Search results for: curriculum design and development

Authors: Adrian Priceputu, Elena Mihaela Stan

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Our research addresses a critical challenge in renewable energy: improving efficiency and reducing the costs associated with the installation of ground-mounted photovoltaic (PV) panels. The most commonly used foundation solution is metal piles - with various sections adapted to soil conditions and the structural model of the panels. However, direct foundation systems are also sometimes used, especially in brownfield sites. Although metal micropiles are generally the first design option, understanding and predicting their bearing capacity, particularly under varied soil conditions, remains an open research topic. CPT Method and Current Challenges: Metal piles are favored for PV panel foundations due to their adaptability, but existing design methods rely heavily on costly and time-consuming in situ tests. The Cone Penetration Test (CPT) offers a more efficient alternative by providing valuable data on soil strength, stratification, and other key characteristics with reduced resources. During the test, a cone-shaped probe is pushed into the ground at a constant rate. Sensors within the probe measure the resistance of the soil to penetration, divided into cone penetration resistance and shaft friction resistance. Despite some existing CPT-based design approaches for metal piles, these methods are often cumbersome and difficult to apply. They vary significantly due to soil type and foundation method, and traditional approaches like the LCPC method involve complex calculations and extensive empirical data. The method was developed by testing 197 piles on a wide range of ground conditions, but the tested piles were very different from the ones used for PV pile foundations, making the method less accurate and practical for steel micropiles. Project Objectives and Methodology: Our research aims to develop a calculation method for metal micropile foundations using CPT data, simplifying the complex relationships involved. The goal is to estimate the pullout bearing capacity of piles without additional laboratory tests, streamlining the design process. To achieve this, a case study was selected which will serve for the development of an 80ha solar power station. Four testing locations were chosen spread throughout the site. At each location, two types of steel profiles (H160 and C100) were embedded into the ground at various depths (1.5m and 2.0m). The piles were tested for pullout capacity under natural and inundated soil conditions. CPT tests conducted nearby served as calibration points. The results served for the development of a preliminary equation for estimating pullout capacity. Future Work: The next phase involves validating and refining the proposed equation on additional sites by comparing CPT-based forecasts with in situ pullout tests. This validation will enhance the accuracy and reliability of the method, potentially transforming the foundation design process for PV panels.

Keywords: cone penetration test, foundation optimization, solar power stations, steel pile foundations

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Authors: Jorn Fricke, Frans Melissen

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Citizens in urban areas are prone to increased levels of stress due to urbanization, inadequate and overburdened infrastructure and services, and environmental degradation. Moreover, communities are fragile and subject to shocks and stresses through various social and political processes. A loss of (a sense of) community is often seen as related to increasing political and civic disintegration. Feelings of community can manifest themselves in various ways but underlying all these manifestations is the need for trust between people. One of the main drivers of trust between individuals is (shared) experiences. It is these shared experiences that may play an important role in building resilience, i.e., the ability of a community and its members to adapt to and deal with stresses, as well as ensure the ongoing development of a community. So far, experience design, as a discipline and academic field, has mainly focused on designing products or services. However, people-to-people experiences are the ones that play a pivotal role in building inclusiveness, safety, and resilience in communities. These experiences represent challenging objects of design as they develop in an interactive space of spontaneity, serendipity, and uniqueness that is based on intuition, freedom of expression, and interaction. Therefore, there is a need for research to identify which elements are required in designing the social and physical environment (or ‘experience scape’) to increase the chance for people-to-people experiences to be successful and what elements are required for these experiences to help in building resilience in urban communities that can resist shocks and stresses. By means of a comparative case study approach in urban areas in Germany and the Netherlands, using a range of qualitative research methods such as in-depth interviews, focus groups, participant observation, storytelling techniques, and life stories, this research identifies relevant actors and their roles in creating building blocks of optimal experience scrapes for building resilience in communities.

Keywords: community development, experiences, experience scapes, resilience

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Authors: Sanja O. Podunavac-Kuzmanović, Strahinja Z. Kovačević, Lidija R. Jevrić, Stela Jokić

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The complexes of transition metals with various organic ligands have been extensively studied as models of some important pharmaceutical molecules. It was found that biological properties of different substituted organic molecules are improved when they are complexed by different metals. Therefore, it is of great importance for the development of coordination chemistry to explore the assembly of functional organic ligands with metal ion and to investigate the relationship between the structure and property. In the present work, we have bioassayed the antibacterial potency of benzimidazoles and their metal salts (Cu or Zn) against yeast Sarcina lutea. In order to validate our in vitro study, we performed in silico studies using molecular docking software. The investigated compounds and their metal complexes (Cu, Zn) showed good to moderate inhibitory activity against Sarcina lutea. In silico docking studies of the synthesized compounds suggested that complexed benzimidazoles have a greater binding affinity and improved antibacterial activity in comparison with non-complexed ligands. These results are part of the CMST COST Action No. 1105 "Functional metal complexes that bind to biomolecules".

Keywords: organometallic complexes, benzimidazoles, chemometric design, Sarcina lutea

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Authors: Chiang-Ho Cheng, An-Shik Yang, Hon-Yi Cheng, Ming-Yu Lai

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This paper presents the design and fabrication of a novel piezoelectric actuator for a gas micropump with check valve having the advantages of miniature size, light weight and low power consumption. The micropump is designed to have eight major components, namely a stainless steel upper cover layer, a piezoelectric actuator, a stainless steel diaphragm, a PDMS chamber layer, two stainless steel channel layers with two valve seats, a PDMS check valve layer with two cantilever-type check valves and an acrylic substrate. A prototype of the gas micropump, with a size of 52 mm × 50 mm × 5.0 mm, is fabricated by precise manufacturing. This device is designed to pump gases with the capability of performing the self-priming and bubble-tolerant work mode by maximizing the stroke volume of the membrane as well as the compression ratio via minimization of the dead volume of the micropump chamber and channel. By experiment apparatus setup, we can get the real-time values of the flow rate of micropump and the displacement of the piezoelectric actuator, simultaneously. The gas micropump obtained higher output performance under the sinusoidal waveform of 250 Vpp. The micropump achieved the maximum pumping rates of 1185 ml/min and back pressure of 7.14 kPa at the corresponding frequency of 120 and 50 Hz.

Keywords: PDMS, check valve, micropump, piezoelectric

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Authors: Jing Ren, Kun Wu

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Over the last decade or so, China's urbanization has shown a rapid development trend. At the same time, it has also had a great negative impact on the habitat quality. Therefore, it is of great significance to study the impact of land use change on the level of habitat quality in mountain cities for sustainable urban development. This paper analyzed the spatial and temporal land use changes in Chongqing from 2010 to 2020 using ArcGIS 10.6, as well as the evolutionary trend of habitat quality during this period based on the InVEST 3.13.0, to obtain the impact of land use changes on habitat quality. The results showed that the habitat quality in the western part of Chongqing decreased significantly between 2010 and 2020, while the northeastern and southeastern parts remained stable. The main reason for this is the continuous expansion of urban construction land in the western area, which leads to serious habitat fragmentation and the continuous decline of habitat quality. while, in the northeast and southeast areas, due to the greater emphasis on ecological priority and urban-rural coordination in the development process, land use change is characterized by a benign transfer, which maintains the urbanization process while maintaining the coordinated development of habitat quality. This study can provide theoretical support for the sustainable development of mountain cities.

Keywords: mountain cities, ecological environment, habitat quality, sustainable development

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Authors: Guenther Schuh, Michael Riesener, Frederic Diels

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Nowadays, manufacturing companies are faced with the challenge of meeting heterogeneous customer requirements in short product life cycles with a variety of product functions. So far, some of the functional requirements remain unknown until late stages of the product development. A way to handle these uncertainties is the highly iterative product development (HIP) approach. By structuring the development project as a highly iterative process, this method provides customer oriented and marketable products. There are first approaches for combined, hybrid models comprising deterministic-normative methods like the Stage-Gate process and empirical-adaptive development methods like SCRUM on a project management level. However, almost unconsidered is the question, which development scopes can preferably be realized with either empirical-adaptive or deterministic-normative approaches. In this context, a development scope constitutes a self-contained section of the overall development objective. Therefore, this paper focuses on a methodology that deals with the uncertainty of requirements within the early development stages and the corresponding selection of the most appropriate development approach. For this purpose, internal influencing factors like a company’s technology ability, the prototype manufacturability and the potential solution space as well as external factors like the market accuracy, relevance and volatility will be analyzed and combined into an Agile-Indicator. The Agile-Indicator is derived in three steps. First of all, it is necessary to rate each internal and external factor in terms of the importance for the overall development task. Secondly, each requirement has to be evaluated for every single internal and external factor appropriate to their suitability for empirical-adaptive development. Finally, the total sums of internal and external side are composed in the Agile-Indicator. Thus, the Agile-Indicator constitutes a company-specific and application-related criterion, on which the allocation of empirical-adaptive and deterministic-normative development scopes can be made. In a last step, this indicator will be used for a specific clustering of development scopes by application of the fuzzy c-means (FCM) clustering algorithm. The FCM-method determines sub-clusters within functional clusters based on the empirical-adaptive environmental impact of the Agile-Indicator. By means of the methodology presented in this paper, it is possible to classify requirements, which are uncertainly carried out by the market, into empirical-adaptive or deterministic-normative development scopes.

Keywords: agile, highly iterative development, agile-indicator, product development

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Authors: Riyadh Alsultani, Ali Majdi

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It is necessary to develop a design methodology that includes the possibility of seismic events occurring in a region, the vulnerability of the civil hydraulic structure, and the effects of the occurrence hazard on society, environment, and economy in order to evaluate the flood and earthquake risks of coastal bridge networks. This paper presents a design approach for the assessment of the risk and sustainability of coastal bridge networks under time-variant flood-earthquake conditions. The social, environmental, and economic indicators of the network are used to measure its sustainability. These consist of anticipated loss, downtime, energy waste, and carbon dioxide emissions. The design process takes into account the possibility of happening in a set of flood and earthquake scenarios that represent the local seismic activity. Based on the performance of each bridge as determined by fragility assessments, network linkages are measured. The network's connections and bridges' damage statuses after an earthquake scenario determine the network's sustainability and danger. The sustainability measures' temporal volatility and the danger of structural degradation are both highlighted. The method is shown using a transportation network in Baghdad, Iraq.

Keywords: sustainability, Coastal bridge networks, flood-earthquake risk, structural design

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Authors: Jareeluk Ratanaphan

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The purposed of this research were; 1. To survey the teacher’s needs on knowledge about special education management for special needs student 2. Development of distance training packages for teacher on special education management for special needs student 3. to study the effects of using the packages on trainee’s achievement 4. to study the effects of using the packages on trainee’s opinion on the distance training packages. The design of the experiment was research and development. The research sample for survey were 86 teachers, and 22 teachers for study the effects of using the packages on achievement and opinion. The research instrument comprised: 1) training packages on special education management for special needs student 2) achievement test 3) questionnaire. Mean, percentage, standard deviation, t-test and content analysis were used for data analysis. The findings of the research were as follows: 1. The teacher’s needs on knowledge about teaching for a learner with learning disability, mental retardation, autism, physical and health impairment and research in special education. 2. The package composed of special education management for special needs student document and manual of distance training packages. The document consisted by the name of packages, the explanation for the educator, content’s structure, concept, objectives, content and activities. Manual of distance training packages consisted by the explanation about a document, objectives, explanation about using the package, training schedule, and evaluation. The efficiency of packages was established at 79.50/81.35. 3. The results of using the packages were the posttest average scores of trainee’s achievement were higher than the pretest. 4. The trainee’s opinion on the package was at the highest level.

Keywords: distance training package, teacher, learner with special needs

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Authors: Kawai Nobuaki

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This paper describes the design and implementation of web system for continuable and viable collaboration. This study proposes the improvement of the system based on a result of a certain practice. As contemporary higher education information environments transform, this study highlights the significance of university identity and college identity that are formed continuously through independent activities of the students. Based on these discussions, the present study proposes a practical media environment design which facilitates the processes of organizational identity formation based on a continuous and cyclical model. Even if users change by this system, the communication system continues operation and cooperation. The activity becomes the archive and produces new activity. Based on the result, this study elaborates a plan with a re-design by a system from the viewpoint of second-order cybernetics. Systems theory is a theoretical foundation for our study.

Keywords: collaborative work, learning management system, second-order cybernetics, systems theory, user generated contents, viable system model

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Authors: Amy L. Smith

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This study investigates the impact of student authenticity while engaging in academic exploration of students' sense of belonging, autonomy, and persistence. Research questions include: How does incorporating authenticity in first-year academic exploration courses impact; 1) first-year students’ sense of belonging, autonomy, and persistence? 2) first-year students’ sense of belonging, autonomy, and persistence during the first and last halves of the fall semester? 3) first-year students’ sense of belonging, autonomy, and persistence among various student demographics? First-year students completed a Likert-like survey at the conclusion of eight weeks (first and last eight weeks/fall semester) academic exploration courses. Course redesign included grounding the curriculum and instruction with student authenticity and creating opportunities for students to explore, define, and reflect upon their authenticity during academic exploration. Surveys were administered at the conclusion of these eight week courses (first and last eight weeks/fall semester). Data analysis included an entropy balancing matching method and t-tests. Research findings indicate integrating authenticity into academic exploration courses for first-year students has a positive impact on students' autonomy and persistence. There is a significant difference between authenticity and first-year students' autonomy (p = 0.00) and persistence (p = 0.01). Academic exploration courses with the underpinnings of authenticity are more effective in the second half of the fall semester. There is a significant difference between an academic exploration course grounding the curriculum and instruction in authenticity offered M8A (first half, fall semester) and M8B (second half, fall semester) (p = 0); M8B courses illustrate an increase of students' sense of belonging, autonomy, and persistence. Integrating authenticity into academic exploration courses for first-year students has a positive impact on varying student demographics (p = 0.00). There is a significant difference between authenticity and low-income (p = 0.04), first-generation (p = 0.00), Caucasian (p = 0.02), and American Indian/Alaskan Native (p = 0.05) first-year students' sense of belonging, autonomy, and persistence. Academic exploration courses embedded in authenticity helps develop first-year students’ sense of belonging, autonomy, and persistence, which are effective traits of college students. As first-year students engage in content courses, professors can empower students to have greater engagement in their learning process by relating content to students' authenticity and helping students think critically about how content is authentic to them — how students' authenticity relates to the content, how students can take their content expertise into the future in ways that, to the student, authentically contribute to the greater good. A broader conversation within higher education needs to include 1) designing courses that allow students to develop and reflect upon their authenticity/to formulate answers to the questions: who am I, who am I becoming, and how will I move my authentic self forward; and 2) a discussion of how to shift from the university shaping students to the university facilitating the process of students shaping themselves.

Keywords: authenticity, first-year experience, sense of belonging, autonomy, persistence

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Authors: M. S. Thakur, Mohit Shukla

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A channel/tunnel, which carries the water to the penstock/pressure shaft is called headrace tunnel (HRT). It is necessary to know the general topography, geology of the area, state of stress and other mechanical properties of the strata. For this certain topographical and geological investigations, in-situ and laboratory tests, and observations are required to be done. These investigations play an important role in a tunnel design as these help in deciding the optimum layout, shape and size and support requirements of the tunnel. The paper includes inputs from Nathpa Jhakri Hydeoelectric project which is India’s highest capacity (1500 MW) operating hydroelectric project. The paper would help the design engineers with various new concepts and preparedness against geological surprises.

Keywords: tunnelling, geology, HRT, rockmass

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Authors: André Rafael Ferreira, Laurentina Vareiro, Raquel Mendes

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This study’s main objective is to explore residents’ perceptions of film-induced tourism and the impacts of filmmaking on the development of a destination. Specifically, the research examines resident´s perceptions of the social, economic, and environmental impacts on a Portuguese municipality (Arcos de Valdevez) given its feature in a popular Portuguese television series. Data is collected by means of an Internet survey, in which resident´s perceptions of the impacts of filmmaking are solicited. Residents generally agree that the recording and exhibition of the television series is important to the municipality, and contributes to the increased number of tourists. Given that residents consider that the positive impacts are more significant than the negative impacts, they supported the recording of another television series in the same municipality. Considering that destination managers and tourism development authorities aim to plan for optimal tourism development, and at the same time wish to minimize the negative impacts of this development on the local communities, monitoring residents’ opinions of perceived impacts is a good way of incorporating their reaction into tourism planning and development. The results of this research may provide useful information in this sense.

Keywords: film-induced tourism, residents’ perceptions, tourism development, tourism impacts

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Authors: Guyue Zhu, Liangping Hong

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Chinese overall urban design faces a large number of problems such as the neglect of urban characteristics, generalization of content, and difficulty in implementation. Focusing on these issues, this paper proposes the main points of shaping urban characteristics in overall urban design: focuses on core problems in city function and scale, landscape pattern, historical culture, social resources and modern city style and digs the urban characteristic genes. Then, we put forward “core problem location and characteristic gene enhancement” as a kind of overall urban design technical method. Firstly, based on the main problems in urban space as a whole, for the operability goal, the method extracts the key genes and integrates into the multi-dimension system in a targeted manner. Secondly, hierarchical management and guidance system is established which may be in line with administrative management. Finally, by converting the results, action plan is drawn up that can be dynamically implemented. Based on the above idea and method, a practical exploration has been performed in the case of Xiangyang central city.

Keywords: city characteristics, overall urban design, planning implementation, Xiangyang central city

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Authors: Viktorya Sargsyan, Arax Hovhannesyan, Karine Abelyan

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Introduction: During the last decade, scientific studies have proven the importance of Early Childhood Development (ECD) interventions. These interventions are shown to create strong foundations for children’s intellectual, emotional and physical well-being, as well as the impact they have on learning and economic outcomes for children as they mature into adulthood. Many children in rural Armenia fail to reach their full development potential due to lack of early brain stimulation (playing, singing, reading, etc.) from their parents, and lack of community tools and services to follow-up children’s neurocognitive development. This is exacerbated by high rates of stunting and anemia among children under 3(CU3). This research study tested the effectiveness of an integrated ECD and Maternal, Newborn and Childhood Health (MNCH) model, called “Go Baby, Go!” (GBG), against the traditional (MNCH) strategy which focuses solely on preventive health and nutrition interventions. The hypothesis of this quasi-experimental study was: Children exposed to GBG will have better neurocognitive and nutrition outcomes compared to those receiving only the MNCH intervention. The secondary objective was to assess the effect of GBG on parental child care and nutrition practices. Methodology: The 14 month long study, targeted all 1,300 children aged 0 to 23 months, living in 43 study communities the in Gavar and Vardenis regions (Gegharkunik province, Armenia). Twenty-three intervention communities, 680 children, received GBG, and 20 control communities, 630 children, received MCHN interventions only. Baseline and evaluation data on child development, nutrition status and parental child care and nutrition practices were collected (caregiver interview, direct child assessment). In the intervention sites, in addition to MNCH (maternity schools, supportive supervision for Health Care Providers (HCP), the trained GBG facilitators conducted six interactive group sessions for mothers (key messages, information, group discussions, role playing, video-watching, toys/books preparation, according to GBG curriculum), and two sessions (condensed GBG) for adult family members (husbands, grandmothers). The trained HCPs received quality supervision for ECD counseling and screening. Findings: The GBG model proved to be effective in improving ECD outcomes. Children in the intervention sites had 83% higher odd of total ECD composite score (cognitive, language, motor) compared to children in the control sites (aOR 1.83; 95 percent CI: 1.08-3.09; p=0.025). Caregivers also demonstrated better child care and nutrition practices (minimum dietary diversity in intervention site is 55 percent higher compared to control (aOR=1.55, 95 percent CI 1.10-2.19, p =0.013); support for learning and disciplining practices (aOR=2.22, 95 percent CI 1.19-4.16, p=0.012)). However, there was no evidence of stunting reduction in either study arm. he effect of the integrated model was more prominent in Vardenis, a community which is characterised by high food insecurity and limited knowledge of positive parenting skills. Conclusion: The GBG model is effective and could be applied in target areas with the greatest economic disadvantages and parenting challenges to improve ECD, care practices and developmental outcomes. Longitudinal studies are needed to view the long-term effects of GBG on learning and school readiness.

Keywords: early childhood development, integrated interventions, parental practices, quasi-experimental study

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Authors: Mahendrapal Singh Pachlaniya, Laxmi Kumre

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The AOI (AND – OR- INVERTER) based design of XOR gate is proposed in this paper with less number of gates. This new XOR gate required four basic gates and basic gate include only AND, OR, Inverter (AOI). Conventional XOR gate required five basic gates. Ripple Carry Adder (RCA) used in parallel addition but propagation delay time is large. RCA replaced with Carry Select Adder (CSLA) to reduce propagation delay time. CSLA design with dual RCA considering carry = ‘0’ and carry = ‘1’, so it is not an area efficient adder. To make area efficient, modified CSLA is designed with single RCA considering carry = ‘0’ and another RCA considering carry = ‘1’ replaced with Binary to Excess 1 Converter (BEC). Now replacement of conventional XOR gate by new design of XOR gate in modified CSLA reduces much area compared to regular CSLA and modified CSLA.

Keywords: CSLA, BEC, XOR gate, area efficient

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Authors: Markandeya Kunchi

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Usability testing (UT) is one of the vital steps in the User-centred design (UCD) process when designing a product. In an e-commerce ecosystem, UT becomes primary as new products, features, and services are launched very frequently. And, there are losses attached to the company if an unusable and inefficient product is put out to market and is rejected by customers. This paper tries to answer why UT is important in the product life-cycle of an E-commerce ecosystem. Secondary user research was conducted to find out work patterns, development methods, type of stakeholders, and technology constraints, etc. of a typical E-commerce company. Qualitative user interviews were conducted with product managers and designers to find out the structure, project planning, product management method and role of the design team in a mid-level company. The paper tries to address the usual apprehensions of the company to inculcate UT within the team. As well, it stresses upon factors like monetary resources, lack of usability expert, narrow timelines, and lack of understanding of higher management as some primary reasons. Outsourcing UT to vendors is also very prevalent with mid-level e-commerce companies, but it has its own severe repercussions like very little team involvement, huge cost, misinterpretation of the findings, elongated timelines, and lack of empathy towards the customer, etc. The shortfalls of the unavailability of a UT process in place within the team and conducting UT through vendors are bad user experiences for customers while interacting with the product, badly designed products which are neither useful and nor utilitarian. As a result, companies see dipping conversions rates in apps and websites, huge bounce rates and increased uninstall rates. Thus, there was a need for a more lean UT system in place which could solve all these issues for the company. This paper highlights on optimizing the UT process with a collaborative method. The degree of optimization and structure of collaborative method is the highlight of this paper. Collaborative method of UT is one in which the centralised design team of the company takes for conducting and analysing the UT. The UT is usually a formative kind where designers take findings into account and uses in the ideation process. The success of collaborative method of UT is due to its ability to sync with the product management method employed by the company or team. The collaborative methods focus on engaging various teams (design, marketing, product, administration, IT, etc.) each with its own defined roles and responsibility in conducting a smooth UT with users In-house. The paper finally highlights the positive results of collaborative UT method after conducting more than 100 In-lab interviews with users across the different lines of businesses. Some of which are the improvement of interaction between stakeholders and the design team, empathy towards users, improved design iteration, better sanity check of design solutions, optimization of time and money, effective and efficient design solution. The future scope of collaborative UT is to make this method leaner, by reducing the number of days to complete the entire project starting from planning between teams to publishing the UT report.

Keywords: collaborative method, e-commerce, product management method, usability testing

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Authors: Elspeth McInnes

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Research design is central to ethical research. Discriminatory research design is a key risk for researchers examining diverse cultural groups without conscious commitment to anti-discrimination values or knowledge of their culture. Culturally discriminatory research design is defined here as research proceeding from negative assumptions about people on the basis of race, colour, ethnicity, nationality or religion. Such discrimination can be direct or indirect. Direct discrimination is the uncritical mobilization of dominant group negative stereotypes of cultural minorities. Indirect discrimination is the examination of policies or programs grounded in dominant culture negative stereotypes that have been uncritically accepted by the researchers. This paper draws on anonymized elements of planned research projects and considers both direct and indirect cultural discrimination in research design and the responsibilities of ethics committees. Human research ethics committees provide a point of scrutiny with responsibility to alert researchers to risks of basing research on negative cultural stereotypes, as well as protecting participants from being subjected to negative discourses about them. This issue has become an increasing concern in a globalizing world of human displacement and migration creating a rise in the presence of minority cultures in host countries. As a nation established through colonization and immigration Australia has a long history of negative cultural stereotypes of Indigenous Australians as well as a legacy of the White Australia policy, which still echoes in attitudes to each wave of non-European immigration. The task of eliminating cultural discrimination in research design is vital to sustaining research integrity and ensuring that research is not used to reinforce or justify cultural discrimination.

Keywords: cultural discrimination, cultural stereotypes, participant risk, research design

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Authors: J. Karthik, G. Vinayagamurthy

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Aerodynamic flow control is achieved by interaction of flowing medium with corresponding structure so that its natural flow state is disturbed to delay the transition point. This paper explains the aerodynamic effect and optimized design of Vortex Generators on the turbine blade to achieve maximum flow control. The airfoil is chosen from NREL [National Renewable Energy Laboratory] S-series airfoil as they are characterized with good lift characteristics and lower noise. Vortex generators typically chosen are Ogival, Rectangular, Triangular and Tapered Fin shapes attached near leading edge. Vortex generators are typically distributed from the primary to tip of the blade section. The design wind speed is taken as 6m/s and the computational analysis is executed. The blade surface is simulated using k- ɛ SST model and results are compared with X-FOIL results. The computational results are validated using Wind Tunnel Testing of the blade corresponding to the design speed. The effect of Vortex generators on the flow characteristics is studied from the results of analysis. By comparing the computational and test results of all shapes of Vortex generators; the optimized design is achieved for effective flow control corresponding to the blade.

Keywords: flow control, vortex generators, design optimisation, CFD

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Authors: Xiaohan Ye

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Under the new normal situation, some urban spaces with the industrial base and regional features in Zhejiang, China have been selected to build a characteristic town, a kind of environmentally-friendly development platform with city-industry integrated, in an attempt to achieve the most optimized layout of productivity with the least space resource. After analysis on the connotation, mechanism and mode of characteristic town in Zhejiang, it is suggested in this paper that characteristic town should take improving the regional ecological environment as an important object in planning strategy from the perspective of ecological concept. Improved environmental quality, optimized resource allocation, and compact industrial distribution should be realized so as to drive the regional green and sustainable development. Finally, this paper analyzes location selection, industrial distribution, spatial organization and environment construction based on the exploration of the dream town of Zhejiang province, the first batch of provincial-level characteristic towns to demonstrate how to apply the ecological concept to the design of characteristic town.

Keywords: characteristic town, ecological concept, Hangzhou dream town, planning strategy

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Authors: Dosun Shin, Assegid Kidane, Pavan Turaga

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According to the National Institute of Health, living a sedentary lifestyle leads to a number of health issues, including increased risk of cardiovascular dis-ease, type 2 diabetes, obesity, and certain types of cancers. This project brings together experts in multiple disciplines to bring product design, sensor design, algorithms, and health intervention studies to develop a product and system that helps reduce the amount of time sitting at the workplace. This paper illustrates ongoing improvements to prototypes the research team developed in initial research; including working prototypes with a software application, which were developed and demonstrated for users. Additional modifications were made to improve functionality, aesthetics, and ease of use, which will be discussed in this paper. Extending on the foundations created in the initial phase, our approach sought to further improve the product by conducting additional human factor research, studying deficiencies in competitive products, testing various materials/forms, developing working prototypes, and obtaining feedback from additional potential users. The solution consisted of an aesthetically pleasing seat cover cushion that easily attaches to common office chairs found in most workplaces, ensuring a wide variety of people can use the product. The product discreetly contains sensors that track when the user sits on their chair, sending information to a phone app that triggers reminders for users to stand up and move around after sitting for a set amount of time. This paper also presents the analyzed typical office aesthetics and selected materials, colors, and forms that complimented the working environment. Comfort and ease of use remained a high priority as the design team sought to provide a product and system that integrated into the workplace. As the research team continues to test, improve, and implement this solution for the sedentary workplace, the team seeks to create a viable product that acts as an impetus for a more active workday and lifestyle, further decreasing the proliferation of chronic disease and health issues for sedentary working people. This paper illustrates in detail the processes of engineering, product design, methodology, and testing results.

Keywords: anti-sedentary work behavior, new product development, sensor design, health intervention studies

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Authors: Fadzilah Abdul Rahman

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Emotional development is developed between the parents and their child. Behavioural development is also developed between the parents and their child. Social Development is how parents can help their special needs child to adapt to society and to face challenges. In promoting a lifelong learning mindset, enhancing skill sets and readiness to face challenges, parents would be able to counter balance these challenges during their care giving process and better manage their expectations through understanding the hierarchy of needs modality towards a positive attitude, and in turn, improve their quality of life and participation in society. This paper aims to demonstrate how the hierarchy of needs can be applied in various situations of caregiving for parents with a special needs child.

Keywords: hierarchy of needs, parents, special needs, care-giving

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Authors: M. E. Marwan, A. R. Madar, N. Fuad

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Mobile learning (m-learning) is a new method in teaching and learning process which combines technology of mobile device with learning materials. It can enhance student's engagement in learning activities and facilitate them to access the learning materials at anytime and anywhere. In Kolej Poly-Tech Mara (KPTM), this method is seen as an important effort in teaching practice and to improve student learning performance. The aim of this paper is to discuss the development of m-learning application called Mobile EEF Learning System (MEEFLS) to be implemented for Electric and Electronic Fundamentals course using Flash, XML (Extensible Markup Language) and J2ME (Java 2 micro edition). System Development Life Cycle (SDLC) was used as an application development approach. It has three modules in this application such as notes or course material, exercises and video. MEELFS development is seen as a tool or a pilot test for m-learning in KPTM.

Keywords: flash, mobile device, mobile learning, teaching and learning, SDLC, XML

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Authors: Chau Nguyen Pham Minh

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The aim of this study is to answer the following research question: What do we know about virtual customer integration in innovation development based on existing empirical research? The paper is based on a systematic review of 136 articles which were published in the past 16 years. The analysis focuses on three areas: what forms of virtual customer integration (e.g. netnography, online co-creation, virtual experience) have been applied in innovation development; how have virtual customer integration methods effectively been utilized by firms; and what are the influences of virtual customer integration on innovation development activities? Through the detailed analysis, the study provides researchers with broad understanding about virtual customer integration in innovation development. The study shows that practitioners and researchers increasingly pay attention on using virtual customer integration methods in developing innovation since those methods have dominant advantages in interact with customers in order to generate the best ideas for innovation development. Additionally, the findings indicate that netnography has been the most common method in integrating with customers for idea generation; while virtual product experience has been mainly used in product testing. Moreover, the analysis also reveals the positive and negative influences of virtual customer integration in innovation development from both process and strategic perspectives. Most of the review studies examined the phenomenon from company’s perspectives to understand the process of applying virtual customer integration methods and their impacts; however, the customers’ perspective on participating in the virtual interaction has been inadequately studied; therefore, it creates many potential interesting research paths for future studies.

Keywords: innovation, virtual customer integration, co-creation, netnography, new product development

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Authors: Ruth Yunji Nange

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Tourism has continued to increase as a significant industry, enhancing economic growth and development in Cameroon; due to the tremendous success of this industry, community participation (CP) has enhanced tourism development (TD). While gaining augmented attractiveness, considering how local CP is encouraged in such initiatives has become imperative. It has become essential to examine the importance of CP in the development of policies and planning processes for the equitable distribution of benefits and the effects of TD in the country. This study will exactly explore the cases of CP in the most populated cities in Cameroon (Douala and Yaoundé) and also understand how local CP is incorporated into tourism to enhance development in the tourism industry in particular and Cameroon in general. This paper is based on a qualitative research method, semi-structured interviews, and in-depth, face-to-face interviews carried out with the top administrators of tourism, both in the public and private sectors, such as the minister, provincial and regional delegates of tourism, non-governmental organizations (NGO), leaders of local community associations and tour operators. The forms and surveys were open-ended with a high level of flexibility. The findings of this study will pose implications for the development of CP in tourism initiatives programs in Cameroon and other developing economies.

Keywords: Cameroon, local community, participation and planning, tourism

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Authors: Ok-Kyun Im, Kyoung Hee Kim

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We live in an era that faces global challenges of climate changes and resource depletion. With the rapid urbanization and growing energy consumption in the built environment, building facades become ever more important in architectural practice and environmental stewardship. Furthermore, building facade undergoes complex dynamics of social, cultural, environmental and technological changes. Kinetic facades have drawn attention of architects, designers, and engineers in the field of adaptable, responsive and interactive architecture since 1980’s. Materials and building technologies have gradually evolved to address the technical implications of kinetic facades. The kinetic façade is becoming an independent system of the building, transforming the design methodology to sustainable building solutions. Accordingly, there is a need for a new design methodology to guide the design of a kinetic façade and evaluate its sustainable performance. The research objectives are two-fold: First, to establish a new design methodology for kinetic facades and second, to develop a micro-oculi façade system and assess its performance using the established design method. The design approach to the micro-oculi facade is comprised of 1) façade geometry optimization and 2) dynamic building energy simulation. The façade geometry optimization utilizes multi-objective optimization process, aiming to balance the quantitative and qualitative performances to address the sustainability of the built environment. The dynamic building energy simulation was carried out using EnergyPlus and Radiance simulation engines with scripted interfaces. The micro-oculi office was compared with an office tower with a glass façade in accordance with ASHRAE 90.1 2013 to understand its energy efficiency. The micro-oculi facade is constructed with an array of circular frames attached to a pair of micro-shades called a micro-oculus. The micro-oculi are encapsulated between two glass panes to protect kinetic mechanisms with longevity. The micro-oculus incorporates rotating gears that transmit the power to adjacent micro-oculi to minimize the number of mechanical parts. The micro-oculus rotates around its center axis with a step size of 15deg depending on the sun’s position while maximizing daylighting potentials and view-outs. A 2 ft by 2ft prototyping was undertaken to identify operational challenges and material implications of the micro-oculi facade. In this research, a systematic design methodology was proposed, that integrates multi-objectives of kinetic façade design criteria and whole building energy performance simulation within a holistic design process. This design methodology is expected to encourage multidisciplinary collaborations between designers and engineers to collaborate issues of the energy efficiency, daylighting performance and user experience during design phases. The preliminary energy simulation indicated that compared to a glass façade, the micro-oculi façade showed energy savings due to its improved thermal properties, daylighting attributes, and dynamic solar performance across the day and seasons. It is expected that the micro oculi façade provides a cost-effective, environmentally-friendly, sustainable, and aesthetically pleasing alternative to glass facades. Recommendations for future studies include lab testing to validate the simulated data of energy and optical properties of the micro-oculi façade. A 1:1 performance mock-up of the micro-oculi façade can suggest in-depth understanding of long-term operability and new development opportunities applicable for urban façade applications.

Keywords: energy efficiency, kinetic facades, sustainable architecture, urban facades

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Authors: Sankar Majumder

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Development of Rural Entrepreneurs requires a holistic approach involving social, economic, political, technical, and environmental and many other issues. It needs a thorough understanding of the economy and society. It's true that agricultural development, rural development and many other social and right based development programmes have resulted in the growth of income in the rural sector. The development of rural entrepreneurs is necessary to utilise these opportunities. Many programmes and policies in the spheres of organisational, financial, infrastructural and technical supports have been taken to promote rural industries. But if one looks at the growth and development of rural industrial units, especially the manufacturing units, the picture is not promising. This paper aims at analysing the possible causes and its solutions in terms of (1) Mind set of the society towards business as a livelihood; (2) Sufficiency and appropriateness of the existing organisational, financial, infrastructural and technical supports. The paper is based on secondary data on various aspects of rural enterprises and the author’s experiences in the course of his work as a practitioner in this field. Growth of units and employment in the rural industries shows that the entrepreneurs are more inclined towards trading units than towards manufacturing ventures. The growth of rural industries is constrained not by the insufficiency of the supply of finance but by the insufficient demand for finance. The task is to increase the supply of entrepreneurs by creating an entrepreneurial environment. Incubation for rural entrepreneurs is the need of the hour.

Keywords: business mind set, entrepreneurial environment, supply of finance, technical support

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Authors: Melina Kopke, Jelle Van Dijk

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Persons with cognitive disabilities, such as Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) are often dependent on some form of professional support. Recent transformations in Dutch healthcare have spurred institutions to apply new, empowering methods and tools to enable their clients to cope (more) independently in daily life. Assistive Technologies (ATs) seem promising as empowering tools. While ATs can, functionally speaking, help people to perform certain activities without human assistance, we hold that, from a design-theoretical perspective, such technologies often fail to empower in a deeper sense. Most technologies serve either to prescribe or to monitor users’ actions, which in some sense objectifies them, rather than strengthening their agency. This paper proposes that theories of embodied interaction could help formulating a design vision in which interactive assistive devices augment, rather than replace, human agency and thereby add to a persons’ empowerment in daily life settings. It aims to close the gap between empowerment theory and the opportunities provided by assistive technologies, by showing how embodiment and empowerment theory can be applied in practice in the design of new, interactive assistive devices. Taking a Research-through-Design approach, we conducted a case study of designing to support independently living people with ASD with structuring daily activities. In three iterations we interlaced design action, active involvement and prototype evaluations with future end-users and healthcare professionals, and theoretical reflection. Our co-design sessions revealed the issue of handling daily activities being multidimensional. Not having the ability to self-manage one’s daily life has immense consequences on one’s self-image, and also has major effects on the relationship with professional caregivers. Over the course of the project relevant theoretical principles of both embodiment and empowerment theory together with user-insights, informed our design decisions. This resulted in a system of wireless light units that users can program as a reminder for tasks, but also to record and reflect on their actions. The iterative process helped to gradually refine and reframe our growing understanding of what it concretely means for a technology to empower a person in daily life. Drawing on the case study insights we propose a set of concrete design principles that together form what we call the embodied empowerment design framework. The framework includes four main principles: Enabling ‘reflection-in-action’; making information ‘publicly available’ in order to enable co-reflection and social coupling; enabling the implementation of shared reflections into an ‘endurable-external feedback loop’ embedded in the persons familiar ’lifeworld’; and nudging situated actions with self-created action-affordances. In essence, the framework aims for the self-development of a suitable routine, or ‘situated practice’, by building on a growing shared insight of what works for the person. The framework, we propose, may serve as a starting point for AT designers to create truly empowering interactive products. In a set of follow-up projects involving the participation of persons with ASD, Intellectual Disabilities, Dementia and Acquired Brain Injury, the framework will be applied, evaluated and further refined.

Keywords: assistive technology, design, embodiment, empowerment

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Authors: Saeed Anwar

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Foreign aid has long been a prominent tool in the pursuit of economic development in recipient countries. This research paper aims to analyze the impact of foreign aid on economic development and explore the effectiveness of aid in promoting sustainable growth, poverty reduction, and improvements in human development indicators. Drawing upon a comprehensive review of existing literature, both theoretical frameworks and empirical evidence are synthesized to provide insights into the complex relationship between foreign aid and economic development. The paper examines various channels through which foreign aid influences economic development, including infrastructure development, education and healthcare investments, technology transfer, and institutional capacity building. It explores the potential positive effects of aid in stimulating economic growth, reducing poverty, and enhancing human capital formation. Additionally, it investigates the potential challenges and limitations associated with aid, such as aid dependency, governance issues, and the potential crowding out of domestic resources. Furthermore, the study assesses the heterogeneity of aid effectiveness across different types of aid modalities, recipient country characteristics, and aid allocation mechanisms. It considers the role of aid conditionality, aid fragmentation, and aid targeting in influencing the effectiveness of aid in promoting economic development. The findings of this research contribute to the ongoing discourse on foreign aid and economic development by providing a comprehensive analysis of the existing literature. The study highlights the importance of context-specific factors, recipient country policies, and aid effectiveness frameworks in determining the impact of foreign aid on economic development outcomes. The insights derived from this research can inform policymakers, donor agencies, and practitioners in designing and implementing effective aid strategies to maximize the positive impact of foreign aid on economic development.

Keywords: foreign aid, economic development, sustainable growth, poverty reduction, human development indicators, infrastructure development, education, healthcare, technology transfer, institutional capacity building, aid effectiveness, aid dependency, governance, crowding out, aid conditionality, aid fragmentation, aid targeting, recipient country policies, aid strategies, donor agencies, policymaking

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Authors: Myoung Je Song

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Ureteral stent insertion is being used as one of the clinical interventional treatments due to stenosis and/or obstruction in the ureter. For the development of the ureteral stents, we have to know the flow patterns with and without peristalsis in the ureter. The purpose of this study is to understand the flow characteristics and movement of the ureter for the ureter model according to the presence or absence of peristalsis and to use it as fundamental information to design the optimal ureteral stent. In this study, CFD (Computational Fluid Dynamics) and FSI (Fluid-Structure Interaction) approaches were applied and compared the flow characteristics in the ureter. The distribution of streamlines was different in the near ureteropelvic junction. As a result of analyzing the area change of the ureter, the area change was large at the frontal and posterior ends, and the frontal and posterior aspects of the area change were reversed. There was no significant difference in the flow rate at the ureter outlet, and the movement of the ureter was larger when peristalsis was considered. Finally, as an introductory stage for the development of ureteral stents, basic information about the ureters according to the presence or absence of peristalsis is acquired.

Keywords: computational fluid dynamics, fluid-structure interaction, peristalsis, urine flow

Procedia PDF Downloads 107

Authors: Ercan Kızılay, Mustafa Demi̇rel, Selçuk Coşkun

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Railway signaling systems consist of vital products that regulate railway traffic and provide safe route arrangements and maneuvers of trains. SIL 4 signal lamps are produced by many manufacturers today. There is a need for systems that enable these signal lamps to be controlled by commands from the interlocking. These systems should act as fail-safe and give error indications to the interlocking system when an unexpected situation occurs for the safe operation of railway systems from the RAMS perspective. In the past, driving and proving the lamp in relay-based systems was typically done via signaling relays. Today, the proving of lamps is done by comparing the current values read over the return circuit, the lower and upper threshold values. The purpose is an analog electronic object controller with the possibility of easy integration with vital systems and the signal lamp itself. During the study, the EN50126 standard approach was considered, and the concept, definition, risk analysis, requirements, architecture, design, and prototyping were performed throughout this study. FMEA (Failure Modes and Effects Analysis) and FTA (Fault Tree) Analysis) have been used for safety analysis in accordance with EN 50129. Concerning these analyzes, the 1oo2D reactive fail-safe hardware design of a controller has been researched. Electromagnetic compatibility (EMC) effects on the functional safety of equipment, insulation coordination, and over-voltage protection were discussed during hardware design according to EN 50124 and EN 50122 standards. As vital equipment for railway signaling, railway signal object controllers should be developed according to EN 50126 and EN 50129 standards which identify the steps and requirements of the development in accordance with the SIL 4(Safety Integrity Level) target. In conclusion of this study, an analog railway signal object controller, which takes command from the interlocking system, is processed in driver cards. Driver cards arrange the voltage level according to desired visibility by means of semiconductors. Additionally, prover cards evaluate the current upper and lower thresholds. Evaluated values are processed via logic gates which are composed as 1oo2D by means of analog electronic technologies. This logic evaluates the voltage level of the lamp and mitigates the risks of undue dimming.

Keywords: object controller, railway electronic, analog electronic, safety, railway signal

Procedia PDF Downloads 93