Search results for: Southeast Asian architecture

Authors: Daliyah S. Aljutaili, Redna A. Almutlaq, Suha A. Alharbi, Dina M. Ibrahim

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All currencies around the world look very different from each other. For instance, the size, color, and pattern of the paper are different. With the development of modern banking services, automatic methods for paper currency recognition become important in many applications like vending machines. One of the currency recognition architecture’s phases is Feature detection and description. There are many algorithms that are used for this phase, but they still have some disadvantages. This paper proposes a feature detection algorithm, which merges the advantages given in the current SIFT and SURF algorithms, which we call, Speeded up Robust Scale-Invariant Feature Transform (SR-SIFT) algorithm. Our proposed SR-SIFT algorithm overcomes the problems of both the SIFT and SURF algorithms. The proposed algorithm aims to speed up the SIFT feature detection algorithm and keep it robust. Simulation results demonstrate that the proposed SR-SIFT algorithm decreases the average response time, especially in small and minimum number of best key points, increases the distribution of the number of best key points on the surface of the currency. Furthermore, the proposed algorithm increases the accuracy of the true best point distribution inside the currency edge than the other two algorithms.

Keywords: currency recognition, feature detection and description, SIFT algorithm, SURF algorithm, speeded up and robust features

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Authors: Jeewan Rai, Kinzang, Yeshi Jigme Choden

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Accumulation of dust on solar panels impacts the overall efficiency and the amount of energy it produces. Detecting and mitigating dust accumulation is, therefore, crucial for optimizing solar energy production. While various techniques exist for detecting dust to schedule cleaning, many of these methods use licensed software like MATLAB, which can be financially burdensome. This study proposes the use of a modified pre-trained ResNet-50 model architecture with an adjusted fully connected layer for binary classification. An experimental setup was installed utilizing a single 75 Wp panel with an inclination maintained at a 30-degree angle. The fine dirt particles were artificially introduced and datasets of images of clean and dusty panels were collected from five different sides were taken, to compensate for the surface reflectance from the PV panel due to camera angles. Those datasets were used to train and test the model, and the accuracy achieved was 90%. The model's ability to detect dust with minimal false positives ensures more efficient maintenance scheduling. This research demonstrates the potential of AI-driven dust detection systems to enhance the operational efficiency of solar PV installations.

Keywords: AI, dust detection, deep learning, image processing, ResNet-50, PV panels

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Authors: K. Gomathi

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Mobile Ad hoc Networks (MANET) is defined as collection of routable wireless mobile nodes with no centralized administration and communicate each other using radio signals. Especially MANETs deployed in hostile environments where hackers will try to disturb the secure data transfer and drain the valuable network resources. Since MANET is battery operated network, preserving the network resource is essential one. For resource constrained computation, efficient routing and to increase the network stability, the network is divided into smaller groups called clusters. The clustering architecture consists of Cluster Head(CH), ordinary node and gateway. The CH is responsible for inter and intra cluster routing. CH election is a prominent research area and many more algorithms are developed using many different metrics. The CH with longer life sustains network lifetime, for this purpose Secondary Cluster Head(SCH) also elected and it is more economical. To nominate efficient CH, a Enhanced Distributed Weighted Clustering Algorithm (EDWCA) has been proposed. This approach considers metrics like battery power, degree difference and speed of the node for CH election. The proficiency of proposed one is evaluated and compared with existing algorithm using Network Simulator(NS-2).

Keywords: MANET, EDWCA, clustering, cluster head

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Authors: Jenifer Alam, Rima Chatterjee

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Upper Assam sedimentary basin is one of the oldest commercially producing basins of India. Being in a tectonically active zone, estimation of tectonic strain and stress magnitudes has vast application in hydrocarbon exploration and exploitation. This East North East –West South West trending shelf-slope basin encompasses the Bramhaputra valley extending from Mikir Hills in the southwest to the Naga foothills in the northeast. Assam Shelf lying between the Main Boundary Thrust (MBT) and Naga Thrust area is comparatively free from thrust tectonics and depicts normal faulting mechanism. The study area is bounded by the MBT and Main Central Thrust in the northwest. The Belt of Schuppen in the southeast, is bordered by Naga and Disang thrust marking the lower limit of the study area. The entire Assam basin shows low-level seismicity compared to other regions of northeast India. Pore pressure (PP), vertical stress magnitude (SV) and horizontal stress magnitudes have been estimated from two wells - N1 and T1 located in Upper Assam. N1 is located in the Assam gap below the Bramhaputra river while T1, lies in the Belt of Schuppen. N1 penetrates geological formations from top Alluvial through Dhekiajuli, Girujan, Tipam, Barail, Kopili, Sylhet and Langpur to the granitic basement while T1 in trusted zone crosses through Girujan Suprathrust, Tipam Suprathrust, Barail Suprathrust to reach Naga Thrust. Normal compaction trend is drawn through shale points through both wells for estimation of PP using the conventional Eaton sonic equation with an exponent of 1.0 which is validated with Modular Dynamic Tester and mud weight. Observed pore pressure gradient ranges from 10.3 MPa/km to 11.1 MPa/km. The SV has a gradient from 22.20 to 23.80 MPa/km. Minimum and maximum horizontal principal stress (Sh and SH) magnitudes under isotropic conditions are determined using poroelastic model. This approach determines biaxial tectonic strain utilizing static Young’s Modulus, Poisson’s Ratio, SV, PP, leak off test (LOT) and SH derived from breakouts using prior information on unconfined compressive strength. Breakout derived SH information is used for obtaining tectonic strain due to lack of measured SH data from minifrac or hydrofracturing. Tectonic strain varies from 0.00055 to 0.00096 along x direction and from -0.0010 to 0.00042 along y direction. After obtaining tectonic strains at each well, the principal horizontal stress magnitudes are calculated from linear poroelastic model. The magnitude of Sh and SH gradient in normal faulting region are 12.5 and 16.0 MPa/km while in thrust faulted region the gradients are 17.4 and 20.2 MPa/km respectively. Model predicted Sh and SH matches well with the LOT data and breakout derived SH data in both wells. It is observed from this study that the stresses SV>SH>Sh prevailing in the shelf region while near the Naga foothills the regime changes to SH≈SV>Sh area corresponds to normal faulting regime. Hence this model is a reliable tool for predicting stress magnitudes from well logs under active tectonic regime in Upper Assam Basin.

Keywords: Eaton, strain, stress, poroelastic model

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Authors: Shu Yin, Zhiyang Ding, Jianzhong Huang, Xiaojun Ruan, Xiaomin Zhu, Xiao Qin

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Since large-scale and data-intensive applications have been widely deployed, there is a growing demand for high-performance storage systems to support data-intensive applications. Compared with traditional storage systems, next-generation systems will embrace dedicated processor to reduce computational load of host machines and will have hybrid combinations of different storage devices. The advent of flash- memory-based solid state disk has become a critical role in revolutionizing the storage world. However, instead of simply replacing the traditional magnetic hard disk with the solid state disk, it is believed that finding a complementary approach to corporate both of them is more challenging and attractive. This paper explores an idea of active storage, an emerging new storage configuration, in terms of the architecture and design, the parallel processing capability, the cooperation of other machines in cluster computing environment, and a disk configuration, the hybrid combination of different types of disk drives. Experimental results indicate that the proposed HcDD achieves better I/O performance and longer storage system lifespan.

Keywords: arallel storage system, hybrid storage system, data inten- sive, solid state disks, reliability

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Authors: Flaviu Mihai Frigura-Lliasa, Andreea Anamaria Anghel, Attila Simo

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Due to the beauty, usefulness, science, constantly changing, constantly evolving features, and most of the time, mystery it involves, nature-based art is seen as a both modern and timeless direction that has been extensively used in design. The goal of the team's activities was to experiment with ways of fusing the two most common contemporary ways of referring to green installations, that is, either in a pure artistic or in an ecological manner, and creating a living, dynamic, interactive installation capable of both receiving and interpreting external factors, such as natural and human stimuli, that would not only determine some of the mechanism's presets. By consequent, a complex experiment made up of various research and project stages was elaborated in order to transform an idea into an actual interactive green installation within months thanks to the interaction, teamwork, and design processes undertaken throughout the academic years by both university lecturers and some of our students. The outcomes would lead to the development of a dynamic artwork called "Modgrew" as well as the introduction of experiment-based learning at the Timisoara Faculty of Architecture and Urban Planning, as well as at the Faculty of Electrical and Power Engineering, for the green wall automation issues.

Keywords: green design, living walls, modular structure, interactive proof of concept

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Authors: Mahdi Biabanaki

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Religion is present in all human societies and has been for tens of thousands of years. What is noteworthy is that although religious traditions vary in different societies, there are considerable similarities in their religious beliefs. In all human cultures, for example, there is a widespread belief in the afterlife. Cognitive science of Religion (CSR), an emerging branch of cognitive science, searches for the root of these widespread similarities and the widespread prevalence of beliefs such as beliefs in the afterlife in common mental structures among humans. Accordingly, the cognitive architecture of the human mind has evolved to produce such beliefs automatically and non-reflectively. For CSR researchers, belief in the afterlife is an intuitive belief resulting from the functioning of mental tools. Our purpose in this article is to extract and evaluate the cognitive explanations presented in the CSR field for explaining beliefs in the afterlife. Our research shows that there are two basic theories in this area of CSR, namely "intuitive dualism" and "simulation constraint" theory. We show that these two theories face four major challenges and limitations in explaining belief in the afterlife: inability to provide a causal explanation, inability to explain cultural/religious differences in afterlife belief, the lack of distinction between the natural and the rational foundations of belief in the afterlife and disregarding the supernatural foundations of the afterlife belief.

Keywords: afterlife, cognitive science of religion, intuitive dualism, simulation constraint

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Authors: Solomon Huluka, Akrum Abdul-Latif, Rachid Baleh

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Metal foams have been developed intensively as a new class of materials for the last two decades due to their unique structural and multifunctional properties. The aim of this experimental work was to characterize the effect of biaxial loading complexity (combined compression-torsion) on the plastic response of highly uniform architecture open-cell aluminum foams of spherical porous with a density of 80%. For foam manufacturing, the Kelvin cells model was used to generate the generally spherical shape with a cell diameter of 11 mm. A patented rig called ACTP (Absorption par Compression-Torsion Plastique), was used to investigate the foam response under quasi-static complex loading paths having different torsional components (i.e. 0°, 45° and 60°). The key mechanical responses to be examined are yield stress, stress plateau, and energy absorption capacity. The collapse mode was also investigated. It was concluded that the higher the loading complexity, the greater the yield strength and the greater energy absorption capacity of the foam. Experimentally, it was also noticed that there were large softening effects that occurred after the first pick stress for both biaxial-45° and biaxial-60° loading.

Keywords: aluminum foam, loading complexity, characterization, biaxial loading

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Authors: S. Pramanik

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Since the early ages, the Hindu temples have been interpreted through various Vedic philosophies. These temples are visited by pilgrims which demonstrate the rituals and religious belief of communities, reflecting a variety of actions and behaviors. Darsana— a direct seeing, is a part of the pilgrimage activity. During the process of Darsana, a devotee is prepared for entry in the temple to realize the cognizing Truth culminating in visualizing the idol of God, placed at the Garbhagriha (sanctum sanctorum). For this, the pilgrim must pass through a sequential arrangement of spaces. During the process of progress, the pilgrims visualize the spaces differently from various points of views. The viewpoints create a variety of spatial patterns in the minds of pilgrims coherent to the Hindu philosophies. The space organization and its order are perceived by various techniques of spatial analysis. A temple, as examples of Kalinga stylistic variations, has been chosen for the study. This paper intends to demonstrate some visual patterns generated during the process of Darsana (visibility) and its accessibility by Point Isovist Studies and Visibility Graph Analysis from the entrance (Simha Dwara) to The Sanctum sanctorum (Garbhagriha).

Keywords: Hindu temple architecture, point isovist, space syntax analysis, visibility graph analysis

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Authors: Angel Fabian Mijangos, Jaime Alvarez Quintana

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Key concepts like waste heat recycling or waste heat recovery are the basic ideas in thermoelectricity so as to the design the newest solid state sources of energy for a stable supply of electricity and environmental protection. According to several theoretical predictions; at device level, the geometry and configuration of the thermoelectric legs are crucial in the thermoelectric performance of the thermoelectric modules. Thus, in this work, it has studied the geometry effect of legs on the thermoelectric figure of merit ZT of the device. First, asymmetrical legs are proposed in order to reduce the overall thermal conductance of the device so as to increase the temperature gradient in the legs, as well as by harnessing the Thomson effect, which is generally neglected in conventional symmetrical thermoelectric legs. It has been developed a novel design of a thermoelectric module having asymmetrical legs, and by first time it has been validated experimentally its thermoelectric performance by realizing a proof-of-concept device which shows to have almost twofold the thermoelectric figure of merit as compared to conventional one. Moreover, it has been also varied the length of thermoelectric legs in order to analyze its effect on the thermoelectric performance of the device. Along with this, it has studied the impact of contact resistance in these systems. Experimental results show that device architecture can improve up to twofold the thermoelectric performance of the device.

Keywords: asymmetrical legs, heat recovery, heat recycling, thermoelectric module, Thompson effect

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Authors: Rosni Lakandri

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With the development of science and technology, there has been a complete transformation in the domain of information technology. Particularly after the Second World War and Cold War period, the role of media and communication technology in shaping the political, economic, socio-cultural proceedings across the world has been tremendous. It performs as a channel between the governing bodies of the state and the general masses. As we have seen the international community constantly talking about the onset of Asian Century, India and China happens to be the major player in this. Both have the civilization history, both are neighboring countries, both are witnessing a huge economic growth and, important of all, both are considered the rising powers of Asia. Not negating the fact that both countries have gone to war with each other in 1962 and the common people and even the policy makers of both the sides view each other till now from this prism. A huge contribution to this perception of people goes to the media coverage of both sides, even if there are spaces of cooperation which they share, the negative impacts of media has tended to influence the people’s opinion and government’s perception about each other. Therefore, analysis of media’s impression in both the countries becomes important in order to know their effect on the larger implications of foreign policy towards each other. It is usually said that media not only acts as the information provider but also acts as ombudsman to the government. They provide a kind of check and balance to the governments in taking proper decisions for the people of the country but in attempting to answer this hypothesis we have to analyze does the media really helps in shaping the political landscape of any country? Therefore, this study rests on the following questions; 1.How do China and India depict each other through their respective News media? 2.How much and what influences they make on the policy making process of each country? How do they shape the public opinion in both the countries? In order to address these enquiries, the study employs both primary and secondary sources available, and in generating data and other statistical information, primary sources like reports, government documents, and cartography, agreements between the governments have been used. Secondary sources like books, articles and other writings collected from various sources and opinion from visual media sources like news clippings, videos in this topic are also included as a source of on ground information as this study is not based on field study. As the findings suggest in case of China and India, media has certainly affected people’s knowledge about the political and diplomatic issues at the same time has affected the foreign policy making of both the countries. They have considerable impact on the foreign policy formulation and we can say there is some mediatization happening in foreign policy issues in both the countries.

Keywords: China, foreign policy, India, media, public opinion

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Authors: Michael Dole, Pierre Ninin, Denis Raffourt

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Most of the CERN’s facilities hosting particle accelerators are large, underground and radioactive areas. All fire detection systems installed in such areas, shall be carefully studied to cope with the particularities of this stringent environment. The detection equipment usually chosen by CERN to secure these underground facilities are based on air sampling technology. The electronic equipment is located in non-radioactive areas whereas air sampling networks are deployed in radioactive areas where fire detection is required. The air sampling technology provides very good detection performances and prevent the "radiation-to-electronic" effects. In addition, it reduces the exposure to radiations of maintenance workers and is permanently available during accelerator operation. In order to protect the Super Proton Synchrotron and its 7 km tunnels, a specific long distance aspirating smoke detector has been developed to detect smoke at up to 700 meters between electronic equipment and the last air sampling hole. This paper describes the architecture, performances and return of experience of the long distance fire detection system developed and installed to secure the CERN Super Proton Synchrotron tunnels.

Keywords: air sampling, fire detection, long distance, radioactive areas

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Authors: Yuhang Wang, Jorg Schluter, Sergiy Shelyag

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The high cost associated with high-resolution computational fluid dynamics (CFD) is one of the main challenges that inhibit the design, development, and optimisation of new combustion systems adapted for renewable fuels. In this study, we propose a physics-guided CNN-based model to predict turbulence evolution and mixing without requiring a traditional CFD solver. The model architecture is built upon U-Net and the inception module, while a physics-guided loss function is designed by introducing two additional physical constraints to allow for the conservation of both mass and pressure over the entire predicted flow fields. Then, the model is trained on the Large Eddy Simulation (LES) results of a natural turbulent mixing layer with two different Reynolds number cases (Re = 3000 and 30000). As a result, the model prediction shows an excellent agreement with the corresponding CFD solutions in terms of both spatial distributions and temporal evolution of turbulent mixing. Such promising model prediction performance opens up the possibilities of doing accurate high-resolution manifold-based combustion simulations at a low computational cost for accelerating the iterative design process of new combustion systems.

Keywords: computational fluid dynamics, turbulence, machine learning, combustion modelling

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Authors: Aymen Arfaoui, Abdelkader Soumaya, Noureddine Ben Ayed

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The Rouas-Ruissateis a part of TunisianAtlas system. Analyze of the collected field data allowed us to propose a new interpretation for the main structural features of thisregion. Tectonic inversions along NE-SW trending fault of Zaghouan and holokinetic movements are the main factors controlling the architecture and geometry of the Jebel Rouas-Ruissate. The presence of breccias, Slumps, and synsedimentaryfaults along NW-SE and N-S trending major faults show that they were active during the Mesozoicextensionalepisodes. During Cenozoic inversion period, this structurewas shaped as imbricatefansformed byNE-SW trending thrust faults. The angularunconformitybetweenupperEocene- Oligocene, and Cretaceousdeposits reveals a compressive Eocene tectonic phase (called Pyrenean phase)occurred duringPaleocene-lower Eocene.The Triassicsaltsacted as a decollementlevel in the NE-SW trendingfault propagation fold model of the Rouas-Ruissate.The inversion of fault-slip data along the main regional fault zones reveals a coexistence of strike-slip and reverse fault stress regimes with NW-SE maximum horizontal stress(SHmax) characterizing the Alpine compressive phase (Upper Tortonian).

Keywords: tunisia, imbricate fans, triassic decollement level, fault propagation fold

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Authors: Mohsin Ali Shaikh, Song Weiguo, Muhammad Kashan Surahio, Usman Shahid, Rehmat Karim

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When the area of a structure that is threatened by a disaster affects personal safety, the effectiveness of disaster prevention, evacuation, and rescue operations can be summarized by three assessment indicators: personal safety, property preservation, and attribution of responsibility. These indicators are applicable regardless of the disaster that affects the building. People need to get out of the hazardous area and to a safe place as soon as possible because there's no other way to respond. The results of the tragedy are thus closely related to how quickly people are advised to evacuate and how quickly they are rescued. This study considers present fire prevention systems to address catastrophes and improve building safety. It proposes the methods of Prevention Level for Deployment in Advance and Spatial Transformation by Human-Machine Collaboration. We present and prototype a real-time fire protection system architecture for building disaster prevention, evacuation, and rescue operations. The design encourages the use of simulations to check the efficacy of evacuation, rescue, and disaster prevention procedures throughout the planning and design phase of the structure.

Keywords: prevention level, building information modeling, quality management system, simulated reality

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Authors: Muhammad Zubair Khan, Yugyung Lee

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Deep learning has recently achieved enormous response in semantic image segmentation. The previously developed U-Net inspired architectures operate with continuous stride and pooling operations, leading to spatial data loss. Also, the methods lack establishing long-term pixels connection to preserve context knowledge and reduce spatial loss in prediction. This article developed encoder-decoder architecture with bi-directional LSTM embedded in long skip-connections and densely connected convolution blocks. The network non-linearly combines the feature maps across encoder-decoder paths for finding dependency and correlation between image pixels. Additionally, the densely connected convolutional blocks are kept in the final encoding layer to reuse features and prevent redundant data sharing. The method applied batch-normalization for reducing internal covariate shift in data distributions. The empirical evidence shows a promising response to our method compared with other semantic segmentation techniques.

Keywords: deep learning, semantic segmentation, image analysis, pixels connection, convolution neural network

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Authors: Apoorva Vinod, Archana Mathur, Snehanshu Saha

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Though there exists a plethora of Activation Functions (AFs) used in single and multiple hidden layer Neural Networks (NN), their behavior always raised curiosity, whether used in combination or singly. The popular AFs –Sigmoid, ReLU, and Tanh–have performed prominently well for shallow and deep architectures. Most of the time, AFs are used singly in multi-layered NN, and, to the best of our knowledge, their performance is never studied and analyzed deeply when used in combination. In this manuscript, we experiment with multi-layered NN architecture (both on shallow and deep architectures; Convolutional NN and VGG16) and investigate how well the network responds to using two different AFs (Sigmoid-Tanh, Tanh-ReLU, ReLU-Sigmoid) used alternately against a traditional, single (Sigmoid-Sigmoid, Tanh-Tanh, ReLUReLU) combination. Our results show that using two different AFs, the network achieves better accuracy, substantially lower loss, and faster convergence on 4 computer vision (CV) and 15 Non-CV (NCV) datasets. When using different AFs, not only was the accuracy greater by 6-7%, but we also accomplished convergence twice as fast. We present a case study to investigate the probability of networks suffering vanishing and exploding gradients when using two different AFs. Additionally, we theoretically showed that a composition of two or more AFs satisfies Universal Approximation Theorem (UAT).

Keywords: activation function, universal approximation function, neural networks, convergence

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Authors: Wang Haining, Zhang Hong

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In China, rapid urbanization needs more and more buildings constructed for the growing population in cities. With the help of the methodology which contains investigation, contrastive analysis, design based on component with BIM and experiment before real construction, this research based on mobile light structure system, trying to the sustainable problems partly in present China by systematic study. The system cannot replace the permanent heavy structure completely. So the goal is the improvement of the whole building system by the addition of light structure. This house system uses modularized envelopes and standardized connections, which are pre-fabricated and assembled in factories and transported like containers. Aluminum is used as the structural material in this system, and inorganic thermal insulation material used in the envelope, which have high fireproof properties. The relationship between manufactory and construction of the system is progressive hierarchy. They exist as First Industrial, Second Industrial, Third Industrial and Site Assembly Stage. It could maximize the land usage capacity by fully exploit the area where normal permanent architecture can't take advantage of. Not only the building system itself especially the thermal isolated materials used and active solar photovoltaic system equipped can save energy, but also the way of product development is sustainable.

Keywords: aluminum house, light Structure, rapid assembly, repeat construction

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Authors: F. Amirarfaei, K. Khorasani

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In this paper, reconfigurable consensus achievement of a team of agents with marginally stable linear dynamics and single input channel has been considered. The control algorithm is based on a first order linear protocol. After occurrence of a LOE fault in one of the actuators, using the imperfect information of the effectiveness of the actuators from fault detection and identification module, the control gain is redesigned in a way to still reach consensus. The idea is based on the modeling of change in effectiveness as change of Laplacian matrix. Then as special cases of this class of systems, a team of single integrators as well as double integrators are considered and their behavior subject to a LOE fault is considered. The well-known relative measurements consensus protocol is applied to a leaderless team of single integrator as well as double integrator systems, and Gersgorin disk theorem is employed to determine whether fault occurrence has an effect on system stability and team consensus achievement or not. The analyses show that loss of effectiveness fault in actuator(s) of integrator systems affects neither system stability nor consensus achievement.

Keywords: multi-agent system, actuator fault, stability analysis, consensus achievement

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Authors: Sonia Tamanna, Akramul Hassan, Mohammad Shakil Mahmood, Farzana Ansari, Gowhar Rashid, Mir Fahim Faisal, M. Zakir Hossain Howlader

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Background: Preeclampsia (PE), a pregnancy-specific hypertensive disorder, significantly impacts maternal and fetal health. It is particularly prevalent in underdeveloped countries and is linked to preterm delivery and fetal growth. The renin-angiotensin system (RAS) plays a crucial role in ensuring a successful pregnancy outcome, with Angiotensin-Converting Enzyme 2 (ACE2) being a key component. ACE2 converts ANG II to Ang-(1-7), offering protection against ANG II-induced stress and inflammation while regulating blood pressure and osmotic balance during pregnancy. The reduced maternal plasma angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) seen in preeclampsia might contribute to its pathogenesis. However, there has been a dearth of comprehensive research into the association between ACE2 gene polymorphism and preeclampsia. In the South Asian population, hypertension is strongly linked to two SNPs: rs2285666 and rs879922. This genotype was therefore considered, and the possible association of maternal and fetal ACE2 gene polymorphism with preeclampsia within the Bangladeshi population was evaluated. Method: DNA was extracted from peripheral white blood cells (WBCs) using the organic method, and SNP genotyping was done via PCR-RFLP. Odds ratios (OR) with 95% confidence intervals (95% CI) were calculated using logistic regression to determine relative risk. Result: A comprehensive case-control study was conducted on 51 PE patients and their infants, along with 56 control subjects and their infants. Maternal single nuvleotide polymorphisms (SNP) (rs2285666) analysis revealed a strong association between the TT genotype and preeclampsia, with a four-fold increased risk in mothers (P=0.024, OR=4.00, 95% CI=1.36-11.37) compared to their ancestral genotype CC. However, the CT genotype (rs2285666) showed no significant difference (P=0.46, OR=1.54, 95% CI=0.57-4.14). Notably, no significant correlation was found in infants, regardless of their gender. For rs879922, no significant association was observed in both mothers and infants. This pioneering study suggests that mothers carrying the ACE2 gene variant rs2285666 (TT allele) may be at higher risk for preeclampsia, potentially influencing hypertension characteristics, whereas rs879922 does not appear to be associated with developing preeclampsia. Conclusion: This study sheds light on the role of ACE2 gene polymorphism, particularly the rs2285666 TT allele, in maternal susceptibility to preeclampsia. However, rs879922 does not appear to be linked to the risk of PE. This research contributes to our understanding of the genetic underpinnings of preeclampsia, offering insights into potential avenues for prevention and management.

Keywords: ACE2, PCR-RFLP, preeclampsia, single nuvleotide polymorphisms (SNPs)

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Authors: Mona Alyedreessy

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This study, which is based on a qualitative study sample of thirty-four British converts from different ages, ethnicities, social classes, areas and religious backgrounds in London, investigates the common challenges, problems and abuse in the name of Islam that many British female Muslim converts experienced during their time as Muslims, which caused them to leave the faith. It is an important study, as it creates an awareness of the weaknesses found in western Muslim societies and in various Islamic educational programs that causes people to leave Islam and contribute towards its negative reputation in the media. The women in this study shared common problems regarding gender and racial discrimination, identity development, feminism, marriage, parenting, Muslim culture, isolation, extremism, belonging and practising Islam in both Muslim and non-Muslim societies with differing sacrifices and consequences that caused them to de-convert. The study argues that many of the personal, religious and social problems female Muslim converts experience are due to a lack of knowledge about Islam and their rights as Muslim women, which often results in them being vulnerable and influenced by the opinions, attitudes and actions of uneducated, abusive, non-practising and extremist Muslims. For example, it was found that young female converts in particular were often taken advantage of and manipulated into believing that many negative actions displayed by patriarchal Muslim husbands were a part of Islam. This created much confusion, especially when their husbands used specific Quran texts and Hadiths to justify their abuse, authority and attitudes that made them miserable. As a result and based on the positive experiences of some converts, the study found that obtaining a broad Islamic education that started with an intimate study of the Prophet Muhammad’s biography alongside being guided by the teachings of western Muslim scholars contributed greatly towards a more enjoyable conversion journey, as women were able to identify and avoid problematic Muslims and abuse in the name of Islam. This in turn helped to create a healthier family unit and Muslim society. Those who enjoyed being Muslims were able to create a balanced western Muslim identity by negotiating and applying their own morals and western values to their understanding of The Prophet’s biography and The Quran and integrated Islamic values into their own secular western environments that were free from foreign cultural practices. The outcomes of the study also highlight some effective modern approaches to da’wah based on the teachings of The Prophet Mohammad and other prophets for young Arab and Asian Muslims who marry, study and live among non-Muslims and converts.

Keywords: abuse, apostasy, converts, Muslims

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Authors: Priyanka Dutta Chowdhury

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A globalized connected world, calling loud for a composite culture, was still not able to erase the pain of a desired nationalism based on cultural identity. In the South Asian region, the random drawing of the boundaries without taking the ethnic aspect into consideration have always challenged the very basis of the existence of certain groups. The urge to reunify with the fellow brothers on both sides of the border have always called for a chaos and schism in the countries of this region. Sometimes this became a tool to bargain with the state and find a favorable position in the power structure on the basis of cultural identity. In Pakistan and Afghanistan, the Pakhtuns who are divided across the border of the two countries, from the inception of creation of Pakistan have posed various challenges and hampered the growth of a consolidated nation. The Pakhtuns or Pashtuns of both Pakistan and Afghanistan have a strong cultural affinity which blurs their physical distancing and calls for a nationalism based on this ethnic affiliation. Both the sides wanted to create Pakhtunistan unifying all the Pakhtuns of the region. For long, this group have denied to accept the Durand line separating the two. This was an area of concern especially for the Pakhtuns of Pakistan torn between the decision either to join Afghanistan, create a nation of their own or be a part of Pakistan. This ethnic issue became a bone of contention between the two countries. Later, though well absorbed and recognized in the respective countries, they have fought for their identity and claimed for a dominant position in the politics of the nations. Because of the porous borders often influx of refugees was seen especially during Afghan Wars and later many extremists’ groups were born from them especially the Taliban. In the recent string of events, when the Taliban, who are mostly Pakhtuns ethnically, came in power in Afghanistan, a wave of sympathy arose in Pakistan. This gave a strengthening position to the religious Pakhtuns across the border. It is to be noted here that a fragmented Pakhtun identity between the religious and seculars were clearly visible, voicing for their place in the political hierarchy of the country with a vision distinct from each other especially in Pakistan. In this context the paper tries to evaluate the reasons for this cultural turmoil between the countries and this ethnic group. It also aims to analyze the concept of how the identity politics still holds its relevance in the contemporary world. Additionally, the recent trend of fragmented identity points towards instrumentalization of this ethnic groups, who are engaged in the bargaining process with the state for a robust position in the power structure. In the end, the paper aims to deduct from the theoretical conditions of identity politics, whether this is a primordial or a situational tool to have a visibility in the power structure of the contemporary world.

Keywords: cultural identity, identity politics, instrumentalization of identity pakhtuns, power structure

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Authors: Scarlet Alejandra Romano, Joni Kareco

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The three pillars of sustainability (social, economic and environmental) are relevant concepts to the Architecture, Engineering, and Construction (AEC) industry because of the increase of international agreements and guidelines related to this topic during the last years. Considering these three pillars, the AEC industry faces important challenges, for instance, to decrease the carbon emissions (environmental challenge), design sustainable spaces for people (social challenge), and improve the technology of this field to reduce costs and environmental problems (economic and environmental challenge). One alternative to overcome these challenges is Building Information Modelling program (BIM) because according to several authors, this technology improves the performance of the sustainable buildings in all their lifecycle phases. The main objective of this paper is to explore and analyse the current advantages and disadvantages of the BIM implementation in the life-cycle of sustainable buildings considering the three pillars of sustainability as analysis parameters. The methodology established to achieve this objective is exploratory-descriptive with the literature review technique. The partial results illustrate that despite the BIM disadvantages and the lack of information about its social sustainability advantages, this software represents a significant opportunity to improve the three sustainable pillars of the sustainable buildings.

Keywords: building information modelling, building lifecycle analysis, sustainability, sustainable buildings

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Authors: Samantha J. Hall, Luke Taylor, Kenneth I. Cumming, Jakki Bardsley, Scott S. P. Wildman

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Medway School of Pharmacy – a joint collaboration between the University of Kent and the University of Greenwich – is a large school of pharmacy in the United Kingdom. The school primarily delivers the accredited Master or Pharmacy (MPharm) degree programme. Reportedly, some students may feel isolated from the larger student body that extends across four separate campuses, where a diverse range of academic subjects is delivered. In addition, student engagement has been noted as being limited in some areas, as evidenced in some cases by poor attendance at some lectures. In January 2015, the University of Kent launched a new initiative dedicated to Equality, Diversity and Inclusivity (EDI). As part of this project, Medway School of Pharmacy employed ‘Student Success Project Officers’ in order to analyse past and present school data. As a result, initiatives have been implemented to i) negate disparities in attainment and ii) increase engagement, particularly for Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) students which make up for more than 80% of the pharmacy student cohort. Social media platforms are prevalent, with global statistics suggesting that they are most commonly used by females between the ages of 16-34. Student focus groups held throughout the academic year brought to light the school’s need to use social media much more actively. Prior to the EDI initiative, social media usage for Medway School of Pharmacy was scarce. Platforms including: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, The Student Room and University Blogs were either introduced or rejuvenated. This action was taken with the primary aim of increasing student engagement. By using a number of varied social media platforms, the university is able to capture a large range of students by appealing to different interests. Social media is being used to disseminate important information, promote equality and diversity, recognise and celebrate student success and also to allow students to explore the student life outside of Medway School of Pharmacy. Early data suggests an increase in lecture attendance, as well as greater evidence of student engagement highlighted by recent focus group discussions. In addition, students have communicated that active social media accounts were imperative when choosing universities for 2015/16. It allows students to understand more about the University and community prior to beginning their studies. By having a lively presence on social media, the university can use a multi-faceted approach to succeed in early engagement, as well as fostering the long term engagement of continuing students.

Keywords: engagement, social media, pharmacy, community

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Authors: Telesphore Tiendrebeogo, Oumarou Sié

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Cloud computing technologies have attracted considerable interest in recent years. Thus, these latters have become more important for many existing database applications. It provides a new mode of use and of offer of IT resources in general. Such resources can be used “on demand” by anybody who has access to the internet. Particularly, the Cloud platform provides an ease to use interface between providers and users, allow providers to develop and provide software and databases for users over locations. Currently, there are many Cloud platform providers support large scale database services. However, most of these only support simple keyword-based queries and can’t response complex query efficiently due to lack of efficient in multi-attribute index techniques. Existing Cloud platform providers seek to improve performance of indexing techniques for complex queries. In this paper, we define a new cloud computing architecture based on a Distributed Hash Table (DHT) and design a prototype system. Next, we perform and evaluate our cloud computing indexing structure based on a hyperbolic tree using virtual coordinates taken in the hyperbolic plane. We show through our experimental results that we compare with others clouds systems to show our solution ensures consistence and scalability for Cloud platform.

Keywords: virtual coordinates, cloud, hyperbolic plane, storage, scalability, consistency

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Authors: Raweyah Al-Sedairawi

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While high-rise housing detained massive negative connotations on several societies and well-being, this typology did deliver housing demand efficiently. Despite its adverse reference due to declining precedents, high-rise housing is still in global demand. Yet the suitability of this typology is still questioned. In this research, the suitability of high-rise housing as a socio-culturally sustainable solution to meet housing demands will be examined. By questioning what is the potential of high-rise housing as a socio-culturally sustainable solution for housing demands, the research will examine some high-rise housing practices. Through reviewing the literature on the origins of high-rise housing, how and why they were developed, some unsuccessful cases, and some successful cases, with the identification of factors for successful high-rise living. Thus, the research groundings will materialize from existing patterns of housing demands. Whilst most of the literature covers the housing market from an economic, real estate, and political perspective, there is less amount that discloses occupants’ reactions towards this typology and its appropriateness for the reason that income controls individuals’ choices. To bridge the gap, the prospect of implementing the study would be effective. This will be applied through a mixture of a qualitative and a quantitative methodology by conducting questionnaires and focus groups on existing cases of high-net-worth residential towers.

Keywords: architecture, behaviors, high-rise, socio-cultural, sustainability

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Authors: Adrienn Kiss, Karoly Zauer, Gyorgy Keglevich, Rita Molnarne Bernath

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Ginger (Zingiber officinale) is a perennial plant from Southeast Asia, widely used as a spice, herb, and medicine for many illnesses since its beneficial health effects were observed thousands of years ago. Among the compounds found in ginger, zingerone [4-hydroxy-3- methoxyphenyl-2-butanone] deserves special attention: it has an anti-inflammatory and antispasmodic effect, it can be used in case of diarrheal disease, helps to prevent the formation of blood clots, has antimicrobial properties, and can also play a role in preventing the Alzheimer's disease. Ferulic acid [(E)-3-(4-hydroxy-3-methoxyphenyl)-prop-2-enoic acid] is another cinnamic acid derivative in ginger, which has promising properties. Like many phenolic compounds, ferulic acid is also an antioxidant. Based on the results of animal experiments, it is assumed to have a direct antitumoral effect in lung and liver cancer. It also deactivates free radicals that can damage the cell membrane and the DNA and helps to protect the skin against UV radiation. The aim of this work was to synthesize these two compounds by new methods. A few of the reactions were based on the hydrogenation of dehydrozingerone [4-(4-Hydroxy-3-methoxyphenyl)-3-buten-2-one] to zingerone. Dehydrozingerone can be synthesized by a relatively simple method from acetone and vanillin with good yield (80%, melting point: 41 °C). Hydrogenation can be carried out chemically, for example by the reaction of zinc and acetic acid, or Grignard magnesium and ethyl alcohol. Another way to complete the reduction is the electrochemical pathway. The electrolysis of dehydrozingerone without diaphragm in aqueous media was attempted to produce ferulic acid in the presence of sodium carbonate and potassium iodide using platinum electrodes. The electrolysis of dehydrozingerone in the presence of potassium carbonate and acetic acid to prepare zingerone was carried out similarly. Ferulic acid was expected to be converted to dihydroferulic acid [3-(4-Hydroxy-3-methoxyphenyl)propanoic acid] in potassium hydroxide solution using iron electrodes, separating the anode and cathode space with a Soxhlet paper sheath impregnated with saturated magnesium chloride solution. For this reaction, ferulic acid was synthesized from vanillin and malonic acid in the presence of pyridine and piperidine (yield: 88.7%, melting point: 173°C). Unfortunately, in many cases, the expected transformations did not happen or took place in low conversions, although gas evolution occurred. Thus, a deeper understanding of these experiments and optimization are needed. Since both compounds are found in different plants, they can also be obtained by alkaline extraction or steam distillation from distinct plant parts (ferulic acid from ground bamboo shoots, zingerone from grated ginger root). The products of these reactions are rich in several other organic compounds as well; therefore, their separation must be solved to get the desired pure material. The products of the reactions described above were characterized by infrared spectral data and melting points. The use of these two simple methods may be informative for the formation of the products. In the future, we would like to study the ferulic acid and zingerone content of other plants and extract them efficiently. The optimization of electrochemical reactions and the use of other test methods are also among our plans.

Keywords: ferulic acid, ginger, synthesis, zingerone

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Authors: Jamshaid Ul Rahman, Faiza Makhdoom, Dianchen Lu

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Activation functions play a decisive role in determining the capacity of Deep Neural Networks (DNNs) as they enable neural networks to capture inherent nonlinearities present in data fed to them. The prior research on activation functions primarily focused on the utility of monotonic or non-oscillatory functions, until Growing Cosine Unit (GCU) broke the taboo for a number of applications. In this paper, a Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) model named as ASU-CNN is proposed which utilizes recently designed activation function ASU across its layers. The effect of this non-monotonic and oscillatory function is inspected through feature map visualizations from different convolutional layers. The optimization of proposed network is offered by Adam with a fine-tuned adjustment of learning rate. The network achieved promising results on both training and testing data for the classification of CIFAR-10. The experimental results affirm the computational feasibility and efficacy of the proposed model for performing tasks related to the field of computer vision.

Keywords: amplifying sine unit, activation function, convolutional neural networks, oscillatory activation, image classification, CIFAR-10

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Authors: Sonia Perez-Gamboa, Qingquan Sun, Yan Zhang

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Non-intrusive sensor-based human activity recognition (HAR) is utilized in a spectrum of applications, including fitness tracking devices, gaming, health care monitoring, and smartphone applications. Deep learning models such as convolutional neural networks (CNNs) and long short term memory (LSTM) recurrent neural networks (RNNs) provide a way to achieve HAR accurately and effectively. In this paper, we design a multi-layer hybrid architecture with CNN and LSTM and explore a variety of multi-layer combinations. Based on the exploration, we present a lightweight, hybrid, and multi-layer model, which can improve the recognition performance by integrating local features and scale-invariant with dependencies of activities. The experimental results demonstrate the efficacy of the proposed model, which can achieve a 94.7% activity recognition rate on a benchmark human activity dataset. This model outperforms traditional machine learning and other deep learning methods. Additionally, our implementation achieves a balance between recognition rate and training time consumption.

Keywords: deep learning, LSTM, CNN, human activity recognition, inertial sensor

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Authors: Chia-Chen Wei, Pack Hsieh, Jeffrey Chen

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Surface Mount Technology (SMT) is widely used in the area of the electronic assembly in which the electronic components are mounted to the surface of the printed circuit board (PCB). Most of the defects in the SMT process are mainly related to the quality of solder paste printing. These defects lead to considerable manufacturing costs in the electronics assembly industry. Therefore, the solder paste inspection (SPI) machine for controlling and monitoring the amount of solder paste printing has become an important part of the production process. So far, the setting of the SPI threshold is based on statistical analysis and experts’ experiences to determine the appropriate threshold settings. Because the production data are not normal distribution and there are various variations in the production processes, defects related to solder paste printing still occur. In order to solve this problem, this paper proposes an online machine learning algorithm, called the automatic threshold adjustment (ATA) algorithm, and closed-loop architecture in the SMT process to determine the best threshold settings. Simulation experiments prove that our proposed threshold settings improve the accuracy from 99.85% to 100%.

Keywords: big data analytics, Industry 4.0, SPI threshold setting, surface mount technology

Procedia PDF Downloads 111