Search results for: color loss

Authors: Radhapiyari Laishram, Chongtham Jiten, K. Chandramani Singh

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During the last decade, there has been a significant growth in developing lead-free piezoelectric ceramics which have the potential to replace the currently dominant but highly superior lead-based piezoelectric materials such as PZT. Among the lead-free piezoelectrics, (K0.5Na0.5)NbO3 - based piezoceramics are promising candidates due to their superior piezoelectric properties and high Curie temperatures. In this work, (K0.5Na0.5)(Nb1-xVx)O3 powders with x varying the range 0 to 0.05 were synthesized from the raw materials K2CO3, Na2CO3, Nb2O5, and V2O5. These powders were ball milled with high-energy Retsch PM 100 ball mill using isopropanol as the medium at the speed of 200rpm for a duration of 8h. The milled powders were sintered at 1080oC for 1h. The crystalline phase of all the calcined powders and corresponding ceramics prepared was found to be perovskite with orthorhombic symmetry. The ceramic with V5+ content of x=0.03 exhibits the maximum values in density of 4.292 g/cc, room temperature dielectric constant (εr) of 432, and piezoelectric charge constant (d33) of 93pC/N. For this sample, the dielectric tan δ loss remains relatively low over a wide temperature range. The temperature dependence of P-E hysteresis loops has been investigated for the ceramic composition with x = 0.03.

Keywords: dielectric properties, ferroelectric properties, perovskie, piezoelectric properties

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Authors: Mahidin, Yanna Syamsuddin, Samsul Rizal

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In order to fulfill world energy demand, several efforts have been done to look for new and renewable energy candidates to substitute oil and gas. Biomass is one of new and renewable energy sources, which is abundant in Indonesia. Palm kernel shell is a kind of biomass discharge from palm oil industries as a waste. On the other hand, Jatropha curcas that is easy to grow in Indonesia is also a typical energy source either for bio-diesel or biomass. In this study, biomass was used as co-fuel in briquetting of low-rank coal to suppress the release of emission (such as CO, NO_x and SO_x) during coal combustion. Desulfurizer, CaO-base, was also added to ensure the SO_x capture is effectively occurred. Ratio of coal to palm kernel shell (w/w) in the bio-briquette were 50:50, 60:40, 70:30, 80:20 and 90:10, while ratio of calcium to sulfur (Ca/S) in mole/mole were 1:1; 1.25:1; 1.5:1; 1.75:1 and 2:1. The bio-briquette then subjected to physical characterization and combustion test. The results show that the maximum weight loss in the durability measurement was ±6%. In addition, the highest stove efficiency for each desulfurizer was observed at the coal/PKS ratio of 90:10 and Ca/S ratio of 1:1 (except for the scallop shell desulfurizer that appeared at two Ca/S ratios; 1.25:1 and 1.5:1, respectively), i.e. 13.8% for the lime; 15.86% for the oyster shell; 14.54% for the scallop shell and 15.84% for the green mussel shell desulfurizers.

Keywords: biomass, low-rank coal, bio-briquette, new and renewable energy, palm kernel shell

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Authors: Narin Ozturk, Xiao-Mei Li, Sylvie Giachetti, Francis Levi, Alper Okyar

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P-glycoprotein (P-gp, MDR1, ABCB1) is a transmembrane protein acting as an ATP-dependent efflux pump and functions as a biological barrier by extruding drugs and xenobiotics out of cells in healthy tissues especially in intestines, liver and brain as well as in tumor cells. The circadian timing system controls a variety of biological functions in mammals including xenobiotic metabolism and detoxification, proliferation and cell cycle events, and may affect pharmacokinetics, toxicity and efficacy of drugs. Selective mTOR (mammalian target of rapamycin) inhibitor everolimus is an immunosuppressant and anticancer drug that is active against many cancers, and its pharmacokinetics depend on P-gp. The aim of this study was to investigate the dosing time-dependent toxicity of everolimus with respect to the intestinal P-gp expression rhythms in mdr1a::Luc mice using Real Time-Biolumicorder (RT-BIO) System. Mdr1a::Luc male mice were synchronized with 12 h of Light and 12 h of Dark (LD12:12, with Zeitgeber Time 0 – ZT0 – corresponding Light onset). After 1-week baseline recordings, everolimus (5 mg/kg/day x 14 days) was administered orally at ZT1-resting period- and ZT13-activity period- to mdr1a::Luc mice singly housed in an innovative monitoring device, Real Time-Biolumicorder units which let us monitor real-time and long-term gene expression in freely moving mice. D-luciferin (1.5 mg/mL) was dissolved in drinking water. Mouse intestinal mdr1a::Luc oscillation profile reflecting P-gp gene expression and locomotor activity pattern were recorded every minute with the photomultiplier tube and infrared sensor respectively. General behavior and clinical signs were monitored, and body weight was measured every day as an index of toxicity. Drug-induced body weight change was expressed relative to body weight on the initial treatment day. Statistical significance of differences between groups was validated with ANOVA. Circadian rhythms were validated with Cosinor Analysis. Everolimus toxicity changed as a function of drug timing, which was least following dosing at ZT13, near the onset of the activity span in male mice. Mean body weight loss was nearly twice as large in mice treated with 5 mg/kg everolimus at ZT1 as compared to ZT13 (8.9% vs. 5.4%; ANOVA, p < 0.001). Based on the body weight loss and clinical signs upon everolimus treatment, tolerability for the drug was best following dosing at ZT13. Both rest-activity and mdr1a::Luc expression displayed stable 24-h periodic rhythms before everolimus and in both vehicle-treated controls. Real-time bioluminescence pattern of mdr1a revealed a circadian rhythm with a 24-h period with an acrophase at ZT16 (Cosinor, p < 0.001). Mdr1a expression remained rhythmic in everolimus-treated mice, whereas down-regulation was observed in P-gp expression in 2 of 4 mice. The study identified the circadian pattern of intestinal P-gp expression with an unprecedented precision. The circadian timing depending on the P-gp expression rhythms may play a crucial role in the tolerability/toxicity of everolimus. The circadian changes in mdr1a genes deserve further studies regarding their relevance for in vitro and in vivo chronotolerance of mdr1a-transported anticancer drugs. Chronotherapy with P-gp-effluxed anticancer drugs could then be applied according to their rhythmic patterns in host and tumor to jointly maximize treatment efficacy and minimize toxicity.

Keywords: circadian rhythm, chronotoxicity, everolimus, mdr1a::Luc mice, p-glycoprotein

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Authors: Shahid M. Ali, Zakiullah

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An individual feed, smooth and smart, completely new shaped, dual band microstrip patch antenna has been proposed in this manuscript. Right here three triangular shape slots are usually presented in the 3 edges on the patch and along with a small feed line has utilized another edge on the patch to find out the dual band. The antenna carries a condensed framework wherever patch is around about 8.5mm by means of 7.96mm by means of 1.905mm leading to excellent bandwidths covering 13. 15 GHz to 13. 72 GHz in addition to 16.04 GHz to 16.58GHz. The return loss(RL) decrease in -19. 00dB and will be attained in the first resonant frequency at 13. 61 GHz and -28.69dB is at second resonance frequency at 16.33GHz. The stable average peak gain that may be observed along the operating band in lower and higher frequency is actually three. 53dB in addition to 5.562dB correspondingly. The radiation designs usually are omni directional along with moderate gain within equally most of these functioning bands. Accomplishment is proven within double frequencies at 13.62GHz since downlink in addition to 16.33GHz since uplink. This kind of low and simple configuration of the proposed antenna shows simplest fabrication and make it ensure that it is adaptable for your application within instant in satellite and as well as for the wireless communication system.

Keywords: dual band, microstrip patch antenna, HFSS, Ku band, satellite

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Authors: Antoaneta Stefanova, Rositsa Gencheva, Pavlin Groudev

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This paper presents the modeling approach in SBO sequence for VVER 1000 reactors and describes the reactor core behavior at late in-vessel phase in case of late reflooding by HPIS and gives preliminary results for the ASTECv2 validation. The work is focused on investigation of plant behavior during total loss of power and the operator actions. The main goal of these analyses is to assess the phenomena arising during the Station blackout (SBO) followed by primary side high pressure injection system (HPIS) reflooding of already damaged reactor core at very late ‘in-vessel’ phase. The purpose of the analysis is to define how the later HPIS switching on can delay the time of vessel failure or possibly avoid vessel failure. For this purpose has been simulated an SBO scenario with injection of cold water by a high pressure pump (HPP) in cold leg at different stages of core degradation. The times for HPP injection were chosen based on previously performed investigations.

Keywords: VVER, operator action validation, reflooding of overheated reactor core, ASTEC computer code

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Authors: P. S. Jagadeesh Kumar, Yang Yung, Mingmin Pan, Xianpei Li, Wenli Hu

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Glaucoma is impelled by optic nerve mutilation habitually represented as cupping and visual field injury frequently with an arcuate pattern of mid-peripheral loss, subordinate to retinal ganglion cell damage and death. Glaucoma is the second foremost cause of blindness and the chief cause of permanent blindness worldwide. Consequently, all-embracing study into the analysis and empathy of glaucoma is happening to escort deep learning based neural network intrusions to deliberate this substantial optic neuropathy. This paper advances an ophthalmic hashing based supervision of glaucoma and corneal disorders preeminent on deep graphical model. Ophthalmic hashing is a newly proposed method extending the efficacy of visual hash-coding to predict glaucoma corneal disorder matching, which is the faster than the existing methods. Deep graphical model is proficient of learning interior explications of corneal disorders in satisfactory time to solve hard combinatoric incongruities using deep Boltzmann machines.

Keywords: corneal disorders, deep Boltzmann machines, deep graphical model, glaucoma, neural networks, ophthalmic hashing

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Authors: Rataya Yanaphan, Saksiri Kuppatarat, Sarita Pinmanee

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Hemp (Cannabis sativa L. ssp. Sativa) cultivation for fiber is limited by extremely high labor cost, especially for the removal of the leaves before harvest. This study evaluated chemical defoliants as a means to remove the leaves of hemp before harvest, in an effort to reduce labor expenditures in the production on hemp fiber. This study was conducted by spraying the leaves of hemp with five different treatments: saline solution, Urea (CH4N2O), Ethephon, copper Sulphate (CuSO4) and water (control) before harvesting. The largest percentage of leaf loss 6 days after spraying was with saline solution (43%), followed by Ethephon (32%). However, saline solution also caused drying of the stems but Ethephon did not. Thus, Ethephon was evaluated in the second experiment by spraying with Ethephon concentrations of 0, 10, 15 and 20 ml per 1 liter of water at 7 days before harvest. Spraying with 0.5% Ethephon resulted in 13.6% leaf fall. Spraying with 1.5% and 2% Ethephon resulted in 82.2% and 82.3 % leaf fall, respectively. In addition, using Ethephon to defoliate hemp had no detrimental effect the yield. Therefore, Ethephon concentration at 15 ml per 1 liter of water will be recommended for use in removing hemp leaves by spraying at 7 days before harvest to lower labor cost.

Keywords: defoliation technology, ethephon, hemp cultivation, saline solution

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Authors: Radha Tomar, Satish K. Jain, Manish Panchal, P. S. Rathore

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In the presented work, inset fed microstrip patch antenna (IFMPA) based two port MIMO Antenna system has been proposed, which is suitable for wireless local area network (WLAN) applications. IFMPA has been designed, optimized for 2.4 GHz and applied for MIMO formation. The optimized parameters of the proposed IFMPA have been used for fabrication of antenna and two port MIMO in a laboratory. Fabrication of the designed MIMO antenna has been done and tested experimentally for performance parameters like Envelope Correlation Coefficient (ECC), Mean Effective Gain (MEG), Directive Gain (DG), Channel Capacity Loss (CCL), Multiplexing Efficiency (ME) etc and results are compared with simulated parameters extracted with simulated S parameters to validate the results. The simulated and experimentally measured plots and numerical values of these MIMO performance parameters resembles very much with each other. This shows the success of MIMO antenna design methodology.

Keywords: multiple-input and multiple-output, wireless local area network, vector network analyzer, envelope correlation coefficient

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Authors: C. E. Ihejirika, M. I. Nwachukwu, R. F. Njoku-Tony, O. C. Ihejirika, U. O. Enwereuzoh, E. O. Imo, D. C. Ashiegbu

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Disposal of industrial solid wastes in the environment is a major environmental challenge. This study investigated the effects of calcium carbide waste dumpsites on soil quality. Soil samples were collected with hand auger from three different dumpsites at varying depths and made into composite samples. Samples were subjected to standard analytical procedures. pH varied from 10.38 to 8.28, nitrate from 5.6mg/kg to 9.3mg/kg, phosphate from 8.8mg/kg to 12.3mg/kg, calcium carbide reduced from 10% to to 3%. Calcium carbide was absent in control soil samples. Bacterial counts from dumpsites ranged from 1.8 x 105cfu/g - 2.5 x 105cfu/g while fungal ranged from 0.8 x 103cfu/g - 1.4 x 103cfu/g. Bacterial isolates included Pseudomonas spp, Flavobacterium spp, and Achromobacter spp, while fungal isolates include Penicillium notatum, Aspergillus niger, and Rhizopus stolonifer. No organism was isolated from the dumpsites at soil depth of 0-15 cm, while there were isolates from other soil depths. Toxicity might be due to alkaline condition of the dumpsite. Calcium carbide might be bactericidal and fungicidal leading to cellular physiology, growth retardation, death, general loss of biodiversity and reduction of ecosystem processes. Detoxification of calcium carbide waste before disposal on soil might be the best option in management.

Keywords: biodiversity, calcium-carbide, denitrification, toxicity

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Authors: Nur Azzammudin Rahmat, Ismail Musirin, Ahmad Farid Abidin

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Economic load dispatch is performed by the utilities in order to determine the best generation level at the most feasible operating cost. In order to guarantee satisfying energy delivery to the consumer, a precise calculation of generation level is required. In order to achieve accurate and practical solution, several considerations such as prohibited operating zones, valve-point effect and ramp-rate limit need to be taken into account. However, these considerations cause the optimization to become complex and difficult to solve. This research focuses on the valve-point effect that causes ripple in the fuel-cost curve. This paper also proposes Differential Evolution Immunized Ant Colony Optimization (DEIANT) in solving economic load dispatch problem with valve-point effect. Comparative studies involving DEIANT, EP and ACO are conducted on IEEE 30-Bus RTS for performance assessments. Results indicate that DEIANT is superior to the other compared methods in terms of calculating lower operating cost and power loss.

Keywords: ant colony optimization (ACO), differential evolution (DE), differential evolution immunized ant colony optimization (DEIANT), economic load dispatch (ELD)

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Authors: Ghoul Rachid Brahim

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Introduction: Tuberculous spondylodiscitis is an infection of the spine by Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Tuberculous spondylodiscitis still remains a topical disease in developing countries and continues to pose a public health problem in endemic countries. Materials and methods: Clinical case: This is a 12-year-old child followed in pediatrics for weight loss and progressively worsening low back pain. The neurological examination found an irritative pyramidal syndrome in both lower limbs with a severe lumbar spinal syndrome. The radiological assessment: (Rx of the spine supplemented by CT and MRI) shows L1L2 spondylodiscitis. Treatment: The child is put on anti-tuberculosis treatment, and the spine is restrained with a corset. Control MRI shows a worsening of the dorsal kyphosis with a backward movement of the posterior wall and spinal cord compression. The child is operated on via the posterior approach (the operative procedure consists of an L1 laminectomy and D11 L3 osteosynthesis). Results: Spinal cord décompression and stabilization of the spine. Conclusion: Tuberculous spondylodiscitis in children remains a rare, aggressive, and progressive condition. The prognosis depends on the diagnosis's precocity and the therapeutic management quality.

Keywords: tuberculous spondylodiscitis, mycobacterium tuberculosis, laminectomy, MRI

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Authors: Adedotun Ayodele Dipeolu, Olusegun Ayotunde Oriola

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Rapid urban growth has led to the loss of contact with nature for most urban residents. While Green Infrastructure (GI) is promoted as a strategy to manage ecosystems’ functionality, the extent to which residents are aware of GI types which serve as alternatives to conventional landscapes to be conserved remains unclear. This paper examines the awareness level of GI types among residents of Lagos Metropolis, Nigeria and the association of their demographic characteristics with the level of awareness. Multi-stage sampling technique was used to select 1560 residents who completed semi-structured questionnaires. Descriptive statistics were used to explore data distributions while t-test assessed the differences in the awareness level of the male and female participants. From the 23 different types of GI facilities identified in the study area, residents reported a high level of awareness on just five of them. These include green gardens, green parks, grasses, street trees, and sports fields but a low level of awareness of the remaining 18 GI types. Awareness of GI types is presently low in the study area. Increased awareness will encourage care and protection of green infrastructure by residents which will consequently enhance availability and conservation of more biodiversity in Lagos, Nigeria, and other nations.

Keywords: awareness, biodiversity conservation, environmental sustainability, green infrastructure, urban centres

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Authors: Michael Scott, Phil Jarrell

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Digitalization seems to be everywhere these days. So if one was to digitalize Functional Safety, what would that require: • Ability to directly use data from intelligent P&IDs / process design in a PHA / LOPA • Ability to directly use data from intelligent P&IDs in the SIS Design to support SIL Verification Calculations, SRS, C&Es, Functional Test Plans • Ability to create Unit Operation / SIF Libraries to radically reduce engineering manhours while ensuring consistency and improving quality of SIS designs • Ability to link data directly from a PHA / LOPA to SIS Designs • Ability to leverage reliability models and SRS details from SIS Designs to automatically program the Safety PLC • Ability to leverage SIS Test Plans to automatically create Safety PLC application logic Test Plans for a virtual FAT • Ability to tie real-time data from Process Historians / CMMS to assumptions in the PHA / LOPA and SIS Designs to generate leading indicators on protection layer health • Ability to flag SIS bad actors for proactive corrective actions prior to a near miss or loss of containment event What if I told you all of this was available today? This paper will highlight how the digital revolution has revolutionized the way Safety Instrumented Systems are designed, configured, operated and maintained.

Keywords: IEC 61511, safety instrumented systems, functional safety, digitalization, IIoT

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Authors: Arash Sepehri Bonab

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Techniques to switch cells between development and differentiation, which tend to be commonly exclusive, are utilized in arrange to supply an expansive cell mass that can perform particular separated capacities required for the tissue to develop. Approaches to tissue engineering center on the have to give signals to cell populaces to advance cell multiplication and separation. Current tissue regenerative procedures depend primarily on tissue repair by transplantation of synthetic/natural inserts. In any case, restrictions on the existing procedures have expanded the request for tissue designing approaches. Tissue engineering innovation and stem cell investigation based on tissue building have made awesome advances in overcoming the issues of tissue and organ damage, useful loss, and surgical complications. Bone tissue has the capability to recover itself; in any case, surrenders of a basic estimate anticipate the bone from recovering and require extra support. The advancement of bone tissue building has been utilized to form useful options to recover the bone. This paper primarily portrays current advances in tissue engineering in different fields of bone and talks about the long-term trend of tissue designing innovation in the treatment of complex diseases.

Keywords: tissue engineering, bone, technologies, treatment

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Authors: Shinsuke Udagawa, Masato Yamagishi, Masanori Ota

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The Schlieren method, which has been conventionally used to visualize high-speed flows, has disadvantages such as the complexity of the experimental setup and the inability to quantitatively analyze the amount of refraction of light. The Background Oriented Schlieren (BOS) method proposed by Meier is one of the measurement methods that solves the problems, as mentioned above. The refraction of light is used for BOS method same as the Schlieren method. The BOS method is characterized using a digital camera to capture the images of the background behind the observation area. The images are later analyzed by a computer to quantitatively detect the amount of shift of the background image. The experimental setup for BOS does not require concave mirrors, pinholes, or color filters, which are necessary in the conventional Schlieren method, thus simplifying the experimental setup. However, the defocusing of the observation results is caused in case of using BOS method. Since the focus of camera on the background image leads to defocusing of the observed object. The defocusing of object becomes greater with increasing the distance between the background and the object. On the other hand, the higher sensitivity can be obtained. Therefore, it is necessary to adjust the distance between the background and the object to be appropriate for the experiment, considering the relation between the defocus and the sensitivity. The purpose of this study is to experimentally clarify the effect of defocus on density field reconstruction. In this study, the visualization experiment of underexpanded jet using BOS measurement system with ronchi ruling as the background that we constructed, have been performed. The reservoir pressure of the jet and the distance between camera and axis of jet is fixed, and the distance between background and axis of jet has been changed as the parameter. The images have been later analyzed by using personal computer to quantitatively detect the amount of shift of the background image from the comparison between the background pattern and the captured image of underexpanded jet. The quantitatively measured amount of shift have been reconstructed into a density flow field using the Abel transformation and the Gradstone-Dale equation. From the experimental results, it is found that the reconstructed density image becomes blurring, and noise becomes decreasing with increasing the distance between background and axis of underexpanded jet. Consequently, it is cralified that the sensitivity constant should be greater than 20, and the circle of confusion diameter should be less than 2.7mm at least in this experimental setup.

Keywords: BOS method, underexpanded jet, abel transformation, density field visualization

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Authors: Maureen Gibney

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The examination of narrative in psychology has a long tradition, starting with psychoanalytic theory and embracing over time cognitive, social, and personality psychology, among others. Narrative use has been richly detailed as well in medicine, nursing, and social service. One aspect of narrative that has ready utility in higher education and in clinical work is the exploration of suffering and its meaning. Because it is such a densely examined topic, suffering provides a window into identity, sense of purpose, and views of humanity and of the divine. Storytelling analysis permits an exploration of a host of specific manifestations of suffering such as pain and illness, moral injury, and the impact of prolonged suffering on love and relationships. This presentation will review the origins and current understandings of narrative theory in general, and will draw from psychology, medicine, ethics, nursing, and social service in exploring the topic of suffering in particular. It is suggested that the use of narrative themes such as meaning making, agency and communion, generativity, and loss and redemption allows for a finely grained analysis of common and more atypical sources of suffering, their resolution, and the acceptance of their continuation when resolution is not possible. Such analysis, used in professional work and in higher education, can enrich one’s empathy and one’s sense of both the fragility and strength of everyday life.

Keywords: meaning making, narrative theory, suffering, teaching

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Authors: A. Shebani, C. Pislaru

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Wear of materials is an everyday experience and has been observed and studied for long time. The prediction of wear is a fundamental problem in the industrial field, mainly correlated to the planning of maintenance interventions and economy. Pin-on-disc test is the most common test which is used to study the wear behaviour. In this paper, the pin-on-disc (AEROTECH UNIDEX 11) is used for the investigation of the effects of normal load and hardness of material on the wear under dry and sliding conditions. In the pin-on-disc rig, two specimens were used; one, a pin which is made of steel with a tip, is positioned perpendicular to the disc, where the disc is made of aluminium. The pin wear and disc wear were measured by using the following instruments: The Talysurf instrument, a digital microscope, and the alicona instrument; where the Talysurf profilometer was used to measure the pin/disc wear scar depth, and the alicona was used to measure the volume loss for pin and disc. After that, the Archard model, American Society for Testing and Materials model (ASTM), and neural network model were used for pin/disc wear modelling and the simulation results are implemented by using the Matlab program. This paper focuses on how the alicona can be considered as a powerful tool for wear measurements and how the neural network is an effective algorithm for wear estimation.

Keywords: wear modelling, Archard Model, ASTM Model, Neural Networks Model, Pin-on-disc Test, Talysurf, digital microscope, Alicona

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

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Regeneration of bone due to the many health challenges arising from traumatic effects of bone loss, bone tumours and other bone infections is fast becoming indispensable. Over the period of time, some approaches have been undertaken to mitigate this challenge. This includes but not limited to xenografts, allografts, autografts as well as artificial substitutions like bioceramics, synthetic cements and metals. However, most of these 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. Hydroxyapatite (HA) is very compatible and suitable for this application. However, most of the common methods for HA synthesis are expensive and environmentally unfriendly. Extraction of HA from bio-wastes have been perceived not only to be cost effective, but also environment-friendly. In this research, HA was produced from bio-waste: namely bovine bones through a combination of hydrothermal chemical processes and ordinary calcination techniques. Structure and property of the HA was carried out through different characterization techniques (such as TGA, FTIR, DSC, XRD and BET). The synthesized HA was found to possess similar properties to stoichiometric HA with highly desirable thermal, degradation, structural and porous properties. This material is unique for its potential minimal cost, environmental friendliness and property controllability. It is also perceived to be suitable for tissue and bone engineering applications.

Keywords: biomaterial, biopolymer, bone, hydroxyapatite

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Authors: Li Shihao, Dieter Trau

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Bilirubin is a yellow substance that is made when the body breaks down old red blood cells. High levels of bilirubin can cause jaundice, a condition that makes the newborn's skin and the white part of the eyes look yellow. Jaundice is a serial-killer in developing countries in Southeast Asia such as Myanmar and most parts of Africa where jaundice screening is largely unavailable. Worldwide, 60% of newborns experience infant jaundice. One in ten will require therapy to prevent serious complications and lifelong neurologic sequelae. Limitations of current solutions: - Blood test: Blood tests are painful may largely unavailable in poor areas of developing countries, and also can be costly and unsafe due to the insufficient investment and lack of access to health care systems. - Transcutaneous jaundice-meter: 1) can only provide reliable results to caucasian newborns, due to skin pigmentations since current technologies measure bilirubin by the color of the skin. Basically, the darker the skin is, the harder to measure, 2) current jaundice meters are not affordable for most underdeveloped areas in Africa like Kenya and Togo, 3) fat tissue under the skin also influences the accuracy, which will give overestimated results, 4) current jaundice meters are not reliable after treatment (phototherapy) because bilirubin levels underneath the skin will be reduced first, while overall levels may be quite high. Thus, there is an urgent need for a low-cost non-invasive device, which can be effective not only for caucasian babies but also Asian and African newborns, to save lives at the most vulnerable time and prevent any complications like brain damage. Instead of measuring bilirubin on skin, we proposed a new method to do the measurement on the sclera, which can avoid the difference of skin pigmentations and ethnicities, due to the necessity for the sclera to be white regardless of racial background. This is a novel approach for measuring bilirubin by an optical method of light reflection off the white part of the eye. Moreover, the device is connected to a smart device, which can provide a user-friendly interface and the ability to record the clinical data continuously A disposable eye cap will be provided avoiding contamination and fixing the distance to the eye.

Keywords: Jaundice, bilirubin, non-invasive, sclera

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Authors: Ramon Santana

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The use of biometric identifiers in the field of information security, access control to resources, authentication in ATMs and banking among others, are of great concern because of the safety of biometric data. In the general architecture of a biometric system have been detected eight vulnerabilities, six of them allow obtaining minutiae template in plain text. The main consequence of obtaining minutia templates is the loss of biometric identifier for life. To mitigate these vulnerabilities several models to protect minutiae templates have been proposed. Several vulnerabilities in the cryptographic security of these models allow to obtain biometric data in plain text. In order to increase the cryptographic security and ease of reversibility, a minutiae templates protection model is proposed. The model aims to make the cryptographic protection and facilitate the reversibility of data using two levels of security. The first level of security is the data transformation level. In this level generates invariant data to rotation and translation, further transformation is irreversible. The second level of security is the evaluation level, where the encryption key is generated and data is evaluated using a defined evaluation function. The model is aimed at mitigating known vulnerabilities of the proposed models, basing its security on the impossibility of the polynomial reconstruction.

Keywords: fingerprint, template protection, bio-cryptography, minutiae protection

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Authors: Muhammad Afzal, Junaid Uzair Satti

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The noise emanating from the ducting of heating, ventilation, and air-conditioning (HVAC) system is often attenuated by using the dissipative silencers. Such devices work well for the high-frequency noise but are less operative in the low-frequency noise range. The present study analyzes a reactive silencer comprising expansion chamber of the elastic membranes partitioned symmetrically by a rigid plate. The Mode-Matching scheme has been developed to solve the governing boundary value problem. The orthogonal and non-orthogonal duct modes of acoustic pressures and normal velocities are matched at interfaces. It enables to recast the differential system into the infinite system of linear algebraic of equations, which is, then truncated and inverted for the solution. The truncated solution is validated through the conservation of energy and reconstruction of matching conditions. The results for scattering energy flux and transmission loss are shown against frequency and the dimensions of the chamber. It is seen that the stop-band of the silencer can be shifted to the broadband by changing the dimensions of the chamber and the properties of the elastic membranes. The modeled reactive silencer is more efficient in low frequency regime where the passive devices are least effective.

Keywords: acoustic scattering, elastic membranes mode-matching, reactive silencer

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Authors: M. Shemis, O. Maher, G. Casterou, F. Gauffre

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Hepatitis C virus (HCV) is a major cause of chronic liver disease with a global 170 million chronic carriers at risk of developing liver cirrhosis and/or liver cancer. Egypt reports the highest prevalence of HCV worldwide. Currently, two classes of assays are used in the diagnosis and management of HCV infection. Despite the high sensitivity and specificity of the available diagnostic assays, they are time-consuming, labor-intensive, expensive, and require specialized equipment and highly qualified personal. It is therefore important for clinical and economic terms to develop a low-tech assay for the direct detection of HCV RNA with acceptable sensitivity and specificity, short turnaround time, and cost-effectiveness. Such an assay would be critical to control HCV in developing countries with limited resources and high infection rates, such as Egypt. The unique optical and physical properties of gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) have allowed the use of these nanoparticles in developing simple and rapid colorimetric assays for clinical diagnosis offering higher sensitivity and specificity than current detection techniques. The current research aims to develop a detection assay for HCV RNA using gold nanoparticles (AuNPs). Methods: 200 anti-HCV positive samples and 50 anti-HCV negative plasma samples were collected from Egyptian patients. HCV viral load was quantified using m2000rt (Abbott Molecular Inc., Des Plaines, IL). HCV genotypes were determined using multiplex nested RT- PCR. The assay is based on the aggregation of AuNPs in presence of the target RNA. Aggregation of AuNPs causes a color shift from red to blue. AuNPs were synthesized using citrate reduction method. Different sets of probes within the 5’ UTR conserved region of the HCV genome were designed, grafted on AuNPs and optimized for the efficient detection of HCV RNA. Results: The nano-gold assay could colorimetrically detect HCV RNA down to 125 IU/ml with sensitivity and specificity of 91.1% and 93.8% respectively. The turnaround time of the assay is < 30 min. Conclusions: The assay allows sensitive and rapid detection of HCV RNA and represents an inexpensive and simple point-of-care assay for resource-limited settings.

Keywords: HCV, gold nanoparticles, point of care, viral load

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Authors: Tai-Young Park, Yangjin Park

Abstract:

Introduction: This study analyzed a family therapy case involving a female client in her thirties with panic disorder (PD) in South Korea. We identified five stages of the psychological process in the development of PD and examined external situations, family dynamics, and psychological experiences at each stage. Method: The client, mother, sister, and husband participated in therapy. Researchers analyzed the transcripts, notes, and video recordings of the therapy sessions. A thematic analysis was used to examine the data and display our findings using a network. Results: The developmental process of PD was as follows: (1) formation of anxiety, (2) sheltered life, (3) crisis, (4) loss of safe haven, and (5) inner breakdown. Conclusion: The family dynamics that developed as a result of coping with external situations in each stage contributed to clients’ psychological experiences. These psychological experiences triggered anxiety, which led to the development of PD. Moreover, this study empirically suggests that family dynamics can be associated with a person’s internal experiences that could lead to PD. Our findings highlight the significance of functional family dynamics and coping patterns when facing difficult external situations or crises.

Keywords: developmental process, family therapy, panic disorder, psychological dynamics

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Authors: María Teresa Baquero, Ester Higueras

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One of the challenges facing 21st century cities, is their adaptation to the phenomenon of an ageing population. International policies have been developed, such as the "Global Network for Age-friendly Cities and Communities". These cities must recognize the diversity of the elderly population, and facilitate an active, healthy, satisfied aging and promote inclusion. In order to promote active and healthy aging, older people should be encouraged to engage in physical activity, sunbathe, socialize and enjoy the public open spaces in the city. Some studies recognize thermal comfort as one of the factors that most influence the use of public open spaces. However, although some studies have shown vulnerability to thermal extremes and environmental conditions in older people, there is little research on thermal comfort for older adults, because it is usually analyzed based on the characteristics of the ¨average young person¨ without considering the physiological, physical and psychological differences that characterize the elderly. This study analyzes the relationship between the microclimate parameters as air temperature, relative humidity, wind speed and sky view factor (SVF) with the personal thermal perception of older adults in three public spaces in Madrid, through a mixed methodology that combines weather measurements with interviews, made during the year 2018. Statistical test like Chi-square, Spearman, and analysis of variance were used to analyze the relationship between preference votes and thermal sensation votes with environmental and personal parameters. The results show that there is a significant correlation between thermal sensation and thermal preference with the measured air temperature, age, level of clothing, the color of clothing, season, time of the day and kind of space while no influence of gender or other environmental variables was detected. These data would contribute to the design of comfortable public spaces that improve the welfare of the elderly contributing to "active and healthy aging" as one of the 21st century challenges cities face.

Keywords: healthy ageing, older adults, outdoor public space, thermal perception

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Authors: Muhammad Saad Shoaib Khan, Rasbin Basnet, Qingyao Shu

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Phospholipids are one of the major classes of lipid comprising 10% of total grain lipid in rice. Phospholipids are the main phosphorus containing lipid in the rice endosperm, contributing to rice palatability and seed storage property. However, in the rice grain, the majority of phosphorus occur in the form of phytic acid and are highly abundant in the bran. Phytic acid, also known as hexaphosphorylated inositol (IP6), are strong chelating agents which reduces the bioavailability of essential dietary nutrients and are therefore less desirable by rice breeders. We used the CRISPR/Cas9 system to generate mutants of a phospholipase D gene (PLDα1), which is responsible for the degradation of phospholipids into phosphatidic acid (PA). In the mutants, we found a significant reduction in the concentration of phytic acid in the grain as compared to the wild-type. The biochemical analysis of the PLDα1 mutants showed that the decrease in production of phosphatidic acid is due to reduced accumulation of CDP-diacylglycerolderived phosphatidylinositol (PI), ultimately leading to lower accumulation of phytic acid in mutants. These results showed that loss of function of PLD in rice leads to lower production of phytic acid, suggesting the potential application of Ospldα1 in breeding rice with less phytic acid.

Keywords: CRISPR/Cas9, phospholipase D, phytic acid, rice

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Authors: F. Hafdhi, T. Khir, A. Ben Yahia, A. Ben Brahim

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An Energetic and exergetic analysis is conducted on a Steam Turbine Power Plant of an existing Phosphoric Acid Factory. The heat recovery systems used in different parts of the plant are also considered in the analysis. Mass, thermal and exergy balances are established on the main compounds of the factory. A numerical code is established using EES software to perform the calculations required for the thermal and exergy plant analysis. The effects of the key operating parameters such as steam pressure and temperature, mass flow rate as well as seawater temperature, on the cycle performances are investigated. A maximum Exergy Loss Rate of about 72% is obtained for the melters, followed by the condensers, heat exchangers and the pumps. The heat exchangers used in the phosphoric acid unit present exergetic efficiencies around 33% while 60% to 72% are obtained for steam turbines and blower. For the explored ranges of HP steam temperature and pressure, the exergy efficiencies of steam turbine generators STGI and STGII increase of about 2.5% and 5.4% respectively. In the same way, optimum HP steam flow rate values, leading to the maximum exergy efficiencies are defined.

Keywords: steam turbine generator, energy efficiency, exergy efficiency, phosphoric acid plant

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Authors: Bashir Abdu Muzakkari, Mohamad Afendee Mohamad, Mohd Fadzil Abdul Kadir

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Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) is an aggregation of several tiny, low-cost sensor nodes, spatially distributed to monitor physical or environmental status. WSN is constantly changing because of the rapid technological advancements in sensor elements such as radio, battery and operating systems. The Medium Access Control (MAC) protocols remain very vital in the WSN because of its role in coordinating communication amongst the sensors. Other than battery consumption, packet collision, network lifetime and latency are factors that largely depend on WSN MAC protocol and these factors have been widely treated in recent days. In this paper, we survey some latest proposed WSN Contention-based, Scheduling-based and Hybrid MAC protocols while presenting an examination, correlation of advantages and limitations of each protocol. Concentration is directed towards investigating the treatment of Quality of Service (QoS) performance metrics within these particular protocols. The result shows that majority of the protocols leaned towards energy conservation. We, therefore, believe that other performance metrics of guaranteed QoS such as latency, throughput, packet loss, network and bandwidth availability may play a critical role in the design of future MAC protocols for WSNs.

Keywords: WSN, QoS, energy consumption, MAC protocol

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Authors: Hyun Ah Yoon, Ji Yeon Kang, Hee Sun Kim, Yeong Soo Shin

Abstract:

Reinforced concrete (RC) shear wall system of residential buildings is popular in South Korea. RC walls are subjected to axial forces in common and the effect of axial forces on the strength loss of the fire damaged walls has not been investigated. This paper aims at investigating temperature distribution on fire damaged concrete walls having different axial loads. In the experiments, a variable of specimens is axial force ratio. RC walls are fabricated with 150mm of wall thicknesses, 750mm of lengths and 1,300mm of heights having concrete strength of 24MPa. After curing, specimens are heated on one surface with ISO-834 standard time-temperature curve for 2 hours and temperature distributions during the test are measured using thermocouples inside the walls. The experimental results show that the temperature of the RC walls exposed to fire increases as axial force ratio increases. To verify the experiments, finite element (FE) models are generated for coupled temperature-structure analyses. The analytical results of thermal behaviors are in good agreement with the experimental results. The predicted displacement of the walls decreases when the axial force increases. 

Keywords: axial force ratio, fire, reinforced concrete wall, residual strength

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Authors: Harun Aydilek, Asiye Aydilek, Ali Allahverdi

Abstract:

The total tardiness is a widely used performance measure in the scheduling literature. This performance measure is particularly important in situations where there is a cost to complete a job beyond its due date. The cost of scheduling increases as the gap between a job's due date and its completion time increases. Such costs may also be penalty costs in contracts, loss of goodwill. This performance measure is important as the fulfillment of due dates of customers has to be taken into account while making scheduling decisions. The problem is addressed in the literature, however, it has been assumed zero setup times. Even though this assumption may be valid for some environments, it is not valid for some other scheduling environments. When setup times are treated as separate from processing times, it is possible to increase machine utilization and to reduce total tardiness. Therefore, non-zero setup times need to be considered as separate. A dominance relation is developed and several algorithms are proposed. The developed dominance relation is utilized in the proposed algorithms. Extensive computational experiments are conducted for the evaluation of the algorithms. The experiments indicated that the developed algorithms perform much better than the existing algorithms in the literature. More specifically, one of the newly proposed algorithms reduces the error of the best existing algorithm in the literature by 40 percent.

Keywords: algorithm, assembly flowshop, dominance relation, total tardiness

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Authors: Fatima Ali Abbass, Hassan Ibrahim Rkein

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The number of entities worldwide that currently accept digital currency as payment is increasing; however, digital currency still is not widely accepted as a medium of exchange, nor they represent legal tender. At the same time, this makes accounting for cryptocurrency, as cash (Currency) is not possible under IAS 7 and IAS 32, Cryptocurrency also cannot be accounted for as Financial Assets at fair value through profit or loss under IFRS 9. Therefore, this paper studies the possible means to account for Cryptocurrency, since, as of today, there is not yet an accounting standard that deals with cryptocurrency. The request to have a specific accounting standard is increasing from top accounting firms and from professional accounting bodies. This study uses a mixture of qualitative and quantitative analysis in its quest to explore the best possible way to account for cryptocurrency. Interviews and surveys were conducted targeting accounting professionals. This study highlighted the deficiencies in the current way of accounting for Cryptocurrency as intangible Assets with an indefinite life. The deficiency becomes well highlighted, as the asset will then be subject to impairment, where under GAAP, only depreciation in the value of the intangible asset is recognized. On the other hand, appreciation in the value of the asset is ignored, and this prohibits the reporting entity from showing the true value of the cryptocurrency asset. This research highlights the gap that arises due to using accounting standards that are not specific for Cryptocurrency and this study confirmed that there is an urgent need to call upon the accounting standards setters (IASB and FASB) to issue accounting standards specifically for Cryptocurrency.

Keywords: cryptocurrency, accounting, IFRS, GAAP, classification, measurement

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