Search results for: compression system management.

Authors: Xuguo Zhang, Jimmy Fung, Kenneth Leung, Alexis Lau

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Fine particulate matter concentrations have been decreasing in the past few years while the ozone concentrations are posing an increasing trend in the Greater Bay Area (GBA) of China. A series of control policies have been released to mitigate the country-wide air pollution, however, how to effectively evaluate the exercised control measures and efficiently reveal potential projected mitigation pathways are still limited. By refining an enhanced air-quality-modeling system, this study provides an account of the air quality assessments from 2019 to 2025 to appraise the air quality results and improvement under designed scenarios for assessing the optimum scope for tightening the Air Quality Objectives (AQOs). The results show that it is doable to tighten the 24-hour AQO for SO2 from the World Health Objective air quality guidelines Interim Targets Level-1 (IT-1) (125μg/m3) to IT-2 level (50μg/m3) with the current number of exceedance allowed (three) remains unchanged. It is also possible to tighten the annual AQO for PM2.5 from IT-1 (35 μg/m3) to IT 2 (25 μg/m3), and its 24-hr AQO from IT-1 (75 μg/m3) to IT 2 (50 μg/m3) with the number of exceedances allowed increased from current nine to 35. Regional cooperation under the development of the GBA cooperation are still needed to be focused and strengthen due to the cross-boundary transport characteristics of the air pollution.

Keywords: air quality attainment, Hong Kong, mitigation policy, chemical transport modeling, sensitivity analysis

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Authors: Khaidan Hatami, Mehran Nasiri

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The aim of following research was the analysis between sport motivation and control center of football players of Iran. All the players employed in Iran’s football league are included in the population of the research. So, 360 players, every level 120 players ( Youth, U-21 and adults ) playing in Guilan, Kurdistan and Kermanshah province having professional football league in first and second level league were randomly and selectively taken and included the population. The current research is of descriptive and solidarity types. Instruments of measurement are three personal questionnaires, sport motivation (SMS) of Politer and partners (1995), control center of Berger (1986) which their valid content were confirmed by experts in sport management field. The internal stability of questions were analyzed by Alfa Cronbach respectively for sport obligation questionnaire (0.82) and control center (0.86) to analysis and evaluate data, Kolmogrouf-Smirnov, Spearman Correlation, Kruskal-Wallis test, Whitney U, Freedman and T-Wilcoxon were used in a meaningful level (P ≤ 0/05). The results showed positive and meaningful relation between control center of football players in youth, U-21 and adults and sport motivation of football players. So, it can be concluded, people with internal control against those with external one have more internal sport motivation and follow the team goals with more mental power. So, it’s recommended to coaches to use sport psychologist in their teams to internalize the people’s needs by scientific method by taking the mental issues and the type of control in people on life events.

Keywords: sport motivation, control center, internal, external football players

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Authors: A. S. Haruna, M. L. Mayanchi

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Pre Nigeria Certificate in Education otherwise called Pre-NCE is an intensive two semester course designed to assist candidates who could not meet the requirements for admission into NCE programme. The task of coping with the stressors in the course can interfere with the students’ ability to regulate attention skills and stay organized. The main objectives of the study were to find out the prevalence of stress; determine the association between stress and ADD and reveal gender difference in the prevalence of ADD among stressed pre-NCE students. Cross–Sectional Correlation Design was employed in which 333 (Male=65%; Female=35%) students were proportionately sampled and administered Stress Assessment Scale [SAS r=0.74) and those identified with stress were thereafter rated with Cognitive Processing Inventory [CPI]. Data collected was used to analyze the three null hypotheses through One-sample Kolmogorov-Smirnov (K-S) Z-score, Pearson Product Moment Correlation Coefficients (PPMCC) and t-test statistics respectively at 0.05 confidence level. Results revealed significant prevalence of stress [Z-calculated =2.24; Z-critical = ±1.96], and a positive relationship between Stress and ADD among Pre-NCE students [r-calculated =0.450; r-critical =0.138]. However, there was no gender difference in the prevalence of ADD among stressed Pre-NCE students in the college [t-calculated =1.49; t-critical =1.645]. The study concludes that while stress and ADD prevail among pre-NCE students, there was no gender difference in the prevalence of ADD. Recommendations offered suggest the use of Learners Assistance Programs (LAP) for stress management, and Teacher-Students ratio of 1:25 be adopted in order to cater for stressed pre-NCE students with ADD.

Keywords: attention deficit disorder, pre-NCE students, stress, Pearson Product Moment Correlation Coefficients (PPMCC)

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Authors: Morteza Aien, Masoud Rashidinejad, Mahmud Fotuhi-Firuzabad

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Power systems are innately uncertain systems. To face with such uncertain systems, robust uncertainty assessment tools are appealed. This paper inspects the uncertainty assessment formulation of the load flow (LF) problem considering different kinds of uncertainties, developed in its companion paper through some case studies. The proposed methodology is based on the evidence theory and joint propagation of possibilistic and probabilistic uncertainties. The load and wind power generation are considered as probabilistic uncertain variables and the electric vehicles (EVs) and gas turbine distributed generation (DG) units are considered as possibilistic uncertain variables. The cumulative distribution function (CDF) of the system output parameters obtained by the pure probabilistic method lies within the belief and plausibility functions obtained by the joint propagation approach. Furthermore, the imprecision in the DG parameters is explicitly reflected by the gap between the belief and plausibility functions. This gap, due to the epistemic uncertainty on the DG resources parameters grows as the penetration level increases.

Keywords: electric vehicles, joint possibilistic- probabilistic uncertainty modeling, uncertain load flow, wind turbine generator

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Authors: Zhuoyuan Wang, Benson T. H. Lim, Imriyas Kamardeen

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Effective service quality management has long been touted as a means of improving project and organisational performance. Particularly, in construction projects, main contractors are often seen as a broker between clients and subcontractors, and their service quality is thus associated with the overall project affinity and outcomes. While a considerable amount of research has focused on the aspect of clients-main contractors, very little research has been done to explore the effect of contractors’ service quality on subcontractors’ behaviours and so project outcomes. In addressing this gap, this study surveyed 97 subcontractors in the Chinese Construction industry and data was analysed using the Partial Least Square (PLS) Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) technique. The overall findings reveal that subcontractors categorised main contractors’ service quality into three dimensions: assurance; responsiveness; reliability and empathy. Of these, it is found that main contractors’ ‘assurance’ and ‘responsiveness’ positively influence subcontractors’ intention to engage in contractual behaviours. The results further show that the subcontractors’ intention to engage in organizational citizenship behaviours is associated with how flexible and committed the main contractors are in reliability and empathy. Collectively, both subcontractors’ contractual and organizational citizenship behaviours positively influence the overall project outcomes. In conclusion, the findings inform contractors different strategies towards managing and gaining subcontractors’ behaviour commitment in a socially connected, yet complex and uncertain, business environment.

Keywords: construction firms, organisational citizenship behaviour, service quality, social exchange theory

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Authors: R. N. Begum, Ambalika Sharma, G. K. Singh

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Identity theft has serious ramifications beyond data and personal information loss. This necessitates the implementation of robust and efficient user identification systems. Therefore, automatic biometric recognition systems are the need of the hour, and ECG-based systems are unquestionably the best choice due to their appealing inherent characteristics. The CNNs are the recent state-of-the-art techniques for ECG-based user identification systems. However, the results obtained are significantly below standards, and the situation worsens as the number of users and types of heartbeats in the dataset grows. As a result, this study proposes a highly accurate and resilient ECG-based person identification system using CNN's dense learning framework. The proposed research explores explicitly the calibre of dense CNNs in the field of ECG-based human recognition. The study tests four different configurations of dense CNN which are trained on a dataset of recordings collected from eight popular ECG databases. With the highest FAR of 0.04 percent and the highest FRR of 5%, the best performing network achieved an identification accuracy of 99.94 percent. The best network is also tested with various train/test split ratios. The findings show that DenseNets are not only extremely reliable but also highly efficient. Thus, they might also be implemented in real-time ECG-based human recognition systems.

Keywords: Biometrics, Dense Networks, Identification Rate, Train/Test split ratio

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Authors: Ahmad Sahir Jais

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This paper is focusing on the roles played by Malaysian polytechnics in halal education in the context of technical, vocational education and training (TVET). A critical review of the previous literature, as well as documents analysis of the curriculum structure, highlighted several theme concerning dietary halal sectors in Malaysia as well as the depth of halal education ingrained in Malaysia polytechnics education system. Dietary halal in Malaysia has gained prominence exposure lately, due to the heighten awareness among Muslim consumers. Therefore, this has contributed to a surge in demand for halal food. Growth in halal sub sectors has a consequent effect with the demand for halal competent human capital resulting in demands for halal competent human capital by the industries cannot be matched by the educational institution. It can be concluded that, Malaysian Polytechnics has taken up the lead role in halal education in comparison with other academic institution in filling the needs for halal competent workers by offering halal related courses at diploma level as well as short courses for the local communities. They has successfully positioned themselves as an academic institution that meets the demands of the industry as the demand for halal competent workers which is expected to grow significantly due to new legislation introduces by the government, expansion of halal economy and increase awareness and interest in halal among consumer.

Keywords: halal in TVET, TVET, halal, Malaysian polytechnics

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Authors: Nancy Ayman Kamal Mohamed Mehrz

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As the economies of other countries in the Mediterranean Basin, the tourism sector in our country has a high denominator in economics. Tourism businesses, which are building blocks of tourism, sector faces with a variety of problems during their activities. These problems faced make business efficiency and competition conditions of the businesses difficult. Most of the problems faced by the tourism businesses and the information of consumers about consumers’ rights were used in this study, which is conducted to determine the problems of tourism businesses in the Central Anatolia Region. It is aimed to contribute the awareness of staff and executives working at tourism sector and to attract attention of businesses active concurrently with tourism sector and legislators. E-tourism is among the issues that have recently been entered into the field of tourism. In order to achieve this type of tourism, Information and Communications Technology (or ICT) infrastructures as well as Co-governmental organizations and tourism resources are important. In this study, the opinions of managers and tourism officials about the e-tourism in Leman city were measured; it also surveyed the impact of level of digital literacy of managers and tourism officials on attracting tourists. This study was conducted. One of the environs of the Esfahan province. This study is a documentary – survey and the sources include library resources and also questionnaires. The results obtained indicate that if managers use ICT, it may help e-tourism to be developed in the region, and increasing managers’ beliefs on e-tourism and upgrading their level of digital literacy may affect e-tourism development.

Keywords: financial problems, the problems of tourism businesses, tourism businesses, internet, marketing, tourism, tourism management economic competitiveness, enhancing competitiveness

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Authors: Sana Gul, Sheeba Murad, Aneela Javed

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Introduction: Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) is small DNA virus mostly infecting mucosa and cutaneous keratinocytes. So far, more than 200 Human papillomaviruses are known. HPV have been divided into high- and low-risk on the basis of their oncogenic potential. High risk HPV is considered to be the main etiological cause for cervical cancer. Objective: Current study was designed to screen the local cervical cancer patients from the twin cities of Pakistan for the occurance of high risk HPV. Methodology: A total of 67 formalin fixed paraffin-embedded samples of cervical cancer biopsies were obtained from the government hospitals in Islamabad and Rawalpindi. Cervical cancer biopsies were examined for the presence of HPV DNA. Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) was used for the amplification of a region in the HPV-L1 gene for the general detection of the Papilloma virus and for the genotype specific detection of high risk HPV 16 and 18 using the GP5/GP6 primers and genotype specific primers respectively. Results: HPV DNA was detected in 59 out of 67 samples analyzed. 30 samples showed the presence of HPV16 while 22 samples were positive for HPV 18 . HPV subtype could not be determined in 7 samples. Conclusion: Our results show a strong association between HPV infection and cervical cancer among women in twin cities of Pakistan. One way to minimize the disease burden in relation to HPV infection in Pakistani population is the use of prophylactic vaccines and routine screening. An early diagnosis of HPV infection will allow better health management to reduce the risk of developing cervical cancer.

Keywords: cervical cancer, Pakistan, human papillomavirus, HPV 16

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Authors: Jihad S. Daba, J. P. Dubois, Yvette Antar

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With the exponential growth of cellular users, a new generation of cellular networks is needed to enhance the required peak data rates. The co-channel interference between neighboring base stations inhibits peak data rate increase. To overcome this interference, multi-cell cooperation known as coordinated multipoint transmission is proposed. Such a solution makes use of multiple-input-multiple-output (MIMO) systems under two different structures: Micro- and macro-diversity. In this paper, we study the capacity and bit error rate in cellular networks using MIMO technology. We analyse both micro- and macro-diversity schemes and develop a hybrid model that switches between macro- and micro-diversity in the case of hard handoff based on a cut-off range of signal-to-noise ratio values. We conclude that our hybrid switched micro-macro MIMO system outperforms classical MIMO systems at the cost of increased hardware and software complexity.

Keywords: cooperative multipoint transmission, ergodic capacity, hard handoff, macro-diversity, micro-diversity, multiple-input-multiple output systems, orthogonal frequency division multiplexing

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Authors: Simon Bambey, Edward Lim, Kai Corley-Jory, Pooya Taheri

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The main goal of this paper is to propose a simple and low-cost microcontroller-based laser communication link. To demonstrate that laser communication is a viable and efficient means for transmitting data, a transceiver capable of transfer rates of approximately 0.7 kB/s is prototyped. The hardware used for the transceiver consists of Commercial Off-The-Shelf (COTS) lasers, photodiodes, and the Arduino Mega 2560 which is an open-source and easy-to-use microcontroller-based platform intended for making interactive projects. A graphic user interface utilizing the Meteor framework is developed to facilitate the communication between the user and transceiver. The developed transceiver prototype is capable of receiving and transmitting data at significant ranges with no loss of information. Furthermore, stable and secure communication is achieved through several mechanisms developed to manage simultaneous sending and receiving, in addition to detecting physical interruptions during transmission. The design setup is scalable and with further development can be transformed into a fiber-optic transmission system. Due to its nature, laser communication is very secure and can provide a safe and private communication link. Overall, this paper demonstrates how laser communication can be an economical, durable, and effective means of information transfer.

Keywords: Arduino microcontrollers, laser applications, user interfaces, wireless communication

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Authors: Muqdad Al-Juboori, Bithin Datta

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Hydraulic structures such as gravity dams are classified as essential structures, and have the vital role in providing strong and safe water resource management. Three major aspects must be considered to achieve an effective design of such a structure: 1) The building cost, 2) safety, and 3) accurate analysis of seepage characteristics. Due to the complexity and non-linearity relationships of the seepage process, many approximation theories have been developed; however, the application of these theories results in noticeable errors. The analytical solution, which includes the difficult conformal mapping procedure, could be applied for a simple and symmetrical problem only. Therefore, the objectives of this paper are to: 1) develop a surrogate model based on numerical simulated data using SEEPW software to approximately simulate seepage process related to a hydraulic structure, 2) develop and solve a linked simulation-optimization model based on the developed surrogate model to describe the seepage occurring under a concrete gravity dam, in order to obtain optimum and safe design at minimum cost. The result shows that the linked simulation-optimization model provides an efficient and optimum design of concrete gravity dams.

Keywords: artificial neural network, concrete gravity dam, genetic algorithm, seepage analysis

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Authors: M. F. Amado, A. Amado, F. Poggi, J. Correia de Freitas

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Today it is widely understood that global energy consumption patterns are directly related to the ongoing urban expansion and development process. This expansion is based on the natural growth of human activities and has left most urban areas totally dependent on fossil fuel derived external energy inputs. This status-quo of production, transportation, storage and consumption of energy has become inefficient and is set to become even more so when the continuous increases in energy demand are factored in. The territorial management of land use and related activities is a central component in the search for more efficient models of energy use, models that can meet current and future regional, national and European goals. In this paper, a methodology is developed and discussed with the aim of improving energy efficiency at the municipal level. The development of this methodology is based on the monitoring of energy consumption and its use patterns resulting from the natural dynamism of human activities in the territory and can be utilized to assess sustainability at the local scale. A set of parameters and indicators are defined with the objective of constructing a systemic model based on the optimization, adaptation and innovation of the current energy framework and the associated energy consumption patterns. The use of the model will enable local governments to strike the necessary balance between human activities, economic development, and the local and global environment while safeguarding fairness in the energy sector.

Keywords: solar urban planning, solar smart city, urban development, energy efficiency

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Authors: Silvia Maria Moya

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After the Great Depression, the number of admissions to psychiatric facilities saw a significant increase. This increase, coupled with the arrival of new antipsychotic drugs, prepared the ground to the psychiatric deinstitutionalization movement in North America. Community services became an essential part of care where the role of the nurse also became crucial in the management of patients. Looking through the archives of the Department of Psychiatry at the Ottawa Montfort Hospital, this project aims to assess the role of the nurse in a multidisciplinary team in a period of psychiatric deinstitutionalization. This research focuses on the different roles of the mental health nurse during the second half of the twentieth century. The case study, used as a methodological approach allows in-depth analysis of the journey of a female patient with long hospital course. The analysis of the document ‘psychiatric evaluation’ on the medical records of outpatient Montfort Hospital – where, on a regular basis, different health professionals of the multidisciplinary team write their notes – allow us to better understand the difficulties of the patient, their problems, their family and work relationships and the evolution of their self-esteem, but most importantly, it allows us to identify the importance of the different nurse`s roles in the team and in the mental health setting. This project therefore reveals that the nurse occupies a larger professional space than the other professionals in the multidisciplinary team and highlights the role of mental health nurses with patients and their families and their leadership role within a multidisciplinary team.

Keywords: mental health, nursing, deinstitutionalization, professional space

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Authors: Priti Saha, Biswajit Paul

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Rapid urbanization and industrialization have increased the demand of groundwater. However, the present era has evident an enormous level of groundwater pollution. Therefore, water quality assessment is paramount importance to evaluate its suitability for drinking, irrigation and industrial use. This study focus to evaluate the groundwater quality of an industrial city in eastern India through interdisciplinary techniques. The multi-purpose Water Quality Index (WQI) assess the suitability for drinking as well as irrigation of forty sampling locations, where 2.5% and 15% of sampling locations have excellent water quality (WQI:0-25) as well as 15% and 40% have good quality (WQI:25-50), which represents its suitability for drinking and irrigation respectively. However, the industrial water quality was assessed through Ryznar Stability Index (LSI), which affirmed that only 2.5% of sampling locations have neither corrosive nor scale forming properties (RSI: 6.2-6.8). These techniques with the integration of geographical information system (GIS) for spatial assessment indorsed its effectiveness to identify the regions where the water bodies are suitable to use for drinking, irrigation as well as industrial activities. Further, the sources of these contaminants were identified through factor analysis (FA), which revealed that both the geogenic as well as anthropogenic sources were responsible for groundwater pollution. This research demonstrates the effectiveness of statistical and GIS techniques for the analysis of environmental contaminants.

Keywords: groundwater, water quality analysis, water quality index, WQI, factor analysis, FA, spatial assessment

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Authors: Megha Agarwal

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The research paper is an effort to compare the earnings based and cash flow based methods of valuation of an enterprise. The theoretically equivalent methods based on either earnings such as Residual Earnings Model (REM), Abnormal Earnings Growth Model (AEGM), Residual Operating Income Method (ReOIM), Abnormal Operating Income Growth Model (AOIGM) and its extensions multipliers such as price/earnings ratio, price/book value ratio; or cash flow based models such as Dividend Valuation Method (DVM) and Free Cash Flow Method (FCFM) all provide different estimates of valuation of the Indian giant corporate Reliance India Limited (RIL). An ex-post analysis of published accounting and financial data for four financial years from 2008-09 to 2011-12 has been conducted. A comparison of these valuation estimates with the actual market capitalization of the company shows that the complex accounting based model AOIGM provides closest forecasts. These different estimates may be derived due to inconsistencies in discount rate, growth rates and the other forecasted variables. Although inputs for earnings based models may be available to the investor and analysts through published statements, precise estimation of free cash flows may be better undertaken by the internal management. The estimation of value from more stable parameters as residual operating income and RNOA could be considered superior to the valuations from more volatile return on equity.

Keywords: earnings, cash flows, valuation, Residual Earnings Model (REM)

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Authors: Chan Ka Lok Sobel

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Recently, several famous Asian films have been remade in North America, set in the context of U.S. society and with the financial and cultural scale of Hollywood cinema. Notably, the practice of remaking films is interactive, with famous Hollywood films also being remade in Asia; for example, Charlie’s Angels (McG, 2002) was remade as So Close (Yuen, 2002), Seven (Fincher, 1995) was remade as Double Vision (Fu, 2002), and Cellular (Ellis, 2004) was remade as Connected (Chan, 2008). Conversely, Asian films such as Infernal Affairs (Lau & Mak, 2002), il Mare (Lee, 2000), and Bangkok Dangerous (Pang, 2000) were remade into Hollywood blockbuster films The Departed (Scorsese, 2006), The Lake House (Agresti, 2006), and Bangkok Dangerous (Pang, 2007), respectively. This research examined Asian cinema and Hollywood remakes from the perspective of cultural hybridization and partition in the context of global capitalism and postmodernism. Using Infernal Affairs and The Departed as a case study, key concepts such as crosscultural adaptation, intercultural and global communication competence, and cultural identity and authorship were compared and analyzed.

Keywords: remake and originality, double cultural identity, studio system, genre and authorship

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Authors: Andreea Campu, Ilinica Muresan, Simona Cainap, Simion Astilean, Monica Focsan

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Acute myocardial infarction (AMI) is the most severe cardiovascular disease, which has threatened human lives for decades, thus a continuous interest is directed towards the detection of cardiac biomarkers such as cardiac troponin I (cTnI) in order to predict risk and, implicitly, fulfill the early diagnosis requirements in AMI settings. Microfluidics is a major technology involved in the development of efficient sensing devices with real-time fast responses and on-site applicability. Microfluidic devices have gathered a lot of attention recently due to their advantageous features such as high sensitivity and specificity, miniaturization and portability, ease-of-use, low-cost, facile fabrication, and reduced sample manipulation. The integration of gold nanoparticles into the structure of microfluidic sensors has led to the development of highly effective detection systems, considering the unique properties of the metallic nanostructures, specifically the Localized Surface Plasmon Resonance (LSPR), which makes them highly sensitive to their microenvironment. In this scientific context, herein, we propose the implementation of a novel detection device, which successfully combines the efficiency of gold bipyramids (AuBPs) as signal transducers and thermal generators with the sample-driven advantages of the microfluidic channels into a miniaturized, portable, low-cost, specific, and sensitive test for the dual LSPR-thermographic cTnI detection. Specifically, AuBPs with longitudinal LSPR response at 830 nm were chemically synthesized using the seed-mediated growth approach and characterized in terms of optical and morphological properties. Further, the colloidal AuBPs were deposited onto pre-treated silanized glass substrates thus, a uniform nanoparticle coverage of the substrate was obtained and confirmed by extinction measurements showing a 43 nm blue-shift of the LSPR response as a consequence of the refractive index change. The as-obtained plasmonic substrate was then integrated into a microfluidic “Y”-shaped polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) channel, fabricated using a Laser Cutter system. Both plasmonic and microfluidic elements were plasma treated in order to achieve a permanent bond. The as-developed microfluidic plasmonic chip was further coupled to an automated syringe pump system. The proposed biosensing protocol implicates the successive injection inside the microfluidic channel as follows: p-aminothiophenol and glutaraldehyde, to achieve a covalent bond between the metallic surface and cTnI antibody, anti-cTnI, as a recognition element, and target cTnI biomarker. The successful functionalization and capture of cTnI was monitored by LSPR detection thus, after each step, a red-shift of the optical response was recorded. Furthermore, as an innovative detection technique, thermal determinations were made after each injection by exposing the microfluidic plasmonic chip to 785 nm laser excitation, considering that the AuBPs exhibit high light-to-heat conversion performances. By the analysis of the thermographic images, thermal curves were obtained, showing a decrease in the thermal efficiency after the anti-cTnI-cTnI reaction was realized. Thus, we developed a microfluidic plasmonic chip able to operate as both LSPR and thermal sensor for the detection of the cardiac troponin I biomarker, leading thus to the progress of diagnostic devices.

Keywords: gold nanobipyramids, microfluidic device, localized surface plasmon resonance detection, thermographic detection

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Authors: Eugene Ivanov, Eduardo del-Rio, Igor Kapchenko, Maija Nystrӧm, Juha Kotila

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Series of low modulus beta Ti alloy billets and powders can be produced in commercial quantities using a combination of electron beam melting (EBM) and EIGA atomization processes. In the present study, TNZT alloy powder was produced and processed in the EOSINT M290 laser sintering system to produce parts for mechanical testing. Post heat treatments such as diffusion annealing to reduce internal stresses or hot isostatic pressing to remove closed pores were not applied. The density can visually be estimated to be > 99,9 %. According to EDS study Nb, Zr, and Ta are distributed homogeneously throughout the printed sample. There are no indications for any segregation or chemical inhomogeneity, i.e. variation of the element distribution. These points to the fact that under the applied experimental conditions the melt generated by the laser rapidly cools down in the SLM (Selective Laser Melting) process. The selective laser sintering yielded dense structures with relatively good surface quality. The mechanical properties, especially the elongation (24%) along with tensile strength ( > 500MPa) and modulus of elasticity (~60GPa), were found to be promising compared to titanium alloys in general.

Keywords: beta titanium alloys, additive manufacturing, powder, implants

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Authors: Soma Gholamveisy, Vahid Mirghavameddin

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Aquaculture activities face wide environmental, social, and economic problems today. To deal with these problems, the aquaculture business, which is already a highly significant agricultural activity, is influenced by sustainability, which can assure the rural community's safety and food health with minimal environmental damage. The objective of this study's systematic review of the literature (SLR) is to look into the use of global perspective Promotion of Sustainable Fisheries and Aquaculture. SLR aims to identify the goals of a promotional system, also one of its main components. This research seeks to empower, increase economic productivity, facilitate, pay more attention to the sustainability of the environment and inform the audience in this regard. A method used to assess hypotheses, condense the results of past studies or verify the consistency of studies. It presents a succinct analysis of original research using an unambiguous and verifiable approach. A thorough repository with a vast array of papers and effective exploration methods are frequently utilized in a systematic literature review, enabling the application of advanced logical statements. A comprehensive literature review was carried out to ensure that the most relevant studies were included. This type of review clarifies publication selection criteria and allows evaluation of the studies conducted and their repetition or extension.

Keywords: systematic review, sustainable, fisheries, aquaculture

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Authors: M. Al-Farttoosi, M. Y. Rafiq, J. Summerscales, C. Williams

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Structures can be subjected to impact loading from various sources like earthquake, tsunami, missiles and explosions. The impact loading can cause different degrees of damage to concrete structures. The demand for strengthening and rehabilitation of damaged structures is increasing. In recent years, Car0bon Fibre Reinforced Polymer (CFRP) matrix composites has gain more attention for strengthening and repairing these structures. To study the impact behaviour of the reinforced concrete (RC) beams strengthened or repaired using CFRP, a heavy impact test machine was designed and manufactured .The machine included a newly designed support system for beams together with various instrumentation. This paper describes the support design configuration of the impact test machine, instrumentation and dynamic analysis of the concrete beams. To evaluate the efficiency of the new impact test machine, experimental impact tests were conducted on simple supported reinforced concrete beam. Different methods were used to determine the impact force and impact response of the RC beams in terms of inertia force, maximum deflection, reaction force and fracture energy. The manufactured impact test machine was successfully used in testing RC beams under impact loading and used successfully to test the reinforced concrete beams strengthened or repaired using CFRP under impact loading.

Keywords: beam, concrete, impact, machine

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Authors: Philemon Wokoma Iyagba, Obey Onenee Christie

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From the hindbrain, which is responsible for motor activities, to the forebrain, responsible for processing information related to complex cognitive activities, the human brain has continued to evolve over the years. This evolution- has been progressive, leading to advancements in science and technology. However, the development of science and technology in Africa, where ancient civilization arguably began, has been retrogressive. Dialectics was done by dissecting different opinions on the reason behind the stunted development of science and technology in Africa. The researchers proposed that the inability to sustain the technological advancements made by early Africans is due to poor or lack of replicability of the African knowledge-based system, almost no or poor documentation of adopted procedures and the approval-seeking mentality that cheaply paved the way for westernization which also led to the adulteration of the African way of life and education without making room for incorporating her identity and proper alignment of her rich cultural heritage in education and her enormous achievements before and during the middle age. This article discussed conceptual issues, with its positions based on established facts, the discussion was based on relevant literature and recommendations were made accordingly.

Keywords: forebrain, hindbrain, dialectics from African perspective, development in science and technology

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Authors: Yousef Almutairi, Yajue Wu

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Various large-scale trends have characterized the current century thus far, including increasing shifts towards urbanization and greater movement. It is predicted that there will be 9.3 billion people on Earth in 2050 and that over two-thirds of this population will be city dwellers. Moreover, in larger cities worldwide, mass transportation systems, including underground systems, have grown to account for the majority of travel in those settings. Underground networks are vulnerable to fires, however, endangering travellers’ safety, with various examples of fire outbreaks in this setting. This study aims to increase knowledge of the impacts of extreme climatic conditions on fires, including the role of the high ambient temperatures experienced in Middle Eastern countries and specifically in Saudi Arabia. This is an element that is not always included when assessments of fire safety are made (considering visibility, temperatures, and flows of smoke). This paper focuses on a tunnel within Riyadh’s underground system as a case study and includes simulations based on computational fluid dynamics using ANSYS Fluent, which investigates the impact of various ventilation systems while identifying smoke density, speed, pressure and temperatures within this tunnel.

Keywords: fire, subway tunnel, CFD, mechanical ventilation, smoke, temperature, harsh weather

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Authors: Hasnizan Aksah, Adi Irfan Che Ani

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Refurbished historic government buildings should perform as intended to support the organization’s goals that enhance occupant satisfaction. However, these buildings may have issues associated with functional performance evaluation. The aim of this study is to develop a Post Occupancy Evaluation (POE) sustainability assessment tool for functional performance evaluation of refurbished historic government buildings. Developing an assessment tool requires a strategic methodology for a logical and cohesive tool that incorporating relevant theories and practical experiences. In this study, mixed method approaches use to collect all necessary data to achieve the objectives of this study. The design of sampling involves are interviews and survey questionnaires to relevant professionals in order to evaluate the criteria and problem encircled in functional performance evaluation. Then, the involvement of expert panels is required in establishing the assessment tool. During the process of investigation on the functional performance criteria, it was discovered that is seen to be critical in aspects of comfort, safety, and services. The proposed assessment tool has a significant role in providing opportunities for the improvement of building performance especially on functional performance for the future historic government building refurbishment project. It is hoped that the tool developed from this study will give benefits to related professionals, public agencies, local municipality, and relevant interested parties in historic building management.

Keywords: refurbished historic government buildings, functional performance, Post Occupancy Evaluation, sustainability

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Authors: Muthana A. M. Jamel Al-Gburi

Abstract:

Elimination of carbon dioxide (CO2) gas from the atmosphere is very important but complicated since there is increasing in the amounts of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, which mainly caused by some of the human activities and the burning of fossil fuels. So that will lead to global warming. The global warming affects the earth temperature causing an increase to a higher level and, at the same time, creates tornadoes and storms. In this project, we are going to do a new technique for extracting carbon dioxide directly from the air and change it to useful minerals and Nano scale fibers made of carbon by using several chemical processes through chemical reactions. So, that could lead to an economical and healthy way to make some valuable building materials. Also, it may even work as a weapon against environmental change. In our device (Carbone Dioxide Domestic Extractor), we are using Ocean-seawater to dissolve the CO₂ gas and then converted it into carbonate minerals by using a number of additives like Shampoo, clay, and MgO. Note that the atmospheric air includes CO₂ gas, has circulated within the seawater by the air pump. More, that we will use a number of chemicals agents to convert the water acid into useful minerals. After we constructed the system, we did intense experiments and investigations to find the optimum chemical agent, which must be work at the environmental condition. Further to that, we will measure the solubility of CO₂ and other salts in the seawater.

Keywords: global warming, CO₂ gas, ocean-sea water, additives, solubility level

Procedia PDF Downloads 102

Authors: Naseem Akhter, Rozina Khattak, Arshad Munir

Abstract:

The Islamic social and family system is very clear concerning will, choice, consent and negation of compulsion and force in human life. Marriage is not only a civil contract but also a religious and spiritual contract between spouse (man and woman), which allows them for each other to live gladly, joyfully and legally in the society. It is an immortal and perpetual association between man and woman, which is filled with sympathetic affection, kindness, compassion and security. Islam gives specific rights to parents and guardians to set up the marriage ceremony and get done it as a respectful family occasion, confer their blessing and advice for a life partner of their children. The rights of parents and guardians are summed up in the term of "Willayah”. Islam does not permit parents, guardians and other relatives to compel their children regarding the marriage of their choice, because the groom and the bride are the real parties of the contract. Therefore, their willingness is of prime importance in order to spend whole life with each other. The Holy Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) prohibits forcing a virgin to marriage without her permission, whether this is her father or someone else. The right of free consent to choose a life partner is the basic right for the human which is God (Allah) gifted. Unfortunately, forced marriage is a common practice in Pakistani society that has no link with Islam. This article is being written in the same context.

Keywords: choice, consent, forced marriage, Islam, parents, spouse

Procedia PDF Downloads 307

Authors: H. G. Noh, H. G. Park, B. S. Kang, J. Kim

Abstract:

Electromagnetic forming process (EMF) is one of high-velocity forming processes using Lorentz force. Advantages of EMF are summarized as improvement of formability, reduction in wrinkling, non-contact forming. In this study, numerical simulations were conducted to determine the practical parameters for EMF process. A 2-D axis-symmetric electromagnetic model was considered based on the spiral type forming coil. In the numerical simulation, RLC circuit coupled with spiral coil was made to consider the design parameters such as system input current and electromagnetic force. In order to deform the sheet in the patter shape die, two types of spiral shape coil were considered to deform the pattern shape sheet. One is a spiral coil that has 6turns with dead zone at centre point. Another is a normal spiral coil without dead zone that has 8 turns. In the electric analysis, input current and magnetic force were compared and then plastic deformation was treated in the mechanical analysis for two coil cases. Deformation behaviour of dead zone coil case has good agreement with pattern shape die. As a result, deformation behaviour could be controlled by giving dead zone at centre of the coil in spiral shape coil case.

Keywords: electromagnetic forming, spiral coil, Lorentz force, manufacturing

Procedia PDF Downloads 297

Authors: Malarvizhi Selvaraj, Paul Fergus, Andy Shaw

Abstract:

Uterine contractions produced during labour have the potential to damage the foetus by diminishing the maternal blood flow to the placenta. In order to observe this phenomenon labour and delivery are routinely monitored using cardiotocography monitors. An obstetrician usually makes the diagnosis of foetus hypoxia by interpreting cardiotocography recordings. However, cardiotocography capture and interpretation is time-consuming and subjective, often lead to misclassification that causes damage to the foetus and unnecessary caesarean section. Both of these have a high impact on the foetus and the cost to the national healthcare services. Automatic detection of foetal heart rate may be an objective solution to help to reduce unnecessary medical interventions, as reported in several studies. This paper aim is to provide a system for better identification and interpretation of abnormalities of the fetal heart rate using RStudio. An open dataset of 552 Intrapartum recordings has been filtered with 0.034 Hz filters in an attempt to remove noise while keeping as much of the discriminative data as possible. Features were chosen following an extensive literature review, which concluded with FIGO features such as acceleration, deceleration, mean, variance and standard derivation. The five features were extracted from 552 recordings. Using these features, recordings will be classified either normal or abnormal. If the recording is abnormal, it has got more chances of hypoxia.

Keywords: cardiotocography, foetus, intrapartum, hypoxia

Procedia PDF Downloads 211

Authors: T. M. Samuel, O. O. Aremu, I. O. Ismaila, L. I. Onu, B. O. Adetifa, S. E. Adegbite, O. O. Olokoshe

Abstract:

The imperative of anthropometry in designing to fit cannot be overemphasized. Of essence is the variability of measurements among population for which data is collected. In this paper anthropometric data were collected for the design of gari-frying facility such that work system would be designed to fit the gari-frying population in the Southwestern states of Nigeria comprising Lagos, Ogun, Oyo, Osun, Ondo, and Ekiti. Twenty-seven body dimensions were measured among 120 gari-frying processors. Statistical analysis was performed using SPSS package to determine the mean, standard deviation, minimum value, maximum value and percentiles (2nd, 5th, 25th, 50th, 75th, 95th, and 98th) of the different anthropometric parameters. One sample t-test was conducted to determine the variation within the population. The 50th percentiles of some of the anthropometric parameters were compared with those from other populations in literature. The correlation between the worker’s age and the body anthropometry was also investigated.The mean weight, height, shoulder height (sitting), eye height (standing) and eye height (sitting) are 63.37 kg, 1.57 m, 0.55 m, 1.45 m, and 0.67 m respectively.Result also shows a high correlation with other populations and a statistically significant difference in variability of data within the population in all the body dimensions measured. With a mean age of 42.36 years, results shows that age will be a wrong indicator for estimating the anthropometry for the population.

Keywords: anthropometry, cassava processing, design to fit, gari-frying, workstation design

Procedia PDF Downloads 246

Authors: M.F. Elkady, Sahar Zaki, Desouky Abd-El-Haleem

Abstract:

Silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) are already widely prepared using different technologies. However, there are limited data on the effects of hydrogen ion concentration on nano-silver production. In this investigation, the impact of the pH reaction medium toward the particle size, agglomeration and the yield of the produced bio-synthesized silver were established. Quasi-spherical silver nanoparticles were synthesized through the biosynthesis green production process using the Egyptian E. coli bacterial strain 23N at different pH values. The formation of AgNPs has been confirmed with ultraviolet–visible spectra through identification of their characteristic peak at 410 nm. The quantitative production yield and the orientation planes of the produced nano-silver were examined using X-ray spectroscopy (EDS) and X-ray diffraction (XRD). Quantitative analyses indicated that the silver production yield was promoted at elevated pH regarded to increase the reduction rate of silver precursor through both chemical and biological processes. As a result, number of the nucleus and thus the size of the silver nanoparticles were tunable through changing pH of the reaction system. Accordingly, the morphological structure and size of the produced silver and its aggregates were determined using scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) images. It was considered that the increment in pH value of the reaction media progress the aggregation of silver clusters. However, the presence of stain 23N biomass decreases the possibility of silver aggregation at the pH 7.

Keywords: silver nanoparticles, biosynthesis, reaction media pH, nano-silver characterization

Procedia PDF Downloads 366