Search results for: middle war and post war architecture

Authors: Jaime Martín-de-Nicolás, David Mata-Moya, Nerea del-Rey-Maestre, Pedro Gómez-del-Hoyo, María-Pilar Jarabo-Amores

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Ship detection is nowadays quite an important issue in tasks related to sea traffic control, fishery management and ship search and rescue. Although it has traditionally been carried out by patrol ships or aircrafts, coverage and weather conditions and sea state can become a problem. Synthetic aperture radars can surpass these coverage limitations and work under any climatological condition. A fast CFAR ship detector based on a robust statistical modeling of sea clutter with respect to sea states in SAR images is used. In this paper, the minimum SNR required to obtain a given detection probability with a given false alarm rate for any sea state is determined. A Gaussian target model using real SAR data is considered. Results show that SNR does not depend heavily on the class considered. Provided there is some variation in the backscattering of targets in SAR imagery, the detection probability is limited and a post-processing stage based on morphology would be suitable.

Keywords: SAR, generalized gamma distribution, detection curves, radar detection.

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Authors: Mohan Kotamrazu

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Cyclone Hudhud which battered the city of Visakhapatnam on 12^th October, 2014, damaged many buildings, public amenities and infrastructure facilities along the Visakha- Bheemili coastal corridor. More than half the green cover of the city was wiped out. Majority of the trees along the coastal corridor suffered from complete or partial damage. In order to understand the different ways that trees incurred damage during the cyclone, a damage assessment study was carried out by the author. The areas covered by this study included two university campuses, several parks and residential colonies which bore the brunt of the cyclone. Post disaster attempts have been made to restore many of the trees that have suffered from partial or complete damage from the effects of extreme winds. This paper examines the various ways that trees incurred damage from the cyclone Hudhud and presents some examples of the restoration efforts carried out by educational institutions, public parks and religious institutions of the city of Visakhapatnam in the aftermath of the devastating cyclone.

Keywords: Defoliation, restoration, salt spray damage, wind throw.

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Authors: Zhou Luchen, Wu Yubing, Burra Venkata Durga Kumar

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As the scale of the network becomes larger and more complex than before, the density of user devices is also increasing. The development of Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) networks is able to collect and transform data in an efficient way by using software-defined networks (SDN) technology. This paper proposed a three-layer distributed and dynamic cluster architecture to manage UAVs by using an AI-based resource allocation calculation algorithm to address the overloading network problem. Through separating services of each UAV, the UAV hierarchical cluster system performs the main function of reducing the network load and transferring user requests, with three sub-tasks including data collection, communication channel organization, and data relaying. In this cluster, a head node and a vice head node UAV are selected considering the CPU, RAM, and ROM memory of devices, battery charge, and capacity. The vice head node acts as a backup that stores all the data in the head node. The k-means clustering algorithm is used in order to detect high load regions and form the UAV layered clusters. The whole process of detecting high load areas, forming and selecting UAV clusters, and moving the selected UAV cluster to that area is proposed as offloading traffic algorithm.

Keywords: k-means, resource allocation, SDN, UAV network, unmanned aerial vehicles.

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Authors: Hong Yi Huang, Wei Ti Kuo, Yi You Huang

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Non-viral gene carriers composed of biodegradable polymers or lipids have been considered as a safer alternative for gene carriers over viral vectors. We have developed multi-functional nano-micelles for both drug and gene delivery application. Polyethyleneimine (PEI) was modified by grafting stearic acid (SA) and formulated to polymeric micelles (PEI-SA) with positive surface charge for gene and drug delivery. Our results showed that PEI-SA micelles provided high siRNA binding efficiency. In addition, siRNA delivered by PEI-SA carriers also demonstrated significantly high cellular uptake even in the presence of serum proteins. The post-transcriptional gene silencing efficiency was greatly improved by the polyplex formulated by 10k PEI-SA/siRNA. The amphiphilic structure of PEI-SA micelles provided advantages for multifunctional tasks; where the hydrophilic shell modified with cationic charges can electrostatically interact with DNA or siRNA, and the hydrophobic core can serve as payloads for hydrophobic drugs, making it a promising multifunctional vehicle for both genetic and chemotherapy application.

Keywords: polyethyleneimine, gene delivery, micelles, siRNA

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Authors: Sunitha Ramanujam, Hany El Yamany, Miriam A. M. Capretz

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Software reliability, defined as the probability of a software system or application functioning without failure or errors over a defined period of time, has been an important area of research for over three decades. Several research efforts aimed at developing models to improve reliability are currently underway. One of the most popular approaches to software reliability adopted by some of these research efforts involves the use of operational profiles to predict how software applications will be used. Operational profiles are a quantification of usage patterns for a software application. The research presented in this paper investigates an innovative multiagent framework for automatic creation and management of operational profiles for generic distributed systems after their release into the market. The architecture of the proposed Operational Profile MAS (Multi-Agent System) is presented along with detailed descriptions of the various models arrived at following the analysis and design phases of the proposed system. The operational profile in this paper is extended to comprise seven different profiles. Further, the criticality of operations is defined using a new composed metrics in order to organize the testing process as well as to decrease the time and cost involved in this process. A prototype implementation of the proposed MAS is included as proof-of-concept and the framework is considered as a step towards making distributed systems intelligent and self-managing.

Keywords: Software reliability, Software testing, Metrics, Distributed systems, Multi-agent systems

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Authors: Basharat Ali Haider, Naveed Durrani, Nadeem Aizud, Salimuddin Zahir

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The aerodynamic stall control of a baseline 13-percent thick NASA GA(W)-2 airfoil using a synthetic jet actuator (SJA) is presented in this paper. Unsteady Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes equations are solved on a hybrid grid using a commercial software to simulate the effects of a synthetic jet actuator located at 13% of the chord from the leading edge at a Reynolds number Re = 2.1x106 and incidence angles from 16 to 22 degrees. The experimental data for the pressure distribution at Re = 3x106 and aerodynamic coefficients at Re = 2.1x106 (angle of attack varied from -16 to 22 degrees) without SJA is compared with the computational fluid dynamic (CFD) simulation as a baseline validation. A good agreement of the CFD simulations is obtained for aerodynamic coefficients and pressure distribution. A working SJA has been integrated with the baseline airfoil and initial focus is on the aerodynamic stall control at angles of attack from 16 to 22 degrees. The results show a noticeable improvement in the aerodynamic performance with increase in lift and decrease in drag at these post stall regimes.

Keywords: Active flow control, Aerodynamic stall, Airfoilperformance, Synthetic jet actuator.

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Authors: S. Chaisit, H.Y. Kung, N.T. Phuong

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Radio frequency identification (RFID) applications have grown rapidly in many industries, especially in indoor location identification. The advantage of using received signal strength indicator (RSSI) values as an indoor location measurement method is a cost-effective approach without installing extra hardware. Because the accuracy of many positioning schemes using RSSI values is limited by interference factors and the environment, thus it is challenging to use RFID location techniques based on integrating positioning algorithm design. This study proposes the location estimation approach and analyzes a scheme relying on RSSI values to minimize location errors. In addition, this paper examines different factors that affect location accuracy by integrating the backpropagation neural network (BPN) with the LANDMARC algorithm in a training phase and an online phase. First, the training phase computes coordinates obtained from the LANDMARC algorithm, which uses RSSI values and the real coordinates of reference tags as training data for constructing an appropriate BPN architecture and training length. Second, in the online phase, the LANDMARC algorithm calculates the coordinates of tracking tags, which are then used as BPN inputs to obtain location estimates. The results show that the proposed scheme can estimate locations more accurately compared to LANDMARC without extra devices.

Keywords: BPNs, indoor location, location estimation, intelligent location identification.

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Authors: Ming Wen, Nasim Nezamoddini

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Sophisticated numerical simulations like finite element analysis (FEA) involve a complicated process from model setup to post-processing tasks that require replication of time-consuming steps. Utilizing FEA automation program simplifies the complexity of the involved steps while minimizing human errors in analysis set up, calculations, and results processing. One of the main challenges in designing FEA automation programs is to identify user requirements and link them to possible design alternatives. This paper presents a decision-making framework to design a Python based FEA automation program for modal analysis, frequency response analysis, and random vibration fatigue (RVF) analysis procedures. Analytical hierarchy process (AHP) and technique for order preference by similarity to ideal solution (TOPSIS) are applied to evaluate design alternatives considering the feedback received from experts and program users.

Keywords: FEA, random vibration fatigue, process automation, AHP, TOPSIS, multiple-criteria decision-making, MCDM.

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Authors: O. A. Novitskaya

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The emerging markets of post-USSR countries have attracted Western multinational companies; however, weak institutions and unstable host country environments have hindered the implementation of successful management practices. The Ukrainian market, in light of recent events, is particularly interesting to study for its compatibility with Western businesses. This paper focuses on factors that can facilitate or inhibit the transfer of human resource management practices from Western headquarters to Ukrainian subsidiaries. To explain the national context’s effects better, a business systems approach has been applied to a qualitative study of 16 wholly owned Western subsidiaries, dissecting the reasons for a weak integration of Western practices in Ukraine. Results show that underdeveloped institutions have forced companies to develop additional practices that compensate for national weaknesses, as well as to adjust to a constantly changing environment. Flexibility and local responsiveness were observed as vital for success in Ukraine.

Keywords: Business system, HR practices, human resource management, multinational companies, Ukraine.

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Authors: T. Basitah

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This study was to explore and utilize the fresh rind of mangosteen Index Colour 5 as an upcoming raw material for the production of natural dyes. Rind from the fresh mangosteen Index Colour 5 was utilized to extract the dyes. The established extracts were experimented on silk fabrics via three types of mordanting and dyeing procedures; pre-mordanting, simultaneous mordanting and post-mordanting. As a result, the applications of the freeze-drying methodology and mechanizable equipment have helped to produce excellent range of natural colours. Silk fabric treated simultaneously with mordanting and dyeing with extract dye Index Colour 5 produced a brilliant shade of the red colour and the colour from this index is also discovered sensitive to light and washing during the fastness tests. The preliminary evaluation and instrumentation analysis allowed us to examine whether the application of different mordanting and dyeing procedures with the same extract samples and concentrations affected the colours and shades of the fabric samples.

Keywords: Natural dye, Freeze-drying, Garcinia mangostana Linn, Mordanting.

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Authors: Shin Je Lee, Go Bong Choi, Jeong Cheol Seo, Jong Min Lee, Gibaek Lee

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Water pipe network is installed underground and once equipped, it is difficult to recognize the state of pipes when the leak or burst happens. Accordingly, post management is often delayed after the fault occurs. Therefore, the systematic fault management system of water pipe network is required to prevent the accident and minimize the loss. In this work, we develop online fault detection system of water pipe network using data of pipes such as flow rate or pressure. The transient model describing water flow in pipelines is presented and simulated using MATLAB. The fault situations such as the leak or burst can be also simulated and flow rate or pressure data when the fault happens are collected. Faults are detected using statistical methods of fast Fourier transform and discrete wavelet transform, and they are compared to find which method shows the better fault detection performance.

Keywords: fault detection, water pipeline model, fast Fourier transform, discrete wavelet transform.

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Authors: J. Beel, B. Gipp

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Research papers are usually evaluated via peer review. However, peer review has limitations in evaluating research papers. In this paper, Scienstein and the new idea of 'collaborative document evaluation' are presented. Scienstein is a project to evaluate scientific papers collaboratively based on ratings, links, annotations and classifications by the scientific community using the internet. In this paper, critical success factors of collaborative document evaluation are analyzed. That is the scientists- motivation to participate as reviewers, the reviewers- competence and the reviewers- trustworthiness. It is shown that if these factors are ensured, collaborative document evaluation may prove to be a more objective, faster and less resource intensive approach to scientific document evaluation in comparison to the classical peer review process. It is shown that additional advantages exist as collaborative document evaluation supports interdisciplinary work, allows continuous post-publishing quality assessments and enables the implementation of academic recommendation engines. In the long term, it seems possible that collaborative document evaluation will successively substitute peer review and decrease the need for journals.

Keywords: Peer Review, Alternative, Collaboration, Document Evaluation, Rating, Annotations.

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Authors: Faheem Ahmed, Piers Campbell, Ahmad Jaffar, Luiz Capretz

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Free and open source software is gaining popularity at an unprecedented rate of growth. Organizations despite some concerns about the quality have been using them for various purposes. One of the biggest concerns about free and open source software is post release software defects and their fixing. Many believe that there is no appropriate support available to fix the bugs. On the contrary some believe that due to the active involvement of internet user in online forums, they become a major source of communicating the identification and fixing of defects in open source software. The research model of this empirical investigation establishes and studies the relationship between open source software defects and online public forums. The results of this empirical study provide evidence about the realities of software defects myths of open source software. We used a dataset consist of 616 open source software projects covering a broad range of categories to study the research model of this investigation. The results of this investigation show that online forums play a significant role identifying and fixing the defects in open source software.

Keywords: About Open source software, software engineering, software defect management, empirical software engineering.

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Authors: Mamoun F. Al-Mistarihi

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We have previously introduced an ultrasonic imaging approach that combines harmonic-sensitive pulse sequences with a post-beamforming quadratic kernel derived from a second-order Volterra filter (SOVF). This approach is designed to produce images with high sensitivity to nonlinear oscillations from microbubble ultrasound contrast agents (UCA) while maintaining high levels of noise rejection. In this paper, a two-step algorithm for computing the coefficients of the quadratic kernel leading to reduction of tissue component introduced by motion, maximizing the noise rejection and increases the specificity while optimizing the sensitivity to the UCA is presented. In the first step, quadratic kernels from individual singular modes of the PI data matrix are compared in terms of their ability of maximize the contrast to tissue ratio (CTR). In the second step, quadratic kernels resulting in the highest CTR values are convolved. The imaging results indicate that a signal processing approach to this clinical challenge is feasible.

Keywords: Volterra Filter, Pulse Inversion, Ultrasonic Imaging, Contrast Agent.

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Authors: G. Ramana Murthy, C. Senthilpari, P. Velrajkumar, Lim Tien Sze

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In this paper, a design methodology to implement low-power and high-speed 2nd order recursive digital Infinite Impulse Response (IIR) filter has been proposed. Since IIR filters suffer from a large number of constant multiplications, the proposed method replaces the constant multiplications by using addition/subtraction and shift operations. The proposed new 6T adder cell is used as the Carry-Save Adder (CSA) to implement addition/subtraction operations in the design of recursive section IIR filter to reduce the propagation delay. Furthermore, high-level algorithms designed for the optimization of the number of CSA blocks are used to reduce the complexity of the IIR filter. The DSCH3 tool is used to generate the schematic of the proposed 6T CSA based shift-adds architecture design and it is analyzed by using Microwind CAD tool to synthesize low-complexity and high-speed IIR filters. The proposed design outperforms in terms of power, propagation delay, area and throughput when compared with MUX-12T, MCIT-7T based CSA adder filter design. It is observed from the experimental results that the proposed 6T based design method can find better IIR filter designs in terms of power and delay than those obtained by using efficient general multipliers.

Keywords: CSA Full Adder, Delay unit, IIR filter, Low-Power, PDP, Parametric Analysis, Propagation Delay, Throughput, VLSI.

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Authors: M. Peña Aguilar Juan, Ríos Hernández Ezequiel, R. Valencia Luis

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For certification, certain goods of public interest, such as medicines and food, it is required the preparation and delivery of a dossier. For its elaboration, legal and administrative knowledge must be taken, as well as organization of the documents of the process, and an order that allows the file verification. Therefore, a virtual platform was developed to support the process of management and elaboration of the dossier, providing accessibility to the information and interfaces that allow the user to know the status of projects. The development of dossier system on the cloud allows the inclusion of the technical requirements for the software management, including the validation and the manufacturing in the field industry. The platform guides and facilitates the dossier elaboration (report, file or history), considering Mexican legislation and regulations, it also has auxiliary tools for its management. This technological alternative provides organization support for documents and accessibility to the information required to specify the successful development of a dossier. The platform divides into the following modules: System control, catalog, dossier and enterprise management. The modules are designed per the structure required in a dossier in those areas. However, the structure allows for flexibility, as its goal is to become a tool that facilitates and does not obstruct processes. The architecture and development of the software allows flexibility for future work expansion to other fields, this would imply feeding the system with new regulations.

Keywords: Electronic dossier, technologies for management, web software, dossier elaboration, pharmaceutical industry.

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Authors: Vicki Cowley, Michael J. Hamlin, Michael Grimley

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Concerns about low levels of children-s physical activity and motor skill development, prompted the Ministry of Education to trial a physical activity pilot project (PAPP) in 16 New Zealand primary schools. The project comprised professional development and training in physical education for lead teachers and introduced four physical activity coordinators to liaise with and increase physical activity opportunities in the pilot schools. A survey of generalist teachers (128 baseline, 155 post-intervention) from these schools looked at timetabled physical activity sessions and issues related to teaching physical education. The authors calculated means and standard deviations of data relating to timetabled PE sessions and used a one-way analysis of variance to determine significant differences. Results indicated time devoted to physical activity related subjects significantly increased over the course of the intervention. Teacher-s reported improved confidence and competence, which resulted in an improvement in quality physical education delivered more often.

Keywords: children, physical education, primary school, teaching

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Authors: Ploysai Ohama, Nattida Tumpat

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Natural dye extracted from Caesalpinia sappan Linn. was applied to a cotton fabric and silk yarn by dyeing process. The dyestuff component of Caesalpinia sappan Linn. was extracted using water and ethanol. Analytical studies such as UV–VIS spectrophotometry and gravimetric analysis were performed on the extracts. Brazilein, the major dyestuff component of Caesalpinia sappan Linn. was confirmed in both aqueous and ethanolic extracts by UV–VIS spectrum. The color of each dyed material was investigated in terms of the CIELAB (L*, a* and b*) and K/S values. Cotton fabric dyed without mordant had a shade of reddish-brown, while those post-mordanted with aluminum potassium sulfate, ferrous sulfate and copper sulfate produced a variety of wine red to dark purple color shades. Cotton fabric and silk yarn dyeing was studied using aluminum potassium sulfate as a mordant. The observed color strength was enhanced with increase in mordant concentration.

Keywords: Natural dyes, Plant materials, Dyeing, Mordant.

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Authors: Jiaqi Yan, Sherry Sun, Huaiqing Wang, Zhongsheng Hua

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In the highly competitive and rapidly changing global marketplace, independent organizations and enterprises often come together and form a temporary alignment of virtual enterprise in a supply chain to better provide products or service. As firms adopt the systems approach implicit in supply chain management, they must manage the quality from both internal process control and external control of supplier quality and customer requirements. How to incorporate quality management of upstream and downstream supply chain partners into their own quality management system has recently received a great deal of attention from both academic and practice. This paper investigate the collaborative feature and the entities- relationship in a supply chain, and presents an ontology of collaborative supply chain from an approach of aligning service-oriented framework with service-dominant logic. This perspective facilitates the segregation of material flow management from manufacturing capability management, which provides a foundation for the coordination and integration of the business process to measure, analyze, and continually improve the quality of products, services, and process. Further, this approach characterizes the different interests of supply chain partners, providing an innovative approach to analyze the collaborative features of supply chain. Furthermore, this ontology is the foundation to develop quality management system which internalizes the quality management in upstream and downstream supply chain partners and manages the quality in supply chain systematically.

Keywords: Ontology, supply chain quality management, service-oriented architecture, service-dominant logic.

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Authors: Azza Taha Zaki

Abstract:

The death of tragedy is probably one of the most distinctive literary controversies of the twentieth century. There is common critical consent that tragedy in the classical sense of the word is no longer possible. Thinkers, philosophers and critics such as Nietzsche, Durrenmatt and George Steiner have all agreed that the decline of the genre in the modern age is due to the total lack of a unified world image and the absence of a shared vision in a fragmented and ideologically diversified world. The production of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead in 1967 marked the rise of the genre of tragi-comedy as a more appropriate reflection of the spirit of the age. At the hands of such great dramatists as Tom Stoppard (1937- ), the revived genre was not used as an extra comic element to give some comic relief to an otherwise tragic text, but it was given a postmodernist touch to serve the interpretation of the dilemma of man in the postmodernist world. This paper will study features of postmodernist tragi-comedy in Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead as one of the most important plays in the modern British theatre and investigate Stoppard’s vision of man and life as influenced by postmodernist thought and philosophy.

Keywords: British, drama, postmodernist, Stoppard, tragi-comedy.

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Authors: Sara Ramezanzadeh, Nashid Nabian

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Historically, pandemics in different periods have caused compulsory changes in human life. In the case of COVID-19, according to the limitations and established care instructions, spatial alignment with the conditions is important. Following the outbreak of COVID-19, the question raised in this study is how to do spatial design in five scales, namely object, space, architecture, city, and infrastructure, in response to the consequences created in the realms under study. From the beginning of the pandemic until now, some changes in the spatial realm have been created spontaneously or by space users. These transformations have been mostly applied in modifiable parts such as furniture arrangement, especially in work-related spaces. To implement other comprehensive requirements, flexibility and adaptation of space design to the conditions resulting from the pandemics are needed during and after the outbreak. Studying the effects of pandemics from the past to the present, this research covers eight major realms, including three categories of ramifications, solutions, and paradigm shifts, and analytical conclusions about the solutions that have been created in response to them. Finally, by the consideration of epidemiology as a modern discipline influencing the design, spatial solutions in the five scales mentioned (in response to the effects of the eight realms for spatial adaptation in the face of pandemics and their following conditions) are presented as a series of guidelines. Due to the unpredictability of possible pandemics in the future, the possibility of changing and updating the provided guidelines is considered.

Keywords: Pandemics, COVID-19, spatial design, ramifications, paradigm shifts, guidelines.

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Authors: K. Sontaya, B. Pitiyont, V. Punsuvon

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The objective of this study is to investigate the performance of the electrocoagulation process for color and COD removal in palm oil wastewater using a 10 L batch reactor. Iron was used as electrodes and the distance between electrodes was 2 cm. The effects of operating parameters: current voltage (6, 12 and 18 volt), reaction time (5, 15, 30, 45 and 60 min) and initial pH (4 and 9) of treatment efficiency were examine. The result showed that decolorization and COD removal efficiency increased with the increase in current voltage and reaction time. The proper condition for decolorization achieved at initial pH 4 and 9 were current voltage of 12 volt, reaction time 30 min. The decolorization efficiency reached 90.4% and 88.9%, respectively. COD removal was achiveved at current voltage 12 volt, reaction time 15 min. COD removal efficiency was 89.2 % and 83.0%, respectively. From the results, to show electrocoagulation process can treat palm oil mill wastewater in both acidic and basic condition at high efficiency for color and COD removal. Consequently, electrocoagulation process can be used or applied as a post-treatment step to improve the quality of the final discharge in term of color and residual COD removal.

Keywords: COD removal, decolorizaton, electrocoagulation, iron electrode, palm oil mill wastewater.

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Authors: Ajay Kushwaha, Hemen Kalita, M. Aslam

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Post growth annealing of solution grown ZnO nanowire array is performed under controlled oxygen ambience. The role of annealing over surface defects and their consequence on dark/photo-conductivity and photosensitivity of nanowire array is investigated. Surface defect properties are explored using various measurement tools such as contact angle, photoluminescence, Raman spectroscopy and XPS measurements. The contact angle of the NW films reduces due to oxygen annealing and nanowire film surface changes from hydrophobic (96°) to hydrophilic (16°). Raman and XPS spectroscopy reveal that oxygen annealing improves the crystal quality of the nanowire films. The defect band emission intensity (relative to band edge emission, ID/IUV) reduces from 1.3 to 0.2 after annealing at 600 °C at 10 SCCM flow of oxygen. An order enhancement in dark conductivity is observed in O2 annealed samples, while photoconductivity is found to be slightly reduced due to lower concentration of surface related oxygen defects.

Keywords: Zinc Oxide, Surface defects, Photoluminescence, Photoconductivity, Photosensor and Nanowire thin film.

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Authors: Kostas Siozios, Dimitrios Soudris, Antonios Thanailakis

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Modern applications realized onto FPGAs exhibit high connectivity demands. Throughout this paper we study the routing constraints of Virtex devices and we propose a systematic methodology for designing a novel general-purpose interconnection network targeting to reconfigurable architectures. This network consists of multiple segment wires and SB patterns, appropriately selected and assigned across the device. The goal of our proposed methodology is to maximize the hardware utilization of fabricated routing resources. The derived interconnection scheme is integrated on a Virtex style FPGA. This device is characterized both for its high-performance, as well as for its low-energy requirements. Due to this, the design criterion that guides our architecture selections was the minimal Energy×Delay Product (EDP). The methodology is fully-supported by three new software tools, which belong to MEANDER Design Framework. Using a typical set of MCNC benchmarks, extensive comparison study in terms of several critical parameters proves the effectiveness of the derived interconnection network. More specifically, we achieve average Energy×Delay Product reduction by 63%, performance increase by 26%, reduction in leakage power by 21%, reduction in total energy consumption by 11%, at the expense of increase of channel width by 20%.

Keywords: Design Methodology, FPGA, Interconnection, Low-Energy, High-Performance, CAD tool.

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Authors: Steven W. Carruthers

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The purpose of the present research is to equate two test forms as part of a study to evaluate the educational effectiveness of the ARTé: Mecenas art history learning game. The researcher applied Item Response Theory (IRT) procedures to calculate item, test, and mean-sigma equating parameters. With the sample size n=134, test parameters indicated “good” model fit but low Test Information Functions and more acute than expected equating parameters. Therefore, the researcher applied equipercentile equating and linear equating to raw scores and compared the equated form parameters and effect sizes from each method. Item scaling in IRT enables the researcher to select a subset of well-discriminating items. The mean-sigma step produces a mean-slope adjustment from the anchor items, which was used to scale the score on the new form (Form R) to the reference form (Form Q) scale. In equipercentile equating, scores are adjusted to align the proportion of scores in each quintile segment. Linear equating produces a mean-slope adjustment, which was applied to all core items on the new form. The study followed a quasi-experimental design with purposeful sampling of students enrolled in a college level art history course (n=134) and counterbalancing design to distribute both forms on the pre- and posttests. The Experimental Group (n=82) was asked to play ARTé: Mecenas online and complete Level 4 of the game within a two-week period; 37 participants completed Level 4. Over the same period, the Control Group (n=52) did not play the game. The researcher examined between group differences from post-test scores on test Form Q and Form R by full-factorial Two-Way ANOVA. The raw score analysis indicated a 1.29% direct effect of form, which was statistically non-significant but may be practically significant. The researcher repeated the between group differences analysis with all three equating methods. For the IRT mean-sigma adjusted scores, form had a direct effect of 8.39%. Mean-sigma equating with a small sample may have resulted in inaccurate equating parameters. Equipercentile equating aligned test means and standard deviations, but resultant skewness and kurtosis worsened compared to raw score parameters. Form had a 3.18% direct effect. Linear equating produced the lowest Form effect, approaching 0%. Using linearly equated scores, the researcher conducted an ANCOVA to examine the effect size in terms of prior knowledge. The between group effect size for the Control Group versus Experimental Group participants who completed the game was 14.39% with a 4.77% effect size attributed to pre-test score. Playing and completing the game increased art history knowledge, and individuals with low prior knowledge tended to gain more from pre- to post test. Ultimately, researchers should approach test equating based on their theoretical stance on Classical Test Theory and IRT and the respective  assumptions. Regardless of the approach or method, test equating requires a representative sample of sufficient size. With small sample sizes, the application of a range of equating approaches can expose item and test features for review, inform interpretation, and identify paths for improving instruments for future study.

Keywords: Effectiveness, equipercentile equating, IRT, learning games, linear equating, mean-sigma equating.

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Authors: Marina Sartor Hoffer

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The multicultural composition of today's societies poses new challenges to educational contexts. Schools are therefore called first to develop dialogic aptitudes and communicative skills adapted to the complex reality of post-modern societies. It is indispensable for educators and for young people to learn theoretical and practical tools during their scholastic path, in order to allow the knowledge of themselves and of the others with the aim of recognizing the value of the others regardless of their culture. Dialogic Skills help to understand and manage individual differences by allowing the solution of problems and preventing conflicts. The Educational Sector of Eric Berne’s Transactional Analysis offers a range of methods and techniques for this purpose. Educational Transactional Analysis is firmly anchored in the Personalist Philosophy and deserves to be promoted as a theoretical frame suitable to face the challenges of contemporary education. The goal of this paper is therefore to outline some conceptual and methodological signposts for the education to dialogue by drawing concepts and methodologies from educational transactional analysis.

Keywords: Dialogic process, education to dialogue, educational transactional analysis, personalism, the good of the relationship.

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Authors: Roman Major, Klaudia Trembecka-Wojciga, Juergen Markus Lackner, Boguslaw Major

Abstract:

The future and the development of science is therefore seen in interdisciplinary areas such as biomedical engineering. Selfassembled structures, similar to stem cell niches would inhibit fast division process and subsequently capture the stem cells from the blood flow. By means of surface topography and the stiffness as well as microstructure progenitor cells should be differentiated towards the formation of endothelial cells monolayer which effectively will inhibit activation of the coagulation cascade. The idea of the material surface development met the interest of the clinical institutions, which support the development of science in this area and are waiting for scientific solutions that could contribute to the development of heart assist systems. This would improve the efficiency of the treatment of patients with myocardial failure, supported with artificial heart assist systems. Innovative materials would enable the redesign, in the post project activity, construction of ventricular heart assist.

Keywords: Bio-inspired materials, electron microscopy, haemocompatibility, niche-like structures, thin coatings.

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Authors: Rohith K Reddy, David Mayerich, Michael Walsh, P Scott Carney, Rohit Bhargava

Abstract:

Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopic imaging is an emerging technique that provides both chemically and spatially resolved information. The rich chemical content of data may be utilized for computer-aided determinations of structure and pathologic state (cancer diagnosis) in histological tissue sections for prostate cancer. FT-IR spectroscopic imaging of prostate tissue has shown that tissue type (histological) classification can be performed to a high degree of accuracy [1] and cancer diagnosis can be performed with an accuracy of about 80% [2] on a microscopic (≈ 6μm) length scale. In performing these analyses, it has been observed that there is large variability (more than 60%) between spectra from different points on tissue that is expected to consist of the same essential chemical constituents. Spectra at the edges of tissues are characteristically and consistently different from chemically similar tissue in the middle of the same sample. Here, we explain these differences using a rigorous electromagnetic model for light-sample interaction. Spectra from FT-IR spectroscopic imaging of chemically heterogeneous samples are different from bulk spectra of individual chemical constituents of the sample. This is because spectra not only depend on chemistry, but also on the shape of the sample. Using coupled wave analysis, we characterize and quantify the nature of spectral distortions at the edges of tissues. Furthermore, we present a method of performing histological classification of tissue samples. Since the mid-infrared spectrum is typically assumed to be a quantitative measure of chemical composition, classification results can vary widely due to spectral distortions. However, we demonstrate that the selection of localized metrics based on chemical information can make our data robust to the spectral distortions caused by scattering at the tissue boundary.

Keywords: Infrared, Spectroscopy, Imaging, Tissue classification

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Authors: Gints Jekabsons

Abstract:

The approach of subset selection in polynomial regression model building assumes that the chosen fixed full set of predefined basis functions contains a subset that is sufficient to describe the target relation sufficiently well. However, in most cases the necessary set of basis functions is not known and needs to be guessed – a potentially non-trivial (and long) trial and error process. In our research we consider a potentially more efficient approach – Adaptive Basis Function Construction (ABFC). It lets the model building method itself construct the basis functions necessary for creating a model of arbitrary complexity with adequate predictive performance. However, there are two issues that to some extent plague the methods of both the subset selection and the ABFC, especially when working with relatively small data samples: the selection bias and the selection instability. We try to correct these issues by model post-evaluation using Cross-Validation and model ensembling. To evaluate the proposed method, we empirically compare it to ABFC methods without ensembling, to a widely used method of subset selection, as well as to some other well-known regression modeling methods, using publicly available data sets.

Keywords: Basis function construction, heuristic search, modelensembles, polynomial regression.

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Authors: Aws Al-azawi, John Soraghan

Abstract:

There is a growing interest in the use of ultrasonic speckle tracking for biomedical image formation of tissue deformation. Speckle tracking is angle independent and has an ability to differentiate soft tissue into benign and malignant regions. In this paper a simulation model for dynamic ultrasound scatterer is presented. The model composes Field-II ultrasonic scatterers and FEM (ANSYS-11) nodes as a regional tissue deformation. A performance evaluation is presented on axial displacement and strain fields estimation of a uniformly elastic model, using speckle tracking based 1D cross-correlation of optimally segmented pre and post-deformation frames. Optimum correlation window length is investigated in terms of highest signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) for a selected region of interest of a smoothed displacement field. Finally, gradient based strain field of both smoothed and non-smoothed displacement fields are compared. Simulation results from the model are shown to compare favorably with FEM results.

Keywords: Speckle tracking, tissue deformation, ultrasonic simulation.

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