Search results for: Farbod Sharif
59 Improving the Electrical Conductivity of Epoxy Coating Using Carbon Nanotube by Electrodeposition Method
Authors: Mahla Zabet, Navid Zanganeh, Hafez Balavi, Farbod Sharif
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Electrodeposition is a method for applying coatings with uniform thickness on complex objects. A conductive surface can be produced using the electrical current in this method. Carbon nanotubes are known to have high electrical conductivity and mechanical properties. In this report, NH2-multiwalled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) were used in epoxy resin with different weight percent. The weight percent of incorporated MWCNTS into the matrix was changed in the range of 0.6-3.6 wt% to obtain a series of electrocoatings. The electrocoats were then applied on steel substrates by a cathodic electrodeposition technique. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and optical microscopy were used to characterize the electrocoated films. The results illustrated the increase in conductivity by increasing of MWCNT load. However, at the percolation threshold, throwing power was dropped with increase in recoating ability.Keywords: electrodeposition, carbon nanotube, electrical conductivity, throwing power
Procedia PDF Downloads 41158 Effect of Aging Time on CeO2 Nanoparticle Size Distribution Synthesized via Sol-Gel Method
Authors: Navid Zanganeh, Hafez Balavi, Farbod Sharif, Mahla Zabet, Marzieh Bakhtiary Noodeh
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Cerium oxide (CeO2) also known as cerium dioxide or ceria is a pale yellow-white powder with various applications in the industry from wood coating to cosmetics, filtration, fuel cell electrolytes, gas sensors, hybrid solar cells and catalysts. In this research, attempts were made to synthesize and characterization of CeO2 nano-particles via sol-gel method. In addition, the effect of aging time on the size of particles was investigated. For this purpose, the aging times adjusted 48, 56, 64, and 72 min. The obtained particles were characterized by x-ray diffraction spectroscopy (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmitted electron microscopy (TEM), and Brunauer–Emmett–Teller (BET). As a result, XRD patterns confirmed the formation of CeO2 nanoparticles. SEM and TEM images illustrated the nano-particles with cluster shape, spherical and a nano-size range which was in agreement with XRD results. The finest particles (7.3 nm) was obtained at the optimum condition which was aging time of 48 min, calcination temperature at 400 ⁰C, and cerium concentration of 0.004 mol. Average specific surface area of the particles at optimum condition was measured by BET analysis and recorded as 47.57 m2/g.Keywords: aging time, CeO2 nanoparticles, size distribution, sol-gel
Procedia PDF Downloads 45457 Ideological Stance in Political Discourse: A Transitivity Analysis of Nawaz Sharif's Address at 71st UN Assembly
Authors: A. Nawaz
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The present study uses Halliday’s transitivity model to analyze and interpret ideological stance in PM Nawaz Sharif’s political discourse. His famous speech at the 71st UN assembly was analyzed qualitatively using clausal analysis approach to investigate the communicative functions of the linguistic choices made in the address. The study discovers that among the six process types under the transitivity model, material, relational and mental processes appear most frequently in the speech, making up almost 86% of the whole. Verbal processes rank 4th, whereas existential and behavioral are the least occurring processes covering only 2 and 1 percent respectively. The dominant use of material processes suggests that Nawaz Sharif and his government are the main actors working on several concrete projects to produce a sense of developmental progression and continuity. Using relational and mental processes the PM, along with establishing proximity with masses and especially Kashmiri, gives guarantees and promises. The linguistic analysis concludes Kashmir dispute as being the central theme of the address, since it covers more than half of the discourse. The address calls for a strong action instead of formal assurances and wishful thoughts. The study establishes that language structures can yield certain connotations and ideologies which are not overt for readers. This is in affirmation to the supposition that language form performs a communicative function and is not merely fortuitous.Keywords: Hallidian perspective on language, implicit meanings, Nawaz Sharif, political ideologies, political speeches, transitivity, UN Assembly
Procedia PDF Downloads 20956 Socio-Demographic, Cause, and Benefit of Internal and International Migration: A Case Study of Mazar-i-Sharif, Balkh Province, Afghanistan
Authors: Baqir Khawari
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Migration has a long history in Afghanistan even before, but it has been exacerbated in the last decade. Using actual household data of 1060 in Mazar-i-Sharif, the capital of Balkh province, obtained from a strictly random process, the study examined to evaluate the main causes and benefits of the migration. It is found that the main reasons for internal migration are unemployment and income inequality, in addition to war and poverty as international parameters for migration. Furthermore, the study demonstrated that households receive benefits from their migrants through remittances to increase their income and smooth consumption. Thus, the study suggests that to manage migration in Afghanistan, the government and international organizations should work together for peace and reduction of poverty in Afghanistan otherwise, the crisis of migration will continue in the future as well.Keywords: migration, remittances, socio-demographic, household, Afghanistan
Procedia PDF Downloads 7255 Improving Capability of Detecting Impulsive Noise
Authors: Farbod Rohani, Elyar Ghafoori, Matin Saeedkondori
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Impulse noise is electromagnetic emission which generated by many house hold appliances that are attached to the electrical network. The main difficulty of impulsive noise (IN) elimination process from communication channels is to distinguish it from the transmitted signal and more importantly choosing the proper threshold bandwidth in order to eliminate the signal. Because of wide band property of impulsive noise, we present a novel method for setting the detection threshold, by taking advantage of the fact that impulsive noise bandwidth is usually wider than that of typical communication channels and specifically OFDM channel. After IN detection procedure, we apply simple windowing mechanisms to eliminate them from the communication channel.Keywords: impulsive noise, OFDM channel, threshold detecting, windowing mechanisms
Procedia PDF Downloads 34054 Disaggregating and Forecasting the Total Energy Consumption of a Building: A Case Study of a High Cooling Demand Facility
Authors: Juliana Barcelos Cordeiro, Khashayar Mahani, Farbod Farzan, Mohsen A. Jafari
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Energy disaggregation has been focused by many energy companies since energy efficiency can be achieved when the breakdown of energy consumption is known. Companies have been investing in technologies to come up with software and/or hardware solutions that can provide this type of information to the consumer. On the other hand, not all people can afford to have these technologies. Therefore, in this paper, we present a methodology for breaking down the aggregate consumption and identifying the highdemanding end-uses profiles. These energy profiles will be used to build the forecast model for optimal control purpose. A facility with high cooling load is used as an illustrative case study to demonstrate the results of proposed methodology. We apply a high level energy disaggregation through a pattern recognition approach in order to extract the consumption profile of its rooftop packaged units (RTUs) and present a forecast model for the energy consumption.Keywords: energy consumption forecasting, energy efficiency, load disaggregation, pattern recognition approach
Procedia PDF Downloads 27653 Study on the Morphology and Dynamic Mechanical and Thermal Properties of HIPS/Graphene Nanocomposites
Authors: Amirhosein Rostampour, Mehdi Sharif
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In this article, a series of high impact polystyrene/graphene (HIPS/Gr) nanocomposites were prepared by solution mixing method and their morphology and dynamic mechanical properties were investigated as a function of graphene content. SEM images and X-Ray diffraction data confirm that the graphene platelets are well dispersed in HIPS matrix for the nanocomposites with Gr contents up to 5.0 wt%. Mechanical properties analysis demonstrates that yielding strength and initial modulus of HIPS/Gr nanocomposites are highly improved with the increment of Gr content compared to pure HIPS.Keywords: nanocomposite, graphene, dynamic mechanical properties, morphology
Procedia PDF Downloads 53552 The Faithful Extension of Constant Height and Constant Width Between Finite Posets
Authors: Walied Hazim Sharif
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The problem of faithful extension with the condition of keeping constant height h and constant width w, i.e. for h w -inextensibility, seems more interesting than the brute extension of finite poset (partially ordered set). We shall investigate some theorems of hw-inextensive and hw-exrensive posets that can be used to formulate the faithful extension problem. A theorem in its general form of hw-inextensive posets is given to implement the presented theorems.Keywords: faithful extension, poset, extension, inextension, height, width, hw-extensive, hw-inextensive
Procedia PDF Downloads 38351 A Primer to the Learning Readiness Assessment to Raise the Sharing of E-Health Knowledge amongst Libyan Nurses
Authors: Mohamed Elhadi M. Sharif, Mona Masood
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The usage of e-health facilities is seen to be the first priority by the Libyan government. As such, this paper focuses on how the key factors or elements of working size in terms of technological availability, structural environment, and other competence-related matters may affect nurses’ sharing of knowledge in e-health. Hence, this paper investigates learning readiness assessment to raise e-health for Libyan regional hospitals by using e-health services in nursing education.Keywords: Libyan nurses, e-learning readiness, e-health, nursing education
Procedia PDF Downloads 49250 Faithful Extension of Constant Height and Constant Width between Finite Posets
Authors: Walied Hazim Sharif
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The problem of faithful extension with the condition of keeping constant height h and constant width w, i.e. for hw-inextensibility, seems more interesting than the brute extension of finite poset (partially ordered set). We shall investigate some theorems of hw-inextensive and hw-extensive posets that can be used to formulate the faithful extension problem. A theorem in its general form of hw-inextensive posets are given to implement the presented theorems.Keywords: faithful extension, poset, extension, inextension, height, width, hw-extensive, hw-inextensive
Procedia PDF Downloads 25849 An Efficient Approach to Optimize the Cost and Profit of a Tea Garden by Using Branch and Bound Method
Authors: Abu Hashan Md Mashud, M. Sharif Uddin, Aminur Rahman Khan
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In this paper, we formulate a new problem as a linear programming and Integer Programming problem and maximize profit within the limited budget and limited resources based on the construction of a tea garden problem. It describes a new idea about how to optimize profit and focuses on the practical aspects of modeling and the challenges of providing a solution to a complex real life problem. Finally, a comparative study is carried out among Graphical method, Simplex method and Branch and bound method.Keywords: integer programming, tea garden, graphical method, simplex method, branch and bound method
Procedia PDF Downloads 62148 Flood Scenarios for Hydrological and Hydrodynamic Modelling
Authors: M. Sharif Imam Ibne Amir, Mohammad Masud Kamal Khan, Mohammad Golam Rasul, Raj H. Sharma, Fatema Akram
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Future flood can be predicted using the probable maximum flood (PMF). PMF is calculated using the historical discharge or rainfall data considering the other climatic parameter stationary. However, climate is changing globally and the key climatic variables are temperature, evaporation, rainfall and sea level rise (SLR). To develop scenarios to a basin or catchment scale these important climatic variables should be considered. Nowadays scenario based on climatic variables is more suitable than PMF. Six scenarios were developed for a large Fitzroy basin and presented in this paper.Keywords: climate change, rainfall, potential evaporation, scenario, sea level rise (SLR), sub-catchment
Procedia PDF Downloads 53047 Self-Esteem, Self-Efficacy and Psychological Distress among the High School Teachers in Afghanistan
Authors: Mustafa Jahanara
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The purpose of the research was to study the relationship between self-esteem, self-Efficacy with psychological distress in the high school teachers. A total of 245 teachers (92 male and 153 female) in the high school of Kabul and Mazar-e-Sharif from Afghanistan completed inventories General Self-Efficacy, Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale, and General Health Questionnaire-12 and that assessed their Self-Efficacy, self-esteem with psychological distress. Correlational analysis showed that self-efficacy and self-esteem were significantly and positively correlated with each other. The results of the study indicated that psychological distress is negatively related to self-esteem, and self-efficacy. However, the findings suggest that self-esteem, and self-efficacy could influence on mental health.Keywords: high school teachers, self-esteem, self-efficacy, psychological distress
Procedia PDF Downloads 37246 The Impact of Migrants’ Remittances on Household Poverty and Income Inequality: A case Study of Mazar-i-Sharif, Balkh Province, Afghanistan
Authors: Baqir Khawari
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This study critically examines the influence of remittances on household poverty and income inequality in Mazar-i-Sharif, Balkh Province, Afghanistan, utilizing robust OLS and Logit models with a rigorous multi-random sampling method. The empirical findings reveal that a 1% increase in per capita international remittances is associated with a substantial 0.071% and 0.059% rise in per capita income during the fiscal years 2019/20 and 2020/21, respectively. Furthermore, this increase significantly mitigates the per capita depth of poverty by 0.0272% and 0.025% and the severity of poverty by 0.0149% and 0.0145% over the same periods. Notably, the impact of international remittances on poverty alleviation surpasses that of internal remittances. In addressing income inequality, the analysis demonstrates that remittances contribute to a reduction in the Gini coefficient by 2% in 2019/20 and 7% in 2020/21, underscoring their pivotal role in promoting equitable economic distribution. However, the COVID-19 pandemic has posed significant challenges, diminishing remittance flows and, consequently, their positive effects on household welfare. The logistic regression results further corroborate these findings, indicating that increased per capita remittances, both international and internal, markedly decrease the likelihood of households falling below the poverty line. Specifically, a 1% rise in per capita external remittances reduces this likelihood by 4.5% in 2019/20 and by 3.7% in 2020/21, while internal remittances decrease it by 3% and 2.4%, respectively. The study also explores the demographic determinants of poverty. Larger household sizes and older household heads correlate positively with poverty, whereas higher education levels among household heads and members, and a greater proportion of male members, correlate negatively with poverty incidence and severity. Female-headed households are disproportionately affected by poverty, exacerbated by socio-cultural restrictions. Despite these adversities, the data suggest that remittances are a crucial instrument for poverty alleviation and income inequality reduction in Afghanistan. The findings advocate for policy interventions aimed at enhancing formal remittance channels, promoting education, and empowering women. Effective governance and sustained international assistance are essential to harness the full potential of remittances in combating poverty and inequality. This study highlights the need for strategic, multifaceted approaches to foster sustainable economic development in Afghanistan’s challenging socio-political context.Keywords: migration, remittances, poverty, inequality, COVID-19, Afghanistan
Procedia PDF Downloads 3345 Blockchain Technology Applications in Patient Tracking Systems Regarding Privacy-Preserving Concerns and COVID-19 Pandemic
Authors: Farbod Behnaminia, Saeed Samet
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The COVID-19 pandemic has paralyzed many lives until a vaccine was available, which caused the so-called “new normal.” According to the World Health Organization (WHO), COVID-19 is an infectious disease. It can cause significant illness or death in anyone. Governments and health officials tried to impose rules and regulations to avoid and slow down transmission. Therefore, software engineers worldwide developed applications to trace and track patients’ movements and notify others, mainly using Bluetooth. In this way, everyone could be informed whether they come in close contact with someone who has COVID-19 and takes proper safety precautions. Because most of the applications use technologies that can potentially reveal the user’s identity and location, researchers have debated privacy preservation and how to improve user privacy during such pandemics. Thanks to Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT), there have been some proposed methods to develop privacy-preserving Patient Tracking Systems in the last two years. As an instance of the DLT, Blockchain is like a decentralized peer-to-peer database that maintains a record of transactions. Transactions are immutable, transparent, and anonymous in this system. We conducted a comprehensive evaluation of the literature by looking for papers in the relevant field and dividing them into pre- and post-pandemic systems. Additionally, we discussed the many uses of blockchain technology in pandemic control. We found that two major obstacles facing blockchain implementation across many healthcare systems are scalability and privacy. The Polkadot platform is presented, along with a review of its efficacy in tackling current concerns. A more scalable healthcare system is achievable in the near future using Polkadot as well as a much more privacy-preserving environment.Keywords: blockchain, electronic record management, EHR, privacy-preserving, patient tracking, COVID-19, trust and confidence, Polkadot
Procedia PDF Downloads 10044 Construction Technology of Modified Vacuum Pre-Loading Method for Slurry Dredged Soil
Authors: Ali H. Mahfouz, Gao Ming-Jun, Mohamad Sharif
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Slurry dredged soil at coastal area has a high water content, poor permeability, and low surface intensity. Hence, it is infeasible to use vacuum preloading method to treat this type of soil foundation. For the special case of super soft ground, a floating bridge is first constructed on muddy soil and used as a service road and platform for implementing the modified vacuum preloading method. The modified technique of vacuum preloading and its construction process for the super soft soil foundation improvement is then studied. Application of modified vacuum preloading method shows that the technology and its construction process are highly suitable for improving the super soft soil foundation in coastal areas.Keywords: super soft foundation, dredger fill, vacuum preloading, foundation treatment, construction technology
Procedia PDF Downloads 60743 Clustering for Detection of the Population at Risk of Anticholinergic Medication
Authors: A. Shirazibeheshti, T. Radwan, A. Ettefaghian, G. Wilson, C. Luca, Farbod Khanizadeh
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Anticholinergic medication has been associated with events such as falls, delirium, and cognitive impairment in older patients. To further assess this, anticholinergic burden scores have been developed to quantify risk. A risk model based on clustering was deployed in a healthcare management system to cluster patients into multiple risk groups according to anticholinergic burden scores of multiple medicines prescribed to patients to facilitate clinical decision-making. To do so, anticholinergic burden scores of drugs were extracted from the literature, which categorizes the risk on a scale of 1 to 3. Given the patients’ prescription data on the healthcare database, a weighted anticholinergic risk score was derived per patient based on the prescription of multiple anticholinergic drugs. This study was conducted on over 300,000 records of patients currently registered with a major regional UK-based healthcare provider. The weighted risk scores were used as inputs to an unsupervised learning algorithm (mean-shift clustering) that groups patients into clusters that represent different levels of anticholinergic risk. To further evaluate the performance of the model, any association between the average risk score within each group and other factors such as socioeconomic status (i.e., Index of Multiple Deprivation) and an index of health and disability were investigated. The clustering identifies a group of 15 patients at the highest risk from multiple anticholinergic medication. Our findings also show that this group of patients is located within more deprived areas of London compared to the population of other risk groups. Furthermore, the prescription of anticholinergic medicines is more skewed to female than male patients, indicating that females are more at risk from this kind of multiple medications. The risk may be monitored and controlled in well artificial intelligence-equipped healthcare management systems.Keywords: anticholinergic medicines, clustering, deprivation, socioeconomic status
Procedia PDF Downloads 20942 Sleep Tracking AI Application in Smart-Watches
Authors: Sumaiya Amir Khan, Shayma Al-Sharif, Samiha Mazher, Neha Intikhab Khan
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This research paper aims to evaluate the effectiveness of sleep-tracking AI applications in smart-watches. It focuses on comparing the sleep analyses of two different smartwatch brands, Samsung and Fitbit, and measuring sleep at three different stages – REM (Rapid-Eye-Movement), NREM (Non-Rapid-Eye-Movement), and deep sleep. The methodology involves the participation of different users and analyzing their sleep data. The results reveal that although light sleep is the longest stage, deep sleep is higher than average in the participants. The study also suggests that light sleep is not uniform, and getting higher levels of deep sleep can prevent debilitating health conditions. Based on the findings, it is recommended that individuals should aim to achieve higher levels of deep sleep to maintain good health. Overall, this research contributes to the growing literature on the effectiveness of sleep-tracking AI applications and their potential to improve sleep quality.Keywords: sleep tracking, lifestyle, accuracy, health, AI, AI features, ML
Procedia PDF Downloads 7941 Heat Recovery System from Air-Cooled Chillers in Iranian Hospitals
Authors: Saeed Vahidifar, Mohammad Nakhaee Sharif, Mohammad Ghaffari
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Few people would dispute the fact that one of the most common applications of energy is creating comfort in buildings, so it is probably true to say that management of energy consumption is required due to the environmental issues and increasing the efficiency of mechanical systems. From the geographical point of view, Iran is located in a warm and semi-arid region; therefore, air-cooled chillers are usually used for cooling residential buildings, commercial buildings, medical buildings, etc. In this study, a heat exchanger was designed for providing laundry hot water by utilizing condenser heat lost base on analytical results of a 540-bed hospital in the city of Mashhad in Iran. In this paper, by using the analytical method, energy consumption reduces about 13%, and coefficient of performance increases a bit. Results show that this method can help in the management of energy consumption a lot.Keywords: air cooled chiller, energy management, environmental issues, heat exchanger, hospital laundry system
Procedia PDF Downloads 15940 A Case Study on English Camp in UNISSA: An Approach towards Interactive Learning Outside the Classroom
Authors: Liza Mariah Hj. Azahari
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This paper will look at a case study on English Camp which was an activity coordinated at the Sultan Sharif Ali Islamic University in 2011. English Camp is a fun and motivation filled activity which brings students and teachers together outside of the classroom setting into a more diverse environment. It also enables teacher and students to gain proximate time together for a mutual purpose which is to explore the language in a more dynamic and relaxed way. First of all, the study will look into the background of English Camp, and how it was introduced and implemented from different contexts. Thereafter, it will explain the objectives of the English Camp coordinated at our university, UNISSA, and what types of activities were conducted. It will then evaluate the effectiveness of the camp as to what extent it managed to meet its motto, which was to foster dynamic interactive learning of English Language. To conclude, the paper presents a potential for further research on the topic as well as a guideline for educators who wish to coordinate the activity. Proposal for collaboration in this activity is further highlighted and encouraged within the paper for future implementation and endeavor.Keywords: English camp, UNISSA, interactive learning, outside
Procedia PDF Downloads 56839 The Impact of Migrants’ Remittances on Household Poverty and Inequality: A Case Study of Mazar-i-Sharif, Balkh Province, Afghanistan
Authors: Baqir Khawari
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This study has been undertaken to investigate the impact of remittances on household poverty and inequality using OLS and Logit Models with a strictly multi-random sampling method. The result of the OLS model reveals that if the per capita international remittances increase by 1%, then it is estimated that the per capita income will increase by 0.071% and 0.059% during 2019/20 and 2020/21, respectively. In addition, a 1% increase in external remittances results in a 0.0272% and 0.025% reduction in per capita depth of poverty and a 0.0149% and 0.0145% decrease in severity of poverty during 2019/20 and 2020/21, respectively. It is also shown that the effect of external remittances on poverty is greater than internal remittances. In terms of inequality, the result represents that remittances reduced the Gini coefficient by 2% and 7% during 2019/20 and 2020/21, respectively. Further, it is bold that COVID-19 negatively impacts the amount of received remittances by households, thus resulting in a reduction in the size of the effect of remittances. Therefore, a concerted effort of effective policies and governance and international assistance is imperative to address this prolonged problem.Keywords: migration, remittances, poverty, inequality, COVID-19, Afghanistan
Procedia PDF Downloads 6638 GSM and GPS Based Smart Helmet System for Sudden Accidental Rescue Operation
Authors: A. B. M. Aftabuzzaman, Md. Mahin Hossain, Md. Ifran Sharif Imthi, Md. Razu Ahmed, A. Z. M. Imran
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The goals of the study are to develop a safety system that is combined with a smart helmet to reduce the likelihood of two-wheeler bike accidents and cases of drunk driving. The smart helmet and the limit switch both verify when a biker is wearing a helmet. The presence of alcohol in the rider's breath is detected using alcohol sensors. The bike remains turned off if the rider is not wearing a helmet or if the rider's breath contains alcohol. The bike will not start until the rider is wearing a helmet and there is no alcoholic substance present, indicating that the bike rider has not consumed alcohol. When the rider faces in an accident, instantly the smart helmet hits the ground and respective sensors detect the movement and tilt of the protective helmet and instantly sending the information about the location of accident to the rider's relatives and the crisis contact numbers which are introduced in the smart helmet respective device. So this project finding will ensure safe bike journey and improve safe commercial bike services in Bangladesh.Keywords: smart helmet, GSM, GPS, bike, biker accident
Procedia PDF Downloads 10437 Urban Land Expansion Impact Assessment on Agriculture Land in Kabul City, Afghanistan
Authors: Ahmad Sharif Ahmadi, Yoshitaka Kajita
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Kabul city is experiencing urban land expansion in an unprecedented scale, especially since the last decade. With massive population expansion and fast economic development, urban land has increasingly expanded and encroached upon agriculture land during the urbanization history of the city. This paper evaluates the integrated urban land expansion impact on agriculture land in Kabul city since the formation of the basic structure of the city between 1962-1964. The paper studies the temporal and spatial characteristic of agriculture land and agriculture land loss in Kabul city using geographic information system (GIS) and remote sensing till 2008. Many temporal Landsat Thematic Mapper (TM) imageries were interpreted to detect the temporal and spatial characteristics of agriculture land loss. Different interval study periods, however, had vast difference in the agriculture land loss which is due to the urban land expansion trends in the city. the high number of Agriculture land adjacent to the city center and urban fringe have been converted into urban land during the study period in the city, as the agriculture land is highly correlated with the urban land.Keywords: agriculture land, agriculture land loss, Kabul city, urban land expansion, urbanization
Procedia PDF Downloads 41036 Characterization of Nanoemulsion Incorporating Crude Cocoa Polyphenol
Authors: Suzannah Sharif, Aznie Aida Ahmad, Maznah Ismail
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Cocoa bean is the raw material for products such as cocoa powder and chocolate. Cocoa bean contains polyphenol which has been shown in several clinical studies to confer beneficial health effects. However studies showed that cocoa polyphenol absorption in the human intestinal tracts are very low. Therefore nanoemulsion may be one way to increase the bioavailability of cocoa polyphenol. This study aim to characterize nanoemulsion incorporating crude cocoa polyphenol produced using high energy technique. Cocoa polyphenol was extracted from fresh freeze-dried cocoa beans from Malaysia. The particle distribution, particle size, and zeta potential were determined. The emulsion was also analysed using transmission electron microscope to visualize the particles. Solubilization study was conducted by titrating the nanoemulsion into distilled water or 1% surfactant solution. Result showed that the nanoemulsion contains particle which have narrow size distribution. The particles size average at 112nm with zeta potential of -45mV. The nanoemulsions behave differently in distilled water and surfactant solution.Keywords: cocoa, nanoemulsion, cocoa polyphenol, solubilisation study
Procedia PDF Downloads 46535 The Necessity of Screening for Internalizing Mental Health Problems in Primary School Educational Settings
Authors: Atefeh Ahmadi, Mohamed Sharif Mustaffa
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Mental health problems that children introspect them are hardly identified. The internalizing nature of Anxiety Disorders as the most prevalent psychological diseases, make them been under recognized by parents and teachers and so become under attended by school counsellors and subsequently under referred to clinicians. The aim of this study is to investigate the level of Anxiety Disorders to clarify if it is necessary to run screening programs in rural educational settings. Spence children anxiety scale-malay-child for the first time in Malaysia distributed among 640 Malay rural primary school students aged from 9-11 years old. Cut-off score was considered one standard deviation more than the mean of all students’ scores. The results of descriptive analyses revealed the mean for scores of SCAS was 32.84 and 15.6% of students had high level of anxiety. In addition, the level and prevalence of six types of anxiety disorders based on SCAS were described. In regards to the study outcomes, screening for anxiety disorders in academic settings could prevent and reduce their side effects by early identification.Keywords: anxiety disorders, primary schools, SCAS, screening
Procedia PDF Downloads 29934 Neurofeedback Applications for Dealing With Depression for Illegitimate Pregnant Teens: A Thesis Proposal
Authors: Mohamad Sharif bin Mustaffa, Maizatul Akmam binti Abu Bakar, Mohd Harriszamani bin Abu Bakar
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Most teens who gave birth to an illegitimate child will suffer from depression. This depression issues arising from the incident itself which contains the teen will feel ashamed because labeled as immoral, apart from that most teenagers go through this episode without support from their spouse or family. Teens also face the possibility of a large part with the will be born babies because the issue of too young and needs to go back to school. Teens also can not make a decision on the future of the baby later because they are too immature and no baby care skills other than financial issues, where young people themselves are still dependent on their family. This paper will look at how to apply neurofeedback can be used to see the level of depression experienced by teenagers who get pregnant out of wedlock. Play therapy that will help improve adolescent focus will be used for this purpose. Each level experienced by teenagers going through the phase of easy-to-high difficulty level. Apart from that a recovery module will also be developed as a whole to reduce the level of depression to enable the youth to perform routine healthy activities and can go back to school with cheerful feeling, motivated and active.Keywords: neurofeedback, depression, pregnant, adolescent, illegitimate
Procedia PDF Downloads 43533 A Hybrid Digital Watermarking Scheme
Authors: Nazish Saleem Abbas, Muhammad Haris Jamil, Hamid Sharif
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Digital watermarking is a technique that allows an individual to add and hide secret information, copyright notice, or other verification message inside a digital audio, video, or image. Today, with the advancement of technology, modern healthcare systems manage patients’ diagnostic information in a digital way in many countries. When transmitted between hospitals through the internet, the medical data becomes vulnerable to attacks and requires security and confidentiality. Digital watermarking techniques are used in order to ensure the authenticity, security and management of medical images and related information. This paper proposes a watermarking technique that embeds a watermark in medical images imperceptibly and securely. In this work, digital watermarking on medical images is carried out using the Least Significant Bit (LSB) with the Discrete Cosine Transform (DCT). The proposed methods of embedding and extraction of a watermark in a watermarked image are performed in the frequency domain using LSB by XOR operation. The quality of the watermarked medical image is measured by the Peak signal-to-noise ratio (PSNR). It was observed that the watermarked medical image obtained performing XOR operation between DCT and LSB survived compression attack having a PSNR up to 38.98.Keywords: watermarking, image processing, DCT, LSB, PSNR
Procedia PDF Downloads 4632 Determination of Nanomolar Mercury (II) by Using Multi-Walled Carbon Nanotubes Modified Carbon Zinc/Aluminum Layered Double Hydroxide – 3 (4-Methoxyphenyl) Propionate Nanocomposite Paste Electrode
Authors: Illyas Md Isa, Sharifah Norain Mohd Sharif, Norhayati Hashima
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A mercury(II) sensor was developed by using multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) paste electrode modified with Zn/Al layered double hydroxide-3(4-methoxyphenyl)propionate nanocomposite (Zn/Al-HMPP). The optimum conditions by cyclic voltammetry were observed at electrode composition 2.5% (w/w) of Zn/Al-HMPP/MWCNTs, 0.4 M potassium chloride, pH 4.0, and scan rate of 100 mVs-1. The sensor exhibited wide linear range from 1x10-3 M to 1x10-7 M Hg2+ and 1x10-7 M to 1x10-9 M Hg2+, with a detection limit of 1x10-10 M Hg2+. The high sensitivity of the proposed electrode towards Hg(II) was confirmed by double potential-step chronocoulometry which indicated these values; diffusion coefficient 1.5445 x 10-9 cm2 s-1, surface charge 524.5 µC s-½ and surface coverage 4.41 x 10-2 mol cm-2. The presence of 25-fold concentration of most metal ions had no influence on the anodic peak current. With characteristics such as high sensitivity, selectivity and repeatability the electrode was then proposed as the appropriate alternative for the determination of mercury(II).Keywords: cyclic voltammetry, mercury(II), modified carbon paste electrode, nanocomposite
Procedia PDF Downloads 30731 Determination of Nanomolar Mercury (II) by Using Multi-Walled Carbon Nanotubes Modified Carbon Zinc/Aluminum Layered Double Hydroxide-3(4-Methoxyphenyl) Propionate Nanocomposite Paste Electrode
Authors: Illyas Md Isa, Sharifah Norain Mohd Sharif, Norhayati Hashim
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A mercury(II) sensor was developed by using multi-walled carbon nano tubes (MWCNTs) paste electrode modified with Zn/Al layered double hydroxide-3(4-methoxyphenyl) propionate nano composite (Zn/Al-HMPP). The optimum conditions by cyclic voltammetry were observed at electrode composition 2.5% (w/w) of Zn/Al-HMPP/MWCNTs, 0.4 M potassium chloride, pH 4.0, and scan rate of 100 mVs-1. The sensor exhibited wide linear range from 1x10-3 M to 1x10-7 M Hg2+ and 1x10-7 M to 1x10-9 M Hg2+, with a detection limit of 1 x 10-10 M Hg2+. The high sensitivity of the proposed electrode towards Hg(II) was confirmed by double potential-step chronocoulometry which indicated these values; diffusion coefficient 1.5445 x 10-9 cm2 s-1, surface charge 524.5 µC s-½ and surface coverage 4.41 x 10-2 mol cm-2. The presence of 25-fold concentration of most metal ions had no influence on the anodic peak current. With characteristics such as high sensitivity, selectivity and repeatability the electrode was then proposed as the appropriate alternative for the determination of mercury.Keywords: Cyclic voltammetry, Mercury(II), Modified carbon paste electrode, Nanocomposite
Procedia PDF Downloads 43230 Constraints Women Academician's Participation at Administrative Positions in Higher Education of Developing Countries
Authors: Bahieh Mohajeri, Mohamad Sharif Mustaf, Mahani Mokhtar
Abstract:
Purpose: This paper attempts to set the stage for the exploration of female participation in administrative positions within non-western countries by reviewing the studies on female in administrative positions within non-western countries and suggesting guidelines for future studies in this area in developing countries. Methodology: The paper is based on a systematic review of papers that have been published in journals. Findings: The review focuses on constraints to female’s participation in higher education of developing countries (e.g. strong family responsibility, low levels of women faculty members, social values and gendered cultural factors). Practical Implications: Further guidelines for future examination of this field of study are suggested (e.g. adopting a different theoretical view).Value: The article is an initial attempt to gather knowledge about constraints of female administrators in higher education of developing countries. The subject has received less attention in studies on administration and gender. In addition, the article provides suggestions for future studies in order to understand women administrators’ experiences in different educational and cultural settings.Keywords: administrative position, female administrator, developing countries, participation
Procedia PDF Downloads 258