Search results for: Impact analysis

Authors: M. M. Ali, Ahmed Al-Ani, Derek Eamus, Daniel K. Y. Tan

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In this glasshouse study, we developed a new imagebased non-destructive technique for detecting leaf P status of different crops such as cotton, tomato and lettuce. The plants were grown on a nutrient solution containing different P concentrations, e.g. 0%, 50% and 100% of recommended P concentration (P0 = no P, L; P1 = 2.5 mL 10 L-1 of P and P2 = 5 mL 10 L-1 of P). After 7 weeks of treatment, the plants were harvested and data on leaf P contents were collected using the standard destructive laboratory method and at the same time leaf images were collected by a handheld crop image sensor. We calculated leaf area, leaf perimeter and RGB (red, green and blue) values of these images. These data were further used in linear discriminant analysis (LDA) to estimate leaf P contents, which successfully classified these plants on the basis of leaf P contents. The data indicated that P deficiency in crop plants can be predicted using leaf image and morphological data. Our proposed nondestructive imaging method is precise in estimating P requirements of different crop species.

Keywords: Image-based techniques, leaf area, leaf P contents, linear discriminant analysis.

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Authors: In-Chul Jung, Young S. Kwon

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Knowing about the customer behavior in a grocery has been a long-standing issue in the retailing industry. The advent of RFID has made it easier to collect moving data for an individual shopper's behavior. Most of the previous studies used the traditional statistical clustering technique to find the major characteristics of customer behavior, especially shopping path. However, in using the clustering technique, due to various spatial constraints in the store, standard clustering methods are not feasible because moving data such as the shopping path should be adjusted in advance of the analysis, which is time-consuming and causes data distortion. To alleviate this problem, we propose a new approach to spatial pattern clustering based on the longest common subsequence. Experimental results using real data obtained from a grocery confirm the good performance of the proposed method in finding the hot spot, dead spot and major path patterns of customer movements.

Keywords: customer path, shopping behavior, exploratoryanalysis, LCS, RFID

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Authors: C. L. Voon, M. Awang

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CO₂ miscible displacement is not feasible in many oil fields due to high reservoir temperature as higher pressure is required to achieve miscibility. The miscibility pressure is far higher than the formation fracture pressure making it impossible to have CO₂ miscible displacement. However, by using oleophilic chemicals, minimum miscibility pressure (MMP) could be lowered. The main objective of this research is to find the best oleophilic chemical in MMP reduction using slim-tube test and Vanishing Interfacial Tension (VIT) The chemicals are selected based on the characteristics that it must be oil soluble, low water solubility, have 4 – 8 carbons, semi polar, economical, and safe for human operation. The families of chemicals chosen are carboxylic acid, alcohol, and ketone. The whole experiment would be conducted at 100°C and the best chemical is said to be effective when it is able to lower CO₂-crude oil MMP the most. Findings of this research would have great impact to the oil and gas industry in reduction of operation cost for CO₂EOR which is applicable to both onshore and offshore operation.

Keywords: Enhanced Oil Recovery, Oleophilic Chemical, Minimum Miscibility Pressure, CO2 Miscible Displacement.

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Authors: Chien-Hua Wang, Wei-Hsuan Lee, Chin-Tzong Pang

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In data mining, the association rules are used to find for the associations between the different items of the transactions database. As the data collected and stored, rules of value can be found through association rules, which can be applied to help managers execute marketing strategies and establish sound market frameworks. This paper aims to use Fuzzy Frequent Pattern growth (FFP-growth) to derive from fuzzy association rules. At first, we apply fuzzy partition methods and decide a membership function of quantitative value for each transaction item. Next, we implement FFP-growth to deal with the process of data mining. In addition, in order to understand the impact of Apriori algorithm and FFP-growth algorithm on the execution time and the number of generated association rules, the experiment will be performed by using different sizes of databases and thresholds. Lastly, the experiment results show FFPgrowth algorithm is more efficient than other existing methods.

Keywords: Data mining, association rule, fuzzy frequent patterngrowth.

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Authors: Dilek Özdemir, Gül Tekin Temur

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In Supply Chain Management (SCM), strengthening partnerships with suppliers is a significant factor for enhancing competitiveness. Hence, firms increasingly emphasize supplier evaluation processes. Supplier evaluation systems are basically developed in terms of criteria such as quality, cost, delivery, and flexibility. Because there are many variables to be analyzed, this process becomes hard to execute and needs expertise. On this account, this study aims to develop an expert system on supplier evaluation process by designing Artificial Neural Network (ANN) that is supported with Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA). The methods are applied on the data of 24 suppliers, which have longterm relationships with a medium sized company from German Iron and Steel Industry. The data of suppliers consists of variables such as material quality (MQ), discount of amount (DOA), discount of cash (DOC), payment term (PT), delivery time (DT) and annual revenue (AR). Meanwhile, the efficiency that is generated by using DEA is added to the supplier evaluation system in order to use them as system outputs.

Keywords: Artificial Neural Network (ANN), DataEnvelopment Analysis (DEA), Supplier Evaluation System.

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Authors: Igor Pejic

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The main focus of this research will be on analyzing correlative links between terrorism as an asymmetrical threat and the consequences it leaves on conventional security forces. The methodology behind the research will include qualitative research methods focusing on comparative analysis of books, scientific papers, documents and other sources, in order to deduce, explore and formulate the results of the research. With the coming of the 21^st century and the rising multi-polar, new world threats quickly emerged. The realistic approach in international relations deems that relations among nations are in a constant state of anarchy since there are no definitive rules and the distribution of power varies widely. International relations are further characterized by egoistic and self-orientated human nature, anarchy or absence of a higher government, security and lack of morality. The asymmetry of power is also reflected on countries' security capabilities and its abilities to project power. With the coming of the new millennia and the rising multi-polar world order, the asymmetry of power can be also added as an important trait of the global society which consequently brought new threats. Among various others, terrorism is probably the most well-known, well-based and well-spread asymmetric threat. In today's global political arena, terrorism is used by state and non-state actors to fulfill their political agendas. Terrorism is used as an all-inclusive tool for regime change, subversion or a revolution. Although the nature of terrorist groups is somewhat inconsistent, terrorism as a security and social phenomenon has a one constant which is reflected in its political dimension. The state's security apparatus, which was embodied in the form of conventional armed forces, is now becoming fragile, unable to tackle new threats and to a certain extent outdated. Conventional security forces were designed to defend or engage an exterior threat which is more or less symmetric and visible. On the other hand, terrorism as an asymmetrical threat is a part of hybrid, special or asymmetric warfare in which specialized units, institutions or facilities represent the primary pillars of security. In today's global society, terrorism is probably the most acute problem which can paralyze entire countries and their political systems. This problem, however, cannot be engaged on an open field of battle, but rather it requires a different approach in which conventional armed forces cannot be used traditionally and their role must be adjusted. The research will try to shed light on the phenomena of modern day terrorism and to prove its correlation with the state conventional armed forces. States are obliged to adjust their security apparatus to the new realism of global society and terrorism as an asymmetrical threat which is a side-product of the unbalanced world.

Keywords: Asymmetrical warfare, conventional forces, security, terrorism.

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Authors: Helen Zhang

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Accurate segmentation of the airways from CT scans is crucial for early diagnosis of lung cancer. However, the existing airway segmentation algorithms often rely on thin-slice CT scans, which can be inconvenient and costly. This paper presents a set of machine learning-based 3D super-resolution algorithms along heterogenous dimensions to improve the resolution of thicker CT scans to reduce the reliance on thin-slice scans. To evaluate the efficacy of the super-resolution algorithms, quantitative assessments using PSNR (Peak Signal to Noise Ratio) and SSIM (Structural SIMilarity index) were performed. The impact of super-resolution on airway segmentation accuracy is also studied. The proposed approach has the potential to make airway segmentation more accessible and affordable, thereby facilitating early diagnosis and treatment of lung cancer.

Keywords: 3D super-resolution, airway segmentation, thin-slice CT scans, machine learning.

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Authors: A. Taqaddas

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Chemotherapy and radiotherapy are one of the major treatment modalities that play important role in the management of a number of different cancers. This study for the first time evaluates the toxicity of these treatment modalities and its impact on quality of life of cancer patients in Pakistan. The study also for the first time determines what cancer patients of different ages and cancer stages believe would be an effective intervention to manage their psychosocial needs and treatment induced toxicity. The article also provides evidence based approach for the use of variety of interventions to mange cancer treatment induced morbidity and toxicity. In light of the present study and reviewed research data, evidence based recommendations are also made for selection of appropriate interventions to manage Pain, Nausea and Vomiting, Anxiety and Depression, Fatigue and Overall QOL of cancer survivors.

Keywords: Chemotherapy Toxicity, Psycho-Social Interventions, Quality of Life, Radiotherapy Toxicity.

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Authors: D. Hilton

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The importance and significance of this research is based upon the fundamental knowledge reported in the scientific literature that physical activity is inversely associated with obesity. In addition, it is recognized there is a global epidemic of sedentariness while at the same time it is known that morbidity and mortality are associated with physical inactivity and as a result of overweight or obesity. Hence this small study in school students is an important area of research in our community. An application submitted in 2005 for the inaugural Public Health Education Research Trust [PHERT] Post Graduate Research Scholarship scheme organized by the Public Health Association of Australia [PHAA] was awarded 3rd place within Australia. The author and title was: D. Hilton, Methods to increase physical activity in school aged children [literature review, a trial using pedometers and a policy paper]. Third place is a good result, however this did not secure funding for the project, as only first place received $5000 funding. Some years later within Australia, a program commenced called the Global Children's Challenge [GCC]. Given details of the 2005 award above were included an application submission prepared for Parkhill Primary School [PPS] which is located in Victoria, Australia was successful. As a result, an excited combined grade 3/ 4 class at the school [27 students] in 2012 became recipients of these free pedometers. Ambassadors for the program were Mrs Catherine Freeman [OAM], Olympic Gold Medalist – Sydney 2000 [400 meters], while another ambassador was Mr Colin Jackson [CBE] who is a Welsh former sprint and hurdling athlete. In terms of PPS and other schools involved in 2012, website details show that the event started on 19th Sep 2012 and students were to wear the pedometer every day for 50 days [at home and at school] aiming for the recommended 15,000 steps/day recording steps taken in a booklet provided. After the finish, an analysis of the average step count for this school showed that the average steps taken / day was 14, 003 [however only a small percentage of students returned the booklets and units] as unfortunately the dates for the program coincided with school holidays so some students either forgot or misplaced the units / booklets. Unfortunately funding for this program ceased in 2013, however the lasting impact of the trial on student’s knowledge and awareness remains and in fact becomes a good grounding for students in how to monitor basic daily physical activity using a method that is easy, fun, low cost and readily accessible.

Keywords: Walking, exercise, physical activity [motor activity].

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Authors: Ferhat Erdal, Osman Tunca, Serkan Tas, Serdar Carbas

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Web-expanded steel beams provide an easy and economical solution for the systems having longer structural members. The main goal of manufacturing these beams is to increase the moment of inertia and section modulus, which results in greater strength and rigidity. Until recently, there were two common types of open web-expanded beams: with hexagonal openings, also called castellated beams, and beams with circular openings referred to as cellular beams, until the generation of sinusoidal web-expanded beams. In the present research, the optimum design of a new generation beams, namely sinusoidal web-expanded beams, will be carried out and the design results will be compared with castellated and cellular beam solutions. Thanks to a reduced fabrication process and substantial material savings, the web-expanded beam with sinusoidal holes (Angelina™ Beam) meets the economic requirements of steel design problems while ensuring optimum safety. The objective of this research is to carry out non-linear finite element analysis (FEA) of the web-expanded beam with sinusoidal holes. The FE method has been used to predict their entire response to increasing values of external loading until they lose their load carrying capacity. FE model of each specimen that is utilized in the experimental studies is carried out. These models are used to simulate the experimental work to verify of test results and to investigate the non-linear behavior of failure modes such as web-post buckling, shear buckling and vierendeel bending of beams.

Keywords: Steel structures, web-expanded beams, Angelina™ beam, optimum design, failure modes, finite element analysis.

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Authors: Gen Sakoda, Hideki Takayasu, Misako Takayasu

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Waste reduction is a fundamental problem for sustainability. Methods for waste reduction with point-of-sales (POS) data are proposed, utilizing the knowledge of a recent econophysics study on a statistical property of POS data. Concretely, the non-stationary time series analysis method based on the Particle Filter is developed, which considers abnormal fluctuation scaling known as Taylor's law. This method is extended for handling incomplete sales data because of stock-outs by introducing maximum likelihood estimation for censored data. The way for optimal stock determination with pricing the cost of waste reduction is also proposed. This study focuses on the examination of the methods for large sales numbers where Taylor's law is obvious. Numerical analysis using aggregated POS data shows the effectiveness of the methods to reduce food waste maintaining a high profit for large sales numbers. Moreover, the way of pricing the cost of waste reduction reveals that a small profit loss realizes substantial waste reduction, especially in the case that the proportionality constant  of Taylor’s law is small. Specifically, around 1% profit loss realizes half disposal at =0.12, which is the actual  value of processed food items used in this research. The methods provide practical and effective solutions for waste reduction keeping a high profit, especially with large sales numbers.

Keywords: Food waste reduction, particle filter, point of sales, sustainable development goals, Taylor's Law, time series analysis.

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Authors: Amin A. Jaafar, Murni M. Ahmad

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This project aims to investigate the potential of torrefaction to improve the properties of Malaysian palm kernel shell (PKS) as a solid fuel. A study towards torrefaction of PKS was performed under various temperature and residence time of 240, 260, and 280oC and 30, 60, and 90 minutes respectively. The torrefied PKS was characterized in terms of the mass yield, energy yield, elemental composition analysis, calorific value analysis, moisture and volatile matter contents, and ash and fixed carbon contents. The mass and energy yield changes in the torrefied PKS were observed to prove that the temperature has more effect compare to residence time in the torrefaction process. The C content of PKS increases while H and O contents decrease after torrefaction, which resulted in higher heating value between 5 to 16%. Meanwhile, torrefaction caused the ash and fixed carbon content of PKS to increase, and the moisture and volatile matter to decrease.

Keywords: biomass, palm kernel shell, pretreatment, solid fuel, torrefaction

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Authors: Ģirts Brasliņš, Ilja Arefjevs, Nadežda Tarakanova

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The objective of countercyclical capital buffer is to encourage banks to build up buffers in good times that can be drawn down in bad times. The aim of the report is to assess such decisions by banks derived from three approaches. The approaches are the aggregate credit-to-GDP ratio, credit growth as well as banking sector profits. The approaches are implemented for Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania for the time period 2000-2012. The report compares three approaches and analyses their relevance to the Baltic States by testing the correlation between a growth in studied variables and a growth of corresponding gaps. Methods used in the empirical part of the report are econometric analysis as well as economic analysis, development indicators, relative and absolute indicators and other methods. The research outcome is a cross-Baltic comparison of two alternative approaches to establish or release a countercyclical capital buffer by banks and their implications for each Baltic country.

Keywords: Basel III, countercyclical capital buffer, banks, credit growth, Baltic States.

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Authors: HoYoung Son, DongHoon Shin, WooYoung Jung

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This study presented the seismic fragility framework of concrete weir structure subjected to strong seismic ground motions and in particular, concrete aging condition of the weir structure was taken into account in this study. In order to understand the influence of concrete aging on the weir structure, by using probabilistic risk assessment, the analytical seismic fragility of the weir structure was derived for pre- and post-deterioration of concrete. The performance of concrete weir structure after five years was assumed for the concrete aging or deterioration, and according to after five years’ condition, the elastic modulus was simply reduced about one–tenth compared with initial condition of weir structures. A 2D nonlinear finite element analysis was performed considering the deterioration of concrete in weir structures using ABAQUS platform, a commercial structural analysis program. Simplified concrete degradation was resulted in the increase of almost 45% of the probability of failure at Limit State 3, in comparison to initial construction stage, by analyzing the seismic fragility.

Keywords: Weir, FEM, concrete, fragility, aging

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Authors: B. Zvirbule, I. Vilka

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The Baltic States regained independence and started the pathway from command economy to market economy and entered European Union at the same time. Latter internationally recognized evaluations for the countries are diverse. The present diversity of the Baltic States -Economic Development is a subject of interest because of the similarities – all three are small, open economies, countries have similar geographic location and initially likewise historical and political backgrounds. This article explains relationship between social environment, business environment and economic growth. It argues that the elements of social environment underlie more successful economic development. It researches the causes, why Estonia has performed better in economic outcomes and development. The article analyses selection of socio-economic indicators of all three Baltic States – Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia for the time period of ten years to include the influence of economic cycles.

Keywords: Baltic States, economic development, economic growth, level of education, social environment.

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Authors: B. Ratchaneepun, N.S. Bardell

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It is recognized that people are the main drivers in almost all the processes that affect airworthiness assurance. This is especially true in the area of aircraft maintenance, which is an essential part of continuing airworthiness. This work investigates what impact English language proficiency, the intersection of the military and Thai cultures, and the lack of initial and continuing human factors training have on the work performance of maintenance personnel in the Royal Thai Air Force (RTAF). A quantitative research method based on a cross-sectional survey was used to gather data about these three key aspects of “people” in a military airworthiness environment. 30 questions were developed addressing the crucial topics of English language proficiency, impact of culture, and human factors training. The officers and the non-commissioned officers (NCOs) who work for the Aeronautical Engineering Divisions in the RTAF comprised the survey participants. The survey data were analysed to support various hypotheses by using a t-test method. English competency in the RTAF is very important since all of the service manuals for Thai military aircraft are written in English. Without such competency, it is difficult for maintenance staff to perform tasks and correctly interpret the relevant maintenance manual instructions; any misunderstandings could lead to potential accidents. The survey results showed that the officers appreciated the importance of this more than the NCOs, who are the people actually doing the hands-on maintenance work. Military culture focuses on the success of a given mission, and leverages the power distance between the lower and higher ranks. In Thai society, a power distance also exists between younger and older citizens. In the RTAF, such a combination tends to inhibit a just reporting culture and hence hinders safety. The survey results confirmed this, showing that the older people and higher ranks involved with RTAF aircraft maintenance believe that the workplace has a positive safety culture and climate, whereas the younger people and lower ranks think the opposite. The final area of consideration concerned human factors training and non-technical skills training. The survey revealed that those participants who had previously attended such courses appreciated its value and were aware of its benefits in daily life. However, currently there is no regulation in the RTAF to mandate recurrent training to maintain such knowledge and skills. The findings from this work suggest that the people involved in assuring the continuing airworthiness of the RTAF would benefit from: (i) more rigorous requirements and standards in the recruitment, initial training and continuation training regarding English competence; (ii) the development of a strong safety culture that exploits the uniqueness of both the military culture and the Thai culture; and (iii) providing more initial and recurrent training in human factors and non-technical skills.

Keywords: Aircraft maintenance, continuing airworthiness, military culture, people, Royal Thai Air Force.

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Authors: V. Girondel, L. Bonnaud, A. Caplier, M. Rombaut

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This paper presents various classifiers results from a system that can automatically recognize four different static human body postures in video sequences. The considered postures are standing, sitting, squatting, and lying. The three classifiers considered are a naïve one and two based on the belief theory. The belief theory-based classifiers use either a classic or restricted plausibility criterion to make a decision after data fusion. The data come from the people 2D segmentation and from their face localization. Measurements consist in distances relative to a reference posture. The efficiency and the limits of the different classifiers on the recognition system are highlighted thanks to the analysis of a great number of results. This system allows real-time processing.

Keywords: Belief theory, classifiers comparison, data fusion, human motion analysis, real-time processing, static posture recognition.

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Authors: H. A. Bekhet, T. Yasmin

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The aim of this paper is to examine the relationship among CO₂ per capita emissions, energy consumption, economic growth and bilateral trade between Singapore and Malaysia for the 1970-2011 period. ARDL model and Granger causality tests are employed for the analysis.  Results of bound F-statistics suggest that long-run  relationship exists between CO₂ per capita (PCO₂) and its determinants. The EKC hypothesis is not supported in Malaysia. Carbon emissions are mainly determined by energy consumption in the short and long run. While, exports to Singapore is a significant variable in explaining PCO₂ emissions in Malaysia in long-run. Furthermore, we find a unidirectional causal relationship running from economic growth to PCO₂ emissions.

Keywords: ADRL Bound Test, Bilateral trade, CO2 emission, Environmental Kuznets Curve, Energy consumption, Malaysia.

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Authors: R. Hasanpour, N. Choupani

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This paper studies mixed-mode fracture mechanics in rock based on experimental and numerical analyses. Experiments were performed on sharp-cracked specimens using the modified Arcan specimen test loading device. The modified Arcan specimen test was, in association with a special loading device, an appropriate apparatus for experimental mixed-mode fracture analysis. By varying the loading angle from 0° to 90°, pure mode-I, pure mode-II and a wide range of mixed-mode data were obtained experimentally. Using the finite element results, correction factors applied to the rectangular fracture specimen. By employing experimentally measured critical loads and the aid of the finite element method, mixed-mode fracture toughness for the limestone under consideration determined.

Keywords: Rock Fracture Mechanics, Mixed-mode Loading, Finite Element Analysis, Arcan Test specimen.

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Authors: K. P. Odimayomi, A. G. Adeniyi, S. A. Abdulkareem, F. M. Oladipo Emmanuel, C. A. Adeyanju, M. A Amoloye

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The abundant availability of the local clay/plantain fiber coupled with the various renewable and sustainability advantages has led to their choice as co-fillers in the development of a hybrid polystyrene composite. The prime objective of this study is to evaluate the morphological and dynamic mechanical properties using Scanning Electron Microscopy and Dynamic Mechanical Analysis. The hybrid polystyrene composite development was developed via the hand-lay-up method. All processing including the constituent mixing and curing were achieved at room temperature (25 ± 2 ℃).   The mechanical characteristics of the developed composites via Dynamic Mechanical Analysis (DMA) confirm an indirect relationship between time and storage modulus, this pattern becomes more evident at higher frequencies. It is clearly portrayed that the addition of clay and plantain fiber in the polystyrene matrix increases the stiffness of the developed composite.

Keywords: Morphology, DMA, Akerebiata clay, plantain fiber, hybrid polystyrene composites.

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Authors: E. Vári, K. Máriás

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The research focused on the effects of previous cropping and fertilizers on the LAI, rhythm of the dry matter, leaf disease intensity and amount of yield. Long term field experiments’ results proved that the previous crop fundamentally determines size, rate and dynamics of the dry matter formation in the spring time vegetation period. The LAI index and crop results of winter wheat can be influenced mainly by raising the fertilizer amount. N fertilization has an outstanding role in the changes in leaf area index (LAI), weight of dry matter and yield of winter wheat. According to our results, the interaction effect of leaf area index, weight of dry matter and fertilization resulted in the maximum yield in biculture and triculture.

Keywords: Crop rotation, Leaf Area Index, leaf disease of winter wheat.

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Authors: Analise Borg, Paul Micallef

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Over the past few years, the online multimedia collection has grown at a fast pace. Several companies showed interest to study the different ways to organise the amount of audio information without the need of human intervention to generate metadata. In the past few years, many applications have emerged on the market which are capable of identifying a piece of music in a short time. Different audio effects and degradation make it much harder to identify the unknown piece. In this paper, an audio fingerprinting system which makes use of a non-parametric based algorithm is presented. Parametric analysis is also performed using Gaussian Mixture Models (GMMs). The feature extraction methods employed are the Mel Spectrum Coefficients and the MPEG-7 basic descriptors. Bin numbers replaced the extracted feature coefficients during the non-parametric modelling. The results show that nonparametric analysis offer potential results as the ones mentioned in the literature.

Keywords: Audio fingerprinting, mapping algorithm, Gaussian Mixture Models, MFCC, MPEG-7.

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Authors: Rıza Gürhan Korkut, Metin Çelik, Süleyman Özkaynak

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The early-stage design and development projects for the freight village initiatives require a comprehensive analysis of both qualitative and quantitative data. Considering the literature review on structural and operational management requirements, this study proposed an original taxonomy on criterion structure to assess freight village conceptualization. The potential challenges and uncertainties of the developed taxonomy are extended. Besides requirement analysis, this study is also expected to contribute to forthcoming research on benchmarking of freight villages in different regions. The methodology used in this research is a systematic review on several articles as per their modelling approaches, sustainability, entities and decisions made together with the uncertainties and features of their models taken into consideration. The major findings of the study that are the categories for assessing the projects attributes on their environmental, socio-economical, accessibility and location aspects.

Keywords: Freight village, logistics centers, operational management, taxonomy.

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Authors: Toshihiko Takemura, Atsushi Umino

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In this paper, the authors examine whether or not there Institute for Information and Communications Policy shows are differences of Japanese Internet users awareness to information security based on individual attributes by using analysis of variance based on non-parametric method. As a result, generally speaking, it is found that Japanese Internet users' awareness to information security is different by individual attributes. Especially, the authors verify that the users who received the information security education would have rather higher recognition concerning countermeasures than other users including self-educated users. It is suggested that the information security education should be enhanced so that the users may appropriately take the information security countermeasures. In addition, the information security policy such as carrying out "e- net caravan" and "information security seminars" are effective in improving the users' awareness on the information security in Japan.

Keywords: Information security education, variance of analysis, Internet users, information security policy, Web-based survey.

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Authors: M. Raciti Castelli, G. Grandi, E. Benini

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This paper presents a study of laminar to turbulent transition on a profile specifically designed for wind turbine blades, the DU91-W2-250, which belongs to a class of wind turbine dedicated airfoils, developed by Delft University of Technology. A comparison between the experimental behavior of the airfoil studied at Delft wind tunnel and the numerical predictions of the commercial CFD solver ANSYS FLUENT® has been performed. The prediction capabilities of the Spalart-Allmaras turbulence model and of the γ-θ Transitional model have been tested. A sensitivity analysis of the numerical results to the spatial domain discretization has also been performed using four different computational grids, which have been created using the mesher GAMBIT®. The comparison between experimental measurements and CFD results have allowed to determine the importance of the numerical prediction of the laminar to turbulent transition, in order not to overestimate airfoil friction drag due to a fully turbulent-regime flow computation.

Keywords: CFD, wind turbine, DU91-W2-250, laminar to turbulent transition.

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Authors: P. Lauk, K. E. Seegel, T. Tähemaa

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The fuel consumption of modern, high wing loading, commercial aircraft in the first stage of flight is high because the usable flight level is lower and the weather conditions (jet stream) have great impact on aircraft performance. To reduce the fuel consumption, it is necessary to raise during first stage of flight the L/D ratio value within Cl 0.55-0.65. Different variable geometrical wing trailing edge modifications of SC(2)-410 airfoil were compared at M 0.78 using the CFD software STAR-CCM+ simulation based Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) equations. The numerical results obtained show that by increasing the width of the airfoil by 4% and by modifying the trailing edge airfoil, it is possible to decrease airfoil drag at Cl 0.70 for up to 26.6% and at the same time to increase commercial aircraft L/D ratio for up to 5.0%. Fuel consumption can be reduced in proportion to the increase in L/D ratio.

Keywords: L/D ratio, miniflaps, mini-TED, supercritical airfoil.

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Authors: Gizelle K. Vianna, Gustavo S. Oliveira, Gabriel V. Cunha

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The use of decision support systems in agriculture may help monitoring large fields of crops by automatically detecting the symptoms of foliage diseases. In our work, we designed and implemented a decision support system for small tomatoes producers. This work investigates ways to recognize the late blight disease from the analysis of digital images of tomatoes, using a pair of multilayer perceptron neural networks. The networks outputs are used to generate repainted tomato images in which the injuries on the plant are highlighted, and to calculate the damage level of each plant. Those levels are then used to construct a situation map of a farm where a cellular automata simulates the outbreak evolution over the fields. The simulator can test different pesticides actions, helping in the decision on when to start the spraying and in the analysis of losses and gains of each choice of action.

Keywords: Artificial neural networks, cellular automata, decision support system, pattern recognition.

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Authors: Ismail, N., Sarijan, S

Abstract:

The phylogenetic analysis using the most conservative portions of 18S rRNA gene revealed the phylogenetic relationship among the two populations where DNA divergence showed that the nucleotides diversity value were -0.00838 for the Tanjung Dawai, Kedah and -0.00708 for the Cherating, Pahang populations respectively. The net nucleotide divergence among populations (Da) was -0.0073 indicating a low polymorphism among the populations studied. Total number of mutations in the Tanjung Dawai, Kedah samples was higher than Cherating, Pahang samples, which are 73 and 59 respectively while shared mutations across the populations were 8, and reveal the evolutionary in the genome of Malaysian T. gigas. The tree topology of both populations inferred using Neigbour-joining method by comparing 1791 bp of partial 18S rRNA sequence revealed that T. gigas haplotypes were clustered into seven clades, suggesting that they are genetically diverse among populations which derived from a common ancestor.

Keywords: Horseshoe crabs, Tachypleus gigas, 18S rRNA genesequences, phylogenetic analysis

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Authors: R. S. Chandan, M. Vasudevan, Deecaraman, B. M. Gurupadayya

Abstract:

In Pharmaceutical industries, it is very important to remove drug residues from the equipment and areas used. The cleaning procedure must be validated, so special attention must be devoted to the methods used for analysis of trace amounts of drugs. A rapid, sensitive and specific reverse phase ultra performance liquid chromatographic (UPLC) method was developed for the quantitative determination of Albendazole in cleaning validation swab samples. The method was validated using an ACQUITY HSS C₁₈, 50 x 2.1mm, 1.8μ column with a isocratic mobile phase containing a mixture of 1.36g of Potassium dihydrogenphosphate in 1000mL MilliQ water, 2mL of triethylamine and pH adjusted to 2.3 ± 0.05 with ortho-phosphoric acid, Acetonitrile and Methanol (50:40:10 v/v). The flow rate of the mobile phase was 0.5 mL min^-1 with a column temperature of 35⁰C and detection wavelength at 254nm using PDA detector. The injection volume was 2µl. Cotton swabs, moisten with acetonitrile were used to remove any residue of drug from stainless steel, teflon, rubber and silicon plates which mimic the production equipment surface and the mean extraction-recovery was found to be 91.8. The selected chromatographic condition was found to effectively elute Albendazole with retention time of 0.67min. The proposed method was found to be linear over the range of 0.2 to 150µg/mL and correlation coefficient obtained is 0.9992. The proposed method was found to be accurate, precise, reproducible and specific and it can also be used for routine quality control analysis of these drugs in biological samples either alone or in combined pharmaceutical dosage forms.

Keywords: Cleaning validation, Albendazole, residues, swab analysis, UPLC.

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Authors: Nazeema Ahmed

Abstract:

Mental health in higher education has received increasing attention over the past few decades. The high academic demands of the engineering degree, coupled with students’ mental health challenges, have led to higher education institutions offering psychotherapeutic services to students. This paper discusses an evaluation of the psychotherapy service at the University of Cape Town. The aim was to determine (i) the efficacy of the service; and (ii) the impact of race, gender, and language of the therapist on the students’ therapeutic process. An online survey was sent to 109 students who attended psychotherapy. The majority expressed favorable experiences of psychotherapy, with reports of increased capacity to engage with their academic work. Most students did not experience the gender, race, or language of the psychologists to be barriers to their therapy. The findings point to a need for ongoing psychological support for students.

Keywords: Psychotherapy, efficacy, engineering, education.

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