Search results for: evaluation and prediction of quality answer

Authors: Barenten Suciu, Yuya Nakamoto

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Power generation effect, obtained by inserting a piezo- electric sheet in the backlash clearance of a circular arc helical gear, is evaluated. Such type of screw gear is preferred since, in comparison with the involute tooth profile, the circular arc profile leads to reduced stress-concentration effects, and improved life of the piezoelectric film. Firstly, geometry of the circular arc helical gear, and properties of the piezoelectric sheet are presented. Then, description of the test-rig, consisted of a right-hand thread gear meshing with a left-hand thread gear, and the voltage measurement procedure are given. After creating the tridimensional (3D) model of the meshing gears in SolidWorks, they are 3D-printed in acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS) resin. Variation of the generated voltage versus time, during a meshing cycle of the circular arc helical gear, is measured for various values of the center distance. Then, the change of the maximal, minimal, and peak-to-peak voltage versus the center distance is illustrated. Optimal center distance of the gear, to achieve voltage maximization, is found and its significance is discussed. Such results prove that the contact pressure of the meshing gears can be measured, and also, the electrical power can be generated by employing the proposed technique.

Keywords: Power generation, circular arc helical gear, piezo- electric sheet, contact problem, optimal center distance.

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Authors: S. Visetpotjanakit, N. Nakkaew

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Determination of ⁹⁰Sr in environmental samples has been widely developed with several radioanlytical methods and radiation measurement techniques since ⁹⁰Sr is one of the most hazardous radionuclides produced from nuclear reactors. Liquid extraction technique using di-(2-ethylhexyl) phosphoric acid (HDEHP) to separate and purify ⁹⁰Y and Cherenkov counting using liquid scintillation counter to determine ⁹⁰Y in secular equilibrium to ⁹⁰Sr was developed and performed at our institute, the Office of Atoms for Peace. The approach is inexpensive, non-laborious, and fast to analyse ⁹⁰Sr in environmental samples. To validate our analytical performance for the accurate and precise criteria, determination of ⁹⁰Sr using the IAEA-TEL-2016-04 ALMERA proficiency test samples were performed for statistical evaluation. The experiment used two spiked tap water samples and one naturally contaminated spruce needles sample from Austria collected shortly after the Chernobyl accident. Results showed that all three analyses were successfully passed in terms of both accuracy and precision criteria, obtaining “Accepted” statuses. The two water samples obtained the measured results of 15.54 Bq/kg and 19.76 Bq/kg, which had relative bias 5.68% and -3.63% for the Maximum Acceptable Relative Bias (MARB) 15% and 20%, respectively. And the spruce needles sample obtained the measured results of 21.04 Bq/kg, which had relative bias 23.78% for the MARB 30%. These results confirm our analytical performance of ⁹⁰Sr determination in water and spruce needles samples using the same developed method.

Keywords: ALMERA proficiency test, Cherenkov counting, determination of 90Sr, environmental samples.

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Authors: M Tayari, SZ Moosavi-nejad, A Shabani, M Rezaei Tavirani

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Free Hemoglobin promotes the accumulation of hydroxyl radicals by the heme iron, which can react with endogenous hydrogen peroxide to produce free radicals which may cause severe oxidative cell damage. Haptoglobin binds to Hemoglobin strongly and Haptoglobin-Hemoglobin binding is irreversible. Peroxidase activity of Haptoglobin(2-2)-Hemoglobin complex was assayed by following increase of absorption of produced tetraguaiacol as the second substrate of Haptoglobin-Hemoglobin complex at 470 nm and 42°C by UV-Vis spectrophotometer. The results have shown that peroxidase activity of Haptoglobin(2-2)-Hemoglobin complex is modulated via homotropic effect of hydrogen peroxide as allostric substrate. On the other hand antioxidant property of Haptoglobin(2- 2)-Hemoglobin was increased via heterotropic effect of the two drugs (especially ampicillin) on peroxidase activity of the complex. Both drugs also have mild effect on quality of homotropic property of peroxidase activity of Haptoglobin(2-2)-Hemoglobin complex. Therefore, in vitro studies show that the two drugs may help Hp-Hb complex to remove hydrogen peroxide from serum at pathologic temperature ature (42 C).

Keywords: Haptoglobin, Hemoglobin, Antioxidant, Antibiotics.

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Authors: Mountassar Maamoun, Mehdi Neggazi, Abdelhamid Meraghni, Daoud Berkani

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This paper presents a VLSI design approach of a highspeed and real-time 2-D Discrete Wavelet Transform computing. The proposed architecture, based on new and fast convolution approach, reduces the hardware complexity in addition to reduce the critical path to the multiplier delay. Furthermore, an advanced twodimensional (2-D) discrete wavelet transform (DWT) implementation, with an efficient memory area, is designed to produce one output in every clock cycle. As a result, a very highspeed is attained. The system is verified, using JPEG2000 coefficients filters, on Xilinx Virtex-II Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) device without accessing any external memory. The resulting computing rate is up to 270 M samples/s and the (9,7) 2-D wavelet filter uses only 18 kb of memory (16 kb of first-in-first-out memory) with 256×256 image size. In this way, the developed design requests reduced memory and provide very high-speed processing as well as high PSNR quality.

Keywords: Discrete Wavelet Transform (DWT), Fast Convolution, FPGA, VLSI.

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Authors: Rumman Md Raihanuzzaman, Lee Chang Chuan, Zonghan Xie, Reza Ghomashchi

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Cemented carbides, owing to their excellent mechanical properties, have been of immense interest in the field of hard materials for the past few decades. A number of processing techniques have been developed to obtain high quality carbide tools, with a wide range of grain size depending on the application and requirements. Microwave sintering is one of the heating processes, which has been used to prepare a wide range of materials including ceramics. A deep understanding of microwave sintering and its contribution towards control of grain growth and on deformation of the resulting carbide materials requires further studies and attention. In addition, the effect of binder materials and their behavior during microwave sintering is another area that requires clear understanding. This review aims to focus on microwave sintering, providing information of how the process works and what type of materials it is best suited for. In addition, a closer look at some microwave sintered Tungsten Carbide-Cobalt samples will be taken and discussed, highlighting some of the key issues and challenges faced in this research area.

Keywords: Cemented carbides, consolidation, microwave sintering, mechanical properties.

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Authors: Jelena S. Kiurski, Vesna S. Kecić, Snežana M. Aksentijević

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The identification and evaluation of organic and inorganic pollutants were performed in a flexographic facility in Novi Sad, Serbia. Air samples were collected and analyzed in situ, during 4-hours working time at five sampling points by the mobile gas chromatograph and ozonometer at the printing of collagen casing. Experimental results showed that the concentrations of isopropyl alcohol, acetone, total volatile organic compounds and ozone varied during the sampling times. The highest average concentrations of 94.80 ppm and 102.57 ppm were achieved at 200 minutes from starting the production for isopropyl alcohol and total volatile organic compounds, respectively. The mutual dependences between target hazardous and microclimate parameters were confirmed using a multiple linear regression model with software package STATISTICA 10. Obtained multiple coefficients of determination in the case of ozone and acetone (0.507 and 0.589) with microclimate parameters indicated a moderate correlation between the observed variables. However, a strong positive correlation was obtained for isopropyl alcohol and total volatile organic compounds (0.760 and 0.852) with microclimate parameters. Higher values of parameter F than F_critical for all examined dependences indicated the existence of statistically significant difference between the concentration levels of target pollutants and microclimates parameters. Given that, the microclimate parameters significantly affect the emission of investigated gases and the application of eco-friendly materials in production process present a necessity.

Keywords: Flexographic printing, indoor air, multiple regression analysis, pollution emission.

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Authors: Danielle Klassen, Reiko Yeap, Margo Schmitt-Boshnick, Scott Oddie

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The development of the 7-week Alberta Happiness Basics program was initiated in 2010 in response to the need for community mental health programming. This provincial wide program aims to increase overall happiness and reduce negative thoughts and feelings through a positive psychology intervention. While the 7-week program has proven effective, a shortened 4-week program has additionally been developed to address client needs. In this study, participants were interviewed to determine if the 4- and 7-week programs had similar success of producing lasting behavior change at 3, 6, and 9 months post-program. A health quality of life (HQOL) measure was also used to compare the two programs and examine patient outcomes. Quantitative and qualitative analysis showed significant improvements in HQOL and sustainable behavior change for both programs. Findings indicate that the shorter, patient-centered program was effective in increasing happiness and reducing negative thoughts and feelings.

Keywords: Primary care, mental health, depression, short duration.

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Authors: D.Venkatesan, K.Kannan, S. Raja Balachandar

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In this paper a new Genetic Algorithm based on a heuristic operator and Centre of Mass selection operator (CMGA) is designed for the unbounded knapsack problem(UKP), which is NP-Hard combinatorial optimization problem. The proposed genetic algorithm is based on a heuristic operator, which utilizes problem specific knowledge. This center of mass operator when combined with other Genetic Operators forms a competitive algorithm to the existing ones. Computational results show that the proposed algorithm is capable of obtaining high quality solutions for problems of standard randomly generated knapsack instances. Comparative study of CMGA with simple GA in terms of results for unbounded knapsack instances of size up to 200 show the superiority of CMGA. Thus CMGA is an efficient tool of solving UKP and this algorithm is competitive with other Genetic Algorithms also.

Keywords: Genetic Algorithm, Unbounded Knapsack Problem, Combinatorial Optimization, Meta-Heuristic, Center of Mass

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Authors: A. Szabó Nagy, J. Szabó, I. Vass

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Water and sediment samples from the Danube River and Moson Danube Arm (Hungary) have been collected and analyzed for contamination by 18 polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and eight trace metal(loid)s (As, Cu, Pb, Ni, Cr, Cd, Hg and Zn) in the period of 2014-2015. Moreover, the trace metal(loid) concentrations were measured in the Rába and Marcal rivers (parts of the tributary system feeding the Danube). Total PAH contents in water were found to vary from 0.016 to 0.133 µg/L and concentrations in sediments varied in the range of 0.118 mg/kg and 0.283 mg/kg. Source analysis of PAHs using diagnostic concentration ratios indicated that PAHs found in sediments were of pyrolytic origins. The dissolved trace metal and arsenic concentrations were relatively low in the surface waters. However, higher concentrations were detected in the water samples of Rába (Zn, Cu, Ni, Pb) and Marcal (As, Cu, Ni, Pb) compared to the Danube and Moson Danube. The concentrations of trace metals in sediments were higher than those found in water samples.

Keywords: Surface water, sediment, PAH, trace metal.

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Authors: Suresh Sahu, Abhijeet M. Vaidya, Naresh K. Maheshwari

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The efforts to understand the heat transfer behavior of supercritical water in supercritical water cooled reactor (SCWR) are ongoing worldwide to fulfill the future energy demand. The higher thermal efficiency of these reactors compared to a conventional nuclear reactor is one of the driving forces for attracting the attention of nuclear scientists. In this work, a solution procedure has been described for solving supercritical fluid flow problems in complex geometries. The solution procedure is based on non-staggered grid. All governing equations are discretized by finite volume method (FVM) in curvilinear coordinate system. Convective terms are discretized by first-order upwind scheme and central difference approximation has been used to discretize the diffusive parts. k-ε turbulence model with standard wall function has been employed. SIMPLE solution procedure has been implemented for the curvilinear coordinate system. Based on this solution method, 3-D Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) code has been developed. In order to demonstrate the capability of this CFD code in supercritical fluid flows, heat transfer to supercritical water in circular tubes has been considered as a test problem. Results obtained by code have been compared with experimental results reported in literature.

Keywords: Curvilinear coordinate, body-fitted mesh, momentum interpolation, non-staggered grid, supercritical fluids.

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Authors: Morten Stigaard Laursen, Rasmus Nyholm Jørgensen, Mads Dyrmann, Robert Poulsen

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For the past three years, the Danish project, RoboWeedSupport, has sought to bridge the gap between the potential herbicide savings using a decision support system and the required weed inspections. In order to automate the weed inspections it is desired to generate a map of the weed species present within the field, to generate the map images must be captured with samples covering the field. This paper investigates the economical cost of performing this data collection based on a camera system mounted on a all-terain vehicle (ATV) able to drive and collect data at up to 50 km/h while still maintaining a image quality sufficient for identifying newly emerged grass weeds. The economical estimates are based on approximately 100 hectares recorded at three different locations in Denmark. With an average image density of 99 images per hectare the ATV had an capacity of 28 ha per hour, which is estimated to cost 6.6 EUR/ha. Alternatively relying on a boom solution for an existing tracktor it was estimated that a cost of 2.4 EUR/ha is obtainable under equal conditions.

Keywords: Weed mapping, integrated weed management, weed recognition.

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Authors: Mohamed A. Tantawy, Nourelhoda A. Hussein, Moataz A. Mahrous

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New planning and city design theories are continuously debated and optimized for seeking efficiency and adequacy in economic and life quality aspects. Here, we examine the children-city relationship, to reflect on how modern and traditional cities affect the social climate. We adopt children as a proper caliber for urbanism, as for their very young age, they are independent and attached to family. Their fragility offers a chance to gauge how various urban settings directly affect their feeling of safety, containment, and their perception of belonging for home territory. The importance of street play for the child development process is discussed thoroughly. The authority they have on their play (when and what to play) pushes us to our conclusion. A mediocre built environment characterized by spontaneity and human-scale semi-private urban spaces, is irreplaceable by a perfectly designed far away playgrounds. Street play has a huge role in empowering children for a gradual engagement with grown-ups’ urban flow.

Keywords: Child's psychology, social activity, street play, urban fabric.

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Authors: Kadkhodaie A., Bagheri M.

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Evaluation of crop plants resistance to environmental stresses specially in germination stage is a critical factor in their selection in different conditions of cultivation. Therefore use of a procedure in controllable situation can help to evaluate plants reaction to stress quickly and precisely. In order to study germination characteristics of flax in water and salinity stress conditions were conducted two laboratories experimental. The two experimental were conducted in 4-replicant completing random design for salinity and water stress. The treatment, for salinity and water stress was three potential (zero, 40, 80 mM) of NaCl and three potential (zero, -2, -4 bar) of PEG respectively. Germination percentage and rate, in addition to Radical and plumule length and dry-weight and plumule/Radical ration were measured. All of characteristics reduce under water stress conditions. salinity stress significant reduce germination rate and Radical and plumule length of flax seeds. Hydropriming and osmopriming significant increased germination rate, plumule length and plumule/Radical ration ration of flax seeds. But germination percentage and Radical and plumule dry weight significant increased only in hydropriming treat. Hydropriming and osmopriming could not be used to improved germination under saline and drought stress. But has more tolerance in salinity and drought stress in flax by less reduce in Radical and plumule length under saline and drought stress.

Keywords: linseed, salt stress, water stress, seed treatment, Germination

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Authors: Frantisek Bozek, Pavel Budinsky, Ignac Hoza, Alexandr Bozek, Magdalena Naplavova

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A cleaner production project was implemented in a bakery. The project is based on the substitution of the best available technique for an obsolete leaven production technology. The new technology enables production of durable, high-quality leavens. Moreover, 25% of flour as the original raw material can be replaced by pastry from the previous day production which has not been sold. That pastry was previously disposed in a waste incineration plant. Besides the environmental benefits resulting from less waste, lower consumption of energy, reduction of sewage waters quantity and floury dustiness there are also significant economic benefits. Payback period of investment was calculated with help of static method of financial analysis about 2.6 years, using dynamic method 3.5 years and an internal rate of return more than 29%. The supposed annual average profit after taxationin the second year of operation was incompliance with the real profit.

Keywords: Bakery, best available technology, cleaner production, costs, economic benefit, efficiency, energy, environmental benefit, investment, savings.

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Authors: Young Nam Chun, Mun Sup Lim

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Carbon dioxide and methane, the major components of biomass pyrolysis/gasification gas and biogas, top the list of substances that cause climate change, but they are also among the most important renewable energy sources in modern society. The purpose of this study is to convert carbon dioxide and methane into high-quality energy using char and commercial activated carbon obtained from biomass pyrolysis as a microwave receptor. The methane reforming process produces hydrogen and carbon. This carbon is deposited in the pores of the microwave receptor and lowers catalytic activity, thereby reducing the methane conversion rate. The deposited carbon was removed by carbon gasification due to the supply of carbon dioxide, which solved the problem of microwave receptor inactivity. In particular, the conversion rate remained stable at over 90% when the ratio of carbon dioxide to methane was 1:1. When the reforming results of carbon dioxide and methane were compared after fabricating nickel and iron catalysts using commercial activated carbon as a carrier, the conversion rate was higher in the iron catalyst than in the nickel catalyst and when no catalyst was used. 

Keywords: Microwave, gas reforming, greenhouse gas, microwave receptor, catalyst.

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Authors: Huei-Wen Lin, Huei-Fu Lu

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Event sport tourism (EST) has become an especially important economic sector around the world. As the magnitude continues to grow, attracting more tourists, media, and investment for the host community, and many local areas/regions and states have identified the expenditures by visitors as a potential source of economic or employment growth. The main purposes of this study are to investigate stakeholders’ insights into the feature of hosting EST and using them as a regional development strategy. Continuing the focus of previous literature on the regional development and economic benefits by hosting EST, a total of fıve semi-structured interview questions are designed and a thematic analysis is employed to conduct with eight key sport and tourism decision makers in Atlanta during July to August 2016. Through the depth interviews, the study will contribute to a better understanding of stakeholders’ decision-making, identifying benefits and constraints as well as leveraging the impacts of hosting EST. These findings have provided stakeholders’ perspectives of hosting EST and using them as a reference of regional development in emerging sport tourism markets in the US. Additionally, this study examines key considerations and issues that affect and are critical to reliable understanding of the economic impacts of hosting EST on the regional development, and it will be able to benefit future management authorities (i.e. governments and communities) in their sport tourism development endeavors in defining and hosting successful EST. Furthermore, the insights gained from the qualitative analysis could help other cities/regions analyzing the economic impacts of hosting EST and using it as an instrument of city development strategy.

Keywords: Event sport tourism, regional economic development, thematic analysis, stakeholder.

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Authors: Abdullah Gokhan Yilmaz, Monzur Alam Imteaz, Shirley Gato-Trinidad, Iqbal Hossain

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Climate change leading to global warming affects the earth through many different ways such as weather (temperature, precipitation, humidity and the other parameters of weather), snow coverage and ice melting, sea level rise, hydrological cycles, quality of water, agriculture, forests, ecosystems and health. One of the most affected areas by climate change is hydrology and water resources. Regions where majority of runoff consists of snow melt are more sensitive to climate change. The first step of climate change studies is to establish trends of significant climate variables including precipitation, temperature and flow data to detect any potential climate change impacts already happened. Two popular non-parametric trend analysis methods, Mann-Kendal and Spearman-s Rho were applied to Upper Euphrates Basin (Turkey) to detect trends of precipitation, temperatures (maximum, minimum and average) and streamflow.

Keywords: Climate change, precipitation, snow hydrology, trend analysis and Upper Euphrates Basin

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Authors: Eftah Bte. Moh Hj Abdullah, Abd Aziz Bin Abd Shukor, Norazilawati Binti Abdullah, Rahimah Adam, Othman Bin Lebar

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The competency and integrity required for better understanding and practice of School-based Assessment (PBS) comes not only from the process, but also in providing the support or ‘scaffolding’ for teachers to recognize the student as a learner, improve their self-assessment skills, understanding of the daily teaching plan and its constructive alignment of the curriculum, pedagogy and assessment. The cultivation of integrity in PBS among the teachers is geared towards encouraging them to become committed and dedicated in implementing assessments in a serious, efficient manner, thus moving away from the usual teacher-focused approach to the student-focused approach. The teachers show their integrity via their professional commitment, responsibility and actions. The module based on the cultivation of integrity in PBS among Malaysian teachers aims to broaden the guidance support for teachers (embedded in the training), which consists of various domains to enable better evaluation of complex assessment tasks and the construction of suitable instrument for measuring the relevant cognitive, affective and psychomotor domains to describe the students’ achievement. The instrument for integrity cultivation in PBS has been developed and validated for measuring the effectiveness of the module constructed. This module is targeted towards assisting the staff in the Education Ministry, especially the principal trainers, teachers, headmasters and education officers to acquire effective intervention for improving the PBS assessors’ integrity and competency.

Keywords: School-based assessment, Assessment competency Integrity cultivation, Professional commitment, Module.

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Authors: N. P. Singh, Brahmjit Singh

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CDMA cellular networks support soft handover, which guarantees the continuity of wireless services and enhanced communication quality. Cellular networks support multimedia services under varied propagation environmental conditions. In this paper, we have shown the effect of characteristic parameters of the cellular environments on the soft handover performance. We consider path loss exponent, standard deviation of shadow fading and correlation coefficient of shadow fading as the characteristic parameters of the radio propagation environment. A very useful statistical measure for characterizing the performance of mobile radio system is the probability of outage. It is shown through numerical results that above parameters have decisive effect on the probability of outage and hence the overall performance of the soft handover algorithm.

Keywords: CDMA, Correlation coefficient, Path loss exponent, Probability of outage, Soft handover.

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Authors: Seyed Erfan Hosseini, Mohammad K. Alizadeh, Amir Mesbah

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Non-saturated soils that while saturation greatly decrease their volume, have sudden settlement due to increasing humidity, fracture and structural crack are called loess soils. Whereas importance of civil projects including: dams, canals and constructions bearing this type of soil and thereof problems, it is required for carrying out more research and study in relation to loess soils. This research studies shear strength parameters by using grading test, Atterberg limit, compression, direct shear and consolidation and then effect of using cement and lime additives on stability of loess soils is studied. In related tests, lime and cement are separately added to mixed ratios under different percentages of soil and for different times the stabilized samples are processed and effect of aforesaid additives on shear strength parameters of soil is studied. Results show that upon passing time the effect of additives and collapsible potential is greatly decreased and upon increasing percentage of cement and lime the maximum dry density is decreased; however, optimum humidity is increased. In addition, liquid limit and plastic index is decreased; however, plastic index limit is increased. It is to be noted that results of direct shear test reveal increasing shear strength of soil due to increasing cohesion parameter and soil friction angle.

Keywords: Loess Soils, Shear Strength, Cement, Lime.

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Authors: Felix David

Abstract:

The use of virtual reality (VR) technology is still in its infancy. This is especially true in a Japanese educational context with very little to no exposition of VR technology inside classrooms. Technology is growing and changing rapidly in America, but Japan seems to be lagging behind in integrating VR into its curriculum. The aim of this research was to expose 111 students from Hiroshima Jogakuin University (HJU) to seven classes that involved VR content and assess students’ attitudinal responses toward this new technology. The students are all female, and they are taking the “Kiso Eigo/基礎英語” or Foundation English course, which is mandatory for all first- and second-year students. Two surveys were given, one before the treatment and a second survey after the treatment, which in this case means the seven VR classes. These surveys first established that the technical environment could accommodate VR activities in terms of internet connection, VR headsets, and the quality of the smartphone’s screen. Based on the attitudinal responses gathered in this research, VR is perceived by students as “fun,” useful to “learn about the world,” as well as being useful to “learn about English.” This research validates VR as a worthy educational tool and it should therefore continue being an integral part of the mandatory English course curriculum at HJU.

Keywords: Virtual Reality, smartphone, English Learning, curriculum.

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Authors: Marco Raciti Castelli, Giulia Simioni, Ernesto Benini

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This paper presents a model for the evaluation of energy performance and aerodynamic forces acting on a three-bladed small vertical axis Darrieus wind turbine depending on blade chord curvature with respect to rotor axis. The adopted survey methodology is based on an analytical code coupled to a solid modeling software, capable of generating the desired blade geometry depending on the blade design geometric parameters, which is linked to a finite volume CFD code for the calculation of rotor performance. After describing and validating the model with experimental data, the results of numerical simulations are proposed on the bases of two different blade profile architectures, which are respectively characterized by a straight chord and by a curved one, having a chord radius equal to rotor external circumference. A CFD campaign of analysis is completed for three blade-candidate airfoil sections, that is the recently-developed DU 06-W-200 cambered blade profile, a classical symmetrical NACA 0021 and its derived cambered airfoil, characterized by a curved chord, having a chord radius equal to rotor external circumference. The effects of blade chord curvature on angle of attack, blade tangential and normal forces are first investigated and then the overall rotor torque and power are analyzed as a function of blade azimuthal position, achieving a numerical quantification of the influence of blade camber on overall rotor performance.

Keywords: VAWT, NACA 0021, DU 06-W-200, cambered airfoil

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Authors: Mohamed Adel Serhani, Abdelghani Benharref, Rachida Dssouli, Rabeb Mizouni

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Nowadays, people are going more and more mobile, both in terms of devices and associated applications. Moreover, services that these devices are offering are getting wider and much more complex. Even though actual handheld devices have considerable computing power, their contexts of utilization are different. These contexts are affected by the availability of connection, high latency of wireless networks, battery life, size of the screen, on-screen or hard keyboard, etc. Consequently, development of mobile applications and their associated mobile Web services, if any, should follow a concise methodology so they will provide a high Quality of Service. The aim of this paper is to highlight and discuss main issues to consider when developing mobile applications and mobile Web services and then propose a framework that leads developers through different steps and modules toward development of efficient and secure mobile applications. First, different challenges in developing such applications are elicited and deeply discussed. Second, a development framework is presented with different modules addressing each of these challenges. Third, the paper presents an example of a mobile application, Eivom Cinema Guide, which benefits from following our development framework.

Keywords: Mobile applications, development of mobile applications, efficient mobile application, secure mobile application.

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Authors: Saowaluck Ukrisdawithid

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The thermal conductivity of thermal insulation materials are measured by Heat Flow Meter (HFM) apparatus. The components of uncertainty are complex and difficult on routine measurement by modelling approach. In this study, uncertainty of thermal conductivity measurement was estimated by single laboratory validation approach. The within-laboratory reproducibility was 1.1%. The standard uncertainty of method and laboratory bias by using SRM1453 expanded polystyrene board was dominant at 1.4%. However, it was assessed that there was no significant bias. For sample measurement, the sources of uncertainty were repeatability, density of sample and thermal conductivity resolution of HFM. From this approach to sample measurements, the combined uncertainty was calculated. In summary, the thermal conductivity of sample, polystyrene foam, was reported as 0.03367 W/m·K ± 3.5% (k = 2) at mean temperature 23.5 °C. The single laboratory validation approach is simple key of routine testing laboratory for estimation uncertainty of thermal conductivity measurement by using HFM, according to ISO/IEC 17025-2017 requirements. These are meaningful for laboratory competent improvement, quality control on products, and conformity assessment.

Keywords: Single laboratory validation approach, within-laboratory reproducibility, method and laboratory bias, certified reference material.

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Authors: N. Baspinar, A. Basoglu, O. Ozdemir, C. Ozel, F. Terzi, O. Yaman

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Current research is targeting new molecular mechanisms that underlie non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) and associated metabolic disorders like non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH). Forty New Zealand White rabbits have been used and fed a high protein (HP) and energy diet based on grains and containing 11.76 MJ/kg. Boron added to 3 experimental groups’ drinking waters (30 mg boron/L) as boron compounds. Biochemical analysis including boron levels, and nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) based metabolomics evaluation, and mRNA expression of peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor (PPAR) family was performed. LDLcholesterol concentrations alone were decreased in all the experimental groups. Boron levels in serum and feces were increased. Content of acetate was in about 2x higher for anhydrous borax group, at least 3x higher for boric acid group. PPARα mRNA expression was significantly decreased in boric acid group. Anhydrous borax attenuated mRNA levels of PPARγ, which was further suppressed by boric acid. Boron supplementation decreased the degenerative alterations in hepatocytes. Except borax group other boron groups did not have a pronounced change in tubular epithels of kidney. In conclusion, high protein and energy diet leads hepatocytes’ degenerative changes which can be prevented by boron supplementation. Boric acid seems to be more effective in this situation.

Keywords: High protein and energy diet, boron, metabolomic, transcriptomic.

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Authors: Rohit Gupta, Ravinder Agarwal

Abstract:

Surface electromyographic (sEMG) signal has the potential to identify the human activities and intention. This potential is further exploited to control the artificial limbs using the sEMG signal from residual limbs of amputees. The paper deals with the development of multichannel cost efficient sEMG signal interface for research application, along with evaluation of proposed class dependent statistical approach of the feature selection method. The sEMG signal acquisition interface was developed using ADS1298 of Texas Instruments, which is a front-end interface integrated circuit for ECG application. Further, the sEMG signal is recorded from two lower limb muscles for three locomotions namely: Plane Walk (PW), Stair Ascending (SA), Stair Descending (SD). A class dependent statistical approach is proposed for feature selection and also its performance is compared with 12 preexisting feature vectors. To make the study more extensive, performance of five different types of classifiers are compared. The outcome of the current piece of work proves the suitability of the proposed feature selection algorithm for locomotion recognition, as compared to other existing feature vectors. The SVM Classifier is found as the outperformed classifier among compared classifiers with an average recognition accuracy of 97.40%. Feature vector selection emerges as the most dominant factor affecting the classification performance as it holds 51.51% of the total variance in classification accuracy. The results demonstrate the potentials of the developed sEMG signal acquisition interface along with the proposed feature selection algorithm.

Keywords: Classifiers, feature selection, locomotion, sEMG.

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Authors: F. Forouharmajd, S. Pourabdian, N. Ziayi Ghahnavieh

Abstract:

For many years, the ear protectors have been used to preventing the audio and non-audio effects of received noise from occupation environments. Despite performing hearing protection programs, there are many people which still suffer from noise-induced hearing loss. This study was conducted with the aim of determination of human hearing system response to received noise and the effectiveness of ear protectors on preventing of noise-induced hearing loss. Sound pressure microphones were placed in a simulated ear canal. The severity of noise measured inside and outside of ear canal. The noise reduction values due to installing ear protectors were calculated in the octave band frequencies and LabVIEW programmer. The results of noise measurement inside and outside of ear canal showed a different in received sound levels by ear canal. The effectiveness of ear protectors has been considerably reduced for the low frequency limits. A change in resonance frequency also was observed after using ear protectors. The study indicated the ear canal structure may affect the received noise and it may lead a difference between the received sound from the measured sound by a sound level meter, and hearing system. It means the human hearing system may probably respond different from a sound level meter. Hearing protectors’ efficiency declines by increasing the noise levels, and thus, they are not suitable to protect workers against industrial noise particularly low frequency noise. Hearing protectors may be solely a reason to damaging of hearing system in a special frequency via changing of human hearing system acoustical structure. We need developing the subjective method of hearing protectors testing, because their evaluation is not designed based on industrial noise or in the field.

Keywords: Ear protector, hearing system, occupational noise, workers.

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Authors: F. Javier Benitez, Francisco J. Real, Juan Luis Acero, Francisco Casas

Abstract:

Three emerging contaminants (amitriptyline hydrochloride, methyl salicylate and 2-phenoxyethanol) frequently found in waste-waters were selected to be individually degraded in ultra-pure water by the combined advanced oxidation process constituted by UV radiation and chlorine. The influence of pH, initial chlorine concentration and nature of the contaminants was firstly explored. The trend for the reactivity of the selected compounds was deduced: amitriptyline hydrochloride > methyl salicylate > 2-phenoxyethanol. A later kinetic study was carried out and focused on the specific evaluation of the first-order rate constants and the determination of the partial contribution to the global reaction of the direct photochemical pathway and the radical pathway. A comparison between the rate constant values among photochemical experiments without and with the presence of Cl₂ reveals a clear increase in the oxidation efficiency of the combined process with respect to the photochemical reaction alone. In a second stage, the simultaneous oxidation of mixtures of the selected contaminants in several types of water (ultrapure water, surface water from a reservoir, and two secondary effluents) was also performed by the same combination UV/Cl₂ under more realistic operating conditions. The efficiency of this combined system UV/Cl₂ was compared to other oxidants such as the UV/S₂O₈^2- and UV/H₂O₂ AOPs. Results confirmed that the UV/Cl₂ system provides higher elimination efficiencies among the AOPs tested.

Keywords: Emerging contaminants, amitriptyline, methyl salicylate, 2-phenoxyethanol, chlorination, photolysis, rate constants, UV/chlorine advanced oxidation process.

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Authors: M. Kaya, M. Eris

Abstract:

Internet use, intelligent communication tools, and social media have all become an integral part of our daily life as a result of rapid developments in information technology. However, this widespread use increases crimes committed in the digital environment. Therefore, digital forensics, dealing with various crimes committed in digital environment, has become an important research topic. It is in the research scope of digital forensics to investigate digital evidences such as computer, cell phone, hard disk, DVD, etc. and to report whether it contains any crime related elements. There are many software and hardware tools developed for use in the digital evidence acquisition process. Today, the most widely used digital evidence investigation tools are based on the principle of finding all the data taken place in digital evidence that is matched with specified criteria and presenting it to the investigator (e.g. text files, files starting with letter A, etc.). Then, digital forensics experts carry out data analysis to figure out whether these data are related to a potential crime. Examination of a 1 TB hard disk may take hours or even days, depending on the expertise and experience of the examiner. In addition, it depends on examiner’s experience, and may change overall result involving in different cases overlooked. In this study, a hash-based matching and digital evidence evaluation method is proposed, and it is aimed to automatically classify the evidence containing criminal elements, thereby shortening the time of the digital evidence examination process and preventing human errors.

Keywords: Block matching, digital evidence, hash list.

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Authors: A. Sarıkaya, A. Akın

Abstract:

This study was carried out to investigate effects of Control (C), 18 bud/vine, 23 bud/vine, 28 bud/vine, 18 bud/vine + TKI-Humas (soil), 23 bud/vine + TKI-Humas (soil), 28 bud/vine + TKI-Humas (soil) applications on yield and yield components of Alphonse Lavallee grape cultivar. The results were obtained as the highest cluster weight (302.31 g) with 18 bud/vine application; the highest berry weight (6.31 g) with 23 bud/vine + TKI-Humas (soil) and (6.79 g) with 28 bud/vine + TKI-Humas (soil) applications; the highest maturity index (36.95) with 18 bud/vine + TKI-Humas (soil) application; the highest L* color intensity (33.99) with 18 bud/vine + TKI-Humas (soil); the highest a* color intensity (1.53) with 23 bud/vine + TKI-Humas (soil) application. The effects of applications on grape fresh yield, grape juice yield and b* color intensity values were not found statistically significant.

Keywords: Alphonse Lavallee grape cultivar, crop load, TKI-Humas substances (soil), yield, quality.

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