Search results for: high resolution synthetic imagery

Authors: T. Garlan, I. Gabelotaud, S. Lucas, E. Marchès

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Production of a global sedimentological seabed map has been initiated in 1995 to provide the necessary tool for searches of aircraft and boats lost at sea, to give sedimentary information for nautical charts, and to provide input data for acoustic propagation modelling. This original approach had already been initiated one century ago when the French hydrographic service and the University of Nancy had produced maps of the distribution of marine sediments of the French coasts and then sediment maps of the continental shelves of Europe and North America. The current map of the sediment of oceans presented was initiated with a UNESCO's general map of the deep ocean floor. This map was adapted using a unique sediment classification to present all types of sediments: from beaches to the deep seabed and from glacial deposits to tropical sediments. In order to allow good visualization and to be adapted to the different applications, only the granularity of sediments is represented. The published seabed maps are studied, if they present an interest, the nature of the seabed is extracted from them, the sediment classification is transcribed and the resulted map is integrated in the world map. Data come also from interpretations of Multibeam Echo Sounder (MES) imagery of large hydrographic surveys of deep-ocean. These allow a very high-quality mapping of areas that until then were represented as homogeneous. The third and principal source of data comes from the integration of regional maps produced specifically for this project. These regional maps are carried out using all the bathymetric and sedimentary data of a region. This step makes it possible to produce a regional synthesis map, with the realization of generalizations in the case of over-precise data. 86 regional maps of the Atlantic Ocean, the Mediterranean Sea, and the Indian Ocean have been produced and integrated into the world sedimentary map. This work is permanent and permits a digital version every two years, with the integration of some new maps. This article describes the choices made in terms of sediment classification, the scale of source data and the zonation of the variability of the quality. This map is the final step in a system comprising the Shom Sedimentary Database, enriched by more than one million punctual and surface items of data, and four series of coastal seabed maps at 1:10,000, 1:50,000, 1:200,000 and 1:1,000,000. This step by step approach makes it possible to take into account the progresses in knowledge made in the field of seabed characterization during the last decades. Thus, the arrival of new classification systems for seafloor has improved the recent seabed maps, and the compilation of these new maps with those previously published allows a gradual enrichment of the world sedimentary map. But there is still a lot of work to enhance some regions, which are still based on data acquired more than half a century ago.

Keywords: marine sedimentology, seabed map, sediment classification, world ocean

Procedia PDF Downloads 232

Authors: Efren Lopez Jimenez, Maria Isabel Cajero, J. Irving-Vasqueza

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The use and processing of digital images have opened up new opportunities for the resolution of problems of various kinds, such as the calculation of different vegetation indexes, among other things, differentiating healthy vegetation from humid vegetation. However, obtaining images from which these indexes are calculated is still the exclusive subject of active research. In the present work, we propose to obtain these images using a low cost embedded system (Raspberry Pi) and its processing, using a set of libraries of open code called OpenCV, in order to obtain the Normalized Red-Green Difference Index (NGRDI).

Keywords: Raspberry Pi, vegetation index, Normalized Red-Green Difference Index (NGRDI), OpenCV

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Authors: Dmitry Yu. Korulkin, Raissa A. Muzychkina

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Currently to treat infectious diseases bioactive substances of plant origin having fewer side effects than synthetic medicines and medicines similar to natural components of a human body by the structure and action, become very important. One of the groups of secondary metabolites of the plants - alkaloids can be related the number of the most promising sources of medicines of plant origin. Currently, the structure of more than 7500 compounds has been identified. Analyzing the scope of research in the field of chemistry, pharmacology and technology of alkaloids, we can make a conclusion about that there is no system approach during the research of relation structure-activity on different groups of these substances. It is connected not only with a complex structure of their molecules, but also with insufficient information on the nature of their effect on organs, tissues and other targets in organism. The purpose of this research was to identify pharmacophore groups in the structure of alkaloids of endemic Polygonum L. plants growing in Kazakhstan responsible for their antiviral action. To isolate alkaloids pharmacopoeian methods were used. Antiviral activity of alkaloids of Polygonum L. plants was researched in the Institute of Microbiology and Virology of the Ministry of Education and Science of the Republic of Kazakhstan. Virus-inhibiting properties of compounds were studies in experiments with ortho- and paramyxoviruses on the model of chick-embryos. Anti-viral properties were determined using ‘screening test’ method designed to neutralization of a virus at the amount of 100EID50 with set concentrations of medicines. The difference of virus titer compared to control group was deemed as the criterion of antiviral action. It has been established that Polygonum L. alkaloids has high antiviral effect to influenza and parainfluenza viruses. The analysis of correlation of the structure and antiviral activity of alkaloids allowed identifying the main pharmacophore groups, among which the most important are glycosidation, the presence of carbonyl and hydroxyl groups, molecular weight and molecular size.

Keywords: alkaloids, antiviral, bioactive substances, isolation, pharmacophore groups, Polygonum L.

Procedia PDF Downloads 437

Authors: Rahil Samani, Saeed Soleimani, Ehsan Adib, Majid Pahlevani

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This paper presents an inverting high step-up DC/DC converter. Basically, this high step-up DC/DC converter is an appealing interface for solar applications. The proposed topology takes advantage of using coupled inductors. Due to the leakage inductances of these coupled inductors, the power MOSFET has the zero current switching (ZCS) condition, which results in decreased switching losses. This will substantially improve the overall efficiency of the power converter. Furthermore, employing coupled inductors has led to a higher voltage gain. Theoretical analysis and experimental results of a 100W 20V/220V prototype are presented to verify the superior performance of the proposed DC/DC converter.

Keywords: coupled inductors, high step-up DC/DC converter, zero-current switching, Cuk converter, SEPIC converter

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Authors: Nion Sirimongkonlertkun, Vivard Phonekeo

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This research focused on open burning occurrence in Greater Mekong Sub-Region countries that influences the increase of PM10concentrations. Thailand, Myanmar, and Laos were chosen as a case study, and 2009, 2010, and 2012 were chosen as the year for case study. Hotspot detected by MODIS (Moderate Resolution Imaging Specto radiometer) sensor on board of Terra/Aqua satellites and provided by Rapid Response System was used to represent open burning location in the region. Hotspot was selected through fire confidence with confidence levels of 80-100%. The spatial analysis by GIS was used as the main tool for analyzing and defining the location of open burning at study sites as hotspot with the pixel size of 1 km by 1 km. The total hotspot counts in the study period of four years (2007, 2009, 2010, and January-April 2012) at the regional level, including Thailand, Laos, and Myanmar were 255,177 hotspots or a very high yearly average of 63,795 hotspots. The highest amount was seen in Myanmar (50%), followed by Laos (36%), and Thailand (14%). For Thailand, the majority of burning or 64% occurred in the northern region with the density of 5 hotspots per 100 km2. According to statistics of the 4 years, the increasing rate of hotspot from January to February was 10 times and from February to March was 4 times. After that period, the hotspot started to decline by 2 times from March to April. Therefore, in order to develop a policy which aims to lessen open burning conduction, the government should seriously focus on this problem during the peak period—February to March in every year when hotspot and open burning area is significantly increased.

Keywords: PM10, hotspot, greater mekong sub-region, open burning

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Authors: Masaumi Nakahara, Sou Watanabe, Hiromichi Ogi, Atsuhiro Shibata, Kazunori Nomura

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In the Japan Atomic Energy Agency, three types of experimental research, advanced reactor fuel reprocessing, radioactive waste disposal, and nuclear fuel cycle technology, have been carried out at the Chemical Processing Facility. The facility has generated high level radioactive liquid and solid wastes in hot cells. The high level radioactive solid waste is divided into three main categories, a flammable waste, a non-flammable waste, and a solid reagent waste. A plastic product is categorized into the flammable waste and molten with a heating mantle. The non-flammable waste is cut with a band saw machine for reducing the volume. Among the solid reagent waste, a used adsorbent after the experiments is heated, and an extractant is decomposed for its stabilization. All high level radioactive solid wastes in the hot cells are packed in a high level radioactive solid waste can. The high level radioactive solid waste can is transported to the 2nd High Active Solid Waste Storage in the Tokai Reprocessing Plant in the Japan Atomic Energy Agency.

Keywords: high level radioactive solid waste, advanced reactor fuel reprocessing, radioactive waste disposal, nuclear fuel cycle technology

Procedia PDF Downloads 159

Authors: Sani Shehu, Mohd Afandi Salleh

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Parliament is a law making body which provided at national, state, province and territorial level playing a parliamentary role of representing people, law making, peace, and conflict resolution, ratifying and incorporating international convention into municipal law. Parliaments are created globally to give solid legitimacy to good governance under democratic system of government, and the representatives must be elected by the people, so the ECOWAS parliament is entitled to have this legitimacy, where members must be elected by adult people among the citizens of ECOWAS member states. This paper will discuss on the roles that ECOWAS parliament plays for the achievement of regional integration and economic goals of development and cooperation in the sub-region.

Keywords: ECOWAS parliament, composition, competence, power

Procedia PDF Downloads 479

Authors: Wael M. Rabeh, Cesar Carrasco-Lopez, Juliana C. Ferreira, Pance Naumov

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Bioluminescence, the emission of light from a biological process, is found in various living organisms including bacteria, fireflies, beetles, fungus and different marine organisms. Luciferase is an enzyme that catalyzes a two steps oxidation of luciferin in the presence of Mg2+ and ATP to produce oxyluciferin and releases energy in the form of light. The luciferase assay is used in biological research and clinical applications for in vivo imaging, cell proliferation, and protein folding and secretion analysis. The luciferase enzyme consists of two domains, a large N-terminal domain (1-436 residues) that is connected to a small C-terminal domain (440-544) by a flexible loop that functions as a hinge for opening and closing the active site. The two domains are separated by a large cleft housing the active site that closes after binding the substrates, luciferin and ATP. Even though all insect luciferases catalyze the same chemical reaction and share 50% to 90% sequence homology and high structural similarity, they emit light of different colors from green at 560nm to red at 640 nm. Currently, the majority of the structural and biochemical studies have been conducted on green-emitting firefly luciferases. To address the color emission mechanism, we expressed and purified two luciferase enzymes with blue-shifted green and red emission from indigenous Brazilian species Amydetes fanestratus and Phrixothrix, respectively. The two enzymes naturally emit light of different colors and they are an excellent system to study the color-emission mechanism of luciferases, as the current proposed mechanisms are based on mutagenesis studies. Using a vapor-diffusion method and a high-throughput approach, we crystallized and solved the crystal structure of both enzymes, at 1.7 Å and 3.1 Å resolution respectively, using X-ray crystallography. The free enzyme adopted two open conformations in the crystallographic unit cell that are different from the previously characterized firefly luciferase. The blue-shifted green luciferase crystalized as a monomer similar to other luciferases reported in literature, while the red luciferases crystalized as an octamer and was also purified as an octomer in solution. The octomer conformation is the first of its kind for any insect’s luciferase, which might be relate to the red color emission. Structurally designed mutations confirmed the importance of the transition between the open and close conformations in the fine-tuning of the color and the characterization of other interesting mutants is underway.

Keywords: bioluminescence, enzymology, structural biology, x-ray crystallography

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Authors: Ghada Diaa, Enas A. Khattab

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Ultra High Strength Concrete (UHSC) is a new advanced concrete that is being transferred from laboratory researches to practicable applications. In addition to its excellent durability properties, UHSC has high compressive and tensile strengths, and high modulus of elasticity. Despite of this low degree of hydration, ultra high strength values can be achieved by controlling the mixture proportions. In this research, an experimental program was carried out to investigate the shear behavior of ultra high strength concrete beams. A total of nine beams were tested to determine the effect of different parameters on the shear behavior of UHSC beams. The parameters include concrete strength, steel fiber volume, shear span to depth ratio, and web reinforcement ratio. The results demonstrated that nominal shear stress at cracking load and at ultimate load increased with the increase of concrete strength or the decrease in shear span-depth ratio. Using steel fibers or shear reinforcement increases the ultimate shear strength and makes the shear behavior more ductile. In this study, a simplified analytical model to calculate the shear strength of UHSC beams is introduced. Shear strength estimated according to the proposed method in this research is in good agreement with the experimental results.

Keywords: ultra high strength, shear strength, diagonal, cracking, steel fibers

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Authors: Hsiao-Yung Wang

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This essay aims to examine how the discursive formation of the 'transing-nationalism' (which is extended and slightly modified from 'homonationalism') had been constructed in the Taiwanese news media before the legalization of 'sex reassignment surgery (SRS)' in 1988. Samples for rhetorical analysis were selected from two mainstream newspapers, including China Times, and United Daily. The time frame for sample selection is from August 1953 (when the first transgender case was reported) to 1988, while the SRS was legalized in Taiwan. To enhance understanding of media representation as contextualized-based, the author refers to the representative of spatial rhetoric Mikhail Bakhtin for his late study on 'emergence' and 'visualization of time' in Bildungsroman; thereby categorizing the media discourse of transgender into two critical period: (1) transgender as 'misrecognized' and 'included' into the rhetoric of modern medical space; (2) transgender as 'institutionalized' into discourse of protection and salvation by the reified sympathy of nation-state. These two periods and relevant spatial rhetoric were of no immediate concern on the vital interest of transgender individuals; therefore constructed the imagery of transgender for the service of nationalism rather than gender consciousness or human right rhetoric. Based on the research findings, this essay concludes that 'queer multiplicity' should be regarded as not only the guideline for the amendment of the gendered policies and laws but the rhetorical resources for the mobilization of transgender movement in Taiwan from now on.

Keywords: Bakhtin, legalization, rhetoric, sex reassignment surgery, transgender, transing-nationalism

Procedia PDF Downloads 183

Authors: Yujie Zhou, Hee-Seong Byun, Sang-In Bak, Eui-Joon Kil, Kyung Joo Min, Vivek Chavan, Won Kyong Cho, Sukchan Lee, Seung-Woo Hong, Tae-Sun Park

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Fast neutron irradiation (FNI) can cause mutations on plant genome but, in the most of cases, these irradiated plants have not shown significant characteristics phenotypically. In this study, we utilized RNA-Seq to generate a high-resolution transcriptome map of the tomato (Solanum lycopersicum) genome effected by FNI. To quantify the different transcription levels in tomato irradiated by FNI, tomato seeds were irradiated by using MC-50 cyclotron (KIRAMS, Korea) for 0, 30 and 90 minutes, respectively. To investigate the effects on the pre-soaking condition, experimental groups were divided into dry and soaked seeds, which were soaked for 8 hours before irradiation. There was no noticeable difference in the percentage germination (PG) among dry seeds, while irradiated soaked seeds have about 10 % lower PG compared to the unirradiated control group. Using whole transcriptome sequencing by HiSeq 2000, we analyzed the differential gene expression in response to different time of FNI in dry and soaked seeds. More than 1.4 million base pair reads were mapped onto the tomato reference genome and the expression pattern differences between irradiated and unirradiated seeds were assessed. In 0, 30 and 90 minutes irradiation, 12,135, 28,495 and 28,675 transcripts were generated, respectively. Gene ontology analysis suggested the different enrichment of transcripts involved in response to different FNI. The present study showed that FNI effects on plant gene expression, which can become a new parameters for evaluating the responses against FNI on plants. In addition, the comparative analysis of differentially expressed genes in D and S seeds by FNI will also give us a chance to deep explore novel candidate genes for FNI, which could be a good model system to understand the mechanisms behind the adaption of plant to space biology research.

Keywords: tomato (solanum lycopersicum), fast neutron irradiation, RNA-sequence, transcriptome expression

Procedia PDF Downloads 319

Authors: Lopita Pal, Suresh V. Madha

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Wetlands are areas of marsh, fen, peat land or water, whether natural or artificial, permanent or temporary, with water that is static or flowing, fresh, brackish or salt, including areas of marine water the depth of which at low tide does not exceed six metres. The rapidly expanding human population, large scale changes in land use/land cover, burgeoning development projects and improper use of watersheds all has caused a substantial decline of wetland resources in the world. Major degradations have been impacted from agricultural, industrial and urban developments leading to various types of pollutions and hydrological perturbations. Regular fishing activities and unsustainable grazing of animals are degrading the wetlands in a slow pace. The paper focuses on the spatio-temporal change detection of the area of the water body and the main cause of this depletion. The total area under study (22°19’87’’ N, 88°20’23’’ E) is a wetland region in West Bengal of 213 sq.km. The procedure used is the Normalized Difference Water Index (NDWI) from multi-spectral imagery and Landsat to detect the presence of surface water, and the datasets have been compared of the years 2016, 2006 and 1996. The result shows a sharp decline in the area of water body due to a rapid increase in the agricultural practices and the growing urbanization.

Keywords: spatio-temporal change, NDWI, urbanization, wetland

Procedia PDF Downloads 283

Authors: Yong-Il Lee, Do-Yeon Hwang, Won-Seog Jeong, Duckshin Park

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Recently, because of the high-speed trains forced ventilation, it is important to control the ventilation. The ventilation is for controlling various contaminants, temperature, and humidity. The high-speed train route is straight to a destination having a high speed. And there are many mountainous areas in Korea. So, tunnel rate is higher then other country. KTX HVAC block off the outdoor air, when entering tunnel. So the high tunnel rate is an effect of ventilation in the KTX cabin. It is important to reduction rate in CO2 concentration prediction. To meet the air quality of the public transport vehicles recommend standards, the KTX cabin of CO2 concentration should be managed. In this study, the concentration change was predicted by CO2 prediction simulation in route to be opened.

Keywords: CO2 prediction, KTX, ventilation, infrastructure and transportation engineering

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Authors: Mehdi Shahmoradi Moghadam, Saba Kavian, Mehdi Zabihzadeh, Amir Mohammad Alborzi, Reza Sadeghi

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Cypermethrin is one of the most widely used synthetic insecticides to control pests in veterinary, industrial and agricultural environments. In the present study, the mortalities of Lucilia Cuprina as the key pest of meat were studied after being exposed to HICIDE VD-9 (a ready-to-use disinfectant/insecticide containing cypermethrin, polyhexanide and quaternary ammonium compounds produced by Dana pharmed lotus Co., Iran) within 15 minutes. The experimental results showed that moralities percentage of egg, larvae and adults of Lucilia Cuprina were 48%, 81% and 70%, respectively. Based on the obtained results, it can be predicted that in addition to controlling the insect pests of blow flies, HICIDE VD-9, as a cost-effective and environmentally friendly disinfectant/insecticide, can be effective against other insects, e.g., biting flies, fleas, midges, mosquitoes and ticks.

Keywords: cypermethrin, HICIDE VD-9, Lucilia cuprina, mortality, toxicity

Procedia PDF Downloads 110

Authors: Donghyun Lee, Cam Nguyen

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Multi-band systems offer a great deal of benefit in modern communication and radar systems. In particular, multi-band antenna-array radar systems with their extended frequency diversity provide numerous advantages in detection, identification, locating and tracking a wide range of targets, including enhanced detection coverage, accurate target location, reduced survey time and cost, increased resolution, improved reliability and target information. An accurate calibration is a critical issue in antenna array systems. The amplitude and phase errors in multi-band and multi-polarization antenna array transceivers result in inaccurate target detection, deteriorated resolution and reduced reliability. Furthermore, the digital beam former without the RF domain phase-shifting is less immune to unfiltered interference signals, which can lead to receiver saturation in array systems. Therefore, implementing integrated front-end architecture, which can support calibration function with low insertion and filtering function from the farthest end of an array transceiver is of great interest. We report a dual K/Ka-band T/R/Calibration switch module with quasi-elliptic dual-bandpass filtering function implementing a Q-enhanced metamaterial transmission line. A unique dual-band frequency response is incorporated in the reception and calibration path of the proposed switch module utilizing the composite right/left-handed meta material transmission line coupled with a Colpitts-style negative generation circuit. The fabricated fully integrated T/R/Calibration switch module in 0.18-μm BiCMOS technology exhibits insertion loss of 4.9-12.3 dB and isolation of more than 45 dB in the reception, transmission and calibration mode of operation. In the reception and calibration mode, the dual-band frequency response centered at 24.5 and 35 GHz exhibits out-of-band rejection of more than 30 dB compared to the pass bands below 10.5 GHz and above 59.5 GHz. The rejection between the pass bands reaches more than 50 dB. In all modes of operation, the IP1-dB is between 4 and 11 dBm. Acknowledgement: This paper was made possible by NPRP grant # 6-241-2-102 from the Qatar National Research Fund (a member of Qatar Foundation). The statements made herein are solely the responsibility of the authors.

Keywords: microwaves, millimeter waves, T/R switch, wireless communications, wireless communications

Procedia PDF Downloads 160

Authors: Deniz Yurtoğlu

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Aerosols directly affect the radiative balance of the earth by absorbing and/or scattering the sun rays reaching the atmosphere and indirectly affect the balance by acting as a nucleus in cloud formation. The composition, physical, and chemical properties of aerosols vary depending on their sources and the time spent in the atmosphere. The Eastern Mediterranean Basin has a high aerosol load that is formed from different sources; such as anthropogenic activities, desert dust outbreaks, and the spray of sea salt; and the area is subjected to atmospheric transport from other locations on the earth. This region, which includes the deserts of Africa, the Middle East, and the Mediterranean sea, is one of the most affected areas by climate change due to its location and the chemistry of the atmosphere. This study aims to investigate the spatiotemporal deviation of aerosol load in the Eastern Mediterranean Basin between the years 2018-2022 with the help of a new pioneer satellite of ESA (European Space Agency), Sentinel-5P. The TROPOMI (The TROPOspheric Monitoring Instrument) traveling on this low-Earth orbiting satellite is a UV (Ultraviolet)-sensing spectrometer with a resolution of 5.5 km x 3.5 km, which can make measurements even in a cloud-covered atmosphere. By using Absorbing Aerosol Index data produced by this spectrometer and special scripts written in Python language that transforms this data into images, it was seen that the majority of the aerosol load in the Eastern Mediterranean Basin is sourced from desert dust and anthropogenic activities. After retrieving the daily data, which was separated from the NaN values, seasonal analyses match with the normal aerosol variations expected, which are high in warm seasons and lower in cold seasons. Monthly analyses showed that in four years, there was an increase in the amount of Absorbing Aerosol Index in spring and winter by 92.27% (2019-2021) and 39.81% (2019-2022), respectively. On the other hand, in the summer and autumn seasons, a decrease has been observed by 20.99% (2018-2021) and 0.94% (2018-2021), respectively. The overall variation of the mean absorbing aerosol index from TROPOMI between April 2018 to April 2022 reflects a decrease of 115.87% by annual mean from 0.228 to -0.036. However, when the data is analyzed by the annual mean values of the years which have the data from January to December, meaning from 2019 to 2021, there was an increase of 57.82% increase (0.108-0.171). This result can be interpreted as the effect of climate change on the aerosol load and also, more specifically, the effect of forest fires that happened in the summer months of 2021.

Keywords: aerosols, eastern mediterranean basin, sentinel-5p, tropomi, aerosol index, remote sensing

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Authors: Bayonle Abiola Omoniyi

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In turbidite reservoirs with volumetrically significant thin-bedded turbidites (TBTs), thin-pay intervals may be underestimated during calculation of reserve volume due to poor vertical resolution of conventional well logs. This paper demonstrates the strong control of bed-scale sedimentary heterogeneity on oil recovery using six facies distribution scenarios that were generated from outcrop data from the Eocene Itzurun Formation, Basque Basin (northern Spain). The variable net sand volume in these scenarios serves as a primary source of sedimentary heterogeneity impacting sandstone-mudstone ratio, sand and shale geometry and dimensions, lateral and vertical variations in bed thickness, and attribute indices. The attributes provided input parameters for modeling the scenarios. The models are 20-m (65.6 ft) thick. Simulation of the scenarios reveals that oil production is markedly enhanced where degree of sedimentary heterogeneity and resultant permeability contrast are low, as exemplified by Scenarios 1, 2, and 3. In these scenarios, bed architecture encourages better apparent vertical connectivity across intervals of laterally continuous beds. By contrast, low net-to-gross Scenarios 4, 5, and 6, have rapidly declining oil production rates and higher water cut with more oil effectively trapped in low-permeability layers. These scenarios may possess enough lateral connectivity to enable injected water to sweep oil to production well; such sweep is achieved at a cost of high-water production. It is therefore imperative to consider not only net-to-gross threshold but also facies stack pattern and related attribute indices to better understand how to effectively manage water production for optimum oil recovery from basin-plain reservoirs.

Keywords: architecture, connectivity, modeling, turbidites

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Authors: Tei Kim, Brooklynn McNeil, Kathryn Dunn, Douglas I. Walker

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To better characterize the relationship between complex chemical exposures and disease, our laboratory uses an approach that combines low-cost, polydimethylsiloxane (silicone) wristband samplers that absorb many of the chemicals we are exposed to with untargeted high-resolution mass spectrometry (HRMS) to characterize 1000’s of chemicals at a time. In studies with human populations, these wristbands can provide an important measure of our environment: however, there is a need to use this approach in large cohorts to study exposures associated with the disease. To facilitate the use of silicone samplers in large scale population studies, the goal of this research project was to establish automated sample preparation methods that improve throughput, robustness, and scalability of analytical methods for silicone wristbands. Using the Opentron OT2 automated liquid platform, which provides a low-cost and opensource framework for automated pipetting, we created two separate workflows that translate the manual wristband preparation method to a fully automated protocol that requires minor intervention by the operator. These protocols include a sequence generation step, which defines the location of all plates and labware according to user-specified settings, and a transfer protocol that includes all necessary instrument parameters and instructions for automated solvent extraction of wristband samplers. These protocols were written in Python and uploaded to GitHub for use by others in the research community. Results from this project show it is possible to establish automated and open source methods for the preparation of silicone wristband samplers to support profiling of many environmental exposures. Ongoing studies include deployment in longitudinal cohort studies to investigate the relationship between personal chemical exposure and disease.

Keywords: bioinformatics, automation, opentrons, research

Procedia PDF Downloads 115

Authors: Kerekoppa Puttaiah Bhatta Ramesha, Uday Kannegundla, Praseeda Mol, Lathika Gopalakrishnan, Jagish Kour Reen, Gourav Dey, Manish Kumar, Sakthivel Jeyakumar, Arumugam Kumaresan, Kiran Kumar M., Thottethodi Subrahmanya Keshava Prasad

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Spermatozoa are the highly specialized transcriptionally and translationally inactive haploid male gamete. The understanding of proteome of sperm is indispensable to explore the mechanism of sperm motility and fertility. Though there is a large number of human sperm proteomic studies, in-depth proteomic information on Bos indicus spermatozoa is not well established yet. Therefore, we illustrated the profile of sperm proteome in indigenous cattle, Malnad gidda (Bos Indicus), using high-resolution mass spectrometry. In the current study, two semen ejaculates from 3 breeding bulls were collected employing the artificial vaginal method. Using 45% percoll purification, spermatozoa cells were isolated. Protein was extracted using lysis buffer containing 2% Sodium Dodecyl Sulphate (SDS) and protein concentration was estimated. Fifty micrograms of protein from each individual were pooled for further downstream processing. Pooled sample was fractionated using SDS-Poly Acrylamide Gel Electrophoresis, which is followed by in-gel digestion. The peptides were subjected to C18 Stage Tip clean-up and analyzed in Orbitrap Fusion Tribrid mass spectrometer interfaced with Proxeon Easy-nano LC II system (Thermo Scientific, Bremen, Germany). We identified a total of 6773 peptides with 28426 peptide spectral matches, which belonged to 1081 proteins. Gene ontology analysis has been carried out to determine the biological processes, molecular functions and cellular components associated with sperm protein. The biological process chiefly represented our data is an oxidation-reduction process (5%), spermatogenesis (2.5%) and spermatid development (1.4%). The highlighted molecular functions are ATP, and GTP binding (14%) and the prominent cellular components most observed in our data were nuclear membrane (1.5%), acrosomal vesicle (1.4%), and motile cilium (1.3%). Seventeen percent of sperm proteins identified in this study were involved in metabolic pathways. To the best of our knowledge, this data represents the first total sperm proteome from indigenous cattle, Malnad Gidda. We believe that our preliminary findings could provide a strong base for the future understanding of bovine sperm proteomics.

Keywords: Bos indicus, Malnad Gidda, mass spectrometry, spermatozoa

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Authors: Linyu Wang, Jiahui Ma, Jianhong Xiang, Hanyu Jiang

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For the pilot design of the sparse channel estimation model in Multiple Input Multiple Output Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (MIMO-OFDM) systems, the observation matrix constructed according to the matrix cross-correlation criterion, total correlation criterion and other optimization criteria are not optimal, resulting in inaccurate channel estimation and high bit error rate at the receiver. This paper proposes a pilot design method combining high-power sum and high-power variance criteria, which can more accurately estimate the channel. First, the pilot insertion position is designed according to the high-power variance criterion under the condition of equal power. Then, according to the high power sum criterion, the pilot power allocation is converted into a cone programming problem, and the power allocation is carried out. Finally, the optimal pilot is determined by calculating the weighted sum of the high power sum and the high power variance. Compared with the traditional pilot frequency, under the same conditions, the constructed MIMO-OFDM system uses the optimal pilot frequency for channel estimation, and the communication bit error rate performance obtains a gain of 6~7dB.

Keywords: MIMO-OFDM, pilot optimization, compressed sensing, channel estimation

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Authors: Supriyono Supriyono, Sumardiyono Sumardiyono, Peni Pujiastuti, Dian Indriana Hapsari

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Crude palm oil (CPO) is a vegetable oil that came from a palm tree bunch. The productivity of the oil is 12 ton/hectare/year. Thus palm oil tree was known as highest vegetable oil yield. It was grown across Equatorial County, especially in Malaysia and Indonesia. The greenish-red color on CPO was come from carotenoid. Carotenoid is one of the antioxidants that could be extracted. Carotenoid could be used as functional food and other purposes. Another antioxidant that also found in CPO is tocopherol. The aim of the research work is to find antioxidant activity on CPO comparing to the synthetic antioxidant that available in a market. In this research work, antioxidant was extracted by a mixture of acetone and n.hexane, while the activity of the antioxidant extract was determined by DPPH method. Antioxidant activity of the extracted compound about 46% compared to pure tocopherol. While the solvent mixture compose by 90% acetone and 10% n. hexane meet the best on the antioxidant activity.

Keywords: antioxidant, beta carotene, crude palm oil, DPPH, tocopherol

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Authors: K. L. Kabemba, R. F. Sandenberg

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The usual way to desorb gold is by elution with a hot concentrated alkaline solution of sodium cyanide. The high temperature is necessary because the dielectric constant of water decreases with increasing temperature hence the electrostatic forces between charcoal and the gold cyanide complex decreases. High alkalinity and a high concentration of cyanide are necessary for gold desorption because both OH- and CN- ions are preferentially adsorbed. The rate of elution increases with increasing anion concentration but decreases with increasing cation concentration that means the rate of elution passes through a maximum as the concentration of the eluting salt (NaCN, for example) is increased. The anion that gives the best results, the cyanide ion, decomposes fairly rapidly at elevated temperatures (40% in 6 hours, 90% in 24 hours at 95°C).

Keywords: caustic, cyanide, gold, temperature

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Authors: Abdar Ali, Rizwan Ullah, Zahid Ullah

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This paper focuses on the study of DC-to-DC converters, which are suitable for low-voltage high-power applications. The output voltages generated by renewable energy sources such as photovoltaic arrays and fuel cell stacks are generally low and required to be increased to high voltage levels. Development of DC-to-DC converters, which provide high step-up voltage conversion ratios with high efficiencies and low voltage stresses is one of the main issues in the development of renewable energy systems. A procedure for three converters-conventional DC-to-DC converter, interleaved boost converter, and isolated flyback based converter, is illustrated for a given set of specifications. The selection among the converters for the given application is based on the voltage conversion ratio, efficiency, and voltage stresses.

Keywords: flyback converter, interleaved boost, photovoltaic array, fuel cell, switch stress, voltage conversion ratio, renewable energy

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Authors: Camelia Porey, Binaya Kumar Jaiswal

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BACKGROUND: Antiphospholipid antibody (APLA) syndrome is an autoimmune disorder predisposing to thrombotic complications affecting CNS either by arterial vasooclusion or venous thrombosis. Cerebral venous sinus thrombosis (CVST) secondarily causes raised intracranial pressure (ICP). However, intracranial hypertension without evidence of CVST is a rare entity. Here we present two cases of elevated ICP with absence of identifiable CVST. CASE SUMMARY: Case 1, 28-year female had a 2 months history of holocranial headache followed by bilateral painless vision loss reaching lack of light perception over 20 days. CSF opening pressure was elevated. Fundoscopy showed bilateral grade 4 papilledema. MRI revealed a partially empty sella with bilateral optic nerve tortuosity. Idiopathic intracranial hypertension (IIH) was diagnosed. With acetazolamide, there was complete resolution of the clinical and radiological abnormalities. 5 months later she presented with acute onset right-sided hemiparesis. MRI was suggestive of acute left MCA infarct.MR venogram was normal. APLA came positive with high titres of Anticardiolipin and Beta 2 glycoprotein both IgG and IgM. Case 2, 23-year female, presented with headache and diplopia of 2 months duration. CSF pressure was elevated and Grade 3 papilledema was seen. MRI showed bilateral optic nerve hyperintensities with nerve head protrusion with normal MRV. APLA profile showed elevated beta 2 glycoprotein IgG and IgA. CONCLUSION: This is an important non thrombotic complication of APLA syndrome and requires further large-scale study for insight into the pathogenesis and early recognition to avoid future complications.

Keywords: APLA syndrome, idiopathic intracranial hypertension, MR venogram, papilledema

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Authors: Abdul Haris Setiawan

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Teachers empowerment is one of the important factors considered to contribute significantly to the achievement of the national education goals. This study was conducted to determine the influence on the vocational teachers empowerment toward the performance of the vocational high schools based on the Education National Standards of Indonesia. The population of the study was all vocational teachers at the State Vocational High schools in Surakarta, Central Java Province, Indonesia. The sampling technique used proportional random sampling technique. This study used a quantitative descriptive statistical analysis techniques. The data was collected using questionnaires. The data has been collected and then tested using analysis requirements test. Having tested using the requirements analysis and then the data processed using regression analysis between the independent and dependent variables to determine the effect and the regression equation. The results of the study found that the level of vocational high schools’ performance based on the Education National Standards of Indonesia was 74.29%, including in the high category; the level of vocational teachers empowerment was 76.20%, including in the high category; there was a positive influence of vocational teachers empowerment toward the vocational high schools’ performance based on the Education National Standards of Indonesia with a correlation coefficient of 0,886, and a contribution of 78.50% with the regression equation Y = 79.431 +0.534 X.

Keywords: vocational teachers, empowerment, vocational high school, the education national standards

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Authors: S. K. Ling, A. K. H. Kwan

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The production of SCC (self-consolidating concrete) generally requires a fairy high paste volume, ranging from 35% to 40% of the total concrete volume. Such high paste volume would lead to low dimensional stability and high carbon footprint. Direct lowering the paste volume would deteriorate the performance of SCC, especially the passing ability. It is often observed that at narrow gap of congested reinforcements, the paste often flows in the front leaving the coarse aggregate particle behind to block the subsequent flow of concrete. Herein, it is suggested to increase the mortar volume through incorporating ground sand with a mean size of 0.3 mm while keeping the paste volume small. Trial concrete mixes with paste volumes of 30% and 34% and different ground sand contents have been tested to demonstrate how the paste volume can be lowered without sacrificing the passing ability. Overall, the results demonstrated that the addition of ground sand would enable the achievement of high passing ability at a relatively small paste volume.

Keywords: ground sand, mortar volume, paste volume, self-consolidating concrete

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Authors: Radia Chemlal, Youcef Hamidi, Nabil Mameri

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This study deals with the production of biosurfactant by the Pseudomonas luteola strain on three different culture media (semi-synthetic medium M1, whey, and pharmaceutical reject) in the presence of gasoil. The monitoring of bacterial growth by measuring the optical density at 600 nm by spectrophotometer and the surface tension clearly showed the ability of Pseudomonas luteola to produce biosurfactants at various conditions of the culture medium. The biosurfactant produced in the pharmaceutical reject medium generated a decrease in the surface tension with a percentage of 19.4% greater than the percentage obtained when using whey which is 7.0%. The pharmaceutical rejection is diluted at various percentages ranging from 5% to 100% in order to study the effect of the concentration on the biosurfactant production. The best result inducing the great reduction of the surface tension value is obtained at the dilution of 30% with the pharmaceutical reject.

Keywords: biosurfactant, pseudomonas luteola, whey, antiscorpionic serum, gas oil

Procedia PDF Downloads 102

Authors: Sidney A. Lima, Hermann J. H. Kux, Elcio H. Shiguemori

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The Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) usually navigate through the Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) associated with an Inertial Navigation System (INS). However, GNSS can have its accuracy degraded at any time or even turn off the signal of GNSS. In addition, there is the possibility of malicious interferences, known as jamming. Therefore, the image navigation system can solve the autonomy problem, because if the GNSS is disabled or degraded, the image navigation system would continue to provide coordinate information for the INS, allowing the autonomy of the system. This work aims to evaluate the accuracy of the positioning though photogrammetry concepts. The methodology uses orthophotos and Digital Surface Models (DSM) as a reference to represent the object space and photograph obtained during the flight to represent the image space. For the calculation of the coordinates of the perspective center and camera attitudes, it is necessary to know the coordinates of homologous points in the object space (orthophoto coordinates and DSM altitude) and image space (column and line of the photograph). So if it is possible to automatically identify in real time the homologous points the coordinates and attitudes can be calculated whit their respective accuracies. With the methodology applied in this work, it is possible to verify maximum errors in the order of 0.5 m in the positioning and 0.6º in the attitude of the camera, so the navigation through the image can reach values equal to or higher than the GNSS receivers without differential correction. Therefore, navigating through the image is a good alternative to enable autonomous navigation.

Keywords: autonomy, navigation, security, photogrammetry, remote sensing, spatial resection, UAS

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Authors: Sabahat Nadeem, Farman Ali Khan

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Emotions are considered as a vital factor affecting the process of information handling, level of attention, memory capacity and decision making. Latest e-Learning systems are therefore taking into consideration the effective state of learners to make the learning process more effective and enjoyable. One such use of user’s affective information is in the systems that tend to regulate users’ emotions to a state optimally desirable for learning. So for, this objective has been tried to be achieved with the help of teaching strategies, background music, guided imagery, video clips and odors. Nevertheless, we know that colors can affect human emotions. Relationship between color and emotions has a strong influence on how we perceive our environment. Similarly, the colors of the interface can also affect the user positively as well as negatively. This affective behavior of color and its use as emotion regulation agent is not yet exploited. Therefore, this research proposes a Color-based Emotion Regulation Model (CERM), a new framework that can automatically adapt its colors according to user’s emotional state and her personality type and can help in producing a desirable emotional effect, aiming at providing an unobtrusive emotional support to the users of e-learning environment. The evaluation of CERM is carried out by comparing it with classical non-adaptive, static colored learning management system. Results indicate that colors of the interface, when carefully selected has significant positive impact on learner’s emotions.

Keywords: effective learning, e-learning, emotion regulation, emotional design

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Authors: Nguyen Tien Thanh, Günter Meon

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Precipitation plays a key role in water cycle, defining the local climatic conditions and in ecosystem. It is also an important input parameter for water resources management and hydrologic models. With spatial continuous data, a certainty of discharge predictions or other environmental factors is unquestionably better than without. This is, however, not always willingly available to acquire for a small basin, especially for coastal region in Vietnam due to a low network of meteorological stations (30 stations) on long coast of 3260 km2. Furthermore, available gridded precipitation datasets are not fine enough when applying to hydrologic models. Under conditions of global warming, an application of spatial interpolation methods is a crucial for the climate change impact studies to obtain the spatial continuous data. In recent research projects, although some methods can perform better than others do, no methods draw the best results for all cases. The objective of this paper therefore, is to investigate different spatial interpolation methods for daily precipitation over a small basin (approximately 400 km2) located in coastal region, Southern Vietnam and find out the most efficient interpolation method on this catchment. The five different interpolation methods consisting of cressman, ordinary kriging, regression kriging, dual kriging and inverse distance weighting have been applied to identify the best method for the area of study on the spatio-temporal scale (daily, 10 km x 10 km). A 30-year precipitation database was created and merged into available gridded datasets. Finally, observed changes in constructed precipitation were performed. The results demonstrate that the method of ordinary kriging interpolation is an effective approach to analyze the daily precipitation. The mixed trends of increasing and decreasing monthly, seasonal and annual precipitation have documented at significant levels.

Keywords: interpolation, precipitation, trend, vietnam

Procedia PDF Downloads 275