Search results for: cooperative communication system

Authors: Shu-Hsi Ho

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The problems of aging and number of widowed peers gradually rise in Taiwan. It is worth to concern the related issues for elderly after the death of a spouse. Hence, this study is to examine the impact of spousal death on the surviving spouse’s self-perceived health and mental health for the elderly in Taiwan. A cross section data design and ordered logistic regression models are applied to investigate whether marriage is associated significantly to self-perceived health and mental health for the widowed older Taiwanese. The results indicate that widowed marriage shows significant negative effects on self-perceived health and mental health regardless of widows or widowers. Among them, widows might be more likely to show worse mental health than widowers. The belief confirms that marriage provides effective sources to promote self-perceived health and mental health, particularly for females. In addition, since the social welfare system is not perfect in Taiwan, the findings also suggest that family and social support reveal strongly association with the self-perceived health and mental health for the widows and widowers elderly.

Keywords: logistic regression models, self-perceived health, widow, widower

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Authors: Vladimir A. Rozov

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Comparative studies of religion and ritual could contribute better understanding of human culture universalities. Belief in supernatural beings seems to be a common feature of the religion. A significant part of the Islamic concepts that concern supernatural beings is based on a tradition based on the Hadiths. They reflect, among other things, his ideas about a proper way to interact with supernatural beings. These ideas to a large extent follow from the pre-Islamic religious experience of the Arabs and had been reflected in a number of ritual actions. Some of those beliefs concern a particular function of clothing. For example, it is known that Muhammad was wrapped in clothes during the revelation of the Quran. The same thing was performed by pre-Islamic soothsayers (kāhin) and by rival opponents of Muhammad during their trances. Muhammad also turned the clothes inside out during religious rituals (prayer for rain). Besides these specific ways of clothing which prove the external similarity of Muhammad with the soothsayers and other people who claimed the connection with supernatural forces, the pre-Islamic soothsayers had another characteristic feature which is physical flaws. In this regard, it is worth to note Muhammad's so-called "Seal the Prophecy" (h̠ ātam an- nubūwwa) -protrusion or outgrowth on his back. Another interesting feature of Muhammad's behavior was his attitude to eating onion and garlic. In particular, the Prophet didn`t eat them and forbade people who had tasted these vegetables to enter mosques, until the smell ceases to be felt. The reason for this ban on eating onion and garlic is caused by a belief that the smell of these products prevents communication with otherworldly forces. The materials of the Hadith also suggest that Muhammad shared faith in the apotropical properties of water. Both of these ideas have parallels in other cultures of the world. Muhammad's actions supposed to provide an interaction with the supernatural beings are not accidental. They have parallels in the culture of pre-Islamic Arabia as well as in many past and present world cultures. The latter fact can be explained by the similarity of the universal human beliefs in supernatural beings and how they should be interacted with. Later a number of similar ideas shared by the Prophet Muhammad was legitimized by the Islamic tradition and formed the basis of popular Islamic rituals. Thus, these parallels emphasize the commonality of human notions of supernatural beings and also demonstrate the significance of the pre-Islamic cultural context in analyzing the genesis of Islamic religious beliefs.

Keywords: hadith, Prophet Muhammad, ritual, supernatural beings

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Authors: E. Njuguna, S. Ilovi, P. Muiruri, K. Mutai, J. Kinuthia, P. Njoroge

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Introduction: Cervical cancer is the commonest cause of cancer-related morbidity and mortality among women in developing countries in Sub Saharan Africa. Screening for cervical cancer in all women regardless of HIV status is crucial for the early detection of cancer of the cervix when treatment is most effective in curing the disease. It is particularly more important to screen HIV infected women as they are more at risk of developing the disease and progressing faster once infected with HPV (Human Papilloma Virus). We aimed to determine the factors affecting the utilization of cervical cancer screenings among HIV infected women above 18 years of age at Kenyatta National Hospital (KNH) Comprehensive Care Center (CCC). Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional mixed quantitative and qualitative study involving randomly and purposefully selected HIV positive female respectively was conducted. Qualitative data collection involved 4 focus group discussions of eligible female participants while quantitative data were acquired by one to one interviewer administered structured questionnaires. The outcome variable was the utilization of cervical cancer screening. Data were entered into Access data base and analyzed using Stata version 11.1. Qualitative data were analyzed after coding for significant clauses and transcribing to determine themes arising. Results: We enrolled a total of 387 patients, mean age (IQ range) 40 years (36-44). Cervical cancer screening utilization was 46% despite a health care provider recommendation of 85%. The screening results were reported as normal in 72 of 81 (88.9%) and abnormal 7 of 81(8.6%) of the cases. Those who did not know their result were 2 of 81(2.5%). Patients were less likely to utilize the service with increasing number of years attending the clinic (OR 0.9, 95% CI 0.86-0.99, p-value 0.02), but more likely to utilize the service if recommendation by a staff was made (OR 10, 95% CI 4.2-23.9, p<0.001), and if cervical screening had been done before joining KNH CCC (OR 2.9, 95% CI 1.7-4.9, p < 0.001). Similarly, they were more likely to rate the services on cervical cancer screening as good (OR 5.0, 95% CI 1.7-3.4, p <0.001) and very good (OR 8.1, 95% CI 2.5-6.1, p<0.001) if they had utilized the service. The main barrier themes emerging from qualitative data included fear of screening due to excessive pain or bleeding, lack of proper communication on screening procedures and increased waiting time. Conclusions: Utilization of cervical cancer screening services was low despite health care recommendation. Patient socio-demographic characteristics did not influence whether or not they utilized the services, indicating the important role of the health care provider in the referral and provision of the service.

Keywords: cervical, cancer, HIV, women, comprehensive care center

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Authors: S. Rida, O. Saadani Hassani, Q. R’zina, N. Saadaoui, K. Fares

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Wastewater treatment stations create large quantities of sludge, whose treatment is poorly underestimated in the draft installation. However, chemical analysis of sludge reveals their important concentration in fertilizer elements including nitrogen and phosphorus. The direct application of sludge can reveal contamination of the food chain because of their chemical and organic micropollutants load. Therefore, there is a need of treatment process before use. The treatment by composting of this sludge mixed with three different proportions of sugar beet lime sludge (0%, 20%,30%) and green waste permits to obtain a stable compost rich in mineral elements, having a pleasant smell and relatively hygienic. In addition, the use of compost in agriculture positively affects the plant-soil system. Thus, this study shows that the supply of compost improves the physical properties of the soil and its agronomic quality, which results in an increase in the biomass of cultivated radish plants and a larger crop.

Keywords: agriculture, composting, soil, sugar beet lime, wastewater

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Authors: Ewa Toloczko

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Studies show that developing writing skills throughout years of formal foreign language instruction does not necessarily result in rewarding accomplishments among learners, nor an affirmative attitude they build towards written assignments. What causes this apparently wide-spread bias to writing might be a diminished relevance students attach to it, as opposed to the other productive skill — speaking, insufficient resources available for them to succeed, or the ways writing is approached by instructors, that is inapt teaching techniques that discourage rather that inflame learners’ engagement. The assumption underlying this presentation is that psychological and psycholinguistic factors constitute a key dimension of every writing process, and hence should be seriously considered in both material design and lesson planning. The author intends to demonstrate research in which writing tasks were conceived of as attitudinal rather than technical operations, and consequently turned into meaningful and socially-oriented incidents that students could relate to and have an active hand in. The instrument employed to achieve this purpose and to make writing even more interactive was the format of a project, a carefully devised series of tasks, which involved students as human beings, not only language learners. The projects rested upon the premise that the presence of peers and the teacher in class could be taken advantage of in a supportive rather than evaluative mode. In fact, the research showed that collaborative work and constant meaning negotiation reinforced not only bonds between learners, but also the language form and structure of the output. Accordingly, the role of the teacher shifted from the assessor to problem barometer, always ready to accept the slightest improvements in students’ language performance. This way, written verbal communication, which usually aims to merely manifest accuracy and coherent content for assessment, became part of the enterprise meant to emphasise its social aspect — the writer in real-life setting. The samples of projects show the spectrum of possibilities teachers have when exploring the domain of writing within school curriculum. The ideas are easy to modify and adjust to all proficiency levels and ages. Initially, however, they were meant to suit teenage and young adult learners of English as a foreign language in both European and Asian contexts.

Keywords: projects, psycholinguistic/ psychological dimension of writing, writing as a social enterprise, writing skills, written assignments

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Authors: Rana I. Abdulghani, Amera I. Melhum

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With the abnormal growth of the usage of computers over networks and under the consideration or agreement of most of the computer security experts who said that the goal of building a secure system is never achieved effectively, all these points led to the design of the intrusion detection systems(IDS). This research adopts a comparison between two techniques for network intrusion detection, The first one used the (Particles Swarm Optimization) that fall within the field (Swarm Intelligence). In this Act, the algorithm Enhanced for the purpose of obtaining the minimum error rate by amending the cluster centers when better fitness function is found through the training stages. Results show that this modification gives more efficient exploration of the original algorithm. The second algorithm used a (Back propagation NN) algorithm. Finally a comparison between the results of two methods used were based on (NSL_KDD) data sets for the construction and evaluation of intrusion detection systems. This research is only interested in clustering the two categories (Normal and Abnormal) for the given connection records. Practices experiments result in intrude detection rate (99.183818%) for EPSO and intrude detection rate (69.446416%) for BP neural network.

Keywords: IDS, SI, BP, NSL_KDD, PSO

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Authors: K. Mehmood, Muhammad Asif Rafiq, A. Nasir Khan, M. Mudassar Rauf

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Air plasma spraying system was utilized to deposit Ni3Al coatings on AISI 321 steel samples. After thermal spraying, the nickel aluminide intermetallic coatings were isothermal heat treated at various temperatures. In this regard, temperatures from 500 °C to 800 °C with 100 °C increments were selected. The coatings were soaked for 10, 30, 60 and 100 hours at the mentioned temperatures. These coatings were then tested by a pin on disk method. It was observed that the coatings exposed at comparatively higher temperature experienced lower wear rate. The decrease in wear rate is due to the formation of NiO phase. Further, the as sprayed and heat treated coatings were characterized by other tools such as Microhardness testing, optical and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and X-Ray diffraction analysis. After isothermal heat treatment, NiO was observed the main phase by X-Ray diffraction technique. Moreover, the surface hardness was also determined higher than cross sectional hardness.

Keywords: air plasma spraying, Ni -20Al, tribometer, intermetallic coating, nickel aluminide

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Authors: Aldona Anna Osajda

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Suicide is a phenomenon that worries both the public and scientists in various fields. In society, suicide is a taboo subject, and in addition, there are many myths and stereotypes that are detrimental to the proper understanding and appropriate response of a person at risk of suicide. It is necessary to educate society and the suicide prevention system for various age groups. The research covers the level of knowledge and views of Polish society, including teachers and youth, regarding suicides. The main research problem is to establish the level of awareness of Polish society about the phenomenon of suicides. The study will be based on the diagnostic survey method, using the survey technique. Information about the research will be disseminated electronically on the Internet via social messaging. The collected data will be analyzed using appropriate statistics. On the basis of the obtained results, answers will be given to research questions, which will become the basis for designing an appropriate educational strategy for the society in the field of suicide and developing recommendations and recommendations for teachers to conduct classes in the field of suicide prevention for children and adolescents.

Keywords: phenomenon of suicides, suicide, suicide prevention, suicidology

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Authors: Marisa Almeida AraúJo

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Artificial intelligence (AI) tools are being used (including in the criminal justice system) and becomingincreasingly popular. The many questions that these (future) super-beings pose the neuralgic center is rooted in the (old) problematic between rationality and morality. For instance, if we follow a Kantian perspective in which morality derives from AI, rationality will also surpass man in ethical and moral standards, questioning the nature of mind, the conscience of self and others, and moral. The recognition of superior intelligence in a non-human being puts us in the contingency of having to recognize a pair in a form of new coexistence and social relationship. Just think of the humanoid robot Sophia, capable of reasoning and conversation (and who has been recognized for Saudi citizenship; a fact that symbolically demonstrates our empathy with the being). Machines having a more intelligent mind, and even, eventually, with higher ethical standards to which, in the alluded categorical imperative, we would have to subject ourselves under penalty of contradiction with the universal Kantian law. Recognizing the complex ethical and legal issues and the significant impact on human rights and democratic functioning itself is the goal of our work.

Keywords: ethics, artificial intelligence, legal rules, principles, philosophy

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Authors: L. Srikanth, D. Neelima Satyam

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The transmission line towers are one of the important life line structures in the distribution of power from the source to the various places for several purposes. The predominant external loads which act on these towers are wind and earthquake loads. In this present study tower is analyzed using Indian Standards IS: 875:1987 (Wind Load), IS: 802:1995 (Structural Steel), IS:1893:2002 (Earthquake) and dynamic analysis of tower has been performed considering ground motion of 2001 Bhuj Earthquake (India). The dynamic analysis was performed considering a tower system consisting two towers spaced 800m apart and 35m height each. This analysis has been performed using numerical time stepping finite difference method which is central difference method were employed by a developed MATLAB program to get the normalized ground motion parameters includes acceleration, frequency, velocity which are important in designing the tower. The tower is analyzed using response spectrum analysis.

Keywords: response spectra, dynamic analysis, central difference method, transmission tower

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Authors: Mehmet Savsar

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One of the most important factors affecting power plant performance is the reliability of the turbine units operated under different conditions. Reliability directly affects plant availability and performance. Therefore, it is very important to be able to analyze turbine units, as well as power plant system reliability and availability under various operational conditions. In this paper, data related to power station failures are collected and analyzed in detail for all power stations in the state of Kuwait. Failures are characterized and categorized. Reliabilities of various power plants are analyzed and availabilities are quantified. Based on calculated availabilities of all installed power plants, actual power output is estimated. Furthermore, based on the past 15 years of data, power consumption trend is determined and the demand for power in the future is forecasted. Estimated power output is compared to the forecasted demand in order to determine the need for future capacity expansion.

Keywords: power plants, reliability, availability, capacity, preventive maintenance, forecasting

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Authors: I. Touaїbia, E. Azzag, O. Narjes

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Power supply networks are growing continuously and their reliability is getting more important than ever. The complexity of the whole network comprises numerous components that can fail and interrupt the power supply for the end user. Underground distribution systems are normally exposed to permanent faults, due to specific construction characteristics. In these systems, visual inspection cannot be performed. In order to enhance service restoration, accurate fault location techniques must be applied. This paper describes the different faults that affect the underground distribution system of SONELGAZ (National Society of Electricity and Gas of Algeria), and cable fault location procedure with impulse reflection method (TDR), based in the analyses of the cable response of the electromagnetic impulse, allows cable fault prelocation. The results are obtained from real test in the underground distribution feeder from electrical network of energy distribution company of Souk-Ahras, in order to know the influence of cable characteristics in the types and frequency of faults.

Keywords: distribution networks, fault location, TDR, underground cable

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Authors: Omran Alharbi, Victor Lally

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The advantages of the adoption of new technology such as learning management systems (LMSs) in education and teaching methods have been widely recognised. This has led a large number of universities to integrate this type of technology into their daily learning and teaching activities in order to facilitate the education process for both learners and teachers. On the other hand, in some developing countries such as Saudi Arabia, educators have seldom used this technology. As a result, this study was conducted in order to investigate the factors that impede teachers’ use of technology (LMSs) in their teaching in Saudi Arabian institutions. This study used a qualitative approach. Eight participants were invited to take part in this study, and they were asked to give their opinions about the most significant factors that prevented them from integrating technology into their daily activities. The results revealed that a lack of LMS skills, interest in and knowledge about the LMS among teachers were the most significant factors impeding them from using technology in their lessons. The participants suggested that incentive training should be provided to reduce these challenges.

Keywords: LMS, factors, KSA, teachers

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Authors: Yaru Meng

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The study contributes to the small but growing literature around computerized approaches to dynamic assessment (C-DA), wherein individual items are accompanied by mediating prompts. Mediation in the current computerized dynamic listening assessment (CDLA) was informed by an attribute-based mediation model (AMM) that identified the underlying L2 listening cognitive abilities and associated descriptors. The AMM served to focus mediation during C-DA on particular cognitive abilities with a goal of specifying areas of learner difficulty. 86 low-intermediate L2 English learners from a university in China completed three listening assessments, with an experimental group receiving the CLDA system and a control group a non-dynamic assessment. As an assessment, the use of the AMM in C-DA generated detailed diagnoses for each learner. In addition, both within- and between-group repeated ANOVA found greater gains at the level of specific attributes among C-DA learners over the course of a 5-week study. Directions for future research are discussed.

Keywords: computerized dynamic assessment, effectiveness, English as foreign language listening, attribute-based mediation model

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Authors: Robert Ab Butarbutar, Sutan Musa Buyana

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Purpose: The purpose of this study is to empirically test the correlation between several variables: perceived quality, overall customer satisfaction and brand attitude to brand loyalty on Maxim magazine in Indonesia. Since the room of adult magazine in Indonesia is restricted, the study of this category has became so interesting to reveal how those variables occur. Design/ methodology/ approach: The combination of exploratory, descriptive and causal research design used in this study. Non-probability sampling, specifically purposive sampling used to determine 160 respondents. Path analysis used to examine the contribution of antecedents variables, perceived quality, overall satisfaction and brand attitude in contribution to brand loyalty. Additional respondents serve for in-depth interview to enrich findings from questionnaire that directly distributed. Findings: The research shows that perceived quality positively contribute to overall satisfaction and brand attitude. Overall satisfaction also positively influence brand attitude and brand loyalty. Finally, brand attitude directly impact to brand loyalty. Despite the hypothesis testing, qualitative research also shows specific behavior of Indonesian customer in consuming adult magazine. Research limitation/implication: This research limited to adult male (18 years at minimum) and who live in big city as Jakarta. Broader geographical coverage is advisable for further research. This study also serves a call for additional empirical research into different product category that targeted to adult male, Since the research of this segment is quite scarce. Managerial Implications: Since findings show perceived quality positively impact and strong contribute to overall satisfaction and brand attitude, it implies for adult magazine to be driven by quality of content. The selection of model, information of current lifestyle of urban male became prioritizes in developing perceived quality. Differentiation also emerges as critical issues since consumer difficult to differentiate significantly one magazine to another. The way magazine deliver its content toward distinctive communication is highly recommended. Furthermore, brand loyalty faces big challenge. Interactivity toward events and social media become critically important. Originality/ value: perceived quality plays as prerequisite to develop overall satisfaction and brand attitude. Finding shows customer difficult to differentiate among adult magazines. Therefore, brand loyalty become a big challenge for company.

Keywords: perceived quality, overall satisfaction, brand attitude, adult magazine

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Authors: Rajinder Kaur, Atul Khanna

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Transparent glass-ceramic and crystalline samples of the system: xSrO-(100-x)TeO2; x = 7.5 and 8.5 mol% were prepared by quenching the melts in the temperature range of 700 to 950oC. A very interesting effect of the temperature on the glass-forming ability (GFA) of strontium tellurite melts is observed,and it is found that the melts produce transparent glass-ceramics when it is solidified from lower temperatures in the range of 700-750oC, however, when the melts are cooled from higher temperatures in the range of 850-950oC, the GFA is significantly reduced andanti-glass and/or crystalline phases are produced on solidification.The effect of temperature on GFA of strontium tellurite melts is attributed to short-range structural transformations: TeO₄TeO₃ which procceds towards the right side with an increrase in temperature. This isomerization reaction lowers the melt viscosity and enhances the crystallization tedendency. It is concluded that the high-temperature strontium tellurite meltsfreeze faster into crystalline phases as compared to the melts at a lower temperature; the latter supercooland solidify into glassy phases.

Keywords: anti-glasss, ceramic, supercool liquid, raman spectroscopy

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Authors: George C. Yao, Chao-Yu Tu, Wei-Chung Chen, Fung-Wen Kuo, Yu-Shan Chang

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Building structures are subjected to both horizontal and vertical ground motions during earthquakes, but only the horizontal ground motion has been extensively studied and considered in design. Most of the prevailing seismic codes assume the vertical component to be 1/2 to 2/3 of the horizontal one. In order to understand the building responses from vertical ground motions, many earthquakes records are studied in this paper. System identification methods (ARX Model) are used to analyze the strong motions and to find out the characteristics of the vertical amplification factors and the natural frequencies of buildings. Analysis results show that the vertical amplification factors for high-rise buildings and low-rise building are 1.78 and 2.52 respectively, and the average vertical amplification factor of all buildings is about 2. The relationship between the vertical natural frequency and building height was regressed to a suggested formula in this study. The result points out an important message; the taller the building is, the greater chance of resonance of vertical vibration on the building will be.

Keywords: vertical ground motion, vertical amplification factor, natural frequency, component

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Authors: Chenyao Shen, Jie Shen

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The rating system provides an effective framework for assessing building environmental performance and integrating sustainable development into building and construction processes; as it can be used as a design tool by developing appropriate sustainable design strategies and determining performance measures to guide the sustainable design and decision-making processes. Healthcare buildings are resource (water, energy, etc.) intensive. To maintain high-cost operations and complex medical facilities, they require a great deal of hazardous and non-hazardous materials, stringent control of environmental parameters, and are responsible for producing polluting emission. Compared with other types of buildings, the impact of healthcare buildings on the full cycle of the environment is particularly large. With broad recognition among designers and operators that energy use can be reduced substantially, many countries have set up their own green rating systems for healthcare buildings. There are four main green healthcare building evaluation systems widely acknowledged in the world - Green Guide for Health Care (GGHC), which was jointly organized by the United States HCWH and CMPBS in 2003; BREEAM Healthcare, issued by the British Academy of Building Research (BRE) in 2008; the Green Star-Healthcare v1 tool, released by the Green Building Council of Australia (GBCA) in 2009; and LEED Healthcare 2009, released by the United States Green Building Council (USGBC) in 2011. In addition, the German Association of Sustainable Building (DGNB) has also been developing the German Sustainable Building Evaluation Criteria (DGNB HC). In China, more and more scholars and policy makers have recognized the importance of assessment of sustainable development, and have adapted some tools and frameworks. China’s first comprehensive assessment standard for green building (the GBTs) was issued in 2006 (lately updated in 2014), promoting sustainability in the built-environment and raise awareness of environmental issues among architects, engineers, contractors as well as the public. However, healthcare building was not involved in the evaluation system of GBTs because of its complex medical procedures, strict requirements of indoor/outdoor environment and energy consumption of various functional rooms. Learn from advanced experience of GGHC, BREEAM, and LEED HC above, China’s first assessment criteria for green hospital/healthcare buildings was finally released in December 2015. Combined with both quantitative and qualitative assessment criteria, the standard highlight the differences between healthcare and other public buildings in meeting the functional needs for medical facilities and special groups. This paper has focused on the assessment criteria framework for sustainable healthcare buildings, for which the comparison of different rating systems is rather essential. Descriptive analysis is conducted together with the cross-matrix analysis to reveal rich information on green assessment criteria in a coherent manner. The research intends to know whether the green elements for healthcare buildings in China are different from those conducted in other countries, and how to improve its assessment criteria framework.

Keywords: assessment criteria framework, green building design, healthcare building, building performance rating tool

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Authors: Zaki Ahmad Khan, Jamshed Siddiqui, Abdus Samad

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The Scheduling and mapping of tasks on a set of processors is considered as a critical problem in parallel and distributed computing system. This paper deals with the problem of dynamic scheduling on a special type of multiprocessor architecture known as Linear Crossed Cube (LCQ) network. This proposed multiprocessor is a hybrid network which combines the features of both linear type of architectures as well as cube based architectures. Two standard dynamic scheduling schemes namely Minimum Distance Scheduling (MDS) and Two Round Scheduling (TRS) schemes are implemented on the LCQ network. Parallel tasks are mapped and the imbalance of load is evaluated on different set of processors in LCQ network. The simulations results are evaluated and effort is made by means of through analysis of the results to obtain the best solution for the given network in term of load imbalance left and execution time. The other performance matrices like speedup and efficiency are also evaluated with the given dynamic algorithms.

Keywords: dynamic algorithm, load imbalance, mapping, task scheduling

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Authors: Pavan K. Rallabandi, Kailash C. Patidar

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In this paper, we present an optimization technique or a learning algorithm using the hybrid architecture by combining the most popular sequence recognition models such as Recurrent Neural Networks (RNNs) and Hidden Markov models (HMMs). In order to improve the sequence or pattern recognition/ classification performance by applying a hybrid/neural symbolic approach, a gradient descent learning algorithm is developed using the Real Time Recurrent Learning of Recurrent Neural Network for processing the knowledge represented in trained Hidden Markov Models. The developed hybrid algorithm is implemented on automata theory as a sample test beds and the performance of the designed algorithm is demonstrated and evaluated on learning the deterministic finite state automata.

Keywords: hybrid systems, hidden markov models, recurrent neural networks, deterministic finite state automata

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Authors: Eduardo Remirez, Luis Moreno

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The rapid growth of the private satellite launchers sector is leading the space race. Hence, with the privatization of the sector, all the companies are racing for a more efficient and reliant way to set satellites in orbit. Having detected the current needs for power management in the launcher vehicle industry, the Modular Power Bus is proposed as a technology to revolutionize power management in current and future Launcher Vehicles. The MPBus Project is committed to develop a new power bus architecture combining ejectable batteries with the main bus through intelligent nodes. These nodes are able to communicate between them and a battery controller using an improved, data over DC line technology, expected to reduce the total weight in two main areas: improving the use of the batteries and reducing the total weight due to harness. This would result in less weight for each launch stage increasing the operational satellite payload and reducing cost. These features make the system suitable for a number of launchers.

Keywords: modular power bus, Launcher vehicles, ejectable batteries, intelligent nodes

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Authors: Zhao Gao, Eran Edirisinghe

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The production of an accurate sketch of a suspect based on a verbal description obtained from a witness is an essential task for most criminal investigations. The criminal investigation system employs specifically trained professional artists to manually draw a facial image of the suspect according to the descriptions of an eyewitness for subsequent identification. Within the advancement of Deep Learning, Recurrent Neural Networks (RNN) have shown great promise in Natural Language Processing (NLP) tasks. Additionally, Generative Adversarial Networks (GAN) have also proven to be very effective in image generation. In this study, a trained GAN conditioned on textual features such as keywords automatically encoded from a verbal description of a human face using an RNN is used to generate photo-realistic facial images for criminal investigations. The intention of the proposed system is to map corresponding features into text generated from verbal descriptions. With this, it becomes possible to generate many reasonably accurate alternatives to which the witness can use to hopefully identify a suspect from. This reduces subjectivity in decision making both by the eyewitness and the artist while giving an opportunity for the witness to evaluate and reconsider decisions. Furthermore, the proposed approach benefits law enforcement agencies by reducing the time taken to physically draw each potential sketch, thus increasing response times and mitigating potentially malicious human intervention. With publically available 'CelebFaces Attributes Dataset' (CelebA) and additionally providing verbal description as training data, the proposed architecture is able to effectively produce facial structures from given text. Word Embeddings are learnt by applying the RNN architecture in order to perform semantic parsing, the output of which is fed into the GAN for synthesizing photo-realistic images. Rather than the grid search method, a metaheuristic search based on genetic algorithms is applied to evolve the network with the intent of achieving optimal hyperparameters in a fraction the time of a typical brute force approach. With the exception of the ‘CelebA’ training database, further novel test cases are supplied to the network for evaluation. Witness reports detailing criminals from Interpol or other law enforcement agencies are sampled on the network. Using the descriptions provided, samples are generated and compared with the ground truth images of a criminal in order to calculate the similarities. Two factors are used for performance evaluation: The Structural Similarity Index (SSIM) and the Peak Signal-to-Noise Ratio (PSNR). A high percentile output from this performance matrix should attribute to demonstrating the accuracy, in hope of proving that the proposed approach can be an effective tool for law enforcement agencies. The proposed approach to criminal facial image generation has potential to increase the ratio of criminal cases that can be ultimately resolved using eyewitness information gathering.

Keywords: RNN, GAN, NLP, facial composition, criminal investigation

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Authors: Rubaiyea Uddin, Rebecca Taylor, Emily Levesque

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The hippocampus, located in the limbic system, is most commonly known for its role in memory and spatial navigation (as cited in Brain Reward and Pathways). It maintains an especially important role in specifically episodic and declarative memory. The hippocampus has also recently been linked to dopamine, the reward pathway’s primary neurotransmitter. Since research has found that dopamine also contributes to memory consolidation and hippocampal plasticity, this neurotransmitter is potentially responsible for contributing to the hippocampus’s role in memory formation. In this experiment we tested to see the effect of tactile cues on spatial navigation for eight different mice. We used a radial arm that had one designated “reward” arm containing sucrose. The presence or absence of bedding was our tactile cue. We attempted to see if the memory of that cue would enhance the mice’s memory of having received the reward in that arm. The results from our study showed there was no significant response from the use of tactile cues on spatial navigation on our 129 mice. Tactile cues therefore do not influence spatial navigation.

Keywords: mice, radial arm maze, memory, spatial navigation, tactile cues, hippocampus, reward, sensory skills, Alzheimer's, neuro-degenerative diseases

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Authors: Katharina Raab, Ralf Wagner

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With the decrease of poverty, the focus on the solid waste challenge shifts away from affluent, mostly Westernized consumers to the base of the pyramid. The relevance of considering the disposal behavior of impoverished people arises from improved welfare, leading to an increase in consumption opportunities and, consequently, of waste production. In combination with the world’s growing population the relevance of the topic increases, because solid waste management has global impacts on consumers’ welfare. The current annual municipal solid waste generation is estimated to 1.9 billion tonnes, 30% remains uncollected. As for the collected 70% is landfilling and dumping, 19% is recycled or recovered, 11% is led to energy recovery facilities. Therefore, aim is to contribute by adding first insights about poor people's disposal behaviors, including the framing of their rationalities, emotions and cognitions. The study provides novel empirical results obtained from qualitative semi-structured in-depth interviews near Guatemala City. In the study’s framework consumers have to choose from three options when deciding what to do with their obsolete possessions: Keeping the product: The main reason for this is the respondent´s emotional attachment to a product. Further, there is a willingness to use the same product under a different scope when it loses its functionality–they recycle their belongings in a customized and sustainable way. Permanently disposing of the product: The study reveals two dominant disposal methods: burning in front of their homes and throwing away in the physical environment. Respondents clearly recognized the disadvantages of burning toxic durables, like electronics. Giving a product away as a gift supports the integration of individuals in their peer networks of family and friends. Temporarily disposing of the product: Was not mentioned–to be specific, rent or lend a product to someone else was out of question. Contrasting the background to which extend poor people are aware of the consequences of their disposal decisions and how they feel about and rationalize their actions were quite unexpected. Respondents reported that they are worried about future consequences with impacts they cannot anticipate now–they are aware that their behaviors harm their health and the environment. Additionally, they expressed concern about the impact this disposal behavior would have on others’ well-being and are therefore sensitive to the waste that surrounds them. Concluding, the BoP-framed life and Westernized consumption, both fit in a circular economy pattern, but the nature of how to recycle and dispose separates these two societal groups. Both systems own a solid waste management system, but people living in slum-type districts and rural areas of poor countries are less interested in connecting to the system–they are primarily afraid of the costs. Further, it can be said that a consumer’s perceived effectiveness is distinct from environmental concerns, but contributes to forecasting certain pro-ecological behaviors. Considering the rationales underlying disposal decisions, thoughtfulness is a well-established determinant of disposition behavior. The precipitating events, emotions and decisions associated with the act of disposing of products are important because these decisions can trigger different results for the disposal process.

Keywords: base of the pyramid, disposal behavior, poor consumers, solid waste

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Authors: Reenu Yadav, Vidhi Guha, Udit N. Soni, Jay Ram Patel

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Chewing gums are mobile novel drug delivery systems, with a potential for administering drugs either for local action or for systemic absorption via the buccal route. An antimicrobial chewing gum delivery system of the methanolic extracts of Beatea monosperma (barks and twigs), Cordia obliqua (leaves and seeds) and Cuminun cyminum (seeds) against periodontal diseases caused by some oral pathogens, was designed and characterized on various parameters.The results of the study support the traditional application of the plants and suggest, plant extracts possess compounds with antimicrobial properties that can be used as potential antimicrobial agents and gums can be a good carrier of herbal extracts. Developed formulation will cure/protect from various periodontal diseases. Further development and evaluations chewing gums including the isolated compounds on the commercial scale and their clinical and toxicological studies are the future challenges.

Keywords: periodontal diseases, herbal chewing gum, herbal extracts, novel drug delivery systems

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Authors: Ruoyu Mao

Abstract:

Exploring the relationship between urban green development and regional integration level is of great significance for realising regional high quality and sustainable development. Based on the Tapio decoupling model and the theoretical framework of urban green development and regional integration, this paper builds an analysis system, makes a quantitative analysis of urban green development and regional integration level in a certain period, and discusses the relationship between the two. It also takes China's Yangtze River Delta urban agglomeration as an example to study the degree of decoupling, the type of decoupling, and the trend of the evolution of the spatio-temporal pattern of decoupling between the level of urban green development and the level of regional integration in the period of 2014-2021, with the aim of providing a useful reference for the future development of the region.

Keywords: regional integration, urban green development, Tapio decoupling model, Yangtze River Delta urban agglomeration

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Authors: Sandhya Armoogum

Abstract:

In distributed systems and in open systems such as the Internet, often mobile code has to run on unknown and potentially hostile hosts. Mobile code such as a mobile agent is vulnerable when executing on remote hosts. The mobile agent may be subjected to various attacks such as tampering, inspection, and replay attack by a malicious host. Much research has been done to provide solutions for various security problems, such as authentication of mobile agent and hosts, integrity and confidentiality of the data carried by the mobile agent. Many of such proposed solutions in literature are not suitable for open systems whereby the mobile code arrives and executes on a host which is not known and trusted by the mobile agent owner. In this paper, we propose the adoption of the reference monitor by hosts in an open system for providing trust and security for mobile code execution. A secure protocol for the distribution of the reference monitor entity is described. This reference monitor entity on the remote host may also provide several security services such as authentication and integrity to the mobile code.

Keywords: security, mobile agents, reference monitor, trust

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Authors: A. K. Tekile, I. L. Kim, J. Y. Lee

Abstract:

Human activities put freshwater quality under risk, mainly due to expansion of agriculture and industries, damming, diversion and discharge of inadequately treated wastewaters. The rapid human population growth and climate change escalated the problem. External controlling actions on point and non-point pollution sources are long-term solution to manage water quality. To have a holistic approach, these mechanisms should be coupled with the in-water control strategies. The available in-lake or river methods are either costly or they have some adverse effect on the ecological system that the search for an alternative and effective solution with a reasonable balance is still going on. This study aimed at the physical and chemical water quality improvement in a stagnant Yeo-cheon River reach (Korea), which has recently shown sign of water quality problems such as scum formation and fish death. The river water quality was monitored, for the duration of three months by operating only water flow generator in the first two weeks and then ultrasonic irradiation device was coupled to the flow unit for the remaining duration of the experiment. In addition to assessing the water quality improvement, the correlation among the parameters was analyzed to explain the contribution of the ultra-sonication. Generally, the combined strategy showed localized improvement of water quality in terms of dissolved oxygen, Chlorophyll-a and dissolved reactive phosphate. At locations under limited influence of the system operation, chlorophyll-a was highly increased, but within 25 m of operation the low initial value was maintained. The inverse correlation coefficient between dissolved oxygen and chlorophyll-a decreased from 0.51 to 0.37 when ultrasonic irradiation unit was used with the flow, showing that ultrasonic treatment reduced chlorophyll-a concentration and it inhibited photosynthesis. The relationship between dissolved oxygen and reactive phosphate also indicated that influence of ultra-sonication was higher than flow on the reactive phosphate concentration. Even though flow increased turbidity by suspending sediments, ultrasonic waves canceled out the effect due to the agglomeration of suspended particles and the follow-up settling out. There has also been variation of interaction in the water column as the decrease of pH and dissolved oxygen from surface to the bottom played a role in phosphorus release into the water column. The variation of nitrogen and dissolved organic carbon concentrations showed mixed trend probably due to the complex chemical reactions subsequent to the operation. Besides, the intensive rainfall and strong wind around the end of the field trial had apparent impact on the result. The combined effect of water flow and ultrasonic irradiation was a cumulative water quality improvement and it maintained the dissolved oxygen and chlorophyll-a requirement of the river for healthy ecological interaction. However, the overall improvement of water quality is not guaranteed as effectiveness of ultrasonic technology requires long-term monitoring of water quality before, during and after treatment. Even though, the short duration of the study conducted here has limited nutrient pattern realization, the use of ultrasound at field scale to improve water quality is promising.

Keywords: stagnant, ultrasonic irradiation, water flow, water quality

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Authors: Orathai Pornsunthorntawee, Wareerom Polrut, Nopphawan Phonthammachai

Abstract:

In the present work, the effects of additives, including contents of the added antioxidants and type of the selected metallic stearates (either calcium stearate (CaSt) or zinc stearate (ZnSt)), on the thermal stabilities of carbon black (CB)/high density polyethylene (HDPE) compounds were studied. The results showed that the AO contents played a key role in the thermal stabilities of the CB/HDPE compounds—the higher the AO content, the higher the thermal stabilities. Although the CaSt-containing compounds were slightly superior to those with ZnSt in terms of the thermal stabilities, the remaining solid residue of CaSt after heated to the temperature of 600 °C (mainly calcium carbonate (CaCO3) as characterized by the X-ray diffraction (XRD) technique) seemed to catalyze the decomposition of CB in the HDPE-based compounds. Hence, the quantification of CB in the CaSt-containing compounds with a muffle furnace gave an inaccurate CB content—much lower than actual value. However, this phenomenon was negligible in the ZnSt-containing system.

Keywords: antioxidant, stearate, carbon black, polyethylene

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Authors: Evren Aysev Denec

Abstract:

As an urban settlement dating as early as 8000 years and the capital for Byzantine and Ottoman empires; İstanbul has been a significant global city throughout history. The most drastic changes in the macro form of Istanbul have taken place in the last seven decades; starting from 1950’s with rapid industrialization and population growth; pacing up after the 1980’s with the efforts of integration to the global capitalist system; reaching to a climax in the 2000’s with the adaptation of a neoliberal urban regime. Today, the rate of urbanization together with land speculation and real estate investment has been growing enormously. Every inch of urban land is conceptualized as a commodity to be capitalized. This neoliberal mindset has many controversial implementations, from the privatization of public land to the urban transformation of historic neighbourhoods and consumption of natural resources. The planning decisions concerning the city have been mainly top down initiations; conceptualising historical, cultural and natural heritage as commodities to be capitalised and consumed in favour of creating rent value. One of the most crucial implementations of this neoliberal urban regime is the project of establishing a ‘new city’ around northern Istanbul; together with a number of large-scale infrastructural projects such as the Third Bosporus Bridge; a new highway system, a Third Airport Project and a secondary Bosporus project called the ‘Canal Istanbul’. Urbanizing northern Istanbul is highly controversial as this area consists of major natural resources of the city; being the northern forests, water supplies and wildlife; which are bound to be destroyed to a great extent following the implementations. The construction of the third bridge and the third airport has begun in 2013, despite environmental objections and protests. Over five hundred thousand trees are planned be cut for solely the construction of the bridge and the Northern Marmara Motorway. Yet the real damage will be the urbanization of the forest area; irreversibly corrupting the natural resources and attracting millions of additional population towards Istanbul. Furthermore, these projects lack an integrated planning scope as the plans prepared for Istanbul are constantly subjected to alterations forced by the central government. Urban interventions mentioned above are executed despite the rulings of Istanbul Environmental plan, due to top down planning decisions. Instead of an integrated action plan that prepares for the future of the city, Istanbul is governed by partial plans and projects that are issued by a profit based agenda; supported by legal alterations and laws issued by the central government. This paper aims to discuss the ongoing implementations with regards to northern Istanbul; claiming that they are not merely infrastructural interventions but parts of a greater neoliberal urbanization strategy. In the course of the study, firstly a brief account on the northern forests of Istanbul will be presented. Then, the projects will be discussed in detail, addressing how the current planning schemes deal with the natural heritage of the city. Lastly, concluding remarks on how the implementations could affect the future of Istanbul will be presented.

Keywords: Istanbul, urban design, urban planning, natural resources

Procedia PDF Downloads 159