Search results for: reliability and validity

Authors: Dragana Tomic

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This research deals with relations among strategies and styles of coping with stress, social interaction anxiety and the achievement motive of young athletes and non-athletes. The research was conducted on the sample of 402 examinees (197 female and 205 male participants) of the average age of 20.76, divided into three groups: athletes, recreationists, and non-athletes. The COPE-S questionnaire, the Social Interaction Anxiety Scale (SIAS) and the Achievement Motivation Questionnaire (MOP 2002) were used for conducting this research and they had satisfactory reliability. The results of the research indicate that athletes, recreationists and non-athletes are not different when it comes to strategies and styles of coping with stress. Non- athletes have more noticeable social interaction anxiety when compared to athletes (U=5281.5, p=.000) and also when compared to recreationists (U=7573, p=.000). There was a difference among these three groups in the achievement motive (χ2(2)=23,544, p=.000) and the three components of this motive (Competing with others, χ2(2)=31,718, p=.000, Perseverance, χ2(2)=9,415, p=.009 and Planning orientation, χ2(2)=8,171, p=.017). The research also indicates a significant difference in the relation between social interaction anxiety and the achievement motive of examinee subgroups, where the most significant difference is between athletes and non- athletes (q=-.45). Moreover, women more frequently use emotion-focused coping (U=16718, p=.003), while men more frequently use avoidance (U=14895.5, p=.000). Women have a lead when it comes to expressing social anxiety (U=17750.5, p=.036) and the achievement motive (U=17395.5, p=.020). The discussion of the results includes findings of similar previous research and theoretical concepts of the variables which were examined. Future research should be oriented towards examining the background of the differences which were (not) gained as well as towards the influence of personality dimensions on the variables which were examined in order to apply the results in practice in the best way.

Keywords: achievement motivation, athletes, coping with stress, non-athletes, recreationists, social interaction anxiety

Procedia PDF Downloads 158

Authors: Salako Emmanuel Adekunle

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Computer education is referred to as the knowledge and ability to use computers and related technology efficiently, with a range of skills covering levels from basic use to advance. Computer continues to make an ever-increasing impact on all aspect of human endeavours such as education. With numerous benefits of computer education, what are the insights of students on computer education? This study investigated the perception of senior secondary school students on computer education in Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja, Nigeria. A sample of 7500 senior secondary schools students was involved in the study, one hundred (100) private and fifty (50) public schools within FCT. They were selected by using simple random sampling technique. A questionnaire [PSSSCEQ] was developed and validated through expert judgement and reliability co-efficient of 0.84 was obtained. It was used to gather relevant data on computer education. Findings confirmed that the students in the FCT had positive perception on computer education. Some factors were identified that affect students’ perception on computer education. The null hypotheses were tested using t-test and ANOVA statistical analyses at 0.05 level of significance. Based on these findings, some recommendations were made which include competent teachers should be employed into all secondary schools; this will help students to acquire relevant knowledge in computer education, technological supports should be provided to all secondary schools; this will help the users (students) to solve specific problems in computer education and financial supports should be provided to procure computer facilities that will enhance the teaching and the learning of computer education.

Keywords: computer education, perception, secondary school, students

Procedia PDF Downloads 463

Authors: Seshi Reddy Kasu, Florian Misoc

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The use of hydroelectric pump-storage system at large scale, MW-size systems, is already widespread around the world. Designed for large scale applications, pump-storage station can be scaled-down for small, remote residential applications. Given the cost and complexity associated with installing a substation further than 100 miles from the main transmission lines, a remote, independent and self-sufficient system is by far the most feasible solution. This article is aiming at the design of wind and solar power generating system, by means of pumped-storage to replace the wind and/or solar power systems with a battery bank energy storage. Wind and solar pumped-storage power generating system can reduce the cost of power generation system, according to the user's electricity load and resource condition and also can ensure system reliability of power supply. Wind and solar pumped-storage power generation system is well suited for remote residential applications with intermittent wind and/or solar energy. This type of power systems, installed in these locations, could be a very good alternative, with economic benefits and positive social effects. The advantage of pumped storage power system, where wind power regulation is calculated, shows that a significant smoothing of the produced power is obtained, resulting in a power-on-demand system’s capability, concomitant to extra economic benefits.

Keywords: battery bank, photo-voltaic, pump-storage, wind energy

Procedia PDF Downloads 593

Authors: Saeed M. Alshahrani

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This research integrated blockchain technology to reform medical records management in healthcare informatics. It was aimed at resolving the limitations of centralized systems by establishing a secure, decentralized, and user-centric platform. The system was architected with a sophisticated three-tiered structure, integrating advanced cryptographic methodologies, consensus algorithms, and the Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources (HL7 FHIR) standard to ensure data security, transaction validity, and semantic interoperability. The research has profound implications for healthcare delivery, patient care, legal compliance, operational efficiency, and academic advancements in blockchain technology and healthcare IT sectors. The methodology adapted in this research comprises of Preliminary Feasibility Study, Literature Review, Design and Development, Cryptographic Algorithm Integration, Modeling the data and testing the system. The research employed a permissioned blockchain with a Practical Byzantine Fault Tolerance (PBFT) consensus algorithm and Ethereum-based smart contracts. It integrated advanced cryptographic algorithms, role-based access control, multi-factor authentication, and RESTful APIs to ensure security, regulate access, authenticate user identities, and facilitate seamless data exchange between the blockchain and legacy healthcare systems. The research contributed to the development of a secure, interoperable, and decentralized system for managing medical records, addressing the limitations of the centralized systems that were in place. Future work will delve into optimizing the system further, exploring additional blockchain use cases in healthcare, and expanding the adoption of the system globally, contributing to the evolution of global healthcare practices and policies.

Keywords: healthcare informatics, blockchain, medical records management, decentralized architecture, data security, cryptographic algorithms

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Authors: Sara Najiazarpour, Mahsa Najiazarpour

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There are many problems in contracting projects and their performance. At each project stage and due to different reasons, these problems affect cost, time and overall project quality. Hence, in order to increase the efficiency and performance in all levels of the chain and with supply chain management approach, there will be a coordination from the beginning of a project (contractor selection) to the end of project (handover of project). Contractor selection is the foremost part of construction projects which in this multi-criteria decision-making, the best contractor is determined by expert judgment, different variables and their priorities. In this paper for selecting the best contractor, numerous criteria were collected by asking from adept experts and then among them, 16 criteria with highest frequency were considered for questionnaire. This questionnaire was distributed between experts. Cronbach's alpha coefficient was obtained as 72%. Then based on Borda's function 12 important criteria was selected which was categorized in four main criteria and related sub-criteria as follow: Environmental factors and physical equipment: procurement and materials (supplier), company's machines, contractor’s proposed cost estimate - financial capacity: bank turnover and company's assets, the income of tax declaration in last year, Ability to compensate for losses or delays - past performance- records and technical expertise: experts and key personnel, the past technical backgrounds and experiences, employer satisfaction of previous contracts, the number of similar projects was done - standards: rank and field of expertise which company is qualified for and its validity, availability and number of permitted projects done. Then with PROMTHEE method, the criteria were normalized and monitored, finally the best alternative was selected. In this research, qualitative criteria of each company is became a quantitative criteria. Finally, information of some companies was evaluated and the best contractor was selected based on all criteria and their priorities.

Keywords: contractor evaluation and selection, project development, supply chain management, PROMTHEE method

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Authors: Jie Xu, Zengshan Tian, Ze Li

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Previous indoor ranging or localization systems achieving high accuracy time of flight (ToF) estimation relied on two key points. One is to do strict time and frequency synchronization between the transmitter and receiver to eliminate equipment asynchronous errors such as carrier frequency offset (CFO), but this is difficult to achieve in a practical communication system. The other one is to extend the total bandwidth of the communication because the accuracy of ToF estimation is proportional to the bandwidth, and the larger the total bandwidth, the higher the accuracy of ToF estimation obtained. For example, ultra-wideband (UWB) technology is implemented based on this theory, but high precision ToF estimation is difficult to achieve in common WiFi or Bluetooth systems with lower bandwidth compared to UWB. Therefore, it is meaningful to study how to achieve high-precision ranging with lower bandwidth when the transmitter and receiver are asynchronous. To tackle the above problems, we propose a two-way channel error elimination theory and a frequency hopping-based carrier phase ranging algorithm to achieve high accuracy ranging under asynchronous conditions. The two-way channel error elimination theory uses the symmetry property of the two-way channel to solve the asynchronous phase error caused by the asynchronous transmitter and receiver, and we also study the effect of the two-way channel generation time difference on the phase according to the characteristics of different hardware devices. The frequency hopping-based carrier phase ranging algorithm uses frequency hopping to extend the equivalent bandwidth and incorporates a carrier phase ranging algorithm with multipath resolution to achieve a ranging accuracy comparable to that of UWB at 400 MHz bandwidth in the typical 80 MHz bandwidth of commercial WiFi. Finally, to verify the validity of the algorithm, we implement this theory using a software radio platform, and the actual experimental results show that the method proposed in this paper has a median ranging error of 5.4 cm in the 5 m range, 7 cm in the 10 m range, and 10.8 cm in the 20 m range for a total bandwidth of 80 MHz.

Keywords: frequency hopping, phase error elimination, carrier phase, ranging

Procedia PDF Downloads 122

Authors: Salako Emmanuel Adekunle

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With numerous advantages of ICT in teaching such as using images to improve the retentive memory of students, academic staff is yet to deliver instructions adequately and effectively due to no power supply, lack of technical supports and non-availability of functional ICT tools. This study was conducted to investigate the attitudes of academic staff towards the use of information communication technology as a pedagogical tool for effective teaching in FCT College of Education, Zuba-Abuja, Nigeria. A sample of 200 academic staff from five schools/faculties was involved in the study. The respondents were selected by using simple random sampling technique (SRST). A questionnaire was developed and validated by the experts in Measurement and Evaluation, and reliability co-efficient of 0.85 was obtained. It was used to gather relevant data from the respondents. This study revealed that the respondents had positive attitudes towards the use of ICT as a pedagogical tool for effective teaching. Also, the uses of ICT by the academic staff included: to encourage closer relationship for attainment of higher academic, and to deliver instructions effectively. The study also revealed that there is a significant relationship between the attitudes and the uses of ICT by the academic staff. Based on these findings, some recommendations were made which include: power supply should be provided to operate ICT facilities for effective teaching, and technical assistance on ICT usage for effective delivery of instructions should be provided among other recommendations.

Keywords: academic staff, attitudes, information communication technology, pedagogical tool, teaching, use

Procedia PDF Downloads 237

Authors: Dona Ghosh, Zakir Husain

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In India, the increase in share of aged has generated many social and economic issues, of which health concerns is a major challenge that society must confront in coming years. Self-reported health (SRH) is a popular health measure in this regard but has been questioned in recent years due to its heavy dependence on the socioeconomic status. So, the validity of SRH, as a measure of health status during old age, is needed to be verified. This paper emphasizes on the self-reported health and related inconsistent responses among elderly in India. The objective of the study is bifurcated into two parts: firstly, to identify the socioeconomic determinants of subjective health status and its change over time; and secondly, to analyse the role of the socioeconomic components in providing inconsistent responses regarding the health status of elderly. Inconsistency in response can rise in two ways: positive response bias (if an individual has a health problem but reports his/her health as good) and negative response bias (if bad health is reported even if there is no health problem). However, in the present study, we focus only on the negative response bias of elderly individuals. To measure the inconsistencies in responses, self-reported health is compared with two types of physical health conditions – existence of chronicle ailment and physical immobility. Using NSS dataset of 60th and 71st rounds, the study found that subjective health has worsened over time in both rural and urban areas. Findings suggest that inconsistency in responses, related to chronic ailment, vary across social classes, living environments, geographical regions, age groups and education levels. On the contrary, variation in inconsistent responses regarding physical mobility is quite rare and difficult to explain by socioeconomic characteristics because most of the indicators are found to be insignificant in this regard. The findings indicate that in case of chronicle ailment, inconsistency between objective and subjective health status largely depends on socioeconomic conditions but the importance of such factors disappears for physical immobility.

Keywords: India, aging, self-reported health, inconsistent responses

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Authors: Kazuyuki Takase, Yoshihisa Hiraki, Gaku Takase, Isamu Kudo

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One of the most important issue is to ensure the safety of long-term waste storage containers in which fuel debris and radioactive materials are accumulated. In this case, hydrogen generated by water decomposition by radiation is accumulated in the container for a long period of time, so it is necessary to reduce the concentration of hydrogen in the container. In addition, a condition that any power supplies from the outside of the container are unnecessary is requested. Then, radioactive waste storage containers with the passive autocatalytic recombiner (PAR) would be effective. The radioactive waste storage container with PAR was used for moving the fuel debris of the Three Mile Island Unit 2 to the storage location. However, the effect of PAR is not described in detail. Moreover, the reduction of hydrogen concentration during the long-term storage period was performed by the venting system, which was installed on the top of the container. Therefore, development of a long-term storage container with PAR was started with the aim of safely storing fuel debris picked up at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant for a long period of time. A fundamental experiment for reducing the concentration of hydrogen which generates in a nuclear waste long-term storage container was carried out using a small-scale container with PAR. Moreover, the circulation flow behavior of hydrogen in the small-scale container resulting from the natural convection by the decay heat was clarified. In addition, preliminary numerical analyses were performed to predict the experimental results regarding the circulation flow behavior and the reduction of hydrogen concentration in the small-scale container. From the results of the present study, the validity of the container with PAR was experimentally confirmed on the reduction of hydrogen concentration. In addition, it was predicted numerically that the circulation flow behavior of hydrogen in the small-scale container is blocked by steam which generates by chemical reaction of hydrogen and oxygen.

Keywords: hydrogen behavior, reduction of concentration, long-term storage container, small-scale, PAR, experiment, analysis

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Authors: Toshitaka Higashino, Naoki Wakamiya

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Human beings perform a task by perceiving information from outside, recognizing them, and responding them. There have been various attempts to analyze and understand internal processes behind the reaction to a given stimulus by conducting psychological experiments and analysis from multiple perspectives. Among these, we focused on Model Human Processor (MHP). However, it was built based on psychological experiments and thus the relation with brain activity was unclear so far. To verify the validity of the MHP and propose our model from a viewpoint of neuroscience, EEG (Electroencephalography) measurements are performed during experiments in this study. More specifically, first, experiments were conducted where Latin alphabet characters were used as visual stimuli. In addition to response time, ERPs (event-related potentials) such as N100 and P300 were measured by using EEG. By comparing cycle time predicted by the MHP and latency of ERPs, it was found that N100, related to perception of stimuli, appeared at the end of the perceptual processor. Furthermore, by conducting an additional experiment, it was revealed that P300, related to decision making, appeared during the response decision process, not at the end. Second, by experiments using Japanese Hiragana characters, i.e. Japan's own phonetic symbols, those findings were confirmed. Finally, Japanese Kanji characters were used as more complicated visual stimuli. A Kanji character usually has several readings and several meanings. Despite the difference, a reading-related task and a meaning-related task exhibited similar results, meaning that they involved similar information processing processes of the brain. Based on those results, our model was proposed which reflects response time and ERP latency. It consists of three processors: the perception processor from an input of a stimulus to appearance of N100, the cognitive processor from N100 to P300, and the decision-action processor from P300 to response. Using our model, an application system which reflects brain activity can be established.

Keywords: brain activity, EEG, information processing model, model human processor

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Authors: Salah A. Aly, Mohammed A. Ibrahim, Mostafa M. khttab

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The amount of construction and demolition (C&D) waste has increased considerably over the last few decades. From the viewpoint of environmental preservation and effective utilization of resources, crushing C&D concrete waste to produce coarse aggregate (CA) with different replacement percentage for the production of new concrete is one common means for achieving a more environment-friendly concrete. In the study presented herein, the investigation was conducted in two phases. In the first phase, the selection of the materials was carried out and the physical, mechanical and chemical characteristics of these materials were evaluated. Different concrete mixes were designed. The investigation parameter was Recycled Concrete Aggregate (RCA) ratios. The mechanical properties of all mixes were evaluated based on compressive strength and workability results. Accordingly, two mixes have been chosen to be used in the next phase. In the second phase, the study of the structural behavior of the concrete beams was developed. Sixteen beams were casted to investigate the effect of RCA ratios, the shear span to depth ratios and the effect of different locations and reinforcement of openings on the shear behavior of the tested specimens. All these beams were designed to fail in shear. Test results of the compressive strength of concrete indicated that, replacement of natural aggregate by up to 50% recycled concrete aggregates in mixtures with 350 Kg/m3 cement content led to increase of concrete compressive strength. Moreover, the tensile strength and the modulus of elasticity of the specimens with RCA have very close values to those with natural aggregates. The ultimate shear strength of beams with RCA is very close to those with natural aggregates indicating the possibility of using RCA as partial replacement to produce structural concrete elements. The validity of both the Egyptian Code for the design and implementation of Concrete Structures (ECCS) 203-2007 and American Concrete Institute (ACI) 318-2011Codes for estimating the shear strength of the tested RCA beams was investigated. It was found that the codes procedures gives conservative estimates for shear strength.

Keywords: construction and demolition (C&D) waste, coarse aggregate (CA), recycled coarse aggregates (RCA), opening

Procedia PDF Downloads 391

Authors: Dina Athariah, Desriani Desriani, Bugi Ratno Budiarto, Abinawanto Abinawanto, Dwi Wulandari

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Breast cancer is a regulated by many genes. Defect in PIK3CA gene especially at position of exon 9 (E542K and E545K), called hot spot mutation induce early transformation of breast cells. The early detection of breast cancer based on mutation profile of this hot spot region would be hampered by the existence of pseudogene, marked by its substitution mutation at base 1658 (E545A) and deletion at 1659 that have been previously proven in several cancers. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, until recently no studies have been reported about pseudogene phenomenon in breast cancer. Here, we reported PCR optimization to to obtain true exon 9 of PIK3CA gene from its pseudogene hence increasing the validity of data. Material and methods: two genomic DNA with Dev and En code were used in this experiment. Two pairs of primer were design for Standard PCR method. The size of PCR products for each primer is 200bp and 400bp. While other primer was designed for Nested-PCR followed with DNA sequencing method. For Nested-PCR, we optimized the annealing temperature in first and second run of PCR, and the PCR cycle for first run PCR (15x versus 25x). Result: standard PCR using both primer pairs designed is failed to detect the true PIK3CA gene, appearing a substitution mutation at 1658 and deletion at 1659 of PCR product in sequence chromatogram indicated pseudogene. Meanwhile, Nested-PCR with optimum condition (annealing temperature for the first round at 55oC, annealing temperatung for the second round at 60,7oC with 15x PCR cycles) and could detect the true PIK3CA gene. Dev sample were identified as WT while En sample contain one substitution mutation at position 545 of exon 9, indicating amino acid changing from E to K. For the conclusion, pseudogene also exists in breast cancer and the apllication of optimazed Nested-PCR in this study could detect the true exon 9 of PIK3CA gene.

Keywords: breast cancer, exon 9, hotspot mutation, PIK3CA, pseudogene

Procedia PDF Downloads 241

Authors: Genevieve Zingg

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Modern technology and social media platforms have fundamentally altered the nature of war crimes investigations by providing new forms of data, evidence, and documentation, and pose a unique opportunity to expand the efficacy of international law. However, much of the open source information available is deemed inadmissible in subsequent legal proceedings and fails to function as evidence largely due to issues of reliability and verifiability. Focusing on current judicial investigations related to ongoing conflicts in Syria and Iraq, this paper will examine key challenges and opportunities for the effective use of open source information in securing justice. This paper will consider strategies and approaches that can be used to ensure that information collected by affected populations meets basic admissibility standards. This paper argues that the critical failure to equip civilian populations in conflict zones with knowledge and information regarding established admissibility standards and guidelines both jeopardizes the potential of open source information and compromises the ability of victims to participate effectively in justice and accountability processes. The ultimate purpose of this paper is, therefore, to examine how to maximize the value of open source information based on the rules of evidence in international, regional, and national courts, and how to maximize the participation of affected populations in holding their abusers to account.

Keywords: human rights, international criminal law, international justice, international law, Iraq, open source information, social media, Syria, transitional justice, war crimes

Procedia PDF Downloads 332

Authors: Sedigheh Salemi, Mahnaz Sanjari, Maryam Aalaa, Mohammad Mirzabeigi

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Clinical governance is the framework within which the health service provider is required to ongoing accountability and improvement of the quality of their services. This cross-sectional study was conducted in 661 nurses who work in government hospitals from 35 hospitals of 9 provinces in Iran. The study was approved by the Nursing Council and was carried out with the authorization of the Research Ethics Committee. The questionnaire included 24 questions in which 4 questions focused on clinical governance defining from the nurses' perspective. The reliability was evaluated by Cronbach's alpha (α=0/83). Statistical analyzes were performed, using SPSS version 16. Approximately 40% of nurses correctly answered that clinical governance is not "system of punishment and rewards for the staff". The most nurses believed that "clinical efficacy" is one of the main components of clinical governance. A few of nurses correctly responded that "Evidence Based Practice" and "management" is not part of clinical governance. The small number of nurses correctly answered that the "maintenance of patient records" and "to recognize the adverse effects" is not the role of nurse in clinical governance. Most "do not know" answer was to the "maintenance of patient records". The most nurses unanimously believed that the implementation of clinical governance led to "promoting the quality of care". About a third of nurses correctly stated that the implementation of clinical governance will not lead to "an increase in salaries and benefits of the medical team". As a member of the health team, nurses are responsible in terms of participation in quality improvement and it is necessary to create an environment in which clinical care will flourish and serve to preserve the high standards.

Keywords: clinical governance, nurses, salary, health team

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Authors: B. O. Diyaolu

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Viability and competency during competition is the dream of every team sports so as to have a good result. But it seems factors abound which deter the performance of even a good sports team. Different individuals with different state of mind all come together to perform in team sports with different degree of satisfaction. This study investigated the role of satisfaction on performance among Afe Babalola University team sports. Descriptive survey research design was used and the population consists of all male and female athletes in the team sports that participated in the last 2019 Ekiti State Higher Institution games (ESHIGA). Total enumeration technique was used for the three team sports; football (44), basketball (24) and volleyball (24). A total of 92 participants were involved in the research. The instrument used for the study was a modified Athlete Satisfaction Scale (ASS). The questionnaire was divided into two sections. The Cronbach’s Alpha reliability coefficient of 0.71 was obtained. The hypotheses were tested at 0.05 significant levels. The completed questionnaire was collated, coded, and analyzed using descriptive statistics of frequency counts and percentage and inferential statistics of chi-square (X²). Findings of this study revealed that satisfaction significantly influences team sports performance among Athletes of Afe Babalola University. The responsibility of satisfying athlete lies on the coaches, fans, sports administrators as well as organizers of such event, as it is not only financial reward that gives satisfaction. The performance of a team sports is quiet important and its being determined by the degree of satisfaction of each individual that make up the team. All effort must be made to satisfy athlete in order to guarantee optimum performance.

Keywords: athlete satisfaction, optimum achievement, optimum performance, sports performance and team sports

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Authors: Jyoti Rani, Ashima Anand, Shivendra Shivani

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In recent years, physiological signals obtained in telemedicine have been stored independently from patient information. In addition, people have increasingly turned to mobile devices for information on health-related topics. Major authentication and security issues may arise from this storing, degrading the reliability of diagnostics. This study introduces an approach to reversible watermarking, which ensures security by utilizing the electrocardiogram (ECG) signal as a carrier for embedding patient information. In the proposed work, Pan-Tompkins++ is employed to convert the 1D ECG signal into a 2D signal. The frequency subbands of a signal are extracted using RDWT(Redundant discrete wavelet transform), and then one of the subbands is subjected to MSVD (Multiresolution singular valued decomposition for masking. Finally, the encrypted watermark is embedded within the signal. The experimental results show that the watermarked signal obtained is indistinguishable from the original signals, ensuring the preservation of all diagnostic information. In addition, the DnCNN (Denoising convolutional neural network) concept is used to denoise the retrieved watermark for improved accuracy. The proposed ECG signal-based watermarking method is supported by experimental results and evaluations of its effectiveness. The results of the robustness tests demonstrate that the watermark is susceptible to the most prevalent watermarking attacks.

Keywords: ECG, VMD, watermarking, PanTompkins++, RDWT, DnCNN, MSVD, chaotic encryption, attacks

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Authors: Jing Hu, Dong Yang

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With the increasingly difficult development and operating environment of exploration, there are many new challenges and difficulties in developing and exploiting oil and gas resources. These include the ability to dynamically monitor wells and provide data and assurance for the completion and production of high-cost and complex wells. A key technology in providing these assurances and maximizing oilfield profitability is real-time permanent reservoir monitoring. The emergence of optical fiber sensing systems has gradually begun to replace traditional electronic systems. Traditional temperature sensors can only achieve single-point temperature monitoring, but fiber optic sensing systems based on the Bragg grating principle have a high level of reliability, accuracy, stability, and resolution, enabling cost-effective monitoring, which can be done in real-time, anytime, and without well intervention. Continuous data acquisition is performed along the entire wellbore. The integrated package with the downhole pressure gauge, packer, and surface system can also realize real-time dynamic monitoring of the pressure in some sections of the downhole, avoiding oil well intervention and eliminating the production delay and operational risks of conventional surveys. Real-time information obtained through permanent optical fibers can also provide critical reservoir monitoring data for production and recovery optimization.

Keywords: PDHM, optical fiber, coiled tubing, photoelectric composite cable, digital-oilfield

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Authors: Chongya Song, Kang Yen, Alexander Pons, Jin Liu

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In the field of machine learning, the ensemble has been employed as a common methodology to improve the performance upon multiple base classifiers. However, the true predictions are often canceled out by the false ones during consensus due to a phenomenon called “curse of correlation” which is represented as the strong interferences among the predictions produced by the base classifiers. In addition, the existing practices are still not able to effectively mitigate the problem of imbalanced classification. Based on the analysis on our experiment results, we conclude that the two problems are caused by some inherent deficiencies in the approach of consensus. Therefore, we create an enhanced ensemble algorithm which adopts a designed rank-based chain-mode consensus to overcome the two problems. In order to evaluate the proposed ensemble algorithm, we employ a well-known benchmark data set NSL-KDD (the improved version of dataset KDDCup99 produced by University of New Brunswick) to make comparisons between the proposed and 8 common ensemble algorithms. Particularly, each compared ensemble classifier uses the same 22 base classifiers, so that the differences in terms of the improvements toward the accuracy and reliability upon the base classifiers can be truly revealed. As a result, the proposed rank-based chain-mode consensus is proved to be a more effective ensemble solution than the traditional consensus approach, which outperforms the 8 ensemble algorithms by 20% on almost all compared metrices which include accuracy, precision, recall, F1-score and area under receiver operating characteristic curve.

Keywords: consensus, curse of correlation, imbalance classification, rank-based chain-mode ensemble

Procedia PDF Downloads 134

Authors: Abdoullah Nyassi, Golam Sarwar, Sarra Baldeh, Mamadou S. K. Jallow, Bai Lamin Dondeh, Isaac Osei, Grant A. Mackenzie

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A randomized controlled trial is the "gold standard" for evaluating the efficacy of an intervention. Large-scale, cluster-randomized trials are expensive and difficult to conduct, though. To guarantee the validity and generalizability of findings, high-quality, dependable, and accurate data management systems are necessary. Robust data management systems are crucial for optimizing and validating the quality, accuracy, and dependability of trial data. Regarding the difficulties of data gathering in clinical trials in low-resource areas, there is a scarcity of literature on this subject, which may raise concerns. Effective data management systems and implementation goals should be part of trial procedures. Publicizing the creative clinical data management techniques used in clinical trials should boost public confidence in the study's conclusions and encourage further replication. In the ongoing pneumococcal vaccine schedule study in rural Gambia, this report details the development and deployment of multi-data management systems and methodologies. We implemented six different data management, synchronization, and reporting systems using Microsoft Access, RedCap, SQL, Visual Basic, Ruby, and ASP.NET. Additionally, data synchronization tools were developed to integrate data from these systems into the central server for reporting systems. Clinician, lab, and field data validation systems and methodologies are the main topics of this report. Our process development efforts across all domains were driven by the complexity of research project data collected in real-time data, online reporting, data synchronization, and ways for cleaning and verifying data. Consequently, we effectively used multi-data management systems, demonstrating the value of creative approaches in enhancing the consistency, accuracy, and reporting of trial data in a poor resource setting.

Keywords: data management, data collection, data cleaning, cluster-randomized trial

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Authors: Sabyasachi Biswas, Indrajit Ghosh

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The random and heterogeneous behavior of vehicles in India puts up a greater challenge for researchers. Stop-and-go modeling at signalized intersections under heterogeneous traffic conditions has remained one of the most sought-after fields. Vehicles are often caught up in the dilemma zone and are unable to take quick decisions whether to stop or cross the intersection. This hampers the traffic movement and may lead to accidents. The purpose of this work is to develop a stop and go prediction model that depicts the drivers’ decision during the yellow time at signalised intersections. To accomplish this, certain traffic parameters were taken into account to develop surrogate model. This research investigated the Stop and Go behavior of the drivers by collecting data from 4-signalized intersections located in two major Indian cities. Model was developed to predict the drivers’ decision making during the yellow phase of the traffic signal. The parameters used for modeling included distance to stop line, time to stop line, speed, and length of the vehicle. A Kriging base surrogate model has been developed to investigate the drivers’ decision-making behavior in amber phase. It is observed that the proposed approach yields a highly accurate result (97.4 percent) by Gaussian function. It was observed that the accuracy for the crossing probability was 95.45, 90.9 and 86.36.11 percent respectively as predicted by the Kriging models with Gaussian, Exponential and Linear functions.

Keywords: decision-making decision, dilemma zone, surrogate model, Kriging

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Authors: Jalal M. Abdallah

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There is a great problem in testing and investigations the reliability of different type of transformers insulation materials. It summarized in how to create and simulate the real conditions of working transformer and testing its insulation materials for Partial Discharge PD, typically as in the working mode. A lot of tests may give untrue results as the physical behavior of the insulation material differs under tests from its working condition. In this work, the real working conditions were simulated, and a large number of specimens have been tested. The investigations first stage, begin with choosing samples of different types of insulation materials (papers, pressboards, etc.). The second stage, the samples were dried in ovens at 105 C⁰and 0.01bar for 48 hours, and then impregnated with dried and gasless oil (the water content less than 6 ppm.) at 105 C⁰and 0.01bar for 48 hours, after so specimen cooling at room pressure and temperature for 24 hours. The third stage is investigating PD for the samples using ICM PD measuring device. After that, a continuous test on oil-impregnated insulation materials (paper, pressboards) was developed, and the phase resolved partial discharge pattern of PD signals was measured. The important of this work in providing the industrial sector with trusted high accurate measuring results based on real simulated working conditions. All the PD patterns (results) associated with a discharge produced in well-controlled laboratory condition. They compared with other previous and other laboratory results. In addition, the influence of different temperatures condition on the partial discharge activities was studied.

Keywords: transformers, insulation materials, voids, partial discharge

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Authors: Win Zaw Hein, Khin Sandar Linn, Su Su Yi Mon, Yoshitaka Goto

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The Earth ionosphere is located at the altitude of about 70 km to several 100 km from the ground, and it is composed of ions and electrons called plasma. In the ionosphere, these plasma makes delay in GPS (Global Positioning System) signals and reflect in radio waves. The delay along the signal path from the satellite to the receiver is directly proportional to the total electron content (TEC) of plasma, and this delay is the largest error factor in satellite positioning and navigation. Sounding observation from the top and bottom of the ionosphere was popular to investigate such ionospheric plasma for a long time. Recently, continuous monitoring of the TEC using networks of GNSS (Global Navigation Satellite System) observation stations, which are basically built for land survey, has been conducted in several countries. However, in these stations, multi-frequency support receivers are installed to estimate the effect of plasma delay using their frequency dependence and the cost of multi-frequency support receivers are much higher than single frequency support GPS receiver. In this research, single frequency GPS receiver was used instead of expensive multi-frequency GNSS receivers to measure the ionospheric plasma variation such as vertical TEC distribution. In this measurement, single-frequency support ublox GPS receiver was used to probe ionospheric TEC. The location of observation was assigned at Mandalay Technological University in Myanmar. In the method, the ionospheric TEC distribution is represented by polynomial functions for latitude and longitude, and parameters of the functions are determined by least-squares fitting on pseudorange data obtained at a known location under an assumption of thin layer ionosphere. The validity of the method was evaluated by measurements obtained by the Japanese GNSS observation network called GEONET. The performance of measurement results using single-frequency of GPS receiver was compared with the results by dual-frequency measurement.

Keywords: ionosphere, global positioning system, GPS, ionospheric delay, total electron content, TEC

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Authors: Syed Ahsan, Saleh Alshomrani, Ishtiaq Rasool, Ali Hassan

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In this oral presentation, we will provide an overview of the technical and semantic architecture of a desert border security and critical infrastructure protection security system. Modern border security systems are designed to reduce the dependability and intrusion of human operators. To achieve this, different types of sensors are use along with video surveillance technologies. Application of these technologies in a harsh desert environment of Saudi Arabia poses unique challenges. Environmental and geographical factors including high temperatures, desert storms, temperature variations and remoteness adversely affect the reliability of surveillance systems. To successfully implement a reliable, effective system in a harsh desert environment, the following must be achieved: i) Selection of technology including sensors, video cameras, and communication infrastructure that suit desert environments. ii) Reduced power consumption and efficient usage of equipment to increase the battery life of the equipment. iii) A reliable and robust communication network with efficient usage of bandwidth. Also, to reduce the expert bottleneck, an ontology-based intelligent information systems needs to be developed. Domain knowledge unique and peculiar to Saudi Arabia needs to be formalized to develop an expert system that can detect abnormal activities and any intrusion.

Keywords: border security, sensors, abnormal activity detection, ontologies

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Authors: Pachawo Bisani, Goodall Nyirenda

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The Malawi National Antiretroviral Therapy (NART) Electronic Medical Record (EMR) system was designed and developed with guidance from the Ministry of Health through the Department of HIV and AIDS (DHA) with the aim of supporting the management of HIV patient data and reporting in high prevalence ART clinics. As of 2021, the system has been scaled up to over 206 facilities across the country. The system is integrated with the clinical decision support system (CDSS) to assist healthcare providers in making a decision about an individual patient at a particular point in time. Despite NART EMR undergoing several evaluations and assessments, little has been done to evaluate the clinical decision support system in the NART EMR system. Hence, the study aimed to evaluate the use of CDSS in the NART EMR system in Malawi. The study adopted a mixed-method approach, and data was collected through interviews, observations, and questionnaires. The study has revealed that the CDSS tools were integrated into the ART clinic workflow, making it easy for the user to use it. The study has also revealed challenges in system reliability and information accuracy. Despite the challenges, the study further revealed that the system is effective and efficient, and overall, users are satisfied with the system. The study recommends that the implementers focus more on the logic behind the clinical decision-support intervention in order to address some of the concerns and enhance the accuracy of the information supplied. The study further suggests consulting the system's actual users throughout implementation.

Keywords: clinical decision support system, electronic medical record system, usability, antiretroviral therapy

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Authors: Ahmad Khachan, Ahmet Ozmen

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This study aims to introduce a mobile bite-sized learning concept, a mobile application with social networks motivation factors that will encourage students to practice critical thinking, improve analytical skills and learn knowledge sharing. We do not aim to propose another e-learning or distance learning based tool like Moodle and Edmodo; instead, we introduce a mobile learning tool called Interactive M-learning Application. The tool reconstructs and strengthens the bonds between educators and learners and provides a foundation for integrating mobile devices in education. The application allows learners to stay connected all the time, share ideas, ask questions and learn from each other. It is built on Android since the Android has the largest platform share in the world and is dominating the market with 74.45% share in 2018. We have chosen Google-Firebase server for hosting because of flexibility, ease of hosting and real time update capabilities. The proposed m-learning tool was offered to four groups of university students in different majors. An improvement in the relation between the students, the teachers and the academic institution was obvious. Student’s performance got much better added to better analytical and critical skills advancement and moreover a willingness to adopt mobile learning in class. We have also compared our app with another tool in the same class for clarity and reliability of the results. The student’s mobile devices were used in this experimental study for diversity of devices and platform versions.

Keywords: education, engineering, interactive software, undergraduate education

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Authors: Tomas Trainys, Algimantas Venckauskas

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Application of biometric features to the cryptography for human identification and authentication is widely studied and promising area of the development of high-reliability cryptosystems. Biometric cryptosystems typically are designed for patterns recognition, which allows biometric data acquisition from an individual, extracts feature sets, compares the feature set against the set stored in the vault and gives a result of the comparison. Preprocessing and fusion of biometric data are the most important phases in generating a feature vector for key generation or authentication. Fusion of biometric features is critical for achieving a higher level of security and prevents from possible spoofing attacks. The paper focuses on the tasks of initial processing and fusion of multiple representations of finger vein modality patterns. These tasks are solved by applying conventional image preprocessing methods and machine learning techniques, Convolutional Neural Network (SVM) method for image segmentation and feature extraction. An article presents a method for generating sets of biometric features from a finger vein network using several instances of the same modality. Extracted features sets were fused at the feature level. The proposed method was tested and compared with the performance and accuracy results of other authors.

Keywords: bio-cryptography, biometrics, cryptographic key generation, data fusion, information security, SVM, pattern recognition, finger vein method.

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Authors: Agah Tugrul Korucu

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Significant changes have taken place for the better in the bulk of information and in the use of technology available in the field of education induced by technological changes in the 21st century. It is mainly the job of the teachers and pre-service teachers to integrate information and communication technologies into education by means of conveying the use of technology to individuals. While the pre-service teachers are conducting lessons by using technology, the methods they have developed are important factors for the requirements of the lesson and for the satisfaction levels of the students. The study of this study is to examine the satisfaction levels of pre-service teachers as regards e-learning in a technological environment in which there are lesson activities conducted through an online learning environment in terms of various variables. The study group of the research is composed of 156 pre-service teachers that were students in the departments of Computer and Teaching Technologies, Art Teaching and Pre-school Teaching in the academic year of 2014 - 2015. The qualitative research method was adopted for this study; the scanning model was employed in collecting the data. “The Satisfaction Scale regarding the E-learning Process”, developed by Gülbahar, and the personal information form, which was developed by the researcher, were used as means of collecting the data. Cronbach α reliability coefficient, which is the internal consistency coefficient of the scale, is 0.91. SPSS computerized statistical package program and the techniques of medium, standard deviation, percentage, correlation, t-test and variance analysis were used in the analysis of the data.

Keywords: online learning environment, integration of information technologies, e-learning, e-learning satisfaction, pre-service teachers

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Authors: Hamed Nafar, Sajad Rezaei, Hamid Behbahani

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Safety analysis of the roads through the accident rates which is one of the widely used tools has been resulted from the direct exposure method which is based on the ratio of the vehicle-kilometers traveled and vehicle-travel time. However, due to some fundamental flaws in its theories and difficulties in gaining access to the data required such as traffic volume, distance and duration of the trip, and various problems in determining the exposure in a specific time, place, and individual categories, there is a need for an algorithm for prioritizing the road safety so that with a new exposure method, the problems of the previous approaches would be resolved. In this way, an efficient application may lead to have more realistic comparisons and the new method would be applicable to a wider range of time, place, and individual categories. Therefore, an algorithm was introduced to prioritize the safety of roads using the quasi-induced exposure method and utilizing the analytical hierarchy process. For this research, 11 provinces of Iran were chosen as case study locations. A rural accidents database was created for these provinces, the validity of quasi-induced exposure method for Iran’s accidents database was explored, and the involvement ratio for different characteristics of the drivers and the vehicles was measured. Results showed that the quasi-induced exposure method was valid in determining the real exposure in the provinces under study. Results also showed a significant difference in the prioritization based on the new and traditional approaches. This difference mostly would stem from the perspective of the quasi-induced exposure method in determining the exposure, opinion of experts, and the quantity of accidents data. Overall, the results for this research showed that prioritization based on the new approach is more comprehensive and reliable compared to the prioritization in the traditional approach which is dependent on various parameters including the driver-vehicle characteristics.

Keywords: road safety, prioritizing, Quasi-induced exposure, Analytical Hierarchy Process

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Authors: Mokoena Oratilwe Penwell, Seeletse Solly Matshonisa

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The demand for quality products is a vital factor determining the success of a producing company, and the reality of this demand influences customer satisfaction. In Sefako Makgatho Health Sciences University (SMU), concerns over the quality of food being sold have been raised by mostly students and staff who are primary consumers of food being sold by the cafeteria. Suspicions of food poisoning and the occurrence of diarrhea-related to food from the cafeteria, amongst others, have been raised. However, minimal measures have been taken to resolve the issue of food quality. New service providers have been appointed, and still, the same trends are being observed, the quality of food seems to depreciate continuously. This paper uses multi-attribute failure mode analysis (MAFMA) for failure detection and minimization on the machines used for food production by SMU catering company before being sold to both staff, and students so as to improve production plant reliability, and performance. Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) will be used for the severity ranking of the weight criterions and development of the hierarchical structure for the cafeteria company. Amongst other potential issues detected, maintenance of the machines and equipment used for food preparations was of concern. Also, the staff lacked sufficient hospitality skills, supervision, and management in the cafeteria needed greater attention to mitigate some of the failures occurring in the food production plant.

Keywords: MAFMA, food quality, maintenance, supervision

Procedia PDF Downloads 133

Authors: Shalini Menon, K. Girish Kumar

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Norepinephrine (NE) is one of the naturally occurring catecholamines which act both as a neurotransmitter and a hormone. Catecholamine levels are used for the diagnosis and regulation of phaeochromocytoma, a neuroendocrine tumor of the adrenal medulla. The development of simple, rapid and cost-effective sensors for NE still remains a great challenge. Herein, a dual-channel sensor has been developed for the determination of NE. A mixture of AgNO₃, NaOH, NH₃.H₂O and cetrimonium bromide in appropriate concentrations was taken as the working solution. To the thoroughly vortexed mixture, an appropriate volume of NE solution was added. After a particular time, the fluorescence and absorbance were measured. Fluorescence measurements were made by exciting at a wavelength of 400 nm. A dual-channel optical sensor has been developed for the colorimetric as well as the fluorimetric determination of NE. Metal enhanced fluorescence property of nanoparticles forms the basis of the fluorimetric detection of this assay, whereas the appearance of brown color in the presence of NE leads to colorimetric detection. Wide linear ranges and sub-micromolar detection limits were obtained using both the techniques. Moreover, the colorimetric approach was applied for the determination of NE in synthetic blood serum and the results obtained were compared with the classic high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) method. Recoveries between 97% and 104% were obtained using the proposed method. Based on five replicate measurements, relative standard deviation (RSD) for NE determination in the examined synthetic blood serum was found to be 2.3%. This indicates the reliability of the proposed sensor for real sample analysis.

Keywords: norepinephrine, colorimetry, fluorescence, silver nanoparticles

Procedia PDF Downloads 112