Search results for: Maximum Entropy Bootstrapping approach

Authors: Alina Svechkina, Boris A. Portnov

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In line with a rapid increase in pollution sources and enforcement of stricter air pollution regulation, which lowers pollution levels, it becomes more difficult to identify actual risk sources behind the observed morbidity patterns, and new approaches are required to identify potential risks and take preventive actions. In the present study, we discuss a probabilistic approach to the spatial identification of a priori unidentified environmental health hazards. The underlying assumption behind the tested approach is that the observed adverse health patterns (morbidity, mortality) can become a source of information on the geographic location of environmental risk factors that stand behind them. Using this approach, we analyzed sources of environmental exposure using data on mortality rates available for the year 2015 for NUTS 3 (Nomenclature of Territorial Units for Statistics) subdivisions of the European Union. We identified several areas in the southwestern part of Europe as primary risk sources for the observed mortality patterns. Multivariate regressions, controlled by geographical location, climate conditions, GDP (gross domestic product) per capita, dependency ratios, population density, and the level of road freight revealed that mortality rates decline as a function of distance from the identified hazard location. We recommend the proposed approach an exploratory analysis tool for initial investigation of regional patterns of population morbidity patterns and factors behind it.

Keywords: mortality, environmental hazards, air pollution, distance decay gradient, multi regression analysis, Europe, NUTS3

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Authors: Tolulope Babawarun, Harry Ngwangwa

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The wind turbine blade may sustain structural damage from external loads such as high winds or collisions, which could compromise its aerodynamic efficiency. The wind turbine blade vibrates at significant intensities and amplitudes under these conditions. The effect of these vibrations on the dynamic flow field surrounding the blade changes the forces operating on it. The structural dynamic analysis of a small wind turbine blade is considered in this study. It entails creating a finite element model, validating the model, and doing structural analysis on the verified finite element model. The analysis is based on the structural reaction of a small-scale wind turbine blade to various loading sources. Although there are many small-scale off-shore wind turbine systems in use, only preliminary structural analysis is performed during design phases; these systems' performance under various loading conditions as they are encountered in real-world situations has not been properly researched. This will allow us to record the same Equivalent von Mises stress and deformation that the blade underwent. A higher stress contour was found to be more concentrated near the middle span of the blade under the various loading scenarios studied. The highest stress that the blade in this study underwent is within the range of the maximum stress that blade material can withstand. The maximum allowable stress of the blade material is 1,770 MPa. The deformation of the blade was highest at the blade tip. The critical speed of the blade was determined to be 4.3 Rpm with a rotor speed range of 0 to 608 Rpm. The blade's mode form under loading conditions indicates a bending mode, the most prevalent of which is flapwise bending.

Keywords: ANSYS, finite element analysis, static loading, dynamic analysis

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Authors: Temesgen Takele Kasa

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The main aim of this paper is to suggest one active slip based continuum dislocation approach to matrix dominated MMC plasticity analysis. The approach centered the free energy principles through the continuum behavior of dislocations combined with small strain continuum kinematics. The analytical derivation of this method includes the formulation of one active slip system, the thermodynamic approach of dislocations, determination of free energy, and evolution of dislocations. In addition zero and non-zero energy dissipation analysis of dislocation evolution is also formulated by using varational energy minimization method. In general, this work shows its capability to analyze the plasticity of matrix dominated MMC with inclusions. The proposed method is also found to be capable of handling plasticity of MMC.

Keywords: active slip, continuum dislocation, distortion, dominated, energy dissipation, matrix dominated, plasticity

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Authors: Michael Sigruener, Dirk Muscat, Nicole Struebbe

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Fiber reinforcement is a state of the art to enhance mechanical properties in plastics. For concrete and civil engineering, steel reinforcements are commonly used. Steel reinforcements show disadvantages in their chemical resistance and weight, whereas polymer fibers' major problems are in fiber-matrix adhesion and mechanical properties. In spite of these facts, longevity and easy handling, as well as chemical resistance motivate researches to develop a polymeric material for fiber reinforced concrete. Adhesion and interfacial mechanism in fiber-polymer-composites are already studied thoroughly. For polymer fibers used as concrete reinforcement, the bonding behavior still requires a deeper investigation. Therefore, several differing polymers (e.g., polypropylene (PP), polyamide 6 (PA6) and polyetheretherketone (PEEK)) were spun into fibers via single screw extrusion and monoaxial stretching. Fibers then were embedded in a concrete matrix, and Single-Fiber-Pull-Out-Tests (SFPT) were conducted to investigate bonding characteristics and microstructural interface of the composite. Differences in maximum pull-out-force, displacement and slope of the linear part of force vs displacement-function, which depicts the adhesion strength and the ductility of the interfacial bond were studied. In SFPT fiber, debonding is an inhomogeneous process, where the combination of interfacial bonding and friction mechanisms add up to a resulting value. Therefore, correlations between polymeric properties and pull-out-mechanisms have to be emphasized. To investigate these correlations, all fibers were introduced to a series of analysis such as differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), contact angle measurement, surface roughness and hardness analysis, tensile testing and scanning electron microscope (SEM). Of each polymer, smooth and abraded fibers were tested, first to simulate the abrasion and damage caused by a concrete mixing process and secondly to estimate the influence of mechanical anchoring of rough surfaces. In general, abraded fibers showed a significant increase in maximum pull-out-force due to better mechanical anchoring. Friction processes therefore play a major role to increase the maximum pull-out-force. The polymer hardness affects the tribological behavior and polymers with high hardness lead to lower surface roughness verified by SEM and surface roughness measurements. This concludes into a decreased maximum pull-out-force for hard polymers. High surface energy polymers show better interfacial bonding strength in general, which coincides with the conducted SFPT investigation. Polymers such as PEEK or PA6 show higher bonding strength in smooth and roughened fibers, revealed through high pull-out-force and concrete particles bonded on the fiber surface pictured via SEM analysis. The surface energy divides into dispersive and polar part, at which the slope is correlating with the polar part. Only polar polymers increase their SFPT-function slope due to better wetting abilities when showing a higher bonding area through rough surfaces. Hence, the maximum force and the bonding strength of an embedded fiber is a function of polarity, hardness, and consequently surface roughness. Other properties such as crystallinity or tensile strength do not affect bonding behavior. Through the conducted analysis, it is now feasible to understand and resolve different effects in pull-out-behavior step-by-step based on the polymer properties itself. This investigation developed a roadmap on how to engineer high adhering polymeric materials for fiber reinforcement of concrete.

Keywords: fiber-matrix interface, polymeric fibers, fiber reinforced concrete, single fiber pull-out test

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Authors: Anh Duc Dang, Joachim Horn

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This paper presents a new approach to control robots, which can quickly find their swarm while tracking a moving target through the obstacles of the environment. In this approach, an artificial potential field is generated between each free-robot and the virtual attractive point of the swarm. This artificial potential field will lead free-robots to their swarm. The swarm-finding of these free-robots dose not influence the general motion of their swarm and nor other robots. When one singular robot approaches the swarm then its swarm-search will finish, and it will further participate with its swarm to reach the position of the target. The connections between member-robots with their neighbours are controlled by the artificial attractive/repulsive force field between them to avoid collisions and keep the constant distances between them in ordered formation. The effectiveness of the proposed approach has been verified in simulations.

Keywords: formation control, potential field method, obstacle avoidance, swarm intelligence, multi-agent systems

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Authors: Anon Paserakung, Chaloemphon Muangyen, Suban Foiklang, Yanin Opatpatanakit

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Improving nutritive values and digestibility of maize stover is an alternative way to increase their utilization in ruminant and reduce air pollution from open burning of maize stover in the northern Thailand. The present study, 2x3 factorial arrangements in completely randomized design was conducted to investigate the effect of maize stover components (whole and upper stover; cut above 5th node). Urea treatment at levels 0, 3, and 6% DM on dry matter digestibility and fermentation kinetics of maize stover using in vitro gas production. After 21 days of urea treatment, results illustrated that there was no interaction between maize stover components and urea treatment on 48h in vitro dry matter digestibility (IVDMD). IVDMD was unaffected by maize stover components (P > 0.05), average IVDMD was 55%. However, using whole maize stover gave higher cumulative gas and gas kinetic parameters than those of upper stover (P<0.05). Treating maize stover by ensiling with urea resulted in a significant linear increase in IVDMD (P<0.05). IVDMD increased from 42.6% to 53.9% when increased urea concentration from 0 to 3% and maximum IVDMD (65.1%) was observed when maize stover was ensiled with 6% urea. Maize stover treated with urea at levels of 0, 3, and 6% linearly increased cumulative gas production at 96h (31.1 vs 50.5 and 59.1 ml, respectively) and all gas kinetic parameters excepted the gas production from the immediately soluble fraction (P<0.50). The results indicate that maize stover treated with 6% urea enhance in vitro dry matter digestibility and fermentation kinetics. This study provides a practical approach to increasing utilization of maize stover in feeding ruminant animals.

Keywords: maize stover, urea treatment, ruminant feed, gas production

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Authors: Achut Manandhar, Kenneth D. Morton, Peter A. Torrione, Leslie M. Collins

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The current trends in affect recognition research are to consider continuous observations from spontaneous natural interactions in people using multiple feature modalities, and to represent affect in terms of continuous dimensions, incorporate spatio-temporal correlation among affect dimensions, and provide fast affect predictions. These research efforts have been propelled by a growing effort to develop affect recognition system that can be implemented to enable seamless real-time human-computer interaction in a wide variety of applications. Motivated by these desired attributes of an affect recognition system, in this work a multi-dimensional affect prediction approach is proposed by integrating multivariate Relevance Vector Machine (MVRVM) with a recently developed Output-associative Relevance Vector Machine (OARVM) approach. The resulting approach can provide fast continuous affect predictions by jointly modeling the multiple affect dimensions and their correlations. Experiments on the RECOLA database show that the proposed approach performs competitively with the OARVM while providing faster predictions during testing.

Keywords: dimensional affect prediction, output-associative RVM, multivariate regression, fast testing

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Authors: S. H. Park, D. W. You

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This study is about to the field survey and repair works in a marine approach-bride. In order to evaluate the stability of the ground and the structure, field surveys such as exterior inspection, non-destructive inspection, measurement, and geophysical exploration are carried out. Numerical analysis is conducted to investigate the cause of the abutment displacement at the same time. In addition, repair works are practiced to the region damaged with intent to sustain long-term safety.

Keywords: field survey, expansion joint, repair, maintenance

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Authors: Raouf Fareh, Maarouf Saad, Sofiane Khadraoui, Tamer Rabie

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This paper presents a tracking control strategy based on Lyapunov approach for nonholonomic wheeled mobile robot. This control strategy consists of two levels. First, a kinematic controller is developed to adjust the right and left wheel velocities. Using this velocity control law, the stability of the tracking error is guaranteed using Lyapunov approach. This kinematic controller cannot be generated directly by the motors. To overcome this problem, the second level of the controllers, dynamic control, is designed. This dynamic control law is developed based on Lyapunov theory in order to track the desired trajectories of the mobile robot. The stability of the tracking error is proved using Lupunov and Barbalat approaches. Simulation results on a nonholonomic wheeled mobile robot are given to demonstrate the feasibility and effectiveness of the presented approach.

Keywords: mobile robot, trajectory tracking, Lyapunov, stability

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Authors: Zia Ullah, Ruh Ullah

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A research study was conceded in four locations (Swat, Dir, Kakul and Balakot) of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, to find agro-climatic classes by using aridity index, Growing Degree Days of wheat and maize, crop growth index and Spatio-temporal analysis of rainfall by using long term climatic data (1970-2010). The climatic data used for research was acquired from Pakistan Meteorological Department (PMD) Islamabad, Agriculture Research Institute, Weather Station Peshawar and Tarnab Peshawar. Agro-climatic classes of each location were determined using three criteria mean temperature of the coldest month, mean temperature of the warmest month and aridity index. The agro-climatic classes of Dir, Swat, Kakul and Balakot were classified as Humid, Cold and very Warm (H-K-VW). Average aridity index of wheat for Dir, Swat, Kakul, and Balakot was 2.23, 2.67, 1.94 and 2.34 and for Maize was 1.31, 1.26, 1.97, and 2.83 respectively. The overall and decade-wise trend of GDD of Wheat and Maize was declined in Swat and Kakul while increased in Dir and Balakot.The average maximum CGI (1.26) and (0.73) of Wheat and Maize was observed for Balakot and Dir, while the minimum (1.09) and (0.62) was observed for Swat and Kakul. Spatio-temporal analysis of rainfall shows that the trend has increased in Swat while decreased in Dir, Kakul and Balakot. From the relation between rainfalls with altitude showed that there was an increasing trend between rainfalls with altitude. The maximum average rainfall was in Swat (2703mm) on altitude 2000m while the minimum average rainfall was observed in Kakul (1410mm) on altitude of 1255m.

Keywords: agro-climatic zones, aridity index, GDD, rainfall

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Authors: Mark Harmon, Abdolghani Ebrahimi, Patrick Lucey, Diego Klabjan

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In this paper, we predict the likelihood of a player making a shot in basketball from multiagent trajectories. Previous approaches to similar problems center on hand-crafting features to capture domain-specific knowledge. Although intuitive, recent work in deep learning has shown, this approach is prone to missing important predictive features. To circumvent this issue, we present a convolutional neural network (CNN) approach where we initially represent the multiagent behavior as an image. To encode the adversarial nature of basketball, we use a multichannel image which we then feed into a CNN. Additionally, to capture the temporal aspect of the trajectories, we use “fading.” We find that this approach is superior to a traditional FFN model. By using gradient ascent, we were able to discover what the CNN filters look for during training. Last, we find that a combined FFN+CNN is the best performing network with an error rate of 39%.

Keywords: basketball, computer vision, image processing, convolutional neural network

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Authors: Arnold M. Brener, Lesbek Tashimov, Ablakim S. Muratov

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The paper deals with the special model for coagulation kernels which represents new control parameters in the Smoluchowski equation for binary aggregation. On the base of the model the new approach to evaluating aggregative stability of disperse systems has been submitted. With the help of this approach the simple estimates for aggregative stability of various types of hydrophilic nano-suspensions have been obtained.

Keywords: aggregative stability, coagulation kernels, disperse systems, mathematical model

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Authors: Esmat Kamel

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This paper aims to shed light on the extent to which the Agadir Association agreement has fostered inter regional trade between the E.U_26 and the Agadir_4 countries; once that we control for the evolution of Agadir agreement’s exports to the rest of the world. The next valid question will be regarding any remarkable variation in the spatial/sectoral structure of exports, and to what extent has it been induced by the Agadir agreement itself and precisely after the adoption of rules of origin and the PANEURO diagonal cumulative scheme? The paper’s empirical dataset covering a timeframe from [2000 -2009] was designed to account for sector specific export and intermediate flows and the bilateral structured gravity model was custom tailored to capture sector and regime specific rules of origin and the Poisson Pseudo Maximum Likelihood Estimator was used to calculate the gravity equation. The methodological approach of this work is considered to be a threefold one which starts first by conducting a ‘Hierarchal Cluster Analysis’ to classify final export flows showing a certain degree of linkage between each other. The analysis resulted in three main sectoral clusters of exports between Agadir_4 and E.U_26: cluster 1 for Petrochemical related sectors, cluster 2 durable goods and finally cluster 3 for heavy duty machinery and spare parts sectors. Second step continues by taking export flows resulting from the 3 clusters to be subject to treatment with diagonal Rules of origin through ‘The Double Differences Approach’, versus an equally comparable untreated control group. Third step is to verify results through a robustness check applied by ‘Propensity Score Matching’ to validate that the same sectoral final export and intermediate flows increased when rules of origin were relaxed. Through all the previous analysis, a remarkable and partial significance of the interaction term combining both treatment effects and time for the coefficients of 13 out of the 17 covered sectors turned out to be partially significant and it further asserted that treatment with diagonal rules of origin contributed in increasing Agadir’s_4 final and intermediate exports to the E.U._26 on average by 335% and in changing Agadir_4 exports structure and composition to the E.U._26 countries.

Keywords: agadir association agreement, structured gravity model, hierarchal cluster analysis, double differences estimation, propensity score matching, diagonal and relaxed rules of origin

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Authors: Salima Behdenna, Fatiha Barigou, Ghalem Belalem

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Due to the quick increase in the volume of Arabic opinions posted on various social media, Arabic sentiment analysis has become one of the most important areas of research. Compared to English, there is very little works on Arabic sentiment analysis, in particular aspect-based sentiment analysis (ABSA). In ABSA, aspect extraction is the most important task. In this paper, we propose a semantic aspect-based sentiment analysis approach for standard Arabic reviews to extract explicit aspect terms and identify the polarity of the extracted aspects. The proposed approach was evaluated using HAAD datasets. Experiments showed that the proposed approach achieved a good level of performance compared with baseline results. The F-measure was improved by 19% for the aspect term extraction tasks and 55% aspect term polarity task.

Keywords: sentiment analysis, opinion mining, Arabic, aspect level, opinion, polarity

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Authors: Ravindra Raju, Vidhu Kampurath

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For smooth transition of the power from the engine to the transmission system, a clutch is used. In agricultural tractors, friction clutches are widely used in power transmission applications. To transmit the maximum torque in friction clutches, selection of materials is one of the important tasks. The present used material for friction disc is Asbestos, Ceramic etc. In this study, analysis is performed using composites materials. The composite materials are considered due to their high strength to weight ratio. Composite materials like kevlar49, kevlar 29U were used in the study. The paper presents a systematic approach to optimize the structural and thermal characteristics of the clutch friction pad. A single plate clutch is modeled using Creo 2.0 software and analyzed using ANSYS. Thermal analysis considers the reduction of heat generated between the friction surfaces and reducing the temperature rise during the steady state period. Structural analysis is done to minimize the stresses developed as a result of the loading contact between friction surfaces. Also, modal analysis is done to optimize the natural frequency of the friction plate to avoid being in resonance with the engine frequency range. The analysis carried out on ANSYS workbench to get the foremost appropriate friction material for clutch. From the analyzed results stress, strain / total deformation values and natural frequency of the materials were compared for all the composite materials and the best one was taken out. For the study purpose, specifications of the clutch are obtained from the MF1035 (47KW) Tractor model.

Keywords: ANSYS, clutch, composite materials, creo

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Authors: Essam Abdelhamid Hegazy

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This paper aims to read Margaret Atwood's The Penelopiad (2005) via a revisionist and deconstructive approach. This novel is a postmodernist exploration of the grand-narrative myth The Odyssey (800 BC) by Homer, who portrayed the heroic warrior and the faithful wife as the epitome of perfect male and female models _examples whom all must follow and mimic. In Atwood's narrative, the same two hero models are the two great tricksters who are willing to perform any sort of obnoxious act for achieving their goals. This research tries to examine how Atwood tried to synthesize the change in character’s narratives leading to the humanization of the perfect hero and the ideal wife. The researcher has used a multidisciplinary approach where the feminist, revisionist and deconstructive theories were implemented to identify and find out the new interpretations of the myths that center the experiences and perspectives of women. Research findings are that revisionist approach was applied through giving an opportunity to the victimized and the voiceless to speak out and retaliate against their prosecutions.

Keywords: margret atwood, patriarchal, penelopiad, revisionism

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Authors: Ayesha Aihetasham, Najma Arshad, Sobia Khan

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Damage causes by subterranean termites are of major concern today. Termites majorly treated with pesticides resulted in several problems related to health and environment. For this reason, plant-derived natural products specifically essential oils have been evaluated in order to control termites. The aim of the present study was to investigate the antitermitic potential of six essential oils on Heterotermes indicola subterranean termite. No-choice bioassay was used to assess the termiticidal action of essential oils. Further, gut from each set of treated termite group was extracted and analyzed for reduction in number of protozoa and bacteria by protozoal count method using haemocytometer and viable bacterial plate count (dilution method) respectively. In no-choice bioassay it was found that Foeniculum vulgare oil causes high degree of mortality 90 % average mortality at 10 mg oil concentration (10mg/0.42g weight of filter paper). Least mortality appeared to be due to Citrus sinensis oil (43.33 % average mortality at 10 mg/0.42g). The highest activity verified to be of Foeniculum vulgare followed by Eruca sativa, Trigonella foenum-graecum, Peganum harmala, Syzygium cumini and Citrus sinensis. The essential oil which caused maximum reduction in number of protozoa was P. harmala followed by T. foenum-graecum and E. sativa. In case of bacterial count E. sativa oil indicated maximum decrease in bacterial number (6.4×10⁹ CFU/ml). It is concluded that F. vulgare, E. sativa and P. harmala essential oils are highly effective against H. indicola termite and its gut microflora.

Keywords: bacterial count, essential oils, Heterotermes indicola, protozoal count

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Authors: Yemane Hailu Fissuh, Zhongzhan Zhang

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An estimating equation technique is an alternative method of the widely used maximum likelihood methods, which enables us to ease some complexity due to the complex characteristics of time-varying covariates. In the situations, when both the time-varying covariates and left-truncation are considered in the model, the maximum likelihood estimation procedures become much more burdensome and complex. To ease the complexity, in this study, the modified estimating equations those have been given high attention and considerations in many researchers under semiparametric transformation model was proposed. The purpose of this article was to develop the modified estimating equation under flexible and general class of semiparametric transformation models for left-truncated and right censored survival data with time-varying covariates. Besides the commonly applied Cox proportional hazards model, such kind of problems can be also analyzed with a general class of semiparametric transformation models to estimate the effect of treatment given possibly time-varying covariates on the survival time. The consistency and asymptotic properties of the estimators were intuitively derived via the expectation-maximization (EM) algorithm. The characteristics of the estimators in the finite sample performance for the proposed model were illustrated via simulation studies and Stanford heart transplant real data examples. To sum up the study, the bias for covariates has been adjusted by estimating density function for the truncation time variable. Then the effect of possibly time-varying covariates was evaluated in some special semiparametric transformation models.

Keywords: EM algorithm, estimating equation, semiparametric transformation models, time-to-event outcomes, time varying covariate

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Authors: Ife Elegbeleye, Nnditshedzeni Eric, Regina Maphanga, Femi Elegbeleye, Femi Agunbiade

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The global potential of other renewable energy sources such as wind, hydroelectric, bio-mass, and geothermal is estimated to be approximately 13 %, with hydroelectricity constituting a larger percentage. Sunlight provides by far the largest of all carbon-neutral energy sources. More energy from the sunlight strikes the Earth in one hour (4.3 × 1020 J) than all the energy consumed on the planet in a year (4.1 × 1020 J), hence, solar energy remains the most abundant clean, renewable energy resources for mankind. Photovoltaic (PV) devices such as silicon solar cells, dye sensitized solar cells are utilized for harnessing solar energy. Polyene-diphenylaniline organic molecules are important sets of molecules that has stirred many research interest as photosensitizers in TiO₂ semiconductor-based dye sensitized solar cells (DSSCs). The advantages of organic dye molecule over metal-based complexes are higher extinction coefficient, moderate cost, good environmental compatibility, and electrochemical properties. The polyene-diphenylaniline organic dyes with basic configuration of donor-π-acceptor are affordable, easy to synthesize and possess chemical structures that can easily be modified to optimize their photocatalytic and spectral properties. The enormous interest in polyene-diphenylaniline dyes as photosensitizers is due to their fascinating spectral properties which include visible light to near infra-red-light absorption. In this work, density functional theory approach via GPAW software, Avogadro and ASE were employed to study the effect of methoxy functionalized group on the spectral properties of polyene-diphenylaniline dyes and their photons absorbing characteristics in the visible region to near infrared region of the solar spectrum. Our results showed that the two-phenyl based complexes D5 and D7 exhibits maximum absorption peaks at 750 nm and 850 nm, while D9 and D11 with methoxy group shows maximum absorption peak at 800 nm and 900 nm respectively. The highest absorption wavelength is notable for D9 and D11 containing additional polyene and methoxy groups. Also, D9 and D11 chromophores with the methoxy group shows lower energy gap of 0.98 and 0.85 respectively than the corresponding D5 and D7 dyes complexes with energy gap of 1.32 and 1.08. The analysis of their electron injection kinetics ∆Ginject into the band gap of TiO₂ shows that D9 and D11 with the methoxy group has higher electron injection kinetics of -2.070 and -2.030 than the corresponding polyene-diphenylaniline complexes without the addition of polyene group with ∆Ginject values of -2.820 and -2.130 respectively. Our findings suggest that the addition of functionalized group as an extension of the organic complexes results in higher light harvesting efficiencies and bathochromic shift of the absorption spectra to higher wavelength which suggest higher current densities and open circuit voltage in DSSCs. The study suggests that the photocatalytic properties of organic chromophores/complexes with donor-π-acceptor configuration can be enhanced by the addition of functionalized groups.

Keywords: renewable energy resource, solar energy, dye sensitized solar cells, polyene-diphenylaniline organic chromophores

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Authors: Nilanchali Singh, Alka Kriplani, Reeta Mahey, Garima Kachhawa

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Objective: Resection of larger uterine septa does improve obstetric performance but whether smaller septa need resection and their impact on obstetric outcome is not clear. We wanted to evaluate the role of septal resection of septa of various sizes in obstetric performance. Methods: This retrospective cohort study comprised of 107 patients with uterine septum. The patients were categorized on the basis of extent of uterine septum into four groups: a) Subsepta (< 1/3rd), b) Septum > 1/3 to ½, c) Septum>1/2 to whole uterine cervix, d) Septum traversing whole of uterine cavity and cervix. Out of these 107 patients, 74 could be contacted telephonically and outcomes recorded. Sensitivity and specificity of investigative modalities were calculated. Results: Infertility was seen in maximum number of cases in complete septa (100%), whereas abortions were seen more commonly, in subsepta (18%). MRI had maximum sensitivity and positive predictive value, followed by hysteron-salpingography. Tubal block, fibroid, endometriosis, pelvic adhesions, ovarian pathologies were seen in some but no definite association of these pathologies was seen with any subgroup of septa. Almost five-year follow-up was recorded in all the subgroups. Significant reduction in infertility was seen in all septal subgroup (p=0.046, 0.032 & 0.05) patients except in subsepta (< 1/3rd uterine cavity) after septum resection. Abortions were significantly reduced (p=0.048) in third subgroup (i.e. septum > ½ to upto internal os) after hysteroscopic septum resection. Take home baby rate was 33% in subsepta and around 50% in the remaining subgroups of septa. Conclusions: Septal resection improves obstetric performance in patients with uterine septa of various sizes. Whether septal resection improves obstetric performance in patients with subsepta or very small septa, is controversial. Larger studies addressing this issue need to be planned.

Keywords: septal resection, obstetric outcome, infertility, septum size

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Authors: S. Chami, J. Chauvin, T. Demarest, Stan Ng, M. Straus, W. Jahner

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Biometrics tools such as fingerprint and iris are widely used in industry to protect critical assets. However, their vulnerability and lack of robustness raise several worries about the protection of highly critical assets. Biometrics based on Electrocardiographic (ECG) signals is a robust identification tool. However, most of the state-of-the-art techniques have worked on clinical signals, which are of high quality and less noisy, extracted from wearable devices like a smartwatch. In this paper, we are presenting a complete machine learning pipeline that identifies people using ECG extracted from an off-person device. An off-person device is a wearable device that is not used in a medical context such as a smartwatch. In addition, one of the main challenges of ECG biometrics is the variability of the ECG of different persons and different situations. To solve this issue, we proposed two different approaches: per person classifier, and one-for-all classifier. The first approach suggests making binary classifier to distinguish one person from others. The second approach suggests a multi-classifier that distinguishes the selected set of individuals from non-selected individuals (others). The preliminary results, the binary classifier obtained a performance 90% in terms of accuracy within a balanced data. The second approach has reported a log loss of 0.05 as a multi-class score.

Keywords: biometrics, electrocardiographic, machine learning, signals processing

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Authors: Mandeep Kaur, K. C. Sharma, P. L. Sharma, R. S. Chandel

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Cauliflower is an important vegetable crop grown throughout the world and is attacked by a large number of insect pests at various stages of the crop growth. Amongst them, the cabbage aphid, Brevicoryne brassicae (Linnaeus) (Hemiptera: Aphididae) is an important insect pest. Continued feeding by both nymphs and adults of this aphid causes yellowing, wilting and stunting of plants. Amongst various management practices, the use of resistant cultivars is important and can be an effective method of reducing the population of this aphid. So it is imperative to know the complete record on various biological parameters and life table on specific cultivars. The biology and life fertility of the cabbage aphid were studied on five cauliflower cultivars viz. Megha, Shweta, K-1, PSB-1 and PSBK-25 under controlled temperature conditions of 20 ± 2°C, 70 ± 5% relative humidity and 16:8 h (Light: Dark) photoperiods. For studying biology; apterous viviparous adults were picked up from the laboratory culture of all five cauliflower cultivars after rearing them at least for two generations and placed individually on the desired plants of cauliflower cultivars grown in pots with ten replicates of each. Daily record on the duration of nymphal period, adult longevity, mortality in each stage and the total number of progeny produced per female was made. This biological data were further used to construct life fertility table on each cultivar. Statistical analysis showed that there was a significant difference ( P  < 0.05) between the different growth stages and the mean number of laid nymphs. The maximum and minimum growth periods were observed on Shweta and Megha (at par with K-1) cultivars, respectively. The maximum number of nymphs were laid on Shweta cultivar (26.40 nymphs per female) and minimum on Megha (at par with K-1) cultivar (15.20 nymphs per female). The true intrinsic rate of increase (rm) was found to be maximum on Shweta (0.233 nymphs/female/day) followed by PSB K-25 (0.207 nymphs/female/day), PSB-1 (0.203 nymphs/female/day), Megha (0.166 nymphs/female/day) and K-1 (0.153 nymphs/female/day). The finite rate of natural increase (λ) was also found to be in the order: K-1 < Megha < PSB-1 < PSBK-25 < Shweta whereas the doubling time (DT) was in the order of K-1 >Megha> PSB-1 >PSBk-25> Shweta. The aphids reared on the K-1 cultivar had the lowest values of rm & λ and the highest value of DT whereas on Shweta cultivar the values of rm & λ were the highest and the lowest value of DT. So on the basis of these studies, K-1 cultivar was found to be the least suitable and the Shweta cultivar was the most suitable for the cabbage aphid population growth. Although the cauliflower cultivars used in different parts of the world may be different yet the results of the present studies indicated that the application of cultivars affecting multiplication rate and reproductive parameters could be a good solution for the management of the cabbage aphid.

Keywords: biology, cauliflower, cultivars, fertility

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Authors: Nadama Kumar, P. Parthiban, T. Niranjan

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In the present paper, we propose an incorporated approach for 3PL supplier choice that suits the distinctive strategic needs of the outsourcing organization in southern part of India. Four fundamental criteria have been used in particular Performance, IT, Service and Intangible. These are additionally subdivided into fifteen sub-criteria. The proposed strategy coordinates Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) and Non-additive Fuzzy Integral strategies. The presentation of fluffiness manages the unclearness of human judgments. The SEM approach has been used to approve the determination criteria for the proposed show though the Non-additive Fuzzy Integral approach uses the SEM display contribution to assess a supplier choice score. The case organization has a exclusive vertically integrated assembly that comprises of several companies focusing on a slight array of the value chain. To confirm manufacturing and logistics proficiency, it significantly relies on 3PL suppliers to attain supply chain superiority. However, 3PL supplier selection is an intricate decision-making procedure relating multiple selection criteria. The goal of this work is to recognize the crucial 3PL selection criteria by using the non-additive fuzzy integral approach. Unlike the outmoded multi criterion decision-making (MCDM) methods which frequently undertake independence among criteria and additive importance weights, the nonadditive fuzzy integral is an effective method to resolve the dependency among criteria, vague information, and vital fuzziness of human judgment. In this work, we validate an empirical case that engages the nonadditive fuzzy integral to assess the importance weight of selection criteria and indicate the most suitable 3PL supplier.

Keywords: 3PL, non-additive fuzzy integral approach, SEM, fuzzy

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Authors: Seraphina Bakta

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In many societies in Africa, it is a taboo to speak, let alone to practice or in any way to engage in matters relating to sexual and reproductive health. For instance, girls using contraceptives may be labeled prostitutes, and married women using family planning methods may be divorced on account that they are disobedient to their husbands as they do not want to bear children. As such, sexual and reproductive health as a right is still very far from reality to many men and women. To a large extent, the objections are mainly backed up in culture, which is deeply rooted in many African traditions. While such culture have both the good and bad side, the African Charter on Human and Peoples Rights has identified the bad ones as’ harmful cultural practices. This paper argues that, while cultural norms may hinder the realization of human rights, adopting a human rights based approach to address harmful cultural practices is likely, the best approach to realizing women’s rights to sexual and reproductive health rights in Africa.

Keywords: rights, culture, health, women

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Authors: Faranak Felfeliyan, Parvaneh Shokrani, Maryam Atarod

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Introduction Using electron beam is widespread in radiotherapy. The main criteria in radiation therapy is to irradiate the tumor volume with maximum prescribed dose and minimum dose to vital organs around it. Using abutting fields is common in radiotherapy. The main problem in using abutting fields is dose inhomogeneity in the junction region. Electron beam divergence and lateral scattering may lead to hot and cold spots in the junction region. One solution for this problem is using of a spoiler to broaden the penumbra and uniform dose in the junction region. The goal of this research was to compare titanium and aluminum effects as a spoiler for dose uniformity achievement in the junction region of oblique electron fields with Monte Carlo simulation. Dose uniformity in the junction region depends on density, scattering power, thickness of the spoiler and the angle between two fields. Materials and Methods In this study, Monte Carlo model of Siemens Primus linear accelerator was simulated for a 5 MeV nominal energy electron beam using manufacture provided specifications. BEAMnrc and EGSnrc user code were used to simulate the treatment head in electron mode (simulation of beam model). The resulting phase space file was used as a source for dose calculations for 10×10 cm2 field size at SSD=100 cm in a 30×30×45 cm3 water phantom using DOSXYZnrc user code (dose calculations). An automatic MP3-M water phantom tank, MEPHYSTO mc2 software platform and a Semi-Flex Chamber-31010 with sensitive vol­ume of 0.125 cm3 (PTW, Freiburg, Germany) were used for dose distribution measurements. Moreover, the electron field size was 10×10 cm2 and SSD=100 cm. Validation of devel­oped beam model was done by comparing the measured and calculated depth and lateral dose distributions (verification of electron beam model). Simulation of spoilers (using SLAB compo­nent module) placed at the end of the electron applicator, was done using previously vali­dated phase space file for a 5 MeV nominal energy and 10×10 cm2 field size (simulation of spoiler). An in-house routine was developed in order to calculate the combined isodose curves re­sulting from the two simulated abutting fields (calculation of dose distribution in abutting electron fields). Results Verification of the developed 5.9 MeV elec­tron beam model was done by comparing the calculated and measured dose distributions. The maximum percentage difference between calculated and measured PDD was 1%, except for the build-up region in which the difference was 2%. The difference between calculated and measured profile was 2% at the edges of the field and less than 1% in other regions. The effect of PMMA, aluminum, titanium and chromium in dose uniformity achievement in abutting normal electron fields with equivalent thicknesses to 5mm PMMA was evaluated. Comparing R90 and uniformity index of different materials, aluminum was chosen as the optimum spoiler. Titanium has the maximum surface dose. Thus, aluminum and titanium had been chosen to use for dose uniformity achievement in oblique electron fields. Using the optimum beam spoiler, junction dose decreased from 160% to 110% for 15 degrees, from 180% to 120% for 30 degrees, from 160% to 120% for 45 degrees and from 180% to 100% for 60 degrees oblique abutting fields. Using Titanium spoiler, junction dose decreased from 160% to 120% for 15 degrees, 180% to 120% for 30 degrees, 160% to 120% for 45 degrees and 180% to 110% for 60 degrees. In addition, penumbra width for 15 degrees, without spoiler in the surface was 10 mm and was increased to 15.5 mm with titanium spoiler. For 30 degrees, from 9 mm to 15 mm, for 45 degrees from 4 mm to 6 mm and for 60 degrees, from 5 mm to 8 mm. Conclusion Using spoilers, penumbra width at the surface increased, size and depth of hot spots was decreased and dose homogeneity improved at the junc­tion of abutting electron fields. Dose at the junction region of abutting oblique fields was improved significantly by using spoiler. Maximum dose at the junction region for 15⁰, 30⁰, 45⁰ and 60⁰ was decreased about 40%, 60%, 40% and 70% respectively for Titanium and about 50%, 60%, 40% and 80% for Aluminum. Considering significantly decrease in maximum dose using titanium spoiler, unfortunately, dose distribution in the junction region was not decreased less than 110%.

Keywords: abutting fields, electron beam, radiation therapy, spoilers

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Authors: Tzu-Yang Lin, Chuan-Ching Sue

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Sleep mechanisms are commonly used to ensure the energy efficiency of each optical network unit (ONU) that concerns a single class delay constraint in the Ethernet Passive Optical Network (EPON). How long the ONUs can sleep without violating the delay constraint has become a research problem. Particularly, we can derive an analytical model to determine the optimal sleep time of ONUs in every cycle without violating the maximum class delay constraint. The bandwidth allocation considering such optimal sleep time is called Green Bandwidth Allocation (GBA). Although the GBA mechanism guarantees that the different class delay constraints do not violate the maximum class delay constraint, packets with a more relaxed delay constraint will be treated as those with the most stringent delay constraint and may be sent early. This means that the ONU will waste energy in active mode to send packets in advance which did not need to be sent at the current time. Accordingly, we proposed a QoS-aware GBA using a novel intra-ONU scheduling to control the packets to be sent according to their respective delay constraints, thereby enhancing energy efficiency without deteriorating delay performance. If packets are not explicitly classified but with different packet delay constraints, we can modify the intra-ONU scheduling to classify packets according to their packet delay constraints rather than their classes. Moreover, we propose the switchable ONU architecture in which the ONU can switch the architecture according to the sleep time length, thus improving energy efficiency in the QoS-aware GBA. The simulation results show that the QoS-aware GBA ensures that packets in different classes or with different delay constraints do not violate their respective delay constraints and consume less power than the original GBA.

Keywords: Passive Optical Networks, PONs, Optical Network Unit, ONU, energy efficiency, delay constraint

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Authors: Manjinder Bajwa, Mahipal Singh, Manish Nagpal

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This research paper aims to propose a novel approach using ANOVA technique for the strategic investigation of process parameters and their effects on the mechanical properties of Aluminium alloy cast. The two process parameters considered here were permeability of sand and pouring temperature of aluminium alloy. ANOVA has been employed for the first time to determine the effects of these selected parameters on the impact strength of alloy. The experimental results show that this proposed technique has great potential for analyzing sand casting process. Using this approach we have determined the treatment mean square, response mean square and mean square of error as 8.54, 8.255 and 0.435 respectively. The research concluded that at the 5% level of significance, permeability of sand is the more significant parameter influencing the impact strength of cast alloy.

Keywords: aluminium alloy, pouring temperature, permeability of sand, impact strength, ANOVA

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Authors: Thomas Meier

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One of the major challenges for sustainable smart building systems is to support device interoperability, i.e. connecting sensor or actuator devices from different vendors, and present their functionality to the external applications. Furthermore, smart building systems are supposed to connect with devices that are not available yet, i.e. devices that become available on the market sometime later. It is of vital importance that a sustainable smart building platform provides an appropriate external interface that can be leveraged by external applications and smart services. An external platform interface must be stable and independent of specific devices and should support flexible and scalable usage scenarios. A typical approach applied in smart home systems is based on a generic device interface used within the smart building platform. Device functions, even of rather complex devices, are mapped to that generic base type interface by means of specific device drivers. Our new approach, presented in this work, extends that approach by using the smart building system’s rule engine to create complex virtual devices that can represent the most diverse properties of real devices. We examined and evaluated both approaches by means of a practical case study using a smart building system that we have developed. We show that the solution we present allows the highest degree of flexibility without affecting external application interface stability and scalability. In contrast to other systems our approach supports complex virtual device configuration on application layer (e.g. by administration users) instead of device configuration at platform layer (e.g. platform operators). Based on our work, we can show that our approach supports almost arbitrarily flexible use case scenarios without affecting the external application interface stability. However, the cost of this approach is additional appropriate configuration overhead and additional resource consumption at the IoT platform level that must be considered by platform operators. We conclude that the concept of complex virtual devices presented in this work can be applied to improve the usability and device interoperability of sustainable intelligent building systems significantly.

Keywords: Internet of Things, smart building, device interoperability, device integration, smart home

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Authors: Nadia Chagtmi, Nejla Rejab, Noureddine Boulejfen

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This paper presents a calibration approach based on artificial neural networks (ANN) to determine the envelop signal (I+jQ) of a six-port based receiver (SPR). The memory effects called also dynamic behavior and the nonlinearity brought by diode based power detector have been taken into consideration by the ANN. Experimental set-up has been performed to validate the efficiency of this method. The efficiency of this approach has been confirmed by the obtained results in terms of waveforms. Moreover, the obtained error vector magnitude (EVM) and the mean absolute error (MAE) have been calculated in order to confirm and to test the ANN’s performance to achieve I/Q recovery using the output voltage detected by the power based detector. The baseband signal has been recovered using ANN with EVMs no higher than 1 % and an MAE no higher than 17, 26 for the SPR excited different type of signals such QAM (quadrature amplitude modulation) and LTE (Long Term Evolution).

Keywords: six-port based receiver; calibration, nonlinearity, memory effect, artificial neural network

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Authors: Razieh Esfandiarisedgh

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Community architecture has been proposed as an alternative approach in architecture, with three political, sociological, and psychological approaches. In community architecture, the psychological approach, as the only approach related to community design, has an important index called a sense of community. Changes in today's modern society, such as the shrinking of families, cause a decrease in the sense of community and unwillingness of people. It has become a residential complex to be present in public spaces. This issue can be increased by creating motivation with the help of design for the presence and participation of people in public spaces and taking advantage of the facilities and quality of these spaces. This research used the qualitative research method, studied and collected information, and used observation and interviews in the selected sample. Through targeted sampling and matching it with the extracted design table, it was concluded that climate and culture are known as two important factors in the collective view of housing in Hamedan.

Keywords: community architecture, sense of community, environmental psychology, architecture

Procedia PDF Downloads 64