Search results for: life cycle based analysis
Commenced in January 2007
Frequency: Monthly
Edition: International
Paper Count: 49189

Search results for: life cycle based analysis

26299 Bioactivity Profiling of Botswana’s Medicinal Ethnobotany With Potential to Mitigate Oxidative Stress

Authors: Daniel Motlhanka, Neo Kerebotswe

Abstract:

The strong and long history of use of medicinal plants in Botswana to address existing and emerging health threats provides undebatable evidence for their potential as innovative therapeutic tools. The prevalence of emerging health threats, such as COVID-19 and hard-to-treat non-communicable diseases, warrants the scientific community to revisit and exploit ethnopharmacology for its potential as a source of therapeutic tools. Many studies conducted on bioactivity-guided bioassays of ethnobotanical resources have proved a number of health beneficial properties of these plants, such as free radical scavenging, anti-inflammatory, antimicrobial and, most importantly, the capability of medicinal plants to alleviate oxidative stress. In this work, a number of medicinal plants used in Botswana traditional medicine were investigated for both their free radical scavenging capability and total phenolic contents using the Free Radical Scavenging Power (FRSP) and Folin Ciocalteau (FC) method. At 100 micrograms/ml all the studied plants expressed above 90% Scavenging power and expressed total phenolic contents between 5000- 8890 mg/L.GAE. These plants are promising tools for engineering active therapeutic tools against life-threatening diseases of oxidative stress origin.

Keywords: oxidative stress, non-communicable diseases, total phenolics, ethnobotanicals

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26298 Laboratory and Numerical Hydraulic Modelling of Annular Pipe Electrocoagulation Reactors

Authors: Alejandra Martin-Dominguez, Javier Canto-Rios, Velitchko Tzatchkov

Abstract:

Electrocoagulation is a water treatment technology that consists of generating coagulant species in situ by electrolytic oxidation of sacrificial anode materials triggered by electric current. It removes suspended solids, heavy metals, emulsified oils, bacteria, colloidal solids and particles, soluble inorganic pollutants and other contaminants from water, offering an alternative to the use of metal salts or polymers and polyelectrolyte addition for breaking stable emulsions and suspensions. The method essentially consists of passing the water being treated through pairs of consumable conductive metal plates in parallel, which act as monopolar electrodes, commonly known as ‘sacrificial electrodes’. Physicochemical, electrochemical and hydraulic processes are involved in the efficiency of this type of treatment. While the physicochemical and electrochemical aspects of the technology have been extensively studied, little is known about the influence of the hydraulics. However, the hydraulic process is fundamental for the reactions that take place at the electrode boundary layers and for the coagulant mixing. Electrocoagulation reactors can be open (with free water surface) and closed (pressurized). Independently of the type of rector, hydraulic head loss is an important factor for its design. The present work focuses on the study of the total hydraulic head loss and flow velocity and pressure distribution in electrocoagulation reactors with single or multiple concentric annular cross sections. An analysis of the head loss produced by hydraulic wall shear friction and accessories (minor head losses) is presented, and compared to the head loss measured on a semi-pilot scale laboratory model for different flow rates through the reactor. The tests included laminar, transitional and turbulent flow. The observed head loss was compared also to the head loss predicted by several known conceptual theoretical and empirical equations, specific for flow in concentric annular pipes. Four single concentric annular cross section and one multiple concentric annular cross section reactor configuration were studied. The theoretical head loss resulted higher than the observed in the laboratory model in some of the tests, and lower in others of them, depending also on the assumed value for the wall roughness. Most of the theoretical models assume that the fluid elements in all annular sections have the same velocity, and that flow is steady, uniform and one-dimensional, with the same pressure and velocity profiles in all reactor sections. To check the validity of such assumptions, a computational fluid dynamics (CFD) model of the concentric annular pipe reactor was implemented using the ANSYS Fluent software, demonstrating that pressure and flow velocity distribution inside the reactor actually is not uniform. Based on the analysis, the equations that predict better the head loss in single and multiple annular sections were obtained. Other factors that may impact the head loss, such as the generation of coagulants and gases during the electrochemical reaction, the accumulation of hydroxides inside the reactor, and the change of the electrode material with time, are also discussed. The results can be used as tools for design and scale-up of electrocoagulation reactors, to be integrated into new or existing water treatment plants.

Keywords: electrocoagulation reactors, hydraulic head loss, concentric annular pipes, computational fluid dynamics model

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26297 The Organizational Structure, Development Features, and Metadiscoursal Elements in the Expository Writing of College Freshman Students

Authors: Lota Largavista

Abstract:

This study entitled, ‘The Organizational Structure, Development Features, and Metadiscoursal Elements in the Expository Writing of Freshman College Writers’ aimed to examine essays written by college students. It seeks to examine the organizational structure and development features of the essays and describe their defining characteristics, the linguistic elements at both macrostructural and microstructural discourse levels and the types of textual and interpersonal metadiscourse markers that are employed in order to negotiate meanings with their prospective readers. The different frameworks used to analyze the essays include Toulmin’s ( 1984) model for argument structure, Olson’s ( 2003) three-part essay structure; Halliday and Matthiesen (2004) in Herriman (2011) notions of thematic structure, Danes (1974) thematic progression or method of development, Halliday’s (2004) concept of grammatical and lexical cohesion ;Hyland’s (2005) metadiscourse strategies; and Chung and Nation’s( 2003) four-step scale for technical vocabulary. This descriptive study analyzes qualitatively and quantitatively how freshman students generally express their written compositions. Coding of units is done to determine what linguistic features are present in the essays. Findings revealed that students’ expository essays observe a three-part structure having all three moves, the Introduction, the Body and the Conclusion. Stance assertion, stance support, and emerging moves/strategies are found to be employed in the essays. Students have more marked themes on the essays and also prefer constant theme progression as their method of development. The analysis of salient linguistic elements reveals frequently used cohesive devices and metadiscoursal strategies. Based on the findings, an instructional learning plan is being proposed. This plan is characterized by a genre approach that focuses on expository and linguistic conventions.

Keywords: metadiscourse, organization, theme progression, structure

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26296 Impulsivity Leads to Compromise Effect

Authors: Sana Maidullah, Ankita Sharma

Abstract:

The present study takes naturalistic decision-making approach to examine the role of personality in information processing in consumer decision making. In the technological era, most of the information comes in form of HTML or similar language via the internet; processing of this situation could be ambiguous, laborious and painful. The present study explores the role of impulsivity in creating an extreme effect on consumer decision making. Specifically, the study explores the role of impulsivity in extreme effect, i.e., extremeness avoidance (compromise effect) and extremeness seeking; the role of demographic variables, i.e. age and gender, in the relation between impulsivity and extreme effect. The study was conducted with the help of a questionnaire and two experiments. The experiment was designed in the form of two shopping websites with two product types: Hotel choice and Mobile choice. Both experimental interfaces were created with the Xampp software, the frontend of interfaces was HTML CSS JAVASCRIPT and backend was PHP MySQL. The mobile experiment was designed to measure the extreme effect and hotel experiment was designed to measure extreme effect with alignability of attributes. To observe the possibilities of the combined effect of individual difference and context effects, the manipulation of price, a number of alignable attributes and number of the non-alignable attributes is done. The study was conducted on 100 undergraduate and post-graduate engineering students within the age range of 18-35. The familiarity and level of use of internet and shopping website were assessed and controlled in the analysis. The analysis was done by using a t-test, ANOVA and regression analysis. The results indicated that the impulsivity leads to compromise effect and at the same time it also increases the relationship between alignability of attribute among choices and the compromise effect. The demographic variables were found to play a significant role in the relationship. The subcomponents of impulsivity were significantly influencing compromise effect, but the cognitive impulsivity was significant for women, and motor impulsivity was significant for males only. The impulsivity was significantly positively predicted by age, though there were no significant gender differences in impulsivity. The results clearly indicate the importance of individual factors in decision making. The present study, with precise and direct results, provides a significant suggestion for market analyst and business providers.

Keywords: impulsivity, extreme effect, personality, alignability, consumer decision making

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26295 A Comparison of South East Asian Face Emotion Classification based on Optimized Ellipse Data Using Clustering Technique

Authors: M. Karthigayan, M. Rizon, Sazali Yaacob, R. Nagarajan, M. Muthukumaran, Thinaharan Ramachandran, Sargunam Thirugnanam

Abstract:

In this paper, using a set of irregular and regular ellipse fitting equations using Genetic algorithm (GA) are applied to the lip and eye features to classify the human emotions. Two South East Asian (SEA) faces are considered in this work for the emotion classification. There are six emotions and one neutral are considered as the output. Each subject shows unique characteristic of the lip and eye features for various emotions. GA is adopted to optimize irregular ellipse characteristics of the lip and eye features in each emotion. That is, the top portion of lip configuration is a part of one ellipse and the bottom of different ellipse. Two ellipse based fitness equations are proposed for the lip configuration and relevant parameters that define the emotions are listed. The GA method has achieved reasonably successful classification of emotion. In some emotions classification, optimized data values of one emotion are messed or overlapped to other emotion ranges. In order to overcome the overlapping problem between the emotion optimized values and at the same time to improve the classification, a fuzzy clustering method (FCM) of approach has been implemented to offer better classification. The GA-FCM approach offers a reasonably good classification within the ranges of clusters and it had been proven by applying to two SEA subjects and have improved the classification rate.

Keywords: ellipse fitness function, genetic algorithm, emotion recognition, fuzzy clustering

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26294 Systematic Study of Mutually Inclusive Influence of Temperature and Substitution on the Coordination Geometry of Co(II) in a Series of Coordination Polymer and Their Properties

Authors: Manasi Roy, Raju Mondal

Abstract:

During last two decades the synthesis and design of MOFs or novel coordination polymers (CPs) has flourished as an emerging area of research due to their role as functional materials. Accordingly, ten new cobalt-based MOFs have been synthesized using a simple bispyrazole ligand, 4,4′-methylene-bispyrazole (H2MBP), and isophthalic acid (H2IPA) and its four 5-substituted derivatives R-H2IPA (R = COOH, OH, tBu, NH2). The major aim of this study was to validate the mutual influence of temperature and substitutions on the final structural self-assembly. Five different isophthalic acid derivatives were used to study the influence of substituents while each reaction was carried out at two different temperatures to assess the temperature effect. A clear correlation was observed between the reaction temperature and the coordination number of the cobalt atoms which consequently changes the self assembly pattern. Another fact that the periodical change in coordination number did bring about some systematic changes in the structural network via secondary building unit selectivity. With the presence of a tunable cavity inside the network, and unsaturated metal centers, MOFs show highly encouraging photocatalytic degradation of toxic dye with a potential application in waste water purification. Another fascinating aspect of this work is the construction of magnetic coordination polymers with the occurrence of a not-so-common MCE behavior of cobalt-based MOF.

Keywords: MOFs, temperature effect, MCE, dye degradation

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26293 Empirical Roughness Progression Models of Heavy Duty Rural Pavements

Authors: Nahla H. Alaswadko, Rayya A. Hassan, Bayar N. Mohammed

Abstract:

Empirical deterministic models have been developed to predict roughness progression of heavy duty spray sealed pavements for a dataset representing rural arterial roads. The dataset provides a good representation of the relevant network and covers a wide range of operating and environmental conditions. A sample with a large size of historical time series data for many pavement sections has been collected and prepared for use in multilevel regression analysis. The modelling parameters include road roughness as performance parameter and traffic loading, time, initial pavement strength, reactivity level of subgrade soil, climate condition, and condition of drainage system as predictor parameters. The purpose of this paper is to report the approaches adopted for models development and validation. The study presents multilevel models that can account for the correlation among time series data of the same section and to capture the effect of unobserved variables. Study results show that the models fit the data very well. The contribution and significance of relevant influencing factors in predicting roughness progression are presented and explained. The paper concludes that the analysis approach used for developing the models confirmed their accuracy and reliability by well-fitting to the validation data.

Keywords: roughness progression, empirical model, pavement performance, heavy duty pavement

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26292 Image Segmentation Using Active Contours Based on Anisotropic Diffusion

Authors: Shafiullah Soomro

Abstract:

Active contour is one of the image segmentation techniques and its goal is to capture required object boundaries within an image. In this paper, we propose a novel image segmentation method by using an active contour method based on anisotropic diffusion feature enhancement technique. The traditional active contour methods use only pixel information to perform segmentation, which produces inaccurate results when an image has some noise or complex background. We use Perona and Malik diffusion scheme for feature enhancement, which sharpens the object boundaries and blurs the background variations. Our main contribution is the formulation of a new SPF (signed pressure force) function, which uses global intensity information across the regions. By minimizing an energy function using partial differential framework the proposed method captures semantically meaningful boundaries instead of catching uninterested regions. Finally, we use a Gaussian kernel which eliminates the problem of reinitialization in level set function. We use several synthetic and real images from different modalities to validate the performance of the proposed method. In the experimental section, we have found the proposed method performance is better qualitatively and quantitatively and yield results with higher accuracy compared to other state-of-the-art methods.

Keywords: active contours, anisotropic diffusion, level-set, partial differential equations

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26291 Influence of the Molecular Architecture of a Polycarboxylate-Based Superplasticizer on the Rheological and Physicomechanical Properties of Cement Pastes

Authors: Alya Harichane, Abderraouf Achour, Abdelbaki Benmounah

Abstract:

The main difficulty encountered in the formulation of high-performance concrete (HPC) consists in choosing the most efficient cement-superplasticizer pair allowing to obtain maximum water reduction, good workability of the concrete in the fresh state, and very good mechanical resistance in the hardened state. The aim of this work is to test the efficiency of three polycarboxylate ether-based superplasticizers (PCE) marketed in Algeria with CEMI 52.5 R cement and to study the effect of chemical structure of PCE on zeta potential, rheological and mechanical properties of cement pastes. The property of the polymers in cement was tested by a Malvern Zetasizer 2000 apparatus and VT 550 viscometer. Results showed that the zeta potential and its rheological properties are related to the molecular weight and the density carboxylic of PCE. The PCE with a moderate molecular weight and the highest carboxylic groups had the best dispersion (high value of zeta potential) and lowest viscosity. The effect of the chemical structure of PCEs on mechanical properties is evaluated by the formulation of cement mortar with these PCEs. The result shows that there is a correlation between the zeta potential of polymer and the compressive strength of cement paste.

Keywords: molecular weight, polycarboxylate-ether superplasticizer, rheology, zeta potential

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26290 Energy Harvesting and Storage System for Marine Applications

Authors: Sayem Zafar, Mahmood Rahi

Abstract:

Rigorous international maritime regulations are in place to limit boat and ship hydrocarbon emissions. The global sustainability goals are reducing the fuel consumption and minimizing the emissions from the ships and boats. These maritime sustainability goals have attracted a lot of research interest. Energy harvesting and storage system is designed in this study based on hybrid renewable and conventional energy systems. This energy harvesting and storage system is designed for marine applications, such as, boats and small ships. These systems can be utilized for mobile use or off-grid remote electrification. This study analyzed the use of micro power generation for boats and small ships. The energy harvesting and storage system has two distinct systems i.e. dockside shore-based system and on-board system. The shore-based system consists of a small wind turbine, photovoltaic (PV) panels, small gas turbine, hydrogen generator and high-pressure hydrogen storage tank. This dockside system is to provide easy access to the boats and small ships for supply of hydrogen. The on-board system consists of hydrogen storage tanks and fuel cells. The wind turbine and PV panels generate electricity to operate electrolyzer. A small gas turbine is used as a supplementary power system to contribute in case the hybrid renewable energy system does not provide the required energy. The electrolyzer performs the electrolysis on distilled water to produce hydrogen. The hydrogen is stored in high-pressure tanks. The hydrogen from the high-pressure tank is filled in the low-pressure tanks on-board seagoing vessels to operate the fuel cell. The boats and small ships use the hydrogen fuel cell to provide power to electric propulsion motors and for on-board auxiliary use. For shore-based system, a small wind turbine with the total length of 4.5 m and the disk diameter of 1.8 m is used. The small wind turbine dimensions make it big enough to be used to charge batteries yet small enough to be installed on the rooftops of dockside facility. The small dimensions also make the wind turbine easily transportable. In this paper, PV, sizing and solar flux are studied parametrically. System performance is evaluated under different operating and environmental conditions. The parametric study is conducted to evaluate the energy output and storage capacity of energy storage system. Results are generated for a wide range of conditions to analyze the usability of hybrid energy harvesting and storage system. This energy harvesting method significantly improves the usability and output of the renewable energy sources. It also shows that small hybrid energy systems have promising practical applications.

Keywords: energy harvesting, fuel cell, hybrid energy system, hydrogen, wind turbine

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26289 Corporate Social Responsibility in Indian Apparel Industry

Authors: Archana Gandhi

Abstract:

Indian apparel manufacturers see several benefits of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). At the same time, they clearly face steep challenges in its implementation. From the perspective of the participants, the challenges tend to outweigh the benefits. The short-term expenses, misperceptions about the financial benefits of CSR and the additional burden of implementing CSR-related policies and activities tend to overshadow perceptions of the long-term benefits. CSR activities currently seen in the Indian apparel industry are primarily people focused, society-focused or environment-focused. However, most CSR activities focus on employee welfare, including teaching employees about health and safety awareness, creating opportunities for community building, and providing general education to employees. Employee retention is very high in socially responsible Indian firms as compared to non-CSR firms, largely because CSR plays a crucial role in overall employee satisfaction, which translates to worker loyalty and low turnover. Employee retention and commitment are not the​ only potential benefits of CSR in the Indian apparel industry. CSR can also enhance a company’s image. Although it is a long-term benefit, being socially responsible can build a company’s social reputation and help it to gain others’ trust. Buyers do not hesitate to do business with these companies, since it is difficult to find socially responsible firms in India.

Keywords: corporate social responsibility, apparel industry, workers, improve work life

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26288 Trastuzumab Decorated Bioadhesive Nanoparticles for Targeted Breast Cancer Therapy

Authors: Kasi Viswanadh Matte, Abhisheh Kumar Mehata, M.S. Muthu

Abstract:

Brest cancer, up-regulated with human epidermal growth factor receptor type-2 (HER-2) led to the concept of developing HER-2 targeted anticancer therapeutics. Docetaxel-loaded D-α-tocopherol polyethylene glycol succinate 1000 conjugated chitosan (TPGS-g-chitosan) nanoparticles were prepared with or without Trastuzumab decoration. The particle size and entrapment efficiency of conventional, non-targeted and targeted nanoparticles were found to be in the range of 126-186 nm and 74-78% respectively. In-vitro, MDA-MB-231 cells showed that docetaxel-loaded non-targeted and HER-2 receptor targeted TPGS-g-chitosan nanoparticles have enhanced the cellular uptake and cytotoxicity with a promising bioadhesion property, in comparison to conventional nanoparticles. The IC50 values of non-targeted and targeted nanoparticles from cytotoxic assay were found to be 43 and 223 folds higher than DocelTM. The in-vivo pharmacokinetic study showed 2.33, and 2.82-fold enhancement in relative bioavailability of docetaxel for non-targeted and HER-2 receptor targeted nanoparticles, respectively than DocelTM, and after i.v administration, non-targeted and targeted nanoparticle achieved 3.48 and 5.94 times prolonged half-life in comparison to DocelTM. The area under the curve (AUC), relative bioavailability (FR) and mean residence time (MRT) were found to be higher for non-targeted and targeted nanoparticles compared to DocelTM. Further, histopathology results of non-targeted and targeted nanoparticles showed less toxicity on vital organs such as lungs, liver, and kidney compared to DocelTM.

Keywords: breast cancer, HER-2 receptor, targeted nanomedicine, chitosan, TPGS

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26287 Obstacles to Accessible Tourism for People with Mental, Physical and Mobility Disability: A Case Study of North Cyprus

Authors: Marjan Kamyabi

Abstract:

Attending tourism in the current century is one of the key factors in the success of the tourism industry and, consequently, the prosperity of the economies of the countries. In this regard, accessible tourism can play a major role in the development of tourism, taking into account the attractions, facilities and capabilities of the development of tourism in Northern Cyprus, and given that the satisfaction of tourists from the product and destination of tourism has an undeniable role in attracting tourists. The purpose of this study is to investigate the environmental barriers and accessibility of the tourism industry in Northern Cyprus. Another goal of this study is to introduce this consumer group to the tourism community. In order to achieve the objectives of this paper, a questionnaire was designed and provided to three tourism professionals to assess the reliability, and then, among the 200 people with physical and mental disabilities who travelled to Cyprus, The data analysis was used as a confirmatory factor analysis method. The environmental barrier for tourists with disabilities is classified in three sections of transport, attractions and accommodation, each section being separately identified separately. In general, observance of the principles and standards of proper fitting in the main sectors of the tourism industry of Northern Cyprus in the situation The facilities and transportation were identified as the first problem and obstacle for the development of tourism for people with physical and mental disabilities and, finally, suggestions and solutions for the development of tourism for people with physical and physical disabilities were presented.

Keywords: accessible tourism, environmental barriers, tourism, people with disability, accessibility

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26286 Increased Energy Efficiency and Improved Product Quality in Processing of Lithium Bearing Ores by Applying Fluidized-Bed Calcination Systems

Authors: Edgar Gasafi, Robert Pardemann, Linus Perander

Abstract:

For the production of lithium carbonate or hydroxide out of lithium bearing ores, a thermal activation (calcination/decrepitation) is required for the phase transition in the mineral to enable an acid respectively soda leaching in the downstream hydrometallurgical section. In this paper, traditional processing in Lithium industry is reviewed, and opportunities to reduce energy consumption and improve product quality and recovery rate will be discussed. The conventional process approach is still based on rotary kiln calcination, a technology in use since the early days of lithium ore processing, albeit not significantly further developed since. A new technology, at least for the Lithium industry, is fluidized bed calcination. Decrepitation of lithium ore was investigated at Outotec’s Frankfurt Research Centre. Focusing on fluidized bed technology, a study of major process parameters (temperature and residence time) was performed at laboratory and larger bench scale aiming for optimal product quality for subsequent processing. The technical feasibility was confirmed for optimal process conditions on pilot scale (400 kg/h feed input) providing the basis for industrial process design. Based on experimental results, a comprehensive Aspen Plus flow sheet simulation was developed to quantify mass and energy flow for the rotary kiln and fluidized bed system. Results show a significant reduction in energy consumption and improved process performance in terms of temperature profile, product quality and plant footprint. The major conclusion is that a substantial reduction of energy consumption can be achieved in processing Lithium bearing ores by using fluidized bed based systems. At the same time and different from rotary kiln process, an accurate temperature and residence time control is ensured in fluidized-bed systems leading to a homogenous temperature profile in the reactor which prevents overheating and sintering of the solids and results in uniform product quality.

Keywords: calcination, decrepitation, fluidized bed, lithium, spodumene

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26285 Approach on Conceptual Design and Dimensional Synthesis of the Linear Delta Robot for Additive Manufacturing

Authors: Efrain Rodriguez, Cristhian Riano, Alberto Alvares

Abstract:

In recent years, robots manipulators with parallel architectures are used in additive manufacturing processes – 3D printing. These robots have advantages such as speed and lightness that make them suitable to help with the efficiency and productivity of these processes. Consequently, the interest for the development of parallel robots for additive manufacturing applications has increased. This article deals with the conceptual design and dimensional synthesis of the linear delta robot for additive manufacturing. Firstly, a methodology based on structured processes for the development of products through the phases of informational design, conceptual design and detailed design is adopted: a) In the informational design phase the Mudge diagram and the QFD matrix are used to aid a set of technical requirements, to define the form, functions and features of the robot. b) In the conceptual design phase, the functional modeling of the system through of an IDEF0 diagram is performed, and the solution principles for the requirements are formulated using a morphological matrix. This phase includes the description of the mechanical, electro-electronic and computational subsystems that constitute the general architecture of the robot. c) In the detailed design phase, a digital model of the robot is drawn on CAD software. A list of commercial and manufactured parts is detailed. Tolerances and adjustments are defined for some parts of the robot structure. The necessary manufacturing processes and tools are also listed, including: milling, turning and 3D printing. Secondly, a dimensional synthesis method applied on design of the linear delta robot is presented. One of the most important key factors in the design of a parallel robot is the useful workspace, which strongly depends on the joint space, the dimensions of the mechanism bodies and the possible interferences between these bodies. The objective function is based on the verification of the kinematic model for a prescribed cylindrical workspace, considering geometric constraints that possibly lead to singularities of the mechanism. The aim is to determine the minimum dimensional parameters of the mechanism bodies for the proposed workspace. A method based on genetic algorithms was used to solve this problem. The method uses a cloud of points with the cylindrical shape of the workspace and checks the kinematic model for each of the points within the cloud. The evolution of the population (point cloud) provides the optimal parameters for the design of the delta robot. The development process of the linear delta robot with optimal dimensions for additive manufacture is presented. The dimensional synthesis enabled to design the mechanism of the delta robot in function of the prescribed workspace. Finally, the implementation of the robotic platform developed based on a linear delta robot in an additive manufacturing application using the Fused Deposition Modeling (FDM) technique is presented.

Keywords: additive manufacturing, delta parallel robot, dimensional synthesis, genetic algorithms

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26284 Estimating Soil Erosion Using Universal Soil Loss Equation and Gis in Algash Basin

Authors: Issamaldin Mohammed, Ahmed Abdalla, Hatim Elobied

Abstract:

Soil erosion is globally known for adverse effects on social, environmental and economical aspects which directly or indirectly influence the human life. The area under study suffers from problems like water quality, river and agricultural canals bed rise due to high sediment load brought by Algash River from upstream (Eritrea high land), the current study utilized from remote sensing and Geographical Information System (GIS) to estimate the annual soil loss using Universal Soil Loss Equation (USLE). The USLE is widely used over the world which basically relies on rainfall erosivity factor (R), soil erodibility factor (K), topographic factor (LS), cover management factor (C) and support practice factor (P). The result of the study showed high soil loss in the study area, this result was illustrated in a form of map presenting the spatial distribution of soil loss amounts which classified into seven zones ranging from very slight zone (less than 2 ton/ha.year) to very severe (100-500 ton/ha.year), also the total soil loss from the whole study area was found to be 32,916,840.87 ton/ha.year. These kinds of results will help the experts of land management to give a priority for the severely affected zones to be tackled in an appropriate way.

Keywords: Geographical Information System, remote sensing, sedimentation, soil loss

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26283 The Link Between Success Factors of Online Architectural Education and Students’ Demographics

Authors: Yusuf Berkay Metinal, Gulden Gumusburun Ayalp

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Architectural education is characterized by its distinctive amalgamation of studio-based pedagogy and theoretical instruction. It offers students a comprehensive learning experience that blends practical skill development with critical inquiry and conceptual exploration. Design studios are central to this educational paradigm, which serve as dynamic hubs of creativity and innovation, providing students with immersive environments for experimentation and collaborative engagement. The physical presence and interactive dynamics inherent in studio-based learning underscore the indispensability of face-to-face instruction and interpersonal interaction in nurturing the next generation of architects. However, architectural education underwent a seismic transformation in response to the global COVID-19 pandemic, precipitating an abrupt transition from traditional, in-person instruction to online education modalities. While this shift introduced newfound flexibility in terms of temporal and spatial constraints, it also brought many challenges to the fore. Chief among these challenges was maintaining effective communication and fostering meaningful collaboration among students in virtual learning environments. Besides these challenges, lack of peer learning emerged as a vital issue of the educational experience, particularly crucial for novice students navigating the intricacies of architectural practice. Nevertheless, the pivot to online education also laid bare a discernible decline in educational efficacy, prompting inquiries regarding the enduring viability of online education in architectural pedagogy. Moreover, as educational institutions grappled with the exigencies of remote instruction, discernible disparities between different institutional contexts emerged. While state universities often contended with fiscal constraints that shaped their operational capacities, private institutions encountered challenges from a lack of institutional fortification and entrenched educational traditions. Acknowledging the multifaceted nature of these challenges, this study endeavored to undertake a comprehensive inquiry into the dynamics of online education within architectural pedagogy by interrogating variables such as class level and type of university; the research aimed to elucidate demographic critical success factors that underpin the effectiveness of online education initiatives. To this end, a meticulously constructed questionnaire was administered to architecture students from diverse academic institutions across Turkey, informed by an exhaustive review of extant literature and scholarly discourse. The resulting dataset, comprising responses from 232 participants, underwent rigorous statistical analysis, including independent samples t-test and one-way ANOVA, to discern patterns and correlations indicative of overarching trends and salient insights. In sum, the findings of this study serve as a scholarly compass for educators, policymakers, and stakeholders navigating the evolving landscapes of architectural education. By elucidating the intricate interplay of demographical factors that shape the efficacy of online education in architectural pedagogy, this research offers a scholarly foundation upon which to anchor informed decisions and strategic interventions to elevate the educational experience for future cohorts of aspiring architects.

Keywords: architectural education, COVID-19, distance education, online education

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26282 The Acquisition of Temporality in Italian Child Language: Case Study of Child Frog Story Narratives

Authors: Gabriella Notarianni Burk

Abstract:

The present study investigates the Aspect Hypothesis (AH) in Italian child language in the production of frog story narratives from the CHILDES database. The AH is based on the assumption that children initially encode aspectual and lexical distinctions rather than temporal relations. Children from a variety of first languages have been shown to mark past initially with achievements and accomplishments (telic predicates) and in later stages with states and activities (atelic predicates). Aspectual distinctions in Romance languages are obligatorily and overtly encoded in the inflectional morphology. In Italian the perfective viewpoint is realized by the passato prossimo, which expresses a temporal and aspectual meaning of pastness and perfectivity, whereas the imperfective viewpoint in the past tense is realized by the imperfetto. The aim of this study is to assess the role of lexical aspect in the acquisition of tense and aspect morphology and to understand if Italian children’s mapping of aspectual and temporal distinctions follows consistent developmental patterns across languages. The research methodology aligns with the cross-linguistic designs, tasks and coding procedures previously developed in the frog story literature. Results from two-factor ANOVA show that Italian children (age range: 4-6) exhibited a statistically significant distinction between foregrounded perfective and backgrounded imperfective marking. However, a closer examination of the sixty narratives reveals an idiosyncratic production pattern for Italian children, whereby the marking of imperfetto deviates from the tenets of AH and emerges as deictic tense to entail completed and bounded events in foreground clauses. Instances of ‘perfective’ uses of imperfetto were predominantly found in the four-year old narratives (25%). Furthermore, the analysis of the perfective marking suggests that morphological articulation and diatopic variation may influence the child production of formal linguistic devices in discourse.

Keywords: actionality, aspect, grounding, temporal reference

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26281 Nanosilver Loaded Biomaterial for Wound Healing Applications: In Vitro Studies

Authors: Sathish Sundar Dhilip Kumar, Nicolette Houreld, Heidi Abrahamse

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Silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) are classified as metal-based nanomaterials and have received considerable attention globally for wound healing and tissue engineering applications. Naturally available materials are a significant source of medicinal products to treat numerous diseases; polysaccharides are among them. Polysaccharides are non-toxic, safe, and inexpensive, and it has good biocompatibility and biodegradability. Most polysaccharides are shown to have a positive effect on wound healing processes, including chitosan and gum tragacanth. The present study evaluated the improvement of cellular wound healing by nanosilver-loaded polysaccharide-based biomaterial (CGT-NS) in WS1 cells. The physicochemical properties of prepared CGT-NS were studied using different characterization techniques, and it exhibited better stability and swelling properties in various pH conditions. Surface morphology was studied using scanning electron microscopy, and it revealed the porous morphology of the synthesized CGT-NS. The synthesized biomaterial displayed acceptable antibacterial properties against Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacterial strains, and it may prevent infection. The biocompatibility of the synthesized CGT-NS biomaterial was studied in WS1 cells, where it may lead to promote increased cell adhesion and proliferation properties. Thus, the CGT-NS biomaterial has good potential as a biomaterial in wound healing applications.

Keywords: biomaterial, wound healing, nano, silver nanoparticles

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26280 Evidence of a Negativity Bias in the Keywords of Scientific Papers

Authors: Kseniia Zviagintseva, Brett Buttliere

Abstract:

Science is fundamentally a problem-solving enterprise, and scientists pay more attention to the negative things, that cause them dissonance and negative affective state of uncertainty or contradiction. While this is agreed upon by philosophers of science, there are few empirical demonstrations. Here we examine the keywords from those papers published by PLoS in 2014 and show with several sentiment analyzers that negative keywords are studied more than positive keywords. Our dataset is the 927,406 keywords of 32,870 scientific articles in all fields published in 2014 by the journal PLOS ONE (collected from Altmetric.com). Counting how often the 47,415 unique keywords are used, we can examine whether those negative topics are studied more than positive. In order to find the sentiment of the keywords, we utilized two sentiment analysis tools, Hu and Liu (2004) and SentiStrength (2014). The results below are for Hu and Liu as these are the less convincing results. The average keyword was utilized 19.56 times, with half of the keywords being utilized only 1 time and the maximum number of uses being 18,589 times. The keywords identified as negative were utilized 37.39 times, on average, with the positive keywords being utilized 14.72 times and the neutral keywords - 19.29, on average. This difference is only marginally significant, with an F value of 2.82, with a p of .05, but one must keep in mind that more than half of the keywords are utilized only 1 time, artificially increasing the variance and driving the effect size down. To examine more closely, we looked at those top 25 most utilized keywords that have a sentiment. Among the top 25, there are only two positive words, ‘care’ and ‘dynamics’, in position numbers 5 and 13 respectively, with all the rest being identified as negative. ‘Diseases’ is the most studied keyword with 8,790 uses, with ‘cancer’ and ‘infectious’ being the second and fourth most utilized sentiment-laden keywords. The sentiment analysis is not perfect though, as the words ‘diseases’ and ‘disease’ are split by taking 1st and 3rd positions. Combining them, they remain as the most common sentiment-laden keyword, being utilized 13,236 times. More than just splitting the words, the sentiment analyzer logs ‘regression’ and ‘rat’ as negative, and these should probably be considered false positives. Despite these potential problems, the effect is apparent, as even the positive keywords like ‘care’ could or should be considered negative, since this word is most commonly utilized as a part of ‘health care’, ‘critical care’ or ‘quality of care’ and generally associated with how to improve it. All in all, the results suggest that negative concepts are studied more, also providing support for the notion that science is most generally a problem-solving enterprise. The results also provide evidence that negativity and contradiction are related to greater productivity and positive outcomes.

Keywords: bibliometrics, keywords analysis, negativity bias, positive and negative words, scientific papers, scientometrics

Procedia PDF Downloads 179
26279 Biomechanical Study of a Type II Superior Labral Anterior to Posterior Lesion in the Glenohumeral Joint Using Finite Element Analysis

Authors: Javier A. Maldonado E., Duvert A. Puentes T., Diego F. Villegas B.

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The SLAP lesion (Superior Labral Anterior to Posterior) involves the labrum, causing pain and mobility problems in the glenohumeral joint. This injury is common in athletes practicing sports that requires throwing or those who receive traumatic impacts on the shoulder area. This paper determines the biomechanical behavior of soft tissues of the glenohumeral joint when type II SLAP lesion is present. This pathology is characterized for a tear in the superior labrum which is simulated in a 3D model of the shoulder joint. A 3D model of the glenohumeral joint was obtained using the free software Slice. Then, a Finite Element analysis was done using a general purpose software which simulates a compression test with external rotation. First, a validation was done assuming a healthy joint shoulder with a previous study. Once the initial model was validated, a lesion of the labrum built using a CAD software and the same test was done again. The results obtained were stress and strain distribution of the synovial capsule and the injured labrum. ANOVA was done for the healthy and injured glenohumeral joint finding significant differences between them. This study will help orthopedic surgeons to know the biomechanics involving this type of lesion and also the other surrounding structures affected by loading the injured joint.

Keywords: biomechanics, computational model, finite elements, glenohumeral joint, superior labral anterior to posterior lesion

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26278 First Principle Studies on the Structural, Electronic and Magnetic Properties of Some BaMn-Based Double Perovskites

Authors: Amel Souidi, S. Bentata, B. Bouadjemi, T. Lantri, Z. Aziz

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Perovskite materials which include magnetic elements have relevance due to the technological perspectives in the spintronics industry. In this work, we have investigated the structural, electronic and magnetic properties of double perovskites Ba2MnXO6 with X= Mo and W by using the full-potential linearized augmented plane wave (FP-LAPW) method based on Density Functional Theory (DFT) [1, 2] as implemented in the WIEN2K [3] code. The interchange-correlation potential was included through the generalized gradient approximation (GGA) [4] as well as taking into account the on-site coulomb repulsive interaction in (GGA+U) approach. We have analyzed the structural parameters, charge and spin densities, total and partial densities of states. The results show that the materials crystallize in the 225 space group (Fm-3m) and have a lattice parameter of about 7.97 Å and 7.95 Å for Ba2MnMoO6 and Ba2MnWO6, respectively. The band structures reveal a metallic ferromagnetic (FM) ground state in Ba2MnMoO6 and half-metallic (HM) ferromagnetic (FM) ground state in the Ba2MnWO6 compound, with total magnetic moment equal 2.9951μB (Ba2MnMoO6 ) and 4.0001μB (Ba2MnWO6 ). The GGA+U calculations predict an energy gap in the spin-up bands in Ba2MnWO6. So we estimate that this material with HM-FM nature implies a promising application in spin-electronics technology.

Keywords: double perovskites, electronic structure, first-principles, semiconductors

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26277 Cognitive Stereotype Behaviors and Their Imprinting on the Individuals with Autism

Authors: Li-Ju Chen, Hsiang-Lin Chan, Hsin-Yi Kathy Cheng, Hui-Ju Chen

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Stereotype behavior is one of the maladaptive syndromes of the individuals with autism. Most of the previous researches focused on the stereotype behavior with stimulating type, while less on the stereotype behavior about cognition (This research names it cognitive stereotype behavior; CSB). This research explored CSB and the rationality to explain CSB with imprinting phenomenon. After excluding the samples without CSB described, the data that came from 271 individuals with autism were recruited and analyzed with quantitative and qualitative analyses. This research discovers that : (1) Most of the individuals with autism originally came out CSB at 3 years old and more than a half of them appeared before 4 years old; The average age which firstly came out CSB was 6.10 years old, the average time insisting or ossifying CSB was 31.71 minutes each time and the average longest time which they last was 358.35 minutes (5.97 hours). (2) CSB demonstrates various aspects, this research classified them into 4 fields with 26 categories. They were categorized into sudden CSB or habitual CSB by imprinting performance. (3) Most of the autism commented that their CSBs were not necessary but they could not control them well. One-third of them appeared CSB suddenly and the first occurrence accompanied a strong emotional or behavioral response. (4) Whether respondent is the person with autism himself/herself or not was the critical element: on the awareness of the severity degree, disturbance degree, and the emotional /behavioral intensity at the first-time CSB happened. This study concludes imprinting could reasonably explain the phenomenon CSB forms. There are implications leading the individuals with autism and their family to develop coping strategies to promote individuals with autism having a better learning accomplishment and life quality in their future.

Keywords: autism, cognitive stereotype behavior, constructivism, imprinting, stereotype

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26276 An Exploratory Entrepreneurial Study of Wine Production in Namibia: A Case of Grape Farmers in Ausenkehr, Namibia

Authors: Wilfred Isak April, Anthony Adenyanju

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Research has proven that no other beverage has been adored and criticized at the same time as wine. It is important to reiterate that a selected grape production that results in the manufacturing of wine should be scrutinized with the greatest care. In addition, it should be laid down until optimum maturity, carefully selected for serving and ritually tasted by likeminded individuals. This paper aims to explore the entrepreneurial opportunities available through wine production in Namibia. In our daily lives, to the naked eye, consumers usually buy a bottle of wine according to affordability and what is on offer at the moment, sometimes get themselves intoxicated and also finish the bottle on the same day it has been purchased. When taking this as a comparison to those who are accustomed to grape production and wine-producing regions, it is usually a beverage purchased from the local produce cooperative, resembling a dispenser from a petrol pump at a fuel/gas station, usually taken home more than 5 liters at a particular point in time and enjoy it with a meal. It is very important to highlight that grapes are a non-climatic type of fruit, which usually occurs in clusters. Bringing it closer to context, this paper is based on the Republic of Namibia, which is a developing economy with so much potential. A qualitative research methodology will be applied with a purposive sampling technique. Moreover, in this study, a sample of 50 grape farmers will be interviewed. Data will be collected through in-depth interviews and thematic analysis was used to analyze the data. The envisaged results clearly illustrate that grape production contributes significantly not only to households but also to the larger economy. Studies of this nature are of crucial importance to Namibia since the country became a signatory of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) in 1993 and has also become a subsequent member of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) subsequent to its creation after signing the Marrakech agreement in 1994. Given the latter mentioned, Namibia has made a commitment to the directives of WTO, meaning Namibian manufacturers have to compete in the global market.

Keywords: wine production, entrepreneurship, innovation, development, Namibia, internalisation, creativity

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26275 Effectiveness of Technology Enhanced Learning in Orthodontic Teaching

Authors: Mohammed Shaath

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Aims Technological advancements in teaching and learning have made significant improvements over the past decade and have been incorporated in institutions to aid the learner’s experience. This review aims to assess whether Technology Enhanced Learning (TEL) pedagogy is more effective at improving students’ attitude and knowledge retention in orthodontic training than traditional methods. Methodology The searches comprised Systematic Reviews (SRs) related to the comparison of TEL and traditional teaching methods from the following databases: PubMed, SCOPUS, Medline, and Embase. One researcher performed the screening, data extraction, and analysis and assessed the risk of bias and quality using A Measurement Tool to Assess Systematic Reviews 2 (AMSTAR-2). Kirkpatrick’s 4-level evaluation model was used to evaluate the educational values. Results A sum of 34 SRs was identified after the removal of duplications and irrelevant SRs; 4 fit the inclusion criteria. On Level 1, students showed positivity to TEL methods, although acknowledging that the harder the platforms to use, the less favourable. Nonetheless, the students still showed high levels of acceptability. Level 2 showed there is no significant overall advantage of increased knowledge when it comes to TEL methods. One SR showed that certain aspects of study within orthodontics deliver a statistical improvement with TEL. Level 3 was the least reported on. Results showed that if left without time restrictions, TEL methods may be advantageous. Level 4 shows that both methods are equally as effective, but TEL has the potential to overtake traditional methods in the future as a form of active, student-centered approach. Conclusion TEL has a high level of acceptability and potential to improve learning in orthodontics. Current reviews have potential to be improved, but the biggest aspect that needs to be addressed is the primary study, which shows a lower level of evidence and heterogeneity in their results. As it stands, the replacement of traditional methods with TEL cannot be fully supported in an evidence-based manner. The potential of TEL methods has been recognized and is already starting to show some evidence of the ability to be more effective in some aspects of learning to cater for a more technology savvy generation.

Keywords: TEL, orthodontic, teaching, traditional

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26274 Evaluation of Symptoms, Laboratory Findings, and Natural History of IgE Mediated Wheat Allergy

Authors: Soudeh Tabashi, Soudabeh Fazeli Dehkordy, Masood Movahedi, Nasrin Behniafard

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Introduction: Food allergy has increased in three last decades. Since wheat is one of the major constituents of daily meal in many regions throughout the world, wheat allergy is one of the most important allergies ranking among the 8 most common types of food allergies. Our information about epidemiology and etiology of food allergies are limited. Therefore, in this study we sought to evaluate the symptoms and laboratory findings in children with wheat allergy. Materials and methods: There were 23 patients aged up to 18 with the diagnosis of IgE mediated wheat allergy that were included enrolled in this study. Using a questionnaire .we collected their information and organized them into 4 groups categories of: demographic data identification, signs and symptoms, comorbidities, and laboratory data. Then patients were followed up for 6 month and their lab data were compared together. Results: Most of the patients (82%) presented the symptoms of wheat allergy in the first year of their life. The skin and the respiratory system were the most commonly involved organs with an incidence of 86% and 78% respectively. Most of the patients with wheat allergy were also sensitive to the other type of foods and their sensitivity to egg were most common type (47%). in 57% of patients, IgE levels were decreased during the 6 month follow-up period. Conclusion: We do not have enough information about data on epidemiology and response to therapy of wheat allergy and to best of our knowledge no study has addressed this issue in Iran so far. This study is the first source of information about IgE mediated wheat allergy in Iran and It can provide an opening for future studies about wheat allergy and its treatments.

Keywords: wheat allergy, food allergy, IgE, food allergy

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26273 The Influence of Screen Translation on Creative Audiovisual Writing: A Corpus-Based Approach

Authors: John D. Sanderson

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The popularity of American cinema worldwide has contributed to the development of sociolects related to specific film genres in other cultural contexts by means of screen translation, in many cases eluding norms of usage in the target language, a process whose result has come to be known as 'dubbese'. A consequence for the reception in countries where local audiovisual fiction consumption is far lower than American imported productions is that this linguistic construct is preferred, even though it differs from common everyday speech. The iconography of film genres such as science-fiction, western or sword-and-sandal films, for instance, generates linguistic expectations in international audiences who will accept more easily the sociolects assimilated by the continuous reception of American productions, even if the themes, locations, characters, etc., portrayed on screen may belong in origin to other cultures. And the non-normative language (e.g., calques, semantic loans) used in the preferred mode of linguistic transfer, whether it is translation for dubbing or subtitling, has diachronically evolved in many cases into a status of canonized sociolect, not only accepted but also required, by foreign audiences of American films. However, a remarkable step forward is taken when this typology of artificial linguistic constructs starts being used creatively by nationals of these target cultural contexts. In the case of Spain, the success of American sitcoms such as Friends in the 1990s led Spanish television scriptwriters to include in national productions lexical and syntactical indirect borrowings (Anglicisms not formally identifiable as such because they include elements from their own language) in order to target audiences of the former. However, this commercial strategy had already taken place decades earlier when Spain became a favored location for the shooting of foreign films in the early 1960s. The international popularity of the then newly developed sub-genre known as Spaghetti-Western encouraged Spanish investors to produce their own movies, and local scriptwriters made use of the dubbese developed nationally since the advent of sound in film instead of using normative language. As a result, direct Anglicisms, as well as lexical and syntactical borrowings made up the creative writing of these Spanish productions, which also became commercially successful. Interestingly enough, some of these films were even marketed in English-speaking countries as original westerns (some of the names of actors and directors were anglified to that purpose) dubbed into English. The analysis of these 'back translations' will also foreground some semantic distortions that arose in the process. In order to perform the research on these issues, a wide corpus of American films has been used, which chronologically range from Stagecoach (John Ford, 1939) to Django Unchained (Quentin Tarantino, 2012), together with a shorter corpus of Spanish films produced during the golden age of Spaghetti Westerns, from una tumba para el sheriff (Mario Caiano; in English lone and angry man, William Hawkins) to tu fosa será la exacta, amigo (Juan Bosch, 1972; in English my horse, my gun, your widow, John Wood). The methodology of analysis and the conclusions reached could be applied to other genres and other cultural contexts.

Keywords: dubbing, film genre, screen translation, sociolect

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26272 Dietary Diversity Practice and Associated Facrors Among Hypertension Patients at Tirunesh Beijing Hospital

Authors: Wudneh Asegedech Ayele

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Background: Dietary diversity is strongly related with non-communicable disease (NCDs). Diet plays a key role as a risk factor for hypertension. Diets rich in fruits, vegetables, and low-fat dairy products that include whole grains, poultry, fish, and nuts, that contain only small amounts of red meat, sweets, and sugar-containing beverages, and that contain decreased amounts of total and saturated fat and cholesterol have been found to have a protective effect against hypertension. Methods: hospital based Cross-sectional study design was employed from June 1-June 25, 2021. Sampling technique was Systematic random sampling and data were collected using an interview method. Data were entered into Epi Data version 3.1 and exported to SPSS version 25 for processed and analysis respectively. Descriptive statistics were used to summarize data. Bivariate and multivariate logistic regression will employed to determine dietary diversity among hypertension patients. Results: Adequate dietary diversity score were 96 (24.68%). Most of them cereal, white roots and tubers, dark green leafy vegetables, Vitamin A rich fruits ,meat, egg and coffee or tea more intakes. Hypertensive patients who didn’t consume cereals four times less likely adequate dietary diversity than who consumed cereals [AOR= 4.083, 95%: CI (2.096 -7.352)]. Hypertensive patients who didn’t consume white roots and tubers 14 times less likely adequate dietary diversity than who consumed white roots and tubers [AOR= 13.733, 95% CI: (5.388-34.946)]. Conclusion and recommendation the study showed one of fourth part reported adequate dietary diversity score. Cereals, fruits, vegetables and milk and milk products were statistically associated with dietary diversity practice. Health education about dietary modifications and behavioral change to dietary diversity

Keywords: dietary diversity practice and associated facrors among hypertension patients at tirunesh beijing hospital, hypertension, dietary, diversity and tirunesh beijing hospital, associated facrors among hypertension patient, at tirunesh beijing hospita

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26271 Parallel Gripper Modelling and Design Optimization Using Multi-Objective Grey Wolf Optimizer

Authors: Golak Bihari Mahanta, Bibhuti Bhusan Biswal, B. B. V. L. Deepak, Amruta Rout, Gunji Balamurali

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Robots are widely used in the manufacturing industry for rapid production with higher accuracy and precision. With the help of End-of-Arm Tools (EOATs), robots are interacting with the environment. Robotic grippers are such EOATs which help to grasp the object in an automation system for improving the efficiency. As the robotic gripper directly influence the quality of the product due to the contact between the gripper surface and the object to be grasped, it is necessary to design and optimize the gripper mechanism configuration. In this study, geometric and kinematic modeling of the parallel gripper is proposed. Grey wolf optimizer algorithm is introduced for solving the proposed multiobjective gripper optimization problem. Two objective functions developed from the geometric and kinematic modeling along with several nonlinear constraints of the proposed gripper mechanism is used to optimize the design variables of the systems. Finally, the proposed methodology compared with a previously proposed method such as Teaching Learning Based Optimization (TLBO) algorithm, NSGA II, MODE and it was seen that the proposed method is more efficient compared to the earlier proposed methodology.

Keywords: gripper optimization, metaheuristics, , teaching learning based algorithm, multi-objective optimization, optimal gripper design

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26270 Double Fortified Salt-An Effective Measure to Prevent Micronutrient Deficiencies in Indian Pregnant Women

Authors: Kejal Joshi Reddy, Sirimavo Nair

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Micronutrient malnutrition affects pregnant women and children extremely with reference to growth manifestations in gestation as well as after birth. Early fetal development affected by iodine and iron deficiency leads to poor life quality. Various researchers have found interesting interrelations between iron and iodine. A few studies on impact assessment of DFS supplementation during pregnancy have been reported in India. Aim To provide meaningful contribution by assessing the efficacy of DFS supplementation on iodine and iron status of pregnant women. Design An interventional study. Setting A semi government hospital of urban Vadodara. Subjects Pregnant women (n=150) enrolled during first trimester (< 12 weeks) and followed up till the end of gestation, n=75 were divided in experimental (DFS supplemented) and control (Non supplemented) group. Results Impact on iron and iodine status was assessed by Hb concentration and UIE respectively. Mean Hb improved significantly (p < 0.001) (+0.42 g/dl) in experimental group and reduced non significantly (-0.20 g/dl) in control group at the end, since DFS provided additional 93 mg of iron within 6 months. Median UIE improved non significantly (278.6 to 299.01µg/L) in experimental group and decreased significantly (p < 0.05) (376.59 to 288.66 µg/L) in control group. Conclusion DFS could improve iron and iodine status of experimental group compared to control group. It is an effective measure to control two essential micronutrient deficiencies together.

Keywords: DFS supplementation, anemia, pregnancy, iodine deficiency, iron

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