Search results for: Accelerated storage life test

Authors: Asma Meziti, Hicham Meziti, Kaouthar Boudiaf, Benboubetra Mustapha, Hemama Bouriche.

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Nigella sativa L. is an aromatic plant belonging to the family Ranunculaceae. It has been used traditionally, especially in the middle East and India, for the treatment of asthma, cough, bronchitis, headache, rheumatism, fever, influenza and eczema. Several biological activities have been reported in Nigella sativa seeds, including antioxidant. In this context we tried to estimate the antioxidant activity of various extracts prepared from Nigella sativa seeds, methanolic extract (ME), chloroformic extract (CE), hexanic extract (HE : fixed oil), ethyl acetate extract (EAE) water extract (WE). The Folin-Ciocalteu assay showed that CE and EAE contained high level of phenolic compounds 81.31 and 72.43μg GAE/mg of extract respectively. Similarly, the CE and EAE exhibited the highest DPPH radical scavenging activity, with IC50 values of 106.56μg/ml and 121.62μg/ml respectively. In addition, CE and HE showed the most scavenging activity against superoxide radical generated in the PMS-NADH-NBT system with respective IC50 values of 361.86 μg/ml and 371.80 μg/ml, which is comparable to the activity of the standard antioxidant BHT (344.59 μg/ml). Ferrous ion chelating capacity assay showed that WE, EAE and ME are the most active with 40.57, 39.70 and 22.02 mg EDTA-E/g of extract. The inhibition of linoleic acid/ß-carotene coupled oxidation was estimated by ßcarotene bleaching assay, this showed a highest relative antioxidant activity with CE and EAE (69.82% of inhibition). The antioxidant activities of the methanolic extract and the fixed oil are confirmed by an in vivo assay in mice, the daily oral administration of methanolic extract (500 and 800 mg/kg/day) and fixed oil (2 and 4 ml/kg/day) during 21 days, resulted in a significant enhancement of the blood total antioxidant capacity (measured by KRL test) and the plasmatic antioxidant capacity towards DPPH radical.

Keywords: Antioxidant Capacity, Chelating, Phenolic Compounds, Nigella Sativa, Scavenger

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Authors: Ya-Hui Lee, Chien-Hung Hsieh, Ching-Yi Lu

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Demographic aging is the major problem that Taiwanese society is facing, and retirement life adaptation is the most concerning issue. In recent years, studies have suggested that in order to have successful aging and retirement planning, a view for the future is necessary. In Taiwan, civil servants receive better pensions and retirement benefits than do other industries. Therefore, their retirement preparation is considerably more significant than other senior groups in Taiwan. The purpose of this study is to understand the correlation of proactive coping and retirement planning of senior civil servants in Taiwan. The method is conducted by questionnaire surveys, with 342 valid questionnaires collected. The results of this study are: 1. The background variables of the interviewees, including age, perceived economic statuses, and retirement statuses, are all significantly related to their proactive coping and retirement planning. 2. Regarding age, the interviewees with ages 55 and above have better proactive coping and retirement planning than those with ages 45 and below. 3. In the aspect of perceived economic statuses, the participants who feel “very good” economic statuses have better proactive coping ability and retirement readiness than those who feel “bad” and “very bad”. 4. Retirees have better proactive coping and retirement planning than those who are still working. 5. Monthly income is significant in retirement planning only. The participants’ retirement planning would be better if they have higher incomes. Furthermore, the participants’ retirement planning would be better if their revenue were €1453~€1937, than if their revenue were below €968. 6. There are positive correlations between proactive coping and retirement planning. 7. Proactive coping can predict retirement planning. The result of this study will be provided as references to the Taiwan government for educational retirement planning policies.

Keywords: Civil servants, proactive coping, retirement planning.

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Authors: Csilla M. Szabó

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In Hungary, the society has changed a lot for the past 25 years, and these changes could be detected in educational situations as well. The number and the intensity of conflicts have been increased in most fields of life, as well as at schools. Teachers have difficulties to be able to handle school conflicts. What is more, the new net generation, generation Z has values and behavioural patterns different from those of the previous one, which might generate more serious conflicts at school, especially with teachers who were mainly socialising in a traditional teacher – student relationship. In Hungary, the bill CCIV of 2011 declared the foundation of Institutes of Teacher Training in higher education institutes. One of the tasks of the Institutes is to survey the competences and needs of teachers working in public education and to provide further trainings and services for them according to their needs and requirements. This job is supported by the Social Renewal Operative Programs 4.1.2.B. The professors of a college carried out a questionnaire and surveyed the needs and the requirements of teachers working in the region. Based on the results, the professors of the Institute of Teacher Training decided to meet the requirements of teachers and to launch short teacher further training courses in spring 2015. One of the courses is going to focus on school conflict management through mediation. The aim of the pilot course is to provide conflict management techniques for teachers and to present different mediation techniques to them. The theoretical part of the course (5 hours) will enable participants to understand the main points and the advantages of mediation, while the practical part (10 hours) will involve teachers in role plays to learn how to cope with conflict situations applying mediation. We hope if conflicts could be reduced, it would influence school atmosphere in a positive way and the teaching – learning process could be more successful and effective.

Keywords: Conflict resolution, generation Z, mediation, teacher training.

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Authors: Fakhrullah Sarwari, Hiroko Ono

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Kabul city has suffered a lot in 40 years of conflict of civil war and “The war on terror”. After the invasion of Afghanistan by the United States of America and its allies in 2001, the Taliban was removed from operational power, but The Taliban and other terrorist groups remained in remote areas of the country, they started suicide attacks and bombings. Hence to protect from these attacks officials surrounded their office buildings and houses with concrete blast walls. It gives a bad landscape to the city and creates traffic congestions. Our research contains; questionnaire, reviewing Kabul Municipality documents and literature review. Questionnaires were distributed to Kabul citizens to find out how people feel by seeing the T-Walls on Kabul streets? And what problems they face with T-Walls. “The T-Walls pull down commission” of Kabul Municipality documents were reviewed to find out what caused the failure of this commission. A literature review has been done to compare Kabul with Washington D.C on how they designed the city against terrorism threat without turning the cities into lock down. Bogota city of Columbia urban happiness movement is reviewed and compared with Kabul. The finding of research revealed that citizens of Kabul want security but not at the expense of public realm and creating the architecture of fear. It also indicates that increasing the T-walls do not give secure feeling but instead; it increases terror, hatred and affect people’s optimism. At the end, a series of recommendation is suggested on the issue.

Keywords: Anti-terror design, Kabul, T-Walls, urban happiness.

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Authors: A. Fallahi, R. Khamedi

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Dual phase steels (DPS)s have a microstructure consisting of a hard second phase called Martensite in the soft Ferrite matrix. In recent years, there has been interest in dual-phase steels, because the application of these materials has made significant usage; particularly in the automotive sector Composite microstructure of (DPS)s exhibit interesting characteristic mechanical properties such as continuous yielding, low yield stress to tensile strength ratios(YS/UTS), and relatively high formability; which offer advantages compared with conventional high strength low alloy steels(HSLAS). The research dealt with the characterization of damage in (DPS)s. In this study by review the mechanisms of failure due to volume fraction of martensite second phase; a new method is introduced to identifying the mechanisms of failure in the various phases of these types of steels. In this method the acoustic emission (AE) technique was used to detect damage progression. These failure mechanisms consist of Ferrite-Martensite interface decohesion and/or martensite phase fracture. For this aim, dual phase steels with different volume fraction of martensite second phase has provided by various heat treatment methods on a low carbon steel (0.1% C), and then AE monitoring is used during tensile test of these DPSs. From AE measurements and an energy ratio curve elaborated from the value of AE energy (it was obtained as the ratio between the strain energy to the acoustic energy), that allows detecting important events, corresponding to the sudden drops. These AE signals events associated with various failure mechanisms are classified for ferrite and (DPS)s with various amount of Vm and different martensite morphology. It is found that AE energy increase with increasing Vm. This increasing of AE energy is because of more contribution of martensite fracture in the failure of samples with higher Vm. Final results show a good relationship between the AE signals and the mechanisms of failure.

Keywords: Dual phase steel (DPS)s, Failure mechanisms, Acoustic Emission, Fracture strain energy to the acoustic energy.

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Authors: Haruo Okabayashi

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Human biological signals (pulse wave and brain wave, etc.) have a rhythm which shows fluctuations. This study investigates the relationship between fluctuations of biological signals which are shown by a finger plethysmogram (i.e., finger pulse wave) in conversation and anthropophobic tendency, and identifies whether the fluctuation could be an index of mental health. 32 college students participated in the experiment. The finger plethysmogram of each subject was measured in the following conversation situations: Fun memory talking/listening situation and regrettable memory talking/ listening situation for three minutes each. Lyspect 3.5 was used to collect the data of the finger plethysmogram. Since Lyspect calculates the Lyapunov spectrum, it is possible to obtain the largest Lyapunov exponent (LLE). LLE is an indicator of the fluctuation and shows the degree to which a measure is going away from close proximity to the track in a dynamical system. Before the finger plethysmogram experiment, each participant took the psychological test questionnaire “Anthropophobic Scale.” The scale measures the social phobia trend close to the consciousness of social phobia. It is revealed that there is a remarkable relationship between the fluctuation of the finger plethysmography and anthropophobic tendency scale in talking about a regrettable story in conversation: The participants (N=15) who have a low anthropophobic tendency show significantly more fluctuation of finger pulse waves than the participants (N=17) who have a high anthropophobic tendency (F (1, 31) =5.66, p<0.05). That is, the participants who have a low anthropophobic tendency make conversation flexibly using large fluctuation of biological signal; on the other hand, the participants who have a high anthropophobic tendency constrain a conversation because of small fluctuation. Therefore, fluctuation is not an error but an important drive to make better relationships with others and go towards the development of interaction. In considering mental health, the fluctuation of biological signals would be an important indicator.

Keywords: Anthropophobic tendency, finger plethymogram, fluctuation of biological signal, LLE.

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Authors: Romeo A. Botes, Imelda Smit

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The demands of an ever changing and complex higher education environment, along with the profile of modern learners challenge current approaches to assessment and feedback. More learners enter the education system every year. The younger generation expects immediate feedback. At the same time, feedback should be meaningful. The assessment of practical activities in programming poses a particular problem, since both lecturers and learners in the information and computer science discipline acknowledge that paper-based assessment for programming subjects lacks meaningful real-life testing. At the same time, feedback lacks promptness, consistency, comprehensiveness and individualisation. Most of these aspects may be addressed by modern, technology-assisted assessment. The focus of this paper is the continuous development of an artefact that is used to assist the lecturer in the assessment and feedback of practical programming activities in a senior database programming class. The artefact was developed using three Design Science Research cycles. The first implementation allowed one programming activity submission per assessment intervention. This pilot provided valuable insight into the obstacles regarding the implementation of this type of assessment tool. A second implementation improved the initial version to allow multiple programming activity submissions per assessment. The focus of this version is on providing scaffold feedback to the learner – allowing improvement with each subsequent submission. It also has a built-in capability to provide the lecturer with information regarding the key problem areas of each assessment intervention.

Keywords: Programming, computer-aided assessment, technology-assisted assessment, programming assessment software, design science research, mixed-method.

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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: Armaghan Eslami, Nasrin Arshadi

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Scarce resources are the inseparable part of organization life. This fact that only small number of the employees can have these resources such as promotion, raise, and recognition can cause competition among employees, which create competitive climate. As well as any other competition, small number wins the reward, and a great number loses, one of the possible emotional reactions to this loss is negative emotions like malicious envy. In this case, the envious person may try to harm the envied person by reducing the prosocial behavior. Prosocial behavior is a behavior that aimed to benefit others. The main propose of this action is to maintain and increase well-being and well-fare of others. Therefore, one of the easiest ways for harming envied one is to suppress prosocial behavior. Prosocial behavior has positive and important implication for organizational efficiency. Our results supported our model and suggested that competitive climate has a significant effect on increasing workplace envy and on the other hand envy has significant negative impact on prosocial behavior. Our result also indicated that envy is the mediator in the relation between competitive climate and prosocial behavior. Organizational competitive climate can cause employees respond envy with negative emotion and hostile and damaging behavior toward envied person. Competition can lead employees to look out for proof of their self-worthiness; and, furthermore, they measure their self-worth, value and respect by the superiority that they gain in competitions. As a result, loss in competitions can harm employee’s self-definition and they try to protect themselves by devaluating envied other and being ‘less friendly’ to them. Some employees may find it inappropriate to engage in the harming behavior, but they may believe there is nothing against withholding the prosocial behavior.

Keywords: Competitive climate, mediator, prosocial behavior, workplace envy.

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Authors: Michaela Skulinova, Wanping Zheng, Yan-Ru Hu, Yvan Soucy

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Space exploration is a highly visible endeavour of humankind to seek profound answers to questions about the origins of our solar system, whether life exists beyond Earth, and how we could live on other worlds. Different platforms have been utilized in planetary exploration missions, such as orbiters, landers, rovers, and penetrators. Having low mass, good mechanical contact with the surface, ability to acquire high quality scientific subsurface data, and ability to be deployed in areas that may not be conducive to landers or rovers, Penetrators provide an alternative and complimentary solution that makes possible scientific exploration of hardly accessible sites (icy areas, gully sites, highlands etc.). The Canadian Space Agency (CSA) has put space exploration as one of the pillars of its space program, and established ExCo program to prepare Canada for future international planetary exploration. ExCo sets surface mobility as its focus and priority, and invests mainly in the development of rovers because of Canada's niche space robotics technology. Meanwhile, CSA is also investigating how micro-penetrators can help Canada to fulfill its scientific objectives for planetary exploration. This paper presents a review of the micro-penetrator technologies, past missions, and lessons learned. It gives a detailed analysis of the technical challenges of micro-penetrators, such as high impact survivability, high precision guidance navigation and control, thermal protection, communications, and etc. Then, a Canadian perspective of a possible micro-penetrator mission is given, including Canadian scientific objectives and priorities, potential instruments, and flight opportunities.

Keywords: micro-penetrator, CSA, planetary exploration

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Authors: L. R. Ferreira, R. C. G. Bianchi, L. C.R. Ferreira, C. M. Galhardi, E. P. Baciuk, L. H. Oliveira

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Inhalation hazards are associated with potentially injurious exposure and increased risk for lung diseases, within the bauxite mining industry, especially for the smelter workers. Smoking is related to decreased lung function and leads to chronic lung diseases. This study had the objective to evaluate whether smoking is related to functional and radiographic respiratory changes in retired bauxite mining workers. Methods: This was a retrospective and cross-sectional study involving the analysis of database information of 140 retired bauxite mining workers from Poços de Caldas-MG evaluated at Worker’s Health Reference Center and at the Social Security Brazilian National Institute, from July 1^st, 2015 until June 30^th, 2016. The workers were divided into three groups: non-smokers (n = 47), ex-smokers (n = 46), and smokers (n = 47). The data included: age, gender, spirometry results, and the presence or not of pulmonary pleural and/or parenchymal changes in chest radiographs. Chi-Squared test was used (p < 0,05). Results: In the smokers’ group, 83% of spirometry tests and 64% of chest x-rays were altered. In the non-smokers’ group, 19% of spirometry tests and 13% of chest x-rays were altered. In the ex-smokers’ group, 35% of spirometry tests and 30% of chest x-rays were altered. Most of the results were statistically significant. Results demonstrated a significant difference between smokers’ and non-smokers’ groups in regard to spirometric and radiographic pulmonary alterations. Ex-smokers’ and non-smokers’ group demonstrated better results when compared to the smokers’ group in relation to altered spirometry and radiograph findings. These data may contribute to planning strategies to enhance smoking cessation programs within the bauxite mining industry.

Keywords: Bauxite mining, spirometry, chest radiography, smoking.

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Authors: Danielle Shackley, Yetunde Folajimi

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As more people turn to the internet seeking health related information, there is more risk of finding false, inaccurate, or dangerous information. Sentiment analysis is a natural language processing technique that assigns polarity scores of text, ranging from positive, neutral and negative. In this research, we evaluate the weight of a sentiment analysis feature added to fake health news classification models. The dataset consists of existing reliably labeled health article headlines that were supplemented with health information collected about COVID-19 from social media sources. We started with data preprocessing, tested out various vectorization methods such as Count and TFIDF vectorization. We implemented 3 Naive Bayes classifier models, including Bernoulli, Multinomial and Complement. To test the weight of the sentiment analysis feature on the dataset, we created benchmark Naive Bayes classification models without sentiment analysis, and those same models were reproduced and the feature was added. We evaluated using the precision and accuracy scores. The Bernoulli initial model performed with 90% precision and 75.2% accuracy, while the model supplemented with sentiment labels performed with 90.4% precision and stayed constant at 75.2% accuracy. Our results show that the addition of sentiment analysis did not improve model precision by a wide margin; while there was no evidence of improvement in accuracy, we had a 1.9% improvement margin of the precision score with the Complement model. Future expansion of this work could include replicating the experiment process, and substituting the Naive Bayes for a deep learning neural network model.

Keywords: Sentiment analysis, Naive Bayes model, natural language processing, topic analysis, fake health news classification model.

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Authors: A. Yavar, S. Sarmani, K. S. Khoo

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The analysis of trace elements in human hair provides crucial insights into an individual's nutritional status and environmental exposure. This research aimed to examine the levels of toxic and essential elements in the scalp hair of school children aged 12-17 from three villages (Anglong Romiot (AR), Svay Romiot (SR), and Kampong Kong (KK)) in Cambodia's Kandal province, a region where residents are especially vulnerable to toxic elements, notably arsenic (As), due to their dietary habits, lifestyle, and environmental conditions. The scalp hair samples were analyzed using the k0-Instrumental Neutron Activation method (k0-INAA), with a six-hour irradiation period in the Malaysian Nuclear Agency (MNA) research reactor followed by High Purity Germanium (HPGe) detector use to identify the gamma peaks of radionuclides. The analysis identified 31 elements in the human hair from the study area, including As, Au, Br, Ca, Ce, Co, Dy, Eu-152m, Hg-197, Hg-203, Ho, Ir, K, La, Lu, Mn, Na, Pa, Pt-195m, Pt-197, Sb, Sc-46, Sc-47, Sm, Sn-117m, W-181, W-187, Yb-169, Yb-175, Zn, and Zn-69m. The accuracy of the method was verified through the analysis of ERM-DB001-human hair as a Certified Reference Material (CRM), with the results demonstrating consistency with the certified values. Given the prevalent arsenic pollution in the research area, the study also examined the relationship between the concentration of As and other elements using Pearson's correlation test. The outcomes offer a comprehensive resource for future investigations into toxic and essential element presence in the region. In the main body of the paper, a more extensive discussion on the implications of arsenic pollution and the correlations observed is provided to enhance understanding and inform future research directions.

Keywords: Human scalp hair, toxic and essential elements, Kandal Province, Cambodia, k0-Instrumental Neutron Activation Method.

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Authors: R. O. B. Bitencourt, F. S. Farias, M. C. Freitas, C. J. R. Balduino, E.S. Mesquita, A. R. C. Corval, P. S. Gôlo, E. G. Pontes, V. R. E. P. Bittencourt, I. C. Angelo

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Aedes aegypti larval survival rate was assessed after exposure to blastopores or conidia (mineral oil-in-water formulation or aqueous suspension) of Beauveria bassiana CG 479 propagules (blastospores or conidia). Here, mineral oil was used in the fungal formulation to control Aedes aegypti larvae. 1%, 0.5% or 0.1% mineral oil-in-water solutions were used to evaluate mineral oil toxicity for mosquito larvae. In the oil toxicity test, 0.1% mineral oil solution reduced only 4.5% larval survival; accordingly, this concentration was chosen for fungal oil-in-water formulations. Aqueous suspensions were prepared using 0.01% Tween 80^® in sterile dechlorinated water. A. aegypti larvae (L₂) were exposed in aqueous suspensions or mineral oil-in-water fungal formulations at 1×107 propagules mL^-1; the survival rate (assessed daily, for 7 days) and the median survival time (S₅₀) were calculated. Seven days after the treatment, mosquito larvae survival rates were 8.56%, 16.22%, 58%, and 42.56% after exposure to oil-in-water blastospores, oil-in-water conidia, blastospores aqueous suspension and conidia aqueous suspension (respectively). Larvae exposed to 0.01% Tween 80^® had 100% survival rate and the ones treated with 0.1% mineral oil-in-water had 95.11% survival rate. Larvae treated with conidia (regardless the presence of oil) or treated with blastospores formulation had survival median time (S₅₀) ranging from one to two days. S₅₀ was not determined (ND) when larvae were exposed to blastospores aqueous suspension, 0.01% Tween 80^® (aqueous control) or 0.1% mineral oil-in-water formulation (oil control). B. bassiana conidia and blastospores (mineral oil-in-water formulated or suspended in water) had potential to control A. aegypti mosquito larvae, despite mineral oil-in-water formulation yielded better results in comparison to aqueous suspensions. Here, B. bassiana CG 479 isolate is suggested as a potential biocontrol agent of A. aegypti mosquito larvae.

Keywords: Blastospores, formulation, mosquitoes, conidia.

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Authors: Imad M. Assali

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Recently, the world main problem is a global warming and climate change affecting both outdoor and indoor environments, especially the air quality (AQ) as a result of vast migration of people from rural areas to urban areas. Therefore, cities became more crowded and denser from an irregular population increase, along with increasing urbanization caused many problems for the environment such as increasing the land prices, changes in life style, and the new buildings are not adapted to the climate producing uncomfortable and unhealthy indoor building conditions. As interior environments are the places that create the most intimate relationship with the user. Consequently, the indoor environment quality (IEQ) for buildings became uncomfortable and unhealthy for its occupants. The symptoms commonly associated with poor indoor environment such as itchy, headache, fatigue, and respiratory complaints such as cough and congestion, etc. The symptoms tend to improve over time or even disappear when people are away from the building. Therefore, designing a healthy indoor environment to fulfill human needs is the main concern for architects and interior designer. However, this research explores how occupant expectations and environmental attitudes may influence occupant health and satisfaction within the context of the indoor environment. In doing so, it reviews and contributes to the methods and tools used to evaluate only the indoor environment quality (IEQ) components of building performance. Its main aim is to review the literature on indoor human comfort. This is followed by a review of previous papers published related to human comfort. Finally, this paper will provide possible approaches in design level of healthy buildings.

Keywords: Sustainable building, indoor environment quality (IEQ), occupant's health, active system, sick building syndrome (SBS).

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Authors: Juliana C. Alencar, Monica Ferreira do Amaral Porto

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The blue-green infrastructure in recent years has been pointed out as a possibility to increase the environmental quality of watersheds. The regulation ecosystem services brought by these areas are many, such as the improvement of the air quality of the air, water, soil, microclimate, besides helping to control the peak flows and to promote the quality of life of the population. This study proposes a blue-green infrastructure scenario for the Jaguaré watershed, located in the western zone of the São Paulo city in Brazil. Based on the proposed scenario, it was verified the impact of the adoption of the blue and green infrastructure in the control of the peak flow of the basin, the benefits for the avifauna that are also reflected in the flora and finally, the quantification of the regulation ecosystem services brought by the adoption of the scenario proposed. A survey of existing green areas and potential areas for expansion and connection of these areas to form a network in the watershed was carried out. Based on this proposed new network of green areas, the peak flow for the proposed scenario was calculated with the help of software, ABC6. Finally, a survey of the ecosystem services contemplated in the proposed scenario was made. It was possible to conclude that the blue and green infrastructure would provide several regulation ecosystem services for the watershed, such as the control of the peak flow, the connection frame between the forest fragments that promoted the environmental enrichment of these fragments, improvement of the microclimate and the provision of leisure areas for the population.

Keywords: Blue and green infrastructure, sustainable drainage, urban waters, ecosystem services.

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Authors: M. McHugh, D. Lillis

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Mobile applications are being used to perform a wide variety of tasks in day-to-day life, ranging from checking email to controlling your home heating. Application developers have recognized the potential to transform a smart device into a medical device, by using a mobile medical application i.e. a mobile phone or a tablet. When initially conceived these mobile medical applications performed basic functions e.g. BMI calculator, accessing reference material etc.; however, increasing complexity offers clinicians and patients a range of functionality. As this complexity and functionality increases, so too does the potential risk associated with using such an application. Examples include any applications that provide the ability to inflate and deflate blood pressure cuffs, as well as applications that use patient-specific parameters and calculate dosage or create a dosage plan for radiation therapy. If an unapproved mobile medical application is marketed by a medical device organization, then they face significant penalties such as receiving an FDA warning letter to cease the prohibited activity, fines and possibility of facing a criminal conviction. Regulatory bodies have finalized guidance intended for mobile application developers to establish if their applications are subject to regulatory scrutiny. However, regulatory controls appear contradictory with the approaches taken by mobile application developers who generally work with short development cycles and very little documentation and as such, there is the potential to stifle further improvements due to these regulations. The research presented as part of this paper details how by adopting development techniques, such as agile software development, mobile medical application developers can meet regulatory requirements whilst still fostering innovation.

Keywords: Medical, mobile, applications, software Engineering, FDA, standards, regulations, agile.

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Authors: B. Sadepovich Maikanov, Z. Shabanbayevich Adilbekov, R. Husainovna Mustafina, L. Tyulegenovna Auteleyeva

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This study involves detailed information about contaminants of honey in the Republic of Kazakhstan. The requirements of the technical regulation ‘Requirements to safety of honey and bee products’ and GOST 19792-2001 were taken into account in this research. Contamination of honey by antibiotics wqs determined by the IEA (immune-enzyme analysis), Ridder analyzer and Tecna produced test systems. Voltammetry (TaLab device) was used to define contamination by salts of heavy metals and gamma-beta spectrometry, ‘Progress BG’ system, with preliminary ashing of the sample of honey was used to define radioactive contamination. This article pointed out that residues of chloramphenicol were detected in 24% of investigated products, in 22% of them –streptomycin, in 7.3% - sulfanilamide, in 2.4% - tylosin, and in 12% - combined contamination was noted. Geographically, the greatest degree of contamination of honey with antibiotics occurs in the Northern Kazakhstan – 54.4%, and Southern Kazakhstan - 50%, and the lowest in Central and Eastern Kazakhstan with 30% and 25%, respectively. Generally, pollution by heavy metals is within acceptable limits, but the contamination from lead is highest in the Akmola region. The level of radioactive cesium and strontium is also within acceptable concentrations. The highest radioactivity in terms of cesium was observed in the East Kazakhstan region - 49.00±10 Bq/kg, in Akmola, North Kazakhstan and Almaty - 12.00±5, 11.05±3 and 19.0±8 Bq/kg, respectively, while the norm is 100 Bq/kg. In terms of strontium, the radioactivity in the East Kazakhstan region is 25.03±15 Bq/kg, while in Akmola, North Kazakhstan and Almaty regions it is 12.00±3, 10.2±4 and 1.0±2 Bq/kg, respectively, with the norm of 80 Bq/kg. This accumulation is mainly associated with the environmental degradation, feeding and treating of bees. Moreover, in the process of collecting nectar, external substances can penetrate honey. Overall, this research determines factors and reasons of honey contamination.

Keywords: Antibiotics, contamination of honey, honey, radionuclides.

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Authors: Wisnu Adi Yulianto, Agus Slamet, Sri Luwihana, Septian Albar Dwi Suprayogi

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Parboiled rice was developed to produce rice, which has a low glycemic index for diabetics. However, diabetics also have a chromium (Cr) deficiency. Thus, it is important to fortify rice with Cr to increase the Cr content. Moreover, parboiled rice becomes rancid easily and has a musty odor, rendering the rice unfavorable. Natural herbs such as pandan leaves (Pandanus amaryllifolius Roxb.), bay leaves (Syzygium polyanthum [Wigh] Walp) and cinnamon bark powder (Cinnamomon cassia) are commonly added to food as aroma enhancers. Previous research has shown that these herbs could improve insulin sensitivity. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effect of herbal extract coatings on the cooking quality and the preference level of chromium fortified - parboiled rice (CFPR). The rice grain variety used for this experiment was Ciherang and the fortificant was CrCl3. The three herbal extracts used for coating the CFPR were cinnamon, pandan and bay leaf, with concentration variations of 3%, 6%, and 9% (w/w) for each of the extracts. The samples were analyzed for their alkali spreading value, cooking time, elongation, water uptake ratio, solid loss, colour and lightness; and their sensory properties were determined by means of an organoleptic test. The research showed that coating the CFPR with pandan and cinnamon extracts at a concentration of 3% each produced a preferred CFPR. When coated with those herbal extracts the CFPR had the following cooking quality properties: alkali spreading value 5 (intermediate gelatinization temperature), cooking time, 26-27 min, color value, 14.95-15.00, lightness, 42.30 – 44.06, elongation, 1.53 – 1.54, water uptake ratio , 4.05-4.06, and solid loss, 0.09/100 g – 0.13 g/100 g.

Keywords: Bay leaves, chromium, cinnamon, pandan leaves, parboiled rice.

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Authors: V.D. Hatamipour, M.A. Akhavan-Behabadi

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Evaporator is an important and widely used heat exchanger in air conditioning and refrigeration industries. Different methods have been used by investigators to increase the heat transfer rates in evaporators. One of the passive techniques to enhance heat transfer coefficient is the application of microfin tubes. The mechanism of heat transfer augmentation in microfin tubes is dependent on the flow regime of two-phase flow. Therefore many investigations of the flow patterns for in-tube evaporation have been reported in literatures. The gravitational force, surface tension and the vapor-liquid interfacial shear stress are known as three dominant factors controlling the vapor and liquid distribution inside the tube. A review of the existing literature reveals that the previous investigations were concerned with the two-phase flow pattern for flow boiling in horizontal tubes [12], [9]. Therefore, the objective of the present investigation is to obtain information about the two-phase flow patterns for evaporation of R-134a inside horizontal smooth and microfin tubes. Also Investigation of heat transfer during flow boiling of R-134a inside horizontal microfin and smooth tube have been carried out experimentally The heat transfer coefficients for annular flow in the smooth tube is shown to agree well with Gungor and Winterton-s correlation [4]. All the flow patterns occurred in the test can be divided into three dominant regimes, i.e., stratified-wavy flow, wavy-annular flow and annular flow. Experimental data are plotted in two kinds of flow maps, i.e., Weber number for the vapor versus weber number for the liquid flow map and mass flux versus vapor quality flow map. The transition from wavy-annular flow to annular or stratified-wavy flow is identified in the flow maps.

Keywords: Flow boiling, Flow pattern, Heat transfer, Horizontal, Smooth tube, Microfin tube.

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Authors: Katarzyna Rzeszut, Ilona Szewczak

Abstract:

The review of selected methods of strengthening of steel structures with carbon fiber reinforced polymer (CFRP) tapes and the analysis of influence of composite materials on the steel thin-walled elements are performed in this paper. The study is also focused to the problem of applying fast and effective strengthening methods of the steel structures made of thin-walled profiles. It is worth noting that the issue of strengthening the thin-walled structures is a very complex, due to inability to perform welded joints in this type of elements and the limited ability to applying mechanical fasteners. Moreover, structures made of thin-walled cross-section demonstrate a high sensitivity to imperfections and tendency to interactive buckling, which may substantially contribute to the reduction of critical load capacity. Due to the lack of commonly used and recognized modern methods of strengthening of thin-walled steel structures, authors performed the experimental studies of thin-walled sigma profiles strengthened with CFRP tapes. The paper presents the experimental stand and the preliminary results of laboratory test concerning the analysis of the effectiveness of the strengthening steel beams made of thin-walled sigma profiles with CFRP tapes. The study includes six beams made of the cold-rolled sigma profiles with height of 140 mm, wall thickness of 2.5 mm, and a length of 3 m, subjected to the uniformly distributed load. Four beams have been strengthened with carbon fiber tape Sika CarboDur S, while the other two were tested without strengthening to obtain reference results. Based on the obtained results, the evaluation of the accuracy of applied composite materials for strengthening of thin-walled structures was performed.

Keywords: CFRP tapes, sigma profiles, steel thin-walled structures, strengthening.

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Authors: V. M. Mmbengwa, J. R. M. Mabuso, C. P. Du Plooy, S. Laurrie, H. D. van Schalkwyk

Abstract:

Sweet potato products are necessary for the provision of essential nutrients in every household, regardless of their poverty status. Their consumption appears to be highly influenced by socioeconomic factors, such as malnutrition, food insecurity and unemployment. Therefore, market availability is crucial for these cultivars to resolve some of the socio-economic factors. The aim of the study was to investigate market availability of sweet potato cultivars in the North West Province. In this study, both qualitative and quantitative research methodologies were used. Qualitative methodology was used to explain the quantitative outcomes of the variables. On the other hand, quantitative results were used to test the hypothesis. The study used SPSS software to analyse the data. Crosstabulation and Chi-square statistics were used to obtain the descriptive and inferential analyses, respectively. The study found that the Blesbok cultivar is dominating the markets of the North West Province, with the Monate cultivar dominating in the Bojanala Platinum (75%) and Dr Ruth Segomotsi Mompati (25%) districts. It is also found that a unit increase in the supply of sweet potato cultivars in both local and district municipal markets is accompanied by a reduced demand of 28% and 33% at district and local markets, respectively. All these results were found to be significant at p<0.05. The results further revealed that in four out of nine local municipality markets, the Blesbok cultivar seems to be solely available in those four local municipal markets of North West Province. It can be concluded that Blesbok, relative to other cultivars, is the most commercialised sweet potato variety and that consumers across this Province are highly aware of it. For other cultivars to assume market prominence in this Province, a well-designed marketing campaign for creating awareness may be required. This campaign may be based on nutritional advantages of different cultivars, of which Blesbok is relatively inferior, compared to orange-fleshed sweet potato varieties.

Keywords: Cultivar, malnutrition, markets, sweet potato.

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Authors: E. Dolatdar, S. Soleymani, B. Mozafari

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Power loss reduction is one of the main targets in power industry and so in this paper, the problem of finding the optimal configuration of a radial distribution system for loss reduction is considered. Optimal reconfiguration involves the selection of the best set of branches to be opened ,one each from each loop, for reducing resistive line losses , and reliving overloads on feeders by shifting the load to adjacent feeders. However ,since there are many candidate switching combinations in the system ,the feeder reconfiguration is a complicated problem. In this paper a new approach is proposed based on a simple optimum loss calculation by determining optimal trees of the given network. From graph theory a distribution network can be represented with a graph that consists a set of nodes and branches. In fact this problem can be viewed as a problem of determining an optimal tree of the graph which simultaneously ensure radial structure of each candidate topology .In this method the refined genetic algorithm is also set up and some improvements of algorithm are made on chromosome coding. In this paper an implementation of the algorithm presented by [7] is applied by modifying in load flow program and a comparison of this method with the proposed method is employed. In [7] an algorithm is proposed that the choice of the switches to be opened is based on simple heuristic rules. This algorithm reduce the number of load flow runs and also reduce the switching combinations to a fewer number and gives the optimum solution. To demonstrate the validity of these methods computer simulations with PSAT and MATLAB programs are carried out on 33-bus test system. The results show that the performance of the proposed method is better than [7] method and also other methods.

Keywords: Distribution System, Reconfiguration, Loss Reduction , Graph Theory , Optimization , Genetic Algorithm

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Authors: Ju-Chun Chien

Abstract:

The Ottawa Charter for Health Promotion proposed that the role of health services should shift the focus from cure to prevention. Nowadays, besides having physical examinations, people could also conduct genetic tests to provide important information for diagnosing, treating, and/or preventing illnesses. However, because of the incompletion of the Chinese Genetic Database, people in Taiwan were still unfamiliar with genetic testing. The purposes of the present study were to: (1) Figure out people’s attitudes towards genetic testing. (2) Examine factors that influence people’s intention to pursue genetic testing by means of the Health Belief Model (HBM). A pilot study was conducted on 249 Taiwanese in 2017 to test the feasibility of the self-developed instrument. The reliability and construct validity of scores on the self-developed questionnaire revealed that this HBM-based questionnaire with 40 items was a well-developed instrument. A total of 542 participants were recruited and the valid participants were 535 (99%) between the ages of 20 and 86. Descriptive statistics, one-way ANOVA, two-way contingency table analysis, Pearson’s correlation, and stepwise multiple regression analysis were used in this study. The main results were that only 32 participants (6%) had already undergone genetic testing; moreover, their attitude towards genetic testing was more positive than those who did not have the experience. Compared with people who never underwent genetic tests, those who had gone for genetic testing had higher self-efficacy, greater intention to pursue genetic testing, had academic majors in health-related fields, had chronic and genetic diseases, possessed Catastrophic Illness Cards, and all of them had heard about genetic testing. The variables that best predicted people’s intention to pursue genetic testing were cues to action, self-efficacy, and perceived benefits (the three variables all correlated with one another positively at high magnitudes). To sum up, the HBM could be effective in designing and identifying the needs and priorities of the target population to pursue genetic testing.

Keywords: Genetic testing, intention to pursue genetic testing, Taiwan, health belief model.

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Authors: Anjan Kumar Kakati, M. Chandrasekaran, Amitava Mandal, Amit Kumar Singh

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End milling process is one of the common metal cutting operations used for machining parts in manufacturing industry. It is usually performed at the final stage in manufacturing a product and surface roughness of the produced job plays an important role. In general, the surface roughness affects wear resistance, ductility, tensile, fatigue strength, etc., for machined parts and cannot be neglected in design. In the present work an experimental investigation of end milling of aluminium alloy with carbide tool is carried out and the effect of different cutting parameters on the response are studied with three-dimensional surface plots. An artificial neural network (ANN) is used to establish the relationship between the surface roughness and the input cutting parameters (i.e., spindle speed, feed, and depth of cut). The Matlab ANN toolbox works on feed forward back propagation algorithm is used for modeling purpose. 3-12-1 network structure having minimum average prediction error found as best network architecture for predicting surface roughness value. The network predicts surface roughness for unseen data and found that the result/prediction is better. For desired surface finish of the component to be produced there are many different combination of cutting parameters are available. The optimum cutting parameter for obtaining desired surface finish, to maximize tool life is predicted. The methodology is demonstrated, number of problems are solved and algorithm is coded in Matlab®.

Keywords: End milling, Surface roughness, Neural networks.

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Authors: Dong Xie, Jun Zhao, Yiming Weng

Abstract:

The objective of this study was to synthesize and characterize the poly(alkenoic acid)s with different molecular structures, use these polymers to formulate a dental cement restorative, and study the effect of molecular structures on reaction kinetics, viscosity, and mechanical strengths of the formed polymers and cement restoratives. In this study, poly(alkenoic acid)s with different molecular structures were synthesized. The purified polymers were formulated with commercial Fuji II LC glass fillers to form the experimental cement restoratives. The reaction kinetics was studied via 1HNMR spectroscopy. The formed restoratives were evaluated using compressive strength, diametral tensile strength, flexural strength, hardness and wear-resistance tests. Specimens were conditioned in distilled water at 37oC for 24 h prior to testing. Fuji II LC restorative was used as control. The results show that the higher the arm number and initiator concentration, the faster the reaction was. It was also found that the higher the arm number and branching that the polymer had, the lower the viscosity of the polymer in water and the lower the mechanical strengths of the formed restorative. The experimental restoratives were 31-53% in compressive strength, 37- 55% in compressive modulus, 80-126% in diametral tensile strength, 76-94% in flexural strength, 4-21% in fracture toughness and 53-96% in hardness higher than Fuji II LC. For wear test, the experimental restoratives were only 5.4-13% of abrasive and 6.4-12% of attritional wear depths of Fuji II LC in each wear cycle. The aging study also showed that all the experimental restoratives increased their strength continuously during 30 days, unlike Fuji II LC. It is concluded that polymer molecular structures have significant and positive impact on mechanical properties of dental cement restoratives.

Keywords: Poly(alkenoic acid)s, molecular structures, dental cement, mechanical strength.

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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: Mun Yee Chan, Sin Ming Goh, Lisa Gaik Ai Ong

Abstract:

Approximately 10,000 different types of dyes and pigments are being used in various industrial applications yearly, which include the textile and printing industries. However, these dyes are difficult to degrade naturally once they enter the aquatic system. Their high persistency in natural environment poses a potential health hazard to all form of life. Hence, there is a need for alternative dye removal strategy in the environment via bioremediation. In this study, fungi laccase is investigated via commercial agar dyes plates and submerged fermentation to explore the application of fungi laccase in textile dye wastewater treatment. Two locally isolated basidiomycetes were screened for laccase activity using media added with commercial dyes such as 2, 2-azino-bis (3-ethylbenzothiazoline-6-sulfonic acid (ABTS), guaiacol and Remazol Brillant Blue R (RBBR). Isolate TBB3 (1.70±0.06) and EL2 (1.78±0.08) gave the highest results for ABTS plates with the appearance of greenish halo on around the isolates. Submerged fermentation performed on Isolate TBB3 with the productivity 3.9067 U/ml/day, whereas the laccase activity for Isolate EL2 was much lower (0.2097 U/ml/day). As isolate TBB3 showed higher laccase production, it was subjected to molecular characterization by DNA isolation, PCR amplification and sequencing of ITS region of nuclear ribosomal DNA. After being compared with other sequences in National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI database), isolate TBB3 is probably from species Trametes hirsutei. Further research work can be performed on this isolate by upscale the production of laccase in order to meet the demands of the requirement for higher enzyme titer for the bioremediation of textile dyes.

Keywords: Bioremediation, dyes, fermentation, laccase.

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Authors: Berna Istegun, Erkan Celebi

Abstract:

The main objective of this experimental study is to assess the shear strength and the crack behavior of the triplets built of perforated brickwork masonry elements. In order to observe the influence of shear resistance and energy dissipating before and after retrofitting applications by using the reinforcing system, static-cyclic shear tests were employed in the structural mechanics laboratory of Sakarya University. The reinforcing system is composed of hybrid multiaxial seismic fabric consisting of alkali resistant glass and polypropylene fibers. The plaster as bonding material used in the specimen’s retrofitting consists of expanded glass granular. In order to acquire exact measuring data about the failure behavior of the two mortar joints under shear stressing, vertical load-controlled cylinder having force capacity of 50 kN and loading rate of 1.5 mm/min. with an internal inductive displacement transducers is carried out perpendicular to the triplet specimens. In this study, a total of six triplet specimens with textile reinforcement were prepared for these shear bond tests. The three of them were produced as single-sided reinforced triplets with seismic fabric, while the others were strengthened on both sides. In addition, three triplet specimens without retrofitting and plaster were also tested as reference samples. The obtained test results were given in the manner of force-displacement relationships, ductility coefficients and shear strength parameters comparatively. It is concluded that two-side seismic textile applications on masonry elements with relevant plaster have considerably increased the sheer force resistance and the ductility capacity.

Keywords: Triplet shears tests, retrofitting, seismic fabric, perforated brickwork, expanded glass granular.

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Authors: Sushil Kumar Swar, Sanjay Kumar Sharma, Hari Krishan Sharma, Sushil Kumar

Abstract:

The seriously damaged structures during earthquakes show the need and importance of design of reinforced concrete structures with high ductility. Reinforced concrete beam-column joints have an important function in all structures. Under seismic excitation, the beam column joint region is subjected to horizontal and vertical shear forces whose magnitude is many times higher than the adjacent beam and column. Strength and ductility of structures depends mainly on proper detailing of the reinforcement in beamcolumn joints and the old structures were found ductility deficient. DSP materials are obtained by using high quantities of super plasticizers and high volumes of micro silica. In the case of High Performance Densified Small Particle Concrete (HPDSPC), since concrete is dense even at the micro-structure level, tensile strain would be much higher than that of the conventional SFRC, SIFCON & SIMCON. This in turn will improve cracking behaviour, ductility and energy absorption capacity of composites in addition to durability. The fine fibers used in our mix are 0.3mm diameter and 10 mm which can be easily placed with high percentage. These fibers easily transfer stresses and act as a composite concrete unit to take up extremely high loads with high compressive strength. HPDSPC placed in the beam column joints helps in safety of human life due to prolonged failure.

Keywords: High Performance Densified Small Particle Concrete (HPDSPC), Steel Fıber Reinforced Concrete (SFRC), Slurry Infiltrated Concrete (SIFCON), Slurry Infiltrated Mat Concrete (SIMCON).

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