Search results for: Double Moving Average chart.

Authors: Shuenn-Yih Chang, Chiu-Li Huang

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It has been shown that a load discontinuity at the end of an impulse will result in an extra impulse and hence an extra amplitude distortion if a step-by-step integration method is employed to yield the shock response. In order to overcome this difficulty, three remedies are proposed to reduce the extra amplitude distortion. The first remedy is to solve the momentum equation of motion instead of the force equation of motion in the step-by-step solution of the shock response, where an external momentum is used in the solution of the momentum equation of motion. Since the external momentum is a resultant of the time integration of external force, the problem of load discontinuity will automatically disappear. The second remedy is to perform a single small time step immediately upon termination of the applied impulse while the other time steps can still be conducted by using the time step determined from general considerations. This is because that the extra impulse caused by a load discontinuity at the end of an impulse is almost linearly proportional to the step size. Finally, the third remedy is to use the average value of the two different values at the integration point of the load discontinuity to replace the use of one of them for loading input. The basic motivation of this remedy originates from the concept of no loading input error associated with the integration point of load discontinuity. The feasibility of the three remedies are analytically explained and numerically illustrated.

Keywords: Dynamic analysis, load discontinuity, shock response, step-by-step integration

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Authors: Muhibul Haque Bhuyan, Md. Refat Sarder

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If a person can monitor his/her oxygen saturation level intermittently then he/she can identify his/her condition early and thus he/she can seek a doctor’s help. This paper reports the design, simulation, and implementation of a low-cost pulse oxygen saturation measurement device based on a reflective photoplethysmography (PPG) system using an integrated circuit sensor as the fundamental component of this health status checking device. The measurement of the physiological parameter is the blood oxygen saturation level (SpO₂) in the peripheral capillary. This work has been implemented using an Arduino Uno R3 microcontroller along with this sensor integrated circuit (IC). The system is designed in the Proteus environment and then simulated to check its performance. After that, the hardware implementation is performed. We used a clipping type optical sensor to sense the arterial oxygen saturation level of blood signal from the fingertips of an individual and then transformed it into the digital data in the microcontroller through its programming its instruction. The designed system was tested by measuring the SpO₂ level for several people of different ages, from 12 to 57 years of age. Besides, the same people were tested using a standard machine purchased from the market. Test results were found very satisfactory as the average percentage of error was very low, 1.59% only.

Keywords: Digital pulse oxygen saturation level, oximeter, measurement, design, simulation, implementation, proteus, Arduino Uno microcontroller.

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Authors: Dhurgham Al-Karawi, Nisreen Polus, Shakir Al-Zaidi, Sabah Jassim

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The management of COVID-19 patients based on chest imaging is emerging as an essential tool for evaluating the spread of the pandemic which has gripped the global community. It has already been used to monitor the situation of COVID-19 patients who have issues in respiratory status. There has been increase to use chest imaging for medical triage of patients who are showing moderate-severe clinical COVID-19 features, this is due to the fast dispersal of the pandemic to all continents and communities. This article demonstrates the development of machine learning techniques for the test of COVID-19 patients using Chest X-Ray (CXR) images in nearly real-time, to distinguish the COVID-19 infection with a significantly high level of accuracy. The testing performance has covered a combination of different datasets of CXR images of positive COVID-19 patients, patients with viral and bacterial infections, also, people with a clear chest. The proposed AI scheme successfully distinguishes CXR scans of COVID-19 infected patients from CXR scans of viral and bacterial based pneumonia as well as normal cases with an average accuracy of 94.43%, sensitivity 95%, and specificity 93.86%. Predicted decisions would be supported by visual evidence to help clinicians speed up the initial assessment process of new suspected cases, especially in a resource-constrained environment.

Keywords: COVID-19, chest x-ray scan, artificial intelligence, texture analysis, local binary pattern transform, Gabor filter.

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Authors: Joseph C. Chen, Venkata Mohan Kudapa

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Development of two real-time surface roughness (Ra) prediction systems for milling operations was attempted. The systems used not only cutting parameters, such as feed rate and spindle speed, but also the cutting current generated and corrected by a clamp type energy sensor. Two different approaches were developed. First, a fuzzy inference system (FIS), in which the fuzzy logic rules are generated by experts in the milling processes, was used to conduct prediction modeling using current cutting data. Second, a neuro-fuzzy system (ANFIS) was explored. Neuro-fuzzy systems are adaptive techniques in which data are collected on the network, processed, and rules are generated by the system. The inference system then uses these rules to predict Ra as the output. Experimental results showed that the parameters of spindle speed, feed rate, depth of cut, and input current variation could predict Ra. These two systems enable the prediction of Ra during the milling operation with an average of 91.83% and 94.48% accuracy by FIS and ANFIS systems, respectively. Statistically, the ANFIS system provided better prediction accuracy than that of the FIS system.

Keywords: Surface roughness, input current, fuzzy logic, neuro-fuzzy, milling operations.

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Authors: Mahdi Hamzehei

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In this research, heat transfer of a poly Ethylene fluidized bed reactor without reaction were studied experimentally and computationally at different superficial gas velocities. A multifluid Eulerian computational model incorporating the kinetic theory for solid particles was developed and used to simulate the heat conducting gas–solid flows in a fluidized bed configuration. Momentum exchange coefficients were evaluated using the Syamlal– O-Brien drag functions. Temperature distributions of different phases in the reactor were also computed. Good agreement was found between the model predictions and the experimentally obtained data for the bed expansion ratio as well as the qualitative gas–solid flow patterns. The simulation and experimental results showed that the gas temperature decreases as it moves upward in the reactor, while the solid particle temperature increases. Pressure drop and temperature distribution predicted by the simulations were in good agreement with the experimental measurements at superficial gas velocities higher than the minimum fluidization velocity. Also, the predicted time-average local voidage profiles were in reasonable agreement with the experimental results. The study showed that the computational model was capable of predicting the heat transfer and the hydrodynamic behavior of gas-solid fluidized bed flows with reasonable accuracy.

Keywords: Gas-solid flows, fluidized bed, Hydrodynamics, Heat transfer, Turbulence model, CFD

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Authors: Muhibul Haque Bhuyan

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Most educational institutions were compelled to switch over to the online mode of teaching, learning, and assessment due to the lockdown when the corona pandemic started around the globe in the early part of the year 2020. However, they faced a unique set of challenges in delivering knowledge and skills to their students as well as formulating a proper assessment policy. This paper investigates whether there is an impact on the student Semester Grade Point Average (SGPA) due to the online mode of teaching and learning assessment at the Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering (EEE) of Southeast University (SEU). Details of student assessments are discussed. Then students’ grades were analyzed to find out the impact on SGPA based on the z-test by finding the standard deviation (). It also pointed out the challenges associated with the online classes and assessment strategies to be adopted during the online assessment. The student admission, course advising, and registration statistics were also presented in several tables and analyzed based on the change in percentage to observe the impact on it due to the pandemic. In summary, it was observed that the students’ SGPAs are not affected but student course advising and registration were affected slightly by the pandemic. Finally, the paper provides some recommendations to improve the online teaching, learning, assessment, and evaluation system.

Keywords: electrical and electronic engineering students, impact on course grading and SGPA, online assessment, online teaching, student registration, semester result

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Authors: R.V Pawar, P.P.Kajave, S.N.Mali

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The speech signal conveys information about the identity of the speaker. The area of speaker identification is concerned with extracting the identity of the person speaking the utterance. As speech interaction with computers becomes more pervasive in activities such as the telephone, financial transactions and information retrieval from speech databases, the utility of automatically identifying a speaker is based solely on vocal characteristic. This paper emphasizes on text dependent speaker identification, which deals with detecting a particular speaker from a known population. The system prompts the user to provide speech utterance. System identifies the user by comparing the codebook of speech utterance with those of the stored in the database and lists, which contain the most likely speakers, could have given that speech utterance. The speech signal is recorded for N speakers further the features are extracted. Feature extraction is done by means of LPC coefficients, calculating AMDF, and DFT. The neural network is trained by applying these features as input parameters. The features are stored in templates for further comparison. The features for the speaker who has to be identified are extracted and compared with the stored templates using Back Propogation Algorithm. Here, the trained network corresponds to the output; the input is the extracted features of the speaker to be identified. The network does the weight adjustment and the best match is found to identify the speaker. The number of epochs required to get the target decides the network performance.

Keywords: Average Mean Distance function, Backpropogation, Linear Predictive Coding, MultilayeredPerceptron,

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Authors: J.S. Ubhi, M.S. Patterh, T.S. Kamal

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In this paper, the effect of transmission codes on the performance of coherent square M-ary quadrature amplitude modulation (CSMQAM) under hybrid selection/maximal-ratio combining (H-S/MRC) diversity is analysed. The fading channels are modeled as frequency non-selective slow independent and identically distributed Rayleigh fading channels corrupted by additive white Gaussian noise (AWGN). The results for coded MQAM are computed numerically for the case of (24,12) extended Golay code and compared with uncoded MQAM under H-S/MRC diversity by plotting error probabilities versus average signal to noise ratio (SNR) for various values L and N in order to examine the improvement in the performance of the digital communications system as the number of selected diversity branches is increased. The results for no diversity, conventional SC and Lth order MRC schemes are also plotted for comparison. Closed form analytical results derived in this paper are sufficiently simple and therefore can be computed numerically without any approximations. The analytical results presented in this paper are expected to provide useful information needed for design and analysis of digital communication systems over wireless fading channels.

Keywords: Error probability, diversity reception, Rayleigh fading channels, wireless digital communications.

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Authors: Y. Deng, X. Li, C. Kwan, B. Raj, R. Stern

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The current speech interfaces in many military applications may be adequate for native speakers. However, the recognition rate drops quite a lot for non-native speakers (people with foreign accents). This is mainly because the nonnative speakers have large temporal and intra-phoneme variations when they pronounce the same words. This problem is also complicated by the presence of large environmental noise such as tank noise, helicopter noise, etc. In this paper, we proposed a novel continuous acoustic feature adaptation algorithm for on-line accent and environmental adaptation. Implemented by incremental singular value decomposition (SVD), the algorithm captures local acoustic variation and runs in real-time. This feature-based adaptation method is then integrated with conventional model-based maximum likelihood linear regression (MLLR) algorithm. Extensive experiments have been performed on the NATO non-native speech corpus with baseline acoustic model trained on native American English. The proposed feature-based adaptation algorithm improved the average recognition accuracy by 15%, while the MLLR model based adaptation achieved 11% improvement. The corresponding word error rate (WER) reduction was 25.8% and 2.73%, as compared to that without adaptation. The combined adaptation achieved overall recognition accuracy improvement of 29.5%, and WER reduction of 31.8%, as compared to that without adaptation.

Keywords: speaker adaptation; environment adaptation; robust speech recognition; SVD; non-native speech recognition

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Authors: Khalid Kaddoura, Tarek Zayed

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Infrastructure assets are essential in urban cities; their purpose is to facilitate the public needs. As a result, their conditions and states shall always be monitored to avoid any sudden malfunction. Sewer systems, one of the assets, are an essential part of the underground infrastructure as they transfer sewer medium to designated areas. However, their conditions are subject to deterioration due to ageing. Therefore, it is of great significance to assess the conditions of pipelines to avoid sudden collapses. Current practices of sewer pipeline assessment rely on industrial protocols that consider distinct defects and grades to conclude the limited average or peak score of the assessed assets. This research aims to enhance the evaluation by integrating the Quality Function Deployment (QFD) and the Decision-Making Trial and Evaluation Laboratory (DEMATEL) methods in assessing the condition of sewer pipelines. The methodology shall study the cause and effect relationship of the systems’ defects to deduce the relative influence weights of each defect. Subsequently, the overall grade is calculated by aggregating the WHAT’s and HOW’s of the House of Quality (HOQ) using the computed relative weights. Thus, this study shall enhance the evaluation of the assets to conclude informative rehabilitation and maintenance plans for decision makers.

Keywords: Condition assessment, DEMATEL, QFD, sewer pipelines.

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Authors: Thierry Eude

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The use of videoconferencing platforms adapted to teaching offers students the opportunity to take distance education courses in much the same way as traditional in-class training. The sessions can be recorded and they allow students the option of following the courses synchronously or asynchronously. Three typical profiles can then be distinguished: students who choose to follow the courses synchronously, students who could attend the course in synchronous mode but choose to follow the session off-line, and students who follow the course asynchronously as they cannot attend the course when it is offered because of professional or personal constraints. Our study consists of observing attendance at all distance education courses offered in the synchronous mode by the Computer Science and Software Engineering Department at Laval University during 10 consecutive semesters. The aim is to identify factors that influence students in their choice of attending the distance courses in synchronous mode. It was found that participation tends to be relatively stable over the years for any one semester (fall, winter summer) and is similar from one course to another, although students may be increasingly familiar with the synchronous distance education courses. Average participation is around 28%. There may be deviations, but they concern only a few courses during certain semesters, suggesting that these deviations would only have occurred because of the composition of particular promotions during specific semesters. Furthermore, course schedules have a great influence on the attendance rate. The highest rates are all for courses which are scheduled outside office hours.

Keywords: Attendance, distance undergraduate education in computer science, student behavior, synchronous e-learning.

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Authors: Ammar Alsabery, Habibis Saleh, Norazam Arbin, Ishak Hashim

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Unsteady natural convection and heat transfer in a square cavity partially filled with porous media using a thermal non-equilibrium model is studied in this paper. The left vertical wall is maintained at a constant hot temperature Th and the right vertical wall is maintained at a constant cold temperature Tc, while the horizontal walls are adiabatic. The governing equations are obtained by applying the Darcy model and Boussinesq approximation. COMSOL’s finite element method is used to solve the non-dimensional governing equations together with specified boundary conditions. The governing parameters of this study are the Rayleigh number (Ra = 10^5, and Ra = 10^6 ), Darcy namber (Da = 10^−2, and Da = 10^−3), the modified thermal conductivity ratio (10^−1 ≤ γ ≤ 10^4), the inter-phase heat transfer coefficien (10^−1 ≤ H ≤ 10^3) and the time dependent (0.001 ≤ τ ≤ 0.2). The results presented for values of the governing parameters in terms of streamlines in both fluid/porous-layer, isotherms of fluid in fluid/porous-layer, isotherms of solid in porous layer, and average Nusselt number.

Keywords: Unsteady natural convection, Thermal non-equilibrium model, Darcy model.

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Authors: Mehrdad Arabi, Ehsan Beheshtitabar, Bahador Ghadirifaraz, Behrooz Forjanizadeh

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Interaction between human, location and activity defines space. In the framework of these relations, space is a container for current specifications in relations of the 3 mentioned elements. The change of land utility considered with average performance range, urban regulations, society requirements etc. will provide welfare and comfort for citizens. From an engineering view it is fundamental that choosing a proper location for a specific civil activity requires evaluation of locations from different perspectives. The debate of desirable establishment of municipal service elements in urban regions is one of the most important issues related to urban planning. In this paper, the research type is applicable based on goal, and is descriptive and analytical based on nature. Initially existing terminals in Esfahan are surveyed and then new locations are presented based on evaluated criteria. In order to evaluate terminals based on the considered factors, an AHP model is used at first to estimate weight of different factors and then existing and suggested locations are evaluated using Arc GIS software and AHP model results. The results show that existing bus terminals are located in fairly proper locations. Further results of this study suggest new locations to establish terminals based on urban criteria.

Keywords: Arc GIS, Esfahan city, Optimum locations, Terminals.

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Authors: Juliana da Silva Cardoso, Cláudia Correia, Rita Gomes, Carolina Fraga, Inês Cascais, Sara Monteiro, Beatriz Teixeira, Sandra Ribeiro, Carolina Andrade, Cláudia Oliveira, Diana Gonzaga, Catarina Prior, Inês Vaz Matos

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The average daily screen time (ST) has been increasing in children, even at young ages. This seems to be associated with a higher incidence of neurodevelopmental disorders, and as the time of exposure increases, the greater is the functional impact. This study aims to compare the daily ST of toddlers and preschoolers previously and during the COVID-19 pandemic. A questionnaire was applied by telephone to parents/caregivers of children between 1 and 5 years old, followed up at four primary care units belonging to the Group of Primary Health Care Centers of Western Porto, Portugal. A total of 520 children were included: 52.9% male, mean age 39.4 ± 13.9 months. The mean age of first exposure to screens was 13.9 ± 8.0 months, and most of the children were exposed to more than one screen daily. Considering the WHO recommendations, before the COVID-19 pandemic, 385 (74.0%) and 408 (78.5%) children had excessive ST during the week and the weekend, respectively; during the lockdown, these values increased to 495 (95.2%) and 482 (92.7%). Maternal education and both the child's median age and the median age of first exposure to screens had a statistically significant association with excessive ST, with OR 0.2 (p = 0.03, CI 95% 0.07-0.86), OR 1.1 (p = 0.01, 95% CI 1.05-1.14) and OR 0.9 (p = 0.05, 95% CI 0. 87-0.98), respectively. Most children in this sample had a higher than recommended ST, which increased with the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. These results are worrisome and point to the need for urgent intervention.

Keywords: COVID-19 pandemic, preschoolers, screen time, toddlers

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Authors: Leon Pan

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The first programming course within post-secondary education has long been recognized as a challenging endeavor for both educators and students alike. Historically, these courses have exhibited high failure rates and a notable number of dropouts. Instructors often lament students' lack of effort on their coursework, and students often express frustration that the teaching methods employed are not effective. Drawing inspiration from the successful principles of Extreme Programming, this study introduces an approach—the Extremes-based teaching model—aimed at enhancing the teaching of introductory programming courses. To empirically determine the effectiveness of the model, a comparison was made between a section taught using the extreme-based model and another utilizing traditional teaching methods. Notably, the extreme-based teaching class required students to work collaboratively on projects, while also demanding continuous assessment and performance enhancement within groups. This paper details the application of the extreme-based model within the post-secondary online classroom context and presents the compelling results that emphasize its effectiveness in advancing the teaching and learning experiences. The extreme-based model led to a significant increase of 13.46 points in the weighted total average and a commendable 10% reduction in the failure rate.

Keywords: Extreme-based teaching model, innovative pedagogical methods, project-based learning, team-based learning.

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Authors: Brian H. Marsh

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Nitrogen fertility is an important component for optimum potato yield and quality. Best management practices are necessary in regards to N applications to achieve these goals without applying excess N with may contribute to ground water contamination. Eight potato fields in the Southern San Joaquin Valley were sampled for nitrogen inputs and uptake, tuber and vine dry matter and residual soil nitrate-N. The fields had substantial soil nitrate-N prior to the potato crop. Nitrogen fertilizer was applied prior to planting and in irrigation water as needed based on in-season petiole sampling in accordance with published recommendations. Average total nitrogen uptake was 237 kg ha^-1 on 63.5 Mg ha^-1 tuber yield and nitrogen use efficiency was very good at 81 percent. Sixty-nine percent of the plant nitrogen was removed in tubers. Soil nitrate-N increased 14 percent from pre-plant to post-harvest averaged across all fields and was generally situated in the upper soil profile. Irrigation timing and amount applied did not move water into the lower profile except for a single location where nitrate also moved into the lower soil profile. Pre-plant soil analysis is important information to be used. Rotation crops having deeper rooting growth would be able to utilize nitrogen that remained in the soil profile.

Keywords: Potato, nitrogen fertilization, leaching potential, irrigation management

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Authors: K. T. Sun, Y. H. Tai, H. W. Yang, H. T. Lin

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This paper presented the technique of robot control by event-related potentials (ERPs) of brain waves. Based on the proposed technique, severe physical disabilities can free browse outside world. A specific component of ERPs, N2P3, was found and used to control the movement of robot and the view of camera on the designed brain-computer interface (BCI). Users only required watching the stimuli of attended button on the BCI, the evoked potentials of brain waves of the target button, N2P3, had the greatest amplitude among all control buttons. An experimental scene had been constructed that the robot required walking to a specific position and move the view of camera to see the instruction of the mission, and then completed the task. Twelve volunteers participated in this experiment, and experimental results showed that the correct rate of BCI control achieved 80% and the average of execution time was 353 seconds for completing the mission. Four main contributions included in this research: (1) find an efficient component of ERPs, N2P3, for BCI control, (2) embed robot's viewpoint image into user interface for robot control, (3) design an experimental scene and conduct the experiment, and (4) evaluate the performance of the proposed system for assessing the practicability.

Keywords: Brain-computer interface (BCI), event-related potentials (ERPs), robot control, severe physical disabilities.

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Authors: SunWoo Lee, TaeBum Lee, YoonHwa Park, YooJeong Kim

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Solar lentigines appear predominantly on chronically sun-exposed areas of skin, such as the face and the back of the hands. Among the several ways to lentigines treatment, quality-switched lasers are well-known effective treatment for removing solar lentigines. The present pilot study was therefore designed to assess the efficacy of quality-switched ruby laser treatment of such lentigines compare between pretreatment and posttreatment of skin brightness. Twenty-two adults with chronic sun-damaged skin (mean age 52.8 years, range 37–74 years) were treated at the Korean site. A 694 nm Q-switched ruby laser was used, with the energy density set from 1.4 to 12.5 J/cm2, to treat solar lentigines. Average brightness of skin color before ruby laser treatment was 137.3 and its skin color was brightened after ruby laser treatment by 150.5. Also, standard deviation of skin color was decreased from 17.8 to 16.4. Regarding the multivariate model, age and energy were identified as significant factors for skin color brightness change in lentigo depigmentation by ruby laser treatment. Their respective odds ratios were 1.082 (95% CI, 1.007–1.163), and 1.431 (95% CI, 1.051–1.946). Lentigo depigmentation treatment using ruby lasers resulted in a high performance in skin color brightness. Among the relative factors involve with ruby laser treatment, age and energy were the most effective factors which skin color change to brighter than pretreatment.

Keywords: Depigmentation, lentigo, quality switched ruby laser, skin color.

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Authors: Pramote Paengkoum, Y. Han , S. Traiyakun, J. Khotsakdee, S. Paengkoum

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This experiment was performed with the purpose of investigating effect of additional blend of probiotics Saccharomyces cerevisiae and Lactobacillus acidophilus on plasma fatty acid profiles particularly conjugated linoleic acid (CLA) in growing goats fed corn silage, and selected the optimal levels of the probiotics for further study. Twenty-four growing crossbred (Thai native x Anglo-Nubian) goats that weighed (14.2 ± 2.3) kg, aged about 6 months, were purchased and allocated to 4 treatments according to Randomized Complete Block Design (RCBD) with 6 goats in each treatment. The blocks were made by weight into heavy, medium, and light goats and each of the treatments contained two goats from each of the blocks. In the mean time, ruminal average pH unaffected, but the NH3-N and also plasma urea nitrogen (p<0.05), total volatile fatty acid (p>0.05) were raised, but propionic proportion (p<0.05) and butyric proportion (p>0.05) were reduced in concurrent with raise of acetic proportion and resultantly C2:C3 ratio (p>0.05). On plasma fatty acid profiles, total saturated fatty acids (p>0.05) was increased, and contrasted with decrease of C15:0 (p<0.01), C16:0 (p>0.05), and C18-C22 polyunsaturated fatty acids (p<0.05 or p<0.01). In addition, the experiment proved that the supplemented probiotics was in force for heightening CLA (p<0.01); for raising desirable fatty acids (p<0.05); for reducing ratio of PUFA: SFA (p>0.05) and for raising ratio of n6:n3 (p<0.05).

Keywords: Probiotic, conjugated linoleic acid, plasma fattyacid, goats

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Authors: A. Galashev

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Absorption spectra of infra-red (IR) radiation of the disperse water medium absorbing the most important greenhouse gases: CO2 , N2O , CH4 , C2H2 , C2H6 have been calculated by the molecular dynamics method. Loss of the absorbing ability at the formation of clusters due to a reduction of the number of centers interacting with IR radiation, results in an anti-greenhouse effect. Absorption of O3 molecules by the (H2O)50 cluster is investigated at its interaction with Cl- ions. The splitting of ozone molecule on atoms near to cluster surface was observed. Interaction of water cluster with Cl- ions causes the increase of integrated intensity of emission spectra of IR radiation, and also essential reduction of the similar characteristic of Raman spectrum. Relative integrated intensity of absorption of IR radiation for small water clusters was designed. Dependences of the quantity of weight on altitude for vapor of monomers, clusters, droplets, crystals and mass of all moisture were determined. The anti-greenhouse effect of clusters was defined as the difference of increases of average global temperature of the Earth, caused by absorption of IR radiation by free water molecules forming clusters, and absorption of clusters themselves. The greenhouse effect caused by clusters makes 0.53 K, and the antigreenhouse one is equal to 1.14 K. The increase of concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere does not always correlate with the amplification of greenhouse effect.

Keywords: Greenhouse gases, infrared absorption and Raman spectra, molecular dynamics method, water clusters.

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Authors: Rochelle Elva

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Faculty in Higher Education today are faced with the challenge of convincing their students of the importance of the mastery of skills through learning. This is because most students often have a single motivation -to get high grades. If it appears that this goal will not be met, they lose their motivation and their academic efforts wane. This is true even for students in the competitive fields of STEM, including Computer Science majors. As educators, we have to understand our students and leverage what motivates them, to achieve our learning outcomes. This paper presents a case study that utilizes cognitive psychology’s Expectancy-Value Theory and Motivation Theory, to investigate the effect of sustained expectancy for success on students’ learning outcomes. In our case study, we explore how students’ motivation and persistence in their academic efforts are impacted by providing them with an unexpected path to success, which continues to the end of the semester. The approach was tested in an undergraduate computer science course with n = 56. The results of the study indicate that when presented with the real possibility of success, despite existing low grades, both low and high-scoring students persisted in their efforts to improve their performance. Their final grades were on average one place higher on the +/-letter grade scale, with some students scoring as high as three places above their predicted grade.

Keywords: Expectancy for success and persistence, motivation and performance, computer science education, motivation and performance in computer science.

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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: Samuel A. Phillips, Emmanuel A. Ayanlowo, Rasaki O. Olanrewaju, Olayode Fatoki

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This paper employs the Jeffrey's prior technique in the process of estimating the periodograms and frequency of sinusoidal model for unknown noisy time variants or oscillating events (data) in a Bayesian setting. The non-informative Jeffrey's prior was adopted for the posterior trigonometric function of the sinusoidal model such that Cramer-Rao Lower Bound (CRLB) inference was used in carving-out the minimum variance needed to curb the invariance structure effect for unknown noisy time observational and repeated circular patterns. An average monthly oscillating temperature series measured in degree Celsius (0C) from 1901 to 2014 was subjected to the posterior solution of the unknown noisy events of the sinusoidal model via Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC). It was not only deduced that two minutes period is required before completing a cycle of changing temperature from one particular degree Celsius to another but also that the sinusoidal model via the CRLB-Jeffrey's prior for unknown noisy events produced a miniature posterior Maximum A Posteriori (MAP) compare to a known noisy events.

Keywords: Cramer-Rao Lower Bound (CRLB), Jeffrey's prior, Sinusoidal, Maximum A Posteriori (MAP), Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC), Periodograms.

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Authors: J. Cabral, C. Barreto Carvalho, C. da Motta, M. Sousa

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Community integration is a construct that an increasing body of research has shown to have a significant impact on the wellbeing and recovery of people with psychiatric problems. However, there are few studies that explore which factors can be associated and predict community integration. Moreover, community integration has been mostly studied in minority groups, and current literature on the definition and manifestation of community integration in the general population is scarcer. Thus, the current study aims to characterize community integration and explore possible predictor variables in a sample of participants with psychiatric problems (PP, N=183) and a sample of participants from the general population (GP, N=211). Results show that people with psychiatric problems present above average values of community integration, but are significantly lower than their healthy counterparts. It was also possible to observe that community integration does not vary in terms of the sociodemographic characteristics of both groups in this study. Correlation and multiple regression showed that, among several variables that literature present as relevant in the community integration process, only three variables emerged as having the most explanatory value in community integration of both groups: sense of community, basic needs satisfaction and submission. These results also shown that those variables have increased explanatory power in the PP sample, which leads us to emphasize the need to address this issue in future studies and increase the understanding of the factors that can be involved in the promotion of community integration, in order to devise more effective interventions in this field.

Keywords: Community integration, mental illness, predictors.

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Authors: Nooshin Salari, Viliam Makis, Jane Doe

Abstract:

This paper presents a maintenance policy for a system consisting of two units. Unit 1 is gradually deteriorating and is subject to soft failure. Unit 2 has a general lifetime distribution and is subject to hard failure. Condition of unit 1 of the system is monitored periodically and it is considered as failed when its deterioration level reaches or exceeds a critical level N. At the failure time of unit 2 system is considered as failed, and unit 2 will be correctively replaced by the next inspection epoch. Unit 1 or 2 are preventively replaced when deterioration level of unit 1 or age of unit 2 exceeds the related preventive maintenance (PM) levels. At the time of corrective or preventive replacement of unit 2, there is an opportunity to replace unit 1 if its deterioration level reaches the opportunistic maintenance (OM) level. If unit 2 fails in an inspection interval, system stops operating although unit 1 has not failed. A mathematical model is derived to find the preventive and opportunistic replacement levels for unit 1 and preventive replacement age for unit 2, that minimize the long run expected average cost per unit time. The problem is formulated and solved in the semi-Markov decision process (SMDP) framework. Numerical example is provided to illustrate the performance of the proposed model and the comparison of the proposed model with an optimal policy without opportunistic maintenance level for unit 1 is carried out.

Keywords: Condition-based maintenance, opportunistic maintenance, preventive maintenance, two-unit system.

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Authors: P. Lestinsky, D. Jecha, V. Brummer, P. Stehlik

Abstract:

Scrubbing by a liquid spraying is one of the most effective processes used for removal of fine particles and soluble gas pollutants (such as SO2, HCl, HF) from the flue gas. There are many configurations of scrubbers designed to provide contact between the liquid and gas stream for effectively capturing particles or soluble gas pollutants, such as spray plates, packed bed towers, jet scrubbers, cyclones, vortex and venturi scrubbers. The primary function of venturi scrubber is the capture of fine particles as well as HCl, HF or SO2 removal with effect of the flue gas temperature decrease before input to the absorption column. In this paper, sulfur dioxide (SO2) from flue gas was captured using new design replacing venturi scrubber (1st degree of wet scrubbing). The flue gas was prepared by the combustion of the carbon disulfide solution in toluene (1:1 vol.) in the flame in the reactor. Such prepared flue gas with temperature around 150°C was processed in designed laboratory O-element scrubber. Water was used as absorbent liquid. The efficiency of SO2 removal, pressure drop and temperature drop were measured on our experimental device. The dependence of these variables on liquid-gas ratio was observed. The average temperature drop was in the range from 150°C to 40°C. The pressure drop was increased with increasing of a liquid-gas ratio, but no too much as for the common venturi scrubber designs. The efficiency of SO2 removal was up to 70 %. The pressure drop of our new designed wet scrubber is similar to commonly used venturi scrubbers; nevertheless the influence of amount of the liquid on pressure drop is not so significant.

Keywords: Desulphurization, absorption, flue gas, modeling.

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Authors: Blandína Šramová, Gabriel Bianchi, Barbara Lášticová, Katarína Fichnová, Anežka Hamranová

Abstract:

The contribution deals with analysis of identity style at adolescents (N=463) at the age from 16 to 19 (the average age is 17,7 years). We used the Identity Style Inventory by Berzonsky, distinguishing three basic, measured identity styles: informational, normative, diffuse-avoidant identity style and also commitment. The informational identity style influencing on personal adaptability, coping strategies, quality of life and the normative identity style, it means the style in which an individual takes on models of authorities at self-defining were found to have the highest representation in the studied group of adolescents by higher scores at girls in comparison with boys. The normative identity style positively correlates with the informational identity style. The diffuse-avoidant identity style was found to be positively associated with maladaptive decisional strategies, neuroticism and depressive reactions. There is the style, in which the individual shifts aside defining his personality. In our research sample the lowest score represents it and negatively correlates with commitment, it means with coping strategies, thrust in oneself and the surrounding world. The age of adolescents did not significantly differentiate representation of identity style. We were finding the model, in which informational and normative identity style had positive relationship and the informational and diffuseavoidant style had negative relationship, which were determinated with commitment. In the same time the commitment is influenced with other outside factors.

Keywords: Identity Style Inventory, Informational IdentityStyle, Normative Identity Style, Diffuse-Avoidant Style, IdentityCommitment.

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Authors: A. El-S. Makled, M. K. Al-Tamimi

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A mathematical model to predict the performance parameters (thrusts, chamber pressures, fuel mass flow rates, mixture ratios, and regression rates during firing time) of hybrid rocket motor (HRM) is evaluated. The internal ballistic (IB) hybrid combustion model assumes that the solid fuel surface regression rate is controlled only by heat transfer (convective and radiative) from flame zone to solid fuel burning surface. A laboratory HRM is designed, manufactured, and tested for low thrust profile space missions (10-15 N) and for validating the mathematical model (computer program). The polymer material and gaseous oxidizer which are selected for this experimental work are polymethyle-methacrylate (PMMA) and polyethylene (PE) as solid fuel grain and gaseous oxygen (GO₂) as oxidizer. The variation of various operational parameters with time is determined systematically and experimentally in firing of up to 20 seconds, and an average combustion efficiency of 95% of theory is achieved, which was the goal of these experiments. The comparison between recording fire data and predicting analytical parameters shows good agreement with the error that does not exceed 4.5% during all firing time. The current mathematical (computer) code can be used as a powerful tool for HRM analytical design parameters.

Keywords: Hybrid combustion, internal ballistics, hybrid rocket motor, performance parameters.

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Authors: Basavaraj V. Patil, Uday Chakkingal, T. S. Prasanna Kumar

Abstract:

Equal Channel Angular Pressing (ECAP) is currently being widely investigated because of its potential to produce ultrafine grained microstructures in metals and alloys. A sound knowledge of the plastic deformation and strain distribution is necessary for understanding the relationships between strain inhomogeneity and die geometry. Considerable research has been reported on finite element analysis of this process, assuming threedimensional plane strain condition. However, the two-dimensional models are not suitable due to the geometry of the dies, especially in cylindrical ones. In the present work, three-dimensional simulation of ECAP process was carried out for six outer corner radii (sharp to 10 mm in steps of 2 mm), with channel angle 105¶Çü▒, for strain hardening aluminium alloy (AA 6101) using ABAQUS/Standard software. Strain inhomogeneity is presented and discussed for all cases. Pattern of strain variation along selected radial lines in the body of the workpiece is presented. It is found from the results that the outer corner has a significant influence on the strain distribution in the body of work-piece. Based on inhomogeneity and average strain criteria, there is an optimum outer corner radius.

Keywords: Equal Channel Angular Pressing, Finite Element Analysis, strain inhomogeneity, plastic equivalent strain, ultra fine grain size, aluminium alloy 6101.

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Authors: Sumathi Poobal, G. Ravindran

Abstract:

Image compression is one of the most important applications Digital Image Processing. Advanced medical imaging requires storage of large quantities of digitized clinical data. Due to the constrained bandwidth and storage capacity, however, a medical image must be compressed before transmission and storage. There are two types of compression methods, lossless and lossy. In Lossless compression method the original image is retrieved without any distortion. In lossy compression method, the reconstructed images contain some distortion. Direct Cosine Transform (DCT) and Fractal Image Compression (FIC) are types of lossy compression methods. This work shows that lossy compression methods can be chosen for medical image compression without significant degradation of the image quality. In this work DCT and Fractal Compression using Partitioned Iterated Function Systems (PIFS) are applied on different modalities of images like CT Scan, Ultrasound, Angiogram, X-ray and mammogram. Approximately 20 images are considered in each modality and the average values of compression ratio and Peak Signal to Noise Ratio (PSNR) are computed and studied. The quality of the reconstructed image is arrived by the PSNR values. Based on the results it can be concluded that the DCT has higher PSNR values and FIC has higher compression ratio. Hence in medical image compression, DCT can be used wherever picture quality is preferred and FIC is used wherever compression of images for storage and transmission is the priority, without loosing picture quality diagnostically.

Keywords: DCT, FIC, PIFS, PSNR.

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