Search results for: occupants' physiological response

Authors: Nour Tawil, Sandra Weber, Kirsten K. Roessler, Martin Mau, Simone Kuhn

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The link between “quality” residential environments and human health and well-being has long been proposed. While the physical properties of a sound environment have been fairly defined, little focus has been given to the psychological impact of architectural elements. Recently, studies have investigated the response to architectural parameters, using measures of physiology, brain activity, and emotion. Results showed different aspects of interest: detailed and open versus blank and closed facades, patterns in perceiving different elements, and a visual bias for capturing faces in buildings. However, in the absence of a consensus on methodologies, the available studies remain unsystematic and face many limitations regarding the underpinning psychological mechanisms. To bridge some of these gaps, an online study was launched to investigate design features that influence the aesthetic judgement and emotional evaluation of house facades, using a well-controlled stimulus set of Canadian houses. A methodical modelling of design features will be performed to extract both high and low level image properties, in addition to segmentation of layout-related features. 300 participants from Canada, Denmark, and Germany will rate the images on twelve psychological dimensions representing appealing aspects of a house. Subjective ratings are expected to correlate with specific architectural elements while controlling for typicality and familiarity, and other individual differences. With the lack of relevant studies, this research aims to identify architectural elements of beneficial qualities that can inform design strategies for optimized residential spaces.

Keywords: architectural elements, emotions, psychological response, residential facades.

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Authors: Huayang Yu, Nicola Ingram, David C. Green, Paul D. Thornton

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The dual stimuli-controlled release of doxorubicin from gel-embedded nanoparticles is reported. Non-cytotoxic polymer nanoparticles are formed from poly(ethylene glycol)-b-poly(benzyl glutamate) that, uniquely, contain a central ester link. This connection renders the nanoparticles pH-responsive, enabling extensive doxorubicin release in acidic solutions (pH 6.5), but not in solutions of physiological pH (pH 7.4). Doxorubicin loaded nanoparticles were found to be stable for at least 31 days and lethal against the three breast cancer cell lines tested. Furthermore, doxorubicin-loaded nanoparticles could be incorporated within a thermoresponsive poly(2-hydroxypropyl methacrylate) gel depot, which forms immediately upon injection of poly(2-hydroxypropyl methacrylate) into aqueous solution. The combination of the poly(2-hydroxypropyl methacrylate) gel and poly(ethylene glycol)-b-poly(benzyl glutamate) nanoparticles yields an injectable doxorubicin delivery system that facilities near-complete drug release when maintained at elevated temperatures (37 °C) in acidic solution (pH 6.5). In contrast, negligible payload release occurs when the material is stored at room temperature in a non-acidic solution (pH 7.4). The system has great potential as a vehicle for the prolonged, site-specific release of chemotherapeutics.

Keywords: biodegradable, nanoparticle, polymer, thermoresponsive

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Authors: Vasudha Thapa, Kiran Chappa

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There is a pressing need to prepare cities in the developing countries of the global south such as India against the chaos created by COVID 19 pandemic and future disaster risks. This pandemic posed the nation with an unprecedented challenge of dealing with a wave of stranded migrant workers. These workers comprise the most vulnerable section of the society in case of any pandemic or disaster risks. The COVID 19 pandemic exposed the vulnerability of migrant workers in the urban form and the need for capacity-building strategies against future pandemics. This paper highlights the challenges of these migrant workers in the case of Mumbai city in lockdown, post lockdown, and the current uncertain scenarios. The paper deals with a thorough investigation of the existing and the recent policies and strategies taken by the Urban Local Bodies (ULBs), state, and central government to assist these migrants in the city during this mayhem of uncertainties. The paper looks further deep into the challenges and opportunities presented in the current scenario through the assessment of existing data and response to policy measures taken by the government organizations. The ULBs are at the forefront in the response to any disaster risk, hence the paper assesses the capacity gaps of the Urban local bodies in mitigating the risks posed by any pandemic-like situation. The study further recommends capacity-building strategies at various levels of governance and uniform policy measures to assist the migrant population of the city.

Keywords: urban resilience, covid 19, migrant population, India, capacity building, governance

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Authors: Rajpal Kaur, Pooja Choudhary

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Biometrics, which refers to identifying an individual based on his or her physiological or behavioral characteristics, has the capabilities to the reliably distinguish between an authorized person and an imposter. The Signature recognition systems can categorized as offline (static) and online (dynamic). This paper presents Surf Feature based recognition of offline signatures system that is trained with low-resolution scanned signature images. The signature of a person is an important biometric attribute of a human being which can be used to authenticate human identity. However the signatures of human can be handled as an image and recognized using computer vision and HMM techniques. With modern computers, there is need to develop fast algorithms for signature recognition. There are multiple techniques are defined to signature recognition with a lot of scope of research. In this paper, (static signature) off-line signature recognition & verification using surf feature with HMM is proposed, where the signature is captured and presented to the user in an image format. Signatures are verified depended on parameters extracted from the signature using various image processing techniques. The Off-line Signature Verification and Recognition is implemented using Mat lab platform. This work has been analyzed or tested and found suitable for its purpose or result. The proposed method performs better than the other recently proposed methods.

Keywords: offline signature verification, offline signature recognition, signatures, SURF features, HMM

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Authors: Ratna Farida Soenarto, Anas Alatas, Made Ryan Kharmayani

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Background: Conventional ultrafiltration (CUF) system was shown to be helpful in reducing anti-inflammatory mediators for patients who underwent open heart surgery. Additionally, modified ultrafiltration (MUF) has been shown to reduce anti-inflammatory mediators further while reducing interstitial fluid volume at the same time. However, there has been minimal data concerning the efficacy of combining both ultrafiltration methods. This study aims to compare inflammation marker, vascular resistance, and cardiac index on CUF+MUF patients with CUF only patients undergoing open heart surgery. Method: This is a single blind randomized controlled trial on patients undergoing open heart surgery between June 2021 - October 2021 in CiptoMangunkusumo National Referral Hospital and Jakarta Heart Hospital. Patients wererandomized using block randomization into modified ultrafiltration following conventional ultrafiltration (CUF+MUF) and conventional ultrafiltration (CUF) only. Outcome assessed in this study were 24-hoursinterleukin-6 levels, systemic vascular resistance (SVR), pulmonary vascular resistance (PVR), and cardiac index. Results: A total of 38patients were included (19 CUF+MUF and 19 CUF subjects). There was no difference in postoperative IL-6 level between groups (p > 0.05).No difference in PVR was observed between groups.Higher difference in SVR was observed in CUF+MUF group (-646 vs. -261dyn/s/cm-5, p < 0.05). Higher cardiac index was observed on CUF+MUF group (0.93 vs. 0.48, p < 0.05). Conclusion: Patients undergoing open heart surgery with modified ultrafiltration following conventional ultrafiltration had similar systemic inflammatory response and better cardiac response than those having conventional ultrafiltration.

Keywords: open-heart, CUF, MUF, SVR, PVR, IL-6

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Authors: Aamir Mubashar, Ibrahim Fiaz

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This research presents a three-dimensional finite element modelling strategy to simulate damage in a quasi-static three-point bending analysis of woven twill 2/2 type carbon fibre reinforced plastic (CFRP) composite on a micro-meso level using cohesive zone modelling technique. A meso scale finite element model comprised of a number of plies was developed in the commercial finite element code Abaqus/explicit. The interfaces between the plies were explicitly modelled using cohesive zone elements to allow for debonding by crack initiation and propagation. Load-deflection response of the CRFP within the quasi-static range was obtained and compared with the data existing in the literature. This provided validation of the model at the global scale. The outputs resulting from the global model were then used to develop a simulation model capturing the micro-meso scale material features. The sub-model consisted of a refined mesh representative volume element (RVE) modelled in texgen software, which was later embedded with cohesive elements in the finite element software environment. The results obtained from the developed strategy were successful in predicting the overall load-deflection response and the damage in global and sub-model at the flexure limit of the specimen. Detailed analysis of the effects of the micro-scale features was carried out.

Keywords: woven composites, multi-scale modelling, cohesive zone, finite element model

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Authors: Giuseppe Timperio, Robert De Souza

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The combination of factors such as temperamental climate change, rampant urbanization of risk exposed areas, political and social instabilities, is posing an alarming base for the further growth of number and magnitude of humanitarian crises worldwide. Given the unique features of humanitarian supply chain such as unpredictability of demand in space, time, and geography, spike in the number of requests for relief items in the first days after the calamity, uncertain state of logistics infrastructures, large volumes of unsolicited low-priority items, a proactive approach towards design of disaster response operations is needed to achieve high agility in mobilization of emergency supplies in the immediate aftermath of the event. This paper is an attempt in that direction, and it provides decision makers with crucial strategic insights for a more effective network design for disaster response. Decision sciences and ICT are integrated to analyse the robustness and resilience of a prepositioned network of emergency strategic stockpiles for a real-life case about Indonesia, one of the most vulnerable countries in Asia-Pacific, with the model being built upon a rich set of quantitative data. At this aim, a network optimization approach was implemented, with several what-if scenarios being accurately developed and tested. Findings of this study are able to support decision makers facing challenges related with disaster relief chains resilience, particularly about optimal configuration of supply chain facilities and optimal flows across the nodes, while considering the network structure from an end-to-end in-country distribution perspective.

Keywords: disaster preparedness, humanitarian logistics, network optimization, resilience

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Authors: Óscar Muñoz Garrigós, José Manuel Bernabeu Aubán

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Time-sensitive services are the base of the cloud services industry. Keeping low service saturation is essential for controlling response time. All auto-scalable services make use of reactive auto-scaling. However, reactive auto-scaling has few in-depth studies. This presentation shows a model for reactive auto-scaling methodologies with a MAPE-k architecture. Queuing theory can compute different properties of static services but lacks some parameters related to the transition between models. Our model uses queuing theory parameters to relate the transition between models. It associates MAPE-k related times, the sampling frequency, the cooldown period, the number of requests that an instance can handle per unit of time, the number of incoming requests at a time instant, and a function that describes the acceleration in the service's ability to handle more requests. This model is later used as a solution to horizontally auto-scale time-sensitive services composed of microservices, reevaluating the model’s parameters periodically to allocate resources. The solution requires limiting the acceleration of the growth in the number of incoming requests to keep a constrained response time. Business benefits determine such limits. The solution can add a dynamic number of instances and remains valid under different system sizes. The study includes performance recommendations to improve results according to the incoming load shape and business benefits. The exposed methodology is tested in a simulation. The simulator contains a load generator and a service composed of two microservices, where the frontend microservice depends on a backend microservice with a 1:1 request relation ratio. A common request takes 2.3 seconds to be computed by the service and is discarded if it takes more than 7 seconds. Both microservices contain a load balancer that assigns requests to the less loaded instance and preemptively discards requests if they are not finished in time to prevent resource saturation. When load decreases, instances with lower load are kept in the backlog where no more requests are assigned. If the load grows and an instance in the backlog is required, it returns to the running state, but if it finishes the computation of all requests and is no longer required, it is permanently deallocated. A few load patterns are required to represent the worst-case scenario for reactive systems: the following scenarios test response times, resource consumption and business costs. The first scenario is a burst-load scenario. All methodologies will discard requests if the rapidness of the burst is high enough. This scenario focuses on the number of discarded requests and the variance of the response time. The second scenario contains sudden load drops followed by bursts to observe how the methodology behaves when releasing resources that are lately required. The third scenario contains diverse growth accelerations in the number of incoming requests to observe how approaches that add a different number of instances can handle the load with less business cost. The exposed methodology is compared against a multiple threshold CPU methodology allocating/deallocating 10 or 20 instances, outperforming the competitor in all studied metrics.

Keywords: reactive auto-scaling, auto-scaling, microservices, cloud computing

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Authors: Kelly F. Delgado-De Agrela, Sonia E. Ruiz, Marco A. Santos-Santiago

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An approach is proposed for the design of regular buildings equipped with non-linear viscous dissipating devices. The approach is based on a direct-displacement seismic design method which satisfies seismic performance objectives. The global system involved is formed by structural regular moment frames capable of supporting gravity and lateral loads with elastic response behavior plus a set of non-linear viscous dissipating devices which reduce the structural seismic response. The dampers are characterized by two design parameters: (1) a positive real exponent α which represents the non-linearity of the damper, and (2) the damping coefficient C of the device, whose constitutive force-velocity law is given by F=Cvᵃ, where v is the velocity between the ends of the damper. The procedure is carried out using a substitute structure. Two limits states are verified: serviceability and near collapse. The reduction of the spectral ordinates by the additional damping assumed in the design process and introduced to the structure by the viscous non-linear dampers is performed according to a damping reduction factor. For the design of the non-linear damper system, the real velocity is considered instead of the pseudo-velocity. The proposed design methodology is applied to an 8-story steel moment frame building equipped with non-linear viscous dampers, located in intermediate soil zone of Mexico City, with a dominant period Tₛ = 1s. In order to validate the approach, nonlinear static analyses and nonlinear time history analyses are performed.

Keywords: based design, direct-displacement based design, non-linear viscous dampers, performance design

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Authors: Saeed Asiri, Yousuf Z. AL-Zahrani

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A new class of support structures, called periodic structures, is introduced in this paper as a viable means for isolating the vibration transmitted from the sea waves to offshore platform structures through its legs. A passive approach to reduce transmitted vibration generated by waves is presented. The approach utilizes the property of periodic structural components that creates stop and pass bands. The stop band regions can be tailored to correspond to regions of the frequency spectra that contain harmonics of the wave frequency, attenuating the response in those regions. A periodic structural component is comprised of a repeating array of cells, which are themselves an assembly of elements. The elements may have differing material properties as well as geometric variations. For the purpose of this research, only geometric and material variations are considered and each cell is assumed to be identical. A periodic leg is designed in order to reduce transmitted vibration of sea waves. The effectiveness of the periodicity on the vibration levels of platform will be demonstrated theoretically. The theory governing the operation of this class of periodic structures is introduced using the transfer matrix method. The unique filtering characteristics of periodic structures are demonstrated as functions of their design parameters for structures with geometrical and material discontinuities; and determine the propagation factor by using the spectral finite element analysis and the effectiveness of design on the leg structure by changing the ratio of step length and area interface between the materials is demonstrated in order to find the propagation factor and frequency response.

Keywords: vibrations, periodic structures, offshore, platforms, transfer matrix method

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Authors: Eva Tvrdá, Hana Greifová, Peter Ivanič, Norbert Lukáč

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The aim of this study was to evaluate the dose- and time-dependent in vitro effects of berberine (BER), a natural alkaloid with numerous biological properties on bovine spermatozoa during three time periods (0 h, 2 h, 24 h). Bovine semen samples were diluted and cultivated in physiological saline solution containing 0.5% DMSO together with 200, 100, 50, 10, 5, and 1 μmol/L BER. Spermatozoa motility was assessed using the computer assisted semen analyzer. The viability of spermatozoa was assessed by the metabolic (MTT) assay, production of superoxide radicals was quantified using the nitroblue tetrazolium (NBT) test, and chemiluminescence was used to evaluate the generation of reactive oxygen species (ROS). Cell lysates were prepared and the extent of lipid peroxidation (LPO) was evaluated using the TBARS assay. The results of the movement activity showed a significant increase in the motility during long term cultivation in case of concentrations ranging between 1 and 10 μmol/L BER (P < 0.01; P < 0.001; 24 h). At the same time, supplementation of 1, 5 and 10 μmol/L BER led to a significant preservation of the cell viability (P < 0.001; 24 h). BER addition at a range of 1-50 μmol/L also provided a significantly higher protection against superoxide (P < 0.05) and ROS (P < 0.001; P < 0.01) overgeneration as well as LPO (P < 0.01; P<0.05) after a 24 h cultivation. We may suggest that supplementation of BER to bovine spermatozoa, particularly at concentrations ranging between 1 and 50 μmol/L, may offer protection to the motility, viability and oxidative status of the spermatozoa, particularly notable at 24 h.

Keywords: berberine, bulls, motility, oxidative profile, spermatozoa, viability

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Authors: Zong Yan Cai, Wen-Chyuan Chen, Chih-Min Wu

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The purpose of this study was to investigate the acute effects of local vibration on muscle activation, metabolic and hormone responses. Totally 12 healthy, physically inactive, male adults participated in this study and completed LV exercise session. During LV exercise session, four custom-made vibrations (diameter: 20 mm; thickness: 8 mm; weight: 0.022 g) were locally placed over the belly of the thigh of each subject’s non-dominant leg in supine lying position, and subjects received 10 sets for 1 min at the frequency of 35-40Hz, with 1–2 min of rest between sets. The surface electromyography (EMG) were obtained from the vastus medialis and rectus femoris, and the subjects’ rating of perceived exertion (RPE) and heart rate (HR) were measured. EMG data, RPE values as well as HR were obtained by averaging the results of 10 sets of each exercise session. Blood samples were drawn before exercise, immediately after exercise, and 15min and 30min after exercise in each session for analysis of lactic acid (LA), growth hormone (GH), testosterone (T) and cortisol (C). The results indicated that the HR did not increase after LV (63.18±3.5 to 63.25±2.58 beat/min, p > 0.05). The average RPE values during the LV exposure were at 2.86±0.39. The root mean square % EMG values from the vastus medialis and rectus femoris were 19.02±2.19 and 8.25±2.20 respectively. There were no significant differences after acute LV exercise among LA, GH and T values as compared with baseline values (LA: 0.68±0.11 to 0.7±0.1 mmol/L; GH: 0.06±0.05 to 0.57±0.27 ng/mL; T: 551.33±46.62 to 520.42±43.78 ng/dL, p>0.05). However, the LV treatment caused a significant decrease in C values after exercise (16.56±1.05 to 11.64±1.85 nmol/L, p<0.05). In conclusion, acute LV exercise only slightly increase muscle activation which may not cause effective exercise response. However, acute LV exercise reduces C level, which may reduce the catabolic response. The probable reason might partly due to the vibration rhythmically which massage on muscles.

Keywords: cortisol, growth hormone, lactic acid, testosterone

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Authors: Jinfeng Zhang, Chun-Sing Lee

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The use of different nanocarriers for delivering hydrophobic pharmaceutical agents to tumor sites has garnered major attention. Despite the merits of these nanocarriers, further studies are needed for improving their drug loading capacities (typically less than 10%) and reducing their potential systemic toxicity. So development of alternative self-carried nanodrug delivery strategies without using any inert carriers is highly desirable. In this study, we developed a self-carried theranostic curcumin (Cur) nanodrug for highly effective cancer therapy in vitro and in vivo with real-time monitoring of drug release. With a biocompatible C18PMH-PEG functionalization, the Cur nanoparticles (NPs) showed excellent dispersibility and outstanding stability in physiological environment, with drug loading capacity higher than 78 wt.%. Both confocal microscopy and flow cytometry confirmed the cellular fluorescent “OFF-ON” activation and real-time monitoring of Cur molecule release, showing its potential for cancer diagnosis. In vitro and in vivo experiments clearly show that therapeutic efficacy of the PEGylated Cur NPs is much better than that of free Cur. This self-carried theranostic strategy with real-time monitoring of drug release may open a new way for simultaneous cancer therapy and diagnosis.

Keywords: drug delivery, in vitro and in vivo cancer therapy, real-time monitoring, self-carried

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Authors: F. Haddadj, S. Hamdi, M. Khames, A. Kadi, S. Zenia, A. Smai, H. Saadi, B. Doumandji-Mitiche

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The use of a biopesticide based on a microorganism scale requires particular care including safety against the useful auxiliary fauna and mammals among other human beings. Due to its persistence in soil and its apparent human and animal safety, Beauveria bassiana is a cryptogram used for controlling pests organizations, particularly in the locust where its effectiveness has been proven by several highly studies. This fungus is also called for greater respect for biotic communities and the environment. Indeed, biopesticides have several environmental benefits: biodegradability, their activity and selectivity decrease unintended non-target species effects, decreased resistance to some of them. It is in this sense that we contribute by presenting our work on the safety of B. bassiana against mammals. For this we conducted a toxicological study of this fungus strain on Wistar rats Rattus norvegicus, first its effect on weight gain. In a second time were performed histological target organ is the liver. After 20 days of treatment, the results of the toxicological studies have shown that B. bassiana caused no change in the physiological state of rats or weight gain, behavior and diet. On cuts in liver histology revealed no disturbance on the organ.

Keywords: entomopathogenic fungus, B. bassiana, Rattus norvegicus, toxicological study, environment

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Authors: Ahmed Mantawy, James C. Anderson

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Numerous cases of earthquakes (main-shocks) that were followed by aftershocks have been recorded in California. In 1992 a pair of strong earthquakes occurred within three hours of each other in Southern California. The first shock occurred near the community of Landers and was assigned a magnitude of 7.3 then the second shock occurred near the city of Big Bear about 20 miles west of the initial shock and was assigned a magnitude of 6.2. In the same year, a series of three earthquakes occurred over two days in the Cape-Mendocino area of Northern California. The main-shock was assigned a magnitude of 7.0 while the second and the third shocks were both assigned a value of 6.6. This paper investigates the effect of a main-shock accompanied with aftershocks of significant intensity on reinforced concrete (RC) frame buildings to indicate nonlinear behavior using PERFORM-3D software. A 6-story building in San Bruno and a 20-story building in North Hollywood were selected for the study as both of them have RC moment resisting frame systems. The buildings are also instrumented at multiple floor levels as a part of the California Strong Motion Instrumentation Program (CSMIP). Both buildings have recorded responses during past events such as Loma-Prieta and Northridge earthquakes which were used in verifying the response parameters of the numerical models in PERFORM-3D. The verification of the numerical models shows good agreement between the calculated and the recorded response values. Then, different scenarios of a main-shock followed by a series of aftershocks from real cases in California were applied to the building models in order to investigate the structural behavior of the moment-resisting frame system. The behavior was evaluated in terms of the lateral floor displacements, the ductility demands, and the inelastic behavior at critical locations. The analysis results showed that permanent displacements may have happened due to the plastic deformation during the main-shock that can lead to higher displacements during after-shocks. Also, the inelastic response at plastic hinges during the main-shock can change the hysteretic behavior during the aftershocks. Higher ductility demands can also occur when buildings are subjected to trains of ground motions compared to the case of individual ground motions. A general conclusion is that the occurrence of aftershocks following an earthquake can lead to increased damage within the elements of an RC frame buildings. Current code provisions for seismic design do not consider the probability of significant aftershocks when designing a new building in zones of high seismic activity.

Keywords: reinforced concrete, existing buildings, aftershocks, damage accumulation

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Authors: Kien Vu, Jien Min Soh, Mohamed Jahangir Abubacker, Piyawut Pattamanon, Soojin Lee, Suvro Banerjee

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Recent advances in Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI), in particular Large Language Models (LLMs) have shown promise to disrupt multiple industries at scale. However, LLMs also present unique challenges, notably, these so-called "hallucination" which is the generation of outputs that are not grounded in the input data that hinders its adoption into production. Common practice to mitigate hallucination problem is utilizing Retrieval Agmented Generation (RAG) system to ground LLMs'response to ground truth. RAG converts the grounding documents into embeddings, retrieve the relevant parts with vector similarity between user's query and documents, then generates a response that is not only based on its pre-trained knowledge but also on the specific information from the retrieved documents. However, the RAG system is not suitable for tabular data and subsequent data analysis tasks due to multiple reasons such as information loss, data format, and retrieval mechanism. In this study, we have explored a novel methodology that combines planning-and-execution and code generation agents to enhance LLMs' data analysis capabilities. The approach enables LLMs to autonomously dissect a complex analytical task into simpler sub-tasks and requirements, then convert them into executable segments of code. In the final step, it generates the complete response from output of the executed code. When deployed beta version on DataSense, the property insight tool of PropertyGuru, the approach yielded promising results, as it was able to provide market insights and data visualization needs with high accuracy and extensive coverage by abstracting the complexities for real-estate agents and developers from non-programming background. In essence, the methodology not only refines the analytical process but also serves as a strategic tool for real estate professionals, aiding in market understanding and enhancement without the need for programming skills. The implication extends beyond immediate analytics, paving the way for a new era in the real estate industry characterized by efficiency and advanced data utilization.

Keywords: large language model, reasoning, planning and execution, code generation, natural language processing, prompt engineering, data analysis, real estate, data sense, PropertyGuru

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Authors: Kanika S. Raheja, A. Pandey, Shaila Bahl, Pratik Kumar, S. P. Lochab

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The subject of undertaking for this paper is the study of BaSO4 nanophosphor doped with Europium in which mainly the concentration of the rare earth impurity Eu (0.05, 0.1, 0.2, 0.5, and 1 mol %) has been varied. A comparative study of the thermoluminescence(TL) properties of the given nanophosphor has also been done using a well-known standard dosimetry material i.e. TLD-100.Firstly, a number of samples were prepared successfully by the chemical co-precipitation method. The whole lot was then compared to a well established standard material (TLD-100) for its TL sensitivity property. BaSO4:Eu ( 0.2 mol%) showed the highest sensitivity out of the lot. It was also found that when compared to the standard TLD-100, BaSo4:Eu (0.2mol%) showed surprisingly high sensitivity for a large range of doses. The TL response curve for all prepared samples has also been studied over a wide range of doses i.e 10Gy to 2kGy for gamma radiation. Almost all the samples of BaSO4:Eu showed a remarkable linearity for a broad range of doses, which is a characteristic feature of a fine TL dosimeter. The graph remained linear even beyond 1kGy for gamma radiation. Thus, the given nanophosphor has been successfully optimised for the concentration of the dopant material to achieve its highest TL sensitivity. Further, the comparative study with the standard material revealed that the current optimised sample shows an astonishingly better TL sensitivity and a phenomenal linear response curve for an incredibly wide range of doses for gamma radiation (Co-60) as compared to the standard TLD-100, which makes the current optimised BaSo4:Eu quite promising as an efficient gamma radiation dosimeter. Lastly, the present phosphor has been optimised for its annealing temperature to acquire the best results while also studying its fading and reusability properties.

Keywords: gamma radiation, nanoparticles, radiation dosimetry, thermoluminescence

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Authors: So-Ra Lee, Myung-Min Oh

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Generally, plants growing on the earth are under the influence of natural electric fields and may even require exposure of the electric field to survive. Electric signals have been observed within plants and seem to play an important role on various metabolic processes, but their role is not fully understood. In this study, we attempted to explore the response of plants under external electric fields in kale (Brassica oleracea var. acephala). The plants were hydroponically grown for 28 days in a plant factory. Electric currents at 10, 50 and 100 mA were supplied to nutrient solution for 3 weeks. Additionally, some of the plants were cultivated in a Faraday cage to remove the natural electric field. Kale plants exposed to electric fields had higher fresh weight than the control and plants in Faraday cage. Absence of electric field caused a significant decrease in shoot dry weight and root growth. Leaf area also showed a similar response with shoot fresh weight. Supplying weak electric stimulation enhanced nutritional quality including total phenolic content and antioxidant capacity. This work provides basic information on the effects of electric fields on plants and is a meaningful attempt for developing a new economical technology to increase crop productivity and quality by applying an electric field. This work was supported by Korea Institute of Planning and Evaluation for Technology in Food, Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (IPET) through Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs Research Center Support Program, funded by Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs (MAFRA) (717001-07-02-HD240).

Keywords: electroculture, electric signal, faraday cage, electric field

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Authors: Bouhafara Djaber, Menail Younes, Mesrafet Farouk, Aissaoui Mohammed Islem

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This article presents results of experimental investigations of the durability of (GFRP) composite exposed to typical environments of marine industries applications,The use of fiber-glass reinforced polyester composites in marine applications such as Hulls of voyage boats and hulls of small vessels for the military navy , this type of composite is becoming attractive because of their reduced weight and improved corrosion resistance. However,a deep understating of oil ageing effect on composite structures is essential to ensure long-term performance and durability. in this work evaluate the effect of oil ageing on absorptıon behavıor and ımpact properties of glass/polyester composites manufactured with two types of fiber fabrics (fibreglass mat and fiberglass woven roving) and isophthalic polyester resin. The specimens obtained from commercial (GFRP) profiles made of unsaturated polyester resin were subjected to immersion in (i) marine oil for boats and (ii) salt water at ambient temperature for up to 1 month. The effects of such exposure conditions on this types of profile we analysed in what concerns their (i) mass change,(ii) mechanical response in impact, namely on the mechanical response – oil immersion caused a higher level of degradation, compared with salt water immersion;fracture surface examination by scanning electron microscopy revealed delamination, fiber debonding and resin crumbling due to oil effect.

Keywords: Marine Engine Oil, Absorption, Polyester, Glass Fibre

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Authors: G. V. Novikov, V. S. Sivozhelezov, S. S. Kolesnikov, K. V. Shaitan

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The study reports about the influence of binding of orthosteric ligands as well as point mutations on the conformational dynamics of β-2-adrenoreceptor. Using molecular dynamics simulation we found that there was a little fraction of active states of the receptor in its apo (ligand free) ensemble corresponded to its constitutive activity. Analysis of MD trajectories indicated that such spontaneous activation of the receptor is accompanied by the motion in intracellular part of its alpha-helices. Thus receptor’s constitutive activity directly results from its conformational dynamics. On the other hand the binding of a full agonist resulted in a significant shift of the initial equilibrium towards its active state. Finally, the binding of the inverse agonist stabilized the receptor in its inactive state. It is likely that the binding of inverse agonists might be a universal way of constitutive activity inhibition in vivo. Our results indicate that ligand binding redistribute pre-existing conformational degrees of freedom (in accordance to the Monod-Wyman-Changeux-Model) of the receptor rather than cause induced fit in it. Therefore, the ensemble of biologically relevant receptor conformations is encoded in its spatial structure, and individual conformations from that ensemble might be used by the cell in conformity with the physiological behaviour.

Keywords: seven-transmembrane receptors, constitutive activity, activation, x-ray crystallography, principal component analysis, molecular dynamics simulation

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Authors: Ishani Majumdar, Jaishree Paul

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Introduction: Ulcerative Colitis (UC) is an inflammatory disease of the colon resulting from an autoimmune response towards individual’s own microbiota. Excessive inflammation is characterized by hyper-activation of NFkB, a transcription factor regulating expression of various pro-inflammatory genes. The ubiquitin editing complex consisting of TNFAIP3, ITCH, RNF11 and TAX1BP1 maintains homeostatic levels of active NFkB through feedback inhibition and assembles in response to various stimuli that activate NFkB. TNFAIP3 deubiquitinates key signaling molecules involved in NFkB activation pathway. ITCH, RNF11 and TAX1BP1 provide substrate specificity, acting as adaptors for TNFAIP3 function. Aim: This study aimed to find expression of members of the ubiquitin editing complex at the transcript level in inflamed colon tissues of UC patients. Materials and Methods: Colonic biopsy samples were collected from 30 UC patients recruited at Department of Gastroenterology, AIIMS (New Delhi). Control group (n= 10) consisted of individuals undergoing examination for functional disorders. Real Time PCR was used to determine relative expression with GAPDH as housekeeping gene. Results: Expression of members of the ubiquitin editing complex was significantly altered during active disease. Expression of TNFAIP3 was upregulated while concomitant decrease in expression of ITCH, RNF11, TAX1BP1 was seen in UC patients. Discussion: This study reveals that increase in expression of TNFAIP3 was unable to control inflammation during active UC. Further, insufficient upregulation of ITCH, RNF11, TAX1BP1 may limit the formation of the ubiquitin complex and contribute to pathogenesis of UC.

Keywords: altered expression, inflammation, ubiquitin editing complex, ulcerative colitis

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Authors: Akram Mahdaviparsa, Tamera McCuen, Vahideh Karimimansoob

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Fire service is responsible for protecting life, assets, and natural resources from fire and other hazardous incidents. Search and rescue in unfamiliar buildings is a vital part of firefighters’ responsibilities. Providing firefighters with precise building information in an easy-to-understand format is a potential solution for mitigating the negative consequences of fire hazards. The negative effect of insufficient knowledge about a building’s indoor environment impedes firefighters’ capabilities and leads to lost property. A data rich building information modeling (BIM) is a potentially useful source in three-dimensional (3D) visualization and data/information storage for fire emergency response. Therefore, this research’s purpose is prioritizing the required information for firefighters from the most important information to the least important. A survey was carried out with firefighters working in the Norman Fire Department to obtain the importance of each building information item. The results show that “the location of exit doors, windows, corridors, elevators, and stairs”, “material of building elements”, and “building data” are the three most important information specified by firefighters. The results also implied that the 2D model of architectural, structural and way finding is more understandable in comparison with the 3D model, while the 3D model of MEP system could convey more information than the 2D model. Furthermore, color in visualization can help firefighters to understand the building information easier and quicker. Sufficient internal consistency of all responses was proven through developing the Pearson Correlation Matrix and obtaining Cronbach’s alpha of 0.916. Therefore, the results of this study are reliable and could be applied to the population.

Keywords: BIM, building fire response, ranking, visualization

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Authors: Chetra Mang, Ahmadali Tahmasebimoradi, Xavier Lorang

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Lattice structures are widely used in various applications, especially in aeronautic, aerospace, and medical applications because of their high performance properties. Thanks to advancement of the additive manufacturing technology, the lattice structures can be manufactured by different methods such as laser beam melting technology. However, the presence of geometric defects in the lattice structures is inevitable due to the manufacturing process. The geometric defects may have high impact on the mechanical strength of the structures. This work analyzes the correlation between the manufacturing parameters and the mechanical strengths of the lattice structures. To do that, two types of the lattice structures; body-centered cubic with z-struts (BCCZ) structures made of Inconel718, and body-centered cubic (BCC) structures made of Scalmalloy, are manufactured by laser melting beam machine using Taguchi design of experiment. Each structure is placed on the substrate with a specific position and orientation regarding the roller direction of deposed metal powder. The position and orientation are considered as the manufacturing parameters. The geometric defects of each beam in the lattice are characterized and used to build the geometric model in order to perform simulations. Then, the mechanical strengths are defined by the homogeneous response as Young's modulus and yield strength. The distribution of mechanical strengths is observed as a function of manufacturing parameters. The mechanical response of the BCCZ structure is stretch-dominated, i.e., the mechanical strengths are directly dependent on the strengths of the vertical beams. As the geometric defects of vertical beams are slightly changed based on their position/orientation on the manufacturing substrate, the mechanical strengths are less dispersed. The manufacturing parameters are less influenced on the mechanical strengths of the structure BCCZ. The mechanical response of the BCC structure is bending-dominated. The geometric defects of inclined beam are highly dispersed within a structure and also based on their position/orientation on the manufacturing substrate. For different position/orientation on the substrate, the mechanical responses are highly dispersed as well. This shows that the mechanical strengths are directly impacted by manufacturing parameters. In addition, this work is carried out to study the uncertainty propagation of the geometric defects on the mechanical strength of the BCC lattice structure made of Scalmalloy. To do that, we observe the distribution of mechanical strengths of the lattice according to the distribution of the geometric defects. A probability density law is determined based on a statistical hypothesis corresponding to the geometric defects of the inclined beams. The samples of inclined beams are then randomly drawn from the density law to build the lattice structure samples. The lattice samples are then used for simulation to characterize the mechanical strengths. The results reveal that the distribution of mechanical strengths of the structures with the same manufacturing parameters is less dispersed than one of the structures with different manufacturing parameters. Nevertheless, the dispersion of mechanical strengths due to the structures with the same manufacturing parameters are unneglectable.

Keywords: geometric defects, lattice structure, mechanical strength, uncertainty propagation

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Authors: Brad Stappenbelt

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The phenomenon of vortex-induced vibration (VIV) for elastically restrained cylindrical structures in cross-flows is relatively well investigated. The utility of this mechanism in harvesting energy from marine current and tidal flows is however arguably still in its infancy. With relatively few moving components, a flow-induced vibration-based energy conversion device augers low complexity compared to the commonly employed turbine design. Despite the interest in this concept, a practical device has yet to emerge. It is desirable for optimal system performance to design for a very low mass or mass moment of inertia ratio. The device operating range, in particular, is maximized below the vortex-induced vibration critical point where an infinite resonant response region is realized. An unfortunate consequence of this requirement is large buoyancy forces that need to be mitigated by gravity-based, suction-caisson or anchor mooring systems. The focus of this paper is the testing of a novel VIV marine current energy harvesting configuration that utilizes a symmetrical and balanced pair of horizontal pivoted cylinders. The results of several years of experimental investigation, utilizing the University of Wollongong fluid mechanics laboratory towing tank, are analyzed and presented. A reduced velocity test range of 0 to 60 was covered across a large array of device configurations. In particular, power take-off damping ratios spanning from 0.044 to critical damping were examined in order to determine the optimal conditions and hence the maximum device energy conversion efficiency. The experiments conducted revealed acceptable energy conversion efficiencies of around 16% and desirable low flow-speed operating ranges when compared to traditional turbine technology. The potentially out-of-phase spanwise VIV cells on each arm of the device synchronized naturally as no decrease in amplitude response and comparable energy conversion efficiencies to the single cylinder arrangement were observed. In addition to the spatial design benefits related to the horizontal device orientation, the main advantage demonstrated by the current symmetrical horizontal configuration is to allow large velocity range resonant response conditions without the excessive buoyancy. The novel configuration proposed shows clear promise in overcoming many of the practical implementation issues related to flow-induced vibration marine current energy harvesting.

Keywords: flow-induced vibration, vortex-induced vibration, energy harvesting, tidal energy

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Authors: Yuncang Li, Cuie Wen

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Biodegradable metallic materials such as magnesium (Mg)-based alloys have attracted extensive interest for use as bone implant materials. However, the high biodegradation rate of existing Mg alloys in the physiological environment of human body leads to losing mechanical integrity before adequate bone healing and producing a large volume of hydrogen gas. Therefore, slowing down the biodegradation rate of Mg alloys is a critical task in developing new biodegradable Mg alloy implant materials. One of the most effective approaches to achieve this is to strategically design new Mg alloys with low biodegradation rate, excellent biocompatibility, and enhanced mechanical properties. Our research selected biocompatible and biofunctional alloying elements such as zirconium (Zr), strontium (Sr), and rare earth elements (REEs) to alloy Mg and has developed a new series of Mg-Zr-Sr-REEs alloys for biodegradable implant applications. Research results indicated that Sr and Zr additions could refine the grain size, decrease the biodegradation rate, and enhance the biological behaviors of the Mg alloys. The REE addition, such as holmium (Ho) and dysprosium (Dy) to Mg-Zr-Sr alloys resulted in enhanced mechanical strength and decreased biodegradation rate. In addition, Ho and Dy additions (≤ 5 wt.%) to Mg-Zr-Sr alloys led to enhancement of cell adhesion and proliferation of osteoblast cells on the Mg-Zr-Sr-Ho/Dy alloys.

Keywords: biocompatibility, magnesium, mechanical and biodegrade properties, rare earth elements

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Authors: Hojjat Mohammadi, Randall Divito, Gary J. E. Kramer

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Tunnelling and pipe jacking in very soft soils (fat clays), even with an Earth Pressure Balance tunnel boring machine (EPBM), can cause large ground displacements. In this study, the short-term and long-term ground and tunnel response is predicted for twin, pipe-jacked EPBM 3 meter diameter tunnels with a narrow pillar width. Initial modelling indicated complete closure of the annulus gap at the tail shield onto the centrifugally cast, glass-fiber-reinforced, polymer mortar jacking pipe (FRP). Numerical modelling was employed to simulate the excavation and support installation sequence, examine the ground response during excavation, confirm the adequacy of the pillar width and check the structural adequacy of the installed pipe. In the numerical models, Mohr-Coulomb constitutive model with the effect of unloading was adopted for the fat clays, while for the bedrock layer, the generalized Hoek-Brown was employed. The numerical models considered explicit excavation sequences and different levels of ground convergence prior to support installation. The well-studied excavation sequences made the analysis possible for this study on a very soft clay, otherwise, obtaining the convergency in the numerical analysis would be impossible. The predicted results indicate that the ground displacements around the tunnel and its effect on the pipe would be acceptable despite predictions of large zones of plastic behaviour around the tunnels and within the entire pillar between them due to excavation-induced ground movements.

Keywords: finite element modeling (FEM), pipe-jacked tunneling, very soft clay, EPBM

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Authors: Basem Elarbe, Ibrahim Elganidi, Norida Ridzuan, Norhyati Abdullah

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Wax deposition in production pipelines and transportation tubing from offshore to onshore is critical in the oil and gas industry due to low-temperature conditions. It may lead to a reduction in production, shut-in, plugging of pipelines and increased fluid viscosity. The most significant popular approach to solve this issue is by injection of a wax inhibitor into the channel. This research aims to determine the amount of wax deposition of Malaysian crude oil by estimating the effective parameters using (Design-Expert version 7.1.6) by response surface methodology (RSM) method. Important parameters affecting wax deposition such as cold finger temperature, inhibitor concentration and experimental duration were investigated. It can be concluded that SA-co-BA copolymer had a higher capability of reducing wax in different conditions where the minimum point of wax reduction was found at 300 rpm, 14℃, 1h, 1200 ppmThe amount of waxes collected for each parameter were 0.12g. RSM approach was applied using rotatable central composite design (CCD) to minimize the wax deposit amount. The regression model’s variance (ANOVA) results revealed that the R2 value of 0.9906, indicating that the model can be clarified 99.06% of the data variation, and just 0.94% of the total variation were not clarified by the model. Therefore, it indicated that the model is extremely significant, confirming a close agreement between the experimental and the predicted values. In addition, the result has shown that the amount of wax deposit decreased significantly with the increase of temperature and the concentration of poly (stearyl acrylate-co-behenyl acrylate) (SABA), which were set at 14°C and 1200 ppm, respectively. The amount of wax deposit was successfully reduced to the minimum value of 0.01 g after the optimization.

Keywords: wax deposition, SABA inhibitor, RSM, operation factors

Procedia PDF Downloads 285

Authors: Enjia Zhang

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During the prevention and control of the COVID-19 pandemic, all communities in China were gated and under strict management, which was highly effective in preventing the spread of the epidemic from spreading. Based on the TRIZ theory, this paper intends to propose green design strategies of community control in response to public health emergencies and to optimize community control facilities according to the principle of minimum transformation. Through the questionnaire method, this paper investigates and summarizes the situation and problems of community control during the COVID-19 pandemic. Based on these problems, the TRIZ theory is introduced to figure out the problems and associates them with prefabricated facilities. Afterward, the innovation points and solutions of prefabricated community control measures are proposed by using the contradiction matrix. This paper summarizes the current situation of community control under public health emergencies and concludes the problems such as simple forms of temporary roadblocks, sudden increase of community traffic pressure, and difficulties to access public spaces. The importance of entrance and exit control in community control is emphasized. Therefore, the community control measures are supposed to focus on traffic control, and the external access control measures, including motor vehicles, non-motor vehicles, residents and non-residents access control, and internal public space access control measures, including public space control shared with the society or adjacent communities, are proposed in order to make the community keep the open characteristics and have the flexibility to deal with sudden public health emergencies in the future.

Keywords: green design, community control, prefabricated structure, public health emergency

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Authors: María Reveles-Miranda, Daniella Pacheco-Catalán

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Sierra Papacal commissary is located north of Merida, Yucatan, México, where the indigenous Maya population predominates. Due to its location, the region has an elevation of fewer than 4.5 meters above sea level, with a high risk of flooding associated with storms and hurricanes and a high vulnerability of infrastructure and housing in the presence of strong gusts of wind. In environmental contingencies, the challenge is providing an autonomous electrical supply using renewable energy sources that cover vulnerable populations' health, food, and water pumping needs. To address this challenge, a hybrid energy storage module is proposed for the emergency photovoltaic (PV) system of the community shelter in Sierra Papacal, Yucatán, which combines high-energy-density batteries and high-power-density supercapacitors (SC) in a single module, providing a quick response to energy demand, reducing the thermal stress on batteries and extending their useful life. Incorporating SC in energy storage modules can provide fast response times to power variations and balanced energy extraction, ensuring a more extended period of electrical supply to vulnerable populations during contingencies. The implemented control strategy increases the module's overall performance by ensuring the optimal use of devices and balanced energy exploitation. The operation of the module with the control algorithm is validated with MATLAB/Simulink® and experimental tests.

Keywords: batteries, community shelter, environmental contingencies, hybrid energy storage, isolated photovoltaic system, supercapacitors

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Authors: H. M. Haytham, E. A. Azza, E.S. Mohamed, E. G. Nesreen

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Thoracotomy is a great surgery that has serious pulmonary complications, so purpose of this study was to determine the response of diaphragmatic excursion to inspiratory muscle trainer post thoracotomy. Thirty patients of both sexes (16 men and 14 women) with age ranged from 20 to 40 years old had done thoracotomy participated in this study. The practical work was done in cardiothoracic department, Kasr-El-Aini hospital at faculty of medicine for individuals 3 days Post operatively. Patients were assigned into two groups: group A (study group) included 15 patients (8 men and 7 women) who received inspiratory muscle training by using inspiratory muscle trainer for 20 minutes and routine chest physiotherapy (deep breathing, cough and early ambulation) twice daily, 3 days per week for one month. Group B (control group) included 15 patients (8 men and 7 women) who received the routine chest physiotherapy only (deep breathing, cough and early ambulation) twice daily, 3 days per week for one month. Ultrasonography was used to evaluate the changes in diaphragmatic excursion before and after training program. Statistical analysis revealed a significant increase in diaphragmatic excursion in the study group (59.52%) more than control group (18.66%) after using inspiratory muscle trainer post operatively in patients post thoracotomy. It was concluded that the inspiratory muscle training device increases diaphragmatic excursion in patients post thoracotomy through improving inspiratory muscle strength and improving mechanics of breathing and using of inspiratory muscle trainer as a method of physical therapy rehabilitation to reduce post-operative pulmonary complications post thoracotomy.

Keywords: diaphragmatic excursion, inspiratory muscle trainer, ultrasonography, thoracotomy

Procedia PDF Downloads 319