Search results for: impact of gate material

Authors: Musarrat Jabeen

Abstract:

Thoughtful intelligence offers a sustainable position to enhance the influence of decision-makers. Thoughtful Intelligence implies the understanding to realize the impact of one’s thoughts, words and actions on the survival, dignity and development of the individuals, groups and nations. Thoughtful intelligence has received minimal consideration in the area of Decision Support Systems, with an end goal to evaluate the quantity of knowledge and its viability. This pattern degraded the imbibed contribution of thoughtful intelligence required for sustainable decision making. Given the concern, this paper concentrates on the question: How to present a model of Thoughtful Decision Support System (TDSS)? The aim of this paper is to appreciate the concepts of thoughtful intelligence and insinuate a Decision Support System based on thoughtful intelligence. Thoughtful intelligence includes three dynamic competencies: i) Realization about long term impacts of decisions that are made in a specific time and space, ii) A great sense of taking actions, iii) Intense interconnectivity with people and nature and; seven associate competencies, of Righteousness, Purposefulness, Understanding, Contemplation, Sincerity, Mindfulness, and Nurturing. The study utilizes two methods: Focused group discussion to count prevailing Decision Support Systems; 70% results of focus group discussions found six decision support systems and the positive inexistence of thoughtful intelligence among decision support systems regarding sustainable decision making. Delphi focused on defining thoughtful intelligence to model (TDSS). 65% results helped to conceptualize (definition and description) of thoughtful intelligence. TDSS is offered here as an addition in the decision making literature. The clients are top leaders.

Keywords: Thoughtful intelligence, Sustainable decision making, Thoughtful decision support system.

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Authors: Yuki Irie, Shota Ogawa, Hitomi Kosugi, Hiromitsu Shinozaki

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Dropout rates in higher educational institutions pose significant challenges for both students and institutions, with poor mental health (MH) emerging as a key risk factor. Healthcare college students, including medical students, are particularly vulnerable to MH issues due to the demanding academic schedules they face. Poor mental health (MH) would be considered as a key risk factor for dropout from higher educational institutions that pose significant challenges for both students and institutions. And, inadequate food access (FA) has been related to poor MH. Given that targeted students may experience multiple risk factors for poor MH and vulnerable FA, the study aims to clarify the relationship between MH and FA to enhance student well-being. A cross-sectional design was used to explore the association between MH status and FA among 421 students (147 male, 274 female). Participants completed two questionnaires assessing MH and FA during winter 2022. The mean MH score was 6.7 ± 4.6, with higher scores indicating worse MH (max. score 27). While year-round FA showed no significant association with MH, FA during winter was significantly associated with MH (p = 0.01). Although car ownership did not directly impact MH, it was significantly associated with FA (p < 0.01), thus indirectly influencing MH. Our findings underscore the importance of FA in promoting MH, particularly during winter. Adopting a lifestyle that facilitates easier FA may be beneficial for MH, given its indirect association with MH outcomes. These insights emphasize the significance of addressing FA-related challenges to enhance student’s mental well-being.

Keywords: Mental health, food access, co-medical students, lifestyle.

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Authors: Pibool Waijittragum

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The purpose of this research is to analyze the marketing strategies of Thai Halal products which related to the way of life for Thai Muslims. The expected benefit is the marketing strategy for brand building process for Halal products in Thailand. 4 elements of marketing strategies which necessary for the brand identity creation is the research framework: consists of Attributes, Benefits, Values and Personality. The research methodology was applied using qualitative and quantitative; 19 marketing experts with dynamic roles in Thai consumer products were interviewed. In addition, a field survey of 122 Thai Muslims selected from 175 Muslim communities in Bangkok was studied. Data analysis will be according to 5 categories of Thai Halal product: 1) Meat 2) Vegetable and Fruits 3) Instant foods and Garnishing ingredient 4) Beverages, Desserts and Snacks 5) Hygienic daily products; such as soap, shampoo and body lotion. The results will explain some suitable representation in the marketing strategies of Thai Halal products as are: 1) Benefit; the characteristics of the product with its benefit. Consumers will purchase this product with the reason of; it is beneficial nutrients product, there are no toxic or chemical residues. Fresh and clean materials 2) Attribute; the exterior images that attract to consumer. Consumers will purchase this product with the reason of; there is a standard proof mark, food and drug secure proof mark and Halal products mark. Packaging and its materials should be draw attention. Use an attractive graphic. Use outstanding images of product, material or ingredients. 3) Value; the value of products that affect to consumers perception; it is healthy products. Accumulate quality of life. It is a product of expertise, manufacturing of research result. Consumers are important. It’s sincere, honest and reliable to all. 4) Personality; reflection of consumers thought. The Personality feedback to them after they were consumes this product; they are health care persons. They are the rational person, moral person, justice person and thoughtful person like a progressive thinking.

Keywords: Marketing strategies, Product identity, Branding, Thai Halal products.

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Authors: Madhu Aneja, Sapna Sharma

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The water-based bioconvection of a nanofluid containing motile gyrotactic micro-organisms over nonlinear inclined stretching sheet has been investigated. The governing nonlinear boundary layer equations of the model are reduced to a system of ordinary differential equations via Oberbeck-Boussinesq approximation and similarity transformations. Further, the modified set of equations with associated boundary conditions are solved using Finite Element Method. The impact of various pertinent parameters on the velocity, temperature, nanoparticles concentration, density of motile micro-organisms profiles are obtained and analyzed in details. The results show that with the increase in angle of inclination δ, velocity decreases while temperature, nanoparticles concentration, a density of motile micro-organisms increases. Additionally, the skin friction coefficient, Nusselt number, Sherwood number, density number are computed for various thermophysical parameters. It is noticed that increasing Brownian motion and thermophoresis parameter leads to an increase in temperature of fluid which results in a reduction in Nusselt number. On the contrary, Sherwood number rises with an increase in Brownian motion and thermophoresis parameter. The findings have been validated by comparing the results of special cases with existing studies.

Keywords: Bioconvection, inclined stretching sheet, Gyrotactic micro-organisms, Brownian motion, thermophoresis, finite element method.

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Authors: Bohuslava Juhasova, Martin Juhas, Renata Masarova, Zuzana Sutova

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The article deals with the tool in Matlab GUI form that is designed to analyse a mechatronic system sensitivity and tolerance. In the analysed mechatronic system, a torque is transferred from the drive to the load through a coupling containing flexible elements. Different methods of control system design are used. The classic form of the feedback control is proposed using Naslin method, modulus optimum criterion and inverse dynamics method. The cascade form of the control is proposed based on combination of modulus optimum criterion and symmetric optimum criterion. The sensitivity is analysed on the basis of absolute and relative sensitivity of system function to the change of chosen parameter value of the mechatronic system, as well as the control subsystem. The tolerance is analysed in the form of determining the range of allowed relative changes of selected system parameters in the field of system stability. The tool allows to analyse an influence of torsion stiffness, torsion damping, inertia moments of the motor and the load and controller(s) parameters. The sensitivity and tolerance are monitored in terms of the impact of parameter change on the response in the form of system step response and system frequency-response logarithmic characteristics. The Symbolic Math Toolbox for expression of the final shape of analysed system functions was used. The sensitivity and tolerance are graphically represented as 2D graph of sensitivity or tolerance of the system function and 3D/2D static/interactive graph of step/frequency response.

Keywords: Mechatronic systems, Matlab GUI, sensitivity, tolerance.

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Authors: Zhaoan Wang

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Research in predictive maintenance modeling has improved in the recent years to predict failures and needed maintenance with high accuracy, saving cost and improving manufacturing efficiency. However, classic prediction models provide little valuable insight towards the most important features contributing to the failure. By analyzing and quantifying feature importance in predictive maintenance models, cost saving can be optimized based on business goals. First, multiple classifiers are evaluated with cross-validation to predict the multi-class of failures. Second, predictive performance with features provided by different feature selection algorithms are further analyzed. Third, features selected by different algorithms are ranked and combined based on their predictive power. Finally, linear explainer SHAP (SHapley Additive exPlanations) is applied to interpret classifier behavior and provide further insight towards the specific roles of features in both local predictions and global model behavior. The results of the experiments suggest that certain features play dominant roles in predictive models while others have significantly less impact on the overall performance. Moreover, for multi-class prediction of machine failures, the most important features vary with type of machine failures. The results may lead to improved productivity and cost saving by prioritizing sensor deployment, data collection, and data processing of more important features over less importance features.

Keywords: Automated supply chain, intelligent manufacturing, predictive maintenance machine learning, feature engineering, model interpretation.

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Authors: Qiong He, S. Thomas Ng

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Upgrading the thermal performance of building envelope of existing residential buildings is an effective way to reduce heat gain or heat loss. Overhang device is a common solution for building envelope improvement as it can cut down solar heat gain and thereby can reduce the energy used for space cooling in summer time. Despite that, overhang can increase the demand for indoor heating in winter due to its function of lowering the solar heat gain. Obviously, overhang has different impacts on energy use in different climatic zones which have different energy demand. To evaluate the impact of overhang device on building energy performance under different climates of China, an energy analysis model is built up in a computer-based simulation program known as DesignBuilder based on the data of a typical high-rise residential building. The energy simulation results show that single overhang is able to cut down around 5% of the energy consumption of the case building in the stand-alone situation or about 2% when the building is surrounded by other buildings in regions which predominantly rely on space cooling though it has no contribution to energy reduction in cold region. In regions with cold summer and cold winter, adding overhang over windows can cut down around 4% and 1.8% energy use with and without adjoining buildings, respectively. The results indicate that overhang might not an effective shading device to reduce the energy consumption in the mixed climate or cold regions.

Keywords: Overhang, energy analysis, computer-based simulation, high-rise residential building, mutual shading, climate.

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Authors: Djordjevic J. Sladjana, Djordjevic-Milošević B. Suzana, Milošević M. Slobodan

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The potential of biomass as a renewable energy source leads Serbia to be the top of European countries by the amount of available but unused biomass. Technologies for its use are available and ecologically acceptable. Moreover, they are not expensive high-tech solutions even for the poor investment environment of Serbia, while other options seem to be less achievable. From the other point of view, Serbia has a huge percentage of unused agriculture land. Agricultural production in Serbia languishes: a large share of agricultural land therefore remains untreated, and there is a significant proportion of degraded land. From all the above, biomass intended for energy production is becoming an increasingly important factor in the stabilization of agricultural activities. Orientation towards the growing bioenergy crops versus conventional crop cultivation becomes an interesting option. The aim of this paper is to point out the possibility of growing energy crops in accordance with the conditions and cultural practice in rural areas of Serbia. First of all, the cultivation of energy crops on lower quality land is being discussed, in order to revitalize the rural areas of crops through their inclusion into potential energy sector. Next is the theme of throwing more light on the increase in the area under this competitive agricultural production to correct land use in terms of climate change in Serbia. The goal of this paper is to point out the contribution of the share of biomass in energy production and consumption, and the effect of reducing the negative environmental impact.

Keywords: Agro-energy crops, conditions for plantation, revitalization of rural areas, degraded and unused soils.

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Authors: Thanaa Abdel Moghny, Mohamed Keshawy, Mahmoud Fathy, Abdul-Raheim M. Abdul-Raheim, Khalid I. Kabel, Ahmed F. El-Kafrawy, Mahmoud Ahmed Mousa, Ahmed E. Awadallah

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Ecological pollution is of great concern for human health and the environment. Numerous organic and inorganic pollutants usually discharged into the water caused carcinogenic or toxic effect for human and different life form. In this respect, this work aims to treat water contaminated by organic and inorganic waste using sorbent based on polystyrene. Therefore, two different series of adsorbent material were prepared; the first one included the preparation of polymeric sorbent from the reaction of styrene acrylate ester and alkyl acrylate. The second series involved syntheses of composite ion exchange resins of waste polystyrene and   amorphous carbon thin film (WPS/ACTF) by solvent evaporation using micro emulsion polymerization. The produced ACTF/WPS nanocomposite was sulfonated to produce cation exchange resins ACTF/WPSS nanocomposite. The sorbents of the first series were characterized using FTIR, ¹H NMR, and gel permeation chromatography. The thermal properties of the cross-linked sorbents were investigated using thermogravimetric analysis, and the morphology was characterized by scanning electron microscope (SEM). The removal of organic pollutant was determined through absorption tests in a various organic solvent. The chemical and crystalline structure of nanocomposite of second series has been proven by studies of FTIR spectrum, X-rays, thermal analysis, SEM and TEM analysis to study morphology of resins and ACTF that assembled with polystyrene chain. It is found that the composite resins ACTF/WPSS are thermally stable and show higher chemical stability than ion exchange WPSS resins. The composite resin was evaluated for calcium hardness removal. The result is evident that the ACTF/WPSS composite has more prominent inorganic pollutant removal than WPSS resin. So, we recommend the using of nanocomposite resin as new potential applications for water treatment process.

Keywords: Nanocomposite, sorbent materials, waste water, waste polystyrene.

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Authors: N. Southiseng, J. Walsh

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Prior to 1975, women in Laos suffered from having reduced levels of power over decision-making in their families and in their communities. This has had a negative impact on their ability to develop their own identities. Their roles were identified as being responsible for household activities and making preparations for their marriage. Many women lost opportunities to get educated and access the outdoor work that might have empowered them to improve their situations. So far, no accurate figures of either emigrants or return migrants have been compiled but it appears that most of them were women, and it was women who most and more frequently remitted money home. However, very few recent studies have addressed the relationship between remittances and the roles of women in Laos. This study, therefore, aims at redressing to some extent the deficiencies in knowledge. Qualitative techniques were used to gather data, including individual in-depth interviews and direct observation in combination with the content analysis method. Forty women in Vientiane Municipality and Savannakhet province were individually interviewed. It was found that the monetary remittance was typically used for family security and well-being; on fungible activities; on economic and business activities; and on community development, especially concerning hospitality and providing daily household necessities. Remittances played important roles in improving many respondents- livelihoods and positively changed their identities in families and communities. Women became empowered as they were able to start commercial businesses, rather than taking care of (just) housework, children and elders. Interviews indicated that 92.5% of the respondents their quality of lives improved, 90% felt happier in their families and 82.5% felt conflicts in their families were reduced.

Keywords: Laos, Monetary Remittances, Social Remittance, Women's Empowerment.

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Authors: Kanthida Kusonmano, Michael Netzer, Bernhard Pfeifer, Christian Baumgartner, Klaus R. Liedl, Armin Graber

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Availability of high dimensional biological datasets such as from gene expression, proteomic, and metabolic experiments can be leveraged for the diagnosis and prognosis of diseases. Many classification methods in this area have been studied to predict disease states and separate between predefined classes such as patients with a special disease versus healthy controls. However, most of the existing research only focuses on a specific dataset. There is a lack of generic comparison between classifiers, which might provide a guideline for biologists or bioinformaticians to select the proper algorithm for new datasets. In this study, we compare the performance of popular classifiers, which are Support Vector Machine (SVM), Logistic Regression, k-Nearest Neighbor (k-NN), Naive Bayes, Decision Tree, and Random Forest based on mock datasets. We mimic common biological scenarios simulating various proportions of real discriminating biomarkers and different effect sizes thereof. The result shows that SVM performs quite stable and reaches a higher AUC compared to other methods. This may be explained due to the ability of SVM to minimize the probability of error. Moreover, Decision Tree with its good applicability for diagnosis and prognosis shows good performance in our experimental setup. Logistic Regression and Random Forest, however, strongly depend on the ratio of discriminators and perform better when having a higher number of discriminators.

Keywords: Classification, High dimensional data, Machine learning

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Authors: Amir Eghbal Khajeh Rahimi, Fardin Boustani, Omid Tabiee, Masoud Hashemi

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The Beshar River is one of the most important aquatic ecosystems in the upstream of the Karun watershed in south of Iran which is affected by point and non point pollutant sources . This study was done in order to evaluate the effects of pollutants activities on the water quality of the Beshar river and its aquatic ecosystems. This river is approximately 190 km in length and situated at the geographical positions of 51° 20´ to 51° 48´ E and 30° 18´ to 30° 52´ N it is one of the most important aquatic ecosystems of Kohkiloye and Boyerahmad province in south-west Iran. In this research project, five study stations were selected to examine water pollution in the Beshar River systems. Human activity is now one of the most important factors affecting on hydrology and water quality of the Beshar river. Humans use large amounts of resources to sustain various standards of living, although measures of sustainability are highly variable depending on how sustainability is defined. The Beshar river ecosystems are particularly sensitive and vulnerable to human activities. Therefore, to determine the impact of human activities on the Beshar River, the most important water quality parameters such as pH, dissolve oxygen (DO), Biological Oxygen Demand (BOD5), Total Dissolve Solids (TDS), Nitrates (NO3-N) and Phosphates (PO4) were estimated at the five stations. As the results show, the most important pollution index parameters such as BOD5, NO3 and PO4 increase and DO and pH decrease according to human activities (P<0.05). However, due to pollutant degradation and dilution, pollution index parameters improve downstream sampling stations.

Keywords: Human activities, Water pollution, Beshar River, Iran.

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Authors: Wei Sun, Yan Dong

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There is an increasing interest in introducing computational thinking at an early age. Computational thinking, like mathematical thinking, engineering thinking, and scientific thinking, is a kind of analytical thinking. Learning computational thinking skills is not only to improve technological literacy, but also allows learners to equip with practicable skills such as problem-solving skills. As people realize the importance of computational thinking, the field of educational technology faces a problem: how to choose appropriate tools and activities to help students develop computational thinking skills. Robots are gradually becoming a popular teaching tool, as robots provide a tangible way for young children to access to technology, and controlling a robot through programming offers them opportunities to engage in developing computational thinking. This study explores whether the introduction of flowcharts into the robotics programming courses can help children convert natural language into a programming language more easily, and then to better cultivate their computational thinking skills. An experimental study was adopted with a sample of children ages six to seven (N = 16) participated, and a one-meter-tall humanoid robot was used as the teaching tool. Results show that children can master basic programming concepts through robotic courses. Children's computational thinking has been significantly improved. Besides, results suggest that flowcharts do have an impact on young children’s computational thinking skills development, but it only has a significant effect on the "sequencing" and "correspondence" skills. Overall, the study demonstrates that the humanoid robot and flowcharts have qualities that foster young children to learn programming and develop computational thinking skills.

Keywords: Robotics, computational thinking, programming, young children, flowcharts.

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Authors: Vinko Lešić, Mario Vašak, Anita Martinčević, Marko Gulin, Antonio Starčić, Hrvoje Novak

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With 40% of total world energy consumption, building systems are developing into technically complex large energy consumers suitable for application of sophisticated power management approaches to largely increase the energy efficiency and even make them active energy market participants. Centralized control system of building heating and cooling managed by economically-optimal model predictive control shows promising results with estimated 30% of energy efficiency increase. The research is focused on implementation of such a method on a case study performed on two floors of our faculty building with corresponding sensors wireless data acquisition, remote heating/cooling units and central climate controller. Building walls are mathematically modeled with corresponding material types, surface shapes and sizes. Models are then exploited to predict thermal characteristics and changes in different building zones. Exterior influences such as environmental conditions and weather forecast, people behavior and comfort demands are all taken into account for deriving price-optimal climate control. Finally, a DC microgrid with photovoltaics, wind turbine, supercapacitor, batteries and fuel cell stacks is added to make the building a unit capable of active participation in a price-varying energy market. Computational burden of applying model predictive control on such a complex system is relaxed through a hierarchical decomposition of the microgrid and climate control, where the former is designed as higher hierarchical level with pre-calculated price-optimal power flows control, and latter is designed as lower level control responsible to ensure thermal comfort and exploit the optimal supply conditions enabled by microgrid energy flows management. Such an approach is expected to enable the inclusion of more complex building subsystems into consideration in order to further increase the energy efficiency.

Keywords: Energy-efficient buildings, Hierarchical model predictive control, Microgrid power flow optimization, Price-optimal building climate control.

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Authors: Sara Bilal, Abdi Omar Shuriye, Raihan Othman

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Numerical Methods is a course that can be conducted using workshops and group discussion. This study has been implemented on undergraduate students of level two at the Faculty of Engineering, International Islamic University Malaysia. The Numerical Method course has been delivered to two Sections 1 and 2 with 44 and 22 students in each section, respectively. Systematic steps have been followed to apply the student centered learning approach in teaching Numerical Method course. Initially, the instructor has chosen the topic which was Euler’s Method to solve Ordinary Differential Equations (ODE) to be learned. The students were then divided into groups with five members in each group. Initial instructions have been given to the group members to prepare their subtopics before meeting members from other groups to discuss the subtopics in an expert group inside the classroom. For the time assigned for the classroom discussion, the setting of the classroom was rearranged to accommodate the student centered learning approach. Teacher strength was by monitoring the process of learning inside and outside the class. The students have been assessed during the migrating to the expert groups, recording of a video explanation outside the classroom and during the final examination. Euler’s Method to solve the ODE was set as part of Question 3(b) in the final exam. It is observed that none of the students from both sections obtained a zero grade in Q3(b), compared to Q3(a) and Q3(c). Also, for Section 1(44 students), 29 students obtained the full mark of 7/7, while only 10 obtained 7/7 for Q3(a) and no students obtained 6/6 for Q3(c). Finally, we can recommend that the Numerical Method course be moved toward more student-centered Learning classrooms where the students will be engaged in group discussion rather than having a teacher one man show.

Keywords: Teacher centered learning, student centered learning, mathematic, numerical methods.

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Authors: Konstantinos Sotiriadis, Michael Tupý, Nikol Žižková, Vít Petránek

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The acid attack on cement mortars modified with rubber aggregates and EVA polymer binder was studied. Mortar specimens were prepared using a type CEM I 42.5 Portland cement and siliceous sand, as well as by substituting 25% of sand with shredded used automobile tires, and by adding EVA polymer in two percentages (5% and 10% of cement mass). Some specimens were only air cured, at laboratory conditions, and their compressive strength and water absorption were determined. The rest specimens were stored in acid solutions (HCl, H₂SO₄, HNO₃) after 28 days of initial curing, and stored at laboratory temperature. Compressive strength tests, mass measurements and visual inspection took place for 28 days. Compressive strength and water absorption of the air-cured specimens were significantly decreased when rubber aggregates are used. The addition of EVA polymer further reduced water absorption, while had no important impact on strength. Compressive strength values were affected in a greater extent by hydrochloric acid solution, followed by sulfate and nitric acid solutions. The addition of EVA polymer decreased compressive strength loss for the specimens with rubber aggregates stored in hydrochloric and nitric acid solutions. The specimens without polymer binder showed similar mass loss, which was higher in sulfate acid solution followed by hydrochloric and nitric acid solutions. The use of EVA polymer delayed mass loss, while its content did not affect it significantly.

Keywords: Acid attack, mortar, EVA polymer, rubber aggregates.

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Authors: Louiza C. Duncker, Duarte Gonçalves

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Wildlife crime is a complex problem with many interconnected facets, which are generally responded to in parts or fragments in efforts to “break down” the complexity into manageable components. However, fragmentation increases complexity as coherence and cooperation become diluted. A whole-of-society approach has been developed towards finding a common goal and integrated approach to preventing wildlife crime. As part of this development, research was conducted in rural communities adjacent to conservation areas in South Africa to define and comprehend the challenges faced by them, and to understand their perceptions of wildlife crime. The results of the research showed that the perceptions of community members varied - most were in favor of conservation and of protecting rhinos, only if they derive adequate benefit from it. Regardless of gender, income level, education level, or access to services, conservation was perceived to be good and bad by the same people. Even though people in the communities are poor, a willingness to stop rhino poaching does exist amongst them, but their perception of parks not caring about people triggered an attitude of not being willing to stop, prevent or report poaching. Understanding the nuances, the history, the interests and values of community members, and the drivers behind poaching mind-sets (intrinsic or driven by transnational organized crime) is imperative to create sustainable and resilient communities on multiple levels that make a substantial positive impact on people’s lives, but also conserve wildlife for posterity.

Keywords: Conservation, community perceptions, wildlife crime, rhino poaching, interest and value creation, whole-of-society approach.

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Authors: Hesham Abd Elkhalek, Sherif M. Hafez, Yasser M. El Fahham

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Allocating limited budget to maintain bridge networks and selecting effective maintenance strategies for each bridge represent challenging tasks for maintenance managers and decision makers. In Egypt, bridges are continuously deteriorating. In many cases, maintenance works are performed due to user complaints. The objective of this paper is to develop a practical and reliable framework to manage the maintenance, repair, and rehabilitation (MR&R) activities of Bridges network considering performance and budget limits. The model solves an optimization problem that maximizes the average condition of the entire network given the limited available budget using Genetic Algorithm (GA). The framework contains bridge inventory, condition assessment, repair cost calculation, deterioration prediction, and maintenance optimization. The developed model takes into account multiple parameters including serviceability requirements, budget allocation, element importance on structural safety and serviceability, bridge impact on network, and traffic. A questionnaire is conducted to complete the research scope. The proposed model is implemented in software, which provides a friendly user interface. The framework provides a multi-year maintenance plan for the entire network for up to five years. A case study of ten bridges is presented to validate and test the proposed model with data collected from Transportation Authorities in Egypt. Different scenarios are presented. The results are reasonable, feasible and within acceptable domain.

Keywords: Bridge Management Systems (BMS), cost optimization condition assessment, fund allocation, Markov chain.

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Authors: S. S. Sharma, Jagannath K, P. R. Prabhu

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Metal matrix composites consists of a metallic matrix combined with dispersed particulate phase as reinforcement. Aluminum alloys have been the primary material of choice for structural components of aircraft since about 1930. Well known performance characteristics, known fabrication costs, design experience, and established manufacturing methods and facilities, are just a few of the reasons for the continued confidence in 7XXX Al alloys that will ensure their use in significant quantities for the time to come. Particulate MMCs are of special interest owing to the low cost of their raw materials (primarily natural river sand here) and their ease of fabrication, making them suitable for applications requiring relatively high volume production. 7XXX Al alloys are precipitation hardenable and therefore amenable for thermomechanical treatment. Al–Zn alloys reinforced with particulate materials are used in aerospace industries in spite of the drawbacks of susceptibility to stress corrosion, poor wettability, poor weldability and poor fatigue resistance. The resistance offered by these particulates for the moving dislocations impart secondary hardening in turn contributes strain hardening. Cold deformation increases lattice defects, which in turn improves the properties of solution treated alloy. In view of this, six different Al–Zn–Mg alloy composites reinforced with silica (3 wt. % and 5 wt. %) are prepared by conventional semisolid synthesizing process. The cast alloys are solution treated and aged. The solution treated alloys are further severely cold rolled to enhance the properties. The hardness and strength values are analyzed and compared with silica free Al – Zn-Mg alloys. Precipitation hardening phenomena is accelerated due to the increased number of potential sites for precipitation. Higher peak hardness and lesser aging time are the characteristics of thermo mechanically treated samples. For obtaining maximum hardness, optimum number and volume of precipitate particles are required. The Al-5Zn-1Mg with 5% SiO₂ alloy composite shows better result.

Keywords: Dislocation, hardness, matrix, thermomechanical, precipitation hardening, reinforcement.

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Authors: B. Arzhanov, A. Correia, P. Delgado, J. Meireles

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Due to the higher power loss levels in electronic components, the thermal design of PCBs (Printed Circuit Boards) of an assembled device becomes one of the most important quality factors in electronics. Nonetheless, some of leading causes of the microelectronic component failures are due to higher temperatures, the leakages or thermal-mechanical stress, which is a concern, is the reliability of microelectronic packages. This article presents an experimental approach to measure the junction temperature of exposed pad packages. The implemented solution is in a prototype phase, using a temperature-sensitive parameter (TSP) to measure temperature directly on the die, validating the numeric results provided by the Mechanical APDL (Ansys Parametric Design Language) under same conditions. The physical device-under-test is composed by a Thermal Test Chip (TTC-1002) and assembly in a QFN cavity, soldered to a test-board according to JEDEC Standards. Monitoring the voltage drop across a forward-biased diode, is an indirectly method but accurate to obtain the junction temperature of QFN component with an applied power range between 0,3W to 1.5W. The temperature distributions on the PCB test-board and QFN cavity surface were monitored by an infra-red thermal camera (Goby-384) controlled and images processed by the Xeneth software. The article provides a set-up to monitorize in real-time the junction temperature of ICs, namely devices with the exposed pad package (i.e. QFN). Presenting the PCB layout parameters that the designer should use to improve thermal performance, and evaluate the impact of voids in solder interface in the device junction temperature.

Keywords: Quad Flat No-Lead packages, exposed pads, junction temperature, thermal management, measurements.

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Authors: V.A. Baronenko, S.I. Bugreeva, K.R. Mekhdieva

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Differentiated impact of team sports (basketball, indoor soccer, handball) on general haemodynamics and aerobic potential of students who specialize in technical subjects is detected only on the fourth year of studies in the institute of higher education. Those who play basketball and indoor soccer have shown increase of stroke and minute volume of blood indices, pumping and contractile function of the heart, oxygenation of blood and oxygen delivery to tissues, aerobic energy supply and balance of sympathetic and parasympathetic activity of the nervous regulation mechanism of the circulatory system. Those who play handball have shown these indices statistically decreased. On the whole playing basketball and indoor soccer optimizes the strategy for adaptation of students to the studying process, but playing handball does the opposite thing. The leading factor for adaptation of students is: those who play basketball have increase of minute blood volume which stipulates velocity of the system blood circulation and well-timed oxygen delivery to tissues; those who play indoor soccer have increase of power and velocity of contractile function of the heart; those who play handball have increase of resistance of thorax to the system blood flow which minimizes contractile function of the heart, blood oxygen saturation and delivery of oxygen to tissues.

Keywords: team sports, general haemodynamics, aerobic potential, strategy for adaptation.

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Authors: Vartan Ahrens Kayayan, Mattias Gustafsson, Erik Dotzauer

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The European Union is introducing the positive energy district concept, which has the goal to reduce overall carbon dioxide emissions. The Swedish energy system is unique compared to others in Europe, due to the implementation of low-carbon electricity and heat energy sources and high uptake of district heating. The goal for this paper is to start the discussion about how the concept of positive energy districts can best be applied to the Swedish context and meet their mitigation goals. To explore how these differences impact the formation of positive energy districts, two cases were analyzed for their methods and how these integrate into the Swedish energy system: a district in Uppsala with a focus on energy and another in Helsingborg with a focus on climate. The case in Uppsala uses primary energy calculations which can be criticized but take a virtual border that allows for its surrounding system to be considered. The district in Helsingborg has a complex methodology for considering the life cycle emissions of the neighborhood. It is successful in considering the energy balance on a monthly basis, but it can be problematized in terms of creating sub-optimized systems due to setting tight geographical constraints. The discussion of shaping the definitions and methodologies for positive energy districts is taking place in Europe and Sweden. We identify three pitfalls that must be avoided so that positive energy districts meet their mitigation goals in the Swedish context. The goal of pushing out fossil fuels is not relevant in the current energy system, the mismatch between summer electricity production and winter energy demands should be addressed, and further implementations should consider collaboration with the established district heating grid.

Keywords: Positive energy districts, energy system, renewable energy, European Union.

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Authors: Zhao Cai-qi, Ma Jun

Abstract:

Twin steel plates-concrete composite shear walls are composed of a pair of steel plate layers and a concrete layer sandwiched between them, which have the characteristics of both reinforced concrete shear walls and steel plate shear walls. Twin steel plates-composite shear walls contain very high ultimsate bearing capacity and ductility, which have great potential to be applied in the super high-rise buildings and special structures. In this paper, we analyzed the basic characteristics and stress mechanism of the twin steel plates-composite shear walls. Specifically, we analyzed the effects of the steel plate thickness, wall thickness and concrete strength on the bearing capacity of the twin steel plates-composite shear walls. The analysis results indicate that: (1) the initial shear stiffness and ultimate shear-carrying capacity is not significantly affected by the thickness of concrete wall but by the class of concrete, (2) both factors significantly impact the shear distribution of the shear walls in ultimate shear-carrying capacity. The technique of twin steel plates-composite shear walls has been successfully applied in the construction of an 88-meter Huge Statue of Buddha located in Hunan Province, China. The analysis results and engineering experiences showed that the twin steel plates-composite shear walls have great potential for future research and applications.

Keywords: Twin steel plates-concrete composite shear wall, huge statue of Buddha, shear capacity, initial lateral stiffness, overturning moment bearing.

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Authors: Pragya Paneru

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This paper explores altogether 10 primary teachers’ views on gender representation in primary level textbooks. Data were collected from the teachers who taught in private schools in the Kailali and Kathmandu districts. This research uses a semi-structured interview method to obtain information regarding teachers’ attitudes toward gender representations in textbook contents. The interview data were analysed by using critical skills of qualitative research. The findings revealed that most of the teachers were unaware and regarded gender issues as insignificant to discuss in primary-level classes. Most of them responded to the questions personally and claimed that there were no gender issues in their classrooms. Some of the teachers connected gender issues with contexts other than textbook representations such as school discrimination in the distribution of salary among male and female teachers, school practices of awarding girls rather than boys as the most disciplined students, following girls’ first rule in the assembly marching, encouraging only girls in the stage shows, and involving students in gender-specific activities such as decorating works for girls and physical tasks for boys. The interview also revealed teachers’ covert gendered attitudes in their remarks. Nevertheless, most of the teachers accepted that gender-biased contents have an impact on learners and this problem can be solved with more gender-centred research in the education field, discussions, and training to increase awareness regarding gender issues. Agreeing with the suggestion of teachers, this paper recommends proper training and awareness regarding how to confront gender issues in textbooks.

Keywords: Content analysis, gender equality, school education, critical awareness.

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Authors: A. M. Sultana, Norhirdawati. M. Zahir, Norzalan. H. Yaacob

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Recently in Malaysia, women's participation in teaching profession has increased. The increasing trend of women’s participation in the teaching profession poses challenges in families, especially in the developing countries like Malaysia. One of these challenges, concerns in balancing their role between family and job responsibility that faced by many women teachers. The purpose of this study is to discover how women teachers' impact on family happiness and the challenges faced by them in balancing their role between family and job responsibility. The findings presented in this study are based on survey research in a secondary school Dato’ Bijaya Setia in the district of Gugusan Manjoi which is located in Kedah, Malaysia. The study found that employment of women in economic activity has several beneficial impacts of improving the economic condition of the family. The results also revealed that in low income earning families, both husbands and wives’ employment contribute to the family income that less likely to experience of family poverty. The study also showed despite women's teachers’ significant role towards the overall development of the family, the majority of women teachers encountered a number of difficulties in balancing their role between family and job responsibility especially when they need to work more than the normal working time. Therefore, it is common for the majority of women suffering from psychological stress when they are unable to complete the task at a fixed time. The present study also suggests implication of family friendly policy and its appropriate practice to support the women teachers who are significantly contributing to family, community and the country.

Keywords: Emotional exhaustion, Family friendly policy, Work family conflict, Women Teacher.

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Authors: Κonstantinos Kalovrektis, Chryssanthi Palazi

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Schools today face ever-increasing demands in their attempts to ensure that students are well equipped to enter the workforce and navigate a complex world. Research indicates that computer technology can help support learning, implementation of various experiments or learning games, and that it is especially useful in developing the higher-order skills of critical thinking, observation, comprehension, implementation, comparison, analysis and active attention to activities such as research, field work, simulations and scientific inquiry. The ICT in education supports the learning procedure by enabling it to be more flexible and effective, create a rich and attractive training environment and equip the students with knowledge and potential useful for the competitive social environment in which they live. This paper presents the design, the development, and the results of the evaluation analysis of an interactive educational game which using real electric vehicles - toys (material) on a toy race track. When the game starts each student selects a specific vehicle toy. Then students are answering questionnaires in the computer. The vehicles' speed is related to the percentage of right answers in a multiple choice questionnaire (software). Every question has its own significant value depending of the different level of questionnaire. Via the developed software, each right or wrong answers in questionnaire increase or decrease the real time speed of their vehicle toys. Moreover the rate of vehicle's speed increase or decrease depends on the difficulty level of each question. The aim of the work is to attract the student’s interest in a learning process and also to improve their scores. The developed real time game was tested using independent populations of students of age groups: 8-10, 11-14, 15-18 years. Standard educational and statistical analysis tools were used for the evaluation analysis of the game. Results reveal that students using the developed real time control game scored much higher (60%) than students using a traditional simulation game on the same questionnaire. Results further indicate that student's interest in repeating the developed real time control gaming was far higher (70%) than the interest of students using a traditional simulation game.

Keywords: Real time game, sensor, learning games, LabVIEW

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Authors: Abimbola M. Enitan, Josiah Adeyemo, Sheena Kumari, Feroz M. Swalaha, Faizal Bux

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Industries produce millions of cubic meters of effluent every year and the wastewater produced may be released into the surrounding water bodies, treated on-site or at municipal treatment plants. The determination of organic matter in the wastewater generated is very important to avoid any negative effect on the aquatic ecosystem. The scope of the present work is to assess the physicochemical composition of the wastewater produced from one of the brewery industry in South Africa. This is to estimate the environmental impact of its discharge into the receiving water bodies or the municipal treatment plant. The parameters monitored for the quantitative analysis of brewery wastewater include biological oxygen demand (BOD5), chemical oxygen demand (COD), total suspended solids, volatile suspended solids, ammonia, total oxidized nitrogen, nitrate, nitrite, phosphorus and alkalinity content. In average, the COD concentration of the brewery effluent was 5340.97 mg/l with average pH values of 4.0 to 6.7. The BOD5 and the solids content of the wastewater from the brewery industry were high. This means that the effluent is very rich in organic content and its discharge into the water bodies or the municipal treatment plant could cause environmental pollution or damage the treatment plant. In addition, there were variations in the wastewater composition throughout the monitoring period. This might be as a result of different activities that take place during the production process, as well as the effects of peak period of beer production on the water usage.

Keywords: Brewery wastewater, environmental pollution, industrial effluents, physicochemical composition.

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Authors: Rohayu Izanwati M. R., Muhamad Ridhwan M. R., Abbe Maleyki M. J., Ahmad Zubaidi A. L., Zahri M. K.

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PPARs function as regulators of lipid and lipoprotein metabolism. The aim of the study was to compare the lipid profile between two phases of fasting and to examine the frequency and relationship of peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor, PPARα gene polymorphisms to lipid profile in fasting respondents. We conducted a case-control study protocol, which included 21 healthy volunteers without gender discrimination at the age of 18 years old. 3 ml of blood sample was drawn before the fasting phase and during the fasting phase (in Ramadhan month). 1ml of serum for the lipid profile was analyzed by using the automated chemistry analyser (Olympus, AU 400) and the data were analysed using the Paired T-Test (SPSS ver.20). DNA was extracted and PCR was conducted utilising 6 sets of primer. Primers were designed within 6 exons of interest in PPARα gene. Genetic and metabolic characteristics of fasting respondents and controls were estimated and compared. Fasting respondents were significantly have lowered the LDL levels (p=0.03). There were no polymorphisms detected except in exon 1 with 5% of this population study respectively. The polymorphisms in exon 1 of the PPARα gene were found in low frequency. Regarding the 1375G/T and 1386G/T polymorphisms in the exon 1 of the PPARα gene, the T-allele in fasting phase had no association with the decreased LDL levels (Fisher Exact Test). However this association is more promising when the sample size is larger in order to elucidate the precise impact of the polymorphisms on lipid profile in the population. In conclusion, the PPARα gene polymorphisms do not appear to affect the LDL of fasting respondents.

Keywords: Fasting, LDL, Peroxisome proliferator activated receptor alpha (PPAR-α), Polymorphisms.

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Authors: N. Boontian

Abstract:

Biological conversion of biomass to methane has received increasing attention in recent years. Grasses have been explored for their potential anaerobic digestion to methane. In this review, extensive literature data have been tabulated and classified. The influences of several parameters on the potential of these feedstocks to produce methane are presented. Lignocellulosic biomass represents a mostly unused source for biogas and ethanol production. Many factors, including lignin content, crystallinity of cellulose, and particle size, limit the digestibility of the hemicellulose and cellulose present in the lignocellulosic biomass. Pretreatments have used to improve the digestibility of the lignocellulosic biomass. Each pretreatment has its own effects on cellulose, hemicellulose and lignin, the three main components of lignocellulosic biomass. Solidstate anaerobic digestion (SS-AD) generally occurs at solid concentrations higher than 15%. In contrast, liquid anaerobic digestion (AD) handles feedstocks with solid concentrations between 0.5% and 15%. Animal manure, sewage sludge, and food waste are generally treated by liquid AD, while organic fractions of municipal solid waste (OFMSW) and lignocellulosic biomass such as crop residues and energy crops can be processed through SS-AD. An increase in operating temperature can improve both the biogas yield and the production efficiency, other practices such as using AD digestate or leachate as an inoculant or decreasing the solid content may increase biogas yield but have negative impact on production efficiency. Focus is placed on substrate pretreatment in anaerobic digestion (AD) as a means of increasing biogas yields using today’s diversified substrate sources.

Keywords: Anaerobic digestion, Lignocellulosic biomass, Methane production, Optimization, Pretreatment.

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Authors: Y. Bai, M. Bodlak, V. Frolov, S. Huber, V. Jary, I. Konorov, D. Levit, J. Novy, D. Steffen, O. Subrt, M. Virius

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In general, state-of-the-art Data Acquisition Systems (DAQ) in high energy physics experiments must satisfy high requirements in terms of reliability, efficiency and data rate capability. This paper presents the development and deployment of a debugging tool named DAQ Debugger for the intelligent, FPGA-based Data Acquisition System (iFDAQ) of the COMPASS experiment at CERN. Utilizing a hardware event builder, the iFDAQ is designed to be able to readout data at the average maximum rate of 1.5 GB/s of the experiment. In complex softwares, such as the iFDAQ, having thousands of lines of code, the debugging process is absolutely essential to reveal all software issues. Unfortunately, conventional debugging of the iFDAQ is not possible during the real data taking. The DAQ Debugger is a tool for identifying a problem, isolating the source of the problem, and then either correcting the problem or determining a way to work around it. It provides the layer for an easy integration to any process and has no impact on the process performance. Based on handling of system signals, the DAQ Debugger represents an alternative to conventional debuggers provided by most integrated development environments. Whenever problem occurs, it generates reports containing all necessary information important for a deeper investigation and analysis. The DAQ Debugger was fully incorporated to all processes in the iFDAQ during the run 2016. It helped to reveal remaining software issues and improved significantly the stability of the system in comparison with the previous run. In the paper, we present the DAQ Debugger from several insights and discuss it in a detailed way.

Keywords: DAQ debugger, data acquisition system, FPGA, system signals, Qt framework.

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