Search results for: combined analytical-numerical solution
6246 Virtual Experiments on Coarse-Grained Soil Using X-Ray CT and Finite Element Analysis
Authors: Mohamed Ali Abdennadher
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Digital rock physics, an emerging field leveraging advanced imaging and numerical techniques, offers a promising approach to investigating the mechanical properties of granular materials without extensive physical experiments. This study focuses on using X-Ray Computed Tomography (CT) to capture the three-dimensional (3D) structure of coarse-grained soil at the particle level, combined with finite element analysis (FEA) to simulate the soil's behavior under compression. The primary goal is to establish a reliable virtual testing framework that can replicate laboratory results and offer deeper insights into soil mechanics. The methodology involves acquiring high-resolution CT scans of coarse-grained soil samples to visualize internal particle morphology. These CT images undergo processing through noise reduction, thresholding, and watershed segmentation techniques to isolate individual particles, preparing the data for subsequent analysis. A custom Python script is employed to extract particle shapes and conduct a statistical analysis of particle size distribution. The processed particle data then serves as the basis for creating a finite element model comprising approximately 500 particles subjected to one-dimensional compression. The FEA simulations explore the effects of mesh refinement and friction coefficient on stress distribution at grain contacts. A multi-layer meshing strategy is applied, featuring finer meshes at inter-particle contacts to accurately capture mechanical interactions and coarser meshes within particle interiors to optimize computational efficiency. Despite the known challenges in parallelizing FEA to high core counts, this study demonstrates that an appropriate domain-level parallelization strategy can achieve significant scalability, allowing simulations to extend to very high core counts. The results show a strong correlation between the finite element simulations and laboratory compression test data, validating the effectiveness of the virtual experiment approach. Detailed stress distribution patterns reveal that soil compression behavior is significantly influenced by frictional interactions, with frictional sliding, rotation, and rolling at inter-particle contacts being the primary deformation modes under low to intermediate confining pressures. These findings highlight that CT data analysis combined with numerical simulations offers a robust method for approximating soil behavior, potentially reducing the need for physical laboratory experiments.Keywords: X-Ray computed tomography, finite element analysis, soil compression behavior, particle morphology
Procedia PDF Downloads 406245 Large-Area Film Fabrication for Perovskite Solar Cell via Scalable Thermal-Assisted and Meniscus-Guided Bar Coating
Authors: Gizachew Belay Adugna
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Scalable and cost-effective device fabrication techniques are urgent to commercialize the perovskite solar cells (PSCs) for the next photovoltaic (PV) technology. Herein, large-area films of perovskite and hole-transporting materials (HTMs) were developed via a rapid and scalable thermal-assisting bar-coating process in the open air. High-quality and large crystalline grains of MAPbI₃ with homogenous morphology and thickness were obtained on a large-area (10 cm×10 cm) solution-sheared mp-TiO₂/c-TiO₂/FTO substrate. Encouraging photovoltaic performance of 19.02% was achieved for devices fabricated from the bar-coated perovskite film compared to that from the small-scale spin-coated film (17.27%) with 2,2′,7,7′-tetrakis-(N,N-di-p-methoxyphenylamine)-9,9′-spirobifluorene (spiro-OMeTAD) as an HTM whereas a higher power conversion efficiency of 19.89% with improved device stability was achieved by capping a fluorinated (HYC-2) HTM as an alternative to the traditional spiro-OMeTAD. The fluorinated exhibited better molecular packing in the HTM film and deeper HOMO level compared to the nonfluorinated counterpart; thus, improved hole mobility and overall charge extraction in the device were demonstrated. Furthermore, excellent film processability and an impressive PCE of 18.52% were achieved in the large area bar-coated HYC-2 prepared sequentially on the perovskite underlayer in the open atmosphere, compared to the bar-coated spiro-OMeTAD/perovskite (17.51%). This all-solution approach demonstrated the feasibility of high-quality films on a large-area substrate for PSCs, which is a vital step toward industrial-scale PV production.Keywords: perovskite solar cells, hole transporting materials, up-scaling process, power conversion efficiency
Procedia PDF Downloads 746244 Influence of Internal Heat Source on Thermal Instability in a Horizontal Porous Layer with Mass Flow and Inclined Temperature Gradient
Authors: Anjanna Matta, P. A. L. Narayana
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An investigation has been presented to analyze the effect of internal heat source on the onset of Hadley-Prats flow in a horizontal fluid saturated porous medium. We examine a better understanding of the combined influence of the heat source and mass flow effect by using linear stability analysis. The resultant eigenvalue problem is solved by using shooting and Runga-Kutta methods for evaluate critical thermal Rayleight number with respect to various flow governing parameters. It is identified that the flow is switch from stabilizing to destabilizing as the horizontal thermal Rayleigh number is enhanced. The heat source and mass flow increases resulting a stronger destabilizing effect.Keywords: linear stability analysis, heat source, porous medium, mass flow
Procedia PDF Downloads 7236243 The Mechanical Properties of a Small-Size Seismic Isolation Rubber Bearing for Bridges
Authors: Yi F. Wu, Ai Q. Li, Hao Wang
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Taking a novel type of bridge bearings with the diameter being 100mm as an example, the theoretical analysis, the experimental research as well as the numerical simulation of the bearing were conducted. Since the normal compression-shear machines cannot be applied to the small-size bearing, an improved device to test the properties of the bearing was proposed and fabricated. Besides, the simulation of the bearing was conducted on the basis of the explicit finite element software ANSYS/LS-DYNA, and some parameters of the bearing are modified in the finite element model to effectively reduce the computation cost. Results show that all the research methods are capable of revealing the fundamental properties of the small-size bearings, and a combined use of these methods can better catch both the integral properties and the inner detailed mechanical behaviors of the bearing.Keywords: ANSYS/LS-DYNA, compression shear, contact analysis, explicit algorithm, small-size
Procedia PDF Downloads 1836242 Enhanced Analysis of Spatial Morphological Cognitive Traits in Lidukou Village through the Application of Space Syntax
Authors: Man Guo
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This paper delves into the intricate interplay between spatial morphology and spatial cognition in Lidukou Village, utilizing a combined approach of spatial syntax and field data. Through a comparative analysis of the gathered data, it emerges that the spatial integration level of Lidukou Village exhibits a direct positive correlation with the spatial cognitive preferences of its inhabitants. Specifically, the areas within the village that exhibit a higher degree of spatial cognition are predominantly distributed along the axis primarily defined by Shuxiang Road. However, the accessibility to historical relics remains limited, lacking a coherent systemic relationship. To address the morphological challenges faced by Lidukou Village, this study proposes optimization strategies that encompass diverse perspectives, including the refinement of spatial mechanisms and the shaping of strategic spatial nodes.Keywords: traditional villages, spatial syntax, spatial integration degree, morphological problem
Procedia PDF Downloads 466241 Central American Security Issue: Civil War Legacy and Contemporary Challenges
Authors: Olga Andrianova, Lazar Jeifets
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The security issue has always been one of the most sensitive and significant in Latin American context, especially focused on Central American region. Despite the fact that the time of the civil wars has ended, violence, delinquency, insecurity, discrimination still exist and keep relevance in the 21st century. This article is dedicated to consider this kind of problems, to find out the main causes and to propose solution approaches.Keywords: Central America, insecurity, instability, post-war countries, violence
Procedia PDF Downloads 4746240 Performance Evaluation of Using Genetic Programming Based Surrogate Models for Approximating Simulation Complex Geochemical Transport Processes
Authors: Hamed K. Esfahani, Bithin Datta
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Transport of reactive chemical contaminant species in groundwater aquifers is a complex and highly non-linear physical and geochemical process especially for real life scenarios. Simulating this transport process involves solving complex nonlinear equations and generally requires huge computational time for a given aquifer study area. Development of optimal remediation strategies in aquifers may require repeated solution of such complex numerical simulation models. To overcome this computational limitation and improve the computational feasibility of large number of repeated simulations, Genetic Programming based trained surrogate models are developed to approximately simulate such complex transport processes. Transport process of acid mine drainage, a hazardous pollutant is first simulated using a numerical simulated model: HYDROGEOCHEM 5.0 for a contaminated aquifer in a historic mine site. Simulation model solution results for an illustrative contaminated aquifer site is then approximated by training and testing a Genetic Programming (GP) based surrogate model. Performance evaluation of the ensemble GP models as surrogate models for the reactive species transport in groundwater demonstrates the feasibility of its use and the associated computational advantages. The results show the efficiency and feasibility of using ensemble GP surrogate models as approximate simulators of complex hydrogeologic and geochemical processes in a contaminated groundwater aquifer incorporating uncertainties in historic mine site.Keywords: geochemical transport simulation, acid mine drainage, surrogate models, ensemble genetic programming, contaminated aquifers, mine sites
Procedia PDF Downloads 2806239 All-or-None Principle and Weakness of Hodgkin-Huxley Mathematical Model
Authors: S. A. Sadegh Zadeh, C. Kambhampati
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Mathematical and computational modellings are the necessary tools for reviewing, analysing, and predicting processes and events in the wide spectrum range of scientific fields. Therefore, in a field as rapidly developing as neuroscience, the combination of these two modellings can have a significant role in helping to guide the direction the field takes. The paper combined mathematical and computational modelling to prove a weakness in a very precious model in neuroscience. This paper is intended to analyse all-or-none principle in Hodgkin-Huxley mathematical model. By implementation the computational model of Hodgkin-Huxley model and applying the concept of all-or-none principle, an investigation on this mathematical model has been performed. The results clearly showed that the mathematical model of Hodgkin-Huxley does not observe this fundamental law in neurophysiology to generating action potentials. This study shows that further mathematical studies on the Hodgkin-Huxley model are needed in order to create a model without this weakness.Keywords: all-or-none, computational modelling, mathematical model, transmembrane voltage, action potential
Procedia PDF Downloads 6186238 Lie Symmetry of a Nonlinear System Characterizing Endemic Malaria
Authors: Maba Boniface Matadi
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This paper analyses the model of Malaria endemic from the point of view of the group theoretic approach. The study identified new independent variables that lead to the transformation of the nonlinear model. Furthermore, corresponding determining equations were constructed, and new symmetries were found. As a result, the findings of the study demonstrate of the integrability of the model to present an invariant solution for the Malaria model.Keywords: group theory, lie symmetry, invariant solutions, malaria
Procedia PDF Downloads 1136237 Harmonizing Cities: Integrating Land Use Diversity and Multimodal Transit for Social Equity
Authors: Zi-Yan Chao
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With the rapid development of urbanization and increasing demand for efficient transportation systems, the interaction between land use diversity and transportation resource allocation has become a critical issue in urban planning. Achieving a balance of land use types, such as residential, commercial, and industrial areas, is crucial role in ensuring social equity and sustainable urban development. Simultaneously, optimizing multimodal transportation networks, including bus, subway, and car routes, is essential for minimizing total travel time and costs, while ensuring fairness for all social groups, particularly in meeting the transportation needs of low-income populations. This study develops a bilevel programming model to address these challenges, with land use diversity as the foundation for measuring equity. The upper-level model maximizes land use diversity for balanced land distribution across regions. The lower-level model optimizes multimodal transportation networks to minimize travel time and costs while maintaining user equilibrium. The model also incorporates constraints to ensure fair resource allocation, such as balancing transportation accessibility and cost differences across various social groups. A solution approach is developed to solve the bilevel optimization problem, ensuring efficient exploration of the solution space for land use and transportation resource allocation. This study maximizes social equity by maximizing land use diversity and achieving user equilibrium with optimal transportation resource distribution. The proposed method provides a robust framework for addressing urban planning challenges, contributing to sustainable and equitable urban development.Keywords: bilevel programming model, genetic algorithms, land use diversity, multimodal transportation optimization, social equity
Procedia PDF Downloads 256236 Patterns of Positive Feedback Formation in the System of Online Action
Authors: D. Gvozdikov
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The purpose of this study is an attempt to describe an online action as a system that combines disjointed events and behavioral chains into a whole. The research focuses on patterns of naturally-formed chains of actions united by an orientation towards the online environment. A key characteristic of the system of online action is that it acts as an attractor for separate actions and chains of behavioral repertoire accumulating time and efforts made by users. The article demonstrates how the chains of online-offline actions are combined into a single pattern due to a simple identifiable mechanism, a positive feedback system. Using methods of digital ethnography and analyzing the content of the Instagram application and media blogs, the research reveals how through the positive feedback mechanism the entire system of online action acquires stability and can expand involving new spheres of human activity.Keywords: digital anthropology, internet studies, systems theory, social media
Procedia PDF Downloads 1356235 Health Payments and Household Wellbeing in India: Examining the Role of Health Policy Interventions
Authors: Shailender Kumar
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Current health policy pronouncements in India advocate for insurance-based financing mechanism to achieve universal health coverage (UHC), while undermine the role of comprehensive healthcare provision system. UHC is achieved when all people receive the health services they need without suffering financial hardship. This study, using 68th & 71st NSS rounds data, examines their relative and combined strength in achieving the above objective. Health-insurance has been unsuccessful in reducing prevalence and catastrophic effects of out-of-pocket payment and even dismantle the effectiveness of traditional way of health financing system. Healthcare provision is the best way forward to enhance health and well-being of households in condition if India removes existing inadequacies and inequalities in service provision across districts/states and ensure free/low cost medicines/diagnostics to the citizens.Keywords: health policy, demand-side financing, supply-side financing, incidence of health payment
Procedia PDF Downloads 2626234 Towards Resource Sufficiency in Engineering Education in Sub-Saharan Africa
Authors: Iyabosola B. Oronti, Adeoluwawale A. Adewusi, Olubusola O. Nuga
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Sub-Saharan Africa has long been known to be a region rife with poverty, inadequate health facilities, food shortages, high transport and communication costs and very low pace of infrastructural and technological development. These factors combined have led to decades of resource paucity in engineering education. Engineering is core to global development and building of capacity in engineering education with available resources in sub-Saharan Africa has become imperative. This paper identifies core political issues and policy shifts contributing adversely to this present state of affairs, and also explores the offshoots of the changing global political environment as it affects engineering education in the developing nations of sub-Saharan Africa. Opportunities for instituting resource sufficiency are examined and corrective measures that can be taken to resuscitate and stabilize the educational sector in the region are also suggested.Keywords: capacity building, engineering education, resource sufficiency, sub-Saharan Africa
Procedia PDF Downloads 4376233 Daylight Performance of a Single Unit in Distinct Arrangements
Authors: Rifat Tabassoom
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Recently multistoried housing projects are accelerating in the capital of Bangladesh- Dhaka, to house its massive population. Insufficient background research leads to a building design trend where a single unit is designed and then multiplied all through the buildings. Therefore, although having identical designs, all the units cannot perform evenly considering daylight, which also alters their household activities. This paper aims to understand if a single unit can be an optimum solution regarding daylight for a selected housing project.Keywords: daylight, orientation, performance, simulations
Procedia PDF Downloads 1256232 Thermoluminescence Study of Cu Doped Lithium Tetra Borate Samples Synthesized by Water/Solution Assisted Method
Authors: Swarnapriya Thiyagarajan, Modesto Antonio Sosa Aquino, Miguel Vallejo Hernandez, Senthilkumar Kalaiselvan Dhivyaraj, Jayaramakrishnan Velusamy
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In this paper the lithium tetra borate (Li2B4O7) was prepared by used water/solution assisted synthesis method. Once finished the synthesization, Copper (Cu) were used to doping material with Li2B4O7 in order to enhance its thermo luminescent properties. The heating temperature parameters were 750°C for 2 hr and 150°C for 2hr. The samples produced by water assisted method were doped at different doping percentage (0.02%, 0.04%, 0.06%, 0.08%, 0.12%, 0.5%, 0.1%, and 1%) of Cu.The characteristics and identification of Li2B4O7 (undoped and doped) were determined in four tests. They are X-ray diffraction (XRD), Scanning electron microscope (SEM), Photoluminescence (PL), Ultra violet visible spectroscopy (UV Vis). As it is evidence from the XRD and SEM results the obtained Li2B4O7 and Li2B4O7 doping with Cu was confirmed and also confirmed the chemical compositition and their morphologies. The obtained lithium tetraborate XRD pattern result was verified with the reference data of lithium tetraborate with tetragonal structure from JCPDS. The glow curves of Li2B4O7 and Li2B4O7 : Cu were obtained by thermo luminescence (TLD) reader (Harshaw 3500). The pellets were irradiated with different kind of dose (58mGy, 100mGy, 500mGy, and 945mGy) by using an X-ray source. Finally this energy response was also compared with TLD100. The order of kinetics (b), frequency factor (S) and activation energy (E) or the trapping parameters were calculated using peak shape method. Especially Li2B4O7: Cu (0.1%) presents good glow curve in all kind of doses. The experimental results showed that this Li2B4O7: Cu could have good potential applications in radiation dosimetry. The main purpose of this paper is to determine the effect of synthesis on the TL properties of doped lithium tetra borate Li2B4O7.Keywords: dosimetry, irradiation, lithium tetraborate, thermoluminescence
Procedia PDF Downloads 2776231 Harnessing the Generation of Ferromagnetic and Silver Nanostructures from Tropical Aquatic Microbial Nanofactories
Authors: Patricia Jayshree Jacob, Mas Jaffri Masarudinb, Mohd Zobir Hussein, Raha Abdul Rahim
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Iron based ferromagnetic nanoparticles (IONP) and silver nanostructures (AgNP) have found a wide range of application in antimicrobial therapy, cell targeting, and environmental applications. As such, the design of well-defined monodisperse IONPs and AgNPs have become an essential tool in nanotechnology. Fabrication of these nanostructures using conventional methods is not environmentally conducive and weigh heavily on energy and outlays. Selected microorganisms possess the innate ability to reduce metallic ions in colloidal aqueous solution to generate nanoparticles. Hence, harnessing this potential is a way forward in constructing microbial nano-factories, capable of churning out high yields of well-defined IONP’s and AgNP's with physicochemical characteristics on par with the best synthetically produced nanostructures. In this paper, we report the isolation and characterization of bacterial strains isolated from the tropical marine and freshwater ecosystems of Malaysia that demonstrated facile and rapid generation of ferromagnetic nanoparticles and silver nanostructures when precursors such as FeCl₃.6H₂O and AgNO₃ were added to the cell-free bacterial lysate in colloidal solution. Characterization of these nanoparticles was carried out using FESEM, UV Spectrophotometer, XRD, DLS and FTIR. This aerobic bioprocess was carried out at ambient temperature and humidity and has the potential to be developed for environmental friendly, cost effective large scale production of IONP’s. A preliminary bioprocess study on the harvesting time, incubation temperature and pH was also carried out to determine pertinent abiotic parameters contributing to the optimal production of these nanostructures.Keywords: iron oxide nanoparticles, silver nanoparticles, biosynthesis, aquatic bacteria
Procedia PDF Downloads 2866230 Luminescent Functionalized Graphene Oxide Based Sensitive Detection of Deadly Explosive TNP
Authors: Diptiman Dinda, Shyamal Kumar Saha
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In the 21st century, sensitive and selective detection of trace amounts of explosives has become a serious problem. Generally, nitro compound and its derivatives are being used worldwide to prepare different explosives. Recently, TNP (2, 4, 6 trinitrophenol) is the most commonly used constituent to prepare powerful explosives all over the world. It is even powerful than TNT or RDX. As explosives are electron deficient in nature, it is very difficult to detect one separately from a mixture. Again, due to its tremendous water solubility, detection of TNP in presence of other explosives from water is very challenging. Simple instrumentation, cost-effective, fast and high sensitivity make fluorescence based optical sensing a grand success compared to other techniques. Graphene oxide (GO), with large no of epoxy grps, incorporate localized nonradiative electron-hole centres on its surface to give very weak fluorescence. In this work, GO is functionalized with 2, 6-diamino pyridine to remove those epoxy grps. through SN2 reaction. This makes GO into a bright blue luminescent fluorophore (DAP/rGO) which shows an intense PL spectrum at ∼384 nm when excited at 309 nm wavelength. We have also characterized the material by FTIR, XPS, UV, XRD and Raman measurements. Using this as fluorophore, a large fluorescence quenching (96%) is observed after addition of only 200 µL of 1 mM TNP in water solution. Other nitro explosives give very moderate PL quenching compared to TNP. Such high selectivity is related to the operation of FRET mechanism from fluorophore to TNP during this PL quenching experiment. TCSPC measurement also reveals that the lifetime of DAP/rGO drastically decreases from 3.7 to 1.9 ns after addition of TNP. Our material is also quite sensitive to 125 ppb level of TNP. Finally, we believe that this graphene based luminescent material will emerge a new class of sensing materials to detect trace amounts of explosives from aqueous solution.Keywords: graphene, functionalization, fluorescence quenching, FRET, nitroexplosive detection
Procedia PDF Downloads 4426229 A Resilience Process Model of Natural Gas Pipeline Systems
Authors: Zhaoming Yang, Qi Xiang, Qian He, Michael Havbro Faber, Enrico Zio, Huai Su, Jinjun Zhang
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Resilience is one of the key factors for system safety assessment and optimization, and resilience studies of natural gas pipeline systems (NGPS), especially in terms of process descriptions, are still being explored. Based on the three main stages, which are function loss process, recovery process, and waiting process, the paper has built functions and models which are according to the practical characteristics of NGPS and mainly analyzes the characteristics of deterministic interruptions. The resilience of NGPS also considers the threshold of the system function or users' satisfaction. The outcomes, which quantify the resilience of NGPS in different evaluation views, can be combined with the max flow and shortest path methods, help with the optimization of extra gas supplies and gas routes as well as pipeline maintenance strategies, the quick analysis of disturbance effects and the improvement of NGPS resilience evaluation accuracy.Keywords: natural gas pipeline system, resilience, process modeling, deterministic disturbance
Procedia PDF Downloads 1326228 Rheological Properties of Polymer Systems in Magnetic Field
Authors: T. S. Soliman, A. G. Galyas, E. V. Rusinova, S. A. Vshivkov
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The liquid crystals combining properties of a liquid and an anisotropic crystal substance play an important role in a science and engineering. Molecules of cellulose and its derivatives have rigid helical conformation, stabilized by intramolecular hydrogen bonds. Therefore the macromolecules of these polymers are capable to be ordered at dissolution and form liquid crystals of cholesteric type. Phase diagrams of solutions of some cellulose derivatives are known. However, little is known about the effect of a magnetic field on the viscosity of polymer solutions. The systems hydroxypropyl cellulose (HPC) – ethanol, HPC – ethylene glycol, HPC–DМАA, HPC–DMF, ethyl cellulose (EC)–ethanol, EC–DMF, were studied in the presence and absence of magnetic field. The solution viscosity was determined on a Rheotest RN 4.1 rheometer. The effect of a magnetic field on the solution properties was studied with the use of two magnets, which induces a magnetic-field-lines directed perpendicularly and parallel to the rotational axis of a rotor. Application of the magnetic field is shown to be accompanied by an increase in the additional assembly of macromolecules, as is evident from a gain in the radii of light scattering particles. In the presence of a magnetic field, the long chains of macromolecules are oriented in parallel with field lines. Such an orientation is associated with the molecular diamagnetic anisotropy of macromolecules. As a result, supramolecular particles are formed, especially in the vicinity of the region of liquid crystalline phase transition. The magnetic field leads to the increase in viscosity of solutions. The results were used to plot the concentration dependence of η/η0, where η and η0 are the viscosities of solutions in the presence and absence of a magnetic field, respectively. In this case, the values of viscosity corresponding to low shear rates were chosen because the concentration dependence of viscosity at low shear rates is typical for anisotropic systems. In the investigated composition range, the values of η/η0 are described by a curve with a maximum.Keywords: rheology, liquid crystals, magnetic field, cellulose ethers
Procedia PDF Downloads 3496227 Hepatoprotective Effect of Mycophenolate Mofetil against Tacrolimus Exposure in Rat
Authors: Ferjani Hanen, El Arem Amira, Boussema Ayed Imen, Bacha Hassen
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Tacrolimus (TAC), a calcineurin inhibitor, is clinically used as an immunosuppressive agent in the transplant recipient, but its use associated-hepatotoxicity. Mycophenolate mofetil (MMF), an anti-metabolite, is a potent immunosuppressive drug. MMF is not hepatotoxic and is the most common adjunctive immunosuppressant for TAC. The effects of TAC and MMF combination in the liver is still not well understood. This work aimed to investigate their combined effect against in liver in rats Wistar after 24 h. The oral median lethal doses (LD50) of TAC and MMF alone were evaluated in rats are 240 mg/kg and 500 mg/kg respectively. Oral administration of the MMF at 50 mg/kg to male Wistar intoxicated with TAC at 60 mg/kg, demonstrated a significant protective effect by lowering the levels of hepatic markers enzymes (AST, ALT) in the serum rat. MMF attenuated oxidative stress by restoring the activities of SOD, CAT and by reducing the malondialdehyde (MDA) and protein carbonyl levels liver. This study provided evidence that MMF protects rat liver from TAC-induced injury and suggests a most combination use for organ transplantation.Keywords: tacrolimus, mycophenolate mofetil, combination, liver, rat
Procedia PDF Downloads 3396226 Autism Screening Questionnaire for Daycare Attendees
Authors: David Alejandro Torres-Lopez , Lilia Albores-Gallo, Ronald Soto-Calderon, Roberto Lagunes-Cordoba
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Autism Screening Questionnaire for Daycare Attendees (ASQ-DAT) is a screening instrument that assesses the risk of autism in children between 12 and 47 months, being the first free observational instrument created according to the criteria of the DSM-5 that can be applied by teachers in nurseries. The people in charge of answering the questionnaires are the daycare assistants. Its application presents a series of previous activities with which daycare assistants are familiar (dance, games, oral narration and breakfast), which are executed with the children and then answer a questionnaire with dichotomous questions "Yes/No" in approximately 3 minutes per child. The instrument was developed with the participation of nurseries according to the protocols of the creation of psychometric instruments of the Classical Test Theory having as a gold standard ADOS-2 Modules T and 1. The results of the investigation show that the use of ASQ-DAT combined with the application of M-CHAT / RF provides more information about the risk of ASD in young children, which allows improvements in the screening.Keywords: diagnosis, screening, autism, daycare
Procedia PDF Downloads 2236225 Experimental Study of Flow Effects of Solid Particles’ Size in Porous Media
Authors: S. Akridiss, E. El Tabach, K. Chetehouna, N. Gascoin, M. S. Kadiri
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Transpiration cooling combined to regenerative cooling is a technique that could be used to cool the porous walls of the future ramjet combustion chambers; it consists of using fuel that will flow through the pores of the porous material consisting of the chamber walls, as coolant. However, at high temperature, the fuel is pyrolysed and generates solid coke particles inside the porous materials. This phenomenon can lead to a significant decrease of the material permeability and can affect the efficiency of the cooling system. In order to better understand this phenomenon, an experimental laboratory study was undertaken to determine the transport and deposition of particles in a sintered porous material subjected to steady state flow. The test bench composed of a high-pressure autoclave is used to study the transport of different particle size (35Keywords: experimental study, permeability, porous material, suspended particles
Procedia PDF Downloads 2796224 Assessment of the Effect of Wind Turbulence on the Aero-Hydrodynamic Behavior of Offshore Wind Turbines
Authors: Reza Dezvareh
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The aim of this study is to investigate the amount of wind turbulence on the aero hydrodynamic behavior of offshore wind turbines with a monopile holder platform. Since in the sea, the wind turbine structures are under water and structures interactions, the dynamic analysis has been conducted under combined wind and wave loading. The offshore wind turbines have been investigated undertow models of normal and severe wind turbulence, and the results of this study show that the amplitude of fluctuation of dynamic response of structures including thrust force and base shear force of structures is increased with increasing the amount of wind turbulence, and this increase is not necessarily observed in the mean values of responses. Therefore, conducting the dynamic analysis is inevitable in order to observe the effect of wind turbulence on the structures' response.Keywords: offshore wind turbine, wind turbulence, structural vibration, aero-hydro dynamic
Procedia PDF Downloads 2126223 Effect of Personality Traits on Classification of Political Orientation
Authors: Vesile Evrim, Aliyu Awwal
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Today as in the other domains, there are an enormous number of political transcripts available in the Web which is waiting to be mined and used for various purposes such as statistics and recommendations. Therefore, automatically determining the political orientation on these transcripts becomes crucial. The methodologies used by machine learning algorithms to do the automatic classification are based on different features such as Linguistic. Considering the ideology differences between Liberals and Conservatives, in this paper, the effect of Personality Traits on political orientation classification is studied. This is done by considering the correlation between LIWC features and the BIG Five Personality Traits. Several experiments are conducted on Convote U.S. Congressional-Speech dataset with seven benchmark classification algorithms. The different methodologies are applied on selecting different feature sets that constituted by 8 to 64 varying number of features. While Neuroticism is obtained to be the most differentiating personality trait on classification of political polarity, when its top 10 representative features are combined with several classification algorithms, it outperformed the results presented in previous research.Keywords: politics, personality traits, LIWC, machine learning
Procedia PDF Downloads 4966222 Influence of Chirp of High-Speed Laser Diodes and Fiber Dispersion on Performance of Non-Amplified 40-Gbps Optical Fiber Links
Authors: Ahmed Bakry, Moustafa Ahmed
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We model and simulate the combined effect of fiber dispersion and frequency chirp of a directly modulated high-speed laser diode on the figures of merit of a non-amplified 40-Gbps optical fiber link. We consider both the return to zero (RZ) and non-return to zero (NRZ) patterns of the pseudorandom modulation bits. The performance of the fiber communication system is assessed by the fiber-length limitation due to the fiber dispersion. We study the influence of replacing standard single-mode fibers by non-zero dispersion-shifted fibers on the maximum fiber length and evaluate the associated power penalty. We introduce new dispersion tolerances for 1-dB power penalty of the RZ and NRZ 40-Gbps optical fiber links.Keywords: bit error rate, dispersion, frequency chirp, fiber communications, semiconductor laser
Procedia PDF Downloads 6456221 Light-Scattering Characteristics of Ordered Arrays Nobel Metal Nanoparticles
Authors: Yassine Ait-El-Aoud, Michael Okomoto, Andrew M. Luce, Alkim Akyurtlu, Richard M. Osgood III
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Light scattering of metal nanoparticles (NPs) has a unique, and technologically important effect on enhancing light absorption in substrates because most of the light scatters into the substrate near the localized plasmon resonance of the NPs. The optical response, such as the resonant frequency and forward- and backward-scattering, can be tuned to trap light over a certain spectral region by adjusting the nanoparticle material size, shape, aggregation state, Metallic vs. insulating state, as well as local environmental conditions. In this work, we examined the light scattering characteristics of ordered arrays of metal nanoparticles and the light trapping, in order to enhance absorption, by measuring the forward- and backward-scattering using a UV/VIS/NIR spectrophotometer. Samples were fabricated using the popular self-assembly process method: dip coating, combined with nanosphere lithography.Keywords: dip coating, light-scattering, metal nanoparticles, nanosphere lithography
Procedia PDF Downloads 3316220 Central American Security Issue: Civil Wars Legacy and Contemporary Challenges
Authors: Olga Andrianova, Lazar Jeifets
Abstract:
The security issue has always been one of the most sensitive and significant in Latin American context, especially focused on Central American region. Despite the fact that the time of the civil wars has ended, violence, delinquency, insecurity, discrimination still exist and keep relevance in the 21st century. This article is dedicated to consider this kind of problems, to find out the main causes and to propose solution approaches.Keywords: Central America, insecurity, instability, violence
Procedia PDF Downloads 3976219 Anti-Ulcer Activity of Hydro Alcoholic Extract of Ficus bengalensis Linn Bark in Experimental Rats
Authors: Jagdish Baheti, Sampat Navale
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The present study was performed to evaluate the anti-ulcerogenic activity of hydro-alcoholic extract of Ficus bengalensis Linn. against ethanol-induced gastric mucosal injury in rats and pylorus ligation gastric secretion in rats. Five groups of adult wistar rats were orally pre-treated respectively with carboxy methyl cellulose (CMC) solution (ulcer control group), Omeprazole 20 mg/kg (reference group), and 100, 200 and 300 mg/kg F. bengalensis Linn. bark extract in CMC solution (experimental groups), one hour before oral administration of absolute ethanol to generate gastric mucosal injury. Rats were sacrificed and the ulcer index, gastric volume, gastric pH, free acidity, total acidity of the gastric content was determined. Grossly, the ulcer control group exhibited severe mucosal injury, whereas pre-treatment with F. bengalensis Linn. bark extract exhibited significant protection of gastric mucosal injury in both model. Histological studies revealed that ulcer control group exhibited severe damage of gastric mucosa, along with edema and leucocytes infiltration of submucosal layer compared to rats pre-treated with F. bengalensis Linn. bark extract which showed gastric mucosal protection, reduction or absence of edema and leucocytes infiltration of submucosal layer. Acute toxicity study did not manifest any toxicological signs in rats. The present finding suggests that F. bengalensis Linn. bark extract promotes ulcer protection as ascertained grossly and histologically compared to the ulcer control group.Keywords: Ficus bengalensis Linn., gastric ulcer, hydroalcoholic, pylorus ligation
Procedia PDF Downloads 2966218 Devotional Informant and Diagenetic Alterations, Influences of Facies and Fine Kaolinite Formation Migration on Sandstone’ Reservoir Quality, Sarir Formation, Sirt
Authors: Faraj M. Elkhatri, Hana Ellafi
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In recent years, there has been a growing recognition of the potential of marine-based functional foods and combination therapies in promoting a healthy lifestyle and exploring their effectiveness in preventing or treating diseases. The combination of marine bioactive compounds or extracts offers synergistic or enhancement effects through various mechanisms, including multi-target actions, improved bioavailability, enhanced bioactivity, and mitigation of potential adverse effects. Both the green-lipped mussel (GLM) and fucoidan derived from brown seaweed are rich in bioactivities. These two, mussel and fucoidan, have not been previously formulated together. This study aims to combine GLM oil from Perna canaliculus with low molecular weight fucoidan (LMWF) extracted from Undaria pinnatifida to investigate the unique mixture’s anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties. The cytotoxicity of individual compounds and combinations was assessed using the MTT assay in (THP-1 and RAW264.7) cell lines. The anti-inflammatory activity of mussel-fucoidan was evaluated by treating LPS-stimulated human monocyte and macrophage (THP1-1) cells. Subsequently, the inflammatory cytokines released into the supernatant of these cell lines were quantified via ELISA. Antioxidant activity was determined by using the free radical scavenging assay (DPPH). DPPH assay demonstrated that the radical scavenging activity of the combinations, particularly at concentrations exceeding 1 mg/ml, showed a significantly higher percentage of inhibition when compared to the individual component. This suggests an enhancement effect when the two compounds are combined, leading to increased antioxidant activity. In terms of immunomodulatory activity, the individual compounds exhibited distinct behaviors. GLM oil displayed a higher ability to suppress the cytokine TNF- compared to LMWF. Interestingly, the LMWF fraction, when used individually, did not demonstrate TNF- suppression. However, when combined with GLM, the TNF- suppression (anti-inflammatory) activity of the combination was better than GLM or LWMF alone. This observation underscores the potential for enhancement interactions between the two components in terms of anti-inflammatory properties. This study revealed that each individual compound, LMWF, and GLM, possesses unique and notable bioactivity. The combination of these two individual compounds results in an enhancement effect, where the bioactivity of each is enhanced, creating a superior combination. This suggests that the combination of LMWF and GLM has the potential to offer a more potent and multifaceted therapeutic effect, particularly in the context of antioxidant and anti-inflammatory activities. These findings hold promise for the development of novel therapeutic interventions or supplements that harness the enhancement effects.Keywords: formation damage, porosity loses, pore throat, quartz cement
Procedia PDF Downloads 606217 An Ensemble-based Method for Vehicle Color Recognition
Authors: Saeedeh Barzegar Khalilsaraei, Manoocheher Kelarestaghi, Farshad Eshghi
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The vehicle color, as a prominent and stable feature, helps to identify a vehicle more accurately. As a result, vehicle color recognition is of great importance in intelligent transportation systems. Unlike conventional methods which use only a single Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) for feature extraction or classification, in this paper, four CNNs, with different architectures well-performing in different classes, are trained to extract various features from the input image. To take advantage of the distinct capability of each network, the multiple outputs are combined using a stack generalization algorithm as an ensemble technique. As a result, the final model performs better than each CNN individually in vehicle color identification. The evaluation results in terms of overall average accuracy and accuracy variance show the proposed method’s outperformance compared to the state-of-the-art rivals.Keywords: Vehicle Color Recognition, Ensemble Algorithm, Stack Generalization, Convolutional Neural Network
Procedia PDF Downloads 85