Search results for: Applied linguistics

Authors: Chigozie Azunna

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Various studies have been carried out in several countries to determine the relationship between inflation and unemployment. The study was carried out to review this relationship in South Africa. Secondary data was obtained from Statistics South Africa, Reserve bank, and other reliable secondary sources to review this relationship. The study incorporated yearly inflation and unemployment data in South Africa from 2000 to 2022 to explain the relationship between inflation and unemployment in South Africa. The study found the relationship to be nonlinear and lacking any significant association or relationship. Various economic schools of thought postulations were incorporated in the review as it is applied to South Africa. Essentially, the Phillips Curve was reviewed in-line with the study objective.

Keywords: inflation and unemployment in south africa, philips curve, monetarists, neo keynesian, new-classical

Procedia PDF Downloads 89

Authors: E. Tuğba Topçu, Ebru E. Kazan, Erhan Büken

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Emergency nurses are the first health care professional to generally observe the patients, communicate patients’ family or relatives, touch the properties of patients and contact to laboratory sample of patients. Also, they are the encounter incidents related crime, people who engage in violence or suspicious injuries frequently. So, documentation of patients’ condition came to the hospital and conservation of evidence are important in the inquiry of forensic medicine. The aim of the study was to determine the knowledge level of healthcare professional working at the emergency services regarding their approaches to common forensic cases. The study was comprised of 404 healthcare professional working (nurse, emergency medicine technician, health officer) at the emergency services of 6 state hospitals, 6 training and 6 research hospitals and 3 university hospitals in Ankara. Data was collected using questionnaire form which was developed by researches in the direction of literature. Questionnaire form is comprised of two sections. The first section includes 17 questions related demographic information about health care professional and 4 questions related Turkish laws. The second section includes 43 questions to the determination of knowledge level of health care professional’s working in the emergency department, about approaches to frequently encountered forensic cases. For the data evaluation of the study; Mann Whitney U test, Bonferroni correction Kruskal Wallis H test and Chi Square tests have been used. According to study, it’s said that there is no forensic medicine expert in the foundation by 73.4% of health care professionals. Two third (66%) of participants’ in emergency department reported daily average 7 or above forensic cases applied to the emergency department and 52.1% of participants did not evaluate incidents came to the emergency department as a forensic case. Most of the participants informed 'duty of preservation of evidence' is health care professionals duty related forensic cases. In result, we determinated that knowledge level of health care professional working in the emergency department, about approaches to frequently encountered forensic cases, is not the expected level. Because we found that most of them haven't received education about forensic nursing.Postgraduates participants, educated health professional about forensic nursing, staff who applied to sources about forensic nursing and staff who evaluated emergency department cases as forensic cases have significantly higher level of knowledge. Moreover, it’s found that forensic cases diagnosis score is the highest in health officer and university graduated. Health care professional’s deficiency in knowledge about forensic cases can cause defects in operation of the forensic process because of mistakes in collecting and conserving of evidence. It is obvious that training about the approach to forensic nursing should be arranged.

Keywords: emergency nurses, forensic case, forensic nursing, level of knowledge

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Authors: Angeliki Peponi, Paulo Morgado, Jorge Trindade

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Artificial Neural Networks (ANNs) and Geographic Information Systems (GIS) are applied as a robust tool for modeling and forecasting the erosion changes in Costa Caparica, Lisbon, Portugal, for 2021. ANNs present noteworthy advantages compared with other methods used for prediction and decision making in urban coastal areas. Multilayer perceptron type of ANNs was used. Sensitivity analysis was conducted on natural and social forces and dynamic relations in the dune-beach system of the study area. Variations in network’s parameters were performed in order to select the optimum topology of the network. The developed methodology appears fitted to reality; however further steps would make it better suited.

Keywords: artificial neural networks, backpropagation, coastal urban zones, erosion prediction

Procedia PDF Downloads 392

Authors: Alan C. Lin, Tran Anh Son

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This study proposes an approach to determine the undercut regions and their releasing directions for slider design of complex parts represented by the file format of STL (STereoLithography). In order to delineate the border of undercut regions, orthogonal cutting planes are firstly employed to automatically find the inner loops of a part model. To discover the facets belonging to undercut regions, attributes are then assigned to the facets of the part model based on the topological relationship of adjacent facets of each inner loop. After that, the undercut regions are separated from other facets in the model. Through the recognized facets of the undercut regions, the concept of 'visibility map (V-map)' is further applied to determine feasible releasing directions for each of the undercut regions. The undercut regions having the same releasing direction are finally grouped to form a slider in the injection mold.

Keywords: solid model, STL data, injection mold design, visibility map

Procedia PDF Downloads 395

Authors: Denise Hexom, Judith Menoher

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Teachers and administrators across America are being asked to use data and hard evidence to inform practice as they begin the task of implementing Common Core State Standards. Yet, the courses they are taking in schools of education are not preparing teachers or principals to understand the data-driven decision making (DDDM) process nor to utilize data in a much more sophisticated fashion. DDDM has been around for quite some time, however, it has only recently become systematically and consistently applied in the field of education. This paper discusses the theoretical framework of DDDM; empirical evidence supporting the effectiveness of DDDM; a process a department in a school of education has utilized to implement DDDM; and recommendations to other schools of education who attempt to implement DDDM in their decision-making processes and in their students’ coursework.

Keywords: data-driven decision making, institute of higher education, special education, continuous improvement

Procedia PDF Downloads 387

Authors: L. J. Díaz, M. A. Hernández, A. K. Molina, A. Bermúdez, C. Crane, V. M. Pabón

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One of the most important biological indicators that show the exposure to the radiation is the micronuclei (MN). This technique is using to determinate the radiation effects in blood cultures as a biological control and a complement to the physics dosimetry. In Colombia the necessity to apply this analysis has emerged due to the current biological indicator most used is the chromosomal aberrations (CA), that is why it is essential the MN technique’s standardization and validation to have enough tools to improve the radioprotection topic in the country. Besides, this technique will be applied on the construction of a dose-response curve, that allow measure an approximately dose to irradiated people according to MN frequency found. Inside the steps that carried out to accomplish the standardization and validation is the statistic analysis from the lectures of “in vitro” peripheral blood cultures with different analysts, also it was determinate the best culture medium and conditions for the MN can be detected easily.

Keywords: micronuclei, radioprotection, standardization, validation

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Authors: Lazlo Fauth, Andreas Ligocki

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For cost-effective use of harvesters, expensive repairs and unplanned downtimes must be reduced as far as possible. The predictive detection of failing systems and the calculation of intelligent service intervals, necessary to avoid these factors, require in-depth knowledge of the machines' behavior. Such know-how needs permanent monitoring of the machine state from different technical perspectives. In this paper, three approaches will be presented as they are currently pursued in the publicly funded project PreForst at Ostfalia University of Applied Sciences. These include the intelligent linking of workshop and service data, sensors on the harvester, and a special online hydraulic oil condition monitoring system. Furthermore the paper shows potentials as well as challenges for the use of these data in the conception of a predictive maintenance system.

Keywords: predictive maintenance, condition monitoring, forest harvesting, forest engineering, oil data, hydraulic data

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Authors: Rujia Chen, Akbar Ghobakhlou, Ajit Narayanan

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This study investigates the task of identifying musical instruments in polyphonic compositions using Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs) from spectrogram inputs, focusing on binary classification. The model showed promising results, with an accuracy of 97% on solo instrument recognition. When applied to polyphonic combinations of 1 to 10 instruments, the overall accuracy was 64%, reflecting the increasing challenge with larger ensembles. These findings contribute to the field of Music Information Retrieval (MIR) by highlighting the potential and limitations of current approaches in handling complex musical arrangements. Future work aims to include a broader range of musical sounds, including electronic and synthetic sounds, to improve the model's robustness and applicability in real-time MIR systems.

Keywords: binary classifier, CNN, spectrogram, instrument

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Authors: Hyeon-Seong Kim, Sang-Mi Park, Seul-Gi Kim, Seon-Ju Han, Leen-Seok Kang

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The use of BIM, including 4D CAD system, in a construction project is gradually increasing. Since the building construction works repeatedly in the vertical space, it is relatively easy to confirm the interference effect when applying the BIM, but the interference effect for the civil engineering project is relatively small because the civil works perform non-repetitive processes in the horizontal space. For this reason, it is desirable to apply BIM to the construction phase when applying BIM to the civil engineering project, and the most active BIM tool applied to the construction phase is the 4D CAD function for the schedule management. This paper proposes the application procedure of BIM by the construction phase of civil engineering project and a linear 4D CAD construction methodology suitable for the civil engineering project in which linear work is performed.

Keywords: BIM, 4D CAD, linear 4D simulation, VR

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Authors: Jeonghwan Jeon

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Technology planning with both internal capacity and external resource is necessary for successful open innovation. Until now, many types of research have been conducted for this issue. However, technology planning for open innovation at the national level has not been researched sufficiently. This study proposes Open roadmap for open innovation at the national level. The proposed open roadmap can manage the inflow & outflow open innovation systematically. Six types of open roadmap are classified with respect to the innovation direction and characteristics. The proposed open roadmap is applied to the open innovation cases of the Roman period. The proposed open roadmap is expected to be helpful tool for technology policy planning at the national level.

Keywords: technology planning, open innovation, internal resource, external resource, technology management

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Authors: Masahiro Takahashi, Kosuke Harada, Shihomi Nakao, Mitsuhiro Higashihata, Hiroshi Ikenoue, Daisuke Nakamura, Tatsuo Okada

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Zinc oxide (ZnO) is one of the light emitting materials in ultraviolet (UV) region. In addition, ZnO nanostructures are also attracting increasing research interest as building blocks for UV optoelectronic applications. We have succeeded in synthesizing vertically-aligned ZnO nanostructures by laser interference patterning, which is catalyst-free and non-contact technique. In this study, vertically-aligned ZnO nanowall arrays were synthesized using two-beam interference. The maximum height and average thickness of the ZnO nanowalls were about 4.5 µm and 200 nm, respectively. UV lasing from a piece of the ZnO nanowall was obtained under the third harmonic of a Q-switched Nd:YAG laser excitation, and the estimated threshold power density for lasing was about 150 kW/cm2. Furthermore, UV lasing from the vertically-aligned ZnO nanowall was also achieved. The results indicate that ZnO nanowalls can be applied to random laser.

Keywords: zinc oxide, nanowall, interference laser, UV lasing

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Authors: Maria Neagu

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This paper presents the heat and mass driven natural convection succession in a Darcy thermally stratified porous medium that embeds a vertical semi-infinite impermeable wall of constant heat flux and concentration. The scale analysis of the system determines the two possible maps of the heat and mass driven natural convection sequence along the wall as a function of the process parameters. These results are verified using the finite differences method applied to the conservation equations.

Keywords: finite difference method, natural convection, porous medium, scale analysis, thermal stratification

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Authors: Luke Miller

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This paper develops an options pricing methodology to value strategic pricing strategies in the services sector. More specifically, this study provides a unifying taxonomy of current service sector pricing practices, frames these pricing decisions as strategic real options, demonstrates accepted option valuation techniques to assess service sector pricing decisions, and suggests future research areas where pricing decisions and real options overlap. Enhancing revenue in the service sector requires proactive decision making in a world of uncertainty. In an effort to strategically price service products, revenue enhancement necessitates a careful study of the service costs, customer base, competition, legalities, and shared economies with the market. Pricing decisions involve the quality of inputs, manpower, and best practices to maintain superior service. These decisions further hinge on identifying relevant pricing strategies and understanding how these strategies impact a firm’s value. A relatively new area of research applies option pricing theory to investments in real assets and is commonly known as real options. The real options approach is based on the premise that many corporate decisions to invest or divest in assets are simply an option wherein the firm has the right to make an investment without any obligation to act. The decision maker, therefore, has more flexibility and the value of this operating flexibility should be taken into consideration. The real options framework has already been applied to numerous areas including manufacturing, inventory, natural resources, research and development, strategic decisions, technology, and stock valuation. Additionally, numerous surveys have identified a growing need for the real options decision framework within all areas of corporate decision-making. Despite the wide applicability of real options, no study has been carried out linking service sector pricing decisions and real options. This is surprising given the service sector comprises 80% of the US employment and Gross Domestic Product (GDP). Identifying real options as a practical tool to value different service sector pricing strategies is believed to have a significant impact on firm decisions. This paper identifies and discusses four distinct pricing strategies available to the service sector from an options’ perspective: (1) Cost-based profit margin, (2) Increased customer base, (3) Platform pricing, and (4) Buffet pricing. Within each strategy lie several pricing tactics available to the service firm. These tactics can be viewed as options the decision maker has to best manage a strategic position in the market. To demonstrate the effectiveness of including flexibility in the pricing decision, a series of pricing strategies were developed and valued using a real options binomial lattice structure. The options pricing approach discussed in this study allows service firms to directly incorporate market-driven perspectives into the decision process and thus synchronizing service operations with organizational economic goals.

Keywords: option pricing theory, real options, service sector, valuation

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Authors: Hevriani Sevrika Mayuasti

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This research deals in improving college students’ critical thinking at English for Specific Purposes Subject. The strategy that is applied is Bloom’s Critical Thinking Questioning Strategy. The positive side of this strategy is that the given questions are developed based on Bloom’s taxonomy level. It is an action research because the researcher uses own class in doing this research. The processes of this research have been done from April to Mei 2014. There are two cycles and each cycle consists of two meetings. After doing the research, it is gotten that Bloom’s Critical Thinking Questioning Strategy improves college students’ critical thinking. It helps the students to build and elaborate their ideas. Hence, it increases students’ reading comprehension.

Keywords: critical thinking, blooms’ critical thinking, questioning, strategy

Procedia PDF Downloads 656

Authors: Adam Gushgari

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The SARS-CoV-2 pandemic has catalyzed the rapid adoption of wastewater-based epidemiology (WBE) methodologies both domestically and internationally. To support the rapid scale-up of pandemic-response wastewater surveillance systems, multiple federal agencies (i.e. US CDC), non-government organizations (i.e. Water Environment Federation), and private charities (i.e. Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation) have funded over $220 million USD supporting development and expanding equitable access of surveillance methods. Funds were primarily distributed directly to municipalities under the CARES Act (90.6%), followed by academic projects (7.6%), and initiatives developed by private companies (1.8%). In addition to federal funding for wastewater monitoring primarily conducted at wastewater treatment plants, state/local governments and private companies have leveraged wastewater sampling to obtain health and lifestyle data on student, prison inmate, and employee populations. We explore the viable paths for expansion of the WBE m1ethodology across a variety of analytical methods; the development of WBE-specific samplers and real-time wastewater sensors; and their application to various governments and private sector industries. Considerable investment in, and public acceptance of WBE suggests the methodology will be applied to other future notifiable diseases and health risks. Early research suggests that WBE methods can be applied to a host of additional “biological insults” including communicable diseases and pathogens, such as influenza, Cryptosporidium, Giardia, mycotoxin exposure, hepatitis, dengue, West Nile, Zika, and yellow fever. Interest in chemical insults is also likely, providing community health and lifestyle data on narcotics consumption, use of pharmaceutical and personal care products (PPCP), PFAS and hazardous chemical exposure, and microplastic exposure. Successful application of WBE to monitor analytes correlated with carcinogen exposure, community stress prevalence, and dietary indicators has also been shown. Additionally, technology developments of in situ wastewater sensors, WBE-specific wastewater samplers, and integration of artificial intelligence will drastically change the landscape of WBE through the development of “smart sewer” networks. The rapid expansion of the WBE field is creating significant business opportunities for professionals across the scientific, engineering, and technology industries ultimately focused on community health improvement.

Keywords: wastewater surveillance, wastewater-based epidemiology, smart cities, public health, pandemic management, substance abuse

Procedia PDF Downloads 108

Authors: Atchara Sankom, Warapa Mahakarnchanakul, Ronnarit Rittiron, Tanaboon Sajjaanantakul, Thammasak Thongket

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Vegetables are frequently contaminated with pesticides residues resulting in the most food safety concern among agricultural products. The objective of this work was to develop a method to detect the organophosphate (OP) pesticides residues in vegetables using Near Infrared (NIR) spectroscopy technique. Low concentration (ppm) of OP pesticides in vegetables were investigated. The experiment was divided into 2 sections. In the first section, Chinese kale spiked with different concentrations of chlorpyrifos pesticide residues (0.5-100 ppm) was chosen as the sample model to demonstrate the appropriate conditions of sample preparation, both for a solution or solid sample. The spiked samples were extracted with acetone. The sample extracts were applied as solution samples, while the solid samples were prepared by the dry-extract system for infrared (DESIR) technique. The DESIR technique was performed by embedding the solution sample on filter paper (GF/A) and then drying. The NIR spectra were measured with the transflectance mode over wavenumber regions of 12,500-4000 cm⁻¹. The QuEChERS method followed by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) was performed as the standard method. The results from the first section showed that the DESIR technique with NIR spectroscopy demonstrated good accurate calibration result with R² of 0.93 and RMSEP of 8.23 ppm. However, in the case of solution samples, the prediction regarding the NIR-PLSR (partial least squares regression) equation showed poor performance (R² = 0.16 and RMSEP = 23.70 ppm). In the second section, the DESIR technique coupled with NIR spectroscopy was applied to the detection of OP pesticides in vegetables. Vegetables (Chinese kale, cabbage and hot chili) were spiked with OP pesticides (chlorpyrifos ethion and profenofos) at different concentrations ranging from 0.5 to 100 ppm. Solid samples were prepared (based on the DESIR technique), then samples were scanned by NIR spectrophotometer at ambient temperature (25+2°C). The NIR spectra were measured as in the first section. The NIR- PLSR showed the best calibration equation for detecting low concentrations of chlorpyrifos residues in vegetables (Chinese kale, cabbage and hot chili) according to the prediction set of R2 and RMSEP of 0.85-0.93 and 8.23-11.20 ppm, respectively. For ethion residues, the best calibration equation of NIR-PLSR showed good indexes of R² and RMSEP of 0.88-0.94 and 7.68-11.20 ppm, respectively. As well as the results for profenofos pesticide, the NIR-PLSR also showed the best calibration equation for detecting the profenofos residues in vegetables according to the good index of R² and RMSEP of 0.88-0.97 and 5.25-11.00 ppm, respectively. Moreover, the calibration equation developed in this work could rapidly predict the concentrations of OP pesticides residues (0.5-100 ppm) in vegetables, and there was no significant difference between NIR-predicted values and actual values (data from GC-MS) at a confidence interval of 95%. In this work, the proposed method using NIR spectroscopy involving the DESIR technique has proved to be an efficient method for the screening detection of OP pesticides residues at low concentrations, and thus increases the food safety potential of vegetables for domestic and export markets.

Keywords: NIR spectroscopy, organophosphate pesticide, vegetable, food safety

Procedia PDF Downloads 150

Authors: Ivo Zution Goncalves, Christopher M. U. Neale, Hiran Medeiros, Everardo Mantovani, Natalia Souza

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Multispectral and thermal infrared imagery from satellite sensors coupled with climate and soil datasets were used to estimate evapotranspiration and biomass in center pivots planted to maize in Brazil during the 2016 season. The hybrid remote sensing based model named Spatial EvapoTranspiration Modelling Interface (SETMI) was applied using multispectral and thermal infrared imagery from the Landsat Thematic Mapper instrument. Field data collected by the IRRIGER center pivot management company included daily weather information such as maximum and minimum temperature, precipitation, relative humidity for estimating reference evapotranspiration. In addition, soil water content data were obtained every 0.20 m in the soil profile down to 0.60 m depth throughout the season. Early season soil samples were used to obtain water-holding capacity, wilting point, saturated hydraulic conductivity, initial volumetric soil water content, layer thickness, and saturated volumetric water content. Crop canopy development parameters and irrigation application depths were also inputs of the model. The modeling approach is based on the reflectance-based crop coefficient approach contained within the SETMI hybrid ET model using relationships developed in Nebraska. The model was applied to several fields located in Minas Gerais State in Brazil with approximate latitude: -16.630434 and longitude: -47.192876. The model provides estimates of real crop evapotranspiration (ET), crop irrigation requirements and all soil water balance outputs, including biomass estimation using multi-temporal satellite image inputs. An interpolation scheme based on the growing degree-day concept was used to model the periods between satellite inputs, filling the gaps between image dates and obtaining daily data. Actual and accumulated ET, accumulated cold temperature and water stress and crop water requirements estimated by the model were compared with data measured at the experimental fields. Results indicate that the SETMI modeling approach using data assimilation, showed reliable daily ET and crop water requirements for maize, interpolated between remote sensing observations, confirming the applicability of the SETMI model using new relationships developed in Nebraska for estimating mainly ET and water requirements in Brazil under tropical conditions.

Keywords: basal crop coefficient, irrigation, remote sensing, SETMI

Procedia PDF Downloads 140

Authors: Nazima Ellahi, Danish Ramzan

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There is a growing trend among development economists regarding the importance of financial sector for economic development and growth activities. The development thus introduced, helps to promote welfare effects and poverty alleviation. This study is an attempt to find the nature of link between Islamic banking financing and development of output growth for Pakistan. Time series data set has been utilized for a time period ranging from 1990 to 2010. Following the Phillip Perron (PP) and Augmented Dicky Fuller (ADF) test of unit root this study applied Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) method of estimation and found encouraging results in favor of promoting the Islamic banking practices in Pakistan.

Keywords: Islamic finance, poverty alleviation, economic growth, finance, commerce

Procedia PDF Downloads 345

Authors: Min Han, Di Wu, Lin Yuan, Fei Liu

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Mechanical sensors have undergone a continuous evolution and have become an important part of many industries, ranging from manufacturing to process, chemicals, machinery, health-care, environmental monitoring, automotive, avionics, and household appliances. Concurrently, the microelectronics and microfabrication technology have provided us with the means of producing mechanical microsensors characterized by high sensitivity, small size, integrated electronics, on board calibration, and low cost. Here we report a new kind of mechanical sensors based on the quantum transport process of electrons in the closely spaced nanoparticle films covering a flexible polymer sheet. The nanoparticle films were fabricated by gas phase depositing of preformed metal nanoparticles with a controlled coverage on the electrodes. To amplify the conductance of the nanoparticle array, we fabricated silver interdigital electrodes on polyethylene terephthalate(PET) by mask evaporation deposition. The gaps of the electrodes ranged from 3 to 30μm. Metal nanoparticles were generated from a magnetron plasma gas aggregation cluster source and deposited on the interdigital electrodes. Closely spaced nanoparticle arrays with different coverage could be gained through real-time monitoring the conductance. In the film coulomb blockade and quantum, tunneling/hopping dominate the electronic conduction mechanism. The basic principle of the mechanical sensors relies on the mechanical deformation of the fabricated devices which are translated into electrical signals. Several kinds of sensing devices have been explored. As a strain sensor, the device showed a high sensitivity as well as a very wide dynamic range. A gauge factor as large as 100 or more was demonstrated, which can be at least one order of magnitude higher than that of the conventional metal foil gauges or even better than that of the semiconductor-based gauges with a workable maximum applied strain beyond 3%. And the strain sensors have a workable maximum applied strain larger than 3%. They provide the potential to be a new generation of strain sensors with performance superior to that of the currently existing strain sensors including metallic strain gauges and semiconductor strain gauges. When integrated into a pressure gauge, the devices demonstrated the ability to measure tiny pressure change as small as 20Pa near the atmospheric pressure. Quantitative vibration measurements were realized on a free-standing cantilever structure fabricated with closely-spaced nanoparticle array sensing element. What is more, the mechanical sensor elements can be easily scaled down, which is feasible for MEMS and NEMS applications.

Keywords: gas phase deposition, mechanical sensors, metallic nanoparticle arrays, quantum conductance

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Authors: Tejinder Singh

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This paper describes a new more efficient Hydraulic System which uses lesser work to produce more output. Conventional Hydraulic System like Hydraulic Lifts and Rams use lots of water to be pumped to produce output. TejHydroLift will do the equal amount of force with lesser input of water. The paper will show that force applied can be increased manifold without requiring to move smaller force by more distance which used to be required in Conventional Hydraulic Lifts. The paper describes one of the configurations of TejHydroLift System called “Slim Antenna TejHydroLift Configuration”. The TejHydroLift uses lesser water and hence demands lesser work to be performed to move the same load.

Keywords: alternate, hydraulic system, efficient, TejHydroLift

Procedia PDF Downloads 260

Authors: Aishrith Rao

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Human activity recognition is an important aspect of video analytics, and many approaches have been recommended to enable action recognition. In this approach, the model is used to identify the action of the multiple people in the frame and classify them accordingly. A few approaches use RNNs and 3D CNNs, which are computationally expensive and cannot be trained with the small datasets which are currently available. Multi-person action recognition has been performed in order to understand the positions and action of people present in the video frame. The size of the video frame can be adjusted as a hyper-parameter depending on the hardware resources available. OpenPose has been used to calculate pose estimate using CNN to produce heap-maps, one of which provides skeleton features, which are basically joint features. The features are then extracted, and a classification algorithm can be applied to classify the action.

Keywords: human activity recognition, computer vision, pose estimates, convolutional neural networks

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Authors: Tran Hung Tra, Hao Dinh Duong, Masakazu Okazaki

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Copper 1100 and aluminum 1050 plates with a thickness of 5.0 mm are butt-joint using friction stir welding. The tool offset is linearly varied along the welding path. Two welding regimes, using the same linear tool offset but in opposite directions, are applied for fabricating two Cu/Al plates. The material flow is dominated by both tool offset and offset history. The intermetallic compounds layer and interface morphology in each welded plate are formed in a different manner. As a result, the bonding strength and fracture behavior between two welded plates are significantly distinct. The role of interface morphology on fracture behavior is analyzed by the finite element method.

Keywords: Cu/Al dissimilar welding, offset history, interface morphology, intermetallic compounds, strength and fracture

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Authors: Maria Fernanda Ordoñez Martinez, Alvaro Mauricio Montenegro

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This work presents a statistical methodology for measuring and founding constructs in Latent Semantic Analysis. This approach uses the qualities of Factor Analysis in binary data with interpretations present on Item Response Theory. More precisely, we propose initially reducing dimensionality with specific use of Principal Component Analysis for the linguistic data and then, producing axes of groups made from a clustering analysis of the semantic data. This approach allows the user to give meaning to previous clusters and found the real latent structure presented by data. The methodology is applied in a set of real semantic data presenting impressive results for the coherence, speed and precision.

Keywords: semantic analysis, factorial analysis, dimension reduction, penalized logistic regression

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Authors: L. García, N. Cobas, M. López

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Acrylamide, a probable carcinogen, is formed in high-temperature processed food (>120ºC) when the free amino acid asparagine reacts with reducing sugars, mainly glucose and fructose. Cane juices' repeated heating would potentially form acrylamide during brown sugar production. This study aims to determine if using panela in yogurt cake preparation increases acrylamide formation. A secondary aim is to analyze the acrylamide concentration in four cake confections with different caloric sweetener ingredients: beet sugar (BS), cane sugar (CS), panela (P), and a panela and chocolate mix (PC). The doughs were obtained by combining ingredients in a planetary mixer. A model system made up of flour (25%), caloric sweeteners (25 %), eggs (23%), yogurt (15.7%), sunflower oil (9.4%), and brewer's yeast (2 %) was applied to BS, CS and P cakes. The ingredients of PC cakes varied: flour (21.5 %), panela chocolate (21.5 %), eggs (25.9 %), yogurt (18 %), sunflower oil (10.8 %), and brewer’s yeast (2.3 %). The preparations were baked for 45' at 180 ºC. Moisture was estimated by AOAC. Protein was determined by the Kjeldahl method. Ash percentage was calculated by weight loss after pyrolysis (≈ 600 °C). Fat content was measured using liquid-solid extraction in hydrolyzed raw ingredients and final confections. Carbohydrates were determined by difference and total sugars by the Luff-Schoorl method, based on the iodometric determination of copper ions. Finally, acrylamide content was determined by LC-MS by the isocratic system (phase A: 97.5 % water with 0.1% formic acid; phase B: 2.5 % methanol), using a standard internal procedure. Statistical analysis was performed using SPSS v.23. One-way variance analysis determined differences between acrylamide content and compositional analysis, with caloric sweeteners as fixed effect. Significance levels were determined by applying Duncan's t-test (p<0.05). P cakes showed a lower energy value than the other baked products; sugar content was similar to BS and CS, with 6.1 % mean crude protein. Acrylamide content in caloric sweeteners was similar to previously reported values. However, P and PC showed significantly higher concentrations, probably explained by the applied procedure. Acrylamide formation depends on both reducing sugars and asparagine concentration and availability. Beet sugar samples did not present acrylamide concentrations within the detection and quantification limit. However, the highest acrylamide content was measured in the BS. This may be due to the higher concentration of reducing sugars and asparagine in other raw ingredients. The cakes made with panela, cane sugar, or panela with chocolate did not differ in acrylamide content. The lack of asparagine measures constitutes a limitation. Cakes made with panela showed lower acrylamide formation than products elaborated with beet or cane sugar.

Keywords: beet sugar, cane sugar, panela, yogurt cake

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Authors: Haniza Ahmad, Norliza Saparin, Ahmadilfitri Md Noor, Mohd Suria Affandi Yusoff

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Enzymatic remediation is applied in low free fatty acid (FFA) (<4%) crude palm oil (CPO) to investigate if further FFA reduction is able to take place to produce premium CPO (<1% FFA). There are four different lipase Candida Antartica brands used in this study. Samples submit to enzymatic remediation using rotary evaporator under 100mbar vacuum with rotation at 260rpm. Samples were taken at 4hours, 8hours and 24hours for analyses. FFA less than 1% was achieved after 24hours reaction with 1% enzyme and 2% glycerol. The FFA reduction was intensified with the presence of glycerol who provides more sites for fatty acid attachment. At 2% glycerol, 71-88% FFA was reduced whereas at 1% glycerol, 46-75% FFA reduced. However, partial glycerides was increased with presence of glycerol with 2% add in glycerol showed greater partial glycerides increment compared to 1% glycerol.

Keywords: enzymes, crude palm oil, free fatty acid, glycerol

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Authors: Vasiliki Markantoni, Eftychia Platsidaki, Georgios Chaidemenos, Georgios Kontochristopoulos

Abstract:

Introduction: Bromhidrosis, also known as osmidrosis, is a common distressing condition with a significant negative effect on patient’s quality of life. Its etiology is multifactorial. It usually affects axilla, genital skin, breasts and soles, areas where apocrine glands are mostly distributed. Therapeutic treatments include topical antibacterial agents, antiperspirants and neuromuscular blocker agents-toxins. In this study, we aimed to evaluate the efficacy and possible complications of topical glycopyrrolate, an anticholinergic agent, for treatment of bromhidrosis. Glycopyrrolate, applied topically as a cream, solution or spray at concentrations between 0,5% and 4%, has been successfully used to treat different forms of focal hyperhidrosis. Materials and Methods: Twenty patients, six males and fourteen females, meeting the criteria for bromhidrosis were treated with topical glycopyrrolate for two months. The average age was 36. Eleven patients had bromhidrosis located to the axillae, four to the soles, four to both axillae and soles and one to the genital folds. Glycopyrrolate was applied topically as a cream at concentration 2%, formulated in Fitalite. During the first month, patients were using the cream every night and thereafter twice daily. The degree of malodor was assessed subjectively by patients and scaled averagely as ‘none’, ‘mild’, ‘moderate’, and ‘severe’ with corresponding scores of 0, 1, 2, and 3, respectively. The modified Dermatology Life Quality Index (DLQI) was used to assess the quality of life. The clinical efficacy was graded by the patient scale of excellent, good, fair and poor. In the end, patients were given the power to evaluate whether they were totally satisfied with, partially satisfied or unsatisfied and possible side effects during the treatment were recorded. Results: All patients were satisfied at the end of the treatment. No patient defined the response as no improvement. The subjectively assessed score level of bromhidrosis was remarkably improved after the first month of treatment and improved slightly more after the second month. DLQI score was also improved to all patients. Adverse effects were reported in 2 patients. In the first case, topical irritation was reported. This was classed as mild (erythema and desquamation), appeared during the second month of treatment and was treated with low-potency topical corticosteroids. In the second case, mydriasis was reported, that recovered without specific treatment, as soon as we insisted to the importance of careful hygiene after cream application so as not to contaminate the periocular skin or ocular surface. Conclusions: Dermatologists often encounter patients with bromhidrosis, therefore should be aware of treatment options. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study to evaluate the use of topical glycopyrrolate as a therapeutic approach for bromhidrosis. Our findings suggest that topical glycopyrrolate has an excellent safety profile and demonstrate encouraging results for the management of this distressful condition.

Keywords: Bromhidrosis, glycopyrrolate, topical treatment, osmidrosis

Procedia PDF Downloads 167

Authors: Vinay Patil, Swapnil Kekade, Ashish Supare, Vinayak Pawar, Shital Jadhav, Rajkumar Singh

Abstract:

In recent days, bainitic steel is used in automobile and non-automobile sectors due to its high strength. Bainitic steel is difficult to machine because of its high hardness, hence in this paper machinability of bainitic steel is studied by using Taguchi design of experiments (DOE) approach. Convectional turning experiments were done by using L16 orthogonal array for three input parameters viz. cutting speed, depth of cut and feed. The Taguchi method is applied to study the performance characteristics of machining parameters with surface roughness (Ra), cutting force and tool wear rate. By using Taguchi analysis, optimized process parameters for best surface finish and minimum cutting forces were analyzed.

Keywords: conventional turning, Taguchi method, S/N ratio, bainitic steel machining

Procedia PDF Downloads 331

Authors: Sandra Baßler, Peter Dünow, Mathias Marquardt

Abstract:

A Fourier series based learning control (FSBLC) algorithm for tracking trajectories of mechanical systems with unknown nonlinearities is presented. Two processes are introduced to which the FSBLC with PD controller is applied. One is a simplified service robot capable of climbing stairs due to special wheels and the other is a propeller driven pendulum with nearly the same requirements on control. Additionally to the investigation of learning the feed forward for the desired trajectories some considerations on the implementation of such an algorithm on low cost microcontroller hardware are made. Simulations of the service robot as well as practical experiments on the pendulum show the capability of the used FSBLC algorithm to perform the task of improving control behavior for repetitive task of such mechanical systems.

Keywords: climbing stairs, FSBLC, ILC, service robot

Procedia PDF Downloads 314

Authors: M. Jahanandish, Gh. Sadeghian, M. H. Daneshvar, M. H. Jahanandish

Abstract:

The amount of resistance of a particular medium like soil to the moving objects is the interest of many areas in science. These include soil mechanics, geotechnical engineering, powder mechanics etc. Knowledge of drag force is also used for estimating the amount of momentum of fired objects like bullets. This paper focuses on measurement of drag force of sand on a cone when it moves at a low constant speed. A 30-degree apex angle cone has been used for this purpose. The study consisted of both loose and dense conditions of the soil. The applied speed has been in the range of 0.1 to 10 mm/min. The results indicate that the required force is basically independent of the cone speed; but, it is very dependent on the material densification and confining stress.

Keywords: drag force, sand, moving speed, friction angle, densification, confining stress

Procedia PDF Downloads 367

Authors: Salim Ouchtati, Jean Sequeira, Mouldi Bedda

Abstract:

In this work we present an off line system for the recognition of the Arabic handwritten words of the Algerian departments. The study is based mainly on the evaluation of neural network performances, trained with the gradient back propagation algorithm. The used parameters to form the input vector of the neural network are extracted on the binary images of the handwritten word by several methods: the parameters of distribution, the moments centered of the different projections and the Barr features. It should be noted that these methods are applied on segments gotten after the division of the binary image of the word in six segments. The classification is achieved by a multi layers perceptron. Detailed experiments are carried and satisfactory recognition results are reported.

Keywords: handwritten word recognition, neural networks, image processing, pattern recognition, features extraction

Procedia PDF Downloads 513