Search results for: Modified Cross Correlation

Authors: Saadia Adjali, Omar Imine, Mohammed Aounallah, Mustapha Belkadi

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Steady three-dimensional and two free surface waves generated by moving bodies are presented, the flow problem to be simulated is rich in complexity and poses many modeling challenges because of the existence of breaking waves around the ship hull, and because of the interaction of the two-phase flow with the turbulent boundary layer. The results of several simulations are reported. The first study was performed for NACA0012 of hydrofoil with different meshes, this section is analyzed at h/c= 1, 0345 for 2D. In the second simulation a mathematically defined Wigley hull form is used to investigate the application of a commercial CFD code in prediction of the total resistance and its components from tangential and normal forces on the hull wetted surface. The computed resistance and wave profiles are used to estimate the coefficient of the total resistance for Wigley hull advancing in calm water under steady conditions. The commercial CFD software FLUENT version 12 is used for the computations in the present study. The calculated grid is established using the code computer GAMBIT 2.3.26. The shear stress k-ωSST model is used for turbulence modeling and the volume of fluid technique is employed to simulate the free-surface motion. The second order upwind scheme is used for discretizing the convection terms in the momentum transport equations, the Modified HRIC scheme for VOF discretization. The results obtained compare well with the experimental data.

Keywords: Free surface flows, breaking waves, boundary layer, Wigley hull, volume of fluid.

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Authors: Chu-Chu, Liao

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The main purpose of this study is to analyze the relationship of leisure agriculture park visitors on tourist destination image, environmental perception, travel experiences and revisiting willingness. This study used questionnaires to Xinshe leisure agriculture park visitors- targeted convenience sampling manner total of 636 valid questionnaires. Valid questionnaires by descriptive statistics, correlation analysis and multiple regression analysis, the study found that: 1. The agricultural park visitors- correlations exist between the destination image, perception of the environment, tourism experience and revisiting willingness. 2."Excellent facilities and services", "space atmosphere comfortable" and "the spacious paternity outdoor space" imagery, of visitors- "revisiting willingness predict. 3. Visitors- in leisure agriculture park "environmental perception" and "travel experience, future revisiting willingness predict. According to the analysis of the results, the study not only operate on the recommendations of the leisure farm owners also provide follow-up study direction for future researchers.

Keywords: Leisure farms, image, travel experience, revisiting willingness, environmental perception.

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Authors: Qasem Qananwah, Ahmad Dagamseh, Hiam AlQuran, Khalid Shaker Ibrahim

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Blood pressure helps the physicians greatly to have a deep insight into the cardiovascular system. The determination of individual blood pressure is a standard clinical procedure considered for cardiovascular system problems. The conventional techniques to measure blood pressure (e.g. cuff method) allows a limited number of readings for a certain period (e.g. every 5-10 minutes). Additionally, these systems cause turbulence to blood flow; impeding continuous blood pressure monitoring, especially in emergency cases or critically ill persons. In this paper, the most important statistical features in the photoplethysmogram (PPG) signals were extracted to estimate the blood pressure noninvasively. PPG signals from more than 40 subjects were measured and analyzed and 12 features were extracted. The features were fed to principal component analysis (PCA) to find the most important independent features that have the highest correlation with blood pressure. The results show that the stiffness index means and standard deviation for the beat-to-beat heart rate were the most important features. A model representing both features for Systolic Blood Pressure (SBP) and Diastolic Blood Pressure (DBP) was obtained using a statistical regression technique. Surface fitting is used to best fit the series of data and the results show that the error value in estimating the SBP is 4.95% and in estimating the DBP is 3.99%.

Keywords: Blood pressure, noninvasive optical system, PCA, continuous monitoring.

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Authors: Pradeep M., N. S. Mahesh, Raja Hussain

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Resistance spot welding (RSW) has been used widely to join sheet metals. It has been a challenge to get required weld quality in spot welding of dissimilar thickness materials. Weld parameters are not generally available in standards for thickness beyond 4mm. This paper presents the welding process design and parameter optimization of RSW used in joining of low carbon steel sheet of thickness 0.8 mm and metal strips of cross section 10 x 5mm for electrical motor applications. Taguchi quality design was adopted for weld current and time optimization using L9 orthogonal array. Optimum process parameters (current- 3.5kA and time- 10 cycles) were obtained from the Taguchi analysis and shear test results. Confirmation experiment result revealed that the weld quality was within acceptable interval. Further, numerical simulation of RSW process was carried out with selected weld parameters to quantify the temperature at faying surface and check for formation of appropriate nugget. The nugget geometry measured after peel test and predicted from numerical validation method were similar and in accordance with the standards.

Keywords: Resistance spot welding, dissimilar thickness, weld parameters, Taguchi method, numerical modeling.

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Authors: Sarantos Psycharis

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Physical Computing, as an instructional model, is applied in the framework of the Engineering Pedagogy to teach “transversal/cross-cutting ideas” in a STEM content approach. Labview and Arduino were used in order to connect the physical world with real data in the framework of the so called Computational Experiment. Tertiary prospective engineering educators were engaged during their course and Computational Thinking (CT) concepts were registered before and after the intervention across didactic activities using validated questionnaires for the relationship between self-efficacy, computer programming, and CT concepts when STEM content epistemology is implemented in alignment with the Computational Pedagogy model. Results show a significant change in students’ responses for self-efficacy for CT before and after the instruction. Results also indicate a significant relation between the responses in the different CT concepts/practices. According to the findings, STEM content epistemology combined with Physical Computing should be a good candidate as a learning and teaching approach in university settings that enhances students’ engagement in CT concepts/practices.

Keywords: STEM, computational thinking, physical computing, Arduino, Labview, self-efficacy.

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Authors: Sh. Kianfar, A. Moheb, H. Ghaforian

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The equilibrium, thermodynamics and kinetics of the biosorption of Cd (II) and Pb(II) by a Spore Forming Bacillus (MGL 75) were investigated at different experimental conditions. The Langmuir and Freundlich, and Dubinin-Radushkevich (D-R) equilibrium adsorption models were applied to describe the biosorption of the metal ions by MGL 75 biomass. The Langmuir model fitted the equilibrium data better than the other models. Maximum adsorption capacities q max for lead (II) and cadmium (II) were found equal to 158.73mg/g and 91.74 mg/g by Langmuir model. The values of the mean free energy determined with the D-R equation showed that adsorption process is a physiosorption process. The thermodynamic parameters Gibbs free energy (ΔG°), enthalpy (ΔH°), and entropy (ΔS°) changes were also calculated, and the values indicated that the biosorption process was exothermic and spontaneous. Experiment data were also used to study biosorption kinetics using pseudo-first-order and pseudo-second-order kinetic models. Kinetic parameters, rate constants, equilibrium sorption capacities and related correlation coefficients were calculated and discussed. The results showed that the biosorption processes of both metal ions followed well pseudo-second-order kinetics.

Keywords: biosorption, kinetics, Metal ion removal, thermodynamics

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Authors: T. Denkçeken, M. Canpolat, Đ. Bassorgun, S. Yücel, M.A. Çiftçioğlu, M. Baykara Murat Canpolat , Tuba Denkçeken , Đbrahim Bassorgun , Selçuk Yücel , M. Akif Çiftçioğlu , Mehmet Baykara

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Elastic light single-scattering spectroscopy system with a single optical fiber probe was employed to differentiate cancerous prostate tissue from non-cancerous prostate tissue ex-vivo just after radical prostatectomy. First, ELSSS spectra were acquired from cancerous prostate tissue to define its spectral features. Then, spectra were acquired from normal prostate tissue to define difference in spectral features between the cancerous and normal prostate tissues. Of the total 66 tissue samples were evaluated from nine patients by ELSSS system. Comparing of histopathology results and ELSSS measurements revealed that sign of the spectral slopes of cancerous prostate tissue is negative and non-cancerous tissue is positive in the wavelength range from 450 to 750 nm. Based on the correlation between histopathology results and sign of the spectral slopes, ELSSS system differentiates cancerous prostate tissue from non- cancerous with a sensitivity of 0.95 and a specificity of 0.94.

Keywords: Diagnosis, prostatic neoplasm, prostatectomy, spectrum analysis

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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: S. Demiray, M. E. Pintado, P. M. L. Castro

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There is a growing interest in the food industry and in preventive health care for the development and evaluation of natural antioxidants from medicinal plant materials. In the present work, extracts of three medicinal plants (Tilia argentea, Crataegi folium leaves and Polygonum bistorta roots) used in Turkish phytotheraphy were screened for their phenolic profiles and antioxidant properties. Crude extracts were obtained from different parts of plants, by solidliquid extraction with pure water, 70% acetone and 70% methanol aqueous solvents. The antioxidant activity of the extracts was determined by ABTS.+ radical cation scavenging activity. The Folin Ciocalteu procedure was used to assess the total phenolic concentrations of the extracts as gallic acid equivalents. A modified liquid chromatography-electro spray ionization-mass spectrometry (LC-ESI-MS) was used to obtain chromatographic profiles of the phenolic compounds in the medicinal plants. The predominant phenolic compounds detected in different extracts of the plants were catechin, protocatechuic and chlorogenic acids. The highest phenolic contents were obtained by using 70% acetone as aqueous solvent, whereas the lowest phenolic contents were obtained by water extraction due to Folin Ciocalteu results. The results indicate that acetone extracts of Tilia argentea had the highest antioxidant capacity as free ABTS radical scavengers. The lowest phenolic contents and antioxidant capacities were obtained from Polygonum bistorta root extracts.

Keywords: Medicinal plants, antioxidant activity, totalphenolics, LC-ESI-MS.

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Authors: A. Qayed Al-Emadi, C. Schwabenland, B. Czarnecka

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In 2009, the new HRM policy was implemented in Qatar for public sector organisations. The purpose of this research is to examine how Qatar’s 2009 HRM policy was significant in influencing employee retention in public organisations. The conducted study utilised quantitative methodology to analyse the data on employees’ perceptions of such HRM practices as Performance Management, Rewards and Promotion, Training and Development associated with the HRM policy in public organisations in comparison to semi-private organisations. Employees of seven public and semi-private organisations filled in the questionnaire based on the 5-point Likert scale to present quantitative results. The data was analysed with the correlation and multiple regression statistical analyses. It was found that Performance Management had the relationship with Employee Retention, and Rewards and Promotion influenced Job Satisfaction in public organisations. Relationship between Job Satisfaction and Employee Retention was also observed. However, no significant differences were observed in the role of HRM practices in public and semi-private organisations.

Keywords: Performance management, rewards, promotion, training and development, job satisfaction, employee retention, SHRM, configurationally perspective.

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Authors: Sidharta Sahirman, Ardiansyah, Muhammad Rifan, Edy-Melmambessy

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Merauke district in Papua, Indonesia has a strategic position and natural potential for the development of agricultural industry. The development of agriculture in this region is being accelerated as part of Indonesian Government’s declaration announcing Merauke as one of future national food barns. Therefore, land-use suitability analysis for Merauke need to be performed. As a result, the mapping for future agriculture-based industries can be done optimally. In this research, a case study is carried out in Semangga sub district. The objective of this study is to determine the suitability of Merauke land for some food crops. A modified agro-ecological zoning is applied to reach the objective. In this research, land cover based on satellite imagery is combined with soil, water and climate survey results to come up with preliminary zoning. Considering the special characteristics of Merauke community, the agricultural zoning maps resulted based on those inputs will be combined with socio-economic information and culture to determine the final zoning map for agricultural industry in Merauke. Examples of culture are customary rights of local residents and the rights of local people and their own local food patterns. This paper presents the results of first year of the two-year research project funded by The Indonesian Government through MP3EI schema. It shares the findings of land cover studies, the distribution of soil physical and chemical parameters, as well as suitability analysis of Semangga sub-district for five different food plants.

Keywords: agriculture, agro-ecological, Merauke, zoning

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Authors: Xiang Yu, Chuntao Feng, Lu Yang, Meiyang Song, Wenhao Zhou

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The existing two-dimensional micro-Doppler features extraction ignores the correlation information between the spatial and temporal dimension features. For the range-Doppler map, the time dimension is introduced, and a frequency modulation continuous wave (FMCW) radar human fall detection algorithm based on time-varying range-Doppler features is proposed. Firstly, the range-Doppler sequence maps are generated from the echo signals of the continuous motion of the human body collected by the radar. Then the three-dimensional data cube composed of multiple frames of range-Doppler maps is input into the three-dimensional Convolutional Neural Network (3D CNN). The spatial and temporal features of time-varying range-Doppler are extracted by the convolution layer and pool layer at the same time. Finally, the extracted spatial and temporal features are input into the fully connected layer for classification. The experimental results show that the proposed fall detection algorithm has a detection accuracy of 95.66%.

Keywords: FMCW radar, fall detection, 3D CNN, time-varying range-Doppler features.

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Authors: D. M. Onyango, P. O. Angienda

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The purpose of the present study was to evaluate the epidemiology of waterborne diarrhoeal among children aged 6-36 months old in Busia town, western Kenya. The study was carried out between Feb. 2008 and Feb. 2010. Cases of diarrhoea reported in 385 households were linked to household water handling practices. A mother with a child of 6-36 months old was also included in the study. Diarrhoea prevalence among children 6-36 months was 16.7% in Busia town, Bwamani (19.6%) and Mayenje (10.6%) clustered in Mayenje sub-location reported the highest and the lowest prevalence of diarrhoea. There was a positive correlation between the prevalence of diarrhoea in children and the level of the mother-s education, 29.9% (n= 100). Diarrhoea cases decreased in range from 35.5% (n =102) to 4.8% (n= 16), corresponding to increase in age from 6-35 months on average. In conclusion, prevalence of diarrhoea in children of 6-36 months old was 16.7% in Busia town. This was higher in children whose mother-s age was below 18 years and with low level of education, the rate decreased with increase in age of children. Prevalence of diarrhoea in children aged 6-36months in households was higher in children aged 6-17 and 36 months and whose mothers were less educated and fell between the ages of 18-24 years. The Influence of human activities at the main source of drinking water on the prevalence of diarrhoea in these children was insignificant.

Keywords: Diarrhoea, Children, Mortality, Waterborne disease,

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Authors: Pranee Tridhoskul

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This research paper is aimed to examine a relationship between the service marketing mix and customers’ frequency of use of service at Mercedes Benz Auto Repair Centres under Thonburi Group, Thailand. Based on 2,267 customers who used the service of Thonburi Group’s Auto Repair Centres as the population, the sampling of this research was a total of 340 samples, by use of Probability Sampling Technique. Systematic Random Sampling was applied by use of questionnaire in collecting the data at Thonburi Group’s Auto Repair Centres. Mean and Pearson’s basic statistical correlations were utilized in analyzing the data. The study discovered a medium level of customers’ perception towards product and service of Thonburi Group’s Auto Repair Centres, price, place or distribution channel and promotion. People who provided service were perceived also at a medium level, whereas the physical evidence and service process were perceived at a high level. Furthermore, there appeared a correlation between the physical evidence and service process, and customers’ frequency of use of automobile service per year.

Keywords: Service Marketing Mix, Behavior, Mercedes Auto Service Centre.

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Authors: Parvinder S. Sandhu, Urvashi Malhotra, E. Ardil

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There is lot of work done in prediction of the fault proneness of the software systems. But, it is the severity of the faults that is more important than number of faults existing in the developed system as the major faults matters most for a developer and those major faults needs immediate attention. In this paper, we tried to predict the level of impact of the existing faults in software systems. Neuro-Fuzzy based predictor models is applied NASA-s public domain defect dataset coded in C programming language. As Correlation-based Feature Selection (CFS) evaluates the worth of a subset of attributes by considering the individual predictive ability of each feature along with the degree of redundancy between them. So, CFS is used for the selecting the best metrics that have highly correlated with level of severity of faults. The results are compared with the prediction results of Logistic Models (LMT) that was earlier quoted as the best technique in [17]. The results are recorded in terms of Accuracy, Mean Absolute Error (MAE) and Root Mean Squared Error (RMSE). The results show that Neuro-fuzzy based model provide a relatively better prediction accuracy as compared to other models and hence, can be used for the modeling of the level of impact of faults in function based systems.

Keywords: Software Metrics, Fuzzy, Neuro-Fuzzy, Software Faults, Accuracy, MAE, RMSE.

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Authors: A. Yazdanmehr, H. Jahed

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Being made with the lightest commercially available industrial metal, Magnesium (Mg) alloys are of interest for light-weighting. Expanding their application to different material processing methods requires Mg properties at large strains. Several room-temperature processes such as shot and laser peening and hole cold expansion need compressive large strain data. Two methods have been proposed in the literature to obtain the stress-strain curve at high strains: 1) anti-buckling guides and 2) small cubic samples. In this paper, an anti-buckling fixture is used with the help of digital image correlation (DIC) to obtain the compression-tension (C-T) of AZ31B-H24 rolled sheet at large strain values of up to 10.5%. The effect of the anti-bucking fixture on stress-strain curves is evaluated experimentally by comparing the results with those of the compression tests of cubic samples. For testing cubic samples, a new fixture has been designed to increase the accuracy of testing cubic samples with DIC strain measurements. Results show a negligible effect of anti-buckling on stress-strain curves, specifically at high strain values.

Keywords: Large strain, compression-tension, loading-unloading, Mg alloys.

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Authors: Ranojoy Dutta, Adam Barker

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Multifamily residential buildings are increasingly being built with large glazed areas to provide tenants with greater daylight and outdoor views. However, traditional double-glazed window assemblies can lead to significant thermal discomfort from high radiant temperatures as well as increased cooling energy use to address solar gains. Dynamic glazing provides an effective solution by actively controlling solar transmission to maintain indoor thermal comfort, without compromising the visual connection to outdoors. This study uses thermal simulations across three Canadian cities (Toronto, Vancouver and Montreal) to verify if dynamic glazing along with operable windows and ceiling fans can maintain the indoor operative temperature of a prototype southwest facing high-rise apartment unit within the ASHRAE 55 adaptive comfort range for a majority of the year, without any mechanical cooling. Since this study proposes the use of natural ventilation for cooling and the typical building life cycle is 30-40 years, the typical weather files have been modified based on accepted global warming projections for increased air temperatures by 2050. Results for the prototype apartment confirm that thermal discomfort with dynamic glazing occurs only for less than 0.7% of the year. However, in the baseline scenario with low-E glass there are up to 7% annual hours of discomfort despite natural ventilation with operable windows and improved air movement with ceiling fans.

Keywords: Electrochromic, operable windows, thermal comfort, natural ventilation, adaptive comfort.

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Authors: R. Bremananth

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Several computationally challenging issues are encountered while classifying complex natural scenes. In this paper, we address the problems that are encountered in rotation invariance with multi-intensity analysis for multi-scene overlapping. In the present literature, various algorithms proposed techniques for multi-intensity analysis, but there are several restrictions in these algorithms while deploying them in multi-scene overlapping classifications. In order to resolve the problem of multi-scenery overlapping classifications, we present a framework that is based on macro and micro basis functions. This algorithm conquers the minimum classification false alarm while pigeonholing multi-scene overlapping. Furthermore, a quadrangle multi-intensity decay is invoked. Several parameters are utilized to analyze invariance for multi-scenery classifications such as rotation, classification, correlation, contrast, homogeneity, and energy. Benchmark datasets were collected for complex natural scenes and experimented for the framework. The results depict that the framework achieves a significant improvement on gray-level matrix of co-occurrence features for overlapping in diverse degree of orientations while pigeonholing multi-scene overlapping.

Keywords: Automatic classification, contrast, homogeneity, invariant analysis, multi-scene analysis, overlapping.

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Authors: Hamid Goharnejad, Amir Hossein Eghbali

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Recent investigations have demonstrated the global sea level rise due to climate change impacts. In this study, climate changes study the effects of increasing water level in the strait of Hormuz. The probable changes of sea level rise should be investigated to employ the adaption strategies. The climatic output data of a GCM (General Circulation Model) named CGCM3 under climate change scenario of A1b and A2 were used. Among different variables simulated by this model, those of maximum correlation with sea level changes in the study region and least redundancy among themselves were selected for sea level rise prediction by using stepwise regression. One of models (Discrete Wavelet artificial Neural Network) was developed to explore the relationship between climatic variables and sea level changes. In these models, wavelet was used to disaggregate the time series of input and output data into different components and then ANN was used to relate the disaggregated components of predictors and input parameters to each other. The results showed in the Shahid Rajae Station for scenario A1B sea level rise is among 64 to 75 cm and for the A2 Scenario sea level rise is among 90 t0 105 cm. Furthermore, the result showed a significant increase of sea level at the study region under climate change impacts, which should be incorporated in coastal areas management.

Keywords: Climate change scenarios, sea-level rise, strait of Hormuz, artificial neural network, fuzzy logic.

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Authors: Daniel E. Gberevbie, Adewale O. Osibanjo, Anthonia A. Adeniji, Olumuyiwa A. Oludayo

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Research has shown that a recruitment policy devoid of gender discrimination enhances employee performance in an organization. Previous studies in Nigeria show that gender discrimination against men and women based on their ethnic, religious and geographical identity is common. This survey, however, focuses on discrimination against women on the basis of gender and performance in government universities in Lagos State, Nigeria. The model used for this study was developed and tested in which one hundred and eighty seven copies of the questionnaire that were administered to respondents as completed by the academic staff of government universities in Lagos State were retrieved. Pearson correlation and regression were utilized for the analysis of the study, and the result showed that managerial roles based on gender discrimination against women in government universities in Lagos State have affected employee job performance negatively. The study concludes that for as long as gender discrimination rather than merit remains the basis for staff employment into positions of authority in Nigerian Universities, enhanced performance is more likely to elude employees and the educational sector in general. 

Keywords: Academic staff, Employee performance, Gender discrimination, Nigeria, Universities.

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Authors: M. G. Papoutsidakis, G. Chamilothoris, F. Dailami, N. Larsen, A Pipe

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Due to their high power-to-weight ratio and low cost, pneumatic actuators are attractive for robotics and automation applications; however, achieving fast and accurate control of their position have been known as a complex control problem. A methodology for obtaining high position accuracy with a linear pneumatic actuator is presented. During experimentation with a number of PID classical control approaches over many operations of the pneumatic system, the need for frequent manual re-tuning of the controller could not be eliminated. The reason for this problem is thermal and energy losses inside the cylinder body due to the complex friction forces developed by the piston displacements. Although PD controllers performed very well over short periods, it was necessary in our research project to introduce some form of automatic gain-scheduling to achieve good long-term performance. We chose a fuzzy logic system to do this, which proved to be an easily designed and robust approach. Since the PD approach showed very good behaviour in terms of position accuracy and settling time, it was incorporated into a modified form of the 1st order Tagaki- Sugeno fuzzy method to build an overall controller. This fuzzy gainscheduler uses an input variable which automatically changes the PD gain values of the controller according to the frequency of repeated system operations. Performance of the new controller was significantly improved and the need for manual re-tuning was eliminated without a decrease in performance. The performance of the controller operating with the above method is going to be tested through a high-speed web network (GRID) for research purposes.

Keywords: Fuzzy logic, gain scheduling, leaky integrator, pneumatic actuator.

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Authors: F. Gekas, C. Pankou, I. Mylonas, E. Ninou, E. Sinapidou, A. Lithourgidis, F. Papathanasiou, J. –K. Petrevska, F. Papadopoulou, P. Zouliamis, G. Tsaprounis, I. Tokatlidis, C. Dordas

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The present study aimed to investigate whether chlorophyll meter readings (SPAD) can be used as criterion of singleplant selection in maize breeding. Experimentation was performed at the ultra-low density of 0.74 plants/m2 in order the potential yield per plant to be fully expressed. R-31 honeycomb experiments were conducted in three different areas in Greece (Thessaloniki, Giannitsa and Florina) using 30 inbred lines at well-watered and water-stressed conditions during the 2012 growing season. The chlorophyll meter readings had higher rates at dry conditions, except location of Giannitsa where differences were not significant. Genotypes of highest chlorophyll meter readings were consistent across areas, emphasizing on the character’s stability. A positive correlation between the chlorophyll meter readings and grain yield was strengthening over time and culminated at the physiological maturity stage. There was a clear sign that the chlorophyll meter readings has the potential to be used for the selection of stress-adaptive genotypes and may permit modern maize to be grown at wider range of environments addressing the climate change scenarios.

Keywords: Drought-prone environments, honeycomb breeding, SPAD, Zea mays.

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Authors: L. B. Gboeloh, K. Elele

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Gastrointestinal parasitic infections are common health problems in sub-Saharan Africa. A cross- sectional study was carried out to determine the prevalence of gastrointestinal parasites among workers in major abattoirs in Port Harcourt, Nigeria. These abattoirs are located in Trans-Amadi, Rumuodumaya, Mile III and Easter-by-Pass. Formol-ether concentration technique was used to isolate the ova and cysts from faecal samples. Out of 201 workers (herdsmen, butchers, and cleaners) investigated for the presence of these parasites, 89 (44.2%) were infected with one or more parasites. The prevalence of the parasites among herdsmen and cleaners was significantly (P<0.05) higher. However, there was no significant (P>0.05) difference in the prevalence of gastrointestinal parasites in relation to age. Parasites identified included Ascaris lumbricoide (33.3%), tapeworm (4.97%), Entamoeba histolytica (5.47%), hookworms (13.9%), Trichuris trichiura (9.95%), Gardia lamblia (3.48%), and Schistosoma mansoni (1.9%). The frequency of A. lumbricoide was significantly (P<0.05) higher than other parasites. Many workers (65.2%) had single infection than double (23.6%) and triple infection (11.2%). Sanitary improvements, increased level of personal hygiene, routine surveillance by public health practitioners and veterinary experts as well as hygienic operation using modern technologies to process meat at these abattoirs will go a long way to control occupational gastrointestinal parasites among workers.

Keywords: Abattoirs, Gastrointestinal parasites, Port Harcourt, Workers.

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Authors: S. Matour, M. Mahdavinejad, R. Fayaz

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Daylight utilization is a key factor in achieving visual and thermal comfort, and energy savings in integrated building design. However, lack of measured data related to this topic has become a major challenge with the increasing need for integrating lighting concepts and simulations in the early stages of design procedures. The current paper deals with the values of daylight illuminance on horizontal and south facing vertical surfaces; the data are estimated using IESNA model and measured values of the horizontal and vertical illuminance, and a regression model with an acceptable linear correlation is obtained. The resultant illuminance frequency curves are useful for estimating daylight availability on south facing surfaces in Tehran. In addition, the relationship between indirect vertical illuminance and the corresponding global horizontal illuminance is analyzed. A simple parametric equation is proposed in order to predict the vertical illumination on a shaded south facing surface. The equation correlates the ratio between the vertical and horizontal illuminance to the solar altitude and is used with another relationship for prediction of the vertical illuminance. Both equations show good agreement, which allows for calculation of indirect vertical illuminance on a south facing surface at any time throughout the year.

Keywords: Tehran daylight availability, horizontal illuminance, vertical illuminance, diffuse illuminance.

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Authors: Sarah Beaver, Renee Bryce

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Audiograms detect hearing impairment, but missing values pose problems. This work explores imputations in an attempt to improve accuracy. This work implements Linear Regression, Lasso, Linear Support Vector Regression, Bayesian Ridge, K Nearest Neighbors (KNN), and Random Forest machine learning techniques to impute audiogram frequencies ranging from 125 Hz to 8000 Hz. The data contain patients who had or were candidates for cochlear implants. Accuracy is compared across two different Nested Cross-Validation k values. Over 4000 audiograms were used from 800 unique patients. Additionally, training on data combines and compares left and right ear audiograms versus single ear side audiograms. The accuracy achieved using Root Mean Square Error (RMSE) values for the best models for Random Forest ranges from 4.74 to 6.37. The R2 values for the best models for Random Forest ranges from .91 to .96. The accuracy achieved using RMSE values for the best models for KNN ranges from 5.00 to 7.72. The R2 values for the best models for KNN ranges from .89 to .95. The best imputation models received R2 between .89 to .96 and RMSE values less than 8dB. We also show that the accuracy of classification predictive models performed better with our imputation models versus constant imputations by a two percent increase.

Keywords: Machine Learning, audiograms, data imputations, single imputations.

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Authors: Ö.F. Ursavas, H. Karal

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In this study it is aimed to determine the level of preservice teachers- computer phobia. Whether or not computer phobia meaningfully varies statistically according to gender and computer experience has been tested in the study. The study was performed on 430 pre-service teachers at the Education Faculty in Rize/Turkey. Data in the study were collected through the Computer Phobia Scale consisting of the “Personal Knowledge Questionnaire", “Computer Anxiety Rating Scale", and “Computer Thought Survey". In this study, data were analyzed with statistical processes such as t test, and correlation analysis. According to results of statistical analyses, computer phobia of male pre-service teachers does not statistically vary depending on their gender. Although male preservice teachers have higher computer anxiety scores, they have lower computer thought scores. It was also observed that there is a negative and intensive relation between computer experience and computer anxiety. Meanwhile it was found out that pre-service teachers using computer regularly indicated lower computer anxiety. Obtained results were tried to be discussed in terms of the number of computer classes in the Education Faculty curriculum, hours of computer class and the computer availability of student teachers.

Keywords: Computer phobia, computer anxiety, computer thought, pre-service teachers.

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Authors: E. Binaeian, SH. Soroushnia

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Acute toxicity of nano SiO2, ZnO, MCM-41 (Meso pore silica), Cu, Multi Wall Carbon Nano Tube (MWCNT), Single Wall Carbon Nano Tube (SWCNT) , Fe (Coated) to bacteria Vibrio fischeri using a homemade luminometer , was evaluated. The values of the nominal effective concentrations (EC), causing 20% and 50% inhibition of biouminescence, using two mathematical models at two times of 5 and 30 minutes were calculated. Luminometer was designed with Photomultiplier (PMT) detector. Luminol chemiluminescence reaction was carried out for the calibration graph. In the linear calibration range, the correlation coefficients and coefficient of Variation (CV) were 0.988 and 3.21% respectively which demonstrate the accuracy and reproducibility of the instrument that are suitable. The important part of this research depends on how to optimize the best condition for maximum bioluminescence. The culture of Vibrio fischeri with optimal conditions in liquid media, were stirring at 120 rpm at a temperature of 150C to 180C and were incubated for 24 to 72 hours while solid medium was held at 180C and for 48 hours. Suspension of nanoparticles ZnO, after 30 min contact time to bacteria Vibrio fischeri, showed the highest toxicity while SiO2 nanoparticles showed the lowest toxicity. After 5 min exposure time, the toxicity of ZnO was the strongest and MCM-41 was the weakest toxicant component.

Keywords: Bioluminescence, effective concentration, nanomaterials, toxicity, Vibrio fischeri.

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Authors: Sandip Sadhukhan, Arpita Sarkar, Debprasad Sinha, Goutam Kumar Ghorai, Gautam Sarkar, Ashis K. Dhara

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Accurate segmentation of the optic disc is very important for computer-aided diagnosis of several ocular diseases such as glaucoma, diabetic retinopathy, and hypertensive retinopathy. The paper presents an accurate and fast optic disc detection and segmentation method using an attention based fully convolutional network. The network is trained from scratch using the fundus images of extended MESSIDOR database and the trained model is used for segmentation of optic disc. The false positives are removed based on morphological operation and shape features. The result is evaluated using three-fold cross-validation on six public fundus image databases such as DIARETDB0, DIARETDB1, DRIVE, AV-INSPIRE, CHASE DB1 and MESSIDOR. The attention based fully convolutional network is robust and effective for detection and segmentation of optic disc in the images affected by diabetic retinopathy and it outperforms existing techniques.

Keywords: Ocular diseases, retinal fundus image, optic disc detection and segmentation, fully convolutional network, overlap measure.

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Authors: Surinder Deswal

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The paper investigates the potential of support vector machines and Gaussian process based regression approaches to model the oxygen–transfer capacity from experimental data of multiple plunging jets oxygenation systems. The results suggest the utility of both the modeling techniques in the prediction of the overall volumetric oxygen transfer coefficient (KLa) from operational parameters of multiple plunging jets oxygenation system. The correlation coefficient root mean square error and coefficient of determination values of 0.971, 0.002 and 0.945 respectively were achieved by support vector machine in comparison to values of 0.960, 0.002 and 0.920 respectively achieved by Gaussian process regression. Further, the performances of both these regression approaches in predicting the overall volumetric oxygen transfer coefficient was compared with the empirical relationship for multiple plunging jets. A comparison of results suggests that support vector machines approach works well in comparison to both empirical relationship and Gaussian process approaches, and could successfully be employed in modeling oxygen-transfer.

Keywords: Oxygen-transfer, multiple plunging jets, support vector machines, Gaussian process.

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Authors: Achut Manandhar, Kenneth D. Morton, Peter A. Torrione, Leslie M. Collins

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The current trends in affect recognition research are to consider continuous observations from spontaneous natural interactions in people using multiple feature modalities, and to represent affect in terms of continuous dimensions, incorporate spatio-temporal correlation among affect dimensions, and provide fast affect predictions. These research efforts have been propelled by a growing effort to develop affect recognition system that can be implemented to enable seamless real-time human-computer interaction in a wide variety of applications. Motivated by these desired attributes of an affect recognition system, in this work a multi-dimensional affect prediction approach is proposed by integrating multivariate Relevance Vector Machine (MVRVM) with a recently developed Output-associative Relevance Vector Machine (OARVM) approach. The resulting approach can provide fast continuous affect predictions by jointly modeling the multiple affect dimensions and their correlations. Experiments on the RECOLA database show that the proposed approach performs competitively with the OARVM while providing faster predictions during testing.

Keywords: Dimensional affect prediction, Output-associative RVM, Multivariate regression.

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