Search results for: architectures and frameworks for health informatics systems

Authors: Vinay Agrawal, Suyash Garg, Ravindra Nagar, Vinay Chandwani

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Open ground storey with floating columns is a typical feature in the modern multistory constructions in urban India. Such features are very much undesirable in buildings built in seismically active areas. The present study proposes a feasible solution to mitigate the effects caused due to non-uniformity of stiffness and discontinuity in load path and to simultaneously hold the functional use of the open storey particularly under the floating column, through a combination of various lateral strengthening systems. An investigation is performed on an example building with nine different analytical models to bring out the importance of recognising the presence of open ground storey and floating columns. Two separate analyses on various models of the building namely, the equivalent static analysis and the response spectrum analysis as per IS: 1893-2002 were performed. Various measures such as incorporation of Chevron bracings and shear walls, strengthening the columns in the open ground storey, and their different combinations were examined. The analysis shows that, in comparison to two short ones separated by interconnecting beams, the structural walls are most effective when placed at the periphery of the buildings and used as one long structural wall. Further, it can be shown that the force transfer from floating columns becomes less horizontal when the Chevron Bracings are placed just below them, thereby reducing the shear forces in the beams on which the floating column rests.

Keywords: Equivalent static analysis, floating column, open ground storey, response spectrum analysis, shear wall, stiffness irregularity.

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Authors: C. E. Madubueze, S. C. Madubueze, S. Ajama

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Cholera is a disease that is predominately common in developing countries due to poor sanitation and overcrowding population. In this paper, a deterministic model for the dynamics of cholera is developed and control measures such as health educational message, therapeutic treatment, and vaccination are incorporated in the model. The effective reproduction number is computed in terms of the model parameters. The existence and stability of the equilibrium states, disease free and endemic equilibrium states are established and showed to be locally and globally asymptotically stable when R0 < 1 and R0 > 1 respectively. The existence of backward bifurcation of the model is investigated. Furthermore, numerical simulation of the model developed is carried out to show the impact of the control measures and the result indicates that combined control measures will help to reduce the spread of cholera in the population.

Keywords: Backward bifurcation, cholera, equilibrium, dynamics, stability.

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Authors: Herti Utami, Sutijan, Roto, Wahyudi Budi Sediawan

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α-Pinene is the main component of the most turpentine oils. The hydration of α-pinene with acid catalysts leads to a complex mixture of monoterpenes. In order to obtain more valuable products, the α-pinene in the turpentine can be hydrated in dilute mineral acid solutions to produce α-terpineol. The design of separation processes requires information on phase equilibrium and related thermodynamic properties. This paper reports the results of study on liquid-liquid equilibrium (LLE) of system containing α- pinene + water and α-terpineol + water. Binary LLE for α-pinene + water system, and α-terpineol + water systems were determined by experiment at 301K and atmospheric pressure. The two component mixture was stirred for about 30min, then the mixture was left for about 2h for complete phase separation. The composition of both phases was analyzed by using a Gas Chromatograph. The experimental data were correlated by considering both NRTL and UNIQUAC activity coefficient models. The LLE data for the system of α-pinene + water and α-terpineol + water were correlated successfully by the NRTL model. The experimental data were not satisfactorily fitted by the UNIQUAC model. The NRTL model (α =0.3) correlates the LLE data for the system of α-pinene + water at 301K with RMSD of 0.0404%. And the NRTL model (α =0.61) at 301K with RMSD of 0.0058 %. The NRTL model (α =0.3) correlates the LLE data for the system of α- terpineol + water at 301K with RMSD of 0.1487% and the NRTL model (α =0.6) at 301K with RMSD of 0.0032%, between the experimental and calculated mole fractions.

Keywords: α-Pinene, α-Terpineol, Liquid-liquid Equilibrium, NRTL model, UNIQUAC model

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Authors: Jihad S. Daba, J. P. Dubois

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Fading noise degrades the performance of cellular communication, most notably in femto- and pico-cells in 3G and 4G systems. When the wireless channel consists of a small number of scattering paths, the statistics of fading noise is not analytically tractable and poses a serious challenge to developing closed canonical forms that can be analysed and used in the design of efficient and optimal receivers. In this context, noise is multiplicative and is referred to as stochastically local fading. In many analytical investigation of multiplicative noise, the exponential or Gamma statistics are invoked. More recent advances by the author of this paper utilized a Poisson modulated-weighted generalized Laguerre polynomials with controlling parameters and uncorrelated noise assumptions. In this paper, we investigate the statistics of multidiversity stochastically local area fading channel when the channel consists of randomly distributed Rayleigh and Rician scattering centers with a coherent Nakagami-distributed line of sight component and an underlying doubly stochastic Poisson process driven by a lognormal intensity. These combined statistics form a unifying triply stochastic filtered marked Poisson point process model.

Keywords: Cellular communication, femto- and pico-cells, stochastically local area fading channel, triply stochastic filtered marked Poisson point process.

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Authors: Yong-Gyu Lee, Gilwon Yoon

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Image processing for capsule endoscopy requires large memory and it takes hours for diagnosis since operation time is normally more than 8 hours. A real-time analysis algorithm of capsule images can be clinically very useful. It can differentiate abnormal tissue from health structure and provide with correlation information among the images. Bleeding is our interest in this regard and we propose a method of detecting frames with potential bleeding in real-time. Our detection algorithm is based on statistical analysis and the shapes of bleeding spots. We tested our algorithm with 30 cases of capsule endoscopy in the digestive track. Results were excellent where a sensitivity of 99% and a specificity of 97% were achieved in detecting the image frames with bleeding spots.

Keywords: bleeding, capsule endoscopy, image processing, real time analysis

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Authors: Muhammad Waseem Ashraf, Shahzadi Tayyaba, Nitin Afzulpurkar, Asim Nisar, Adisorn Tuantranont, Erik L J Bohez

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In this paper, design, fabrication and coupled multifield analysis of hollow out-of-plane silicon microneedle array with piezoelectrically actuated microfluidic device for transdermal drug delivery (TDD) applications is presented. The fabrication process of silicon microneedle array is first done by series of combined isotropic and anisotropic etching processes using inductively coupled plasma (ICP) etching technology. Then coupled multifield analysis of MEMS based piezoelectrically actuated device with integrated 2×2 silicon microneedle array is presented. To predict the stress distribution and model fluid flow in coupled field analysis, finite element (FE) and computational fluid dynamic (CFD) analysis using ANSYS rather than analytical systems has been performed. Static analysis and transient CFD analysis were performed to predict the fluid flow through the microneedle array. The inlet pressure from 10 kPa to 150 kPa was considered for static CFD analysis. In the lumen region fluid flow rate 3.2946 μL/min is obtained at 150 V for 2×2 microneedle array. In the present study the authors have performed simulation of structural, piezoelectric and CFD analysis on three dimensional model of the piezoelectrically actuated mcirofluidic device integrated with 2×2 microneedle array.

Keywords: Coupled multifield, finite element analysis, hollow silicon microneedle, transdermal drug delivery.

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Authors: D. Garg, S. Luthra, A. Haleem

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Due to growing concern about environmental and social consequences throughout the world, a need has been felt to incorporate sustainability concepts in conventional manufacturing. This paper is an attempt to identify and evaluate drivers in implementing sustainable manufacturing in Indian context. Nine possible drivers for successful implementation of sustainable manufacturing have been identified from extensive review. Further, Decision Making Trial and Evaluation Laboratory (DEMATEL) approach has been utilized to evaluate and categorize these identified drivers for implementing sustainable manufacturing in to the cause and effect groups. Five drivers (Societal Pressure and Public Concerns; Regulations and Government Policies; Top Management Involvement, Commitment and Support; Effective Strategies and Activities towards Socially Responsible Manufacturing and Market Trends) have been categorized into the cause group and four drivers (Holistic View in Manufacturing Systems; Supplier Participation; Building Sustainable culture in Organization; and Corporate Image and Benefits) have been categorized into the effect group. “Societal Pressure and Public Concerns” has been found the most critical driver and “Corporate Image and Benefits” as least critical or the most easily influenced driver to implementing sustainable manufacturing in Indian context. This paper may surely help practitioners in better understanding of these drivers and their priorities towards effective implementation of sustainable manufacturing.

Keywords: Drivers, Decision Making Trial and Evaluation Laboratory (DEMATEL), India, Sustainable Manufacturing (SM).

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Authors: Mateen Abbas, Abdul Muqeet Khan, Muhammad Rafique Asi, Javed Akhtar

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Mycotoxin (aflatoxins) contamination of peanuts is a great concern for human health. A total of 72 samples of unripe, roasted, and salty peanuts were collected randomly from Pothohar plateau of Pakistan for the assessment of aflatoxin. Samples were dried, ground and extracted by acetonitrile (84%). The filtered extracts were cleaned up by MycoSep-226 and analyzed by high performance liquid chromatography with flourescence detector. Quantification limit of Aflatoxin was 1 μg/kg and 70% Recovery was observed in spiked samples in the range 1–10 μg/kg. The screening of mycotoxins indicated that aflatoxins were present in most of the samples being detected in 82%, in concentrations from 14.25 μg/kg to 98.80 μg/kg. Optimal conditions for mycotoxin production and fungal growth are frequently found in the crop fields as well as in store houses. Human exposure of such toxin can be controlled by pointed out such awareness and implemented the regulations.

Keywords: Aflatoxin, HPLC, Pakistan, Peanuts, Punjab

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Authors: Ma-Wubin, Deng-Su, Huang Hongbin, Chen-Jian, Wu-Yahun, Li-zhuo

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Cyber physical system (CPS) for target tracking, military surveillance, human health monitoring, and vehicle detection all require maximizing the utility and saving the energy. Sensor selection is one of the most important parts of CPS. Sensor selection problem (SSP) is concentrating to balance the tradeoff between the number of sensors which we used and the utility which we will get. In this paper, we propose a performance constrained slide windows (PCSW) based algorithm for SSP in CPS. we present results of extensive simulations that we have carried out to test and validate the PCSW algorithms when we track a target, Experiment shows that the PCSW based algorithm improved the performance including selecting time and communication times for selecting.

Keywords: Cyber physical system, sensor selection problem, PCSW based algorithm.

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Authors: Kamyar Kabirifar, Majid Azarniush, Behbood Maashkar

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A proper house is a suitable residential area which provides comfort, proper accessibility, security, stability and permanence of structure, enough lighting, proper initial infrastructures and ventilation for its inhabitants and the most important of all, it should be proportional to the family’s financial power .

Saving energy and making optimal usage of it and also taking advantage of stable energies are the bases of green buildings. Making green building will help the health of a person living in it and in its surrounding. It will support the people and provoke their satisfaction. Not only it will bring about the raise of level of the quality of life for building inhabitants, but it will cause the promotion of quality level of life of the people living in the surrounding area and in general the society. 

 

Keywords: Quality of Life, Green Building, environment pollution, Sick Building.

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Authors: M. C. Venter, G. Hitge, S. C. Krygsman, J. Thiart

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For decades, South Africa has been planning transportation systems from a supply, rather than a demand side, perspective. In terms of parking, this relates to requiring the minimum parking provision that is enforced by city officials. Newer insight is starting to indicate that South Africa needs to re-think this philosophy in light of a new policy environment that desires a different outcome. Urban policies have shifted from reliance on the private car for access, to employing a wide range of alternative modes. Car dominated travel is influenced by various parameters, of which the availability and location of parking plays a significant role. The question is therefore, what is the right strategy to achieve the desired transport outcomes for SA. The focus of this paper is used to assess this issue with regard to parking provision, and specifically at a tertiary institution. A parking audit was conducted at the Stellenbosch campus of Stellenbosch University, monitoring occupancy at all 60 parking areas, every hour during business hours over a five-day period. The data from this survey was compared with the prescribed number of parking bays according to the Stellenbosch Municipality zoning scheme (requiring a minimum of 0.4 bays per student). The analysis shows that by providing 0.09 bays per student, the maximum total daily occupation of all the parking areas did not exceed an 80% occupation rate. It is concluded that the prevailing parking standards are not supportive of the new urban and transport policy environment, but that it is extremely conservative from a practical demand point of view.

Keywords: Parking provision, parking requirements, travel behaviour, travel demand management.

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Authors: Gangacharyulu Dasaroju, Sumeet Sharma, Sanjay Singh

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Heat pipe is characterised as superconductor of heat because of its excellent heat removal ability. The operation of several engineering system results in generation of heat. This may cause several overheating problems and lead to failure of the systems. To overcome this problem and to achieve desired rate of heat dissipation, there is need to study the performance of heat pipe with annular fins under free convection at different inclinations. This study demonstrates the effect of different mass flow rate of hot fluid into evaporator section on the condenser side heat transfer coefficient with annular fins under natural convection at different inclinations. In this study annular fins are used for the experimental work having dimensions of length of fin, thickness of fin and spacing of fin as 10 mm, 1 mm and 6 mm, respectively. The main aim of present study is to discover at what inclination angles the maximum heat transfer coefficient shall be achieved. The heat transfer coefficient on the external surface of heat pipe condenser section is determined by experimental method and then predicted by empirical correlations. The results obtained from experimental and Churchill and Chu relation for laminar are in fair agreement with not more than 22% deviation. It is elucidated the maximum heat transfer coefficient of 31.2 W/(m²-K) at 25˚ tilt angle and minimal condenser heat transfer coefficient of 26.4 W/(m²-K) is seen at 45˚ tilt angle and 200 ml/min mass flow rate. Inclination angle also affects the thermal performance of heat pipe. Beyond 25^o inclination, heat transport rate starts to decrease.

Keywords: Annular fins, condenser heat transfer coefficient, heat pipe, natural convection, tilt angle.

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Authors: Larry Powell, Seth Polsley, Drew Casey, Tracy Hammond

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Human activity recognition (HAR) systems have shown positive performance when recognizing repetitive activities like walking, running, and sleeping. Water-based activities are a reasonably new area for activity recognition. However, water-based activity recognition has largely focused on supporting the elite and competitive swimming population, which already has amazing coordination and proper form. Beginner swimmers are not perfect, and activity recognition needs to support the individual motions to help beginners. Activity recognition algorithms are traditionally built around short segments of timed sensor data. Using a time window input can cause performance issues in the machine learning model. The window’s size can be too small or large, requiring careful tuning and precise data segmentation. In this work, we present a method that uses a time window as the initial segmentation, then separates the data based on the change in the sensor value. Our system uses a multi-phase segmentation method that pulls all peaks and valleys for each axis of an accelerometer placed on the swimmer’s lower back. This results in high recognition performance using leave-one-subject-out validation on our study with 20 beginner swimmers, with our model optimized from our final dataset resulting in an F-Score of 0.95.

Keywords: Time window, peak/valley segmentation, feature extraction, beginner swimming, activity recognition.

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Authors: N. Türkmenoğlu Bayraktar, E. Kishalı

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Campus buildings are educational facilities where various amount of energy consumption for lighting, heating, cooling and ventilation occurs. Some of the new universities in Turkey, where this investigation takes place, still continue their educational activities in existing buildings primarily designed for different architectural programs and converted to campus buildings via changes of function, space organizations and structural interventions but most of the time without consideration of appropriate micro climatic conditions. Reducing energy consumption in these structures not only contributes to the national economy but also mitigates the negative effects on environment. Furthermore, optimum thermal comfort conditions should be provided during the refurbishment of existing campus structures and their building envelope. Considering this issue, the first step is to investigate the climatic performance of building elements regarding refurbishment process. In the context of the study Kocaeli University, Faculty of Design and Architecture building constructed in 1980s in Anıtpark campus located in the central part of Kocaeli, Turkey was investigated. Climatic factors influencing thermal conditions; the deteriorations on building envelope; temperature distribution; heat losses from façade elements observed by thermography were presented in order to improve strategies for retrofit process for the building envelope. Within the scope of the survey, refurbishment strategies towards providing optimum climatic comfort conditions, increasing energy efficiency of building envelope were proposed.

Keywords: Building envelope, IRT, refurbishment, non-destructive test.

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Authors: Mustafa M. Donma, Orkide Donma

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Cardiovascular (CV) pathology is one of the expected consequences of excessive fat gain. The role of zinc (Zn) in thyroid hormone metabolism (THM) is a matter of debate. Both thyroid stimulating hormone (TSH) and Zn levels are subject to variation in obese individuals. Zn participates in THM. It is closely related to TSH. Since thyroid hormones are required for Zn absorption, hypothyroidism can lead to Zn deficiency and vice versa. Zn exhibits protective effects on CV health and it is inversely correlated with CV markers in childhood obesity. The association between subclinical hypothyroidism (SCHT) and metabolic disorders is under investigation due to its clinical importance. SCHT is defined as the elevated serum TSH levels in the presence of normal free thyroxin (T4) concentrations. The aim of this study is to evaluate the associations between TSH levels and Zn concentrations in SCHT cases detected in morbid obese (MO) children with and without metabolic syndrome (MetS) [(MOMetS+ and MOMetS-)], respectively. 42 children were present in each study group. Informed consent forms were obtained. Tekrdag Namik Kemal University Faculty of Medicine Non-Interventional Clinical Investigations Ethical Committee approved the study protocol. World Health Organization criteria were used for obesity classification. Children with age and sex-dependent body mass index percentile values above 99 were defined as MO. Children exhibiting at least two of MetS criteria were included in MOMetS+ group. Elevated fasting blood glucose, elevated triglycerides (TRG)/decreased high density lipoprotein-cholesterol (HDL-C) concentrations, elevated blood pressure values in addition to central obesity were listed as MetS criteria. Anthropometric measures were recorded. Routine biochemical analyses were performed. In MOMetS- group 13, in MOMetS+ group 15 children were with SCHT. Statistical analyses were performed. p < 0.05 was accepted as statistically significant. In MOMetS- and MOMetS+ groups, TSH levels were 4.1 ± 2.9 mU/L and 4.6 ± 3.1 mU/L, respectively. Corresponding values for SCHT cases were 7.3 ± 3.1 mU/L and 8.0 ± 2.7 mU/L. Free T4 levels were within normal limits. Zn concentrations were negatively correlated with TSH levels in both groups. Significant negative correlation calculated in MOMetS+ group (r = -0.909; p < 0.001) was much stronger than that found in MOMetS- group (r = -0.706; p < 0.05). This strong correlation (r = -0.909; p < 0.001) calculated for cases with SCHT in MOMetS+ group was much lower in the same group (r = -0.793; p < 0.001) when all cases were considered. In conclusion, the presence of strong correlations between TSH and Zn in SCHT in both MOMetS- and MOMetS+ groups have pointed out that MO children were under the threat of CV pathologies. The detection of the much stronger correlation in MOMetS+ group in comparison with the correlation found in MOMetS- group was the indicator of greater CV risk due to the presence of MetS. In MOMetS+ group, correlation in SCHT cases found higher than correlation calculated for all cases confirmed much higher CV risk due to the contribution of SCHT.

Keywords: Cardiovascular risk, child morbid obesity, subclinical hypothyroidism, zinc.

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Authors: Ersin Gose, Kenan Buyukatak, Onur Osman, Osman N. Ucan

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To compress, improve bit error performance and also enhance 2D images, a new scheme, called Iterative Cellular-Turbo System (IC-TS) is introduced. In IC-TS, the original image is partitioned into 2N quantization levels, where N is denoted as bit planes. Then each of the N-bit-plane is coded by Turbo encoder and transmitted over Additive White Gaussian Noise (AWGN) channel. At the receiver side, bit-planes are re-assembled taking into consideration of neighborhood relationship of pixels in 2-D images. Each of the noisy bit-plane values of the image is evaluated iteratively using IC-TS structure, which is composed of equalization block; Iterative Cellular Image Processing Algorithm (ICIPA) and Turbo decoder. In IC-TS, there is an iterative feedback link between ICIPA and Turbo decoder. ICIPA uses mean and standard deviation of estimated values of each pixel neighborhood. It has extra-ordinary satisfactory results of both Bit Error Rate (BER) and image enhancement performance for less than -1 dB Signal-to-Noise Ratio (SNR) values, compared to traditional turbo coding scheme and 2-D filtering, applied separately. Also, compression can be achieved by using IC-TS systems. In compression, less memory storage is used and data rate is increased up to N-1 times by simply choosing any number of bit slices, sacrificing resolution. Hence, it is concluded that IC-TS system will be a compromising approach in 2-D image transmission, recovery of noisy signals and image compression.

Keywords: Iterative Cellular Image Processing Algorithm (ICIPA), Turbo Coding, Iterative Cellular Turbo System (IC-TS), Image Compression.

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Authors: G. Rezai, P.K.Teng, Z. Mohamed, M.N Shamsudin

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Changing in consumers lifestyles and food consumption patterns provide a great opportunity in developing the functional food sector in Malaysia. There is only a little knowledge about whether Malaysian consumers are aware of functional food and if so what image consumers have of this product. The objective of this research is to determine the extent to which selected socioeconomic characteristics and attitudes influence consumers- awareness of functional food. A survey was conducted in the Klang Valley, Malaysia where 439 respondents were interviewed using a structured questionnaire. The result shows that most respondents have a positive attitude towards functional food. For the binary logistic estimation, the results indicate that age, income and other factors such as concern about food safety, subscribing to cooking or health magazines, being a vegetarian and consumers who have been involved in a food production company significantly influence Malaysian consumers- awareness towards functional food.

Keywords: Binary logistic model, functional foods, knowledge and awareness, perception

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Authors: Werner Sandmann, Verena Wolf

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Stochastic models of biological networks are well established in systems biology, where the computational treatment of such models is often focused on the solution of the so-called chemical master equation via stochastic simulation algorithms. In contrast to this, the development of storage-efficient model representations that are directly suitable for computer implementation has received significantly less attention. Instead, a model is usually described in terms of a stochastic process or a "higher-level paradigm" with graphical representation such as e.g. a stochastic Petri net. A serious problem then arises due to the exponential growth of the model-s state space which is in fact a main reason for the popularity of stochastic simulation since simulation suffers less from the state space explosion than non-simulative numerical solution techniques. In this paper we present transition class models for the representation of biological network models, a compact mathematical formalism that circumvents state space explosion. Transition class models can also serve as an interface between different higher level modeling paradigms, stochastic processes and the implementation coded in a programming language. Besides, the compact model representation provides the opportunity to apply non-simulative solution techniques thereby preserving the possible use of stochastic simulation. Illustrative examples of transition class representations are given for an enzyme-catalyzed substrate conversion and a part of the bacteriophage λ lysis/lysogeny pathway.

Keywords: Computational Modeling, Biological Networks, Stochastic Models, Markov Chains, Transition Class Models.

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Authors: R. Chedid, R. Ghajar

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Lebanon electricity crisis continues to escalate. Rationing hours still apply across the country but with different rates. The capital Beirut is subjected to 3 hours cut while other cities, town and villages may endure 9 to 14 hours of power shortage. To mitigate this situation, private diesel generators distributed illegally all over the country are being used to bridge the gap in power supply. Almost each building in large cities has its own generator and individual villages may have more than one generator supplying their loads. These generators together with their private networks form incomplete and ill-designed and managed microgrids (MG) but can be further developed to become renewable energy-based MG operating in island- or grid-connected modes. This paper will analyze the potential of introducing MG to help resolve the energy crisis in Lebanon. It will investigate the usefulness of developing MG under the prevailing situation of existing private power supply service providers and in light of the developed national energy policy that supports renewable energy development. A case study on a distribution feeder in a rural area will be analyzed using HOMER software to demonstrate the usefulness of introducing photovoltaic (PV) arrays along the existing diesel generators for all the stakeholders; namely, the developers, the customers, the utility and the community at large. Policy recommendations regarding MG development in Lebanon will be presented on the basis of the accumulated experience in private generation and the privatization and public-private partnership laws.

Keywords: Decentralized systems, microgrids, distributed generation, renewable energy.

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Authors: King Kuok Kuok, Po Chan Chiu

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Floods are natural phenomena, which may turn into disasters causing widespread damage, health problems and even deaths. Nowadays, floods had become more serious and more frequent due to climatic changes. During flooding, discharge measurement still can be taken by standing on the bridge across the river using portable measurement instrument. However, it is too dangerous to get near to the river especially during high flood. Therefore, this study employs Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV) as a tool to measure the surface flow velocity. PIV is a image processing technique to track the movement of water from one point to another. The PIV codes are developed using Matlab. In this study, 18 ping pong balls were scattered over the surface of the drain and images were taken with a digital SLR camera. The images obtained were analyzed using the PIV code. Results show that PIV is able to produce the flow velocity through analyzing the series of images captured.

Keywords: Particle Image Velocimetry, flow velocity, surface flow.

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Authors: Amir Alani, Mojtaba Mahmoodian, Anna Romanova, Asaad Faramarzi

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Pipelines are extensively used engineering structures which convey fluid from one place to another. Most of the time, pipelines are placed underground and are encumbered by soil weight and traffic loads. Corrosion of pipe material is the most common form of pipeline deterioration and should be considered in both the strength and serviceability analysis of pipes. The study in this research focuses on concrete pipes in sewage systems (concrete sewers). This research firstly investigates how to involve the effect of corrosion as a time dependent process of deterioration in the structural and failure analysis of this type of pipe. Then three probabilistic time dependent reliability analysis methods including the first passage probability theory, the gamma distributed degradation model and the Monte Carlo simulation technique are discussed and developed. Sensitivity analysis indexes which can be used to identify the most important parameters that affect pipe failure are also discussed. The reliability analysis methods developed in this paper contribute as rational tools for decision makers with regard to the strengthening and rehabilitation of existing pipelines. The results can be used to obtain a cost-effective strategy for the management of the sewer system.

Keywords: Reliability analysis, service life prediction, Monte Carlo simulation method, first passage probability theory, gamma distributed degradation model.

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Authors: Jung-Hyun Kim, Kew-Cheol Shim, Shin-Cheol Song, Kyoungho Kim, Nam-Il Kim, Jinho Bae, Keum-Hyun So

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The purpose of present paper was to investigate perceptions of Korean secondary school students about social issues related to biological sciences. Twenty issues were selected based on topics of articles in the newspaper from 2005 to 2010. The issues were categorized into biotechnology, health-disease and environment domains. Subjects were 541 high school students (male 253 and female 288). On the survey, students were asked to answer on 5-point Lickert scales how they thought of the effect of biological phenomena or events related to biological issues on the individual life and the society. They perceived that the biological issues would be more effectible on the society than on the individual life. Female students had a little more perceptions than males.

Keywords: biological issue, biological sciences, perception, secondary school

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Authors: B. O. Ayinmode, I. P. Farai

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The levels of maximum power density of GSM signals in the cities of Lagos, Ibadan and Abuja were studied. Measurements were made with a calibrated hand held spectrum analyzer 200m away from 271 base stations, at 1.2m to the ground level. The maximum GSM 900 signal power density was 139.63μW/m2 in Lagos, 162.49μW/m2 in Ibadan and 5411.26μW/m2 in Abuja. Also, the maximum GSM 1800 signal power density was 296.82μW/m2 in Lagos, 116.82μW/m2 in Ibadan and 1263.00μW/m2 in Abuja. The level of power density of GSM 900 and GSM 1800 signals in the cities of Lagos, Ibadan and Abuja are far less than the recommended value of 4.5W/m2 for GSM 900 and 9.0 W/m2 for GSM 1800 by the ICNRP guideline. It can be concluded that exposure to GSM signals in these cities cannot contribute to the health detriments caused by thermal effects of radiofrequency radiation.

Keywords: Radiofrequency, power density, radiation exposure, base stations (BTS).

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Authors: L. Wang, Y. Chen, T. Wu, S. Hu

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In order to enhance the security of critical financial infrastructure, this study carries out a transformation of the architecture of a financial trading terminal to a zero trust architecture (ZTA), constructs an active defense system for the cybersecurity, improves the security level of trading services in the Internet environment, enhances the ability to prevent network attacks and unknown risks, and reduces the industry and security risks brought about by cybersecurity risks. This study introduces Software Defined Perimeter (SDP) technology of ZTA, adapts and applies it to a financial trading terminal to achieve security optimization and fine-grained business grading control. The upgraded architecture of the trading terminal moves security protection forward to the user access layer, replaces VPN to optimize remote access and significantly improves the security protection capability of Internet transactions. The study achieves: 1. deep integration with the access control architecture of the transaction system; 2. no impact on the performance of terminals and gateways, and no perception of application system upgrades; 3. customized checklist and policy configuration; 4. introduction of industry-leading security technology such as single-packet authorization (SPA) and secondary authentication. This study carries out a successful application of ZTA in the field of financial trading, and provides transformation ideas for other similar systems while improving the security level of financial transaction services in the Internet environment.

Keywords: Zero trust, trading terminal, architecture, network security, cybersecurity.

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Authors: L. Yu, W. K. Li, S. K. Ong, A. Y. C. Nee

Abstract:

In this paper, a scalable augmented reality framework for handheld devices is presented. The presented framework is enabled by using a server-client data communication structure, in which the search for tracking targets among a database of images is performed on the server-side while pixel-wise 3D tracking is performed on the client-side, which, in this case, is a handheld mobile device. Image search on the server-side adopts a residual-enhanced image descriptors representation that gives the framework a scalability property. The tracking algorithm on the client-side is based on a gravity-aligned feature descriptor which takes the advantage of a sensor-equipped mobile device and an optimized intensity-based image alignment approach that ensures the accuracy of 3D tracking. Automatic content streaming is achieved by using a key-frame selection algorithm, client working phase monitoring and standardized rules for content communication between the server and client. The recognition accuracy test performed on a standard dataset shows that the method adopted in the presented framework outperforms the Bag-of-Words (BoW) method that has been used in some of the previous systems. Experimental test conducted on a set of video sequences indicated the real-time performance of the tracking system with a frame rate at 15-30 frames per second. The presented framework is exposed to be functional in practical situations with a demonstration application on a campus walk-around.

Keywords: Augmented reality framework, server-client model, vision-based tracking, image search.

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Authors: Intan Maisarah Abd Rahim, Herlina Abdul Rahim, Rashidah Ghazali

Abstract:

Diabetes is a medical condition that can lead to various diseases such as stroke, heart disease, blindness and obesity. In clinical practice, the concern of the diabetic patients towards the blood glucose examination is rather alarming as some of the individual describing it as something painful with pinprick and pinch. As for some patient with high level of glucose level, pricking the fingers multiple times a day with the conventional glucose meter for close monitoring can be tiresome, time consuming and painful. With these concerns, several non-invasive techniques were used by researchers in measuring the glucose level in blood, including ultrasonic sensor implementation, multisensory systems, absorbance of transmittance, bio-impedance, voltage intensity, and thermography. This paper is discussing the application of the near-infrared (NIR) spectroscopy as a non-invasive method in measuring the glucose level and the implementation of the linear system identification model in predicting the output data for the NIR measurement. In this study, the wavelengths considered are at the 1450 nm and 1950 nm. Both of these wavelengths showed the most reliable information on the glucose presence in blood. Then, the linear Autoregressive Moving Average Exogenous model (ARMAX) model with both un-regularized and regularized methods was implemented in predicting the output result for the NIR measurement in order to investigate the practicality of the linear system in this study. However, the result showed only 50.11% accuracy obtained from the system which is far from the satisfying results that should be obtained.

Keywords: Diabetes, glucose level, linear, near-infrared (NIR), non-invasive, prediction system.

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Authors: Asim Cengiz, Dede Basturk, Hakan Ozalp

Abstract:

Practicing recurring resistance workout such as may cause changes in human muscle. These changes may be because combination if several factors determining physical fitness. Thus, it is important to identify these changes. Several studies were reviewed to investigate these changes. As a result, the changes included positive modifications in amplified citrate synthase (CS) maximal activity, increased capacity for pyruvate oxidation, improvement on molecular signaling on human performance, amplified resting muscle glycogen and whole GLUT4 protein content, better health outcomes such as enhancement in cardiorespiratory fitness. Sprint training also have numerous long long-term changes inhuman body such as better enzyme action, changes in muscle fiber and oxidative ability. This is important because SV is the critical factor influencing maximal cardiac output and therefore oxygen delivery and maximal aerobic power.

Keywords: Sprint, training, performance, exercise.

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Authors: Sz. Klátyik, B. Darvas, M. Mörtl, M. Ottucsák, E. Takács, H. Bánáti, L. Simon, G. Gyurcsó, A. Székács

Abstract:

Environmental and health safety of condiments used for spicing food products in food processing or by culinary means receive relatively low attention, even though possible contamination of spices may affect food quality and safety. Contamination surveys mostly focus on microbial contaminants or their secondary metabolites, mycotoxins. Chemical contaminants, particularly pesticide residues, however, are clearly substantial factors in the case of given condiments in the Capsicum family including spice paprika and chilli. To assess food safety and support the quality of the Hungaricum product spice paprika, the pesticide residue status of spice paprika and chilli is assessed on the basis of reported pesticide contamination cases and non-compliances in the Rapid Alert System for Food and Feed of the European Union since 1998.

Keywords: Spice paprika, Capsicum, pesticide residues, RASFF.

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Authors: J. K. Alhassan, B. Attah, S. Misra

Abstract:

Human beings have the ability to make logical decisions. Although human decision - making is often optimal, it is insufficient when huge amount of data is to be classified. Medical dataset is a vital ingredient used in predicting patient’s health condition. In other to have the best prediction, there calls for most suitable machine learning algorithms. This work compared the performance of Artificial Neural Network (ANN) and Decision Tree Algorithms (DTA) as regards to some performance metrics using diabetes data. WEKA software was used for the implementation of the algorithms. Multilayer Perceptron (MLP) and Radial Basis Function (RBF) were the two algorithms used for ANN, while RegTree and LADTree algorithms were the DTA models used. From the results obtained, DTA performed better than ANN. The Root Mean Squared Error (RMSE) of MLP is 0.3913 that of RBF is 0.3625, that of RepTree is 0.3174 and that of LADTree is 0.3206 respectively.

Keywords: Artificial neural network, classification, decision tree, diabetes mellitus.

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Authors: Lebari B. Gboeloh

Abstract:

The occurrence of adult Taenia saginata in major abattoirs in Port Harcourt metropolis was investigated. Out of 514 cattle investigated, an overall prevalence of 35(6.8%) was recorded. Infected male and female cattle represented 1.2% (6/514) and 5.6% (29/514) of the overall prevalence respectively. There was a statistical significant difference (P< 0.05) in prevalence of adult Taenaia saginata between male and female cattle examined in the study area. Old cattle have a significant (P< 0.05) infestation rate than young ones. Adult Taenia saginata exists in cattle and still remains a public health concern in the study area. Deliberate effort is needed from stake-holders and the Government to design and implement programs that will lead to the prevention and possible eradication of the parasite.

Keywords: Taenia saginata, Adult, Cattle, Occurrence, Port Harcourt.

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