Search results for: image enhancement.

Authors: Rex C. Apillanes, Ana Rubi L. Sereño, Ellen Joy L. Palangan

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The main objective of this action research is to know the effectiveness of the compendium on Contextualized Story Word Problem in Mathematics used as an intervention material to enhance the comprehension and problem-solving skills of Grade 4 pupils. This also addresses the competencies outlined in the curriculum guide while, at the same time, providing instructional material which the pupils can work on and practice solving word problems. The twelve randomly selected grade four pupils of Mantuyom Elementary School have been chosen as respondents for this action research in consideration of their consent and approval. A Pre-Test and a Post-test have been given to the pupils to determine their baseline proficiency level in four fundamental operations. The data has been statistically treated using a T-test to determine their difference. At a mean score of 13.42 and 16.83 for pre and post-tests, respectively, the p-value of 0.000620816 reflects a highly significant difference for the pre-test and post-test. This is lesser than the 0.05 level of significance (p≤0.05). Therefore, it is found that the compendium of contextualized story word problems is an efficient instructional material for Mathematics 4, yet; it is recommended that a Parents’ User Guide shall be developed to assist the parents in the conduct of the Remediation, Reinforcement and Enhancement (RRE).

Keywords: action research, compendium, contextualized, story, word problem, research, intervention

Procedia PDF Downloads 99

Authors: Ossama Al-Maliki

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Europay, MasterCard, and Visa (EMV) is one of the most popular payment protocol in the world. The EMV protocol supports Chip and PIN Transactions, Chip and Signature transactions, and Contactless transactions. This protocol suffers from tens of £ millions of lost per year due to many fraudulent payments. This is due to several reported vulnerable points in the protocols used for such payments that allow skimming, replay, cloning, Mole Point of Sale (POS), relay, and other attacks to be conducted. In this paper, we are focusing on the EMV contactless specification and we have proposed two proposal solutions to the addition of a localization factor to enhance the payment authentication of such transactions designed to prevent relay, cloning, and Mole-POS attacks. Our proposed solution is a back-end localization scheme to help the Issuer-Bank compare the location of the genuine cardholder in relation to the used POS. Our scheme uses 'something you have' which is the Cardholder Smartphone (CSP) to provide the location of the cardholder at the time of the transaction and without impacting the contactless payment time/protocol. The Issuer-bank obtain the CSP Location using tried and tested localization techniques, and independently of the cardholder. Both of our proposal solutions do not require infrastructure changes, and it uses existing EMV/SP protocol messages to communicate our scheme information.

Keywords: NFC, RFID, contactless card, authentication, location, EMV

Procedia PDF Downloads 242

Authors: Lin Cheng, Zijiang Yang

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Program synthesis is the task to automatically generate programs based on user specification. In this paper, we present a framework that synthesizes programs from flow charts that serve as accurate and intuitive specification. In order doing so, we propose a deep neural network called GRCNN that recognizes graph structure from its image. GRCNN is trained end-to-end, which can predict edge and node information of the flow chart simultaneously. Experiments show that the accuracy rate to synthesize a program is 66.4%, and the accuracy rates to recognize edge and node are 94.1% and 67.9%, respectively. On average, it takes about 60 milliseconds to synthesize a program.

Keywords: program synthesis, flow chart, specification, graph recognition, CNN

Procedia PDF Downloads 119

Authors: B. S. Al-Tulaian, M. J. Al-Shannag, A. M. Al-Hozaimy

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The development of new construction materials using recycled plastic is important to both the construction and the plastic recycling industries. Manufacturing of fibers from industrial or post-consumer plastic waste is an attractive approach with such benefits as concrete performance enhancement, and reduced needs for land filling. The main objective of this study is to investigate the effect of plastic fibers obtained locally from recycled waste on plastic shrinkage cracking of ordinary cement based mortar. Parameters investigated include: Fiber length ranging from 20 to 50 mm, and fiber volume fraction ranging from 0% to 1.5% by volume. The test results showed significant improvement in crack arresting mechanism and substantial reduction in the surface area of cracks for the mortar reinforced with recycled plastic fibers compared to plain mortar. Furthermore, test results indicated that there was a slight decrease in compressive strength of mortar reinforced with different lengths and contents of recycled fibers compared to plain mortar. This study suggests that adding more than 1% of RP fibers to mortar, can be used effectively for controlling plastic shrinkage cracking of cement based mortar, and thus results in waste reduction and resources conservation.

Keywords: mortar, plastic, shrinkage cracking, compressive strength, RF recycled fibers

Procedia PDF Downloads 409

Authors: Belen Montero, Carmen Ramirez, Maite Rico, Rebeca Bouza, Irene Derungs

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Starch is a promising polymer for producing biocomposite materials because it is renewable, completely biodegradable and easily available at a low cost. Thermoplastic starches (TPS) can be obtained after the disruption and plasticization of native starch with a plasticizer. In this work, the solvent casting method was used to obtain TPS films from wheat starch plasticized with glycerol and reinforced with nanocellulose (CNC). X-ray diffraction analysis was used to follow the evolution of the crystallinity. The native wheat starch granules have shown a profile corresponding to A-type crystal structures typical for cereal starches. When TPS films are analyzed a high amorphous halo centered on 19º is obtained, indicating the plasticization process is completed. SEM imaging was made in order to analyse the morphology. The image from the raw wheat starch granules shows a bimodal granule size distribution with some granules in large round disk-shape forms (A-type) and the others as smaller spherical particles (B-type). The image from the neat TPS surface shows a continuous surface. No starch aggregates or swollen granules can be seen so, the plasticization process is complete. In the surfaces of reinforced TPS films aggregates are seen as the CNC concentration in the matrix increases. The CNC influence on the mechanical properties of TPS films has been studied by dynamic mechanical analysis. A direct relation exists between the storage modulus values, E’, and the CNC content in reinforced TPS films: higher is the content of nanocellulose in the composite, higher is the value of E’. This reinforcement effect can be explained by the appearance of a strong and crystalline nanoparticle-TPS interphase. Thermal stability of films was analysed by TGA. It has not observed any influence on the behaviour related to the thermal degradation of films with the incorporation of the CNC. Finally, the resistance to the water absorption films was analysed following the standard UNE-EN ISO 1998:483. The percentage of water absorbed by the samples at each time was calculated. The addition of 5 wt % of CNC to the TPS matrix leads to a significant improvement in the moisture resistance of the starch based material decreasing their diffusivity. It has been associated to the formation of a nanocrystal network that prevents swelling of the starch and therefore water absorption and to the high crystallinity of cellulose compared to starch. As a conclusion, the wheat film reinforced with 5 wt % of cellulose nanocrystals seems to be a good alternative for short-life applications into the packaging industry, because of its greatest rigidity, thermal stability and moisture sorption resistance.

Keywords: biocomposites, nanocellulose, starch, wheat

Procedia PDF Downloads 212

Authors: Vipin Bhandari, Anupama Singh, Kopal Gupta

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Solid state fermentation, an eminent bioconversion technique for converting many biological substrates into a value-added product, has proven its role in the biotransformation of crops by nutritionally enriching them. Hence, an effort was made for nutritional enhancement of underutilized crops viz. barnyard millet, amaranthus and horse gram based composite flour using SSF. The grains were given pre-treatments before fermentation and these pre-treatments proved quite effective in diminishing the level of antinutrients in grains and in improving their nutritional characteristics. The present study deals with the enhancement of nutritional characteristics of underutilized crops viz. barnyard millet, amaranthus and horsegram based composite flour using solid state fermentation (SSF) as the principle bioconversion technique to convert the composite flour substrate into a nutritionally enriched value added product. Response surface methodology was used to design the experiments. The variables selected for the fermentation experiments were substrate particle size, substrate blend ratio, fermentation time, fermentation temperature and moisture content having three levels of each. Seventeen designed experiments were conducted randomly to find the effect of these variables on microbial count, reducing sugar, pH, total sugar, phytic acid and water absorption index. The data from all experiments were analyzed using Design Expert 8.0.6 and the response functions were developed using multiple regression analysis and second order models were fitted for each response. Results revealed that pretreatments proved quite handful in diminishing the level of antinutrients and thus enhancing the nutritional value of the grains appreciably, for instance, there was about 23% reduction in phytic acid levels after decortication of barnyard millet. The carbohydrate content of the decorticated barnyard millet increased to 81.5% from initial value of 65.2%. Similarly popping and puffing of horsegram and amaranthus respectively greatly reduced the trypsin inhibitor activity. Puffing of amaranthus also reduced the tannin content appreciably. Bacillus subtilis was used as the inoculating specie since it is known to produce phytases in solid state fermentation systems. These phytases remarkably reduce the phytic acid content which acts as a major antinutritional factor in food grains. Results of solid state fermentation experiments revealed that phytic acid levels reduced appreciably when fermentation was allowed to continue for 72 hours at a temperature of 35°C. Particle size and substrate blend ratio also affected the responses positively. All the parameters viz. substrate particle size, substrate blend ratio, fermentation time, fermentation temperature and moisture content affected the responses namely microbial count, reducing sugar, pH, total sugar, phytic acid and water absorption index but the effect of fermentation time was found to be most significant on all the responses. Statistical analysis resulted in the optimum conditions (particle size 355µ, substrate blend ratio 50:20:30 of barnyard millet, amaranthus and horsegram respectively, fermentation time 68 hrs, fermentation temperature 35°C and moisture content 47%) for maximum reduction in phytic acid. The model F- value was found to be highly significant at 1% level of significance in case of all the responses. Hence, second order model could be fitted to predict all the dependent parameters. The effect of fermentation time was found to be most significant as compared to other variables.

Keywords: composite flour, solid state fermentation, underutilized crops, cereals, fermentation technology, food processing

Procedia PDF Downloads 327

Authors: My Ali El Khakani

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Single-wall Carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) possess an unprecedented combination of unique properties that make them highly promising for suitable for a new generation of photovoltaic (PV) devices. Prior to discussing the integration of SWCNTs films into effective PV devices, we will briefly highlight our work on the synthesis of SWCNTs by means of the KrF pulsed laser deposition technique, their purification and transfer onto n-silicon substrates to form p-n junctions. Some of the structural and optoelectronic properties of SWCNTs relevant to PV applications will be emphasized. By varying the SWCNTs film density (µg/cm2), we were able to point out the existence of an optimum value that yields the highest photoconversion efficiency (PCE) of ~10%. Further control of the doping of the p-SWCNTs films, through their exposure to nitric acid vapors, along with the insertion of an optimized hole-extraction-layer in the p-SWCNTs/n-Si hybrid devices permitted to achieve a PCE value as high as 14.2%. Such a high PCE value demonstrates the full potential of these p-SWCNTs/n-Si devices for sunlight photoconversion. On the other hand, by examining both the optical transmission and electrical conductance of the SWCNTs’ films, we established a figure of merit (FOM) that was shown to correlate well with the PCE performance. Such a direct relationship between the FOM and the PCE can be used as a guide for further PCE enhancement of these novel p-SWCNTs/n-Si PV devices.

Keywords: carbon nanotubes (CNTs), CNTs-silicon hybrid devices, photoconversion, photovoltaic devices, pulsed laser deposition

Procedia PDF Downloads 118

Authors: Shu-Yu Hsu, Chen-Chien Hsu, Wei-Yen Wang

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Color segmentation is a basic and simple way for recognizing the visual markers in a robotic tracking system. In this paper, we propose a new method for color segmentation by incorporating differential evolution algorithm and connected component labeling to autonomously preset the HSV threshold of visual markers. To evaluate the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm, a ROBOTIS OP2 humanoid robot is used to conduct the experiment, where five most commonly used color including red, purple, blue, yellow, and green in visual markers are given for comparisons.

Keywords: color segmentation, differential evolution, connected component labeling, humanoid robot

Procedia PDF Downloads 605

Authors: Nadezda Kobzeva

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Under the current trend of globalization, economic and technological dynamics information and the means by which it is delivered and renewed becomes out-of-date rapidly. Thus, educational systems as well as higher education are being seriously tested. New strategies’ developing that is supported by Information and Communication Technology is urgently required. The essential educators’ mission is to meet the demands of the future by preparing our young learners with proper knowledge, skills and innovation capabilities necessary to advance our competitiveness globally. In response to the modern society and future demands, the oldest Siberian Tomsk Polytechnic University has wisely proposed several initiatives to promote the integration of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in education, and increase the competitiveness of graduates by emphasizing inquiry-based learning, higher order thinking and problem solving. This paper gives a brief overview of how Web Quest as ICT device is being used for language teaching and describes its use advantages for teaching English as a Foreign Language (EFL), in particular business writing skills. This study proposes to use Web Quest to promote higher order thinking and ICT integration in the process of engineers training in Tomsk Polytechnic University, Russia.

Keywords: web quest, web quest in pedagogy, resume (CVs) and cover letter writing skills, ICT integration

Procedia PDF Downloads 379

Authors: Xiaoqi Jia, Qing Zhu, Hao Zhang, Su Yang

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A gender recognition system is able to tell the gender of the given person through a few of frontal facial images. An effective gender recognition approach enables to improve the performance of many other applications, including security monitoring, human-computer interaction, image or video retrieval and so on. In this paper, we present an effective method for gender classification task in frontal facial images based on deep belief networks (DBNs), which can pre-train model and improve accuracy a little bit. Our experiments have shown that the pre-training method with DBNs for gender classification task is feasible and achieves a little improvement of accuracy on FERET and CAS-PEAL-R1 facial datasets.

Keywords: gender recognition, beep belief net-works, semi-supervised learning, greedy-layer wise RBMs

Procedia PDF Downloads 453

Authors: Mr. P. Suryaprasad, R. Lalitha

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This paper presents an efficient area and delay architectures for the implementation of one dimensional and two dimensional discrete cosine transform (DCT). These are supported to different lengths (4, 8, 16, and 32). DCT blocks are used in the different video coding standards for the image compression. The 2D- DCT calculation is made using the 2D-DCT separability property, such that the whole architecture is divided into two 1D-DCT calculations by using a transpose buffer. Based on the existing 1D-DCT architecture two different types of 2D-DCT architectures, folded and parallel types are implemented. Both of these two structures use the same transpose buffer. Proposed transpose buffer occupies less area and high speed than existing transpose buffer. Hence the area, low power and delay of both the 2D-DCT architectures are reduced.

Keywords: transposition buffer, video compression, discrete cosine transform, high efficiency video coding, two dimensional picture

Procedia PDF Downloads 521

Authors: Yo-Sheng Lin, Chien-Chin Wang, Yun-Wen Lin, Chien-Yo Lee

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A wide band power amplifier (PA) for 60 GHz and 77 GHz direct-conversion transceiver using standard 90 nm CMOS technology is reported. The PA comprises a cascode input stage with a wide band T-type input-matching network and inductive interconnection and load, followed by a common-source (CS) gain stage and a CS output stage. To increase the saturated output power (PSAT) and power-added efficiency (PAE), the output stage adopts a two-way power dividing and combining architecture. Instead of the area-consumed Wilkinson power divider and combiner, miniature low-loss transmission-line inductors are used at the input and output terminals of each of the output stages for wide band input and output impedance matching to 100 ohm. This in turn results in further PSAT and PAE enhancement. The PA consumes 92.2 mW and achieves maximum power gain (S21) of 23.3 dB at 56 GHz, and S21 of 21.7 dB and 14 dB, respectively, at 60 GHz and 77 GHz. In addition, the PA achieves excellent saturated output power (PSAT) of 10.6 dB and maximum power added efficiency (PAE) of 12.3% at 60 GHz. At 77 GHz, the PA achieves excellent PSAT of 10.4 dB and maximum PAE of 6%. These results demonstrate the proposed wide band PA architecture is very promising for 60 GHz wireless personal local network (WPAN) and 77 GHz automobile radar systems.

Keywords: 60 GHz, 77 GHz, PA, WPAN, automotive radar

Procedia PDF Downloads 575

Authors: Muhammad Shahrukh Saeed, Syed Ahmad Nameer, Shafiq Ur Rehman, Aisha Jillani

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Heat exchangers play a critical role in industrial applications of thermal systems. Its physical size and performance are vital parameters; therefore enhancement of heat transfer through different techniques remained a major research area for both academia and industry. This research reports the main purpose of heat exchanger with better kit design which plays a vital role during the process of heat transfer. Plate type heat exchanger mainly requires a design in which the plates can be easily be installed and removed without having any problem with the plates. For the flow of the fluid within the heat exchanger, it requires a flow should be fully developed. As natural laws allows the driving energy of the system to flow until equilibrium is achieved. As with a plate type heat exchanger heat the heat penetrates the surface which separates the hot medium with the cold one very easily. As some of the precautions should be considered while taking the heat exchanger accountable like heat should transfer from hot medium to cold, there should always be difference in temperature present and heat loss from hot body should be equal to the heat gained by the cold body regardless of the losses present to the surroundings. Aluminum plates of same grade are used in all experiments to ensure similarity. Size of all plates was 254 mm X 100 mm and thickness was taken as 5 mm.

Keywords: heat transfer coefficient, aluminium, entry length, design

Procedia PDF Downloads 332

Authors: Changhwan Choi, Yongwan Park

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In this paper, we propose a method that allows faster and more accurate detection of traffic lights by a vision sensor during driving, DGPS is used to obtain physical location of a traffic light, extract from the image information of the vision sensor only the traffic light area at this location and ascertain if the sign is in operation and determine its form. This method can solve the problem in existing research where low visibility at night or reflection under bright light makes it difficult to recognize the form of traffic light, thus making driving unstable. We compared our success rate of traffic light recognition in day and night road environments. Compared to previous researches, it showed similar performance during the day but 50% improvement at night.

Keywords: traffic light, intelligent vehicle, night, detection, DGPS

Procedia PDF Downloads 325

Authors: Mukesh Kumar, Mahendra Pal Sharma

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Depleting fossil fuel resources coupled with serious environmental degradation has led to the search for alternative resources for biodiesel production as a substitute of Petro-diesel. Currently, edible, non-edible oils and microalgal plant species are cultivated for biodiesel production. Looking at the demerits of edible and non-edible oil resources, the focus is being given to grow microalgal species having high oil productivities, less maturity time and less land requirement. Out of various microalgal species, Chlorella protothecoides is considered as the most promising species for biodiesel production owing to high oil content (58 %), faster growth rate (24–48 h) and high biomass productivity (1214 mg/l/day). The present paper reports the results of optimization of reaction parameters of transesterification process as well as the kinetics of transesterification with 97% yield of biodiesel. The measurement of fuel quality of microalgal biodiesel shows that the biodiesel exhibit very good oxidation stability (O.S) of 7 hrs, more than ASTM D6751 (3 hrs) and EN 14112 (6 hrs) specifications. The CP and PP of 0 and -3 °C are finding as per ASTM D 2500-11 and ASTM D 97-12 standards. These results show that the microalgal biodiesel does not need any enhancement in O.S & CFP and hence can be recommended to be directly used as MB100 or its blends into diesel engine operation. Further, scope is available for the production of binary blends using poor quality biodiesel for engine operation.

Keywords: fuel quality, methyl ester yield, microalgae, transesterification

Procedia PDF Downloads 215

Authors: Behnoush Dousti, Ye Choi, Gil S. Lee

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Microsupercapacitors (MScs) are known as the future of miniaturized energy sources that can be coupled to a battery to deliver stable and constant energy to microelectronics. Among all their counterparts, electrochemical microsupercapacitor have drawn the most research attention due to their higher power density and long cycle life. Designing the microstructure and choosing the electroactive materials are two significant factors that greatly affect the performance of the device. Here, we report successful fabrication and characterization of a microsupercapacitor with interdigitated structure based on Carbon nanotube sheets (CNT sheet). Novel structure of highly aligned CNT sheet as the electrode materials which also offers excellent conductivity and large surface area along with doping with nitrogen, enabled us to develop a device with serval order of magnitude higher electrochemical performance than the pristine CNT in aqueous electrolyte including high specific capacitance and rate capabilities and excellent cycle life over 10000 cycles. Geometric parameters such as finger width and gap size were also studied and it was shown the device performance is much depended on them. Results of this study confirms the potential of CNT sheet for future energy storage devices.

Keywords: carbon nanotube, energy storage systems, microsupercapacitor, nitrogen doping

Procedia PDF Downloads 131

Authors: Seyyed Hassan Seyyedrezaei

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The advent of computer and ICT thereafter has introduced many irrevocable changes in learning and teaching. There is substantially growing need for the use of IT and ICT in language learning and teaching. In other words, the integration of Information Technology (IT) into online teaching is of vital importance for education and assessment. Considering the fact that the image of education is undergone drastic changes by the advent of technology, education systems and teachers move beyond the walls of traditional classes and methods in order to join with other educational centers to revitalize education. Given the advent of distance learning, online courses and virtual universities, e-assessment has taken a prominent place in effective teaching and meeting the learners' educational needs. The purpose of this paper is twofold: first, scrutinizing e-learning, it discusses how and why e-assessment is becoming widely used by educationalists and administrators worldwide. As a second purpose, a couple of effective strategies for online assessment will be enumerated.

Keywords: e-assessment, e learning, ICT, online assessment

Procedia PDF Downloads 568

Authors: Yuncang Li, Cuie Wen

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Biodegradable metallic materials such as magnesium (Mg)-based alloys have attracted extensive interest for use as bone implant materials. However, the high biodegradation rate of existing Mg alloys in the physiological environment of human body leads to losing mechanical integrity before adequate bone healing and producing a large volume of hydrogen gas. Therefore, slowing down the biodegradation rate of Mg alloys is a critical task in developing new biodegradable Mg alloy implant materials. One of the most effective approaches to achieve this is to strategically design new Mg alloys with low biodegradation rate, excellent biocompatibility, and enhanced mechanical properties. Our research selected biocompatible and biofunctional alloying elements such as zirconium (Zr), strontium (Sr), and rare earth elements (REEs) to alloy Mg and has developed a new series of Mg-Zr-Sr-REEs alloys for biodegradable implant applications. Research results indicated that Sr and Zr additions could refine the grain size, decrease the biodegradation rate, and enhance the biological behaviors of the Mg alloys. The REE addition, such as holmium (Ho) and dysprosium (Dy) to Mg-Zr-Sr alloys resulted in enhanced mechanical strength and decreased biodegradation rate. In addition, Ho and Dy additions (≤ 5 wt.%) to Mg-Zr-Sr alloys led to enhancement of cell adhesion and proliferation of osteoblast cells on the Mg-Zr-Sr-Ho/Dy alloys.

Keywords: biocompatibility, magnesium, mechanical and biodegrade properties, rare earth elements

Procedia PDF Downloads 121

Authors: Reynaldo Esquivel, Pedro Hernandez, Aaron Martinez-Higareda, Sergio Tena-Cano, Enrique Alvarez-Ramos, Armando Lucero-Acuna

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Stimuli-responsive nanomaterials play an essential role in loading, transporting and well-distribution of anti-cancer compounds in the cellular surroundings. The outstanding properties as the Lower Critical Solution Temperature (LCST), hydrolytic cleavage and protonation/deprotonation cycle, govern the release and delivery mechanisms of payloads. In this contribution, we experimentally determine the load efficiency and release of antineoplastic Vincristine Sulfate into PNIPAM-Interpenetrated-Chitosan (PIntC) nanoparticles. Structural analysis was performed by Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FT-IR) and Proton Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (1HNMR). ζ-Potential (ζ) and Hydrodynamic diameter (DH) measurements were monitored by Electrophoretic Mobility (EM) and Dynamic Light scattering (DLS) respectively. Mathematical analysis of the release pharmacokinetics reveals a three-phase model above LCST, while a monophasic of Vincristine release model was observed at 32 °C. Cytotoxic essays reveal a noticeable enhancement of Vincristine effectiveness at low drug concentration on HeLa cervix cancer and MDA-MB-231 breast cancer.

Keywords: nanoparticles, vincristine, drug delivery, PNIPAM

Procedia PDF Downloads 156

Authors: Sanam Pudasaini, A. T. K. Perera, Ahmed Syed Shaheer Uddin, Sum Huan Ng, Chun Yang

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Development of high-efficiency and environment friendly bacterial inactivation methods is of great importance for preventing waterborne diseases which are one of the leading causes of death in the world. Traditional bacterial inactivation methods (e.g., ultraviolet radiation and chlorination) have several limitations such as longer treatment time, formation of toxic byproducts, bacterial regrowth, etc. Recently, an electroporation-based inactivation method was introduced as a substitute. Here, an electroporation-based continuous flow microfluidic device equipped with an array of micropillars is developed, and the device achieved high bacterial inactivation performance ( > 99.9%) within a short exposure time ( < 1 s). More than 99.9% reduction of Escherichia coli bacteria was obtained for the flow rate of 1 mL/hr, and no regrowth of bacteria was observed. Images from scanning electron microscope confirmed the formation of electroporation-induced nano-pore within the cell membrane. Through numerical simulation, it has been shown that sufficiently large electric field strength (3 kV/cm), required for bacterial electroporation, were generated using PDMS micropillars for an applied voltage of 300 V. Further, in this method of inactivation, there is no involvement of chemicals and the formation of harmful by-products is also minimum.

Keywords: electroporation, high-efficiency, inactivation, microfluidics, micropillar

Procedia PDF Downloads 180

Authors: Elnur Abbasov

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Energy security and climate change comprise some of the most important concerns facing humankind today and probably in the future if they are not addressed appropriately. In order to stabilize the global climate, there is the need for the world to lessen its use of fossil energy, which requires enhancement of current energy efficiency as well as the development of novel energy sources, such as energy obtained from renewable sources. There is no doubt that the steady transition towards a solar-based economy is likely to result in the development of completely new sectors, behaviours, and jobs that are pro-environmental. Azerbaijan Republic as the largest nation state in the South Caucasus Region has the potential for using and developing the renewable sources of energy in order to support the environmental challenge resolution associated with the climate change, improving the environmental situation in the country. Solar PV comprises one of the direct usages of solar energy. In this paper, sustainable PV usage scenario in residential houses was introduced to reduce negative environmental effects of land use, water consumption, air pollution etc. It was recommended by an author that, PV systems can be part of function and design of residential building components: such as roofs, walls, windows.

Keywords: energy efficiency, environmentally friendly, photovoltaic engineering, sustainable energy usage scenario

Procedia PDF Downloads 241

Authors: Mohammed Kamil, M. M. Rahman, Rosli A. Bakar

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Modeling of hydrogen fueled engine (H₂ICE) injection system is a very important tool that can be used for explaining or predicting the effect of advanced injection strategies on combustion and emissions. In this paper, a common rail injection system (CRIS) is proposed for 4-strokes 4-cylinders hydrogen fueled engine with port injection feeding system (PIH₂ICE). For this system, a numerical one-dimensional gas dynamic model is developed considering single injection event for each injector per a cycle. One-dimensional flow equations in conservation form are used to simulate wave propagation phenomenon throughout the CR (accumulator). Using this model, the effect of common rail on the injection system characteristics is clarified. These characteristics include: rail pressure, sound velocity, rail mass flow rate, injected mass flow rate and pressure drop across injectors. The interaction effects of operational conditions (engine speed and rail pressure) and geometrical features (injector hole diameter) are illustrated; and the required compromised solutions are highlighted. The CRIS is shown to be a promising enhancement for PIH₂ICE.

Keywords: common rail, hydrogen engine, port injection, wave propagation

Procedia PDF Downloads 424

Authors: Carlos Escobar-del Pozo, César Ahumada-Monroy, Azael García-Rebolledo, Alberto Brambila-Solórzano, Gregorio Martínez-Sánchez, Luis Ortiz-Rincón

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Numerical simulations of flow in complex biological structures have gained considerable attention in the last years. However, the major issue is the validation of the results. The present work shows a Particle Image Velocimetry PIV flow visualization technique in complex biological structures, particularly in intracranial aneurysms. A methodology to reconstruct and generate a transparent model has been developed, as well as visualization and particle tracking techniques. The generated transparent models allow visualizing the flow patterns with a regular camera using the visualization techniques. The final goal is to use visualization as a tool to provide more information on the treatment and surgery decisions in aneurysms.

Keywords: aneurysms, PIV, flow visualization, particle tracking

Procedia PDF Downloads 90

Authors: Lucas Barbosa Da Silva, Jun Okamoto Jr.

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Precision Agriculture has long being benefited from crop fields’ aerial imagery. This important tool has allowed identifying patterns in crop fields, generating useful information to the production management. Reflectance intensity data in different ranges from the electromagnetic spectrum may indicate presence or absence of nutrients in the soil of an area. Different relations between the different light bands may generate even more detailed information. The knowledge of the nutrients content in the soil or in the crop during its growth is a valuable asset to the farmer that seeks to optimize its yield. However, small farmers in Brazil often lack the resources to access this kind information, and, even when they do, it is not presented in a comprehensive and/or objective way. So, the challenges of implementing this technology ranges from the sampling of the imagery, using aerial platforms, building of a mosaic with the images to cover the entire crop field, extracting the reflectance information from it and analyzing its relationship with the parameters of interest, to the display of the results in a manner that the farmer may take the necessary decisions more objectively. In this work, it’s proposed an analysis of soil nutrient contents based on image processing of satellite imagery and comparing its outtakes with commercial laboratory’s chemical analysis. Also, sources of satellite imagery are compared, to assess the feasibility of using Google Earth data in this application, and the impacts of doing so, versus the application of imagery from satellites like Landsat-8 and Pleiades. Furthermore, an algorithm for building mosaics is implemented using Google Earth imagery and finally, the possibility of using unmanned aerial vehicles is analyzed. From the data obtained, some soil parameters are estimated, namely, the content of Potassium, Phosphorus, Boron, Manganese, among others. The suitability of Google Earth Imagery for this application is verified within a reasonable margin, when compared to Pleiades Satellite imagery and to the current commercial model. It is also verified that the mosaic construction method has little or no influence on the estimation results. Variability maps are created over the covered area and the impacts of the image resolution and sample time frame are discussed, allowing easy assessments of the results. The final results show that easy and cheaper remote sensing and analysis methods are possible and feasible alternatives for the small farmer, with little access to technological and/or financial resources, to make more accurate decisions about soil nutrient management.

Keywords: remote sensing, precision agriculture, mosaic, soil, nutrient content, satellite imagery, aerial imagery

Procedia PDF Downloads 175

Authors: Syed Khurram Mahmud, Athar Naveed, Shoaib Arif

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Beamforming is a signal processing technique extensively utilized in wireless communications and radars for desired signal intensification and interference signal minimization through spatial selectivity. In this paper, we present a method for calculation of optimal weight vectors for smart antenna array, to achieve a directive pattern during transmission and selective reception in interference prone environment. In proposed scheme, Mutual Information (MI) extrema are evaluated through an energy constrained objective function, which is based on a-priori information of interference source and desired array factor. Signal to Interference plus Noise Ratio (SINR) performance is evaluated for both transmission and reception. In our scheme, MI is presented as an index to identify trade-off between information gain, SINR, illumination time and spatial selectivity in an energy constrained optimization problem. The employed method yields lesser computational complexity, which is presented through comparative analysis with conventional methods in vogue. MI based beamforming offers enhancement of signal integrity in degraded environment while reducing computational intricacy and correlating key performance indicators.

Keywords: beamforming, interference, mutual information, wireless communications

Procedia PDF Downloads 280

Authors: Jihad S. Daba, J. P. Dubois, Yvette Antar

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With the exponential growth of cellular users, a new generation of cellular networks is needed to enhance the required peak data rates. The co-channel interference between neighboring base stations inhibits peak data rate increase. To overcome this interference, multi-cell cooperation known as coordinated multipoint transmission is proposed. Such a solution makes use of multiple-input-multiple-output (MIMO) systems under two different structures: Micro- and macro-diversity. In this paper, we study the capacity and bit error rate in cellular networks using MIMO technology. We analyse both micro- and macro-diversity schemes and develop a hybrid model that switches between macro- and micro-diversity in the case of hard handoff based on a cut-off range of signal-to-noise ratio values. We conclude that our hybrid switched micro-macro MIMO system outperforms classical MIMO systems at the cost of increased hardware and software complexity.

Keywords: cooperative multipoint transmission, ergodic capacity, hard handoff, macro-diversity, micro-diversity, multiple-input-multiple output systems, orthogonal frequency division multiplexing

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Authors: Clifford Kwakwa Amoah, De-Graft Owusu-Manu, Prince Antwi-Afari

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Infrastructure is the lifeline for economic development of any country. Hence, obtaining infrastructure quality cannot be overemphasized. Nevertheless, challenges of infrastructure quality persist, and it is worse in developing countries despite the diverse study on the subject matter. Therefore, this study was formulated to identify the prevalent determinants of infrastructure quality using synthesis of extant literature (to identify key variables), and analysis of survey questionnaire of data collected by means of the inductive methodology approach, mean score ranking and descriptive statistics. The variables “partner with the private sector, growth stimulation and poverty reduction, and adherence to procurement core principles” were the most significant challenges that the government faces. Moreover, it would be of utmost concern to adopt some stringent measures to help improve and accelerate on the growth and development of the nation, thereby achieving the best quality required. This study is novel conducted to provide insight into some of the punitive measures, considered in ensuring that quality infrastructure is obtained in both developing (specifically) and developed economies. The research findings therefore provide some guidance for overcoming the accumulative challenges. Application of the stated findings will help bridge the gap of infrastructure challenges; this is because the study found strong empirical evidence that infrastructure plays a pivotal role in the productivity enhancement.

Keywords: challenges, development, economic growth, government, infrastructure quality

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Authors: Remi Szauer

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Introductory, Background, and Importance of the Study: For many years, religiosity in Poland remained at a stable level of religious practice. When the symptoms of secularization and privatization processes appeared in Poland, it was not clearly felt but rather related to the decline in compulsory practices carried out in public, the growing distance of respondents to catholic ethic, and the lack of acceptance regarding the intervention of the Church in legislation and policy. The basic indicators observed over the years kept the picture: more religious women - less religious men. By carrying out own research in the field of religious and moral attitudes in 2019-2021, it was noticed that a reversal of the trend preserved over the years could be observed. The data showed that women under 40 are radically different in their responses than women older than them - especially those over 50: in terms of practices or ties with the Church and many more specific aspects. This became the basis for a careful examination of the responses in the under 40 age cohorts among women. This study is significant because it shows completely new perspectives of women's perception of religiosity and allows us to notice clearly the aspects of social changes mapped in the minds of the surveyed women. Research Methodology: The original survey was carried out using the quantitative method among 2,346 respondents in northern Poland, 1,349 of whom were women. The findings from these observations led to deepening the topic of beliefs of women under 40 compared to other age cohorts of women. Hence, studies were carried out on the general population of women in Poland, which constituted a comparative sample. These were panel studies. The selection of the sample among women was random, respecting the age amounts so that the two statistical groups could be compared. The designated research parameters included: declarations of religious faith, declarations of religious practice, bond with the Church, acceptance of Mariological dogmas, attitude towards the image of women in the Church, and acceptance of selected issues in Catholic ethics. Main Research Findings: Among women under 40, the decline in declarations not only concerning compulsory public practices but also private practices and declarations of religious faith is more pronounced. Not only is the range of indifferent religious attitudes increasing, but also attitudes directly declaring religious disbelief, for which there are important justifications. Women under 40 years of age strongly distance themselves from the institutions of the Church and from accepting Mariological dogmas. Moreover, they note that the image of a woman is marked by stereotyping, favoring the intensification of violence against women, as well as disregarding her potential and agency. Concluding Statement: By analyzing the answers of the female respondents and the data obtained in the research, it can be observed a reevaluation of women's beliefs, which opens the perspective of analyzing the role of religion and the Church in Poland as well as religious socialization.

Keywords: religiosity, morality, gender, feminism, social change

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Authors: Gameel Abdelmageed

Abstract:

Arabs have a rhetorical heritage which has greatly contributed to the monitoring and analyzing of the rhetoric of the Holy Quran, Hadith, and Arabic texts on poetry and oratory. But Arab scholars - as far as the researcher knows – have not contributed to monitoring and analyzing the rhetoric of digital Arabic discourse although it has prominence, particularly in social media and has strong effectiveness in the political and social life of Arab society. This discourse has made its impact by using very new rhetorical techniques in language, voice, image, painting and video clips which are known as “Multimedia” and belong to “Digital Rhetoric”. This study suggests that it is time to draw the attention of Arab scholars and invite them to monitor and analyze the rhetoric of digital Arabic discourse.

Keywords: digital discourse, digital rhetoric, Facebook, social media

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Authors: Elochukwu A. Nwankwo, Matthias U. Agboeze

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Many heritage sites abound in the shores of Nigeria with enormous tourism potentials. Heritage sites do not only depict the cultural and historical transmutation of people but also functions in the image design and promotion of a locality. This reveals the unique role of heritage sites to structural development of an area. Heritage sites have of recent been a victim of degradation and social abuse arising from seasonal ignorance; hence minimizing its potentials to the socio-economic development of an area. This paper is emphasizing on the adoption of community development approaches in heritage preservation in Igbo area. Its modalities, applications, challenges and prospect were discussed. Such understanding will serve as a catalyst in aiding general restoration and preservation of heritage sites in Nigeria and other African states.

Keywords: heritage resources, community development, preservation, sustainable development, approaches

Procedia PDF Downloads 310