Search results for: growth strategy

Authors: H. Azan T., R. W. Lovitt, Nur K. T., N. Azwa. M. B.

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Carbohydrate can be used as a substrate that can be consumed by C. butyricum and converted to useful chemicals such as acetic and butyric acid. Influence of concentration and types of carbohydrate to cell growth, carbohydrate consumed, productivity and carbon balance have been explored. Batch reactor was selected in this study to avoid contamination due to simpler operation system. Glucose was preferred as first types of carbohydrate to be tested. Six concentrations were studied from 0 to 28g/L. Eventually, 15g/L has shown the best concentration for glucose in term of growth rate (2.63h^-1) and carbon balance (99.76% recovery). Comparison for types of carbohydrate was also conducted. 15g/L of xylose (monosaccharide) and starch (complex carbohydrate) was tested.  In term of growth rate and productivity, glucose showed the best carbohydrates. Results for this study showed that glucose and xylose produced more than 80% of acetic acid and less than 20% of butyric acid. Meanwhile, 63.1% of acetic acid and 36.9% of butyric acid were produced from starch. 

Keywords: C. butyricum, glucose, starch, xylose, carbohydrate.

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Authors: R. Yoganathan, H. K. L. K. Gunasekera, R. Hariharan

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Field experiment was conducted to investigate the combine use of animal manure and inorganic fertilizer on growth and yield performance of vegetable cowpea. The experiment was laid out in a Randomized Complete Block Design (RCBD) with seven treatments. Poultry manure, cattle manure and goat manure were evaluated with recommended level of inorganic fertilizer for vegetable cowpea. The highest crop yield was obtained by the application of poultry manure combined with the recommended level of inorganic fertilizer. The lowest yield was obtained by the application of goat manure only. In addition, the results revealed that the goat manure and cattle manure were inferior to poultry manure as a source of organic manure for vegetable cowpea cultivation. The animal manure combine with chemical fertilizer gave a higher yield when compared to the sole application of animal manure. The soil analysis showed that the nitrogen content and phosphorus content of poultry manure treated plots were higher than other treatments tested. But potassium content was higher in goat manure treated plots. The results further revealed that the poultry manure has a beneficial effect on crop growth and yield compared with other treatments. Therefore, the combined use of poultry manure with inorganic fertilizer application has been recognized as the most suitable way of ensuring high crop yield.

Keywords: Animal manure, inorganic fertilizer, vegetable cowpea, growth and yield performance.

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Authors: E. Kharaishvili, G. Erkomaishvili, M. Chavleishvili

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The importance of agribusiness development is proved in accordance with the trends in the agricultural sector of Georgia. Agribusiness environment and the consequences of the agricultural reforms are evaluated. The factors hindering the development of agribusiness are revealed and the ways for overcoming these problems are suggested. SWOT analysis is done in order to identify the needs of agribusiness. The needs of agribusiness development in Georgia are evaluated by priorities: prevention of diseases and reduction of the harm caused by these diseases, accessibility of long-term agricultural loans with low interest rates, improving qualification of farmers, the level of education and usage of modern technologies, changes in legislation, accessibility to high quality agricultural machinery, and the development of infrastructure. Based on the outcomes of the research, agribusiness development strategies in Georgia are suggested and appropriate priorities of economic policy are determined. Conclusions are made and based on these conclusions, some recommendations are suggested.

Keywords: Agricultural sector, agribusiness development, agribusiness strategy, agribusiness in Georgia.

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Authors: M. A. Bajaber, M. A. Taha

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Contractor selection in Saudi Arabia is very important due to the large construction boom and the contractor role to get over construction risks. The need for investigating contractor selection is due to the following reasons; large number of defaulted or failed projects (18%), large number of disputes attributed to contractor during the project execution stage (almost twofold), the extension of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) into construction industry, and finally the few number of researches. The selection strategy is not perfect and considered as the reason behind irresponsible contractors. As a response, this research was conducted to review the contractor selection strategies as an integral part of a long advanced research to develop a good selection model. Many techniques can be used to form a selection strategy; multi criteria for optimizing decision, prequalification to discover contractor-s responsibility, bidding process for competition, third party guarantee to enhance the selection, and fuzzy techniques for ambiguities and incomplete information.

Keywords: Bidding, Construction industry, Contractor selection, Saudi Arabia.

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Authors: M. Shakir Saat, M. Noh Ahmad, Dr, Amat Amir

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A cart-ball system is a challenging system from the control engineering point of view. This is due to the nonlinearities, multivariable, and non-minimum phase behavior present in this system. This paper is concerned with the problem of modeling and control of such system. The objective of control strategy is to place the cart at a desired position while balancing the ball on the top of the arc-shaped track fixed on the cart. A State-Feedback Controller (SFC) with a pole-placement method will be designed in order to control the system. At first, the mathematical model of a cart-ball system in the state-space form is developed. Then, the linearization of a model will be established in order to design a SFC. The integral control strategy will be performed as to control the cart position of a system. Simulation work is then performed using MATLAB/SIMULINK software in order to study the performance of SFC when applied to the system.

Keywords: Cart-Ball System, Integral Control, Pole-PlacementMethod, State-Feedback Controller.

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Authors: Wang Ye, Wei Wei

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Residential block construction of big cities in China began in the 1950s, and four models had far-reaching influence on modern residential block in its development process, including unit compound and residential district in 1950s to 1980s, and gated community and open community in 1990s to now. Based on analysis of the four models’ fabric, the article takes residential blocks in Hangzhou west area as an example and carries on the studies from urban structure level and block spacial level, mainly including urban road network, land use, community function, road organization, public space and building fabric. At last, the article puts forward “Semi-open Sub-community” strategy to improve the current fabric.

Keywords: Hangzhou West Area, residential block model, residential block fabric, “Semi-open Sub-community” strategy.

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Authors: M. R. Vaezi, R. Ghasemi, A. Akramizadeh

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Frequency stability of microgrids under islanded operation attracts particular attention recently. A new cooperative frequency control strategy based on centralized multi-agent system (CMAS) is proposed in this study. Based on this strategy, agents sent data and furthermore each component has its own to center operating decisions (MGCC).After deciding on the information, they are returned. Frequency control strategies include primary and secondary frequency control and disposal of multi-stage load in which this study will also provide a method and algorithm for load shedding. This could also be a big problem for the performance of micro-grid in times of disaster. The simulation results show the promising performance of the proposed structure of the controller based on multi agent systems.

Keywords: Frequency Control, Islanded Micro-grid, Load shedding, Multi-agent System.

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Authors: Wentian Shi, Daming Shi, Maysam Orouskhani, Feng Tian

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Currently the most prevalent deep learning methods require a large amount of data for training, whereas few-shot learning tries to learn a model from limited data without extensive retraining. In this paper, we present a loss function based on triplet loss for solving few-shot problem using metric based learning. Instead of setting the margin distance in triplet loss as a constant number empirically, we propose an adaptive margin distance strategy to obtain the appropriate margin distance automatically. We implement the strategy in the deep siamese network for deep metric embedding, by utilizing an optimization approach by penalizing the worst case and rewarding the best. Our experiments on image recognition and co-segmentation model demonstrate that using our proposed triplet loss with adaptive margin distance can significantly improve the performance.

Keywords: Few-shot learning, triplet network, adaptive margin, deep learning.

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Authors: R. Haddad, K. Morris, V. Buchanan-Wollaston

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Biochemical and molecular analysis of some antioxidant enzyme genes revealed different level of gene expression on oilseed (Brassica napus). For molecular and biochemical analysis, leaf tissues were harvested from plants at eight different developmental stages, from young to senescence. The levels of total protein and chlorophyll were increased during maturity stages of plant, while these were decreased during the last stages of plant growth. Structural analysis (nucleotide and deduced amino acid sequence, and phylogenic tree) of a complementary DNA revealed a high level of similarity for a family of Catalase genes. The expression of the gene encoded by different Catalase isoforms was assessed during different plant growth phase. No significant difference between samples was observed, when Catalase activity was statistically analyzed at different developmental stages. EST analysis exhibited different transcripts levels for a number of other relevant antioxidant genes (different isoforms of SOD and glutathione). The high level of transcription of these genes at senescence stages was indicated that these genes are senescenceinduced genes.

Keywords: Biochemical analysis, Oilseed, Expression pattern, Growth phases

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Authors: Yi-an Cui, Lu Wang, Jian-ping Xiao

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This paper presents an automatic feature recognition method based on center-surround difference detecting and fuzzy logic that can be applied in ground-penetrating radar (GPR) image processing. Adopted center-surround difference method, the salient local image regions are extracted from the GPR images as features of detected objects. And fuzzy logic strategy is used to match the detected features and features in template database. This way, the problem of objects detecting, which is the key problem in GPR image processing, can be converted into two steps, feature extracting and matching. The contributions of these skills make the system have the ability to deal with changes in scale, antenna and noises. The results of experiments also prove that the system has higher ratio of features sensing in using GPR to image the subsurface structures.

Keywords: feature recognition, GPR image, matching strategy, salient image

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Authors: Yi Zhang, Quan Zhou, Jun Li, Yanlang Hu

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Scheduling algorithm is a key technology in satellite switching system with input-buffer. In this paper, a new scheduling algorithm and its realization are proposed. Based on Crossbar switching fabric, the algorithm adopts serial scheduling strategy and adjusts the output port arbitrating strategy for the better equity of every port. Consequently, it increases the matching probability. The algorithm can greatly reduce the scheduling delay and cell loss rate. The analysis and simulation results by OPNET show that the proposed algorithm has the better performance than others in average delay and cell loss rate, and has the equivalent complexity. On the basis of these results, the hardware realization and simulation based on FPGA are completed, which validate the feasibility of the new scheduling algorithm.

Keywords: Scheduling algorithm, input-buffer, serial scheduling, hardware design.

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Authors: E. Zippelius

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Urban design aims to provide a stage for public life that, when once brought to life, is right away subject to subtle but continuous transformation. This paper explores such transformations and searches for ways how public life can be reinforced in the case of a housing settlement for the displaced in Nicosia, Cyprus. First, a sound basis of theoretical knowledge is established through literature review, notably the theory of the Production of Space by Henri Lefebvre, exploring its potential and defining key criteria for the following empirical analysis. The analysis is pinpointing the differences between spatial practice, representation of space and spaces of representation as well as their interaction, alliance, or even conflict. In doing so uncertainties, chances and challenges are unraveled that will be consequently linked to practice and action and lead to the formulation of a design strategy. A strategy, though, that does not long for achieving an absolute, finite certainty but understands the three dimensions of space formulated by Lefebvre as equal and space as continuously produced, hence, unfinished.

Keywords: Production of space, public space, urban life, urban transformation.

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Authors: A. Sohrabi

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The importance of local food products and their promotion are drivers for economic growth. Entrepreneurship is one of the most important tools for development, which puts its most important effect on the way of increasing business in society. The purpose of this paper is to assess the breadth of food strategies in Italy toward to promoting local Italian foods in order to present useful food policies for developing countries. The methodology of this paper is based on qualitative analysis. In order to achieve such objectives, a literature review is carried out by employing documenting study. In this research, at first, we seek to present compliance’s concepts and definitions. Then, after examining the dimensions of the three strategies, we access to the indicators and compare their effects in order to present some useful policies and guidelines for developing countries. Despite of the limitations like inaccessibility, performance of companies in exporting local foods and lacking perception of awareness and experience of people, the study offers possible ways for future, as an example for Middle East countries to promote Italian local foods. The finding of this paper evaluates the three strategies in order to promote local food entrepreneurship in Italy and developing countries.

Keywords: Local food, Italian food, Italian strategy, food policy.

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Authors: Mohammed Sani Abdulai

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Ghana’s Public Financial Management reforms have been going on for some two decades now (1997/98 to 2017/18). Given this long period of reforms, Ghana in 2019 is putting together both a Public Financial Management (PFM) strategy and a Ghana Integrated Financial Management Information System (GIFMIS) strategy for the next 5-years (2020-2024). The primary aim of these dual strategies is assisting the country in moving beyond reforms to consolidation and sustainability. In this paper we, first, examined the evolution of Ghana’s PFM reforms. We, secondly, reviewed the legal and institutional reforms undertaken to strengthen the country’s key PFM institutions. Thirdly, we summarized the strengths and weaknesses identified by the 2018 Public Expenditure and Financial Accountability (PEFA) assessment of Ghana’s PFM system relating to its macro-fiscal framework, budget preparation and approval, budget execution, accounting and fiscal reporting as well as external scrutiny and audit. We, finally, considered what the country should be doing to achieve its intended goal of PFM consolidation and sustainability. Using a qualitative method of review and analysis of existing documents, we, through this paper, brought to the fore the lessons that could be learnt by other developing countries from Ghana’s PFM reforms experiences. These lessons included the need to: (a) undergird any PFM reform with a comprehensive PFM reform strategy; (b) undertake a legal and institutional reforms of the key PFM institutions; (c) assess the strengths and weaknesses of those reforms using PFM performance evaluation tools such as PEFA framework; and (d) move beyond reforms to consolidation and sustainability.

Keywords: Public financial management, public expenditure and financial accountability (PEFA), reforms, consolidation, sustainability.

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Authors: V.A. Baronenko, S.I. Bugreeva, K.R. Mekhdieva

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Differentiated impact of team sports (basketball, indoor soccer, handball) on general haemodynamics and aerobic potential of students who specialize in technical subjects is detected only on the fourth year of studies in the institute of higher education. Those who play basketball and indoor soccer have shown increase of stroke and minute volume of blood indices, pumping and contractile function of the heart, oxygenation of blood and oxygen delivery to tissues, aerobic energy supply and balance of sympathetic and parasympathetic activity of the nervous regulation mechanism of the circulatory system. Those who play handball have shown these indices statistically decreased. On the whole playing basketball and indoor soccer optimizes the strategy for adaptation of students to the studying process, but playing handball does the opposite thing. The leading factor for adaptation of students is: those who play basketball have increase of minute blood volume which stipulates velocity of the system blood circulation and well-timed oxygen delivery to tissues; those who play indoor soccer have increase of power and velocity of contractile function of the heart; those who play handball have increase of resistance of thorax to the system blood flow which minimizes contractile function of the heart, blood oxygen saturation and delivery of oxygen to tissues.

Keywords: team sports, general haemodynamics, aerobic potential, strategy for adaptation.

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Authors: Rajkishore Nayak, Tarun Panwar, Majo George, Irfan Ulhaq, Soumik Parida

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Factors related to the growth of fashion and textile manufacturing in the Sub-Saharan African (SSA) countries are analyzed in this paper. Important factors associated with the growth of fashion and textile manufacturing in the SSA countries are being identified, underlined, and evaluated in this study. This research performed a SWOT analysis of the garment industries in the SSA region by exploring into various literature in the garment manufacturing and export data. SSA countries need to grow a lot in the fashion and textile manufacturing and export to come in par with the developments in the sector globally. Unlike the developing countries such as Vietnam and Bangladesh, the total export to the US, the EU and other parts of the world has declined. On the other hand, the total supply of fashion and textiles to the domestic market has been in rise. However, the local communities still need to rely on other countries to meet their demand. Import of cheaper clothes from countries like Bangladesh China and Vietnam is one of the main challenges local manufacturers are facing as it is very difficult to be competitive in pricing.

Keywords: Sub-Saharan Africa, apparel industry, sustainable fashion, developing countries, fashion, textiles.

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Authors: Sunthari Tharapan, Chockpisit Thepsithar, Kullanart Obsuwan

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This study was aimed to investigate the effect of various organic supplements on growth and development of Dendrobium discolor’s protocorms and seedlings growth of Dendrobium Judy Rutz. Protocorms of Dendrobium discolor with 2.0 cm. in diameter and seedlings of Dendrobium Judy Rutz at the same size (0.5 cm. height) were sub-cultured on Hyponex medium supplemented with cow milk (CM), soy milk (SM), potato extract (PE) and peptone (P) for 2 months. The protocorms were developed to seedlings in all treatments after cultured for 2 months. However, the best results were found on Hyponex medium supplemented with P was the best in which the maximum fresh and dry weight and maximum shoot height were obtained in this treatment statistically different (p ≤ 0.05) to other treatments. Moreover, Hyponex medium supplemented with P also stimulated the maximum mean number of 5.7 shoots per explant which also showed statistically different (p ≤ 0.05) when compared to other treatments. The results of growth of Dendrobium Judy Rutz seedlings indicated the medium supplemented with 100 mL/L PE enhanced the maximum fresh and dry weigh per explants with significantly different (p ≤ 0.05) in fresh weight from other treatments including the control medium without any organic supplementation. However, the dry weight was not significantly different (p ≤ 0.05) from medium supplemented with SM and P. There was multiple shoots induction in all media with or without organic supplementation ranging from 2.6 to 3 shoots per explants. The maximum shoot height was also obtained in the seedlings cultured on medium supplemented with PE while the longest root length was found in medium supplemented with SM.

Keywords: Fresh weight, in vitro propagation, orchid, plant height.

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Authors: J. Burlakovs, Y. Jani, L. Grinberga, M. Kriipsalu, O. Anne, I. Grinfelde, W. Hogland

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The worldwide future sustainable economies are oriented towards the sea: the maritime economy is becoming one of the strongest driving forces in many regions as population growth is the highest in coastal areas. For hundreds of years sea resources were depleted unsustainably by fishing, mining, transportation, tourism, and waste. European Sustainable Development Strategy is identifying and developing actions to enable the EU to achieve a continuous, long-term improvement of the quality of life through the creation of sustainable communities. The aim of this paper is to provide insight in Baltic Sea Region case studies on implemented actions on tourism industry waste and beach wrack management in coastal areas, hazardous contaminants and plastic flow treatment from waste, wastewaters and stormwaters. These projects mentioned in study promote successful prevention of contaminant flows to the sea environments and provide perspectives for creation of valuable new products from residuals for future circular economy are the step forward to green innovation winning streak.

Keywords: Resilience, hazardous waste, phytoremediation, water management, circular economy.

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Authors: Ranjan Sarukkalige, Dinushi Gamage

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The aim of this study was to develop a storm water quality improvement strategy plan (WQISP) which assists managers and decision makers of local city councils in enhancing their activities to improve regional water quality. City of Gosnells in Western Australia has been considered as a case study. The procedure on developing the WQISP consists of reviewing existing water quality data, identifying water quality issues in the study areas and developing a decision making tool for the officers, managers and decision makers. It was found that land use type is the main factor affecting the water quality. Therefore, activities, sources and pollutants related to different land use types including residential, industrial, agricultural and commercial are given high importance during the study. Semi-structured interviews were carried out with coordinators of different management sections of the regional councils in order to understand the associated management framework and issues. The issues identified from these interviews were used in preparing the decision making tool. Variables associated with the defined “value versus threat" decision making tool are obtained from the intensive literature review. The main recommendations provided for improvement of water quality in local city councils, include non-structural, structural and management controls and potential impacts of climate change.

Keywords: Storm water quality, Storm water Management, Land use, Strategy plan

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Authors: Aytekin A.O., Morimura S.

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Chitosan is a biopolymer composed of glucosamine and N-acetyl glucosamine. Solubility and viscosity pose problems in some applications. These problems can be overcome with unique modifications. In this study, firstly, chitosan was modified by caffeic acid and thioglycolic acid, separately. Then, growing effects of these modified polymers was observed in U937 cell line. Caffeic acid is a phenolic compound and its modifications act carcinogenic inhibitors in drugs. Thiolated chitosans are commonly being used for drugdelivery systems in various routes, because of enhancing mucoadhesiveness property. U937 cell line was used model cell for leukaemia. Modifications were achieved by 1 – 15 % binding range. Increasing binding ratios showed higher radical-scavenging activity and reducing cell growth, in compared to native chitosan. Caffeic acid modifications showed higher radical-scavenging activity than thiolated chitosans at the same concentrations. Caffeic acid and thioglycolic acid modifications inhibited growth of U937, effectively.

Keywords: Chitosan, U937 cell, caffeic acid, thioglycolic acid

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Authors: Michiko Miyamoto

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This paper empirically investigates whether information technology (IT) strategies, business strategies, and divisions are aligned to meet overall business goals for Korean Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), based on structure based Strategic Alignment Model, and make comparison with those of Japanese SMEs. Using 2,869 valid responses of Korean Human Capital Corporate Panel survey, a result of this study suggests that Korean human resources (HR) departments have a major influence over IT strategy, which is the same as Japanese SMEs, even though their management styles are quite different. As for IT strategy, it is not related to other departments at all for Korean SMEs. The Korean management seems to possess a great power over each division, such as Sales/Service, Research and Development/Technical Experts, HR, and Production.

Keywords: IT-business alignment, structured based strategic alignment model, structural equation model, human resources department.

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Authors: Raouf Fareh, Maarouf Saad, Sofiane Khadraoui, Tamer Rabie

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This paper presents a tracking control strategy based on Lyapunov approach for nonholonomic wheeled mobile robot. This control strategy consists of two levels. First, a kinematic controller is developed to adjust the right and left wheel velocities. Using this velocity control law, the stability of the tracking error is guaranteed using Lyapunov approach. This kinematic controller cannot be generated directly by the motors. To overcome this problem, the second level of the controllers, dynamic control, is designed. This dynamic control law is developed based on Lyapunov theory in order to track the desired trajectories of the mobile robot. The stability of the tracking error is proved using Lupunov and Barbalat approaches. Simulation results on a nonholonomic wheeled mobile robot are given to demonstrate the feasibility and effectiveness of the presented approach.

Keywords: Mobile robot, trajectory tracking, Lyapunov, stability.

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Authors: Ismail Gerzeli, Cemal Baykara, Osman Akin Kutlar

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Skip cycle is a working strategy for spark ignition engines, which allows changing the effective stroke of an engine through skipping some of the four stroke cycles. This study proposes a new mechanism to achieve the desired skip-cycle strategy for internal combustion engines. The air and fuel leakage, which occurs through the gas exchange, negatively affects the efficiency of the engine at high speeds and loads. An absolute sealing is assured by direct use of poppet valves, which are kept in fully closed position during the skipped mode. All the components of the mechanism were designed according to the real dimensions of the Anadolu Motor's gasoline engine and modeled in 3D by means of CAD software. As the mechanism operates in two modes, two dynamically equivalent models are established to obtain the force and strength analysis for critical components.

Keywords: Dynamic Model, Mechanical Design, Skip Cycle System (SCS), Valve Disabling Mechanism

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Authors: Arti Goel, Kanika Sharma

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Microorganisms can be removed, inhibited or killed by physical agents, physical processes or chemical agents but they have their inherent disadvantages such as increased resistance against antibiotics etc. Since, plants have endless ability to synthesize aromatic substances which act as the master agents for plant defense mechanisms against microorganisms, insects and herbivores. Thus, secondary metabolites or phytochemicals obtained from plants can be used as agents of disease control nowadays. In the present study effect of different concentrations of acetone fraction of leaves and alcohol fraction of inflorescence of Euphorbia pulcherrima on various cytomorphological parameters i.e. cell number, mycelium width, conidial size, conidiophore size etc. of Aspergillus fumigatus has been studied. Change in mycelium/ hyphal cell width, conidium size, conidiophore size etc. was measured with the help of a previously calibrated oculometer. To study effect on morphology, fungal mycelium along with conidiophore and conidia were stained with cotton blue and mounted in lactophenol and observed microscopically. Inhibitory action of the acetone extract of Euphorbia pulcherrima leaf on growth of Aspergillus fumigatus was investigated. Control containing extract free medium supported profuse growth of the fungus. Although decrease in growth was observed even at 3.95μg/ml but significant inhibition of growth was started at7.81μg/ml concentration of the extract. Complete inhibition was observed at 15.62μg/ml and above. Microscopic examination revealed that at 3.95, 7.81 and 15.62μg/ml extract concentration hyphal cell width was found to be increased from 1.44μm in control to 3.86, 5.24 and 8.98 μm respectively giving a beaded appearance to the mycelium. Vesicle size was reduced from 24.78x20.08μm (control) to 11.34x10.06μm at 3.95μg/ml concentration. At 7.81 and 15.62μg/ml concentration no phialides and sterigmata were observed. Inhibitory action of the alcohol extract of inflorescence on the growth of Aspergillus fumigatus was also studied. Control containing extract free medium supported profuse growth of the fungus. Although decrease in growth was observed even at 3.95μg/ml but complete inhibition was observed at 62.5μg/ml and above. Microscopic examination revealed that hyphal cell width of Aspergillus fumigatus was found to be increased from 1.67μm in control to 5.84μm at MIC i.e. at 62.5μg/ml. Vesicle size was reduced from 44.76x 24.22μm (control) to 11.36x 6.80μm at 15.62μg/ml concentrations. At 31.25 μg/ml and 62.5μg/ml concentration no phialides and sterigmata was found. Spore germination was completely found to be inhibited at 3.95μg/ml concentration. Similarly 92.87% reduction in vesicle size was observed at 15.62μg/ml concentration. It is evident from the results that plant extracts inhibit fungal growth and this inhibition is concentration dependent. 

Keywords: Antimicrobial Activity, Aspergillus fumigatus, cytomorphology, Euphorbia pulcherrima.

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Authors: Vijay Shankar, C.S.P. Ojha, K.S. Hari Prasad

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Maize and Indian mustard are significant crops in semi-arid climate zones of India. Improved water management requires precise scheduling of irrigation, which in turn requires an accurate computation of daily crop evapotranspiration (ETc). Daily crop evapotranspiration comes as a product of reference evapotranspiration (ET0) and the growth stage specific crop coefficients modified for daily variation. The first objective of present study is to develop crop coefficients Kc for Maize and Indian mustard. The estimated values of Kc for maize at the four crop growth stages (initial, development, mid-season, and late season) are 0.55, 1.08, 1.25, and 0.75, respectively, and for Indian mustard the Kc values at the four growth stages are 0.3, 0.6, 1.12, and 0.35, respectively. The second objective of the study is to compute daily crop evapotranspiration from ET0 and crop coefficients. Average daily ETc of maize varied from about 2.5 mm/d in the early growing period to > 6.5 mm/d at mid season. The peak ETc of maize is 8.3 mm/d and it occurred 64 days after sowing at the reproductive growth stage when leaf area index was 4.54. In the case of Indian mustard, average ETc is 1 mm/d at the initial stage, >1.8 mm/d at mid season and achieves a peak value of 2.12 mm/d on 56 days after sowing. Improved schedules of irrigation have been simulated based on daily crop evapo-transpiration and field measured data. Simulation shows a close match between modeled and field moisture status prevalent during crop season.

Keywords: Crop coefficient, Crop evapotranspiration, Field moisture, Irrigation Scheduling

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Authors: Jaqueline M. R. Vieira

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Different strategies and tools are available at the oil and gas industry for detecting and analyzing tension and possible fractures in borehole walls. Most of these techniques are based on manual observation of the captured borehole images. While this strategy may be possible and convenient with small images and few data, it may become difficult and suitable to errors when big databases of images must be treated. While the patterns may differ among the image area, depending on many characteristics (drilling strategy, rock components, rock strength, etc.). In this work we propose the inclusion of data-mining classification strategies in order to create a knowledge database of the segmented curves. These classifiers allow that, after some time using and manually pointing parts of borehole images that correspond to tension regions and breakout areas, the system will indicate and suggest automatically new candidate regions, with higher accuracy. We suggest the use of different classifiers methods, in order to achieve different knowledge dataset configurations.

Keywords: Brazil, classifiers, data-mining, Image Segmentation, oil well visualization, classifiers.

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Authors: Intan Waheedah Othman, Maslinawati Mohamad, Azizah Abdullah

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Cooperative organizations in Malaysia are going through a phase of rapid growth. They are seen by the government as another crucial vehicle to drive and boost up the country-s economical development and growth. Hence, the issue of cooperative governance is of great importance. Unlike literatures on corporate governance for public listed companies-, literatures on governance for social enterprises, in particular the cooperative organizations are still at the early stage in Malaysia and very scant in number. This paper will look into current practices as well as issues and challenges related to cooperative governance. The need for a better solution towards forming best practices of cooperative governance framework appears imperative in deterring cases of mismanagement and fraud.

Keywords: Cooperative, Governance, Issues, Malaysia.

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Authors: Tsung-Hsien Yu, Ya-Hsuan Chou, Ming-Wei Chen, Chi-Ming Chen, Yi-Hsuan Li

Abstract:

Observations and long-term trends indicate that climate change impacts would be significant and affects Taiwan directly and severely. Taiwan engages not only in mitigation, but also in adaptation. However, there are cognitive gaps on adaptation between government and populace. Besides, a vision of zero-carbon and renewable energy 100% will be adopted in future. Therefore, the objectives of this article are to 1) hold a National Forum for knowing differences between the strategies of zero-carbon and renewable energy 100% and cognitions of general populace, and 2) plan a clear roadmap for the vision, strategy, and measures. In this forum, we set 5 group topics, 5 presumed themes, and issues mentioned review for concluding the critical issues. Finally, there are 4 strategies and 14 critical issues which correlate with the vision and strategy of government and the cognition of the general populace.

Keywords: Cognitive gap, world café, renewable energy, zero-carbon.

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Authors: Hamada A. Ahmed, Kadry M. Sadek, Ayman E. Taha

Abstract:

The effects of basil and/or chamomile seed supplementation on the growth of Hubbard broiler chicks were evaluated. The antioxidant effects of these supplements were also assessed. 120 1-day-old broiler chicks were randomly divided into four equal groups. The control group (group 1) was fed a basal diet (BD) without supplementation. Groups 2, 3, and 4 were fed the BD supplemented with 10g basil, 10g chamomile, and 5g basil plus 5g chamomile per kg of food, respectively. Basil supplementation alone or in combination with chamomile non-significantly (P≥0.05) increased final body weight (3.2% and 0.3%, respectively) and weight gain (3.5% and 3.6%, respectively) over the experimental period. Chamomile supplementation alone non-significantly (P≥0.05) reduced final body weight and weight gain over the experimental period by 1.7% and 1.7%, respectively. In comparison to the control group, herbal seed supplementation reduced feed intake and improved the feed conversion and protein efficiency ratios. In general, basil seed supplementation stimulated chicken growth and improved the feed efficiency more effectively than chamomile seed supplementation. The antioxidant activities of basil and/or chamomile supplementation were examined in the thymus, bursa, and spleen. In chickens that received supplements, the level of malondialdehyde was significantly decreased, whereas the activities of glutathione, superoxide dismutase, and catalase were significantly increased (P<0.05). Supplementation of basil and/or chamomile did not affect blood protein levels, but had lipid-lowering effects as evidenced by reduced serum levels of total lipids, triglycerides, and cholesterol. In conclusion, supplementation of basil and/or chamomile improved growth parameters in broiler chicks and had antioxidant and blood lipid-lowering effects. These beneficial effects of basil and/or chamomile supplementation resulted in economically viable production of high-quality white meat containing no harmful residues.

Keywords: Herbal additives, basil, chamomile, broiler, growth performance, antioxidant.

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Authors: Arash Taheri, Meysam Mohammadi-Amin, Seyed Hossein Moosavy

Abstract:

Medical applications are among the most impactful areas of microrobotics. The ultimate goal of medical microrobots is to reach currently inaccessible areas of the human body and carry out a host of complex operations such as minimally invasive surgery (MIS), highly localized drug delivery, and screening for diseases at their very early stages. Miniature, safe and efficient propulsion systems hold the key to maturing this technology but they pose significant challenges. A new type of propulsion developed recently, uses multi-flagella architecture inspired by the motility mechanism of prokaryotic microorganisms. There is a lack of efficient methods for designing this type of propulsion system. The goal of this paper is to overcome the lack and this way, a numerical strategy is proposed to design multi-flagella propulsion systems. The strategy is based on the implementation of the regularized stokeslet and rotlet theory, RFT theory and new approach of “local corrected velocity". The effects of shape parameters and angular velocities of each flagellum on overall flow field and on the robot net forces and moments are considered. Then a multi-layer perceptron artificial neural network is designed and employed to adjust the angular velocities of the motors for propulsion control. The proposed method applied successfully on a sample configuration and useful demonstrative results is obtained.

Keywords: Artificial Neural Network, Biomimetic Microrobots, Flagellar Propulsion, Swimming Robots.

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