Search results for: avoid maneuver.

Authors: Carlo Cernicchiaro, Pedro D. Gaspar, Martim L. Aguiar

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The agricultural sector is becoming more critical than ever in view of the expected overpopulation of the Earth. The introduction of robotic solutions in this field is an increasingly researched topic to make the most of the Earth's resources, thus going to avoid the problems of wear and tear of the human body due to the harsh agricultural work, and open the possibility of a constant careful processing 24 hours a day. This project is realized for a terrestrial autonomous robot aimed to navigate in an orchard collecting fallen peaches below the trees. When it receives the signal indicating the low battery, it has to return to the docking station where it will replace its battery and then return to the last work point and resume its routine. Considering a preset path in orchards with tree rows with variable length by which the robot goes iteratively using the algorithm D*. In case of low battery, the D* algorithm is still used to determine the fastest return path to the docking station as well as to come back from the docking station to the last work point. MATLAB simulations were performed to analyze the flexibility and adaptability of the developed algorithm. The simulation results show an enormous potential for adaptability, particularly in view of the irregularity of orchard field, since it is not flat and undergoes modifications over time from fallen branch as well as from other obstacles and constraints. The D* algorithm determines the best route in spite of the irregularity of the terrain. Moreover, in this work, it will be shown a possible solution to improve the initial points tracking and reduce time between movements.

Keywords: Path planning, fastest return path, agricultural terrestrial robot, autonomous, docking station.

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Authors: Majeed Mohammed Midhin, Clare Finburgh

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To maintain a healthy balanced loyalty, whether to art or society, posits a debatable issue. The artist is always on the look out for the potential tension between those two realms. Therefore, one of the most painful dilemmas the artist finds is how to function in a society without sacrificing the aesthetic values of his/her work. In other words, the life-long awareness of failure which derives from the concept of the artist as caught between unflattering social realities and the need to invent genuine art forms becomes a fertilizing soil for the artists to be tackled. Thus, within the framework of this dilemma, the question of the responsibility of the artist and the relationship of the art to politics will be illuminating. To a larger extent, however, in drama, this dilemma is represented by the fictional characters of the play. The present paper tackles the idea of the amorality of the artist in selected plays by Tom Stoppard. However, Stoppard’s awareness of his situation as a refugee has led him to keep at a distance from politics. He tried hard to avoid any intervention into the realms of political debate, especially in his earliest work. On the one hand, it is not meant that he did not interest in politics as such, but rather he preferred to question it than to create a fixed ideological position. On the other hand, Stoppard’s refusal to intervene in politics is ascribed to his feeling of gratitude to Britain where he settled. As a result, Stoppard has frequently been criticized for a lack of political engagement and also for not leaning too much for the left when he does engage. His reaction to these public criticisms finds expression in his self-conscious statements which defensively stressed the artifice of his work. He, like Oscar Wilde thinks that the responsibility of the artist is devoted to the realm of his/her art. Consequently, his consciousness for the role of the artist is truly reflected in his two plays, Artist Descending a Staircase (1972) and Travesties (1974).

Keywords: Amorality, responsibility, politics, ideology.

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Authors: Krisna Damayanti, Lilis Ardini

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Many issues about the relationship between auditors in auditing practices with its stakeholders often heard. It appears in perspectives of bringing out the variety of phenomena affecting from the audit practice of greed and not appreciating from the independency of the audit profession and professional code of ethics. It becomes a logical consequence in practicing of capitalism in accounting. The main purpose of this article would like to uncover the existing auditing practices in Indonesia, especially in Java that associated with a strong influence of Javanese culture with reluctant /”shy", politely, "legowo (gratefully accepted)", "ngemong" (friendly), "not mentholo" (lenient), "tepo seliro" (tolerance), "ngajeni" (respectful), "acquiescent" and also reveals its relationships with Non Javanese culture in facing the conflict of interest in practical of auditing world. The method used by interpretive approach that emphasizes the role of language, interpret and understand and see social reality as something other than a label, name or concept. Global practices in auditing of each country have particular cultures that affect the standard set by those regulatory standards results the adaptation of IAS. The majority of parties in Indonesia is dominated by Javanese racial regulators, so Java culture is embedded in every audit practices and those conditions in Java leads auditors in having similar behaviour, sometimes interfere with standard Java code of conduct must be executed by an auditor. Auditors who live in Java have the characters of Javanese culture that is hard to avoid in the audit practice. However, practically, the auditors still are relevant in their profession.

Keywords: Auditors, java, character, profession, code of ethics, client.

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Authors: Hussain Syed Asad, Richard Kwok Kit Yuen, Gongsheng Huang

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Real-time optimization has been considered an effective approach for improving energy efficient operation of heating, ventilation, and air-conditioning (HVAC) systems. In model-based real-time optimization, model mismatches cannot be avoided. When model mismatches are significant, the performance of the real-time optimization will be impaired and hence the expected energy saving will be reduced. In this paper, the model mismatches for chiller plant on real-time optimization are considered. In the real-time optimization of the chiller plant, simplified semi-physical or grey box model of chiller is always used, which should be identified using available operation data. To overcome the model mismatches associated with the chiller model, hybrid Genetic Algorithms (HGAs) method is used for online real-time training of the chiller model. HGAs combines Genetic Algorithms (GAs) method (for global search) and traditional optimization method (i.e. faster and more efficient for local search) to avoid conventional hit and trial process of GAs. The identification of model parameters is synthesized as an optimization problem; and the objective function is the Least Square Error between the output from the model and the actual output from the chiller plant. A case study is used to illustrate the implementation of the proposed method. It has been shown that the proposed approach is able to provide reliability in decision making, enhance the robustness of the real-time optimization strategy and improve on energy performance.

Keywords: Energy performance, hybrid adaptive modeling, hybrid genetic algorithms, real-time optimization, heating, ventilation, and air-conditioning.

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Authors: Nicolò Vaiana, Giorgio Serino

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In this paper, a one-dimensional (1d) Parallel Elasto- Plastic Model (PEPM), able to simulate the uniaxial dynamic behavior of seismic isolators having a continuously decreasing tangent stiffness with increasing displacement, is presented. The parallel modeling concept is applied to discretize the continuously decreasing tangent stiffness function, thus allowing to simulate the dynamic behavior of seismic isolation bearings by putting linear elastic and nonlinear elastic-perfectly plastic elements in parallel. The mathematical model has been validated by comparing the experimental force-displacement hysteresis loops, obtained testing a helical wire rope isolator and a recycled rubber-fiber reinforced bearing, with those predicted numerically. Good agreement between the simulated and experimental results shows that the proposed model can be an effective numerical tool to predict the forcedisplacement relationship of seismic isolators within relatively large displacements. Compared to the widely used Bouc-Wen model, the proposed one allows to avoid the numerical solution of a first order ordinary nonlinear differential equation for each time step of a nonlinear time history analysis, thus reducing the computation effort, and requires the evaluation of only three model parameters from experimental tests, namely the initial tangent stiffness, the asymptotic tangent stiffness, and a parameter defining the transition from the initial to the asymptotic tangent stiffness.

Keywords: Base isolation, earthquake engineering, parallel elasto-plastic model, seismic isolators, softening hysteresis loops.

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Authors: Michael Zenker, Henrik Prinzhorn, Christian Böning, Tom Strating

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Large-scale products are often assembled according to the job-site principle, meaning that during the assembly the product is located at a fixed position, while the area requirements are constantly changing. On one hand, the product itself is growing with each assembly step, whereas varying areas for storage, machines or working areas are temporarily required. This is an important factor when arranging products to be assembled within the factory. Currently, it is common to reserve a fixed area for each product to avoid overlaps or collisions with the other assemblies. Intending to be large enough to include the product and all adjacent areas, this reserved area corresponds to the superposition of the maximum extents of all required areas of the product. In this procedure, the reserved area is usually poorly utilized over the course of the entire assembly process; instead a large part of it remains unused. If the available area is a limited resource, a systematic arrangement of the products, which complies with the dynamic area requirements, will lead to an increased area utilization and productivity. This paper presents the results of a study on the arrangement of assembly objects assuming dynamic, competing area requirements. First, the problem situation is extensively explained, and existing research on associated topics is described and evaluated on the possibility of an adaptation. Then, a newly developed mathematical optimization model is introduced. This model allows an optimal arrangement of dynamic areas, considering logical and practical constraints. Finally, in order to quantify the potential of the developed method, some test series results are presented, showing the possible increase in area utilization.

Keywords: Dynamic area requirements, facility layout problem, optimization model, product assembly.

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Authors: Gintarė Sauliutė, Gintaras Svecevičius

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Landfill leachates contain a number of persistent pollutants, including heavy metals. They have the ability to spread in ecosystems and accumulate in fish which most of them are classified as top-consumers of trophic chains. Fish are freely swimming organisms; but perhaps, due to their species-specific ecological and behavioral properties, they often prefer the most suitable biotopes and therefore, did not avoid harmful substances or environments. That is why it is necessary to evaluate the persistent pollutant dispersion in hydroecosystem using fish tissue metal concentration. In hydroecosystems of hybrid type (e.g. river-pond-river) the distance from the pollution source could be a perfect indicator of such a kind of metal distribution. The studies were carried out in the Kairiai landfill neighboring hybrid-type ecosystem which is located 5 km east of the Šiauliai City. Fish tissue (gills, liver, and muscle) metal concentration measurements were performed on two types of ecologically-different fishes according to their feeding characteristics: benthophagous (Gibel carp, roach) and predatory (Northern pike, perch). A number of mathematical models (linear, non-linear, using log and other transformations) have been applied in order to identify the most satisfactorily description of the interdependence between fish tissue metal concentration and the distance from the pollution source. However, the only one log-multiple regression model revealed the pattern that the distance from the pollution source is closely and positively correlated with metal concentration in all predatory fish tissues studied (gills, liver, and muscle).

Keywords: Bioaccumulation in fish, heavy metals, hydroecosystem, landfill leachate, mathematical model.

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Authors: E. C. Mattos, V. S. M. G. Daros, R. Dal Col, A. L. Nascimento

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The aim of this study is to present the results of a retrospective survey on the foreign matter found in foods analyzed at the Adolfo Lutz Institute, from July 2001 to July 2015. All the analyses were conducted according to the official methods described on Association of Official Agricultural Chemists (AOAC) for the micro analytical procedures and Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for the macro analytical procedures. The results showed flours, cereals and derivatives such as baking and pasta products were the types of food where foreign matters were found more frequently followed by condiments and teas. Fragments of stored grains insects, its larvae, nets, excrement, dead mites and rodent excrement were the most foreign matter found in food. Besides, foreign matters that can cause a physical risk to the consumer’s health such as metal, stones, glass, wood were found but rarely. Miscellaneous (shell, sand, dirt and seeds) were also reported. There are a lot of extraneous materials that are considered unavoidable since are something inherent to the product itself, such as insect fragments in grains. In contrast, there are avoidable extraneous materials that are less tolerated because it is preventable with the Good Manufacturing Practice. The conclusion of this work is that although most extraneous materials found in food are considered unavoidable it is necessary to keep the Good Manufacturing Practice throughout the food processing as well as maintaining a constant surveillance of the production process in order to avoid accidents that may lead to occurrence of these extraneous materials in food.

Keywords: Food contamination, extraneous materials, foreign matter, surveillance.

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Authors: Y. Suranindyah, A. Astuti

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Twelve lactating Etawah Crossedbred goats were used in this study. Goat feed consisted of Cally andra callothyrsus, Pennisetum purpureum, wheat bran and dried fermented cassava peel. The cassava peels were fermented with a traditional culture called “ragi tape" (mixed culture of Saccharomyces cerevisae, Aspergillus sp, Candida, Hasnula and Acetobacter). The goats were divided into 2 groups (Control and Treated) of six does. The experimental diet of the Control group consisted of 70% of roughage (fresh Callyandra callothyrsus and Pennisetum purpureum 60:40) and 30% of wheat bran on dry matter (DM) base. In the Treated group 30% of wheat bran was replaced with dried fermented cassava peels. Data were statistically analyzed using analysis of variance followed SPSS program. The concentration of HCN in fermented cassava peel decreased to non toxic level. Nutrient composition of dried fermented cassava peel consisted of 85.75% dry matter; 5.80% crude protein and 82.51% total digestible nutrien (TDN). Substitution of 30% of wheat bran with dried fermented cassava peel in the diet had no effect on dry matter and organic matter intake but significantly (P< 0.05) decreased crude protein and TDN consumption as well as milk yields and milk composition. The study recommended to reduced the level of substitution to less than 30% of concentrates in the diet in order to avoid low nutrient intake and milk production of goats.

Keywords: Fermented Cassava Peel, Milk Production, Composition, Etawah Crossedbred Goat.

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Authors: Yahia Salah, Med Lassaad Kaddachi, Rached Tourki

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This paper presents the design, implementation and evaluation of a micro-network, or Network-on-Chip (NoC), based on a generic pipeline router architecture. The router is designed to efficiently support traffic generated by multimedia applications on embedded multi-core systems. It employs a simplest routing mechanism and implements the round-robin scheduling strategy to resolve output port contentions and minimize latency. A virtual channel flow control is applied to avoid the head-of-line blocking problem and enhance performance in the NoC. The hardware design of the router architecture has been implemented at the register transfer level; its functionality is evaluated in the case of the two dimensional Mesh/Torus topology, and performance results are derived from ModelSim simulator and Xilinx ISE 9.2i synthesis tool. An example of a multi-core image processing system utilizing the NoC structure has been implemented and validated to demonstrate the capability of the proposed micro-network architecture. To reduce complexity of the image compression and decompression architecture, the system use image processing algorithm based on classical discrete cosine transform with an efficient zonal processing approach. The experimental results have confirmed that both the proposed image compression scheme and NoC architecture can achieve a reasonable image quality with lower processing time.

Keywords: Generic Pipeline Network-on-Chip Router Architecture, JPEG Image Compression, FPGA Hardware Implementation, Performance Evaluation.

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Authors: Roberto Sabatini, Alessandro Gardi, Mark A. Richardson

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The availability of powerful eye-safe laser sources and the recent advancements in electro-optical and mechanical beam-steering components have allowed laser-based Light Detection and Ranging (LIDAR) to become a promising technology for obstacle warning and avoidance in a variety of manned and unmanned aircraft applications. LIDAR outstanding angular resolution and accuracy characteristics are coupled to its good detection performance in a wide range of incidence angles and weather conditions, providing an ideal obstacle avoidance solution, which is especially attractive in low-level flying platforms such as helicopters and small-to-medium size Unmanned Aircraft (UA). The Laser Obstacle Avoidance Marconi (LOAM) system is one of such systems, which was jointly developed and tested by SELEX-ES and the Italian Air Force Research and Flight Test Centre. The system was originally conceived for military rotorcraft platforms and, in this paper, we briefly review the previous work and discuss in more details some of the key development activities required for integration of LOAM on UA platforms. The main hardware and software design features of this LOAM variant are presented, including a brief description of the system interfaces and sensor characteristics, together with the system performance models and data processing algorithms for obstacle detection, classification and avoidance. In particular, the paper focuses on the algorithm proposed for optimal avoidance trajectory generation in UA applications.

Keywords: LIDAR, Low-Level Flight, Nap-of-the-Earth Flight, Near Infra-Red, Obstacle Avoidance, Obstacle Detection, Obstacle Warning System, Sense and Avoid, Trajectory Optimisation, Unmanned Aircraft.

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Authors: Krishna Kumar Singh, Praveen Jain

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Collection of storm water runoff and forcing it into the groundwater is the need of the hour to sustain the ground water table. However, the runoff entraps various types of sediments and other floating objects whose removal are essential to avoid pollution of ground water and blocking of pores of aquifer. However, it requires regular cleaning and maintenance due to problem of clogging. To evaluate the performance of filter system consisting of coarse sand (CS), gravel (G) and pebble (P) layers, a laboratory experiment was conducted in a rectangular column. The effect of variable thickness of CS, G and P layers of the filtration unit of the recharge shaft on the recharge rate and the sediment concentration of effluent water were evaluated. Medium sand (MS) of three particle sizes, viz. 0.150–0.300 mm (T1), 0.300–0.425 mm (T2) and 0.425–0.600 mm of thickness 25 cm, 30 cm and 35 cm respectively in the top layer of the filter system and having seven influent sediment concentrations of 250–3,000 mg/l were used for experimental study. The performance was evaluated in terms of recharge rates and clogging time. The results indicated that 100 % suspended solids were entrapped in the upper 10 cm layer of MS, the recharge rates declined sharply for influent concentrations of more than 1,000 mg/l. All treatments with higher thickness of MS media indicated recharge rate slightly more than that of all treatment with lower thickness of MS media respectively. The performance of storm water infiltration systems was highly dependent on the formation of a clogging layer at the filter. An empirical relationship has been derived between recharge rates, inflow sediment load, size of MS and thickness of MS with using MLR.

Keywords: Groundwater, medium sand-mixed storm water filter, inflow sediment load.

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Authors: Rehan Waheed, Hasan Aftab Saeed, Wasim Tarar, Khalid Mahmood, Sajid Ullah Butt

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Electromagnetic Interference (EMI) shielded doors made from brass extruded channels need to be welded with shielded enclosures to attain optimum shielding performance. Control of welding induced distortion is a problem in welding dissimilar metals like steel and brass. In this research, soldering of the steel-brass joint has been proposed to avoid weld distortion. The material used for brass channel is UNS C36000. The thickness of brass is defined by the manufacturing process, i.e. extrusion. The thickness of shielded enclosure material (ASTM A36) can be varied to produce joint between the dissimilar metals. Steel sections of different gauges are soldered using (91% tin, 9% zinc) solder to the brass, and strength of joint is measured by standard test procedures. It is observed that thin steel sheets produce a stronger bond with brass. The steel sections further require to be welded with shielded enclosure steel sheets through TIG welding process. Stresses and deformation in the vicinity of soldered portion is calculated through FE simulation. Crack formation in soldered area is also studied through experimental work. It has been found that in thin sheets deformation produced due to applied force is localized and has no effect on soldered joint area whereas in thick sheets profound cracks have been observed in soldered joint. The shielding effectiveness of EMI shielded door is compromised due to these cracks. The shielding effectiveness of the specimens is tested and results are compared.

Keywords: Dissimilar metals, soldering, joint strength, EMI shielding.

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Authors: Kumara Jayapathma J. H. M. S. S., Dampegama S. D. P. J.

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Lands are valuable & limited resource which constantly changes with the growth of the population. An efficient and good land management system is essential to avoid conflicts associated with lands. This paper aims to design the prototype model of a Mobile GIS Land use and Land Information System in real-time. Homagama Divisional Secretariat Division situated in the western province of Sri Lanka was selected as the study area. The prototype model was developed after reviewing related literature. The methodology was consisted of designing and modeling the prototype model into an application running on a mobile platform. The system architecture mainly consists of a Google mapping app for real-time updates with firebase support tools. Thereby, the method of implementation consists of front-end and back-end components. Software tools used in designing applications are Android Studio with JAVA based on GeoJSON File structure. Android Studio with JAVA in GeoJSON File Synchronize to Firebase was found to be the perfect mobile solution for continuously updating Land use and Land Information System (LIS) in real-time in the present scenario. The mobile-based land use and LIS developed in this study are multiple user applications catering to different hierarchy levels such as basic users, supervisory managers, and database administrators. The benefits of this mobile mapping application will help public sector field officers with non-GIS expertise to overcome the land use planning challenges with land use updated in real-time.

Keywords: Android, Firebase, GeoJSON, GIS, JAVA, JSON, LIS, mobile GIS, real-time, REST API.

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Authors: Oliver Ohneiser, Francesca De Crescenzio, Gianluca Di Flumeri, Jan Kraemer, Bruno Berberian, Sara Bagassi, Nicolina Sciaraffa, Pietro Aricò, Gianluca Borghini, Fabio Babiloni

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An increasing degree of automation in air traffic will also change the role of the air traffic controller (ATCO). ATCOs will fulfill significantly more monitoring tasks compared to today. However, this rather passive role may lead to Out-Of-The-Loop (OOTL) effects comprising vigilance decrement and less situation awareness. The project MINIMA (Mitigating Negative Impacts of Monitoring high levels of Automation) has conceived a system to control and mitigate such OOTL phenomena. In order to demonstrate the MINIMA concept, an experimental simulation set-up has been designed. This set-up consists of two parts: 1) a Task Environment (TE) comprising a Terminal Maneuvering Area (TMA) simulator as well as 2) a Vigilance and Attention Controller (VAC) based on neurophysiological data recording such as electroencephalography (EEG) and eye-tracking devices. The current vigilance level and the attention focus of the controller are measured during the ATCO’s active work in front of the human machine interface (HMI). The derived vigilance level and attention trigger adaptive automation functionalities in the TE to avoid OOTL effects. This paper describes the full-scale experimental set-up and the component development work towards it. Hence, it encompasses a pre-test whose results influenced the development of the VAC as well as the functionalities of the final TE and the two VAC’s sub-components.

Keywords: Automation, human factors, air traffic controller, MINIMA, OOTL, Out-Of-The-Loop, EEG, electroencephalography, HMI, human machine interface.

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Authors: E. Tarantino, G. Disciglio, L. Frabboni, A. Libutti, G. Gatta, A. Gagliaridi, A. Tarantino

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Nowadays, the main goal for modern horticultural production is an increase the quality. In recent years, the use of organic fertilizers or biostimulants that can be applied in agriculture to improve quali-quantitative crop yields has encountered increasing interest. Biostimulants are gaining importance also for their possible use in organic and sustainable agriculture, to avoid excessive fertilizer applications. Consecutive experimental trials were carried out in the Apulia region (southern Italy) on three herbaceous crops (cauliflower, pepper, fennel) grown in pots under conventional and organic fertilization systems without and with biostimulants. The aim was to determine the effects of three biostimulants (Siapton®10L, Micotech L, Lysodin Alga-Fert) on quali-quantitative yield characteristics. At harvest, the quali-quantitative yield characteristics of each crop were determined. All of the experimental data were subjected to analysis of variance (ANOVA), and when significant effects were detected, the means were compared using Tukey’s tests. These data show large differences in these yield characteristics between conventional and organic crops, particularly highlighting higher yields for the conventional crops, while variable results were generally observed when the biostimulants were applied. In this context, there were no effects of the biostimulants on the quantitative yield, whereas there were low positive effects on the qualitative characteristics, as related to higher dry matter content of cauliflower, and higher soluble solids content of pepper. Moreover, there were evident positive effects of the biostimulants with fennel, due to the lower nitrate content. These latter data are in line with most of the published literature obtained for other herbaceous crops.

Keywords: Biostimulants, cauliflower, pepper, fennel.

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Authors: Asli Yagmur Akbulut

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Despite a robust and growing job market and lucrative salaries, there is a global shortage of Information Technology (IT) professionals. To make matters worse, women continue to be underrepresented in the IT workforce and among IT degree holders. In today’s knowledge based economy and society, it is extremely important to increase the presence of women in the IT field. In order to do so, it is necessary to reduce entry barriers and attract more women to pursue degrees in various IT fields including the field of Management Information Systems (MIS). Even though MIS is considered to have a more feminine nature, women still tend to avoid majoring in this field. Unfortunately, there is a lack of research that investigates the specific factors that may deter women from pursuing a degree in MIS. To address this research gap, this study examined a set of key environmental barriers that might prevent women from pursuing an MIS degree and explored whether there were any gender differences between female and male students in terms of these key barriers. Based on a survey of 280 students enrolled in an introductory level MIS course, the study empirically confirmed that there were significant differences between male and female students in terms of the key contextual barriers perceived. Female students demonstrated major concerns about gender discrimination related barriers, whereas male students were more concerned about negative social influences. Both male and female students were equally concerned about not being able to fit in well with other MIS majors. The findings have important implications for MIS programs, as the information gained can be used to design and implement specific intervention strategies to overcome the barriers and attract larger pools of women to the MIS discipline. The paper concludes with a discussion of the findings, implications, and future research directions.

Keywords: Gender differences, MIS major, underrepresentation, women in IT.

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Authors: Maia Kukhaleishvili, Ekaterine Bulauri, Iveta Megrelishvili, Tamar Shamatava, Tamar Chipashvili

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Plant viruses can cause loss of yield and quality in a lot of important crops. Symptoms of pathogens are variable depending on the cultivars and virus strain. Selection of resistant potato varieties would reduce the risk of virus transmission and significant economic impact. Other way to avoid reduced harvest yields is regular potato seed production sampling and testing for viral infection. The aim of this study was to determine the occurrence and distribution of viral diseases according potato cultivars for further selection of virus-free material in Georgia. During the summer 2015- 2016, 5 potato cultivars (Sante, Laura, Jelly, Red Sonia, Anushka) at 5 different farms located in Akhalkalaki were tested for 6 different potato viruses: Potato virus A (PVA), Potato virus M (PVM), Potato virus S (PVS), Potato virus X (PVX), Potato virus Y (PVY) and potato leaf roll virus (PLRV). A serological method, Double Antibody Sandwich-Enzyme linked Immunosorbent Assay (DASELISA) was used at the laboratory to analyze the results. The result showed that PVY (21.4%) and PLRV (19.7%) virus presence in collected samples was relatively high compared to others. Researched potato cultivars except Jelly and Laura were infected by PVY with different concentrations. PLRV was found only in three potato cultivars (Sante, Jelly, Red Sonia) and PVM virus (3.12%) was characterized with low prevalence. PVX, PVA and PVS virus infection was not reported. It would be noted that 7.9% of samples were containing PVY/PLRV mix infection. Based on the results it can be concluded that PVY and PLRV infections are dominant in all research cultivars. Therefore significant yield losses are expected. Systematic, long-term control of potato viral infection, especially seed-potatoes, must be regarded as the most important factor to increase seed productivity.

Keywords: Diseases, infection, potato, virus.

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Authors: Saimir Heta, Kastriot Haxhirexha, Virtut Velmishi, Nevila Alliu, Ilma Robo

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Background: Testicular rotation can occur at any age. The possibility to save the testicle is the fastest possible surgical intervention which is indicated by the presence of acute pain even at rest. The time element is more important to diagnose and proceed further with surgical intervention. Testicular damage is a consequence which mainly depends on the moment of onset of symptoms, at the time when the symptoms are diagnosed, the earliest action to be performed is surgical intervention. Sometimes medical tests are needed to confirm a diagnosis, or to help identify another cause for symptoms; for example, the urine test, that is used to check for infection, associated with the scrotal ultrasound test. Control of blood flow to the longitudinal supply vessels of the testicles is indicated. The sign that indicates testicular rotation is a reduction in blood flow. This is the element which is distinguished from ultrasound examination. Surgery may be needed to determine if the patient’s symptoms are caused by the rotation of the testis or any other condition. Discussion: As a surgical intervention of the emergency, the torsion of the test depends very much on the duration of the torsion, as the success in the life of the testicle depends on the fastest surgical intervention. From the previous clinic, it is noted that in any case presented to the pediatric patient diagnosed with testicular rotation, there is always a link with personal history that the patient refers to the presence of a previous episode of testicular trauma. Literature supports this fact very logically. Conclusions: Salvation without testicular atrophy depends closely on establishing the diagnosis of testicular rotation as soon as possible. Following the logic above, it can be said that the diagnosis for rotation should be performed as soon as possible, to avoid consequences that will not be favorable for the patient.

Keywords: Acute scrotum, testicular torsion, newborns, infants, clinical presentation.

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Authors: Sara Sallam, Mohamed Taqi, Naoual Belouaggadia

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Solar thermal power plants using parabolic trough collectors (PTC) are currently a powerful technology for generating electricity. Most of these solar power plants use thermal oils as heat transfer fluid. The latter is heated in the solar field and transfers the heat absorbed in an oil-water heat exchanger for the production of steam driving the turbines of the power plant. Currently, we are seeking to develop PTCs with direct steam generation (DSG). This process consists of circulating water under pressure in the receiver tube to generate steam directly into the solar loop. This makes it possible to reduce the investment and maintenance costs of the PTCs (the oil-water exchangers are removed) and to avoid the environmental risks associated with the use of thermal oils. The pressure drops in these systems are an important parameter to ensure their proper operation. The determination of these losses is complex because of the presence of the two phases, and most often we limit ourselves to describing them by models using empirical correlations. A comparison of these models with experimental data was performed. Our calculations focused on the evolution of the pressure of the liquid-vapor mixture along the receiver tube of a PTC-DSG for pressure values and inlet flow rates ranging respectively from 3 to 10 MPa, and from 0.4 to 0.6 kg/s. The comparison of the numerical results with experience allows us to demonstrate the validity of some models according to the pressures and the flow rates of entry in the PTC-DSG receiver tube. The analysis of these two parameters’ effects on the evolution of the pressure along the receiving tub, shows that the increase of the inlet pressure and the decrease of the flow rate lead to minimal pressure losses.

Keywords: Direct steam generation, parabolic trough collectors, pressure drop.

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Authors: B. Ghanbarian-Alavijeh, A.M. Liaghat, S. Sohrabi

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Saturated hydraulic conductivity is one of the soil hydraulic properties which is widely used in environmental studies especially subsurface ground water. Since, its direct measurement is time consuming and therefore costly, indirect methods such as pedotransfer functions have been developed based on multiple linear regression equations and neural networks model in order to estimate saturated hydraulic conductivity from readily available soil properties e.g. sand, silt, and clay contents, bulk density, and organic matter. The objective of this study was to develop neural networks (NNs) model to estimate saturated hydraulic conductivity from available parameters such as sand and clay contents, bulk density, van Genuchten retention model parameters (i.e. r θ , α , and n) as well as effective porosity. We used two methods to calculate effective porosity: : (1) eff s FC φ =θ -θ , and (2) inf φ =θ -θ eff s , in which s θ is saturated water content, FC θ is water content retained at -33 kPa matric potential, and inf θ is water content at the inflection point. Total of 311 soil samples from the UNSODA database was divided into three groups as 187 for the training, 62 for the validation (to avoid over training), and 62 for the test of NNs model. A commercial neural network toolbox of MATLAB software with a multi-layer perceptron model and back propagation algorithm were used for the training procedure. The statistical parameters such as correlation coefficient (R2), and mean square error (MSE) were also used to evaluate the developed NNs model. The best number of neurons in the middle layer of NNs model for methods (1) and (2) were calculated 44 and 6, respectively. The R2 and MSE values of the test phase were determined for method (1), 0.94 and 0.0016, and for method (2), 0.98 and 0.00065, respectively, which shows that method (2) estimates saturated hydraulic conductivity better than method (1).

Keywords: Neural network, Saturated hydraulic conductivity, Soil physical properties.

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Authors: A. Sherif, H. Sabry, A. Elzafarany, M. Gadelhak, R. Arafa, M. Aly

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This paper addresses the design of hospital Intensive Care Unit windows for the achievement of visual comfort and energy savings. The aim was to identify the window size and shading system configurations that could fulfill daylighting adequacy, avoid glare and reduce energy consumption. The study focused on addressing the effect of utilizing different shading systems in association with a range of Window-to-Wall Ratios (WWR) in different orientations under the desert clear-sky of Cairo, Egypt. The results of this study demonstrated that solar penetration is a critical concern affecting the design of ICU windows in desert locations, as in Cairo, Egypt. Use of shading systems was found to be essential in providing acceptable daylight performance and energy saving. Careful positioning of the ICU window towards a proper orientation can dramatically improve performance. It was observed that ICU windows facing the north direction enjoyed the widest range of successful window configuration possibilities at different WWRs. ICU windows facing south enjoyed a reasonable number of configuration options as well. By contrast, the ICU windows facing the east orientation had a very limited number of options that provide acceptable performance. These require additional local shading measures at certain times due to glare incidence. Moreover, use of horizontal sun breakers and solar screens to protect the ICU windows proved to be more successful than the other alternatives in a wide range of Window to Wall Ratios. By contrast, the use of light shelves and vertical shading devices seemed questionable.

Keywords: Daylighting, Desert, Energy Efficiency, Shading.

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Authors: Omid F. Valilai, Mahmoud Houshmand

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Nowadays companies strive to survive in a competitive global environment. To speed up product development/modifications, it is suggested to adopt a collaborative product development approach. However, despite the advantages of new IT improvements still many CAx systems work separately and locally. Collaborative design and manufacture requires a product information model that supports related CAx product data models. To solve this problem many solutions are proposed, which the most successful one is adopting the STEP standard as a product data model to develop a collaborative CAx platform. However, the improvement of the STEP-s Application Protocols (APs) over the time, huge number of STEP AP-s and cc-s, the high costs of implementation, costly process for conversion of older CAx software files to the STEP neutral file format; and lack of STEP knowledge, that usually slows down the implementation of the STEP standard in collaborative data exchange, management and integration should be considered. In this paper the requirements for a successful collaborative CAx system is discussed. The STEP standard capability for product data integration and its shortcomings as well as the dominant platforms for supporting CAx collaboration management and product data integration are reviewed. Finally a platform named LAYMOD to fulfil the requirements of CAx collaborative environment and integrating the product data is proposed. The platform is a layered platform to enable global collaboration among different CAx software packages/developers. It also adopts the STEP modular architecture and the XML data structures to enable collaboration between CAx software packages as well as overcoming the STEP standard limitations. The architecture and procedures of LAYMOD platform to manage collaboration and avoid contradicts in product data integration are introduced.

Keywords: CAx, Collaboration management, STEP applicationmodules, STEP standard, XML data structures

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Authors: Mohammad Ebrahim Kianifar, Ehsan Ahmadi

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Reinforced concrete structures experience local defects such as cracks over their lifetime under various environmental loadings. Consequently, they are repaired by mortars to avoid detrimental effects such as corrosion of reinforcement, which in long-term may lead to strength loss of a member or collapse of structures. However, repaired structures may need multiple repairs due to changes in load distribution, and thus, lack of compatibility between mortar and substrate concrete. On the other hand, waste tire rubber alkali-activated (WTRAA)-based materials have very high potential to be used as repair mortars because of their ductility and flexibility, which may delay failure of repair mortar, and thus, provide sufficient compatibility. Hence, this work presents a study on suitability of WTRAA-based materials as mortars for repair of concrete structures through an experimental program. To this end, WTRAA mortars with 15% aggregate replacement, alkali-activated (AA) mortars, and ordinary mortars are made to repair a number of concrete beams. The WTRAA mortars are composed of slag as base material, sodium hydroxide as alkaline activator, and different gradation of waste tire rubber (fine and coarse gradations). Flexural tests are conducted on the concrete beams repaired by the ordinary, AA, and WTRAA mortars. It is found that, despite having lower compressive strength and modulus of elasticity, the WTRAA and AA mortars increase flexural strength of the repaired beams, give compatible failures, and provide sufficient mortar-concrete interface bondings. The ordinary mortars, however, show incompatible failure modes. This study demonstrates promising application of WTRAA mortars in practical repairs of concrete structures.

Keywords: Alkali-activated mortars, concrete repair, mortar compatibility flexural strength, waste tire rubber.

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Authors: Amirhossein Lotfi, Huaizhong Li, Dzung Viet Dao

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Interest in natural fiber-reinforced composites (NFRC) is progressively growing both in terms of academia research and industrial applications thanks to their abundant advantages such as low cost, biodegradability, eco-friendly nature and relatively good mechanical properties. However, their widespread use is still presumed as challenging because of the specificity of their non-homogeneous structure, limited knowledge on their machinability characteristics and parameter settings, to avoid defects associated with the machining process. The present work is aimed to investigate the effect of the cutting tool geometry and material on the drilling-induced delamination, thrust force and hole quality produced when drilling a fully biodegradable flax/poly (lactic acid) composite laminate. Three drills with different geometries and material were used at different drilling conditions to evaluate the machinability of the fabricated composites. The experimental results indicated that the choice of cutting tool, in terms of material and geometry, has a noticeable influence on the cutting thrust force and subsequently drilling-induced damages. The lower value of thrust force and better hole quality was observed using high-speed steel (HSS) drill, whereas Carbide drill (with point angle of 130^o) resulted in the highest value of thrust force. Carbide drill presented higher wear resistance and stability in variation of thrust force with a number of holes drilled, while HSS drill showed the lower value of thrust force during the drilling process. Finally, within the selected cutting range, the delamination damage increased noticeably with feed rate and moderately with spindle speed.

Keywords: Natural fiber-reinforced composites, machinability, thrust force, delamination.

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Authors: P. H. Tee, S. M. Zamri, K. M. Kasim, S. K. Tiew

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This study evaluates the management of osteoporosis in a tertiary care government hospital in Malaysia. As the number of admitted patients having osteoporotic fractures is on the rise, osteoporotic medications are an increasing financial burden to government hospitals because they account for half of the orthopedic budget and expenditure. Comprehensive knowledge among practitioners is important to detect early and avoid this preventable disease and its serious complications. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the awareness, knowledge, and practices in managing osteoporosis among practitioners in Hospital Tengku Ampuan Rahimah (HTAR), Klang. A questionnaire from an overseas study in managing osteoporosis among primary care physicians is adapted to Malaysia’s Clinical Practice Guideline of Osteoporosis 2012 (revised 2015) and international guidelines were distributed to all orthopedic practitioners in HTAR Klang (including surgeons, orthopedic medical officers), endocrinologists, rheumatologists and geriatricians. The participants were evaluated on their expertise in the diagnosis, prevention, treatment decision and medications for osteoporosis. Collected data were analyzed for all descriptive and statistical analyses as appropriate. All 45 participants responded to the questionnaire. Participants scored highest on expertise in prevention, followed by diagnosis, treatment decision and lastly, medication. Most practitioners stated that own-initiated continuing professional education from articles and books was the most effective way to update their knowledge, followed by attendance in conferences on osteoporosis. This study confirms the importance of comprehensive training and education regarding osteoporosis among tertiary care physicians and surgeons, predominantly in pharmacotherapy, to deliver wholesome care for osteoporotic patients.

Keywords: Awareness, knowledge, osteoporosis, practices.

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Authors: Marialuisa Gennari, Giancarlo Tamanza, Ilaria Montanari

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Identity development in adolescence is characterized by many risks and challenges, and becomes even more complex by the situation of migration and deafness. In particular, the condition of the second generation of migrant adolescents involves the comparison between the family context in which everybody speaks a language and deals with a specific culture (usually parents’ and relatives’ original culture), the social context (school, peer groups, sports groups), where a foreign language is spoken and a new culture is faced, and finally in the context of the “deaf” world. It is a dialectic involving unsolved differences that have to be treated in a discontinuous process, which will give complex outcomes and chances depending on the process of elaboration of the themes of growth and development, culture and deafness. This paper aims to underline the problems and opportunities for each issue which immigrant deaf adolescents must deal with. In particular, it will highlight the importance of a multifactorial approach for the analysis of personal resources (both intra-psychic and relational); the level of integration of the family of origin in the migration context; the elaboration of the migration event, and finally, the tractability of the condition of deafness. Some psycho-educational support objectives will be also highlighted for the identity development of deaf immigrant adolescents, with particular emphasis on the construction of the adolescents’ useful abilities to decode complex emotions, to develop self-esteem and to get critical thoughts about the inevitable attempts to build their identity. Remarkably, and of importance, the construction of flexible settings which support adolescents in a supple, “decentralized” way in order to avoid the regressive defenses that do not allow for the development of an authentic self.

Keywords: Immigrant deaf adolescents, identity development, personal and social challenges, psycho-educational support.

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Authors: H. D. Lim, Jie Wu, T. H. New, Shengxian Shi

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This paper outlines the development of an experimental technique in quantifying supersonic jet flows, in an attempt to avoid seeding particle problems frequently associated with particle-image velocimetry (PIV) techniques at high Mach numbers. Based on optical flow algorithms, the idea behind the technique involves using high speed cameras to capture Schlieren images of the supersonic jet shear layers, before they are subjected to an adapted optical flow algorithm based on the Horn-Schnuck method to determine the associated flow fields. The proposed method is capable of offering full-field unsteady flow information with potentially higher accuracy and resolution than existing point-measurements or PIV techniques. Preliminary study via numerical simulations of a circular de Laval jet nozzle successfully reveals flow and shock structures typically associated with supersonic jet flows, which serve as useful data for subsequent validation of the optical flow based experimental results. For experimental technique, a Z-type Schlieren setup is proposed with supersonic jet operated in cold mode, stagnation pressure of 4 bar and exit Mach of 1.5. High-speed singleframe or double-frame cameras are used to capture successive Schlieren images. As implementation of optical flow technique to supersonic flows remains rare, the current focus revolves around methodology validation through synthetic images. The results of validation test offers valuable insight into how the optical flow algorithm can be further improved to improve robustness and accuracy. Despite these challenges however, this supersonic flow measurement technique may potentially offer a simpler way to identify and quantify the fine spatial structures within the shock shear layer.

Keywords: Schlieren, optical flow, supersonic jets, shock shear layer.

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Authors: Ruth Lorivi, Jianzheng Li, John J. Ambuchi, Kaiwen Deng

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Nitrogen removal from wastewater is accomplished by nitrification and denitrification processes. Successful denitrification requires carbon, therefore, if placed after biochemical oxygen demand (BOD) and nitrification process, a carbon source has to be re-introduced into the water. To avoid adding a carbon source, denitrification is usually placed before BOD and nitrification processes. This process however involves recycling the nitrified effluent. In this study wood chips were used as internal carbon source which enabled placement of denitrification after BOD and nitrification process without effluent recycling. To investigate the efficiency of a wood packed aerobic-anaerobic baffled reactor on carbon and nutrients removal from domestic wastewater, a three compartment baffled reactor was presented. Each of the three compartments was packed with 329 g wood chips 1x1cm acting as an internal carbon source for denitrification. The proposed mode of operation was aerobic-anoxic-anaerobic (OAA) with no effluent recycling. The operating temperature, hydraulic retention time (HRT), dissolved oxygen (DO) and pH were 24 ± 2 ℃, 24 h, less than 4 mg/L and 7 ± 1 respectively. The removal efficiencies of chemical oxygen demand (COD), ammonia nitrogen (NH₄⁺-N) and total nitrogen (TN) attained was 99, 87 and 83% respectively. TN removal rate was limited by nitrification as 97% of ammonia converted into nitrate and nitrite was denitrified. These results show that application of wood chips in wastewater treatment processes is an efficient internal carbon source. 

Keywords: Aerobic-anaerobic baffled reactor, denitrification, nitrification, wood chip.

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Authors: Muhammad Yasir Wadood, Fatemeh Babaeian

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By developing ultra-wideband (UWB) systems, there is a high demand for UWB filters with low insertion loss, wide bandwidth, and having a planar structure which is compatible with other components of the UWB system. A microstrip interdigital filter is a great option for designing UWB filters. However, the presence of via holes in this structure creates difficulties in the fabrication procedure of the filter. Especially in the higher frequency band, any misalignment of the drilled via hole with the Microstrip stubs causes large errors in the measurement results compared to the desired results. Moreover, in this case (high-frequency designs), the line width of the stubs are very narrow, so highly precise small via holes are required to be implemented, which increases the cost of fabrication significantly. Also, in this case, there is a risk of having fabrication errors. To combat this issue, in this paper, a via-less UWB microstrip filter is proposed which is designed based on a modification of a conventional inter-digital bandpass filter. The novel approaches in this filter design are 1) replacement of each via hole with a quarter-wavelength open circuit stub to avoid the complexity of manufacturing, 2) using a bend structure to reduce the unwanted coupling effects and 3) minimising the size. Using the proposed structure, a UWB filter operating in the frequency band of 3.9-6.6 GHz (1-dB bandwidth) is designed and fabricated. The promising results of the simulation and measurement are presented in this paper. The selected substrate for these designs was Rogers RO4003 with a thickness of 20 mils. This is a common substrate in most of the industrial projects. The compact size of the proposed filter is highly beneficial for applications which require a very miniature size of hardware.

Keywords: Band-pass filters, inter-digital filter, microstrip, via-less.

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