Search results for: post processing kinematic global positioning system

Authors: Thanasis K. Barlas, Helge A. Madsen

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A novel Active Flap System (AFS) has been developed at DTU Wind Energy, as a result of a 3-year R\&D project following almost 10 years of innovative research in this field. The full-scale AFS comprises an active deformable trailing edge has been tested at the unique rotating test facility at the Risoe Campus of DTU Wind Energy in Denmark. The design and instrumentation of the wing section and the active flap system (AFS) are described. The general description and objectives of the rotating test rig at the Risoe campus of DTU are presented, as used for the aeroelastic testing of the AFS in the recently finalized INDUFLAP project. The general description and objectives are presented, along with an overview of sensors on the setup and the test cases. The post-processing of data is discussed and results of steady flap step and azimuth control flap cases are presented.

Keywords: morphing, adaptive, flap, smart blade, wind turbine

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Authors: Juliza Hidayati, Sawarni Hasibuan

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PT. XYZ is a manufacturing company that produces Crude Palm Oil (CPO). The fierce competition in the global markets not only between companies but also a competition between supply chains. This research aims to analyze the supply chain and value chain of Crude Palm Oil (CPO) in the company. Data analysis method used is qualitative analysis and quantitative analysis. The qualitative analysis describes supply chain and value chain, while the quantitative analysis is used to find out value added and the establishment of the value chain. Based on the analysis, the value chain of crude palm oil (CPO) in the company consists of four main actors that are suppliers of raw materials, processing, distributor, and customer. The value chain analysis consists of two actors; those are palm oil plantation and palm oil processing plant. The palm oil plantation activities include nurseries, planting, plant maintenance, harvesting, and shipping. The palm oil processing plant activities include reception, sterilizing, thressing, pressing, and oil classification. The value added of palm oil plantations was 72.42% and the palm oil processing plant was 10.13%.

Keywords: palm oil, value chain, value added, supply chain

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Authors: Ravinder Kaur

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Introduction Global cerebrovascular reactivity (CVR) mapping is a promising clinical assessment for stress-testing the brain using physiological challenges, such as CO₂, to elicit changes in perfusion. It enables real-time assessment of cerebrovascular integrity and health. Conventional imaging approaches solely use steady-state parameters, like cerebral blood flow (CBF), to evaluate the integrity of the resting parenchyma and can erroneously show a healthy brain at rest, despite the underlying pathogenesis in the presence of cerebrovascular disease. Conversely, coupling CO₂ inhalation with phase-contrast MRI neuroimaging interrogates the capacity of the vasculature to respond to changes under stress. It shows promise in providing prognostic value as a novel health marker to measure neurovascular function in disease and to detect early brain vasculature dysfunction. Objective This exploratory study was established to:(a) quantify the CBF response to CO₂ in hypocapnia and hypercapnia,(b) evaluate disparities in CVR between internal carotid (ICA) and vertebral artery (VA), and (c) assess sex-specific variation in CVR. Methodology Phase-contrast MRI was employed to measure the cerebrovascular reactivity to CO₂ (±10 mmHg). The respiratory interventions were presented using the prospectively end-tidal targeting RespirActTM Gen3 system. Post-processing and statistical analysis were conducted. Results In 9 young, healthy subjects, the CBF increased from hypocapnia to hypercapnia in all vessels (4.21±0.76 to 7.20±1.83 mL/sec in ICA, 1.36±0.55 to 2.33±1.31 mL/sec in VA, p < 0.05). The CVR was quantitatively higher in ICA than VA (slope of linear regression: 0.23 vs. 0.07 mL/sec/mmHg, p < 0.05). No statistically significant effect was observed in CVR between male and female (0.25 vs 0.20 mL/sec/mmHg in ICA, 0.09 vs 0.11 mL/sec/mmHg in VA, p > 0.05). Conclusions The principal finding in this investigation validated the modulation of CBF by CO₂. Moreover, it has indicated that regional heterogeneity in hemodynamic response exists in the brain. This study provides scope to standardize the quantification of CVR prior to its clinical translation.

Keywords: cerebrovascular disease, neuroimaging, phase contrast MRI, cerebrovascular reactivity, carbon dioxide

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Authors: Revoti Prasad Bora, Nikita Katyal, Saurabh Yadav

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Pre-processing plays an important role in various image processing applications. Most of the time due to the similar nature of images, a particular pre-processing or a set of pre-processing steps are sufficient to produce the desired results. However, in the education domain, there is a wide variety of images in various aspects like images with line-based diagrams, chemical formulas, mathematical equations, etc. Hence a single pre-processing or a set of pre-processing steps may not yield good results. Therefore, a Deep Learning based approach for dynamically selecting a relevant pre-processing technique for each image is proposed. The proposed method works as a classifier to detect hidden patterns in the images and predicts the relevant pre-processing technique needed for the image. This approach experimented for an image similarity matching problem but it can be adapted to other use cases too. Experimental results showed significant improvement in average similarity ranking with the proposed method as opposed to static pre-processing techniques.

Keywords: deep-learning, classification, pre-processing, computer vision, image processing, educational data mining

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Authors: Mary Goitom, Maria Liegghio

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In this paper, we critically explore the ethics of Schools of Social Work from the global North developing courses for programs within the Global South. In it, we discuss our experiences of partnering with the University of Guyana to develop and teach graduate courses in a newly formed Masters of Social Work program. Under the umbrella of our university’s goal for 'internationalization', that is, developing and establishing global and local collaborations for teaching, research and scholarship, we bring into question whether a new form of academic imperialism is occurring under the guise of global citizenship and social justice.

Keywords: academic imperialism, global north and south, internationalization, social work education

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Authors: Anirban Dey, Sukanta Kumar Dash, Bishnupada Mandal

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Carbondioxide (CO2) is a major greenhouse gas responsible for global warming and fossil fuel power plants are the main emitting sources. Therefore the capture of CO2 is essential to maintain the emission levels according to the standards. Carbon capture and storage (CCS) is considered as an important option for stabilization of atmospheric greenhouse gases and minimizing global warming effects. There are three approaches towards CCS: Pre combustion capture where carbon is removed from the fuel prior to combustion, Oxy-fuel combustion, where coal is combusted with oxygen instead of air and Post combustion capture where the fossil fuel is combusted to produce energy and CO2 is removed from the flue gases left after the combustion process. Post combustion technology offers some advantage as existing combustion technologies can still be used without adopting major changes on them. A number of separation processes could be utilized part of post –combustion capture technology. These include (a) Physical absorption (b) Chemical absorption (c) Membrane separation (d) Adsorption. Chemical absorption is one of the most extensively used technologies for large scale CO2 capture systems. The industrially important solvents used are primary amines like Monoethanolamine (MEA) and Diglycolamine (DGA), secondary amines like diethanolamine (DEA) and Diisopropanolamine (DIPA) and tertiary amines like methyldiethanolamine (MDEA) and Triethanolamine (TEA). Primary and secondary amines react fast and directly with CO2 to form stable carbamates while Tertiary amines do not react directly with CO2 as in aqueous solution they catalyzes the hydrolysis of CO2 to form a bicarbonate ion and a protonated amine. Concentrated Piperazine (PZ) has been proposed as a better solvent as well as activator for CO2 capture from flue gas with a 10 % energy benefit compared to conventional amines such as MEA. However, the application of concentrated PZ is limited due to its low solubility in water at low temperature and lean CO2 loading. So following the performance of PZ its derivative 2-Aminoethyl piperazine (AEP) which is a cyclic amine can be explored as an activator towards the absorption of CO2. Vapour liquid equilibrium (VLE) in CO2 capture systems is an important factor for the design of separation equipment and gas treating processes. For proper thermodynamic modeling accurate equilibrium data for the solvent system over a wide range of temperatures, pressure and composition is essential. The present work focuses on the determination of VLE data for (AEP + H2O) system at 40 °C for various composition range.

Keywords: absorption, aminoethyl piperazine, carbondioxide, vapour liquid equilibrium

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Authors: Alban Igwe, Ijeoma Kalu, Alloy Ezirim

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Food insecurity is a global problem, and the search for food security has assumed a central stage in the global development agenda as the United Nations currently placed zero hunger as a goal number in its sustainable development goals. Nigeria currently ranks 107th out of 113 countries in the global food security index (GFSI), a metric that defines a country's ability to furnish its citizens with food and nutrients for healthy living. Paradoxically, Nigeria is a global leader in food production, ranking 1st in yam (over 70% of global output), beans (over 41% of global output), cassava (20% of global output) and shea nuts, where it commands 53% of global output. Furthermore, it ranks 2nd in millet, sweet potatoes, and cashew nuts. It is Africa's largest producer of rice. So, it is apparent that Nigeria's food insecurity woes must relate to a factor other than food production. We investigated the nexus between food security and downstream supply chain losses in the yam industry with secondary data from the Food and Agricultural Organization (FAOSTAT) and the National Bureau of Statics for the decade 2012-2021. In analyzing the data, multiple regression techniques were used, and findings reveal that downstream losses have a strong positive correlation with food security (r = .763*) and a 58.3% variation in food security is explainable by post-downstream supply chain food losses. The study discovered that yam supply chain losses within the period under review averaged 50.6%, suggestive of the fact that downstream supply chain losses are the drainpipe and the major source of food insecurity in Nigeria. Therefore, the study concluded that there is a significant relationship between downstream supply chain losses and food insecurity and recommended the establishment of food supply chain structures and policies to enhance food security in Nigeria.

Keywords: food security, downstream supply chain losses, yam, nigeria, supply chain

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Authors: Mahsa Moteshakeri

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Morinda citrifolia L., a miracle fruit with common name of Noni, has been widely used as food and traditional medicine in the Polynesians culture. Current scientific evidences have proved the therapeautical and nutritional properties of this fruit so that its extensive production in tropical regions in recent years has emerged a competitive global Noni market mainly as a dietary supplement in the form of juice or tablet. However, there is not much record on the processing method applied on fresh fruit postharvest or even its mechanism of action in controlling diseases. This review aimed to provide a comprehensive data on phytochemicals, technical, and nutritional advances on Noni fruit and recent patents published, as well as medicinal properties of the fruit in order to benefit future investigations on this precious fruit either in industrial or therapeautical section.

Keywords: noni fruit, phytochemicals, therapeautic properties of fruit, nutritional properties of fruit

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Authors: Ioana Pisica, Dimitrios Gkritzapis

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The significance of UAS in scientific applications has been amply demonstrated in recent years. The combinations of portability and quasi-static positioning by means of flying in close loop path make them versatile and efficient in the inspection of power systems infrastructure. In this paper, we critically assess several platforms and sensor capabilities to identify their pros and cons in relation to the power systems assets to be monitored. In this respect, it is paramount the flights to be conducted by using UAS which bear certain suitable features, such as responsive and easy control, video capturing in real time, autonomous routing of pre-planned flight programming with differentiating payloads. The outcome of this research is a set of optimal requirements for power system assets monitoring with UAS.

Keywords: platforms, power system, sensors, UAVs

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Authors: Adebola Adedugbe

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The challenge of post-harvest losses poses serious threats for food security in Nigeria and the north-eastern part with the country losing about $9billion annually due to postharvest losses in the sector. Post-harvest loss (PHL) is the quantitative and qualitative loss of food in various post-harvest operations. In Nigeria, post-harvest losses (PHL) have been a major challenge to food security and improved farmer’s income. In 2022, the Nigerian government had said over 30 percent of food produced by Nigerian farmers perish during post-harvest. For many in northeast Nigeria, agriculture is the predominant source of livelihood and income. The persistent communal conflicts, flood, decade-old attacks by boko haram and insurgency in this region have disrupted farming activities drastically, with farmlands becoming insecure and inaccessible as communities are forced to abandon ancestral homes, The impact of climate change is also affecting agricultural and fishing activities, leading to shortage of food supplies, acute hunger and loss of livelihood. This has continued to impact negatively on the region and country’s food production and availability making it loose billions of US dollars annually in income in this sector. The root cause of postharvest losses among others in crops, livestock and fisheries are lack of modern post-harvest equipment, chemical and lack of technologies used for combating losses. The 2019 Global Hunger Index showed Nigeria’s case was progressing from a ‘serious to alarming level’. As part of measures to address the problem of post-harvest losses experienced by farmers, the federal government of Nigeria concessioned 17 silos with 6000 metric tonne storage space to private sector to enable farmers to have access to storage facilities. This paper discusses the causes, effects and solutions in handling post-harvest losses and optimize returns on food security in northeast Nigeria.

Keywords: farmers, food security, northeast Nigeria, postharvest loss

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Authors: Yili Chen, Jixiang Fu, Zhihua Liu, Zhicheng Zhang, Rongmao Li, Nan Fu, Yaoqin Xie

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Retinal prothesis is designed to help the blind to get some sight.It is made up of internal part and external part.In external part ,there is made up of camera, image processing, and RF transmitter.In internal part, there is RF receiver, implant chip,micro-electrode.The image got from the camera should be processed by suitable stragies to corresponds to stimulus the electrode.Nowadays, the number of the micro-electrode is hundreds and we don’t know the mechanism how the elctrode stimulus the optic nerve, an easy way to the hypothesis is that the pixel in the image is correspondence to the electrode.So it is a question how to get the important information of the image captured from the picture.There are many strategies to experimented to get the most important information as soon as possible, due to the real time system.ROI is a useful algorithem to extract the region of the interest.Our paper will explain the details of the orinciples and functions of the ROI.And based on this, we simplified the ROI algrithem,and used it in outside image prcessing DSP system of the retinal prothesis.Results show that our image processing stratiges is suitable for real-time retinal prothesis and can cut redundant information and help useful information to express in the low-size image.

Keywords: image processing, region of interest, saliency map, low-size image, useful information express, cut redundant information in image

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Authors: Toufic Abd El-Latif Sadek

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The concrete object represents the concrete areas, like buildings. The best, easy, and efficient extraction of the concrete object from satellite thermal images occurred at specific times during the days of the year, by preventing the gaps in times which give the close and same brightness from different objects. Thus, to achieve the best original data which is the aim of the study and then better extraction of the concrete object and then better analysis. The study was done using seven sample objects, asphalt, concrete, metal, rock, dry soil, vegetation, and water, located at one place carefully investigated in a way that all the objects achieve the homogeneous in acquired data at the same time and same weather conditions. The samples of the objects were on the roof of building at position taking by global positioning system (GPS) which its geographical coordinates is: Latitude= 33 degrees 37 minutes, Longitude= 35 degrees 28 minutes, Height= 600 m. It has been found that the first choice and the best time in February is at 2:00 pm, in March at 4 pm, in April and may at 12 pm, in August at 5:00 pm, in October at 11:00 am. The best time in June and November is at 2:00 pm.

Keywords: best timing, concrete areas, optimal, satellite thermal images

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Authors: Marin Neio Demirci, Jan Mei Soon, Carol A. Wallace

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Muslims follow the religion of Islam and the food they eat should be Halal, meaning lawful or permissible. Muslims are allowed to eat halal and wholesome food that has been provided for them. However, some of the main prohibitions are swine flesh, blood, carrion, animals not slaughtered according to Islamic laws and alcoholic drinks. At present Halal assurance is in a complicated state, with various Halal standards differing from each other without gaining mutual acceptance. The world is starting to understand the need for an influential globally accepted standard that would open doors to global markets and gain consumer confidence. This paper discusses issues mainly related to food safety in Halal assurance. The aim was to discover and describe the approach to food safety requirements in Halal food provision and how this is incorporated in the Halal assurance systems. The position of food safety regulation within Halal requirements or Halal standards’ requirements for food safety is still unclear. This review also considers whether current Halal standards include criteria in common with internationally accepted food hygiene standards and emphasizes the potential of using the HACCP system for Halal assurance.

Keywords: certification, GHP, HACCP, Halal standard

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Authors: J. Kundrák, I. Sztankovics, K. Gyáni

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In addition to the increase of the material removal rate or surface rate, or the improvement of the surface quality, which are the main aims of the development of manufacturing technology, a growing number of other manufacturing requirements have appeared in the machining of workpiece surfaces. Among these, it is becoming increasingly dominant to generate a surface topography in finishing operations which meet more closely the needs of operational requirements. These include the examination of the surface periodicity and/or ensuring that the twist structure values are within the limits (or even preventing its occurrence) in specified cases such as on the sealing surfaces of rotating shafts or on the inside working surfaces of needle roller bearings. In the view of the measurement, the twist has different parameters from surface roughness, which must be determined for the machining procedures. Therefore in this paper the alteration of the theoretical values of the parameters determining twist structure are studied as a function of the kinematic properties.

Keywords: kinematic parameters, rotational turning, surface topography, twist structure

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Authors: Parya Salimitari, Farhad Tabatabai Ghomsheh, Siyamak Khorramymehr, Hossein Taghadosi, Mohammad Hossein Dashti

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The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of heel height on the knee joint direction in Genu recurvatum patients compared to normal state. The test was performed on a patient with Genu recurvatum and a healthy person with similar and match biomechanical conditions. Subjects were tested under six different positions of shoes with heels 0, 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 cm after marking during the gate. The results of the spatial temporal geometry obtained from Vicon Motion System (six-camera T10 model, Oxford Metrics Ltd., Oxford, UK), and were used to compute and analyze the kinematic results. In this study, we tried to determine the effect of shoe heel intervention on knee joint direction correction. The results indicate that the 1 cm heel has been optimized and significantly improved in knee joint flexion and flexion-extension angle so that the difference in knee flexion-extension angle between the patient and the healthy person at some stages of walking has reached zero (good posture). The 3 cm heel compared with the 0 cm heel has reduced the knee recurvatum index (KRI) by up to 21.74% in the patient (from 219.233 mm to 47.6714 mm). According to the findings of this study, it can be concluded that heel increase is effective in correcting knee joints in Genu recurvatum and the optimum heel height is 1 cm.

Keywords: joint alignment of knee, gait analysis, genu recurvatum, heel lift, kinematics, motion-analysis

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Authors: Lubowa Samuel

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Health information systems, often known as HIS, are critical components of the healthcare system to improve health policies and promote global health development. In a broader sense, HIS as a system integrates data collecting, processing, reporting, and making use of various types of data to improve healthcare efficacy and efficiency through better management at all levels of healthcare delivery. The aim of this study is to assess the adoption of health information systems (HIS) in a resource-constrained country drawing from the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology 2 (UTAUT2) model. The results indicate that the user's perception of the technology and the poor information technology infrastructures contribute a lot to the low adoption of HIS in resource-constrained countries.

Keywords: health information systems, resource-constrained countries, health information systems

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Authors: Rose Mutuota

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Western knowledge have influenced the Kenyan education system through colonisation and policies borrowed from the global North. Researchers argue that studies of education and systems based on Northernframeworks ignore the lived experiences of the global South. The history of colonization is one such example. In light of this, there is a need for schools to consider the lived experience of the Kenyan child and integrate Indigenous knowledge in the education system. The study reported here explored the possibility of creating a blended/hybrid curriculum that values Indigenous knowledge and practices but also selectively use side as from the global North. Acasestudyformat was employed. Teachers and principals in four schools were interviewed. The findings indicated that teachers and students brought indigenous knowledge to the classroom but were limited in their use by existing educational policies.AnotherfindingwasthatpoliciesborrowedfromtheglobalNorthdid not suit the context in the Southincountries with a history of colonization. There was the need for policymakers to ensure the policies borrowed from the North suit the Kenyan context. The recommendations included the deliberate and mandated use of indigenous knowledge in classrooms including indigenous languages for instruction, the use of locally available assets to support students with disabilities in mainstream classrooms, and the use of a hybrid curriculum that privileges indigenous knowledge over Westernknowledgesintheschoolcurriculum.

Keywords: global North, global South, inclusive educate indigenous knowledges

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Authors: Davide Fuscà, Kanan Rahimli, Roberto Leuzzi

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Preventing abuse and illegal activities in a given area of the sea is a very difficult and expensive task. Artificial intelligence offers the possibility to implement new methods to identify the vessel class type from the kinematic features of the vessel itself. The task strictly depends on the quality of the data. This paper explores the application of a deep, long short-term memory model by using AIS flow only with a relatively low quality. The proposed model reaches high accuracy on detecting nine vessel classes representing the most common vessel types in the Ionian-Adriatic Sea. The model has been applied during the Adriatic-Ionian trial period of the international EU ANDROMEDA H2020 project to identify vessels performing behaviors far from the expected one depending on the declared type.

Keywords: maritime surveillance, artificial intelligence, behavior analysis, LSTM

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Authors: Oumayma Hilal

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The devastating earthquake in Marrakech-El Haouz in September 2023 underscores the critical need for sustainable tourism practices. This study proposes innovative approaches to territory tourism, prioritizing resilient and sustainable development to aid recovery and empower local communities. Using a mixed-methods approach, the research evaluates post-earthquake tourism impacts, gathers local perspectives, and benchmarks global models for disaster recovery through tourism. The paper aims to offer practical, community-centric tourism initiatives, integrated with strategic communication strategies, to enhance socio-economic welfare and ensure long-term resilience. The findings are expected to contribute significantly to sustainable tourism literature in post-disaster contexts and provide actionable strategies for the revitalization of the Marrakech-El Haouz region.

Keywords: sustainable tourism, community development, Marrakech El Haouz, communication strategies, territory tourism, sustainable tourism, community development

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Authors: Raouf Fareh, Maarouf Saad, Sofiane Khadraoui, Tamer Rabie

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This paper presents a tracking control strategy based on Lyapunov approach for nonholonomic wheeled mobile robot. This control strategy consists of two levels. First, a kinematic controller is developed to adjust the right and left wheel velocities. Using this velocity control law, the stability of the tracking error is guaranteed using Lyapunov approach. This kinematic controller cannot be generated directly by the motors. To overcome this problem, the second level of the controllers, dynamic control, is designed. This dynamic control law is developed based on Lyapunov theory in order to track the desired trajectories of the mobile robot. The stability of the tracking error is proved using Lupunov and Barbalat approaches. Simulation results on a nonholonomic wheeled mobile robot are given to demonstrate the feasibility and effectiveness of the presented approach.

Keywords: mobile robot, trajectory tracking, Lyapunov, stability

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Authors: Sefa Aksu, Ünal Kızıl

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For this study, a town based soil database created in Gümüşçay District of Biga Town, Çanakkale, Turkey. Crop and livestock production are major activities in the district. Nutrient management is mainly based on commercial fertilizer application ignoring the livestock manure. Within the boundaries of district, 122 soil sampling points determined over the satellite image. Soil samples collected from the determined points with the help of handheld Global Positioning System. Labeled samples were sent to a commercial laboratory to determine 11 soil parameters including salinity, pH, lime, organic matter, nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, iron, manganese, copper and zinc. Based on the test results soil maps for mentioned parameters were developed using remote sensing, GIS, and geostatistical analysis. In this study we developed a GIS database that will be used for soil nutrient management. Methods were explained and soil maps and their interpretations were summarized in the study.

Keywords: geostatistics, GIS, nutrient management, soil mapping

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Authors: Hachmia Faqihi, Maarouf Saad, Khalid Benjelloun, Mohammed Benbrahim, M. Nabil Kabbaj

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This paper investigates and presents a cable-driven robot to lower limb rehabilitation use in sagittal plane. The presented rehabilitation robot is used for a trajectory tracking in joint space. The paper covers kinematic and dynamic analysis, which reveals the tensionability of the used cables as being the actuating source to provide a rehabilitation exercises of the human leg. The desired trajectory is generated to be used in the control system design in joint space. The obtained simulation results is showed to be efficient in this kind of application.

Keywords: cable-driven multi-body system, computed-torque controller, lower limb rehabilitation, tracking trajectory

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Authors: Bruce G. Wilson

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The collection of municipal solid waste at the curbside is a complex operation that is repeated daily under varying circumstances around the world. There have been several attempts to develop Monte Carlo simulation models of the waste collection process dating back almost 50 years. Despite this long history, the use of simulation modeling as a planning or optimization tool for waste collection is still extremely limited in practice. Historically, simulation modeling of waste collection systems has been hampered by the limitations of computer hardware and software and by the availability of representative input data. This paper outlines the development of a Monte Carlo simulation model that overcomes many of the limitations contained in previous models. The model uses a general purpose simulation software program that is easily capable of modeling an entire waste collection network. The model treats the stops on a waste collection route as a queue of work to be processed by a collection vehicle (or server). Input data can be collected from a variety of sources including municipal geographic information systems, global positioning system recorders on collection vehicles, and weigh scales at transfer stations or treatment facilities. The result is a flexible model that is sufficiently robust that it can model the collection activities in a large municipality, while providing the flexibility to adapt to changing conditions on the collection route.

Keywords: modeling, queues, residential waste collection, Monte Carlo simulation

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Authors: Nina Robson, Kenneth John Faller II, Vishalkumar Ahir, Mustafa Mhawesh, Reza Langari

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This paper describes the development of a model of an impaired human arm performing a reaching motion, which will be used to predict hand path trajectories for people with reduced arm joint mobility. Assuming that the arm was in contact with a surface during the entire movement, the contact conditions at the initial and final task locations were determined and used to generate the entire trajectory. The model was validated by comparing it to experimental data, which simulated an arm joint impairment by physically constraining the joint motion with a brace. Future research will include using the model in the development of physical training protocols that avoid early recruitment of “healthy” Degrees-Of-Freedom (DOF) for reaching motions, thus facilitating an Active Range-Of-Motion Recovery (AROM) for a particular impaired joint.

Keywords: higher order kinematic specifications, human motor coordination, impaired movement, kinematic synthesis

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Authors: Eunsup Daniel Shim, Jooh Lee

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The US financial crisis of 2008 and subsequent Global Financial Crisis were considered by many economists the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression of the 1930s. As a results, Dodd-Frank Act has passed and aims '(1) to promote the financial stability of the United States by improving accountability and transparency in the financial system, to end "too big to fail", (2) to protect the American taxpayer by ending bailouts, (3) to protect consumers from abusive financial services practices, and for other purposes.' The enactment of Dodd-Frank Act, in part, intended to significantly influence accountability on executive compensation especially for the financial institutions. This paper empirically investigates the changes in Financial CEOs’ compensation since the Financial Crisis of 2008. Our findings show that in the post- Financial Crisis period financial leverage is significant factor influencing the CEOs’ total compensation. In addition market based performance such as stock price and market-to-book ratio shows significant positive relationship with CEO compensation. This change can be interpreted an attempt to reduce opportunistic behavior of top executives after the financial crisis and the enactment of the Dodd-Frank Act.

Keywords: financial CEO compensation, firm performance, financial crisis of 2008, dodd-frank act

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Authors: Urvi Shah, Anmol Jain

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The talks of a New Global Order have been doing rounds since the advent of 21st century. Similar change in global scenario was witnessed when the Bretton Woods System came up post the World War II. The changing world order has been analyzed by using the Purchasing Power Parity (PPP) and Nominal Gross Domestic Product (GDP) estimates. The PPP and Nominal GDP methods show the purchasing power and financial background of the countries respectively, which helps in knowing both real and nominal financial strength of the country. Today, the rising powers of BRICS are posing new challenges to the world order shaped by the West. BRICS, i.e. Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, countries have at various instances represented the interests of developing countries at world forums. The pooled population of these nations accounts for 41.6% of the total world population which gives a very resilient idea of the workforce or human resources which is mobilized by them. They have a combined GDP (PPP) of around 30.57% of the total world GDP (PPP). The paper tries to analyze the prospects and impact of the New Development Bank (NDB) formerly known as the BRICS Bank, on world economy, which has the potential to act as a rival to West dominated IMF and World Bank. The paper studies the paradigm shift in the global order, impact of the NDB on third world nations and the developed nations. The study concluded that the relative positions of BRICS countries in the world economy are changing, irrespective of the measurement methodology being US$ or the PPP model.

Keywords: BRICS, New Development Bank, Nominal GDP, purchasing power parity

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Authors: Yussif Tawfiq, Stephen Omari, Kwaku Poku Asante

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The abundance of malaria vectors is influenced by micro-ecology, rainfall, and temperature patterns. The main objective of the study was to identify mosquito larval sites for future larval surveys and possible intervention programs. The study was conducted in Kintampo in central Ghana. Twenty larval sites were surveyed. Larval density was determined per cm² of water from each of the various sites. The dipper was used to fetch larvae from the larval sites, and a global positioning system (GPS) was used to identify larvae locations. There was a negative linear relationship between humidity, temperature, pH, and mosquito larval density. GPS of larval sites was taken for easy larval identification. There was the presence of Anopheles mosquito larvae in all polluted waters with Culex larval presence. This shows that Anopheles mosquito larvae are beginning to adapt to survival in polluted waters. The identified breeding sites are going to be useful for future larval surveys and will also help in intervention programs.

Keywords: larvae, GPS, dipper, larval density

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Authors: Amadou Fall Dia, Maurras Ulbricht Togbe, Aliou Boly, Zakia Kazi Aoul, Elisabeth Metais

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Existing RDF (Resource Description Framework) Stream Processing (RSP) systems allow continuous processing of RDF data issued from different application domains such as weather station measuring phenomena, geolocation, IoT applications, drinking water distribution management, and so on. However, processing window phase often expires before finishing the entire session and RSP systems immediately delete data streams after each processed window. Such mechanism does not allow optimized exploitation of the RDF data streams as the most relevant and pertinent information of the data is often not used in a due time and almost impossible to be exploited for further analyzes. It should be better to keep the most informative part of data within streams while minimizing the memory storage space. In this work, we propose an RDF graph summarization system based on an explicit and implicit expressed needs through three main approaches: (1) an approach for user queries (SPARQL) in order to extract their needs and group them into a more global query, (2) an extension of the closeness centrality measure issued from Social Network Analysis (SNA) to determine the most informative parts of the graph and (3) an RDF graph summarization technique combining extracted user query needs and the extended centrality measure. Experiments and evaluations show efficient results in terms of memory space storage and the most expected approximate query results on summarized graphs compared to the source ones.

Keywords: centrality measures, RDF graphs summary, RDF graphs stream, SPARQL query

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Authors: C. Fernanda da S. Sampaio, M. Gabriela Sadith Perez Paredes, V. Antonio de O. Martins

Abstract:

Today the transport sector is undergoing a revolution, with the rise of Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS), industry and society itself will undergo a major transformation. However, the technological development of these applications is a challenge that requires new techniques and great machine learning and artificial intelligence. The study proposes to develop a vehicular perception system called Veibra, which consists of two front cameras for day/night viewing and an embedded device capable of working with Yolov2 image processing algorithms with low computational cost. The strategic version for the market is to assist the driver on the road with the detection of day/night objects, such as road signs, pedestrians, and animals that will be viewed through the screen of the phone or tablet through an application. The system has the ability to perform real-time driver detection and recognition to identify muscle movements and pupils to determine if the driver is tired or inattentive, analyzing the student's characteristic change and following the subtle movements of the whole face and issuing alerts through beta waves to ensure the concentration and attention of the driver. The system will also be able to perform tracking and monitoring through GSM (Global System for Mobile Communications) technology and the cameras installed in the vehicle.

Keywords: advanced driver assistance systems, tracking, traffic signal detection, vehicle perception system

Procedia PDF Downloads 123

Authors: Lokendra Kumar Devangan, Ajay Mishra

Abstract:

This paper describes the implementation of a large-scale SAS/OR model with significant pre-processing, scenario analysis, and post-processing work done using SAS. A large cement manufacturer with ten geographically distributed manufacturing plants for two variants of cement, around 400 warehouses serving as transshipment points, and several thousand distributor locations generating demand needed to optimize this multi-echelon, multi-modal transport supply chain separately for planning and allocation purposes. For monthly planning as well as daily allocation, the demand is deterministic. Rail and road networks connect any two points in this supply chain, creating tens of thousands of such connections. Constraints include the plant’s production capacity, transportation capacity, and rail wagon batch size constraints. Each demand point has a minimum and maximum for shipments received. Price varies at demand locations due to local factors. A large mixed integer programming model built using proc OPTMODEL decides production at plants, demand fulfilled at each location, and the shipment route to demand locations to maximize the profit contribution. Using base SAS, we did significant pre-processing of data and created inputs for the optimization. Using outputs generated by OPTMODEL and other processing completed using base SAS, we generated several reports that went into their enterprise system and created tables for easy consumption of the optimization results by operations.

Keywords: production planning, mixed integer optimization, network model, network optimization

Procedia PDF Downloads 32