Search results for: structure learning
Commenced in January 2007
Frequency: Monthly
Edition: International
Paper Count: 4485

Search results for: structure learning

555 Estimation of the Minimum Floor Length Downstream Regulators under Different Flow Scenarios

Authors: Bakhiet, Shenouda, Gamal Abouzeid Abdel-Rahim, Norihiro Izumi

Abstract:

The correct design of the regulators structure requires complete prediction of the ultimate dimensions of the scour hole profile formed downstream the solid apron. The study of scour downstream regulator is studied either on solid aprons by means of velocity distribution or on movable bed by studying the topography of the scour hole formed in the downstream. In this paper, a new technique was developed to study the scour hole downstream regulators on movable beds. The study was divided into two categories; the first is to find out the sum of the lengths of rigid apron behind the gates in addition to the length of scour hole formed downstream, while the second is to find the minimum length of rigid apron behind the gates to prevent erosion downstream it. The study covers free and submerged hydraulic jump conditions in both symmetrical and asymmetrical under-gated regulations. From the comparison between the studied categories, we found that the minimum length of rigid apron to prevent scour (Ls) is greater than the sum of the lengths of rigid apron and that of scour hole formed behind it (L+Xs). On the other hand, the scour hole dimensions in case of submerged hydraulic jump is always greater than free one, also the scour hole dimensions in asymmetrical operation is greater than symmetrical one.

Keywords: Movable bed, Regulators, Scour, Symmetrical and asymmetrical operation

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554 Social Support and Quality of Life of Youth Suffering from Cerebral Palsy Temporarily Orphaned Due to Emigration of a Parent

Authors: A. Gagat-Matuła

Abstract:

The article is concerned in the issue of social support and quality of life of youth suffering from cerebral palsy, who are temporarily orphaned due to the emigration of a parent. Migration causes multi-aspect consequences in various spheres of life. They are particularly severe for the functioning of families. Temporal parting of parents and children, especially the disabled, is a difficult situation. In this case, the family structure is changed, as well as the quality of life of its members. Children can handle migration parting in a better or worse way; these can be divided into properly functioning and manifesting behaviour disorders. In conditions of the progressing phenomenon of labour migration of Poles and a wide spectrum of consequences for the whole social life, it is essential to undertake actions aimed at support of migrants and their families. This article focuses mainly on social support and quality of families members, of which, are the labour migrants perceived by youth suffering from cerebral palsy. The quantitative method was used in this study. In the study, the Satisfaction with Life Scale (SWLS) by Diener, was used. The analysed group consisted of 50 persons (37 girls and 13 boys), aged 16 years to 18 years, whose parents are labour migrants. The results indicate that the quality of life and social support for youth suffering from cerebral palsy who are temporarily orphaned is at a low and average level.

Keywords: Social support, quality of life, migration, cerebral palsy.

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553 Benzpyrimoxan: An Insecticide for the Control of Rice Plant Hoppers

Authors: E. Satoh, R. Kasahara, T. Aoki, K. Fukatsu, D. Venkata Ramanarao, H. Harayama, T. Murata, A. Suwa

Abstract:

Rice plant hoppers (Hemiptera: Delphacidae) have been causing extensive economic damage in rice and are considered as serious threat in rice producing countries of Asia. They have developed resistance to major groups of chemical insecticide, and severe outbreaks occur commonly throughout Asia. To control these nuisance pests, Nihon Nohyaku Co., Ltd., recently discovered an insecticide, benzpyrimoxan (proposed ISO name), which is under development as NNI-1501 (development code). Benzpyrimoxan has a unique chemical structure which contains benzyloxy and cyclic acetal groups on pyrimidine moiety (5-(1,3-dioxan-2-yl)-4-[4- (trifluoromethyl)benzyloxy]pyrimidine). In order to clarify the biological properties of benzpyrimoxan, we conducted several experiments and found the following results. Benzpyrimoxan has high activity against nymphal stages of rice plant hoppers without any adulticidal activity. It provides excellent and long lasting control against rice plant hoppers, including populations that have developed resistance to several other chemical groups of insecticide. The study on its mode of action is undergoing. These features highlight the versatility of this insecticide as an effective and valuable tool from the viewpoints of insecticide resistance management and integrated pest management program. With the use of benzpyrimoxan, farmers shall be able to lead the best yield potential by keeping the population density of rice plant hoppers and associated virus diseases under control.

Keywords: Acetal, benzpyrimoxan, insecticide, NNI-1501, pyrimidine, rice plant hoppers.

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552 Influence of Seasons on Honeybee Wooden Hives Attack by Termites in Port Harcourt, Nigeria

Authors: A. A. Aiyeloja, G.A. Adedeji, S. L. Larinde

Abstract:

Termites have been observed as major pre-colonisation and post-colonisation pest insect of honeybees’ wooden hives in Nigeria. However, pest situation studies in modern beekeeping have been largely directed towards those pests that affect honeybees rather than the biological structure (wood) which houses the honeybees and the influence of seasons on the pests’ activities against the hives. This study, therefore, investigated the influence of seasons on the intensity of hives attacks by termites for 2 years in University of Port Harcourt, Rivers State using visual inspection. The Experimental Apiary was established with 15 Kenyan’s top bar hives made of Triplochiton scleroxylon wood that were strategically placed and observed within the Department of Forestry and Wildlife Management arboretum. The colonies hives consistently showed comparatively lower termite’s infestation levels in the dry season and, consequently, also lower attacks on the colonized hives. The result indicated raining season as a distinct period for more destructive activities of termites on the hives and strongly associated with dryness of the hives. Since previous study and observations have linked colonization with dry season coupled with minimal attacked on colonized hives; the non-colonised hives should be removed from the field at the onset of raining season and returned two weeks prior to dry season to reduce hives degradation by pests.

Keywords: Attack, hives degradation, Nigeria, seasons, termites.

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551 In vitro and in vivo Assessment of Cholinesterase Inhibitory Activity of the Bark Extracts of Pterocarpus santalinus L. for the Treatment of Alzheimer’s Disease

Authors: K. Biswas, U. H. Armin, S. M. J. Prodhan, J. A. Prithul, S. Sarker, F. Afrin

Abstract:

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) (a progressive neurodegenerative disorder) is mostly predominant cause of dementia in the elderly. Prolonging the function of acetylcholine by inhibiting both acetylcholinesterase and butyrylcholinesterase is most effective treatment therapy of AD. Traditionally Pterocarpus santalinus L. is widely known for its medicinal use. In this study, in vitro acetylcholinesterase inhibitory activity was investigated and methanolic extract of the plant showed significant activity. To confirm this activity (in vivo), learning and memory enhancing effects were tested in mice. For the test, memory impairment was induced by scopolamine (cholinergic muscarinic receptor antagonist). Anti-amnesic effect of the extract was investigated by the passive avoidance task in mice. The study also includes brain acetylcholinesterase activity. Results proved that scopolamine induced cognitive dysfunction was significantly decreased by administration of the extract solution, in the passive avoidance task and inhibited brain acetylcholinesterase activity. These results suggest that bark extract of Pterocarpus santalinus can be better option for further studies on AD via their acetylcholinesterase inhibitory actions.

Keywords: Pterocarpus santalinus, cholinesterase inhibitor, passive avoidance, Alzheimer’s disease.

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550 Teaching Attentive Literature Reading in Higher Education French as a Foreign Language: A Pilot Study of a Flipped Classroom Teaching Model

Authors: Malin Isaksson

Abstract:

Teaching French as a foreign language usually implies teaching French literature, especially in higher education. Training university students in literary reading in a foreign language requires addressing several aspects at the same time: the (foreign) language, the poetic language, the aesthetic aspects of the studied works, and various interpretations of them. A pilot study sought to test a teaching model that would support students in learning to perform competent readings and short analyses of French literary works, in a rather independent manner. This shared practice paper describes the use of a flipped classroom method in two French literature courses, a campus course and an online course, and suggests that the teaching model may provide efficient tools for teaching literary reading and analysis in a foreign language. The teaching model builds on a high level of student activity and focuses on attentive reading, meta-perspectives such as theoretical concepts, individual analyses by students where said concepts are applied, and group discussions of the studied texts and of possible interpretations.

Keywords: Shared practice, flipped classroom, literature in foreign language studies, teaching literature analysis.

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549 An Advanced Approach Based on Artificial Neural Networks to Identify Environmental Bacteria

Authors: Mauro Giacomini, Stefania Bertone, Federico Caneva Soumetz, Carmelina Ruggiero

Abstract:

Environmental micro-organisms include a large number of taxa and some species that are generally considered nonpathogenic, but can represent a risk in certain conditions, especially for elderly people and immunocompromised individuals. Chemotaxonomic identification techniques are powerful tools for environmental micro-organisms, and cellular fatty acid methyl esters (FAME) content is a powerful fingerprinting identification technique. A system based on an unsupervised artificial neural network (ANN) was set up using the fatty acid profiles of standard bacterial strains, obtained by gas-chromatography, used as learning data. We analysed 45 certified strains belonging to Acinetobacter, Aeromonas, Alcaligenes, Aquaspirillum, Arthrobacter, Bacillus, Brevundimonas, Enterobacter, Flavobacterium, Micrococcus, Pseudomonas, Serratia, Shewanella and Vibrio genera. A set of 79 bacteria isolated from a drinking water line (AMGA, the major water supply system in Genoa) were used as an example for identification compared to standard MIDI method. The resulting ANN output map was found to be a very powerful tool to identify these fresh isolates.

Keywords: Cellular fatty acid methyl esters, environmental bacteria, gas-chromatography, unsupervised ANN.

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548 Extraction of Data from Web Pages: A Vision Based Approach

Authors: P. S. Hiremath, Siddu P. Algur

Abstract:

With the explosive growth of information sources available on the World Wide Web, it has become increasingly difficult to identify the relevant pieces of information, since web pages are often cluttered with irrelevant content like advertisements, navigation-panels, copyright notices etc., surrounding the main content of the web page. Hence, tools for the mining of data regions, data records and data items need to be developed in order to provide value-added services. Currently available automatic techniques to mine data regions from web pages are still unsatisfactory because of their poor performance and tag-dependence. In this paper a novel method to extract data items from the web pages automatically is proposed. It comprises of two steps: (1) Identification and Extraction of the data regions based on visual clues information. (2) Identification of data records and extraction of data items from a data region. For step1, a novel and more effective method is proposed based on visual clues, which finds the data regions formed by all types of tags using visual clues. For step2 a more effective method namely, Extraction of Data Items from web Pages (EDIP), is adopted to mine data items. The EDIP technique is a list-based approach in which the list is a linear data structure. The proposed technique is able to mine the non-contiguous data records and can correctly identify data regions, irrespective of the type of tag in which it is bound. Our experimental results show that the proposed technique performs better than the existing techniques.

Keywords: Web data records, web data regions, web mining.

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547 Synthesis of Y2O3 Films by Spray Coating with Milled EDTA·Y·H Complexes

Authors: Keiji Komatsu, Tetsuo Sekiya, Ayumu Toyama, Atsushi Nakamura, Ikumi Toda, Shigeo Ohshio, Hiroyuki Muramatsu, Hidetoshi Saitoh, Atsushi Nakamura, Ariyuki Kato

Abstract:

Yttrium oxide (Y2O3) films have been successfully deposited with yttrium-ethylenediamine tetraacetic acid (EDTA·Y·H) complexes prepared by various milling techniques. The effects of the properties of the EDTA·Y·H complex on the properties of the deposited Y2O3 films have been analyzed. Seven different types of the raw EDTA·Y·H complexes were prepared by various commercial milling techniques such as ball milling, hammer milling, commercial milling, and mortar milling. The milled EDTA·Y·H complexes exhibited various particle sizes and distributions, depending on the milling method. Furthermore, we analyzed the crystal structure, morphology and elemental distribution profile of the metal oxide films deposited on stainless steel substrate with the milled EDTA·Y·H complexes. Depending on the milling technique, the flow properties of the raw powders differed. The X-ray diffraction pattern of all the samples revealed the formation of Y2O3 crystalline phase, irrespective of the milling technique. Of all the different milling techniques, the hammer milling technique is considered suitable for fabricating dense Y2O3 films.

Keywords: Powder sizes and distributions, Flame spray coating techniques, Yttrium oxide.

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546 Interdisciplinary Integrated Physical Education Program Using a Philosophical Approach

Authors: Ellie Abdi, Susana Juniu

Abstract:

The purpose of this presentation is to describe an interdisciplinary teaching program that integrates physical education concepts using a philosophical approach. The presentation includes a review of: a) the philosophy of American education, b) the philosophy of sports and physical education, c) the interdisciplinary physical education program, d) professional development programs, (e) the Success of this physical education program, f) future of physical education. This unique interdisciplinary program has been implemented in an urban school physical education discipline in East Orange, New Jersey for over 10 years.

During the program the students realize that the bodies go through different experiences. The body becomes a place where a child can recognize in an enjoyable way to express and perceive particular feelings or mental states. Children may distinguish themselves to have high abilities in the social or other domains but low abilities in the field of athletics.

The goal of this program for the individuals is to discover new skills, develop and demonstrate age appropriate mastery level at different tasks, therefore the program consists of 9 to 12 sports, including many game. Each successful experience increases the awareness ability. Engaging in sports and physical activities are social movements involving groups of children in situations such as teams, friends, and recreational settings, which serve as a primary socializing agent for teaching interpersonal skills. As a result of this presentation the audience will reflect and explore how to structure a physical education program to integrate interdisciplinary subjects with philosophical concepts.

Keywords: Interdisciplinary disciplines, philosophical concepts, physical education.

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545 BIDENS: Iterative Density Based Biclustering Algorithm With Application to Gene Expression Analysis

Authors: Mohamed A. Mahfouz, M. A. Ismail

Abstract:

Biclustering is a very useful data mining technique for identifying patterns where different genes are co-related based on a subset of conditions in gene expression analysis. Association rules mining is an efficient approach to achieve biclustering as in BIMODULE algorithm but it is sensitive to the value given to its input parameters and the discretization procedure used in the preprocessing step, also when noise is present, classical association rules miners discover multiple small fragments of the true bicluster, but miss the true bicluster itself. This paper formally presents a generalized noise tolerant bicluster model, termed as μBicluster. An iterative algorithm termed as BIDENS based on the proposed model is introduced that can discover a set of k possibly overlapping biclusters simultaneously. Our model uses a more flexible method to partition the dimensions to preserve meaningful and significant biclusters. The proposed algorithm allows discovering biclusters that hard to be discovered by BIMODULE. Experimental study on yeast, human gene expression data and several artificial datasets shows that our algorithm offers substantial improvements over several previously proposed biclustering algorithms.

Keywords: Machine learning, biclustering, bi-dimensional clustering, gene expression analysis, data mining.

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544 Designing for Experience-Based Tourism: A Virtual Tour in Tehran

Authors: Maryam Khalili, Fateme Ghanei

Abstract:

As one of the most significant phenomena of industrialized societies, tourism plays a key role in encouraging regional developments and enhancing higher standards of living for local communities in particular. Traveling is a formative experience endowed with lessons on various aspects of life. It allows us learning how to enhance the social position as well as the social relationships. However, people forget the need to travel and gain first-hand experiences as they have to cope with the ever-increasing rate of stress created by the disorders and routines of the urban dwelling style. In this paper, various spaces of such experiences were explored through a virtual tour with two underlying aims: 1) encouraging, informing, and educating the community in terms of tourism development, and 2) introducing a temporary release from the routines. This study enjoyed a practical-qualitative research methodology, and the required data were collected through observation and using a multiple-response questionnaire. The participants (19-48 years old) included 41 citizens of both genders (63.4% male and 36.6% female) from two regions in Tehran, selected by cluster-probability sampling. The results led to development of a spatial design for a virtual tour experience in Tehran where different areas are explored to both raise people’s awareness and educate them on their cultural heritage.

Keywords: Ecotourism, education, gamification, social interaction, urban design, virtual tour.

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543 Hazard Identification and Sensitivity of Potential Resource of Emergency Water Supply

Authors: A. Bumbová, M. Čáslavský, F. Božek, J. Dvořák, E. Bakoš

Abstract:

The paper presents the case study of hazard identification and sensitivity of potential resource of emergency water supply as part of the application of methodology classifying the resources of drinking water for emergency supply of population. The case study has been carried out on a selected resource of emergency water supply in one region of the Czech Republic. The hazard identification and sensitivity of potential resource of emergency water supply is based on a unique procedure and developed general registers of selected types of hazards and sensitivities. The registers have been developed with the help of the “Fault Tree Analysis” method in combination with the “What if method”. The identified hazards for the assessed resource include hailstorms and torrential rains, drought, soil erosion, accidents of farm machinery, and agricultural production. The developed registers of hazards and vulnerabilities and a semi-quantitative assessment of hazards for individual parts of hydrological structure and technological elements of presented drilled wells are the basis for a semi-quantitative risk assessment of potential resource of emergency supply of population and the subsequent classification of such resource within the system of crisis planning.

Keywords: Hazard identification, register of hazards, sensitivity identification, register of sensitivity, emergency water supply, state of crisis, resource of emergency water supply, ground water.

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542 Experimental Study on a Solar Heat Concentrating Steam Generator

Authors: Qiangqiang Xu, Xu Ji, Jingyang Han, Changchun Yang, Ming Li

Abstract:

Replacing of complex solar concentrating unit, this paper designs a solar heat-concentrating medium-temperature steam-generating system. Solar radiation is collected by using a large solar collecting and heat concentrating plate and is converged to the metal evaporating pipe with high efficient heat transfer. In the meantime, the heat loss is reduced by employing a double-glazed cover and other heat insulating structures. Thus, a high temperature is reached in the metal evaporating pipe. The influences of the system's structure parameters on system performance are analyzed. The steam production rate and the steam production under different solar irradiance, solar collecting and heat concentrating plate area, solar collecting and heat concentrating plate temperature and heat loss are obtained. The results show that when solar irradiance is higher than 600 W/m2, the effective heat collecting area is 7.6 m2 and the double-glazing cover is adopted, the system heat loss amount is lower than the solar irradiance value. The stable steam is produced in the metal evaporating pipe at 100 ℃, 110 ℃, and 120 ℃, respectively. When the average solar irradiance is about 896 W/m2, and the steaming cumulative time is about 5 hours, the daily steam production of the system is about 6.174 kg. In a single day, the solar irradiance is larger at noon, thus the steam production rate is large at that time. Before 9:00 and after 16:00, the solar irradiance is smaller, and the steam production rate is almost 0.

Keywords: Heat concentrating, heat loss, medium temperature, solar steam production.

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541 Students- Perception of the Evaluation System in Architecture Studios

Authors: Badiossadat Hassanpour, Nangkula Utaberta, Azami Zaharim, Nurakmal Goh Abdullah

Abstract:

Architecture education was based on apprenticeship models and its nature has not changed much during long period but the Source of changes was its evaluation process and system. It is undeniable that art and architecture education is completely based on transmitting knowledge from instructor to students. In contrast to other majors this transmitting is by iteration and practice and studio masters try to control the design process and improving skills in the form of supervision and criticizing. Also the evaluation will end by giving marks to students- achievements. Therefore the importance of the evaluation and assessment role is obvious and it is not irrelevant to say that if we want to know about the architecture education system, we must first study its assessment procedures. The evolution of these changes in western countries has literate and documented well. However it seems that this procedure has unregarded in Malaysia and there is a severe lack of research and documentation in this area. Malaysia as an under developing and multicultural country which is involved different races and cultures is a proper origin for scrutinizing and understanding the evaluation systems and acceptability amount of current implemented models to keep the evaluation and assessment procedure abreast with needs of different generations, cultures and even genders. This paper attempts to answer the questions of how evaluation and assessments are performed and how students perceive this evaluation system in the context Malaysia. The main advantage of this work is that it contributes in international debate on evaluation model.

Keywords: Architecture, assessment, design studio, learning

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540 Buckling of Plates on Foundation with Different Types of Sides Support

Authors: Ali N. Suri, Ahmad A. Al-Makhlufi

Abstract:

In this paper the problem of buckling of plates on foundation of finite length and with different side support is studied.

The Finite Strip Method is used as tool for the analysis. This method uses finite strip elastic, foundation, and geometric matrices to build the assembly matrices for the whole structure, then after introducing boundary conditions at supports, the resulting reduced matrices is transformed into a standard Eigenvalue-Eigenvector problem. The solution of this problem will enable the determination of the buckling load, the associated buckling modes and the buckling wave length.

To carry out the buckling analysis starting from the elastic, foundation, and geometric stiffness matrices for each strip a computer program FORTRAN list is developed.

Since stiffness matrices are function of wave length of buckling, the computer program used an iteration procedure to find the critical buckling stress for each value of foundation modulus and for each boundary condition.

The results showed the use of elastic medium to support plates subject to axial load increase a great deal the buckling load, the results found are very close with those obtained by other analytical methods and experimental work.

The results also showed that foundation compensates the effect of the weakness of some types of constraint of side support and maximum benefit found for plate with one side simply supported the other free.

Keywords: Buckling, Finite Strip, Different Sides Support, Plates on Foundation.

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539 Electoral Mathematics and Asymmetrical Treatment to Political Parties: The Mexican Case

Authors: Verónica Arredondo, Miguel Martínez-Panero, Teresa Peña, Victoriano Ramírez

Abstract:

The Mexican Chamber of Deputies is composed of 500 representatives: 300 of them elected by relative majority and another 200 ones elected through proportional representation in five electoral clusters (constituencies) with 40 representatives each. In this mixed-member electoral system, the seats distribution of proportional representation is not independent of the election by relative majority, as it attempts to correct representation imbalances produced in single-member districts. This two-fold structure has been maintained in the successive electoral reforms carried out along the last three decades (eight from 1986 to 2014). In all of them, the election process of 200 seats becomes complex: Formulas in the Law are difficult to understand and to be interpreted. This paper analyzes the Mexican electoral system after the electoral reform of 2014, which was applied for the first time in 2015. The research focuses on contradictions and issues of applicability, in particular situations where seats allocation is affected by ambiguity in the law and where asymmetrical treatment of political parties arises. Due to these facts, a proposal of electoral reform will be presented. It is intended to be simpler, clearer, and more enduring than the current system. Furthermore, this model is more suitable for producing electoral outcomes free of contradictions and paradoxes. This approach would allow a fair treatment of political parties and as a result an improved opportunity to exercise democracy.

Keywords: Apportionment paradoxes, biproportional representation, electoral mathematics, electoral reform, Mexican electoral system, proportional representation, political asymmetry.

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538 Analysis of the Reasons behind the Deteriorated Standing of Engineering Companies during the Financial Crisis

Authors: Levan Sabauri

Abstract:

In this paper, we discuss the deteriorated standing of engineering companies, some of the reasons behind it and the problems facing engineering enterprises during the financial crisis. We show the part that financial analysis plays in the detection of the main factors affecting the standing of a company, classify internal problems and the reasons influencing efficiency thereof. The publication contains the analysis of municipal engineering companies in post-Soviet transitional economies. In the wake of the 2008 world financial crisis the issue became even more poignant. It should be said though that even before the problem had been no less acute for some post-Soviet states caught up in a lengthy transitional period. The paper highlights shortcomings in the management of transportation companies, with new, more appropriate methods suggested. In analyzing the financial stability of a company, three elements need to be considered: current assets, investment policy and structural management of the funding sources leveraging the stability, should be focused on. Inappropriate management of the three may create certain financial problems, with timely and accurate detection thereof being an issue in terms of improved standing of an enterprise. In this connection, the publication contains a diagram reflecting the reasons behind the deteriorated financial standing of a company, as well as a flow chart thereof. The main reasons behind low profitability are also discussed.

Keywords: Efficiency, financial management, financial analysis funding structure, financial sustainability, investment policy, profitability, solvency, working capital.

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537 A Novel SVM-Based OOK Detector in Low SNR Infrared Channels

Authors: J. P. Dubois, O. M. Abdul-Latif

Abstract:

Support Vector Machine (SVM) is a recent class of statistical classification and regression techniques playing an increasing role in applications to detection problems in various engineering problems, notably in statistical signal processing, pattern recognition, image analysis, and communication systems. In this paper, SVM is applied to an infrared (IR) binary communication system with different types of channel models including Ricean multipath fading and partially developed scattering channel with additive white Gaussian noise (AWGN) at the receiver. The structure and performance of SVM in terms of the bit error rate (BER) metric is derived and simulated for these channel stochastic models and the computational complexity of the implementation, in terms of average computational time per bit, is also presented. The performance of SVM is then compared to classical binary signal maximum likelihood detection using a matched filter driven by On-Off keying (OOK) modulation. We found that the performance of SVM is superior to that of the traditional optimal detection schemes used in statistical communication, especially for very low signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) ranges. For large SNR, the performance of the SVM is similar to that of the classical detectors. The implication of these results is that SVM can prove very beneficial to IR communication systems that notoriously suffer from low SNR at the cost of increased computational complexity.

Keywords: Least square-support vector machine, on-off keying, matched filter, maximum likelihood detector, wireless infrared communication.

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536 A Comparative Study on the Dimensional Error of 3D CAD Model and SLS RP Model for Reconstruction of Cranial Defect

Authors: L. Siva Rama Krishna, Sriram Venkatesh, M. Sastish Kumar, M. Uma Maheswara Chary

Abstract:

Rapid Prototyping (RP) is a technology that produces models and prototype parts from 3D CAD model data, CT/MRI scan data, and model data created from 3D object digitizing systems. There are several RP process like Stereolithography (SLA), Solid Ground Curing (SGC), Selective Laser Sintering (SLS), Fused Deposition Modeling (FDM), 3D Printing (3DP) among them SLS and FDM RP processes are used to fabricate pattern of custom cranial implant. RP technology is useful in engineering and biomedical application. This is helpful in engineering for product design, tooling and manufacture etc. RP biomedical applications are design and development of medical devices, instruments, prosthetics and implantation; it is also helpful in planning complex surgical operation. The traditional approach limits the full appreciation of various bony structure movements and therefore the custom implants produced are difficult to measure the anatomy of parts and analyze the changes in facial appearances accurately. Cranioplasty surgery is a surgical correction of a defect in cranial bone by implanting a metal or plastic replacement to restore the missing part. This paper aims to do a comparative study on the dimensional error of CAD and SLS RP Models for reconstruction of cranial defect by comparing the virtual CAD with the physical RP model of a cranial defect.

Keywords: Rapid Prototyping, Selective Laser Sintering, Cranial defect, Dimensional Error.

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535 Acoustic Behavior of Polymer Foam Composite of Shorea leprosula after UV-Irradiation Exposure

Authors: Anika Zafiah M. Rus, S. Shafizah

Abstract:

This study was developed to compare the behavior and the ability of polymer foam composites towards sound absorption test of Shorea leprosula wood (SL) of acid hydrolysis treatment with particle size <355μm. Three different weight ratio of polyol to wood particle has been selected which are 10wt%, 15wt% and 20wt%. The acid hydrolysis treatment is to optimize the surface interaction of wood particle with polymer foam matrix. In addition, the acoustic characteristic of sound absorption coefficient (α) was determined. Further treatment is to expose the polymer composite in UV irradiation by using UV-Weatherometer. Polymer foam composite of untreated Shorea leprosula particle (SL-B) with respective percentage loading shows uniform pore structure as compared with treated wood particle (SL-A). As the filler percentage loading in polymer foam increases, the α value approaching 1 for both samples. Furthermore, SL-A shows better α value at 3500-4500 frequency absorption level (Hz), meanwhile α value for SL-B is maximum at 4000-5000 Hz. The frequencies absorption level for both SL-B and SL-A after UV exposure was increased with the increasing of exposure time from 0-1000 hours. It is therefore, concluded that the α for each sound absorbing material, with or without acid hydrolysis treatment of wood particles and it’s percentages loading in polymer matrix effect the sound absorption behavior.

Keywords: Polymer foam composite, sound absorption coefficient, UV-irradiation, wood.

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534 Interdisciplinarity: A Pedagogical Practice in the Classrooms

Authors: C. Cruz, A. Breda

Abstract:

The world is changing and, consequently, the young people need to acquire more sophisticated tools and skills to lead with the new societies’ challenges. In the curriculum of the Portuguese education system, in the profile of students leaving compulsory education, the critical thinking and creative thinking are pointed out as skills to be developed, as well as the capacity of interconnect different knowledge and applicate them in different contexts and learning areas. Unlike primary school teachers, teachers specialized in a specific area sometimes reveal more difficulties in developing interdisciplinary approaches in the classrooms and, despite the effort, the interdisciplinarity is not a common practice in schools. Statements like "Mathematics is everywhere" are unquestionable, however, some math teachers continue to develop an abstract teaching of mathematics devoid of any connection with reality. Good mathematical problems in real contexts are promising in the development of interdisciplinary pedagogical practices. However, these problems are often addressed by teachers in multidisciplinary rather than interdisciplinary contexts or are not addressed at all due several reasons, which range from insecurity in working on disciplinary domains with which they are not comfortable to a lack of pedagogical resources. In this study this issue is approached through a case study involving Mathematics teachers, which, in their professional development scope, attended a training aimed at stimulating interdisciplinary practices in real contexts, namely related to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Keywords: Interdisciplinarity, Mathematics, professional development, teacher training.

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533 Development of Prediction Models of Day-Ahead Hourly Building Electricity Consumption and Peak Power Demand Using the Machine Learning Method

Authors: Dalin Si, Azizan Aziz, Bertrand Lasternas

Abstract:

To encourage building owners to purchase electricity at the wholesale market and reduce building peak demand, this study aims to develop models that predict day-ahead hourly electricity consumption and demand using artificial neural network (ANN) and support vector machine (SVM). All prediction models are built in Python, with tool Scikit-learn and Pybrain. The input data for both consumption and demand prediction are time stamp, outdoor dry bulb temperature, relative humidity, air handling unit (AHU), supply air temperature and solar radiation. Solar radiation, which is unavailable a day-ahead, is predicted at first, and then this estimation is used as an input to predict consumption and demand. Models to predict consumption and demand are trained in both SVM and ANN, and depend on cooling or heating, weekdays or weekends. The results show that ANN is the better option for both consumption and demand prediction. It can achieve 15.50% to 20.03% coefficient of variance of root mean square error (CVRMSE) for consumption prediction and 22.89% to 32.42% CVRMSE for demand prediction, respectively. To conclude, the presented models have potential to help building owners to purchase electricity at the wholesale market, but they are not robust when used in demand response control.

Keywords: Building energy prediction, data mining, demand response, electricity market.

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532 Simulation of Laser Structuring by Three Dimensional Heat Transfer Model

Authors: Bassim Bachy, Joerg Franke

Abstract:

In this study, a three dimensional numerical heat transfer model has been used to simulate the laser structuring of polymer substrate material in the Three-Dimensional Molded Interconnect Device (3D MID) which is used in the advanced multifunctional applications. A finite element method (FEM) transient thermal analysis is performed using APDL (ANSYS Parametric Design Language) provided by ANSYS. In this model, the effect of surface heat source was modeled with Gaussian distribution, also the effect of the mixed boundary conditions which consist of convection and radiation heat transfers have been considered in this analysis. The model provides a full description of the temperature distribution, as well as calculates the depth and the width of the groove upon material removal at different set of laser parameters such as laser power and laser speed. This study also includes the experimental procedure to study the effect of laser parameters on the depth and width of the removal groove metal as verification to the modeled results. Good agreement between the experimental and the model results is achieved for a wide range of laser powers. It is found that the quality of the laser structure process is affected by the laser scan speed and laser power. For a high laser structured quality, it is suggested to use laser with high speed and moderate to high laser power.

Keywords: Laser Structuring, Simulation, Finite element analysis, Thermal modeling.

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531 Displacement Fields in Footing-Sand Interactions under Cyclic Loading

Authors: S. Joseph Antony, Z. K. Jahanger

Abstract:

Soils are subjected to cyclic loading in situ in situations such as during earthquakes and in the compaction of pavements. Investigations on the local scale measurement of the displacements of the grain and failure patterns within the soil bed under the cyclic loading conditions are rather limited. In this paper, using the digital particle image velocimetry (DPIV), local scale displacement fields of a dense sand medium interacting with a rigid footing are measured under the plane-strain condition for two commonly used types of cyclic loading, and the quasi-static loading condition for the purposes of comparison. From the displacement measurements of the grains, the failure envelopes of the sand media are also presented. The results show that, the ultimate cyclic bearing capacity (qultcyc) occurred corresponding to a relatively higher settlement value when compared with that of under the quasi-static loading. For the sand media under the cyclic loading conditions considered here, the displacement fields in the soil media occurred more widely in the horizontal direction and less deeper along the vertical direction when compared with that of under the quasi-static loading. The 'dead zone' in the sand grains beneath the footing is identified for all types of the loading conditions studied here. These grain-scale characteristics have implications on the resulting bulk bearing capacity of the sand media in footing-sand interaction problems.

Keywords: Cyclic loading, DPIV, settlement, soil-structure interactions, strip footing.

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530 Analysis on Iranian Wind Catcher and Its Effect on Natural Ventilation as a Solution towards Sustainable Architecture(Case Study: Yazd)

Authors: Mahnaz Mahmoudi Zarandi (Qazvin Islamic Azad University)

Abstract:

wind catchers have been served as a cooling system, used to provide acceptable ventilation by means of renewable energy of wind. In the present study, the city of Yazd in arid climate is selected as case study. From the architecture point of view, learning about wind catchers in this study is done by means of field surveys. Research method for selection of the case is based on random form, and analytical method. Wind catcher typology and knowledge of relationship governing the wind catcher's architecture were those measures that are taken for the first time. 53 wind catchers were analyzed. The typology of the wind-catchers is done by the physical analyzing, patterns and common concepts as incorporated in them. How the architecture of wind catcher can influence their operations by analyzing thermal behavior are the archetypes of selected wind catchers. Calculating fluids dynamics science, fluent software and numerical analysis are used in this study as the most accurate analytical approach. The results obtained from these analyses show the formal specifications of wind catchers with optimum operation in Yazd. The knowledge obtained from the optimum model could be used for design and construction of wind catchers with more improved operation

Keywords: Fluent Software, Iranian architecture, wind catcher

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529 Air Quality Forecast Based on Principal Component Analysis-Genetic Algorithm and Back Propagation Model

Authors: Bin Mu, Site Li, Shijin Yuan

Abstract:

Under the circumstance of environment deterioration, people are increasingly concerned about the quality of the environment, especially air quality. As a result, it is of great value to give accurate and timely forecast of AQI (air quality index). In order to simplify influencing factors of air quality in a city, and forecast the city’s AQI tomorrow, this study used MATLAB software and adopted the method of constructing a mathematic model of PCA-GABP to provide a solution. To be specific, this study firstly made principal component analysis (PCA) of influencing factors of AQI tomorrow including aspects of weather, industry waste gas and IAQI data today. Then, we used the back propagation neural network model (BP), which is optimized by genetic algorithm (GA), to give forecast of AQI tomorrow. In order to verify validity and accuracy of PCA-GABP model’s forecast capability. The study uses two statistical indices to evaluate AQI forecast results (normalized mean square error and fractional bias). Eventually, this study reduces mean square error by optimizing individual gene structure in genetic algorithm and adjusting the parameters of back propagation model. To conclude, the performance of the model to forecast AQI is comparatively convincing and the model is expected to take positive effect in AQI forecast in the future.

Keywords: AQI forecast, principal component analysis, genetic algorithm, back propagation neural network model.

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528 The Design of English Materials to Communicate the Identity of Mueang District, Samut Songkram for Ecotourism

Authors: Kitda Praraththajariya

Abstract:

The main purpose of this research was to study how to communicate the identity of the Mueang district, SamutSongkram province for ecotourism. The qualitative data was collected through studying related materials, exploring the area, in-depth interviews with three groups of people: three directly responsible officers who were key informants of the district, twenty foreign tourists and five Thai tourist guides. A content analysis was used to analyze the qualitative data. The two main findings of the study were as follows: 1. The identity of Amphur (District) Mueang, SamutSongkram province. This establishment was near the Mouth of Maekong River for normal people and tourists, consisting of rest accommodations. There are restaurants where food and drinks are served, rich mangrove forests, Hoy Lod (Razor Clam) and mangrove trees. Don Hoy Lod, is characterized by muddy beaches, is a coastal wetland for Ramsar Site. It is at 1099th ranging where the greatest number of Hoy Lod (Razor Clam) can be seen from March to May each year. 2. The communication of the identity of AmphurMueang, SamutSongkram province which the researcher could find and design to present in English materials can be summed up in 4 items: 1) The history of AmphurMueang, SamutSongkram province 2) WatPhetSamutWorrawihan 3) The Learning source of Ecotourism: Don Hoy Lod and Mangrove forest 4) How to keep AmphurMueang, SamutSongkram province for ecotourism.

Keywords: Foreigner tourists, signified, semiotics, ecotourism.

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527 Correction of Frequent English Writing Errors by Using Coded Indirect Corrective Feedback and Error Treatment

Authors: Chaiwat Tantarangsee

Abstract:

The purposes of this study are 1) to study the frequent English writing errors of students registering the course: Reading and Writing English for Academic Purposes II, and 2) to find out the results of writing error correction by using coded indirect corrective feedback and writing error treatments. Samples include 28 2nd year English Major students, Faculty of Education, Suan Sunandha Rajabhat University. Tool for experimental study includes the lesson plan of the course; Reading and Writing English for Academic Purposes II, and tool for data collection includes 4 writing tests of short texts. The research findings disclose that frequent English writing errors found in this course comprise 7 types of grammatical errors, namely Fragment sentence, Subject-verb agreement, Wrong form of verb tense, Singular or plural noun endings, Run-ons sentence, Wrong form of verb pattern and Lack of parallel structure. Moreover, it is found that the results of writing error correction by using coded indirect corrective feedback and error treatment reveal the overall reduction of the frequent English writing errors and the increase of students’ achievement in the writing of short texts with the significance at .05.

Keywords: Coded indirect corrective feedback, error correction, error treatment, frequent English writing errors.

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526 Influence of Kinematic, Physical and Mechanical Structure Parameters on Aeroelastic GTU Shaft Vibrations in Magnetic Bearings

Authors: Evgeniia V. Mekhonoshina, Vladimir Ya. Modorskii, Vasilii Yu. Petrov

Abstract:

At present, vibrations of rotors of gas transmittal unit evade sustainable forecasting. This paper describes elastic oscillation modes in resilient supports and rotor impellers modeled during computational experiments with regard to interference in the system of gas-dynamic flow and compressor rotor. Verification of aeroelastic approach was done on model problem of interaction between supersonic jet in shock tube with deformed plate. ANSYS 15.0 engineering analysis system was used as a modeling tool of numerical simulation in this paper. Finite volume method for gas dynamics and finite elements method for assessment of the strain stress state (SSS) components were used as research methods. Rotation speed and material’s elasticity modulus varied during calculations, and SSS components and gas-dynamic parameters in the dynamic system of gas-dynamic flow and compressor rotor were evaluated. The analysis of time dependence demonstrated that gas-dynamic parameters near the rotor blades oscillate at 200 Hz, and SSS parameters at the upper blade edge oscillate four times higher, i.e. with blade frequency. It has been detected that vibration amplitudes correction in the test points at magnetic bearings by aeroelasticity may correspond up to 50%, and about -π/4 for phases.

Keywords: Centrifugal compressor, aeroelasticity, interdisciplinary calculation, oscillation phase displacement, vibration, nonstationarity.

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