Search results for: hybrid genetic/pattern search

Authors: Nasser Karami

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The Urmia grapes have been famous for centuries and have been among the most desirable in the production of wine. Interestingly, evidence shows that the Urmia region was the first place in the world where wine was produced and consumed. In fact, the grapes known as “Shiraz” and made popular by “Shiraz Wine” are the grapes cultivated as a local species especially in the West Azerbaijan watershed basin and exported to Europe. But after the Islamic Revolution, because the production, usage, and sale of wine were unlawful (under Islamic rule), they decided to cultivate apples instead of grapes. Before Islamic revolution, about 50 percent of the gardens were producing grapes, but the apple groves took up less than 1.5 percent (100 hectares). Three years after the revolution, in 1982, people were swept up in the revolutionary excitement and grape cultivation decreased, using less than 10 percent of the garden area. Important is the fact that an apple tree needs 12 times more water than a grapevine, it should be noted that in terms of water usage in the area, the agricultural area has not been increased by 2 or 4 times but rather by 12 times. Evaluation of this study showed that contrary to official reports, climate change isn’t major cause of drying up Urmia Lake and 65 percent of this environmental crisis happened due to spreading unsustainable agricultural in basin of this lake.

Keywords: cultivation pattern, unsustainable agriculture, urmia lake drying, water managment

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Authors: Javad Jamali Khouei, Mohammadreza Khoshravan

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Considering that application of functionally graded material is increasing in most industries, it seems necessary to present a methodology for designing optimal profile of structures such as plate under mechanical loading which is highly consumed in industries. Therefore, volume fraction variation profile of functionally graded circular plate which has been considered two-directional is optimized so that stress of structure is minimized. For this purpose, equilibrium equations of two-directional functionally graded circular plate are solved by applying semi analytical-numerical method under mechanical loading and support conditions. By solving equilibrium equations, deflections and stresses are obtained in terms of control variables of volume fraction variation profile. As a result, the problem formula can be defined as an optimization problem by aiming at minimization of critical von-mises stress under constraints of deflections, stress and a physical constraint relating to structure of material. Then, the related problem can be solved with help of one of the metaheuristic algorithms such as genetic algorithm. Results of optimization for the applied model under constraints and loadings and boundary conditions show that functionally graded plate should be graded only in radial direction and there is no need for volume fraction variation of the constituent particles in thickness direction. For validating results, optimal values of the obtained design variables are graphically evaluated.

Keywords: two-directional functionally graded material, single objective optimization, semi analytical-numerical solution, genetic algorithm, graphical solution with contour

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Authors: Raouf Alizadeh, Kadijeh Hemmati

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The aim of this study is to synthesize several series of hydrogels from combination of a natural based polymer (Quince seed mucilage QSD), a synthetic copolymer contained methoxy poly ethylene glycol -polycaprolactone (mPEG-PCL) in the presence of different amount of multi-walled carbon nanotube (f-MWNT). Mono epoxide functionalized mPEG (mP EG-EP) was synthesized and reacted with sodium azide in the presence of NH4Cl to afford mPEG- N3(-OH). Then ring opening polymerization (ROP) of ε–caprolactone (CL) in the presence of mPEG- N3(-OH) as initiator and Sn(Oct)2 as catalyst led to preparation of mPEG-PCL- N3(-OH ) which was grafted onto propagylated f-MWNT by the click reaction to obtain mPEG-PCL- f-MWNT (-OH ). In the presence of mPEG- N3(-Br) and mixture of NHS/DCC/ QSD, hybrid hydrogels were successfully synthesized. The copolymers and hydrogels were characterized using different techniques such as, scanning electron microscope (SEM) and thermogravimetric analysis (TGA). The gel content of hydrogels showed dependence on the weight ratio of QSD:mPEG-PCL:f-MWNT. The swelling behavior of the prepared hydrogels was also studied under variation of pH, immersion time, and temperature. According to the results, the swelling behavior of the prepared hydrogels showed significant dependence in the gel content, pH, immersion time and temperature. The highest swelling was observed at room temperature, in 60 min and at pH 8. The loading and in-vitro release of quercetin as a model drug were investigated at pH of 2.2 and 7.4, and the results showed that release rate at pH 7.4 was faster than that at pH 2.2. The total loading and release showed dependence on the network structure of hydrogels and were in the range of 65- 91%. In addition, the cytotoxicity and release kinetics of the prepared hydrogels were also investigated.

Keywords: antioxidant, drug delivery, Quince Seed Mucilage(QSD), swelling behavior

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Authors: A. A. Abid

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Wave-particle interactions are considered to be the paramount in the transmission of energy in collisionless space plasmas, where electromagnetic fields confined the charged particles movement. One of the distinct features of energy transfer in collisionless plasma is wave-particle interaction which is ubiquitous in space plasmas. The three essential populations of the inner magnetosphere are cold plasmaspheric plasmas, ring-currents, and radiation belts high energy particles. The transition region amid such populations initiates wave-particle interactions among distinct plasmas and the wave mode perceived in the magnetosphere is the electromagnetic ion cyclotron (EMIC) wave. These waves can interact with numerous particle species resonantly, accompanied by plasma particle heating is still in debate. In this work we paid particular attention to how EMIC waves impact plasma species, specifically how they affect the heating of electrons and ions during storm and substorm in the Magnetosphere. Using Magnetospheric Multiscale (MMS) mission and electromagnetic hybrid simulation, this project will investigate the energy transfer mechanism (e.g., Landau interactions, bounce resonance interaction, cyclotron resonance interaction, etc.) between EMIC waves and cold-warm plasma populations. Other features such as the production of EMIC waves and the importance of cold plasma particles in EMIC wave-particle interactions will also be worth exploring. Wave particle interactions, electromagnetic hybrid simulation, electromagnetic ion cyclotron (EMIC) waves, Magnetospheric Multiscale (MMS) mission, space plasmas, inner magnetosphere

Keywords: MMS, magnetosphere, wave particle interraction, non-maxwellian distribution

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Authors: Kwok W. Mui, Ling T. Wong, Chi T. Cheung

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Cooling energy consumption in the residential sector, different from shopping mall, office or commercial buildings, is significantly subject to occupant decisions where in-depth investigations are found limited. It shows that energy consumptions could be associated with housing types. Surveys have been conducted in existing Hong Kong public housings to understand the housing characteristics, apartment electricity demands, occupant’s thermal expectations, and air–conditioning usage patterns for further cooling energy-saving assessments. The aim of this study is to develop a hybrid cooling energy prediction model, which integrated by EnergyPlus (EP) and artificial neural network (ANN) to estimate cooling energy consumption in public residential sector. Sensitivity tests are conducted to find out the energy impacts with changing building parameters regarding to external wall and window material selection, window size reduction, shading extension, building orientation and apartment size control respectively. Assessments are performed to investigate the relationships between cooling demands and occupant behavior on thermal environment criteria and air-conditioning operation patterns. The results are summarized into a cooling energy calculator for layman use to enhance the cooling energy saving awareness in their own living environment. The findings can be used as a directory framework for future cooling energy evaluation in residential buildings, especially focus on the occupant behavioral air–conditioning operation and criteria of energy-saving incentives.

Keywords: artificial neural network, cooling energy, occupant behavior, residential buildings, thermal environment

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Authors: Temidayo Otunniyi

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This paper presents a low computational channelization algorithm for the multi-standards platform using poly phase implementation of a critically sampled hybrid Trigonometry generalized Discrete Fourier Transform, (HGDFT). An HGDFT channelization algorithm exploits the orthogonality of two trigonometry Fourier functions, together with the properties of Quadrature Mirror Filter Bank (QMFB) and Exponential Modulated filter Bank (EMFB), respectively. HGDFT shows improvement in its implementation in terms of high reconfigurability, lower filter length, parallelism, and medium computational activities. Type 1 and type 111 poly phase structures are derived for real-valued HGDFT modulation. The design specifications are decimated critically and over-sampled for both single and multi standards receiver platforms. Evaluating the performance of oversampled single standard receiver channels, the HGDFT algorithm achieved 40% complexity reduction, compared to 34% and 38% reduction in the Discrete Fourier Transform (DFT) and tree quadrature mirror filter (TQMF) algorithm. The parallel generalized discrete Fourier transform (PGDFT) and recombined generalized discrete Fourier transform (RGDFT) had 41% complexity reduction and HGDFT had a 46% reduction in oversampling multi-standards mode. While in the critically sampled multi-standard receiver channels, HGDFT had complexity reduction of 70% while both PGDFT and RGDFT had a 34% reduction.

Keywords: software defined radio, channelization, critical sample rate, over-sample rate

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Authors: K. Berhanu

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Improper land use results in land degradation and decline in agricultural productivity. Hence, in order to get maximum benefits out of land, proper utilization of its resources is inevitable. The present study was aimed at identifying the landcover changes in the study area in the last 25 years and determines the extent and direction of change that has occurred. The study made use of Landsat TM 1986 and 2011 Remote Sensing Satellite Image for analysis to determine the extent and pattern of rangeland change. The results of the landuse/landcover change detection showed that in the last 25 years, 3 major changes were observed, grassland and open shrub-land resource significantly decreased at a rate of 17.1km2/year and 12 km2/year/, respectively. On the other hand in 25 years dense bushland, open bush land, dense shrubland and cultivated land has shown increment in size at a rate of 0.23km2/year,13.5 km2/year, 6.3 km2/year and 0.2 km2/year, respectively within 25 years. The expansion of unpalatable woody species significantly reduced the rangeland size and availability of grasses. The consequence of the decrease in herbaceous biomass production might result in high risk of food insecurity in the area unless proper interventions are made in time.

Keywords: GIS and remote sensing, Dire District, land use/land cover, land sat TM

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Authors: Saqib Ali

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Sources are classified into two depending upon the factor of reviving. These sources, which cannot be revived into their original shape once they are consumed, are considered as nonrenewable energy resources, i.e., (coal, fuel) Moreover, those energy resources which are revivable to the original condition even after being consumed are known as renewable energy resources, i.e., (wind, solar, hydel) Renewable energy is a cost-effective way to generate clean and green electrical energy Now a day’s majority of the countries are paying heed to energy generation from RES Pakistan is mostly relying on conventional energy resources which are mostly nonrenewable in nature coal, fuel is one of the major resources, and with the advent of time their prices are increasing on the other hand RES have great potential in the country with the deployment of RES greater reliability and an effective power system can be obtained In this thesis, a similar concept is being used and a hybrid power system is proposed which is composed of intermixing of renewable and nonrenewable sources The Source side is composed of solar, wind, fuel cells which will be used in an optimal manner to serve load The goal is to provide an economical, reliable, uninterruptable power supply. This is achieved by optimal controller (PI, PD, PID, FOPID) Optimization techniques are applied to the controllers to achieve the desired results. Advanced algorithms (Particle swarm optimization, Flower Pollination Algorithm) will be used to extract the desired output from the controller Detailed comparison in the form of tables and results will be provided, which will highlight the efficiency of the proposed system.

Keywords: distributed generation, demand-side management, hybrid power system, micro grid, renewable energy resources, supply-side management

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Authors: Mohamud Ali Ibrahim, Ali Bayat, Ali Bolat

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Defoliant spraying is an important link in the mechanized cotton harvest because adequate and uniform spraying can improve defoliation quality and reduce cotton trash content. In defoliant application, application volume and spraying technology are extremely important. In this study, the effectiveness of defoliant application to cotton plant that has come to harvest with two different application volumes and three different types of nozzles with a standard field crop sprayer was determined. Experiments were carried in two phases as field area trials and laboratory analysis. Application rates were 250 l/ha and 400 L/ha, and spraying nozzles were (1) Standard flat fan nozzle (TP8006), (2) Air induction nozzle (AI 11002-VS), and (3) Dual Pattern nozzle (AI307003VP). A tracer (BSF) and defoliant were applied to mature cotton with approximately 60% open bolls and samplings for BSF deposition and spray coverage on the cotton plant were done at two plant height (upper layer, lower layer) of plant. Before and after spraying, bolls open and leaves rate on cotton plants were calculated, and filter papers were used to detect BSF deposition, and water sensitive papers (WSP) were used to measure the coverage rate of spraying methods used. Spectrofluorophotometer was used to detect the amount of tracer deposition on targets, and an image process computer programme was used to measure coverage rate on WSP. In analysis, conclusions showed that air induction nozzle (AI 11002-VS) achieved better results than the dual pattern and standard flat fan nozzles in terms of higher depositions, coverages, and leaf defoliations, and boll opening rates. AI nozzles operating at 250 L/ha application rate provide the highest deposition and coverage rate on applications of the defoliant; in addition, BSF as an indicator of the defoliant used reached on leaf beneath in merely this spray nozzle. After defoliation boll opening rate was 85% on the 7th and 12th days after spraying and falling rate of leaves was 76% at application rate of 250 L/ha with air induction (AI1102) nozzle.

Keywords: cotton defoliant, air induction nozzle, dual pattern nozzle, standard flat fan nozzle, coverage rate, spray deposition, boll opening rate, leaves falling rate

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Authors: Phutthiwat Waiyawuththanapoom

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This study has only one objective which is to identify the different in factors of choosing the distributor for food and non-food OTOP entrepreneur in Thailand. In this research, the types of OTOP product will be divided into two groups which are food and non-food. The sample for the food type OTOP product was the processed fruit and vegetable from Nakorn Pathom province and the sample for the non-food type OTOP product was the court doll from Ang Thong province. The research was divided into 3 parts which were a study of the distribution pattern and how to choose the distributor of the food type OTOP product, a study of the distribution pattern and how to choose the distributor of the non-food type OTOP product and a comparison between 2 types of products to find the differentiation in the factor of choosing distributor. The data and information was collected by using the interview. The populations in the research were 5 producers of the processed fruit and vegetable from Nakorn Pathom province and 5 producers of the court doll from Ang Thong province. The significant factor in choosing the distributor of the food type OTOP product is the material handling efficiency and on-time delivery but for the non-food type OTOP product is focused on the channel of distribution and cost of the distributor.

Keywords: distributor, OTOP, food and non-food, selection

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Authors: Nizar Caraka Trihanasia, Suparwoko

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The purpose of this paper is to analyze the design model of city gates on arterial roads as Yogyakarta’s “Istimewa” (special) identity. City marketing has become a trend among cities in the past few years. It began to compete with each other in promoting their identity to the world. One of the easiest ways to recognize the identity is by knowing the image of the city which can be seen through architectural buildings or urban elements. The idea is to recognize how the image of the city can represent Yogyakarta’s identity, which is limited to the contribution of the city gates distinctiveness on Yogyakarta urban area. This study has concentrated on the aspect of city gates as built environment that provides a diversity, configuration and scale of development that promotes a sense of place and community. The visual analysis will be conducted to interpreted the existing Yogyakarta city gates (as built environment) focussing on some variables of 1) character and pattern, 2) circulation system establishment, and 3) open space utilisation. Literature review and site survey are also conducted to understand the relationship between the built environment and the sense of place in the community. This study suggests that visually the Yogyakarta city gate model has strong visual characters and pattern by using the concept of a sense of place of Yogyakarta community value.

Keywords: visual analysis, model, Yogyakarta “Istimewa”, citygates

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Authors: David A. Swanson, Lucky M. Tedrow

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Taylor’s Law is a widely observed empirical pattern that relates variances to means in sets of non-negative measurements via an approximate power function, which has found application to human mortality. This study adds to this research by showing that Taylor’s Law leads to a model that reasonably describes the relationship between life expectancy at birth (e0, which also is equal to mean age at death in a life table) and variance at age of death in seven World Bank regional life tables measured at two points in time, 1970 and 2000. Using as a benchmark a non-random sample of four Japanese female life tables covering the period from 1950 to 2004, the study finds that the simple linear model provides reasonably accurate estimates of variance in age at death in a life table from e0, where the latter range from 60.9 to 85.59 years. Employing 2017 life tables from the Human Mortality Database, the simple linear model is used to provide estimates of variance at age in death for six countries, three of which have high e0 values and three of which have lower e0 values. The paper provides a substantive interpretation of Taylor’s Law relative to e0 and concludes by arguing that reasonably accurate estimates of variance in age at death in a period life table can be calculated using this approach, which also can be used where e0 itself is estimated rather than generated through the construction of a life table, a useful feature of the model.

Keywords: empirical pattern, mean age at death in a life table, mean age of a stationary population, stationary population

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Authors: Aneal Khan, Elleine Allapitan, Desmond Koo, Katherine-Ann Piedalue, Shaneel Pathak, Utkarsh Subnis

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Background: Disease management of metabolic, genetic disorders is long-term and can be cumbersome to patients and caregivers. Patient-Reported Outcome Measures (PROMs) have been a useful tool in capturing patient perspectives to help enhance treatment compliance and engagement with health care providers, reduce utilization of emergency services, and increase satisfaction with their treatment choices. Currently, however, PROMs are collected during infrequent and decontextualized clinic visits, which makes translation of patient experiences challenging over time. The GRIT study aims to evaluate a digital health journal application called Zamplo that provides a personalized health diary to record self-reported health outcomes accurately and efficiently in patients with metabolic, genetic disorders. Methods: This is a randomized controlled trial (RCT) (1:1) that assesses the efficacy of Zamplo to increase patient activation (primary outcome), improve healthcare satisfaction and confidence to manage medications (secondary outcomes), and reduce costs to the healthcare system (exploratory). Using standardized online surveys, assessments will be collected at baseline, 1 month, 3 months, 6 months, and 12 months. Outcomes will be compared between patients who were given access to the application versus those with no access. Results: Seventy-seven patients were recruited as of November 30, 2021. Recruitment for the study commenced in November 2020 with a target of n=150 patients. The accrual rate was 50% from those eligible and invited for the study, with the majority of patients having Fabry disease (n=48) and the remaining having Pompe disease and mitochondrial disease. Real-time clinical responses, such as pain, are being measured and correlated to disease-modifying therapies, supportive treatments like pain medications, and lifestyle interventions. Engagement with the application, along with compliance metrics of surveys and journal entries, are being analyzed. An interim analysis of the engagement data along with preliminary findings from this pilot RCT, and qualitative patient feedback will be presented. Conclusions: The digital self-care journal provides a unique approach to disease management, allowing patients direct access to their progress and actively participating in their care. Findings from the study can help serve the virtual care needs of patients with metabolic, genetic disorders in North America and the world over.

Keywords: eHealth, mobile health, rare disease, patient outcomes, quality of life (QoL), pain, Fabry disease, Pompe disease

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Authors: Gang Li, Ghulam Mubashar Hassan, Arcady Dyskin, Cara MacNish

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Digital image correlation (DIC) is a contactless full-field displacement and strain reconstruction technique commonly used in the field of experimental mechanics. Comparing with physical measuring devices, such as strain gauges, which only provide very restricted coverage and are expensive to deploy widely, the DIC technique provides the result with full-field coverage and relative high accuracy using an inexpensive and simple experimental setup. It is very important to study the natural patterns effect on the DIC technique because the preparation of the artificial patterns is time consuming and hectic process. The objective of this research is to study the effect of using images having natural pattern on the performance of DIC. A systematical simulation method is used to build simulated deformed images used in DIC. A parameter (subset size) used in DIC can have an effect on the processing and accuracy of DIC and even cause DIC to failure. Regarding to the picture parameters (correlation coefficient), the higher similarity of two subset can lead the DIC process to fail and make the result more inaccurate. The pictures with good and bad quality for DIC methods have been presented and more importantly, it is a systematic way to evaluate the quality of the picture with natural patterns before they install the measurement devices.

Keywords: Digital Image Correlation (DIC), deformation simulation, natural pattern, subset size

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Authors: Christine H. Cubelo

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This study consists of 2-parts: a systematic review of current publications on the therapeutic use of autonomous sensory meridian response (ASMR) and a within-subjects auditory training trial using ASMR videos. The main intent is to explore ASMR as potentially therapeutically beneficial for those with atypical sensory processing. Many hearing-related disorders and mood or anxiety symptoms overlap with symptoms of sensory processing issues. For this reason, inclusion and exclusion criteria of the systematic review were generated in an effort to produce optimal search outcomes and avoid overly confined criteria that would limit yielded results. Criteria for inclusion in the review for Part 1 are (1) adult participants diagnosed with hearing loss or atypical sensory processing, (2) inclusion of measures related to ASMR as a treatment method, and (3) published between 2000 and 2022. A total of 1,088 publications were found in the preliminary search, and a total of 13 articles met the inclusion criteria. A total of 14 participants completed the trial and post-trial questionnaire. Of all responses, 64.29% agreed that the duration of auditory training sessions was reasonable. In addition, 71.43% agreed that the training improved their perception of music. Lastly, 64.29% agreed that the training improved their perception of a primary talker when there are other talkers or background noises present.

Keywords: autonomous sensory meridian response, auditory training, atypical sensory processing, hearing loss, hearing aids

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Authors: María Magdalena Méndez-González, Miguel García Rocha, Carlos Manuel Yermo De la Cruz

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Calcium phosphate (Ca5(PO4)3(X)) is widely used in orthopedic applications and is widely used as powder and granules. However, their presence in bone is in the form of nanometric needles 60 nm in length with a non-stoichiometric phase of apatite contains CO3-2, Na+, OH-, F-, and other ions in a matrix of collagen fibers. The crystal size, morphology control and interaction with cells are essential for the development of nanotechnology. The structural results of calcium phosphate, synthesized by chemical precipitation with crystal size of 22.85 nm are presented in this paper. The calcium phosphate powders were analyzed by X-ray diffraction, energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS), infrared spectroscopy and FT-IR transmission electron microscopy. Network parameters, atomic positions, the indexing of the planes and the calculation of FWHM (full width at half maximum) were obtained. The crystal size was also calculated using the Scherer equation d (hkl) = cλ/βcosѲ. Where c is a constant related to the shape of the crystal, the wavelength of the radiation used for a copper anode is 1.54060Å, Ѳ is the Bragg diffraction angle, and β is the width average peak height of greater intensity. Diffraction pattern corresponding to the calcium phosphate called hydroxyapatite phase of a hexagonal crystal system was obtained. It belongs to the space group P63m with lattice parameters a = 9.4394 Å and c = 6.8861 Å. The most intense peak is obtained 2Ѳ = 31.55 (FWHM = 0.4798), with a preferred orientation in 121. The intensity difference between the experimental data and the calculated values is attributable to the temperature at which the sintering was performed. The intensity of the highest peak is at angle 2Ѳ = 32.11. The structure of calcium phosphate obtained was a hexagonal configuration. The intensity changes in the peaks of the diffraction pattern, in the lattice parameters at the corners, indicating the possible presence of a dopant. That each calcium atom is surrounded by a tetrahedron of oxygen and hydrogen was observed by infrared spectra. The unit cell pattern corresponds to hydroxyapatite and transmission electron microscopic crystal morphology corresponding to the hexagonal phase with a preferential growth along the c-plane was obtained.

Keywords: structure, nanoparticles, calcium phosphate, metallurgical and materials engineering

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Authors: Thobela Conco, Sheena Kumari, Chika Nnadozie, Mahmoud Nasr, Thor A. Stenström, Mushal Ali, Arshad Ismail, Faizal Bux

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The discharge of antibiotics and its residues into the wastewater treatment plants (WWTP’s) create a conducive environment for the development of antibiotic resistant pathogens. This presents a risk of potential dissemination of antibiotic resistant pathogens and antibiotic resistance genes into the environment. It is, therefore, necessary to study the level of antibiotic resistance genes (ARG’s) among bacterial pathogens that proliferate in biological wastewater treatment systems. In the current study, metagenomic and meta-transcriptomic sequences of samples collected from the influents, secondary effluents and post chlorinated effluents of three wastewater treatment plants treating domestic and hospital effluents in Durban, South Africa, were analyzed for profiling of ARG’s among bacterial pathogens. Results show that a variety of ARG’s, mostly, aminoglycoside, β-lactamases, tetracycline and sulfonamide resistance genes were harbored by diverse bacterial genera found at different stages of treatment. A significant variation in diversity of pathogen and ARGs between the treatment plant was observed; however, treated final effluent samples from all three plants showed a significant reduction in bacterial pathogens and detected ARG’s. Both pre- and post-chlorinated samples showed the presence of mobile genetic elements (MGE’s), indicating the inefficiency of chlorination to remove of ARG’s integrated with MGE’s. In conclusion, the study showed the wastewater treatment plant efficiently caused the reduction and removal of certain ARG’s, even though the initial focus was the removal of biological nutrients.

Keywords: antibiotic resistance, mobile genetic elements, wastewater, wastewater treatment plants

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Authors: Rahul Thakur, Onkar Chandel

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Red Hat is the world leader in providing open source software and solutions. A global enterprise, like Red Hat, has unique issues of connecting employees with content because of distributed offices, multiple teams spread across geographies, multiple languages, and different cultures. Employees, of a global company, create content that is distributed across departments, teams, regions, and countries. This makes finding the best content difficult since owners keep iterating on the existing content. When employees are unable to find the content, they end up creating it once again and in the process duplicating existing material and effort. Also, employees may not find the relevant content and spend time reviewing obsolete duplicate, or irrelevant content. On an average, a person spends 15 minutes/day in failed searches that might result in missed business opportunities, employee frustration, and substandard deliverables. Red Hat Knowledge Management Office (KMO) applied 'open source strategy' to solve the above problems. Under the Open Source Strategy, decisions are taken collectively. The strategy aims at accomplishing common goals with the help of communities. The objectives of this initiative were to save employees' time, get them authentic content, improve their content search experience, avoid duplicate content creation, provide context based search, improve analytics, improve content management workflows, automate content classification, and automate content upload. This session will describe open source strategy, its applicability in content management, challenges, recommended solutions, and outcome.

Keywords: content classification, content management, knowledge management, open source

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Authors: Kateryna Zhdanova, Evelyn Szeinbaum, Michelle Lo, Yeonjae Jo, Abel E. Navarro

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Alginate hydrogel beads (AB), spent peppermint leaf (PM), and a hybrid adsorbent of these two materials (ABPM) were studied as potential biosorbents of Cobalt (II) ions from aqueous solutions. Cobalt ion is a commonly underestimated pollutant that is responsible for several health problems. Discontinuous batch experiments were conducted at room temperature to evaluate the effect of solution acidity, mass of adsorbent on the adsorption of Co(II) ions. The interfering effect of salinity, the presence of surfactants, an organic dye, and Pb(II) ions were also studied to resemble the application of these adsorbents in real wastewater. Equilibrium results indicate that Co(II) uptake is maximized at pH values higher than 5, with adsorbent doses of 200 mg, 200 mg, and 120 mg for AB, PM, and ABPM, respectively. Co(II) adsorption followed the trend AB > ABPM > PM with Adsorption percentages of 77%, 71% and 64%, respectively. Salts had a strong negative effect on the adsorption due to the increase of the ionic strength and the competition for adsorption sites. The presence of Pb(II) ions, surfactant, and dye BY57 had a slightly negative effect on the adsorption, apparently due to their interaction with different adsorption sites that do not interfere with the removal of Co(II). A polar-electrostatic adsorption mechanism is proposed based on the experimental results. Scanning electron microscopy indicates that adsorbent has appropriate morphological and textural properties, and also that ABPM encapsulated most of the PM inside of the hydrogel beads. These experimental results revealed that AB, PM, and ABPM are promising adsorbents for the elimination of Co(II) ions from aqueous solutions under different experimental conditions. These biopolymers are proposed as eco-friendly alternatives for the removal of heavy metal ions at lower costs than the conventional techniques.

Keywords: adsorption, Co(II) ions, alginate hydrogel beads, spent peppermint leaf, pH

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Authors: Aijuka Nicholas

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A research study was undertaken to characterize the aquifers and identify the potential groundwater recharge zones in the Kagandi district. Quantitative characterization of hydraulic conductivities of aquifers is of fundamental importance to the study of groundwater flow and contaminant transport in aquifers. A conditional approach is used to represent the spatial variability of hydraulic conductivity. Briefly, it involves using qualitative and quantitative geologic borehole-log data to generate a three-dimensional (3D) hydraulic conductivity distribution, which is then adjusted through calibration of a 3D groundwater flow model using pumping-test data and historic hydraulic data. The approach consists of several steps. The study area was divided into five sub-watersheds on the basis of artificial drainage divides. A digital terrain model (DTM) was developed using Arc GIS to determine the general drainage pattern of Kagandi watershed. Hydrologic characterization involved the determination of the various hydraulic properties of the aquifers. Potential groundwater recharge zones were identified by integrating various thematic maps pertaining to the digital elevation model, land use, and drainage pattern in Arc GIS and Sufer golden software. The study demonstrates the potential of GIS in delineating groundwater recharge zones and that the developed methodology will be applicable to other watersheds in Uganda.

Keywords: aquifers, Arc GIS, groundwater recharge, recharge zones

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Authors: Sung Uk Ryu, Byoung Gook Jeon, Sung-Jae Yi, Dong-Jin Euh

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In such passive safety injection systems in the nuclear power plant as Core Makeup Tank (CMT) and Hybrid Safety Injection Tank, various thermal-hydraulic phenomena including the direct contact condensation of steam and the thermal stratification of coolant occur. These phenomena are also closely related to the performance of the system. Depending on the condensation rate of the steam injected to the tank, the injection of the coolant and pressure equalizing timings of the tank are decided. The steam injected to the tank from the upper nozzle penetrates the coolant and induces a direct contact condensation. In the present study, the direct contact condensation of steam and the thermal mixing between the steam and coolant were examined by using the Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV) technique. Especially, by altering the size of the nozzle from which the steam is injected, the influence of steam injection velocity on the thermal mixing with coolant and condensation shall be comprehended, while also investigating the influence of condensation on the pressure variation inside the tank. Even though the amounts of steam inserted were the same in three different nozzle size conditions, it was found that the velocity of pressure rise becomes lower as the steam injection area decreases. Also, as the steam injection area increases, the thickness of the zone within which the coolant’s temperature decreases. Thereby, the amount of steam condensed by the direct contact condensation also decreases. The results derived from the present study can be utilized for the detailed design of a passive safety injection system, as well as for modeling the direct contact condensation triggered by the steam jet’s penetration into the coolant.

Keywords: passive safety injection systems, steam penetration, direct contact condensation, particle image velocimetry

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Authors: Kofi Nkonkonya Mpuangnan, Samantha Govender, Hlengiwe Romualda Mhlongo

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In recent years, a noticeable and worrisome pattern has emerged in numerous developing nations which is a steady and persistent rise in unemployment rates. This escalation of economic struggles has become a cause of great concern for parents who, having invested significant resources in their children's education, harboured hopes of achieving economic prosperity and stability for their families through secure employment. To effectively tackle this pressing unemployment issue, it is imperative to adopt a holistic approach, and a pivotal aspect of this approach involves incorporating entrepreneurial education seamlessly into the entire educational system. In this light, the authors explored approaches to integrating entrepreneurial education into school curriculum focusing on the following questions. How can an entrepreneurial mindset among learners be promoted in school? And how far have pedagogical approaches improved entrepreneurship in schools? To find answers to these questions, a systematic literature review underpinned by Human Capital Theory was adopted. This method was supported by the three stages of guidelines like planning, conducting, and reporting. The data were specifically sought from publishers with expansive coverage of scholarly literature like Sage, Taylor & Francis, Emirate, and Springer, covering publications from 1965 to 2023. The search was supported by two broad terms such as promoting entrepreneurial mindset in learners and pedagogical strategies for enhancing entrepreneurship. It was found that acquiring an entrepreneurial mindset through an innovative classroom environment, resilience, and guest speakers and industry experts. Also, teachers can promote entrepreneurial education through the adoption of pedagogical approaches such as hands-on learning and experiential activities, role-playing, business simulation games and creative and innovative teaching. It was recommended that the Ministry of Education should develop tailored training programs and workshops aimed at empowering educators with the essential competencies and insights to deliver impactful entrepreneurial education.

Keywords: education, entrepreneurship, school curriculum, pedagogical approaches, integration

Procedia PDF Downloads 97

Authors: Dace Grauda, Gunta Cekstere, Inta Belogrudova, Andis Karlsons, Isaak Rashal

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Trifolium repens L. (white or Dutch clover) is a perennial herb, belongs to legume family (Leguminosae Juss.), spread extensively by stolons and seeds. The species is cultivated worldwide and was naturalized in many countries in meadows, yards, gardens, along roads and streets etc., especially in temperate regions. It is widespread also in grasslands throughout Riga, the capital of Latvia. The goal of this study was to investigate genetic structure of white clover population in Riga and to evaluate influence of different salt concentration on plants. For this purpose universal retrotranspozone based IRAP (Inter-Retrotransposon Amplified Polymorphism) method was used. The plant material was collected in different regions of Riga and in several urban areas of Latvia. Plant DNA was isolated from in silicogel dried leaves of using 1% CTAB (cetyltrimet-ammonium bromide) buffer DNA extraction procedure. Genetic structure of city population and wild populations were compared. Soil salinization is an important issue associated with low water resources and highly urbanized areas in aride and semi-aride climate conditions, as well as de-icing salt application to prevent ice formation on roads in winter. The T. repens variety ‘Daile’ (form giganteum), one of the often used component of urban greeneries, was studied in this investigation. Plants were grown from seeds and cultivated in the light conditions (18-25 C, 16h/8h of day/night, light intensity 3000 lx) in plastic pots (200 ml), filled with commercial neutralized (pH 5.9 ± 0.3) peat substrate with mineral nutrients. To analyse the impact of increased soil salinity treatments with gradually rising NaCl (0; 20; 40; 60; 80; 100 mM) levels were arranged. Plants were watered when necessary with deionised water to provide optimum substrate moisture 60-70%. The experiment was terminated six weeks after establishment. For analysis of mineral nutrients, dry plant material (above ground part and roots) was used. Decrease of Na content can be significant under elevated salinity till 20 mM NaCl. High NaCl concentrations in the substrate increase Na, Cl, Cu, Fe, and Mn accumulation, but reduce S, Mg, K content in the plant above ground parts. Abiotic stresses generally changes the levels of DNA metilation. Several candidate gene for salt tolerance will be analysed for DNA metilation level using Pyromark-Q24 advanced.

Keywords: DNA metilation, IRAP, soil salinization, white clover

Procedia PDF Downloads 364

Authors: Nasim Abuali Galehdari, Venkat Mani, Ajit D. Kelkar

Abstract:

Space Radiation has become one of the major factors in successful long duration space exploration. Exposure to space radiation not only can affect the health of astronauts but also can disrupt or damage materials and electronics. Hazards to materials include degradation of properties, such as, modulus, strength, or glass transition temperature. Electronics may experience single event effects, gate rupture, burnout of field effect transistors and noise. Presently aluminum is the major component in most of the space structures due to its lightweight and good structural properties. However, aluminum is ineffective at blocking space radiation. Therefore, most of the past research involved studying at polymers which contain large amounts of hydrogen. Again, these materials are not structural materials and would require large amounts of material to achieve the structural properties needed. One of the materials to alleviate this problem is polymeric composite materials, which has good structural properties and use polymers that contained large amounts of hydrogen. This paper presents steps involved in fabrication of multi-functional hybrid sandwich panels that can provide beneficial radiation shielding as well as structural strength. Multifunctional hybrid sandwich panels were manufactured using vacuum assisted resin transfer molding process and were subjected to radiation treatment. Study indicates that various nanoparticles including Boron Nano powder, Boron Carbide and Gadolinium nanoparticles can be successfully used to block the space radiation without sacrificing the structural integrity.

Keywords: multi-functional, polymer composites, radiation shielding, sandwich composites

Procedia PDF Downloads 286

Authors: Yuanhao Chang, Senbo Xiao, Zhiliang Zhang, Jianying He

Abstract:

The role of nanoparticles (NPs) in enhanced oil recovery (EOR) is being increasingly emphasized. In this study, the motion of NPs and local stress distribution of tapped oil droplet/nanofluid in nanochannels are studied with coarse-grained modeling and molecular dynamic simulations. The results illustrate three motion patterns for NPs: hydrophilic NPs are more likely to adsorb on the channel and stay near the three-phase contact areas, hydrophobic NPs move inside the oil droplet as clusters and more mixed NPs are trapped at the oil-water interface. NPs in each pattern affect the flow of fluid and the interfacial thickness to various degrees. Based on the calculation of atomistic stress, the characteristic that the higher value of stress occurs at the place where NPs aggregate can be obtained. Different occurrence patterns correspond to specific local stress distribution. Significantly, in the three-phase contact area for hydrophilic NPs, the local stress distribution close to the pattern of structural disjoining pressure is observed, which proves the existence of structural disjoining pressure in molecular dynamics simulation for the first time. Our results guide the design and screen of NPs for EOR and provide a basic understanding of nanofluid applications.

Keywords: local stress distribution, nanoparticles, enhanced oil recovery, molecular dynamics simulation, trapped oil droplet, structural disjoining pressure

Procedia PDF Downloads 134

Authors: Samaneh Eshraghi Ivaria, Torkild Thellefsenb

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The article discusses the significance of understanding the semiotics of future cities and recognizing the signs of cultural identity in contributing to the preservation of citizens' memories. The identities of citizens are conveyed through memories in urban planning, and with the rapid advancements in technology, cities are constantly changing. Therefore, preserving memories in the design of future cities is essential in maintaining a quality environment that reflects the citizens' identities. The article focuses on the semiotics of the movement pattern morphology in Mashhad city's historical area, using the historical interpretation method. The practice of walking to the shrine of Imam Reza as a religious building has been a historical and religious custom among Shiites from the past until now. By recognizing the signs that result from this religious and cultural approach on the morphology of the city, the aim of the research is to preserve the place of memories in future cities. Overall, the article highlights the importance of recognizing the cultural and historical significance of cities in designing future urban spaces. By doing so, it is possible to preserve the memories and identities of citizens, ensuring that the urban environment reflects the unique cultural heritage of a place.

Keywords: memories, future cities, movement pattern, mashhad, semiotics

Procedia PDF Downloads 82

Authors: M. Irannezhad, E. H. N. Gashti, S. Mohammadighavam, M. Zarrini, B. Kløve

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Climate warming would increase rainfall by shifting precipitation falling form from snow to rain, and would accelerate snow cover disappearing by increasing snowpack. Using temperature and precipitation data in the temperature-index snowmelt model, we evaluated variability of snowfall and continuous snow cover duration(CSCD) during 1944-2010 over Pelso, central Finland. MannKendall non-parametric test determined that annual precipitation increased by 2.69 (mm/year, p<0.05) during the study period, but no clear trend in annual temperature. Both annual rainfall and snowfall increased by 1.67 and 0.78 (mm/year, p<0.05), respectively. CSCD was generally about 205 days from 14 October to 6 May. No clear trend was found in CSCD over Pelso. Spearman’s rank correlation showed most significant relationships of annual snowfall with the East Atlantic (EA) pattern, and CSCD with the East Atlantic/West Russia (EA/WR) pattern. Increased precipitation with no warming temperature caused the rainfall and snowfall to increase, while no effects on CSCD.

Keywords: variations, snowfall, snow cover duration, temperature-index snowmelt model, teleconnection patterns

Procedia PDF Downloads 223

Authors: N. Rassoul-ibrahim, E. Siahmed, L. Tadrist

Abstract:

Water management plays a crucial role in the performance and durability of PEM fuel cells. Whereas the membrane must be hydrated enough, liquid droplets formed by water in excess can block the flow in the gas distribution channels and hinder the fuel cell performance. The main purpose of this work is to increase the understanding of liquid transport and mixing through mini- or micro-channels for various engineering or medical process applications including cool-ing of equipment according to the operations considered. For that purpose and as a first step, a technique was devel-oped to automatically detect and characterize two-phase flow patterns that may appear in such. The investigation, mainly experimental, was conducted on transparent channel with a 1mm x 1mm square cross section and a 0.3mm x 0.3 mm water injection normal to the gas channel. Three main flow patterns were identified liquid slug, bubble flow and annular flow. A flow map has been built accord-ing to the flow rate of both phases. As a sample the follow-ing figures show representative images of the flow struc-tures observed. An analysis and discussion of the flow pattern, in mini-channel, will be provided and compared to the case old micro-channel. . Keywords: Two phase flow, Clean Energy, Minichannels, Fuel Cells. Flow patterns, Maps.

Keywords: two phase flox, T-juncion, Micro and minichannels, clean energy, flow patterns, maps

Procedia PDF Downloads 76

Authors: Yun-Tao Zhang, Jong-Yeop Bae, Whoi-Yul Kim

Abstract:

Background modeling and subtraction in video analysis has been widely proved to be an effective method for moving objects detection in many computer vision applications. Over the past years, a large number of approaches have been developed to tackle different types of challenges in this field. However, the dynamic background and illumination variations are two of the most frequently occurring issues in the practical situation. This paper presents a new two-layer model based on codebook algorithm incorporated with local binary pattern (LBP) texture measure, targeted for handling dynamic background and illumination variation problems. More specifically, the first layer is designed by block-based codebook combining with LBP histogram and mean values of RGB color channels. Because of the invariance of the LBP features with respect to monotonic gray-scale changes, this layer can produce block-wise detection results with considerable tolerance of illumination variations. The pixel-based codebook is employed to reinforce the precision from the outputs of the first layer which is to eliminate false positives further. As a result, the proposed approach can greatly promote the accuracy under the circumstances of dynamic background and illumination changes. Experimental results on several popular background subtraction datasets demonstrate a very competitive performance compared to previous models.

Keywords: background subtraction, codebook model, local binary pattern, dynamic background, illumination change

Procedia PDF Downloads 217

Authors: Joshua Bradley, Matthew Buns

Abstract:

This study aimed to identify the effect of concurrent nutritional supplementation on soccer performance as players ingested either carbohydrate CHO (52 g of Cytocarb Maltodextrin) or a combined carbohydrate and protein PRO (Muscle Milk Pro Series 17g CHO + 50 g PRO liquid) supplement. Twelve male, junior college soccer players (age: 18 ± 6 years, wt. 73.3 ± 8.6 kg) completed three trials wearing global positioning systems (GPS) to measure total running distance and sprinting distance during soccer simulation games. The first match simulation was a baseline match with no supplementation. One hour prior to the second match, simulation players were randomly assigned to one of two supplemental groups CHO or CHO + PRO. A repeated measures ANOVA with a Greenhouse-Geisser correction revealed a statistically significant increase in the total distance run for the CHO supplementation group in comparison to the CHO + PRO group (10.19 ± .200 km vs. 9.77± .194km, p = .035). Although the total running distance was meaningfully influenced by the supplementation, the pattern of response for total sprinting distance was not influenced by supplementation. There was a decline in sprinting distance and total running distance from first half to second half, both for the control (M = -0.01 km, SD = 0.17) and CHO supplementation group (-0.04 km, SD = .19), although these differences were not statistically meaningful. There was a positive correlation between sprinting distance and total distance, which was statistically significant (r = -.514, n = 36, p = .01) In conclusion, supplementation influenced the pattern of activity and demonstrated between-trial differences.

Keywords: GPS, nutrition, simulation, supplementation

Procedia PDF Downloads 146