Search results for: internet of things based light system

Authors: Qiuyi Lyu, Bin Gong

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Breadth-First Search(BFS) is a core graph algorithm that is widely used for graph analysis. As it is frequently used in many graph applications, improve the BFS performance is essential. In this paper, we present a graph ordering method that could reorder the graph nodes to achieve better data locality, thus, improving the BFS performance. Our method is based on an observation that the sibling relationships will dominate the cache access pattern during the BFS traversal. Therefore, we propose a frequency-based model to construct the graph order. First, we optimize the graph order according to the nodes’ visit frequency. Nodes with high visit frequency will be processed in priority. Second, we try to maximize the child nodes overlap layer by layer. As it is proved to be NP-hard, we propose a heuristic method that could greatly reduce the preprocessing overheads. We conduct extensive experiments on 16 real-world datasets. The result shows that our method could achieve comparable performance with the state-of-the-art methods while the graph ordering overheads are only about 1/15.

Keywords: breadth-first search, BFS, graph ordering, graph algorithm

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Authors: Sondos M. Hammad, Sherin M. ElGokhy, Mahmoud M. Fahmy, Elsayed A. Sallam

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In this paper, an ensemble-based Support Vector Machine (SVM) classification approach is proposed. It is used for miRNA prediction. Three problems, commonly associated with previous approaches, are alleviated. These problems arise due to impose assumptions on the secondary structural of premiRNA, imbalance between the numbers of the laboratory checked miRNAs and the pseudo-hairpins, and finally using a training data set that does not consider all the varieties of samples in different species. We aggregate the predicted outputs of three well-known SVM classifiers; namely, Triplet-SVM, Virgo and Mirident, weighted by their variant features without any structural assumptions. An additional SVM layer is used in aggregating the final output. The proposed approach is trained and then tested with balanced data sets. The results of the proposed approach outperform the three base classifiers. Improved values for the metrics of 88.88% f-score, 92.73% accuracy, 90.64% precision, 96.64% specificity, 87.2% sensitivity, and the area under the ROC curve is 0.91 are achieved.

Keywords: MiRNAs, SVM classification, ensemble algorithm, assumption problem, imbalance data

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Authors: Dorottya Horváth, Andras Lang, Diana Varro-Horvath

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This research activity and study is part of a major research effort to gain an integrative, neuropsychological, and personality psychological understanding of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and thus improve the specification of diagnostic and therapeutic care. In the past, the neuropsychology section has investigated working memory, executive function, attention, and behavioural manifestations in children. Currently, we are looking for personality psychological protective factors for ADHD and its symptomatic exacerbation. We hypothesise that secure attachment, adaptive emotion regulation, and high resilience are protective factors. The aim of this study is to measure and report the results of a Hungarian sample of the Cognitive Emotion Regulation Questionnaire for Children (CERQ-k) because before studying groups with different developmental differences, it is essential to know the average scores of groups with neurotypical devel-opment. Until now, there was no Hungarian version of the above test, so we used our own translation. This questionnaire has been developed to assess children's thoughts after experiencing negative life events. It consists of 4-4 items per subscale, for a total of 36 items. The response categories for each item range from 1 (almost never) to 5 (almost always). The subscales were self-blame, blaming others, acceptance, planning, positive refocusing, rumination or thought-focusing, positive reappraisal, putting into perspective, and catastrophizing. The data for this study were collected from 120 children aged 9-14 years. It was analysed using descriptive statistical analysis, where the mean and standard deviation values for each age group, as well as the Cronbach's alpha value, were significant in testing the reliability of the questionnaire. The results showed that the questionnaire is a reliable and valid measuring instrument also on a Hungarian sample. These developments and results will allow the use of a version of the Cognitive Emotion Regulation Questionnaire for children in Hungarian and pave the way for the study of different developmental groups such as children with learning disabilities and/or with ADHD.

Keywords: neurotypical development, emotion regulation, negative life events, CERQ-k, Hungarian average scores

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Authors: Roman Graf, Sergiu Gordea, Heather M. Ryan

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This paper presents an approach for easy creation and classification of institutional risk profiles supporting endangerment analysis of file formats. The main contribution of this work is the employment of data mining techniques to support set up of the most important risk factors. Subsequently, risk profiles employ risk factors classifier and associated configurations to support digital preservation experts with a semi-automatic estimation of endangerment group for file format risk profiles. Our goal is to make use of an expert knowledge base, accuired through a digital preservation survey in order to detect preservation risks for a particular institution. Another contribution is support for visualisation of risk factors for a requried dimension for analysis. Using the naive Bayes method, the decision support system recommends to an expert the matching risk profile group for the previously selected institutional risk profile. The proposed methods improve the visibility of risk factor values and the quality of a digital preservation process. The presented approach is designed to facilitate decision making for the preservation of digital content in libraries and archives using domain expert knowledge and values of file format risk profiles. To facilitate decision-making, the aggregated information about the risk factors is presented as a multidimensional vector. The goal is to visualise particular dimensions of this vector for analysis by an expert and to define its profile group. The sample risk profile calculation and the visualisation of some risk factor dimensions is presented in the evaluation section.

Keywords: linked open data, information integration, digital libraries, data mining

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Authors: Andrew Shugyo Daijo Bonnici

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Core-Self Intelligence (CSI) is an absolutely still, non-verbal, non-cerebral intelligence. Our still core-self intelligence is felt at our body's center point of gravity, just an inch below our navel, deep within our lower abdomen. The still sub-quantum depth of core-Self remains untouched by the conditioning influences of family, society, culture, religion, and spiritual views that shape our personalities and ego-self identities. As core-Self intelligence is inborn and unconditioned, it exists within all human beings regardless of age, race, color, creed, mental acuity, or national origin. Our core-self intelligence functions as a wise and compassionate guide that advances our health and well-being, our mental clarity and emotional resiliency, our fearless peace and behavioral wisdom, and our ever-deepening compassion for self and others. Although our core-Self, with its absolutely still non-judgmental intelligence, operates far beneath the functioning of our ego-self identity and our thinking mind, it effectively coexists with our passing thoughts, all of our figuring and thinking, our logical and rational way of knowing, the ebb and flow of our feelings, and the natural or triggered emergence of our emotions. When we allow our whole inner somatic awareness to gently sink into the intelligent center point of gravity within our lower abdomen, the felt arising of our core- Self’s inborn stillness has a serene and relaxing effect on our ego-self and thinking mind. It naturally slows down the speedy passage of our involuntary thoughts, diminishes our ego-self's defensive and reactive functioning, and decreases narcissistic reflections on I, me, and mine. All of these healthy cognitive benefits advance our innate wisdom and compassion, facilitate our personal and interpersonal growth, and liberate the ever-fresh wonder and curiosity of our beginner's heartmind. In conclusion, by studying, exploring, and researching our core-Self intelligence, psychologists and psychotherapists can unlock new avenues for advancing the farther reaches of our mental, emotional, and spiritual health and well-being, our innate behavioral wisdom and boundless empathy, our lucid compassion for self and others, and our unwavering confidence in the still guiding light of our core-Self that exists at the abdominal center point of all human beings.

Keywords: intelligence, transpersonal, beginner’s heartmind, compassionate wisdom

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Authors: Ying Shen, Weihua Zhu

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Medical images are important to help identifying different diseases, for example, Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) can be used to investigate the brain, spinal cord, bones, joints, breasts, blood vessels, and heart. Image segmentation, in medical image analysis, is usually the first step to find out some characteristics with similar color, intensity or texture so that the diagnosis could be further carried out based on these features. This paper introduces an improved C-means model to segment the MRI images. The model is based on information entropy to evaluate the segmentation results by achieving global optimization. Several contributions are significant. Firstly, Genetic Algorithm (GA) is used for achieving global optimization in this model where fuzzy C-means clustering algorithm (FCMA) is not capable of doing that. Secondly, the information entropy after segmentation is used for measuring the effectiveness of MRI image processing. Experimental results show the outperformance of the proposed model by comparing with traditional approaches.

Keywords: magnetic resonance image (MRI), c-means model, image segmentation, information entropy

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Authors: Shazia Bano

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Nanoconjugates that integrate photo-based therapeutics and diagnostics within a single platform promise great advances in revolutionizing cancer treatments. However, to achieve high therapeutic efficacy, designing functionally efficacious nanocarriers to tightly retain the drug, promoting selective drug localization and release, and the validation of the efficacy of these nanoconjugates is a great challenge. Here we have designed smart multiagent, liposome based targeted photoactivatable multiagent nanoconjugates, doped with a photoactivatable chromophore benzoporphyrin derivative (BPD) labelled with an active targeting ligand cetuximab to target the EGFR receptor (over expressed in various cancer cells) to deliver a combination of therapeutic agents. This study establishes a tunable nanoplatform for the delivery of the photoactivatable multiagent nanoconjugates for tumor-specific accumulation and targeted destruction of cancer cells in complex cancer model to enhance the therapeutic index of the administrated drugs.

Keywords: targeting, photodynamic therapy, photoactivatable, nanoconjugates

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Authors: Berna Istegun, Erkan Celebi

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The main objective of this experimental study is to assess the shear strength and the crack behavior of the triplets built of perforated brickwork masonry elements. In order to observe the influence of shear resistance and energy dissipating before and after retrofitting applications by using the reinforcing system, static-cyclic shear tests were employed in the structural mechanics laboratory of Sakarya University. The reinforcing system is composed of hybrid multiaxial seismic fabric consisting of alkali resistant glass and polypropylene fibers. The plaster as bonding material used in the specimen’s retrofitting consists of expanded glass granular. In order to acquire exact measuring data about the failure behavior of the two mortar joints under shear stressing, vertical load-controlled cylinder having force capacity of 50 kN and loading rate of 1.5 mm/min. with an internal inductive displacement transducers is carried out perpendicular to the triplet specimens. In this study, a total of six triplet specimens with textile reinforcement were prepared for these shear bond tests. The three of them were produced as single-sided reinforced triplets with seismic fabric, while the others were strengthened on both sides. In addition, three triplet specimens without retrofitting and plaster were also tested as reference samples. The obtained test results were given in the manner of force-displacement relationships, ductility coefficients and shear strength parameters comparatively. It is concluded that two-side seismic textile applications on masonry elements with relevant plaster have considerably increased the sheer force resistance and the ductility capacity.

Keywords: expanded glass granular, perforated brickwork, retrofitting, seismic fabric, triplet shear tests

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Authors: Ime R. Udotong, Ofonime U. M. John, Justina I. R. Udotong

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Ibeno, Nigeria hosts the operational base of Mobil Producing Nigeria Unlimited (MPNU), a subsidiary of ExxonMobil and the current highest oil and condensate producer in Nigeria. Besides MPNU, other multinational oil companies like Shell Petroleum Development Company Ltd, Elf Petroleum Nigeria Ltd and Nigerian Agip Energy, a subsidiary of ENI E&P operate onshore, on the continental shelf and deep offshore of the Atlantic Ocean in Ibeno, Nigeria, respectively. This study was designed to carry out the survey of the oil impacted sites in Ibeno, Nigeria. A combinations of electrical resistivity (ER), ground penetrating radar (GPR) and physico-chemical as well as microbiological characterization of soils and water samples from the area were carried out. Results obtained revealed that there have been hydrocarbon contaminations of this environment by past crude oil spills as observed from significant concentrations of THC, BTEX and heavy metal contents in the environment. Also, high resistivity values and GPR profiles clearly showing the distribution, thickness and lateral extent of hydrocarbon contamination as represented on the radargram reflector tones corroborates previous significant oil input. Contaminations were of varying degrees, ranging from slight to high, indicating levels of substantial attenuation of crude oil contamination over time. Hydrocarbon pollution of the study area was confirmed by the results of soil and water physico-chemical and microbiological analysis. The levels of THC contamination observed in this study are indicative of high levels of crude oil contamination. Moreover, the display of relatively lower resistivities of locations outside the impacted areas compared to resistivity values within the impacted areas, the 3-D Cartesian images of oil contaminant plume depicted by red, light brown and magenta for high, low and very low oil impacted areas, respectively as well as the high counts of hydrocarbonoclastic microorganisms in excess of 1% confirmed significant recent pollution of the study area.

Keywords: oil-polluted sites, physico-chemical analyses, microbiological characterization, geotechnical investigations, total hydrocarbon content

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Authors: Haojie Wang, Xun Li, Rui Yin

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In order to solve the memorization overfitting in the meta-learning MAML algorithm, a method of generating mutually exclusive tasks based on data augmentation is proposed. This method generates a mutex task by corresponding one feature of the data to multiple labels, so that the generated mutex task is inconsistent with the data distribution in the initial dataset. Because generating mutex tasks for all data will produce a large number of invalid data and, in the worst case, lead to exponential growth of computation, this paper also proposes a key data extraction method, that only extracts part of the data to generate the mutex task. The experiments show that the method of generating mutually exclusive tasks can effectively solve the memorization overfitting in the meta-learning MAML algorithm.

Keywords: data augmentation, mutex task generation, meta-learning, text classification.

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Authors: Sunmyeng Kim

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IEEE 802.11a/b/g standards support multiple transmission rates. Even though the use of multiple transmission rates increase the WLAN capacity, this feature leads to the performance anomaly problem. Cooperative communication was introduced to relieve the performance anomaly problem. Data packets are delivered to the destination much faster through a relay node with high rate than through direct transmission to the destination at low rate. In the legacy cooperative protocols, a source node chooses a relay node only based on the transmission rate. Therefore, they are not so feasible in multi-flow environments since they do not consider the effect of other flows. To alleviate the effect, we propose a new relay node selection algorithm based on the transmission rate and channel contention level. Performance evaluation is conducted using simulation, and shows that the proposed protocol significantly outperforms the previous protocol in terms of throughput and delay.

Keywords: cooperative communications, MAC protocol, relay node, WLAN

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Authors: Irfan Mohiuddin, Ahmad Al Mogren

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In recent years, cloud computing has earned substantial attention in the Oil and Gas Industry and provides services in all the phases of the industry lifecycle. Oil and gas supply infrastructure, in particular, is more vulnerable to accidental, natural and intentional threats because of its widespread distribution. Numerous surveys have been conducted on cloud security and privacy. However, to the best of our knowledge, hardly any survey is carried out that reviews cyber security in all phases with a cloud computing perspective. Moreover, a distinctive classification is performed for all the cloud-based cyber security measures based on the cloud component in use. The classification approach will enable researchers to identify the required technique used to enhance the security in specific cloud components. Also, the limitation of each component will allow the researchers to design optimal algorithms. Lastly, future directions are given to point out the imminent challenges that can pave the way for researchers to further enhance the resilience to cyber security threats in the oil and gas industry.

Keywords: cyber security, cloud computing, safety and security, oil and gas industry, security threats, oil and gas pipelines

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Authors: E. Oke, A. O. Ladokun, J. O. Daramola, O. M. Onagbesan

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There has been a growing interest on the effects of access to pasture on poultry health status. However, there is a paucity of data on the relative benefits of grass and legume pastures. An experiment was conducted to determine the effects of rearing systems {deep litter system (DL), deep litter with access to legumes (LP) or grass (GP) pastures} haematology and serum chemistry of ISA Brown layers. The study involved the use of two hundred and forty 12 weeks old pullets. The birds were reared until 60 weeks of age. Eighty birds were assigned to each treatment; each treatment had four replicates of 20 birds each. Blood samples (2.5 ml) were collected from the wing vein of two birds per replicate and serum chemistry and haematological parameters were determined. The results showed that there were no significant differences between treatments in all the parameters considered at 18 weeks of age. At 24 weeks old, the percentage of heterophyl (HET) in DL and LP were similar but higher than that of GP. The ratio of H:L was higher (P<0.05) in DL than those of LP and GP while LP and GP were comparable. At week 38 of age, the percentage of PCV in the birds in LP and GP were similar but the birds in DL had significantly lower level than that of GP. In the early production phase, serum total protein of the birds in LP was similar to that of GP but higher (P<0.05) than that of DL. At the peak production phase (week 38), the total protein in GP and DL were similar but significantly lower than that of LP. The albumin level in LP was greater (P<0.05) than GP but similar to that of DL. In the late production phase, the total protein in LP was significantly higher than that of DL but similar to that of GP. It was concluded that rearing chickens in either grass or legume pasture did not have deleterious effects on the health of laying chickens but improved some parameters including blood protein and HET/lymphocyte.

Keywords: rearing systems, stylosanthes, cynodon serum chemistry, haematology, hen

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Authors: Etsuo Morishita

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This paper presents the project and experiment-based fluid dynamics education in Meisei University, a private institution in Tokyo, Japan. We pay attention not only to the basic engineering courses but also to the practical aspect of engineering experience. So, we prepare courses called the Projects from I to VI. The Projects I and II are designed for the first year, III and IV are designated for the second year, V and VI are prepared for the third year, respectively. Each supervisor is responsible for two of these projects every year. When students take the Project V and VI at the third year, we automatically assume that these students will join the lab of the project for the graduation thesis. We would like to show our experience in the Project I in the summer term, 2016. In this project, we introduce a traction flight vehicle called Cat Flyer. This is a kind of a kite towed by a car for example. This is very similar to parasailing, but flight is possible even on the roads. Experiments in mechanical engineering education are also very important, and we would like to explain our course on centrifugal pump, venture, and orifice. Although these are described in detail in the text books of fluid dynamics, it is still crucial to have practical experiments as a student.

Keywords: aerodynamics, experiment, fluid dynamics, project

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Authors: S. Junaid S. Qazi, Denice C. Bay, Raymond Chew, Raymond J. Turner

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EmrE, a member of the small multidrug resistance protein family in bacteria is considered to be the archetypical member of its family. It confers host resistance to a wide variety of quaternary cation compounds (QCCs) driven by proton motive force. Generally, purification yield is a challenge in all membrane proteins because of the difficulties in their expression, isolation and solubilization. EmrE is extremely hydrophobic which make the purification yield challenging. We have purified EmrE protein using two different approaches: organic solvent membrane extraction and hexahistidine (his6) tagged Ni-affinity chromatographic methods. We have characterized changes present between ligand affinity of untagged and his6-tagged EmrE proteins in similar membrane mimetic environments using biophysical experimental techniques. Purified proteins were solubilized in a buffer containing n-dodecyl-β-D-maltopyranoside (DDM) and the conformations in the proteins were explored in the presence of four QCCs, methyl viologen (MV), ethidium bromide (EB), cetylpyridinium chloride (CTP) and tetraphenyl phosphonium (TPP). SDS-Tricine PAGE and dynamic light scattering (DLS) analysis revealed that the addition of QCCs did not induce higher multimeric forms of either proteins at all QCC:EmrE molar ratios examined under the solubilization conditions applied. QCC binding curves obtained from the Trp fluorescence quenching spectra, gave the values of dissociation constant (Kd) and maximum specific one-site binding (Bmax). Lower Bmax values to QCCs for his6-tagged EmrE shows that the binding sites remained unoccupied. This lower saturation suggests that the his6-tagged versions provide a conformation that prevents saturated binding. Our data demonstrate that tagging an integral membrane protein can significantly influence the protein.

Keywords: small multidrug resistance (SMR) protein, EmrE, integral membrane protein folding, quaternary ammonium compounds (QAC), quaternary cation compounds (QCC), nickel affinity chromatography, hexahistidine (His6) tag

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Authors: F. Polito, M. Cucinotta, A. Conti, C. Lo Giudice, C. Tomasello, F. Angileri, D. La Torre, M. Aguennouz

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Glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) is the most aggressive form of brain tumors, with an extremely poor prognosis. Telomeres lenght is associated with tumor progression in several type of human cancers and telomere elongation is a common molecular feature of advanced malignancies. Among the telomeric shelterin proteins PTOP is required for telomeric protein complex assembly, telomerase recruitment and activity, and telomere length regulation through a PTOP-telomerase interaction. Previous studies suggest that PTOP upregulation is involved in radioresistance and telomere lengthening in colorectal cancer cells. Moreover, in human osteosarcoma cells PTOP deletion led to telomere shortening, increased apoptosis and radiation sensitivity enhancement. However, to date, little is known about the role of PTOP in progression of glioma cancers. In light of this background aim of the study is to investigate the expression of PTOP in different grades of human glioma and its correlation with the pathological grade of gliomas, grades of malignancy, proliferative activity and apoptosis. Fifteen Low Grade Astrocytomas (LGA), 18 Anaplastic Astrocytomas (AA) and 26 Glioblastoma Multiforme (GBM) samples were analyzed. Three samples of normal brain tissue (NBT) were used as controls. The expression levels of PTOP, h-TERT, BIRC1 and cyclin D1 were determined by real time PCR and/or western blot. Results obtained shows that PTOP expression in glioma tissues is tightly correlated with clinical grade ( p < 0.01 ). No correlation was found between PTOP expression and other clinicopathologic parameters. The expression of PTOP was positively correlated with the expression of hTERT and TERF1. Furthermore PTOP positively correlates with cyclin D1 and negatively correlates with the expression of BIRC1. Our findings indicate that PTOP might play key role in the progression of glioma regulating telomerase activity and likely through regulation of cell cycle and apoptosis. In conclusion results obtained prompted us to speculate that PTOP might represents a potential molecular bio marker and a therapeutic target for the treatment of glioblastoma tumors.

Keywords: glioblastoma, PTOP, telomere, brain tumors

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Authors: A. M. Abd-Elfattah, M. H. Abu-Moussa

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In this paper, the estimation of stress-strength parameter R = P(Y < X) is considered when X; Y the strength and stress respectively are two independent random variables of Burr Type XII distribution. The samples taken for X and Y are progressively censoring of type II. The maximum likelihood estimator (MLE) of R is obtained when the common parameter is unknown. But when the common parameter is known the MLE, uniformly minimum variance unbiased estimator (UMVUE) and the Bayes estimator of R = P(Y < X) are obtained. The exact condence interval of R based on MLE is obtained. The performance of the proposed estimators is compared using the computer simulation.

Keywords: Burr Type XII distribution, progressive type-II censoring, stress-strength model, unbiased estimator, maximum-likelihood estimator, uniformly minimum variance unbiased estimator, confidence intervals, Bayes estimator

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Authors: Soraia V. M. de Sá, Miguel A. Faria, José O. Fernandes, Sara C. Cunha

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Cereals play a vital role in fulfilling the nutritional needs of children, supplying essential nutrients crucial for their growth and development. However, concerns arise due to children's heightened vulnerability due to their unique physiology, specific dietary requirements, and relatively higher intake in relation to their body weight. This vulnerability exposes them to harmful food contaminants, particularly mycotoxins, prevalent in cereals. Because of the thermal stability of mycotoxins, conventional industrial food processing often falls short of eliminating them. Children, especially those aged 4 months to 12 years, frequently encounter mycotoxins through the consumption of specialized food products, such as instant foods, breakfast cereals, bars, cookie snacks, fruit puree, and various dairy items. A close monitoring of this demographic group's exposure to mycotoxins is essential, as toxins ingestion may weaken children’s immune systems, reduce their resistance to infectious diseases, and potentially lead to cognitive impairments. The severe toxicity of mycotoxins, some of which are classified as carcinogenic, has spurred the establishment and ongoing revision of legislative limits on mycotoxin levels in food and feed globally. While EU Commission Regulation 1881/2006 addresses well-known mycotoxins in processed cereal-based foods and infant foods, the absence of regulations specifically addressing emerging mycotoxins underscores a glaring gap in the regulatory framework, necessitating immediate attention. Emerging mycotoxins have gained mounting scrutiny in recent years due to their pervasive presence in various foodstuffs, notably cereals and cereal-based products. Alarmingly, exposure to multiple mycotoxins is hypothesized to exhibit higher toxicity than isolated effects, raising particular concerns for products primarily aimed at children. This study scrutinizes the presence of 22 mycotoxins of the diverse range of chemical classes in 148 processed cereal-based foods, including 39 breakfast cereals, 25 infant formulas, 27 snacks, 25 cereal bars, and 32 cookies commercially available in Portugal. The analytical approach employed a modified QuEChERS procedure followed by ultra-performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (UPLC-MS/MS) analysis. Given the paucity of information on the risk assessment of children to multiple mycotoxins in cereal and cereal-based products consumed by children of Portugal pioneers the evaluation of this critical aspect. Overall, aflatoxin B1 (AFB1) and aflatoxin G2 (AFG2) emerged as the most prevalent regulated mycotoxins, while enniatin B (ENNB) and sterigmatocystin (STG) were the most frequently detected emerging mycotoxins.

Keywords: cereal-based products, children´s nutrition, food safety, UPLC-MS/MS analysis

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Authors: Ye Zhang, Chuanjun Liu

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In-service aircraft is exposed to different types of threaten, e.g. bird strike, ground vehicle impact, and run-way debris, or even lightning strike, etc. To satisfy the aircraft damage tolerance design requirements, the designer has to understand the threatening level for different types of the aircraft structures, either metallic or composite. Exposing to low-velocity impacts may produce very serious internal damages such as delaminations and matrix cracks without leaving visible mark onto the impacted surfaces for composite structures. This internal damage can cause significant reduction in the load carrying capacity of structures. The semi-probabilistic method provides a practical and proper approximation to establish the impact-threat based energy cut-off level for the damage tolerance evaluation of the aircraft components. Thus, the probabilistic distribution of impact threat and the realistic impact energy level cut-offs are the essential establishments required for the certification of aircraft composite structures. A new survey of impact threat to civil aircraft in-service has recently been carried out based on field records concerning around 500 civil aircrafts (mainly single aisles) and more than 4.8 million flight hours. In total 1,006 damages caused by low-velocity impact events had been screened out from more than 8,000 records including impact dents, scratches, corrosions, delaminations, cracks etc. The impact threat dependency on the location of the aircraft structures and structural configuration was analyzed. Although the survey was mainly focusing on the metallic structures, the resulting low-energy impact data are believed likely representative to general civil aircraft, since the service environments and the maintenance operations are independent of the materials of the structures. The probability of impact damage occurrence (Po) and impact energy exceedance (Pe) are the two key parameters for describing the statistic distribution of impact threat. With the impact damage events from the survey, Po can be estimated as 2.1x10-4 per flight hour. Concerning the calculation of Pe, a numerical model was developed using the commercial FEA software ABAQUS to backward estimate the impact energy based on the visible damage characteristics. The relationship between the visible dent depth and impact energy was established and validated by drop-weight impact experiments. Based on survey results, Pe was calculated and assumed having a log-linear relationship versus the impact energy. As the product of two aforementioned probabilities, Po and Pe, it is reasonable and conservative to assume Pa=PoxPe=10-5, which indicates that the low-velocity impact events are similarly likely as the Limit Load events. Combing Pa with two probabilities Po and Pe obtained based on the field survey, the cutoff level of realistic impact energy was estimated and valued as 34 J. In summary, a new survey was recently done on field records of civil aircraft to investigate the probabilistic distribution of impact threat. Based on the data, two probabilities, Po and Pe, were obtained. Considering a conservative assumption of Pa, the cutoff energy level for the realistic impact energy has been determined, which provides potential applicability in damage tolerance certification of future civil aircraft.

Keywords: composite structure, damage tolerance, impact threat, probabilistic

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Authors: Dongwon Lee, Sunmyeng Kim

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Underwater acoustic networks (UANs) have become a very active research area in recent years. Compared with wireless networks, UANs are characterized by the limited bandwidth, long propagation delay and high channel dynamic in acoustic modems, which pose challenges to the design of medium access control (MAC) protocol. The characteristics severely affect network performance. In this paper, we study a MS-MAC (Multi-Sender MAC) protocol in order to improve network performance. The proposed protocol exploits temporal reuse by learning the propagation delays to neighboring nodes. A source node locally calculates the transmission schedules of its neighboring nodes and itself based on the propagation delays to avoid collisions. Performance evaluation is conducted using simulation, and confirms that the proposed protocol significantly outperforms the previous protocol in terms of throughput.

Keywords: acoustic channel, MAC, temporal reuse, UAN

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Authors: Elvis Nyirenda

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This research study work was done to evaluate and propose an optimum measure to enhance the uptake of clean energy technologies such as solar photovoltaics, the study also aims at enhancing the country’s energy mix from the overdependence on hydro power which is susceptible to droughts and climate change challenges The country in the years 2015 - 2016 and 2018 - 2019 had received rainfall below average due to climate change and a shift in the weather pattern; this resulted in prolonged power outages and load shedding for more than 10 hours per day. ZESCO Limited, the utility company that owns infrastructure in the generation, transmission, and distribution of electricity (state-owned), is seeking alternative sources of energy in order to reduce the over-dependence on hydropower stations. One of the alternative sources of energy is Solar Energy from the sun. However, solar power is intermittent in nature and to smoothen the load curve, investment in robust energy storage facilities is of great importance to enhance security and reliability of electricity supply in the country. The methodology of the study looked at the historical performance of the Kafue gorge upper power station and utilised the hourly generation figures as input data for generation modelling in Homer software. The average yearly demand was derived from the available data on the system SCADA. The two dams were modelled as natural battery with the absolute state of charging and discharging determined by the available water resource and the peak electricity demand. The software Homer Energy System is used to simulate the scheme incorporating a pumped storage facility and Solar photovoltaic systems. The pumped hydro scheme works like a natural battery for the conservation of water, with the only losses being evaporation and water leakages from the dams and the turbines. To address the problem of intermittency on the solar resource and the non-availability of water for hydropower generation, the study concluded that utilising the existing Hydro power stations, Kafue Gorge upper and Kafue Gorge Lower to work conjunctively with Solar energy will reduce power deficits and increase the security of supply for the country. An optimum capacity of 350MW of solar PV can be integrated while operating Kafue Gorge power station in both generating and pumping mode to enable efficient utilisation of water at Kafue Gorge upper Dam and Kafue Gorge Lower dam.

Keywords: hydropower, solar power systems, energy storage, photovoltaics, solar irradiation, pumped hydro storage system, supervisory control and data acquisition, Homer energy

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Authors: Yujie Yuan, Yiyang Fan, Hong Fan

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Objective: The RNA methylation recognition protein Aly/REF export factor (ALYREF) is considered one type of “reader” protein acting as a recognition protein of m5C, has been reported involved in several biological progresses including cancer initiation and progression. 5-methylcytosine (m5C) is a conserved and prevalent RNA modification in all species, as accumulating evidence suggests its role in the promotion of tumorigenesis. It has been claimed that ALYREF mediates nuclear export of mRNA with m5C modification and regulates biological effects of cancer cells. However, the systematical regulatory pathways of ALYREF in cancer tissues have not been clarified, yet. Methods: The expression level of ALYREF in pan-cancer and their normal tissues was compared through the data acquired from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA). The University of Alabama at Birmingham Cancer data analysis Portal UALCAN was used to analyze the relationship between ALYREF and clinical pathological features. The relationship between the expression level of ALYREF and prognosis of pan-cancer, and the correlation genes of ALYREF were figured out by using Gene Expression Correlation Analysis database GEPIA. Immune related genes were obtained from TISIDB (an integrated repository portal for tumor-immune system interactions). Immune-related research was conducted by using Estimation of STromal and Immune cells in MAlignant Tumor tissues using Expression data (ESTIMATE) and TIMER. Results: Based on the data acquired from TCGA, ALYREF has an obviously higher-level expression in various types of cancers compared with relevant normal tissues excluding thyroid carcinoma and kidney chromophobe. The immunohistochemical images on The Human Protein Atlas showed that ALYREF can be detected in cytoplasm, membrane, but mainly located in nuclear. In addition, a higher expression level of ALYREF in tumor tissue generates a poor prognosis in majority of cancers. According to the above results, cancers with a higher expression level of ALYREF compared with normal tissues and a significant correlation between ALYREF and prognosis were selected for further analysis. By using TISIDB, we found that portion of ALYREF co-expression genes (such as BIRC5, H2AFZ, CCDC137, TK1, and PPM1G) with high Pearson correlation coefficient (PCC) were involved in anti-tumor immunity or affect resistance or sensitivity to T cell-mediated killing. Furthermore, based on the results acquired from GEPIA, there was significant correlation between ALYREF and PD-L1. It was exposed that there is a negative correlation between the expression level of ALYREF and ESTIMATE score. Conclusion: The present study indicated that ALYREF plays a vital and universal role in cancer initiation and progression of pan-cancer through regulating mitotic progression, DNA synthesis and metabolic process, and RNA processing. The correlation between ALYREF and PD-L1 implied ALYREF may affect the therapeutic effect of immunotherapy of tumor. More evidence revealed that ALYREF may play an important role in tumor immunomodulation. The correlation between ALYREF and immune cell infiltration level indicated that ALYREF can be a potential therapeutic target. Exploring the regulatory mechanism of ALYREF in tumor tissues may expose the reason for poor efficacy of immunotherapy and offer more directions of tumor treatment.

Keywords: ALYREF, pan-cancer, immunotherapy, PD-L1

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Authors: Laura Frydel, Piotr M. Slomkiewicz, Beata Szczepanik

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Triclosan has been used as a disinfectant in many medical products, such as: hand disinfectant soaps, creams, mouthwashes, pastes and household cleaners. Due to its strong antimicrobial activity, triclosan is becoming more and more popular and the consumption of disinfectants with triclosan in it is increasing. As a result, this compound increasingly finds its way into waters and soils in an unchanged form, pollutes the environment and may have a negative effect on organisms. The aim of this study was to investigate the synthesis of cellulose-based halloysite-carbon adsorbent and perform its characterization. The template in the halloysite-carbon adsorbent was halloysite nanotubes and the carbon precursor was microcrystalline cellulose. Scanning electron microscope (SEM) images were obtained and the elementary composition (qualitative and quantitative) of the sample was determined by energy dispersion spectroscopy (EDS). The identification of the crystallographic composition of the halloysite nanotubes and the sample of the halloysite-carbon composite was carried out using the X-ray powder diffraction (XRPD) method. The FTIR spectra were acquired before and after the adsorption process in order to determine the functional groups on the adsorbent surface and confirm the interactions between adsorbent and adsorbate molecules. The parameters of the porous structure of the adsorbent, such as the specific surface area (Brunauer-Emmett-Teller method), the total pore volume and the volume of mesopores and micropores were determined. Total carbon and total organic carbon were also determined in the samples. A cellulose-based halloysite-carbon adsorbent was used to remove triclosan from water. The degree of removal of triclosan from water was approximately 90%. The results indicate that the halloysite-carbon composite can be successfully used as an effective adsorbent for removing triclosan from water.

Keywords: Adsorption, cellulose, halloysite, triclosan

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Authors: Stephanie Nihan, Jayson M. Fadrigalan, Pyay P. San, Steven M. Santos, Weihui Li

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People of all ages who use wheelchairs are left with the inconvenience of not having an easy way to take their vital signs. Typically, patients are required to visit the hospital in order to take the vital signs. VitalGO is a wheel chair system that equipped with medical devices to take vital signs and then transmit data to a mobile application for convenient, long term health monitoring. The vital signs include oxygen saturation, heart rate, and blood pressure, breathing rate and body temperature. Oxygen saturation and heart rate are monitored through pulse oximeter. Blood pressure is taken through a radar sensor. Breathing rate is derived through thoracic impedance while body temperature is measured through an infrared thermometer. The application receives data through bluetooth and stores in a database for review in a simple graphical interface. The application will have the ability to display this data over various time intervals such as a day, week, month, 3 months, 6 months and a year. The final system for the mobile app can also provide an interface for both the user and their physician(s) to record notes or keep record of daily symptoms that a patient might be having. The user’s doctor will be granted access by the user to view the patient information for assistance with a more accurate diagnosis. Also, this wheelchair accessory conveniently includes a foldable table/desk as somewhere to place an electronic device that may be used to access the app. The foldable table will overall contribute to the wheelchair user’s increased comfort and will give them somewhere to place food, a book, or any other form of entertainment that would normally be hard to juggle on their lap.

Keywords: wheel chair, vital sign, mobile application, telemedicine

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Authors: Virendra Nath, Vipin Kumar

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Background: TypeII Diabetes mellitus is a foremost health problem worldwide, predisposing to increased mortality and morbidity. Undesirable effects of the current medications have prompted the researcher to develop more potential drug(s) against the disease. The peroxisome proliferator-activated receptors (PPARs) are members of the nuclear receptors family and take part in a vital role in the regulation of metabolic equilibrium. They can induce or repress genes associated with adipogenesis, lipid, and glucose metabolism. Aims: Investigation of PPARα/γ agonistic hits were screened by hierarchical virtual screening followed by molecular dynamics simulation and knowledge-based structure-activity relation (SAR) analysis using approved PPAR α/γ dual agonist. Methods: The PPARα/γ agonistic activity of compounds was searched by using Maestro through structure-based virtual screening and molecular dynamics (MD) simulation application. Virtual screening of nuclear-receptor ligands was done, and the binding modes with protein-ligand interactions of newer entity(s) were investigated. Further, binding energy prediction, Stability studies using molecular dynamics (MD) simulation of PPARα and γ complex was performed with the most promising hit along with the structural comparative analysis of approved PPARα/γ agonists with screened hit was done for knowledge-based SAR. Results and Discussion: The silicone chip-based approach recognized the most capable nine hits and had better predictive binding energy as compared to the reference drug compound (Tesaglitazar). In this study, the key amino acid residues of binding pockets of both targets PPARα/γ were acknowledged as essential and were found to be associated in the key interactions with the most potential dual hit (ChemDiv-3269-0443). Stability studies using molecular dynamics (MD) simulation of PPARα and γ complex was performed with the most promising hit and found root mean square deviation (RMSD) stabile around 2Å and 2.1Å, respectively. Frequency distribution data also revealed that the key residues of both proteins showed maximum contacts with a potent hit during the MD simulation of 20 nanoseconds (ns). The knowledge-based SAR studies of PPARα/γ agonists were studied using 2D structures of approved drugs like aleglitazar, tesaglitazar, etc. for successful designing and synthesis of compounds PPARγ agonistic candidates with anti-hyperlipidimic potential.

Keywords: computational, diabetes, PPAR, simulation

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Authors: Abdelhadi Nadjer

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The structure of the text to the systemic school -(glossématique-Helmslev). At the beginning of the note we have a cursory look around the concepts of general linguistics The science that studies scientific study of human language based on the description and preview the facts away from the trend of education than we gave a detailed overview the founder of systemic school and most important customers and more methods and curriculum theory and analysis they extend to all humanities, practical action each offset by a theoretical and the procedure can be analyzed through the elements that pose as another method we talked to its links with other language schools where they are based on the sharp criticism of the language before and deflected into consideration for the field of language and its erection has outside or language network and its participation in the actions (non-linguistic) and after that we started our Valglosamatik analytical structure of the text is ejected text terminal or all of the words to was put for expression. This text Negotiable divided into types in turn are divided into classes and class should not be carrying a contradiction and be inclusive. It is on the same materials as described relationships that combine language and seeks to describe their relations and identified.

Keywords: text, language schools, linguistics, human language

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Authors: Bernard Kumi-Boateng, Kofi Bonsu

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The clearing of vegetation in the Tarkwa Mining Area (TMA) for the purposes of mining, lumbering and development of settlement for the increasing population has caused a large scale denudation of the forest cover and erosion of the top soil thereby degrading the agriculture land. It is, therefore, essential to know the current status of land degradation in TMA so as to facilitate land conservation policy-making. The types of degradation, the extents of the degradations and their various degrees were combined to develop a composite land degradation index to assess the current status of land degradation in TMA using GIS based techniques. The assessment revealed that the most significant types of degradation in TMA were open pit and quarry mining; urbanisation and other construction projects; and surface scraping during land clearing. It was found that 21.62 % of the total area of TMA (353.07 km2) had high degradation index rating. It is recommended that decision makers use this assessment as a reference point for future initiatives that will be taken in order to develop land conservation policy.

Keywords: degradation, GIS, land, mining

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Authors: Justina Ijeoma Ezebuwa, Catherine C. Ikewuchi, Eka B. Essien, Francis C. Anacletus

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Iron deficiency anemia (IDA) is a significant problem in Nigeria, especially in children under five. Intervention options for treating anemia in under-five children have also been the subject of research. This study aims to synthesize the evidence on dietary interventions for managing iron deficiency anemia in under-five children in Nigeria. This study uses a systematic review method to collect relevant studies to answer the research questions and a narrative synthesis to analyze and synthesize the findings of this study. Cochrane, PubMed, and ScienceDirect databases were thoroughly searched, and five (5) articles were selected for this study. The results show that dietary interventions, such as daily multi-nutrient fortified dairy-based drinks, biofortified (yellow/ white) cassava rich in pro-vitamin A, iron supplementation in foods, and ready-to-use therapeutic food (RUTF) may be relevant to the management of iron deficiency anemia in under-five children in Nigeria. The study also shows that daily multi-nutrient fortified dairy-based drinks may be more effective, feasible, and culturally acceptable for managing anemia in under-5 children in Nigeria. In addition, daily multi-nutrient fortified dairy-based drinks and ready-to-use therapeutic food (RUTF) were reported to have the potential to improve the growth, cognitive development, and overall health outcomes of under-five children with iron deficiency anemia in Nigeria. Recommendations for future studies in this research area and for public health practitioners and policymakers were provided.

Keywords: dietary intervention, iron deficiency anemia, under-five children, Nigeria

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Authors: K. Yahia, M. Sahraoui, A. Guettaf

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This paper deals with the problem of stator faults diagnosis in induction motors. Using the discrete wavelet transform (DWT) for the current Park’s vector modulus (CPVM) analysis, the inter-turn short-circuit faults diagnosis can be achieved. This method is based on the decomposition of the CPVM signal, where wavelet approximation and detail coefficients of this signal have been extracted. The energy evaluation of a known bandwidth detail permits to define a fault severity factor (FSF). This method has been tested through the simulation of an induction motor using a mathematical model based on the winding-function approach. Simulation, as well as experimental results, show the effectiveness of the used method.

Keywords: induction motors (IMs), inter-turn short-circuits diagnosis, discrete wavelet transform (DWT), Current Park’s Vector Modulus (CPVM)

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Authors: Analiza Acuña-Villacorte

Abstract:

The underlying principle behind the harmonization in international education does not solely aim for the comparability but also the compatibility of outputs produced. The international standard in the different professions particularly in engineering defines the required graduate attributes to attain suitable qualifications and recognitions. This study described the language practices of the Electronics Engineering students of Bulacan State University, Philippines who will be deployed for their internship program. The purpose of the study was achieved by determining the language proficiency of the students in terms of speaking, listening, reading, and writing, and checking the adherence of the University to the commitment of intensifying community building for the Association of Southeast Asian Nation Vision 2020. The analysis of variance of the variables defined the significance between the causal variables and dependent variables. Thus, this study identified the mechanism that would regulate language practices in the Electronics Engineering program.

Keywords: communicative competence, language practices, mechanisms, outcomes-based education

Procedia PDF Downloads 287