Search results for: coded distributed computation

Authors: Hassan Hamidi, Fereshteh Zarei

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In this study, we compared amount of compete motivation between young and adult volleyball players. Compete motivation has three sections: success achieves score, defeat avoiding score and ability score. For measuring motivation, we used sports attitude inventory of Willis and Layne. The statistical population was elite's men volleyball players in range of young and adult and the study subjects were randomly selected from participant teams in volleyball professional league. In total, 65 adult and 75 young were selected. For collecting the required information, the research inventories were distributed in practice's locations and then were collected after being completed by players. For analyzing the data, we used descriptive statistics including mean, standard deviation and frequency tables. We also used conceptual statistics such as independent sample t-student and Pierson correlation. The results showed a significant difference between young and adult volleyball players in success achieve score and ability score. However, there was no significant difference between young and adult volleyball players in defeat avoiding score and compete motivation. In addition, there was not significant relationship between the length of activities and motivations' sections in adult and young volleyball player. The application of this study to other sports will be discussed.

Keywords: compete motivation, volleyball player, statistical analysis, sport psychology

Procedia PDF Downloads 549

Authors: ChunLoon Cha, HoYeon Lee, SangSoon Hwang

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Mild combustion is characterized with its distinguished features, such as suppressed pollutant emission, homogeneous temperature distribution, reduced noise and thermal stress. However, most studies for MILD combustion have been focused on gas phase fuel. Therefore further study on MILD combustion using liquid fuel is needed for the application to liquid fueled gas turbine especially. In this work, we will focus on numerical simulation of the effects of diluent gas velocity on the formation of liquid fuel MILD combustion used in gas turbine area. A series of numerical simulations using Ansys fluent 18.2 have been carried out in order to investigate the detail effect of the flow field in the furnace on the formation of MILD combustion. The operating conditions were fixed at relatively lower heat intensity of 1.28 MW/m³ atm and various global equivalence ratios were changed. The results show that the local high temperature region was decreased and the flame temperature was uniformly distributed due to high velocity of diluted burnt gas. The increasing of diluted burnt gas velocity can be controlled by open ratio of adapter size. It was found that the maximum temperature became lower than 1800K and the average temperature was lower than 1500K that thermal NO formation was suppressed.

Keywords: MILD combustion, spray combustion, liquid fuel, diluent gas velocity, low NOx emission

Procedia PDF Downloads 232

Authors: Amna Batool

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Agile methodology is the current most popular technique in software development projects. Agile methods in software development bring optimistic impact on software performances, quality and customer satisfaction. There are some organizations and small-medium enterprises adopting agile into their local software development projects as well as in distributed software development projects. Adopting agile methods in local software development projects is valuable. However, agile global software deployment needs an attention. There are different key challenges in agile global software development that need to resolve and enhance the global software development cycles. The proposed systematic literature review investigates all key challenges of agile in global software development. Moreover, a quantitative methodology (an actual survey) targeted to present a real case scenario of these particular key challenges faced by one of the software houses that is BestWeb Malaysia. The outcomes of systematic literature and the results of quantitative methodology are compared with each other to evaluate if the key challenges pointed out in systematic review still exist. The proposed research and its exploratory results can assist small medium enterprises to avoid these challenges by adopting the best practices in their global software development projects. Moreover, it is helpful for novice researchers to get valuable information altogether.

Keywords: agile software development, ASD challenges, agile global software development, challenges in agile global software development

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Authors: Zhaopeng Xuan, Yuan Bian, C. Cailleaux, Jing Qin, S. Traore

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Traditional software engineering allows engineers to propose to their clients multiple specialized software distributions assembled from a shared set of software assets. The management of these assets however requires a trade-off between client satisfaction and software engineering process. Clients have more and more difficult to find a distribution or components based on their needs from all of distributed repositories. This paper proposes a software engineering for a user-driven software product line in which engineers define a feature model but users drive the actual software distribution on demand. This approach makes the user become final actor as a release manager in software engineering process, increasing user product satisfaction and simplifying user operations to find required components. In addition, it provides a way for engineers to manage and assembly large software families. As a proof of concept, a user-driven software product line is implemented for eclipse, an integrated development environment. An eclipse feature model is defined, which is exposed to users on a cloud-based built platform from which clients can download individualized Eclipse distributions.

Keywords: software product line, model-driven development, reverse engineering and refactoring, agile method

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Authors: Rama Debbarma, Debanjan Das

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The performance of multiple tuned mass dampers to mitigate the seismic vibration of structures considering real time history data is investigated in this paper. Three different real earthquake time history data like Kobe, Imperial Valley and Mammoth Lake are taken in the present study. The multiple tuned mass dampers (MTMD) are distributed at each storey. For comparative study, single tuned mass damper (STMD) is installed at top of the similar structure. This study is conducted for a fixed mass ratio (5%) and fixed damping ratio (5%) of structures. Numerical study is performed to evaluate the effectiveness of MTMDs and overall system performance. The displacement, acceleration, base shear and storey drift are obtained for both combined system (structure with MTMD and structure with STMD) for all earthquakes. The same responses are also obtained for structure without damper system. From obtained results, it is investigated that the MTMD configuration is more effective for controlling the seismic response of the primary system with compare to STMD configuration.

Keywords: Earthquake, multiple tuned mass dampers, single tuned mass damper, Time history.

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Authors: Ogunmayi Bamidele, Aribisala Oluwadamilare Olufolarin

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The objective of this research was to examine how corporate governance and ethical business values impact both the performance of the organization and its employees, as it is essential for any organization to uphold good ethics and corporate governance. The study was conducted at Unilag Holdings Limited (UniHOLDs) to demonstrate that organizations may experience losses if they do not have proper corporate governance and business ethical values in place. The employees' perception of corporate governance and ethics is crucial for the organization. The research indicated a connection between corporate governance and business ethics values, and therefore, correlation analysis was utilized, making it statistically reliable. The results of the test show a strong positive correlation (r=.812, N=94, P<.01) between corporate governance and business ethical values. A questionnaire was distributed to employees at Unilag Holdings Limited (UniHOLDs), with 94 out of 130 completed and returned. The findings indicate that ethical values contribute to employee productivity, and productive employees have a beneficial impact on the organization's performance. Additionally, the study revealed that employees tend to adhere to rules regardless of their ethical nature. To address this, the organization should ensure that top-level managers do not assign unethical tasks to their subordinates. The study recommends that the organization should consistently practice corporate governance and business ethics. The company needs to make sure that its stakeholders continue to support its way of doing things.

Keywords: business ethical values, corporate governance, organization, business ethics

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Authors: Imed Mezghani, Yousra Ben Salah, Mohamed Chaieb

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Tricholaena teneriffae L. is a xerophytic perennial herb that belongs to the Poaceae family likely to be used for ecological restoration programs. It's a dominant and economically important species widely distributed in the Bou-Hedma National Park, Tunisia. Reintroduction and expansion of T. teneriffae depend solely on sexual reproduction. This makes the understanding of its germination requirements vital for conservation and management. To provide basic information for its conservation and reintroduction, we studied the influence of environmental factors on seed germination patterns. The germination responses of seeds were determined over a wide range of constant temperatures (15–35°C), polyethylene glycol solutions of different osmotic potentials (0 to −2 MPa) and salt solution (0 to 150 mM of NaCl). Results indicated that the optimum temperature germination was attained at 25°C which corresponds to temperatures prevailing during mid spring season in the Mediterranean area. Seeds germinated in Polyethylene Glycol solutions exhibited significantly lower germination than control especially when water potential fell below -0.6 MPa. Germination percentage and rate decreased with an increase NaCl concentration. Seeds germination was substantially delayed and reduced with an increase in NaCl to levels above 50 mM. T. teneriffae is moderately salt tolerant at germination stage.

Keywords: germination, temperature, Tricholaena teneriffae L., salt stress, water stress, rehabilitation

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Authors: Ganfeng Yu, Yuefeng Ma, Shanliang Yang

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The word discovery is a key problem in text information retrieval technology. Methods in new word discovery tend to be closely related to words because they generally obtain new word results by analyzing words. With the popularity of social networks, individual netizens and online self-media have generated various network texts for the convenience of online life, including network words that are far from standard Chinese expression. How detect network words is one of the important goals in the field of text information retrieval today. In this paper, we integrate the word embedding model and clustering methods to propose a network word discovery framework based on sentence semantic similarity (S³-NWD) to detect network words effectively from the corpus. This framework constructs sentence semantic vectors through a distributed representation model, uses the similarity of sentence semantic vectors to determine the semantic relationship between sentences, and finally realizes network word discovery by the meaning of semantic replacement between sentences. The experiment verifies that the framework not only completes the rapid discovery of network words but also realizes the standard word meaning of the discovery of network words, which reflects the effectiveness of our work.

Keywords: text information retrieval, natural language processing, new word discovery, information extraction

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Authors: Purnima Anjali Mohanty, Mousumi Padhi

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Background of the study: In the background of the passage of the Transgender Bill 2016, which is the first such step of formal recognition of the rights of transgender, the Hijras have been recognized under the wider definition of Transgender. Fascinatingly, in the Hindu social context, Hijras have a long social standing during marriages and childbirths. Other than this ironically, they live an ostracized life. The Bill rather than recognizing their unique characteristics and needs, reinforces the societal dualism through a parallelism of their legal rights with rights available to women. Purpose of the paper: The research objective was to probe why and to what extent did they identify themselves with the feminine gender roles. Originality of the paper: In the Indian context, the subject of eunuch has received relatively little attention. Among the studies that exist, there has been a preponderance of studies from the perspective of social exclusion, rights, and physical health. There has been an absence of research studying the self-identity of Hijras from the gender perspective. Methodology: The paper adopts the grounded theory method to investigate and discuss the underlying gender identity of transgenders. Participants in the study were 30 hijras from various parts of Odisha. 4 Focus group discussions were held for collecting data. The participants were approached in their natural habitat. Following the methodological recommendations of the grounded theory, care was taken to select respondents with varying experiences. The recorded discourses were transcribed verbatim. The transcripts were analysed sentence by sentence, and coded. Common themes were identified, and responses were categorized under the themes. Data collected in the latter group discussions were added till saturation of themes. Finally, the themes were put together to prove that despite the demand for recognition as third gender, the eunuchs of Odisha identify themselves with the feminine roles. Findings: The Hijra have their own social structure and norms which are unique and are in contrast with the mainstream culture. These eunuchs live and reside in KOTHIS (house), where the family is led by a matriarch addressed as Maa (mother) with her daughters (the daughters are eunuchs/effeminate men castrated and not castrated). They all dress up as woman, do womanly duties, expect to be considered and recognized as woman and wife and have the behavioral traits of a woman. Looking from the stance of Feminism one argues that when the Hijras identify themselves with the gender woman then on what grounds they are given the recognition as third gender. As self-identified woman; their claim for recognition as third gender falls flat. Significance of the study: Academically it extends the study of understanding of gender identity and psychology of the Hijras in the Indian context. Practically its significance is far reaching. The findings can be used to address legal and social issues with regards to the rights available to the Hijras.

Keywords: feminism, gender perspective, Hijras, rights, self-identity

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Authors: Farzad Yavari, Fereydoun Ohadi

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Today, with the development and growth of technology and extreme environmental changes, organizations need to identify opportunities and create creativity and innovation in order to be able to maintain or improve their position in competition with others. In this regard, it is necessary that the resources and assets of the organization are coordinated and reviewed in accordance with the orientation of the strategy. One of the competitive advantages of the present age is knowledge management, which is to equip the organization with the knowledge of the day and disseminate among employees and use it in the development of products and services. Therefore, in the forthcoming research, the impact of dynamic capabilities components (sense, seize, and reconfiguration) has been investigated on knowledge management processes (acquisition, integration and knowledge utilization) in the MAPNA Engineering and Construction Company using a field survey and applied research method. For this purpose, a questionnaire was filled out in the form of 15 questions for dynamic components and 15 questions for measuring knowledge management components and distributed among 46 employees of the knowledge management organization. Validity of the questionnaire was evaluated through content validity and its reliability with Cronbach's coefficient. Pearson correlation test and structural equation technique were used to analyze the data. The results of the research indicate a positive significant correlation between the components of dynamic capabilities and knowledge management.

Keywords: dynamic capabilities, knowledge management, sense capability, seize capability, reconfigurable capability, knowledge acquisition, knowledge integrity, knowledge utilization

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Authors: Keisuke Akiyama, Takashi Sakai, Junichiro Koyanagi, Hideki Yoshikawa, Kazuomi Sugamoto

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The geometry of acetabular cartilage surface plays an important role in hip joint biomechanics. The aim of this study was to analyze the morphology of acetabular articular cartilage surface in elderly subjects using a 3D-digitizer. Twenty hemipelves from 12 subjects (mean ages 85 years) were scanned with 3D-digitizer. Each acetabular surface model was divided into four regions: anterosuperior (AS), anteroinferior (AI), posterosuperior (PS), and posteroinferior (PI). In the global acetabulum and each region, the acetabular sphere radius and the standard deviation (SD) of the distance from the acetabular sphere center to the acetabular cartilage surface were calculated. In the global acetabulum, the distance between the acetabular surface model and the maximum sphere which did not penetrate over the acetabular surface model was calculated as the inferred femoral head, and then the distribution was mapped at intervals of 0.5 mm. The SD in AS was significantly larger than that in AI (p = 0.006) and PI (p = 0.001). The SD in PS was significantly larger than that in PI (p = 0.005). The closest region (0-0.5 mm) tended to be distributed at anterior or posterosuperior acetabular edge. The contact between the femoral head and acetabulum might start at the periphery of the lunate surface, especially in the anterior or posterosuperior region. From viewpoint of acetabular morphology, the acetabular articular cartilage in the anterior or posterosuperior edge could be more vulnerable due to direct contact mechanism.

Keywords: acetabulum, cartilage, morphology, 3D-digitizer

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Authors: Tim J. Walsh, Lindsay E. Young, John A. Schneider

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Background: The disproportionate rate of HIV infection among Black men who have sex with men (BMSM) in the United States suggest the importance of Preexposure Prophylaxis (PrEP) interventions for this population. As such, there is an urgent need for innovative outreach strategies that extend beyond the traditional patient-provider relationship to reach at-risk populations. Training members of the BMSM community as peer change agents (PCAs) is one such strategy. An important piece of this training is goal-setting. Goal-setting not only encourages PCAs to define the parameters of the intervention according to their lived experience, it also helps them plan courses of action. Therefore, the aims of this mixed methods study are: (1) Characterize the goals that BMSM set at the end of their PrEP training and (2) Assess the relationship between goal types and PCA engagement. Methods: Between March 2016 and July 2016, preliminary data were collected from 68 BMSM, ages 18-33, in Chicago as part of an ongoing PrEP intervention. Once enrolled, PCAs participate in a half-day training in which they learn about PrEP, practice initiating conversations about PrEP, and identify strategies for supporting at-risk peers through the PrEP adoption process. Training culminates with a goal-setting exercise, whereby participants establish a goal related to their role as a PCA. Goals were coded for features that either emerged from the data itself or existed in extant goal-setting literature. The main outcomes were (1) number of PrEP conversations PCAs self-report during booster conversations two weeks following the intervention and (2) number of peers PCAs recruit into the study that completed the PrEP workshop. Results: PCA goals (N=68) were characterized in terms of four features: Specificity, target population, personalization, and purpose defined. To date, PCAs report a collective 52 PrEP conversations. 56, 25, and 6% of PrEP conversations occurred with friends, family, and sexual partners, respectively. PCAs with specific goals had more PrEP conversations with at-risk peers compared to those with vague goals (58% vs. 42%); PCAs with personalized goals had more PrEP conversations compared to those with de-personalized goals (60% vs. 53%); and PCAs with goals that defined a purpose had more PrEP conversations compared to those who did not define a purpose (75% vs. 52%). 100% of PCAs with goals that defined a purpose recruited peers into the study compared to 45 percent of PCAs with goals that did not define a purpose. Conclusion: Our preliminary analysis demonstrates that BMSM are motivated to set and work toward a diverse set of goals to support peers in PrEP adoption. PCAs with goals involving a clearly defined purpose had more PrEP conversations and greater peer recruitment than those with goals lacking a defined purpose. This may indicate that PCAs who define their purpose at the outset of their participation will be more engaged in the study than those who do not. Goal-setting may be considered as a component of future HIV prevention interventions to advance intervention goals and as an indicator of PCAs understanding of the intervention.

Keywords: HIV prevention, MSM, peer change agent, preexposure prophylaxis

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Authors: Shalitha Jayasekara, Saluk Bawantha, Dinithi Anupama, Isuru Gunarathne, Pradeepa Bandara, Hansi De Silva

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Dogs have been known as "man's best friend" for generations, providing friendship and loyalty to their human counterparts. However, due to people's busy lives, they are unaware of the ailments that can affect their pets. However, in recent years, mobile technologies have had a significant impact on our lives, and with technological improvements, a rule-based expert system allows the end-user to enable new types of healthcare systems. The advent of Android OS-based smartphones with more user-friendly interfaces and lower pricing opens new possibilities for continuous monitoring of pets' health conditions, such as healthy dogs, dangerous ingestions, and swallowed objects. The proposed ‘Best Bark’ Dog care and owner consultation system is a mobile application for dog owners. Four main components for dog owners were implemented after a questionnaire was distributed to the target group of audience and the findings were evaluated. The proposed applications are widely used to provide health and clinical support to dog owners, including suggesting exercise and diet plans and answering queries about their dogs. Additionally, after the owner uploads a photo of the dog, the application provides immediate feedback and a description of the dog's skin disease.

Keywords: Convolution Neural Networks, Artificial Neural Networks, Knowledgebase, Sentimental Analysis.

Procedia PDF Downloads 153

Authors: Joy Chadwick

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This Study of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) research focused on the experiences of teacher candidates involved in an inclusive education methods course within a four-year direct entry Bachelor of Education program. The placement of this course within the final fourteen-week practicum semester is designed to facilitate deeper theory-practice connections between effective inclusive pedagogical knowledge and the real life of classroom teaching. The course focuses on supporting teacher candidates to understand that effective instruction within an inclusive classroom context must be intentional, responsive, and relational. Diversity is situated not as exceptional but rather as expected. This interpretive qualitative study involved the analysis of twenty-nine teacher candidate reflective journals and six individual teacher candidate semi-structured interviews. The journal entries were completed at the start of the semester and at the end of the semester with the intent of having teacher candidates reflect on their beliefs of what it means to be an effective inclusive educator and how the course and practicum experiences impacted their understanding and approaches to teaching in inclusive classrooms. The semi-structured interviews provided further depth and context to the journal data. The journals and interview transcripts were coded and themed using NVivo software. The findings suggest that instructional frameworks such as universal design for learning (UDL), differentiated instruction (DI), response to intervention (RTI), social emotional learning (SEL), and self-regulation supported teacher candidate’s abilities to meet the needs of their students more effectively. Course content that focused on specific exceptionalities also supported teacher candidates to be proactive rather than reactive when responding to student learning challenges. Teacher candidates also articulated the importance of reframing their perspective about students in challenging moments and that seeing the individual worth of each child was integral to their approach to teaching. A persisting question for teacher educators exists as to what pedagogical knowledge and understanding is most relevant in supporting future teachers to be effective at planning for and embracing the diversity of student needs within classrooms today. This research directs us to consider the critical importance of addressing personal attributes and mindsets of teacher candidates regarding children as well as considering instructional frameworks when designing coursework. Further, the alignment of an inclusive education course during a teaching practicum allows for an iterative approach to learning. The practical application of course concepts while teaching in a practicum allows for a deeper understanding of instructional frameworks, thus enhancing the confidence of teacher candidates. Research findings have implications for teacher education programs as connected to inclusive education methods courses, practicum experiences, and overall teacher education program design.

Keywords: inclusion, inclusive education, pre-service teacher education, practicum experiences, teacher education

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Authors: Gi-Ryun Park, Gye-Wan Moon, Dong-Hoon Yang

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This study aims to explore the positive effects of self-leadership and innovative behavior that'd been proven in the existing researches proactively and understand the regulation effects of smartphone addiction which has recently become an issue in Korea. This study conducted a convenient sampling of college students attending the four colleges located at Daegu. A total of 210 questionnaires in 5-point Likert scale were distributed to college students. Among which, a total of 200 questionnaires were collected for our final analysis data. Both correlation analysis and regression analysis were carried out to verify those questionnaires through SPSS 20.0. As a result, college students' self-leadership had a significantly positive impact on innovative behavior (B= .210, P= .003). In addition, it is found that the relationship between self-leadership and innovative behavior can be adjusted depending on the degree of smartphone addiction in college students (B= .264, P= .000). This study could first understand the negative effects of smartphone addiction and find that if students' self-leadership is improved in terms of self-management and unnecessary use of smartphone is controlled properly, innovative behavior can be improved. In addition, this study is significant in that it attempts to identify a new impact of smartphone addiction with the recent environmental changes, unlike the existing researches that'd been carried out from the perspective of organizational behavior theory.

Keywords: innovative behavior, revolutionary behavior, self-leadership, smartphone addiction

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Authors: Hicham Amine, Abdelouahab Mesnaoui

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Electronic data interchange EDI is the computer-to-computer exchange of structured business information. This information typically takes the form of standardized electronic business documents, such as invoices, purchase orders, bills of lading, and so on. The purpose of this study is to identify the impact EDI might have on supply chain and typically on customer satisfaction keeping in mind the constraints the organization might face. This study included 139 subject matter experts (SMEs) who participated by responding to a survey that was distributed. 85% responded that they are extremely for the implementation while 10% were neutral and 5% were against the implementation. From the quality assurance department, we have got 75% from the clients agreed to move on with the change whereas 10% stayed neutral and finally 15% were against the change. From the legal department where 80% of the answers were for the implementation and 10% of the participants stayed neutral whereas the last 10% were against it. The survey consisted of 40% male and 60% female (sex-ratio (F/M=1,5), who had chosen to participate. Our survey also contained 3 categories in terms of technical background where 80% are from technical background and 15% were from nontechnical background and 5% had some average technical background. This study examines the impact of EDI on customer satisfaction which is the primary hypothesis and justifies the importance of the implementation which enhances the customer satisfaction.

Keywords: electronic data interchange, supply chain, subject matter experts, customer satisfaction

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Authors: Houari Boumediene University of Science, Technology.

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"Various methods are typically used in the dynamic analysis of transversely vibrating beams. To achieve this, numerical methods are used to solve the general eigenvalue problem. The equations of equilibrium, which describe the motion, are derived from a fourth-order differential equation. Our study is based on the finite element method, and the results of the investigation are the vibration frequencies obtained using the Jacobi method. Two types of elementary mass matrices are considered: one representing a uniform distribution of mass along the element and the other consisting of concentrated masses located at fixed points whose number increases progressively with equal distances at each evaluation stage. The beams studied have different boundary constraints, representing several classical situations. Comparisons are made for beams where the distributed mass is replaced by n concentrated masses. As expected, the first calculation stage involves determining the lowest number of beam parts that gives a frequency comparable to that obtained from the Rayleigh formula. The obtained values are then compared to theoretical results based on the assumptions of the Bernoulli-Euler theory. These steps are repeated for the second type of mass representation in the same manner."

Keywords: finite element method, bernouilli eulertheory, structural analysis, vibration analysis, rayleigh quotient

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Authors: Sima Hajiazizi

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Tehran is a capital of Iran, with the capitals of the world to natural disasters such as earthquake and flood vulnerable has known. City has stated on three faults, Ray, Mosha, and north according to report of JICA in 2000, the most casualties and destruction was the result of active fault Ray. In 2003, the prevention and management of crisis in Tehran to conduct prevention and rehabilitation of the city, under the Ministry has active. Given the breadth and lack of appropriate access in the city, was considered decentralized management for crisis management support, in each region, in order to position the crisis management headquarters at the time of crises and implementation of programs for prevention and education of the citizens and also to position the bases given in some areas of the neighboring provinces at the time of the accident for help and a number of databases to store food and equipment needed at the time of the disaster. In this study, the bases for one, six, nine and eleven regions of Tehran in the field of management and training are evaluated. Selected areas had local accident and experience of practice for disaster management and local training has been experiencing challenges. The research approach was used qualitative research methods underlying Ground theory. At first, the information obtained through the study of documents and Semi-structured interviews by administrators, officials of training and participant observation in the classroom, line by line, and then it was coded in two stages, by comparing and questioning concepts, categories and extract according to the indicators is obtained from literature studies, subjects were been central. Main articles according to the frequency and importance of the phenomenon were called and they were drawn diagram paradigm and at the end with the intersections phenomena and their causes with indicators extracted from the texts, approach each phenomenon and the effectiveness of the bases was measured. There are two phenomenons in management; 1. The inability to manage the vast and complex crisis events and to resolve minor incidents due to the mismatch between managers. 2. Weaknesses in the implementation of preventive measures and preparedness to manage crisis is causal of situations, fields and intervening. There are five phenomenons in the field of education; 1. In the six-region participation and interest is high. 2. In eleven-region training partnerships for crisis management were to low that next by maneuver in schools and local initiatives such as advertising and use of aid groups have increased. 3. In nine-region, contributions to education in the area of crisis management at the beginning were low that initiatives like maneuver in schools and communities to stimulate and increase participation have increased sensitivity. 4. Managers have been disagreement with the same training in all areas. Finally for the issues that are causing the main issues, with the help of concepts extracted from the literature, recommendations are provided.

Keywords: crises management, crisis management support bases, vulnerability, crisis management headquarters, prevention

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Authors: Abduxukur Zayit, Guo Rui Chen

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Universities play important role for develop and distribute sustainable development ideas. This research based on the current situation of large and widely distributed university campuses in China. In view of the deterioration of campus performance, the aging of function and facilities, the large consumption of energy and resources, a logic of "problem-oriented-goal-oriented- At the level, taking the problem orientation as the focus,this paper analyzes the main influencing factors of the existing characteristics of the university campuses, establishes the digital assessment methods and clarifies the key points of the rennovation. Based on the goal orientation, this paper puts forward the existing university campus design principles, builds the green transformation-carding model and sets up the post-use evaluation model. In the end, with dual guidance as the constraint, we will formulate green design standards for campus greening, construct a greening enhancement measure for campus environment, and develop and promote a green campus after-use assessment platform. It provides useful research methods and research ideas for the reconstruction of the existing campus in China, especially the urban universities.

Keywords: design method, existing university campus, green renovation, sustainable development

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Authors: René A. Sørensen, Søren Skovsen, Peter Christiansen, Henrik Karstoft

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Autonomous agricultural machines act in stochastic surroundings and therefore, must be able to perceive the surroundings in real time. This perception can be achieved using image sensors combined with advanced machine learning, in particular Deep Learning. Deep convolutional neural networks excel in labeling and perceiving color images and since the cost of high-quality RGB-cameras is low, the hardware cost of good perception depends heavily on memory and computation power. This paper investigates the possibility of designing lightweight convolutional neural networks for semantic segmentation (pixel wise classification) with reduced hardware requirements, to allow for embedded usage in autonomous agricultural machines. Using compression techniques, a lightweight convolutional neural network is designed to perform real-time semantic segmentation on an embedded platform. The network is trained on two large datasets, ImageNet and Pascal Context, to recognize up to 400 individual classes. The 400 classes are remapped into agricultural superclasses (e.g. human, animal, sky, road, field, shelterbelt and obstacle) and the ability to provide accurate real-time perception of agricultural surroundings is studied. The network is applied to the case of autonomous grass mowing using the NVIDIA Tegra X1 embedded platform. Feeding case-specific images to the network results in a fully segmented map of the superclasses in the image. As the network is still being designed and optimized, only a qualitative analysis of the method is complete at the abstract submission deadline. Proceeding this deadline, the finalized design is quantitatively evaluated on 20 annotated grass mowing images. Lightweight convolutional neural networks for semantic segmentation can be implemented on an embedded platform and show competitive performance with regards to accuracy and speed. It is feasible to provide cost-efficient perceptive capabilities related to semantic segmentation for autonomous agricultural machines.

Keywords: autonomous agricultural machines, deep learning, safety, visual perception

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Authors: Changchun Liang, Xiaodong Zhang, Xin Liu, Pengfei Sun

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Space intelligent robotic systems are expected to play an increasingly important role in the future. The robotic on-orbital service, whose key is the tracking and capturing technology, becomes research hot in recent years. In this paper, the authors propose a vision servo control system for target capturing. Robotic manipulator will be an intelligent robotic system with large-scale movement, functional agility, and autonomous ability, and it can be operated by astronauts in the space station or be controlled by the ground operator in the remote operation mode. To realize the autonomous movement and capture mission of SRM, a kind of autonomous programming strategy based on multi-camera vision fusion is designed and the selection principle of object visual position and orientation measurement information is defined for the better precision. Distributed control system hierarchy is designed and reliability is considering to guarantee the abilities of control system. At last, a ground experiment system is set up based on the concept of robotic control system. With that, the autonomous target capturing experiments are conducted. The experiment results validate the proposed algorithm, and demonstrates that the control system can fulfill the needs of function, real-time and reliability.

Keywords: control system, on-orbital service, space robot, vision servo

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Authors: Tieling Xing, Jinqiu Yang, Guoqiang Chen

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It is environmentally friendly to use horseradish peroxidase (HRP) instead of the traditional transition metal catalyst for the catalyst of atom transfer radical polymerization (ATRP). Silk fabrics were successfully grafted with hydroxyl-containing acrylate monomer to improve its crease resistance by HRP-catalyzed ATRP method. Taking grafting yield as the evaluation index, single factor tests revealed that the optimum grafting reaction condition was as follow: monomer mass fraction 120-210%(o.w.f), HRP concentration 360-480U/mL, molar ratio of HRP to NaAsc 1:150, reaction temperature 50-60℃, reaction time 24h. Raman spectra showed hydroxyl-containing acrylate monomer were successfully grafted on silk fabrics. SEM figures indicated the surface of grafted silk became rougher, and graft copolymer was distributed evenly on the surface of silk fiber. The crease-resistant recovery property of grafted silk fabric was greatly improved, especially in wet crease recovery angle. The result showed hydroxyl-containing acrylate monomer can be successfully grafted onto silk fabric based on HRP-catalyzed ATRP method.

Keywords: atom transfer radical polymerization, catalysis, horseradish peroxidase, hydroxyl-containing acrylate monomer

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Authors: Cassandra Maffei, Effie Pomaki, Salomé Deslauriers-Brouillard, Levana Dahan, Caroline Storr, Ramasubramanian Ponnusamy, Philippe S. Archambault

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Sexual health education following spinal cord injury (SCI) remains poorly integrated into the rehabilitation process, especially in low-income countries where the topics of disability and sexuality are stigmatized. This research aimed to evaluate a sexual health manual that was created and distributed amongst males with SCI who had received rehabilitation services at Amar Seva Sangam (ASSA), a rehabilitation center located in rural South India. A service evaluation was completed to collect data from a convenience sample of 37 males with spinal cord injuries. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and content analysis. The service evaluation showed that the manual was well received by the sample and had positive impacts on secondary outcome measures, including relationship dynamics and quality of life. It can thus be used as an effective adjunct tool to support the improvement of sexual health knowledge, attitudes, and practices of individuals with SCI.

Keywords: spinal cord injury, sexual health, rehabilitation, India, education, service evaluation

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Authors: A. Raj Kumar, S. Bilaloglu

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Stroke is a leading cause of adult disability worldwide. We depend on our hands for our activities of daily living(ADL). Although many patients regain the ability to walk, they continue to experience long-term hand motor impairments. As the number of individuals with young stroke is increasing, there is a critical need for effective approaches for rehabilitation of hand function post-stroke. Motor relearning for dexterity requires task-specific kinesthetic, tactile and visual feedback. However, when a stroke results in both sensory and motor impairment, it becomes difficult to ascertain when and what type of sensory substitutions can facilitate motor relearning. In an ideal situation, real-time task-specific data on the ability to learn and data-driven feedback to assist such learning will greatly assist rehabilitation for dexterity. We have found that kinesthetic and tactile information from the unaffected hand can assist patients re-learn the use of optimal fingertip forces during a grasp and lift task. Measurement of fingertip grip force (GF), load forces (LF), their corresponding rates (GFR and LFR), and other metrics can be used to gauge the impairment level and progress during learning. Currently ATI mini force-torque sensors are used in research settings to measure and compute the LF, GF, and their rates while grasping objects of different weights and textures. Use of the ATI sensor is cost prohibitive for deployment in clinical or at-home rehabilitation. A cost effective mechatronic device is developed to quantify GF, LF, and their rates for stroke rehabilitation purposes using off-the-shelf components such as load cells, flexi-force sensors, and an Arduino UNO microcontroller. A salient feature of the device is its integration with an interactive gaming environment to render a highly engaging user experience. This paper elaborates the integration of kinesthetic and tactile sensing through computation of LF, GF and their corresponding rates in real time, information processing, and interactive interfacing through augmented reality for visual feedback.

Keywords: feedback, gaming, kinesthetic, rehabilitation, tactile

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Authors: Saroj Panthi

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The red panda (Ailurus fulgens fulgens) is distributed throughout the Himalayas and is found in both protected and unprotected areas of Nepal. Loss and fragmentation of habitat threaten red panda population throughout its range, and as a consequence, it is listed as vulnerable on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Despite this pressing situation, data on the ecology of the red panda in western Nepal are lacking. Our aim in the current study was to determine the distribution, associated habitats, and summer diet of the red panda in Dhorpatan Hunting Reserve (DHR), Nepal. Evidence of red pandas was found in all 7 blocks of the reserve, spanning an area of 345.8 km2, between elevations of 2800 m and 4000 m and predominantly (> 75%) in forests comprising plant communities dominated by Abies spectabilis, Acer caesium, Tsuga domusa, and Betula utilis, with ground cover of Arundinaria spp. The dominant plant found in scat of the red panda was Arundinaria spp. (81.7%), with Acer spp., B. utilis, and lichen also frequently present. Livestock grazing and human activities were significantly higher in habitats where signs of pandas were recorded than in areas where they were absent. This habitat overlap between the red panda and livestock potentially poses a major threat to the panda’s survival in the DHR, a fact that should be taken into account in devising management strategies for this threatened species.

Keywords: red panda, Dhorpatan hunting reserve, diet, habitat preference

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Authors: Shobha Kumari Yadav, Yubaraj Satyal, Ajaya Dixit

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In addressing groundwater depletion, it is important to develop evidence base so to be used in assessing the state of its degradation. Groundwater data is limited compared to meteorological data, which impedes the groundwater use and management plan. Monitoring of groundwater levels provides information base to assess the condition of aquifers, their responses to water extraction, land-use change, and climatic variability. It is important to maintain a network of spatially distributed, long-term monitoring wells to support groundwater management plan. Monitoring involving local community is a cost effective approach that generates real time data to effectively manage groundwater use. This paper presents the relationship between rainfall and spring flow, which are the main source of freshwater for drinking, household consumptions and agriculture in hills of Nepal. The supply and withdrawal of water from springs depends upon local hydrology and the meteorological characteristics- such as rainfall, evapotranspiration and interflow. The study offers evidence of the use of scientific method and community based initiative for managing groundwater and springshed. The approach presents a method to replicate similar initiative in other parts of the country for maintaining integrity of springs.

Keywords: citizen science, groundwater, water resource management, Nepal

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Authors: Abderrahim Bouftou, Kaoutar Aghmih, Fatima Lakhdar, Saâd Oukkass, Sanaa Majid

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Biodegradable and renewable-based polymeric packaging like cellulose acetate (CA) is an alternative to petroleum-based polymers, in the way of low cost and also creates a positive outcome on both environmentally. The objective of the present research was to develop bioactive packaging films from cellulose acetate incorporated with a low-cost cypress essential oil (EO). We prepared cellulose acetate films via solvent casting method incorporating 0, 10, 30, and 60 % (w/w) of EO, with the purpose of evaluating the possible changes caused by the cypress essential oil on the properties of the packaging. The films were characterized using FTIR, TGA, XRD and other analysis technologies. The mechanical, antibacterial and antioxidant properties of the films were analyzed. FTIR and XRD analysis indicated that cypress EO was homogenously distributed on the film. Meanwhile, TGA analysis demonstrated that the addition of EO had an impact on thermal properties. The impact of EO on mechanical and optical properties was explored. The results displayed that antibacterial activity against Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus increased as cypress essential oil percentage increased in cellulose acetate films. Moreover, free radical scavenger activity by DPPH of cellulose acetate films improved by increasing the cypress essential oil concentration. These results indicate that the films of cellulose acetate containing cypress essential oil have potential for use as active packaging for foods.

Keywords: cellulose acetate, essential oil, active packaging, antibacterial, antioxidant

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Authors: Marvin Eslava

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The over-arching aim of this research is to determine the potential contribution of local food resources to the tourism growth of Nueva Vizcaya. It reviews some of the underpinning concepts and to provide a set of considerations for stakeholders to maximize the opportunity of local food can offer to businesses and the wider community. The basis of the study is to develop a sustainable food tourism model for Nueva Vizcaya. For the purpose of this research, there were 60 total numbers of respondents classified as samples from a six municipality. The respondents of the study were stakeholder consisting of government official, local producers, businessman and Non-government organizations in the selected municipalities of Nueva Vizcaya. Stratified purposive sampling was the appropriate technique that was used to the local government officials and employees, NGOs including the businessmen who are associated with local food resources and local producers. The documentary study, focus group discussion and survey questionnaire was used in order to meet the objectives of the study. Kruskall Wallis test was used to test the variances the ratings of the participants. This was used in the computation of hypothesis. The study concluded that the province of Nueva Vizcaya is blessed for its rich farmlands and fertile mountain soil boasts to produce high quality agricultural products. It is a home of various different indigenous groups creating a wide range of local cuisine. The province has substantial local food development evidence by the various food tourism related resources, increase in facilities and celebrating food tourism related events. The local food resources provide extensive potential economic empowerment and help in building the identity of the province. In addition, the local food resources extensively enhance the agriculture sector and other attractions in the province. Finally, it helps to preserve the authenticity of the food culture and generated pride among all stakeholders extensively. All stakeholders have the same perception on the potential contribution of local food resources to the development of the province of Nueva Vizcaya. The public and private sectors are cognizant on their roles to support the production of local food resources in Nueva Vizcaya. Major challenges and barriers in the development of sustainable food tourism in Nueva Vizcaya include production or supply and marketing.

Keywords: local food resources, contribution, food tourism, benefits

Procedia PDF Downloads 261

Authors: Francois Defay

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Uses of Unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) are increasing for many applicative cases. Long endurance UAVs are required for inspection or transportation in some deserted places. The global optimization of the efficiency is the aim of the works in ISAE-SUPAERO. From the propulsive part until the motor control, the global optimization can increase significantly the global efficiency. This paper deals with the global improvement of the efficiency of the electrical propulsion for the aerial vehicle. The application case of study is a small airplane of 2kg. A global modelization is presented in order to validate the electrical engine in a complete simulation from aerodynamics to battery. The classical control of the synchronous permanent drive is compared to the field-oriented control which is not yet applied for UAVs. The experimental results presented show an increase of more than 10 percent of the efficiency. A complete modelization and simulation based on Matlab/ Simulink are presented in this paper and compared to the experimental study. Finally this paper presents solutions to increase the endurance of the electrical aerial vehicle and provide models to optimize the global consumption for a specific mission. The next step is to use this model and the control to work with distributed propulsion which is the future for small distance plane.

Keywords: electrical propulsion, endurance, field-oriented control, UAV

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Authors: Huang Bai-Cheng

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When deploying the Oriented Fast and Rotated Binary Robust Independent Elementary Feature (BRIEF) (ORB) extraction algorithm on field-programmable gate arrays (FPGA), the access of global storage for 31×31 pixel patches of the features has become the bottleneck of the system efficiency. Therefore, a feature zone strategy has been proposed. Zones are searched as features are detected. Pixels around the feature zones are extracted from global memory and distributed into patches corresponding to feature coordinates. The proposed FPGA structure is targeted on a Xilinx FPGA development board of Zynq UltraScale+ series, and multiple datasets are tested. Compared with the streaming pixel patch extraction method, the proposed architecture obtains at least two times acceleration consuming extra 3.82% Flip-Flops (FFs) and 7.78% Look-Up Tables (LUTs). Compared with the non-streaming one, the proposed architecture saves 22.3% LUT and 1.82% FF, causing a latency of only 0.2ms and a drop in frame rate for 1. Compared with the related works, the proposed strategy and hardware architecture have the superiority of keeping a balance between FPGA resources and performance.

Keywords: feature extraction, real-time, ORB, FPGA implementation

Procedia PDF Downloads 122