Search results for: Software Performance Evaluation

Authors: Fahad Alhussein, Huaping Liu

Abstract:

This paper compares the multipath mitigation performance of code correlation reference waveform receivers with variable and fixed window width, for binary offset carrier and multiplexed binary offset carrier signals typically used in global navigation satellite systems. In the variable window width method, such width is iteratively reduced until the distortion on the discriminator with multipath is eliminated. This distortion is measured as the Euclidean distance between the actual discriminator (obtained with the incoming signal), and the local discriminator (generated with a local copy of the signal). The variable window width have shown better performance compared to the fixed window width. In particular, the former yields zero error for all delays for the BOC and MBOC signals considered, while the latter gives rather large nonzero errors for small delays in all cases. Due to its computational simplicity, the variable window width method is perfectly suitable for implementation in low-cost receivers.

Keywords: Correlation reference waveform receivers, binary offset carrier, multiplexed binary offset carrier, global navigation satellite systems.

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Authors: M. Cortés, E. Vera, O. Rojas

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The research studies of the kinetics of the corrosion process that attacks concrete and occurs within sewerage systems agree on the amount of variables that interfere in the process. This study aims to check the impact of the pH levels of the corrosive environment and the concrete surface, the concentrations of chemical sulfuric acid, and in turn, measure the resistance of concrete to this attack under controlled laboratory conditions; it also aims to contribute to the development of further research related to the topic, in order to compare the impact of biogenic sulfuric acid and chemical sulfuric acid involvement on concrete structures, especially in scenarios such as sewerage systems.

Keywords: Acid Sulfuric, concrete, corrosion.

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Authors: Ioannis Neokosmidis, Nikos Gkekas, Thomas Kamalakis, Thomas Sphicopoulos

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In high powered dense wavelength division multiplexed (WDM) systems with low chromatic dispersion, four-wave mixing (FWM) can prove to be a major source of noise. The MultiCanonical Monte Carlo Method (MCMC) and the Split Step Fourier Method (SSFM) are combined to accurately evaluate the probability density function of the decision variable of a receiver, limited by FWM. The combination of the two methods leads to more accurate results, and offers the possibility of adding other optical noises such as the Amplified Spontaneous Emission (ASE) noise.

Keywords: Monte Carlo, Nonlinear optics, optical crosstalk, Wavelength-division Multiplexing (WDM).

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Authors: Cherdvong Saengsupavanich

Abstract:

The impact of a proposed pier on tidal current alteration was evaluated. The proposed pier location was in Salad Bay on Koa Kood Island, Trat province, Thailand, and was designed to accommodate passenger ships with a draft of less than 2 m. The study began with collecting necessary data, including bathymetric, water elevation and tidal current characteristics. The impact was assessed using a software package (MIKE21). Although the results showed that the pier would affect the existing current pattern, the change was determined to be insignificant, as the design of the piles for the pier provided sufficient spacing to let the current flow as freely as possible. Consequences of the altered current, such as seabed erosion, water stagnation, sediment deposition and navigational risk were assessed. Environmental mitigation measures might be necessary if the impacts were considered unacceptable.

Keywords: Environmental impact assessment, pier, tidal currentchange, coastal engineering and management

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Authors: Igor Astrov, Mikhail Pikkov, Rein Paluoja

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This paper focuses on the critical components of the situational awareness (SA), the controls of position and orientation of an autonomous surface vessel (ASV). Moving of vessel into desired area in particular sea is a challenging but important task for ASVs to achieve high level of autonomy under adverse conditions. With the SA strategy, the approach motion by neural control of an initial stage of an ASV trajectory using neural network predictive controller and the circular motion by control of yaw moment in the final stage of trajectory were proposed. This control system has been demonstrated and evaluated by simulation of maritime maneuvers using software package Simulink. From the simulation results it can be seen that the fast SA of similar ASVs with economy in energy can be asserted during the maritime missions in search-and-rescue operations.

Keywords: Autonomous surface vessels, neurocontrollers, situational awareness.

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Authors: Atay A, Suer BT

Abstract:

The aim of this retrospective study was to evaluate the parameters of dental implants such as patient gender, number of implant, failed implant before prosthetic restorations and failed implant after implantation and failed implant after prosthetic restorations. 135 male and 99 female patients, total 234 implant patients which have been treated with 450 implant between 2005- 2009 years in GATA Haydarpasa Training Hospital Dental Service. Twelve implants were failed before prosthetic restorations. Four implant were failed after fixed prosthetic restorations. Cumulative survival rate after prostheses were 97.56 % during 6 years period.

Keywords: Dental implants, implant supported prostheses, single implants, single crown

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Authors: Huda Al Salmi, Hisham Al Kadi, Simone Leao

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Abu Dhabi is one of the fastest developed cities in the region. On top of all the current and future environmental challenges, Abu Dhabi aims to be among the top governments in the world in sustainable development. Abu Dhabi plans to create an attractive, livable and sustainable managed urban environment in which all necessary services and infrastructure are provided in a sustainable and timely manner. Abu Dhabi is engaged in a difficult challenge to develop credible environmental indicators that would assess the ambitious environmental targets. The aim of those indicators is to provide reliable guidance to decision makers and the public concerning key factors that determine the state of urban environment and identify major areas for policy intervention. In order to ensure sustainable development in UAE in general, and of Abu Dhabi City in particular, relevant and contextual environmental indicators need to be carefully considered. These indicators provide a gauge at a national government scale of how close countries are to establish environmental policy goals. The environment indicators assist city decision-making in such areas as identification of significant environmental aspects and observation of environmental performance trends. Those can help to find ways of reducing environmental pollution and in improving eco-efficiency. This paper outlines recent strategies implemented in Abu Dhabi that aims to improve the sustainable performance of the city-s built environment. The paper explores the variety of current and possible indicators at different levels and their roles in the development of the city.

Keywords: Abu Dhabi, Sustainable Development, Indicators, Assessment Methods.

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Authors: Abdelazim Makki Ibrahim, Esamaldeen Ali

Abstract:

This study aims at analysing the load settlement behavior and predict the bearing capacity of piled raft foundation a series of finite element models with different foundation configurations and stiffness were established. Numerical modeling is used to study the behavior of the piled raft foundation due to the complexity of piles, raft, and soil interaction and also due to the lack of reliable analytical method that can predict the behavior of the piled raft foundation system. Simple analytical models are developed to predict the average settlement and the load sharing between the piles and the raft in piled raft foundation system. A simple example to demonstrate the applications of these charts is included.

Keywords: Finite element, pile-raft foundation, method, PLAXIS software, settlement.

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Authors: M. Nassereddine, J. Rizk, G. Nasserddine

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High Voltage (HV) transmission lines are widely spread around residential places. They take all forms of shapes: concrete, steel, and timber poles. Earth grid always form part of the HV transmission structure, whereat soil resistivity value is one of the main inputs when it comes to determining the earth grid requirements. In this paper, the soil structure and its implication on the electrode resistance of HV transmission poles will be explored. In Addition, this paper will present simulation for various soil structures using IEEE and Australian standards to verify the computation with CDEGS software. Furthermore, the split factor behavior under different soil resistivity structure will be presented using CDEGS simulations.

Keywords: Earth Grid, EPR, High Voltage, Soil Resistivity Structure, Split Factor, Step Voltage, Touch Voltage.

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Authors: Jaeyoung Lee

Abstract:

Autonomous driving systems require high reliability to provide people with a safe and comfortable driving experience. However, despite the development of a number of vehicle sensors, it is difficult to always provide high perceived performance in driving environments that vary from time to season. The image segmentation method using deep learning, which has recently evolved rapidly, provides high recognition performance in various road environments stably. However, since the system controls a vehicle in real time, a highly complex deep learning network cannot be used due to time and memory constraints. Moreover, efficient networks are optimized for GPU environments, which degrade performance in embedded processor environments equipped simple hardware accelerators. In this paper, a semantic segmentation network, matrix multiplication accelerator network (MMANet), optimized for matrix multiplication accelerator (MMA) on Texas instrument digital signal processors (TI DSP) is proposed to improve the recognition performance of autonomous driving system. The proposed method is designed to maximize the number of layers that can be performed in a limited time to provide reliable driving environment information in real time. First, the number of channels in the activation map is fixed to fit the structure of MMA. By increasing the number of parallel branches, the lack of information caused by fixing the number of channels is resolved. Second, an efficient convolution is selected depending on the size of the activation. Since MMA is a fixed, it may be more efficient for normal convolution than depthwise separable convolution depending on memory access overhead. Thus, a convolution type is decided according to output stride to increase network depth. In addition, memory access time is minimized by processing operations only in L3 cache. Lastly, reliable contexts are extracted using the extended atrous spatial pyramid pooling (ASPP). The suggested method gets stable features from an extended path by increasing the kernel size and accessing consecutive data. In addition, it consists of two ASPPs to obtain high quality contexts using the restored shape without global average pooling paths since the layer uses MMA as a simple adder. To verify the proposed method, an experiment is conducted using perfsim, a timing simulator, and the Cityscapes validation sets. The proposed network can process an image with 640 x 480 resolution for 6.67 ms, so six cameras can be used to identify the surroundings of the vehicle as 20 frame per second (FPS). In addition, it achieves 73.1% mean intersection over union (mIoU) which is the highest recognition rate among embedded networks on the Cityscapes validation set.

Keywords: Edge network, embedded network, MMA, matrix multiplication accelerator and semantic segmentation network.

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Authors: D. I. De Souza, D. Kipper, G. P. Azevedo

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The main objective of this work is to compare the quality of service of the bus companies operating in the city of Rio Branco, located in the state of Acre with the quality of service of the bus companies operating in the city of Campos, situated in the state of Rio de Janeiro, both cities in Brazil. This comparison, based on the opinion of the bus users, will determine their degree of satisfaction with the service available in both cities. The outcome of this evaluation shows the users unhappy with the quality of the service provided by the bus companies operating in both cities and the need to identify alternative solutions that may minimize the consequences caused by the main problems detected in this work. With these alternatives available, the bus companies will be able to better understand the needs of their customers in terms of manpower, service cost, time schedule, etc.

Keywords: PubicTransportation, Quality of Service, Riders' Opinion, Bus Companies

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Authors: Ashvin Gopaul, Jayrani Cheeneebash, Kamleshsing Baurhoo

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In this paper we study some numerical methods to solve a model one-dimensional convection–diffusion equation. The semi-discretisation of the space variable results into a system of ordinary differential equations and the solution of the latter involves the evaluation of a matrix exponent. Since the calculation of this term is computationally expensive, we study some methods based on Krylov subspace and on Restrictive Taylor series approximation respectively. We also consider the Chebyshev Pseudospectral collocation method to do the spatial discretisation and we present the numerical solution obtained by these methods.

Keywords: Chebyshev Pseudospectral collocation method, convection-diffusion equation, restrictive Taylor approximation.

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Authors: O. Siriporn, S. Benjawan

Abstract:

This paper represents four unsupervised clustering algorithms namely sIB, RandomFlatClustering, FarthestFirst, and FilteredClusterer that previously works have not been used for network traffic classification. The methodology, the result, the products of the cluster and evaluation of these algorithms with efficiency of each algorithm from accuracy are shown. Otherwise, the efficiency of these algorithms considering form the time that it use to generate the cluster quickly and correctly. Our work study and test the best algorithm by using classify traffic anomaly in network traffic with different attribute that have not been used before. We analyses the algorithm that have the best efficiency or the best learning and compare it to the previously used (K-Means). Our research will be use to develop anomaly detection system to more efficiency and more require in the future.

Keywords: Unsupervised, clustering, anomaly, machine learning.

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Authors: Komeil Jahanifar, Zahra Abedi, Yaghob Zeraatkish

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This research was conducted for the first time at the southeastern coasts of the Caspian Sea in order to evaluate the performance of osteichthyes cooperatives through production (catch) function. Using one of the indirect valuation methods in this research, contributory factors in catch were identified and were inserted into the function as independent variables. In order to carry out this research, the performance of 25 Osteichthyes catching cooperatives in the utilization year of 2009 which were involved in fishing in Miankale wildlife refuge region. The contributory factors in catch were divided into groups of economic, ecological and biological factors. In the mentioned function, catch rate of the cooperative were inserted into as the dependant variable and fourteen partial variables in terms of nine general variables as independent variables. Finally, after function estimation, seven variables were rendered significant at 99 percent reliably level. The results of the function estimation indicated that human resource (fisherman quantity) had the greatest positive effect on catch rate with an influence coefficient of 1.7 while weather conditions had the greatest negative effect on the catch rate of cooperatives with an influence coefficient of -2.07. Moreover, factors like member's share, experience and fisherman training and fishing effort played the main roles in the catch rate of cooperative with influence coefficients of 0.81, 0.5 and 0.21, respectively.

Keywords: Production Function, Coefficient, Variable, Osteichthyes, Caspian Sea

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Authors: Dharmendra Chourishi “Maitraya”, Sridevi Seshadri

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Bluetooth is a personal wireless communication technology and is being applied in many scenarios. It is an emerging standard for short range, low cost, low power wireless access technology. Current existing MAC (Medium Access Control) scheduling schemes only provide best-effort service for all masterslave connections. It is very challenging to provide QoS (Quality of Service) support for different connections due to the feature of Master Driven TDD (Time Division Duplex). However, there is no solution available to support both delay and bandwidth guarantees required by real time applications. This paper addresses the issue of how to enhance QoS support in a Bluetooth piconet. The Bluetooth specification proposes a Round Robin scheduler as possible solution for scheduling the transmissions in a Bluetooth Piconet. We propose an algorithm which will reduce the bandwidth waste and enhance the efficiency of network. We define token counters to estimate traffic of real-time slaves. To increase bandwidth utilization, a back-off mechanism is then presented for best-effort slaves to decrease the frequency of polling idle slaves. Simulation results demonstrate that our scheme achieves better performance over the Round Robin scheduling.

Keywords: Piconet, Medium Access Control, Polling algorithm, Scheduling, QoS, Time Division Duplex (TDD).

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Authors: Helia Barzegar Sedigh, Farzaneh Hamedi, Payam Ashtari

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There are some limitations in common structural systems, such as providing appropriate lateral stiffness, adequate ductility, and architectural openings at the same time. Consequently, the concept of T-Resisting Frame (TRF) has been introduced to overcome all these deficiencies. The configuration of TRF in this study is a Vertical Plate Girder (VPG) which is placed within the span and two Horizontal Plate Girders (HPGs) connect VPG to side columns at each story level by the use of rigid connections. System performance is improved by utilizing rigid connections in side columns base joint. Shear yield of HPGs causes energy dissipation in TRF; therefore, high plastic deformation in web of HPGs and VPG affects the ductility of system. Moreover, in order to prevent shear buckling in web of TRF’s members and appropriate criteria for placement of web stiffeners are applied. In this paper, an experimental study is conducted by applying cyclic loading and using finite element models and numerical studies such as push over method are assessed on shear and flexural yielding of HPGs. As a result, seismic parameters indicate adequate lateral stiffness, and high ductility factor of 6.73, and HPGs’ shear yielding achieved as a proof of TRF’s better performance.

Keywords: Experimental study, finite element model, flexural and shear yielding, T-resisting frame.

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Authors: C. Sanchis-Borras, J. M. Molina-Garcia-Pardo, P. Degauque, M. Lienard

Abstract:

The objective of this contribution is to study the performances in terms of bit error rate, of space-time code algorithms applied to MIMO communication in tunnels. Indeed, the channel characteristics in a tunnel are quite different than those of urban or indoor environment, due to the guiding effect of the tunnel. Therefore, MIMO channel matrices have been measured in a straight tunnel, in a frequency band around 3GHz. Correlation between array elements and properties of the MIMO matrices are first studied as a function of the distance between the transmitter and the receiver. Then, owing to a software tool simulating the link, predicted values of bit error rate are given for VLAST, OSTBC and QSTBC algorithms applied to a MIMO configuration with 2 or 4 array elements. Results are interpreted from the analysis of the channel properties.

Keywords: MIMO, propagation channel, space-time algorithms, tunnel.

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Authors: A. M. El-Zonkoly

Abstract:

In this paper, based on steady-state models of Flexible AC Transmission System (FACTS) devices, the sizing of static synchronous series compensator (SSSC) controllers in transmission network is formed as an optimization problem. The objective of this problem is to reduce the transmission losses in the network. The optimization problem is solved using particle swarm optimization (PSO) technique. The Newton-Raphson load flow algorithm is modified to consider the insertion of the SSSC devices in the network. A numerical example, illustrating the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm, is introduced. In addition, a novel model of a 3- phase voltage source converter (VSC) that is suitable for series connected FACTS a controller is introduced. The model is verified by simulation using Power System Blockset (PSB) and Simulink software.

Keywords: FACTS, Modeling, PSO, SSSC, Transmission lossreduction.

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Authors: M. Zielina, W. Dabrowski, E. Radziszewska-Zielina

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Several different cements have been tested to evaluate their potential to leach calcium, chromium and aluminum ions in soft water environment. The research allows comparing some different cements in order to the potential risk of water contamination. This can be done only in the same environment. To reach the results in reasonable short time intervals and to make heavy metals measurements with high accuracy, demineralized water was used. In this case the conditions of experiments are far away from the water supply practice, but short time experiments and measurably high concentrations of elements in the water solution are an important advantage. Moreover leaching mechanisms can be recognized, our experiments reported here refer to this kind of cements evaluation.

Keywords: Concrete corrosion, hydrogen sulfide, odors, reinforced concrete sewers, sewerage.

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Authors: O. S. Omorogiuwa, E. J. Omozusi

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The monitoring of spectrum usage and signal identification, using cognitive radio, is done to identify frequencies that are vacant for reuse. It has been established that ‘internet of things’ device uses secondary frequency which is free, thereby facing the challenge of interference from other users, where some primary frequencies are not being utilised. The design was done by analysing a specific frequency spectrum, checking if all the frequency stations that range from 87.5-108 MHz are presently being used in Benin City, Edo State, Nigeria. From the results, it was noticed that by using Software Defined Radio/Simulink, we were able to identify vacant frequencies in the range of frequency under consideration. Also, we were able to use the significance of energy detection threshold to reuse this vacant frequency spectrum, when the cognitive radio displays a zero output (that is decision H0), meaning that the channel is unoccupied. Hence, the analysis was able to find the spectrum hole and identify how it can be reused.

Keywords: Spectrum, interference, telecommunication, cognitive radio, frequency.

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Authors: Su-Lien Liao

Abstract:

Most of college students in Taiwan do not have sufficient English proficiency to express themselves in written English. Teachers spent a lot of time correcting the errors in students’ English writing, but the results are not satisfactory. This study aims to use blogs as a teaching and learning tool in written English. Before applying peer assessment, students should be trained to be good reviewers.  The teacher starts the course by posting the error analysis of students’ first English composition on blogs as the comment models for students. Then the students will go through the process of drafting, composing, peer response and last revision on blogs. Evaluation questionnaires and interviews will be conducted at the end of the course to see the impact and also students’ perception for the course.

Keywords: Blog, Peer assessment, English writing, Error analysis.

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Authors: A. Hossain, A. S. W. Kurny

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The factors necessary to obtain an optimal heat treatment that influence the hardness and resistivity of Al-6Si-0.5Mg casting alloys with Cu or/and Ni additions were investigated. The alloys were homogenised (24hr at 500^oC), solutionized (2hr at 540^oC) and artificially ageing at various times and temperatures. The alloys were aged isochronally for 60 minutes at temperatures up to 400^oC and isothermally at 150, 175, 200, 225, 250 & 300^oC for different periods in the range 15 to 360 minutes. The hardness and electrical resistivity of the alloys were measured for various artificial ageing times and temperatures. From the isochronal ageing treatment, hardness found maximum ageing at 225^oC. And from the isothermal ageing treatment, hardness found maximum for 60 minutes at 225^oC. So the optimal heat treatment consists of 60 minutes ageing at 225^oC.

Keywords: Ageing, Al-Si-Mg alloy, hardness, resistivity.

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Authors: R. Abbasnia, F. Mohajeri Nav, S. Zahedifar, A. Tajik

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Recent years, adaptive pushover methods have been developed for seismic analysis of structures. Herein, the accuracy of the displacement-based adaptive pushover (DAP) method, which is introduced by Antoniou and Pinho [2004], is evaluated for Irregular buildings. The results are compared to the force-based procedure. Both concrete and steel frame structures, asymmetric in plan and elevation are analyzed and also torsional effects are taking into the account. These analyses are performed using both near fault and far fault records. In order to verify the results, the Incremental Dynamic Analysis (IDA) is performed.

Keywords: Pushover Analysis, DAP, IDA, Torsion.

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Authors: Orkide Donma, Mustafa M. Donma

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Obesity, a disease associated with a low-grade inflammation, is a risk factor for the development of metabolic syndrome (MetS). So far, MetS risk factors such as parameters related to glucose and lipid metabolisms as well as blood pressure were considered for the evaluation of this disease. There are still some ambiguities related to the characteristic features of MetS observed particularly in pediatric population. Hormonal imbalance is also important, and quite a lot information exists about the behaviour of some hormones in adults. However, the hormonal profiles in pediatric metabolism have not been cleared yet. The aim of this study is to investigate the profiles of cortisol, insulin, and thyroid hormones in children with MetS. The study population was composed of morbid obese (MO) children without (Group 1) and with (Group 2) MetS components. WHO BMI-for age and sex percentiles were used for the classification of obesity. The values above 99 percentile were defined as morbid obesity. Components of MetS (central obesity, glucose intolerance, high blood pressure, high triacylglycerol levels, low levels of high density lipoprotein cholesterol) were determined. Anthropometric measurements were performed. Ratios as well as obesity indices were calculated. Insulin, cortisol, thyroid stimulating hormone (TSH), free T₃ and free T₄ analyses were performed by electrochemiluminescence immunoassay. Data were evaluated by statistical package for social sciences program. p<0.05 was accepted as the degree for statistical significance. The mean ages±SD values of Group 1 and Group 2 were 9.9±3.1 years and 10.8±3.2 years, respectively. Body mass index (BMI) values were calculated as 27.4±5.9 kg/m² and 30.6±8.1 kg/m², successively. There were no statistically significant differences between the ages and BMI values of the groups. Insulin levels were statistically significantly increased in MetS in comparison with the levels measured in MO children. There was not any difference between MO children and those with MetS in terms of cortisol, T₃, T₄ and TSH. However, T₄ levels were positively correlated with cortisol and negatively correlated with insulin. None of these correlations were observed in MO children. Cortisol levels in both MO as well as MetS group were significantly correlated. Cortisol, insulin, and thyroid hormones are essential for life. Cortisol, called the control system for hormones, orchestrates the performance of other key hormones. It seems to establish a connection between hormone imbalance and inflammation. During an inflammatory state, more cortisol is produced to fight inflammation. High cortisol levels prevent the conversion of the inactive form of the thyroid hormone T₄ into active form T₃. Insulin is reduced due to low thyroid hormone. T₃, which is essential for blood sugar control- requires cortisol levels within the normal range. Positive association of T₄ with cortisol and negative association of it with insulin are the indicators of such a delicate balance among these hormones also in children with MetS.

Keywords: Children, cortisol, insulin, metabolic syndrome, thyroid hormones.

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Authors: Radek Malinský, Ivan Jelínek

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This article deals with the popularity of candidates for the president of the United States of America. The popularity is assessed according to public comments on the Web 2.0. Social networking, blogging and online forums (collectively Web 2.0) are for common Internet users the easiest way to share their personal opinions, thoughts, and ideas with the entire world. However, the web content diversity, variety of technologies and website structure differences, all of these make the Web 2.0 a network of heterogeneous data, where things are difficult to find for common users. The introductory part of the article describes methodology for gathering and processing data from Web 2.0. The next part of the article is focused on the evaluation and content analysis of obtained information, which write about presidential candidates.

Keywords: Sentiment Analysis, Web 2.0, Webometrics.

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Authors: Amer Dawoud, Rashid Mia, Arati Biswakarma, Jesy Motchaalangaram, Wujan Miao, Karl Wallace

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The development of an embedded miniaturized drone-based system for remote detection of Chemical Warfare Agents (CWAs) is proposed. The paper focuses on the software/hardware system design of the electrochemical Cyclic Voltammetry (CV) and Differential Pulse Voltammetry (DPV) signal processing for future deployment on drones. The paper summarizes the progress made towards hardware and electrochemical signal processing for signature detection of CWA. Also, the miniature potentiostat signal is validated by comparing it with the high-end lab potentiostat signal.

Keywords: Drone-based, remote detection chemical warfare agents, miniaturized, potentiostat.

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Authors: Isabel Duarte de Almeida, João Vilas-Boas, Luís Miguel Ferreira

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Environmental concerns about the scarcity of marine resources are critical driving forces for firms aiming to prepare their supply chains for sustainability. Building on previous work, this paper highlights the implementation of good practices geared towards sustainable operations in the seafood department, which were pursued in an exploratory retailer case. Outcomes of the adopted environmentally and socially acceptable fish retailing strategies, ranged from traceability, to self-certification and eco-labelling. The consequences for business were, as follows: stronger collaboration and trust across the chain of custody, improvement of sponsors’ image and of consumers’ loyalty and, progress in the Greenpeace retailers’ evaluation ranking.

Keywords: Sustainability in sea food, Supply Chain Traceability, Social Responsibility.

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Authors: Li Bixia, Ren Shouwen, Fu Yanfeng, Tu Feng, Xiaoming Fang, Xueming Wang

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The utilization of dietary crude fiber in different breed pigs is not the same. Su-shan pigs are a new breed formed by crossing Taihu pigs and Yorkshire pigs. In order to understand the resistance of Su-shan pigs to dietary crude fiber, 150 Su-shan pigs with 60 kg of average body weight and similar body conditions were allocated to three groups randomly, and there are 50 pigs in each group. The percentages of dietary crude fiber were 8.35%, 9.10%, and 11.39%, respectively. At the end of the experiment, 15 pigs randomly selected from each group were slaughtered. The results showed as follows: average daily gain of the 9.10% group was higher than that of the 8.35% group and the 11.39% group; there was a significant difference between the 9.10% group and the 8.35% group (p < 0.05. Levels of urea nitrogen, total cholesterol and high density lipoprotein in the 9.10% group were significantly higher than those in the 8.35% group and the 11.39% group (p < 0.05). Ratios of meat to fat in the 9.10% group and the 11.39% group were significantly higher than that in the 8.35% group (p < 0.05). Lean percentage of 9.10% group was higher than that of 8.35% group and 11.39% group, but there was no significant difference in three groups (p > 0.05). The weight of small intestine and large intestine in the 11.39% group was higher than that in the 8.35% group, and the 9.10% group and the difference reached a significant level (p < 0.05). In conclusion, increasing dietary crude fiber properly could reduce fat percentage, and improve the ratio of meat to fat of finishing Su-shan pigs. The digestion and metabolism of dietary crude fiber promoted the development of stomach and intestine of finishing Su-shan pig.

Keywords: Su-Shan pigs, dietary crude fiber, growth performance, serum biochemical indexes.

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Authors: Musa H. Arslan

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Strengthening of the existing seismically deficient reinforced concrete (RC) buildings is an important issue in earthquake prone regions. Addition of RC shear wall as infill or external walls into the structural system has been a commonly preferred strengthening technique since the Big Erzincan Earthquake occurred in Turkey, 1992. The newly added rigid infill walls act primarily as shear walls and relieve the non-ductile existing frames from being subjected to large shear demands providing that new RC inner or external walls are adequately anchored to the existing weak RC frame. The performance of the RC shear walls-RC weak frame connections by steel anchor dowels depends on some parameters such as compressive strength of the existing RC frame concrete, diameter and embedment length of anchored rebar, type of rebar, yielding stress of bar, properties of used chemicals, position of the anchor bars in RC. In this study, application problems of the steel anchor dowels have been checked with some field studies such as tensile test. Two different RC buildings which will be strengthened were selected, and before strengthening, some tests have been performed in the existing RC buildings. According to the field observation and experimental studies, if the concrete compressive strength is lower than 10 MPa, the performance of the anchors is reduced by 70%.

Keywords: Anchor dowel, concrete, damage, reinforced concrete, shear wall, frame.

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Authors: Ahmed Amin Mousa, M. Abd El Salam

Abstract:

The current study presents a proposed program for acquisition the skills and techniques needed to produce concept cartoon. The proposed program has been prepared for non-specialist students who have never used neither graphics nor animating software. It was presented to postgraduates in Faculty of Education for Early Childhood, Cairo University, during the spring term of the 2014-2015 academic year. The program works in three different aspects: Drawing and images editing, sound manipulation, and creating animation. In addition, the researchers have prepared a questionnaire for measuring the quality of the concept cartoons produced by the students. The questionnaire was used as a pre-test and post-test, and at the end of the study, a significant difference was determined in favour of post-test results.

Keywords: Cartoon, concept cartoon, kindergarten, animation.

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