Search results for: Heart rate

Authors: Joseph C. Chen, Venkata Mohan Kudapa

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Development of two real-time surface roughness (Ra) prediction systems for milling operations was attempted. The systems used not only cutting parameters, such as feed rate and spindle speed, but also the cutting current generated and corrected by a clamp type energy sensor. Two different approaches were developed. First, a fuzzy inference system (FIS), in which the fuzzy logic rules are generated by experts in the milling processes, was used to conduct prediction modeling using current cutting data. Second, a neuro-fuzzy system (ANFIS) was explored. Neuro-fuzzy systems are adaptive techniques in which data are collected on the network, processed, and rules are generated by the system. The inference system then uses these rules to predict Ra as the output. Experimental results showed that the parameters of spindle speed, feed rate, depth of cut, and input current variation could predict Ra. These two systems enable the prediction of Ra during the milling operation with an average of 91.83% and 94.48% accuracy by FIS and ANFIS systems, respectively. Statistically, the ANFIS system provided better prediction accuracy than that of the FIS system.

Keywords: surface roughness, input current, fuzzy logic, neuro-fuzzy, milling operations

Procedia PDF Downloads 139

Authors: Nivethika Ajeethan, Lord Abbey, Svetlana Yurge

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Riboflavin is a water-soluble vitamin and the direct precursor of the flavin cofactors flavin mononucleotide and flavin adenine dinucleotide. Flavins (FLs) are bioactive molecules that have a beneficial effect on plant growth and development. Sinorhizobium meliloti strain 1021 is an α-proteobacterium that forms agronomically important N₂-fixing symbiosis with Medicago plants and secretes a considerable amount of FLs (FL⁺ strain). This strain was also implicated in plant growth promotion in its association with non-legume host plants. However, the mechanism of this plant growth promotion is not well understood. In this study, we evaluated the growth and development of tomato plants inoculated with S. meliloti 1021 and its mutant (FL⁻ strain) with limited ability to secrete FLs. Our preliminary experiments indicated that inoculation with FL⁺ strain significantly increased seedlings' root and shoot length and surface area compared to those of plants inoculated with FL⁻ strain. For example, the root lengths of 9-day old seedlings inoculated with FL⁺ strain were 35% longer than seedlings inoculated with the mutant. Proteomic approaches combined with the analysis of plant physiological responses such as growth and photosynthetic rate, stomatal conductance, transpiration rate, and chlorophyll content will be used to evaluate the host-plant response to bacteria-derived FLs.

Keywords: flavin, plant growth promotion, riboflavin, Sinorhizobium meliloti

Procedia PDF Downloads 152

Authors: Qiaohui Zhong, Yiqi Kuang, Wanxun Cai, Libin Huang

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As a community public facility, the popularity and perfection of old clothes recycling products directly affect people's impression of the whole city, which is related to the happiness index of residents' lives and is of great significance to the construction of eco-civilized cities and the realization of sustainable urban development. At present, China's waste clothing is characterized by large production and a high utilization rate, but the current rate of old clothes recycling is low, and the ‘one-size-fits-all’ recycling model makes people's motivation for old clothes recycling low, and old clothes recycling is in a dilemma. Based on the two online and offline recycling modes of old clothes recycling in Chinese communities, this paper conducts an in-depth survey on the public, operators, and regulators from the aspects of activity scene analysis, crowd attributes analysis, and community space analysis summarizes the difficulties of old clothes recycling for the public - nowhere to recycle, inconvenient to recycle and unwilling to recycle, and analyzes the factors that lead to these difficulties, and gives a solution with foreign experience to solve these problems. It also analyzes the factors that lead to these difficulties and gives targeted suggestions in combination with foreign experience, exploring and proposing a set of appropriate modern old-clothes recycling modes.

Keywords: community, old clothes recycling, recycling mode, sustainable urban development

Procedia PDF Downloads 43

Authors: Saowapa Phaithayawat

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The objectives of the study are the following: 1) To study the way of life in terms of one hundred years co-existence of the Muslim and local community in this area 2) To analyze factors affect to this community with happy co-existence. The study requires quantitative research to study a history together with the study of humanity. The result of this study showed that the area of Petchburi 7 community is an ancient area which has owned by the Muslim for almost 100 years. There is a sanctuary as the center of unity. Later Bangkok becomes more developed and provides more infrastructures like the motorway and other transportation: however, the owners of lands in this community still keep their lands and build many buildings to run the business. With this purpose, there are many non-Muslim people come to live here with co-existence. Not only do they convenient to work but also easy to transport by sky train. There are factors that make them live harmonious as following: 1) All Muslims in this area are strict to follow their rules and allocate their community for business. 2) All people, who come and live here, are middle-aged and working men and women. They rent rooms closed to their work. 3) There are Muslim food and desserts, especially Roti, the popular fried flour, and local Chachak, tea originated from the south of Thailand. All these food and deserts are famous for working men and women to home and join after work 4) All Muslim in this area are independent to lead their own lives although a society changes rapidly.

Keywords: co-existence, Muslims, other group of people, the ancient community, social sciences

Procedia PDF Downloads 336

Authors: Sourabh Jain, Vikas Jain, Dharmendar Kumar

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The present study investigated the antidiabetic potential of Cedrus deodara heart wood aqueous extract. Aqueous extract of Cedrus deodara was found to reduce blood sugar level in alloxan induced diabetic rats. Reduction in blood sugar could be seen from 5th day after continuous administration of the extract and on 21st day sugar levels were found to be reduced by 40.20%. Oxidative stress produced by alloxan was found to be significantly lowered by the administration of Cedrus deodara aqueous extract (500 mg/kg). This was evident from a significant decrease in lipid per oxidation level in liver induced by alloxan. The level of Glutathione, Catalase, Superoxide dismutase and Glutathione-S-Transferase in liver, kidney and pancreas tissue were found to be increased significantly after drug administration. The results obtained in the present study suggest that the Cedrus deodara aqueous extract effectively and significantly reduced the oxidative stress induced by alloxan and produced a reduction in blood sugar level.

Keywords: Cedrus deodara, heartwood, antioxidant, anti-diabetic, anti-inflammatory

Procedia PDF Downloads 383

Authors: Tânia F. C. V. Silva, Eloísa S. S. Vieira, João Pinto da Costa, Rui A. R. Boaventura, Vitor J. P. Vilar

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Sanitary landfill leachates are characterized as a complex mixture of diverse organic and inorganic contaminants, which are usually removed by combining different treatment processes. Due to its simplicity, reliability, high cost-effectiveness and high nitrogen content (mostly under the ammonium form) inherent in this type of effluent, the activated sludge biological process is almost always applied in leachate treatment plants (LTPs). The purpose of this work is to assess the effect of the main nitrification and denitrification variables on the nitrogen's biological removal, from mature leachates. The leachate samples were collected after an aerated lagoon, at a LTP nearby Porto, presenting a high amount of dissolved organic carbon (1.0-1.3 g DOC/L) and ammonium nitrogen (1.1-1.7 g NH4+-N/L). The experiments were carried out in a 1-L lab-scale batch reactor, equipped with a pH, temperature and dissolved oxygen (DO) control system, in order to determine the reaction kinetic constants at unchanging conditions. The nitrification reaction rate was evaluated while varying the (i) operating temperature (15, 20, 25 and 30ºC), (ii) DO concentration interval (0.5-1.0, 1.0-2.0 and 2.0-4.0 mg/L) and (iii) solution pH (not controlled, 7.5-8.5 and 6.5-7.5). At the beginning of most assays, it was verified that the ammonium stripping occurred simultaneously to the nitrification, reaching up to 37% removal of total dissolved nitrogen. The denitrification kinetic constants and the methanol consumptions were calculated for different values of (i) volatile suspended solids (VSS) content (25, 50 and 100 mL of centrifuged sludge in 1 L solution), (ii) pH interval (6.5-7.0, 7.5-8.0 and 8.5-9.0) and (iii) temperature (15, 20, 25 and 30ºC), using effluent previously nitrified. The maximum nitrification rate obtained was 38±2 mg NH4+-N/h/g VSS (25ºC, 0.5-1.0 mg O2/L, pH not controlled), consuming 4.4±0.3 mg CaCO3/mg NH4+-N. The highest denitrification rate achieved was 19±1 mg (NO2--N+NO3--N)/h/g VSS (30ºC, 50 mL of sludge and pH between 7.5 and 8.0), with a C/N consumption ratio of 1.1±0.1 mg CH3OH/mg (NO2--N+NO3--N) and an overall alkalinity production of 3.7±0.3 mg CaCO3/mg (NO2--N+NO3--N). The denitrification process showed to be sensitive to all studied parameters, while the nitrification reaction did not suffered significant change when DO content was changed.

Keywords: mature sanitary landfill leachate, nitrogen removal, nitrification and denitrification parameters, lab-scale activated sludge biological reactor

Procedia PDF Downloads 270

Authors: Haruna Modibbo Usman, Mustapha Muktar, Nasiru Inuwa

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This paper examined the long run relationship between health outcomes and economic growth in Nigeria from 1961 to 2012. Using annual time series data, Augmented Dickey-Fuller (ADF) test is conducted to check the stochastic properties of the variables. Also, the long run relationship among the variables is confirmed based on Johansen Multivariate Cointegration approach whereas the long run and short run dynamics are observed using Vector Error Correction Mechanism (VECM). In addition, VEC Granger causality test is employed to examine the direction of causality among the variables. On the whole, the results obtained revealed the existence of a long run relationship between health outcomes and economic growth in Nigeria and that both life expectancy and crude death rate as measures of health are found to have a long run negative and statistically significant impact on the economic growth over the study period. This is further buttressed by the results of Granger causality test which indicated the existence of unidirectional causality running from life expectancy and crude death rate to economic growth. The study therefore, calls for governments at various levels to create preconditions for health improvements in Nigeria in order to boost the level of health outcomes.

Keywords: cointegration, economic growth, Granger causality, health outcomes, VECM

Procedia PDF Downloads 486

Authors: Yogi Priyo Pradana, Heriansyah Putra, Regina Aprilia Zulfikar, Maulana Rafiq Ramadhan, Devyan Meisnnehr, Zalfa Maulida Insani

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This paper studied the effects and mechanisms of fine-grained tailing by Enzyme-Mediated Calcite Precipitation (EMCP). Grouting solution used consists of reagents (CaCl₂ and (CO(NH₂)₂) and urease enzymes which react to produce CaCO₃. In sample preparation, the test tube is used to investigate the precipitation rate of calcite. The grouting solution added is 75 mL for one mold sample. The solution was poured into a mold sample up to as high as 5 mm from the top surface of the tailing to ensure the entire surface is submerged. The sample is left open in a cylinder for up to 3 days for curing. The direct mixing method is conducted so that the cementation process occurs by evenly distributed. The relationship between the results of the UCS test and the calcite precipitation rate likely indicates that the amount of calcite deposited in treated tailing could control the strength of the tailing. The sample results are analyzed using atomic absorption spectroscopy (AAS) to evaluate metal and metalloid content. Calcium carbonate deposited in the tailing is expected to strengthen the bond between tailing granules, which are easily slipped on the banks of the tailing dam. The EMCP method is expected to strengthen tailing in erosion-control surfaces.

Keywords: tailing, EMCP, UCS, AAS

Procedia PDF Downloads 134

Authors: Thouraya Majoul

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Obesity is now a real public health issue throughout the world, and it is well-established that obesity leads to cardiovascular diseases. The prevention and treatment of obesity using nutritional supplements has become a realistic and effective approach. This study was carried out to analyze the incidence of a high-fat diet on rat heart metabolism as well as on fatty acids composition, then to investigate the eventual protective effects of a grape seed extract (GSE). The experimental design consisted of three rat groups subjected to three different conditions; standard (SD), high-fat diet (HFD) and HFD+GSE (HG). We showed that GSE counteracted the effect of HFD on fatty acid composition, namely, docosapentaenoic acid, docosahexaenoic acid, arachidonic acid (ARA), palmitic acid (PA) and palmitoleic acid. Besides, GSE treatment restored HFD-altered metabolic pathways through the recovery of some cardiac enzyme activities such as lipase, glucose 6 phosphate dehydrogenase and pyruvate dehydrogenase. The cardiac lactate level and lactate dehydrogenase activity were also analyzed in relation to HFD and GSE administration. To our knowledge, this is the first study showing the anti-obesity and cardioprotective effects of GSE in relation to fatty acid composition and some cardiac enzymes, supporting its role as a therapeutic agent of obesity.

Keywords: Grape seed extract, phenolic, obesity, cardioprotective, lipotoxicity, energy metabolism

Procedia PDF Downloads 80

Authors: Gabriella Zarlenga, Martha L. Hall

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Introduction: Premature infants are at risk for neurodevelopmental deficits and hospital readmissions, which can increase the financial burden on the health care system and families. Kangaroo care (skin-to-skin contact) is a practice that can improve preterm infant health outcomes. Preterm infants can acquire adequate body temperature, heartbeat, and breathing regulation through lying directly on the mother’s abdomen and in between her breasts. Due to some infant’s condition, kangaroo care is not a feasible intervention. The purpose of this proof-of-concept research project is to create a device which simulates skin-to-skin contact for pre-term infants not eligible for kangaroo care, with the aim of promoting baby’s health outcomes, reducing the incidence of serious neonatal and early childhood illnesses, and/or improving cognitive, social and emotional aspects of development. Methods: The study design is a proof-of-concept based on a three-phase approach; (1) observational study and data analysis of the standard of care for 2 groups of pre-term infants, (2) design and concept development of a novel device for pre-term infants not currently eligible for standard kangaroo care, and (3) prototyping, laboratory testing, and evaluation of the novel device in comparison to current assessment parameters of kangaroo care. A single center study will be conducted in an area hospital offering Level III neonatal intensive care. Eligible participants include newborns born premature (28-30 weeks of age) admitted to the NICU. The study design includes 2 groups: a control group receiving standard kangaroo care and an experimental group not eligible for kangaroo care. Based on behavioral analysis of observational video data collected in the NICU, the device will be created to simulate mother’s body using electrical components in a thermoplastic polymer housing covered in silicone. It will be designed with a microprocessor that controls simulated respiration, heartbeat, and body temperature of the 'simulated caregiver' by using a pneumatic lung, vibration sensors (heartbeat), pressure sensors (weight/position), and resistive film to measure temperature. A slight contour of the simulator surface may be integrated to help position the infant correctly. Control and monitoring of the skin-to-skin contact simulator would be performed locally by an integrated touchscreen. The unit would have built-in Wi-Fi connectivity as well as an optional Bluetooth connection in which the respiration and heart rate could be synced with a parent or caregiver. A camera would be integrated, allowing a video stream of the infant in the simulator to be streamed to a monitoring location. Findings: Expected outcomes are stabilization of respiratory and cardiac rates, thermoregulation of those infants not eligible for skin to skin contact with their mothers, and real time mother Bluetooth to the device to mimic the experience in the womb. Results of this study will benefit clinical practice by creating a new standard of care for premature neonates in the NICU that are deprived of skin to skin contact due to various health restrictions.

Keywords: kangaroo care, wearable technology, pre-term infants, medical design

Procedia PDF Downloads 154

Authors: Megumi Nishida, Naoya Motegi, Takurou Kikuchi, Tomoko Tokumura

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In recent years, power system has been changed and flexible power pricing system such as demand response has been sought in Japan. The demand response system is simple in the household sector and the owner, decision-maker, can gain the benefits of power saving. On the other hand, the execution of the demand response in the office building is more complex than household because various people such as owners, building administrators and occupants are involved in making decisions. While the owners benefit from the demand saving, the occupants are forced to be exposed to demand-saved environment certain benefits. One of the reasons is that building systems are usually centralized control and each occupant cannot choose either participate demand response event or not, and contribution of each occupant to demand response is unclear to provide incentives. However, the recent development of IT and building systems enables the personalized control of office environment where each occupant can control the lighting level or temperature around him or herself. Therefore, it can be possible to have a system which each occupant can make a decision of demand response participation in office building. This study investigates the personal behavior upon demand response requests, under the condition where each occupant can adjust their brightness individually in their workspace. Once workers participate in the demand response, their task lights are automatically turned off. The participation rates in the demand response events are compared between four groups which are divided by different motivation, the presence or absence of incentives and the way of participation. The result shows that there are the significant differences of participation rates in demand response event between four groups. The way of participation has a large effect on the participation rate. ‘Opt-out’ group, where the occupants are automatically enrolled in a demand response event if they don't express non-participation, will have the highest participation rate in the four groups. The incentive has also an effect on the participation rate. This study also reports that the impact of low illumination office environment on the occupants, such as stress or fatigue. The electrocardiogram and the questionnaire are used to investigate the autonomic nervous activity and subjective symptoms about the fatigue of the occupants. There is no big difference between dim workspace during demand response event and bright workspace in autonomic nervous activity and fatigue.

Keywords: demand response, illumination, questionnaire, electrocardiogram

Procedia PDF Downloads 348

Authors: Ella Zahra

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Sea urchins are keystone species in many global benthic ecosystems. The concentration of microplastics (MPs) in sea urchin organs was quantified in 120 individuals of 2 different species and from 4 sites across the Greek island Lipsi, with special interest in the differences between the native Arbacia lixula and the invasive Diadema setosum. Over 93% of MPs observed in both species were fibrous. MP abundance was found to correlate with exposure to open sea and harsh prevailing winds, irrespective of proximity to urban activities. The MP abundance in the invasive species was not found to be significantly dependent on site. Interestingly, the smaller native species contained significantly larger sized MPs than the invasive, possibly as a result of a greater feeding rate in A. lixula individuals. Sexually immature urchins may also have a higher feeding rate, giving rise to the negative correlation between gonad index and MPs per individual. The size of MPs ranged from 10µm to 24210µm, heavily skewed towards smaller particles. Few differences in colour were noted between the species and sites. MPs were detected in 100% of the samples with abundance ranging from 19.27 ± 6.77 to 26.83 ± 8.15 items per individual, or 3.55 ± 3.73 to 7.34 ± 10.51 items per gram of wet organ weight. This high value could lead to health risks in East Asia and the Mediterranean, where sea urchin is widely consumed, due to toxins adsorbed to the MPs.

Keywords: microplastics, plastic pollution, invertebrate ecology, invasive marine species

Procedia PDF Downloads 101

Authors: Karim Saeidi

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One of the most important pests in the warehouses is the flour beetle, Tribolium confusum Jacquelin du Val (Col.: Tenebrionidae). Regarding the high degree of damage of stored product pests and dangerous effects of the chemical control using plant extracts and their components are some of the best approaches to control these pests. Antifeedant activity of plant extracts from Lavandula angustifolia Mill and Zataria multiflora Boiss using hydro-distillation were tested against the flour beetle, Tribolium confusum Jacquelin du Val. The nutritional indices: relative growth rate (RGR), relative consumption rate (RCR), the efficiency of conversion of ingested food (ECI), and feeding deterrence index (FDI) were measured for adult insects. Treatments were evaluated using a flour disk bioassay in the dark; at 25±1ᵒC and 60±5% R. H. Concentrations of 0, 0.1, 0.5, 0.75, 1, 1.5, and 2 μl/disk were prepared from each essential oil. After 72 h, nutritional indices were calculated. L. angustifolia oils were more effective than Z. multiflora oils by significantly decreasing the RGR, RCR, and ECI. Feeding deterrence index (FDI) of L. angustifolia essential oil was increased significantly as essential oil concentration increased. The essential oil of L. angustifolia was more effective on FDI than Z. multiflora in some concentration.

Keywords: essential oil, nutritional indices, Tribolium confusum

Procedia PDF Downloads 396

Authors: Remo Waser, Simon Maranda, Anastasia Stamatiou, Ludger J. Fischer, Joerg Worlitschek

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In latent heat storage, a phase change material (PCM) is used to store thermal energy. The heat transfer rate during solidification is limited and considered as a key challenge in the development of latent heat storages. Thus, finned heat exchangers (HEX) are often utilized to increase the heat transfer rate of the storage system. In this study, a new modeling approach to calculating the heat transfer rate in latent thermal energy storages with complex HEX geometries is presented. This model allows for an optimization of the HEX design in terms of costs and thermal performance of the system. Modeling solidification processes requires the calculation of time-dependent heat conduction with moving boundaries. Commonly used computational fluid dynamic (CFD) methods enable the analysis of the heat transfer in complex HEX geometries. If applied to the entire storage, the drawback of this approach is the high computational effort due to small time steps and fine computational grids required for accurate solutions. An alternative to describe the process of solidification is the so-called temperature-based approach. In order to minimize the computational effort, a quasi-stationary assumption can be applied. This approach provides highly accurate predictions for tube heat exchangers. However, it shows unsatisfactory results for more complex geometries such as finned tube heat exchangers. The presented simulation model uses a temporal and spatial discretization of heat exchanger tube. The spatial discretization is based on the smallest possible symmetric segment of the HEX. The heat flow in each segment is calculated using finite volume method. Since the heat transfer fluid temperature can be derived using energy conservation equations, the boundary conditions at the inner tube wall is dynamically updated for each time step and segment. The model allows a prediction of the thermal performance of latent thermal energy storage systems using complex HEX geometries with considerably low computational effort.

Keywords: modelling of solidification, finned tube heat exchanger, latent thermal energy storage

Procedia PDF Downloads 263

Authors: Ghazanfari Masoumeh, Hajimohammadi Bahador, Eskandari Soheyl, Karimian Khosroshahi Nader

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Consumption of ready to cook meat products such as hamburgers, sausages and etc is being increased in the worldwide specially in the big cities , so safety and quality required for food products is very important and vital for consumers with consideration of meat price and increasing demands for meat products, possibility of substitution of cheep and unauthorized textures such as undesirable enclosures animals (massacre, lung tissue, breast of spleen, the organs abdominal cavity, gizzard chicken, skin, etc. ) have increased in the recent years, in this study 30 industrial and 30 handmade hamburgers in fast food restaurants detected out of Iranian national standard for hamburger No. 2304 in using the unauthorized textures. The purpose of this study was to determine using of chicken skin in produced hamburgers from chicken meat in Tehran base on histology methods. The rates of skin used were, 2 % in industrial and 9 % in handmade formula samples. Statistically using the unauthorized textures had significant higher rate in handmade (P < 0.05) in compare with the industrial samples. The results showed the handmade hamburgers with higher adulteration rate and non-compliance with the hamburger national standard could be a potentially health hazard.

Keywords: histology, adulteration, unauthorized textures, undesirable enclosures animals

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Authors: Dara Kutsyk, Olga Bondarenko, Mariya Sorochka

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In 21-century type 2 diabetes (T2D) has become a global health and social problem in the whole world. The goal of treatment for patients with T2D is to prevent complications of diabetes - macrovascular diseases (heart disease, stroke, and peripheral vascular disease) and microvascular diseases (retinopathy, neuropathy and nephropathy). Nitric oxide (NO) plays an important role in maintaining vascular homeostasis. Loss of NO function is one of the earliest indicators of disease and its progression especially in patients with T2D. Aim: To compare NO level between patients with well and bad controlled glycemia in T2D. Methods: The study included 32 patients with T2D. The diagnosis of T2D was confirmed due to International Diabetes Federation (IDF) criteria 2015. Patients were divided into two groups: with well controlled glycaemia (HbA1c < 7%) and bad controlled glycaemia (HbA1c > 7%). The control group consists of 15 healthy subjects. Results: NO level in patients with T2D is significantly higher (27,2 ±3,1 µmol), compared to controls (18,86±0,9 µmol; p < 0,001). A significant difference in NO level was found between patients with bad controlled glycaemia (25,9±2,2 µmol) and well controlled glycaemia (28,7 ± 3,0 µmol; p<0,01). The study showed a moderate negative correlation between NO level and HbA1c (-0,399; р< 0,05). Conclusions: Production of NO is impaired in patients with T2D, especially with badly controlled glycaemia. With the increase in HbAc serum NO decreases. This can be the main target for prevention vascular complication in T2D.

Keywords: type 2 diabetes, glycated hemoglobin, nitric oxide, Diabetes mellitus

Procedia PDF Downloads 261

Authors: Ki Ok Choi, Sung Ho Hong, Dong Suck Kim, Don Mook Choi

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Rack type warehouses are different from general buildings in the kinds, amount, and arrangement of stored goods, so the fire risk of rack type warehouses is different from those buildings. The fire pattern of rack type warehouses is different in combustion characteristic and storing condition of stored goods. The initial fire burning rate is different in the surface condition of materials, but the running time of fire is closely related with the kinds of stored materials and stored conditions. The stored goods of the warehouse are consisted of diverse combustibles, combustible liquid, and so on. Fire detection time may be delayed because the residents are less than office and commercial buildings. If fire detectors installed in rack type warehouses are inadaptable, the fire of the warehouse may be the great fire because of delaying of fire detection. In this paper, we studied what kinds of fire detectors are optimized in early detecting of rack type warehouse fire by real-scale fire tests. The fire detectors used in the tests are rate of rise type, fixed type, photo electric type, and aspirating type detectors. We considered optimum fire detecting method in rack type warehouses suggested by the response characteristic and comparative analysis of the fire detectors.

Keywords: fire detector, rack, response characteristic, warehouse

Procedia PDF Downloads 740

Authors: M. Draman, S. Z. Muhamad Yassin, M. S. Alias, Z. Lambak, M. I. Zulkifli, S. N. Padhi, K. N. Baharim, F. Maskuriy, A. I. A. Rahim

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The performance of Malay automatic speech recognition (ASR) system for the call centre environment is presented. The system utilizes Kaldi toolkit as the platform to the entire library and algorithm used in performing the ASR task. The acoustic model implemented in this system uses a deep neural network (DNN) method to model the acoustic signal and the standard (n-gram) model for language modelling. With 80 hours of training data from the call centre recordings, the ASR system can achieve 72% of accuracy that corresponds to 28% of word error rate (WER). The testing was done using 20 hours of audio data. Despite the implementation of DNN, the system shows a low accuracy owing to the varieties of noises, accent and dialect that typically occurs in Malaysian call centre environment. This significant variation of speakers is reflected by the large standard deviation of the average word error rate (WERav) (i.e., ~ 10%). It is observed that the lowest WER (13.8%) was obtained from recording sample with a standard Malay dialect (central Malaysia) of native speaker as compared to 49% of the sample with the highest WER that contains conversation of the speaker that uses non-standard Malay dialect.

Keywords: conversational speech recognition, deep neural network, Malay language, speech recognition

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Authors: Nooshin Salari, Viliam Makis

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In this paper, we propose a condition-based maintenance policy for multi-unit systems considering the existence of economic dependency among units. We consider a system composed of N identical units, where each unit deteriorates independently. Deterioration process of each unit is modeled as a three-state continuous time homogeneous Markov chain with two working states and a failure state. The average production rate of units varies in different working states and demand rate of the system is constant. Units are inspected at equidistant time epochs, and decision regarding performing maintenance is determined by the number of units in the failure state. If the total number of units in the failure state exceeds a critical level, maintenance is initiated, where units in failed state are replaced correctively and deteriorated state units are maintained preventively. Our objective is to determine the optimal number of failed units to initiate maintenance minimizing the long run expected average cost per unit time. The problem is formulated and solved in the semi-Markov decision process (SMDP) framework. A numerical example is developed to demonstrate the proposed policy and the comparison with the corrective maintenance policy is presented.

Keywords: reliability, maintenance optimization, semi-Markov decision process, production

Procedia PDF Downloads 159

Authors: A. Mech

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Repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation has proven to be a valuable treatment option for patients who have failed to respond to multiple courses of antidepressant medication. In fact, the American Psychiatric Association recommends TMS after one failed treatment course of antidepressant medication. Genetic testing has proven valuable for pharmacokinetic variables, which, if understood, could lead to more efficient dosing of psychotropic medications to improve outcomes. Pharmacodynamic testing can identify biomarkers, which, if addressed, can improve patients' outcomes in antidepressant therapy. Monotherapy treatment of major depressive disorder with methylated B vitamin treatment has been shown to be safe and effective in patients with MTHFR polymorphisms without waiting for multiple trials of failed medication treatment for depression. Such treatment has demonstrated remission rates similar to antidepressant clinical trials. Combining pharmacodynamics testing with repetitive TMS treatment with NeuroStar has shown promising potential for enhancing remission rates and durability of treatment. In this study, a retrospective chart review (ongoing) of patients who obtained repetitive TMS treatment enhanced by dietary supplementation guided by Pharmacodynamic testing, displayed a greater remission rate (90%) than patients treated with only NeuroStar TMS (62%).

Keywords: improved remission rate, major depressive disorder, pharmacodynamic testing, rTMS outcomes

Procedia PDF Downloads 53

Authors: Nurul Z. Sani, Amalina N. Ghazali, Azree Elmy, Lee C. Yuen, Zar C. Thent

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Piper betel (P. betel) leaves is widely used in Asian countries for treating diabetes mellitus and its complication. In our previous study, we observed the positive effect of P.betel extract on diabetic wounds following 3 and 7 days of treatment. The aim of the present study was to determine the effect of P.betel leaves extract in the diabetic rats was observed in terms of body weight and wound contraction rates following 5 days of the treatment. Total 64 male Sprague-Dawley rats were used and the experimental rats received a single dose of 60mg/kg of Streptozotocin (STZ) injection, intraperitoneally. Four full thickness (6mm) cutaneous wounds were created on dorsum of each rat. The rats were divideid into (n=8): Non-treated Control (NC), Non-treated Diabetic (ND), diabetic treated with commercial cream (SN) and diabetic treated with 50mg/kg of P.betel extract (PB). The rats were sacrificed on day 0 and 5 post wounding. Significant increased in wound closure rate, body weight was observed in PB group compared to ND. Histological deterioration was restored in the P. betel extract treated wounds. It is concluded that topical application with P.betel extract for 5 days of post wounding offers positive scientific value in diabetic rats.

Keywords: diabetes, piper betel, wound healing, body weight, morphology

Procedia PDF Downloads 545

Authors: Firman Riyudha, Endrik Mifta Shaiful

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The spread of drug users is one kind of behavioral epidemiology that becomes a threat to every country in the world. This problem caused various crisis simultaneously, including financial or economic crisis, social, health, until human crisis. Most drug users are teenagers at school age. A new deterministic model would be constructed to determine the dynamics of the spread of drug users by considering level of education in a susceptible population. Based on the analytical model, two equilibria points were obtained; there were E₀ (zero user) and E₁ (endemic equilibrium). Existence of equilibrium and local stability of equilibria depended on the Basic Reproduction Ratio (R₀). This parameter was defined as the expected rate of secondary prevalence and primary prevalence in virgin population along spreading primary prevalence. The zero-victim equilibrium would be locally asymptotically stable if R₀ < 1 while if R₀ > 1 the endemic equilibrium would be locally asymptotically stable. The result showed that R₀ was proportional to the rate of interaction of each susceptible population based on educational level with the users' population. It is concluded that there was a need to be given a control in interaction, so that drug users population could be minimized. Numerical simulations were also provided to support analytical results.

Keywords: drugs users, level education, mathematical model, stability

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Authors: I. R. Keke, C. S. Nwigwe, O. S. Nwanjo, A. S. Egeruoh

Abstract:

An experiment was carried out at Urban Farm and Fisheries Nigeria Ltd, Owerri Imo State South East Nigeria between February and June 2014 to induce Brood stock of Heterobranchus longifilis (mean wt 1.3kg) in concrete tanks (1.0 x 2.0 x 1.5m) in dimension using a synthetic hormone (Ovaprim) and pituitary extract from Heterobranchus longifilis. Brood stock males were selected as pituitary donors and their weights matched those of females to be injected at 1ml/kg body weight of Fish. Ovaprim, was injected at 0.5ml/kg body weight of female fish. A latency period of 12 hours was allowed after injection of the Brood stock females before stripping the egg and incubation at 23 °C. While incubating the eggs, samples were drawn and the rate of fertilization was determined. Hatching occurred within 33 hours and hatchability rate (%) was determined by counting the active hatchings. The result showed that Ovaprim injected Brood stock eggs fertilized up to 80% while the pituitary from the Heterobranchus longifilis had low fertilization and hatching success 20%. Ovaprim is imported and costly, so more effort is required to enhance the procedures for homoplastic hypophysation.

Keywords: heterobranchus longifilis, ovaprim, hypophysation, latency period, pituitary

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Authors: S. K. Verma, S. L. Sinha, D. K. Chandraker

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The Advanced Heavy Water Reactor (AHWR) is a vertical pressure tube type, heavy water moderated and boiling light water cooled natural circulation based reactor. The fuel bundle of AHWR contains 54 fuel rods arranged in three concentric rings of 12, 18 and 24 fuel rods. This fuel bundle is divided into a number of imaginary interacting flow passage called subchannels. Single phase flow condition exists in reactor rod bundle during startup condition and up to certain length of rod bundle when it is operating at full power. Prediction of the thermal margin of the reactor during startup condition has necessitated the determination of the turbulent mixing rate of coolant amongst these subchannels. Thus, it is vital to evaluate turbulent mixing between subchannels of AHWR rod bundle. With the remarkable progress in the computer processing power, the computational fluid dynamics (CFD) methodology can be useful for investigating the thermal–hydraulic characteristics phenomena in the nuclear fuel assembly. The present report covers the results of simulation of pressure drop, velocity variation and turbulence intensity on single rod bundle with 54 rods in circular arrays. In this investigation, 54-rod assemblies are simulated with ANSYS Fluent 15 using steady simulations with an ANSYS Workbench meshing. The simulations have been carried out with water for Reynolds number 9861.83. The rod bundle has a mean flow area of 4853.0584 mm2 in the bare region with the hydraulic diameter of 8.105 mm. In present investigation, a benchmark k-ε model has been used as a turbulence model and the symmetry condition is set as boundary conditions. Simulation are carried out to determine the turbulent mixing rate in the simulated subchannels of the reactor. The size of rod and the pitch in the test has been same as that of actual rod bundle in the prototype. Water has been used as the working fluid and the turbulent mixing tests have been carried out at atmospheric condition without heat addition. The mean velocity in the subchannel has been varied from 0-1.2 m/s. The flow conditions are found to be closer to the actual reactor condition.

Keywords: AHWR, CFD, single-phase turbulent mixing rate, thermal–hydraulic

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Authors: M. Abbasi Layegh, S. Haghipour, K. Athari, R. Khosravi, M. Tafkikialamdari

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An approach to find the optimum mel-frequency cepstral coefficients (MFCCs) for the Radif of Mirzâ Ábdollâh, which is the principal emblem and the heart of Persian music, performed by most famous Iranian masters on two Iranian stringed instruments ‘Tar’ and ‘Setar’ is proposed. While investigating the variance of MFCC for each record in themusic database of 1500 gushe of the repertoire belonging to 12 modal systems (dastgâh and âvâz), we have applied the Fuzzy C-Mean clustering algorithm on each of the 12 coefficient and different combinations of those coefficients. We have applied the same experiment while increasing the number of coefficients but the clustering accuracy remained the same. Therefore, we can conclude that the first 7 MFCCs (V-7MFCC) are enough for classification of The Radif of Mirzâ Ábdollâh. Classical machine learning algorithms such as MLP neural networks, K-Nearest Neighbors (KNN), Gaussian Mixture Model (GMM), Hidden Markov Model (HMM) and Support Vector Machine (SVM) have been employed. Finally, it can be realized that SVM shows a better performance in this study.

Keywords: radif of Mirzâ Ábdollâh, Gushe, mel frequency cepstral coefficients, fuzzy c-mean clustering algorithm, k-nearest neighbors (KNN), gaussian mixture model (GMM), hidden markov model (HMM), support vector machine (SVM)

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Authors: Nursel Koyuncu, Nihal Ata Tutkun

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Frailty model is a survival model that takes into account the unobserved heterogeneity for exploring the relationship between the survival of an individual and several covariates. In the recent years, proposed survival models become more complex and this feature causes convergence problems especially in large data sets. Therefore selection of sample from these big data sets is very important for estimation of parameters. In sampling literature, some authors have defined new sampling schemes to predict the parameters correctly. For this aim, we try to see the effect of sampling design in semi-parametric frailty model. We conducted a simulation study in R programme to estimate the parameters of semi-parametric frailty model for different sample sizes, censoring rates under classical simple random sampling and ranked set sampling schemes. In the simulation study, we used data set recording 17260 male Civil Servants aged 40–64 years with complete 10-year follow-up as population. Time to death from coronary heart disease is treated as a survival-time and age, systolic blood pressure are used as covariates. We select the 1000 samples from population using different sampling schemes and estimate the parameters. From the simulation study, we concluded that ranked set sampling design performs better than simple random sampling for each scenario.

Keywords: frailty model, ranked set sampling, efficiency, simple random sampling

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Authors: Zahra Zamanian, Alireza Zamanian, Jafar Hasanzadeh

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Background: Unwanted sound, as one of the most important physical factors in the majority of production units, imposes a great number of problems on the industrial workers. Sound is one of the environmental factors which can cause physical as well as psychological damages and also affects the individuals’ performance and productivity. Therefore, the present study aimed to determine the effect of noise exposure on human performance. Methods: The present study assessed the effect of noise on the performance of 50 students of Shiraz University of Medical Sciences (25 males and 25 females) at the sound pressures of 70, 90, and 110 dB by using two factors of physical features and the creation of different conditions of sound pressure source as well as applying Two-Arm coordination Test. Results: The results of the present study revealed no significant difference between male and female subjects as well as different conditions of creating sound pressure regarding the length of performance (p> 0.05). In addition, as the sound pressure increased, the length of performance increased, as well. According to the results, no significant difference was found between the performance at 70 and 90 dB. On the other hand, the performance at 110 dB was significantly different from the performance at 70 and 90 dB (p<0.05 and p<0.001). Conclusion: In general, as the sound pressure increases, the performance decreases which results in a considerable increase in the individuals’ rate of error.

Keywords: physical factors, two-arm coordination test, Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, noise

Procedia PDF Downloads 299

Authors: Vimanyu Chadha, Ranganath M. Singari

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Drilling composite materials is a frequently practiced machining process during assembling in various industries such as automotive and aerospace. However, drilling of glass fiber reinforced plastic (GFRP) composites is significantly affected by damage tendency of these materials under cutting forces such as thrust force and torque. The aim of this paper is to investigate the influence of the various cutting parameters such as cutting speed and feed rate; subsequently also to study the influence of number of layers on delamination produced while drilling a GFRP composite. A plan of experiments, based on Taguchi techniques, was instituted considering drilling with prefixed cutting parameters in a hand lay-up GFRP material. The damage induced associated with drilling GFRP composites were measured. Moreover, Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) was performed to obtain minimization of delamination influenced by drilling parameters and number layers. The optimum drilling factor combination was obtained by using the analysis of signal-to-noise ratio. The conclusion revealed that feed rate was the most influential factor on the delamination. The best results of the delamination were obtained with composites with a greater number of layers at lower cutting speeds and feed rates.

Keywords: analysis of variance, delamination, design optimization, drilling, glass fiber reinforced plastic composites, Taguchi method

Procedia PDF Downloads 253

Authors: Braimah Joseph Odunayo, Jiju Gillariose

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This paper is aimed at developing a sampling plan that uses information from precedent and successive lots for lot disposition with a pretention that the life-time of a particular product assumes a Log-logistic distribution. A Two-pronged Truncated Deferred Sampling Plan (TTDSP) for Log-logistic distribution is proposed when the testing is truncated at a precise time. The best possible sample sizes are obtained under a given Maximum Allowable Percent Defective (MAPD), Test Suspension Ratios (TSR), and acceptance numbers (c). A formula for calculating the operating characteristics of the proposed plan is also developed. The operating characteristics and mean-ratio values were used to measure the performance of the plan. The findings of the study show that: Log-logistic distribution has a decreasing failure rate; furthermore, as mean-life ratio increase, the failure rate reduces; the sample size increase as the acceptance number, test suspension ratios and maximum allowable percent defective increases. The study concludes that the minimum sample sizes were smaller, which makes the plan a more economical plan to adopt when cost and time of production are costly and the experiment being destructive.

Keywords: consumers risk, mean life, minimum sample size, operating characteristics, producers risk

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Authors: Abdelhamid Nechad, Ahmed Maghni, Khaoula Zahir

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Energy transition is one of Morocco's key sustainable development issues and is at the heart of the 2030 National Sustainable Development Strategy. On the one hand, it reflects the Moroccan government's determination to reduce the negative impact of energy consumption on the environment, and on the other, its determination to rely essentially on renewable energies to meet its energy needs. With this in mind, several tools are being implemented, including green bonds designed to finance projects with a high environmental or climate impact. Thus, since 2015, several green bonds have been issued for a cumulative total of $0.4 Billion . This article aims to examine the impact of green bonds on Morocco's energy transition. Through the Granger causality and cointegration test, this article examines the existence of a short- and long-term causal relationship between green bond issuance and investment in renewable energy projects on the one hand, and between green bond issuance and CO₂ emission reductions on the other. The results suggest that there is no short-term causal relationship between green bond issuance and renewable energy investments on one hand and CO₂ emissions reduction on the other hand. However, in the long run, there is a relationship between green bond issuance and CO₂ emissions reduction in Morocco.

Keywords: climate impact, CO₂ emissions, energy transition, green bonds, Morocco

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