Search results for: liquid-media measurements

Authors: Rinlee Butch M. Cervera, Princess Stephanie P. Llanos

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Lithium iron phosphate (LiFePO₄) is a potential cathode material for lithium-ion batteries due to its promising characteristics. In this study, pure LiFePO₄ (LFP) and carbon-coated nanograined LiFePO₄ (LFP-C) is synthesized and characterized for its microstructural properties. X-ray diffraction patterns of the synthesized samples can be indexed to an orthorhombic LFP structure with about 63 nm crystallite size as calculated by using Scherrer’s equation. Agglomerated particles that range from 200 nm to 300 nm are observed from scanning electron microscopy images. Transmission electron microscopy images confirm the crystalline structure of LFP and coating of amorphous carbon layer. Elemental mapping using energy dispersive spectroscopy analysis revealed the homogeneous dispersion of the compositional elements. In addition, galvanostatic charge and discharge measurements were investigated for the cathode performance of the synthesized LFP and LFP-C samples. The results showed that the carbon-coated sample demonstrated the highest capacity of about 140 mAhg^-1 as compared to non-coated and micrograined sized commercial LFP.

Keywords: Ceramics, microstructure, electrochemical measurements, energy storage, transmission electron microscope.

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Authors: Moustafa S. El-Sammany

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Flash floods are considered natural disasters that can cause casualties and demolishing of infra structures. The problem is that flash floods, particularly in arid and semi arid zones, take place in very short time. So, it is important to forecast flash floods earlier to its events with a lead time up to 48 hours to give early warning alert to avoid or minimize disasters. The flash flood took place over Wadi Watier - Sinai Peninsula, in October 24th, 2008, has been simulated, investigated and analyzed using the state of the art regional weather model. The Weather Research and Forecast (WRF) model, which is a reliable short term forecasting tool for precipitation events, has been utilized over the study area. The model results have been calibrated with the real data, for the same date and time, of the rainfall measurements recorded at Sorah gauging station. The WRF model forecasted total rainfall of 11.6 mm while the real measured one was 10.8 mm. The calibration shows significant consistency between WRF model and real measurements results.

Keywords: Early warning system, Flash floods forecasting, WadiWatier, WRF model.

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Authors: Mengmeng Du, Noboru Noguchi, Hiroshi Okamoto, Noriko Kobayashi

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This paper introduced a topographic mapping system with time-saving and simplicity advantages based on integration of Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) data and Post Processing Kinematic Global Positioning System (PPK GPS) data. This topographic mapping system used a low-altitude Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) as a platform to conduct land survey in a low-cost, efficient, and totally autonomous manner. An experiment in a small-scale sugarcane farmland was conducted in Queensland, Australia. Subsequently, we synchronized LiDAR distance measurements that were corrected by using attitude information from gyroscope with PPK GPS coordinates for generation of precision topographic maps, which could be further utilized for such applications like precise land leveling and drainage management. The results indicated that LiDAR distance measurements and PPK GPS altitude reached good accuracy of less than 0.015 m.

Keywords: Land survey, light detection and ranging, post processing kinematic global positioning system, precision agriculture, topographic map, unmanned aerial vehicle.

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Authors: Phannee Saengkaew, Weerasak Ussawawongaraya, Sasiphan Khaweerat, Supagorn Rugmai, Sirisart Ouajai, Jiraporn Luengviriya, Sakuntam Sanorpim, Manop Tirarattanasompot, Somboon Rhianphumikarakit

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We present a preliminary x-ray study on human-hair microstructures for a health-state indicator, in particular a cancer case. As an uncomplicated and low-cost method of x-ray technique, the human-hair microstructure was analyzed by wide-angle x-ray diffractions (XRD) and small-angle x-ray scattering (SAXS). The XRD measurements exhibited the simply reflections at the d-spacing of 28 Å, 9.4 Å and 4.4 Å representing to the periodic distance of the protein matrix of the human-hair macrofibrous and the diameter and the repeated spacing of the polypeptide alpha helixes of the photofibrils of the human-hair microfibrous, respectively. When compared to the normal cases, the unhealthy cases including to the breast- and ovarian-cancer cases obtained higher normalized ratios of the x-ray diffracting peaks of 9.4 Å and 4.4 Å. This likely resulted from the varied distributions of microstructures by a molecular alteration. As an elemental analysis by x-ray fluorescence (XRF), the normalized quantitative ratios of zinc(Zn)/calcium(Ca) and iron(Fe)/calcium(Ca) were determined. Analogously, both Zn/Ca and Fe/Ca ratios of the unhealthy cases were obtained higher than both of the normal cases were. Combining the structural analysis by XRD measurements and the elemental analysis by XRF measurements exhibited that the modified fibrous microstructures of hair samples were in relation to their altered elemental compositions. Therefore, these microstructural and elemental analyses of hair samples will be benefit to associate with a diagnosis of cancer and genetic diseases. This functional method would lower a risk of such diseases by the early diagnosis. However, the high-intensity x-ray source, the highresolution x-ray detector, and more hair samples are necessarily desired to develop this x-ray technique and the efficiency would be enhanced by including the skin and fingernail samples with the human-hair analysis.

Keywords: Human-hair analysis, XRD, SAXS, breast cancer, health-state indicator

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Authors: Yeong-Hwa Chang, Chang-Hung Hsu, Huei-Lung Chu, Chia-Wen Chang, Wei-Shou Chan, Chun-Yao Lee; Chia-Shiang Yao, Yan-Lou He

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This study reports the preparation of soft magnetic ribbons of Fe-based amorphous alloys using the single-roller melt-spinning technique. Ribbon width varied from 142 mm to 213 mm and, with a thickness of approximately 22 μm 2 μm. The microstructure and magnetic properties of the ribbons were characterized by differential scanning calorimeter (DSC), X-ray diffraction (XRD), vibrating sample magnetometer (VSM), and electrical resistivity measurements (ERM). The amorphous material properties dependence of the cooling rate and nozzle pressure have uneven surface in ribbon thicknesses are investigated. Magnetic measurement results indicate that some region of the ribbon exhibits good magnetic properties, higher saturation induction and lower coercivity. However, due to the uneven surface of 213 mm wide ribbon, the magnetic responses are not uniformly distributed. To understand the transformer magnetic performances, this study analyzes the measurements of a three-phase 2 MVA amorphous-cored transformer. Experimental results confirm that the transformer with a ribbon width of 142 mm has better magnetic properties in terms of lower core loss, exciting power, and audible noise. 

Keywords: Amorphous ribbon, uneven surface, magnetic properties, and rapid solidification

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Authors: Hankun Lin, Yiqiang Xiao, Qiaosheng Zhan

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Shading devices (SDs) are widely used in buildings in the hot-humid climate areas for reducing cooling energy consumption for interior temperature, as the result of reducing the solar radiation directly. Contrasting the surface temperature of materials of SDs to the glass on the building façade could give more analysis for the shading effect. On the other side, SDs are much more used as the independence system on building façade in hot-humid area. This typical construction could have some impacts on building ventilation as well. This paper discusses the outdoor SDs’ effects on the building thermal environment and ventilation, through a set of measurements on a 2-floors office building in Guangzhou, China, which install a dynamic aluminum SD-system around the façade on 2^nd-floor. The measurements recorded the in/outdoor temperature, relative humidity, velocity, and the surface temperature of the aluminum panel and the glaze. After that, a CFD simulation was conducted for deeper discussion of ventilation. In conclusion, this paper reveals the temperature differences on the different material of the façade, and finds that the velocity of indoor environment could be reduced by the outdoor SDs.

Keywords: Outdoor shading devices, hot-humid area, temperature, ventilation, measurement, CFD.

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Authors: Chang-Hung Hsu, Yeong-Hwa Chang, Chun-Yao Lee, Chia-Shiang Yao, Yan-Lou He, Huei-Lung Chu, Chia-Wen Chang, Wei-Shou Chan

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This study reports the preparation of soft magnetic ribbons of Fe-based amorphous alloys using the single-roller melt-spinning technique. Ribbon width varied from 142 mm to 213 mm and, with a thickness of approximately 22 μm ± 2 μm. The microstructure and magnetic properties of the ribbons were characterized by differential scanning calorimeter (DSC), X-ray diffraction (XRD), vibrating sample magnetometer (VSM), and electrical resistivity measurements (ERM). The amorphous material properties dependence of the cooling rate and nozzle pressure have uneven surface in ribbon thicknesses are investigated. Magnetic measurement results indicate that some region of the ribbon exhibits good magnetic properties, higher saturation induction and lower coercivity. However, due to the uneven surface of 213 mm wide ribbon, the magnetic responses are not uniformly distributed. To understand the transformer magnetic performances, this study analyzes the measurements of a three-phase 2 MVA amorphous-cored transformer. Experimental results confirm that the transformer with a ribbon width of 142 mm has better magnetic properties in terms of lower core loss, exciting power, and audible noise.

Keywords: Amorphous ribbon, uneven surface, magnetic properties, and rapid solidification

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Authors: Sura Al-Khafaji, Phil Purnell

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Measurement of the ultrasonic pulse velocity (UPV) is an important tool in diagnostic examination of concrete. In this method piezoelectric transducers are normally held in direct contact with the concrete surface. The current study aims to test the hypothesis that a preferential coupling effect might exist i.e. that the speed of sound measured depends on the couplant used. In this study, different coupling media of varying acoustic impedance were placed between the transducers and concrete samples made with constant aggregate content but with different compressive strengths. The preliminary results show that using coupling materials (both solid and a range of liquid substances) has an effect on the pulse velocity measured in a given concrete. The effect varies depending on the material used. The UPV measurements with solid coupling were higher than these from the liquid coupling at all strength levels. The tests using couplants generally recorded lower UPV values than the conventional test, except when carbon fiber composite was used, which retuned higher values. Analysis of variances (ANOVA) was performed to confirm that there are statistically significant differences between the measurements recorded using a conventional system and a coupled system.

Keywords: Compressive strength, coupling effect, statistical analysis, ultrasonic.

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Authors: Kuryati Kipli, Kasumawati Lias, Dayang Azra Awang Mat, Al-Khalid Othman, Ade Syaheda Wani Marzuki, Nurdiani Zamhari

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Visual attention allows user to select the most relevant information to ongoing behaviour. This paper presents a study on; i) the performance of people measurements, ii) accurateness of people measurement of the peaks that correspond to chemical quantities from the Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy (MRS) graphs and iii) affects of people measurements to the algorithm-based diagnosis. Participant-s eye-movement was recorded using eye-tracker tool (Eyelink II). This experiment involves three participants for examining 20 MRS graphs to estimate the peaks of chemical quantities which indicate the abnormalities associated with Cerebellar Tumours (CT). The status of each MRS is verified by using decision algorithm. Analysis involves determination of humans-s eye movement pattern in measuring the peak of spectrograms, scan path and determining the relationship of distributions of fixation durations with the accuracy of measurement. In particular, the eye-tracking data revealed which aspects of the spectrogram received more visual attention and in what order they were viewed. This preliminary investigation provides a proof of concept for use of the eye tracking technology as the basis for expanded CT diagnosis.

Keywords: eye tracking, fixation durations, pattern, scan paths, spectrograms, visual.

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Authors: Fırat Matur, Yekta Ülgen

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Cole-Cole parameters of 40 post-menopausal women are compared with their DEXA bone mineral density measurements. Impedance characteristics of four extremities are compared; left and right extremities are statistically same, but lower extremities are statistically different than upper ones due to their different fat content. The correlation of Cole-Cole impedance parameters to bone mineral density (BMD) is observed to be higher for dominant arm. With the post-menopausal population, ANOVA tests of the dominant arm characteristic frequency, as a predictor for DEXA classified osteopenic and osteoporic population around lumbar spine, is statistically very significant. When used for total lumbar spine osteoporosis diagnosis, the area under the Receiver Operating Curve of the characteristic frequency is 0.830, suggesting that the Cole-Cole plot characteristic frequency could be a useful diagnostic parameter when integrated into standard screening methods for osteoporosis. Moreover, the characteristic frequency can be directly measured by monitoring frequency driven angular behavior of the dominant arm without performing any complex calculation.

Keywords: Bio-impedance spectroscopy, bone mineral density, characteristic frequency, osteoporosis, receiver operating curve.

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Authors: Seema Sharma Kaushik, Dhananjoy Shaw

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Various length dimensions of the body have been a variable of interest in the research areas of kinanthropometry. However the inclusion of length measurements in various studies remains restricted to reflect characteristics of a particular game/sport at a particular time. Hence, the present investigation was conducted to study various length dimensions correlates of a longitudinal physical conditioning program on Indian male youth. The study was conducted on 90 Indian male youth. The sample was equally divided into three groups namely, progressive load training (PLT), constant load training (CLT) and no load training (NL). The variables included sitting height, leg length, arm length and foot length. The study was conducted by adopting the multi group repeated measure design. Three different groups were measured four times after completion of each of the three meso-cycles of six-weeks duration each. The measurements were taken using the standard landmarks and procedures. Mean, standard deviation and analysis of co-variance were computed to analyze the data statistically. The post-hoc analysis was conducted for the significant F-ratios at 0.05 level. The study concluded that the followed longitudinal physical conditioning program had significant effect on various length dimensions of Indian male youth.

Keywords: Indian male youth, longitudinal, length dimensions, physical conditioning.

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Authors: C. P. Providakis, G. M. Angeli, M. J. Favvata, N. A. Papadopoulos, C. E. Chalioris, C. G. Karayannis

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An effort for the detection of damages in the  reinforcement bars of reinforced concrete members using PZTs is  presented. The damage can be the result of excessive elongation of  the steel bar due to steel yielding or due to local steel corrosion. In  both cases the damage is simulated by considering reduced diameter  of the rebar along the damaged part of its length. An integration  approach based on both electromechanical admittance methodology  and guided wave propagation technique is used to evaluate the  artificial damage on the examined longitudinal steel bar. Two  actuator PZTs and a sensor PZT are considered to be bonded on the  examined steel bar. The admittance of the Sensor PZT is calculated  using COMSOL 3.4a. Fast Furrier Transformation for a better  evaluation of the results is employed. An effort for the quantification  of the damage detection using the root mean square deviation  (RMSD) between the healthy condition and damage state of the  sensor PZT is attempted. The numerical value of the RSMD yields a  level for the difference between the healthy and the damaged  admittance computation indicating this way the presence of damage  in the structure. Experimental measurements are also presented.

 

Keywords: Concrete reinforcement, damage detection, electromechanical admittance, experimental measurements, finite element method, guided waves, PZT.

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Authors: Andres Gonzalez, Adam Boies, Jacob Swanson, David Kittelson

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The concern of the indoor air quality (IAQ) has been increasing due to its risk to human health. The smoking, sweeping, and stove and stovetop use are the activities that have a major contribution to the indoor air pollution. Outdoor air pollution also affects IAQ. The most important factors over IAQ from cooking activities are the materials, fuels, foods, and ventilation. The low-cost, mobile air quality monitoring (LCMAQM) sensors, is reachable technology to assess the IAQ. This is because of the lower cost of LCMAQM compared to conventional instruments. The IAQ was assessed, using LCMAQM, during cooking activities in a University of Minnesota graduate-housing evaluating different ventilation systems. The gases measured are carbon monoxide (CO) and carbon dioxide (CO₂). The particles measured are particle matter (PM) _2.5 micrometer (µm) and lung deposited surface area (LDSA). The measurements are being conducted during April 2019 in Como Student Community Cooperative (CSCC) that is a graduate housing at the University of Minnesota. The measurements are conducted using an electric stove for cooking. The amount and type of food and oil using for cooking are the same for each measurement. There are six measurements: two experiments measure air quality without any ventilation, two using an extractor as mechanical ventilation, and two using the extractor and windows open as mechanical and natural ventilation. 3The results of experiments show that natural ventilation is most efficient system to control particles and CO₂. The natural ventilation reduces the concentration in 79% for LDSA and 55% for PM_2.5, compared to the no ventilation. In the same way, CO₂ reduces its concentration in 35%. A well-mixed vessel model was implemented to assess particle the formation and decay rates. Removal rates by the extractor were significantly higher for LDSA, which is dominated by smaller particles, than for PM_2.5, but in both cases much lower compared to the natural ventilation. There was significant day to day variation in particle concentrations under nominally identical conditions. This may be related to the fat content of the food. Further research is needed to assess the impact of the fat in food on particle generations.

Keywords: Cooking, indoor air quality, low-cost sensor, ventilation.

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Authors: Hina Kausher, Sangita Srivastava

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In India, there is a lack of standard, systematic sizing approach for producing readymade garments. Garments manufacturing companies use their own created size tables by modifying international sizing charts of ready-made garments. The purpose of this study is to tabulate the anthropometric data which cover the variety of figure proportions in both height and girth. 3,000 data have been collected by an anthropometric survey undertaken over females between the ages of 16 to 80 years from the some states of India to produce the sizing system suitable for clothing manufacture and retailing. The data are used for the statistical analysis of body measurements, the formulation of sizing systems and body measurements tables. Factor analysis technique is used to filter the control body dimensions from the large number of variables. Decision tree-based data mining is used to cluster the data. The standard and structured sizing system can facilitate pattern grading and garment production. Moreover, it can exceed buying ratios and upgrade size allocations to retail segments.

Keywords: Anthropometric data, data mining, decision tree, garments manufacturing, ready-made garments, sizing systems.

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Authors: Chen Zhang, Bernhard Schwarz-Röhr, Alexander Härting

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To acquire accurate ship motions at the center of gravity, a single low-cost inertial sensor is utilized and applied on board to measure ship oscillating motions. As observations, the three axes accelerations and three axes rotational rates provided by the sensor are used. The mathematical model of processing the observation data includes determination of the distance vector between the sensor and the center of gravity in x, y, and z directions. After setting up the transfer matrix from sensor’s own coordinate system to the ship’s body frame, an extended Kalman filter is applied to deal with nonlinearities between the ship motion in the body frame and the observation information in the sensor’s frame. As a side effect, the method eliminates sensor noise and other unwanted errors. Results are not only roll and pitch, but also linear motions, in particular heave and surge at the center of gravity. For testing, we resort to measurements recorded on a small vessel in a well-defined sea state. With response amplitude operators computed numerically by a commercial software (Seaway), motion characteristics are estimated. These agree well with the measurements after processing with the suggested method.

Keywords: Extended Kalman filter, nonlinear estimation, sea trial, ship motion estimation.

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Authors: M. Watanabe, T. Yamaguchi, M. Sasajima, Y. Kurosawa, Y. Koike

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Headphones and earphones have many extremely small holes or narrow slits; they use sound-absorbing or porous material (i.e., dampers) to suppress vibratory system resonance. The air viscosity in these acoustic paths greatly affects the acoustic properties. Simulation analyses such as the finite element method (FEM) therefore require knowledge of the material properties of sound-absorbing or porous materials, such as the characteristic impedance and propagation constant. The transfer function method using acoustic tubes is a widely known measuring method, but there is no literature on taking measurements up to the audible range. To measure the acoustic properties at high-range frequencies, the acoustic tubes that form the measuring device need to be narrowed, and the distance between the two microphones needs to be reduced. However, when the tubes are narrowed, the characteristic impedance drops below the air impedance. In this study, we considered the effect of air viscosity in an acoustical tube, introduced a theoretical formula for this effect in the form of complex density and complex sonic velocity, and verified the theoretical formula. We also conducted an experiment and observed the effect from air viscosity in the actual measurements.

Keywords: acoustic tube, air viscosity, earphones, FEM, porous material, sound-absorbing material, transfer function method

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Authors: Christian C. Vaso, Rinlee Butch M. Cervera

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One of the most promising anode materials for solid oxide electrolysis cell (SOEC) application is the Sr-doped LaMnO₃ (LSM) which is known to have a high electronic conductivity but low ionic conductivity. To increase the ionic conductivity or diffusion of ions through the anode, Yttria-stabilized Zirconia (YSZ), which has good ionic conductivity, is proposed to be combined with LSM to create a composite electrode and to obtain a high mixed ionic and electronic conducting anode. In this study, composite of lanthanum strontium manganite and YSZ oxide, La_0.8Sr_0.2MnO₃/Zr_0.92Y_0.08O₂ (LSM/YSZ), with different wt.% compositions of LSM and YSZ were synthesized using solid-state reaction. The obtained prepared composite samples of 60, 50, and 40 wt.% LSM with remaining wt.% of 40, 50, and 60, respectively for YSZ were fully characterized for its microstructure by using powder X-ray diffraction (XRD), Thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), Fourier transform infrared (FTIR), and Scanning electron microscope/Energy dispersive spectroscopy (SEM/EDS) analyses. Surface morphology of the samples via SEM analysis revealed a well-sintered and densified pure LSM, while a more porous composite sample of LSM/YSZ was obtained. Electrochemical impedance measurements at intermediate temperature range (500-700 °C) of the synthesized samples were also performed which revealed that the 50 wt.% LSM with 50 wt.% YSZ (L50Y50) sample showed the highest total conductivity of 8.27x10^-1 S/cm at 600 ^oC with 0.22 eV activation energy.

Keywords: Ceramics, microstructure, fuel cells, electrochemical impedance spectroscopy.

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Authors: F. Elashhab, L. Sheha, R. Fawzi Elsupikhe, A. E. A. Youssef, R. M. Sheltami, T. Alfazani

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Chitosans, CSs, in solution are increasingly used in a range of geometric properties in various academic and industrial sectors, especially in the domain of pharmaceutical and biomedical engineering. In order to provide a tailoring guide of CSs to the applicants, gamma (γ)-irradiation technology and simple viscosity measurements have been used in this study. Accordingly, CS solid discs (0.5 cm thickness and 2.5 cm diameter) were exposed in air to Cobalt-60 (γ)-radiation, at room temperature and constant 50 kGy dose for different periods of exposer time (tγ). Diluted solutions of native and different irradiated CS were then prepared by dissolving 1.25 mg cm-3 of each polymer in 0.1 M NaCl/0.2 M CH3COOH. The single-concentration relative viscosity (ƞr) measurements were employed to obtain their intrinsic viscosity ([ƞ]) values and interrelated parameters, like: the molar mass (Mƞ), hydrodynamic radiuses (RH,ƞ), radius of gyration (RG,ƞ), and second virial coefficient (A2,ƞ) of CSs in the solution. The results show an exponential decrease of ƞr, [ƞ], Mƞ, RH,ƞ and RG,ƞ with increasing tγ. This suggests the influence of random chain-scission of CSs glycosidic bonds, with rate constant kr and kr-1 (lifetime τr ~ 0.017 min-1 and 57.14 min, respectively). The results also show an exponential decrease of A2ƞ with increasing tγ, which can be attributed to the growth of excluded volume effect in CS segments by tγ and, hence, better solution quality. The results are represented in following scaling laws as a tailoring guide to the applicants: RH,ƞ = 6.98 x 10-3 Mr0.65; RG,ƞ = 7.09 x 10-4 Mr0.83; A2,ƞ = 121.03 Mƞ,r-0.19.

Keywords: Gamma irradiation, geometric properties, kinetic model, scaling laws, viscosity measurement.

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Authors: Ivanova B. Natalia, Djambova Т. Svetlana, Hristev S. Ivailo

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The acoustic properties of recycled felt panels have been investigated using various methods. Experimentally, the sound insulation of the panels has been evaluated for frequencies in the range of 600 Hz to 4000 Hz, utilizing a small-sized acoustic chamber. Additionally, the sound absorption coefficient for the frequency range of 63 Hz to 4000 Hz was measured according to the EN ISO 354 standard in a laboratory reverberation room. This research was deemed necessary after conducting reverberation time measurements of a university classroom following the EN ISO 3382-2 standard. The measurements indicated values of 2.86 s at 500 Hz, 3.23 s at 1000 Hz, and 2.53 s at 2000 Hz, which significantly exceeded the requirements set by the national regulatory framework (0.6 s) for such premises. For this reason, recycled felt panels have been investigated in the laboratory, showing very good acoustic properties at high frequencies. To enhance performance in the low frequencies, the influence of the distance of the panel spacing was examined. Furthermore, the sound insulation of the panels was studied to expand the possibilities of their application, both for the acoustic treatment of educational and multifunctional halls and for sound insulation purposes (e.g., a suspended ceiling with an air gap passing from room to room). As a conclusion, a theoretical acoustic design of the classroom has been carried out with suggestions for improvements to achieve the necessary acoustic and aesthetic parameters for such rooms.

Keywords: Acoustic panels, recycled felt, sound absorption, sound insulation, classroom acoustics.

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Authors: Cameron Hamilton, Walter Potter, Gerrit Hoogenboom, Ronald McClendon, Will Hobbs

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A model was constructed to predict the amount of solar radiation that will make contact with the surface of the earth in a given location an hour into the future. This project was supported by the Southern Company to determine at what specific times during a given day of the year solar panels could be relied upon to produce energy in sufficient quantities. Due to their ability as universal function approximators, an artificial neural network was used to estimate the nonlinear pattern of solar radiation, which utilized measurements of weather conditions collected at the Griffin, Georgia weather station as inputs. A number of network configurations and training strategies were utilized, though a multilayer perceptron with a variety of hidden nodes trained with the resilient propagation algorithm consistently yielded the most accurate predictions. In addition, a modeled direct normal irradiance field and adjacent weather station data were used to bolster prediction accuracy. In later trials, the solar radiation field was preprocessed with a discrete wavelet transform with the aim of removing noise from the measurements. The current model provides predictions of solar radiation with a mean square error of 0.0042, though ongoing efforts are being made to further improve the model’s accuracy.

Keywords: Artificial Neural Networks, Resilient Propagation, Solar Radiation, Time Series Forecasting.

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Authors: Asmat Ismail, Muna Hanim Abdul Samad, Abdul Malek Abdul Rahman

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The phenomenon of global warming or climate change has led to many environmental issues including higher atmospheric temperatures, intense precipitation, increased greenhouse gaseous emissions and increased indoor discomfort. Studies have shown that bringing nature to the roof such as constructing green roof and implementing high-reflective roof may give positive impact in mitigating the effects of global warming and in increasing thermal comfort sensation inside buildings. However, no study has been conducted to compare both types of passive roof treatments in Malaysia in order to increase thermal comfort in buildings. Therefore, this study is conducted to investigate the effect of green roof and white painted roof as passive roof treatment in improving indoor comfort of Malaysian homes. This study uses an experimental approach in which the measurements of temperatures are conducted on the case study building. The measurements of outdoor and indoor environments were conducted on the flat roof with two different types of roof treatment that are green roof and white roof. The measurement of existing black bare roof was also conducted to act as a control for this study.

Keywords: global warming, green roof, white painted roof, indoor temperature reduction.

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Authors: Rosemarie Velik

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Gait disturbance, particularly freezing of gait (FOG), is a phenomenon that is common in Parkinson’s patients and significantly contributes to a loss of function and independence. Walking performance and number of freezing episodes have been known to respond favorably to sensory cues of different modalities. However, a topic that has so far barely been touched is how to resolve freezing episodes via sensory cues once they have appeared. In this study, we analyze the effect of five different sensory cues on the duration of freezing episodes: (1) vibratory alert, (2) auditory alert, (3) vibratory rhythm, (4) auditory rhythm, (5) visual cue in form of parallel lines projected to the floor. The motivation for this study is to investigate the possibility of the design of a gait assistive device for Parkinson’s patients. Test subjects were 7 Parkinson’s patients regularly suffering from FOG. The patients had to repeatedly walk a pre-defined course and cues were triggered always 2 s after freezing onset. The effect was analyzed via experimental measurements and patient interviews. The measurements showed that all 5 sensory cues led to a decrease of the average duration of freezing: baseline (7.9s), vibratory alert (7.1s), auditory alert (6.7s), auditory rhythm (6.4s), vibratory rhythm (6.3s), and visual cue (5.3s). Nevertheless, interestingly, patients subjectively evaluated the audio alert and vibratory signals to have a significantly better effect for reducing their freezing duration than the visual cue.

Keywords: Auditory cueing, freezing of gait, gait assistance, Parkinson’s disease, vibratory cueing, visual cueing

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Authors: H. Aldousari, T. Buchacher, N. M. Spyrou

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Cerium-doped lanthanum bromide LaBr3:Ce(5%) crystals are considered to be one of the most advanced scintillator materials used in PET scanning, combining a high light yield, fast decay time and excellent energy resolution. Apart from the correct choice of scintillator, it is also important to optimise the detector geometry, not least in terms of source-to-detector distance in order to obtain reliable measurements and efficiency. In this study a commercially available 25 mm x 25 mm BrilLanCeTM 380 LaBr3: Ce (5%) detector was characterised in terms of its efficiency at varying source-to-detector distances. Gamma-ray spectra of 22Na, 60Co, and 137Cs were separately acquired at distances of 5, 10, 15, and 20cm. As a result of the change in solid angle subtended by the detector, the geometric efficiency reduced in efficiency with increasing distance. High efficiencies at low distances can cause pulse pile-up when subsequent photons are detected before previously detected events have decayed. To reduce this systematic error the source-to-detector distance should be balanced between efficiency and pulse pile-up suppression as otherwise pile-up corrections would need to be necessary at short distances. In addition to the experimental measurements Monte Carlo simulations have been carried out for the same setup, allowing a comparison of results. The advantages and disadvantages of each approach have been highlighted.

Keywords: BrilLanCeTM380 LaBr3:Ce(5%), Coincidence summing, GATE simulation, Geometric efficiency

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Authors: M. Watanabe, T. Yamaguchi, M. Sasajima, Y. Kurosawa, Y. Koike

Abstract:

Earphones and headphones, which are compact electro-acoustic transducers, tend to have a lot of acoustic absorption materials and porous materials known as dampers, which often have a large number of extremely small holes and narrow slits to inhibit the resonance of the vibrating system, because the air viscosity significantly affects the acoustic characteristics in such acoustic paths. In order to perform simulations using the finite element method (FEM), it is necessary to be aware of material characteristics such as the impedance and propagation constants of sound absorbing materials and porous materials. The transfer function is widely known as a measurement method for an acoustic tube with such physical properties, but literature describing the measurements at the upper limits of the audible range is yet to be found. The acoustic tube, which is a measurement instrument, must be made narrow, and the distance between the two sets of microphones must be shortened in order to take measurements of acoustic characteristics at higher frequencies. When such a tube is made narrow, however, the characteristic impedance has been observed to become lower than the impedance of air. This paper considers the cause of this phenomenon to be the effect of the air viscosity and describes an FEM analysis of an acoustic tube considering air viscosity to compare to the theoretical formula by including the effect of air viscosity in the theoretical formula for an acoustic tube.

Keywords: Acoustic tube, air viscosity, earphones, FEM, porous materials, sound absorbing materials, transfer function method.

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Authors: M. Farahnakian, M.R. Razfar, S. Elhami-Joosheghan

Abstract:

This paper presents an approach for the determination of the optimal cutting parameters (spindle speed, feed rate, depth of cut and engagement) leading to minimum surface roughness in face milling of high silicon stainless steel by coupling neural network (NN) and Electromagnetism-like Algorithm (EM). In this regard, the advantages of statistical experimental design technique, experimental measurements, artificial neural network, and Electromagnetism-like optimization method are exploited in an integrated manner. To this end, numerous experiments on this stainless steel were conducted to obtain surface roughness values. A predictive model for surface roughness is created by using a back propogation neural network, then the optimization problem was solved by using EM optimization. Additional experiments were performed to validate optimum surface roughness value predicted by EM algorithm. It is clearly seen that a good agreement is observed between the predicted values by EM coupled with feed forward neural network and experimental measurements. The obtained results show that the EM algorithm coupled with back propogation neural network is an efficient and accurate method in approaching the global minimum of surface roughness in face milling.

Keywords: cutting parameters, face milling, surface roughness, artificial neural network, Electromagnetism-like algorithm,

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Authors: C. Caçador, M. J. Reis Lima, J. Oliveira, M. J. Veiga, M. Teixeira Veríssimo, F. Ramos, M. C. Castilho, E. Teixeira-Lemos

Abstract:

In the present study we evaluated the nutritional status of 214 institutionalized elderly residents of both genders, aged 65 years and older of 11 care homes located in the district of Viseu (center of Portugal). The evaluation was based on anthropometric measurements and the Mini Nutritional Assessment (MNA) score.

The mean age of the subjects was 82.3 ± 6.1 years-old. Most of the elderly residents were female (72.0%). The majority had 4 years of formal education (51.9%) and was widowed (74.3%) or married (14.0%).

Men presented a mean age of 81.2±8.5 years-old, weight 69.3±14.5 kg and BMI 25.33±6.5 kg/m². In women, the mean age was 84.5±8.2 years-old, weight 61.2±14.7 kg and BMI 27.43±5.6 kg/m².

The evaluation of the nutritional status using the MNA score showed that 24.0% of the residents show a risk of undernutrition and 76.0% of them were well nourished.

There was a high prevalence of obese (24.8%) and overweight residents (33.2%) according to the BMI. 7.5% were considered underweight.

We also found that according to their waist circumference measurements 88.3% of the residents were at risk for cardiovascular disease (CVD) and 64.0% of them presented very high risk for CVD (WC≥88 cm for women and WC ≥102 cm for men).

The present study revealed the coexistence of a dual form of malnutrition (undernourished and overweight) among the institutionalized Portuguese concomitantly with an excess of abdominal adiposity. The high prevalence of residents at high risk for CVD should not be overlooked.

Given the vulnerability of the group of institutionalized elderly, our study highlights the importance of the classification of nutritional status based on both instruments: the BMI and the MNA.

Keywords: Nutritional status, MNA, BMI, elderly.

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Authors: Arunesh Chandra, Pankaj Chandna, Surinder Deswal, Rajesh Kumar Mishra, Rajender Kumar

Abstract:

The arm length, hand length, hand breadth and middle finger length of 1540 right-handed industrial workers of Haryana state was used to assess the relationship between the upper limb dimensions and stature. Initially, the data were analyzed using basic univariate analysis and independent t-tests; then simple and multiple linear regression models were used to estimate stature using SPSS (version 17). There was a positive correlation between upper limb measurements (hand length, hand breadth, arm length and middle finger length) and stature (p < 0.01), which was highest for hand length. The accuracy of stature prediction ranged from ± 54.897 mm to ± 58.307 mm. The use of multiple regression equations gave better results than simple regression equations. This study provides new forensic standards for stature estimation from the upper limb measurements of male industrial workers of Haryana (India). The results of this research indicate that stature can be determined using hand dimensions with accuracy, when only upper limb is available due to any reasons likewise explosions, train/plane crashes, mutilated bodies, etc. The regression formula derived in this study will be useful for anatomists, archaeologists, anthropologists, design engineers and forensic scientists for fairly prediction of stature using regression equations.

Keywords: Anthropometric dimensions, Forensic identification, Industrial workers, Stature prediction.

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Authors: Aïssa Rezzoug

Abstract:

This paper is aimed to bring new elements that demonstrate the tide caused the groundwater to rise in the shoreline band, on which the urban areas occurs, especially in the western coastal cities of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia like Jeddah. The reason for the last events of Jeddah inundation was the groundwater rise in the city coupled at the same time to a strong precipitation event. This paper will illustrate the tide participation in increasing the groundwater level significantly. It shows that the reason for internal groundwater recharge within the urban area is not only the excess of the water supply coming from surrounding areas, due to the human activity, with lack of sufficient and efficient sewage system, but also due to tide effect. The research study follows a quantitative method to assess groundwater level rise risks through many in-situ measurements and mathematical modelling. The proposed approach highlights groundwater level, in the urban areas of the city on the shoreline band, reaching the high tide level without considering any input from precipitation. Despite the small tide in the Red Sea compared to other oceanic coasts, the groundwater level is considerably enhanced by the tide from the seaside and by the freshwater table from the landside of the city. In these conditions, the groundwater level becomes high in the city and prevents the soil to evacuate quickly enough the surface flow caused by the storm event, as it was observed in the last historical flood catastrophe of Jeddah in 2009.

Keywords: Flood, groundwater rise, Jeddah, tide.

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Authors: Laurentiu Moruz, Jens Kitzhofer, Mircea Dinulescu

Abstract:

The paper aims to extend the knowledge about jet behavior and jet interaction between five plane unventilated jets with large aspect ratio (AR). The distance between the single plane jets is two times the channel height. The experimental investigation applies 2D Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV) and static pressure measurements. Our study focuses on the influence of two different outlet nozzle geometries (triangular shape with 2 x 7.5° and blunt geometry) with respect to variation of Reynolds number from 5500 - 12000. It is shown that the outlet geometry has a major influence on the jet formation in terms of uniformity of velocity profiles downstream of the sudden expansion. Furthermore, we describe characteristic regions like converging region, merging region and combined region. The triangular outlet geometry generates most uniform velocity distributions in comparison to a blunt outlet nozzle geometry. The blunt outlet geometry shows an unstable behavior where the jets tend to attach to one side of the walls (ceiling) generating a large recirculation region on the opposite side. Static pressure measurements confirm the observation and indicate that the recirculation region is connected to larger pressure drop.

Keywords: 2D particle image velocimetry, parallel jet interaction, pressure drop, sudden expansion.

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Authors: Sandor Levai, Valentin Juhasz, Miklos Gasz

Abstract:

Rising damp is an extremely complex phenomenon that is of great practical interest to the field of building conservation due to the irreversible damages it can make to old and historic structures. The electrical effects occurring in damp masonry have been scarcely researched and are a largely unknown aspect of rising damp. Present paper describes the typical electrical patterns occurring in porous brickwork during a wetting and drying cycle. It has been found that in contrast with dry masonry, where electrical phenomena are virtually non-existent, damp masonry exhibits a wide array of electrical effects. Long-term real-time measurements performed in the lab on small-scale brick structures, using an array of embedded micro-sensors, revealed significant voltage, current, capacitance and resistance variations which can be linked to the movement of moisture inside porous materials. The same measurements performed on actual old buildings revealed a similar behaviour, the electrical effects being more significant in areas of the brickwork affected by rising damp. Understanding these electrical phenomena contributes to a better understanding of the driving mechanisms of rising damp, potentially opening new avenues of dealing with it in a less invasive manner.

Keywords: Brick masonry, electrical phenomena in damp brickwork, porous building materials, rising damp, spontaneous electrical potential, wetting-drying cycle.

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