Search results for: asymmetric hearing loss

Authors: Chung-Young Lee, Se-Hee Ahn, Ilhwan Kim, Du-Min Go, Dae-Yong Kim, Jun-Gu Choi, Youn-Jeong Lee, Jae-Hong Kim, Hyuk-Joon Kwon

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The polymerase of avian influenza A virus (AIV) is a heterotrimer composed of PB2, PB1 and PA. PB2 plays a role in overcoming the host barrier; however, the genetic prerequisites for avian PB2 to acquire mammalian pathogenic mutations have not been well elucidated. Here, we demonstrated that key amino acid mutations (I66M, I109V and I133V, collectively referred to as MVV) of prototypic avian PB2 increase the replication efficiency of recombinant PR8 virus carrying the mutated PB2 in both avian and mammalian hosts. The MVV mutations caused no weight loss in mice, but they did allow replication in infected lungs, and the viruses acquired fatal mammalian pathogenic mutations such as Q591R/K, E627K, or D701N in the infected lungs. The MVV mutations are located at the interfaces of the trimer and are predicted to increase the strength of this structure. Thus, gaining MVV mutations might be the first step for AIV to acquire mammalian pathogenicity. These results provide new insights into the evolution of AIV in birds and mammals.

Keywords: avian influenza A virus, prototypic PB2, polymerase activity, mammalian pathogenicity, first-step mutations

Procedia PDF Downloads 345

Authors: Jessada Monthasuwan, Charinsak Saetiaw, Chanchai Thongsopa

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This paper presents the development and design of the curved rectangular patch arrays antenna for small missile application. This design uses a 0.1mm flexible copper sheet on the front layer and back layer, and a 1.8mm PVC substrate on a middle layer. The study used a small missile model with 122mm diameter size with speed 1.1 Mach and frequency range on ISM 2.4 GHz. The design of curved antenna can be installation on a cylindrical object like a missile. So, our proposed antenna design will have a small size, lightweight, low cost, and simple structure. The antenna was design and analysis by a simulation result from CST microwave studio and confirmed with a measurement result from a prototype antenna. The proposed antenna has a bandwidth covering the frequency range 2.35-2.48 GHz, the return loss below -10 dB and antenna gain 6.5 dB. The proposed antenna can be applied with a small guided missile effectively.

Keywords: rectangular patch arrays, small missile antenna, antenna design and simulation, cylinder PVC tube

Procedia PDF Downloads 315

Authors: R. R. Ali, W. A. W. A. Rahman, R. M. Kasmani, H. Hasbullah, N. Ibrahim, A. N. Sadikin, U. A. Asli

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In this study, tapioca starch which acts as natural polymer was added in the blend in order to produce biodegradable product. Low density polyethylene (LDPE) and tapioca starch blends were prepared by extrusion and the test sample by injection moulding process. Ethylene vinyl acetate (EVA) acts as compatibilizer while glycerol as processing aid was added in the blend. The blends were characterized by using melt flow index (MFI), fourier transform infrared (FTIR) and the effects of water absorption to the sample. As the starch content increased, MFI of the blend was decreased. Tensile testing were conducted shows the tensile strength and elongation at break decreased while the modulus increased as the starch increased. For the biodegradation, soil burial test was conducted and the loss in weight was studied as the starch content increased. Morphology studies were conducted in order to show the distribution between LDPE and starch.

Keywords: biopolymers, degradable polymers, starch based polyethylene, injection moulding

Procedia PDF Downloads 286

Authors: Anh Dao Vu, Bill Ryan

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The Vietnamese government struggles to grapple with the problem of rampant corruption, one of the most challenging difficulties the country faces. According to Transparency International’s Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) 2014, Vietnam ranks 119 out of 175 countries. The CPI gives Vietnam a score of 31 on a scale from 0 to 100, where 0 indicates ‘highly corrupt’ and 100 represents ‘very clean’. Corruption eats into the national GDP of Vietnam, causing a loss of 3% to 4% of GDP per annum. In general, the Vietnamese people’s trust in their government to wage an effective fight against corruption, especially in the public sector, has been greatly eroded in recent years. Some substantial public demonstrations persuaded the government to implement strong anti-corruption measures. However, so far those measures have not been particularly successful. One of the main reasons for this shortcoming is that neither the Communist Party of Vietnam nor the government has demonstrated sufficiently strong ‘political will’ in fighting corruption. There remains a large gap between rhetoric and reality. This paper will examine the reasons why insufficient ‘political will’ is displayed in the ostensible fight against public sector corruption, and how certain anti-corruption strategies will both strengthen levels of political commitment to the fight against corruption while enhancing the effectiveness of that essential national endeavor.

Keywords: corruption, political will, Vietnam, anti-corruption

Procedia PDF Downloads 327

Authors: Somdutt Mujwar, Kamal Raj Pardasani

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Cholera pandemics are caused by facultative pathogenic Vibrio cholera bacteria persisting in the countries having warmer climatic conditions as well as the presence of large water bodies with huge amount of organic matter, it is responsible for the millions of deaths annually. Presently the available therapy for cholera is Oral Rehydration Therapy (ORT) with an antibiotic drug. Excessive utilization of life saving antibiotics drugs leads to the development of resistance by the infectious micro-organism against the antibiotic drugs resulting in loss of effectiveness of these drugs. Also, many side effects are also associated with the use of these antibiotic drugs. This riboswitch is explored as an alternative drug target for Vibrio cholera bacteria to overcome the problem of drug resistance as well as side effects associated with the antibiotics drugs. The bacterial riboswitch is virtually screened with 24407 legends to get possible drug candidates. The 10 ligands showing best binding with the riboswitch are selected to design a pharmacophore, which can be utilized to design lead molecules by using the phenomenon of bioisosterism.

Keywords: cholera, drug design, ligand, riboswitch, pharmacophore

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Authors: McClain Thiel

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Object detection and localization has historically required two or more sensors due to the loss of information from 3D to 2D space, however, most surveillance systems currently in use in the real world only have one sensor per location. Generally, this consists of a single low-resolution camera positioned above the area under observation (mall, jewelry store, traffic camera). This is not sufficient for robust 3D tracking for applications such as security or more recent relevance, contract tracing. This paper proposes a lightweight system for 3D person tracking that requires no additional hardware, based on compressed object detection convolutional-nets, facial landmark detection, and projective geometry. This approach involves classifying the target into a demographic category and then making assumptions about the relative locations of facial landmarks from the demographic information, and from there using simple projective geometry and known constants to find the target's location in 3D space. Preliminary testing, although severely lacking, suggests reasonable success in 3D tracking under ideal conditions.

Keywords: monocular distancing, computer vision, facial analysis, 3D localization

Procedia PDF Downloads 139

Authors: Muhammad Ali, Aamir Sohail, Umair Malik

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Research in entrepreneurship has gained much attention in current academic environment. Youngsters are taking interest to start their own business in spite of risk matter. The objective of the study is to explain how various personality traits (personal attitude, locus of control, instrumental readiness and perceived behavioral control) are affecting entrepreneurial intention of students. The theory of planned behavior supports out study which explains that personal attractiveness, social norms and feasibility are the main factors that affect intentions of an individual. The sample data of 120 is collected from graduating batch of three reputed universities of Islamabad through questionnaires. Our results support the hypothesis that personality traits positively influence the entrepreneurial intention. We conclude from the study that many graduating students are willing to start a new venture, but most of them are likely to do a job in their respective fields. Risk factor also exists in their minds because in our country most people are risk-averse and they do not want to lose their money in case of loss.

Keywords: entrepreneurship, instrumental readiness, locus of control, personal attitude

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Authors: Jelena Bašić, Višnjica Vučetić, Mislav Anić, Tomislav Bašić

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Lack of precipitation combined with high temperatures causes great damage to the agriculture and economy in Croatia. Therefore, it is important to understand water circulation and balance. We decided to gain a better insight into the spatial distribution of water balance components (WBC) and their long-term changes in Croatia. WBC are precipitation (P), potential evapotranspiration (PET), actual evapotranspiration (ET), soil moisture content (S), runoff (RO), recharge (R), and soil moisture loss (L). Since measurements of the mentioned components in Croatia are very rare, the Palmer model has been applied to estimate them. We refined method by setting into the account the corrective factor to include influence effects of the wind as well as a maximum soil capacity for specific soil types. We will present one hundred years’ time series of PET and ET showing the trends at few meteorological stations and a comparison of components of two climatological periods. The meteorological data from 109 stations have been used for the spatial distribution map of the WBC of Croatia.

Keywords: croatia, long-term trends, the palmer method, water balance components

Procedia PDF Downloads 141

Authors: Ruomeng Xiao, Zhulin Zong, Longfa Yang

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Aiming at the problem that the target signal is difficult to detect under the strong ground clutter environment, this paper proposes a clutter suppression algorithm based on the combination of singular value decomposition and the Mallat fast wavelet algorithm. The method first carries out singular value decomposition on the radar echo data matrix, realizes the initial separation of target and clutter through the threshold processing of singular value, and then carries out wavelet decomposition on the echo data to find out the target location, and adopts the discard method to select the appropriate decomposition layer to reconstruct the target signal, which ensures the minimum loss of target information while suppressing the clutter. After the verification of the measured data, the method has a significant effect on the target extraction under low SCR, and the target reconstruction can be realized without the prior position information of the target and the method also has a certain enhancement on the output SCR compared with the traditional single wavelet processing method.

Keywords: clutter suppression, singular value decomposition, wavelet transform, Mallat algorithm, low SCR

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Authors: Maryam Najafi, Mahdi Rajabi

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Although the rural cooperatives are an effective way for rural development in Iran, their potential is not applied effectively. The investigation of the failures of rural cooperatives helps the authorities to improve the routine procedures and eliminate the current barriers to the success of these cooperatives, and to remove the defects in order to have a more efficient policy. Therefore, this research aims to prioritize the failure factors of rural cooperatives in Isfahan province via the survey research method. For this purpose, the effective factors of these failures were investigated by the available research documents and then by the new information which was obtained from 20 questionnaires from the experts of Central Organization Rural Cooperatives in Isfahan province. The questionnaire results were analyzed by Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP), Excel, and Expert Choice software. The results of this research showed that the most important failure factor of these cooperatives is the lack of the participation culture of cooperative members and then the performance of Central Organization Rural Cooperatives, and also loss of confidence of the members in the cooperation.

Keywords: cooperative, rural cooperatives, failure factors, analytical hierarchy process

Procedia PDF Downloads 129

Authors: M. Taouzari, A. Sardi, J. El Aoufi, Ahmed Mouhsen

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The purpose of this work is to design a reader antenna fed by 90° hybrid coupler that would ensure a tag which is detected regardless of its orientation for the radio frequency identification system covering the UHF and ISM bands frequencies. Based on this idea, the proposed work is dividing in two parts, first part is about study and design hybrid coupler using the resonators planar called T-and Pi networks operating in commercial bands. In the second part, the proposed antenna fed by the hybrid coupler is designed on FR4 substrate with dielectric permittivity 4.4, thickness dielectric 1.6mm and loss tangent 0.025. The T-slot is inserted in patch of the proposed antenna fed by the hybrid coupler is first designed, optimized and simulated using electromagnetic simulator ADS and then simulated in a full wave simulation software CST Microwave Studio. The simulated antenna by the both softwares achieves the expected performances in terms of matching, pattern radiation, phase shifting, gain and size.

Keywords: dual band antenna, RFID, hybrid coupler, polarization, radiation pattern

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Authors: Sunita Makchuchit, Arunporn Itharat

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Prasaprohyai, a Thai traditional medicine preparation listed in the Thai National List of Essential Medicines, is commonly used for treatment of fever and colds. Prasaprohyai preparation consists of 21 different plants, with Kaempferia galanga (50% w/w) as the main ingredient. The objective of this study was to investigate the anti-allergic activity of the crude extract from Prasaprohyai after accelerated stability test procedure. The method of extract used maceration in 95% ethanol and the crude extract was kept under accelerated condition at 40 ± 2 oC and 75 ± 5% relative humidity (RH) for six months. After six months of storage at 40 oC, the crude sample in various storage times (0, 15, 30, 45, 60, 90, 120, 150 and 180 days) were investigated for anti-allergic activity using IgE-sensitized RBL-2H3 cell lines. The results showed that the stability of crude ethanolic extract from Prasaprohyai under accelerated testing had no significant effect of anti-allergic activity when compared with day 0. The results showed that the ethanolic extract could be stored for two years at room temperature without loss of activity.

Keywords: accelerated stability, anti-allergy, prasaprohyai, RBL-2H3 cell lines

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Authors: Trad Khodja Rafik, Mahtout Amine, Ghoul Rachid, Benbouali Amine, Boulahlib Amine, Hariza Abdelmalik

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Cranioplasty with custom implant realized using 3D printing technology. Cranioplasty is a surgical act that aims restoring cranial bone losses in order to protect the brain from external aggressions and to improve the patient aesthetic appearance. This objective can be achieved with taking advantage of the current technological development in computer science and biomechanics. The objective of this paper it to present an approach for the realization of high precision biocompatible cranial implants using new 3D printing technologies at the lowest cost. The proposed method is to reproduce the missing part of the skull by referring to its healthy contralateral part. Once the model is validated by the neurosurgeons, a mold is 3D printed for the production of a biocompatible implant in Poly-Methyl-Methacrylate (PMMA) acrylic cement. Using this procedure four patients underwent this procedure with excellent aesthetic results.

Keywords: cranioplasty, cranial bone loss, 3D printing technology, custom-made implants, PMMA

Procedia PDF Downloads 111

Authors: Kaustav Mukherjee

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In this paper we propose a Neural Style Transfer solution whereby we have created a Lightweight Separable Convolution Kernel Based GAN Architecture (SC-GAN) which will very useful for designing filter for Mobile Phone Cameras and also Edge Devices which will convert any image to its 2D ANIMATED COMIC STYLE Movies like HEMAN, SUPERMAN, JUNGLE-BOOK. This will help the 2D animation artist by relieving to create new characters from real life person's images without having to go for endless hours of manual labour drawing each and every pose of a cartoon. It can even be used to create scenes from real life images.This will reduce a huge amount of turn around time to make 2D animated movies and decrease cost in terms of manpower and time. In addition to that being extreme light-weight it can be used as camera filters capable of taking Comic Style Shots using mobile phone camera or edge device cameras like Raspberry Pi 4,NVIDIA Jetson NANO etc. Existing Methods like CartoonGAN with the model size close to 170 MB is too heavy weight for mobile phones and edge devices due to their scarcity in resources. Compared to the current state of the art our proposed method which has a total model size of 31 MB which clearly makes it ideal and ultra-efficient for designing of camera filters on low resource devices like mobile phones, tablets and edge devices running OS or RTOS. .Owing to use of high resolution input and usage of bigger convolution kernel size it produces richer resolution Comic-Style Pictures implementation with 6 times lesser number of parameters and with just 25 extra epoch trained on a dataset of less than 1000 which breaks the myth that all GAN need mammoth amount of data. Our network reduces the density of the Gan architecture by using Depthwise Separable Convolution which does the convolution operation on each of the RGB channels separately then we use a Point-Wise Convolution to bring back the network into required channel number using 1 by 1 kernel.This reduces the number of parameters substantially and makes it extreme light-weight and suitable for mobile phones and edge devices. The architecture mentioned in the present paper make use of Parameterised Batch Normalization Goodfellow etc al. (Deep Learning OPTIMIZATION FOR TRAINING DEEP MODELS page 320) which makes the network to use the advantage of Batch Norm for easier training while maintaining the non-linear feature capture by inducing the learnable parameters

Keywords: comic stylisation from camera image using GAN, creating 2D animated movie style custom stickers from images, depth-wise separable convolutional neural network for light-weight GAN architecture for EDGE devices, GAN architecture for 2D animated cartoonizing neural style, neural style transfer for edge, model distilation, perceptual loss

Procedia PDF Downloads 132

Authors: Agata Tomaszewska, Timothy Kamps, Stephan R. Turnock, Nicola Symonds

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Bob skeleton is a highly competitive sport in which an athlete reaches speeds up to 40 m/s sliding, head first, down an ice track. It is believed that the friction between the runners and ice significantly contributes to the amount of the total energy loss during a bob skeleton descent. There is only limited available experimental data regarding the friction of bob skeleton runners or indeed steel on the ice at high sliding speeds ( > 20 m/s). Testing methods used to investigate the friction of steel on ice in winter sports have been outlined, and their accuracy and repeatability discussed. A system thinking approach was used to investigate the runner-ice interaction during sliding and create concept designs of three ice tribometers. The operational envelope of the bob skeleton system has been defined through mathematical modelling. Designs of a drum, linear and inertia pin-on-disk tribometers were developed specifically for bob skeleton runner testing with the requirement of reaching up to 40 m/s speed and facilitate fresh ice sliding. The design constraints have been outline and the proposed solutions compared based on the ease of operation, accuracy and the development cost.

Keywords: bob skeleton, ice friction, high-speed tribometers, sliding friction

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Authors: K. Suresh, R. Arunkumar

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The objective of this study is to investigate the preparation of gramine nano suspension and protective effect of Gramine on the apoptosis of laryngeal cancer cells cell line (HEp-2 and KB). The growth inhibition rate of Hep-2 and KB cells in vitro were measured by MTT assay and apoptosis by, levels of reactive oxygen species, mitochondrial membrane potential, morphological changes and flowcytometry. Based on the results, we determined the effective doses of gramine as 127.23µm/ml for 24 hr and 119.81 µm/ml for 48hr in hep-2 cell line and 147.58 µm ml for 24 hr and 123.74µm µm/ml for 48hr in KB cell line. cytotoxicity effects of gramine were confirmed by treatment of HEp-2 cell and KB cell with IC50 concentration of gramine resulted in sequences of events marked by the enhance the apoptosis accompanied by loss of cell viability, modulation of reactive oxygen species and cell cycle arrest through the induction of G0/G1 phase arrest on HEp-2 cells. Our study suggests that the nanosuspension of gramine possesses the more cytotoxic effect of cancer cells and a novel candidate for cancer chemoprevention.

Keywords: apoptosis, HEp-2 cell line, KB cell line mitochondria, gramine, nanosuspension

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Authors: Mohamrd Ali Alrabib

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Sandstones samples were selected from cores of seven wells ranging in depth from 5040 to 7181.4 ft. The dominant authigenic cement phase is quartz overgrowth cement (up to 13% by volume) and this is the major mechanism for porosity reduction. Late stage carbonate cements (siderite and dolomite/ferroan dolomite) are present and these minerals infill intergranular porosity and, therefore, further reduce porosity and probably permeability. Authigenic clay minerals are represented by kaolinite, illite, and grain coating clay minerals. Kaolinite occurs as booklet and vermicular forms. Minor amounts of illite were noted in the studied samples, which commonly block pore throats, thereby reducing permeability. Primary porosity of up to 26.5% is present. Secondary porosity (up to 17%) is also present as a result of feldspar dissolution. The high intergranular volume (IGV) of the sandstones indicates that mechanical and chemical compaction played a more important role than cementation of porosity loss.

Keywords: authigenic minerals, porosity types, porosity reduction, mamuniyat sandstone reservoir

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Authors: Ashleigh Dawn Moeller

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This is a comparative case study which examines the language attitudes and behaviors of descendants of Volga German immigrants in North America and how these attitudes combined with surrounding social conditions have caused their heritage language to develop differently within each community. Of particular interest for this study are the accounts of second- and third-generation descendants in Oregon, Kansas, and North Dakota regarding their parents’ and grandparents’ attitudes toward their language and how this correlates with the current sentiment as well as visibility of their heritage language and culture. This study discusses the point at which cultural identity could diverge from language identity and what elements play a role in this development, establishing the potential for environments (linguistic landscapes) which uphold their heritage yet have detached from the language itself. Emigrating from Germany in the 1700s, these families settled for over a hundred years along the Volga Region of Imperial Russia. Subsequently, many descendants of these settlers immigrated to the Americas in the 1800-1900s. Identifying neither as German nor Russian, they called themselves Wolgadeutche (Volga Germans). During their time in Russia, the German language was maintained relatively homogenously, yet the use and status of their heritage language diverged considerably upon settlement across the Americas. Data shows that specific conditions, such as community isolation, size, religion, location as well as language policy established prior to and following the Volga German immigration to North America have had a substantial impact on the maintenance of their heritage language—causing complete loss in some areas and peripheral use or even full rebirth in others. These past conditions combined with the family accounts correlate directly with the general attitudes and ideologies of the descendants toward their heritage language. Data also shows that in many locations, despite a strong presence of German within the linguistic landscape, minimal to no German is spoken nor understood; the attitude toward the language is indifferent while a staunch holding to the heritage is maintained and boasted. Data for this study was gathered from historical accounts, archived records and newspapers, and published biographies as well as from formal interviews with second- and third-generation descendants of Volga German immigrants conducted in Oregon and Kansas. Through the interviews, members of the community have shared and provided their family genealogies as well as biographies published by family members. These have helped to trace their relatives back to specific locations, thus allowing for comparisons within the same families residing in distinctly different areas of North America. This study is part of a larger ongoing project which researches the immigration of Volga and Black Sea Germans to North America and diachronically examines the over-arching sociological factors which have directly impacted the maintenance, loss, or rebirth of their heritage language. This project follows specific families who settled in areas of Colorado, Kansas, Nebraska, Illinois, Minnesota, North and South Dakota, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba, and who later had relatives move west to areas of Oregon and Washington State. Interviews for the larger project will continue into the following year.

Keywords: heritage language, immigrant language, language change, language contact, linguistic landscape, Volga Germans, Wolgadeutsche

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Authors: Vinesh Janarthanan, Mohammad H. Rahman

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There are numerous neurological conditions that may result in a loss of motor function. Such conditions may include cerebral palsy, Parkinson’s disease, stroke or multiple sclerosis. Due to impaired motor function, specifically in the hand and arm, living independently becomes tremendously more difficult. Rehabilitation programs are the main method to treat these kinds of disabled individuals. However, these programs require longtime commitment from the clinicians/therapists, demand person to person caring, and typically the treatment duration is usually very long. Aside from the treatment received from the therapist, the continuation of neuroplasticity at home is essential to maximizing development and restoring the biological function. To contribute in this area, we have researched and developed a portable and comfortable hand glove for fine motor skills rehabilitation. The glove provides interactive home-based therapy to engage the patient with simple games. The key to this treatment is the repetition of moving the hand and being capable of positioning the hand in various ways.

Keywords: home based, wearable sensors, glove, rehabilitation, motor function, video games

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Authors: Youn-Sung Kim, Mi-Sung Kim, Jae-Kun Lee

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This paper deals with the accelerated life cycle test method of the motor for home appliances that demand high reliability. Life Cycle of parts in home appliances also should be 10 years because life cycle of the home appliances such as washing machine, refrigerator, TV is at least 10 years. In case of washing machine, the life cycle test method of motor is advanced for 3000 cycle test (1cycle = 2hours). However, 3000 cycle test incurs loss for the time and cost. Objectives of this study are to reduce the life cycle test time and the number of test samples, which could be realized by using acceleration factor for the test time and reduction factor for the number of sample.

Keywords: accelerated life cycle test, motor reliability test, motor for washing machine, BLDC motor

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Authors: Beverly Black

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Teen dating violence (TDV) is a significant public health problem with severe negative impact on youths’ mental and physical health and well-being. Exacerbating the negative impact of TDV victimization is the fact that teens rarely report the violence. They are fearful to tell friends or family, especially parents. The family context is the first place where children learn about interpersonal relationships, and therefore, parental response of teens’ life experiences influences teens’ actions and development. This study examined youths’ perspectives on parental responses to TDV. Effective parental responses to TDV may increase the likelihood that youth will leave abusive relationships. Method. Eleven gender-separate focus groups were conducted with 27 females and 28 males, ages 12 to 17, to discuss parental responses to teen dating violence. Youth were recruited from a metropolitan community in the southwestern part of the United States. Focus groups questions asked the middle and high school youth how they would want their parents to respond to them if they approached them about various incidents of dating violence. All focus groups were transcribed. Using QSR-N10, two researchers’ analyzed data first using open and axial coding techniques to find overarching themes. Researchers triangulated the coded data to ensure accurate interpretations of the participants’ messages and used the scenario questions to structure the coded results. Results. Most youths suggested that parents should simply talk with them; they recognized the importance of communication. Teens wanted parents to ask questions, educate them about healthy relationships, share their personal experiences, and give teens advice (tell them to break up, limit contact with perpetrator, go to police). Younger youth expressed more willingness to listen to parental advice. Older youth wanted their parents to give them the opportunity to make their decisions. Many of the teens’ comments focused on the importance of parents protecting the teen, providing support and empathy for the teen, and especially refraining from overreacting (not yelling, not getting angry and staying calm). Implications. Parents need to know how to effectively respond to youth needing to leave unhealthy relationships. Demanding that their children end a relationship may not be a realistic approach to TDV. A parent’s ineffective response, when approached by an adolescent for assistance in TDV, may influence a youth to dismiss parents and other adults as viable options for seeking assistance. Parents and prevention educators can learn from hearing youths’ voices about effective responses to TDV.

Keywords: adolescents dating abuse, adolescent and parent communication, parental responses to teen dating violence, teen dating violence

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Authors: El Korchi Ayoub, Cherif Raef

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Interior noise in vehicles is an essential factor affecting occupant comfort. Over recent decades, much work has been done to develop simulation tools for vehicle NVH. At the medium high-frequency range, the statistical energy analysis method (SEA) shows significant effectiveness in predicting noise and vibration responses of mechanical systems. In this paper, the evaluation of the sound pressure level (SPL) inside an automobile cabin has been performed numerically using the statistical energy analysis (SEA) method. A test car cabin was performed using a monopole source as a sound source. The decay rate method was employed to obtain the damping loss factor (DLF) of each subsystem of the developed SEA model. These parameters were then used to predict the sound pressure level in the interior cabin. The results show satisfactory agreement with the directly measured SPL. The developed SEA vehicle model can be used in early design phases and allows the engineer to identify sources contributing to the total noise and transmission paths.

Keywords: SEA, SPL, DLF, NVH

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Authors: Perminder JitKaur, Santosh Satya, K. K. Pant, S. N. Naik

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Bamboo is extensively used in construction industry. Low durability of bamboo due to fungus infestation and termites attack under storage puts certain constrains for it usage as modern structural material. Looking at many chemical formulations for bamboo treatment leading to severe harmful environment effects, research on eco-friendly preservatives for bamboo treatment has been initiated world-over. In the present studies, eco-friendly preservative for bamboo treatment has been developed. To validate its application for structural purposes, investigation of effect of treatment on compressive strength has been investigated. Neem oil(25%) integrated with copper naphthenate (0.3%) on dilution with kerosene oil impregnated into bamboo culm at 2 bar pressure, has shown weight loss of only 3.15% in soil block analysis method. The results of compressive strength analysis using The results from compressive strength analysis using HEICO Automatic Compression Testing Machine, reveal that preservative treatment has not altered the structural properties of bamboo culms. Compressive strength of control (11.72 N/mm2) and above treated samples (11.71 N/mm2) was found to be comparable.

Keywords: D. strictus, bamboo, neem oil, presure treatment, compressive strength

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Authors: Parastoo Vasli

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In today's society, more and more people work during ‘non-standard’ working hours, including shift and night work, which are perceived danger factors for health, safety, and social prosperity. Appropriate preventive and protective measures are needed to reduce side effects and ensure that the worker can adapt sufficiently. Of the many health effects associated with shift work, sleep disorders are the most widely recognized. The most troubling acute symptoms are difficulty falling asleep, short sleep, and drowsiness during working hours that last for days on end. The outcomes checked on plainly exhibit that shift work is related to expanded mental, social, and physiological drowsiness. Apparently, the effects are due to circadian and hemostatic compounds (sleep loss). Drowsiness is especially evident during night shifts and may lead to drowsiness in real workplace accidents. In some occupations, this is clearly a risk that could endanger human lives and has enormous financial outcomes. These dangers clearly affect a large number of people and should be of great importance to society. In particular, safety on night shifts is consistently reduced.

Keywords: shift work, night work, safety, health, drowsiness

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Authors: Aadhya Kaul, Gautam Manocha, Preeti Nagrath

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Our environment comprises of a wide variety of plants that are similar to each other and sometimes the similarity between the plants makes the identification process tedious thus increasing the workload of the botanist all over the world. Now all the botanists cannot be accessible all the time for such laborious plant identification; therefore, there is an urge for a quick classification model. Also, along with the identification of the plants, it is also necessary to classify the plant as healthy or not as for a good lifestyle, humans require good food and this food comes from healthy plants. A large number of techniques have been applied to classify the plants as healthy or diseased in order to provide the solution. This paper proposes one such method known as anomaly detection using autoencoders using a set of collections of leaves. In this method, an autoencoder model is built using Keras and then the reconstruction of the original images of the leaves is done and the threshold loss is found in order to classify the plant leaves as healthy or diseased. A dataset of plant leaves is considered to judge the reconstructed performance by convolutional autoencoders and the average accuracy obtained is 71.55% for the purpose.

Keywords: convolutional autoencoder, anomaly detection, web application, FLASK

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Authors: Leila Mosafa, Majid Moghadam, Mohammad Shahedi

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In this work, pectinase was immobilized on the surface of silica-coated magnetite nanoparticles via covalent attachment. The magnetite-immobilized enzyme was characterized by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, X-ray powder diffraction, scanning electron microscopy and vibrating sample magnetometry techniques. Response surface methodology using Minitab Software was applied for statistical designing of operating conditions in order to immobilize pectinase on magnetic nanoparticles. The optimal conditions were obtained at 30°C and pH 5.5 with 42.97 µl pectinase for 2 h. The immobilization yield was 50.6% at optimized conditions. Compared to the free pectinase, the immobilized pectinase was found to exhibit enhanced enzyme activity, better tolerance to the variation of pH and temperature, and improved storage stability. Both free and immobilized samples reduced the viscosity of apple juice from 1.12 to 0.88 and 0.92 mm2s-1, respectively, after 30 min at their optimum temperature. Furthermore, the immobilized enzyme could be reused six consecutive cycles and the efficiency loss in viscosity reduction was found to be only 8.16%.

Keywords: magnetite nanoparticles, pectinase enzyme, immobilization, juice clarification, enzyme activity

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Authors: Patricia Amorim Da Silva

Abstract:

This paper explores the ongoing process of decolonialism, focusing on addressing the lasting consequences of colonialism. Centred on identity within marginalized communities, the study challenges Eurocentric frameworks and advocates for diverse perspectives. Emphasizing critical self-awareness among researchers regarding biases in their work, decolonialism influences feminist theory and global counter-publics. At its core is the concept of epistemicide, the intentional suppression of knowledge in unequal cultural interactions. Colonial imposition has devalued local knowledge, contributing to cultural loss and undermining autonomy. The paper underscores the importance of reclaiming indigenous knowledge to revitalize local cultures and languages, particularly pertinent to the Brazilian context. This contribution to the discourse on decolonialism underscores the imperative to challenge prevailing narratives and empower historically subordinated communities. The study aspires to advance feminist theory and decolonial studies, fostering a more equitable and inclusive global society.

Keywords: decolonialism, colonial legacies, identity, Eurocentrism, epistemicide

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Authors: L. G. Abubakar, A. M. El-Okene, M. L. Suleiman, Z. Abubakar

Abstract:

Fadama tillage in Northern Nigeria and in Zaria in particular, has relied on manual labour and corresponding implements which are associated with drudgery, loss of human energy due to bending and reduced productivity. A survey was conducted to study the present tillage practices and determine the constraints associated with the use of animal traction for mechanized tillage of the Fadama. The study revealed that Fadama farmers (mostly aged between 36 and 60 years) use manual labour with tools like small hoe, big hoe and rake to till during the dry season (October of one year to March of the next year). Most of the Fadama farmers believe that tillage operations like ploughing, harrowing and basin making are very important tillage activities in the preparation of seedbeds for crops like green maize, sugarcane and vegetables, but are constrained to using animal traction for tillage due to beliefs like unsuitability of the workbulls and corresponding implements, Fadama soil being too heavy for the system and the non-attainment of deep tillage required by crops like sugarcane and potato. These were affirmed by local blacksmiths of animal traction implements and agricultural officers of government establishments.

Keywords: snimal traction, Fadama, tillage implements, workbulls

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Authors: Piyas Palit, Urbi Pal, Jitendra Mathur, Santanu Das

Abstract:

Bearing is an important machinery part in the industry. When bearings fail to meet their expected life the consequences are increased downtime, loss of revenue and missed the delivery. This article describes the failure of a gearbox bearing in rolling contact fatigue. The investigation consists of visual observation, chemical analysis, characterization of microstructures using optical microscopes and hardness test. The present study also considers bearing life as well as the operational condition of bearings. Surface-initiated rolling contact fatigue, leading to a surface failure known as pitting, is a life-limiting failure mode in many modern machine elements, particularly rolling element bearings. Metallography analysis of crack propagation, crack morphology was also described. Indication of fatigue spalling in the ferrography test was also discussed. The analysis suggested the probable reasons for such kind of failure in operation. This type of spalling occurred due to (1) heavier external loading condition or (2) exceeds its service life.

Keywords: bearing, rolling contact fatigue, bearing life

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Authors: Betelhem M. Negede, Maarten Voors, Hugo De Groote, Bart Minten

Abstract:

Farmers in Ethiopia produce most of their own food during one agricultural season per year. Therefore, they need to use on-farm storage technologies to bridge the lean season and benefit from price arbitrage. Maize stored using traditional storage bags offer no protection from insects and molds, leading to high storage losses. In Ethiopia access to and use of modern storage technologies are still limited, restraining farmers to benefit from local maize price fluctuations. We used a randomized controlled trial among 871 maize farmers to evaluate the impacts of Purdue Improved Crop Storage (PICS) bags, also known as hermetic bags, on storage losses, and especially on behavioral changes with respect to consumption, marketing, and income among maize farmers in Ethiopia. This study builds upon the limited previous experimental research that has tried to understand farmers’ grain storage and post-harvest losses and identify mechanisms behind the persistence of these challenges. Our main hypothesis is that access to PICS bags allows farmers to increase production, storage and maize income. Also delay the length of maize storage, reduce maize post-harvest losses and improve their food security. Our results show that even though farmers received only three PICS bags that represent 10percent of their total maize stored, they delay their length of maize storage for sales by two weeks. However, we find no treatment effect on maize income, suggesting that the arbitrage of two weeks is too small. Also, we do not find any reduction in storage losses due to farmers’ reaction by selling early and by using cheap and readily available but potentially harmful storage chemicals. Looking at the heterogeneity treatment effects between the treatment variable and highland and lowland villages, we find a decrease in the percentage of maize stored by 4 percent in the highland villages. This confirms that location specific factors, such as agro-ecology and proximity to markets are important factors that influence whether and how much of the harvest a farmer stores. These findings highlight the benefits of hermetic storage bags, by allowing farmers to make inter-temporal arbitrage and by reducing potential health risks from storage chemicals. The main policy recommendation that emanates from our study is that postharvest losses reduction throughout the whole value chain is an important pathway to food and income security in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). However, future storage loss interventions with hermetic storage technologies should take into account the agro-ecology of the study area and quantify storage losses beyond farmers self-reported losses, such as the count and weigh method. Finally, studies on hermetic storage technologies indicate positive impacts on post-harvest losses and in improving food security, but the adoption and use of these technologies is currently still low in SSA. Therefore, future works on the scaling up of hermetic bags, should consider reasons why farmers only use PICS bags to store grains for consumption, which is usually related to a safety-first approach or due to lack of incentives (higher price from maize not treated with chemicals), and no grain quality check.

Keywords: arbitrage, PICS hermetic bags, post-harvest storage loss, RCT

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