Search results for: state transformation approach

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

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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: Gashin Shahsavari, Gilles Arnaud-Fassetta, Roberto Bertilotti, Alberto Campisano, Fabien Riou

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Sewer deposits have been identified as a major cause of dysfunctions in combined sewer systems regarding sewer management, which induces different negative consequents resulting in poor hydraulic conveyance, environmental damages as well as worker’s health. In order to overcome the problematics of sedimentation, flushing has been considered as the most operative and cost-effective way to minimize the sediments impacts and prevent such challenges. Flushing, by prompting turbulent wave effects, can modify the bed form depending on the hydraulic properties and geometrical characteristics of the conduit. So far, the dynamics of the bed-load during high-flow events in combined sewer systems as a complex environment is not well understood, mostly due to lack of measuring devices capable to work in the “hostile” in combined sewer system correctly. In this regards, a one-episode flushing issue from an opening gate valve with weir function was carried out in a trunk sewer in Paris to understand its cleansing efficiency on the sediments (thickness: 0-30 cm). During more than 1h of flushing within 5 m distance in downstream of this flushing device, a maximum flowrate and a maximum level of water have been recorded at 5 m in downstream of the gate as 4.1 m3/s and 2.1 m respectively. This paper is aimed to evaluate the efficiency of this type of gate for around 1.1 km (from the point -50 m to +1050 m in downstream from the gate) by (i) determining bed grain-size distribution and sediments evolution through the sewer channel, as well as their organic matter content, and (ii) identifying sections that exhibit more changes in their texture after the flush. For the first one, two series of sampling were taken from the sewer length and then analyzed in laboratory, one before flushing and second after, at same points among the sewer channel. Hence, a non-intrusive sampling instrument has undertaken to extract the sediments smaller than the fine gravels. The comparison between sediments texture after the flush operation and the initial state, revealed the most modified zones by the flush effect, regarding the sewer invert slope and hydraulic parameters in the zone up to 400 m from the gate. At this distance, despite the increase of sediment grain-size rages, D50 (median grainsize) varies between 0.6 mm and 1.1 mm compared to 0.8 mm and 10 mm before and after flushing, respectively. Overall, regarding the sewer channel invert slope, results indicate that grains smaller than sands (< 2 mm) are more transported to downstream along about 400 m from the gate: in average 69% before against 38% after the flush with more dispersion of grain-sizes distributions. Furthermore, high effect of the channel bed irregularities on the bed material evolution has been observed after the flush.

Keywords: Bed-material load evolution, combined sewer systems, flushing efficiency, sediment transport.

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Authors: K. X. Cheng, A. L. Goh, K. T. Ooi

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The effectiveness of microchannels in enhancing heat transfer has been demonstrated in the semiconductor industry. In order to tap the microscale heat transfer effects into macro geometries, overcoming the cost and technological constraints, microscale passages were created in macro geometries machined using conventional fabrication methods. A cylindrical insert was placed within a pipe, and geometrical profiles were created on the outer surface of the insert to enhance heat transfer under steady-state single-phase liquid flow conditions. However, while heat transfer coefficient values of above 10 kW/m2·K were achieved, the heat transfer enhancement was accompanied by undesirable pressure drop increment. Therefore, this study aims to address the high pressure drop issue using Constructal theory, a universal design law for both animate and inanimate systems. Two designs based on Constructal theory were developed to study the effectiveness of Constructal features in reducing the pressure drop increment as compared to parallel channels, which are commonly found in microchannel fabrication. The hydrodynamic and heat transfer performance for the Tree insert and Constructal fin (Cfin) insert were studied using experimental methods, and the underlying mechanisms were substantiated by numerical results. In technical terms, the objective is to achieve at least comparable increment in both heat transfer coefficient and pressure drop, if not higher increment in the former parameter. Results show that the Tree insert improved the heat transfer performance by more than 16 percent at low flow rates, as compared to the Tree-parallel insert. However, the heat transfer enhancement reduced to less than 5 percent at high Reynolds numbers. On the other hand, the pressure drop increment stayed almost constant at 20 percent. This suggests that the Tree insert has better heat transfer performance in the low Reynolds number region. More importantly, the Cfin insert displayed improved heat transfer performance along with favourable hydrodynamic performance, as compared to Cfinparallel insert, at all flow rates in this study. At 2 L/min, the enhancement of heat transfer was more than 30 percent, with 20 percent pressure drop increment, as compared to Cfin-parallel insert. Furthermore, comparable increment in both heat transfer coefficient and pressure drop was observed at 8 L/min. In other words, the Cfin insert successfully achieved the objective of this study. Analysis of the results suggests that bifurcation of flows is effective in reducing the increment in pressure drop relative to heat transfer enhancement. Optimising the geometries of the Constructal fins is therefore the potential future study in achieving a bigger stride in energy efficiency at much lower costs.

Keywords: Constructal theory, enhanced heat transfer, microchannel, pressure drop.

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Authors: Carolin Lutz, Jörg Matthes, Patrick Waibel, Ulrich Precht, Krassimir Garbev, Günter Beuchle, Uwe Schweike, Peter Stemmermann, Hubert B. Keller

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Online measurement of the product quality is a challenging task in cement production, especially in the production of Celitement, a novel environmentally friendly hydraulic binder. The mineralogy and chemical composition of clinker in ordinary Portland cement production is measured by X-ray diffraction (XRD) and X-ray fluorescence (XRF), where only crystalline constituents can be detected. But only a small part of the Celitement components can be measured via XRD, because most constituents have an amorphous structure. This paper describes the development of algorithms suitable for an on-line monitoring of the final processing step of Celitement based on NIR-data. For calibration intermediate products were dried at different temperatures and ground for variable durations. The products were analyzed using XRD and thermogravimetric analyses together with NIR-spectroscopy to investigate the dependency between the drying and the milling processes on one and the NIR-signal on the other side. As a result, different characteristic parameters have been defined. A short overview of the Celitement process and the challenging tasks of the online measurement and evaluation of the product quality will be presented. Subsequently, methods for systematic development of near-infrared calibration models and the determination of the final calibration model will be introduced. The application of the model on experimental data illustrates that NIR-spectroscopy allows for a quick and sufficiently exact determination of crucial process parameters.

Keywords: Calibration model, celitement, cementitious material, NIR spectroscopy.

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Authors: Eleni Giouli

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Distance learning provides a flexible approach to education, enabling busy learners to complete their coursework at their own pace, on their own schedule, and from a convenient location. This flexibility combined with a series of other issues; make the benefits of lifelong distance learning numerous. The purpose of the paper is to investigate whether distance education can contribute to the improvement of adult skills in Greece, highlighting in this way the necessity of the lifelong distance learning. To investigate this goal, a questionnaire is constructed and analyzed based on responses from 3,016 attendees of lifelong distance learning programs in the e-learning of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens in Greece. In order to do so, a series of relationships is examined including the effects of a) the gender, b) the previous educational level, c) the current employment status, and d) the method used in the distance learning program, on the development of new general, technical, administrative, social, cultural, entrepreneurial and green skills. The basic conclusions that emerge after using a binary logistic framework are that the following factors are critical in order to develop new skills: the gender, the education level and the educational method used in the lifelong distance learning program. The skills more significantly affected by those factors are the acquiring new skills in general, as well as acquiring general, language and cultural, entrepreneurial and green skills, while for technical and social skills only gender and educational method play a crucial role. Moreover, routine skills and social skills are not affected by the four factors included in the analysis.

Keywords: Adult skills, distance learning, education, lifelong learning.

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Authors: A. Ukaew, C. Chauypen

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Design concepts of real-time embedded system can be realized initially by introducing novel design approaches. In this literature, model based design approach and in-the-loop testing were employed early in the conceptual and preliminary phase to formulate design requirements and perform quick real-time verification. The design and analysis methodology includes simulation analysis, model based testing, and in-the-loop testing. The design of conceptual driveby- wire, or DBW, algorithm for electronic control unit, or ECU, was presented to demonstrate the conceptual design process, analysis, and functionality evaluation. The concepts of DBW ECU function can be implemented in the vehicle system to improve electric vehicle, or EV, conversion drivability. However, within a new development process, conceptual ECU functions and parameters are needed to be evaluated. As a result, the testing system was employed to support conceptual DBW ECU functions evaluation. For the current setup, the system components were consisted of actual DBW ECU hardware, electric vehicle models, and control area network or CAN protocol. The vehicle models and CAN bus interface were both implemented as real-time applications where ECU and CAN protocol functionality were verified according to the design requirements. The proposed system could potentially benefit in performing rapid real-time analysis of design parameters for conceptual system or software algorithm development.

Keywords: Drive-by-wire ECU, in-the-loop testing, modelbased design, real-time embedded system.

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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: Syed Salman Ahmed, Zahid Halim, Rauf Baig, Shariq Bashir

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With the rapid growth in business size, today's businesses orient towards electronic technologies. Amazon.com and e-bay.com are some of the major stakeholders in this regard. Unfortunately the enormous size and hugely unstructured data on the web, even for a single commodity, has become a cause of ambiguity for consumers. Extracting valuable information from such an everincreasing data is an extremely tedious task and is fast becoming critical towards the success of businesses. Web content mining can play a major role in solving these issues. It involves using efficient algorithmic techniques to search and retrieve the desired information from a seemingly impossible to search unstructured data on the Internet. Application of web content mining can be very encouraging in the areas of Customer Relations Modeling, billing records, logistics investigations, product cataloguing and quality management. In this paper we present a review of some very interesting, efficient yet implementable techniques from the field of web content mining and study their impact in the area specific to business user needs focusing both on the customer as well as the producer. The techniques we would be reviewing include, mining by developing a knowledge-base repository of the domain, iterative refinement of user queries for personalized search, using a graphbased approach for the development of a web-crawler and filtering information for personalized search using website captions. These techniques have been analyzed and compared on the basis of their execution time and relevance of the result they produced against a particular search.

Keywords: Data mining, web mining, search engines, knowledge discovery.

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Authors: Hsien-Chou Liao, Yu-Shiang Wang

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Surveillance system is widely used in the traffic monitoring. The deployment of cameras is moving toward a ubiquitous camera (UbiCam) environment. In our previous study, a novel service, called GPS-VT, was firstly proposed by incorporating global positioning system (GPS) and visual tracking techniques for the UbiCam environment. The first prototype is called GODTA (GPS-based Moving Object Detection and Tracking Approach). For a moving person carried GPS-enabled mobile device, he can be tracking when he enters the field-of-view (FOV) of a camera according to his real-time GPS coordinate. In this paper, GPS-VT service is applied to the tracking of vehicles. The moving speed of a vehicle is much faster than a person. It means that the time passing through the FOV is much shorter than that of a person. Besides, the update interval of GPS coordinate is once per second, it is asynchronous with the frame rate of the real-time image. The above asynchronous is worsen by the network transmission delay. These factors are the main challenging to fulfill GPS-VT service on a vehicle.In order to overcome the influence of the above factors, a back-propagation neural network (BPNN) is used to predict the possible lane before the vehicle enters the FOV of a camera. Then, a template matching technique is used for the visual tracking of a target vehicle. The experimental result shows that the target vehicle can be located and tracking successfully. The success location rate of the implemented prototype is higher than that of the previous GODTA.

Keywords: visual surveillance, visual tracking, globalpositioning system, intelligent transportation system

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Authors: D. Sun, T. F. Lu, A. Zander, M. Trinkle

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This paper investigates the potential use of airborne ultrasonic phased arrays for imaging in outdoor environments as a means of overcoming the limitations experienced by kinect sensors, which may fail to work in the outdoor environments due to the oversaturation of the infrared photo diodes. Ultrasonic phased arrays have been well studied for static media, yet there appears to be no comparable examination in the literature of the impact of a flowing medium on the focusing behaviour of near field focused ultrasonic arrays. This paper presents a method for predicting the sound pressure fields produced by a single ultrasound element or an ultrasonic phased array influenced by airflows. The approach can be used to determine the actual focal point location of an array exposed in a known flow field. From the presented simulation results based upon this model, it can be concluded that uniform flows in the direction orthogonal to the acoustic propagation have a noticeable influence on the sound pressure field, which is reflected in the twisting of the steering angle of the array. Uniform flows in the same direction as the acoustic propagation have negligible influence on the array. For an array impacted by a turbulent flow, determining the location of the focused sound field becomes difficult due to the irregularity and continuously changing direction and the speed of the turbulent flow. In some circumstances, ultrasonic phased arrays impacted by turbulent flows may not be capable of producing a focused sound field.

Keywords: Airborne, airflow, focused sound field, ultrasonic phased array.

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Authors: N. Gelovani, D. Ismailov, S. Bochorishvili

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Religious minorities of Georgia include Muslims. Their composition is sufficiently miscellaneous, enclosing both ethnical viewpoint and belonging to the inner Islamic denomination. A majority of Muslims represent Azerbaijanis, who chiefly live in Kvemo Kartli (Bolnisi, Gardabani, Dmanisi, Tetri Tskaro, Marneuli and Tsalka). The catalyst for researchers of Islamic History is the geopolitical interests of Georgia, centuries-old contacts with the Islamic world, the not entirely trivial portion of Islam confessor population, the increasing influence of the Islamic factor in current religious-political processes in the world, the elevating procedure of Muslim religious self-consciousness in the Post-Soviet states, significant challenges of international terrorism, and perspectives of rapid globalization. The rise in the level of religious identity of Muslim citizens of Georgia (first of all of those who are not ethnic Georgians) is noticeable. New mosques have been constructed and, sometimes, even young people are being sent to the religious educational institutions of Muslim countries to gain a higher Islamic education. At a time when gender studies are substantive, the goal of which is to eliminate gender-based discrimination and violence in societies, it is essential in Georgia to conduct researches around the concrete problem – Islamic tradition, woman and education in Georgia. A woman’s right to education is an important indicator of women’s general status in a society. The appropriate resources, innovative analysis of Georgian ethnological materials, and surveying of the population (quantitative and qualitative research reports, working papers), condition the success of these researches. In the presented work, interrelation matters of Islam, gender and education in contemporary Georgia by the example of the Azerbaijani population in Kvemo Kartli during period 1992-2016 are studied. We researched the history of Muslim religious education centers in Tbilisi and Kvemo Kartli (Bolnisi, Gardabani, Dmanisi, Tetri Tskaro, Marneuli and Tsalka) in 1992-2016, on the one hand, and the results of sociological interrogation, on the other. As a result of our investigation, we found that Azeri women in the Kvemo Kartli (Georgia) region mostly receive their education in Georgia and Azerbaijan. Educational and Cultural Institutions are inaccessible for most Azeri women. The main reasons are the absence of educational and religious institutions at their places of residence and state policies towards Georgia’s Muslims. 

Keywords: Islam, gender, Georgia, education.

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Authors: Alok Madan, Arshad K. Hashmi

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Performance based design (PBD) is an iterative exercise in which a preliminary trial design of the building structure is selected and if the selected trial design of the building structure does not conform to the desired performance objective, the trial design is revised. In this context, development of a fundamental approach for performance based seismic design of masonry infilled frames with minimum number of trials is an important objective. The paper presents a plastic design procedure based on the energy balance concept for PBD of multi-story multi-bay masonry infilled reinforced concrete (R/C) frames subjected to near-field earthquakes. The proposed energy based plastic design procedure was implemented for trial performance based seismic design of representative masonry infilled reinforced concrete frames with various practically relevant distributions of masonry infill panels over the frame elevation. Non-linear dynamic analyses of the trial PBD of masonry infilled R/C frames was performed under the action of near-field earthquake ground motions. The results of non-linear dynamic analyses demonstrate that the proposed energy method is effective for performance based design of masonry infilled R/C frames under near-field as well as far-field earthquakes.

Keywords: Masonry Infilled Frame, Energy Methods, Near-fault Ground Motions, Pushover Analysis, Nonlinear Dynamic Analysis, Seismic Demand.

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Authors: Markus Nordlund, Arkadiusz K. Kuczaj

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Philip Morris International (PMI) is developing a range of novel tobacco products with the potential to reduce individual risk and population harm in comparison to smoking cigarettes. One of these products is the Tobacco Heating System 2.2 (THS 2.2), (named as the Electrically Heated Tobacco System (EHTS) in this paper), already commercialized in a number of countries (e.g., Japan, Italy, Switzerland, Russia, Portugal and Romania). During use, the patented EHTS heats a specifically designed tobacco product (Electrically Heated Tobacco Product (EHTP)) when inserted into a Holder (heating device). The EHTP contains tobacco material in the form of a porous plug that undergoes a controlled heating process to release chemical compounds into vapors, from which an aerosol is formed during cooling. The aim of this work was to investigate the aerosol formation characteristics for realistic operating conditions of the EHTS as well as for relevant gas mixture compositions measured in the EHTP aerosol consisting mostly of water, glycerol and nicotine, but also other compounds at much lower concentrations. The nucleation process taking place in the EHTP during use when operated in the Holder has therefore been modeled numerically using an extended Classical Nucleation Theory (CNT) for multicomponent gas mixtures. Results from the performed simulations demonstrate that aerosol droplets are formed only in the presence of an aerosol former being mainly glycerol. Minor compounds in the gas mixture were not able to reach a supersaturated state alone and therefore could not generate aerosol droplets from the multicomponent gas mixture at the operating conditions simulated. For the analytically characterized aerosol composition and estimated operating conditions of the EHTS and EHTP, glycerol was shown to be the main aerosol former triggering the nucleation process in the EHTP. This implies that according to the CNT, an aerosol former, such as glycerol needs to be present in the gas mixture for an aerosol to form under the tested operating conditions. To assess if these conclusions are sensitive to the initial amount of the minor compounds and to include and represent the total mass of the aerosol collected during the analytical aerosol characterization, simulations were carried out with initial masses of the minor compounds increased by as much as a factor of 500. Despite this extreme condition, no aerosol droplets were generated when glycerol, nicotine and water were treated as inert species and therefore not actively contributing to the nucleation process. This implies that according to the CNT, an aerosol cannot be generated without the help of an aerosol former, from the multicomponent gas mixtures at the compositions and operating conditions estimated for the EHTP, even if all minor compounds are released or generated in a single puff.

Keywords: Aerosol, Classical Nucleation Theory (CNT), Electrically Heated Tobacco Product (EHTP), Electrically Heated Tobacco System (EHTS), modeling, multicomponent, nucleation.

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Authors: Murtaza Adil, Sen Yang, Zhou Chao, Song Xiaoping

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The morphotropic phase boundary (MPB) recently has attracted constant interest in ferromagnetic systems for obtaining enhanced large magnetoelastic response. In the present study, structural and magnetoelastic properties of MPB involved ferromagnetic Tb_1-xGd_xFe₂ (0≤x≤1) system has been investigated. The change of easy magnetic direction from <111> to <100> with increasing x up MPB composition of x=0.9 is detected by step-scanned [440] synchrotron X-ray diffraction reflections. The Gd substitution for Tb changes the composition for the anisotropy compensation near MPB composition of x=0.9, which was confirmed by the analysis of detailed scanned XRD, magnetization curves and the calculation of the first anisotropy constant K₁. The spin configuration diagram accompanied with different crystal structures for Tb_1-xGd_xFe₂ was designed. The calculated first anisotropy constant K₁ shows a minimum value at MPB composition of x=0.9. In addition, the large ratio between magnetostriction, and the absolute values of the first anisotropy constant │λ_S∕K₁│ appears at MPB composition, which makes it a potential material for magnetostrictive application. Based on experimental results, a theoretically approach was also proposed to signify that the facilitated magnetization rotation and enhanced magnetoelastic effect near MPB composition are a consequence of the anisotropic flattening of free energy of ferromagnetic crystal. Our work specifies the universal existence of MPB in ferromagnetic materials which is important for substantial improvement of magnetic and magnetostrictive properties and may provide a new route to develop advanced functional materials.

Keywords: Free energy, lattice distortion, magnetic anisotropy, magnetostriction, morphotropic phase boundary.

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Authors: W. Devapriya, C. Nelson Kennedy Babu, T. Srihari

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Automatic License plate recognition (ALPR) is a technology which recognizes the registration plate or number plate or License plate of a vehicle. In this paper, an Indian vehicle number plate is mined and the characters are predicted in efficient manner. ALPR involves four major technique i) Pre-processing ii) License Plate Location Identification iii) Individual Character Segmentation iv) Character Recognition. The opening phase, named pre-processing helps to remove noises and enhances the quality of the image using the conception of Morphological Operation and Image subtraction. The second phase, the most puzzling stage ascertain the location of license plate using the protocol Canny Edge detection, dilation and erosion. In the third phase, each characters characterized by Connected Component Approach (CCA) and in the ending phase, each segmented characters are conceptualized using cross correlation template matching- a scheme specifically appropriate for fixed format. Major application of ALPR is Tolling collection, Border Control, Parking, Stolen cars, Enforcement, Access Control, Traffic control. The database consists of 500 car images taken under dissimilar lighting condition is used. The efficiency of the system is 97%. Our future focus is Indian Vehicle License Plate Validation (Whether License plate of a vehicle is as per Road transport and highway standard).

Keywords: Automatic License plate recognition, Character recognition, Number plate Recognition, Template matching, morphological operation, canny edge detection.

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Authors: Soukaina Motia, Nadia El Alami El Hassani, Alassane Diouf, Benachir Bouchikhi, Nezha El Bari

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Parabens are the antimicrobial molecules largely used in cosmetic products as a preservative agent. Among them, the methylparaben (MP) is the most frequently used ingredient in cosmetic preparations. Nevertheless, their potential dangers led to the development of sensible and reliable methods for their determination in environmental samples. Firstly, a sensitive and selective molecular imprinted polymer (MIP) based on screen-printed gold electrode (Au-SPE), assembled on a polymeric layer of carboxylated poly(vinyl-chloride) (PVC-COOH), was developed. After the template removal, the obtained material was able to rebind MP and discriminate it among other interfering species such as glucose, sucrose, and citric acid. The behavior of molecular imprinted sensor was characterized by Cyclic Voltammetry (CV), Differential Pulse Voltammetry (DPV) and Electrochemical Impedance Spectroscopy (EIS) techniques. Then, the biosensor was found to have a linear detection range from 0.1 pg.mL^-1 to 1 ng.mL^-1 and a low limit of detection of 0.12 fg.mL^-1 and 5.18 pg.mL^-1 by DPV and EIS, respectively. For applications, this biosensor was employed to determine MP content in four wastewaters in Meknes city and two cosmetic products (shower gel and shampoo). The operational reproducibility and stability of this biosensor were also studied. Secondly, another MIP biosensor based on tungsten trioxide (WO₃) functionalized by gold nanoparticles (Au-NPs) assembled on a polymeric layer of PVC-COOH was developed. The main goal was to increase the sensitivity of the biosensor. The developed MIP biosensor was successfully applied for the MP determination in wastewater samples and cosmetic products.

Keywords: Cosmetic products, methylparaben, molecularly imprinted polymer, wastewater.

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Authors: Abd Rasid Abd Rahman

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For the past thirty years the Malaysian economy has been said to contribute well to the progress of the nations. However, the intensification of global economy activity and the extensive use of Information Communication Technologies (ICTs) in recent years are challenging government-s effort to further develop Malaysian society. The competition posed by the low wage economies such as China and Vietnam have made the government realise the importance of engaging in high-skill and high technology industries. It is hoped this will be the basis of attracting more foreign direct investment (FDI) in order to help the country to compete in globalised world. Using Vision 2020 as it targeted vision, the government has decided to engage in the use of ICTs and introduce many policies pertaining to it. Mainly based on the secondary analysis approach, the findings show that policy pertaining to ICTs in Malaysia contributes to economic growth, but the consequences of this have resulted in greater division within society. Although some of the divisions such as gender and ethnicity are narrowing down, the gap in important areas such as regions and class differences is becoming wider. The widespread use of ICTs might contribute to the further establishment of democracy in Malaysia, but the increasing number of foreign entities such as FDI and foreign workers, cultural hybridisation and to some extent cultural domination are contributing to neocolonialism in Malaysia. This has obvious consequences for the government-s effort to create a Malaysian national identity. An important finding of this work is that there are contradictions within ICT policy between the effort to develop the economy and society.

Keywords: Globalisation, ICTs, ICT Policy, Malaysia, National Identity, Vision 2020

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Authors: Marjone Van Der Bank, C. M. Van Der Bank

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This paper presents an overview of the foundation and evolution of environmental related problems in local governments with specific reference on air pollution in South Africa. Local government has a direct mandate in terms of the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, 1996 (hereafter, the Constitution). This mandate to protect, fulfil, respect and promote the Bill of Rights by local governments in respect of the powers and functions creates confusion around the role of where a local government fits in, in addressing the problem of climate change in South Africa. A reflection of the evolving legislations, developments, and processes regarding climate change that shaped local government dispensation in South Africa is addressed by the notion of developmental local governments. This paper seeks to examine the advances for mitigation and adaptation regulation of air pollution and application in South Africa. This study involves a qualitative approach that will involve South African national legislation as well as an interpretation of international strategies. A literature review study was conducted to undertake the various aspects of law in order to support the argument undertaken of mitigation and adaptation strategies. The paper presents a detailed discussion of the current legislation and the position as it currently stands, as well as the relevant protections as outlined in the National Environmental Management Act and the National Environmental Management: Air Quality Act. It then proceeds to outline the responsibilities of local governments in South Africa to mitigate and adapt to air pollution strategies.

Keywords: Adaptation, climate change, disaster, local governments, mitigation.

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Authors: Yuan L. Lai, Yong R. Chen, Jui P. Hung, Tzuo L. Luo, Hsi H. Hsiao

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Chatter vibration has been a troublesome problem for a machine tool toward the high precision and high speed machining. Essentially, the machining performance is determined by the dynamic characteristics of the machine tool structure and dynamics of cutting process. Therefore the dynamic vibration behavior of spindle tool system greatly determines the performance of machine tool. The purpose of this study is to investigate the influences of the machine frame structure on the dynamic frequency of spindle tool unit through finite element modeling approach. To this end, a realistic finite element model of the vertical milling system was created by incorporated the spindle-bearing model into the spindle head stock of the machine frame. Using this model, the dynamic characteristics of the milling machines with different structural designs of spindle head stock and identical spindle tool unit were demonstrated. The results of the finite element modeling reveal that the spindle tool unit behaves more compliant when the excited frequency approaches the natural mode of the spindle tool; while the spindle tool show a higher dynamic stiffness at lower frequency that may be initiated by the structural mode of milling head. Under this condition, it is concluded that the structural configuration of spindle head stock associated with the vertical column of milling machine plays an important role in determining the machining dynamics of the spindle unit.

Keywords: Machine tools, Compliance, Frequency response function, Machine frame structure, Spindle unit

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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: Dinesh Acharya U., N. V. Subba Reddy, Krishnamoorthi Makkithaya

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The recognition of handwritten numeral is an important area of research for its applications in post office, banks and other organizations. This paper presents automatic recognition of handwritten Kannada numerals based on structural features. Five different types of features, namely, profile based 10-segment string, water reservoir; vertical and horizontal strokes, end points and average boundary length from the minimal bounding box are used in the recognition of numeral. The effect of each feature and their combination in the numeral classification is analyzed using nearest neighbor classifiers. It is common to combine multiple categories of features into a single feature vector for the classification. Instead, separate classifiers can be used to classify based on each visual feature individually and the final classification can be obtained based on the combination of separate base classification results. One popular approach is to combine the classifier results into a feature vector and leaving the decision to next level classifier. This method is extended to extract a better information, possibility distribution, from the base classifiers in resolving the conflicts among the classification results. Here, we use fuzzy k Nearest Neighbor (fuzzy k-NN) as base classifier for individual feature sets, the results of which together forms the feature vector for the final k Nearest Neighbor (k-NN) classifier. Testing is done, using different features, individually and in combination, on a database containing 1600 samples of different numerals and the results are compared with the results of different existing methods.

Keywords: Fuzzy k Nearest Neighbor, Multiple Classifiers, Numeral Recognition, Structural features.

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Authors: Migbar Assefa

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The performance of a machine tool is eventually assessed by its ability to produce a component of the required geometry in minimum time and at small operating cost. It is customary to base the structural design of any machine tool primarily upon the requirements of static rigidity and minimum natural frequency of vibration. The operating properties of machines like cutting speed, feed and depth of cut as well as the size of the work piece also have to be kept in mind by a machine tool structural designer. This paper presents a novel approach to the design of machine tool column for static and dynamic rigidity requirement. Model evaluation is done effectively through use of General Finite Element Analysis software ANSYS. Studies on machine tool column are used to illustrate finite element based concept evaluation technique. This paper also presents results obtained from the computations of thin walled box type columns that are subjected to torsional and bending loads in case of static analysis and also results from modal analysis. The columns analyzed are square and rectangle based tapered open column, column with cover plate, horizontal partitions and with apertures. For the analysis purpose a total of 70 columns were analyzed for bending, torsional and modal analysis. In this study it is observed that the orientation and aspect ratio of apertures have no significant effect on the static and dynamic rigidity of the machine tool structure.

Keywords: Finite Element Modeling, Modal Analysis, Machine tool structure, Static Analysis.

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Authors: H. M. Abdelmoneim, N. A. Babtain, A. S. Barhamain, A. Z. Kufiah, A. S. Malibari, S. F. Munassar, R. S. Rawa

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Introduction: Prostate cancer is one of the most common causes of morbidity and mortality in men in developed countries. Cancer Stem Cells (CSCs) could be responsible for the progression and relapse of cancer. Therefore, CSCs markers could provide a prognostic strategy for human malignancies. Aldehyde dehydrogenase 1A1 (ALDH1A1) activity has been shown to be associated with tumorigenesis and proposed to represent a functional marker for tumor initiating cells in various tumor types including prostate cancer. Material & Methods: We analyzed the immunohistochemical expression of ALDH1A1 in benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH), prostatic intraepithelial neoplasia (PIN) and prostatic adenocarcinoma and assessed their significant correlations in 50 TURP sections. They were microscopically interpreted and the results were correlated with histopathological types and tumor grade. Results: In different prostatic histopathological lesions we found that ALDH1A1 expression was low in BPH (13.3%) and PIN (6.7%) and then its expression increased with prostatic adenocarcinoma (40%), and this was statistically highly significant (P value = 0.02). However, in different grades of prostatic adenocarcinoma we found that the higher the Gleason grade the higher the expression for ALDH1A1 and this was statistically significant (P value = 0.02). We compared the expression of ALDH1A1 in PIN and prostatic adenocarcinoma. ALDH1A1 expression was decreased in PIN and highly expressed in prostatic adenocarcinoma and this was statistically significant (P value = 0.04). Conclusion: Increasing ALDH1A1 expression is correlated with aggressive behavior of the tumor. Immunohistochemical expression of ALDH1A1 might provide a potential approach to study tumorigenesis and progression of primary prostate carcinoma.

Keywords: ALDH1A1, BPH, PIN, prostatic adenocarcinoma.

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Authors: Mustafa M. Donma, Orkide Donma

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Spexin, expressed in the central nervous system, has attracted much interest in feeding behavior, obesity, diabetes, energy metabolism and cardiovascular functions. Fetuin A is known as the negative acute phase reactant synthesized in the liver. Eosinophils are early indicators of cardiometabolic complications. Patients with elevated platelet count, associated with hypercoagulable state in the body, are also more liable to cardiovascular diseases (CVDs). In this study, the aim is to examine the profiles of spexin and fetuin A concomitant with the course of variations detected in eosinophil as well as platelet counts in morbid obese children. 34 children with normal-body mass index (N-BMI) and 51 morbid obese (MO) children participated in the study. Written-informed consent forms were obtained prior to the study. Institutional ethics committee approved the study protocol. Age- and sex-adjusted BMI percentile tables prepared by World Health Organization were used to classify healthy and obese children. Mean age ± SEM of the children were 9.3 ± 0.6 years and 10.7 ± 0.5 years in N-BMI and MO groups, respectively. Anthropometric measurements of the children were taken. BMI values were calculated from weight and height values. Blood samples were obtained after an overnight fasting. Routine hematologic and biochemical tests were performed. Within this context, fasting blood glucose (FBG), insulin (INS), triglycerides (TRG), high density lipoprotein-cholesterol (HDL-C) concentrations were measured. Homeostatic model assessment for insulin resistance (HOMA-IR) values were calculated. Spexin and fetuin A levels were determined by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. Data were evaluated from the statistical point of view. Statistically significant differences were found between groups in terms of BMI, fat mass index, INS, HOMA-IR and HDL-C. In MO group, all parameters increased as HDL-C decreased. Elevated concentrations in MO group were detected in eosinophils (p < 0.05) and platelets (p > 0.05). Fetuin A levels decreased in MO group (p > 0.05). However, decrease was statistically significant in spexin levels for this group (p < 0.05). In conclusion, these results have suggested that increases in eosinophils and platelets exhibit behavior as cardiovascular risk factors. Decreased fetuin A behaved as a risk factor suitable to increased risk for cardiovascular problems associated with the severity of obesity. Along with increased eosinophils, increased platelets and decreased fetuin A, decreased spexin was the parameter, which reflects best its possible participation in the early development of CVD risk in MO children.

Keywords: Cardiovascular diseases, eosinophils, fetuin A, pediatric morbid obesity, platelets, spexin.

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Authors: R. Suresh, Pavan Kumar Nimmagadda, Ming Zo Tan, Shane Hart, Sharp Ugwuocha

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Polycrystalline diamond compact (PDC) drill bits are extensively used in the oil and gas industry as well as the mining industry. Industry engineers continually improve upon PDC drill bit designs and hydraulic conditions. Optimized injection nozzles play a key role in improving the drilling performance and efficiency of these ever changing PDC drill bits. In the first part of this study, computational fluid dynamics (CFD) modelling is performed to investigate the hydrodynamic characteristics of drilling fluid flow around the PDC drill bit. An Open-source CFD software – OpenFOAM simulates the flow around the drill bit, based on the field input data. A specifically developed console application integrates the entire CFD process including, domain extraction, meshing, and solving governing equations and post-processing. The results from the OpenFOAM solver are then compared with that of the ANSYS Fluent software. The data from both software programs agree. The second part of the paper describes the parametric study of the PDC drill bit nozzle to determine the effect of parameters such as number of nozzles, nozzle velocity, nozzle radial position and orientations on the flow field characteristics and bit washing patterns. After analyzing a series of nozzle configurations, the best configuration is identified and recommendations are made for modifying the PDC bit design.

Keywords: ANSYS Fluent, computational fluid dynamics, nozzle configuration, OpenFOAM, PDC dill bit.

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Authors: Md. Shams Razi Shopnil, Tanvir Imtiaz, Sabrina Mahjabin, Md. Sahadat Hossain

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Saturated hydraulic conductivity is one of the most significant attributes of pavement base course. Determination of hydraulic conductivity is a routine procedure for regular aggregate base courses. However, in many cases, a cement-stabilized base course is used with compromised drainage ability. Traditional hydraulic conductivity testing procedure is a readily available option which leads to two consequential drawbacks, i.e., the time required for the specimen to be saturated and extruding the sample after completion of the laboratory test. To overcome these complications, this study aims at formulating an empirical approach to predicting hydraulic conductivity based on Unconfined Compressive Strength test results. To do so, this study comprises two separate experiments (Constant Head Permeability test and Unconfined Compressive Strength test) conducted concurrently on a specimen having the same physical credentials. Data obtained from the two experiments were then used to devise a correlation between hydraulic conductivity and unconfined compressive strength. This correlation in the form of a polynomial equation helps to predict the hydraulic conductivity of cement-treated pavement base course, bypassing the cumbrous process of traditional permeability and less commonly used horizontal permeability tests. The correlation was further corroborated by a different set of data, and it has been found that the derived polynomial equation is deemed to be a viable tool to predict hydraulic conductivity.

Keywords: Hydraulic conductivity, unconfined compressive strength, recycled plastics, recycled concrete aggregates.

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Authors: Mingook Lee, Sungjoo Lee

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As technology-based service industries grow drastically worldwide; companies are recognizing the importance of market preoccupancy and have made an effort to capture a large market to gain the upper hand. To this end, a focus on patents can be used to determine the properties of a technology, as well as to capture advantages in technical skills, in comparison with the firm’s competitors. However, technology-based services largely depend not only on their technological value but also their economic value, due to the recognized worth that is passed to a plurality of users. Thus, it is important to determine whether there are any competitors in the target areas and what services they provide in any field. Despite this importance, little effort has been made to systematically benchmark competitors in order to identify business opportunities. Thus, this study aims to not only identify each position of technology-centered service companies in complex market dynamics, but also to discover new business opportunities. For this, we try to consider both technology and market environments simultaneously by utilizing patent data as a representative proxy for technology and trademark dates as an index for a firm’s target goods and services. Theoretically, this is one of the earliest attempts to combine patent data and trademark data to analyze corporate strategies. In practice, the research results are expected to be used as a decision criterion to diagnose the economic value that companies can obtain by entering the market, as well as the technological value to be passed onto their customers. Thus, the proposed approach can be useful to support effective technology and business strategies in a firm.

Keywords: Business opportunity, patent, Portfolio analysis, trademark.

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Authors: A. Kulprasutidilok

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In order to address the social factors of elderly health care, researcher and community members have turned to more inclusive and participatory approaches to research and interventions. One such approach, community-based participatory research (CBPR) in public health, has received increased attention as the academic and public health communities struggle to address the persistent problems of disparities in the use of health care and health outcomes for several over the past decade. As Thailand becomes an ageing society, health services and proper care systems specifically for the elderly group need to be prepared and well established. The purpose of this assignment was to study the health problems and was to explore the process of community participation in elderly health care. Participants in this study were member of elderly group of Paisanee Ramintra 65 community in Bangkok, Thailand. The results indicated two important components of community participation process in elderly health care: 1) a process to develop community participation in elderly health care, and 2) outcomes resulting from such process. The development of community participation consisted of four processes. As for the outcomes of the community participation development process, they consisted of elderly in the community got jointly and formulated a group, which strengthened the project because of collaborative supervision among themselves. Moreover, inactive health care services have changed to being energetic and focus on health promotion rather than medical achievement and elderly association of community can perform health care activities for chronically illness through the achievement of this development; consequently, they increasingly gained access to physical, cognitive, and social activity.

Keywords: Community-based participatory research, elderly health care, Thailand.

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Authors: Van Chung Nguyen

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The purpose of this research is to study the current status of the value chain for fish distribution at Quang Binh Fishing Port with 360 research samples, in which the research subjects are fishermen, traders, retailers, and businesses. The research uses the approach of applying the value chain theoretical framework of Kaplinsky and Morris to quantify and describe market channels and actors participating in the value chain and analyze the value-added process of these companies according to market channels. The analysis results show that fishermen directly catch fish with high economic efficiency, but processing enterprises and, especially retailers, are the agents to obtain higher added value. Processing enterprises play a role that is not really clear due to outdated processing technology; in contrast, retailers have the highest added value. This shows that the added value of the fish supply chain at Quang Binh fishing port is still limited, leading to low output quality. Therefore, the selling price of fish to the market is still high compared to the abundant fish resources, leading to low consumption and limiting exports due to the quality of processing enterprises. This reduces demand and fishing capacity, and productivity is lower than potential. To improve the fish value chain at fishing ports, it is necessary to focus on improving product quality, strengthening linkages between actors, building brands and product consumption markets at the same time, improving the capacity of export processing enterprises.

Keywords: Quang Binh fishing port, value chain, fish market, distributions channel.

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Authors: Shao-Hsia Chang, Nan-Ying Yu

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The objective of this study was to test how advanced digital technology enables a more effective training on the handwriting of children with handwriting deficit. This study implemented the graphomotor apparatuses to a computer-assisted instruction system. In a randomized controlled trial, the experiments for verifying the intervention effect were conducted. Forty two children with handwriting deficit were assigned to computer-assisted instruction, sensorimotor training or control (no intervention) group. Handwriting performance was measured using the Elementary reading/writing test and computerized handwriting evaluation before and after 6 weeks of intervention. Analysis of variance of change scores were conducted to show whether statistically significant difference across the three groups. Significant difference was found among three groups. Computer group shows significant difference from the other two groups. Significance was denoted in near-point, far-point copy, dictation test, and writing from phonetic symbols. Writing speed and mean stroke velocity in near-, far-point and short paragraph copy were found significantly difference among three groups. Computer group shows significant improvement from the other groups. For clinicians and school teachers, the results of this study provide a motor control based insight for the improvement of handwriting difficulties.

Keywords: Dysgraphia, computerized handwriting evaluation, sensorimotor program, computer assisted program.

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