Search results for: Higher Education

Authors: Jakob Renko, Deja Praprotnik, Kristina Martinovič, Igor Karnjuš

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Catheter-related bloodstream infections are a major burden for healthcare and patients. Although infections of this type cannot be completely avoided, they can be reduced by taking preventive measures. The aim of this study is to review and analyze the existing literature on preventive interventions to prevent central venous catheters (CVC) infections. A systematic literature review was carried out. The international databases CINAHL, Medline, PubMed, and Web of Science were searched using the search strategy: "catheter-related infections" AND "intensive care units" AND "prevention" AND "central venous catheter." Articles that met the inclusion and exclusion criteria were included in the study. The literature search flow is illustrated by the PRISMA diagram. The descriptive research method was used to analyze the data. Out of 554 search results, 22 surveys were included in the final analysis. We identified seven relevant preventive measures to prevent CVC infections: washing the whole body with chlorhexidine gluconate (CHG) solution, disinfecting the CVC entry site with CHG solution, use of CHG or silver dressings, alcohol protective caps, CVC care education, selecting appropriate catheter and multicomponent care bundles. Both single interventions and multicomponent care bundles have been shown to be currently effective measures to prevent CVC infections in adult patients in the ICU. None of the measures identified stood out in terms of their effectiveness. Prevention work to reduce CVC infections in the ICU is a complex process that requires the simultaneous consideration of several factors.

Keywords: Central venous access, critically ill patients, hospital-acquired complications, prevention.

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Authors: Md. Jahidul Islam, A. K. M. Rakinul Islam, Md. Salamah Meherier

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This study investigates the suitability of using plastic, such as polyethylene terephthalate (PET), as a partial replacement of natural coarse and fine aggregates (for example, brick chips and natural sand) to produce lightweight concrete for load bearing structural members. The plastic coarse aggregate (PCA) and plastic fine aggregate (PFA) were produced from melted polyethylene terephthalate (PET) bottles. Tests were conducted using three different water–cement (w/c) ratios, such as 0.42, 0.48, and 0.57, where PCA and PFA were used as 50% replacement of coarse and fine aggregate respectively. Fresh and hardened properties of concrete have been compared for natural aggregate concrete (NAC), PCA concrete (PCC) and PFA concrete (PFC). The compressive strength of concrete at 28 days varied with the water–cement ratio for both the PCC and PFC. Between PCC and PFC, PFA concrete showed the highest compressive strength (23.7 MPa) at 0.42 w/c ratio and also the lowest compressive strength (13.7 MPa) at 0.57 w/c ratio. Significant reduction in concrete density was mostly observed for PCC samples, ranging between 1977–1924 kg/m³. With the increase in water–cement ratio PCC achieved higher workability compare to both NAC and PFC. It was found that both the PCA and PFA contained concrete achieved the required compressive strength to be used for structural purpose as partial replacement of the natural aggregate; but to obtain the desired lower density as lightweight concrete the PCA is most suited.

Keywords: Polyethylene terephthalate, plastic aggregate, concrete, fresh and hardened properties.

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Authors: Fawzi Irshaid, Adnan Jaran, Fatiha Dilmi, Khaled Tarawneh, Raji Hadeth, Ahad Al-Khatib

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The aim of this study was to estimate the frequency of EBV infection in Hodgkin's lymphoma (HL) and non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (NHL) occurring in Jordanian patients. A total of 55 patients with lymphoma were examined in this study. Of 55 patients, 30 and 25 were diagnosed as HL and NHL, respectively. The four HL subtypes were observed with the majority of the cases exhibited the mixed cellularity (MC) subtype followed by the nodular sclerosis (NS). The high grade was found to be the commonest subtype of NHL in our sample, followed by the low grade. The presence of EBV virus was detected by immunostating for expression of latent membrane protein-1 (LMP-1). The frequency of LMP-1 expression occurred more frequent in patients with HL (60.0%) than in patients with NHL (32.0%). The frequency of LMP-1 expression was also higher in patients with MC subtype (61.11%) than those patients with NS (28.57%). No age or gender difference in occurrence of EBV infection was observed among patient with HL. By contrast, the prevalence of EBV infection in NHL patients aged below 50 was lower (16.66%) than in NHL patients aged 50 or above (46.15%). In addition, EBV infection was more frequent in females with NHL (38.46%) than in male with NHL (25%). In NHL cases, the frequency of EBV infection in intermediate grade (60.0%) was high when compared with frequency of low (25%) or high grades (25%). In conclusion, analysis of LMP-1 expression indicates an important role for this viral oncogene in the pathogenesis of EBV-associated malignant lymphomas. These data also support the previous findings that people with EBV may develop lymphoma and that efforts to maintain low lymphoma should be considered for people with EBV infection.

Keywords: Hodgkin lymphoma, Epstein Barr virus, hematoxylin, infection, LMP-1 expression.

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Authors: Natalia Koltovaya, Nadezhda Zhuchkina, Ksenia Lyubimova

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We study the biological effects induced by ionizing radiation in view of therapeutic exposure and the idea of space flights beyond Earth's magnetosphere. In particular, we examine the differences between base pair substitution induction by ionizing radiation in model haploid and diploid yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae cells. Such mutations are difficult to study in higher eukaryotic systems. In our research, we have used a collection of six isogenic trp5-strains and 14 isogenic haploid and diploid cyc1-strains that are specific markers of all possible base-pair substitutions. These strains differ from each other only in single base substitutions within codon-50 of the trp5 gene or codon-22 of the cyc1 gene. Different mutation spectra for two different haploid genetic trp5- and cyc1-assays and different mutation spectra for the same genetic cyc1-system in cells with different ploidy — haploid and diploid — have been obtained. It was linear function for dose-dependence in haploid and exponential in diploid cells. We suggest that the differences between haploid yeast strains reflect the dependence on the sequence context, while the differences between haploid and diploid strains reflect the different molecular mechanisms of mutations.

Keywords: Base pair substitutions, γ-rays, haploid and diploid cells, yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae.

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Authors: A. Elyousfi, A. Tamtaoui, E. Bouyakhf

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The H.264/AVC video coding standard contains a number of advanced features. Ones of the new features introduced in this standard is the multiple intramode prediction. Its function exploits directional spatial correlation with adjacent block for intra prediction. With this new features, intra coding of H.264/AVC offers a considerably higher improvement in coding efficiency compared to other compression standard, but computational complexity is increased significantly when brut force rate distortion optimization (RDO) algorithm is used. In this paper, we propose a new fast intra prediction mode decision method for the complexity reduction of H.264 video coding. for luma intra prediction, the proposed method consists of two step: in the first step, we make the RDO for four mode of intra 4x4 block, based the distribution of RDO cost of those modes and the idea that the fort correlation with adjacent mode, we select the best mode of intra 4x4 block. In the second step, we based the fact that the dominating direction of a smaller block is similar to that of bigger block, the candidate modes of 8x8 blocks and 16x16 macroblocks are determined. So, in case of chroma intra prediction, the variance of the chroma pixel values is much smaller than that of luma ones, since our proposed uses only the mode DC. Experimental results show that the new fast intra mode decision algorithm increases the speed of intra coding significantly with negligible loss of PSNR.

Keywords: Intra prediction, H264/AVC, video coding, encodercomplexity.

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Authors: C. Villegas-Quezada, J. Climent

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Several works regarding facial recognition have dealt with methods which identify isolated characteristics of the face or with templates which encompass several regions of it. In this paper a new technique which approaches the problem holistically dispensing with the need to identify geometrical characteristics or regions of the face is introduced. The characterization of a face is achieved by randomly sampling selected attributes of the pixels of its image. From this information we construct a set of data, which correspond to the values of low frequencies, gradient, entropy and another several characteristics of pixel of the image. Generating a set of “p" variables. The multivariate data set with different polynomials minimizing the data fitness error in the minimax sense (L∞ - Norm) is approximated. With the use of a Genetic Algorithm (GA) it is able to circumvent the problem of dimensionality inherent to higher degree polynomial approximations. The GA yields the degree and values of a set of coefficients of the polynomials approximating of the image of a face. By finding a family of characteristic polynomials from several variables (pixel characteristics) for each face (say Fi ) in the data base through a resampling process the system in use, is trained. A face (say F ) is recognized by finding its characteristic polynomials and using an AdaBoost Classifier from F -s polynomials to each of the Fi -s polynomials. The winner is the polynomial family closer to F -s corresponding to target face in data base.

Keywords: AdaBoost Classifier, Holistic Face Recognition, Minimax Multivariate Approximation, Genetic Algorithm.

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Authors: Anca-Diana Bibiri, Mihaela Mocanu, Adrian Turculeț

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In a language the inventory of greetings is dynamic with frequent input and output, although this is hardly noticed by the speakers. In this register, there are a number of constant, conservative elements that survive different language models (among them, the classic formulae: bună ziua! (good afternoon!), bună seara! (good evening!), noapte bună! (good night!), la revedere! (goodbye!) and a number of items that fail to pass the test of time, according to language use at a time (ciao!, pa!, bai!). The source of innovation depends both of internal factors (contraction, conversion, combination of classic formulae of greetings), and of external ones (borrowings and calques). Their use imposes their frequencies at once, namely the elimination of the use of others. This paper presents a sociolinguistic approach of contemporary Romanian greetings, based on prosodic surveys in two research projects: AMPRom, and SoRoEs. Romanian language presents a rich inventory of questions (especially partial interrogatives questions/WH-Q) which are used as greetings, alone or, more commonly accompanying a proper greeting. The representative of the typical formulae is Ce mai faci? (How are you?), which, unlike its English counterpart How do you do?, has not become a stereotype, but retains an obvious emotional impact, while serving as a mark of sociolinguistic group. The analyzed corpus consists of structures containing greetings recorded in the main Romanian cultural (urban) centers. From the methodological point of view, the acoustic analysis of the recorded data is performed using software tools (GoldWave, Praat), identifying intonation patterns related to three sociolinguistics variables: age, sex and level of education. The intonation patterns of the analyzed statements are at the interface between partial questions and typical greetings.

Keywords: acoustic analysis, greetings, Romanian language, sociolinguistics

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Authors: Khalid Ali, Manar Jammal

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In order to meet the stringent latency and reliability requirements of the upcoming 5G networks, Open Radio Access Networks (O-RAN) have been proposed. The virtualization of O-RAN has allowed it to be treated as a Network Function Virtualization (NFV) architecture, while its components are considered Virtualized Network Functions (VNFs). Hence, intelligent Machine Learning (ML) based solutions can be utilized to apply different resource management and allocation techniques on O-RAN. However, intelligently allocating resources for O-RAN VNFs can prove challenging due to the dynamicity of traffic in mobile networks. Network providers need to dynamically scale the allocated resources in response to the incoming traffic. Elastically allocating resources can provide a higher level of flexibility in the network in addition to reducing the OPerational EXpenditure (OPEX) and increasing the resources utilization. Most of the existing elastic solutions are reactive in nature, despite the fact that proactive approaches are more agile since they scale instances ahead of time by predicting the incoming traffic. In this work, we propose and evaluate traffic forecasting models based on the ML algorithm. The algorithms aim at predicting future O-RAN traffic by using previous traffic data. Detailed analysis of the traffic data was carried out to validate the quality and applicability of the traffic dataset. Hence, two ML models were proposed and evaluated based on their prediction capabilities.

Keywords: O-RAN, traffic forecasting, NFV, ARIMA, LSTM, elasticity.

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Authors: Michaela Wang

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Since British established colonial settlements across the East Coast, Native Americans have suffered stark socio economic disparities in comparison to their neighboring communities. This paper employs the 1990, 2000, and 2010 United States Decennial Census to assess whether and to what extent the casino economy helped to close this socioeconomic gap between the Mohegan tribe and its surrounding community. These three Decennial Censuses cover two decades, from six years prior to the erection of Mohegan Sun casino to 14 years afterwards, including the Great Recession 2007-2009. Income, employment, education and housing parameters are selected as socio economic indicators. The profitable advent of the Mohegan Sun in 1996 dramatically improved the socio economic status of the Mohegan Tribe between 1990 and 2000. In fact, for most of these indicators––poverty, median household income, employment, home ownership, and car ownership––disparities shifted; tribal socioeconomic parameters improved from well below the level of New London County in 1990, to the same level or above the county rates in 2000. However, economic downturn in 2007-2009 Great Recession impacted Mohegan people remarkably. By 2010, disparities for household income, employment, home ownership, and car ownership returned. The casino bridged socio economic inequalities, but at the face of economic crises, the mono-product economy grew vulnerable.

Keywords: Indigenous tribe, socio economic inequalities, casino, native American.

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Authors: Ratanaporn Leesing, Rattanaporn Baojungharn, Thidarat Papone

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Compared to oil production from microorganisms, little work has been performed for mixed culture of microalgae and yeast. In this article it is aimed to show high oil accumulation potential of mixed culture of microalgae Chlorella sp. KKU-S2 and oleaginous yeast Torulaspora maleeae Y30 using sugarcane molasses as substrate. The monoculture of T. maleeae Y30 grew faster than that of microalgae Chlorella sp. KKU-S2. In monoculture of yeast, a biomass of 6.4g/L with specific growth rate (m) of 0.265 (1/d) and lipid yield of 0.466g/L were obtained, while 2.53g/L of biomass with m of 0.133 (1/d) and lipid yield of 0.132g/L were obtained for monoculture of Chlorella sp. KKU-S2. The biomass concentration in the mixed culture of T. maleeae Y30 with Chlorella sp. KKU-S2 increased faster and was higher compared with that in the monoculture and mixed culture of microalgae. In mixed culture of microalgae Chlorella sp. KKU-S2 and C. vulgaris TISTR8580, a biomass of 3.47g/L and lipid yield of 0.123 g/L were obtained. In mixed culture of T. maleeae Y30 with Chlorella sp. KKU-S2, a maximum biomass of 7.33 g/L and lipid yield of 0.808g/L were obtained. Maximum cell yield coefficient (YX/S, 0.229g/L), specific yield of lipid (YP/X, 0.11g lipid/g cells) and volumetric lipid production rate (QP, 0.115 g/L/d) were obtained in mixed culture of yeast and microalgae. Clearly, T. maleeae Y30 and Chlorella sp. KKU-S2 use sugarcane molasses as organic nutrients efficiently in mixed culture under mixotrophic growth. The biomass productivity and lipid yield are notably enhanced in comparison with monoculture.

Keywords: Microbial oil, Chlorella sp. KKU-S2, Chlorella vulgaris, Torulaspora maleeae Y30, mixed culture, biodiesel.

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Authors: Racholsan Raj Nirmal, B. S. V. Patnaik, R. Jayaganthan

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The deformation behaviour of additively manufactured AlSi10Mg alloy under low strains, high strain rates and elevated temperature conditions is essential to analyse and predict its response against dynamic loading such as impact and thermomechanical fatigue. The constitutive relation of Johnson-Cook is used to capture the strain rate sensitivity and thermal softening effect in AlSi10Mg alloy. Johnson-Cook failure model is widely used for exploring damage mechanics and predicting the fracture in many materials. In this present work, Johnson-Cook material and damage model parameters for additively manufactured AlSi10Mg alloy have been determined numerically from four types of uniaxial tensile test. Three different uniaxial tensile tests with dynamic strain rates (0.1, 1, 10, 50, and 100 s^-1) and elevated temperature tensile test with three different temperature conditions (450 K, 500 K and 550 K) were performed on 3D printed AlSi10Mg alloy in ABAQUS/Explicit. Hexahedral elements are used to discretize tensile specimens and fracture energy value of 43.6 kN/m was used for damage initiation. Levenberg Marquardt optimization method was used for the evaluation of Johnson-Cook model parameters. It was observed that additively manufactured AlSi10Mg alloy has shown relatively higher strain rate sensitivity and lower thermal stability as compared to the other Al alloys.

Keywords: ABAQUS, additive manufacturing, AlSi10Mg, Johnson-Cook model.

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Authors: S. Srikiran, Dharmala Venkata Padmaja, P. N. L. Pavani, R. Pola Rao, K. Ramji

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Technological advancements in the development of cutting tools and coolant/lubricant chemistry have enhanced the machining capabilities of hard materials under higher machining conditions. Generation of high temperatures at the cutting zone during machining is one of the most important and pertinent problems which adversely affect the tool life and surface finish of the machined components. Generally, cutting fluids and solid lubricants are used to overcome the problem of heat generation, which is not effectively addressing the problems. With technological advancements in the field of tribology, nano-level particulate solid lubricants are being used nowadays in machining operations, especially in the areas of turning and grinding. The present investigation analyses the effect of using nano-particulate graphite powder as lubricant in the turning of AISI 1040 steel under variable machining conditions and to study its effect on cutting forces, tool temperature and surface roughness of the machined component. Experiments revealed that the increase in cutting forces and tool temperature resulting in the decrease of surface quality with the decrease in the size of nano-particulate graphite powder as lubricant.

Keywords: Solid lubricant, graphite, minimum quantity lubrication, nanoparticles.

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Authors: D. Pujimulyani, S. Raharjo, Y. Marsono, U. Santoso

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Background and objectives: Most of the agricultural products are processed by blanching. Blanching can increase antioxidant activity in white saffron products. The objective of this research were to determine antioxidant activity, to identify, and to measure changes in phenolic substances of fresh and blanched white saffron rhizomes (Curcuma mangga Val.). Methods: White saffron rhizomes were peeled, washed and blanched in boiling water containing 0% or 0.05% citric acid solution for 5 and 10 minutes. Samples were extracted using methanol, rotaevaporated, and freezedried. Dried extract was determined antioxidant activity by DPPH method, identified and quantified for the phenolic substances by High Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC) equipped with coloumn C₁₈ and Photodiode-array detector (PAD). Result: This research showed that the quantity of the 6 phenolic substances identified in blanched white saffron in citric acid solution increased significantly compared to that of the non-blanched. Blanching white saffron in 0.05% citric acid media for 5 minutes increased its antioxidant activity, and total phenolic content. Conclusions: The identified phenolic substances of white saffron were Gallic Acid (GA), Catechin (C), Epicatechin (EC), Epigallocatechin (EGC), Epigallocatechingallat (EGCG) and Gallocatechingallat (GCG). The blanched white saffron contained C and EGCG significantly higher than that of fresh rhizomes.

Keywords: White saffron, antioxidant activity, blanching, phenolic.

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Authors: Zhiwen Yang, Jingyuan Li, Zhenkai Xie, Jian Ling, Jiguang Wang, Mengliang Li

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To reflect the influence of after-treatment system retrofit and natural gas-fueled vehicle replace on exhaust emissions emitted by urban buses, a portable emission measurement system (PEMS) was employed herein to conduct real driving emission measurements. This study investigated the differences in particle number (PN), particle mass (PM), and nitrogen oxides (NOx) emissions from a China IV diesel bus retrofitted by catalyzed diesel particulate filter (CDPF), a China IV diesel bus, and a China V natural gas bus. The results show that both tested diesel buses possess markedly advantages in NOx emission control when compared to the lean-burn natural gas bus equipped without any NOx after-treatment system. As to PN and PM, only the DOC+CDPF retrofitting diesel bus exhibits enormous benefits on emission control related to the natural gas bus, especially the normal diesel bus. Meanwhile, the differences in PM and PN emissions between retrofitted and normal diesel buses generally increase with the increase in vehicle specific power (VSP). Furthermore, the differences in PM emissions, especially those in the higher VSP ranges, are more significant than those in PN. In addition, the maximum peak PN particle size (32 nm) of the retrofitted diesel bus was significantly lower than that of the normal diesel bus (100 nm). These phenomena indicate that the CDPF retrofitting can effectively reduce diesel bus exhaust particle emissions, especially those with large particle sizes.

Keywords: CDPF, diesel, natural gas, real-world emissions.

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Authors: J. S. Yadav, N. P. Patidar, J. Singhai, S. Panda, C. Ardil

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In this paper a mixed method by combining an evolutionary and a conventional technique is proposed for reduction of Single Input Single Output (SISO) continuous systems into Reduced Order Model (ROM). In the conventional technique, the mixed advantages of Mihailov stability criterion and continued Fraction Expansions (CFE) technique is employed where the reduced denominator polynomial is derived using Mihailov stability criterion and the numerator is obtained by matching the quotients of the Cauer second form of Continued fraction expansions. Then, retaining the numerator polynomial, the denominator polynomial is recalculated by an evolutionary technique. In the evolutionary method, the recently proposed Differential Evolution (DE) optimization technique is employed. DE method is based on the minimization of the Integral Squared Error (ISE) between the transient responses of original higher order model and the reduced order model pertaining to a unit step input. The proposed method is illustrated through a numerical example and compared with ROM where both numerator and denominator polynomials are obtained by conventional method to show its superiority.

Keywords: Reduced Order Modeling, Stability, Mihailov Stability Criterion, Continued Fraction Expansions, Differential Evolution, Integral Squared Error.

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Authors: M. Moeinaddini, Z. Asadi-Shekari, Z. Sultan, M. Zaly Shah

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Happiness can be related to everything that can provide a feeling of satisfaction or pleasure. This study tries to consider the relationship between land use factors and feeling of happiness at the neighbourhood level. Land use variables (beautiful and attractive neighbourhood design, availability and quality of shopping centres, sufficient recreational spaces and facilities, and sufficient daily service centres) are used as independent variables and the happiness score is used as the dependent variable in this study. In addition to the land use variables, socio-economic factors (gender, race, marital status, employment status, education, and income) are also considered as independent variables. This study uses the Oxford happiness questionnaire to estimate happiness score of more than 300 people living in six neighbourhoods. The neighbourhoods are selected randomly from Skudai neighbourhoods in Johor, Malaysia. The land use data were obtained by adding related questions to the Oxford happiness questionnaire. The strength of the relationship in this study is found using generalised linear modelling (GLM). The findings of this research indicate that increase in happiness feeling is correlated with an increasing income, more beautiful and attractive neighbourhood design, sufficient shopping centres, recreational spaces, and daily service centres. The results show that all land use factors in this study have significant relationship with happiness but only income, among socio-economic factors, can affect happiness significantly. Therefore, land use factors can affect happiness in Skudai more than socio-economic factors.

Keywords: Neighbourhood land use, neighbourhood design, happiness, socio-economic factors, generalised linear modelling.

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Authors: Franklin Nantui Mabe, Samuel A. Donkoh, Seidu Al-Hassan

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Rice yields among agro-ecological zones are heterogeneous. Farmers, researchers and policy makers are making frantic efforts to bridge rice yield gaps between agro-ecological zones through the promotion of improved agricultural technologies (IATs). Farmers are also modifying these IATs and blending them with indigenous farming practices (IFPs) to form farmer innovation systems (FISs). Also, different metafrontier models have been used in estimating productivity performances and their drivers. This study used the two-step stochastic metafrontier model to estimate the productivity performances of rice farmers and their determining factors in GSZ, FSTZ and CSZ. The study used both primary and secondary data. Farmers in CSZ are the most technically efficient. Technical inefficiencies of farmers are negatively influenced by age, sex, household size, education years, extension visits, contract farming, access to improved seeds, access to irrigation, high rainfall amount, less lodging of rice, and well-coordinated and synergized adoption of technologies. Albeit farmers in CSZ are doing well in terms of rice yield, they still have the highest potential of increasing rice yield since they had the lowest TGR. It is recommended that government through the ministry of food and agriculture, development partners and individual private companies promote the adoption of IATs as well as educate farmers on how to coordinate and synergize the adoption of the whole package. Contract farming concept and agricultural extension intensification should be vigorously pursued to the latter.

Keywords: Efficiency, farmer innovation systems, improved agricultural technologies, two-step stochastic metafrontier approach.

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Authors: Pisut Painmanakul, Kotchakorn Kongkangwarn, Nattawin Chawaloesphonsiya

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The coalescer process is one of the methods for oily water treatment by increasing the oil droplet size in order to enhance the separating velocity and thus effective separation. However, the presence of surfactants in an oily emulsion can limit the obtained mechanisms due to the small oil size related with stabilized emulsion. In this regard, the purpose of this research is to improve the efficiency of the coalescer process for treating the stabilized emulsion. The effects of bed types, bed height, liquid flow rate and stage coalescer (step-bed) on the treatment efficiencies in term of COD values were studied. Note that the treatment efficiency obtained experimentally was estimated by using the COD values and oil droplet size distribution. The study has shown that the plastic media has more effective to attach with oil particles than the stainless one due to their hydrophobic properties. Furthermore, the suitable bed height (3.5 cm) and step bed (3.5 cm with 2 steps) were necessary in order to well obtain the coalescer performance. The application of step bed coalescer process in reactor has provided the higher treatment efficiencies in term of COD removal than those obtained with classical process. The proposed model for predicting the area under curve and thus treatment efficiency, based on the single collector efficiency (ηT) and the attachment efficiency (α), provides relatively a good coincidence between the experimental and predicted values of treatment efficiencies in this study.

Keywords: Stage coalescer, stabilized emulsions, treatment efficiency, model prediction.

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Authors: H. Alnajajra, A. Touqan, M. Dwaikat

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The vast majority of the Middle East countries are prone to earthquakes. Despite that and from a seismic hazard point of view, the higher values of the superimposed dead load intensity of partitions and wearing materials of the constructed reinforced concrete slabs in these countries can increase the earthquake vulnerability of the structures. The primary objective of this paper is to investigate the effect of reducing superimposed dead load on the lateral seismic deformations of structures, the inter-story drifts and the seismic pounding damages. The study utilizes a group of three reinforced concrete structures at three different site conditions. These structures are assumed to be constructed in Nablus city of Palestine, and having superimposed dead load value as 1 kN/m², 3 kN/m², and 5 kN/m², respectively. SAP2000 program, Version 18.1.1, is used to perform the response spectrum analysis to obtain the potential lateral seismic deformations of the studied models. Amazingly, the study points that, at the same site, superimposed dead load has a minor effect on the lateral deflections of the models. This, however, promotes the hypothesis that buildings failed during earthquakes mainly because they were not designed appropriately against gravity loads.

Keywords: Gravity loads, inter-story drifts, lateral seismic deformations, reinforced concrete slabs, response spectrum method, SAP2000, seismic design, seismic pounding, superimposed dead load.

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Authors: Farhan Beg

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A Space Vector based Pulse Width Modulation control technique for the three-phase PWM converter is proposed in this paper. The proposed control scheme is based on a synchronous reference frame model. High performance and efficiency is obtained with regards to the DC bus voltage and the power factor considerations of the PWM rectifier thus leading to low losses. MATLAB/SIMULINK are used as a platform for the simulations and a SIMULINK model is presented in the paper. The results show that the proposed model demonstrates better performance and properties compared to the traditional SPWM method and the method improves the dynamic performance of the closed loop drastically. For the Space Vector based Pulse Width Modulation, Sine signal is the reference waveform and triangle waveform is the carrier waveform. When the value sine signal is large than triangle signal, the pulse will start produce to high. And then when the triangular signals higher than sine signal, the pulse will come to low. SPWM output will changed by changing the value of the modulation index and frequency used in this system to produce more pulse width. The more pulse width produced, the output voltage will have lower harmonics contents and the resolution increase.

Keywords: Power Factor, SVPWM, PWM rectifier, SPWM.

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Authors: M. Jusoh, R. Mohd Yunus, M. A. Abu Hassan

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Freeze concentration freezes or crystallises the water molecules out as ice crystals and leaves behind a highly concentrated solution. In conventional suspension freeze concentration where ice crystals formed as a suspension in the mother liquor, separation of ice is difficult. The size of the ice crystals is still very limited which will require usage of scraped surface heat exchangers, which is very expensive and accounted for approximately 30% of the capital cost. This research is conducted using a newer method of freeze concentration, which is progressive freeze concentration. Ice crystals were formed as a layer on the designed heat exchanger surface. In this particular research, a helical structured copper crystallisation chamber was designed and fabricated. The effect of two operating conditions on the performance of the newly designed crystallisation chamber was investigated, which are circulation flowrate and coolant temperature. The performance of the design was evaluated by the effective partition constant, K, calculated from the volume and concentration of the solid and liquid phase. The system was also monitored by a data acquisition tool in order to see the temperature profile throughout the process. On completing the experimental work, it was found that higher flowrate resulted in a lower K, which translated into high efficiency. The efficiency is the highest at 1000 ml/min. It was also found that the process gives the highest efficiency at a coolant temperature of -6 °C.

Keywords: Freeze concentration, progressive freeze concentration, freeze wastewater treatment, ice crystals.

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Authors: Bhavneet Sidhu, Hardeep Singh, Amit Chhabra

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The world of wireless telecommunications is rapidly evolving. Technologies under research and development promise to deliver more services to more users in less time. This paper presents the emerging technologies helping wireless systems grow from where we are today into our visions of the future. This paper will cover the applications and characteristics of emerging wireless technologies: Wireless Local Area Networks (WiFi-802.11n), Wireless Personal Area Networks (ZigBee) and Wireless Metropolitan Area Networks (WiMAX). The purpose of this paper is to explain the impending 802.11n standard and how it will enable WLANs to support emerging media-rich applications. The paper will also detail how 802.11n compares with existing WLAN standards and offer strategies for users considering higher-bandwidth alternatives. The emerging IEEE 802.15.4 (ZigBee) standard aims to provide low data rate wireless communications with high-precision ranging and localization, by employing UWB technologies for a low-power and low cost solution. WiMAX (Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access) is a standard for wireless data transmission covering a range similar to cellular phone towers. With high performance in both distance and throughput, WiMAX technology could be a boon to current Internet providers seeking to become the leader of next generation wireless Internet access. This paper also explores how these emerging technologies differ from one another.

Keywords: MIMO technology, WiFi, WiMAX, ZigBee.

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Authors: Rachid Ait daoud, Abdellah Amine, Belaid Bouikhalene, Rachid Lbibb

Abstract:

Given the increase in the number of e-commerce sites, the number of competitors has become very important. This means that companies have to take appropriate decisions in order to meet the expectations of their customers and satisfy their needs. In this paper, we present a case study of applying LRFM (length, recency, frequency and monetary) model and clustering techniques in the sector of electronic commerce with a view to evaluating customers’ values of the Moroccan e-commerce websites and then developing effective marketing strategies. To achieve these objectives, we adopt LRFM model by applying a two-stage clustering method. In the first stage, the self-organizing maps method is used to determine the best number of clusters and the initial centroid. In the second stage, kmeans method is applied to segment 730 customers into nine clusters according to their L, R, F and M values. The results show that the cluster 6 is the most important cluster because the average values of L, R, F and M are higher than the overall average value. In addition, this study has considered another variable that describes the mode of payment used by customers to improve and strengthen clusters’ analysis. The clusters’ analysis demonstrates that the payment method is one of the key indicators of a new index which allows to assess the level of customers’ confidence in the company's Website.

Keywords: Customer value, LRFM model, Cluster analysis, Self-Organizing Maps method (SOM), K-means algorithm, loyalty.

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Authors: Sanjeev Sharma, Suman Lata

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With the availability of diverse printed, electronic literature and web sites on medical and health related information, it is impossible for the medical professional to get the information he seeks in the shortest possible time. For all these problems information literacy is the only solution. Thus, information literacy is recognized as an important aspect of medical education. In the present study, an attempt has been made to know the information literacy skills of the faculty and students at medical colleges of Haryana, Punjab and Chandigarh. The scope of the study was confined to the 12 selected medical colleges of three States (Haryana, Punjab, and Chandigarh). The findings of the study were based on the data collected through 1018 questionnaires filled by the respondents of the medical colleges. It was found that Online Medical Websites (such as WebMD, eMedicine and Mayo Clinic etc.) were frequently used by 63.43% of the respondents of Chandigarh which is slightly more than Haryana (61%) and Punjab (55.65%). As well, 30.86% of the respondents of Chandigarh, 27.41% of Haryana and 27.05% of Punjab were familiar with the controlled vocabulary tool; 25.14% respondents of Chandigarh, 23.80% of Punjab, 23.17% of Haryana were familiar with the Boolean operators; 33.05% of the respondents of Punjab, 28.19% of Haryana and 25.14% of Chandigarh were familiar with the use and importance of the keywords while searching an electronic database; and 51.43% of the respondents of Chandigarh, 44.52% of Punjab and 36.29% of Haryana were able to make effective use of the retrieved information. For accessing information in electronic format, 47.74% of the respondents rated their skills high, while the majority of respondents (76.13%) were unfamiliar with the basic search technique i.e. Boolean operator used for searching information in an online database. On the basis of the findings, it was suggested that a comprehensive training program based on medical professionals information needs should be organized frequently. Furthermore, it was also suggested that information literacy may be included as a subject in the health science curriculum so as to make the medical professionals information literate and independent lifelong learners.

Keywords: Information, information literacy, medical colleges, medical professionals.

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Authors: Sabina Jordan, Miha Tomšič, Friderik Knez, Marjana Šijanec Zavrl

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To determine the possibilities for the implementation of sustainable building indicators in Slovenia, testing of the first version of the indicators, developed in the CARE4CLIMATE project and based on the EU Level(s) framework, was carried out in 2022. Invited and interested stakeholders of the construction process were provided with video content and instructions on the Slovenian e-platform of sustainable building indicators. In addition, workshops and lectures with individual subjects were also performed. The final phase of the training and testing procedure included a questionnaire, which was used to obtain information about the participants' opinions regarding the indicators. The analysis of the results of the testing, which was focused on level 2, confirmed the key preliminary finding of the development group, namely that currently, due to the lack of certain knowledge, data, and tools, all indicators for this level are not yet feasible in practice. The research also highlighted the greater need for training and specialization of experts in this field. At the same time, it showed that the testing of the first version itself was a big challenge: only 30 experts fully participated and filled out the online questionnaire. This number seems alarmingly low at first glance, but compared to level(s) testing in the EU member states, it is much more than 50 times higher. However, for the further execution of the indicators in Slovenia, it will therefore be necessary to invest a lot of effort and engagement. It is likely that state support will also be needed, for example, in the form of financial mechanisms or incentives and/or legislative background.

Keywords: Sustainability, building indicator, project CARE4CLIMATE, alpha version SLO kTG, Level(s), sustainable construction stakeholders.

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Authors: P. Kaladevi, N. Giridharan

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The system for analyzing and eliciting public grievances serves its main purpose to receive and process all sorts of complaints from the public and respond to users. Due to the more number of complaint data becomes big data which is difficult to store and process. The proposed system uses HDFS to store the big data and uses MapReduce to process the big data. The concept of cache was applied in the system to provide immediate response and timely action using big data analytics. Cache enabled big data increases the response time of the system. The unstructured data provided by the users are efficiently handled through map reduce algorithm. The processing of complaints takes place in the order of the hierarchy of the authority. The drawbacks of the traditional database system used in the existing system are set forth by our system by using Cache enabled Hadoop Distributed File System. MapReduce framework codes have the possible to leak the sensitive data through computation process. We propose a system that add noise to the output of the reduce phase to avoid signaling the presence of sensitive data. If the complaints are not processed in the ample time, then automatically it is forwarded to the higher authority. Hence it ensures assurance in processing. A copy of the filed complaint is sent as a digitally signed PDF document to the user mail id which serves as a proof. The system report serves to be an essential data while making important decisions based on legislation.

Keywords: Big Data, Hadoop, HDFS, Caching, MapReduce, web personalization, e-governance.

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Authors: B. Thiagarajan, R. Bremananth

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Tumor is an uncontrolled growth of tissues in any part of the body. Tumors are of different types and they have different characteristics and treatments. Brain tumor is inherently serious and life-threatening because of its character in the limited space of the intracranial cavity (space formed inside the skull). Locating the tumor within MR (magnetic resonance) image of brain is integral part of the treatment of brain tumor. This segmentation task requires classification of each voxel as either tumor or non-tumor, based on the description of the voxel under consideration. Many studies are going on in the medical field using Markov Random Fields (MRF) in segmentation of MR images. Even though the segmentation process is better, computing the probability and estimation of parameters is difficult. In order to overcome the aforementioned issues, Conditional Random Field (CRF) is used in this paper for segmentation, along with the modified artificial bee colony optimization and modified fuzzy possibility c-means (MFPCM) algorithm. This work is mainly focused to reduce the computational complexities, which are found in existing methods and aimed at getting higher accuracy. The efficiency of this work is evaluated using the parameters such as region non-uniformity, correlation and computation time. The experimental results are compared with the existing methods such as MRF with improved Genetic Algorithm (GA) and MRF-Artificial Bee Colony (MRF-ABC) algorithm.

Keywords: Conditional random field, Magnetic resonance, Markov random field, Modified artificial bee colony.

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Authors: Vijay R. Khawale, Shashank B. Thakare

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The experiment was carried out to study the performance of solar crop dryer coupled with reversed absorber type solar air heater (SD2). Excel software is used to analyse the raw data obtained from the drying experiment to develop a model. An attempt is made in this paper to correlate the collector efficiency, dryer efficiency and pick-up efficiency. All these efficiencies are dependent on the parameters such as solar flux, ambient temperature, collector outlet temperature and moisture content. The simulation equation was developed to predict the values of collector efficiency. The parameters a, n and drying constant k were determined from a plot of curve using a drying models. Experimental data of drying red chili in conventional solar dryer and solar dryer coupled with reversed absorber solar air heater was compared by fitting with three drying models. The moisture content will be rapidly reduced in solar dryer with reversed absorber due to higher drying temperatures. The best fit model was selected to describe the drying behavior of red chili. For SD2 the values of the coefficient of determination (R²=0.997), mean bias error (MBE=0.00026) and root mean square error (RMSE=0.016) were used to determine the goodness or the quality of the fit. Pages model showed a better fit to drying red chili among Newton model and Henderson & Pabis model.

Keywords: Solar dryer, red chili, reversed absorber, reflector, Buckingham pi theorem, drying model.

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Authors: Rana Yousef, Khalil el Hindi

Abstract:

The behavior of Radial Basis Function (RBF) Networks greatly depends on how the center points of the basis functions are selected. In this work we investigate the use of instance reduction techniques, originally developed to reduce the storage requirements of instance based learners, for this purpose. Five Instance-Based Reduction Techniques were used to determine the set of center points, and RBF networks were trained using these sets of centers. The performance of the RBF networks is studied in terms of classification accuracy and training time. The results obtained were compared with two Radial Basis Function Networks: RBF networks that use all instances of the training set as center points (RBF-ALL) and Probabilistic Neural Networks (PNN). The former achieves high classification accuracies and the latter requires smaller training time. Results showed that RBF networks trained using sets of centers located by noise-filtering techniques (ALLKNN and ENN) rather than pure reduction techniques produce the best results in terms of classification accuracy. The results show that these networks require smaller training time than that of RBF-ALL and higher classification accuracy than that of PNN. Thus, using ALLKNN and ENN to select center points gives better combination of classification accuracy and training time. Our experiments also show that using the reduced sets to train the networks is beneficial especially in the presence of noise in the original training sets.

Keywords: Radial basis function networks, Instance-based reduction, PNN.

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Authors: Simon Bambang Widjanarko, Novita Wijayanti, Aji Sutrisno

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There is long history of konjac tubers being used as a cure for certain diseases in China and Japan. Konjac flour is prepared from konjac tubers and it contains high concentration of glucomannan. Konjac Glucomannan (KGM) is dietary fiber and the role of which has been demonstrated in weight reduction, lowering blood cholesterol and sugar level, promoting intestinal activity etc. Konjac glucomanan has a property of swelling by absorbing water, more than a hundred times its own weight. Therefore it helps increasing weight of feces, water content of feces, and promotes satiety feeling. Mode of actions of dietary fibre as laxatives agents includes holding water inside the bowel lumen, inhibition of water absorption in the colon and stimulating colonic motility. Number of fecal pellets did not effected in rats were fed on 300 and 600 mg/kg of konjac flour, as well as constipated control and Dulcolax treatment. Water content, weight of fecal pellets and gastrointestinal transit ratio were higher in rats treated with 600 mg/kg than 300 mg/kg of konjac flour. Rats were administered with Dulcolax showed the highest gastrointestinal transit ratio, followed by 600 mg/kg konjac flour. The lowest feed consumption was noted in 600 mg/kg konjac flour diet group.

Keywords: Laxative, konjac flour, Amorphophallus muelleri Blume, glucomannan, constipation.

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