Search results for: Egg quality parameters.

Authors: Helena Dvořáčková, Jakub Elbl, Irina Mikajlo, Antonín Kintl, Jaroslav Hynšt, Olga Urbánková, Jaroslav Záhora

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Application of biochar to arable soils represents a new approach to restore soil health and quality. Many studies reported the positive effect of biochar application on soil fertility and development of soil microbial community. Moreover biochar may affect the soil water retention, but this effect has not been sufficiently described yet. Therefore this study deals with the influence of biochar application on: microbial activities in soil, availability of mineral nitrogen in soil for microorganisms, mineral nitrogen retention and plant production. To demonstrate the effect of biochar addition on the above parameters, the pot experiment was realized. As a model crop, Lactuca sativa L. was used and cultivated from December 10th 2014 till March 22th 2015 in climate chamber in thoroughly homogenized arable soil with and without addition of biochar. Five variants of experiment (V1 – V5) with different regime of irrigation were prepared. Variants V1 – V2 were fertilized by mineral nitrogen, V3 – V4 by biochar and V5 was a control. The significant differences were found only in plant production and mineral nitrogen retention. The highest content of mineral nitrogen in soil was detected in V1 and V2, about 250 % in comparison with the other variants. The positive effect of biochar application on soil fertility, mineral nitrogen availability was not found. On the other hand results of plant production indicate the possible positive effect of biochar application on soil water retention.

Keywords: Arable soil, biochar, drought, mineral Nitrogen.

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Authors: B. Lonla Moffo, J. Mbihi, L. Nneme Nneme

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In this paper, a low cost duty-cycle modulation scheme is studied in depth and compared to the standard pulse width modulation technique. Using a mix of analytical reasoning and electronics simulation tools, it is shown that under the same operating conditions, most characteristics of the proposed duty-cycle modulation scheme are better than those provided by a standard pulse width modulation technique. The simulation results obtained when testing both modulation control policies on prototyping systems, indicate that the proposed duty-cycle modulation approach, appears to be a high quality control policy in a wide variety of application areas, including A/D and D/A conversion, signal transmission and switching control in power electronics.

Keywords: Duty-cycle Modulation, Operational amplifiers, Pulse width modulation, Power electronics, Signal processing.

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Authors: Matthias Minich, B. Harriehausen-Muehlbauer, C. Wentzel

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Today-s economy is in a permanent change, causing merger and acquisitions and co operations between enterprises. As a consequence, process adaptations and realignments result in systems integration and software development projects. Processes and procedures to execute such projects are still reliant on craftsman-ship of highly skilled workers. A generally accepted, industrialized production, characterized by high efficiency and quality, seems inevitable. In spite of this, current concepts of software industrialization are aimed at traditional software engineering and do not consider the characteristics of systems integration. The present work points out these particularities and discusses the applicability of existing industrial concepts in the systems integration domain. Consequently it defines further areas of research necessary to bring the field of systems integration closer to an industrialized production, allowing a higher efficiency, quality and return on investment.

Keywords: Software Industrialization, Systems Integration, Software Product Lines, Component Based Development, Model Driven Development.

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Authors: Nasser M. Amaitik, Mohammed J. El-Sahli

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Evaluation of educational portals is an important subject area that needs more attention from researchers. A university that has an educational portal which is difficult to use and interact by teachers or students or management staff can reduce the position and reputation of the university. Therefore, it is important to have the ability to make an evaluation of the quality of e-services the university provide to improve them over time. The present study evaluates the usability of the Information Technology Faculty portal at University of Benghazi. Two evaluation methods were used: a questionnaire-based method and an online automated tool-based method. The first method was used to measure the portal's external attributes of usability (Information, Content and Organization of the portal, Navigation, Links and Accessibility, Aesthetic and Visual Appeal, Performance and Effectiveness and educational purpose) from users' perspectives, while the second method was used to measure the portal's internal attributes of usability (number and size of HTML files, number and size of images, load time, HTML check errors, browsers compatibility problems, number of bad and broken links), which cannot be perceived by the users. The study showed that some of the usability aspects have been found at the acceptable level of performance and quality, and some others have been found otherwise. In general, it was concluded that the usability of IT faculty educational portal generally acceptable. Recommendations and suggestions to improve the weakness and quality of the portal usability are presented in this study.

Keywords: Automated tools-based evaluation, Educational portals, Evaluation criteria, Questionnaire-based evaluation, Usability evaluation.

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Authors: Chunshien Li, Jhao-Wun Hu, Tai-Wei Chiang, Tsunghan Wu

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Time series forecasting is an important and widely popular topic in the research of system modeling. This paper describes how to use the hybrid PSO-RLSE neuro-fuzzy learning approach to the problem of time series forecasting. The PSO algorithm is used to update the premise parameters of the proposed prediction system, and the RLSE is used to update the consequence parameters. Thanks to the hybrid learning (HL) approach for the neuro-fuzzy system, the prediction performance is excellent and the speed of learning convergence is much faster than other compared approaches. In the experiments, we use the well-known Mackey-Glass chaos time series. According to the experimental results, the prediction performance and accuracy in time series forecasting by the proposed approach is much better than other compared approaches, as shown in Table IV. Excellent prediction performance by the proposed approach has been observed.

Keywords: forecasting, hybrid learning (HL), Neuro-FuzzySystem (NFS), particle swarm optimization (PSO), recursiveleast-squares estimator (RLSE), time series

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Authors: Henri Champliaud, Zhengkun Feng, Ngan Van Lê, Javad Gholipour

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In this article, a method is presented to effectively estimate the deformed shape of a thick plate due to line heating. The method uses a fifth order spline interpolation, with up to C3 continuity at specific points to compute the shape of the deformed geometry. First and second order derivatives over a surface are the resulting parameters of a given heating line on a plate. These parameters are determined through experiments and/or finite element simulations. Very accurate kriging models are fitted to real or virtual surfaces to build-up a database of maps. Maps of first and second order derivatives are then applied on numerical plate models to evaluate their evolving shapes through a sequence of heating lines. Adding an optimization process to this approach would allow determining the trajectories of heating lines needed to shape complex geometries, such as Francis turbine blades.

Keywords: Deformation, kriging, fifth order spline interpolation, first, second and third order derivatives, C3 continuity, line heating, plate forming, thermal forming.

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Authors: Mengjun Zhang, Yuli Sun, Dunwen Zuo, Chunxiang Xie, Chunming Zhang

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Experimental study on slicing of sapphire with fixed abrasive diamond wire saw was conducted in this paper. The process parameters were optimized through orthogonal experiment of three factors and four levels. The effects of wire speed, feed speed and tension pressure on the surface roughness were analyzed. Surface roughness in cutting direction and feed direction were both detected. The results show that feed speed plays the most significant role on the surface roughness of sliced sapphire followed by wire speed and tension pressure. The optimized process parameters are as follows: wire speed 1.9 m/s, feed speed 0.187 mm/min and tension pressure 0.18 MPa. In the end, the results were verified by analysis of variance.

Keywords: Fixed abrasive, diamond wire saw, slicing, sapphire, orthogonal experiment.

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Authors: M. Elsisi, M. Soliman, M. A. S. Aboelela, W. Mansour

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This paper considers the design of Dual Proportional- Integral (DPI) Load Frequency Control (LFC), using gravitational search algorithm (GSA). The design is carried out for nonlinear hydrothermal power system where generation rate constraint (GRC) and governor dead band are considered. Furthermore, time delays imposed by governor-turbine, thermodynamic process, and communication channels are investigated. GSA is utilized to search for optimal controller parameters by minimizing a time-domain based objective function. GSA-based DPI has been compared to Ziegler- Nichols based PI, and Genetic Algorithm (GA) based PI controllers in order to demonstrate the superior efficiency of the proposed design. Simulation results are carried for a wide range of operating conditions and system parameters variations.

Keywords: Gravitational Search Algorithm (GSA), Load Frequency Control (LFC), Dual Proportional-Integral (DPI) controller.

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Authors: B. Ghanbarian-Alavijeh, A.M. Liaghat, S. Sohrabi

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Saturated hydraulic conductivity is one of the soil hydraulic properties which is widely used in environmental studies especially subsurface ground water. Since, its direct measurement is time consuming and therefore costly, indirect methods such as pedotransfer functions have been developed based on multiple linear regression equations and neural networks model in order to estimate saturated hydraulic conductivity from readily available soil properties e.g. sand, silt, and clay contents, bulk density, and organic matter. The objective of this study was to develop neural networks (NNs) model to estimate saturated hydraulic conductivity from available parameters such as sand and clay contents, bulk density, van Genuchten retention model parameters (i.e. r θ , α , and n) as well as effective porosity. We used two methods to calculate effective porosity: : (1) eff s FC φ =θ -θ , and (2) inf φ =θ -θ eff s , in which s θ is saturated water content, FC θ is water content retained at -33 kPa matric potential, and inf θ is water content at the inflection point. Total of 311 soil samples from the UNSODA database was divided into three groups as 187 for the training, 62 for the validation (to avoid over training), and 62 for the test of NNs model. A commercial neural network toolbox of MATLAB software with a multi-layer perceptron model and back propagation algorithm were used for the training procedure. The statistical parameters such as correlation coefficient (R2), and mean square error (MSE) were also used to evaluate the developed NNs model. The best number of neurons in the middle layer of NNs model for methods (1) and (2) were calculated 44 and 6, respectively. The R2 and MSE values of the test phase were determined for method (1), 0.94 and 0.0016, and for method (2), 0.98 and 0.00065, respectively, which shows that method (2) estimates saturated hydraulic conductivity better than method (1).

Keywords: Neural network, Saturated hydraulic conductivity, Soil physical properties.

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Authors: Gonzalo Rubio, Eusebio Valero, Sven Lanzan

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The design of a modern aircraft is based on three pillars: theoretical results, experimental test and computational simulations. As a results of this, Computational Fluid Dynamic (CFD) solvers are widely used in the aeronautical field. These solvers require the correct selection of many parameters in order to obtain successful results. Besides, the computational time spent in the simulation depends on the proper choice of these parameters. In this paper we create an expert system capable of making an accurate prediction of the number of iterations and time required for the convergence of a computational fluid dynamic (CFD) solver. Artificial neural network (ANN) has been used to design the expert system. It is shown that the developed expert system is capable of making an accurate prediction the number of iterations and time required for the convergence of a CFD solver.

Keywords: Artificial Neural Network, Computational Fluid Dynamics, Optimization

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Authors: Nameesh Miglani, Rajeev Saha, R. S. Parihar

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Estimation of the quality regarding higher education within a university is practically long drawn process besides being difficult to measure primarily due to lack of a standard scale. National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC) evolved a methodology of assessment which involves self-appraisal by each university/college and an assessment of performance by an expert committee. The attributes involved in assessing a university may not be totally independent from each other thereby necessitating the consideration of interdependencies. The present study focuses on evaluation of assessment criteria using graph theoretic approach and fuzzy treatment of data collected from the students. The technique will provide a suitable platform to university management team to cross check assessment of education quality by considering interdependencies of the attributes using graph theory.

Keywords: Graph theory, NAAC accreditation criteria, Indian University accreditation process.

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Authors: A. I. Alateyah, H. N. Dhakal, Z. Y. Zhang

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The mechanical properties including flexural and tensile of neat vinyl ester and polymer based on layered silicate nanocomposite materials of two different methodologies are discussed. Methodology 1 revealed that the addition of layered silicate into the polymer matrix increased the mechanical and thermal properties up to 1 wt.% clay loading. The incorporation of more clay resulted in decreasing the properties which was traced to the existence of aggregation layers. The aggregation layers imparted a negative impact on the overall mechanical and thermal properties. On the other hand, methodology 2 increased the mechanical and thermal properties up to 4 wt.% clay loading. The different amounts of improvements were assigned to the various preparation parameters. Wide Angle X-ray Diffraction, Scanning Electron Microscopy and Transmission Electron Microscopy were utilized in order to characterize the interlamellar structure of nanocomposites.

Keywords: Vinyl ester, nanocomposites, layered silicate, mechanical properties, thermal analysis.

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Authors: K. Kumpas

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Bologna process has influenced enhancing studentcentered learning in Estonian higher education since 2009, but there is no information about what helps or hinders students to achieve learning outcomes and how quality of student-centered learning might be improved. The purpose of this study is to analyze two questions from outcome-based course evaluation questionnaire which is used in Estonian Entrepreneurship University of Applied Sciences. In this qualitative research, 384 students from 22 different courses described what helped and hindered them to achieve learning outcomes. The analysis showed that the aspects that hinder students to achieve learning outcomes are mostly personal: time management, family and personal matters, motivation and non-academic activities. The results indicate that students- learning is commonly supported by school, where teacher, teaching and characteristics of teaching methods help mostly to achieve learning outcomes, also learning material, practical assignments and independent study was brought up as one of the key elements.

Keywords: Learning outcomes, learning quality, student-centered learning

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Authors: Nik N. Nik Daud, Nur H. Izehar, B. Yusuf, Thamer A. Mohamed, A. Ahsan

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An experiment was conducted using two aeration methods (water-into-air and air-into-water) and followed by filtration processes using manganese greensand material. The properties of groundwater such as pH, dissolved oxygen, turbidity and heavy metal concentration (iron and manganese) will be assessed. The objectives of this study are i) to determine the effective aeration method and ii) to assess the effectiveness of manganese greensand as filter media in removing iron and manganese concentration in groundwater. Results showed that final pH for all samples after treatment are in range from 7.40 and 8.40. Both aeration methods increased the dissolved oxygen content. Final turbidity for groundwater samples are between 3 NTU to 29 NTU. Only three out of eight samples achieved iron concentration of 0.3mg/L and less and all samples reach manganese concentration of 0.1mg/L and less. Air-into-water aeration method gives higher percentage of iron and manganese removal compare to water-into-air method.

Keywords: Aeration, filtration, groundwater, water quality.

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Authors: B. Sohbi, M. Emtir, M. Elgarni

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An interesting method to produce calcium carbonate is based in a gas-liquid reaction between carbon dioxide and aqueous solutions of calcium hydroxide. The design parameters for gas-liquid phase are flow regime, individual mass transfer, gas-liquid specific interfacial area. Most studies on gas-liquid phase were devoted to the experimental determination of some of these parameters, and more specifically, of the mass transfer coefficient, kLa which depends fundamentally on the superficial gas velocity and on the physical properties of absorption phase. The principle investigation was directed to study the effect of the vibration on the mass transfer coefficient kLa in gas-liquid phase during absorption of CO2 in the in aqueous solution of calcium hydroxide. The vibration with a higher frequency increase the mass transfer coefficient kLa, but vibration with lower frequency didn-t improve it, the mass transfer coefficient kLa increase with increase the superficial gas velocity.

Keywords: Environment technology, mass transfer coefficient, absorption, CO2, calcium hydroxide.

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Authors: M. M. Bashandy, A. R. Ahmed, M. El-Gaffary, Sahar S. Abd El-Rahman

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This study evaluated the acute toxicity and tissue distribution of intravenously administered gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) in male rabbits. Rabbits were exposed to single dose of AuNPs (300 μg/ kg). Toxic effects were assessed via general behavior, hematological parameters, serum biochemical parameters, and histopathological examination of various rabbits’ organs. Inductively coupled plasma–mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) was used to determine gold concentrations in tissue samples collected at predetermined time intervals. After one week, AuNPs exerted no obvious acute toxicity in rabbits. However, inflammatory reactions were observed in liver, lungs and kidneys accompanied with mild absolute neutrophilia and significant monocytosis. The highest gold levels were found in the spleen and liver followed by lungs, and kidneys. These results indicated that AuNPs could be distributed extensively to various tissues in the body, but primarily in the spleen and liver.

Keywords: Gold nanoparticles, toxicity, pathology, hematology, liver function, kidney function.

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Authors: Sefa Aksu, Ünal Kızıl

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For this study, a town based soil database created in Gümüsçay District of Biga Town, Çanakkale, Turkey. Crop and livestock production are major activities in the district. Nutrient management is mainly based on commercial fertilizer application ignoring the livestock manure. Within the boundaries of district, 122 soil sampling points determined over the satellite image. Soil samples collected from the determined points with the help of handheld Global Positioning System. Labeled samples were sent to a commercial laboratory to determine 11 soil parameters including salinity, pH, lime, organic matter, nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, iron, manganese, copper and zinc. Based on the test results soil maps for mentioned parameters were developed using remote sensing, GIS, and geostatistical analysis. In this study we developed a GIS database that will be used for soil nutrient management. Methods were explained and soil maps and their interpretations were summarized in the study.

Keywords: Geostatistics, GIS, Nutrient Management, Soil Mapping.

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Authors: Lai Yi-Hsiu

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The present paper aims to examine the language processing of Chinese-speaking seniors with Alzheimer’s disease (AD) from the perspective of temporal cues. Twenty healthy adults, 17 healthy seniors, and 13 seniors with AD in Taiwan participated in this study to tell stories based on two sets of pictures. Nine temporal cues were fetched and analyzed. Oral productions in Mandarin Chinese were compared and discussed to examine to what extent and in what way these three groups of participants performed with significant differences. Results indicated that the age effects were significant in filled pauses. The dementia effects were significant in mean duration of pauses, empty pauses, filled pauses, lexical pauses, normalized mean duration of filled pauses and lexical pauses. The findings reported in the current paper help characterize the nature of language processing in seniors with or without AD, and contribute to the interactions between the AD neural mechanism and their temporal parameters.

Keywords: Language processing, Alzheimer’s disease, Mandarin Chinese, temporal cues.

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Authors: Abayomi H. T., Oresanya T. O., Opeifa A. O., Rasheed T. R.

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The study was conducted to evaluate the quality characteristics of cookies produced from sweet potato-fermented soybean flour. Cookies were subjected to proximate and sensory analysis to determine the acceptability of the product. Protein, fat and ash increased as the proportion of soybean flour increased, ranging from 13.8-21.7, 1.22-5.25 and 2.20-2.57 respectively. The crude fibre content was within the range of 3.08-4.83%. The moisture content of the cookies decreased with increase in soybean flour from 3.42- 2.13%. Cookies produced from whole sweet potato flour had the highest moisture content of 3.42% while 30% substitution had the lowest moisture content 2.13%. A nine point hedonic scale was used to evaluate the organoleptic characteristics of the cookies. The sensory analysis indicated that there was no significant difference between the cookies produced even when compared to the control 100% sweet potato cookies. The overall acceptance of the cookies was ranked to 20% soybean flour substitute.

Keywords: Cookies, Fermented Soybean, Overall Acceptability, Sweet Potatoes.

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Authors: Do-Hwan Kim, Roberto Leon

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Probabilistic characteristics of seismic responses of the Partially Restrained connection rotation (PRCR) and panel zone deformation (PZD) installed in older steel moment frames were investigated in accordance with statistical inference in decision-making process. The 4, 6 and 8 story older steel moment frames with clip angle and T-stub connections were designed and analyzed using 2%/50yrs ground motions in four cities of the Mid-America earthquake region. The probability density function and cumulative distribution function of PRCR and PZD were determined by the goodness-of-fit tests based on probabilistic parameters measured from the results of the nonlinear time-history analyses. The obtained probabilistic parameters and distributions can be used to find out what performance level mainly PR connections and panel zones satisfy and how many PR connections and panel zones experience a serious damage under the Mid-America ground motions.

Keywords: Mid-America earthquake, Panel zone, PR connection, Probabilistic characteristics, seismic performance

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Authors: Seyed Abolhasan Naeini, Mohammad Hosseinzade

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Settlement and bearing capacity of a piled raft are the two important issues for the foundations of structures built on coastal areas from the geotechnical engineering point of view. Strip piled raft as a load carrying system can reduce the possible extensive consolidation settlements and improve bearing capacity of structures in soft ground. The aim of this research was to evaluate the efficiency of strip piled raft embedded in soft clay. The efficiency of bearing capacity of strip piled raft foundation has been evaluated numerically in two cases; in the first case, the cap is placed directly on the ground surface and in the second, the cap is placed above the ground. Regarding to the fact that the geotechnical parameters of the soft clay are considered at low level, low bearing capacity is expected. The length, diameter and axe-to-axe distance of piles were the parameters which varied in this study to find out how they affected the bearing capacity. Results indicate that increasing the length and the diameter of the piles increase the bearing capacity.

Keywords: Soft clay, Strip piled raft, Bearing capacity, Settlement.

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Authors: S. I. V. Sousa, F.G. Martins, M. C. Pereira, M. C. M. Alvim-Ferraz, H. Ribeiro, M. Oliveira, I. Abreu

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Exposure to ambient air pollution has been linked to a number of health outcomes, starting from modest transient changes in the respiratory tract and impaired pulmonary function, continuing to restrict activity/reduce performance and to the increase emergency rooms visits, hospital admissions or mortality. The increase of allergenic symptoms has been associated with air contaminants such as ozone, particulate matter, fungal spores and pollen. Considering the potential relevance of crossed effects of nonbiological pollutants and airborne pollens and fungal spores on allergy worsening, the aim of this work was to evaluate the influence of non-biological pollutants (O3 and PM10) and meteorological parameters on the concentrations of pollen and fungal spores using multiple linear regressions. The data considered in this study were collected in Oporto which is the second largest Portuguese city, located in the North. Daily mean of O3, PM10, pollen and fungal spore concentrations, temperature, relative humidity, precipitation, wind velocity, pollen and fungal spore concentrations, for 2003, 2004 and 2005 were considered. Results showed that the 90th percentile of the adjusted coefficient of determination, P90 (R2aj), of the multiple regressions varied from 0.613 to 0.916 for pollen and from 0.275 to 0.512 for fungal spores. O3 and PM10 showed to have some influence on the biological pollutants. Among the meteorological parameters analysed, temperature was the one that most influenced the pollen and fungal spores airborne concentrations. Relative humidity also showed to have some influence on the fungal spore dispersion. Nevertheless, the models for each pollen and fungal spore were different depending on the analysed period, which means that the correlations identified as statistically significant can not be, even so, consistent enough.

Keywords: Air pollutants, meteorological parameters, biologicalpollutants, multiple linear correlations.

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Authors: Nguyen Thi Kim Dzung, Pham Ngoc Khai, Rainer Ludwig

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The quantitative determination of several trace elements (Cr, As, Se, Cd, Hg, Pb) existing as inorganic impurities in some oriental herb-products such as Lingzhi Mushroom capsules, Philamin powder, etc using ICP-MS has been studied. Various instrumental parameters such as power, gas flow rate, sample depth, as well as the concentration of nitric acid and thick background due to high concentration of possible interferences on the determination of these above-mentioned elements was investigated and the optimum working conditions of the sample measurement on ICP-MS (Agilent-7500a) were reported. Appropriate isotope internal standards were also used to improve the accuracy of mercury determination. Optimal parameters for sampling digestion were also investigated. The recovery of analytical procedure was examined by using a Certified Reference Material (IAEA-CRM 359). The recommended procedure was then applied for the quantitative determination of Cr, As, Se, Cd, Hg, Pb in Lingzhi Mushroom capsule, and Philamine powder samples. The reproducibility of sample measurement (average value between 94 and 102%) and the uncertainty of analytical data (less than 20%) are acceptable.

Keywords: Oriental herbal product, trace elements, ICP-MS, biochemistry, medical chemistry.

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Authors: A. C. Sarmah

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The Al-MoO3-P-CdTe-Al MOS sandwich structures were fabricated by vacuum deposition method on cleaned glass substrates. Capacitance versus voltage measurements were performed at different frequencies and sweep rates of applied voltages for oxide and semiconductor films of different thicknesses. In the negative voltage region of the C-V curve a high differential capacitance of the semiconductor was observed and at high frequencies (<10 kHz) the transition from accumulation to depletion and further to deep depletion was observed as the voltage was swept from negative to positive. A study have been undertaken to determine the value of acceptor density and some depletion layer parameters such as depletion layer capacitance, depletion width, impurity concentration, flat band voltage, Debye length, flat band capacitance, diffusion or built-in-potential, space charge per unit area etc. These were determined from C-V measurements for different oxide and semiconductor thicknesses.

Keywords: Debye length, Depletion width, flat band capacitance, impurity concentration.

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Authors: J-P. Skön, M. Johansson, M. Raatikainen, K. Leiviskä, M. Kolehmainen

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The use of neural networks is popular in various building applications such as prediction of heating load, ventilation rate and indoor temperature. Significant is, that only few papers deal with indoor carbon dioxide (CO2) prediction which is a very good indicator of indoor air quality (IAQ). In this study, a data-driven modelling method based on multilayer perceptron network for indoor air carbon dioxide in an apartment building is developed. Temperature and humidity measurements are used as input variables to the network. Motivation for this study derives from the following issues. First, measuring carbon dioxide is expensive and sensors power consumptions is high and secondly, this leads to short operating times of battery-powered sensors. The results show that predicting CO2 concentration based on relative humidity and temperature measurements, is difficult. Therefore, more additional information is needed.

Keywords: Indoor air quality, Modelling, Neural networks

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Authors: Wei Hoo Chong

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System testing is actually done to the entire system against the Functional Requirement Specification and/or the System Requirement Specification. Moreover, it is an investigatory testing phase, where the focus is to have almost a destructive attitude and test not only the design, but also the behavior and even the believed expectations of the customer. It is also intended to test up to and beyond the bounds defined in the software/hardware requirements specifications. In Motorola®, Automated Testing is one of the testing methodologies uses by GSG-iSGT (Global Software Group - iDEN TM Subcriber Group-Test) to increase the testing volume, productivity and reduce test cycle-time in iDEN TM phones testing. Testing is able to produce more robust products before release to the market. In this paper, iHopper is proposed as a tool to perform stress test on iDEN TM phonse. We will discuss the value that automation has brought to iDEN TM Phone testing such as improving software quality in the iDEN TM phone together with some metrics. We will also look into the advantages of the proposed system and some discussion of the future work as well.

Keywords: Testing, automated testing, stress testing, software quality.

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Authors: Mohamed Hafid, Marcel Lacroix

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This study presents an inverse analysis for predicting the thermal conductivities and the heat flux of a high-temperature metallurgical reactor simultaneously. Once these thermal parameters are predicted, the time-varying thickness of the protective phase-change bank that covers the inside surface of the brick walls of a metallurgical reactor can be calculated. The enthalpy method is used to solve the melting/solidification process of the protective bank. The inverse model rests on the Levenberg-Marquardt Method (LMM) combined with the Broyden method (BM). A statistical analysis for the thermal parameter estimation is carried out. The effect of the position of the temperature sensors, total number of measurements and measurement noise on the accuracy of inverse predictions is investigated. Recommendations are made concerning the location of temperature sensors.

Keywords: Inverse heat transfer, phase change, metallurgical reactor, Levenberg–Marquardt method, Broyden method, bank thickness.

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Authors: Haidy S. Ghali, Engy Serag, A. Samer Ezeldin

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Copper is an essential raw material used in the construction industry. During 2021 and the first half of 2022, the global market suffered from a significant fluctuation in copper raw material prices due to the aftermath of both the COVID-19 pandemic and the Russia-Ukraine war which exposed its consumers to an unexpected financial risk. Thereto, this paper aims to develop two hybrid price prediction models using artificial neural network and long short-term memory (ANN-LSTM), by Python, that can forecast the average monthly copper prices, traded in the London Metal Exchange; the first model is a multivariate model that forecasts the copper price of the next 1-month and the second is a univariate model that predicts the copper prices of the upcoming three months. Historical data of average monthly London Metal Exchange copper prices are collected from January 2009 till July 2022 and potential external factors are identified and employed in the multivariate model. These factors lie under three main categories: energy prices, and economic indicators of the three major exporting countries of copper depending on the data availability. Before developing the LSTM models, the collected external parameters are analyzed with respect to the copper prices using correlation, and multicollinearity tests in R software; then, the parameters are further screened to select the parameters that influence the copper prices. Then, the two LSTM models are developed, and the dataset is divided into training, validation, and testing sets. The results show that the performance of the 3-month prediction model is better than the 1-month prediction model; but still, both models can act as predicting tools for diverse economic situations.

Keywords: Copper prices, prediction model, neural network, time series forecasting.

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Authors: Christin Tønseth

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The Norwegian ‘knowledge promotion reform’ was implemented in elementary schools and upper secondary schools in 2006. The goal of the reform was that all pupils should develop basic skills and competencies in order to take an active part in the knowledge society. This paper discusses how governmentality as a management principle is demonstrated through the Norwegian ‘knowledge promotion reform’. Evaluation reports and political documents are the basis for the discussion. The ‘knowledge promotion reform’ was including quality assurance for schools, teachers, and students and the authorities retained control by using curricula and national tests. The reform promoted several intentions that were not reached. In light of governmentality, it seemed that thoughts and intentions by the authorities differed from those in the world of practice. The quality assurances did not motivate the practitioners to be self-governing. The relationship between the authorities and the implementation actors was weak, and the reform was, therefore, difficult to implement in practice.

Keywords: Education politics, governance, governmentality, the Norwegian knowledge promotion reform.

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Authors: Katleho D. Makatjane, Kalebe M. Kalebe

Abstract:

The present paper used time-varying parameters which are based on the score function of a probability density at time t to model volatility of saving rate. We used a scaled likelihood function to update the parameters of the model overtime. Our results revealed high diligence of time-varying since the location parameter is greater than zero. Furthermore, we discovered a leptokurtic condition on saving rate’s distribution. Kapetanios, Shin-Shell Nonlinear Augmented Dickey-Fuller (KSS-NADF) test showed that the saving rate has a nonlinear unit root; therefore, it can be modeled by a generalised autoregressive score (GAS) model. Additionally, value at risk (VaR) and conditional tail expectation (CTE) indicate that 99% of the time people in Lesotho are saving more than spending. This puts the economy in high risk of not expanding. Therefore, the monetary policy committee (MPC) of Lesotho should revise their monetary policies towards this high saving rates risk.

Keywords: Generalized autoregressive score, time-varying, saving rate, Lesotho.

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