Search results for: Accelerated life test
3472 Comparative Life Cycle Assessment of High Barrier Polymer Packaging for Selecting Resource Efficient and Environmentally Low-Impact Materials
Authors: D. Kliaugaitė, J. K, Staniškis
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In this study tree types of multilayer gas barrier plastic packaging films were compared using life cycle assessment as a tool for resource efficient and environmentally low-impact materials selection. The first type of multilayer packaging film (PET-AlOx/LDPE) consists of polyethylene terephthalate with barrier layer AlOx (PET-AlOx) and low density polyethylene (LDPE). The second type of polymer film (PET/PE-EVOH-PE) is made of polyethylene terephthalate (PET) and co-extrusion film PE-EVOH-PE as barrier layer. And the third one type of multilayer packaging film (PET-PVOH/LDPE) is formed from polyethylene terephthalate with barrier layer PVOH (PET-PVOH) and low density polyethylene (LDPE).
All of analyzed packaging has significant impact to resource depletion, because of raw materials extraction and energy use and production of different kind of plastics. Nevertheless the impact generated during life cycle of functional unit of II type of packaging (PET/PE-EVOH-PE) was about 25% lower than impact generated by I type (PET-AlOx/LDPE) and III type (PET-PVOH/LDPE) of packaging.
Result revealed that the contribution of different gas barrier type to the overall environmental problem of packaging is not significant. The impact are mostly generated by using energy and materials during raw material extraction and production of different plastic materials as plastic polymers material as PE, LDPE and PET, but not gas barrier materials as AlOx, PVOH and EVOH.
The LCA results could be useful in different decision-making processes, for selecting resource efficient and environmentally low-impact materials.
Keywords: Polymer packaging, life cycle assessment, resource efficiency.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 44943471 Experimental Study on the Variation of Young's Modulus of Hollow Clay Brick Obtained from Static and Dynamic Tests
Authors: M. Aboudalle, Le Btth, M. Sari, F. Meftah
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In parallel with the appearance of new materials, brick masonry had and still has an essential part of the construction market today, with new technical challenges in designing bricks to meet additional requirements. Being used in structural applications, predicting the performance of clay brick masonry allows a significant cost reduction, in terms of practical experimentation. The behavior of masonry walls depends on the behavior of their elementary components, such as bricks, joints, and coatings. Therefore, it is necessary to consider it at different scales (from the scale of the intrinsic material to the real scale of the wall) and then to develop appropriate models, using numerical simulations. The work presented in this paper focuses on the mechanical characterization of the terracotta material at ambient temperature. As a result, the static Young’s modulus obtained from the flexural test shows different values in comparison with the compression test, as well as with the dynamic Young’s modulus obtained from the Impulse excitation of vibration test. Moreover, the Young's modulus varies according to the direction in which samples are extracted, where the values in the extrusion direction diverge from the ones in the orthogonal directions. Based on these results, hollow bricks can be considered as transversely isotropic bimodulus material.
Keywords: Bimodulus material, hollow clay brick, impulse excitation of vibration, transversely isotropic material, Young’s modulus.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 4583470 Erythema Multiforme Exudativum Major Caused by Isoniazid Hypersensitivity in a Child
Authors: Azwin Lubis, Rika Hapsari, Zahrah Hikmah, Anang Endaryanto, Ariyanto Harsono
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Erythema Multiforme Exudativum Major (EMEM) is one of the drug allergy diseases. Drug allergies caused by isoniazid rarely causes EMEM. Cutaneous reactions caused by isoniazid were obtained in 0.98% of patients, but the precise occurrence of Steven Johnson’s Syndrome (SJS) and Toxic Epidermolisis Necrolisis (TEN) due to isoniazid is not known for certain. We present this case to show hypersensitivity of isoniazid in a child. Based on the history of drug intake, physical diagnostic tests, drug elimination and provocation; we established the diagnosis of isoniazid hypersensitivity. The child showed improvement on skin manifestation after stopped isoniazid therapy.
Keywords: Erythema Multiforme Exudativum Major, hypersensitivity, elimination test, provocation test.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 10773469 A Pull-out Fiber/Matrix Interface Characterization of Vegetal Fibers Reinforced Thermoplastic Polymer Composites: The Influence of the Processing Temperature
Authors: Duy Cuong Nguyen, Ali Makke, Guillaume Montay
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This work presents an improved single fiber pull-out test for fiber/matrix interface characterization. This test has been used to study the Inter-Facial Shear Strength ‘IFSS’ of hemp fibers reinforced polypropylene (PP). For this aim, the fiber diameter has been carefully measured using a tomography inspired method. The fiber section contour can then be approximated by a circle or a polygon. The results show that the IFSS is overestimated if the circular approximation is used. The Influence of the molding temperature on the IFSS has also been studied. We find that a molding temperature of 183◦C leads to better interfacial properties. Above or below this temperature the interface strength is reduced.Keywords: Interface, pull-out, processing, temperature, hemp, polypropylene, composite.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 20973468 Detecting the Nonlinearity in Time Series from Continuous Dynamic Systems Based on Delay Vector Variance Method
Authors: Shumin Hou, Yourong Li, Sanxing Zhao
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Much time series data is generally from continuous dynamic system. Firstly, this paper studies the detection of the nonlinearity of time series from continuous dynamics systems by applying the Phase-randomized surrogate algorithm. Then, the Delay Vector Variance (DVV) method is introduced into nonlinearity test. The results show that under the different sampling conditions, the opposite detection of nonlinearity is obtained via using traditional test statistics methods, which include the third-order autocovariance and the asymmetry due to time reversal. Whereas the DVV method can perform well on determining nonlinear of Lorenz signal. It indicates that the proposed method can describe the continuous dynamics signal effectively.
Keywords: Nonlinearity, Time series, continuous dynamics system, DVV method
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 16273467 A Study on the Interlaminar Shear Strength of Carbon Fiber Reinforced Plastics Depending on the Lamination Methods
Authors: Min Sang Lee, Hee Jae Shin, In Pyo Cha, Sun Ho Ko, Hyun Kyung Yoon, Hong Gun Kim, Lee Ku Kwac
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The prepreg process among the CFRP (Carbon Fiber Reinforced Plastic) forming methods is the short term of ‘Pre-impregnation’, which is widely used for aerospace composites that require a high quality property such as a fiber-reinforced woven fabric, in which an epoxy hardening resin is impregnated the reality. However, that this process requires continuous researches and developments for its commercialization because the delamination characteristically develops between the layers when a great weight is loaded from outside to supplement such demerit, three lamination methods among the prepreg lamination methods of CFRP were designed to minimize the delamination between the layers due to external impacts. Further, the newly designed methods and the existing lamination methods were analyzed through a mechanical characteristic test, Interlaminar Shear Strength test. The Interlaminar Shear Strength test result confirmed that the newly proposed three lamination methods, i.e. the Roll, Half and Zigzag laminations, presented more excellent strengths compared to the conventional Ply lamination. The interlaminar shear strength in the roll method with relatively dense fiber distribution was approximately 1.75% higher than that in the existing ply lamination method, and in the half method, it was approximately 0.78% higher.
Keywords: Carbon Fiber Reinforced Plastic (CFRP), Pre-Impregnation, Laminating Method, Interlaminar Shear Strength (ILSS).
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 29123466 Analysis of Physicochemical Properties on Prediction of R5, X4 and R5X4 HIV-1 Coreceptor Usage
Authors: Kai-Ti Hsu, Hui-Ling Huang, Chun-Wei Tung, Yi-Hsiung Chen, Shinn-Ying Ho
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Bioinformatics methods for predicting the T cell coreceptor usage from the array of membrane protein of HIV-1 are investigated. In this study, we aim to propose an effective prediction method for dealing with the three-class classification problem of CXCR4 (X4), CCR5 (R5) and CCR5/CXCR4 (R5X4). We made efforts in investigating the coreceptor prediction problem as follows: 1) proposing a feature set of informative physicochemical properties which is cooperated with SVM to achieve high prediction test accuracy of 81.48%, compared with the existing method with accuracy of 70.00%; 2) establishing a large up-to-date data set by increasing the size from 159 to 1225 sequences to verify the proposed prediction method where the mean test accuracy is 88.59%, and 3) analyzing the set of 14 informative physicochemical properties to further understand the characteristics of HIV-1coreceptors.Keywords: Coreceptor, genetic algorithm, HIV-1, SVM, physicochemical properties, prediction.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 23873465 Compressive Strength and Workability Characteristics of Low-Calcium Fly ash-based Self-Compacting Geopolymer Concrete
Authors: M. Fareed Ahmed, M. Fadhil Nuruddin, Nasir Shafiq
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Due to growing environmental concerns of the cement industry, alternative cement technologies have become an area of increasing interest. It is now believed that new binders are indispensable for enhanced environmental and durability performance. Self-compacting Geopolymer concrete is an innovative method and improved way of concreting operation that does not require vibration for placing it and is produced by complete elimination of ordinary Portland cement. This paper documents the assessment of the compressive strength and workability characteristics of low-calcium fly ash based selfcompacting geopolymer concrete. The essential workability properties of the freshly prepared Self-compacting Geopolymer concrete such as filling ability, passing ability and segregation resistance were evaluated by using Slump flow, V-funnel, L-box and J-ring test methods. The fundamental requirements of high flowability and segregation resistance as specified by guidelines on Self Compacting Concrete by EFNARC were satisfied. In addition, compressive strength was determined and the test results are included here. This paper also reports the effect of extra water, curing time and curing temperature on the compressive strength of self-compacting geopolymer concrete. The test results show that extra water in the concrete mix plays a significant role. Also, longer curing time and curing the concrete specimens at higher temperatures will result in higher compressive strength.Keywords: Fly ash, Geopolymer Concrete, Self-compactingconcrete, Self-compacting Geopolymer concrete
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 45873464 Development of EPID-based Real time Dose Verification for Dynamic IMRT
Authors: Todsaporn Fuangrod, Daryl J. O'Connor, Boyd MC McCurdy, Peter B. Greer
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An electronic portal image device (EPID) has become a method of patient-specific IMRT dose verification for radiotherapy. Research studies have focused on pre and post-treatment verification, however, there are currently no interventional procedures using EPID dosimetry that measure the dose in real time as a mechanism to ensure that overdoses do not occur and underdoses are detected as soon as is practically possible. As a result, an EPID-based real time dose verification system for dynamic IMRT was developed and was implemented with MATLAB/Simulink. The EPID image acquisition was set to continuous acquisition mode at 1.4 images per second. The system defined the time constraint gap, or execution gap at the image acquisition time, so that every calculation must be completed before the next image capture is completed. In addition, the <=-evaluation method was used for dose comparison, with two types of comparison processes; individual image and cumulative dose comparison monitored. The outputs of the system are the <=-map, the percent of <=<1, and mean-<= versus time, all in real time. Two strategies were used to test the system, including an error detection test and a clinical data test. The system can monitor the actual dose delivery compared with the treatment plan data or previous treatment dose delivery that means a radiation therapist is able to switch off the machine when the error is detected.Keywords: real-time dose verification, EPID dosimetry, simulation, dynamic IMRT
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 21923463 Out-of-Plane Bending Properties of Out-of-Autoclave Thermosetting Prepregs during Forming Processes
Authors: Hassan A. Alshahrani, Mehdi H. Hojjati
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In order to predict and model wrinkling which is caused by out of plane deformation due to compressive loading in the plane of the material during composite prepregs forming, it is necessary to quantitatively understand the relative magnitude of the bending stiffness. This study aims to examine the bending properties of out-of-autoclave (OOA) thermosetting prepreg under vertical cantilever test condition. A direct method for characterizing the bending behavior of composite prepregs was developed. The results from direct measurement were compared with results derived from an image-processing procedure that analyses the captured image during the vertical bending test. A numerical simulation was performed using ABAQUS to confirm the bending stiffness value.Keywords: Bending stiffness, out of autoclave prepreg, forming process, numerical simulation.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 16883462 A Study of Combined Mechanical and Chemical Stabilisation of Fine Grained Dredge Soil of River Jhelum
Authors: Adnan F. Sheikh, Fayaz A. Mir
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After the recent devastating flood in Kashmir in 2014, dredging of the local water bodies, especially Jhelum River has become a priority for the government. Local government under the project name of 'Comprehensive Flood Management Programme' plans to undertake an increase in discharge of existing flood channels by removal of encroachments and acquisition of additional land, dredging and other works of the water bodies. The total quantity of soil to be dredged will be 16.15 lac cumecs. Dredged soil is a major component that would result from the project which requires disposal/utilization. This study analyses the effect of cement and sand on the engineering properties of soil. The tests were conducted with variable additions of sand (10%, 20% and 30%), whereas cement was added at 12%. Samples with following compositions: soil-cement (12%) and soil-sand (30%) were tested as well. Laboratory experiments were conducted to determine the engineering characteristics of soil, i.e., compaction, strength, and CBR characteristics. The strength characteristics of the soil were determined by unconfined compressive strength test and direct shear test. Unconfined compressive strength of the soil was tested immediately and for a curing period of seven days. CBR test was performed for unsoaked, soaked (worst condition- 4 days) and cured (4 days) samples.
Keywords: Comprehensive flood management programme, dredge soil, strength characteristics, flood.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 8873461 Behavior Fatigue Life of Wind Turbine Rotor with Longitudinal Crack Growth
Authors: S. Lecheb, A. Nour, A. Chellil, H. Mechakra, N. Hamad, H. Kebir
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This study concerned the dynamic behavior of the wind turbine rotor. Before all we have studied the loads applied to the rotor, which allows the knowledge their effect on the fatigue, also studied the rotor with longitudinal crack in order to determine stress, strain and displacement. Firstly we compared the first six modes shapes between cracking and uncracking of HAWT rotor. Secondly we show show evolution of first six natural frequencies with longitudinal crack propagation. Finally we conclude that the residual change in the natural frequencies can be used as in shaft crack diagnosis predictive maintenance.
Keywords: Wind turbine rotor, natural frequencies, longitudinal crack growth, life time.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 21983460 The Effects of Drill and Practice Courseware on Students’ Achievement and Motivation in Learning English
Authors: Y. T. Gee, I. N. Umar
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Students’ achievement and motivation in learning English in Malaysia is a worrying trend as it is lagging behind several other countries in Asia. Thus, necessary actions have to be taken by the parties concerned to overcome this problem. The purpose of this research was to study the effects of drill and practice courseware on students’ achievement and motivation in learning English language. A multimedia courseware was developed for this purpose. The independent variable was the drill and practice courseware while the dependent variables were the students’ achievement and motivation. Their achievement was measured using pre-test and post-test scores, while motivation was measured using a questionnaire. A total of 60 students from three vernacular primary schools in a northern state in Malaysia were randomly selected in this study. The findings indicate: (1) a significant difference between the students’ pre-test and posttest scores after using the courseware, (2) no significant difference in the achievement score between male and female students after using the courseware, (3) a significant difference in motivation score between the female and the male students, and (4) while the female students scored significantly higher than the male students in the aspects of relevance, confidence and satisfaction, no significant difference in terms of attention was observed between them. Overall, the findings clearly indicate that although the female students are significantly more motivated than their male students, they are equally good in terms of achievement after learning from the courseware. Through this study, the drill and practice courseware is proven to influence the students’ learning and motivation.
Keywords: Courseware, drill and practice, English learning, motivation.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 40903459 SVM Based Model as an Optimal Classifier for the Classification of Sonar Signals
Authors: Suresh S. Salankar, Balasaheb M. Patre
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Research into the problem of classification of sonar signals has been taken up as a challenging task for the neural networks. This paper investigates the design of an optimal classifier using a Multi layer Perceptron Neural Network (MLP NN) and Support Vector Machines (SVM). Results obtained using sonar data sets suggest that SVM classifier perform well in comparison with well-known MLP NN classifier. An average classification accuracy of 91.974% is achieved with SVM classifier and 90.3609% with MLP NN classifier, on the test instances. The area under the Receiver Operating Characteristics (ROC) curve for the proposed SVM classifier on test data set is found as 0.981183, which is very close to unity and this clearly confirms the excellent quality of the proposed classifier. The SVM classifier employed in this paper is implemented using kernel Adatron algorithm is seen to be robust and relatively insensitive to the parameter initialization in comparison to MLP NN.
Keywords: Classification, MLP NN, backpropagation algorithm, SVM, Receiver Operating Characteristics.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 18213458 Research on Hybrid Neural Network in Intrusion Detection System
Authors: Jianhua Wang, Yan Yu
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This paper presents an intrusion detection system of hybrid neural network model based on RBF and Elman. It is used for anomaly detection and misuse detection. This model has the memory function .It can detect discrete and related aggressive behavior effectively. RBF network is a real-time pattern classifier, and Elman network achieves the memory ability for former event. Based on the hybrid model intrusion detection system uses DARPA data set to do test evaluation. It uses ROC curve to display the test result intuitively. After the experiment it proves this hybrid model intrusion detection system can effectively improve the detection rate, and reduce the rate of false alarm and fail.
Keywords: RBF, Elman, anomaly detection, misuse detection, hybrid neural network.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 23283457 Some Mechanical Properties of Cement Stabilized Malaysian Soft Clay
Authors: Meei-Hoan Ho, Chee-Ming Chan
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Soft clays are defined as cohesive soil whose water content is higher than its liquid limits. Thus, soil-cement mixing is adopted to improve the ground conditions by enhancing the strength and deformation characteristics of the soft clays. For the above mentioned reasons, a series of laboratory tests were carried out to study some fundamental mechanical properties of cement stabilized soft clay. The test specimens were prepared by varying the portion of ordinary Portland cement to the soft clay sample retrieved from the test site of RECESS (Research Centre for Soft Soil). Comparisons were made for both homogeneous and columnar system specimens by relating the effects of cement stabilized clay of for 0, 5 and 10 % cement and curing for 3, 28 and 56 days. The mechanical properties examined included one-dimensional compressibility and undrained shear strength. For the mechanical properties, both homogeneous and columnar system specimens were prepared to examine the effect of different cement contents and curing periods on the stabilized soil. The one-dimensional compressibility test was conducted using an oedometer, while a direct shear box was used for measuring the undrained shear strength. The higher the value of cement content, the greater is the enhancement of the yield stress and the decrease of compression index. The value of cement content in a specimen is a more active parameter than the curing period.Keywords: Soft soil, Oedometer, Direct shear box, Cementstabilisedcolumn.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 32533456 Life Satisfaction of Non-Luxembourgish and Native Luxembourgish Postgraduate Students
Authors: Chrysoula Karathanasi, Senad Karavdic, Angela Odero, Michèle Baumann
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It is not only the economic determinants that impact on life conditions, but maintaining a good level of life satisfaction (LS) may also be an important challenge currently. In Luxembourg, university students receive financial aid from the government. They are then registered at the Centre for Documentation and Information on Higher Education (CEDIES). Luxembourg is built on migration with almost half its population consisting of foreigners. It is upon this basis that our research aims to analyze the associations with mental health factors (health satisfaction, psychological quality of life, worry), perceived financial situation, career attitudes (adaptability, optimism, knowledge, planning) and LS, for non-Luxembourgish and native postgraduate students. Between 2012 and 2013, postgraduates registered at CEDIES were contacted by post and asked to participate in an online survey with either the option of English or French. The study population comprised of 644 respondents. Our statistical analysis excluded: those born abroad who had Luxembourgish citizenship, or those born in Luxembourg who did not have citizenship. Two groups were formed one consisting 147 non-Luxembourgish and the other 284 natives. A single item measured LS (1=not at all satisfied to 10=very satisfied). Bivariate tests, correlations and multiple linear regression models were used in which only significant relationships (p<0.05) were integrated. Among the two groups no differences were found between LS indicators (7.8/10 non-Luxembourgish; 8.0/10 natives) as both were higher than the European indicator of 7.2/10 (for 25-34 years). In the case of non-Luxembourgish students, they were older than natives (29.3 years vs. 26.3 years) perceived their financial situation as more difficult, and a higher percentage of their parents had an education level higher than a Bachelor's degree (father 59.2% vs 44.6% for natives; mother 51.4% vs 33.7% for natives). In addition, the father’s education was related to the LS of postgraduates and the higher was the score, the greater was the contribution to LS. Whereas for native students, when their scores of health satisfaction and career optimism were higher, their LS’ score was higher. For both groups their LS was linked to mental health-related factors, perception of their financial situation, career optimism, adaptability and planning. The higher the psychological quality of life score was, the greater the LS of postgraduates’ was. Good health and positive attitudes related to the job market enhanced their LS indicator.
Keywords: Career attitudes, fathers’ education level, life satisfaction, mental health.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 14953455 Experimental Inspection of Damage and Performance Evaluation after Repair and Strengthening of Jiamusi Highway Prestressed Concrete Bridge in China
Authors: Ali Fadhil Naser, Wang Zonglin
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The main objectives of this study are to inspect and identify any damage of jaimusi highway prestressed concrete bridge after repair and strengthening of damaged structural members and to evaluate the performance of the bridge structural members by adopting static load test. Inspection program after repair and strengthening includes identifying and evaluating the structural members of bridge such as T-shape cantilever structure, hanging beams, corbels, external tendons, anchor beams, sticking steel plate, and piers. The results of inspection show that the overall state of the bridge structural member after repair and strengthening is good. The results of rebound test of concrete strength show that the average strength of concrete is 46.31Mpa. Whereas, the average value of concrete strength of anchor beam is 49.82Mpa. According to the results of static load test, the experimental values are less than theoretical values of internal forces, deflection, and strain, indicating that the stiffness of the experimental structure, overall deformation and integrity satisfy the designed standard and the working performance is good, and the undertaking capacity has a certain surplus. There is not visible change in the length and width of cracks and there are not new cracks under experimental load.Keywords: Jiamusi Bridge, Damage inspection, deflection, strain.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 18203454 The Impact of Drama Education on Creativity Development at Preschool Children
Authors: Vladimíra Hornáčková
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This paper points out at the importance of creativity development in children of preschool age and analyses certain conditions and pedagogical principles which should be respected during the development of creativity in kindergartens. Research survey focuses on the development of creativity reflection at children in kindergartens at preschool age and based on a test of creativity it compares creativity of children in experimental and control groups. The goal is to find out if there are any differences among children in experimental and control classrooms in kindergartens; wherein experimental groups, there is preschool education with the use of drama education while in control groups there is not. On the basis of certain aspects, the gained data is compared through descriptive methods and correlations. Research results refer to reserves in creativity development in modern pre-primary education in the context of implemented and expected changes in didactic approach in the education of kindergartens.
Keywords: Preschool child, drama in education, research, test of creativity.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 18913453 Exploring Perceptions and Practices About Information and Communication Technologies in Business English Teaching in Pakistan
Authors: M. Athar Hussain, N.B. Jumani, Munazza Sultana., M. Zafar Iqbal
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Language Reforms and potential use of ICTs has been a focal area of Higher Education Commission of Pakistan. Efforts are being accelerated to incorporate fast expanding ICTs to bring qualitative improvement in language instruction in higher education. This paper explores how university teachers are benefitting from ICTs to make their English class effective and what type of problems they face in practicing ICTs during their lectures. An in-depth qualitative study was employed to understand why language teachers tend to use ICTs in their instruction and how they are practicing it. A sample of twenty teachers from five universities located in Islamabad, three from public sector and two from private sector, was selected on non-random (Snowball) sampling basis. An interview with 15 semi-structured items was used as research instruments to collect data. The findings reveal that business English teaching is facilitated and improved through the use of ICTs. The language teachers need special training regarding the practices and implementation of ICTs. It is recommended that initiatives might be taken to equip university language teachers with modern methodology incorporating ICTs as focal area and efforts might be made to remove barriers regarding the training of language teachers and proper usage of ICTs.
Keywords: Information and communication technologies, internet assisted learning, teaching business English, online instructional content.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 19473452 Fluidity of A713 Cast Alloy with and without Scrap Addition using Double Spiral Fluidity Test: A Comparison
Authors: A.K. Birru, D Benny Karunakar, M. M. Mahapatra
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Recycling of aluminum alloys often decrease fluidity, consequently influence the castability of the alloy. In this study, the fluidity of Al-Zn alloys, such as the standard A713 alloy with and without scrap addition has been investigated. The scrap added was comprised of contaminated alloy turning chips. Fluidity measurements were performed with double spiral fluidity test consisting of gravity casting of double spirals in green sand moulds with good reproducibility. The influence of recycled alloy on fluidity has been compared with that of the virgin alloy and the results showed that the fluidity decreased with the increase in recycled alloy at minimum pouring temperatures. Interestingly, an appreciable improvement in the fluidity was observed at maximum pouring temperature, especially for coated spirals.Keywords: A713 alloy, Fluidity, Hexachloroethane, Pouring temperature, Recycling.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 24953451 Winged Test Rocket with Fully Autonomous Guidance and Control for Realizing Reusable Suborbital Vehicle
Authors: Koichi Yonemoto, Hiroshi Yamasaki, Masatomo Ichige, Yusuke Ura, Guna S. Gossamsetti, Takumi Ohki, Kento Shirakata, Ahsan R. Choudhuri, Shinji Ishimoto, Takashi Mugitani, Hiroya Asakawa, Hideaki Nanri
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This paper presents the strategic development plan of winged rockets WIRES (WInged REusable Sounding rocket) aiming at unmanned suborbital winged rocket for demonstrating future fully reusable space transportation technologies, such as aerodynamics, Navigation, Guidance and Control (NGC), composite structure, propulsion system, and cryogenic tanks etc., by universities in collaboration with government and industries, as well as the past and current flight test results.Keywords: Autonomous guidance and control, reusable rocket, space transportation system, suborbital vehicle, winged rocket.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 25543450 The Relationship between Competency-Based Learning and Learning Efficiency of Media Communication Students at Suan Sunandha Rajabhat University
Authors: Somtop Keawchuer
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This research aims to study (1) the relationship between competency-based learning and learning efficiency of new media communication students at Suan Sunandha University (2) the demographic factor effect on learning efficiency of students at Suan Sunandha University. This research method will use quantitative research; data was collected by questionnaires distributed to students from new media communication in management science faculty of Suan Sunandha Rajabhat University for 1340 sample by purposive sampling method. Data was analyzed by descriptive statistic including percentage, mean, standard deviation and inferential statistic including T-test, ANOVA and Pearson correlation for hypothesis testing. The results showed that the competency-based learning in term of ability to communicate, ability to think and solve the problem, life skills and ability to use technology has a significant relationship with learning efficiency in term of the cognitive domain, psychomotor domain and affective domain at the 0.05 level and which is in harmony with the research hypotheses.
Keywords: Competency-based learning, learning efficiency, new media communication students, Suan Sunandha Rajabhat University.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 11813449 Useful Lifetime Prediction of Chevron Rubber Spring for Railway Vehicle
Authors: Chang Su Woo, Hyun Sung Park
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Useful lifetime evaluation of chevron rubber spring was very important in design procedure to assure the safety and reliability. It is, therefore, necessary to establish a suitable criterion for the replacement period of chevron rubber spring. In this study, we performed characteristic analysis and useful lifetime prediction of chevron rubber spring. Rubber material coefficient was obtained by curve fittings of uniaxial tension equibiaxial tension and pure shear test. Computer simulation was executed to predict and evaluate the load capacity and stiffness for chevron rubber spring. In order to useful lifetime prediction of rubber material, we carried out the compression set with heat aging test in an oven at the temperature ranging from 50°C to 100°C during a period 180 days. By using the Arrhenius plot, several useful lifetime prediction equations for rubber material was proposed.Keywords: Chevron rubber spring, material coefficient, finite element analysis, useful lifetime prediction.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 28293448 Remaining Useful Life Estimation of Bearings Based on Nonlinear Dimensional Reduction Combined with Timing Signals
Authors: Zhongmin Wang, Wudong Fan, Hengshan Zhang, Yimin Zhou
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In data-driven prognostic methods, the prediction accuracy of the estimation for remaining useful life of bearings mainly depends on the performance of health indicators, which are usually fused some statistical features extracted from vibrating signals. However, the existing health indicators have the following two drawbacks: (1) The differnet ranges of the statistical features have the different contributions to construct the health indicators, the expert knowledge is required to extract the features. (2) When convolutional neural networks are utilized to tackle time-frequency features of signals, the time-series of signals are not considered. To overcome these drawbacks, in this study, the method combining convolutional neural network with gated recurrent unit is proposed to extract the time-frequency image features. The extracted features are utilized to construct health indicator and predict remaining useful life of bearings. First, original signals are converted into time-frequency images by using continuous wavelet transform so as to form the original feature sets. Second, with convolutional and pooling layers of convolutional neural networks, the most sensitive features of time-frequency images are selected from the original feature sets. Finally, these selected features are fed into the gated recurrent unit to construct the health indicator. The results state that the proposed method shows the enhance performance than the related studies which have used the same bearing dataset provided by PRONOSTIA.Keywords: Continuous wavelet transform, convolution neural network, gated recurrent unit, health indicators, remaining useful life.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 7723447 The Relationship between Body Fat Percentage and Metabolic Syndrome Indices in Childhood Morbid Obesity
Authors: Mustafa M. Donma
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Metabolic syndrome (MetS) is characterized by a series of biochemical, physiological and anthropometric indicators and is a life-threatening health problem due to its close association with chronic diseases such as obesity, diabetes mellitus, hypertension, cancer and cardiovascular diseases. The syndrome deserves great interest both in adults and children. Particularly, children with morbid obesity have a great tendency to develop the disease. The diagnostic decision is not so easy and may not be complete particularly in the pediatric population. Therefore, preventive measures should be considered at this stage. The aim of the study was to develop a MetS index capable of predicting MetS, while children are at the morbid obesity stage. This study was performed on morbid obese (MO) children, which were divided into two groups. MO children, who do not possess MetS criteria comprised the first group (n = 44). The second group was composed of children with MetS diagnosis (n = 42). Anthropometric measurements including weight, height, waist circumference (WC), hip C, head C, neck C, biochemical tests including fasting blood glucose (FBG), insulin (INS), triglycerides (TRG), high density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C) and blood pressure measurements (systolic (SBP) and diastolic (DBP)) were performed. Body fat percentage (BFP) values were determined by TANITA’s Bioelectrical Impedance Analysis technology. Body mass index and MetS indices were calculated. Descriptive statistics including median values, t-test, Mann Whitney U test, correlation-regression analysis were performed within the scope of data evaluation using the statistical package program, SPSS. Statistically significant mean differences were determined by a p value smaller than 0.05. Median values for MetSI and ADMI in MO (MetS-) and MO (MetS+) groups were calculated as 25.9 and 36.5 and 74.0 and 106.1, respectively. Corresponding mean ± SD values for BFPs were 35.9 ± 7.1 and 38.2 ± 7.7 in groups. Correlation analysis of these two indices with corresponding general BFP values exhibited significant association with ADMI, close to significance with MetSI in MO group. Any significant correlation was found with neither of the indices in MetS group. In conclusion, important associations observed with MetS indices in MO group were quite meaningful. The presence of these associations in MO group was important for showing the tendency towards the development of MetS in MO (MetS-) participants. The other index, ADMI, was more helpful for predictive purpose.
Keywords: Body fat percentage, child obesity, metabolic syndrome index, morbid obesity.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 673446 Auto Tuning of PID Controller for MIMO Processes
Authors: M. J. Lengare, R. H. Chile, L. M. Waghmare, Bhavesh Parmar
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One of the most basic functions of control engineers is tuning of controllers. There are always several process loops in the plant necessitate of tuning. The auto tuned Proportional Integral Derivative (PID) Controllers are designed for applications where large load changes are expected or the need for extreme accuracy and fast response time exists. The algorithm presented in this paper is used for the tuning PID controller to obtain its parameters with a minimum computing complexity. It requires continuous analysis of variation in few parameters, and let the program to do the plant test and calculate the controller parameters to adjust and optimize the variables for the best performance. The algorithm developed needs less time as compared to a normal step response test for continuous tuning of the PID through gain scheduling.Keywords: Auto tuning; gain scheduling; MIMO Processes; Optimization; PID controller; Process Control.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 30143445 Evaluation of Systemic Immune-Inflammation Index in Obese Children
Authors: Mustafa M. Donma, Orkide Donma
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A growing list of cancers might be influenced by obesity. Obesity is associated with an increased risk for the occurrence and development of some cancers. Inflammation can lead to cancer. It is one of the characteristic features of cancer and plays a critical role in cancer development. C-reactive protein (CRP) is under evaluation related to the new and simple prognostic factors in patients with metastatic renal cell cancer. Obesity can predict and promote systemic inflammation in healthy adults. BMI is correlated with hs-CRP. In this study, SII index and CRP values were evaluated in children with normal BMI and those within the range of different obesity grades to detect the tendency towards cancer in pediatric obesity. A total of one hundred and ninety-four children; thirty-five children with normal BMI, twenty overweight (OW), forty-seven obese (OB) and ninety-two morbid obese (MO) participated in the study. Age- and sex-matched groups were constituted using BMI-for age percentiles. Informed consent was obtained. Ethical Committee approval was taken. Weight, height, waist circumference (C), hip C, head C and neck C of the children were measured. The complete blood count test was performed. C-reactive protein analysis was performed. Statistical analyses were performed using SPSS. The degree for statistical significance was p≤0.05. SII index values were progressively increasing starting from normal weight (NW) to MO children. There is a statistically significant difference between NW and OB as well as MO children. No significant difference was observed between NW and OW children, however, a correlation was observed between NW and OW children. MO constitutes the only group, which exhibited a statistically significant correlation between SII index and CRP. Obesity-related bladder, kidney, cervical, liver, colorectal, endometrial cancers are still being investigated. Obesity, characterized as a chronic low-grade inflammation, is a crucial risk factor for colon cancer. Elevated childhood BMI values may be indicative of processes leading to cancer, initiated early in life. Prevention of childhood adiposity may decrease the cancer incidence in adults. To authors’ best knowledge, this study is the first to introduce SII index values during obesity of varying degrees of severity. It is suggested that this index seems to affect all stages of obesity with an increasing tendency and may point out the concomitant status of obesity and cancer starting from very early periods of life.
Keywords: Children, c- reactive protein, systemic immune-inflammation index, obesity.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 8483444 Investigation Bubble Growth and Nucleation Rates during the Pool Boiling Heat Transfer of Distilled Water Using Population Balance Model
Authors: V. Nikkhah Rashidabad, M. Manteghian, M. Masoumi, S. Mousavian
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In this research, the changes in bubbles diameter and number that may occur due to the change in heat flux of pure water during pool boiling process. For this purpose, test equipment was designed and developed to collect test data. The bubbles were graded using Caliper Screen software. To calculate the growth and nucleation rates of bubbles under different fluxes, population balance model was employed. The results show that the increase in heat flux from q=20 kw/m2 to q= 102 kw/m2 raised the growth and nucleation rates of bubbles.
Keywords: Heat flux, bubble growth, bubble nucleation, population balance model.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 24683443 Heating and Cooling Scenario of Blended Concrete Subjected to 780 Degrees Celsius
Authors: J. E. Oti, J. M. Kinuthia, R. Robinson, P. Davies
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In this study, the Compressive strength of concretes made with Ground Granulated Blast furnace Slag (GGBS), Pulverised Fuel Ash (PFA), Rice Husk Ash (RHA) and Waste Glass Powder (WGP) after they were exposed 7800C (exposure duration of around 60 minutes) and then allowed to cool down gradually in the furnace for about 280 minutes at water binder ratio of 0.50 was investigated. GGBS, PFA, RHA and WGP were used to replace up to 20% Portland cement in the control concrete. Test for the determination of workability, compressive strength and tensile splitting strength of the concretes were carried out and the results were compared with control concrete. The test results showed that the compressive strength decreased by an average of around 30% after the concretes were exposed to the heating and cooling scenario.
Keywords: Pulverised Fuel Ash, Rice Husk Ash, heating and cooling, concrete.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1785