Search results for: cross wall

Authors: Ijeoma Chinyere Ukonu

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This research seeks to investigate how the globalisation of fast food has affected students’ food choice. A mixed method approach was used in this research; basically involving quantitative and qualitative methods. The quantitative method uses a self-completion questionnaire to randomly sample one hundred and four students; while the qualitative method uses a semi structured interview technique to survey four students on their knowledge and choice to consume fast food. A cross tabulation of variables and the Kruskal Wallis nonparametric test were used to analyse the quantitative data; while the qualitative data was analysed through deduction of themes, and trends from the interview transcribe. The findings revealed that globalisation has amplified the evolution of fast food, popularising it among students. Its global presence has affected students’ food choice and preference. Price, convenience, taste, and peer influence are some of the major factors affecting students’ choice of fast food. Though, students are familiar with the health effect of fast food and the significance of using food information labels for healthy choice making, their preference of fast food is more than homemade food.

Keywords: fast food, food choice, globalisation, students

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Authors: M. A. Aleem, M. S. Awan

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Flat spiral coil for electromagnetic forming system has been modelled in FEMM 4.2 software. Copper strip was chosen as the material for designing the actuator coil. Relationship between height to width ratio (S-factor) of the copper strip and coil’s performance has been studied. Magnetic field intensities, eddy currents, and Lorentz force were calculated for the coils that were designed using six different 'S-factor' values (0.65, 0.75, 1.05, 1.25, 1.54 and 1.75), keeping the cross-sectional area of strip the same. Results obtained through simulation suggest that actuator coil with S-factor ~ 1 shows optimum forming performance as it exerts maximum Lorentz force (84 kN) on work piece. The same coils were fabricated and used for electromagnetic sheet forming experiments. Aluminum 6061 sheets of thickness 1.5 mm have been formed using different voltage levels of capacitor bank. Smooth forming profiles were obtained with dome heights 28, 35 and 40 mm in work piece at 800, 1150 and 1250 V respectively.

Keywords: FEM modelling, electromagnetic forming, spiral coil, Lorentz force

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Authors: Alaba M. Dare, Idris A. Ayinde, Adebayo M. Shittu, Sam O. Sam-Wobo

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Households' source of water is one of the core development indicators recently gaining pre-eminence in Nigeria. This study examined rural households' sources of water, Willingness to Pay (WTP) and factors influencing mean WTP. A cross-sectional survey which involved the use of questionnaire was used. A dichotomous choice (DC) with follow up was used as elicitation method. A multi-stage random sampling technique was used to select 437 rural households. Descriptive statistics and Tobit model were used for data estimation. The result revealed that about 70% fetched from unimproved water sources. Most (74.4%) respondents showed WTP for improved water sources. Age (p < 0.01), sex (p < 0.01), education (p < 0.01), occupation (p < 0.01), income (p < 0.01), price of water (P < 0.01), quantity of water (p < 0.01), household size (p < 0.01) and distance (p < 0.01) to existing water sources significantly influenced rural households' WTP for these services. The inference from this study showed that rural dweller sources of water is highly primitive and deplorable. Governments and stakeholders should prioritize the provision of rural water at an affordable price by rural dwellers.

Keywords: households, source of water, willingness to pay (WTP), tobit model

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Authors: Shouyong Zhou, Meisheng Li, Yijiang Zhao

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The environmentally acceptable disposal of oily wastewater is a current challenge to many industries. The membrane separation technologies, which is no phase change, without pharmaceutical dosing, reprocessing costs low, less energy consumption, etc., have been widely applied in oily wastewater treatment. In our lab, a kind of low cost ceramic microfiltration membranes with a separation layer of attapulgite nanofibers (attapulgite nanofiber-like microfiltration membranes) has been prepared and applied in the purification of cellulase fermentation broth and TiO2 nanoparticles system successfully. In this paper, this new attapulgite nanofiber-like microfiltration membrane was selected to try to separate water from oily wastewater. The oil-in water emulsion was obtained from mixing 1 g/L engine oil, 0.5 g/L Tween-80, 0.5 g/L Span-80 and distilled water at mild speed in blender for 2 min. The particle size distribution of the oil-in-water emulsion was controlled. The maximum steady flux and COD rejection for a 0.2 um attapulgite nanofiber-like microfiltration membrane can reach about 450 L. m-2. h-1 and 98% at 0.2 MPa. The results obtained in this work indicated that the attapulgite microfiltration membrane may represent a feasible pretreatment for oily wastewater.

Keywords: attapulgite, microfiltration membrane, oily wastewater, cross-flow filtration

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Authors: Abdulrahman Abdulrahman, Abir Abdulrahman

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Free over-fall is an instrument for measuring discharge in open channels by measuring end depth. A comprehensive researchers investigated theoretically and experimentally brink phenomenon with various approaches for different cross-sectional shapes. Anderson's method, based on Boussinq's approximation and energy approach was used to derive a pressure distribution factor at end depth. Applying the one-dimensional momentum equation and the principles of limit slope analysis, a relevant analytical solution may be derived for brink depth ratio (EDR) in prismatic rectangular channel. Also relationships between end depth ratio and slope ratio for a given non-dimensional normal or critical depth with upstream supercritical flow regime are presented. Simple indirect procedure is used to estimate the end depth discharge ratio (EDD) for subcritical and supercritical flow using measured end depth. The comparison of this analysis with all previous theoretical and experimental studies showed an excellent agreement.

Keywords: analytical solution, brink depth, end depth, flow measurement, free over fall, hydraulics, rectangular channel

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Authors: Francesco Colcerasa, Fabio Pisani

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We contribute to the subjective well-being literature testing the relationship between life satisfaction and inequality of opportunity in health, measured through the Human Opportunity Index calculated at the national level using individual socio-economic data from the cross-country European Social Survey sample. We compute several indexes of opportunity inequality in health, each obtained according to a different combination of circumstances (gender, immigrant status, parents’ education). We find a robust and significant relationship where life satisfaction is higher in correspondence with low levels of health opportunity inequality. The result is twofold. On the one hand, the importance of the well-being of other types of inequality than income inequality emerges. On the other hand, the socioeconomic roots of inequality in health are investigated, suggesting that circumstances at birth have a role in future well-being. Several rationales for the nexus between life satisfaction and inequality of opportunity in health are possible, which we investigate by splitting the sample. Among others, we find a prominent role of pro-social preferences – formalized as interest towards own offspring (which can be interpreted as intergenerational justice) – as a mediating factor of the relationship.

Keywords: Inequality of opportunity, subjective wellbeing, health, health inequality, inequality of opportunity in health

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Authors: Athena Nguyen, Rojin Belganeh

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Detecting and identifying differences in like polymer materials are key factors in failure and deformulation analysis, and reverse engineering. Pyrolysis-GC/MS is an easy solid sample introduction technique which expands the application areas of gas chromatography and mass spectrometry. The Micro furnace pyrolyzer is directly interfaced with the GC injector preventing any potential of cold spot, carryover, and cross contamination. In this presentation, the analysis of the differences in three polystyrene samples is demonstrated. Although the three samples look very similar by Evolve gas analysis (EGA) and Flash pyrolysis, there are indications of small levels of other materials. By performing Thermal desorption-GC/MS, the additive compounds between samples show the differences. EGA, flash pyrolysis, and thermal desorption analysis are the different modes of operations of the micro-furnace pyrolyzer enabling users to perform multiple analytical techniques.

Keywords: Gas chromatography/Mass spectrometry, pyrolysis, pyrolyzer, thermal desorption-GC/MS

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Authors: A. N. Ghafar, O. A. Chaudhari, W. Oettel, P. Fontana

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This study is a part of the EU project GEOCOND-Advanced materials and processes to improve performance and cost-efficiency of shallow geothermal systems and underground thermal storage. In heat exchange boreholes, to improve the heat transfer between the pipes and the surrounding ground, the space between the pipes and the borehole wall is normally filled with geothermal grout. Traditionally, bentonite has been a crucial component in most commercially available geothermal grouts to assure the required stability and impermeability. The investigations conducted in the early stage of this project during the benchmarking tests on some commercial grouts showed considerable sensitivity of the rheological properties of the tested grouts to the mixing parameters, i.e., mixing time and velocity. Further studies on this matter showed that bentonite, which has been one of the important constituents in most grout mixes, was probably responsible for such behavior. Apparently, proper amount of shear should be applied during the mixing process to sufficiently activate the bentonite. The higher the amount of applied shear the more the activation of bentonite, resulting in change in the grout rheology. This explains why, occasionally in the field applications, the flow properties of the commercially available geothermal grouts using different mixing conditions (mixer type, mixing time, mixing velocity) are completely different than expected. A series of tests were conducted on the grout mixes, with and without bentonite, using different mixing protocols. The aim was to eliminate/reduce the sensitivity of the rheological properties of the geothermal grouts to the mixing parameters by replacing bentonite with polymeric (non-clay) stabilizers. The results showed that by replacing bentonite with a proper polymeric stabilizer, the sensitivity of the grout mix on mixing time and velocity was to a great extent diminished. This can be considered as an alternative for the developers/producers of geothermal grouts to provide enhanced materials with less uncertainty in obtained results in the field applications.

Keywords: flow properties, geothermal grout, mixing time, mixing velocity, rheological properties

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Authors: Alaa Abdullah Altaee

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This paper presents an adaptive decision feedback equalizer (ADFE) for multi-Gbps serial links utilizing a fix-step error signal extracted from cross-points of received data symbols. The extracted signal is generated based on violation of received data symbols with minimum detection requirements at the clock and data recovery (CDR) stage. The iterations of the adaptation process search for the optimum feedback tap coefficients to maximize the data eye-opening and minimize the adaptation convergence time. The effectiveness of the proposed architecture is validated using the simulation results of a serial link designed in an IBM 130 nm 1.2V CMOS technology. The data link with variable channel lengths is analyzed using Spectre from Cadence Design Systems with BSIM4 device models.

Keywords: adaptive DFE, CMOS equalizer, error detection, serial links, timing jitter, wire-line communication

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Authors: A. Maria G. Melero, A. M. Senna, J. A. Domingues, M. A. Hausen, E. Aparecida R. Duek, V. R. Botaro

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A hydrogel from cellulose acetate cross linked with ethylenediaminetetraacetic dianhydride (HAC-EDTA) was synthesized by our research group, and submitted to characterization and biological tests. Cytocompatibility analysis was performed by confocal microscopy using human adipocyte derived stem cells (ASCs). The FTIR analysis showed characteristic bands of cellulose acetate and hydroxyl groups and the tensile tests evidence that HAC-EDTA present a Young’s modulus of 643.7 MPa. The confocal analysis revealed that there was cell growth at the surface of HAC-EDTA. After one day of culture the cells presented spherical morphology, which may be caused by stress of the sequestration of Ca²⁺ and Mg²⁺ ions at the cell medium by HAC-EDTA, as demonstrated by ICP-MS. However, after seven days and 14 days of culture, the cells present fibroblastoid morphology, phenotype expected by this cellular type. The results give efforts to indicate this new material as a potential biomaterial for tissue engineering, in the future in vivo approach.

Keywords: cellulose acetate, hydrogel, biomaterial, cellular growth

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Authors: Dipak Sen, Rajdeep Ghosh

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This paper presents a computational study of steady state three dimensional very high turbulent flow and heat transfer characteristics in a constant temperature-surfaced circular duct fitted with 900 hemispherical inline baffles. The computations are based on realizable k-ɛ model with standard wall function considering the finite volume method, and the SIMPLE algorithm has been implemented. Computational Study are carried out for Reynolds number, Re ranging from 80000 to 120000, Prandtl Number, Pr of 0.73, Pitch Ratios, PR of 1,2,3,4,5 based on the hydraulic diameter of the channel, hydrodynamic entry length, thermal entry length and the test section. Ansys Fluent 15.0 software has been used to solve the flow field. Study reveals that circular pipe having baffles has a higher Nusselt number and friction factor compared to the smooth circular pipe without baffles. Maximum Nusselt number and friction factor are obtained for the PR=5 and PR=1 respectively. Nusselt number increases while pitch ratio increases in the range of study; however, friction factor also decreases up to PR 3 and after which it becomes almost constant up to PR 5. Thermal enhancement factor increases with increasing pitch ratio but with slightly decreasing Reynolds number in the range of study and becomes almost constant at higher Reynolds number. The computational results reveal that optimum thermal enhancement factor of 900 inline hemispherical baffle is about 1.23 for pitch ratio 5 at Reynolds number 120000.It also shows that the optimum pitch ratio for which the baffles can be installed in such very high turbulent flows should be 5. Results show that pitch ratio and Reynolds number play an important role on both fluid flow and heat transfer characteristics.

Keywords: friction factor, heat transfer, turbulent flow, circular duct, baffle, pitch ratio

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Authors: Malakeh Zuhdi Malak, Mahmoud Taher Kalaldeh

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In Jordan, no available data exists regarding violence and unintentional injuries among secondary school students aged 15-19 years. The purpose of this study was to assess the violence and unintentional injuries among those students, and to compare these two behaviors between male and female students. A descriptive cross-sectional design was carried out on randomly selected eight comprehensive secondary schools (four schools for females and four schools for males) from the public school educational directorate located in Amman. A modified Arabic version of the General School Health Survey questionnaire was used to measure violence and unintentional injuries. A sample of 750 secondary school students was studied. The findings showed that 26.8 % of students had been physically attacked. Overall, 43.3 % of students had been involved in a physical fight and 20.1% of them had been bullied. Overall, 45.3% of students were seriously injured. There was a difference between male and female students regarding to physical attack, physical fight, and serious injuries. In conclusion, it is necessary to develop effective training program in life skills for students that functions to reduce risk-taking behaviors that often leading to violence and unintentional injuries.

Keywords: secondary school students, violence, unintentional injuries, bullying

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Authors: Sandra So, Mohd Roslan Ismail, Safurah Jaafar

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With the rapid proliferation of data in healthcare has provided an opportune platform creation of Artificial Intelligence (AI). AI has brought a paradigm shift for healthcare professionals, promising improvement in delivery and quality. This study aims to determine the perception of healthcare personnel on perceived ease of use, perceived usefulness, and subjective norm toward attitude for artificial intelligence acceptance. A cross-sectional single institutional study of employees’ perception of adopting AI in the hospital was conducted. The survey was conducted using a questionnaire adapted from Technology Acceptance Model and a four-point Likert scale was used. There were 96 or 75.5% of the total population responded. This study has shown the significant relationship and the importance of ease of use, perceived usefulness, and subjective norm to the acceptance of AI. In the study results, it concluded that the determining factor to the strong acceptance of AI in their practices is mostly those respondents with the most interaction with the patients and clinical management.

Keywords: artificial intelligence, machine learning, perceived ease of use, perceived usefulness, subjective norm

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Authors: Anandkumar S. Purohit

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Introduction: Amblyopia is a serious condition resulting in monocular impairment of vision. Although traditional treatment improves vision, we attempted the results of perceptual learning in this study. Methods: The prospective cohort study included all patients with amblyopia who were subjected to perceptual learning. The presenting data on vision, stereopsis, and contrast sensitivity were documented in a pretested online format, and the pre‑ and post‑treatment information was compared using descriptive, cross‑tabulation, and comparative methods on SPSS 22. Results: The cohort consisted of 47 patients (23 females and 24 males) with a mean age of 14.11 ± 7.13 years. A significant improvement was detected in visual acuity after the PL sessions, and the median follow‑up period was 17 days. Stereopsis improved significantly in all age groups. Conclusion: PL with hand-eye coordination is an effective method for managing amblyopia. This approach can improve vision in all age groups.

Keywords: amblyopia, perceptual learning, hand-eye coordination, visual acuity, stereopsis, contrast sensitivity, ophthalmology

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Authors: Salman Iqbal

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Knowledge management (KM) literature has mainly focused on the antecedents of KM. The purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of specific human resource management (HRM) practices on employee knowledge sharing and its outcome as individual knowledge capability. Based on previous literature, a model is proposed for the study and hypotheses are formulated. The cross-sectional dataset comes from a sample of 19 knowledge intensive firms (KIFs). This study has run an item parceling technique followed by Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) on the latent constructs of the research model. Employees’ collaboration and their interpersonal trust can help to improve their knowledge sharing behaviour and knowledge capability within organisations. This study suggests that in future, by using a larger sample, better statistical insight is possible. The findings of this study are beneficial for scholars, policy makers and practitioners. The empirical results of this study are entirely based on employees’ perceptions and make a significant research contribution, given there is a dearth of empirical research focusing on the subcontinent.

Keywords: employees’ collaboration, individual knowledge capability, knowledge sharing, monetary rewards, structural equation modelling

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Authors: Moustapha Bande, Hakima Ould-Slimane, Hanifa Boucheneb

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Software development for complex systems requires efficient and automatic tools that can be used to verify the satisfiability of some critical properties such as security ones. With the emergence of Aspect-Oriented Programming (AOP), considerable work has been done in order to better modularize the separation of concerns in the software design and implementation. The goal is to prevent the cross-cutting concerns to be scattered across the multiple modules of the program and tangled with other modules. One of the key challenges in the aspect-oriented programs is to be sure that all the pieces put together at the weaving time ensure the satisfiability of the overall system requirements. Our paper focuses on this problem and proposes a formal property verification approach for a given property from the woven program. The approach is based on the control flow graph (CFG) of the woven program, and the use of a satisfiability modulo theories (SMT) solver to check whether each property (represented par one aspect) is satisfied or not once the weaving is done.

Keywords: aspect-oriented programming, control flow graph, property verification, satisfiability modulo theories

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Authors: Sonia Wahengbam, Natasha Elangbam

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Female impersonation has existed through the length of human civilization and the breadth of its cultures. Transvestism and drag queen cultures have created multi-sited spaces where in the shadow of art, one can cross the gender barrier and express one’s hidden identity. This paper will explore a dynamic cultural space that exists in Manipur, a state in the northeastern region of India, where the female impersonators (nupi shabis) of a folk theater (Shumang Leela) are using this traditional and popular art form to claim social acceptance of their homosexual identities through the medium of entertainment. It will highlight how by crossing the gender boundary, this third gender group has carved out a unique socio-economic niche where they have exploited their sexual identities to their advantage. The paper will trace the expanding cultural ‘’borderland’’ of Manipur where there is an increasing sense of ‘becoming’, belonging and sharing” of identities through the interweaving of old and new media. The research will be based on interviews with the nupi shabis, cultural critics and other experts.

Keywords: transvestism, Manipur, female impersonators (nupi shabis), Shumang Leela, gender

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Authors: Seyed Amin Vakili, Sahar Sadat Vakili, Seyed Ehsan Vakili, Nader Abdoli Yazdi

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The aim of this paper is to examine the behavior of elastic stability of reinforced and composite concrete struts with axial loads. The objective of this study is to verify the ability of the Modified Newmark Method to include geometric non-linearity in addition to non-linearity due to cracking, and also to show the advantage of the established method to reconsider an ignored minor parameter in mathematical modeling, such as the effect of the cracking by extra geometric bending moment Ny on cross-section properties. The purpose of this investigation is not to present some new results for the instability of reinforced or composite concrete columns. Therefore, no kinds of non-linearity involved in the problem are considered here. Only as mentioned, it is a part of the verification of the new established method to solve two kinds of non-linearity P- δ effect and cracking together simultaneously. However, the Modified Newmark Method can be used to solve non-linearity of materials and time-dependent behavior of concrete. However, since it is out of the scope of this article, it is not considered.

Keywords: stability, buckling, modified newmark method, reinforced

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Authors: Seok-Hyeon Park, Joon-Hong Park, Mok-Tan-Ahn, Seong-Hun Ha

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Clad Pipe is made of a different kind of material, which is different from the internal and external materials, for the corrosive crude oil transportation tube. Most of the clad pipes are produced by hot rolling. However, problems arise due to high product prices and excessive process numbers. Therefore, in this study, the hot drawing process with excellent product cost, process number and productivity is applied. Due to the nature of the drawing process, the shape of the mold greatly influences the formability of the material and the bonding pressure of the two materials because it is a process of drawing the material to the die and reducing the cross-sectional area. Also, in case of hot drawing, if the mold shape is not suitable due to the increased fluidity of the material, it may cause problems such as tearing and stretching. Therefore, in this study, we try to find the shape of the mold which suppresses the occurrence of defects in the hot drawing process and maximizes the bonding pressure between the two materials through the mold shape optimization design by FEM analysis.

Keywords: clad pipe, hot drawing, bonding pressure, mold shape

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Authors: Masood Otarod, Ronald M. Supkowski

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This abstract discusses a method that reduces the general dispersion model in cylindrical coordinates to a second order linear ordinary differential equation with constant coefficients so that it can be utilized to conduct kinetic studies in packed bed tubular catalytic reactors at a broad range of Reynolds numbers. The model was tested by 13CO isotope transient tracing of the CO adsorption of Boudouard reaction in a differential reactor at an average Reynolds number of 0.2 over Pd-Al2O3 catalyst. Detailed experimental results have provided evidence for the validity of the theoretical framing of the model and the estimated parameters are consistent with the literature. The solution of the general dispersion model requires the knowledge of the radial distribution of axial velocity. This is not always known. Hence, up until now, the implementation of the dispersion model has been largely restricted to the plug-flow regime. But, ideal plug-flow is impossible to achieve and flow regimes approximating plug-flow leave much room for debate as to the validity of the results. The reduction of the general dispersion model transpires as a result of the application of a factorization theorem. Factorization theorem is derived from the observation that a cross section of a catalytic bed consists of a solid phase across which the reaction takes place and a void or porous phase across which no significant measure of reaction occurs. The disparity in flow and the heterogeneity of the catalytic bed cause the concentration of reacting compounds to fluctuate radially. These variabilities signify the existence of radial positions at which the radial gradient of concentration is zero. Succinctly, factorization theorem states that a concentration function of axial and radial coordinates in a catalytic bed is factorable as the product of the mean radial cup-mixing function and a contingent dimensionless function. The concentration of adsorbed compounds are also factorable since they are piecewise continuous functions and suffer the same variability but in the reverse order of the concentration of mobile phase compounds. Factorability is a property of packed beds which transforms the general dispersion model to an equation in terms of the measurable mean radial cup-mixing concentration of the mobile phase compounds and mean cross-sectional concentration of adsorbed species. The reduced model does not require the knowledge of the radial distribution of the axial velocity. Instead, it is characterized by new transport parameters so denoted by Ωc, Ωa, Ωc, and which are respectively denominated convection coefficient cofactor, axial dispersion coefficient cofactor, and radial dispersion coefficient cofactor. These cofactors adjust the dispersion equation as compensation for the unavailability of the radial distribution of the axial velocity. Together with the rest of the kinetic parameters they can be determined from experimental data via an optimization procedure. Our data showed that the estimated parameters Ωc, Ωa Ωr, are monotonically correlated with the Reynolds number. This is expected to be the case based on the theoretical construct of the model. Computer generated simulations of methanation reaction on nickel provide additional support for the utility of the newly conceptualized dispersion model.

Keywords: factorization, general dispersion model, isotope transient kinetic, partial differential equations

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Authors: Kamran Rashid, Tashfeen M. Azhar, Asad-ur-Rahman Wahla

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Current research aims to understand the role of successful buyer-supplier relationship in achieving supply chain competitiveness in a developing country perspective. Five hypotheses are developed to test structural model. Survey data is collected from the manufacturing sector of Pakistan. Analysis is conducted using Partial Least Squares (PLS) Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) through Smart PLS version 2.0 M3. Results demonstrate positive impact of effective supplier selection, buyer-supplier engagement, and information sharing capability on success of buyer supplier relationship. This successful buyer supplier relationship drives the supply chain firm financial and market performance. Additional analyses with large sample sizes are required in other developing countries to cross validate the results. Current study provides empirical evidence of the role of successful buyer supplier relationship in achieving supply chain competitiveness.

Keywords: supply chain management, successful buyer-supplier relationship, supply chain competitiveness, developing country

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Authors: Misrak Assefa

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The Amharic language is the second most widely spoken Semitic language in the world. There are several new overloaded on the web. Searching some useful documents from the web on a specific topic, which is written in the Amharic language, is a challenging task. Hence, document categorization is required for managing and filtering important information. In the classification of Amharic text news, there is still a gap in the domain of information that needs to be launch. This study attempts to design an automatic Amharic news classification using a supervised learning mechanism on four un-touch classes. To achieve this research, 4,182 news articles were used. Naive Bayes (NB) and Decision tree (j48) algorithms were used to classify the given Amharic dataset. In this paper, k-fold cross-validation is used to estimate the accuracy of the classifier. As a result, it shows those algorithms can be applicable in Amharic news categorization. The best average accuracy result is achieved by j48 decision tree and naïve Bayes is 95.2345 %, and 94.6245 % respectively using three categories. This research indicated that a typical decision tree algorithm is more applicable to Amharic news categorization.

Keywords: text categorization, supervised machine learning, naive Bayes, decision tree

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Authors: Chad Goldsworthy, B. Rajeswari Matam

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The use of deep learning for species identification in camera trap images has revolutionised our ability to study, conserve and monitor species in a highly efficient and unobtrusive manner, with state-of-the-art models achieving accuracies surpassing the accuracy of manual human classification. The high imbalance of camera trap datasets, however, results in poor accuracies for minority (rare or endangered) species due to their relative insignificance to the overall model accuracy. This paper investigates the use of Focal Loss, in comparison to the traditional Cross Entropy Loss function, to improve the identification of minority species in the “255 Bird Species” dataset from Kaggle. The results show that, although Focal Loss slightly decreased the accuracy of the majority species, it was able to increase the F1-score by 0.06 and improve the identification of the bottom two, five and ten (minority) species by 37.5%, 15.7% and 10.8%, respectively, as well as resulting in an improved overall accuracy of 2.96%.

Keywords: convolutional neural networks, data imbalance, deep learning, focal loss, species classification, wildlife conservation

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Authors: Mohamed M. A. Abumandour

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The red swamp freshwater crayfish breathe through three types of feather-like trichobranchiate gills; podobranchiae, arthrobranchiae and pleurobranchiae. All gills have the same general structure and appearance; plume-like with single broad setiferous, and single axis. The gill consists of axis with numerous finger-like filaments, having three morphological types; round, pointed and somewhat hooked shaped. The direction of filaments vary according their position; in middle region were nearly perpendicular to gill axis while in the apex were nearly parallel to axis. There were characteristic system of gill spines on; central axis (two types were distinguishable by presence of socket), basal plate, setobranch (long non-branched and short multidenticulate) and on the bilobed epipodal plate. There are four shape of spinated-like distal region of setobranch seta; two pointed processes (longitudinal arrangement and irregular arranged) and two broad processes (transverse triangular and multidenticulate). The bilobed epipodal plate devoid from any filaments and extended from outer side of podobranchiae as triangular basal part then extended between the gills as cord-like middle part then pass under the gill to lies against the thoracic body wall. By SEM, the apical part of bilobed epipodal plate have serrated free border and corrugated surface while the middle part have none serrated free border. There are two methods of gill cleaning mechanism in crayfish; passive and active method. The passive method occurred by; setae of setobranch, branchiostegite, bilobed epipodal plate, setiferous arthrodial lamellae and reversing the respiratory water through a narrow spaced branchial chamber.

Keywords: crayfis, gill spines, setobranch, gill setae, cleaning mechanisms

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Authors: Jane E. Mullen, Kevin Kelloway, Ann Rhéaume-Brüning

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The purpose of this study is to examine the effects of perceived leader word-action alignment on subordinate extra-role safety behavior. Using survey data gathered from a sample of nurses employed in health care facilities located in Eastern Canada (n = 192), the effects of perceived word-action alignment (measured as the cross product of leaders speaking positively about safety and acting safely) on nurse safety participation was examined. Moderated regression analysis resulted in the significant (p < .01) prediction of nurse safety participation by the interaction term. Analysis of the simple slopes comprising the interaction term suggests that positively speaking about safety only predicted safety participation when leaders were also perceived by subordinates as acting safely. The results provide empirical support for the importance of the perceived alignment between leaders’ words, or espoused safety values and priorities, and their actions. Practical implications for safety leadership training are discussed.

Keywords: leadership, safety participation, safety performance, safety training

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Authors: Borys Stegniy, Anton Gerilovych, Oleksii Solodiankin, Vitaliy Bolotin, Anton Stegniy, Denys Muzyka, Claudio Afonso

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New APMV was isolated from white fronted goose in Ukraine. This isolate was tested serologically using monoclonal antibodies in haemagglutination-inhibition tests against APMV1-9. As the results obtained isolate showed cross reactions with APMV7. Following investigations were provided for the full genome sequencing using random primers and cloning into pCRII-TOPO. Analysis of 100 transformed colonies of E.coli using traditional sequencing gave us possibilities to find only 3 regions, which could identify by BLAST. The first region with the length of 367 bp had 70 % nucleotide sequence identity to the APMV 12 isolate Wigeon/Italy/3920_1/2005 at genome position 2419-2784. Next region (344 bp) had 66 % identity to the same APMV 12 isolate at position 4760-5103. The last region (365 bp) showed 71 % identity to Newcastle disease virus strain M4 at position 12569-12928.

Keywords: APMV, Newcastle disease virus, Ukraine, full genome sequencing

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Authors: Hope Amba Neji

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The study adopted a quasi-experimental design. Two schools were used for the experimental study, while one school was used for the control. The experimental groups were subjected to treatment for four weeks with chemistry museum artifacts and a visit as made to the museum so that learners would have real-life learning experiences with museum resources, while the control group was taught with the conventional method. The instrument for the study was a 20-item Chemistry Memory Test (CMT) and a 10-item Chemistry Interest Questionnaire (CIQ). The reliability was ascertained using (KR-20) and alpha reliability coefficient, which yielded a reliability coefficient of .83 and .81, respectively. Data obtained was analyzed using Analysis of Covariance (ANCOVA) and Analysis of variance (ANOVA) at 0.05 level of significance. Findings revealed that museum artifacts have a significant effect on students’ memory enhancement and interest in chemistry. It was recommended chemistry learning should be enhanced, motivating and real with museum artifacts, which significantly aid memory enhancement and interest in chemistry.

Keywords: museum artifacts, memory, chemistry, atitude

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Authors: Chong Hu, Tiantian Wang, Zhe Li, Ourui Huang, Yichen Pan

Abstract:

When the train is running in a high geothermal tunnel, changes in the temperature field will cause disturbances in the propagation and superposition of pressure waves in the tunnel, which in turn have an effect on the aerodynamic resistance of the train. The aim of this paper is to investigate the effect of the changes in the lengths of the high-temperature zone of the tunnel on the aerodynamic resistance of the train, clarifying the evolution mechanism of aerodynamic resistance of trains in tunnels with high ground temperatures. Firstly, moving model tests of trains passing through wall-heated tunnels were conducted to verify the reliability of the numerical method in this paper. Subsequently, based on the three-dimensional unsteady compressible RANS method and the standard k-ε two-equation turbulence model, the change laws of the average aerodynamic resistance under different high-temperature zone lengths were analyzed, and the influence of frictional resistance and pressure difference resistance on total resistance at different times was discussed. The results show that as the length of the high-temperature zone LH increases, the average aerodynamic resistance of a train running in a tunnel gradually decreases; when LH = 330 m, the aerodynamic resistance can be reduced by 5.7%. At the moment of maximum resistance, the total resistance, differential pressure resistance, and friction resistance all decrease gradually with the increase of LH and then remain basically unchanged. At the moment of the minimum value of resistance, with the increase of LH, the total resistance first increases and then slowly decreases; the differential pressure resistance first increases and then remains unchanged, while the friction resistance first remains unchanged and then gradually decreases, and the ratio of the differential pressure resistance to the total resistance gradually increases with the increase of LH. The results of this paper can provide guidance for scholars who need to investigate the mechanism of aerodynamic resistance change of trains in high geothermal environments, as well as provide a new way of thinking for resistance reduction in non-high geothermal tunnels.

Keywords: high-speed trains, aerodynamic resistance, high-ground temperature, tunnel

Procedia PDF Downloads 58

Authors: Subal Kar, Madhuja Ghosh, Amitesh Kumar, Arijit Majumder

Abstract:

Complementary split-ring resonator (CSRR) loaded microstrip square patch antenna has been optimally designed with the help of high frequency structure simulator (HFSS). The antenna has been fabricated on the basis of the simulation design data and experimentally tested in anechoic chamber to evaluate its gain, bandwidth, efficiency and polarization characteristics. The CSRR loaded microstrip patch antenna has been found to realize significant size miniaturization (to the extent of 24%) compared to the conventional-type microstrip patch antenna both operating at the same frequency (5.2 GHz). The fabricated antenna could realize a maximum gain of 4.17 dB, 10 dB impedance bandwidth of 34 MHz, efficiency 50.73% and with maximum cross-pol of 10.56 dB down at the operating frequency. This practically designed antenna with its miniaturized size is expected to be useful for airborne and space borne applications at microwave frequency.

Keywords: split ring resonator, metamaterial, CSRR loaded patch antenna, microstrip patch antenna, LC resonator

Procedia PDF Downloads 353

Authors: L. Shafiq, A. Rigby

Abstract:

All polyethylene processes are highly exothermic, and the safe removal of the heat of reaction is a fundamental issue in the process design. In slurry and gas processes, the velocity of the polymer particles in the reactor and external coolers can be very high, and under certain conditions, this can lead to static charging of these particles. Such static charged polymer particles may start building up on the reactor wall, limiting heat transfer, and ultimately leading to severe reactor fouling and forced reactor shut down. Statsafe™ is an FDA approved anti-fouling additive currently used around the world for polyolefin production as an anti-fouling additive. The unique polymer chemistry aids static discharge, which prevents the build-up of charged polyolefin particles, which could lead to fouling. Statsafe™ is being used and trailed in gas, slurry, and a combination of these technologies around the world. We will share data to demonstrate how the use of Statsafe™ allows more stable operation at higher solids level by eliminating static, which would otherwise prevent closer packing of particles in the hydrocarbon slurry. Because static charge generation depends also on the concentration of polymer particles in the slurry, the maximum slurry concentration can be higher when using Statsafe™, leading to higher production rates. The elimination of fouling also leads to less downtime. Special focus will be made on the impact anti-static additives have on catalyst performance within the polymerization process and how this has been measured. Lab-scale studies have investigated the effect on the activity of Ziegler Natta catalysts when anti-static additives are used at various concentrations in gas and slurry, polyethylene and polypropylene processes. An in-depth gas phase study investigated the effect of additives on the final polyethylene properties such as particle size, morphology, fines, bulk density, melt flow index, gradient density, and melting point.

Keywords: anti-static additives, catalyst performance, FDA approved anti-fouling additive, polymerisation

Procedia PDF Downloads 195