified the orientation of participating banks and assessing how governance works, while determining which party is fovoured: shareholders, stakeholders or both. This study discusses the favorable condition to the harmonization of the regulations and therefore a better integration between Islamic finance and conventional ones in the economic context of Morocco.

Keywords: corporate governance, Islamic Banks, stakeholders, shareholders

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Authors: Madhu Patial, Dharam Pal, Jagdish Kumar, H. K. Chaudhary

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Doubled haploid breeding serves as a useful technique in wheat improvement by providing instant and complete homozygosity. Of the various techniques employed for haploid production chromosome elimination has a large scale practical application in wheat improvement. Barclay (1975) initiated the technique in wheat by crossing wheat variety Chinese spring with Hordeum bulbosum, but due to presence of the dominant crossability inhibitor genes Kr7 and Kr2 in many wheat varieties, the technique was however genotypic specific. The discovery of wheat X maize system of haploid production being genotype non-specific is quite successful but still maize needs to be grown in greenhouse to coincide flowering with wheat crop. Recently, wheat X Imperate cylindrica has been identified as a new chromosome mediated DH approach for efficient haploid induction. An experiment to use this technique in wheat was set up by crossing six F1s and two three way F1s with Imperata cylindrica. The data was recorded for the three component traits of haploid induction viz., seed formation, embryo formation and regeneration frequency. Variation among wheat F1s was observed and higher frequency for all the traits were recorded in cross HD 2997/2*FL-8/DONSK-POLL and KLE/BER/2*FL-8/DONSK-POLL.

Keywords: wheat, haploid, imperata cylindrica, chromosome elimination technique

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Authors: Weinian Wang, Joseph C. Chen

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The objective of this research is to optimize the process of cutting cylindrical workpieces utilizing live tooling on a HAAS ST-20 lathe. Surface roughness (Ra) has been investigated as the indicator of quality characteristics for machining process. Aluminum alloy was used to conduct experiments due to its wide range usages in engineering structures and components where light weight or corrosion resistance is required. In this study, Taguchi methodology is utilized to determine the effects that each of the parameters has on surface roughness (Ra). A total of 18 experiments of each process were designed according to Taguchi’s L9 orthogonal array (OA) with four control factors at three levels of each and signal-to-noise ratios (S/N) were computed with Smaller the better equation for minimizing the system. The optimal parameters identified for the surface roughness of the turning operation utilizing live tooling were a feed rate of 3 inches/min(A3); a spindle speed of 1300 rpm(B3); a 2-flute titanium nitrite coated 3/8” endmill (C1); and a depth of cut of 0.025 inches (D2). The mean surface roughness of the confirmation runs in turning operation was 8.22 micro inches. The final results demonstrate that Taguchi methodology is a sufficient way of process improvement in turning process on surface roughness.

Keywords: CNC milling operation, CNC turning operation, surface roughness, Taguchi parameter design

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Authors: Samuel Ibbi Ibrahim, Isaiah Ndalassan Ibrahim

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Accessibility and availability of good quality water have become a major concern among different users. This paper examines the caustic importance of water security in relation to people’s desire for survival. It observed the democratic ideology of national policy on domestic water supply and demand and its implementation for national and societal development. It used analogy on equilibrium approach to ascertain the household water security. In most communities, it is glaring that several public water management in operation for several years are hardly performing efficiently to reach equilibrium demand. Moreover most settlements being rural or urban lack effective public water system that could ensure regular supplies to the population. The terrain and gradual declining of efficient rainfall northward poses great challenge to the region in managing water supply and demand adequately. This study itemized the need for the government to get clear strategy for a sustainable development on better water efficiency. Partnership in providing workable policy on water security is considered apparently important. It is also suggested that water plant treatment should be established in every medium-sized towns in the country.

Keywords: good quality of water, water accessibility, water availability, water sustainable

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Authors: Edward Shizha, Edward Makwarimba

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This literature review explores current research on the educational strengths and barriers of newcomer and refugee youth in Canada. Canada’s shift in immigration policy in the past three decades, from Europe to Asian and African countries as source continents of recent immigrants to Canada, has tremendously increased the ethnic, linguistic, cultural and religious diversity of the population, including that of students in its education system. Over 18% of the country’s population was born in another country, of which 70% are visible minorities. There has been an increase in admitted immigrants and refugees, with a total of 226,203 between July 2020 and June 2021. Newcomer parents and their children in all major destination countries, including Canada, face tremendous challenges, including racism and discrimination, lack of English language skills, poverty, income inequality, unemployment, and underemployment. They face additional challenges, including discrimination against those who cannot speak the official languages, English or French. The severity of the challenges depends on several intersectional factors, including immigrant status (asylum seeker, refugee, or immigrant), age, gender, level of education and others. Through the lens of intersectionality as an explanatory perspective, this literature review examines the educational attainment and outcomes of newcomer and refugee youth in Canada in order to understand their educational needs, educational barriers and strengths. Newcomer youths’ experiences are shaped by numerous intersectional and interconnected sociocultural, sociopolitical, and socioeconomic factors—including gender, migration status, racialized status, ethnicity, socioeconomic class, sexual minority status, age, race—that produce and perpetuate their disadvantage. According to research, immigrants and refugees from visible minority ethnic backgrounds experience exclusions more than newcomers from other backgrounds and groups from the mainstream population. For many immigrant parents, migration provides financial and educational opportunities for their children. Yet, when attending school, newcomer and refugee youth face unique challenges related to racism and discrimination, negative attitudes and stereotypes from teachers and other school authorities, language learning and proficiency, differing levels of acculturation, and different cultural views of the role of parents in relation to teachers and school, and unfamiliarity with the social or school context in Canada. Recognizing discrepancies in educational attainment of newcomer and refugee youth based on their race and immigrant status, the paper develops insights into existing research and data gaps related to educational strengths and challenges for visible minority newcomer youth in Canada. The paper concludes that the educational successes or failures of the newcomer and refugee youth and their settlement and integration into the school system in Canada may depend on where their families settle, the attitudes of the host community and the school officials (teachers, guidance counsellors and school administrators) after-school support programs and their own set of coping mechanisms. Conceivably a unique approach to after-school programming should provide learning supports and opportunities that consider newcomer and refugee youth’s needs, experiences, backgrounds and circumstances. This support is likely to translate into significant academic and psychological well-being of newcomer students.

Keywords: deficit discourse, discrimination, educational outcomes, newcomer and refugee youth, racism, strength-based approach, whiteness

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Authors: Sayantani Neogi, Sean Taylor, Julia Budka

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This paper presents the results of the investigations of soil/sediment sequences associated with the New Kingdom town at Sai Island, Sudan. During the course of this study, geoarchaeological surveys have been undertaken in the vicinity of this Pharaonic town within the island and the soil block samples for soil micromorphological analysis were accordingly collected. The intention was to better understand the archaeological site in its environmental context and the nature of the land surface prior to the establishment of the settlement. Soil micromorphology, a very powerful geoarchaeological methodology, is concerned with the description, measurement and interpretation of soil components and pedological features at a microscopic scale. Since soil profiles themselves are archives of their own history, soil micromorphology investigates the environmental and cultural signatures preserved within buried soils and sediments. A study of the thin sections from these soils/sediments has been able to provide robust data for providing interesting insights into the various nuances of this site, for example, the nature of the topography and existent environmental condition during the time of Pharaonic site establishment. These geoarchaeological evaluations have indicated that there is a varied hidden landscape context for this pharaonic settlement, which indicates a symbiotic relationship with the Nilotic environmental system.

Keywords: geoarchaeology, New Kingdom, Nilotic environment, soil micromorphology

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Authors: Duisenova Marzhan

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This paper considers the looking from a philosophical point of view the interactive technology and tiered developing Kazakh language teaching primary school pupils through the method of linguistic communication, content and teaching methods formed in the education system. The values determined by the formation of new practical ways that could lead to a novel qualitative level and solving the problem. In the formation of the communicative competence of elementary school students would be to pay attention to other competencies. It helps to understand the motives and needs socialization of students, the development of their cognitive abilities and participate in language relations arising from different situations. Communicative competence is the potential of its own in pupils creative language activity. In this article, the Kazakh language teaching in primary school communicative method is presented. The purpose of learning communicative method, personal development, effective psychological development of the child, himself-education, expansion and growth of language skills and vocabulary, socialization of children, the adoption of the laws of life in the social environment, analyzed the development of vocabulary richness of the language that forms the erudition to ensure continued improvement of education of the child.

Keywords: communicative, culture, training, process, method, primary, competence

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Authors: Azam Abkhiz, Abolghasem Nasir

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To achieve sustainable competitive advantage in the market, it is necessary to provide and improve customer satisfaction and Loyalty. To reach this objective, companies need to identify and analyze their customers. Thus, it is critical to measure the level of customer satisfaction and Loyalty very carefully. This study attempts to build a conceptual model to provide clear insights of customer loyalty. Using Bayesian networks (BNs), a model is proposed to evaluate customer loyalty and its consequences, such as repurchase and positive word-of-mouth. BN is a probabilistic approach that predicts the behavior of a system based on observed stochastic events. The most relevant determinants of customer loyalty are identified by the literature review. Perceived value, service quality, trust, corporate image, satisfaction, and switching costs are the most important variables that explain customer loyalty. The data are collected by use of a questionnaire-based survey from 1430 customers of a home appliances manufacturer in Iran. Four scenarios and sensitivity analyses are performed to run and analyze the impact of different determinants on customer loyalty. The proposed model allows businesses to not only set their targets but proactively manage their customer behaviors as well.

Keywords: customer satisfaction, customer loyalty, Bayesian networks, home appliances industry

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Authors: Amira Ben Rabeh, Faouzi Benzarti, Hamid Amiri, Mouna Bouaziz

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Alzheimer is a disease that affects the brain. It causes degeneration of nerve cells (neurons) and in particular cells involved in memory and intellectual functions. Early diagnosis of Alzheimer Diseases (AD) raises ethical questions, since there is, at present, no cure to offer to patients and medicines from therapeutic trials appear to slow the progression of the disease as moderate, accompanying side effects sometimes severe. In this context, analysis of medical images became, for clinical applications, an essential tool because it provides effective assistance both at diagnosis therapeutic follow-up. Computer Assisted Diagnostic systems (CAD) is one of the possible solutions to efficiently manage these images. In our work; we proposed an application to detect Alzheimer’s diseases. For detecting the disease in early stage we used the three sections: frontal to extract the Hippocampus (H), Sagittal to analysis the Corpus Callosum (CC) and axial to work with the variation features of the Cortex(C). Our method of classification is based on Support Vector Machine (SVM). The proposed system yields a 90.66% accuracy in the early diagnosis of the AD.

Keywords: Alzheimer Diseases (AD), Computer Assisted Diagnostic(CAD), hippocampus, Corpus Callosum (CC), cortex, Support Vector Machine (SVM)

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Authors: Shepherd Manhokwe, Sheron Shoko, Cuthbert Zvidzai

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In the present study, the interactive effects of temperature and cultured bacteria on the performance of a biological treatment system of yeast processing wastewater were investigated. The main objective of this study was to investigate and optimize the operating parameters that reduce organic load and colour. Experiments were conducted based on a Central Composite Design (CCD) and analysed using Response Surface Methodology (RSM). Three dependent parameters were either directly measured or calculated as response. These parameters were total Chemical Oxygen Demand (COD) removal, colour reduction and total solids. COD removal efficiency of 26 % and decolourization efficiency of 44 % were recorded for the wastewater treatment. The optimized conditions for the biological treatment were found to be at 20 g/l cultured bacteria and 25 °C for COD reduction. For colour reduction optimum conditions were temperature of 30.35°C and bacterial formulation of 20g/l. Biological treatment of baker’s yeast processing effluent is a suitable process for the removal of organic load and colour from wastewater, especially when the operating parameters are optimized.

Keywords: COD reduction, optimisation, response surface methodology, yeast processing wastewater

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Authors: Rinaldo Diricchardi

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In this paper, author theoretically and empirically explores the ethnic identity of the descendants of the Indian travelers in Slovenia Sinti, who are in modern time, for the researchers, still a "tabula rasa". He investigates the extent to which Sinti ethnic particular identities (e.g. Sinti chiefs, Sinti’s individual political structure…), the Sinti language (dialect, which is topic and it is not allowed to be spoken in public), culture and habits still in the impact of anachronism, moreover, to what extent the community is still “tabula rasa” (to non–Sinti population). The relationships within the Sinti entity: "in se–intra se" is a mirror of duality of the relation of "extra se". Is it possible that the concepts of social/economical relationships are reflecting the Sinti community, moreover, the possible influence of minority from outside to inside? Is the stratification of their ethnicity and their language ethnicism? In addition, is the result of stratification of discourse still inherited and discounted the Indian caste system? In present article, author uses the word Gypsy with high respect and with a large measure of prudentiality, without negative connotations. At the first Gypsy World Congress in 1971 in London the Sinti did not accept unification with Romani, but Sinti and others Gypsies still keep the name Gypsy/Romanichals, Gypsy/Kale, Gypsy/Manouches, Gypsy/Manoesje, Gypsy/Xoraxano, Gypsy/Machaways and Gypsy/Kalderashe. In addition, all of the European documents taken into account respect and use the name Gypsy.

Keywords: Sinti, Gypsy, identity, stratification, inclusion, exclusion

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Authors: Vethathirri Ramanujam Srinivasan, S. M. Shiva Nagendra

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Air quality management in urban areas is a serious concern in both developed and developing countries. In this regard, more number of air quality monitoring stations are planned to mitigate air pollution in urban areas. In India, Central Pollution Control Board has set up 574 air quality monitoring stations across the country and proposed to set up another 500 stations in the next few years. The number of monitoring stations for each city has been decided based on population data. The setting up of ambient air quality monitoring stations and their operation and maintenance are highly expensive. Therefore, there is a need to optimize monitoring networks for air quality management. The present paper discusses the various methods such as Indian Standards (IS) method, US EPA method and European Union (EU) method to arrive at the minimum number of air quality monitoring stations. In addition, optimization of rain-gauge method and Inverse Distance Weighted (IDW) method using Geographical Information System (GIS) are also explored in the present work for the design of air quality network in Chennai city. In summary, additionally 18 stations are required for Chennai city, and the potential monitoring locations with their corresponding land use patterns are ranked and identified from the 1km x 1km sized grids.

Keywords: air quality monitoring network, inverse distance weighted method, population based method, spatial variation

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Authors: Bandari Shankar, Yohannes Yirga

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In this paper, the problem of heat and mass transfer in unsteady MHD boundary-layer flow of nanofluids over stretching sheet with a non uniform heat source/sink is considered. The unsteadiness in the flow and temperature is caused by the time-dependent stretching velocity and surface temperature. The unsteady boundary layer equations are transformed to a system of non-linear ordinary differential equations and solved numerically using Keller box method. The velocity, temperature, and concentration profiles were obtained and utilized to compute the skin-friction coefficient, local Nusselt number, and local Sherwood number for different values of the governing parameters viz. solid volume fraction parameter, unsteadiness parameter, magnetic field parameter, Schmidt number, space-dependent and temperature-dependent parameters for heat source/sink. A comparison of the numerical results of the present study with previously published data revealed an excellent agreement

Keywords: unsteady, heat and mass transfer, manetohydrodynamics, nanofluid, non-uniform heat source/sink, stretching sheet

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Authors: Luiz Antonio Da Costa Rodrigues, Mara Aparecida De Castilho Lopes, Alexandre Santos Alencar

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Teaching of science must transcend simple transmission of fundamental concepts and allow scientific literacy, as a process for understanding the human being as an integral part of a complex and interdependent whole. In this context, approaching the theme ‘Antarctica’ in deaf education is an important advance for teaching, considering that that continent has direct interactions with the climatic and environmental system of the planet. Therefore, textbooks can be important tools to enable the Deaf Community to access the discussion about the natural environment. A specific script was used to analyze textbooks adopted by schools in the Rio de Janeiro Metropolitan Region. Results show that none of the 14 analyzed books have a specific chapter on the theme, some presents images of the continent without reference to their environmental importance, and the complementary texts present in the analyzed material do not address the theme either. It is concluded that the study on Antarctica and global changes in elementary education is still incipient and the material used by most Brazilian public schools does not contemplate that subject in an accessible way for the deaf person. This fact represents the distance between deaf students and their environment, denoting the need for actions to promote that and other neglected themes in Science teaching.

Keywords: Antarctica, deaf education, science teaching, textbook

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Authors: S. Boorboor, S. A. H. Feghhi, H. Jafari

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The ionizing radiations cause different kinds of damages in electronic components. MOSFETs, most common transistors in today’s digital and analog circuits, are severely sensitive to TID damage. In this work, the threshold voltage shift of CD4007 device, which is an integrated circuit including P-channel and N-channel MOS transistors, was investigated for low dose gamma irradiation under different gate bias voltages. We used linear extrapolation method to extract threshold voltage from I_D-V_G characteristic curve. The results showed that the threshold voltage shift was approximately 27.5 mV/Gy for N-channel and 3.5 mV/Gy for P-channel transistors at the gate bias of |9 V| after irradiation by Co-60 gamma ray source. Although the sensitivity of the devices under test were strongly dependent to biasing condition and transistor type, the threshold voltage shifted linearly versus accumulated dose in all cases. The overall results show that the application of CD4007 as an electronic buffer in a radiation therapy system is limited by TID damage. However, this integrated circuit can be used as a cheap and sensitive radiation dosimeter for accumulated dose measurement in radiation therapy systems.

Keywords: threshold voltage shift, MOS transistor, linear extrapolation, gamma irradiation

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Authors: Shruti Sengupta

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According to the nationally representative data, about 73% of India's rural workforce is engaged in agriculture. While women make significant contributions to total agriculture production, they contribute to about one-third in India. In terms of gender composition, about 80% of the female and 69% of the male workforce is engaged in agriculture in rural India. Still, it is common to find gender differences in plot management within the household. In the last two and half years, India's agri-food system has undergone several changes due to this pandemic, both the demand and supply side, making agriculture more information and knowledge-intensive. Therefore, this paper investigates, using a nationally representative sample, how information asymmetry affects the net returns per hectare of land between female and male farm managers. Empirical results show that information intensity has a significant positive effect on net farm returns per hectare. Results suggest that if females have the same access to technical information as their male counterparts, their farm income can go up by .96 pp compared to male-headed farms. Results also indicate that literate females have higher farm incomes than non-literate females. The study contributes to the literature by employing gender differentials in farm income due to the information gap.

Keywords: agriculture, gender, information asymmetry, farm income, social bias

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Authors: Harold Jideofor Nnachetam

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Maintenance management in Nigeria Polytechnic faced many issues due to poor service delivery, inadequate finance, and poor maintenance plan and maintenance backlogs. The purpose of this study is to improve the conventional method practices which tend to be ineffective in Nigeria Polytechnic. The case study was conducted with eight Polytechnics in Nigeria. The selected Polytechnic is based on conventional method practices and its major problems, attempt to implement computerized technology and the willingness of staff to share their experiences. All feedbacks from respondents through semi-structured interview were recorded using video camera and transcribed verbatim. The overall findings of this research indicated; poor service delivery, inadequate financial, poor maintenance planning and maintenance backlogs. There is also need to overcome less man power competencies of maintenance management practices which existed with all eight Polytechnics. In addition, the study also found that the Polytechnics still use conventional maintenance management processes in managing building facility condition. As a result, the maintenance management staff was not able to improve the maintenance management performance at the Polytechnics. The findings are intended to be used for maintenance management practices at Nigeria Polytechnics in order to provide high-quality of building facility with safe and healthy environments.

Keywords: maintenance management, conventional method, maintenance management system, Nigeria polytechnic

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Authors: Mariana Sabino, Janes Cleiton de Oliveira, Carlos Luna de Melo

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This paper presents a discussion about the importance and influence of the environment in the patient’s recovery process. Some users (employees and patients) were submitted to a questionnaire that helps to diagnoses the major problems of the hospital, specially related to comfort (aesthetic, thermal, acoustic, light, ergonomic), well-being, how does the flow of patients and employees works in the hospital and wayfinding as well. After a short literature review presenting the topic, the hospital will be characterized, showing photos, the projects available and describing the hospital as well (how many rooms, functions of each one, receptions, waiting rooms, between other things.), than the questionnaire will be applied to patients and to the employees. Lastly the results of the answers given will be analyzed in graphics, and it will help to identify which are the major improvements needed immediately. This paper has the intention to propose a methodology to diagnose architecture problems in a cancer hospital in Brasilia, Brazil, besides to open a space to hear the people that use the building to tell about their discomforts and perceptions of the environment, it also will give an opportunity to apply the possible improvements. It is important to tell that it will be considered if the hospital has a healing environment, and it will also be considered the ergonomic issues about comfort and the way the system of this particular hospital works in general.

Keywords: cancer hospital, comfort, diagnose, healing environment

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Authors: Saban Inam, Necdet Sahiner, Tayfun Cay

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Environmental factors such as rapid population growth, changing economic conditions, desertification and climate change increase demand for the acquisition and use of land. Demands on the land are increasing due to the lack of production of soils and scarcity. This causes disagreements on the land. Reducing the pressure on the land and protecting the natural resources, public investments should be directed economically and rationally. This will make it possible to achieve equivalent living conditions between the rural area and the urban area. Initiating the development from the rural area and the cadastre needs to be redefined to allow the management of the land. The planned, regular, effective agriculture and rural development policies that Turkey will implement in the process of European Union membership will also significantly shape Turkey's position in the European Union. For this reason, Turkey enjoys the most appropriate use of natural resources, which is one of the main objectives of the European Union's recent rural development policy. This study deals with the urgent need to provide cadastral data infrastructure that will form the basis for land management which is supposed to support economic and societal sustainable development in rural and urban areas.

Keywords: rural development, cadastre, land management, agricultural reform implementation project, land parcel identification system

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Authors: Oscar Armando González-Marin, Jhon F. Rodríguez-León, Oscar Mota-Pérez, Jorge Pineda-Piñón, Roberto S. Velázquez-González., Julio C. Sosa-Savedra

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Over the past six years, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) has recorded the warmest years since 1880, primarily attributed to climate change. In addition, the overexploitation of agricultural lands, combined with food and water scarcity, has highlighted the urgent need for sustainable cultivation methods. Hydroponics has emerged as a sustainable farming technique that enables plant cultivation using nutrient solutions without the requirement for traditional soil. Among hydroponic methods, the Nutrient Film Technique (NFT) facilitates plant growth by circulating a nutrient solution continuously. This approach allows the monitoring and precise control of nutritional parameters, with potential for automation and technological integration. This study aims to present the state of the art of automated NFT hydroponic systems, discussing their design methodologies and considerations for implementation. Moreover, a medium-scale NFT system developed at CICATA-QRO is introduced, detailing its current manual management and progress toward automation.

Keywords: automation, hydroponics, nutrient film technique, sustainability

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Authors: Piyush Pal, Rahul Dev

Abstract:

Water is essential for life and fresh water is a finite resource that is becoming scarce day by day even though it is recycled by hydrological cycle. The fresh water reserves are being polluted due to expanding irrigation, industries, urban population and its development. Contaminated water leads to several health problems. With the increasing demand of fresh water, solar distillation is an alternate solution which uses solar energy to evaporate water and then to condense it, thereby collecting distilled water within or outside the same system to use it as potable water. The structure that houses the process is known as a 'solar still'. In this paper, ‘Modified double slope solar still (MDSSS)’ & 'Modified double slope basin type multiwick solar still (MDSBMSS)' have been designed to convert saline, brackish water into drinking water. In this work two different modified solar stills are fabricated to study the performance of these solar stills. For modification of solar stills, Fibre Reinforced Plastic (FRP) and Acrylic sheets are used. The experiments in MDSBMSS and MDSSS was carried on 10 September 2015 & 5 November 2015 respectively. Performances of the stills were investigated. The amount of distillate has been found 3624 Ml/day in MDSBMSS on 10 September 2015 and 2400 Ml/day in MDSSS on 5 November 2015.

Keywords: contaminated water, conventional solar still, modified solar still, wick

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Authors: Kingsley Nnaemeka Ogbu, Constantine Mbajiorgu

Abstract:

Vegetation has a marked effect on runoff and has become an important component in hydrologic model. The watershed Resources Management (WRM) model, a process-based, continuous, distributed parameter simulation model developed for hydrologic and soil erosion studies at the watershed scale lack a crop growth component. As such, this model assumes a constant parameter values for vegetation and hydraulic parameters throughout the duration of hydrologic simulation. Our approach is to develop a crop growth algorithm based on the original plant growth model used in the Environmental Policy Integrated Climate Model (EPIC) model. This paper describes the development of a single crop growth model which has the capability of simulating all crops using unique parameter values for each crop. Simulated crop growth processes will reflect the vegetative seasonality of the natural watershed system. An existing model was employed for evaluating vegetative resistance by hydraulic and vegetative parameters incorporated into the WRM model. The improved WRM model will have the ability to evaluate the seasonal variation of the vegetative roughness coefficient with depth of flow and further enhance the hydrologic model’s capability for accurate hydrologic studies.

Keywords: runoff, roughness coefficient, PAR, WRM model

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Authors: Hammad Khan, Wookeun Bae

Abstract:

The objective of this study was to optimize, achieve and control the highly loaded and efficient nitrite production having suitability for autotrophic and heterotrophic denitritation. A lab scale CSTR for partial and full nitritation was operated to treat the livestock manure digester liquor having an ammonium concentration of ~600 mg-NH4+-N/L and biodegradable contents of ~0.35 g-COD/L. The experiments were performed at 30°C, pH: 8.0, DO: 1.5 mg/L and SRT ranging from 7-20 days. After 125 days operation, >95% nitrite buildup having the ammonium loading rate of ~3.2 kg-NH4+-N/m3-day was seen with almost complete ammonium conversion. On increasing the loading rate further (i-e, from 3.2-6.2 kg-NH4+-N/m3-day), stability of the system remained unaffected. On decreasing the pH from 8 to7.5 and further 7.2, removal rate can be easily controlled as 95%, 75%, and even 50%. Results demonstrated that nitritation stability and desired removal rates are controlled by a balance of simultaneous inhibition by FA & FNA, pH affect and DO limitation. These parameters proved to be effective even to produce an appropriate influent for anammox. In addition, a mathematical model, identified through the occurring biological reactions, is proposed to optimize the full and partial nitritation process. The proposed model present relationship between pH, ammonium and produced nitrite for full and partial nitritation under the varying concentrations of DO, and simultaneous inhibition by FA and FNA.

Keywords: stable nitritation, high loading, autrophic denitritation, CSTR

Procedia PDF Downloads 240

Authors: Nancy Sakr, Mohamed Abou-Zeid

Abstract:

World energy consumption has increased rapidly in the past few years. Due to population growth, total energy consumption is increasing; a large amount of energy is wasted on the cooling and heating processes in buildings. However, using thermal heating management can minimize costs, heat consumption and create a management system for the heat insulation for buildings. This concept is being implemented through different approaches. Based on analysis and research, there is evidence in the energy consumption before and after testing and applying construction approaches for thermal heating management in building units. This investigation addresses the evaluation of the influence of external coatings on energy consumption. Coatings are considered one of the smart effective available approaches for energy efficiency. Unfortunately, this approach is not widely applied in the construction industry. It needs more data to prove effectiveness and credibility between people to use it as a smart thermal insulation approach. Two precedents have been analyzed in order to monitor buildings’ heat exposure, and how the buildings will be affected by thermal insulation materials. Data sheets from chemical companies which produce similar coatings are compared with the usual products and the protective thermal products.

Keywords: energy consumption, building envelope, thermal insulation, protective coatings

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Authors: Itissam Abuiziah

Abstract:

In several hydraulic systems, it is necessary to calculate the head losses which depend on the resistance flow friction factor in Darcy equation. Computing the resistance friction is based on implicit Colebrook-White equation which is considered as the standard for the friction calculation, but it needs high computational cost, therefore; several explicit approximation methods are used for solving an implicit equation to overcome this issue. It follows that the relative error is used to determine the most accurate method among the approximated used ones. Steel, cast iron and polyethylene pipe materials investigated with practical diameters ranged from 0.1m to 2.5m and velocities between 0.6m/s to 3m/s. In short, the results obtained show that the suitable method for some cases may not be accurate for other cases. For example, when using steel pipe materials, Zigrang and Silvester's method has revealed as the most precise in terms of low velocities 0.6 m/s to 1.3m/s. Comparatively, Halland method showed a less relative error with the gradual increase in velocity. Accordingly, the simulation results of this study might be employed by the hydraulic engineers, so they can take advantage to decide which is the most applicable method according to their practical pipe system expectations.

Keywords: Colebrook–White, explicit equation, friction factor, hydraulic resistance, implicit equation, Reynolds numbers

Procedia PDF Downloads 188

Authors: Heng Yang, Tao Luo, Yakun Zhang, Kai Wang, Wei Qin, Liang Xie, Ye Yan, Erwei Yin

Abstract:

Recent years have seen that audio-visual recognition has shown great potential in a strong noise environment. The existing method of audio-visual recognition has explored methods with ResNet and feature fusion. However, on the one hand, ResNet always occupies a large amount of memory resources, restricting the application in engineering. On the other hand, the feature merging also brings some interferences in a high noise environment. In order to solve the problems, we proposed an effective framework with bidirectional distillation. At first, in consideration of the good performance in extracting of features, we chose the light model, Efficientnet as our extractor of spatial features. Secondly, self-distillation was applied to learn more information from raw data. Finally, we proposed a bidirectional distillation in decision-level fusion. In more detail, our experimental results are based on a multi-model dataset from 24 volunteers. Eventually, the lipreading accuracy of our framework was increased by 2.3% compared with existing systems, and our framework made progress in audio-visual fusion in a high noise environment compared with the system of audio recognition without visual.

Keywords: lipreading, audio-visual, Efficientnet, distillation

Procedia PDF Downloads 134