Search results for: continuous damage

Authors: Atef Alaaeddine Sarraj, Brendan Jackman, Frank Walsh

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Tomorrow’s car will be more automated and increasingly connected. Innovative and intuitive interfaces are essential to accompany this functional enrichment. For that, today the automotive companies are competing to offer an advanced driver assistance system (ADAS) which will be able to provide enhanced navigation, collision avoidance, intersection support and lane keeping. These vision-based functions require an accurately calibrated camera. To achieve such differentiation in ADAS requires sophisticated sensors and efficient algorithms. This paper explores the different calibration methods applicable to vehicle-mounted fish-eye cameras with arbitrary fields of view and defines the first steps towards a self-calibration method that adequately addresses ADAS requirements. In particular, we present a self-calibration method after comparing different camera calibration algorithms in the context of ADAS requirements. Our method gathers data from unknown scenes while the car is moving, estimates the camera intrinsic and extrinsic parameters and corrects the wide-angle distortion. Our solution enables continuous and real-time detection of objects, pedestrians, road markings and other cars. In contrast, other camera calibration algorithms for ADAS need pre-calibration, while the presented method calibrates the camera without prior knowledge of the scene and in real-time.

Keywords: advanced driver assistance system (ADAS), fish-eye, real-time, self-calibration

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Authors: Ekaterina Razuvalova, Konstantin Rudenko

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In this article the most successful examples of international visual and virtual reconstructions of historical and culture objects, which are based on informative and communicative technologies, are represented. 3D reconstructions can demonstrate outward appearance, visualize different hypothesis, connected to represented object. Virtual reality can give us any daytime and season, any century and environment. We can see how different people from different countries and different era lived; we can get different information about any object; we can see historical complexes in real city environment, which are damaged or vanished. These innovations confirm the fact, that 3D reconstruction is important in museum development. Considering the most interesting examples of visual and virtual reconstructions, we can notice, that visual reconstruction is a 3D image of different objects, historical complexes, buildings and phenomena. They are constant and we can see them only as momentary objects. And virtual reconstruction is some environment with its own time, rules and phenomena. These reconstructions are continuous; seasons, daytime and natural conditions can change there. They can demonstrate abilities of virtual world existence. In conclusion: new technologies give us opportunities to expand the boundaries of museum space, improve abilities of museum expositions, create emotional atmosphere of game immersion, which can interest visitor. Usage of network sources allows increasing the number of visitors and virtual reconstruction opportunities show creative side of museum business.

Keywords: computer technologies, historical reconstruction, museums, museum expositions, virtual reconstruction

Procedia PDF Downloads 314

Authors: Sabina Mohsin

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The need for grounding of teachers and the trend of using innovative ways to deal with students of various abilities in schools, colleges and universities has always been essential in any part of the world. Teacher edification programs, and qualifications standards, all too repeatedly lack enough rigidity, extensiveness and profundity, resulting in high levels of unskilled teachers and squat student performance. Accordingly, the solution, from this viewpoint, lies in making the entry and training necessities for teaching deeper and more exact. Teachers’ continuous professional development is necessary to reach all kinds of learners in class. The training provided is a direct opportunity for new teachers to interact better and motivate students in a two way discussion class. The intention of the study was to scrutinize whether the teachers’ training played an important role to fabricate lectures and classroom activities and reflected the objectives of the training provided in various schools and universities. It also aims to examine the current practices used in the various teacher training programs and if there is any other method that can be associated to enhance the effectiveness of these programs further. This research uses qualitative data collected from interviews, peer discussions, classroom observations, reviews, feedback of students and teachers to study teacher training and teaching methods used in school and universities in Bangladesh. The study finds teacher training to be effective though it has some limitations. It also includes some suggestions to make teacher training more effective.

Keywords: current practices in teacher training, enhancing effectiveness, limitation, student motivation, teacher training

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Authors: Yantao Li, Jun Zheng

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Food poison caused by consumption of contaminated food, especially seafood, is one of most serious public health threats worldwide. Vibrio parahaemolyticus is emerging bacterial pathogen and the leading cause of human gastroenteritis associated with food poison, especially in the southern coastal region of China. To successfully cause disease in host, bacterial pathogens need to overcome the host-derived stresses encountered during infection. One of the toxic chemical species elaborated by the host is nitric oxide (NO). NO is generated by acidified nitrite in the stomach and by enzymes of the inducible NO synthase (iNOS) in the host cell, and is toxic to bacteria. Bacterial pathogens have evolved some mechanisms to battle with this toxic stress. Such mechanisms include genes to sense NO produced from immune system and activate others to detoxify NO toxicity, and genes to repair the damage caused by toxic reactive nitrogen species (RNS) generated during NO toxic stress. However, little is known about the NO resistance in V. parahaemolyticus. In this study, a transposon coupled with next generation sequencing (Tn-seq) technology will be utilized to identify genes for NO resistance in V. parahaemolyticus. Our strategy will include construction the saturating transposon insertion library, transposon library challenging with NO, next generation sequencing (NGS), bioinformatics analysis and verification of the identified genes in vitro and in vivo.

Keywords: vibrio parahaemolyticus, nitric oxide, tn-seq, virulence

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Authors: Siti Fatimah Kader Maideen, Abdul Rashid, Nur Indah Ahmad

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Introduction: Indigenous people have an increased risk of contracting zoonotic infections due to their practices. Similarly, the aborigines in Peninsular Malaysia, the Orang Asli, have a higher risk too. This study aimed to empower the Jahai children on the prevention of zoonotic infections by implementing a health promotion intervention program. Methods: A non-experimental pre and post-test interventional study was conducted among the indigenous primary school children aged between nine and 12 years in Perak, Malaysia. A structured questionnaire was used to assess the pre-and post-knowledge and attitudes towards zoonotic infections and hand hygiene practice. This is followed by three sessions of the health promotion program. Ethical approval was obtained prior to the data collection. Data were analysed using SPSS software. Results: The knowledge on whether diseases can spread from animals to humans, transmission via saliva and faeces, types of organisms that can infect, and signs and symptoms increased significantly between pre and post. Significant improvements were observed in the attitude and practices too. Conclusion: The intervention program demonstrated improvement in the knowledge, attitude, and practice among the children. The continuous program needs to be conducted for a sustainable outcome.

Keywords: health promotion, zoonotic infections, aborigines, knowledge, practice

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Authors: M. D. H. Beg, John O. Akindoyo, Suriati Ghazali, Nitthiyah Jeyaratnam

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Over the period of time, several approaches have been undertaken to mitigate the challenges associated with bone regeneration. This includes but not limited to xenografts, allografts, autografts as well as artificial substitutions like bioceramics, synthetic cements and metals. The former three techniques often come along with peculiar limitation and problems such as morbidity, availability, disease transmission, collateral site damage or absolute rejection by the body as the case may be. Synthetic routes remain the only feasible alternative option for treatment of bone defects. Hydroxyapatite (HA) is very compatible and suitable for this application. However, most of the common methods for HA synthesis are either expensive, complicated or environmentally unfriendly. Interestingly, extraction of HA from bio-wastes have been perceived not only to be cost effective, but also environment friendly. In this research, HA was synthesized from bio-waste: namely bovine bones through three different methods which are hydrothermal chemical processes, ultrasound assisted synthesis and ordinary calcination techniques. Structure and property analysis of the HA was carried out through different characterization techniques such as TGA, FTIR, and XRD. All the methods applied were able to produce HA with similar compositional properties to biomaterials found in human calcified tissues. Calcination process was however observed to be more efficient as it eliminated all the organic components from the produced HA. The HA synthesized is unique for its minimal cost and environmental friendliness. It is also perceived to be suitable for tissue and bone engineering applications.

Keywords: hydroxyapatite, bone, calcination, biowaste

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Authors: Monika Lipska

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Drinking water is water with a very high quality, and as such represents only 2.5% of the total quantity of all water in the world. For many years we have observed continuous increase in its consumption as a result of many factors such as: Growing world population (7 billion in 2011r.), increase of human lives comfort and – above all – the economic growth. Due to the rocketing consumption and growing costs of production of water with such high-quality parameters, we experience accelerating interest in alternative sources of obtaining potable water. One of the ways of saving this valuable material is using rainwater in the Urban Building. With an exponentially growing demand, the acquisition of additional sources of water is necessary to maintain the proper balance of all ecosystems. The first part of the paper describes what rainwater is and what are its potential sources and means of use, while the main part of the article focuses on the description of the methods of obtaining water from rain on the example of new urban building in Poland. It describes the method and installations of rainwater in the new urban building (“MBJ2030”). The paper addresses also the issue of monitoring of the whole recycling systems as well as the particular quality indicators important because of identification of the potential risks to human health. The third part describes the legal arrangements concerning the recycling of rainwater existing in different European Union countries with particular reference to Poland on example the new urban building in Warsaw.

Keywords: rainwater, potable water, non-potable water, Poland

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Authors: Duc V. Nguyen

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Induction motors are widely used in different industry areas and can experience various kinds of faults in stators and rotors. In general, fault detection and diagnosis techniques for induction motors can be supervised by measuring quantities such as noise, vibration, and temperature. The installation of mechanical sensors in order to assess the health conditions of a machine is typically only done for expensive or load-critical machines, where the high cost of a continuous monitoring system can be Justified. Nevertheless, induced current monitoring can be implemented inexpensively on machines with arbitrary sizes by using current transformers. In this regard, effective and low-cost fault detection techniques can be implemented, hence reducing the maintenance and downtime costs of motors. This work proposes a method for fault detection and diagnosis of induction motors, which combines classical fast Fourier transform and modern/advanced machine learning techniques. The proposed method is validated on real-world data and achieves a precision of 99.7% for fault detection and 100% for fault classification with minimal expert knowledge requirement. In addition, this approach allows users to be able to optimize/balance risks and maintenance costs to achieve the highest benet based on their requirements. These are the key requirements of a robust prognostics and health management system.

Keywords: fault detection, FFT, induction motor, predictive maintenance

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Authors: Y. Kamarulzaman, A. Madun, F. D. Yusop, N. Abdullah, N. K. Hoong

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In 2011, the Malaysian Government has initiated a nationwide project called 1BestariNet which will adopt the using of technology in teaching and learning, resulting in the construction of telecommunication towers inside the public schools’ premise. Using qualitative approach, this study investigated public perception of risks associated with the project, particularly the telecommunication towers. Data collection involved observation and in-depth interviews with 22 individuals consist of a segment of public that was anxious about the risks of radio frequency electromagnetic field (RFEMF) which include two employees of telecommunication companies (telcos) and five employees of Government agencies. Observation of the location of the towers at 10 public schools, a public forum, and media reports provide valuable information in our analysis. The study finds that the main concern is related to the health risks. This study also shows that it is not easy for the Government to manage public perception mainly because it involves public trust. We find that risk perception is related with public trust, as well as the perceived benefits and level of knowledge. Efficient communication and continuous engagement with the local communities help to build and maintain public trust, reduce public fear and anxiety, hence mitigating the risk perception among the public.

Keywords: risk perception, risk communication, trust, telecommunication tower, radio frequency electromagnetic field (RFEMF)

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Authors: Xinyi Le

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In this paper, 3D printing orientations were determined through our perceptual model. Some FDM (Fused Deposition Modeling) 3D printers, which are widely used in universities and industries, often require support structures during the additive manufacturing. After removing the residual material, some surface artifacts remain at the contact points. These artifacts will damage the function and visual effect of the model. To prevent the impact of these artifacts, we present a fuzzy extreme learning machine approach to find printing directions that avoid placing supports in perceptually significant regions. The proposed approach is able to solve the evaluation problem by combing both the subjective knowledge and objective information. Our method combines the advantages of fuzzy theory, auto-encoders, and extreme learning machine. Fuzzy set theory is applied for dealing with subjective preference information, and auto-encoder step is used to extract good features without supervised labels before extreme learning machine. An extreme learning machine method is then developed successfully for training and learning perceptual models. The performance of this perceptual model will be demonstrated on both natural and man-made objects. It is a good human-computer interaction practice which draws from supporting knowledge on both the machine side and the human side.

Keywords: 3d printing, perceptual model, fuzzy evaluation, data-driven approach

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Authors: Haitao Yang, Zhenjiang Ruan, Fei Xu, Lanting Xia

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Industry data centers often need to sync data changes reliably and instantly from a large-scale of heterogeneous autonomous relational databases accessed via the not-so-reliable Internet, for which a practical universal sync middle of low maintenance and operation costs is most wanted, but developing such a product and adapting it for various scenarios are a very sophisticated and continuous practice. The authors have been devising, applying, and optimizing a generic sync middleware system, named GSMS since 2006, holding the principles or advantages that the middleware must be SyncML-compliant and transparent to data application layer logic, need not refer to implementation details of databases synced, does not rely on host computer operating systems deployed, and its construction is light weighted and hence, of low cost. A series of ultimate experiments with GSMS sync performance were conducted for a persuasive example of a source relational database that underwent a broad range of write loads, say, from one thousand to one million intensive writes within a few minutes. The tests proved that GSMS has achieved an instant sync level of well below a fraction of millisecond per record sync, and GSMS’ smooth performances under ultimate write loads also showed it is feasible and competent.

Keywords: heterogeneous massive data, instantly sync intensive writes, Internet generic middleware design, optimization

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Authors: Bayu Rizky Pratama, Hardiansyah Nur Sahaya

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Riau Province is the worst emitter for forest burning which causes the huge scale of externality such as declining of forest habitat, health disease, and climate change impact. Indonesia forum of budget transparency for Riau Province (FITRA) reported the length of forest burning reached about 186.069 hectares which is 7,13% of total national forest burning disaster, consisted of 107.000 hectares of peatland and the rest 79.069 hectares of mineral land. Anti-fire group, a voluntary group next to the forest, to help in protecting the forest burning and heavily smoke residual has been established but unfortunately the implementation still far from expectation. This research will emphasize on (1) how the anti-fire group contribute to fire hazard tackling; (2) the identification of SWOT analysis to enhance the group benefit; and (3) government policy implication to maximize the role of Anti-fire group and reduce the case of forest burning as well as heavily smoke which can raise climate change impact. As the observation found some weakness from SWOT identification such as (1) lack of education and training; (2) facility in extinguishing the fire damage; (3) law for economic incentive; (4) communication and field experience; (5) also the reporting the fire case.

Keywords: anti-fire group, forest burning impact, SWOT, climate change mitigation

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Authors: Haneef Ur Rehman, Afsheen Aman, Abdul Hameed Baloch, Shah Ali Ul Qader

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Pectinase is a heterogeneous group of enzymes that catalyze the hydrolysis of pectin substances and widely has been used in food and textile industries. In current study, pectinase from B. licheniformis KIBGE-IB21 was immobilized within different polymers (calcium alginate beads, polyacrylamide gel and agar-agar matrix) to enhance its catalytic properties. Polyacrylamide gel was found to be most promising one and gave maximum (89%) immobilization yield. While less immobilization yield was observed in case of calcium alginate beads that only retained 46 % activity. The reaction time for maximum pectinolytic activity was increased from 5.0 to 10 minutes after immobilization. The temperature of pectinase for maximum enzyme activity was increased from 45 °C to 50 °C and 55 °C when it was immobilized within agar-agar and calcium alginate beads, respectively. The optimum pH of pectinase didn’t alter when it was immobilized within polyacrylamide gel and calcium alginate beads, but in case of agar-agar it was changed from pH 10 to pH 9.0. Thermal stability of pectinase was improved after immobilization and immobilized pectinase showed higher toleration against different temperatures as compared to free enzyme. It can be concluded that the entrapment is a simple, single step and promising procedure to immobilized pectinase within different synthetic and non-synthetic polymers and enhanced its catalytic properties.

Keywords: pectinase, characterization immobilization, polyacrylamide, agar-agar, calcium alginate beads

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Authors: Michael Louis Sunaris, Robby Yussac Tallar

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The concept of sustainable river is evolving in Indonesia today. Many rivers condition in Indonesia have decreased by quality and quantity. The degradation of this condition is caused by rapid land use change as a result of increased population growth and human activity. It brings the degradation of the existing watersheds including some types of land use that an important factor in determining the status of river sustainability. Therefore, an evaluation method is required to determine the sustainability status of waterbody within watershed. The purpose of this study is to analyze various types of land use in determining the status of river sustainability. This study takes the watersheds of Citarum Upstream as a study area. The results of the analysis prove the index of sustainability status of the river that changes from good to bad or average in the rivers in the study area. The rapid and uncontrolled changes of land use especially in the upper watersheds area are the main causes that happened over time. It was indicated that the cumulative runoff coefficients were increased significantly. These situations indicated that the damage of watersheds has an impact on the water surplus or deficit problem yearly. Therefore, the rivers in Indonesia should be protected and conserved. The sustainability index of the rivers is an index to indicate the condition of watersheds by defining status of rivers in order to achieve sustainable water resource management.

Keywords: land use change, runoff coefficient, a simple index, sustainable river

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Authors: Rasha Aljaryian, Lalit Kumar

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Climate is undergoing continuous change and this trend will affect the cultivation areas ofmost crops, including wheat (Triticum aestivum L.), in the future. The current suitable cultivation areas may become unsuitable climatically. Countries that depend on wheat cultivation and export may suffer an economic loss because of production decline. On the other hand, some regions of the world could gain economically by increasing cultivation areas. This study models the potential future climatic suitability of wheat by using CLIMEX software. Two different global climate models (GCMs) were used, CSIRO-Mk3.0 (CS) and MIROC-H (MR), with two emission scenarios (A2, A1B). The results of this research indicate that the suitable climatic areas for wheat in the southern hemisphere, such as Australia, are expected to contract by the end of this century. However, some unsuitable or marginal areas will become climatically suitable under future climate scenarios. In North America and Europe further expansion inland could occur. Also, the results illustrate that heat and dry stresses as abiotic climatic factors will play an important role in wheat distribution in the future. Providing sufficient information about future wheat distribution will be useful for agricultural ministries and organizations to manage the shift in production areas in the future. They can minimize the expected harmful economic consequences by preparing strategic plans and identifying new areas for wheat cultivation.

Keywords: Climate change, Climate modelling, CLIMEX, Triticum aestivum, Wheat

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Authors: Ravi Kumar

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Agricultural wastes are the non-product outcomes of agricultural processing whose monetary value is less as compared to its collection cost, transportation, and processing. When such agricultural waste is not properly disposed of, it may damage the natural environment and cause detrimental pollution in the atmosphere. Agricultural development and intensive farming methods usually result in wastes that remarkably affect the rural environments in particular and the global environment in general. Agricultural waste has toxicity latent to human beings, animals, and plants through various indirect and direct outlets. The present paper explores the various activities that result in agricultural waste and the routes that can utilize the agricultural waste in a manageable manner to reduce its adverse impact on the environment. Presently, the agricultural waste management system for ecological agriculture and sustainable development has emerged as a crucial issue for policymakers. There is an urgent need to consider agricultural wastes as prospective resources rather than undesirable in order to avoid the transmission and contamination of water, land, and air resources. Waste management includes the disposal and treatment of waste with a view to eliminate threats of waste by modifying the waste to condense the microbial load. The study concludes that proper waste utilization and management will facilitate the purification and development of the ecosystem and provide feasible biofuel resources. This proper utilization and management of these wastes for agricultural production may reduce their accumulation and further reduce environmental pollution by improving environmental health.

Keywords: agricultural waste, utilization, management, environment, health

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Authors: M. Cuevas-González, O. Monserrat, A. Barra, C. Reyes-Carmona, R.M. Mateos, J. P. Galve, R. Sarro, M. Cantalejo, E. Peña, M. Martínez-Corbella, J. A. Luque, J. M. Azañón, A. Millares, M. Béjar, J. A. Navarro, L. Solari

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Geohazard prone areas require continuous monitoring to detect risks, understand the phenomena occurring in those regions and prevent disasters. Satellite interferometry (InSAR) has come to be a trustworthy technique for ground movement detection and monitoring in the last few years. InSAR based techniques allow to process large areas providing high number of displacement measurements at low cost. However, the results provided by such techniques are usually not easy to interpret by non-experienced users hampering its use for decision makers. This work presents a set of tools developed in the framework of different projects (Momit, Safety, U-Geohaz, Riskcoast) and an example of their use in the Granada Coastal area (Spain) is shown. The ADA (Active Displacement Areas) tool have been developed with the aim of easing the management, use and interpretation of InSAR based results. It provides a semi-automatic extraction of the most significant ADAs through the application ADAFinder tool. This tool aims to support the exploitation of the European Ground Motion Service (EU-GMS), which will provide consistent, regular and reliable information regarding natural and anthropogenic ground motion phenomena all over Europe.

Keywords: ground displacements, InSAR, natural hazards, satellite imagery

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Authors: Muhammad Mustaqeem, Musa Kaleem Baloch, Irfan Ullah, Ammarah Luqman, Afshan Ahmad

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Flurbiprofen is one of the most potent nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs. It is widely used for relief of pain in patients suffering from rheumatic diseases, migraine, sore throat and primary dysmenorrhea. However, its aqueous solubility is very low and hinders the skin permeation. Thus, it is imperative to develop such a drug delivery systems which can improve its aqueous solubility and hence improve the skin permeation and therapeutic compliance. Microemulsions have been also proven to increase the cutaneous absorption of lipophilic drugs as compared to conventional vehicles. Micro-emulsion is thermodynamically stable emulsion that has the capacity to ‘hide/solubilize’ water-insoluble molecules within a continuous oil phase. Therefore, flurbiprofen was converted to Easters through chemical reactions with alcohols such as methanol, ethanol, propanol and butanol. The product was further treated with hydrazine to get hydrazide. The solubility of the parent drug Flurbiprofen and the products were solubilized in microemulsions formed using various surfactants like ionic, non-ionic and zwitterions. It has been concluded that the product was more soluble than the parent compound. The biological activities of these were also investigated. The outcome was very promising and the product was more active than the parent compound. It, therefore, concluded that in this way, we can not only enhance the solubility of the drug and increase its bioactivity, but also reduce the risk of stomach cancer.

Keywords: Flurbiprofen, microemulsion, surfactants, hyrazides

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Authors: A. Jarrou, A. Iranzo, C. Nana

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The rapid development of the onshore/offshore wind industry and the continuous, strong, and long-term support from governments have made it possible to create factories specializing in the manufacture of the different parts of wind turbines, but in the literature, Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) analyzes consider the wind turbine as a whole and do not allow the allocation of impacts to the different components of the wind turbine. Here we propose to treat each part of the wind turbine as a system in its own right. This is more in line with the current production system. Environmental Life Cycle Assessment of two technological scenarios of wind turbine blades composition for an optimized wind turbine design using the impact 2002+ method and using 15 environmental impact indicators. This article aims to assess the environmental impacts associated with 1 kg of wind turbine blades. In order to carry out a realistic and precise study, the different stages of the life cycle of a wind turbine installation are included in the study (manufacture, installation, use, maintenance, dismantling, and waste treatment). The Impact 2002+ method used makes it possible to assess 15 impact indicators (human toxicity, terrestrial and aquatic ecotoxicity, climate change, land use, etc.). Finally, a sensitivity study is carried out to analyze the different types of uncertainties in the data collected.

Keywords: life cycle assessment, wind turbine, turbine blade, environmental impact

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Authors: Shang-Hen Wu, Yung-Chen Lin, Wei-Song Chang, Ming-Ju Lin

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This study investigated whether the repeated bout effect (RBE) of knee flexors (KF) eccentric exercise would be changed in muscle-tendon lengths. Eight healthy university male students used their KF of non-dominant leg and performed a bout of 60 maximal isokinetic (30°/s) eccentric contractions (MaxECC1). A week after MaxECC1, all subjects used the same KF to perform a subsequent bout of MaxECC2. Changes in maximal isokinetic voluntary contraction torque (MVC-CON), muscle soreness (SOR), relaxed knee joint angle (RANG), leg circumference (CIR), and ultrasound images (UI; muscle-tendon length and muscle angle) were measured before, immediately after, 1-5 days after each bout. Two-way ANOVA was used to analyze all the dependent variables. After MaxECC1, all the dependent variables (e.g. MVC-CON: ↓30%, muscle-tendon length: ↑24%, muscle angle: ↑15%) showed significantly change. Following MaxECC2, all the above dependent variables (e.g. MVC-CON：↓21%, tendon length: ↑16%, muscle angle: ↑6%) were significantly smaller than those of MaxECC1. These results of this study found that protective effect conferred by MaxECC1 against MaxECC2, and changes in muscle damage indicators, muscle-tendon length and muscle angle following MaxECC2 were smaller than MaxECC1. Thus, the amount of shift of muscle-tendon length and muscle angle was related to the RBE.

Keywords: eccentric exercise, maximal isokinetic voluntary contraction torque, repeated bout effect, ultrasound

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Authors: Chih-Hsing Lin, Wen-Ching Chen, Chih-Ting Kuo, Gang-Neng Sung, Chih-Chyau Yang, Chien-Ming Wu, Chun-Ming Huang

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This paper proposes a cellular-based structure health monitoring device (HMD) for temporary bridge monitoring without the requirement of power line and internet service. The proposed HMD includes sensor node, power module, cellular gateway, and rechargeable batteries. The purpose of HMD focuses on short-term collection of civil infrastructure information. It achieves the features of low cost by using three 1-axis accelerometers with data synchronization problem being solved. Furthermore, instead of using data acquisition system (DAQ) sensed data is transmitted to Host through cellular gateway. Compared with 3-axis accelerometer, our proposed 1-axis accelerometers based device achieves 50.5% cost saving with high sensitivity 2000mv/g. In addition to fit different monitoring environments, the proposed system can be easily replaced and/or extended with different PCB boards, such as communication interfaces and sensors, to adapt to various applications. Therefore, with using the proposed device, the real-time diagnosis system for civil infrastructure damage monitoring can be conducted effectively.

Keywords: cellular-based structural health monitoring, cost-effective 1-axis accelerometers, short-term monitoring, structural engineering

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Authors: Ahmad Masduki Bin Selamat, Kang Chia Yang

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The International Standard Organization (ISO) is an international consensus on good management practice. It is derived from the Greek word “isos” meaning equal. ISO is aimed to give organization guidelines on what bring quality management system that leads to continuous improvement. The need of quality product is essential these days, especially in the manufacturing and service sectors. The requirement to produce good product is demanded, hence the certification of ISO enables the company to gain the trust from the public. Due to this, organizations whether government or private sectors in Malaysia are going for the ISO certification. However recently there has been an introduction of Islamic standard known as Islamic Standard Institute 2020 (ISI 2020). The ISI standards emphasize more on values that should be in the employees’ mind. By possessing good values, employees will work only for the betterment of the company. Currently only the feelings of being paid for the job exist in the employees’ mind. The non-Malays like Chinese and others, which comprise 40% of the sample size, are not aware about the existence of any Islamic quality system. As for the Malay managers, they support the Islamic quality systems. For them such values are encouraged by religion. By imitating religion, Allah promises a better life in this world and hereafter. Even though ISI 2020 is still new but the majority of Malays would support the need of Islamic quality system. Our findings suggest that integration of these two-quality systems running parallel would bring a better result.

Keywords: International Standard Organization (ISO), Islamic standard, quality, ISI 2020

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Authors: Husham Bayazed

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The infant immune system has a reputation for being weak and underdeveloped when compared to the adult immune system, but the comparison isn’t quite fair. At the start, as the COVID-19 pandemic drags on and evolves, many Pediatricians and kids' parents have been left with renewed questions about the consequences and sequel of infection on children and the steps to be taken if their child, has the symptoms of COVID-19 or tests positive. Recent Findings: Literature reviews and recent studies revealed that children are better than adults at controlling SARS-CoV-2. There was conflicting evidence on age-related differences in ACE2 expression in the nose and lungs. But scientists who measured the ‘viral load’ in children's upper airways have seen no clear difference between children and adults. Moreover, the hypothesis is that kids might be more exposed to other coronaviruses common cold with a production of ready protective antibodies to lock on to the pandemic coronavirus. But the evidence suggests that adults also have this immunity too. Strikingly, these ‘cross-reactive’ antibodies don’t offer any special protection. Summary: One of the few silver linings of the Covid-19 pandemic is that children are relatively spared. The kid's Innate Immunity is hardly the whole story, the innate immune response against SARS-CoV-2 infection is early initiative calm with low immunological tone to prevent an overactive immunity and with rapidly repair damage to the lungs in contrast to stormy waves in adults. Therefore, Kids are at much lower risk of Covid-19 infection and they are still winning the battle against Covid-19 with their innate immunity.

Keywords: kids, Covid-19, immunity, ACT2

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Authors: Ali Shareef, Aliha Shareef, Yifeng Zhu

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Energy minimization is of great importance in wireless sensor networks in extending the battery lifetime. One of the key activities of nodes in a WSN is communication and the routing of their data to a centralized base-station or sink. Routing using the shortest path to the sink is not the best solution since it will cause nodes along this path to fail prematurely. We propose a cross-layer energy efficient routing protocol Optrix that utilizes a convex formulation to maximize the lifetime of the network as a whole. We further propose, Optrix-BW, a novel convex formulation with bandwidth constraint that allows the channel conditions to be accounted for in routing. By considering this key channel parameter we demonstrate that Optrix-BW is capable of congestion control. Optrix is implemented in TinyOS, and we demonstrate that a relatively large topology of 40 nodes can converge to within 91% of the optimal routing solution. We describe the pitfalls and issues related with utilizing a continuous form technique such as convex optimization with discrete packet based communication systems as found in WSNs. We propose a routing controller mechanism that allows for this transformation. We compare Optrix against the Collection Tree Protocol (CTP) and we found that Optrix performs better in terms of convergence to an optimal routing solution, for load balancing and network lifetime maximization than CTP.

Keywords: wireless sensor network, Energy Efficient Routing

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Authors: Glenda Marie D. Balitaan

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The branch of business management that deals with inventory planning and control is known as inventory management. It comprises keeping track of supply levels and forecasting demand, as well as scheduling when and how to plan. Keeping excess inventory results in a loss of money, takes up physical space, and raises the risk of damage, spoilage, and loss. On the other hand, too little inventory frequently causes operations to be disrupted and raises the possibility of low customer satisfaction, both of which can be detrimental to a company's reputation. The United Victorious Feed mill Corporation's present inventory management practices were assessed in terms of inventory level, warehouse allocation, ordering frequency, shelf life, and production requirement. To help the company achieve their optimal level of inventory, a mathematical model was created using Integer Linear Programming. Due to the season, the goal function was to reduce the cost of purchasing US Soya and Yellow Corn. Warehouse space, annual production requirements, and shelf life were all considered. To ensure that the user only uses one application to record all relevant information, like production output and delivery, the researcher built a Visual Basic system. Additionally, the technology allows management to change the model's parameters.

Keywords: inventory management, integer linear programming, inventory management system, feed mill

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Authors: Zeineb Kesentini, Abderrahim El Mahi, Jean Luc Rebiere, Rachid El Guerjouma, Moez Beyaoui, Mohamed Haddar

Abstract:

Industries’ attention has been drawn to green and sustainable materials as a result of the present energy deficit and environmental damage. Sandwiches formed of auxetic structures made up of periodic cells are also being investigated by industry. Several tests have emphasized the exceptional properties of these materials. In this study, the sandwich's core is a one-cell auxetic core. Among plant fibers, flax fibers are chosen because of their good mechanical properties comparable to those of glass fibers. Poly (lactic acid) (PLA), as a green material, is available from starch, and its production process requires fewer fossil resources than petroleum-based plastics. A polylactic acid (PLA) reinforced with flax fiber filament was employed in this study. The manufacturing process used to manufacture the test specimens is 3D printing. The major drawback of a 100% bio-based material is its low resistance to moisture absorption. In this study, a sandwich based on PLA / flax with an auxetic core is characterized statically for different periods of immersion in water. Bending tests are carried out on the composite sandwich for three immersion time. Results are compared to those of non immersed specimens. It is found that non aged sandwich has the ultimate bending stiffness.

Keywords: auxetic, bending tests, biobased composite, sandwich structure, 3D printing

Procedia PDF Downloads 142

Authors: Helder Shelton Abel Manguene, Giovanna Buonocore, Herminio Francisco Muiambo

Abstract:

Paved roads are designed for 10-15 years of life. However, many asphalted roads suffer degradation before reaching their lifetime due to aging caused by load conditions and climatic factors. Oxidation is the main asphalt aging mechanism, which leads to a reduced bond between aggregate particles, increasing the potential for stripping and moisture damage, decreasing fatigue lifetime and reducing resistance to thermal cracking. To improve the performance of asphalt and mitigate these problems, modifiers such as polymers, oils and certain residues have been used. This work aims to study the influence of the addition of high-density polyethylene (HDPE) and engine oil on the thermal stability of asphalt in an oxidizing atmosphere. For the study, compositions containing asphalt, motor oil and HDPE were prepared, varying the concentration of the motor oil by 2.5%, 5%, 7.5% and 10% and keeping the HDPE concentration fixed at 5%. The results show that the pure asphalt sample is degraded in a single step that starts at approximately 311 ºC; All samples of modified asphalt except the one that contains 5% of motor oil have three degradation steps that start below the starting temperature of degradation of pure asphalt (about 250-300 ºC); The temperature of onset of degradation of the modified asphalt is shown to decrease as the concentration of the motor oil increases, suggesting a slight loss of thermal stability of the asphalt as the quantity of the motor oil increases.

Keywords: Asphalt, DTG, engine oil, HDPE, TGA

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Authors: Emir H. Pernet, Jeimy J. Cano

Abstract:

Maturity models, used descriptively to explain changes in reality or normatively to guide managers to make interventions to make organizations more effective and efficient, are based on the principles of statistical quality control promulgated by Shewhart in the years 30, and on the principles of PDCA continuous improvement (Plan, Do, Check, Act) developed by Deming and Juran. Some frameworks developed over the concept of maturity models includes COBIT, CMM, and ITIL. This paper presents some limitations of traditional maturity models, most of them based on points of reflection and analysis done by some authors. Almost all limitations are related to the mechanistic and reductionist approach of the principles over those models are built. As Systems Theory helps the understanding of the dynamics of organizations and organizational change, the development of a systemic maturity model can help to overcome some of those limitations. This document proposes a systemic maturity model, based on a systemic conceptualization of organizations, focused on the study of the functioning of the parties, the relationships among them, and their behavior as a whole. The concept of maturity from the system theory perspective is conceptually defined as an emergent property of the organization, which arises from as a result of the degree of alignment and integration of their processes. This concept is operationalized through a systemic function that measures the maturity of an organization, and finally validated by the measuring of maturity in organizations. For its operationalization and validation, the model was applied to measure the maturity of organizational Governance, Risk and Compliance (GRC) processes.

Keywords: GRC, maturity model, systems theory, viable system model

Procedia PDF Downloads 300

Authors: Boyu Li

Abstract:

Mixed matrix membranes (MMMs), as a separation technology, can improve CO₂ recycling efficiency and reduce the environmental impacts associated with huge emissions. Nevertheless, many challenges must be overcome to design excellent selectivity and permeability performance MMMs. Herein, this work demonstrates the design of nano-scale GNPs (Cu-BDC@PEG) with strong compatibility and high free friction volume (FFV) is an effective way to construct non-interfacial voids MMMs with a desirable combination of selectivity and permeability. Notably, the FFV boosted thanks to the chain length and shape of the GNPs. With this, the permeability and selectivity of Cu-BDC@PEG/PVDF MMMs had also been significantly improved. As such, compatible Cu-BDC@PEG proves very efficient for resolving challenges of MMMs with poor compatibility on the basis of the interfacial defect. Poly (Ethylene Glycol) (PEG) with oxygen groups can be finely coordinated with Cu-MOFs to disperse Cu-BDC@PEG homogenously and form hydrogen bonds with matrix to achieve continuous phase. The resultant MMMs exhibited a simultaneous enhancement of gas permeability (853.1 Barrer) and ideal CO₂/N selectivity (41.7), which has surpassed Robenson's upper bound. Moreover, Cu-BDC@PEG/PVDF has a high-temperature resistance and a long time sustainably. This attractive separation performance of Cu-BDC@PEG/PVDF offered an exciting platform for the development of composite membranes for sustainable CO₂ separations.

Keywords: metal organic framework, CO₂ separation, mixed matrix membrane, polymer

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Authors: Sai Hung Cheung, Zhe Shao

Abstract:

Recent earthquake-induced tsunamis in Padang, 2004 and Tohoku, 2011 brought huge losses of lives and properties. Maintaining vertical evacuation systems is the most crucial strategy to effectively reduce casualty during the tsunami event. Thus, it is of our great interest to quantify the risk to structural dynamic systems due to earthquake-induced tsunamis. Despite continuous advancement in computational simulation of the tsunami and wave-structure interaction modeling, it still remains computationally challenging to evaluate the reliability (or its complement failure probability) of a structural dynamic system when uncertainties related to the system and its modeling are taken into account. The failure of the structure in a tsunami-wave-structural system is defined as any response quantities of the system exceeding specified thresholds during the time when the structure is subjected to dynamic wave impact due to earthquake-induced tsunamis. In this paper, an approach based on a novel integration of the Subset Simulation algorithm and a recently proposed moving least squares response surface approach for stochastic sampling is proposed. The effectiveness of the proposed approach is discussed by comparing its results with those obtained from the Subset Simulation algorithm without using the response surface approach.

Keywords: response surface model, subset simulation, structural reliability, Tsunami risk

Procedia PDF Downloads 363