Search results for: core cluster

Authors: Hugo F. Lobaton

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The cyanobacterium Spirulina platensis is a prokaryotic photoautotrophic microorganism that is successfully cultivated for the commercialization as whole biomass due to its high protein content and promising valuable substance. For instance, phycocyanin has recently drawn the interest of the food and cosmetic industries due to its bright blue colour and its strong antioxidant capacities. The phycocyanin (PC) is the main protein-pigment in S. platensis (4% to 20%). In batches, the rate of overproduction of metabolites by cyanobacteria is limited or activated by the depletion of required substrates. The aim of this study was to develop a kinetic law that describes phycocyanin formation during batch cultivation. S. platensis was cultivated in 1 L bubble column photobioreactor with 30°C and 700 µmol m⁻² s⁻¹. Culture samples were daily collected from the bubble columns in sterile conditions. The biomass (g l⁻¹) was measured directly after a biomass lyophilisation process, and phycocyanin extractions and measurements were done according to a well-established protocol. A kinetic law for phycocyanin formation that includes nitrate and bicarbonate limitations was proposed and linked to the biomass core model. The set of differential equations were solved in MATLAB. Concerning to product formation, the experimental results show that phycocyanin mass fraction is degraded as results of the complete nitrate depletion and nitrate additions during the cultivation help to keep constant this molecule until new macro-element limitation appear. According to the model, bicarbonate is this limitation.

Keywords: phycocyanin, nitrate, bicarbonate, spirulina

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Authors: Sipu Guo, Silin Huang

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Background: Most studies investigate the link between executive function and allostatic load (AL) among adults aged 18 years and older. Studies differed regarding the specific biological indicators studied and executive functions accounted for. Specific executive functions may be differentially related to allostatic load. We investigated the comorbidities of executive functions and allostatic load via network analysis. Methods: We included 603 adolescents (49.84% girls; Mean age = 12.38, SD age = 1.79) from junior high school in rural China. Eight biological markers at T1 and four executive function tasks at T2 were used to evaluate networks. Network analysis was used to determine the network structure, core symptoms, and bridge symptoms in the AL-executive function network among rural adolescents. Results: The executive functions were related to 6 AL biological markers, not to cortisol and epinephrine. The most influential symptoms were inhibition control, cognitive flexibility, processing speed, and systolic blood pressure (SBP). SBP, dehydroepiandrosterone, and processing speed were the bridges through which AL was related to executive functions. dehydroepiandrosterone strongly predicted processing speed. The SBP was the biggest influencer in the entire network. Conclusions: We found evidence for differential relations between markers and executive functions. SBP was a driver in the network; dehydroepiandrosterone showed strong relations with executive function.

Keywords: allostatic load, executive function, network analysis, rural adolescent

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Authors: Jessica Leigh Doyle

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In recent years there has been increasing academic and policy interest in domestic violence (DV) and in the implications of DV for the physical and psychological well-being of those who experience it. Yet, despite this interest, very few detailed empirical explorations of these issues have been conducted to date. Of the detailed empirical work that does exist, most studies have focused narrowly on physical violence and the impact of physical violence on rates of depression, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and substance use. This has often been to the exclusion of wider experiences of DV in relation to psychological, sexual and financial abuse, and of broader victim self-perceptions of psychological well-being that include self-esteem, social participation and quality of life as core components. This paper contributes towards filling this gap by examining these issues on the basis of comprehensive empirical evidence from the Northern Ireland context. Using qualitative methods, the paper presents the findings from 63 semi-structured interviews with women victims of DV from across Northern Ireland. The findings discuss the varied types of violence (physical, psychological, sexual, and financial) that women experience, how these experiences shape their broad physical and psychological well-being and capacity to live active and fulfilling lives and the processes of recovery from IPV. The implications of these findings for research and policy are then discussed.

Keywords: domestic violence, gender equality, intimate partner violence, violence against women, well-being

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Authors: Gobinda Gopal Khan, Ashutosh K. Singh, Debasish Sarkar

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This study reports the facile fabrication of 1D ZnO/α-Fe2O3 semiconductor nano-heterostructures (SNHs), and we investigate the strong interfacial interactions at the heterojunction, resulting in novel multifunctionality in the hybrid structure. ZnO-coated α-Fe2O3 nanowires (NWs) have been prepared by combining electrodeposition and wet chemical methods. Significant improvement in electrical conductivity, photoluminescence, and room temperature magnetic properties have been observed for the ZnO/α-Fe2O3 SNHs over the pristine α-Fe2O3 NWs because of the contribution of the ZnO nanolayer. The increase in electrical conductivity in ZnO/α-Fe2O3 SNHs is because of the increase in free electrons in the conduction band of the SNHs due to the formation of type-II n-n band configuration at the heterojunction. The SNHs are found to exhibit enhanced visible green photoluminescence along with the UV emission at room temperature. The band-gap emission of the α-Fe2O3 NWs coupled to the defect emissions of the ZnO in SNHs can be attributed to the profound enhancement of the visible green luminescence. Ferromagnetism of the SNHs is found to be increased nearly five times in magnitude over the primeval α-Fe2O3 NWs, which can be ascribed to the exchange coupling of the interfacial spin at ZnO/α-Fe2O3 interface, the surface spin of ZnO nanolayer, along with the structural defects like the cation vacancies (VZn) and the singly ionized oxygen vacancies (Vo•) present in SNHs.

Keywords: nano-heterostructures, photoluminescence, electrical property, magnetism

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Authors: Chengcao Sun, Shujun Li, Cuili Yang, Yongyong Xi, Liang Wang, Feng Zhang, Dejia Li

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Recently, the long non-coding RNA (lncRNA) NEAT1 has been identified as an oncogenic gene in multiple cancer types and elevated expression of NEAT1 was tightly linked to tumorigenesis and cancer progression. However, the molecular basis for this observation has not been characterized in progression of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). In our studies, we identified NEAT1 was highly expressed in NSCLC patients and was a novel regulator of NSCLC progression. Patients whose tumors had high NEAT1 expression had a shorter overall survival than patients whose tumors had low NEAT1 expression. Further, NEAT1 significantly accelerates NSCLC cell growth and metastasis in vitro and tumor growth in vivo. Additionally, by using bioinformatics study and RNA pull down combined with luciferase reporter assays, we demonstrated that NEAT1 functioned as a competing endogenous RNA (ceRNA) for has-miR-377-3p, antagonized its functions and led to the de-repression of its endogenous targets E2F3, which was a core oncogene in promoting NSCLC progression. Taken together, these observations imply that the NEAT1 modulated the expression of E2F3 gene by acting as a competing endogenous RNA, which may build up the missing link between the regulatory miRNA network and NSCLC progression.

Keywords: long non-coding RNA NEAT1, hsa-miRNA-377-3p, E2F3, non-small cell lung cancer, tumorigenesis

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Authors: Tomas Barnak, Libor Matejka

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The aim of this study is to create a standard application using multi-criteria evaluation in the field of forensic engineering. This situation can occur in the professional assessment in several cases such as when it is necessary to consider more criteria variant of the structural subsystems, more variants according to several criteria based on a court claim, which requires expert advice. A problematic situation arises when it is necessary to clearly determine the ranking of the options according to established criteria, and reduce subjective evaluation. For the procurement in the field of construction which is based on the prepared text of the law not only economic criteria but also technical, technological and environmental criteria will be determined. This fact substantially changes the style of evaluation of individual bids. For the above-mentioned needs of procurement, the unification of expert’s decisions and the use of multi-criteria assessment seem to be a reasonable option. In the case of experimental verification when using multi-criteria evaluation of alternatives construction subsystem the economic, technical, technological and environmental criteria will be compared. The core of the solution is to compare a selected number of set criteria, application methods and evaluation weighting based on the weighted values assigned to each of the criteria to use multi-criteria evaluation methods. The sequence of individual variations is determined by the evaluation of the importance of the values of corresponding criteria concerning expertise in the problematic of outside wall constructional subsystems.

Keywords: criteria, expertise, multi-criteria evaluation, outside wall subsystems

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Authors: Hillary Onyeka Abugu, Valentine Chinakwugwo Ezea, Janefrances Ngozi Ihedioha, Nwachukwu Romanus Ekere

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The study assessed the spring water quality in Igbo-Etiti, Nigeria, for drinking and irrigation application using Physico-chemical parameters, water quality index, mineral and trace elements, pollution indices and risk assessment. Standard methods were used to determine the physicochemical properties of the spring water in rainy and dry seasons. Trace metals such as Pb, Cd, Zn and Cu were determined with atomic absorption spectrophotometer. The results showed that most of the physicochemical properties studied were within the guideline values set by Nigeria Standard for Drinking Water Quality (NSDWQ), WHO and US EPA for drinking water purposes. However, pH of all the spring water (4.27- 4.73; and 4.95- 5.73), lead (Pb) (0.01-1.08 mg/L) and cadmium (Cd) (0.01-0.15 mg/L) concentrations were above the guideline values in both seasons. This could be attributed to the lithography of the study area, which is the Nsukka formation. Leaching of lead and sulphides from the embedded coal deposits could have led to the increased lead levels and made the water acidic. Two-way ANOVA showed significant differences in most of the parameters studied in dry and rainy seasons. Pearson correlation analysis and cluster analysis showed strong significant positive and negative correlations in some of the parameters studied in both seasons. The water quality index showed that none of the spring water had excellent water status. However, one spring (Iyi Ase) had poor water status in dry season and is considered unsafe for drinking. Iyi Ase was also considered not suitable for irrigation application as predicted by most of the pollution indices, while others were generally considered suitable for irrigation application. Probable cancer and non-cancer risk assessment revealed a probable risk associated with the consumption of the spring in the Igbo-Ettiti area, Nigeria.

Keywords: water quality, pollution index, risk assessment, physico-chemical parameters

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Authors: Adam Kok Wey Leong

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The comparison between the Western ways of war and Eastern ways of war has raised contemporary debates on the validity of these arguments. The Western way of war is popularly propounded by Victor Davis Hanson as originating from the Greek hoplite tactics, direct military maneuvers, democratic principles and social freedom and cohesion that has continued to yield military success for the Western powers for centuries. On the other hand, the Eastern way of war has been deemed as relying on indirect tactics, deception, and ruses. This often accepted notion of the divide between Western and Eastern style does not sustain in view of the available classical strategic texts from both sides from the same period that has proposed similar principles of warfare. This paper analyses the similarities between classical strategic texts on war from the Eastern perspective namely Sun Tzu’s Art of War with a similar temporal strategic text from the West which is Sextus Iuluis Frontinus’s Stratagematon, and deduces answers to this core research question - Does the hypothesis of the existence of distinctive Western and Eastern ways of warfare stands? The main thesis advanced by this research is that ways of warfare share universal principles, and it transcends cultural and spatial boundaries. Warfare is a human endeavour, and the same moral actions guide humans from different geo-cultural spheres in warfare’s objectives, which are winning over an enemy in the most economical way and serve as a mean to an end.

Keywords: ways of warfare, strategic culture, strategy, Sun Tzu, frontinus

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Authors: Dilin Chen, Kang Luo, Jian Wu, Chun Yang, Hongliang Yi

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Electrically driven flows (EDF) systems play an important role in fuel cells, electrochemistry, bioseparation technology, fluid pumping, and microswimmers. The core scientific problem is multifield coupling, the further development of which depends on the exploration of nonlinear instabilities, force competing mechanisms, and energy budgets. In our study, two categories of electrostatic force-dominated phenomena, induced charge electrosmosis (ICEO) and ion conduction pumping are investigated while considering polymer rheological characteristics and heat gradients. With finite volume methods, the thermal modulation strategy of ICEO under the thermal buoyancy force is numerically analyzed, and the electroelastic instability turn associated with polymer addition is extended. The results reveal that the thermal buoyancy forces are sufficient to create typical thermogravitational convection in competition with electroconvective modes. Electroelastic instability tends to be promoted by weak electrical forces, and polymers effectively alter the unstable transition routes. Our letter paves the way for improved mixing and heat transmission in microdevices, as well as insights into the non-Newtonian nature of electrohydrodynamic dynamics.

Keywords: non-Newtonian fluid, electroosmotic flow, electrohydrodynamic, viscoelastic liquids, heat transfer

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Authors: A. Chtourou, K. Ben Youssef, M. Friel, T. Leicht

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These Place attributes and destination images associated with tourism destinations are often crucial important for tourist travel decisions and choice behavior. Understanding the interactions between them is fundamental for developing sustainable place brands. Despite their extensive use on an empirical ground, little research has been done in terms of analyzing the constructs that determine the sense of place in the marketing of cultural heritage sites and on how tourist experiences at such places influence tourist motivations to revisit destinations. By referring to the Italian city of Vicenza, internationally renowned for its gold jewelry production and for the Palladian architectures and buildings which have been recognized World Heritage by the UNESCO, the paper aims to identify how destination image, place familiarity and travel satisfaction influence tourists’ motivations to revisit Vicenza. After an introduction and literature review, the paper investigates the importance of the core constructs that determine the sense of place in the tourist practice. In accordance with previous research, the results provide evidence that favorable travel experiences influence revisit intentions positively. The managerial implications and recommendations for the city of Vicenza are discussed.

Keywords: consumer behavior, heritage tourism, sense of place, place branding, territorial marketing

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Authors: Yibeltal T. Bayou, Yohana S. Mashalla, Gloria Thupayagale-Tshweneagae

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Background: According to the World Health Organization, caesarean section delivery rates of more than 10-15% caesarean section deliveries in any specific geographic region in the world are not justifiable. The aim of the study was to describe the level and analyse determinants of caesarean section delivery in Addis Ababa. Methods: Data was collected in Addis Ababa using a structured questionnaire administered to 901 women aged 15-49 years through a stratified two-stage cluster sampling technique. Binary logistic regression model was employed to identify predictors of caesarean section delivery. Results: Among the 835 women who delivered their last birth at healthcare facilities, 19.2% of them gave birth by caesarean section. About 9.0% of the caesarean section births were due to mother’s request or service provider’s influence without any medical indication. The caesarean section delivery rate was much higher than the recommended rate particularly among the non-slum residents (27.2%); clients of private healthcare facilities (41.1%); currently married women (20.6%); women with secondary (22.2%) and tertiary (33.6%) level of education; and women belonging to the highest wealth quintile household (28.2%). The majority (65.8%) of the caesarean section clients were not informed about the consequences of caesarean section delivery by service providers. The logistic regression model shows that older age (30-49), secondary and above education, non-slum residence, high-risk pregnancy and receiving adequate antenatal care were significantly positively associated with caesarean section delivery. Conclusion: Despite the unreserved effort towards achieving MDG 5 through safe skilled delivery assistance among others, the high caesarean section rate beyond the recommend limit, and the finding that caesarean sections done without medical indications were also alarming. The government and city administration should take appropriate measures before the problems become setbacks in healthcare provision. Further investigations should focus on the effect of caesarean section delivery on maternal and child health outcomes in the study area.

Keywords: Addis Ababa, caesarean section, mode of delivery, slum residence

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Authors: Andrey V. Samokhin, Nikolay V. Alekseev, Mikhail A. Sinaiskii

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The report presents the results of R&D of plasma-chemical production of W, W-Cu, W-Ni-Fe nanopowders as well as spherical micropowders of these compounds for their use in modern 3D printing technologies. Plasma-chemical synthesis of nanopowdersis based on the reduction of tungsten oxide compounds powders in a stream of hydrogen-containing low-temperature thermal plasma generated in an electric arc plasma torch. The synthesis of W-Cu and W-Ni-Fe nanocompositesiscarried out using the reduction of a mixture of the metal oxides. Using the synthesized tungsten-based nanocomposites powders, spherical composite micropowders with a submicron structure canbe manufactured by spray dryinggranulation of nanopowder suspension and subsequent densification and spheroidization of granules by melting in a low-temperature thermal plasma flow. The DC arc plasma systems are usedfor the synthesis of nanopowdersas well as for the spheroidization of microgranuls. Plasma systems have a capacity of up to 1 kg/h for nanopowder and up to 5 kg/h for spheroidized powder. All synthesized nanopowders consist of aggregated particles with sizes less than 100 nm, and nanoparticles of W-Cu and W-Ni-Fe composites have core (W) –shell (Cu or Ni-Fe) structures. The resulting dense spherical microparticles with a size of 20-60 microns have a submicron structure with a uniform distribution of metals over the particle volume. The produced tungsten-based nano- and spherical micropowderscan be used to develop new materials and manufacture products using advanced modern technologies.

Keywords: plasma, powders, production, tungsten-based

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Authors: Turan Çalban, Nursel Keskin, Sabri Çolak, Soner Kuşlu

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Gypsum (CaSO4.2H2O) is a mineral that is found in large quantities in the Turkey and in the World. The dissolution of this mineral in the diammonium hydrogen phosphate solutions has not been studied so far. Investigation of the dissolution and dissolution kinetics gypsum in diammonium hydrogen phosphate solutions will be useful for evaluating of solid wastes containing gypsum. In this study, parameters such as diammonium hydrogen phosphate concentration, temperature and stirring speed affecting on the dissolution rate of the gypsum in diammonium hydrogen phosphate solutions were investigated. In experimental studies have researched effectiveness of the selected parameters. The dissolution of gypsum were examined in two parts at low and high temperatures. The experimental results were successfully correlated by linear regression using Statistica program. Dissolution curves were evaluated shrinking core models for solid-fluid systems. The activation energy was found to be 34.58 kJ/mol and 44.45 kJ/mol for the low and the high temperatures. The dissolution of gypsum was controlled by chemical reaction both low temperatures and high temperatures. Reaction rate expressions of dissolution of gypsum at the low temperatures and the high temperatures controlled by chemical reaction are as follows, respectively. = k1.e-5159.5/T.t = k2.e-5346.8/T.t Where k1 and k2 are constants depending on the diammonium hydrogen phosphate solution concentration, the solid/liquid ratio, the stirring speed and the particle size.

Keywords: diammonium hydrogen phosphate, dissolution kinetics, gypsum, kinetics.

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Authors: Catarina Grande, Barbara Mota

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The main goal of the present study was to understand the impact of childhood cancer on the quality of life of survivors and the extent to which oncologic disease affects the functionality and participation of survivors at the present time, compared to the time of diagnosis. Six survivors of pediatric cancer participated in the study. Participants were interviewed using a semi-structured interview, adapted from two instruments present in the literature - QALY and QLACS - and piloted through a previous study. This study is based on a qualitative approach using content analysis, allowing the identification of categories and subcategories. Subsequently, the correspondence between the units of meaning and the codes in the International Classification of Functioning, Disability, and Health for Children and Young, which contributed to a more detailed analysis of the impact on the quality of life of survivors in relation to the domains under study. The results showed significant changes between the moment of diagnosis and the present moment, concretely at the microsystem of the survivor. Regarding functionality and participation, the results show that the functions of the body are the most affected domain, emphasizing the emotional component that currently has a greater impact on the quality of life of survivors. The present study allowed identifying a set of codes for the development of a CIF-CJ core set for pediatric cancer survivors. He also indicated the need for future studies to validate and deepen these issues.

Keywords: cancer, participation, quality of life, survivor

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Authors: Martin Hewing, Katharina Hölzle

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Organizations increasingly use environmental stimuli and ideas from users within participatory innovation processes in order to tap new sources of knowledge. The research presented in this article focuses on users who shape the distant edges of markets and currently are not using products and services from a domain– so called potential users. Those users at the peripheries are perceived to contribute more novel information, by which they better reflect shifts in needs and behavior than current users in the core market. Their contributions in collaborative and creative problem-solving processes and how they generate ideas for discontinuous innovations are of particular interest. With an experimental design, we compare ideas from potential and current users and analyze the effects of cognitive distance in collaboration and the utilization of explicit and tacit knowledge. We find potential users to generate more original ideas, particularly when they collaborate with someone experienced within the domain. Their ideas are most obviously characterized by an increased level of surprise and unusualness compared to dominant designs, which is rooted in contexts and does not require technological leaps. Collaboration with potential users can therefore result in new ways to leverage technological competences. Furthermore, the cross-fertilization arising from cognitive distance between a potential and a current user is asymmetric due to differences in the nature of their utilized knowledge and personal objectives. This paper discusses implications for innovation research and the management of early innovation processes.

Keywords: user collaboration, co-creation, discontinuous innovation, innovation research

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Authors: Walid Moudani

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The Crew Reserve Assignment Problem (CRAP) considers the assignment of the crew members to a set of reserve activities covering all the scheduled flights in order to ensure a continuous plan so that operations costs are minimized while its solution must meet hard constraints resulting from the safety regulations of Civil Aviation as well as from the airlines internal agreements. The problem considered in this study is of highest interest for airlines and may have important consequences on the service quality and on the economic return of the operations. In this communication, a new mathematical formulation for the CRAP is proposed which takes into account the regulations and the internal agreements. While current solutions make use of Artificial Intelligence techniques run on main frame computers, a low cost approach is proposed to provide on-line efficient solutions to face perturbed operating conditions. The proposed solution method uses a dynamic programming approach for the duties scheduling problem and when applied to the case of a medium airline while providing efficient solutions, shows good potential acceptability by the operations staff. This optimization scheme can then be considered as the core of an on-line Decision Support System for crew reserve assignment operations management.

Keywords: airlines operations management, combinatorial optimization, dynamic programming, crew scheduling

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Authors: Q. J. Yang

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This paper presents a case study of geotechnical design of bridge foundations and approaches in hilly granite formation in northern New South Wales of Australia. Firstly, the geological formation and existing cut slope conditions which have high risks of rock fall will be described. The bridge has three spans to be constructed using balanced cantilever method with a middle span of 150 m. After concept design option engineering, it was decided to change from pile foundation to pad footing with ground anchor system to optimize the bridge foundation design. The geotechnical design parameters were derived after two staged site investigations. The foundation design was carried out to satisfy both serviceability limit state and ultimate limit state during construction and in operation. It was found that the pad footing design was governed by serviceability limit state design loading cases. The design of bridge foundation also considered presence of weak rock layer intrusion and a layer of “no core” to ensure foundation stability. The precast mass concrete block system was considered for the retaining walls for the bridge approaches to resolve the constructability issue over hilly terrain. The design considered the retaining wall block sliding stability, while the overturning and internal stabilities are satisfied.

Keywords: pad footing, Hilly formation, stability, block works

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Authors: T. Warinpramote, J. Sanguanjeen, P. Pholphakwaen, S. Kittisorayut, J. Kerdtubtim, S. Palachote, M. Taweechotipatr

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Cholesterol is a type of lipid molecule which is the significant risk factor for coronary heart disease. Currently, there are many cholesterol-lowering alternative treatments especially bile salt hydrolase positive lactobacilli. BSH can cleave the peptide linkage of bile salt, which results in removal of the amino acid group from the steroid core and increases production of the new bile acid by using more cholesterol. The purpose of this study was to isolate, and screen probiotic characteristics of lactobacilli from fermented Thai foods and further investigated for their comparative BSH activity. The result showed that 2 of 81 Lactobacillus strains, JPK2-2 and JPK3-2, isolated from Brassica juncea (L.) had significantly exhibited high BSH activity. In addition, these Lactobacillus strains showed their results that the ability to tolerate acid and bile salt. Furthermore, the using of 16S rDNA sequencing for definitive microbial identifications showed that these 2 strains belong to Lactobacillus plantarum. In the future, the L. plantarum with BSH activity strains JPK2-2 and JPK3-2 may be the candidate probiotics for application in functional foods and dairy products to improve in the patient with cardiovascular diseases.

Keywords: Lactobacillus plantarum, probiotics, bile salt hydrolase, cholesterol-lowering, fermented Thai food

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Authors: Florence Malongane, Lyndy J. McGaw, Legesse K. Debusho, Fhatuwani N. Mudau

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Rooibos (Aspalathus linearis (Burm.f.) R.Dahlgren), honeybush (Cyclopia Vent. species), bush tea (Athrixia phylicoides DC.) and special tea (Monsonia burkeana) are traditionally consumed herbal teas in South Africa. The volatile and sensory qualities of rooibos and honeybush tea have previously been described although there is a dearth of information regarding the sensory attributes and volatile compounds analysis of special tea and bush tea. The objective of this study was to describe the sensory properties, compare the differences in descriptive sensory analysis (DSA) and volatile compounds of bush tea, special, rooibos, honeybush and the blend of bush tea with special, honeybush and rooibos in a 1:1 ratio and subsequently to determine the influence of blending bush tea with other herbal teas. DSA was used to assess the sensory attributes of the teas while gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (GC-MS) was used to quantitatively determine the volatile components of the teas. Rooibos tea and honeybush tea had an overall sweet-caramel, honey-sweet, perfume floral and woody aroma with slight astringency, consistent with the taste and aftertaste attributes. In contrast, bush tea and special tea depicted green-cut grass, dry green herbal, cooked spinach aroma as well as taste and aftertaste characteristics. GC-MS analyses revealed that the seven tea samples had similar major volatiles, including 2-furanmethanol, 2-methoxy-4-vinylphenol, acetic acid, D-limonene terpene and phytol. Cluster analysis revealed that the sweet and woody flavour of honeybush and rooibos were ascribed to the presence of á-myrcene, phenylethyl alcohol, phytol and vanillin. The bitter, medicinal flavour attributes of special tea were attributed to (-)-carvone. Blending of bush tea with rooibos and honeybush tea toned down its aversive flavour components, typically the bitter, green-cut grass and herbal properties, thus minimising the possibility of consumer aversion.

Keywords: bush tea, rooibos tea, honeybush tea, sensory, volatile compounds

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Authors: Wei-Ting Hung

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Inbound tourist expenditure might not only have influenced by individual tourist characteristics but may also be affected by nationality characteristics. The cross national distance effects on tourist consumption behavior should be incorporated in the analytical framework. Additionally, the often used factor analysis, cluster analysis and regression analysis overlook the hierarchical tourist consumption data structure and may lead to misleading results. The objectives of the present study were twofold. First, we propose a multilevel model that takes individual and cross-national differences into account under a hierarchical framework. Second, we further sought to determine the types of cross-national differences affecting tourist expenditure. Thus, this study incorporates the individual tourist effects and cross national distance effects simultaneously, uses the data of 2010 Annual Survey Report on Visitors’ Expenditure and Trends in Taiwan to investigate the determinants of inbound tourist expenditure. Multilevel analysis was used to investigate the influence of individual tourist effects and cross national distance effects on inbound tourist expenditure. The empirical results show that cross national distance plays a crucial role in tourist consumption behavior. Our findings also indicate age and income have positive influence on tourism expenditure., whereas education and gender do not have significant impact. Regarding macro-level factors, geographic and cultural differences exhibited significant positive relationships on tourism expenditure, while economic differences did not. Based on the above empirical results, it is suggested that tour operators should take tourists’ individual attributes, particularly their income and age, into consideration when arranging tours. In addition, nationality holds sway over tourists’ consumption behavior, of which geographic and cultural differences are the two major factors at play. The empirical results of this study serve as practical suggestions for tourism marketing strategies and policy implications for government policies.

Keywords: cross national distance, inbound tourist, multilevel analysis, tourist expenditure

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Authors: Ziyuan Wu, Yulong Jia, Xiang Zhang, Wanting Zhou, Lei Li

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The Internet of Things (IoT) is a rapidly evolving field involving a large number of interconnected embedded devices. In the design of embedded System-on-Chip (SoC), the key issues are power consumption, performance, and security. However, the easy-to-implement software and untrustworthy third-party IP cores may threaten the safety of hardware assets. Considering that illegal access and malicious attacks against SoC resources pass through the bus that integrates IPs, we propose a Lightweight Hardware Firewall (LHF) to protect SoC, which monitors and disallows the offending bus transactions based on physical addresses. Furthermore, under the LHF architecture, this paper refines two types of firewalls: Destination Hardware Firewall (DHF) and Source Hardware Firewall (SHF). The former is oriented to fine-grained detection and configuration, whose core technology is based on the method of dynamic grading units. In addition, we design the SHF based on static entries to achieve lightweight. Finally, we evaluate the hardware consumption of the proposed method by both Field-Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) and IC. Compared with the exciting efforts, LHF introduces a bus latency of zero clock cycles for every read or write transaction implemented on Xilinx Kintex-7 FPGAs. Meanwhile, the DC synthesis results based on TSMC 90nm show that the area is reduced by about 25% compared with the previous method.

Keywords: IoT, security, SoC, bus architecture, lightweight hardware firewall, FPGA

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Authors: April Hueimin Lu, Liangj-Ju Yao, Jun-Tin Lin, Susan Siru Liu

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This paper discusses the application of aerial survey technology and 3D laser scanning technology in the surveying and mapping work of the settlements and slate houses of the old Taiwanese aborigines. The relics of old Taiwanese aborigines with thousands of history are widely distributed in the deep mountains of Taiwan, with a vast area and inconvenient transportation. When constructing the basic data of cultural assets, it is necessary to apply new technology to carry out efficient and accurate settlement mapping work. In this paper, taking the old Paiwan as an example, the aerial survey of the settlement of about 5 hectares and the 3D laser scanning of a slate house were carried out. The obtained orthophoto image was used as an important basis for drawing the settlement map. This 3D landscape data of topography and buildings derived from the aerial survey is important for subsequent preservation planning as well as building 3D scan provides a more detailed record of architectural forms and materials. The 3D settlement data from the aerial survey can be further applied to the 3D virtual model and animation of the settlement for virtual presentation. The information from the 3D scanning of the slate house can also be used for further digital archives and data queries through network resources. The results of this study show that, in large-scale settlement surveys, aerial surveying technology is used to construct the topography of settlements with buildings and spatial information of landscape, as well as the application of 3D scanning for small-scale records of individual buildings. This application of 3D technology, greatly increasing the efficiency and accuracy of survey and mapping work of aboriginal settlements, is much helpful for further preservation planning and rejuvenation of aboriginal cultural heritage.

Keywords: aerial survey, 3D scanning, aboriginal settlement, settlement architecture cluster, ecological landscape area, old Paiwan settlements, slat house, photogrammetry, SfM, MVS), Point cloud, SIFT, DSM, 3D model

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Authors: Anthony Okechukwu Ifediniru, Austin Ikechukwu Gbasouzor, Isidore Uche Uju

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This article is centered on the design, analysis, construction, and test of a locally made arc welding machine that operates on 250vac with 8 amp output taps ranging from 60vac to 250vac at a fixed frequency, which is of benefit to urban areas; while considering its cost-effectiveness, strength, portability, and mobility. The welding machine uses a power supply to create an electric arc between an electrode and the metal at the welding point. A current selector coil needed for current selection is connected to the primary winding. Electric power is supplied to the primary winding of its transformer and is transferred to the secondary winding by induction. The voltage and current output of the secondary winding are connected to the output terminal, which is used to carry out welding work. The output current of the machine ranges from 110amps for low current welding to 250amps for high current welding. The machine uses a step-down transformer configuration for stepping down the voltage in order to obtain a high current level for effective welding. The welder can adjust the output current within a certain range. This allows the welder to properly set the output current for the type of welding that is being performed. The constructed arc welding machine was tested by connecting the work piece to it. Since there was no shock or spark from the transformer’s laminated core and was successfully used to join metals, it confirmed and validated the design.

Keywords: AC current, arc welding machine, DC current, transformer, welds

Procedia PDF Downloads 179

Authors: Salim Hiziroglu

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Rice straw, jute, coconut fiber, oil palm, bagasse and bamboo are some of agricultural resources that can be used to produce different types of value-added composite panels including particleboard and medium density fiberboard (MDF). Invasive species such as Eastern red cedar in South Western states in the USA would also be considered as viable raw material to manufacture above products. The main objective of this study was to investigate both physical and mechanical properties of both structural and non-structural panels manufactured from underutilized and agricultural species. Eastern red cedar, bamboo and rice straw were used to manufacture experimental panels. Properties of such samples including bending, internal bond strength, thickness swelling, density profiles and surface roughness were evaluated. Panels made 100% bamboo had the best properties among the other samples. Having rice straw in particleboard and medium density fiberboard panels reduced overall properties of the samples. Manufacturing interior sandwich type of panels having fibers on the face layers while particle of the same type of materials in the core improved their surface quality. Based on the findings of this work such species could have potential to be used as raw material to manufacture value-added panels with accepted properties.

Keywords: composite panels, wood and non-wood fibers, mechanical properties, bamboo

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Authors: Tetsuro Saeki, Yuichi Kato, Shoutarou Mizuno

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STRIM (Statistical Test Rule Induction Method) has been proposed as a method to effectively induct if-then rules from the decision table which is considered as a sample set obtained from the population of interest. Its usefulness has been confirmed by simulation experiments specifying rules in advance, and by comparison with conventional methods. However, scope for future development remains before STRIM can be applied to the analysis of real-world data sets. The first requirement is to determine the size of the dataset needed for inducting true rules, since finding statistically significant rules is the core of the method. The second is to examine the capacity of rule induction from datasets with contaminated attribute values created by missing data and noise, since real-world datasets usually contain such contaminated data. This paper examines the first problem theoretically, in connection with the rule length. The second problem is then examined in a simulation experiment, utilizing the critical size of dataset derived from the first step. The experimental results show that STRIM is highly robust in the analysis of datasets with contaminated attribute values, and hence is applicable to realworld data.

Keywords: rule induction, decision table, missing data, noise

Procedia PDF Downloads 395

Authors: Xuan Zhao, Wen Jiang

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In this study, a web crawler was used to collect POI sample data from 38 districts and counties of Chongqing in 2022, and ArcGIS was combined to coordinate and projection conversion and realize data visualization. Nuclear density analysis and spatial correlation analysis were used to explore the spatial distribution characteristics of elderly care facilities in Chongqing, and K mean cluster analysis was carried out with GeoDa to study the spatial concentration degree of elderly care resources in 38 districts and counties. Finally, the driving force of spatial differentiation of elderly care facilities in various districts and counties of Chongqing is studied by using the method of geographic detector. The results show that: (1) in terms of spatial distribution structure, the distribution of elderly care facilities in Chongqing is unbalanced, showing a distribution pattern of ‘large dispersion and small agglomeration’ and the asymmetric pattern of ‘west dense and east sparse, north dense and south sparse’ is prominent. (2) In terms of the spatial matching between elderly care resources and the elderly population, there is a weak coordination between the input of elderly care resources and the distribution of the elderly population at the county level in Chongqing. (3) The analysis of the results of the geographical detector shows that the single factor influence is mainly the number of elderly population, public financial revenue and district and county GDP. The high single factor influence is mainly caused by the elderly population, public financial income, and district and county GDP. The influence of each influence factor on the spatial distribution of elderly care facilities is not simply superimposed but has a nonlinear enhancement effect or double factor enhancement. It is necessary to strengthen the synergistic effect of two factors and promote the synergistic effect of multiple factors.

Keywords: aging, elderly care facilities, spatial differentiation, geographical detector, driving force analysis, Mountain city

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Authors: Tanvi P. Patel, Warish D. Patel

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Association rule mining forms the core of data mining and it is termed as one of the well-known methodologies of data mining. Objectives of mining is to find interesting correlations, frequent patterns, associations or casual structures among sets of items in the transaction databases or other data repositories. Hence, association rule mining is imperative to mine patterns and then generate rules from these obtained patterns. For efficient targeted query processing, finding frequent patterns and itemset mining, there is an efficient way to generate an itemset tree structure named Memory Efficient Itemset Tree. Memory efficient IT is efficient for storing itemsets, but takes more time as compare to traditional IT. The proposed strategy generates maximal frequent itemsets from memory efficient itemset tree by using levelwise pruning. For that firstly pre-pruning of items based on minimum support count is carried out followed by itemset tree reconstruction. By having maximal frequent itemsets, less number of patterns are generated as well as tree size is also reduced as compared to MEIT. Therefore, an enhanced approach of memory efficient IT proposed here, helps to optimize main memory overhead as well as reduce processing time.

Keywords: association rule mining, itemset mining, itemset tree, meit, maximal frequent pattern

Procedia PDF Downloads 368

Authors: Luxy Grebers Swend Sinaga, Akhmaloka

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The global energy crisis, triggered by declining fossil The global energy crisis, triggered by declining fossil fuel reserves and exacerbated by population growth and increasing energy demand, was driven the development of renewable energy sources. One of the green energy alternatives being developed is biodiesel. Transesterification is at the core of biodiesel production, where fatty acids in oil are converted into methyl esters with the aid of a catalyst. Lipases exhibit high activity and stability during catalysis, especially under harsh conditions. Lipase (Lk1) isolated from organic waste compost at the Bandung Institute of Technology, Bandung, West Java, shows promising potential in this field. The thermostable lipase was purified using Ni-NTA affinity chromatography, followed by SDS-PAGE analysis for purity confirmation. Characterizing the transesterification activity of Lk1 is essential for assessing its effectiveness in converting oil into biodiesel, including methyl esters. The results of this study showed that Lk1 exhibited the highest activity on a methyl palmitate substrate, with an optimum temperature of 60°C, very stable activity in the non-polar solvent n-hexane, and was able to maintain its optimum activity for up to 1 hour. These characters make Lk1 highly suitable for biodiesel production, as it meets the main criteria for the transesterification process in producing renewable energy.

Keywords: biodiesel, lipase Lk1, transesterification, renewable energy, thermostability

Procedia PDF Downloads 23

Authors: Bilal Ahmad Malik

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With the fall of Soviet Union in 1991 the whole Central Asian region saw a dramatic rise in Muslim identity, a call back to Islamic legacy. Today, many Central Asian Muslims demand, what Islam has termed legal (Halal) and, avoid what Islam has termed illegal (Haram). The process of Islamic resurgence kicked off very quickly soon after the integration of Central Asian republics with other Muslim geographies through the membership of Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC) and other similar organizations. This interaction proved to be a vital push factor to the already existing indigenous reviving trends and sentiments. As a result, along with many other requirements, Muslim customer demand emerged as navel trend in the market in general and in banking and financial sector in particular. To get this demand fulfilled, the governments of CIS states like Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan introduced Halal banking and financial products in the market. Firstly, the present paper would briefly discuss the core composition of Halal banking and financial products. Then, coming to its major theme, it would try to identify and analyze the causes that lead to the emergence of Islamic banking and finance industry in the Muslim majority Post-Soviet CIS States.

Keywords: causes, Central Asia, interest-free banking, Islamic Revival

Procedia PDF Downloads 397

Authors: Amal Aljohani, Ahmed Iraqi

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Emitting materials with thermally activated delayed fluorescence (TADF) properties as the third generation of organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) have received much attention as a modern class of highly efficient emitters because such properties enable the harvesting of both singlet and triplet excitons in EL applications without the doping with complexes of scarce noble metals such as platinum and iridium. Improved molecular design of TADF molecules and applied materials exhibiting internal electroluminescence (EL) with quantum efficiencies of nearly 100% has been achieved being. A2B3 hyperbranched polymers based on new derivatives containing silane core units serving as host materials for thermally activated delayed fluorescence (TADF) guest molecules have been designed and synthesized through several steps, including the synthesis of tetrakis(4-bromophenyl)silane, bis(4-(9H-carbazol-9-yl)phenyl)bis(4-bromophenyl)silane,bis(4-(9H-carbazol-9 yl)phenyl)bis(4-methoxyphenyl)silane and bis(4-(9H-carbazol-9-yl)phenyl)bis(4hydroxyphenyl)silane. This monomer has been used successfully used along with 1,1,1-tri-(p-tosyloxymethyl)-propane to prepare A2B3 hyperbranched polymers via step-growth polymerization. The characterization and the properties of these new host polymers will be presented and discussed in this contribution.

Keywords: carbazole, organic light emitting diodes, thermally activated delayed fluorescence, donor-acceptor, host and guest interaction

Procedia PDF Downloads 151