Search results for: graphic user interface (GUI)

Authors: Cory A. Logston

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It is imperative researchers continue to explore every transformative strategy to increase empathy and awareness of racial bias. Racism is a social and political concept that uses stereotypical ideology to highlight racial inequities. Everyone has biases they may not be aware of toward disparate out-groups. There is some form of racism in every profession; doctors, lawyers, and teachers are not immune. There have been numerous successful and unsuccessful strategies to motivate and transform an individual’s unconscious biased attitudes. One method designed to induce a transformative experience and identify implicit bias is virtual reality (VR). VR is a technology designed to transport the user to a three-dimensional environment. In a virtual reality simulation, the viewer is immersed in a realistic interactive video taking on the perspective of a Black man. The viewer as the character experiences discrimination in various life circumstances growing up as a child into adulthood. For instance, the prejudice felt in school, as an adolescent encountering the police and false accusations in the workplace. Current research suggests that an immersive VR simulation can enhance self-awareness and become a transformative learning experience. This study uses virtual reality immersion and transformative learning theory to create empathy and identify any unintentional racial bias. Participants, White teachers, will experience a VR immersion to create awareness and identify implicit biases regarding Black students. The desired outcome provides a springboard to reconceptualize their own implicit bias. Virtual reality is gaining traction in the research world and promises to be an effective tool in the transformative learning process.

Keywords: empathy, implicit bias, transformative learning, virtual reality

Procedia PDF Downloads 194

Authors: Kishor Kumar Sadasivuni, Mizaj Shabil Sha, Assim Alajali, Godlaveeti Sreenivasa Kumar, Aboubakr M. Abdullah, Bijandra Kumar, Mithra Geetha

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A potential pathway for efficient hydrogen production from water splitting electrolysis involves catalysis or electrocatalysis, which plays a crucial role in energy conversion and storage. Hydrogen generated by electrocatalytic water splitting requires active, stable, and low-cost catalysts or electrocatalysts to be developed for practical applications. In this study, we evaluated combination of 2D materials of NiS nanoparticle catalysts for hydrogen evolution reactions. The photocatalytic H₂ production rate of this nanoparticle is high and exceeds that obtained on components alone. Nanoparticles serve as electron collectors and transporters, which explains this improvement. Moreover, a current density was recorded at reduced working potential by 0.393 mA. Calculations based on density functional theory indicate that the nanoparticle's hydrogen evolution reaction catalytic activity is caused by strong interaction between its components at the interface. The samples were analyzed by XPS and morphologically by FESEM for the best outcome, depending on their structural shapes. Use XPS and morphologically by FESEM for the best results. This nanocomposite demonstrated higher electro-catalytic activity, and a low tafel slope of 60 mV/dec. Additionally, despite 1000 cycles into a durability test, the electrocatalyst still displays excellent stability with minimal current loss. The produced catalyst has shown considerable potential for use in the evolution of hydrogen due to its robust synthesis. According to these findings, the combination of 2D materials of nickel sulfide sample functions as good electocatalyst for H₂ evolution. Additionally, the research being done in this fascinating field will surely push nickel sulfide-based technology closer to becoming an industrial reality and revolutionize existing energy issues in a sustainable and clean manner.

Keywords: electrochemical hydrogenation, nickel sulfide, electrocatalysts, energy conversion, catalyst

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Authors: N. R. P Withana, E. Auch

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The purpose of this study was to investigate perceptions of climate change risk to forest ecosystems and forest-based communities as well as perceived effectiveness of adaptation strategies for climate change as well as challenges for adaptation. Data was gathered using a pre-tested semi-structured questionnaire. Simple random selection technique was applied. For the majority of issues, the responses were obtained on multi-point Likert scales, and the scores provided were, in turn, used to estimate the means and other useful estimates. A composite knowledge index developed using correct responses to a set of self-rated statements were used to evaluate the issues. The mean of the knowledge index was 0.64. Also all respondents recorded values of the knowledge index above 0.25. Increase forest fire was perceived by respondents as the greatest risk to forest eco-system. Decrease access to water supplies was perceived as the greatest risk to livelihoods of forest based communities. The most effective adaptation strategy relevant to climate change risks to forest eco-systems and forest based communities livelihoods in Kathmandu valley in Nepal as perceived by the respondents was reforestation and afforestation. As well, lack of public awareness was perceived as the major limitation for climate change adaptation. However, perceived risks as well as effective adaptation strategies showed an inconsistent association with knowledge indicators and social-cultural variables. The results provide useful information to any party who involve with climate change issues in Nepal, since such attempts would be more effective once the people’s perceptions on these aspects are taken into account.

Keywords: climate change, risk perceptions, forest ecosystems, forest-based communities

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Authors: Anees Raza, Liu Chunyan

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Renewable energy technologies are need of the time and are already making the big impact in the climatic outlook of the world. Biogas technology is one of those, and it has a lot of benefits for its users. It is cost effective because it is produced from the raw material which is available free of cost to the livestock farmers. Bio-slurry, a by-product of biogas, is being used as fertilizer for the crops production and increasing soil fertility. There are many other household benefits of technology. Research paper discusses the benefits of biogas as perceived by the biogas users as well as non-users of Tehsil Jhang. Data were collected from 60 respondents (30 users and 30 non-users) selected purposively through validated and pre-tested interview schedule from the respondents. Collected data were analyzed by using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS). Household benefits like ‘makes cooking easy,’ ‘Less breathing issues for working women in kitchens’ and ‘Use of bio-slurry as organic fertilizer’ had the highly significant relationship between them with t-values of 3.24, 4.39 and 2.80 respectively. Responses of the respondents about environmental benefits of biogas technology showed that ‘less air pollution’ had a significant relationship between them while ‘less temperature rise up than due to the burning of wood /dung’ had the non-significant relationship in the responses of interviewed respondents. It was clear from the research that biogas users were becoming influential in convincing non-users to adopt this technology due to its noticeable benefits. Research area where people were depending on wood to be used as fire fuel could be helped in reduction of cutting of trees which will help in controlling deforestation and saving the environment.People should be encouraged in using of biogas technology through providing them subsidies and low mark up loans.

Keywords: biogas technology, deforestation, environmental benefits, renewable energy

Procedia PDF Downloads 265

Authors: Burcu Doymus, Fatma N. Kok, Sakip Onder

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Titanium and titanium-based materials are commonly used to replace or regenerate the injured or lost tissues because of accidents or illnesses. Hospital infections and strong bond formation at the implant-tissue interface are directly affecting the success of the implantation as weak bonding with the native tissue and hospital infections lead to revision surgery. The purpose of the presented study is to modify the surface of the titanium substrates with nano/microspheres for local drug delivery and to prevent hospital infections. Firstly, titanium surfaces were silanized with APTES (3-Triethoxysilylpropylamine) following the negatively charged oxide layer formation. Then characterization studies using Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) were done on the modified surfaces. Secondly, microspheres/nanospheres were prepared with chitosan that is a natural polymer and having valuable properties such as non-toxicity, high biocompatibility, low allergen city and biodegradability for biomedical applications. Antibiotic (ciprofloxacin) loaded micro/nanospheres have been fabricated using emulsion cross-linking method and have been immobilized onto the titanium surfaces with different immobilization techniques such as covalent bond and entrapment. Optimization studies on size and drug loading capacities of micro/nanospheres were conducted before the immobilization process. Light microscopy and SEM were used to visualize and measure the size of the produced micro/nanospheres. Loaded and released drug amounts were determined by using UV- spectrophotometer at 278 nm. Finally, SEM analysis and drug release studies on the micro/nanospheres coated Ti surfaces were done. As a conclusion, it was shown that micro/nanospheres were immobilized onto the surfaces successfully and drug release from these surfaces was in a controlled manner. Moreover, the density of the micro/nanospheres after the drug release studies was higher on the surfaces where the entrapment technique was used for immobilization. Acknowledgement: This work is financially supported by The Scientific and Technological Research Council Of Turkey (Project # 217M220)

Keywords: chitosan, controlled drug release, nanosphere, nosocomial infections, titanium

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Authors: Deyu Zhou, Xiao Xue, Lizhen Cui

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With the increasing collaboration among various services and the growing complexity of user demands, there are more and more factors affecting the stable development of the cloud manufacturing service economic system (CMSE). This poses new challenges to the evolution analysis of the CMSE. Many researchers have modeled and analyzed the evolution process of CMSE from the perspectives of individual learning and internal factors influencing the system, but without considering other important characteristics of the system's individuals (such as heterogeneity, bounded rationality, etc.) and the impact of external environmental factors. Therefore, this paper proposes an integrated artificial social model for the cloud manufacturing service economic system, which considers both the characteristics of the system's individuals and the internal and external influencing factors of the system. The model consists of three parts: the Agent model, environment model, and rules model (Agent-Environment-Rules, AER): (1) the Agent model considers important features of the individuals, such as heterogeneity and bounded rationality, based on the adaptive behavior mechanisms of perception, action, and decision-making; (2) the environment model describes the activity space of the individuals (real or virtual environment); (3) the rules model, as the driving force of system evolution, describes the mechanism of the entire system's operation and evolution. Finally, this paper verifies the effectiveness of the AER model through computational and experimental results.

Keywords: cloud manufacturing service economic system (CMSE), AER model, artificial social modeling, integrated framework, computing experiment, agent-based modeling, social networks

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Authors: Babar Ali, Mohammad Rashid, Showkat Rasool Mir, Mohammad Ali, Saiba Shams

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Background: The plant Camellia sinensis (Theaceae) is an evergreen shrub indigenous to Assam (India) and parts of China and Japan. Traditional Chinese medicine has recommended green tea for headaches, body aches and pains, digestion, enhancement of immune defense, detoxification, as an energizer and to prolong life. The leaves have more than 700 chemical constituents, among which flavanoids, amino acids, vitamins (C, E, K), caffeine and polysaccharides. Adulteration and substitution may affect the quality of formulation containing tea leaves. Standardization of medicinal preparation is essential for further therapeutic results and for global acceptance. Hence, chromatographic fingerprint profiles were carried out for establishing the standards. Materials and methods: TLC studies for methanolic extracts of the leaves of Camellia sinensis were carried out in a new developed solvent system, Toluene: Ethyl acetate: Formic acid (7:3:1). TLC plates were dried in air, visualized in UV at wavelengths 254 nm and 366 nm and photographed. Results: Results provide valuable clue regarding their polarity and selection of solvents for separation of phytochemicals. Fingerprinting of methanolic extract of Camellia sinensis leaves revealed the presence of various phytochemicals in UV at 254 nm and 366 nm. Conclusion: Fingerprint profile is quite helpful in setting up of standards and thus to keep a check on intentional/unintentional adulteration. TLC offers major advantages over other conventional chromatographic techniques such as unsurpassed flexibility (esp. stationary and mobile phase), choice of detection wavelength, user friendly, rapid and cost effective.

Keywords: Cammelia sinensis Linn., standardization, methanolic extract, thin layer chromatography

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Authors: Imen Amari, Kaouther Gasmi, Asma Rebaya, Salem Hasnaoui

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The problem of scheduling and mapping data flow applications on multi-core architectures is notoriously difficult. This difficulty is related to the rapid evaluation of Telecommunication and multimedia systems accompanied by a rapid increase of user requirements in terms of latency, execution time, consumption, energy, etc. Having an optimal scheduling on multi-cores DSP (Digital signal Processors) platforms is a challenging task. In this context, we present a novel technic and algorithm in order to find a valid schedule that optimizes the key performance metrics particularly the Latency. Our contribution is based on Satisfiability Modulo Theories (SMT) solving technologies which is strongly driven by the industrial applications and needs. This paper, describe a scheduling module integrated in our proposed Workflow which is advised to be a successful approach for programming the applications based on NoC-DSP platforms. This workflow transform automatically a Simulink model to a synchronous dataflow (SDF) model. The automatic transformation followed by SMT solver scheduling aim to minimize the final latency and other software/hardware metrics in terms of an optimal schedule. Also, finding the optimal numbers of cores to be used. In fact, our proposed workflow taking as entry point a Simulink file (.mdl or .slx) derived from embedded Matlab functions. We use an approach which is based on the synchronous and hierarchical behavior of both Simulink and SDF. Whence, results of running the scheduler which exist in the Workflow mentioned above using our proposed SMT solver algorithm refinements produce the best possible scheduling in terms of latency and numbers of cores.

Keywords: multi-cores DSP, scheduling, SMT solver, workflow

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Authors: Viktor Soprunyuk, Wilfried Schranz, Patrick Huber

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In the present work, we show that Dynamic Mechanical Analysis (DMA) with a measurement frequency range f= 0.2 - 100 Hz is a rather powerful technique for the study of phase transitions (freezing and melting) and glass transitions of water in geometrical confinement. Inserting water into nanoporous host matrices, like e.g. Gelsil (size of pores 2.6 nm and 5 nm) or Vycor (size of pores 10 nm) allows one to study size effects occurring at the nanoscale conveniently in macroscopic bulk samples. One obtains valuable insight concerning confinement induced changes of the dynamics by measuring the temperature and frequency dependencies of the complex Young's modulus Y* for various pore sizes. Solid-liquid transitions or glass-liquid transitions show up in a softening or the real part Y' of the complex Young's modulus, yet with completely different frequency dependencies. Analysing the frequency dependent imaginary part of the Young´s modulus in the glass transition regions for different pore sizes we find a clear-cut 1/d-dependence of the calculated glass transition temperatures which extrapolates to Tg(1/d=0)=136 K, in agreement with the traditional value of water. The results indicate that the main role of the pore diameter is the relative amount of water molecules that are near an interface within a length scale of the order of the dynamic correlation length x. Thus we argue that the observed strong pore size dependence of Tg is an interfacial effect, rather than a finite size effect. We obtained similar signatures of Y* near glass transitions in different biological objects (fruits, vegetables, and bread). The values of the activation energies for these biological materials in the region of glass transition are quite similar to the values of the activation energies of supercooled water in the nanoporous confinement in this region. The present work was supported by the Austrian Science Fund (FWF, project Nr. P 28672 – N36).

Keywords: biological systems, liquids, glasses, amorphous systems, nanoporous materials, phase transition

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Authors: Danzhao Cheng, Eugene Ch'ng

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Virtual Reality technologies can reconstruct cultural heritage objects and sites to a level of realism. Concentrating mostly on documenting authentic data and accurate representations of tangible contents, current virtual heritage is limited to accumulating visually presented objects. Such constructions, however, are fragmentary and may not convey the inherent significance of heritage in a meaningful way. In order to contextualise fragmentary historical contents where history can be told, a strategy is to create a guided narrative via role-playing. Such an approach can strengthen the logical connections of cultural elements and facilitate creative synthesis within the virtual world. This project successfully reconstructed the Ningbo Sanjiangkou VR site in Yuan Dynasty combining VR technology and role-play game approach. The results with 80 pairs of participants suggest that VR role-playing can be beneficial in a number of ways. Firstly, it creates thematic interactivity which encourages users to explore the virtual heritage in a more entertaining way with task-oriented goals. Secondly, the experience becomes highly engaging since users can interpret a historical context through the perspective of specific roles that exist in past societies. Thirdly, personalisation allows open-ended sequences of the expedition, reinforcing user’s acquisition of procedural knowledge relative to the cultural domain. To sum up, role-playing in VR poses great potential for experiential learning as it allows users to interpret a historical context in a more entertaining way.

Keywords: experiential learning, maritime silk road, role-playing, virtual heritage, virtual reality

Procedia PDF Downloads 165

Authors: Filip Buruiana, Alexander Hall, Reimar Hofmann, Thomas Hofmann, Silviu Ganceanu, Alexandru Tudorica

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In-memory column-stores make interactive analysis feasible for many big data scenarios. PowerDrill is a system used internally at Google for exploration in logs data. Even though it is a highly parallelized column-store and uses in memory caching, interactive response times cannot be achieved for all datasets (note that it is common to analyze data with 50 billion records in PowerDrill). In this paper, we investigate two orthogonal approaches to optimize performance at the expense of an acceptable loss of accuracy. Both approaches can be implemented as outer wrappers around existing database engines and so they should be easily applicable to other systems. For the first optimization we show that memory is the limiting factor in executing queries at speed and therefore explore possibilities to improve memory efficiency. We adapt some of the theory behind data sketches to reduce the size of particularly expensive fields in our largest tables by a factor of 4.5 when compared to a standard compression algorithm. This saves 37% of the overall memory in PowerDrill and introduces a 0.4% relative error in the 90th percentile for results of queries with the expensive fields. We additionally evaluate the effects of using sampling on accuracy and propose a simple heuristic for annotating individual result-values as accurate (or not). Based on measurements of user behavior in our real production system, we show that these estimates are essential for interpreting intermediate results before final results are available. For a large set of queries this effectively brings down the 95th latency percentile from 30 to 4 seconds.

Keywords: big data, in-memory column-store, high-performance SQL queries, approximate SQL queries

Procedia PDF Downloads 259

Authors: Adriano Losso, Birgit Dämon, Stefan Mayr

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In vascular plants, water flows from roots to leaves in a metastable state, and even a small perturbation of the system can lead a sudden transition from the liquid to the vapor phase, resulting in xylem embolism (cavitation). Xylem embolism, induced by drought stress and/or freezing stress is caused by the aspiration of gaseous bubbles into xylem conduits from adjacent gas-filled compartments through pit membrane pores (‘air seeding’). At water potentials less negative than the threshold for air seeding, the surface tension (γ) stabilizes the air-water interface and thus prevents air from passing the pit pores. This hold is probably also true for conifers, where this effect occurs at the edge of the sealed torus. Accordingly, it was experimentally demonstrated that γ influences air seeding, but information on the relevance of this effect under field conditions is missing. In this study, we analyzed seasonal changes in γ of the xylem sap in two conifers growing at the alpine timberline (Picea abies and Pinus mugo). In addition, cut branches were perfused (40 min perfusion at 0.004 MPa) with different γ solutions (i.e. distilled and degassed water, 2, 5 and 15% (v/v) ethanol-water solution corresponding to a γ of 74, 65, 55 and 45 mN m-1, respectively) and their vulnerability to drought-induced embolism analyzed via the centrifuge technique (Cavitron). In both species, xylem sap γ changed considerably (ca. 53-67 and ca. 50-68 mN m-1 in P. abies and P. cembra, respectively) over the season. Branches perfused with low γ solutions showed reduced resistance against drought-induced embolism in both species. A significant linear relationship (P < 0.001) between P12, P50 and P88 (i.e. water potential at 12, 50 and 88% of the loss of conductivity) and xylem sap γ was found. Based on this correlation, a variation in P50 between -3.10 and -3.83 MPa (P. abies) and between -3.21 and -4.11 MPa (P. mugo) over the season could be estimated. Results demonstrate that changes in γ of the xylem sap can considerably influence a tree´s resistance to drought-induced embolism. They indicate that vulnerability analyses, normally conducted at a γ near that of pure water, might often underestimate vulnerabilities under field conditions. For studied timberline conifers, seasonal changes in γ might be especially relevant in winter, when frost drought and freezing stress can lead to an excessive embolism.

Keywords: conifers, Picea abies, Pinus mugo, timberline

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Authors: Tugba Saricaoglu

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This study argues about the potential representation and interpretation of Basilica of Smyrna through gamification. Representation can be defined as a key which plays a role as a converter in order to provide interpretation of something according to the person who perceives. Representation of cultural heritage is a hypothetical and factual approach in terms of its sustainable conservation. Today, both site interpreters and public of cultural heritage have varying perspectives due to their different demographic, social, and even cultural backgrounds. Additionally, gamification application offers diversion of methods suchlike video games to improve user perspective of non-game platforms, contexts, and issues. Hence, cultural heritage and video game decided to be analyzed. Moreover, there are basically different ways of representation of cultural heritage such as digital, physical, and virtual methods in terms of conservation. Virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) technologies are two of the contemporary digital methods of heritage conservation. In this study, 3D documented ruins of the Basilica will be presented in the virtual and augmented reality based technology as a theoretical gamification sample. Also, this paper will focus on two sub-topics: First, evaluation of the video-game platforms applied to cultural heritage sites, and second, potentials of cultural heritage to be represented in video game platforms. The former will cover the analysis of some case(s) with regard to the concepts and representational aspects of cultural heritage. The latter will include the investigation of cultural heritage sites which carry such a potential and their sustainable conversation. Consequently, after mutual collection of information from cultural heritage and video game platforms, a perspective will be provided in terms of interpretation of representation of cultural heritage by sampling that on Basilica of Smyrna by using VR and AR based technologies.

Keywords: Basilica of Smyrna, cultural heritage, digital heritage, gamification

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Authors: Sheilla Atieno Odhiambo, Simona Vasile, Alexandra De Raeve, Ann Schwarz

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Strain sensing seams have been developed by integrating conductive sewing threads in different types of seams design on a fabric typical for sports clothing using sewing technology. The aim is to have a simple integrated textile strain sensor that can be applied to sports clothing to monitor the movements of the upper body parts of the user during sports. Different types of commercially available sewing threads were used as the bobbin thread in the production of different architectural seam sensors. These conductive sewing threads have been integrated into seams in particular designs using specific seam types. Some of the threads are delicate and needed to be laid into the seam with as little friction as possible and less tension; thus, they could only be sewn in as the bobbin thread and not the needle thread. Stitch type 304; 406; 506; 601;602; 605. were produced. The seams were made on a fabric of 80% polyamide 6.6 and 20% elastane. The seams were cycled(stretch-release-stretch) for five cycles and up to 44 cycles following EN ISO 14704-1: 2005 (modified), using a tensile instrument and the changes in the resistance of the seams with time were recorded using Agilent meter U1273A. Both experiments were conducted simultaneously on the same seam sample. Sensing functionality, among which is sensor gauge and reliability, were evaluated on the promising sensor seams. The results show that the sensor seams made from HC Madeira 40 conductive yarns performed better inseam stitch 304 and 602 compared to the other combination of stitch type and conductive sewing threads. These sensing seams 304, 406 and 602 will further be interconnected to our developed processing and communicating unit and further integrated into a sports clothing prototype that can track body posture. This research is done within the framework of the project SmartSeam.

Keywords: conductive sewing thread, sensing seams, smart seam, sewing technology

Procedia PDF Downloads 190

Authors: Hui Shi

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This article examines the online popularity of Chinese neologism simida, which is a loanword derived from Korean declarative sentence-final suffix seumnida. Facilitated by corpus data obtained from Weibo, the Chinese counterpart of Twitter, this study analyzes the morphological and syntactical processes behind simida’s coinage, as well as the causes of its prevalence on Chinese social media. The findings show that simida is used by Weibo bloggers in two manners: (1) as an alternative word of 'Korea' and 'Korean'; (2) as a redundant sentence-final particle which adds a Korean-like speech style to a statement. Additionally, Weibo user profile analysis further reveals demographical distribution patterns concerning this neologism and highlights young Weibo users in the third-tier cities as the leading adopters of simida. These results are accounted for under the theoretical framework of social indexicality, especially how variations generate style in the indexical field. This article argues that the creation of such an ethnically-targeted neologism is a linguistic demonstration of Chinese netizen’s two-sided attitudes toward the previously heated Korean-wave. The exotic suffix seumnida is borrowed to Chinese as simida due to its high-frequency in Korean cultural exports. Therefore, it gradually becomes a replacement of Korea-related lexical items due to markedness, regardless of semantic prosody. Its innovative implantation to Chinese syntax, on the other hand, reflects Chinese netizens’ active manipulation of language for their online identity building. This study has implications for research on the linguistic construction of identity and style and lays the groundwork for linguistic creativity in the Chinese new media.

Keywords: Chinese neologism, loanword, humor, new media

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Authors: Josef Novák, Alena Kohoutková, Vladimír Křístek, Jan Vodička

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Numerical analysis software belong to the main tools for simulating the real behavior of various concrete structures and elements. In comparison with experimental tests, they offer an affordable way to study the mechanical behavior of structures under various conditions. The contribution deals with a precast element of an innovative airfield pavement system which is being developed within an ongoing scientific project. The proposed system consists a two-layer surface course of precast concrete panels positioned on a two-layer base of fiber-reinforced concrete with recycled aggregate. As the panels are supposed to be installed directly on the hardened base course, imperfections at the interface between the base course and surface course are expected. Considering such circumstances, three various behavior patterns could be established and considered when designing the precast element. Enormous costs of full-scale experiments force to simulate the behavior of the element in a numerical analysis software using finite element method. The simulation was conducted on a nonlinear model in order to obtain such results which could fully compensate results from the experiments. First, several loading schemes were considered with the aim to observe the critical one which was used for the simulation later on. The main objective of the simulation was to optimize reinforcement of the element subject to quasi-static loading from airplanes. When running the simulation several parameters were considered. Namely, it concerns geometrical imperfections, manufacturing imperfections, stress state in reinforcement, stress state in concrete and crack width. The numerical simulation revealed that the precast element should be heavily reinforced to fulfill all the demands assumed. The main cause of using high amount of reinforcement is the size of the imperfections which could occur at real structure. Improving manufacturing quality, the installation of the precast panels on a fresh base course or using a bedding layer underneath the surface course belong to the main steps how to reduce the size of imperfections and consequently lower the consumption of reinforcement.

Keywords: nonlinear analysis, numerical simulation, precast concrete, pavement

Procedia PDF Downloads 256

Authors: Shih-Chieh Liao, Jen-Ying Ma

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Dual protagonists game always bring a unique experience compared to the other games. This research wants to discuss whether the dual protagonists have the moving ability and special ability or not; it will affect the preference of the players. This research will focus on the single-player dual protagonists game. After the observation, we found that when players control the dual protagonists, the moving ability and special ability are a great point defining the preference of players. When players control the character, which is lack of moving ability, they often feel impatient with the inconvenient mechanism and then reduce the will to play with the character or even the game. Furthermore, the special ability is also important in the situation that there is another character to compare with. When the character is too powerful, players tend not to use the weaker one. In addition, gender is a big deal in the games. It surprisingly controls the will of play occasionally. In view of these, this research makes a single-player dual protagonists game and the dual protagonists are limited to male and female. The experiment content detected with Electrodermal Activity (EDA) includes seven different situations. (1) male and females both have the moving ability and special ability. (2) male and female both have a special ability, but female does not have the moving ability. (3) male and females both have a special ability, but the male does not have the moving ability. (4) male and female both have the moving ability, but the male does not have special ability (5) male and female both have the moving ability, but female does not have a special ability (6) male-only has the moving ability and female-only has a special ability (7) male-only has a special ability and female only has the moving ability. The experiment will evaluate the emotional changes of the subjects in those situations. The result sorted by the significance of player preference is (6)>(4)>(1)>(2)>(5)>(3)>(7). The result demonstrates that players prefer females with special abilities or males with moving abilities. The game developer could design the ability of dual protagonists based on this research. Therefore, players may have a better experience.

Keywords: biofeedback, dual protagonists, emotional responses, psychology, user experience

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Authors: M. Iommi, G. Losco

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Current building sector is focused on reduction of energy requirements, on renewable energy generation and on regeneration of existing urban areas. These targets need to be solved with a systemic approach, considering several aspects simultaneously such as climate conditions, lighting conditions, solar radiation, PV potential, etc. The solar access analysis is an already known method to analyze the solar potentials, but in current years, simulation tools have provided more effective opportunities to perform this type of analysis, in particular in the early design stage. Nowadays, the study of the solar access is related to the easiness of the use of simulation tools, in rapid and easy way, during the design process. This study presents a comparison of three simulation tools, from the point of view of the user, with the aim to highlight differences in the easy-to-use of these tools. Using a real urban context as case study, three tools; Ecotect, Townscope and Heliodon, are tested, performing models and simulations and examining the capabilities and output results of solar access analysis. The evaluation of the ease-to-use of these tools is based on some detected parameters and features, such as the types of simulation, requirements of input data, types of results, etc. As a result, a framework is provided in which features and capabilities of each tool are shown. This framework shows the differences among these tools about functions, features and capabilities. The aim of this study is to support users and to improve the integration of simulation tools for solar access with the design process.

Keywords: energy building design tools, solar access analysis, solar potential, urban planning

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Authors: Gopinath Ganapathy, Chellammal Surianarayanan

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Services are growing rapidly and generally they are aggregated into a composite service to accomplish complex business processes. There may be several services that offer the same required function of a particular task in a composite service. Hence a choice has to be made for selecting suitable services from alternative functionally similar services. Quality of Service (QoS)plays as a discriminating factor in selecting which component services should be selected to satisfy the quality requirements of a user during service composition. There are two categories of approaches for QoS based service selection, namely global and local approaches. Global approaches are known to be Non-Polynomial (NP) hard in time and offer poor scalability in large scale composition. As an alternative to global methods, local selection methods which reduce the search space by breaking up the large/complex problem of selecting services for the workflow into independent sub problems of selecting services for individual tasks are coming up. In this paper, distributed architecture for selecting services based on QoS using local selection is presented with an overview of local selection methodology. The architecture describes the core components, namely, selection manager and QoS manager needed to implement the local approach and their functions. Selection manager consists of two components namely constraint decomposer which decomposes the given global or workflow level constraints in local or task level constraints and service selector which selects appropriate service for each task with maximum utility, satisfying the corresponding local constraints. QoS manager manages the QoS information at two levels namely, service class level and individual service level. The architecture serves as an implementation model for local selection.

Keywords: architecture of service selection, local method for service selection, QoS based service selection, approaches for QoS based service selection

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Authors: Faiza Babur Khan, Sohail Asghar

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With an emergence of distributed environment, cloud computing is proving to be the most stimulating computing paradigm shift in computer technology, resulting in spectacular expansion in IT industry. Many companies have augmented their technical infrastructure by adopting cloud resource sharing architecture. Cloud computing has opened doors to unlimited opportunities from application to platform availability, expandable storage and provision of computing environment. However, from a security viewpoint, an added risk level is introduced from clouds, weakening the protection mechanisms, and hardening the availability of privacy, data security and on demand service. Issues of trust, confidentiality, and integrity are elevated due to multitenant resource sharing architecture of cloud. Trust or reliability of cloud refers to its capability of providing the needed services precisely and unfailingly. Confidentiality is the ability of the architecture to ensure authorization of the relevant party to access its private data. It also guarantees integrity to protect the data from being fabricated by an unauthorized user. So in order to assure provision of secured cloud, a roadmap or model is obligatory to analyze a security problem, design mitigation strategies, and evaluate solutions. The aim of the paper is twofold; first to enlighten the factors which make cloud security critical along with alleviation strategies and secondly to propose an intrusion detection model that identifies the attackers in a preventive way using machine learning Random Forest classifier with an accuracy of 99.8%. This model uses less number of features. A comparison with other classifiers is also presented.

Keywords: cloud security, threats, machine learning, random forest, classification

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Authors: Francesca Carta, Giovanna Linfante, Laura Agneni, Debora Radicchia, Camilla Micheletta, Angelo Del Cimmuto

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Overtaking competence mismatches and fostering career pathways congruent with the individual skills profile would significantly contribute to fighting unemployment. The aim of this paper is to examine the usefulness and efficiency of qualitative tools in supporting and improving the quality of caseworkers’ activities during the jobseekers’ profile analysis and career guidance process. The selected target groups are long-term and middle term unemployed, job seekers, young people at the end of the vocational training pathway and unemployed woman with social disadvantages. The experimentation is conducted in Italy at public employment services in 2017. In the framework of Italian labour market reform, the experimentation represents the first step to develop a customized qualitative model profiling; the final general object is to improve the public employment services quality. The experimentation tests the transferability of an OECD self-assessment competences tool in the Italian public employment services. On one hand, the first analysis results will indicate the user’s perception concerning the tool’s application and their different competence levels (literacy, numeracy, problem solving, career interest, subjective well-being and health, behavioural competencies) with reference to the specific target. On the other hand, the experimentation outcomes will show caseworkers understanding regarding the tool’s usability and efficiency for career guidance and reskilling and upskilling programs.

Keywords: career guidance, evaluation competences, reskilling pathway, unemployment

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Authors: K. Doi, T. Nishimura, H. Fujimoto, Y. Hoshikawa, T. Wada

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Japanese industrial standard (JIS) association established one JIS (JIS S 0021) regarding packaging accessible design for people with visual impairments and elderly people in 2000. Recently, tactile symbol on shampoo bottle has been known as one of package accessible design and more effectively used. However, it has been said that people with visual impairment have been not been in trouble with difficulty of identifying body soap bottle between three bottles such as body soap bottle, shampoo bottle, and conditioner bottle. Japanese low vision association asked JIS association to solve this problem. JIS association and Japan cosmetic industry association constituted one review team for solving the problem. The review team asked our research team to make a proposal regarding new tactile symbol on body soap bottle. We conducted user survey and maker survey regarding tactile symbol on body soap bottle with easily identification. Seven test tactile symbol marks were elected in our proposed tactile symbols. In this study, we evaluate easily identification of tactile symbol on body soap bottle. Six visual impaired subjects were participated in our experiment. These subjects were asked to identify body soap bottle between three bottles such as body soap bottle, shampoo bottle, and conditioner bottle. The test tactile symbol on body soap were presented in random order. The test tactile symbols were produced by use of our originally developed 3D raised equipment. From our study, test tactile symbol marks with easily identification were made a short list of our proposed tactile symbols. This knowledge will be helpful in revision of ISO 11156.

Keywords: tactile symbol, easily identification, body soap, people with visual impairments

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Authors: Diego A. Romero Espinosa

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Thermal simulations are used to evaluate comfort and energy consumption of buildings. However, the performance of different urban forms cannot be assessed precisely if an environmental control system and user schedules are considered. The outcome of such analysis would lead to conclusions that combine the building use, operation, services, envelope, orientation and density of the urban fabric. The influence of these factors varies during the life cycle of a building. The orientation, as well as the surroundings, can be considered a constant during the lifetime of a building. The structure impacts the thermal inertia and has the largest lifespan of all the building components. On the other hand, the building envelope is the most frequent renovated component of a building since it has a great impact on energy performance and comfort. Building services have a shorter lifespan and are replaced regularly. With the purpose of addressing the performance, an urban form, a specific orientation, and density, a thermal simulation method were developed. The solar irradiation is taken into consideration depending on the outdoor temperature. Incoming irradiation at low temperatures has a positive impact increasing the indoor temperature. Consequently, overheating would be the combination of high outdoor temperature and high irradiation at the façade. On this basis, the indoor temperature is simulated for a specific orientation of the evaluated urban form. Thermal inertia and building envelope performance are considered additionally as the materiality of the building. The results of different thermal zones are summarized using the 'Degree day method' for cooling and heating. During the early phase of a design process for a project, such as Masterplan, conclusions regarding urban form, density and materiality can be drawn by means of this analysis.

Keywords: building envelope, density, masterplanning, urban form

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Authors: Jalal Maqbool, Gyu Myoung Lee

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Using smart devices for context aware mobile learning is becoming increasingly popular. This has led to mobile learning technology becoming an indispensable part of today’s learning environment and platforms. However, some fundamental issues remain - namely, mobile learning still lacks the ability to truly understand human reaction and user behaviour. This is due to the fact that current mobile learning systems are passive and not aware of learners’ changing contextual situations. They rely on static information about mobile learners. In addition, current mobile learning platforms lack the capability to incorporate dynamic contextual situations into learners’ preferences. Thus, this thesis aims to address these issues highlighted by designing a context aware framework which is able to sense learner’s contextual situations, handle data dynamically, and which can use contextual information to suggest bespoke learning content according to a learner’s preferences. This is to be underpinned by a robust recommendation system, which has the capability to perform these functions, thus providing learners with a truly context-aware mobile learning experience, delivering learning contents using smart devices and adapting to learning preferences as and when it is required. In addition, part of designing an algorithm for the recommendation engine has to be based on learner and application needs, personal characteristics and circumstances, as well as being able to comprehend human cognitive processes which would enable the technology to interact effectively and deliver mobile learning content which is relevant, according to the learner’s contextual situations. The concept of this proposed project is to provide a new method of smart learning, based on a capable recommendation engine for providing an intuitive mobile learning model based on learner actions.

Keywords: aware, context, learning, mobile

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Authors: Zhang Songning, Guan Zheng, Ci Yan, Ding Gangyi

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The application of physical simulation engines in collaborative editing systems has an important background and role. Firstly, physical simulation engines can provide real-world physical simulations, enabling users to interact and collaborate in real time in virtual environments. This provides a more intuitive and immersive experience for collaborative editing systems, allowing users to more accurately perceive and understand various elements and operations in collaborative editing. Secondly, through physical simulation engines, different users can share virtual space and perform real-time collaborative editing within it. This real-time sharing and collaborative editing method helps to synchronize information among team members and improve the efficiency of collaborative work. Through experiments, the average model transmission speed of a single person in the collaborative editing system has increased by 141.91%; the average model processing speed of a single person has increased by 134.2%; the average processing flow rate of a single person has increased by 175.19%; the overall efficiency improvement rate of a single person has increased by 150.43%. With the increase in the number of users, the overall efficiency remains stable, and the physical simulation engine running status collaborative editing system also has horizontal scalability. It is not difficult to see that the design and implementation of a collaborative editing system based on physical simulation engines not only enriches the user experience but also optimizes the effectiveness of team collaboration, providing new possibilities for collaborative work.

Keywords: physics engine, simulation technology, collaborative editing, system design, data transmission

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Authors: Reena Aggarwal

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Wall art is a manifestation of the human mind and an absorbing form of cultural expression. Solapur wall hanging making art reflects cultural values, regional sensibilities, beliefs, and identity and helps to preserve the many different communities. The tango of warp and weft in many ways than one tells the story of civilization itself. Solapur wall hanging is a poem in multicolor, written with the warp and weft having long, rich, and complex history with indigenous design vocabularies made by the Padmasali communities. The wall-hanging weaving of Solapur has remained unaltered for years, from being very basic and monochrome having landscapes and portraits catering only to the local market, thereby becoming a potential family income generation tool. The study focuses on the need for contemporization of the Solapur wall hanging and also deliberates on the fact that wherever the culture of native people has been aided by intervention, in nearly every case, the quality of their craft has began to be enhanced. The study also found the underlying reason for diminishing sales to a declining market, low sales, lack of innovation in design, and product development. Keeping in mind that the artisans of Solapur have heroically always hold on to their ancient beliefs and practices, which give them strength and identity, and a sense of pride, an intervention program was developed with an objective of widening the market and help artisans have a sustaining income which include urban consumers and create designs suitable for the urban market. The process of defining and measuring the advantages of design intervention was achieved by using qualitative research methods. An ethnographic research methodology was adopted, which includes six months of close interface with artisans from ten families engaged in making of wall hanging in Solapur. Design solutions were proposed in terms of product diversification and design extensions of the existing product line for increased variety. A collection of contemporary wall arts (wall decor) and room dividers were designed and developed.

Keywords: wall hanging, Solapur, contemporization, traditional, sustainable

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Authors: Nabaouia.Maktouf, Ali Ben Moussa, Saïd Turki

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This paper discusses the effect of an attached flexible membrane on the control of fluid around a circular cylinder. A parametric study has been investigated for different positions, sizes, modes as well as frequencies of oscillation of the flexible membrane. The numerical investigation was conducted for a Reynolds number equal to 150 using the commercial code Fluent 16.0 and parallel calculation into 4 processors. The motion of the flexible membrane was managed by the dynamic mesh and compiled into Fluent as a user-defined function. The first part of this paper discusses the effect of changing the position of a flexible membrane sized 8° as an angle of aperture on the aerodynamic coefficients. Results show that the flexible membrane placed at 110° from the stagnation point presents more non-linearity on the behavior of the drag coefficient compared to the drag behavior when placed at 180°, relative to the stagnation point. The effect of the size of the flexible surface was studied for the corresponding angles of aperture: 32° and 42°, respectively. The effect of modes (modes 1, 2, and 3) of vibrations has been investigated at a constant frequency of vibration f=2Hz for angles 32° and 42°. All the calculations have been done with a constant amplitude A =0.001m. A non-linearity of the drag coefficient was clearly observed for all the sizes, modes as well as frequencies of excitation. The Fast Fourier transformation shows the appearance of the natural shedding frequency and the multiples of the frequency of excitation. An increase in the modes of oscillation leads to a more linear behavior of the drag coefficient.

Keywords: fluid flow control, numerical simulation, dynamic mesh, aerodynamic forces, flexible membrane

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Authors: Judith Enriquez-Gibson

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This paper meddles with the notion of phatic communion introduced 90 years ago by Malinowski, who was a Polish-born British anthropologist. It explores the phatic in Twitter within the contents of tweets related to moocs (massive online open courses) as a topic or trend. It is not about moocs though. It is about practices that could easily be hidden or neglected if we let big or massive topics take the lead or if we simply follow the computational or secret codes behind Twitter itself and third party software analytics. It draws from media and cultural studies. Though at first it appears data-driven as I submitted data collection and analytics into the hands of a third party software, Twitonomy, the aim is to follow how phatic communion might be practised in a social media site, such as Twitter. Lurking becomes its research method to analyse mooc-related tweets. A total of 3,000 tweets were collected on 11 October 2013 (UK timezone). The emphasis of lurking is to engage with Twitter as a system of connectivity. One interesting finding is that a click is in fact a phatic practice. A click breaks the silence. A click in one of the mooc website is actually a tweet. A tweet was posted on behalf of a user who simply chose to click without formulating the text and perhaps without knowing that it contains #mooc. Surely, this mechanism is not about reciprocity. To break the silence, users did not use words. They just clicked the ‘tweet button’ on a mooc website. A click performs and maintains connectivity – and Twitter as the medium in attendance in our everyday, available when needed to be of service. In conclusion, the phatic culture of breaking silence in Twitter does not have to submit to the power of code and analytics. It is a matter of human code.

Keywords: click, Twitter, phatic communion, social media data, mooc

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Authors: Martin H¨ausl, Maximilian Auch, Johannes Forster, Peter Mandl, Alexander Schill

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In order to survive on the market, companies must constantly develop improved and new products. These products are designed to serve the needs of their customers in the best possible way. The creation of new products is also called innovation and is primarily driven by a company’s internal research and development department. However, a new approach has been taking place for some years now, involving external knowledge in the innovation process. This approach is called open innovation and identifies customer knowledge as the most important source in the innovation process. This paper presents a concept of using social media posts as an external source to support the open innovation approach in its initial phase, the Ideation phase. For this purpose, the social media posts are semantically structured with the help of an ontology and the authors are evaluated using graph-theoretical metrics such as density. For the structuring and evaluation of relevant social media posts, we also use the findings of Natural Language Processing, e. g. Named Entity Recognition, specific dictionaries, Triple Tagger and Part-of-Speech-Tagger. The selection and evaluation of the tools used are discussed in this paper. Using our ontology and metrics to structure social media posts enables users to semantically search these posts for new product ideas and thus gain an improved insight into the external sources such as customer needs.

Keywords: idea ontology, innovation management, semantic search, open information extraction

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Authors: Ruvaitha Banu, Amaladhithyan Krishnamoorthy

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IoT networks today solve various consumer problems, from home automation systems to aiding in driving autonomous vehicles with the exploration of multiple devices. For example, in an autonomous vehicle environment, multiple sensors are available on roads to monitor weather and road conditions and interact with each other to aid the vehicle in reaching its destination safely and timely. IoT systems are predominantly dependent on the cloud environment for data storage, and computing needs that result in latency problems. With the advent of Fog networks, some of this storage and computing is pushed to the edge/fog nodes, saving the network bandwidth and reducing the latency proportionally. Managing the data stored in these fog nodes becomes crucial as it might also store sensitive information required for a certain application. Data management in fog nodes is strenuous because Fog networks are dynamic in terms of their availability and hardware capability. It becomes more challenging when the nodes in the network also live a short span, detaching and joining frequently. When an end-user or Fog Node wants to access, read, or write data stored in another Fog Node, then a new protocol becomes necessary to access/manage the data stored in the fog devices as a conventional static way of managing the data doesn’t work in Fog Networks. The proposed solution discusses a protocol that acts by defining sensitivity levels for the data being written and read. Additionally, a distinct data distribution and replication model among the Fog nodes is established to decentralize the access mechanism. In this paper, the proposed model implements stewardship towards the data stored in the Fog node using the application of Reinforcement Learning so that access to the data is determined dynamically based on the requests.

Keywords: IoT, fog networks, data stewardship, dynamic access policy

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