Search results for: space detection to first responders

Authors: Ioanna Skoufali

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The present study is directed towards adaptation to climate change closely related to the phenomenon of the urban heat island (UHI). This issue is widespread and common to different urban realities, but particularly in Mediterranean cities that are characterized by dense urban. The attention of this work of redevelopment of the open space is focused on mitigation techniques aiming to solve local problems such as microclimatic parameters and the conditions of thermal comfort in summer, related to urban morphology. This quantitative analysis, evaluation, and verification survey involves the methodological elaboration applied in a real study case by Serres, through the experimental support of the ENVImet Pro V4.1 and BioMet software developed: i) in two phases concerning the anteoperam (phase a1 # 2013) and the post-operam (phase a2 # 2016); ii) in scenario A (+ 25% of green # 2017). The first study tends to identify the main intervention strategies, namely: the application of cool pavements, the increase of green surfaces, the creation of water surface and external fans; moreover, it obtains the minimum results achieved by the National Program 'Bioclimatic improvement project for public open space', EPPERAA (ESPA 2007-2013) related to the four environmental parameters illustrated below: the TAir = 1.5 o C, the TSurface = 6.5 o C, CDH = 30% and PET = 20%. In addition, the second study proposes a greater potential for improvement than postoperam intervention by increasing the vegetation within the district towards the SW/SE. The final objective of this in-depth design is to be transferable in homogeneous cases of urban regeneration processes with obvious effects on the efficiency of microclimatic mitigation and thermal comfort.

Keywords: cool pavements, microclimate parameters (TAir, Tsurface, Tmrt, CDH), mitigation strategies, outdoor thermal comfort (PET & UTCI)

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Authors: Khalida S. Rijab, Mohammed E. Safi, Ayad A. Ibrahim

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When electrical electrodes are mounted on the skin surface of the muscle, a signal is detected when a skeletal muscle undergoes contraction; the signal is known as surface electromyographic signal (EMG). This signal has a noise-like interference pattern resulting from the temporal and spatial summation of action potentials (AP) of all active motor units (MU) near electrode detection. By appropriate processing (Decomposition), the surface EMG signal may be used to give an estimate of motor unit action potential. In this work, a denoising technique is applied to the MUAP signals extracted from the spatial filter (IB2). A set of signals from a non-invasive two-dimensional grid of 16 electrodes from different types of subjects, muscles, and sex are recorded. These signals will acquire noise during recording and detection. A digital fourth order band- pass Butterworth filter is used for denoising, with a tuned band-pass frequency of suitable choice of cutoff frequencies is investigated, with the aim of obtaining a suitable band pass frequency. Results show an improvement of (1-3 dB) in the signal to noise ratio (SNR) have been achieved, relative to the raw spatial filter output signals for all cases that were under investigation. Furthermore, the research’s goal included also estimation and reconstruction of the mean shape of the MUAP.

Keywords: EMG, Motor Unit, Digital Filter, Denoising

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Authors: García López

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The Government Departments of Health have the task of informing and educating citizens about public health issues. For this, they use channels like Twitter, key in the search for health information and the propagation of content. The tweets, important in the virality of the content, may contain emotions that influence the contagion and exchange of knowledge. The goal of this study is to perform an analysis of the emotional projection of health information shared on Twitter by official American accounts: the disease control account CDCgov, National Institutes of Health, NIH, the government agency HHSGov, and the professional organization PublicHealth. For this, we used Tone Analyzer, an International Business Machines Corporation (IBM) tool specialized in emotion detection in text, corresponding to the categorical model of emotion representation. For 15 days, all tweets from these accounts were analyzed with the emotional analysis tool in text. The results showed that their tweets contain an important emotional load, a determining factor in the success of their communications. This exposes that official accounts also use subjective language and contain emotions. The predominance of emotion joy over sadness and the strong presence of emotions in their tweets stimulate the virality of content, a key in the work of informing that government health departments have.

Keywords: emotions in tweets, emotion detection in the text, health information on Twitter, American health official accounts, emotions on Twitter, emotions and content

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Authors: Rosina U. Ndukwe, Diane Crone, Nick Cavill

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Active transport (i.e. walking to school, cycle to work schemes etc.) is an effective approach with multiple social and environmental benefits for transforming urban environments into active urban environments. Although walking and cycling often remain on the margins of urban planning and infrastructure, there are new approaches emerging, along with policy intervention relevant for the creation of sustainable urban active environments conductive to active travel, increasing physical activity levels of involved communities and supporting social inclusion through more active participation. SPAcE - Supporting Policy and Action for Active Environments is a 3 year Erasmus+ project that aims to integrate active transport programmes into public policy across the EU. SPAcE focuses on cities/towns with recorded low physical activity levels to support the development of active environments in 5 sites: Latvia [Tukums], Italy [Palermo], Romania [Brasov], Spain [Castilla-La Mancha] and Greece [Trikala]. The first part of the project involved a review of good practice including case studies from across the EU and project partner countries. This has resulted in the first output from the project, an evidence of good practice summary with case study examples. In the second part of the project, working groups across the 5 sites have carried out co-production to develop Urban Active Environments (UActivE) Action Plans aimed at influencing policy and practice for increasing physical activity primarily through the use of cycling and walking. Action plans are based on international evidence and guidance for healthy urban planning. Remaining project partners include Universities (Gloucestershire, Oxford, Zurich, Thessaly) and Fit for Life programme (National physical activity promotion program, Finland) who provide support and advice incorporating current evidence, healthy urban planning and mentoring. Cooperation and co-production with public health professionals, local government officers, education authorities and transport agencies has been a key approach of the project. The third stage of the project has involved training partners in the WHO HEAT tool to support the implementation of the Action Plans. Project results show how multi-agency, transnational collaboration can produce real-life Action Plans in five EU countries, based on published evidence, real-life experience, consultation and collaborative working with other organisations across the EU. Learning from the processes adopted within this project will demonstrate how public health, local government and transport agencies across the EU, can work together to create healthy environments that have the aim of facilitating active behaviour, even in times of constrained public budgets. The SPAcE project has captured both the challenges and solutions for increasing population physical activity levels, health and wellness in urban spaces and translating evidence into policy and practice ensuring innovation at policy level. Funding acknowledgment: SPAcE (www.activeenvironments.eu) is co-funded by the Sport action of the ERASMUS+ programme.

Keywords: action plans, active transport, SPAcE, UActivE urban active environments, walking and cycling

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Authors: Mustafa Kavraz

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This study investigated the differences in the objective parameters of sound depending on the changes in the lengths of the lateral surfaces of a space and on the replacement of the sound absorbers that are placed on these surfaces. To this end, three models of room were chosen. The widths and heights of these rooms were the same but the lengths of the rooms were changed. The smallest room was 8 m. wide and 10 m. long. The lengths of the other two rooms were 15 m. and 20 m. For each model, the differences in the objective parameters of sound were determined by keeping all the material in the space intact and by changing only the positions of the sound absorbers that were placed on the walls. The sound absorbers that were used on the walls were of two different sizes. The sound absorbers that were placed on the walls were 4 m and 8 m. long and story-height (3 m.). In all model room types, the sound absorbers were placed on the long walls in three different ways: at the end of the long walls where the long walls meet the front wall; at the end of the long walls where the long walls meet the back wall; and in the middle part of the long walls. Except for the specially placed sound absorbers, the ground, wall and ceiling surfaces were covered with three different materials. There were no constructional elements such as doors and windows on the walls. On the surfaces, the materials specified in the Odeon 10 material library were used as coating material. Linoleum was used as flooring material, painted plaster as wall coating material and gypsum boards as ceiling covering (2 layers with a total of 32 mm. thickness). These were preferred due to the fact that they are the commonly used materials for these purposes. This study investigated the differences in the objective parameters of sound depending on the changes in the lengths of the lateral surfaces of a space and on the replacement of the sound absorbers that are placed on these surfaces. To this end, three models of room were chosen. The widths and heights of these rooms were the same but the lengths of the rooms were changed. The smallest room was 8 m. wide and 10 m. long. The lengths of the other two rooms were 15 m. and 20 m. For each model, the differences in the objective parameters of sound were determined by keeping all the material in the space intact and by changing only the positions of the sound absorbers that were placed on the walls. The sound absorbers that were used on the walls were of two different sizes. The sound absorbers that were placed on the walls were 4 m and 8 m. long and story-height (3 m.). In all model room types, the sound absorbers were placed on the long walls in three different ways: at the end of the long walls where the long walls meet the front wall; at the end of the long walls where the long walls meet the back wall; and in the middle part of the long walls. Except for the specially placed sound absorbers, the ground, wall and ceiling surfaces were covered with three different materials. There were no constructional elements such as doors and windows on the walls. On the surfaces, the materials specified in the Odeon 10 material library were used as coating material. Linoleum was used as flooring material, painted plaster as wall coating material and gypsum boards as ceiling covering (2 layers with a total of 32 mm. thickness). These were preferred due to the fact that they are the commonly used materials for these purposes.

Keywords: sound absorber, room model, objective parameters of sound, jnd

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Authors: Muhammad Khairi bin Sulaiman

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The utilization of Building Information Modelling (BIM) in the construction industry has provided an opportunity for designers in the Architecture, Engineering and Construction (AEC) industry to proceed from the conventional method of using manual drafting to a way that creates alternative designs quickly, produces more accurate, reliable and consistent outputs. By using BIM Software, designers can create digital content that manipulates the use of data using the parametric model of BIM. With BIM software, more alternative designs can be created quickly and design problems can be explored further to produce a better design faster than conventional design methods. Generally, BIM is used as a documentation mechanism and has not been fully explored and utilised its capabilities as a design tool. Relative to the current issue, Modular Coordination (MC) design as a sustainable design practice is encouraged since MC design will reduce material wastage through standard dimensioning, pre-fabrication, repetitive, modular construction and components. However, MC design involves a complex process of rules and dimensions. Therefore, a tool is needed to make this process easier. Since the parameters in BIM can easily be manipulated to follow MC rules and dimensioning, thus, the integration of BIM software with MC design is proposed for architects during the design stage. With this tool, there will be an improvement in acceptance and practice in the application of MC design effectively. Consequently, this study will analyse and explore the function and customization of BIM objects and the capability of BIM software to expedite the application of MC design during the design stage for architects. With this application, architects will be able to create building models and locate objects within reference modular grids that adhere to MC rules and dimensions. The parametric modeling capabilities of BIM will also act as a visual tool that will further enhance the automation of the 3-Dimensional space planning modeling process. (Method) The study will first analyze and explore the parametric modeling capabilities of rule-based BIM objects, which eventually customize a reference grid within the rules and dimensioning of MC. Eventually, the approach will further enhance the architect's overall design process and enable architects to automate complex modeling, which was nearly impossible before. A prototype using a residential quarter will be modeled. A set of reference grids guided by specific MC rules and dimensions will be used to develop a variety of space planning and configuration. With the use of the design, the tool will expedite the design process and encourage the use of MC Design in the construction industry.

Keywords: building information modeling, modular coordination, space planning, customization, BIM application, MC space planning

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Authors: Coline Bretz, Andrea Vaccaro, Dario Leumann

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The food, personal care, and cosmetic industries are seeing increased consumer demand for more sustainable and innovative ingredients. When developing new formulations incorporating such ingredients, stability is one of the first criteria that must be assessed, and it is thus of great importance to have a method that can detect instabilities early and quickly. Diffusing Wave Spectroscopy (DWS) is a light scattering technique that probes the motion,i.e., the mean square displacement (MSD), of colloids, such as nanoparticles in a suspension or droplets in emulsions. From the MSD, the rheological properties of the surrounding medium can be determined via the so-called microrheology approach. In the case of purely viscous media, it is also possible to obtain information about particle size. DWS can thus be used to monitor the size evolution of particles, droplets, or bubbles in aging dispersions, emulsions, or foams. In the context of early instability detection in emulsions, DWS offers considerable advantages, as the samples are measured in a contact-free manner, using only small quantities of samples loaded in a sealable cuvette. The sensitivity and rapidity of the technique are key to detecting and following the ageing of emulsions reliably. We present applications of DWS focused on the characterization of emulsions. In particular, we demonstrate the ability to record very subtle changes in the structural properties early on. We also discuss the various mechanisms at play in the destabilization of emulsions, such as coalescence or Ostwald ripening, and how to identify them through this technique.

Keywords: instrumentation, emulsions, stability, DWS

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Authors: Clara Tramuta, Lucia Decastelli, Elisa Barcucci, Sandra Fragassi, Samantha Lupi, Enrico Arletti, Melissa Bizzarri, Daniela Manila Bianchi

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Introdution: Food allergies occurs, in the Western World, 2% of adults and up to 8% of children. The protection of allergic consumers is guaranted, in Eurrope, by Regulation (EU) No 1169/2011 of the European Parliament which governs the consumer's right to information and identifies 14 food allergens to be mandatory indicated on the label. Among these, mustard is a popular spice added to enhance the flavour and taste of foods. It is frequently present as an ingredient in spice blends, marinades, salad dressings, sausages, and other products. Hypersensitivity to mustard is a public health problem since the ingestion of even low amounts can trigger severe allergic reactions. In order to protect the allergic consumer, high performance methods are required for the detection of allergenic ingredients. Food safety laboratories rely on validated methods that detect hidden allergens in food to ensure the safety and health of allergic consumers. Here we present the test results for the validation and accreditation of a Real time PCR assay (RT-PCR: SPECIALfinder MC Mustard, Generon), for the detection of mustard traces in food. Materials and Methods. The method was tested on five classes of food matrices: bakery and pastry products (chocolate cookies), meats (ragù), ready-to-eat (mixed salad), dairy products (yogurt), grains, and milling products (rice and barley flour). Blank samples were spiked starting with the mustard samples (Sinapis Alba), lyophilized and stored at -18 °C, at a concentration of 1000 ppm. Serial dilutions were then prepared to a final concentration of 0.5 ppm, using the DNA extracted by ION Force FAST (Generon) from the blank samples. The Real Time PCR reaction was performed by RT-PCR SPECIALfinder MC Mustard (Generon), using CFX96 System (BioRad). Results. Real Time PCR showed a limit of detection (LOD) of 0.5 ppm in grains and milling products, ready-to-eat, meats, bakery, pastry products, and dairy products (range Ct 25-34). To determine the exclusivity parameter of the method, the ragù matrix was contaminated with Prunus dulcis (almonds), peanut (Arachis hypogaea), Glycine max (soy), Apium graveolens (celery), Allium cepa (onion), Pisum sativum (peas), Daucus carota (carrots), and Theobroma cacao (cocoa) and no cross-reactions were observed. Discussion. In terms of sensitivity, the Real Time PCR confirmed, even in complex matrix, a LOD of 0.5 ppm in five classes of food matrices tested; these values are compatible with the current regulatory situation that does not consider, at international level, to establish a quantitative criterion for the allergen considered in this study. The Real Time PCR SPECIALfinder kit for the detection of mustard proved to be easy to use and particularly appreciated for the rapid response times considering that the amplification and detection phase has a duration of less than 50 minutes. Method accuracy was rated satisfactory for sensitivity (100%) and specificity (100%) and was fully validated and accreditated. It was found adequate for the needs of the laboratory as it met the purpose for which it was applied. This study was funded in part within a project of the Italian Ministry of Health (IZS PLV 02/19 RC).

Keywords: allergens, food, mustard, real time PCR

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Authors: Mouslem Damkhi

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This paper focuses on possible states of a football tournament final table according to the number of participating teams. Each team holds a position in the table with which it is possible to determine the highest and lowest points for that team. This paper proposes an optimized search space based on the minimum and maximum number of points which can be gained by each team to produce and enumerate the possible states for a football tournament final table. The proposed search space minimizes producing the invalid states which cannot occur during a football tournament. The generated states are filtered by a validity checking algorithm which seeks to reach a tournament graph based on a generated state. Thus, the algorithm provides a way to determine which team’s wins, draws and loses values guarantee a particular table position. The paper also presents and discusses the experimental results of the approach on the tournaments with up to eight teams. Comparing with a blind search algorithm, our proposed approach reduces generating the invalid states up to 99.99%, which results in a considerable optimization in term of the execution time.

Keywords: combinatorics, enumeration, graph, tournament

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Authors: Jennifer Nutton, Gayle Ployer, Ky Scott, Jenny Morgan

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Working in a circle within higher education creates a decolonial space of mutual respect, responsibility, and reciprocity that facilitates collaborative learning and deep connections among learners and instructors. This approach is beyond simply facilitating a group in a circle but opens the door to creating a sacred space connecting each member to the land, to the Indigenous peoples who have taken care of the lands since time immemorial, to one another, and to one’s own positionality. These deep connections not only center human knowledges and relationships but also acknowledges responsibilities to land. Working in a circle as a relational pedagogical praxis also disrupts institutional power dynamics by creating a space of collaborative learning and deep connections in the classroom. Inherent within circle work is to facilitate connections not just academically but emotionally, physically, culturally, and spiritually. Recent literature supports the use of online talking circles, finding that it can offer a more relational and experiential learning environment, which is often absent in the virtual world and has been made more evident and necessary since the pandemic. These deeper experiences of learning and connection, rooted in both knowledge and the land, can then be shared with openness and vulnerability with one another, facilitating growth and change. This process of beginning with the land is critical to ensure we have the grounding to obstruct the ongoing realities of colonialism. The authors, who identify as both Indigenous and non-Indigenous, as both educators and learners, reflect on their teaching and learning experiences in circle. They share a relational pedagogical praxis framework that has been successful in educating future social workers, environmental activists, and leaders in social and human services, health, legal and political fields.

Keywords: circle work, relational pedagogies, decolonization, distance education

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Authors: Sandeep Mehmi, Harsh Verma, A. L. Sangal

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Ever since the idea of using computing services as commodity that can be delivered like other utilities e.g. electric and telephone has been floated, the scientific fraternity has diverted their research towards a new area called utility computing. New paradigms like cluster computing and grid computing came into existence while edging closer to utility computing. With the advent of internet the demand of anytime, anywhere access of the resources that could be provisioned dynamically as a service, gave rise to the next generation computing paradigm known as cloud computing. Today, cloud computing has become one of the most aggressively growing computer paradigm, resulting in growing rate of applications in area of IT outsourcing. Besides catering the computational and storage demands, cloud computing has economically benefitted almost all the fields, education, research, entertainment, medical, banking, military operations, weather forecasting, business and finance to name a few. Smart grid is another discipline that direly needs to be benefitted from the cloud computing advantages. Smart grid system is a new technology that has revolutionized the power sector by automating the transmission and distribution system and integration of smart devices. Cloud based smart grid can fulfill the storage requirement of unstructured and uncorrelated data generated by smart sensors as well as computational needs for self-healing, load balancing and demand response features. But, security issues such as confidentiality, integrity, availability, accountability and privacy need to be resolved for the development of smart grid cloud. In recent years, a number of intrusion prevention techniques have been proposed in the cloud, but hackers/intruders still manage to bypass the security of the cloud. Therefore, precise intrusion detection systems need to be developed in order to secure the critical information infrastructure like smart grid cloud. Considering the success of artificial neural networks in building robust intrusion detection, this research proposes an artificial neural network based model for detecting attacks in smart grid cloud.

Keywords: artificial neural networks, cloud computing, intrusion detection systems, security issues, smart grid

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Authors: Abhilash Sahu, Amit Priyadarshi

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In this paper, we will discuss the existence of weak solutions of the Kirchhoff type boundary value problem on the Sierpinski gasket. Where S denotes the Sierpinski gasket in R² and S₀ is the intrinsic boundary of the Sierpinski gasket. M: R → R is a positive function and h: S × R → R is a suitable function which is a part of our main equation. ∆p denotes the p-Laplacian, where p > 1. First of all, we will define a weak solution for our problem and then we will show the existence of at least two solutions for the above problem under suitable conditions. There is no well-known concept of a generalized derivative of a function on a fractal domain. Recently, the notion of differential operators such as the Laplacian and the p-Laplacian on fractal domains has been defined. We recall the result first then we will address the above problem. In view of literature, Laplacian and p-Laplacian equations are studied extensively on regular domains (open connected domains) in contrast to fractal domains. In fractal domains, people have studied Laplacian equations more than p-Laplacian probably because in that case, the corresponding function space is reflexive and many minimax theorems which work for regular domains is applicable there which is not the case for the p-Laplacian. This motivates us to study equations involving p-Laplacian on the Sierpinski gasket. Problems on fractal domains lead to nonlinear models such as reaction-diffusion equations on fractals, problems on elastic fractal media and fluid flow through fractal regions etc. We have studied the above p-Laplacian equations on the Sierpinski gasket using fibering map technique on the Nehari manifold. Many authors have studied the Laplacian and p-Laplacian equations on regular domains using this Nehari manifold technique. In general Euler functional associated with such a problem is Frechet or Gateaux differentiable. So, a critical point becomes a solution to the problem. Also, the function space they consider is reflexive and hence we can extract a weakly convergent subsequence from a bounded sequence. But in our case neither the Euler functional is differentiable nor the function space is known to be reflexive. Overcoming these issues we are still able to prove the existence of at least two solutions of the given equation.

Keywords: Euler functional, p-Laplacian, p-energy, Sierpinski gasket, weak solution

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Authors: Md. Abdul Aziz

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Sulfide ion is water soluble, highly corrosive, toxic and harmful to the human beings. As a result, knowing the exact concentration of sulfide in water is very important. However, the existing detection and quantification methods have several shortcomings, such as high cost, low sensitivity, and massive instrumentation. Consequently, the development of novel sulfide sensor is relevant. Nevertheless, electrochemical methods gained enormous popularity due to a vast improvement in the technique and instrumentation, portability, low cost, rapid analysis and simplicity of design. Successful field application of electrochemical devices still requires vast improvement, which depends on the physical, chemical and electrochemical aspects of the working electrode. The working electrode made of bulk gold (Au) and platinum (Pt) are quite common, being very robust and endowed with good electrocatalytic properties. High cost, and electrode poisoning, however, have so far hindered their practical application in many industries. To overcome these obstacles, we developed a sulfide sensor based on an indium tin oxide nanoparticle (ITONP)-modified ITO electrode. To prepare ITONP-modified ITO, various methods were tested. Drop-drying of ITONPs (aq.) on aminopropyltrimethoxysilane-functionalized ITO (APTMS/ITO) was found to be the best method on the basis of voltammetric analysis of the sulfide ion. ITONP-modified APTMS/ITO (ITONP/APTMS/ITO) yielded much better electrocatalytic properties toward sulfide electro-οxidation than did bare or APTMS/ITO electrodes. The ITONPs and ITONP-modified ITO were also characterized using transmission electron microscopy and field emission scanning electron microscopy, respectively. Optimization of the type of inert electrolyte and pH yielded an ITONP/APTMS/ITO detector whose amperometrically and chronocoulοmetrically determined limits of detection for sulfide in aqueous solution were 3.0 µM and 0.90 µM, respectively. ITONP/APTMS/ITO electrodes which displayed reproducible performances were highly stable and were not susceptible to interference by common contaminants. Thus, the developed electrode can be considered as a promising tool for sensing sulfide.

Keywords: amperometry, chronocoulometry, electrocatalytic properties, ITO-nanoparticle-modified ITO, sulfide sensor

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Authors: Manal Anis, Bin Bakhti Sayeed

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With the encroachment of automobile upon our communities for decades and the concomitant urban sprawl resulting in a loss of public place, it was only a matter of time before people, realizing the role of streets in stimulating urban prosperity, would start reclaiming them to rebuild their communities. In order for this restoration of communities to take effect it is imperative that streets be freed from the dominance of motor vehicles. A holistic approach to pedestrian-friendly street environment can help build communities that embody the cities in which they are found. While the developed countries are finding more and more innovative ways to integrate walkable streets to foster communal living, the developing countries still have a long way to go. Since Dhaka is still struggling to balance the growing needs of accommodating automobiles for increased population with the loss of urban community life that comes with it, it is high time that alternate approaches are looked into. This study aims to understand streets as a living corridor through which one discovers and identifies with the city. The research area is chosen to be Manik Mia Avenue, overlooking the South Plaza of the National Parliament Building in Dhaka city. Being the site of supreme power, it is precisely this symbolic importance that the National Parliament Building has in the psyche of Bangladeshis, which has given Manik Mia Avenue a significant place in the country’s history. Above all, being an avenue it is essentially a neutral territory, universally accessible, inclusive and pluralist. The needs of the Avenue’s frequent users are analyzed with the help of a multi-method approach to survey consisting of an empirical study, a questionnaire survey and interview with relevant users. The research then tries to understand the concept of walkability by exploring the different ways in which the built environment influences walking. For this analysis, the six dimensions of Matthew Carmona are taken as a guideline for a holistic approach toward the different interacting facets of an urban public space. Based on the studies, a set of criteria is proposed to evaluate, plan and design streets that are more contextual in nature. The study concludes with how the existing street patterns of Dhaka city can be rethought and redesigned to cater to peoples’ need for a public place. The proposal is meant to be an inspiration for further studies in this respect in the context of Bangladesh.

Keywords: public space, six dimensions, street, urban, walkability

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Authors: Moftah BinHasan

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Induction motors (IM) are vital components in industrial processes whose failure may yield to an unexpected interruption at the industrial plant, with highly incurred consequences in costs, product quality, and safety. Among different detection approaches proposed in the literature, that based on stator current monitoring termed as Motor Current Signature Analysis (MCSA) is the most preferred. MCSA is advantageous due to its non-invasive properties. The popularity of motor current signature analysis comes from being that the current consists of motor harmonics, around the supply frequency, which show some properties related to different situations of healthy and faulty conditions. One of the techniques used with machine line current resorts to spectrum analysis. Besides discussing the fundamentals of MCSA and its applications in the condition monitoring arena, this paper shows a summary of the most frequent faults and their consequence signatures on the stator current spectrum of an induction motor. In addition, this article presents different case studies of induction motor fault diagnosis. These faults were seeded in the machine which was run for more than an hour for each test before the results were recorded for the faulty situations. These results are then compared with those for the healthy cases that were recorded earlier.

Keywords: induction motor, condition monitoring, fault diagnosis, MCSA, rotor, stator, bearing, eccentricity

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Authors: Zhiwen Pan, Jesus Pacheco, Salim Hariri, Yiqiang Chen, Bozhi Liu

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The Internet of Things (IoT) will lead to the development of advanced Smart Home services that are pervasive, cost-effective, and can be accessed by home occupants from anywhere and at any time. However, advanced smart home applications will introduce grand security challenges due to the increase in the attack surface. Current approaches do not handle cybersecurity from a holistic point of view; hence, a systematic cybersecurity mechanism needs to be adopted when designing smart home applications. In this paper, we present a generic intrusion detection methodology to detect and mitigate the anomaly behaviors happened in Smart Home Systems (SHS). By utilizing our Smart Home Context Data Structure, the heterogeneous information and services acquired from SHS are mapped in context attributes which can describe the context of smart home operation precisely and accurately. Runtime models for describing usage patterns of home assets are developed based on characterization functions. A threat-aware action management methodology, used to efficiently mitigate anomaly behaviors, is proposed at the end. Our preliminary experimental results show that our methodology can be used to detect and mitigate known and unknown threats, as well as to protect SHS premises and services.

Keywords: Internet of Things, network security, context awareness, intrusion detection

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Authors: Mohamad Alkhalidi, S. Neelamani, Noor Alanjari

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The main purpose of harbors and marinas is to create a calm and safe docking space for marine vessels. Standard rubble mound breakwaters, although widely used, occupy port space and require large amounts of stones or rocks. Kuwait does not have good quality stone, so they are imported at a very high cost. Therefore, there is a need for a new wave energy dissipating structure where stones and rocks are scarce. While permeable slotted vertical walls have been proved to be a suitable alternative to rubble mound breakwaters, the introduction of sloped slotted walls may be more efficient in dissipating wave energy. For example, two slotted barriers with 60degree inclination may be equivalent to three vertical slotted barriers from wave energy dissipation point of view. A detailed physical model study is carried out to determine the effects of slope angle, porosity, and a number of walls on wave energy dissipation for a wide range of random and regular waves. The results of this study can be used to improve and optimize energy dissipation and reduce construction cost.

Keywords: porosity, slope, wave reflection, wave transmission

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Authors: Seyed Armin Hashemi, Somayeh Rahimzadeh

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The urban green space and environment should be considered to be among the most fundamental elements of the sustainability of natural and human life in the new citizenship. The present research is intended to evaluate the impact of irrigation using urban wastewater of Cadmium (Cd) in the soil and leaves of the pine trees of Rasht in the forest territories of Rasht. For this purpose, following the exact specification of the geographical and topographical attributes of under treatment area, 100 sample trees were implemented randomly –systematically in each compound studied. Approaching the end of growth season, five trees were selected randomly in each of the plats and samples of leaves were collected from the parts near to the end of the crown and the part which was adjacent to the light. At the foot of each of the trees selected, a soil profile was dug and samples of soil were extracted from three depths of 0-20, centimeters. The measurements done in the laboratory showed that the density of nutritious elements of the samples of leaf and soil in the compound irrigated with wastewater .The results of the present research suggest that urban can be used as a source of irrigation whereas muck can be employed in forestation and irrigation with precise and particular supervision and control.

Keywords: irrigation, forestation, urban waste water, pine, wastewater

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Authors: Shakir H. Mohammed Al-Alwany, Saad Hasan M. Ali, Ibrahim Mohammed S. Shnawa

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The study was aimed to define the percentage of detection of high-oncogenic risk types of HPV and their genotyping in archival tissue specimens that ranged from apparently healthy tissue to invasive breast cancer by using one of the recent versions of In Situ Hybridization(ISH) 0.2. To find out rational significance of such genotypes as well as over expressed products of mutants P53 and RB genes on the severity of underlying breast cancers. The DNA of HPV was detected in 46.5 % of tissues from breast cancers while HPV DNA in the tissues from benign breast tumours was detected in 12.5%. No HPV positive–ISH reaction was detected in healthy breast tissues of the control group. HPV DNA of genotypes (16, 18, 31 and 33) was detected in malignant group in frequency of 25.6%, 27.1%, 30.2% and 12.4%, respectively. Over expression of p53 was detected by IHC in 51.2% breast cancer cases and in 50% benign breast tumour group, while none of control group showed P53- over expression. Retinoblastoma protein was detected by IHC test in 49.7% of malignant breast tumours, 54.2% of benign breast tumours but no signal was reported in the tissues of control group. The significance prevalence of expression of mutated p53 & Rb genes as well as detection of high-oncogenic HPV genotypes in patients with breast cancer supports the hypothesis of an etiologic role for the virus in breast cancer development.

Keywords: human papilloma virus, P53, RB, breast cancer

Procedia PDF Downloads 472

Authors: Mohamed Dakki, Genevieve Robin, Marie Suet, Abdeljebbar Qninba, Mohamed A. El Agbani, Asmâa Ouassou, Rhimou El Hamoumi, Hichem Azafzaf, Sami Rebah, Claudia Feltrup-Azafzaf, Nafouel Hamouda, Wed a.L. Ibrahim, Hosni H. Asran, Amr A. Elhady, Haitham Ibrahim, Khaled Etayeb, Essam Bouras, Almokhtar Saied, Ashrof Glidan, Bakar M. Habib, Mohamed S. Sayoud, Nadjiba Bendjedda, Laura Dami, Clemence Deschamps, Elie Gaget, Jean-Yves Mondain-Monval, Pierre Defos Du Rau

Abstract:

In biodiversity monitoring, large datasets are becoming more and more widely available and are increasingly used globally to estimate species trends and con- servation status. These large-scale datasets challenge existing statistical analysis methods, many of which are not adapted to their size, incompleteness and heterogeneity. The development of scalable methods to impute missing data in incomplete large-scale monitoring datasets is crucial to balance sampling in time or space and thus better inform conservation policies. We developed a new method based on penalized Poisson models to impute and analyse incomplete monitoring data in a large-scale framework. The method al- lows parameterization of (a) space and time factors, (b) the main effects of predic- tor covariates, as well as (c) space–time interactions. It also benefits from robust statistical and computational capability in large-scale settings. The method was tested extensively on both simulated and real-life waterbird data, with the findings revealing that it outperforms six existing methods in terms of missing data imputation errors. Applying the method to 16 waterbird species, we estimated their long-term trends for the first time at the entire North African scale, a region where monitoring data suffer from many gaps in space and time series. This new approach opens promising perspectives to increase the accuracy of species-abundance trend estimations. We made it freely available in the r package ‘lori’ (https://CRAN.R-project.org/package=lori) and recommend its use for large- scale count data, particularly in citizen science monitoring programmes.

Keywords: biodiversity monitoring, high-dimensional statistics, incomplete count data, missing data imputation, waterbird trends in North-Africa

Procedia PDF Downloads 143

Authors: Illyas Md Isa, Maryam Musfirah Che Sobry, Mohamad Syahrizal Ahmad, Nurashikin Abd Azis

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A single-walled carbon nanotube (SWCNT) that has been modified with magnesium layered hydroxide 3-(4-methoxyphenyl)propionic acid nanocomposite was proposed for the determination of uric acid and bisphenol A by square wave voltammetry. The results obtained denote that MLH-MPP nanocomposites enhance the sensitivity of the voltammetry detection responses. The best performance is shown by the modified carbon nanotube paste electrode (CNTPE) with the composition of single-walled carbon nanotube: magnesium layered hydroxide 3-(4-methoxyphenyl)propionic acid nanocomposite at 100:15 (% w/w). The linear range where the sensor works well is within the concentration 1.0 10-7 – 1.0 10-4 and 3.0 10-7 – 1.0 10-4 for uric acid and bisphenol A respectively with the limit of detection of 1.0 10-7 M for both organics. The interferences of uric acid and bisphenol A with other organic were studied and most of them did not interfere. The results shown for each experimental parameter on the proposed CNTPE showed that it has high sensitivity, good selectivity, repeatability and reproducibility. Therefore, the modified CNTPE can be used for the determination of uric acid and bisphenol A in real samples such as blood, plastic bottles and foods.

Keywords: bisphenol A, magnesium layered hydroxide 3-(4-methoxyphenyl)propionic acid nanocomposite, Nanocomposite, uric acid

Procedia PDF Downloads 206

Authors: Yanjie Zhu, André Jesus, Irwanda Laory

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Structural Health Monitoring (SHM), involving data acquisition, data interpretation and decision-making system aim to continuously monitor the structural performance of civil infrastructures under various in-service circumstances. The main value and purpose of SHM is identifying damages through data interpretation system. Research on SHM has been expanded in the last decades and a large volume of data is recorded every day owing to the dramatic development in sensor techniques and certain progress in signal processing techniques. However, efficient and reliable data interpretation for damage detection under environmental variations is still a big challenge. Structural damages might be masked because variations in measured data can be the result of environmental variations. This research reports a novel method based on single-channel Blind Signal Separation (BSS), which extracts environmental effects from measured data directly without any prior knowledge of the structure loading and environmental conditions. Despite the successful application in audio processing and bio-medical research fields, BSS has never been used to detect damage under varying environmental conditions. This proposed method optimizes and combines Ensemble Empirical Mode Decomposition (EEMD), Principal Component Analysis (PCA) and Independent Component Analysis (ICA) together to separate structural responses due to different loading conditions respectively from a single channel input signal. The ICA is applying on dimension-reduced output of EEMD. Numerical simulation of a truss bridge, inspired from New Joban Line Arakawa Railway Bridge, is used to validate this method. All results demonstrate that the single-channel BSS-based method can recover temperature effects from mixed structural response recorded by a single sensor with a convincing accuracy. This will be the foundation of further research on direct damage detection under varying environment.

Keywords: damage detection, ensemble empirical mode decomposition (EEMD), environmental variations, independent component analysis (ICA), principal component analysis (PCA), structural health monitoring (SHM)

Procedia PDF Downloads 300

Authors: Ilana Margalith, Adaya Meirowitz, Sigalit Cohavi

Abstract:

Violence against health professionals by patients and their families have recently become a disturbing phenomenon worldwide, exacting psychological as well as economic tolls. Health workplaces in Israel (e.g. hospitals and H.M.O clinics) provide workshops for their employees, supplying them with coping strategies. However, these workshops do not focus on nursing students, who are also subjected to this violence. Their learning environment is no longer as protective as it used to be. Furthermore, coping with violence was not part of the curriculum for Israeli nursing students. Thus, based on human aggression theories which depict the pivotal role of the professional's correct response in preventing the onset of an aggressive response or the escalation of violence, a workshop was developed for undergraduate nursing students at the Clalit Nursing Academy, Rabin Campus (Dina), Israel. The workshop aimed at reducing students' anxiety vis a vis the aggressive patient or family in addition to strengthening their ability to cope with such situations. The students practiced interpersonal skills, especially relevant to early detection of potential violence, as well as ‘a correct response’ reaction to the violence, thus developing the necessary steps to be implemented when encountering violence in the workplace. In order to assess the efficiency of the workshop, the participants filled out a questionnaire comprising knowledge and self-efficacy scales. Moreover, the replies of the 23 participants in this workshop were compared with those of 24 students who attended a standard course on interpersonal communication. Students' self-efficacy and knowledge were measured in both groups before and after the course. A statistically significant interaction was found between group (workshop/standard course) and time (before/after) as to the influence on students' self-efficacy (p=0.004) and knowledge (p=0.007). Nursing students, who participated in this ‘coping with workplace violence’ workshop, gained knowledge, confidence and a sense of self-efficacy with regard to workplace violence. Early detection of signs of imminent violence amongst patients or families and the prevention of its escalation, as well as the ability to manage the threatening situation when occurring, are acquired skills. Encouraging nursing students to learn and practice these skills may enhance their ability to cope with these unfortunate occurrences.

Keywords: early detection of violence, nursing students, patient aggression, self-efficacy, workplace violence

Procedia PDF Downloads 132

Authors: Ali Dehghan Manshadi, David H. StJohn, Matthew S. Dargusch, M. Qian

Abstract:

Biocompatible, highly porous titanium scaffolds were manufactured by metal injection moulding of spherical titanium powder (powder size: -45 µm) with potassium chloride (powder size: -250 µm) as a space holder. Property evaluation of scaffolds confirmed a high level of compatibility between their mechanical properties and those of human cortical bone. The optimum sintering temperature was found to be 1250°C producing scaffolds with more than 90% interconnected pores in the size range of 200-250 µm, yield stress of 220 MPa and Young’s modulus of 7.80 GPa, all of which are suitable for bone tissue engineering. Increasing the sintering temperature to 1300°C increased the Young’s modulus to 22.0 GPa while reducing the temperature to 1150°C reduced the yield stress to 120 MPa due to incomplete sintering. The residual potassium chloride was determined vs. sintering temperature. A comparison was also made between the porous titanium scaffolds fabricated in this study and the additively manufactured titanium lattices of similar porosity reported in the literature.

Keywords: titanium, metal injection moulding, mechanical properties, scaffolds

Procedia PDF Downloads 201

Authors: Surajit Chakrabarty, Piyush Chauhan, Subhasis Panda, Sujoy Bhattacharya

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A large proportion of roads in India are not well maintained as per the laid down public safety guidelines leading to loss of direction control and fatal accidents. We propose a technique to detect speed breakers and potholes using mobile sensor data captured from multiple vehicles and provide a profile of the road. This would, in turn, help in monitoring roads and revolutionize digital maps. Incorporating randomness in the model formulation for detection of speed breakers and potholes is crucial due to substantial heterogeneity observed in data obtained using a mobile application from multiple vehicles driven by different drivers. This is accomplished with Hidden Markov Models, whose hidden state sequence is found for each time step given the observables sequence, and are then fed as input to LSTM network with peephole connections. A precision score of 0.96 and 0.63 is obtained for classifying bumps and potholes, respectively, a significant improvement from the machine learning based models. Further visualization of bumps/potholes is done by converting time series to images using Markov Transition Fields where a significant demarcation among bump/potholes is observed.

Keywords: deep learning, hidden Markov model, pothole, speed breaker

Procedia PDF Downloads 138

Authors: Chittana Phompila

Abstract:

The current increased population pushes increasing demands for natural resources and living space. In Laos, urban areas have been expanding rapidly in recent years. The rapid urbanization can have negative impacts on landscapes, including forest and agriculture lands. The primary objective of this research were to map current urban areas in a large city in Savannakhet province, in Laos, 2) to compare changes in urbanization between 1990 and 2018, and 3) to estimate forest and agriculture areas lost due to expansions of urban areas during the last over twenty years within study area. Landsat 8 data was used and existing GIS data was collected including spatial data on rivers, lakes, roads, vegetated areas and other land use/land covers). GIS data was obtained from the government sectors. Object based classification (OBC) approach was applied in ECognition for image processing and analysis of urban area using. Historical data from other Landsat instruments (Landsat 5 and 7) were used to allow us comparing changes in urbanization in 1990, 2000, 2010 and 2018 in this study area. Only three main land cover classes were focused and classified, namely forest, agriculture and urban areas. Change detection approach was applied to illustrate changes in built-up areas in these periods. Our study shows that the overall accuracy of map was 95% assessed, kappa~ 0.8. It is found that that there is an ineffective control over forest and land-use conversions from forests and agriculture to urban areas in many main cities across the province. A large area of agriculture and forest has been decreased due to this conversion. Uncontrolled urban expansion and inappropriate land use planning can lead to creating a pressure in our resource utilisation. As consequence, it can lead to food insecurity and national economic downturn in a long term.

Keywords: urbanisation, forest cover, agriculture areas, Landsat 8 imagery

Procedia PDF Downloads 153

Authors: King Kumire, Amos Kubeka

Abstract:

The synergy of machine learning and astronomical technology advancement is giving rise to the new space age, which is pronounced by better habitability assessments. To initiate this discussion, it should be recorded for definition purposes that the symbiotic relationship between astronomy and improved computing has been code-named the Cis-Astro gateway concept. The cosmological fate of this phrase has been unashamedly plagiarized from the cis-lunar gateway template and its associated LaGrange points which act as an orbital bridge to the moon from our planet Earth. However, for this study, the scientific audience is invited to bridge toward the discovery of new habitable planets. It is imperative to state that cosmic probes of this magnitude can be utilized as the starting nodes of the astrobiological search for galactic life. This research can also assist by acting as the navigation system for future space telescope launches through the delimitation of target exoplanets. The findings and the associated platforms can be harnessed as building blocks for the modeling of climate change on planet earth. The notion that if the human genus exhausts the resources of the planet earth or there is a bug of some sort that makes the earth inhabitable for humans explains the need to find an alternative planet to inhabit. The scientific community, through interdisciplinary discussions of the International Astronautical Federation so far has the common position that engineers can reduce space mission costs by constructing a stable cis-lunar orbit infrastructure for refilling and carrying out other associated in-orbit servicing activities. Similarly, the Cis-Astro gateway can be envisaged as a budget optimization technique that models extra-solar bodies and can facilitate the scoping of future mission rendezvous. It should be registered as well that this broad and voluminous catalog of exoplanets shall be narrowed along the way using machine learning filters. The gist of this topic revolves around the indirect economic rationale of establishing a habitability scoping platform.

Keywords: machine-learning, habitability, exoplanets, supercomputing

Procedia PDF Downloads 84

Authors: King Kumire, Amos Kubeka

Abstract:

The synergy of machine learning and astronomical technology advancement is giving rise to the new space age, which is pronounced by better habitability assessments. To initiate this discussion, it should be recorded for definition purposes that the symbiotic relationship between astronomy and improved computing has been code-named the Cis-Astro gateway concept. The cosmological fate of this phrase has been unashamedly plagiarized from the cis-lunar gateway template and its associated LaGrange points which act as an orbital bridge to the moon from our planet Earth. However, for this study, the scientific audience is invited to bridge toward the discovery of new habitable planets. It is imperative to state that cosmic probes of this magnitude can be utilized as the starting nodes of the astrobiological search for galactic life. This research can also assist by acting as the navigation system for future space telescope launches through the delimitation of target exoplanets. The findings and the associated platforms can be harnessed as building blocks for the modeling of climate change on planet earth. The notion that if the human genus exhausts the resources of the planet earth or there is a bug of some sort that makes the earth inhabitable for humans explains the need to find an alternative planet to inhabit. The scientific community, through interdisciplinary discussions of the International Astronautical Federation so far, has the common position that engineers can reduce space mission costs by constructing a stable cis-lunar orbit infrastructure for refilling and carrying out other associated in-orbit servicing activities. Similarly, the Cis-Astro gateway can be envisaged as a budget optimization technique that models extra-solar bodies and can facilitate the scoping of future mission rendezvous. It should be registered as well that this broad and voluminous catalog of exoplanets shall be narrowed along the way using machine learning filters. The gist of this topic revolves around the indirect economic rationale of establishing a habitability scoping platform.

Keywords: exoplanets, habitability, machine-learning, supercomputing

Procedia PDF Downloads 107

Authors: Nusrat Praween, Krishna Thej Pammi Guru, Palash Kumar Basu

Abstract:

Designing non-invasive biosensors for cancer diagnosis is essential for developing an affordable and specific tool to measure cancer-related exosome biomarkers. Exosomes, released by healthy as well as cancer cells, contain valuable information about the biomarkers of various diseases, including cancer. Despite the availability of various isolation techniques, ultracentrifugation is the standard technique that is being employed. Post isolation, exosomes are traditionally exposed to detergents for extracting their proteins, which can often lead to protein degradation. Further to this, it is very essential to develop a sensing platform for the quantification of clinically relevant proteins in a wider range to ensure practicality. In this study, exosomes were immobilized on the Au Screen Printed Electrode (SPE) using EDC/NHS chemistry to facilitate binding. After immobilizing the exosomes on the screen-printed electrode (SPE), we investigated the impact of the electric field by applying various voltages to induce exosome lysis and release their contents. The lysed solution was used for sensing TSG101, a crucial biomarker associated with various cancers, using both faradaic and non-faradaic electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) methods. The results of non-faradaic and faradaic EIS were comparable and showed good consistency, indicating that non-faradaic sensing can be a reliable alternative. Hence, the non-faradaic sensing technique was used for label-free quantification of the TSG101 biomarker. The results were validated using ELISA. Our electrochemical immunosensor demonstrated a consistent response of TSG101 from 125 pg/mL to 8000 pg/mL, with a detection limit of 0.125 pg/mL at room temperature. Additionally, since non-faradic sensing is label-free, the ease of usage and cost of the final sensor developed can be reduced. The proposed immunosensor is capable of detecting the TSG101 protein at low levels in healthy serum with good sensitivity and specificity, making it a promising platform for biomarker detection.

Keywords: biosensor, exosomes isolation on SPE, electric field lysis of exosome, EIS sensing of TSG101

Procedia PDF Downloads 36

Authors: Ma Chaoyang

Abstract:

With the acceleration of urbanization, old communities are facing renewal problems such as an aging material environment, declining living quality, and insufficient resilience. The once glorious old communities have become the most vulnerable areas in the city. Through a re-understanding of the ‘disaster chain’ and resilient communities, it is believed that considering the construction of resilient communities during community renewal is of great significance for promoting the sustainable development of communities. This article proposes renewal strategies for old communities based on the concept of preventing the occurrence of disaster chains. After analyzing the main demand characteristics of old communities, it proposes a reflection on improving community spatial safety resilience based on the ‘broken chain’ concept. In the four stages of ‘pre-disaster, mid-disaster, and post-disaster’, it elaborates that considering the occurrence of disaster chain in community renewal is the main content of research on spatial safety resilience construction and clarifies that community resilience is the idea and principle of responding with the process of disaster chain. The study focuses on the four dimensions of ‘pre-disaster, mid-disaster, and post-disaster’. This can provide ideas and references for resilience construction in community updates.

Keywords: community updates, disaster chain concept, community resilience, space environment

Procedia PDF Downloads 47