Search results for: human computer interaction.

Authors: K. Mahmoud, T. Shalahmetova, B. Umbayev, Sh. Deraz

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Biochemical investigations were carried out to assess the effect of different exposure regimes of Kazakhstan crude oil (KCO) on hepatic antioxidant defense system in albino rats. Contaminants were delivered under two different dosing regimes, with all treatments receiving the same total contaminant load by the end of the exposure period. Rats in regime A injected with KCO once at a dose of 6 ml/kg bw while in regime B injected multiply at a dose of 1.5 ml/kg bw on day 1, 3, 5 and 8. Antioxidant biomarkers were measured in hepatic tissue after 1, 3, 5 and 8 days. Significant induction was observed in serum aminotransferases (ALT, AST) (p<0.01) and hepatic Glutathione-S-transferase (GST) (p<0.05) in the two exposure regimes, with the majority of significant induction occurring in regime A. Superoxide dismutase (SOD) increased 1-d after injection (p<0.01) but the increase was reduced time dependently thereafter while after 8-d induced again (p<0.01). Malondialdehyde (MDA) significantly induced after 3 and 5-d (p<0.05) in regime A while in regime B was not changed significantly (p>0.05) at short time after exposure. However, there was significant increase after 8-d (p<0.01). Histological examination indicates that crude oil induced pathologic changes from inflammatory cells infiltration to hemorrhage and necrosis of hepatocytes. Acute exposure to crude oil adversely affect hepatic cell so human must avoid such exposure.

Keywords: Kazakhstan crude oil, Antioxidant biomarkers, Histological examination, Dose regime, Rats

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Authors: M. A. Ghorbani, M. Pasbani Khiavi

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The seismic response of steel shear wall system considering nonlinearity effects using finite element method is investigated in this paper. The non-linear finite element analysis has potential as usable and reliable means for analyzing of civil structures with the availability of computer technology. In this research the large displacements and materially nonlinear behavior of shear wall is presented with developing of finite element code. A numerical model based on the finite element method for the seismic analysis of shear wall is presented with developing of finite element code in this research. To develop the finite element code, the standard Galerkin weighted residual formulation is used. Two-dimensional plane stress model and total Lagrangian formulation was carried out to present the shear wall response and the Newton-Raphson method is applied for the solution of nonlinear transient equations. The presented model in this paper can be developed for analysis of civil engineering structures with different material behavior and complicated geometry.

Keywords: Finite element, steel shear wall, nonlinear, earthquake

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Authors: Manas Ranjan Kabat, Manoj Kumar Patel, Chita Ranjan Tripathy

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Many multimedia communication applications require a source to transmit messages to multiple destinations subject to quality of service (QoS) delay constraint. To support delay constrained multicast communications, computer networks need to guarantee an upper bound end-to-end delay from the source node to each of the destination nodes. This is known as multicast delay problem. On the other hand, if the same message fails to arrive at each destination node at the same time, there may arise inconsistency and unfairness problem among users. This is related to multicast delayvariation problem. The problem to find a minimum cost multicast tree with delay and delay-variation constraints has been proven to be NP-Complete. In this paper, we propose an efficient heuristic algorithm, namely, Economic Delay and Delay-Variation Bounded Multicast (EDVBM) algorithm, based on a novel heuristic function, to construct an economic delay and delay-variation bounded multicast tree. A noteworthy feature of this algorithm is that it has very high probability of finding the optimal solution in polynomial time with low computational complexity.

Keywords: EDVBM, Heuristic algorithm, Multicast tree, QoS routing, Shortest path.

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Authors: Pisit Boonsrimuang, Arjin Numsomran, Tawil Paungma, Hideo Kobayashi

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One of the disadvantages of using OFDM is the larger peak to averaged power ratio (PAPR) in its time domain signal. The larger PAPR signal would course the fatal degradation of bit error rate performance (BER) due to the inter-modulation noise in the nonlinear channel. This paper proposes an improved DSI (Dummy Sequence Insertion) method, which can achieve the better PAPR and BER performances. The feature of proposed method is to optimize the phase of each dummy sub-carrier so as to reduce the PAPR performance by changing all predetermined phase coefficients in the time domain signal, which is calculated for data sub-carriers and dummy sub-carriers separately. To achieve the better PAPR performance, this paper also proposes to employ the time-frequency domain swapping algorithm for fine adjustment of phase coefficient of the dummy subcarriers, which can achieve the less complexity of processing and achieves the better PAPR and BER performances than those for the conventional DSI method. This paper presents various computer simulation results to verify the effectiveness of proposed method as comparing with the conventional methods in the non-linear channel.

Keywords: OFDM, PAPR, dummy sub-carriers, non-linear

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Authors: Mohammed B. Abohedma, Milad M. Alshebani

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Recent trends in building constructions in Libya are more toward tall (high-rise) building projects. As a consequence, a better estimation of the lateral loading in the design process is becoming the focal of a safe and cost effective building industry. Byin- large, Libya is not considered a potential earthquake prone zone, making wind is the dominant design lateral loads. Current design practice in the country estimates wind speeds on a mere random bases by considering certain factor of safety to the chosen wind speed. Therefore, a need for a more accurate estimation of wind speeds in Libya was the motivation behind this study. Records of wind speed data were collected from 22 metrological stations in Libya, and were statistically analysed. The analysis of more than four decades of wind speed records suggests that the country can be divided into four zones of distinct wind speeds. A computer “survey" program was manipulated to draw design wind speeds contour map for the state of Libya. The paper presents the statistical analysis of Libya-s recorded wind speed data and proposes design wind speed values for a 50-year return period that covers the entire country.

Keywords: Ccontour map, return period, wind speed, and zone.

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Authors: Minky Son, Chanin Park, Ayoung Baek, Shalini John, Keun Woo Lee

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3-hydroxy-3-methylglutaryl coenzyme A reductase (HMGR) catalyzes the conversion of HMG-CoA to mevalonate using NADPH and the enzyme is involved in rate-controlling step of mevalonate. Inhibition of HMGR is considered as effective way to lower cholesterol levels so it is drug target to treat hypercholesterolemia, major risk factor of cardiovascular disease. To discover novel HMGR inhibitor, we performed structure-based pharmacophore modeling combined with molecular dynamics (MD) simulation. Four HMGR inhibitors were used for MD simulation and representative structure of each simulation were selected by clustering analysis. Four structure-based pharmacophore models were generated using the representative structure. The generated models were validated used in virtual screening to find novel scaffolds for inhibiting HMGR. The screened compounds were filtered by applying drug-like properties and used in molecular docking. Finally, four hit compounds were obtained and these complexes were refined using energy minimization. These compounds might be potential leads to design novel HMGR inhibitor.

Keywords: Anti-hypercholesterolemia drug, HMGR inhibitor, Molecular dynamics simulation, Structure-based pharmacophore modeling.

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Authors: K. Shiba, T. Kobayashi, T. Kaburagi, Y. Kurihara

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Elderly population in the world is increasing, and consequently, their nursing burden is also increasing. In such situations, monitoring and evaluating their daily action facilitates efficient nursing care. Especially, we focus on an unconscious activity during sleep, i.e. turnover. Monitoring turnover during sleep is essential to evaluate various conditions related to sleep. Bedsores are considered as one of the monitoring conditions. Changing patient’s posture every two hours is required for caregivers to prevent bedsore. Herein, we attempt to develop an unconstrained nocturnal monitoring system using a sensing device based on piezoelectric ceramics that can detect the vibrations owing to human body movement on the bed. In the proposed method, in order to construct a multi-points sensing, we placed two sensing devices under the right and left legs at the head-side of an ordinary bed. Using this equipment, when a subject lies on the bed, feature is calculated from the output voltages of the sensing devices. In order to evaluate our proposed method, we conducted an experiment with six healthy male subjects. Consequently, the period during which turnover occurs can be correctly classified as the turnover period with 100% accuracy.

Keywords: Turnover, piezoelectric ceramics, multi-points sensing, unconstrained monitoring system.

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Authors: Martin A. Smith, Xiaogang Chen

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This paper proposes new algorithms for the computeraided design and manufacture (CAD/CAM) of 3D woven multi-layer textile structures. Existing commercial CAD/CAM systems are often restricted to the design and manufacture of 2D weaves. Those CAD/CAM systems that do support the design and manufacture of 3D multi-layer weaves are often limited to manual editing of design paper grids on the computer display and weave retrieval from stored archives. This complex design activity is time-consuming, tedious and error-prone and requires considerable experience and skill of a technical weaver. Recent research reported in the literature has addressed some of the shortcomings of commercial 3D multi-layer weave CAD/CAM systems. However, earlier research results have shown the need for further work on weave specification, weave generation, yarn path editing and layer binding. Analysis of 3D multi-layer weaves in this research has led to the design and development of efficient and robust algorithms for the CAD/CAM of 3D woven multi-layer textile structures. The resulting algorithmically generated weave designs can be used as a basis for lifting plans that can be loaded onto looms equipped with electronic shedding mechanisms for the CAM of 3D woven multi-layer textile structures.

Keywords: CAD/CAM, Multi-layer, Textile, Weave.

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Authors: Jucelia Appio, Danielle Deimling De Carli, Bruno Henrique Rocha Fernandes, Nelson Natalino Frizon

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The purpose of this paper is to investigate if there are positive and significant correlations between the dimensions of Person-Environment Fit (Person-Job, Person-Organization, Person-Group and Person-Supervisor) at the “Best Companies to Work for” in Brazil in 2017. For that, a quantitative approach was used with a descriptive method being defined as a research sample the "150 Best Companies to Work for", according to data base collected in 2017 and provided by Fundação Instituto of Administração (FIA) of the University of São Paulo (USP). About the data analysis procedures, asymmetry and kurtosis, factorial analysis, Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin (KMO) tests, Bartlett sphericity and Cronbach's alpha were used for the 69 research variables, and as a statistical technique for the purpose of analyzing the hypothesis, Pearson's correlation analysis was performed. As a main result, we highlight that there was a positive and significant correlation between the dimensions of Person-Environment Fit, corroborating the H1 hypothesis that there is a positive and significant correlation between Person-Job Fit, Person-Organization Fit, Person-Group Fit and Person-Supervisor Fit.

Keywords: Human resource management, person-environment fit, strategic people management, best companies to work for.

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Authors: Alan S. Hoback

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Most people see human faces in car front and back ends because of the process of pareidolia. 96 people were surveyed to see how many of them saw a face in the vehicle styling. Participants were aged 18 to 72 years. 94% of the participants saw faces in the front-end design of production models. All participants that recognized faces indicated that most styles showed some degree of an angry expression. It was found that women were more likely to see faces in inanimate objects. However, with respect to whether women were more likely to perceive anger in the vehicle design, the results need further clarification. Survey responses were correlated to the design features of vehicles to determine what cues the respondents were likely looking at when responding. Whether the features looked anthropomorphic was key to anger perception. Features such as the headlights which could represent eyes and the air intake that could represent a mouth had high correlations to trends in scores. Results are compared among models, makers, by groupings of body styles classifications for the top 12 brands sold in the US, and by year for the top 20 models sold in the US in 2016. All of the top models sold increased in perception of an angry expression over the last 20 years or since the model was introduced, but the relative change varied by body style grouping.

Keywords: Aggressive driving, face recognition, road rage, vehicle styling.

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Authors: Hema C. R., Paulraj M. P., S. Yaacob, A. H. Adom, R. Nagarajan

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Motor imagery classification provides an important basis for designing Brain Machine Interfaces [BMI]. A BMI captures and decodes brain EEG signals and transforms human thought into actions. The ability of an individual to control his EEG through imaginary mental tasks enables him to control devices through the BMI. This paper presents a method to design a four state BMI using EEG signals recorded from the C3 and C4 locations. Principle features extracted through principle component analysis of the segmented EEG are analyzed using two novel classification algorithms using Elman recurrent neural network and functional link neural network. Performance of both classifiers is evaluated using a particle swarm optimization training algorithm; results are also compared with the conventional back propagation training algorithm. EEG motor imagery recorded from two subjects is used in the offline analysis. From overall classification performance it is observed that the BP algorithm has higher average classification of 93.5%, while the PSO algorithm has better training time and maximum classification. The proposed methods promises to provide a useful alternative general procedure for motor imagery classification

Keywords: Motor Imagery, Brain Machine Interfaces, Neural Networks, Particle Swarm Optimization, EEG signal processing.

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Authors: Bachir Chemani, Rachid Halfaoui

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The aim of study was to evaluate pressure distribution characteristics of the elastic textile bandages using two instrumental techniques: a prototype Instrument and a load Transference. The prototype instrument which simulates shape of real leg has pressure sensors which measure bandage pressure. Using this instrument, the results show that elastic textile bandages presents different pressure distribution characteristics and none produces a uniform distribution around lower limb.

The load transference test procedure is used to determine whether a relationship exists between elastic textile bandage structure and pressure distribution characteristics. The test procedure assesses degree of load, directly transferred through a textile when loads series are applied to bandaging surface. A range of weave fabrics was produced using needle weaving machine and a sewing technique. A textile bandage was developed with optimal characteristics far superior pressure distribution than other bandages. From results, we find that theoretical pressure is not consistent exactly with practical pressure. It is important in this study to make a practical application for specialized nurses in order to verify the results and draw useful conclusions for predicting the use of this type of elastic band.

Keywords: Textile, cotton, pressure, venous ulcers, elastic.

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Authors: M. Abdul-Rani, K. K. Chong, A. F. M. Hani, Y. B. Yap, A. Jamil

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Imaging is defined as the process of obtaining geometric images either two dimensional or three dimensional by scanning or digitizing the existing objects or products. In this research, it applied to retrieve 3D information of the human skin surface in medical application. This research focuses on analyzing and determining volume of leg ulcers using imaging devices. Volume determination is one of the important criteria in clinical assessment of leg ulcer. The volume and size of the leg ulcer wound will give the indication on responding to treatment whether healing or worsening. Different imaging techniques are expected to give different result (and accuracies) in generating data and images. Midpoint projection algorithm was used to reconstruct the cavity to solid model and compute the volume. Misinterpretation of the results can affect the treatment efficacy. The objectives of this paper is to compare the accuracy between two 3D data acquisition method, which is laser triangulation and structured light methods, It was shown that using models with known volume, that structured-light-based 3D technique produces better accuracy compared with laser triangulation data acquisition method for leg ulcer volume determination.

Keywords: Imaging, Laser Triangulation, Structured Light, Volume Determination.

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Authors: Meltem Serhatli, Ferda N. Alpaslan

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Processing the data by computers and performing reasoning tasks is an important aim in Computer Science. Semantic Web is one step towards it. The use of ontologies to enhance the information by semantically is the current trend. Huge amount of domain specific, unstructured on-line data needs to be expressed in machine understandable and semantically searchable format. Currently users are often forced to search manually in the results returned by the keyword-based search services. They also want to use their native languages to express what they search. In this paper, an ontology-based automated question answering system on software test documents domain is presented. The system allows users to enter a question about the domain by means of natural language and returns exact answer of the questions. Conversion of the natural language question into the ontology based query is the challenging part of the system. To be able to achieve this, a new algorithm regarding free text to ontology based search engine query conversion is proposed. The algorithm is based on investigation of suitable question type and parsing the words of the question sentence.

Keywords: Description Logics, ontology, question answering, reasoning.

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Authors: Lavanya Srinivasan

Abstract:

Biometric identification is to identify unique features in a person like fingerprints, iris, ear, and voice recognition that need the subject's permission and physical contact. Gait biometric is used to identify the unique gait of the person by extracting moving features. The main advantage of gait biometric to identify the gait of a person at a distance, without any physical contact. In this work, the gait biometric is used for person re-identification. The person walking naturally compared with the same person walking with bag, coat and case recorded using long wave infrared, short wave infrared, medium wave infrared and visible cameras. The videos are recorded in rural and in urban environments. The pre-processing technique includes human identified using You Only Look Once, background subtraction, silhouettes extraction and synthesis Gait Entropy Image by averaging the silhouettes. The moving features are extracted from the Gait Entropy Energy Image. The extracted features are dimensionality reduced by the Principal Component Analysis and recognized using different classifiers. The comparative results with the different classifier show that Linear Discriminant Analysis outperform other classifiers with 95.8% for visible in the rural dataset and 94.8% for longwave infrared in the urban dataset.

Keywords: biometric, gait, silhouettes, You Only Look Once

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Authors: I Made Darmayuda, Zhou Jun, Krishna Mainali, Simon Ng Sheung Yan, Saisundar S, Eran Ofek

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Personnel protection devices are cardinal in safety hazard applications. They are widely used in home, office and in industry environments to reduce the risk of lethal shock to human being and equipment safety. This paper briefly reviews various personnel protection devices also describes the basic working principle of conventional ground fault circuit interrupter (GFCI) or ground fault isolator (GFI), its disadvantages and ways to overcome the disadvantages with solid-state relay (SSR) based GFI with ultrafast response up on fault implemented in printed circuit board. This solid state GFI comprises discrete MOSFET based alternating current (AC) switches, linear optical amplifier, photovoltaic isolator and sense resistor. In conventional GFI, current transformer is employed as a sensing element to detect the difference in current flow between live and neutral conductor. If there is no fault in equipment powered through GFI, due to insulation failure of internal wires and windings of motors, both live and neutral currents will be equal in magnitude and opposite in phase.

Keywords: current transformer, electrocution, GFCI, GFI

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Authors: Jehad Al Dallal

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Program slicing is the task of finding all statements in a program that directly or indirectly influence the value of a variable occurrence. The set of statements that can affect the value of a variable at some point in a program is called a program backward slice. In several software engineering applications, such as program debugging and measuring program cohesion and parallelism, several slices are computed at different program points. The existing algorithms for computing program slices are introduced to compute a slice at a program point. In these algorithms, the program, or the model that represents the program, is traversed completely or partially once. To compute more than one slice, the same algorithm is applied for every point of interest in the program. Thus, the same program, or program representation, is traversed several times. In this paper, an algorithm is introduced to compute all forward static slices of a computer program by traversing the program representation graph once. Therefore, the introduced algorithm is useful for software engineering applications that require computing program slices at different points of a program. The program representation graph used in this paper is called Program Dependence Graph (PDG).

Keywords: Program slicing, static slicing, forward slicing, program dependence graph (PDG).

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Authors: Mohammadjavad Mahdavinejad, Hadi Yazdi

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The greatest influence we have from the world is shaped through the visual form, thus light is an inseparable element in human life. The use of daylight in visual perception and environment readability is an important issue for users. With regard to the hazards of greenhouse gas emissions from fossil fuels, and in line with the attitudes on the reduction of energy consumption, the correct use of daylight results in lower levels of energy consumed by artificial lighting, heating and cooling systems. Windows are usually the starting points for analysis and simulations to achieve visual comfort and energy optimization; therefore, attention should be paid to the orientation of buildings to minimize electrical energy and maximize the use of daylight. In this paper, by using the Design Builder Software, the effect of the orientation of an 18m²(3m*6m) room with 3m height in city of Tehran has been investigated considering the design constraint limitations. In these simulations, the dimensions of the building have been changed with one degree and the window is located on the smaller face (3m*3m) of the building with 80% ratio. The results indicate that the orientation of building has a lot to do with energy efficiency to meet high-performance architecture and planning goals and objectives.

Keywords: Daylight, window, orientation, energy consumption, design builder.

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Authors: Waleed S. Alwaneen

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In many countries, cow dung is used as farm manure and for biogas production. Several bacterial strains associated with cow dung such as Campylobacter, Salmonella sp. and Escherichia coli cause serious human diseases. The objective of the present study was to investigate the use of insect larvae including fruit beetle, waxworms and tiger worms to improve the breakdown of agricultural wastes and reduce their pathogen loads. Fresh cow faeces were collected from a cattle farm and distributed into plastic boxes (100 g/box). Each box was provided with 10 larvae of fruit beetle, Waxworms and Tiger worms, respectively. There were 3 replicates in each treatment including the control. Bacteria were isolated weekly from both control and cow faeces to which larvae were added to determine the bacterial populations. Results revealed that the bacterial load was higher in the cow faeces treated with fruit beetles than in the control, while the bacterial load was lower in the cow faeces treated with waxworms and tiger worms than in the control. The activities of the fruit beetle larvae led to the cow faeces being liquefied which provided a more conducive growing media for bacteria. Therefore, higher bacterial load in the cow faeces treated with fruit beetle might be attributed to the liquefaction of cow faeces.

Keywords: Fruit beetle, waxworms, tiger worms, waste conditioning, composting.

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Authors: Ana Vieira, Fernando Lau, João Pedro Mortágua, Luís Cruz, Rui Santos

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The air transport impact on environment is more than ever a limitative obstacle to the aeronautical industry continuous growth. Over the last decades, considerable effort has been carried out in order to obtain quieter aircraft solutions, whether by changing the original design or investigating more silent maneuvers. The noise propagated by rotating surfaces is one of the most important sources of annoyance, being present in most aerial vehicles. Bearing this is mind, CEIIA developed a new computational chain for noise prediction with in-house software tools to obtain solutions in relatively short time without using excessive computer resources. This work is based on the new acoustic tool, which aims to predict the rotor noise generated during steady and maneuvering flight, making use of the flexibility of the C language and the advantages of GPU programming in terms of velocity. The acoustic tool is based in the Formulation 1A of Farassat, capable of predicting two important types of noise: the loading and thickness noise. The present work describes the most important features of the acoustic tool, presenting its most relevant results and framework analyses for helicopters and UAV quadrotors.

Keywords: Rotor noise, acoustic tool, GPU Programming, UAV noise.

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Authors: A.S. Sikarwar, S. Ambu, T .H. Wong

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Snake bite cases in Malaysia most often involve the species Naja-naja and Calloselasma rhodostoma. In keeping with the need for a rapid snake venom detection kit in a clinical setting, plate and dot-ELISA test for the venoms of Naja-naja sumatrana, Calloselasma rhodostoma and the cobra venom fraction V antigen was developed. Polyclonal antibodies were raised and further used to prepare the reagents for the dot-ELISA test kit which was tested in mice, rabbit and virtual human models. The newly developed dot- ELISA kit was able to detect a minimum venom concentration of 244ng/ml with cross reactivity of one antibody type. The dot-ELISA system was sensitive and specific for all three snake venom types in all tested animal models. The lowest minimum venom concentration detectable was in the rabbit model, 244ng/ml of the cobra venom fraction V antigen. The highest minimum venom concentration was in mice, 1953ng/ml against a multitude of venoms. The developed dot-ELISA system for the detection of three snake venom types was successful with a sensitivity of 95.8% and specificity of 97.9%.

Keywords: ELISA, Venom, SVDK, Naja-naja sumatrana , Calloselasma rhodostoma.

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Authors: Gitimoni Deka, Krishna G Bhattacharyya

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The textile industry produces highly coloured effluents containing polar and non-polar compounds. The textile mill run by the Assam Polyester Co-operative Society Limited (APOL) is situated at Rangia, about 55 km from Guwahati (26011' N, 91047' E) in the northern bank of the river Brahmaputra, Assam (India). This unit was commissioned in June 1988 and started commercial production in November 1988. The installed capacity of the weaving unit was 8000 m/day and that of the processing unit was 20,000 m/day. The mill has its own dyeing unit with a capacity of 1500-2000 kg/day. The western side of the mill consists of vast agricultural land and the far northern and southern side of the mill has scattered human population. The eastern side of the mill has a major road for thoroughfare. The mill releases its effluents into the agricultural land in the western side of the mill. The present study was undertaken to assess the impact of the textile mill on surface soil quality in and around the mill with particular reference to Cr, Mn, Ni and Zn. Surface soil samples, collected along different directions at 200, 500 and 1000 m were digested and the metals were estimated with Atomic Absorption Spectrophotometer. The metals were found in the range of: Cr 50.9 – 105.0 mg kg-1, Mn 19.2- 78.6 mg kg-1, Ni 41.9 – 50.6 mg kg-1 and Zn 187.8 – 1095.8 mg kg-1. The study reveals enrichment of Cr, Mn, Ni and Zn in the soil near the textile mill.

Keywords: Cr, Mn, Ni, Zn, soil quality, heavy metal enrichment.

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Authors: N. Borjalilu, P. Rabiei, A. Enjoo

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Flight Data Monitoring (FDM) program assists an operator in aviation industries to identify, quantify, assess and address operational safety risks, in order to improve safety of flight operations. FDM is a powerful tool for an aircraft operator integrated into the operator’s Safety Management System (SMS), allowing to detect, confirm, and assess safety issues and to check the effectiveness of corrective actions, associated with human errors. This article proposes a model for safety risk assessment level of flight data in a different aspect of event focus based on fuzzy set values. It permits to evaluate the operational safety level from the point of view of flight activities. The main advantages of this method are proposed qualitative safety analysis of flight data. This research applies the opinions of the aviation experts through a number of questionnaires Related to flight data in four categories of occurrence that can take place during an accident or an incident such as: Runway Excursions (RE), Controlled Flight Into Terrain (CFIT), Mid-Air Collision (MAC), Loss of Control in Flight (LOC-I). By weighting each one (by F-TOPSIS) and applying it to the number of risks of the event, the safety risk of each related events can be obtained.

Keywords: F-TOPSIS, fuzzy set, FDM, flight safety.

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Authors: Kanakasabha Ramana

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The Post colonial society in India has witnessed the turmoil to come out from the widespread control and influence of colonialism. The socio-cultural life of a society with all its dynamics is reflected in realistic forms of literature. The social events and human experience are drawn into a new creative form and are given to the reader as a new understanding and perspective of life. It enables the reader to understand the essence of life and motivates him to prepare for a positive change. After India becoming free from the colonial rule in 1947, systematic efforts were made by central and state governments and institutions to limit the role of English and simultaneously enlarge the function of Indian languages by planning in a strategic manner. The eighteen languages recognized as national languages are having very rich literatures. Telugu language is one among the Dravidian language family and is widely spoken by a majority of people. The post colonial socio-cultural factors were very well reflected in Telugu literature. The anti-colonial, reform oriented, progressive, post modernistic trends in Telugu literature are nothing but creative reflections of the post colonial society. This paper examines the major socio-cultural reflections in Telugu literature of the post colonial period.

Keywords: postcolonialism, culture, progressive movement, Telugu Literature.

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Authors: Ghada Elshafei, Abdelazim Negm

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Recently, the green architecture becomes a significant way to a sustainable future. Green building designs involve finding the balance between comfortable homebuilding and sustainable environment. Moreover, the utilization of the new technologies such as artificial intelligence techniques are used to complement current practices in creating greener structures to keep the built environment more sustainable. The most common objectives in green buildings should be designed to minimize the overall impact of the built environment that effect on ecosystems in general and in particularly human health and natural environment. This will lead to protecting occupant health, improving employee productivity, reducing pollution and sustaining the environmental. In green building design, multiple parameters which may be interrelated, contradicting, vague and of qualitative/quantitative nature are broaden to use. This paper presents a comprehensive critical state- ofart- review of current practices based on fuzzy and its combination techniques. Also, presented how green architecture/building can be improved using the technologies that been used for analysis to seek optimal green solutions strategies and models to assist in making the best possible decision out of different alternatives.

Keywords: Green architecture/building, technologies, optimization, strategies, fuzzy techniques and models.

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Authors: Ahmed Abdi Hassan, Mustapha Muhammad Aliyu

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Turmeric (Curcuma longa) belongs to the ginger family and is used for food coloring mostly in Asian countries. It has long traditional medicinal value for the treatment of inflammations with excellent antioxidant properties. The purpose of this study is to investigate the efficiency of turmeric powder in the treatment of hyperthyroidism when combined with carbimazole antithyroid drug. The trial was conducted on 20 hyperthyroid patients but only 16 of them were successfully enrolled for the study. The 16 patients were divided into two equal groups where one group was treated with the only carbimazole while the other group was treated with a combined approach of carbimazole plus turmeric for 6 months consecutively. The result obtained is promising showing an average improvement of 99% in Thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH) and 88%Thyroid Autoantibodies (TPOAb) in patients treated with the combined approach compared to those treated with the only carbimazole with an average of 3% and 18% of TSH and TPOAb improvement respectively. However, no major difference has been observed in both T4 and T3. Therefore, turmeric powder is a promising treatment if carefully and consistently combined with carbimazole antithyroid drug at very low amounts of 1.5 to 2 grams for at least 2 to 3 times a week.

Keywords: Thyroid, curcuminoids, turmeric, thyroxine, triiodothyronine, thyroid stimulating hormone, TPOAb.

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Authors: Javier Barrachina, Piedad Garrido, Manuel Fogue, Julio A. Sanguesa, Francisco J. Martinez

Abstract:

It is very common to observe, especially in Computer Science studies that students have difficulties to correctly understand how some mechanisms based on Artificial Intelligence work. In addition, the scope and limitations of most of these mechanisms are usually presented by professors only in a theoretical way, which does not help students to understand them adequately. In this work, we focus on the problems found when teaching Evolutionary Algorithms (EAs), which imitate the principles of natural evolution, as a method to solve parameter optimization problems. Although this kind of algorithms can be very powerful to solve relatively complex problems, students often have difficulties to understand how they work, and how to apply them to solve problems in real cases. In this paper, we present two interactive graphical applications which have been specially designed with the aim of making Evolutionary Algorithms easy to be understood by students. Specifically, we present: (i) TSPS, an application able to solve the ”Traveling Salesman Problem”, and (ii) FotEvol, an application able to reconstruct a given image by using Evolution Strategies. The main objective is that students learn how these techniques can be implemented, and the great possibilities they offer.

Keywords: Education, evolutionary algorithms, evolution strategies, interactive learning applications.

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Authors: Zamri Noranai, Mohammad Zainal Md Yusof

Abstract:

Sustainable energy usage has been recognized as one of the important measure to increase the competitiveness of the nation globally. Many strong emphases were given in the Ninth Malaysia Plan (RMK9) to improve energy efficient especially to government buildings. With this in view, a project to investigate the potential of energy saving in selected building in Universiti Tun Hussein Onn Malaysia (UTHM) was carried out. In this project, a case study involving electric energy consumption of the academic staff office building was conducted. The scope of the study include to identify energy consumption in a selected building, to study energy saving opportunities, to analyse cost investment in term of economic and to identify users attitude with respect to energy usage. The MS1525:2001, Malaysian Standard -Code of practice on energy efficiency and use of renewable energy for non-residential buildings was used as reference. Several energy efficient measures were considered and their merits and priority were compared. Improving human behavior can reduce energy consumption by 6% while technical measure can reduce energy consumption by 44%. Two economic analysis evaluation methods were applied; they are the payback period method and net present value method.

Keywords: office building, energy, efficiency, economic analyses

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Authors: Mohammad Soliman, Mohamed A. Abou-Shouk

Abstract:

Knowledge management focuses on the development, storage, retrieval, and dissemination of information and expertise. It has become an important tool to improve performance in tourism enterprises. This includes improving decision-making, developing customer services, and increasing sales and profits. Knowledge management adoption depends on human, organizational and technological factors. This study aims to explore the concept of knowledge management in travel agents in Egypt. It explores the requirements of adoption and its impact on performance in these agencies. The study targets Category A travel agents in Egypt. The population of the study encompasses Category A travel agents having online presence. An online questionnaire is used to collect data from managers of travel agents. This study is useful for travel agents who are in urgent need to restructure their intermediary role and support their survival in the global travel market. The study sheds light on the requirements of adoption and the expected impact on performance. This could help travel agents identify their situation and the determine the extent to which they are ready to adopt knowledge management. This study is contributing to knowledge by providing insights from the tourism sector in a developing country where the concept of knowledge management is still in its infancy stages.

Keywords: Benefits, determinants, Egypt, knowledge management, travel agents.

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Authors: Njiri J. G., Ikua B. W., Nyakoe G. N.

Abstract:

Optimization of cutting parameters important in precision machining in regards to efficiency and surface integrity of the machined part. Usually productivity and precision in machining is limited by the forces emanating from the cutting process. Due to the inherent varying nature of the workpiece in terms of geometry and material composition, the peak cutting forces vary from point to point during machining process. In order to increase productivity without compromising on machining accuracy, it is important to control these cutting forces. In this paper a fuzzy logic control algorithm is developed that can be applied in the control of peak cutting forces in milling of spherical surfaces using ball end mills. The controller can adaptively vary the feedrate to maintain allowable cutting force on the tool. This control algorithm is implemented in a computer numerical control (CNC) machine. It has been demonstrated that the controller can provide stable machining and improve the performance of the CNC milling process by varying feedrate.

Keywords: Ball-end mill, feedrate, fuzzy logic controller, machining optimization, spherical surface.

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