Search results for: evaluation model

Authors: Omer Cahana, Maya Herman, Ofer Levi

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Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is a long medical scan that stems from a long acquisition time. This length is mainly due to the traditional sampling theorem, which defines a lower boundary for sampling. However, it is still possible to accelerate the scan by using a different approach, such as compress sensing (CS) or parallel imaging (PI). These two complementary methods can be combined to achieve a faster scan with high-fidelity imaging. In order to achieve that, two properties have to exist: i) the signal must be sparse under a known transform domain, ii) the sampling method must be incoherent. In addition, a nonlinear reconstruction algorithm needs to be applied to recover the signal. While the rapid advance in the deep learning (DL) field, which has demonstrated tremendous successes in various computer vision task’s, the field of MRI reconstruction is still in an early stage. In this paper, we present an extension of the state-of-the-art model in MRI reconstruction -VarNet. We utilize VarNet by using dilated convolution in different scales, which extends the receptive field to capture more contextual information. Moreover, we simplified the sensitivity map estimation (SME), for it holds many unnecessary layers for this task. Those improvements have shown significant decreases in computation costs as well as higher accuracy.

Keywords: MRI, deep learning, variational network, computer vision, compress sensing

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Authors: Nam Kyu Kim, Hee Jun Cha, Jae Jin Seo, Dong Jun Won

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Output power of a photovoltaic (PV) generator depends on incident solar irradiance. If the clouds pass or the climate condition is bad, the PV output fluctuates frequently. When PV generator is connected to the grid, these fluctuations adversely affect power quality. Thus, ramp rate control with battery energy storage system (BESS) is needed to reduce PV output fluctuations. At the same time, for effective BESS operation and sizing the optimal BESS capacity, managing state of charge (SOC) is the most important part. In addition, managing SOC helps to avoid violating the SOC operating range of BESS when performing renewable integration (RI) continuously. As PV and BESS increase, the SOC management of BESS will become more important in the future. This paper presents the SOC management algorithm which helps to operate effectively BESS, and has focused on method to manage SOC while reducing PV output fluctuations. A simulation model is developed in PSCAD/EMTDC software. The simulation results show that the SOC is maintained within the operating range by adjusting the output distribution according to the SOC of the BESS.

Keywords: battery energy storage system, ramp rate control, renewable integration, SOC management

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Authors: Yu-Zhou Zheng, Wen-Wei Wang

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In this paper, a new strengthening technique for reinforced concrete (RC) beams is proposed by combining Basalt Fibre Reinforced Polymer (BFRP) grid and Engineered Cementitious Composites (ECC) as a composite reinforcement layer (CRL). Five RC beams externally bonded with the CRL at the soffit and one control RC beam was tested to investigate their flexural behaviour. The thickness of BFRP grids (i.e., 1mm, 3mm and 5mm) and the sizes of CRL in test program were selected as the test parameters, while the thickness of CRL was fixed approximately at 30mm. The test results showed that there is no debonding of CRL to occur obviously in the strengthened beams. The final failure modes were the concrete crushing or the rupture of BFRP grids, indicating that the proposed technique is effective in suppressing the debonding of externally bonded materials and fully utilizing the material strengths. Compared with the non-strengthened beam, the increments of crack loading for strengthened beams were 58%~97%, 15%~35% for yield loading and 4%~33% for the ultimate loading, respectively. An analytical model is also presented to predict the full-range load-deflection responses of the strengthened beams and validated through comparisons with the test results.

Keywords: basalt fiber-reinforced polymer (BFRP) grid, ECC, RC beams, strengthening

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Authors: A. Ballard

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The ability to track goods and products en route in the delivery system, in the warehouse, and on the top floor is a huge advantage to shippers and retailers. Recently the emergence of radio frequency identification (RFID) technology has enabled this better than ever before. However, a significant problem exists in that RFID technology depends on the quality of the information stored for each tagged product. Because of the profusion of names for colours, it is very difficult to ascertain that stored values are recognised by all users who view the product visually. This paper reports the findings of a study in which 50 consumers and 50 logistics workers were shown colour swatches and asked to choose the name of the colour from a multiple choice list. They were then asked to match consumer products, including toasters, jumpers, and toothbrushes, with the identifying inventory information available for each one. The findings show that the ability to match colours was significantly stronger with the color swatches than with the consumer products and that while logistics professionals made more frequent correct identification than the consumers, their results were still unsatisfactorily low. Based on these findings, a proposed universal model of colour identification numbers has been developed.

Keywords: consumer preferences, supply chain logistics, radio frequency identification, RFID, colour preference

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Authors: Obulesh Avuku, Satwik Sunnam, Sri Charan Mohan Janthuka, Keerthi Yalamaddi

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In the United States alone, there are over 1.5 million spine fractures per year, resulting in about 17,730 spinal cord injuries. The cervical spine is where fractures in the spine most frequently occur. The prevalence of spinal fractures in the elderly has increased, and in this population, fractures may be harder to see on imaging because of coexisting degenerative illness and osteoporosis. Nowadays, computed tomography (CT) is almost completely used instead of radiography for the imaging diagnosis of adult spine fractures (x-rays). To stop neurologic degeneration and paralysis following trauma, it is vital to trace any vertebral fractures at the earliest. Many approaches have been proposed for the classification of the cervical spine [2d models]. We are here in this paper trying to break the bounds and use the vision transformers, a State-Of-The-Art- Model in image classification, by making minimal changes possible to the architecture of ViT and making it 3D-enabled architecture and this is evaluated using a weighted multi-label logarithmic loss. We have taken this problem statement from a previously held Kaggle competition, i.e., RSNA 2022 Cervical Spine Fracture Detection.

Keywords: cervical spine, spinal fractures, osteoporosis, computed tomography, 2d-models, ViT, multi-label logarithmic loss, Kaggle, public score, private score

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Authors: Can Zhang, Qun Li, Yonglin Lei, Zhi Zhu, Dong Guo

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Aiming at the problem of factor screen in distributed collaborative navigation of dense UAV swarm, an efficient distributed collaborative navigation factor screen method is proposed. The method considered the balance between computing load and positioning accuracy. The proposed algorithm utilized the factor graph model to implement a distributed collaborative navigation algorithm. The GNSS information of the UAV itself and the ranging information between the UAVs are used as the positioning factors. In this distributed scheme, a local factor graph is established for each UAV. The positioning factors of nodes with good geometric position distribution and small variance are selected to participate in the navigation calculation. To demonstrate and verify the proposed methods, the simulation and experiments in different scenarios are performed in this research. Simulation results show that the proposed scheme achieves a good balance between the computing load and positioning accuracy in the distributed cooperative navigation calculation of UAV swarm. This proposed algorithm has important theoretical and practical value for both industry and academic areas.

Keywords: screen method, cooperative positioning system, UAV swarm, factor graph, cooperative navigation

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Authors: Ching Louis Liu, Edmund Kazmierczak, Tim Miller

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Safety analysis for multi-agent systems is complicated by the, potentially nonlinear, interactions between agents. This paper proposes a method for analyzing the safety of multi-agent systems by explicitly focusing on interactions and the accident data of systems that are similar in structure and function to the system being analyzed. The method creates a Bayesian network using the accident data from similar systems. A feature of our method is that the events in accident data are labeled with HAZOP guide words. Our method uses an Ontology to abstract away from the details of a multi-agent implementation. Using the ontology, our methods then constructs an “Interaction Map,” a graphical representation of the patterns of interactions between agents and other artifacts. Interaction maps combined with statistical data from accidents and the HAZOP classifications of events can be converted into a Bayesian Network. Bayesian networks allow designers to explore “what it” scenarios and make design trade-offs that maintain safety. We show how to use the Bayesian networks, and the interaction maps to improve multi-agent system designs.

Keywords: multi-agent system, safety analysis, safety model, integration map

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Authors: J. Karthik, G. Vinayagamurthy

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Aerodynamic flow control is achieved by interaction of flowing medium with corresponding structure so that its natural flow state is disturbed to delay the transition point. This paper explains the aerodynamic effect and optimized design of Vortex Generators on the turbine blade to achieve maximum flow control. The airfoil is chosen from NREL [National Renewable Energy Laboratory] S-series airfoil as they are characterized with good lift characteristics and lower noise. Vortex generators typically chosen are Ogival, Rectangular, Triangular and Tapered Fin shapes attached near leading edge. Vortex generators are typically distributed from the primary to tip of the blade section. The design wind speed is taken as 6m/s and the computational analysis is executed. The blade surface is simulated using k- ɛ SST model and results are compared with X-FOIL results. The computational results are validated using Wind Tunnel Testing of the blade corresponding to the design speed. The effect of Vortex generators on the flow characteristics is studied from the results of analysis. By comparing the computational and test results of all shapes of Vortex generators; the optimized design is achieved for effective flow control corresponding to the blade.

Keywords: flow control, vortex generators, design optimisation, CFD

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Authors: Andrew White, Abigail Lowe, Kory Watkins, Hamed Akhlaghi, Nicole Winter

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The timing and appropriateness of diagnostic imaging are critical to the evaluation and management of traumatic injuries. Within the subclass of trauma patients, the prevalence of c-spine injury is less than 4%. However, the incidence of delayed diagnosis within this cohort has been documented as up to 20%, with inadequate radiological examination most cited issue. In order to assess those in which c-spine injury cannot be fully excluded based on clinical examination alone and, therefore, should undergo diagnostic imaging, a set of criteria is used to provide clinical guidance. The NEXUS (National Emergency X-Radiography Utilisation Study) criteria is a validated clinical decision-making tool used to facilitate selective c-spine radiography. The criteria allow clinicians to determine whether cervical spine imaging can be safely avoided in appropriate patients. The NEXUS criteria are widely used within the Emergency Department setting given their ease of use and relatively straightforward application and are used in the Victorian State Trauma System’s guidelines. This audit utilized retrospective data collection to examine the concordance of c-spine imaging in trauma patients to that of the NEXUS criteria and assess compliance with state guidance on diagnostic imaging in trauma. Of the 183 patients that presented with trauma to the head, neck, or face (244 excluded due to incorrect triage), 98 did not undergo imaging of the c-spine. Out of those 98, 44% fulfilled at least one of the NEXUS criteria, meaning the c-spine could not be clinically cleared as per the current guidelines. The criterion most met was intoxication, comprising 42% (18 of 43), with midline spinal tenderness (or absence of documentation of this) the second most common with 23% (10 of 43). Intoxication being the most met criteria is significant but not unexpected given the cohort of patients seen at St Vincent’s and within many emergency departments in general. Given these patients will always meet NEXUS criteria, an element of clinical judgment is likely needed, or concurrent use of the Canadian C-Spine Rules to exclude the need for imaging. Midline tenderness as a met criterion was often in the context of poor or absent documentation relating to this, emphasizing the importance of clear and accurate assessments. The distracting injury was identified in 7 out of the 43 patients; however, only one of these patients exhibited a thoracic injury (T11 compression fracture), with the remainder comprising injuries to the extremities – some studies suggest that C-spine imaging may not be required in the evaluable blunt trauma patient despite distracting injuries in any body regions that do not involve the upper chest. This emphasises the need for standardised definitions for distracting injury, at least at a departmental/regional level. The data highlights the currently poor application of the NEXUS guidelines, with likely common themes throughout emergency departments, highlighting the need for further education regarding implementation and potential refinement/clarification of criteria. Of note, there appeared to be no significant differences between levels of experience with respect to inappropriately clearing the c-spine clinically with respect to the guidelines.

Keywords: imaging, guidelines, emergency medicine, audit

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Authors: Kadio Valere R. Angaman, Birahim Bouna Niang

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Land degradation is a serious problem in developing countries, including Cote d’Ivoire, which has its economy focused on agriculture. It occurs in all kinds of ecosystems over the world. However, the drivers of land degradation vary from one region to another and from one ecosystem to another. Thus, identifying these drivers is an essential prerequisite to developing and implementing appropriate policies to reverse the trend of land degradation in the country, especially in the trays ecosystem. Using the binary logistic model with primary data obtained through 780 farmers surveyed, we analyze and identify the drivers of land degradation in the trays ecosystem. The descriptive statistics show that 52% of farmers interviewed have stated facing land degradation in their farmland. This high rate shows the extent of land degradation in this ecosystem. Also, the results obtained from the binary logit regression reveal that land degradation is significantly influenced by a set of variables such as sex, education, slope, erosion, pesticide, agricultural activity, deforestation, and temperature. The drivers identified are mostly local; as a result, the government must implement some policies and strategies that facilitate and incentive the adoption of sustainable land management practices by farmers to reverse the negative trend of land degradation.

Keywords: drivers, land degradation, trays ecosystem, sustainable land management

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Authors: Saeid Sahmani

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Due to size-dependent behavior of nanostrustures, the classical continuum models are not applicable for the analyses at this submicrion size. Surface stress effect is one of the most important matters which make the nanoscale structures to have different properties compared to the conventional structures due to high surface to volume ratio. In the present study, free vibration characteristics of nanoplates are investigated including surface stress effects. To this end, non-classical plate model based on Gurtin-Murdoch elasticity theory is proposed to evaluate the surface stress effects on the vibrational behavior of nanoplates subjected to different boundary conditions. Generalized differential quadrature (GDQ) method is employed to discretize the governing non-classical differential equations along with various edge supports. Selected numerical results are given to demonstrate the distinction between the behavior of nanoplates predicted by the classical and present non-classical plate models that leads to illustrate the great influence of surface stress effect. It is observed that this influence quite depends on the magnitude of the surface elastic constants which are relevant to the selected material.

Keywords: nanomechanics, surface stress, free vibration, GDQ method, small scale effect

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Authors: Alfredo R. Roa-Henriquez

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This paper is about organizational-level resilience and decision-making in the face of natural hazards. Research on resilience emerged to explain systems’ ability to absorb and recover in the midst of adversity and uncertainty from natural disasters, crises, and other disruptive events. While interest in resilience has accelerated, research multiplied, and the number of policies and implementations of resilience to natural hazards has increased over the last several years, mainly at the level of communities and regions, there has been a dearth of empirical work on resilience at the level of the firm. This paper uses empirical data and a sample selection model to test some hypotheses related to the firm’s dependence on critical resources, the sharing of resources and its economic resilience. The objective is to understand how the sharing of resources among organizations is related to economic resilience. Empirical results that are obtained from a sample of firms affected by Superstorm Sandy and Hurricane Harvey indicate that there is unobserved heterogeneity that explains the strategic behavior of firms in the post-disaster and that those firms that are more likely to resource share are also the ones that exhibit higher economic resilience. The impact of property damage on the sharing of resources and economic resilience is explored.

Keywords: economic resilience, resource sharing, critical resources, strategic management

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Authors: Javaid Butt, Habtom Mebrahtu, Hassan Shirvani

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The paper presents a new additive manufacturing process for the production of metal and composite parts. It is termed as composite metal foil manufacturing and is a combination of laminated object manufacturing and brazing techniques. The process has been described in detail and is being used to produce dissimilar aluminum to copper foil single lap joints. A three dimensional finite element model has been developed to study the thermo-mechanical characteristics of the dissimilar Al/Cu single lap joint. The effects of thermal stress and strain have been analyzed by carrying out transient thermal analysis on the heated plates used to join the two 0.1mm thin metal foils. Tensile test has been carried out on the foils before joining and after the single Al/Cu lap joints are made, they are subjected to tensile lap-shear test to analyze the effect of heat on the foils. The analyses are designed to assess the mechanical integrity of the foils after the brazing process and understand whether or not the heat treatment has an effect on the fracture modes of the produced specimens.

Keywords: brazing, laminated object manufacturing, tensile lap-shear test, thermo-mechanical analysis

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Authors: Giselda Cristina Ferreira, Carlos Alberto Kamienski, Ana Lígia Scott

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The COVID-19 pandemic has enhanced the anti-vaccination movement in Brazil, supported by unscientific theories and false news and the possibility of wide communication through social networks such as Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube. The World Health Organization (WHO) classified the large volume of information on the subject against COVID-19 as an Infodemic. In this paper, we present a protocol to identify polarizing users (called polarizers) and study the profiles of Brazilian polarizers on Twitter (renamed to X some weeks ago). We analyzed polarizing interactions on Twitter (in Portuguese) to identify the main polarizers and how the conflicts they caused influenced the COVID-19 vaccination rate throughout the pandemic. This protocol uses data from this social network, graph theory, Java, and R-studio scripts to model and analyze the data. The information about the vaccination rate was obtained in a public database for the government called OpenDataSus. The results present the profiles of Twitter’s Polarizer (political position, gender, professional activity, immunization opinions). We observed that social and political events influenced the participation of these different profiles in conflicts and the vaccination rate.

Keywords: Twitter, polarization, vaccine, Brazil

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Authors: Van Thinh Bui, Anh Tuan Tran, Quoc Viet Ngo, The Bao Pham

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Video retrieval is a searching problem on videos or clips based on content in which they are relatively close to an input image or video. The application of this retrieval consists of selecting video in a folder or recognizing a human in security camera. However, some recent approaches have been in challenging problem due to the diversity of video types, frame transitions and camera positions. Besides, that an appropriate measures is selected for the problem is a question. In order to overcome all obstacles, we propose a content-based video retrieval system in some main steps resulting in a good performance. From a main video, we process extracting keyframes and principal objects using Segmentation of Aggregating Superpixels (SAS) algorithm. After that, Speeded Up Robust Features (SURF) are selected from those principal objects. Then, the model “Bag-of-words” in accompanied by SVM classification are applied to obtain the retrieval result. Our system is performed on over 300 videos in diversity from music, history, movie, sports, and natural scene to TV program show. The performance is evaluated in promising comparison to the other approaches.

Keywords: video retrieval, principal objects, keyframe, segmentation of aggregating superpixels, speeded up robust features, bag-of-words, SVM

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Authors: Mahvish Anwaar

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Research Question: In this paper, we explore the causal relationship between banking competition, banking stability, and economic growth. Research Findings: The unbalanced panel data starting from 2000 to 2018 is collected to analyze the causality among banking competition, banking stability, and economic growth. The main focus of the study is to check the direction of causality among selected variables. The results of the study support the demand following, supply leading, feedback, and neutrality hypothesis conditional to different measures of banking competition, banking stability, and economic growth. Theoretical Implication: Jayakumar, Pradhan, Dash, Maradana, and Gaurav (2018) proposed a theoretical model of the causal relationship between banking competition, banking stability, and economic growth by using different indicators. So, we empirically test the proposed indicators in our study. This study makes a contribution to the literature by showing the defined relationship between developing and developed countries. Policy Implications: The study covers various policy implications regarding investors to analyze how to properly manage their finances, and government agencies will take help from the present study to find the best and most suitable policies by examining how the economy can grow concerning its finances.

Keywords: competition, stability, economic growth, vector auto-regression, granger causality

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Authors: Mustafa Elfituri, Jonathan Cook

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Recently, graph-based computations have become more important in large-scale scientific computing as they can provide a methodology to model many types of relations between independent objects. They are being actively used in fields as varied as biology, social networks, cybersecurity, and computer networks. At the same time, graph problems have some properties such as irregularity and poor locality that make their performance different than regular applications performance. Therefore, parallelizing graph algorithms is a hard and challenging task. Initial evidence is that standard computer architectures do not perform very well on graph algorithms. Little is known exactly what causes this. The Graph500 benchmark is a representative application for parallel graph-based computations, which have highly irregular data access and are driven more by traversing connected data than by computation. In this paper, we present results from analyzing the performance of various example implementations of Graph500, including a shared memory (OpenMP) version, a distributed (MPI) version, and a hybrid version. We measured and analyzed all the factors that affect its performance in order to identify possible changes that would improve its performance. Results are discussed in relation to what factors contribute to performance degradation.

Keywords: graph computation, graph500 benchmark, parallel architectures, parallel programming, workload characterization.

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Authors: Irina Khutsishvili

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In the present research, a decision support methodology for the multi-attribute group decision-making (MAGDM) problem is developed, namely for the selection of investment projects. The objective of the investment project selection problem is to choose the best project among the set of projects, seeking investment, or to rank all projects in descending order. The project selection is made considering a set of weighted attributes. To evaluate the attributes in our approach, expert assessments are used. In the proposed methodology, lingual expressions (linguistic terms) given by all experts are used as initial attribute evaluations, since they are the most natural and convenient representation of experts' evaluations. Then lingual evaluations are converted into trapezoidal fuzzy numbers, and the aggregate trapezoidal hesitant fuzzy decision matrix will be built. The case is considered when information on the attribute weights is completely unknown. The attribute weights are identified based on the De Luca and Termini information entropy concept, determined in the context of hesitant fuzzy sets. The decisions are made using the extended Technique for Order Performance by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS) method under a hesitant fuzzy environment. Hence, a methodology is based on a trapezoidal valued hesitant fuzzy TOPSIS decision-making model with entropy weights. The ranking of alternatives is performed by the proximity of their distances to both the fuzzy positive-ideal solution (FPIS) and the fuzzy negative-ideal solution (FNIS). For this purpose, the weighted hesitant Hamming distance is used. An example of investment decision-making is shown that clearly explains the procedure of the proposed methodology.

Keywords: In the present research, a decision support methodology for the multi-attribute group decision-making (MAGDM) problem is developed, namely for the selection of investment projects. The objective of the investment project selection problem is to choose the best project among the set of projects, seeking investment, or to rank all projects in descending order. The project selection is made considering a set of weighted attributes. To evaluate the attributes in our approach, expert assessments are used. In the proposed methodology, lingual expressions (linguistic terms) given by all experts are used as initial attribute evaluations since they are the most natural and convenient representation of experts' evaluations. Then lingual evaluations are converted into trapezoidal fuzzy numbers, and the aggregate trapezoidal hesitant fuzzy decision matrix will be built. The case is considered when information on the attribute weights is completely unknown. The attribute weights are identified based on the De Luca and Termini information entropy concept, determined in the context of hesitant fuzzy sets. The decisions are made using the extended Technique for Order Performance by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS) method under a hesitant fuzzy environment. Hence, a methodology is based on a trapezoidal valued hesitant fuzzy TOPSIS decision-making model with entropy weights. The ranking of alternatives is performed by the proximity of their distances to both the fuzzy positive-ideal solution (FPIS) and the fuzzy negative-ideal solution (FNIS). For this purpose, the weighted hesitant Hamming distance is used. An example of investment decision-making is shown that clearly explains the procedure of the proposed methodology.

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Authors: Nasim Babazadeh

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Growing demand for a quieter dwelling environment has turned the attention of construction companies to reducing the propagated noise of their project. In inner-city constructions, close distance between the construction site and surrounding buildings lessens the efficiency of passive noise control methods. Dwellers of the nearby areas may file complaints and lawsuits against the construction companies due to the emitted construction noise, thereby leading to the interruption of processes, compensation costs, or even suspension of the project. Therefore, construction noise should be predicted along with the project schedule. The advantage of managing the noise in the pre-construction phase is two-fold. Firstly, changes in the time plan and construction methods can be applied more flexibly. Thus, the costs related to rescheduling can be avoided. Secondly, noise-related legal problems are expected to be reduced. To implement noise mapping methods for the mentioned prediction, the required detailed information (such as the location of the noisy process, duration of the noisy work) can be exported from the 4D BIM model. The results obtained from the noise maps would be used to help the planners to define different work scenarios. The proposed approach has been applied for the foundation and earthwork of a site located in a residential area, and the obtained results are discussed.

Keywords: building information modeling, construction noise management, noise mapping, 4D BIM

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Authors: Bo Wang

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As the first high-resolution civil optical satellite, ZY-3 satellite is able to obtain high-resolution multi-view images with three linear array sensors. The images can be used to generate Digital Elevation Models (DEM) through dense matching of stereo images. However, due to the clouds, forest, water and buildings covered on the images, there are some problems in the dense matching results such as outliers and areas failed to be matched (matching holes). This paper introduced an algorithm to verify the accuracy of DEM that generated by ZY-3 satellite with Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM). Since the accuracy of SRTM (Internal accuracy: 5 m; External accuracy: 15 m) is relatively uniform in the worldwide, it may be used to improve the accuracy of ZY-3 DEM. Based on the analysis of mass DEM and SRTM data, the processing can be divided into two aspects. The registration of ZY-3 DEM and SRTM can be firstly performed using the conjugate line features and area features matched between these two datasets. Then the ZY-3 DEM can be refined by eliminating the matching outliers and filling the matching holes. The matching outliers can be eliminated based on the statistics on Local Vector Binning (LVB). The matching holes can be filled by the elevation interpolated from SRTM. Some works are also conducted for the accuracy statistics of the ZY-3 DEM.

Keywords: ZY-3 satellite imagery, DEM, SRTM, refinement

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Authors: Olubukola Ajayi

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INFLUENCE OF PARANTING STYLES ON ADOLECENST’ SELF-ESTEEM BY AJAYI OLUBUKOLA (PhD) DEPARTMRNT OF PSYCHOLOGY & BEHAVIOURAL STUDIES FACULTY OF THE SOCIAL SCIENCES EKITI STATE UNIVERSITY [email protected] , [email protected] ABSTRACT This study was designed to assess the influence of parenting styles on adolescents’ self-esteem. The study population comprised of adolescents selected from two secondary schools (Bishop Philip Academy and T.L. Oyeshina Model School) in Ibadan, Oyo State. A total number of 300 students whose ages range from 13-19 were used. Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale (RSE) developed by Rosenberg (1965) was used to measure Adolescents’ Self-Esteem. While Robinson (2001) Parenting Styles and Dimensions Questionnaire was used to measure how adolescents perceive their parents on four sub scales (Authoritative, Authoritarian, Uninvolved, Permissiveness).Three hypotheses were tested using Regression, One way ANOVA and Independent t-test. Result showed that parenting styles do not significantly influence Self-Esteem. Parents Work Status did not have a significant influence on Self-Esteem. The result also revealed no significant difference between Male and Female Self-Esteem. The findings were discussed in line with relevant empirical literatures, while conclusions and recommendations subsequently followed. Key Words: Parenting style, Adolescents, Self- esteem,

Keywords: AUTHORITATIVE, AUTHORITARIAN, UNINVOLVED, PERMISSIVENESS

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Authors: Chung-Yuan Wang, Kai-Chun Lee, Min-Hung Wang, Yu-Ren Chen, Hung-Sheng Lin, Sen-Shan Fan

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Taiwan National Health Insurance (NHI) was launched in 1995. It is an important social welfare policy in Taiwan. Regardless of the diversified social and economic status, universal coverage of NHI was assured. In order to regain better self-care performance, stroke people received in-patient and out-patient rehabilitation. Though NHI limited the rehabilitation frequency to one per day, the cost of rehabilitation still increased rapidly. Through the intensive rehabilitation during the post-stroke rehabilitation golden period, stroke patients might decrease their disability and shorten the rehabilitation period. Therefore, the aim of this study was to investigate the effect of intensive post-acute stroke rehabilitation in hospital under per diem payment. This study was started from 2014/03/01. The stroke patients who were admitted to our hospital or medical center were indicated to the study. The neurologists would check his modified Rankin Scale (mRS). Only patients with their mRS score between 2 and 4 were included to the study. Patients with unclear consciousness, unstable medical condition, unclear stroke onset date and no willing for 3 weeks in-patient intensive rehabilitation were excluded. After the physiatrist’s systemic evaluation, the subjects received intensive rehabilitation programs. The frequency of rehabilitation was thrice per day. Physical therapy, occupational therapy and speech/swallowing therapy were included in the programs for the needs of the stroke patients. Activity daily life performance (Barthel Index) and functional balance ability (Berg Balance Scale) were used to measure the training effect. During 3/1 to 5/31, thirteen subjects (five male and eight female) were included. Seven subjects were aged below 60. Three subjects were aged over 70. Most of the subjects (seven subjects) received intensive post-stroke rehabilitation for three weeks. Three subjects drop out from the programs and went back home respectively after receiving only 7, 10, and 13 days rehabilitation. Among these 13 subjects, nine of them got improvement in activity daily life performance (Barthel Index score). Ten of them got improvement in functional balance ability (Berg Balance Scale). The intensive post-acute stroke rehabilitation did help stroke patients promote their health in our study. Not only their functional performance improved, but also their self-confidence improved. Furthermore, their family also got better health status. Stroke rehabilitation under per diem payment was noted in long-term care institution in developed countries. Over 95% populations in Taiwan were supported under the Taiwan's National Health Insurance system, but there was no national long-term care insurance system. Most of the stroke patients in Taiwan live with his family and continue their rehabilitation programs from out-patient department. This pilot study revealed the effect of intensive post-acute stroke rehabilitation in hospital under per diem payment. The number of the subjects and the study period were limited. Thus, further study will be needed.

Keywords: rehabilitation, post-acute stroke, per diem payment, NHI

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Authors: Warda Khan, Remo Lachmann, Adarsh S. Garakahally

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The increasing complexity of software and its applicability in a wide range of industries, e.g., automotive, call for enhanced quality assurance techniques. Test automation is one option to tackle the prevailing challenges by supporting test engineers with fast, parallel, and repetitive test executions. A high degree of test automation allows for a shift from mundane (manual) testing tasks to a more analytical assessment of the software under test. However, a high initial investment of test resources is required to establish test automation, which is, in most cases, a limitation to the time constraints provided for quality assurance of complex software systems. Hence, a computer-aided creation of automated test cases is crucial to increase the benefit of test automation. This paper proposes the application of machine learning for the generation of automated test cases. It is based on supervised learning to analyze test specifications and existing test implementations. The analysis facilitates the identification of patterns between test steps and their implementation with test automation components. For the test case generation, this approach exploits historical data of test automation projects. The identified patterns are the foundation to predict the implementation of unknown test case specifications. Based on this support, a test engineer solely has to review and parameterize the test automation components instead of writing them manually, resulting in a significant time reduction for establishing test automation. Compared to other generation approaches, this ML-based solution can handle different writing styles, authors, application domains, and even languages. Furthermore, test automation tools require expert knowledge by means of programming skills, whereas this approach only requires historical data to generate test cases. The proposed solution is evaluated using various multi-label evaluation criteria (EC) and two small-sized real-world systems. The most prominent EC is ‘Subset Accuracy’. The promising results show an accuracy of at least 86% for test cases, where a 1:1 relationship (Multi-Class) between test step specification and test automation component exists. For complex multi-label problems, i.e., one test step can be implemented by several components, the prediction accuracy is still at 60%. It is better than the current state-of-the-art results. It is expected the prediction quality to increase for larger systems with respective historical data. Consequently, this technique facilitates the time reduction for establishing test automation and is thereby independent of the application domain and project. As a work in progress, the next steps are to investigate incremental and active learning as additions to increase the usability of this approach, e.g., in case labelled historical data is scarce.

Keywords: machine learning, multi-class, multi-label, supervised learning, test automation

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Authors: Mazlynda Md Yusuf, Wafa' Mahadzir, Mohamad Yazis Ali Basah

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Nowadays, financing long-term care for elderly people is a crucial issue, either towards the family members or the care institution. Corresponding with the growing number of ageing population in Malaysia, there’s a need of concern on the uncertaintiness of future family care and the need for long-term care services. Moreover, with the increasing cost of living, children feels the urge of needing to work and receive a fixed monthly income that results to sending their elderly parents to care institutions. Currently, in Malaysia, the rates for private nursing homes can amount up to RM 4,000 per month excluding medical treatments and other recurring expenses. These costs are expected to be paid using their Employees Provident Fund (EPF) savings that they accumulate during their working years, especially for those working under private sectors. Hence, this study identifies the adequacy of EPF in funding the cost of long-term care service during old age. This study used a hypothetical simulation model to simulate different scenarios. The findings of this study could be used for individuals to prepare on the importance of planning for retirement, especially with the increasing cost of long-term care services.

Keywords: long-term care cost, employees provident fund Malaysia, ageing population, Malaysian elderly

Procedia PDF Downloads 332

Authors: Jorge Urrutia-Mosquera, Luz Flórez-Calderón, Yasna Cortés

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We assessed the state of progress in terms of urban sustainability indicators and studied the impact of current land use conditions and the level of spatial accessibility to basic urban amenities on travel patterns and sustainable mobility in Santiago de Chile. We determined the spatial impact of urban facilities on sustainable travel patterns through the statistical analysis, data visualisation, and weighted regression models. The results show a need to diversify land use in more than 60% of the communes, although in 85% of the communes, accessibility to public spaces is guaranteed. The findings also suggest improving access to early education facilities, as only 26% of the communes meet the sustainability standard, negatively impacting travel in sustainable modes. It is also observed that the level of access to urban facilities generates spatial heterogeneity in the city, which negatively affects travel patterns in terms of time over 60 minutes and modes of travel in private vehicles. The results obtained allow us to identify opportunities for public policy intervention to promote and adopt sustainable mobility.

Keywords: land use, urban sustainability, travel patterns, spatial heterogeneity, GWR model, sustainable mobility

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Authors: J. Y Jang, C. Y. Tseng

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A three-dimensional numerical model of thermoelectric generator (TEG) modules attached to a large chimney plate is proposed and solved numerically using a control volume based finite difference formulation. The TEG module consists of a thermoelectric generator, an elliptical pin-fin heat sink, and a cold plate for water cooling. In the chimney, the temperature of flue gases is 450-650K. Therefore, the effects of convection and radiation heat transfer are considered. Although the TEG hot-side temperature and thus the electric power output can be increased by inserting an elliptical pin-fin heat sink into the chimney tunnel to increase the heat transfer area, the pin fin heat sink would cause extra pumping power at the same time. The main purpose of this study is to analyze the effects of geometrical parameters on the electric power output and chimney pressure drop characteristics. In addition, the effects of different operating conditions, including various inlet velocities (Vin = 1, 3, 5 m/s) and inlet temperatures (Tgas = 450, 550, 650K) are discussed in detail. The predicted numerical data for the power vs. current (P-I) curve are in good agreement (within 11%) with the experimental data.

Keywords: thermoelectric generator, waste heat recovery, pin-fin heat sink, experimental and numerical analysis

Procedia PDF Downloads 373

Authors: Z. Karahaliloğlu, E. Yalçın, M. Demirbilek, E.B. Denkbaş

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Critical-sized bone defects caused by trauma, bone diseases, prosthetic implant revision or tumor excision cannot be repaired by physiological regenerative processes. Current orthopedic applications for critical-sized bone defects are to use autologous bone grafts, bone allografts, or synthetic graft materials. However, these strategies are unable to solve completely the problem, and motivate the development of novel effective biological scaffolds for tissue engineering applications and regenerative medicine applications. In particular, scaffolds combined with a variety of bio-agents as fundamental tools emerge to provide the regeneration of damaged bone tissues due to their ability to promote cell growth and function. In this study, a magnetic silk fibroin (SF) hydrogel scaffold was prepared by electrogelation process of the concentrated Bombxy mori silk fibroin (8 %wt) aqueous solution. For enhancement of osteoblast-like cells (SaOS-2) growth and adhesion, basal fibroblast growth factor (bFGF) were conjugated physically to the HSA-coated magnetic nanoparticles (Fe3O4) and magnetic SF e-gel scaffolds were prepared by incorporation of Fe3O4, HSA (human serum albumin)=Fe3O4 and HSA=Fe3O4-bFGF nanoparticles. HSA=Fe3O4, HSA=Fe3O4-bFGF loaded and bare SF e-gels scaffolds were characterized using scanning electron microscopy (SEM.) For cell studies, human osteoblast-like cell line (SaOS-2) was used and an MTT assay was used to assess the cytotoxicity of magnetic silk fibroin e-gel scaffolds and cell density on these surfaces. For the evaluation osteogenic activation, ALP (alkaline phosphatase), the amount of mineralized calcium, total protein and collagen were studied. Fe3O4 nanoparticles were successfully synthesized and bFGF was conjugated to HSA=Fe3O4 nanoparticles with %97.5 of binding yield which has a particle size of 71.52±2.3 nm. Electron microscopy images of the prepared HSA and bFGF incorporated SF e-gel scaffolds showed a 3D porous morphology. In terms of water uptake results, bFGF conjugated HSA=Fe3O4 nanoparticles has the best water absorbability behavior among all groups. In the in-vitro cell culture studies realized using SaOS-2 cell line, the coating of Fe3O4 nanoparticles surface with a protein enhance the cell viability and HSA coating and bFGF conjugation, the both have an inductive effect in the cell proliferation. One of the markers of bone formation and osteoblast differentiation, according to the ALP activity and total protein results, HSA=Fe3O4-bFGF loaded SF e-gels had significantly enhanced ALP activity. Osteoblast cultured HSA=Fe3O4-bFGF loaded SF e-gels deposited more calcium compared with SF e-gel. The proposed magnetic scaffolds seem to be promising for bone tissue regeneration and used in future work for various applications.

Keywords: basic fibroblast growth factor (bFGF), e-gel, iron oxide nanoparticles, silk fibroin

Procedia PDF Downloads 278

Authors: Abd Al-Salam Al-Masgari, Haylay Tsegab, Ismailalwali Babikir, Monera A. Shoieb

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We present a study of Malaysia's Central Luconia region, which is an essential deposit of Miocene carbonate reservoirs. This study aims to identify and map areas of selected carbonate platforms, develop high-resolution statistical karst models, and generate comprehensive karst geobody models for selected carbonate fields. This study uses seismic characterization and advanced geophysical surveys to identify karst signatures in Miocene carbonate reservoirs. The results highlight the use of variance, RMS, RGB colour blending, and 3D visualization Prop seismic sequence stratigraphy seismic attributes to visualize the karstified areas across the F23 field of Central Luconia. The offshore karst model serves as a powerful visualization tool to reveal the karstization of carbonate sediments of interest. The results of this study contribute to a better understanding of the karst distribution of Miocene carbonate reservoirs in Central Luconia, which are essential for hydrocarbon exploration and production. This is because these features significantly impact the reservoir geometry, flow path and characteristics.

Keywords: karst, central Luconia, seismic attributes, Miocene carbonate build-ups

Procedia PDF Downloads 64

Authors: Harvinder Kaur

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Rayleigh–Ritz method is a broadly used classical method for the calculation of the natural vibration frequency of a structure in the second or higher order. Here it is used to construct a mathematical model of relative study of the thermal effect on free transverse vibrations of clamped (c-c-c-c type) visco-elastic rectangular plate with linearly and exponentially thickness variations respectively in two directions. Researchers in the field of Engineering always make an effort for better designs of mechanical structures. In-depth study of the vibration behavior of tapered plates with diverse thickness variation under high temperature would ultimately help to finalize the accurate design of a structure. The perfect tapered structure saves weight and as well as expenses. In the present paper, the comparison has been done for deflection and time period corresponding to the first two modes of vibrations of clamped plate for various values of aspect ratio, thermal constants, and taper constants of both the cases.

Keywords: Rayleigh-Ritz Method, tapered plates, transverse vibration, thermal constant, visco-elasticity

Procedia PDF Downloads 220

Authors: Mohammad R. Bhuyan, Mohammad J. Khattak

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Deterioration of flexible pavements due to crack reflection from its soil-cement base layer is a major concern around the globe. The service life of flexible pavement diminishes significantly because of the reflective cracks. Highway agencies are struggling for decades to prevent or mitigate these cracks in order to increase pavement service lives. The root cause of reflective cracks is the shrinkage crack which occurs in the soil-cement bases during the cement hydration process. The primary factor that causes the shrinkage is the cement content of the soil-cement mixture. With the increase of cement content, the soil-cement base gains strength and durability, which is necessary to withstand the traffic loads. But at the same time, higher cement content creates more shrinkage resulting in more reflective cracks in pavements. Historically, various states of USA have used the soil-cement bases for constructing flexile pavements. State of Louisiana (USA) had been using 8 to 10 percent of cement content to manufacture the soil-cement bases. Such traditional soil-cement bases yield 2.0 MPa (300 psi) 7-day compressive strength and are termed as cement stabilized design (CSD). As these CSD bases generate significant reflective cracks, another design of soil-cement base has been utilized by adding 4 to 6 percent of cement content called cement treated design (CTD), which yields 1.0 MPa (150 psi) 7-day compressive strength. The reduction of cement content in the CTD base is expected to minimize shrinkage cracks thus increasing pavement service lives. Hence, this research study evaluates the long-term field performance of CTD bases with respect to CSD bases used in flexible pavements. Pavement Management System of the state of Louisiana was utilized to select flexible pavement projects with CSD and CTD bases that had good historical record and time-series distress performance data. It should be noted that the state collects roughness and distress data for 1/10th mile section every 2-year period. In total, 120 CSD and CTD projects were analyzed in this research, where more than 145 miles (CTD) and 175 miles (CSD) of roadways data were accepted for performance evaluation and benefit-cost analyses. Here, the service life extension and area based on distress performance were considered as benefits. It was found that CTD bases increased 1 to 5 years of pavement service lives based on transverse cracking as compared to CSD bases. On the other hand, the service lives based on longitudinal and alligator cracking, rutting and roughness index remain the same. Hence, CTD bases provide some service life extension (2.6 years, on average) to the controlling distress; transverse cracking, but it was inexpensive due to its lesser cement content. Consequently, CTD bases become 20% more cost-effective than the traditional CSD bases, when both bases were compared by net benefit-cost ratio obtained from all distress types.

Keywords: cement treated base, cement stabilized base, reflective cracking , service life, flexible pavement

Procedia PDF Downloads 161