Search results for: sense capability

Authors: Nounamo Nguedie Yann Harold

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The factors behind the debt have been the subject of several studies in the literature. Pioneering studies based on the 'double deficit' approach linked indebtedness to the imbalance between savings and investment, the budget deficit and the current account deficit. Most studies on identifying factors that may stimulate or reduce the level of external public debt agree that the following variables are important explanatory variables in leveraging debt: the budget deficit, trade opening, current account and exchange rate, import, export, interest rate, term variation exchange rate, economic growth rate and debt service, capital flight, and over-indebtedness. Few studies addressed the impact of political factors on the level of external debt. In general, however, the IMF's stabilization programs in developing countries following the debt crisis have resulted in economic recession and the advent of political crises that have resulted in changes in governments. In this sense, political institutions are recognised as factors of accumulation of external debt in most developing countries. This paper assesses the role of political factors on the external debt level of African countries in the Franc Zone over the period 1985-2016. Data used come from World Bank and ICRG. Using a logit in panel, the results show that the more a country is politically stable, the lower the external debt compared to the gross domestic product. Political stability multiplies 1.18% the chances of being in the sustainable debt zone. For example, countries with good political institutions experience less severe external debt burdens than countries with bad political institutions.

Keywords: African countries, external debt, Franc Zone, political factors

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Authors: Usman Dutse, Eldah Ephraim Buba, Dalhatu Sa’idu

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The popularity of foreign football leagues are getting a soaring in Africa. Nigerian youths are following these leagues with high sense of dedication and devotion. The paper examines the factors behind the growing popularity of foreign football league in Nigeria and its socio economic implications on the country. Primary data were largely used for the study and collected through the use of questionnaire and interview. The data collected were analysed with the use of descriptive and qualitative methods of analysis. The findings made from the analysis indicates that the reasons why foreign league is popular in Nigeria is because the quality of national league in Nigeria is poor, the matches are not mostly televised, corruption/match fixing is common; for the above mentioned reasons national football league become uninteresting compared to foreign leagues. It was also confirmed that the overwhelming popularity of foreign league has the following social effects: friendship and acquaintance are created between supporters of the same club via social media and viewing centres, it has increased the knowledge and awareness of youth about the economics and politics of international sports. However, it has also brewed rivalry between supporters of clubs, drugs are sold in viewing centres and it sometimes serves as a meeting point for miscreants and criminals. Some of the economic effects were also identified as follows: small entrepreneurs establish commercial viewing centres and they employ other supporting staff to operate. On the strength of the above findings, the following were recommended: There is the urgent need to reform our national league to an acceptable standard; improve the quality of the team, the facilities and media coverage of the matches. This might make Nigerians to channel some of the love for foreign leagues to the local leagues.

Keywords: foreign, league, socioeconomic, implications

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Authors: Shveta Puri, Shiv Jyoti Pandey, G. M. Bhat, Neha Raina

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TheJammu and Kashmir region of the Northwest Himalaya had witnessed many devastating earthquakes in the recent past and has remained unexplored for any kind of seismic investigations except scanty records of the earthquakes that occurred in this region in the past. In this study, we have used local seismic data of year 2013 that was recorded by the network of Broadband Seismographs in J&K. During this period, our seismic stations recorded about 207 earthquakes including two moderate events of Mw 5.7 on 1st May, 2013 and Mw 5.1 of 2nd August, 2013.We analyzed the events of Mw 3-4.6 and the main events only (for minimizing the error) for source parameters, b value and sense of movement through waveform modeling for understanding seismotectonic and seismic hazard of the region. It has been observed that most of the events are bounded between 32.9° N – 33.3° N latitude and 75.4° E – 76.1° E longitudes, Moment Magnitude (Mw) ranges from Mw 3 to 5.7, Source radius (r), from 0.21 to 3.5 km, stress drop, from 1.90 bars to 71.1 bars and Corner frequency, from 0.39 – 6.06 Hz. The b-value for this region was found to be 0.83±0 from these events which are lower than the normal value (b=1), indicating the area is under high stress. The travel time inversion and waveform inversion method suggest focal depth up to 10 km probably above the detachment depth of the Himalayan region. Moment tensor solution of the (Mw 5.1, 02:32:47 UTC) main event of 2ndAugust suggested that the source fault is striking at 295° with dip of 33° and rake value of 85°. It was found that these events form intense clustering of small to moderate events within a narrow zone between Panjal Thrust and Kishtwar Window. Moment tensor solution of the main events and their aftershocks indicating thrust type of movement is occurring in this region.

Keywords: b-value, moment tensor, seismotectonics, source parameters

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Authors: Gyula I. Tóth, Shaho Abdalla

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Even though numerical simulations indeed have a significant precursory/supportive role in exploring the disordered phase displaying no long-range order in pattern formation models, studying the stability properties of this phase and determining the order of the ordered-disordered phase transition in these models necessitate an analytical description of the disordered phase. First, we will present the results of a comprehensive statistical analysis of a large number (1,000-10,000) of numerical simulations in the Swift-Hohenberg model, where the bulk disordered (or amorphous) phase is stable. We will show that the average free energy density (over configurations) converges, while the variance of the energy density vanishes with increasing system size in numerical simulations, which suggest that the disordered phase is a thermodynamic phase (i.e., its properties are independent of the configuration in the macroscopic limit). Furthermore, the structural analysis of this phase in the Fourier space suggests that the phase can be modeled by a colored isotropic Gaussian noise, where any instant of the noise describes a possible configuration. Based on these results, we developed the general mathematical framework of finding a pool of solutions to partial differential equations in the sense of continuous probability measure, which we will present briefly. Applying the general idea to the Swift-Hohenberg model we show, that the amorphous phase can be found, and its properties can be determined analytically. As the general mathematical framework is not restricted to continuum theories, we hope that the proposed methodology will open a new chapter in studying disordered phases.

Keywords: fundamental theory, mathematical physics, continuum models, analytical description

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Authors: Anukwu J. U., Nwamba H. O., Njom V. S., Achikanu C. E., Edoga C. O. Chiaha I. E.

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The major environmental crisis is the loss of biodiversity and the decline is predominant in the fish population. Although taxonomic history began 250 years ago, there are still undiscovered members of species and new species are waiting to be uncovered. The failure of the traditional taxonomic method to address this issue has resulted to the adoption of a molecular approach-DNA barcoding. It was proposed that DNA barcoding using the mitochondrion cytochrome oxidase subunit I (COI) gene has the capability to serve as a barcode for fish. The aim of this study was to use DNA barcoding in the identification of fish species in the New Calabar River, Rivers State. BLAST result showed the correlation between the sequence queried and the biological sequences with the NCBI database. The names of the samples, percentage ID, predicted organisms, and GenBank Accession numbers were clearly identified. A total of 18 sequences (all > 600bp) belonging to 8 species, 7 genera, 7 families, and 5 orders were validated and submitted to the NCBI database. Each nucleotide peak was represented by a single colour with various percentage occurrences. Two (22%) out of the 9 original samples analyzed corresponded with the predicted organisms from the BLAST result.) There were a total of 712 positions in the final dataset. Evolutionary analyses were conducted in MEGA11. Pairwise sequence alignment showed different consensus positions and a total of 30 mutations. There was one insertion from Polynemus dubius and 29 substitutions (transition-15 and transversion-14) mutations. No deletion and nonsense codons were detected in all the amplified sequences. This work will facilitate more research in other keys areas such as the identification of mislabeled fish products, illegal trading of endangered species, and effective tracking of fish biodiversity.

Keywords: DNA barcoding, Imo river, phylogenetic tree, mutation.

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Authors: Dachuan Shi, M. Hecht, Y. Ye

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With the trend of digitalization in railway freight transport, a large number of freight wagons in Germany have been equipped with telematics devices, commonly placed on the wagon body. A telematics device contains a GPS module for tracking and a 3-axis accelerometer for shock detection. Besides these basic functions, it is desired to use the integrated accelerometer for condition monitoring without any additional sensors. Wheel flats as a common type of failure on wheel tread cause large impacts on wagons and infrastructure as well as impulsive noise. A large wheel flat may even cause safety issues such as derailments. In this sense, this paper proposes a machine learning approach for wheel flat detection by using car body accelerations. Due to suspension systems, impulsive signals caused by wheel flats are damped significantly and thus could be buried in signal noise and disturbances. Therefore, it is very challenging to detect wheel flats using car body accelerations. The proposed algorithm considers the envelope spectrum of car body accelerations to eliminate the effect of noise and disturbances. Subsequently, a 1-D convolutional neural network (CNN), which is well known as a deep learning method, is constructed to automatically extract features in the envelope-frequency domain and conduct classification. The constructed CNN is trained and tested on field test data, which are measured on the underframe of a tank wagon with a wheel flat of 20 mm length in the operational condition. The test results demonstrate the good performance of the proposed algorithm for real-time fault detection.

Keywords: fault detection, wheel flat, convolutional neural network, machine learning

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Authors: B. Vijay Antony Raj, Umarani Gunasekaran, R. Thiru Kumara Raja Vallaban

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Fibrous autoclaved aerated concrete (FAAC) is concrete containing fibrous material in it which helps to increase its structural integrity when compared to that of convention autoclaved aerated concrete (CAAC). These short discrete fibers are uniformly distributed and randomly oriented, which enhances the bond strength within the aerated concrete matrix. Conventional red-clay bricks create larger impact to the environment due to red soil depletion and it also consumes large amount to time for construction. Whereas, AAC are larger in size, lighter in weight and it is environmentally friendly in nature and hence it is a viable replacement for red-clay bricks. Internal micro cracks and corner cracks are the only disadvantages of conventional autoclaved aerated concrete, to resolve this particular issue it is preferable to make use of fibers in it.These fibers are bonded together within the matrix and they induce the aerated concrete to withstand considerable stresses, especially during the post cracking stage. Hence, FAAC has the capability of enhancing the mechanical properties and energy absorption capacity of CAAC. In this research work, individual fibers like glass, nylon, polyester and polypropylene are used they generally reduce the brittle fracture of AAC.To study the fibre’s surface topography and composition, SEM analysis is performed and then to determine the composition of a specimen as a whole as well as the composition of individual components EDAX mapping is carried out and then an experimental approach was performed to determine the effect of hybrid (multiple) fibres at various dosage (0.5%, 1%, 1.5%) and curing temperature of 180-2000 C is maintained to determine the mechanical properties of autoclaved aerated concrete. As an analytical part, the outcome experimental results is compared with fuzzy logic using MATLAB.

Keywords: fiberous AAC, crack control, energy absorption, mechanical properies, SEM, EDAX, MATLAB

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Authors: Ju-Hong Lee, Yi-Lin Shieh

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Two-dimensional (2-D) quadrature mirror filter (QMF) banks have been widely considered for high-quality coding of image and video data at low bit rates. Without implementing subband coding, a 2-D QMF bank is required to have an exactly linear-phase response without magnitude distortion, i.e., the perfect reconstruction (PR) characteristics. The design problem of 2-D QMF banks with the PR characteristics has been considered in the literature for many years. This paper presents a transformation approach for designing 2-D two-channel QMF banks. Under a suitable one-dimensional (1-D) to two-dimensional (2-D) transformation with a specified decimation/interpolation matrix, the analysis and synthesis filters of the QMF bank are composed of 1-D causal and stable digital allpass filters (DAFs) and possess the 2-D doubly complementary half-band (DC-HB) property. This facilitates the design problem of the two-channel QMF banks by finding the real coefficients of the 1-D recursive DAFs. The design problem is formulated based on the minimax phase approximation for the 1-D DAFs. A novel objective function is then derived to obtain an optimization for 1-D minimax phase approximation. As a result, the problem of minimizing the objective function can be simply solved by using the well-known weighted least-squares (WLS) algorithm in the minimax (L∞) optimal sense. The novelty of the proposed design method is that the design procedure is very simple and the designed 2-D QMF bank achieves perfect magnitude response and possesses satisfactory phase response. Simulation results show that the proposed design method provides much better design performance and much less design complexity as compared with the existing techniques.

Keywords: Quincunx QMF bank, doubly complementary filter, digital allpass filter, WLS algorithm

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Authors: Daniela Evtimovska, Ivana Srbinovska, Padraig O’Rourke

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Kostal Macedonia has the challenge to mill a rigid-flex printed circuit board (PCB). The PCB elaborated in this paper is made of FR4 material covered with polyimide through the whole surface on the one side, including the tabs where PCBs need to be separated. After milling only 1.44 meters, the updraft routing tool isn’t effective and causes polyimide debris on all PCB cuts if it continues to mill with the same tool. Updraft routing tool is used for all another product in Kostal Macedonia, and it is changing after milling 60 meters. Changing the tool adds 80 seconds to the cycle time. One solution is using a laser-cut machine. Buying a laser-cut machine for cutting only one product doesn’t make financial sense. The focus is given to find an internal solution among the options under review to solve the issue with polyimide debris. In the paper, the design of the rigid-flex panel is described deeply. It is evaluated downdraft routing tool as a possible solution which could be used for the flex rigid panel as a specific product. It is done a comparison between updraft and down draft routing tools from a technical and financial aspect of view, taking into consideration the customer requirements for the rigid-flex PCB. The results show that using the downdraft routing tool is the best solution in this case. This tool is more expensive for 0.62 euros per piece than updraft. The downdraft routing tool needs to be changed after milling 43.44 meters in comparison with the updraft tool, which needs to be changed after milling only 1.44 meters. It is done analysis which actions should be taken in order further improvements and the possibility of maximum serving of downdraft routing tool.

Keywords: Kostal Macedonia, rigid flex PCB, polyimide, debris, milling process, up/down draft routing tool

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Authors: Allison Tucker, Carolyn Clarke

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This study arose from the understanding that school cultures are shaped by the stories of school as known by teachers, students, and families. These sometimes-conflicting stories, based on a myriad of influences, present challenges to school culture. Layered on stories of school are the policies, developed often from central jurisdictional agencies, that direct schools on their daily operations from things such as curriculum to schedules and school calendars. This study investigates the stories of one Canadian school with the teachers, students, and families of the community. Using appreciative inquiry to consider the influence stories of school have on the ways policies are interpreted and lived in their school community, participants interrogate the stories that currently overarch the school community, and explore ways they might actively foster a school community whose lived experience aligns with what they dream for their schools. Paradigmatic analysis was used to reveal commonalities in participant responses. The findings of the study indicate that schools face challenges in creating a cohesive school community due to related to conflicting interpretations of school stories and the attempts to integrate jurisdictional policies in ways that reflect and make sense in their communities. Differing beliefs about the structure of school, misalignment in what was felt was the purpose of school, diverse understandings of curriculum, and even disparities regarding what the role of each group was in the school community, all create barriers to the creation of a well-connected school community that shares a common purpose. Results from the study, assist the school community to more effectively respond to the impacts that stories from the community and factors external to the school have on the community, and by extension the daily lived experiences of teachers and students in the school. It also offers other school communities a framework through which they could respond sensitively to the lived experience and stories of the teachers, students, and families of their schools.

Keywords: school community, appreciative inquiry, school policy, school culture

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Authors: Helida T. G. Soares, Antonio J. P. da Silva

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As the society develops, the accumulation of solid waste in landfills, in the environment, and the depletion of the raw material increases. In this way, there is relevance in researching the interaction between the environmental management and civil construction; therefore, this project has for scope the analysis and the effects of the rubber microparticles use as a small aggregate added to the sand, producing an ecological mortar for the pavement constitution, from the mixture of a paste, composed of Portland cement and water, and its application in sports courts. It was used the detailed reutilization of micro rubber in its most primordial, micro form, highlighting the powder pattern as the additional balancing of the mortar, analyzing the evolution of the mechanical properties. Percentages of 5, 10 and 15% rubber were used based on the total mass of the trace, where there is no removal of aggregates or cement, only increment of the rubber. The results obtained through the mechanical test of simple compression showed that the rubber, added to the mortar, presents low mechanical resistance compared to the reference trait, the study of this subject is vast of possibilities to be explored. In this sense, we seek sustainability and innovation from the use of an ecological material, thus adding value and reducing the impact of this material on the environment. The manufacturing process takes place from the direct mixing of cement paste and rubber, whether manually, mechanically or industrially. It results in the production of a low-cost mortar, through the use of recycled rubber, with high efficiency in general properties, such as compressive strength and friction coefficient, allowing its use for the construction of floors for sports courts with high durability. Thus, it is possible to reuse this micro rubber residue in other applications in simple concrete artifacts.

Keywords: civil construction, ecological mortar, high efficiency, rubber

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Authors: Ifeanyichukwu Valerie Oguafor

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Women generally have been categorized and placed under the chain of business industry, sometimes highly regarded and other times merely. The social construction of womanhood does not in all sense support a woman going into business, let alone succeed in it because it is believed that it a man’s world. In a typical patriarchal setting, a woman is expected to know nothing more domestic roles. For some women, this is not the case as they have been able to break these barriers to excel in business amidst these social setting and stereotypes. This study examines media representation of Nigerians business women, using content analysis of TV interviews as media text, framing analysis as an approach in qualitative methodology, The study further aims to analyse media frames of two Nigerian business women: FolorunshoAlakija, a business woman in the petroleum industry with current net worth 1.1 billion U.S dollars, emerging as the richest black women in the world 2014. MosunmolaAbudu, a media magnate in Nigeria who launched the first Africa’s global black entertainment and lifestyle network in 2013. This study used six predefined frames: the business woman, the myth of business women, the non-traditional woman, women in leading roles, the family woman, the religious woman, and the philanthropist woman to analyse the representation of Nigerian business women in the media. The analysis of the aforementioned frames on TV interviews with these women reveals that the media perpetually reproduces existing gender stereotype and do not challenge patriarchy. Women face challenges in trying to succeed in business while trying to keep their homes stable. This study concludes that the media represent and reproduce gender stereotypes in spite of the expectation of empowering women. The media reduces these women’s success insignificant rather than a role model for women in society.

Keywords: representation of business women in the media, business women in Nigeria, framing in the media, patriarchy, women's subordination

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Authors: Babawale Akin Adeyemi, Esan Temitayo, Adeyemi Olabisi Omowumi

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The paper analyzed waste disposal system in Akure, Ondo State using GIS techniques. Specifically, the study identified the spatial distribution of collection points and existing dumpsite; evaluated the accessibility of waste collection points and their proximity to each other with the view of enhancing better performance of the waste disposal system. Data for the study were obtained from both primary and secondary sources. Primary data were obtained through the administration of questionnaire. From field survey, 35 collection points were identified in the study area. 10 questionnaires were administered around each collection point making a total of 350 questionnaires for the study. Also, co-ordinates of each collection point were captured using a hand-held Global Positioning System (GPS) receiver which was used to analyze the spatial distribution of collection points. Secondary data used include administrative map collected from Akure South Local Government Secretariat. Data collected was analyzed using the GIS analytical tools which is neighborhood function. The result revealed that collection points were found in all parts of Akure with the highest concentration around the central business district. The study also showed that 80% of the collection points enjoyed efficient waste service while the remaining 20% does not. The study further revealed that most collection points in the core of the city were in close proximity to each other. In conclusion, the paper revealed the capability of Geographic Information System (GIS) as a technique in management of waste collection and disposal technique. The application of Geographic Information System (GIS) in the evaluation of the solid waste management in Akure is highly invaluable for the state waste management board which could also be beneficial to other states in developing a modern day solid waste management system. Further study on solid waste management is also recommended especially for updating of information on both spatial and non-spatial data.

Keywords: assessment, geospatial, system, waste disposal

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Authors: Jixiang Lei, Alexander Fuchs, Franz Pernkopf, Katrin Ellermann

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Within the Space@Sea project, funded by the Horizon 2020 program, an island consisting of multiple platforms was designed. The platforms are connected by ropes and fenders. The connection is critical with respect to the safety of the whole system. Therefore, fault detection systems are investigated, which could detect early warning signs for a possible failure in the connection elements. Previously, a model-based method called Extended Kalman Filter was developed to detect the reduction of rope stiffness. This method detected several types of faults reliably, but some types of faults were much more difficult to detect. Furthermore, the model-based method is sensitive to environmental noise. When the wave height is low, a long time is needed to detect a fault and the accuracy is not always satisfactory. In this sense, it is necessary to develop a more accurate and robust technique that can detect all rope faults under a wide range of operational conditions. Inspired by this work on the Space at Sea design, we introduce a fault diagnosis method based on deep neural networks. Our method cannot only detect rope degradation by using the acceleration data from each platform but also estimate the contributions of the specific acceleration sensors using methods from explainable AI. In order to adapt to different operational conditions, the domain adaptation technique DANN is applied. The proposed model can accurately estimate rope degradation under a wide range of environmental conditions and help users understand the relationship between the output and the contributions of each acceleration sensor.

Keywords: fault diagnosis, deep learning, domain adaptation, explainable AI

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Authors: Aschalew Cherie Workneh, K. S. Hari Prasad, Chandra Shekhar Prasad Ojha

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Due to the increase in water scarcity, the crop water stress index (CWSI) is receiving significant attention these days, especially in arid and semiarid regions, for quantifying water stress and effective irrigation scheduling. Nowadays, machine learning techniques such as neural networks are being widely used to determine CWSI. In the present study, the performance of two artificial neural networks, namely, Self-Organizing Maps (SOM) and Feed Forward-Back Propagation Artificial Neural Networks (FF-BP-ANN), are compared while determining the CWSI of rice crop. Irrigation field experiments with varying degrees of irrigation were conducted at the irrigation field laboratory of the Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee, during the growing season of the rice crop. The CWSI of rice was computed empirically by measuring key meteorological variables (relative humidity, air temperature, wind speed, and canopy temperature) and crop parameters (crop height and root depth). The empirically computed CWSI was compared with SOM and FF-BP-ANN predicted CWSI. The upper and lower CWSI baselines are computed using multiple regression analysis. The regression analysis showed that the lower CWSI baseline for rice is a function of crop height (h), air vapor pressure deficit (AVPD), and wind speed (u), whereas the upper CWSI baseline is a function of crop height (h) and wind speed (u). The performance of SOM and FF-BP-ANN were compared by computing Nash-Sutcliffe efficiency (NSE), index of agreement (d), root mean squared error (RMSE), and coefficient of correlation (R²). It is found that FF-BP-ANN performs better than SOM while predicting the CWSI of rice crops.

Keywords: artificial neural networks; crop water stress index; canopy temperature, prediction capability

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Authors: Jorge Anibal Restrepo Morales, Sonia Martín Gómez

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A model based on a logical framework was developed to quantify SMEs' internationalization capacity. To do so, linguistic variables, such as human talent, infrastructure, innovation strategies, FTAs, marketing strategies, finance, etc. were integrated. It is argued that a company’s management of international markets depends on internal factors, especially capabilities and resources available. This study considers internal factors as the biggest business challenge because they force companies to develop an adequate set of capabilities. At this stage, importance and strategic relevance have to be defined in order to build competitive advantages. A fuzzy inference system is proposed to model the resources, skills, and capabilities that determine the success of internationalization. Data: 157 linguistic variables were used. These variables were defined by international trade entrepreneurs, experts, consultants, and researchers. Using expert judgment, the variables were condensed into18 factors that explain SMEs’ export capacity. The proposed model is applied by means of a case study of the textile and clothing cluster in Medellin, Colombia. In the model implementation, a general index of 28.2 was obtained for internationalization capabilities. The result confirms that the sector’s current capabilities and resources are not sufficient for a successful integration into the international market. The model specifies the factors and variables, which need to be worked on in order to improve export capability. In the case of textile companies, the lack of a continuous recording of information stands out. Likewise, there are very few studies directed towards developing long-term plans, and., there is little consistency in exports criteria. This method emerges as an innovative management tool linked to internal organizational spheres and their different abilities.

Keywords: business strategy, exports, internationalization, fuzzy set methods

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Authors: Reza Miresmaeili, Asghar Heydari Astaraee, Fereshteh Dolati

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In the present study, an analytical model based on dislocation density model was developed to simulate grain refinement in surface mechanical attrition treatment (SMAT). The correlation between SMAT time and development in plastic strain on one hand, and dislocation density evolution, on the other hand, was established to simulate the grain refinement in SMAT. A dislocation density-based constitutive material law was implemented using VUHARD subroutine. A random sequence of shots is taken into consideration for multiple impacts model using Python programming language by utilizing a random function. The simulation technique was to model each impact in a separate run and then transferring the results of each run as initial conditions for the next run (impact). The developed Finite Element (FE) model of multiple impacts describes the coverage evolution in SMAT. Simulations were run to coverage levels as high as 4500%. It is shown that the coverage implemented in the FE model is equal to the experimental coverage. It is depicted that numerical SMAT coverage parameter is adequately conforming to the well-known Avrami model. Comparison between numerical results and experimental measurements for residual stresses and depth of deformation layers confirms the performance of the established FE model for surface engineering evaluations in SMA treatment. X-ray diffraction (XRD) studies of grain refinement, including resultant grain size and dislocation density, were conducted to validate the established model. The full width at half-maximum in XRD profiles can be used to measure the grain size. Numerical results and experimental measurements of grain refinement illustrate good agreement and show the capability of established FE model to predict the gradient microstructure in SMA treatment.

Keywords: dislocation density, grain refinement, severe plastic deformation, simulation, surface mechanical attrition treatment

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Authors: Jagannath P. Tegar

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The new National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 of Govt. of India has envisaged a major overhaul of the education system of India, in particular, the revamping of the Curriculum of Higher Education. In this process, the faculty members of the Indian universities and institutions have a challenging role in developing the curriculum, which is a shift from the traditional (content-based) curriculum to a student-centric- outcome-based Curriculum (SC-OBC) to be implemented in all of the Universities and institutions. The efforts and initiatives on the design and implementation of SC-OBC are remarkable in the engineering and technical education landscape of the country, but it is still in its early stages and many more steps are needed for the successful adaptation in every level of Higher Education. The premier institute of Govt. of India (NITTTR, Bhopal) has trained and developed the capacity and capability among the teachers of Polytechnics on the design and development of Student Centric - Outcome Based Curriculum and also providing academic consultancy for reforming curriculum in line of NEP- 2020 envisions for the states such as Chhattisgarh, Bihar and Maharashtra to make them responsibly ready for such a new shift in Higher Education. This research-based paper is on three main aspects: 1) the level of acceptance and preparedness of teachers /faculty towards NEP-2020 and student-centred outcome-based learning. 2) the extent of implementing NEP-2020 and student-centered outcome-based learning at Indian institutions/ universities and 3) the challenges of implementing NEP-2020 and student-centered outcome-based learning outcome-based education in the Indian context. The paper content will inspire curriculum designers and developers to prepare SC-OBC that meets the specific needs of industry and society at large, which is intended in the NEP-2020 of Govt. of India

Keywords: outcome based curriculum, student centric learning, national education policy -2020, implementation of nep-2020. outcome based learning, higher education curriculum

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Authors: Poorva Kulkarni

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Developing countries are having significant additions to existing population of urban areas with loads of migrants from rural areas. There is a tremendous need to provide accommodation facility to cater to rapidly growing urban population. This leads to unprecedented growth in urban areas since the temporary shelters are constructed with any available material. Architecture in a broader sense serves to humanity in terms of making life of people happy and comfortable by providing comfortable shelters. It is also the need of the time for an architect to be extremely sensitive towards nature by providing design solution of human shelters with minimum impact on the environment. The sensitive approach towards designing of housing units and provision of comfortable and affordable housing units should go hand in hand for future growth of developing countries. Steel has proved itself a versatile material in terms of strength, uniformity and ease of operation and many such other advantages. Steel can be used as the most promising material for modern construction practices. The current research paper focuses on how effectively steel can be used probably in combination with other construction material to achieve the mentioned objectives for sustainable housing. The research available on sustainable housing in steel is studied along with few case studies of buildings with the efficient use of steel providing a solution with affordability and minimum harm to the environment. The research will conclude the effective solutions exploring possibilities of use of steel for sustainable housing units. The researcher shows how the use of steel in combination with other materials for human shelters can promote sustainable housing for community living which is the need of the time.

Keywords: community living, steel, sustainable housing, urban area

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Authors: Bikis Muhammed, Sehra Sedigh Sarvestani, Ali R. Hurson, Lasanthi Gamage

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Vehicular traffic events have overly complex spatial correlations and temporal interdependencies and are also influenced by environmental events such as weather conditions. To capture these spatial and temporal interdependencies and make more realistic vehicular traffic predictions, graph neural networks (GNN) based traffic prediction models have been extensively utilized due to their capability of capturing non-Euclidean spatial correlation very effectively. However, most of the already existing GNN-based traffic prediction models have some limitations during learning complex and dynamic spatial and temporal patterns due to the following missing factors. First, most GNN-based traffic prediction models have used static distance or sometimes haversine distance mechanisms between spatially separated traffic observations to estimate spatial correlation. Secondly, most GNN-based traffic prediction models have not incorporated environmental events that have a major impact on the normal traffic states. Finally, most of the GNN-based models did not use an attention mechanism to focus on only important traffic observations. The objective of this paper is to study and make real-time vehicular traffic predictions while incorporating the effect of weather conditions. To fill the previously mentioned gaps, our prediction model uses a real-time driving distance between sensors to build a distance matrix or spatial adjacency matrix and capture spatial correlation. In addition, our prediction model considers the effect of six types of weather conditions and has an attention mechanism in both spatial and temporal data aggregation. Our prediction model efficiently captures the spatial and temporal correlation between traffic events, and it relies on the graph attention network (GAT) and Bidirectional bidirectional long short-term memory (Bi-LSTM) plus attention layers and is called GAT-BILSTMA.

Keywords: deep learning, real time prediction, GAT, Bi-LSTM, attention

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Authors: Benhammadi Hocine, Djamel Boubaya, Chaffai Hicham

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Meskiana Area is characterized by a semi-arid climate where the water supply for irrigation and industry is not sufficient as the priority goes for domestic use. To meet the increasing population growth and development, the authorities have considered building a new water retaining structure on some major temporary water streams. For this purpose Chebabta site on Oued Meskiana was chosen as the future dam site. It is large enough to store the desired volume of water. This study comes to investigate the conditions of the site and the adequacy of the ground as a foundation for the projected dam. The conditions of the site include the geological structure and mainly the presence of discontinuities in the formation on which the dam will be built, the nature of the lithologies under the foundation and the future lake, and the presence of any hazard. This site characterization is usually carried out using different methods in order to highlight any underground buried problematic structure. In this context, the different geophysical technics remain the most used ones. Three geophysical methods were used in the case of the Chebabta dam site, namely, electric survey, seismic refraction, and tomography. The choice of the technics and the location of the scan line was made on the basis of the available geological data. In this sense, profiles have been established on both banks of Oued Meskiana. The obtained results have allowed a better characterization of the geological structure, defining the limit between the surface cover and the bedrock, which is, in other words, the limit between the weathered zone and the bedrock. Their respective thicknesses were also determined by seismic refraction and electrical resistivity sounding. However, the tomography imaging technic has succeeded in positioning a fault structure passing through the right bank of the wadi.

Keywords: dam site, fault, geophysic, investigation, Meskiana

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Authors: Laith K. Abbas, Xiaoting Rui, Pier Marzocca

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Aerospace systems, generally speaking, are inherently nonlinear. These nonlinearities may modify the behavior of the system. However, nonlinearities in an aeroelastic system can be divided into structural and aerodynamic. Structural nonlinearities can be subdivided into distributed and concentrated ones. Distributed nonlinearities are spread over the whole structure representing the characteristic of materials and large motions. Concentrated nonlinearities act locally, representing loose of attachments, worn hinges of control surfaces, and the presence of external stores. The concentrated nonlinearities can be approximated by one of the classical structural nonlinearities, namely, cubic, free-play and hysteresis, or by a combination of these, for example, a free-play and a cubic one. Compressibility, aerodynamic heating, separated flows and turbulence effects are important aspects that result in nonlinear aerodynamic behavior. An issue related to the low-speed flutter and its catastrophic/benign character represented by Limit Cycle Oscillation (LCO) of all-movable fin, as well to their control is addressed in the present work. To the approach of this issue: (1) Quasi-Steady (QS) Theory and Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) of subsonic flow are implemented, (2) Flutter motion equations of a two-dimensional typical section with cubic nonlinear stiffness in the pitching direction and free play gap are established, (3) Uncoupled bending/torsion frequencies of the selected fin are computed using recently developed Transfer Matrix Method of Multibody System Dynamics (MSTMM), and (4) Time simulations are carried out to study the bifurcation behavior of the aeroelastic system. The main objective of this study is to investigate how the LCO and chaotic behavior are influenced by the coupled aeroelastic nonlinearities and intend to implement a control capability enabling one to control both the flutter boundary and its character. By this way, it may expand the operational envelop of the aerospace vehicle without failure.

Keywords: aeroelasticity, CFD, MSTMM, flutter, freeplay, fin

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Authors: V. Santamarina Campos, M. de Miguel Molina, B. de Miguel Molina, M. Á. Carabal Montagud

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With this contribution, we want to show a successful example of the application of the Design Thinking methodology, in the European project 'Technology transfer of Remotely Piloted Aircraft Systems (RPAS) for the creative industry'. The use of this methodology has allowed us to design and build a drone, based on the real needs of prospective users. It has demonstrated that this is a powerful tool for generating innovative ideas in the field of robotics, by focusing its effectiveness on understanding and solving real user needs. In this way, with the support of an interdisciplinary team, comprised of creatives, engineers and economists, together with the collaboration of prospective users from three European countries, a non-linear work dynamic has been created. This teamwork has generated a sense of appreciation towards the creative industries, through continuously adaptive, inventive, and playful collaboration and communication, which has facilitated the development of prototypes. These have been designed to enable filming and photography in interior spaces, within 13 sectors of European creative industries: Advertising, Architecture, Fashion, Film, Antiques and Museums, Music, Photography, Televison, Performing Arts, Publishing, Arts and Crafts, Design and Software. Furthermore, it has married the real needs of the creative industries, with what is technologically and commercially viable. As a result, a product of great value has been obtained, which offers new business opportunities for small companies across this sector.

Keywords: design thinking, design for effectiveness, methodology, active toolkit, storyboards, PAR, focus group, innovation, RPAS, indoor drone, aerial film, creative industry, end users, stakeholder

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Authors: Anna Sanczyk

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Teacher agency plays a crucial role in effective teaching, supporting diverse students, and providing an enriching learning environment; therefore, it is significant to gain a deeper understanding of language teachers’ sense of agency in teaching linguistically and culturally diverse students. This paper presents an overview of qualitative research on how language teachers exercise their agency in diverse classrooms. The analysis of the literature reveals that language teachers strive for addressing students’ needs and challenging educational inequalities, but experience educational constraints in enacting their agency. The examination of the research on language teacher agency identifies four major areas where language teachers experience challenges in enacting their agency: (1) implementing curriculum; (2) adopting school reforms and policies; (3) engaging in professional learning; (4) and negotiating various identities as professionals. The practical contribution of this literature review is that it provides a much-needed compilation of the studies on how language teachers exercise agency amid educational constraints. The discussion of the overview points to the importance of teacher identity, learner advocacy, and continuous professional learning and the critical need of promoting empowerment, activism, and transformation in language teacher education. The findings of the overview indicate that language teacher education programs should prepare teachers to be active advocates for English language learners and guide teachers to become more conscious of complexities of teaching in constrained educational settings so that they can become agentic professionals. This literature overview illustrates agency work in English language teaching contexts and contributes to understanding of the important link between experiencing educational constraints and development of teacher agency.

Keywords: advocacy, educational constraints, language teacher agency, language teacher education

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Authors: Akhtar Aman, Abida Raza, Shumaila Bashir, Javaid Irfan, Andreas G. Schätzlein, Ijeoma F Uchegbeu

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Development of efficient delivery system for hydrophobic drugs remains a major concern in chemotherapy. The objective of the current study was to develop polymeric drug-delivery system for etoposide from amphiphilic derivatives of glycol chitosan, capable to improve the pharmacokinetics and to reduce the adverse effects of etoposide due to various organic solvents used in commercial formulations for solubilisation of etoposide. As a promising carrier, amphiphilic derivatives of glycol chitosan were synthesized by chemical grafting of palmitic acid N-hydroxy succinimide and quaternisation to glycol chitosan backbone. To this end a 7.9 kDa glycol chitosan was modified by palmitoylation and quaternisation into 13 kDa. Nano sized micelles prepared from this amphiphilic polymer had the capability to encapsulate up to 3 mg/ml etoposide. The pharmacokinetic results indicated that GCPQ based etoposide formulation transformed the biodistribution pattern. AUC 0.5-24 hr showed statistically significant difference in ETP-GCPQ vs. commercial preparation in liver (25 vs 70, p<0.001), spleen (27 vs. 36, P<0.05), lungs (42 vs. 136, p<0.001), kidneys (25 vs. 30, p<0.05) and brain (19 vs. 9,p<0.001). Using the hydrophobic fluorescent dye Nile red, we showed that micelles efficiently delivered their payload to MCF7 and A2780 cancer cells in-vitro and to A431 xenograft tumor in-vivo, suggesting these systems could deliver hydrophobic anti- cancer drugs such as etoposide to tumors. The pharmacokinetic results indicated that the GCPQ micelles transformed the biodistribution pattern and increased etoposide concentration in the brain significantly compared to free drug after intravenous administration. GCPQ based formulations not only reduced side effects associated with current available formulations but also increased their transport through the biological barriers, thus making it a good delivery system.

Keywords: glycol chitosan, Nile red, micelles, etoposide, A431 xenografts

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Authors: Donna L. Roberts

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The theory of archetypes contends that themes based on universal foundational images reside in and are transmitted generationally through the collective unconscious, which is referenced throughout an individual’s experience in order to make sense of that experience. There is then, a profoundly visceral and instinctive agreement on the gestalt of these universal themes and how they apply to the human condition throughout space and time. The inherent nature of projective tests, such as the Rorschach Inkblot, necessitates that the stimulus is ambiguous and thus elicits responses that reflect the unconscious inner psyche of the respondent. As the development of the Rorschach inkblots was relatively random and serendipitous - i.e., the inkblots were not engineered to elicit a specifically defined response - it would stand to reason that without a collective unconscious, every individual would interpret the inkblots in an individualized and unique way. Yet this is not the case. Instead, common themes appear in the images of the inkblots and their interpretation that reflect this deeper iconic understanding. This study analyzed the ten Rorschach inkblots in terms of Jungian archetypes, both with respect to the form of images on each plate and the commonly observed themes in responses. Examples of the archetypes were compared to each of the inkblots, with subsequent descriptions matched to the standard responses. The findings yielded clear and distinct instances of the universal symbolism intrinsic in the inkblot images as well as ubiquitous throughout the responses. This project illustrates the influence of the theories of psychologist Carl Gustav Jung on the interpretation of the ambiguous stimuli. It further serves to demonstrate the merit of Jungian psychology as a valuable tool with which to understand the nature of projective tests in general, Rorschach’s work specifically, and ultimately the broader implications for our collective unconscious and common humanity.

Keywords: archetypes, inkblots, projective tests, Rorschach

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Authors: Sajid Khan, Xu Zhao-Dong

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The reinforced concrete members of old structures must be urgently restored and strengthened in order to prolong their service life. Opting for demolition or reconstruction is often impractical and time-consuming. Among the RC members responsible for bearing loads, compression members play a critical role in structural integrity. To increase the ability of existing structures to carry loads, engineers have been employing a variety of strengthening techniques. One promising method involves incorporating micro steel fibers into a cementitious composite. This approach yields high-strength cementitious composites that effectively reinforce existing structures. Specifically, the focus is on developing a self-compacting concrete composite reinforced with steel fibers, commonly known as SFRSCC. The key advantage of SFRSCC is its ability to minimize additional load imposed during application, thereby eliminating the need for time-consuming and cumbersome vibrators. This study's major objective is to examine how to produce a strong SFRSCC that is specifically designed for small-scale columns to increase such columns' load-carrying capability. Following the application of a strengthening layer of SFRSCC to these columns, their strength exhibited remarkable improvement compared to the reference concrete columns. Strength gains of 49%, 66%, 81%, and 89% were attained by the strengthening layers of 0.5” inches, 1” inches, 1.5” inches, and 2” inches respectively. The obtained results are highly encouraging, demonstrating the substantial enhancements in strength that can be achieved using SFRSCC. This SFRSCC concrete composite holds great potential for a wide range of strengthening and repair applications in various structures, presenting a cost-effective and efficient solution for enhancing structural performance and extending the service life of aging buildings.

Keywords: coulmn, earth quack, FRSCC, strengthening techniques

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Authors: Shahad Nagoor, Lucy Hederman, Kevin Koidl, Annalina Caputo

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Doctors’ notes reflect their impressions, attitudes, clinical sense, and opinions about patients’ conditions and progress, and other information that is essential for doctors’ daily clinical decisions. Despite their value, clinical notes are insufficiently researched within the language processing community. Automatically extracting information from unstructured text data is known to be a difficult task as opposed to dealing with structured information such as vital physiological signs, images, and laboratory results. The aim of this research is to investigate how Natural Language Processing (NLP) techniques and machine learning techniques applied to clinician notes can assist in doctors’ decision-making in Intensive Care Unit (ICU) for coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) patients. The hypothesis is that clinical outcomes like survival or mortality can be useful in influencing the judgement of clinical sentiment in ICU clinical notes. This paper introduces two contributions: first, we introduce COVID_ICU_BERT, a fine-tuned version of clinical transformer models that can reliably predict clinical sentiment for notes of COVID patients in the ICU. We train the model on clinical notes for COVID-19 patients, a type of notes that were not previously seen by clinicalBERT, and Bio_Discharge_Summary_BERT. The model, which was based on clinicalBERT achieves higher predictive accuracy (Acc 93.33%, AUC 0.98, and precision 0.96 ). Second, we perform data augmentation using clinical contextual word embedding that is based on a pre-trained clinical model to balance the samples in each class in the data (survived vs. deceased patients). Data augmentation improves the accuracy of prediction slightly (Acc 96.67%, AUC 0.98, and precision 0.92 ).

Keywords: BERT fine-tuning, clinical sentiment, COVID-19, data augmentation

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Authors: Yan Li, Qi-Fan Jia, Jie Zhou

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In today’s China, primary and secondary teachers are living a hard life with high pressure but low payment, which results in a sense of unfair and less satisfaction of life. However, teachers’ life satisfaction is a significant factor of their mental health and plays an important role in the development and progress of the society. This study was aimed to explore the effect of teachers’ perception of social justice on life satisfaction. 450 primary and secondary teachers from China were measured with life satisfaction scales, social justice scales, income satisfaction scale, job satisfaction scale, pressure condition scale, and major life event scale. Results showed their pressure is significantly higher than average, while life satisfaction, job satisfaction, income satisfaction and perceived social justice are lower. Hierarchical regression analysis showed that demographic variables, i.e., gender, age, education level and matric status, and factors related to occupation, i.e., professional title, school type and working hours per day cannot predict teachers’ life satisfaction. Teachers who had worked for 11-20 years had a lower life satisfaction compared to those with 1-5 years working experience. However, social status, monthly household income, income satisfaction, as well as job satisfaction were positively related to life satisfaction, whereas pressure condition was negatively related to it. After controlling for demographic factors and individual attitudes, social justice still had a positive effect on life satisfaction, among which distributive justice played a more important role than procedural justice. The suggestions on teachers’ condition in China and the implications for education reform to improve teachers’ mental health are discussed.

Keywords: life satisfaction, mental health, primary and secondary teachers, social justice

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Authors: Lixin Tian, Wei Xue

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Many jobs in society go underground, such as mine mining, tunnel construction and subways, which are vital to the development of society. Once accidents occur in these places, the interruption of traditional wired communication is not conducive to the development of rescue work. In order to realize the positioning, early warning and command functions of underground personnel and improve rescue efficiency, it is necessary to develop and design an emergency ground communication system. It is easy to be subjected to narrowband interference when performing conventional underground communication. Spreading communication can be used for this problem. However, general spread spectrum methods such as direct spread communication are inefficient, so it is proposed to use parallel combined spread spectrum (PCSS) communication to improve efficiency. The PCSS communication not only has the anti-interference ability and the good concealment of the traditional spread spectrum system, but also has a relatively high frequency band utilization rate and a strong information transmission capability. So, this technology has been widely used in practice. This paper presents a PCSS communication model-multiple detection parallel combined spread spectrum (MDPCSS) communication system. In this paper, the principle of MDPCSS communication system is described, that is, the sequence at the transmitting end is processed in blocks and cyclically shifted to facilitate multiple detection at the receiving end. The block diagrams of the transmitter and receiver of the MDPCSS communication system are introduced. At the same time, the calculation formula of the system bit error rate (BER) is introduced, and the simulation and analysis of the BER of the system are completed. By comparing with the common parallel PCSS communication, we can draw a conclusion that it is indeed possible to reduce the BER and improve the system performance. Furthermore, the influence of different pseudo-code lengths selected on the system BER is simulated and analyzed, and the conclusion is that the larger the pseudo-code length is, the smaller the system error rate is.

Keywords: cyclic shift, multiple detection, parallel combined spread spectrum, PN code

Procedia PDF Downloads 140