Search results for: food quality.

Authors: M. Mohamed, X. Zhang, K. Wu, M. Elfituri, A. Legnain

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Performance of millimeter-wave (mm-wave) multiband orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (MB-OFDM) ultrawideband (UWB) signal generation using frequency quadrupling technique and transmission over fiber is experimentally investigated. The frequency quadrupling is achived by using only one Mach- Zehnder modulator (MZM) that is biased at maximum transmission (MATB) point. At the output, a frequency quadrupling signal is obtained then sent to a second MZM. This MZM is used for MBOFDM UWB signal modulation. In this work, we demonstrate 30- GHz mm-wave wireless that carries three-bands OFDM UWB signals, and error vector magnitude (EVM) is used to analyze the transmission quality. It is found that our proposed technique leads to an improvement of 3.5 dB in EVM at 40% of local oscillator (LO) modulation with comparison to the technique using two cascaded MZMs biased at minimum transmission (MITB) point.

Keywords: Optical communication, Frequency up-conversion, Mach-Zehnder modulator, millimeter wave generation, radio over fiber

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Authors: Pavel Dostrašil, Petr Jirásko

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The paper deals with the kinematics and automated calculation of intermittent mechanisms with radial cams. Currently, electronic cams are increasingly applied in the drives of working link mechanisms. Despite a huge advantage of electronic cams in their reprogrammability or instantaneous change of displacement diagrams, conventional cam mechanisms have an irreplaceable role in production and handling machines. With high frequency of working cycle periods, the dynamic load of the proper servomotor rotor increases and efficiency of electronic cams strongly decreases. Though conventional intermittent mechanisms with radial cams are representatives of fixed automation, they have distinct advantages in their high speed (high dynamics), positional accuracy and relatively easy manufacture. We try to remove the disadvantage of firm displacement diagram by reducing costs for simple design and automated calculation that leads reliably to high-quality and inexpensive manufacture.

Keywords: Cam mechanism, displacement diagram, intermittentmechanism, radial parallel cam

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Authors: So Jeong Nam, Seung Woo Lee, Jai-Kyung Lee

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With the globalized production and logistics environment, the need for reducing the product development interval and lead time, having a faster response to orders, conforming to quality standards, fair tracking, and boosting information exchanging activities with customers and partners, and coping with changes in the management environment, manufacturers are in dire need of an information management system in their manufacturing environments. There are lots of information systems that have been designed to manage the condition or operation of equipment in the field but existing systems have a decentralized architecture, which is not unified. Also, these systems cannot effectively handle the status data extraction process upon encountering a problem related to protocols or changes in the equipment or the setting. In this regard, this paper will introduce a system for processing and saving the status info of production equipment, which uses standard representation formats, to enable flexible responses to and support for variables in the field equipment. This system can be used for a variety of manufacturing and equipment settings and is capable of interacting with higher-tier systems such as MES.

Keywords: DAS, Equipment Status, Regular Expression

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Authors: Jaramillo G. Maria Luisa, Turriago H. Álvaro, Thoene Ulf

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Financial inclusion has become a crucially important factor in debates on economic inequality posing challenges to the financial systems of countries around the world. Nowadays governments and banks are concerned about creating products that allow access to wide sectors of the population. The creation of banking products by the financial sector for people with low incomes tends to lead to improvements in the quality of life of vulnerable parts of the population. In countries with notable social and economic inequalities, financial inclusion is a key aspect for equitable economic growth. This study is based on the case of Colombia, which is a country with a strong record of economic growth over the past decade. Nevertheless, corruption, unemployment, and poverty contribute to uncertainty regarding the country’s future growth prospects. This study wants to explain the situation of financial exclusion and financial inclusion with respect to the Colombian case. Financial inclusion is going to be studied from the perspective of social innovation.

Keywords: Colombia, financial exclusion, financial inclusion, social innovation.

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Authors: Saba Gachpaz, Hamid Reza Heidari

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The sharp increase in population growth leads to more pressure on agricultural areas to satisfy the food supply. This necessitates increased resource consumption and underscores the importance of addressing sustainable agriculture development along with other environmental considerations. Land-use management is a crucial factor in obtaining optimum productivity. Machine learning is a widely used technique in the agricultural sector, from yield prediction to customer behavior. This method focuses on learning and provides patterns and correlations from our data set. In this study, nine physical control factors, namely, soil classification, electrical conductivity, normalized difference water index (NDWI), groundwater level, elevation, annual precipitation, pH of water, annual mean temperature, and slope in the alluvial plain in Khuzestan (an agricultural hotspot in Iran) are used to decide the best agricultural land use for both rainfed and irrigated agriculture for 10 different crops. For this purpose, each variable was imported into Arc GIS, and a raster layer was obtained. In the next level, by using training samples, all layers were imported into the python environment. A random forest model was applied, and the weight of each variable was specified. In the final step, results were visualized using a digital elevation model, and the importance of all factors for each one of the crops was obtained. Our results show that despite 62% of the study area being allocated to agricultural purposes, only 42.9% of these areas can be defined as a suitable class for cultivation purposes.

Keywords: Land suitability, machine learning, random forest, sustainable agriculture.

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Authors: A. Akın, H. Çoban

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This study was carried out to determine the effects of Control (C), 1/3 Cluster Tip Reduction (1/3 CTR), 1/6 Cluster Tip Reduction (1/6 CTR), 1/9 Cluster Tip Reduction (1/9 CTR), 1/3 CTR + Boric Acid (BA), 1/6 CTR + BA, 1/9 CTR + BA applications on yield and yield components of four years old Alphonse Lavallee grape variety (Vitis vinifera L.) grown on grafted 110 Paulsen rootstock in Konya province in Turkey in the vegetation period in 2015. According to the results, the highest maturity index 21.46 with 1/9 CTR application; the highest grape juice yields 736.67 ml with 1/3 CTR + BA application; the highest L* color value 32.07 with 1/9 CTR application; the highest a* color value 1.74 with 1/9 CTR application; the highest b* color value 3.72 with 1/9 CTR application were obtained. The effects of applications on grape fresh yield, cluster weight and berry weight were not found statistically significant.

Keywords: Alphonse Lavallee grape cultivar, different cluster tip reduction (1/3, 1/6, 1/9), foliar boric acid application, yield, quality.

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Authors: Dibyendu Ghoshal, Shimal Das

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Image compression based on fractal coding is a lossy compression method and normally used for gray level images range and domain blocks in rectangular shape. Fractal based digital image compression technique provide a large compression ratio and in this paper, it is proposed using YUV colour space and the fractal theory which is based on iterated transformation. Fractal geometry is mainly applied in the current study towards colour image compression coding. These colour images possesses correlations among the colour components and hence high compression ratio can be achieved by exploiting all these redundancies. The proposed method utilises the self-similarity in the colour image as well as the cross-correlations between them. Experimental results show that the greater compression ratio can be achieved with large domain blocks but more trade off in image quality is good to acceptable at less than 1 bit per pixel.

Keywords: Fractal coding, Iterated Function System (IFS), Image compression, YUV colour space.

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Authors: Bruno B. Oliveira, Arnaldo P. Mourão, Teógenes A. da Silva

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The Brazilian legislation has only established diagnostic reference levels (DRLs) in terms of Multiple Scan Average Dose (MSAD) as a quality control parameter for computed tomography (CT) scanners. Compliance with DRLs can be verified by measuring the Computed Tomography Kerma Index (Ca,100) with a pencil ionization chamber or by obtaining the kerma distribution in CT scans with radiochromic films or rod shape lithium fluoride termoluminescent dosimeters (TLD-100). TL dosimeters were used to record kerma profiles and to determine MSAD values of a Bright Speed model GE CT scanner. Measurements were done with radiochromic films and TL dosimeters distributed in cylinders positioned in the center and in four peripheral bores of a standard polymethylmethacrylate (PMMA) body CT dosimetry phantom. Irradiations were done using a protocol for adult chest. The maximum values were found at the midpoint of the longitudinal axis. The MSAD values obtained with three dosimetric techniques were compared.

Keywords: Kerma profile, CT, MSAD, patient dosimetry

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Authors: F. Halek, A. Kavousi, M. Banifatemi

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There is growing interest in biodiesel (fatty acid methyl ester or FAME) because of the similarity in its properties when compared to those of diesel fuels. Diesel engines operated on biodiesel have lower emissions of carbon monoxide, unburned hydrocarbons, particulate matter, and air toxics than when operated on petroleum-based diesel fuel. Production of fatty acid methyl ester (FAME) from rapeseed (nonedible oil) fatty acid distillate having high free fatty acids (FFA) was investigated in this work. Conditions for esterification process of rapeseed oil were 1.8 % H2SO4 as catalyst, MeOH/oil of molar ratio 2 : 0.1 and reaction temperature 65 °C, for a period of 3h. The yield of methyl ester was > 90 % in 1 h. The amount of FFA was reduced from 93 wt % to less than 2 wt % at the end of the esterification process. The FAME was pureed by neutralization with 1 M sodium hydroxide in water solution at a reaction temperature of 62 °C. The final FAME product met with the biodiesel quality standard, and ASTM D 6751.

Keywords: Alternative Fuels, Biodiesel, Fatty Acid, MethylEster, Seed Oil, Transesterification.

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Authors: Khaled Elbehiery, Hussam Elbehiery

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Smart cities are a framework of technologies along with sustainable infrastructure to provide their citizens an improved quality of life, safer environment, affordability, and more, which in turn helps with the society's economic growth. The proposed research will focus on the primary building block of the smart city; the infrastructure of the house itself. The traditional method of building houses has been, for a long time, nothing but a costly manufacturing process, and consequently, buying a house becomes not an option for everyone anymore. The smart cities' Modular Houses are not using traditional building construction materials; the design reduces the common lengthy construction times and associated high costs. The Modular Houses are technological homes, low-cost and customizable based on a family's requirements. In addition, the Modular Houses are environmentally friendly and healthy enough to assist with the pandemic situation.

Keywords: Smart cities, modular houses, single-unit property, multi-unit property, mobility features, chain-supply, livable environment, carbon footprint.

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Authors: Vedansh Gupta, Allyson Lutz, Ameen Razavi, Fatemeh Shirazi

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The agriculture industry is especially vulnerable to forecasted water shortages. In the fresh and fresh-cut produce sector, conventional flume-based washing with recirculation exhibits high water demand. This leads to a large water footprint and possible cross-contamination of pathogens. These can be alleviated through advanced water reuse processes, such as membrane technologies including reverse osmosis (RO). Water reuse technologies effectively remove dissolved constituents but can easily foul without pre-treatment. Biological treatment is effective for the removal of organic compounds responsible for fouling, but not at the low temperatures encountered at most produce processing facilities. This study showed that the Microvi MicroNiche Engineering (MNE) technology effectively removes organic compounds (> 80%) at low temperatures (6-8 °C) from wash water. The MNE technology uses synthetic microorganism-material composites with negligible solids production, making it advantageously situated as an effective bio-pretreatment for RO. A preliminary technoeconomic analysis showed 60-80% savings in operation and maintenance costs (OPEX) when using the Microvi MNE technology for organics removal. This study and the accompanying economic analysis indicated that the proposed technology process will substantially reduce the cost barrier for adopting water reuse practices, thereby contributing to increased food safety and furthering sustainable water reuse processes across the agricultural industry.

Keywords: Biological pre-treatment, innovative technology, vegetable processing, water reuse, agriculture, reverse osmosis, MNE biocatalysts.

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Authors: T.A. Adegbola, IEA Aghachi, E.R. Sadiku

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To investigates the effect of fiberglass clamping process improvement on drape simulation prediction. This has great effect on the mould and the fiber during manufacturing process. This also, improves the fiber strain, the quality of the fiber orientation in the area of folding and wrinkles formation during the press-forming process. Drape simulation software tool was used to digitalize the process, noting the formation problems on the contour sensitive part. This was compared with the real life clamping processes using single and double frame set-ups to observe the effects. Also, restrains are introduced by using clips, and the G-clamps with predetermine revolution to; restrain the fabric deformation during the forming process.The incorporation of clamping and fabric restrain deformation improved on the prediction of the simulation tool. Therefore, for effective forming process, incorporation of clamping process into the drape simulation process will assist in the development of fiberglass application in manufacturing process.

Keywords: clamping, fiberglass, drape simulation, pressforming.

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Authors: N. Sapari, S. Mustapha, H. Jusoh

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Landfill gas, particularly methane is one of the greenhouse gases which contributes to global warming. This paper presents the findings of a study on methane gas production from simulated landfill reactor under saturated conditions. A reactor was constructed to represent a landfill cell of 2.5 m thickness on sandy soil. The reactor was 0.2 m in diameter and 4 m in height. One meter of sand and pebble layer was packed at the bottom of the reactor followed by 2.5 m of solid waste layer and 0.4 m of sand layer as the cover soil. Degradation of waste in the solid waste layer was at acidification stage as indicated by the leachate quality with COD as high as 55,511 mg/L and pH as low as 5.1. However, methanogenic environment was established at the bottom sand layer after one year of operation indicated by pH of 7.2 and methane gas generation. Leachate degradation took place as the leachate moved through the sand layer at an infiltration of rate 0.7 cm/day. This resulted in landfill gas production of 77 mL/day/kg containing 55 to 65% methane. The application of sand layer contributed to the gas production from landfill by an in-situ degradation of leachate in the sand at the bottom of the landfill.

Keywords: Gas production, methane, methanogenic sand layer, municipal solid waste, saturated landfill

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Authors: D. Estrella, A. Silva, R. Zapata, H. Rubio

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A total of 100 primary caregivers (mothers, fathers, grandparents) with at least one child or grandchild with a diagnosis of congenital bilateral profound deafness were assessed in order to evaluate the functionality of families with a deaf member, who was evaluated by specialists in audiology, molecular biology, genetics and psychology. After confirmation of the clinical diagnosis, DNA from the patients and parents were analyzed in search of the 35delG deletion of the GJB2 gene to determine who possessed the mutation. All primary caregivers were provided psychological support, regardless of whether or not they had the mutation, and prior and subsequent, the family APGAR test was applied. All parents, grandparents were informed of the results of the genetic analysis during the psychological intervention. The family APGAR, after psychological and genetic counseling, showed that 14% perceived their families as functional, 62% moderately functional and 24% dysfunctional. This shows the importance of psychological support in family functionality that has a direct impact on the quality of life of these families.

Keywords: Deafness, psychological support, family, adaptation to disability.

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Authors: H. Barati, M. Wu, A. Kharicha, A. Ludwig

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A transient model for nozzle clogging has been developed and successfully validated against a laboratory experiment. Key steps of clogging are considered: transport of particles by turbulent flow towards the nozzle wall; interactions between fluid flow and nozzle wall, and the adhesion of the particle on the wall; the growth of the clog layer and its interaction with the flow. The current paper is to investigate the mesh (size and type) sensitivity of the model in both two and three dimensions. It is found that the algorithm for clog growth alone excluding the flow effect is insensitive to the mesh type and size, but the calculation including flow becomes sensitive to the mesh quality. The use of 2D meshes leads to overestimation of the clog growth because the 3D nature of flow in the boundary layer cannot be properly solved by 2D calculation. 3D simulation with tetrahedron mesh can also lead to an error estimation of the clog growth. A mesh-independent result can be achieved with hexahedral mesh, or at least with triangular prism (inflation layer) for near-wall regions.

Keywords: Clogging, nozzle, numerical model, simulation.

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Authors: Shujun Fu, Qiuqi Ruan, Wenqia Wang

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Image interpolation is a common problem in imaging applications. However, most interpolation algorithms in existence suffer visually to some extent the effects of blurred edges and jagged artifacts in the image. This paper presents an adaptive feature preserving bidirectional flow process, where an inverse diffusion is performed to enhance edges along the normal directions to the isophote lines (edges), while a normal diffusion is done to remove artifacts (''jaggies'') along the tangent directions. In order to preserve image features such as edges, angles and textures, the nonlinear diffusion coefficients are locally adjusted according to the first and second order directional derivatives of the image. Experimental results on synthetic images and nature images demonstrate that our interpolation algorithm substantially improves the subjective quality of the interpolated images over conventional interpolations.

Keywords: anisotropic diffusion, bidirectional flow, directionalderivatives, edge enhancement, image interpolation, inverse flow, shock filter.

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Authors: Giani Gradinaru

Abstract:

Biodiversity crisis is one of the many crises that started at the turn of the millennia. Concrete form of expression is still disputed, but there is a relatively high consensus regarding the high rate of degradation and the urgent need for action. The strategy of action outlines a strong economic component, together with the recognition of market mechanisms as the most effective policies to protect biodiversity. In this context, biodiversity and ecosystem services are natural assets that play a key role in economic strategies and technological development to promote development and prosperity. Developing and strengthening policies for transition to an economy based on efficient use of resources is the way forward. To emphasize the co-viability specific to the connection economyecosystem services, scientific approach aimed on one hand how to implement policies for nature conservation and on the other hand, the concepts underlying the economic expression of ecosystem services- value, in the context of current technology. Following the analysis of business opportunities associated with changes in ecosystem services was concluded that development of market mechanisms for nature conservation is a trend that is increasingly stronger individualized within recent years. Although there are still many controversial issues that have already given rise to an obvious bias, international organizations and national governments have initiated and implemented in cooperation or independently such mechanisms. Consequently, they created the conditions for convergence between private interests and social interests of nature conservation, so there are opportunities for ongoing business development which leads, among other things, the positive effects on biodiversity. Finally, points out that markets fail to quantify the value of most ecosystem services. Existing price signals reflect at best, only a proportion of the total amount corresponding provision of food, water or fuel.

Keywords: ecosystem services, economic evaluation, nature conservation

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Authors: P. Kumsawat, K. Pasitwilitham, K. Attakitmongcol, A. Srikaew

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In this paper, an artificial intelligent technique for robust digital image watermarking in multiwavelet domain is proposed. The embedding technique is based on the quantization index modulation technique and the watermark extraction process does not require the original image. We have developed an optimization technique using the genetic algorithms to search for optimal quantization steps to improve the quality of watermarked image and robustness of the watermark. In addition, we construct a prediction model based on image moments and back propagation neural network to correct an attacked image geometrically before the watermark extraction process begins. The experimental results show that the proposed watermarking algorithm yields watermarked image with good imperceptibility and very robust watermark against various image processing attacks.

Keywords: Watermarking, Multiwavelet, Quantization index modulation, Genetic algorithms, Neural networks.

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Authors: Franklin Nantui Mabe, Samuel A. Donkoh, Seidu Al-Hassan

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Rice yields among agro-ecological zones are heterogeneous. Farmers, researchers and policy makers are making frantic efforts to bridge rice yield gaps between agro-ecological zones through the promotion of improved agricultural technologies (IATs). Farmers are also modifying these IATs and blending them with indigenous farming practices (IFPs) to form farmer innovation systems (FISs). Also, different metafrontier models have been used in estimating productivity performances and their drivers. This study used the two-step stochastic metafrontier model to estimate the productivity performances of rice farmers and their determining factors in GSZ, FSTZ and CSZ. The study used both primary and secondary data. Farmers in CSZ are the most technically efficient. Technical inefficiencies of farmers are negatively influenced by age, sex, household size, education years, extension visits, contract farming, access to improved seeds, access to irrigation, high rainfall amount, less lodging of rice, and well-coordinated and synergized adoption of technologies. Albeit farmers in CSZ are doing well in terms of rice yield, they still have the highest potential of increasing rice yield since they had the lowest TGR. It is recommended that government through the ministry of food and agriculture, development partners and individual private companies promote the adoption of IATs as well as educate farmers on how to coordinate and synergize the adoption of the whole package. Contract farming concept and agricultural extension intensification should be vigorously pursued to the latter.

Keywords: Efficiency, farmer innovation systems, improved agricultural technologies, two-step stochastic metafrontier approach.

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Authors: Anton A. Larenkov, Alesya Ya Maruk

Abstract:

In the present study, highly effective iTLC single strip method for the determination of radiochemical purity (RCP) of ⁶⁸Ga-BCA-peptides was developed (with no double-developing, changing of eluents or other additional manipulation). In this method iTLC-SG strips and commonly used eluent TFA_aq. (3-5 % (v/v)) are used. The method allows determining each of the key radiochemical forms of ⁶⁸Ga (colloidal, bound, ionic) separately with the peaks separation being no less than 4 σ. Rf = 0.0-0.1 for ⁶⁸Ga-colloid; Rf = 0.5-0.6 for ⁶⁸Ga-BCA-peptides; Rf = 0.9-1.0 for ionic ⁶⁸Ga. The method is simple and fast: For developing length of 75 mm only 4-6 min is required (versus 18-20 min for pharmacopoeial method). The method has been tested on various compounds (including ⁶⁸Ga-DOTA-TOC, ⁶⁸Ga-DOTA-TATE, ⁶⁸Ga-NODAGA-RGD₂ etc.). The cross-validation work for every specific form of ⁶⁸Ga showed good correlation between method developed and control (pharmacopoeial) methods. The method can become convenient and much more informative replacement for pharmacopoeial methods, including HPLC.

Keywords: DOTA-TATE, 68Ga, quality control, radiochemical purity, radiopharmaceuticals, iTLC.

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Authors: V. Ngamaramvaranggul, S. Thenissara

Abstract:

The simulation of extrusion process is studied widely in order to both increase products and improve quality, with broad application in wire coating. The annular tube-tooling extrusion was set up by a model that is termed as Navier-Stokes equation in addition to a rheological model of differential form based on singlemode exponential Phan-Thien/Tanner constitutive equation in a twodimensional cylindrical coordinate system for predicting the contraction point of the polymer melt beyond the die. Numerical solutions are sought through semi-implicit Taylor-Galerkin pressurecorrection finite element scheme. The investigation was focused on incompressible creeping flow with long relaxation time in terms of Weissenberg numbers up to 200. The isothermal case was considered with surface tension effect on free surface in extrudate flow and no slip at die wall. The Stream Line Upwind Petrov-Galerkin has been proposed to stabilize solution. The structure of mesh after die exit was adjusted following prediction of both top and bottom free surfaces so as to keep the location of contraction point around one unit length which is close to experimental results. The simulation of extrusion process is studied widely in order to both increase products and improve quality, with broad application in wire coating. The annular tube-tooling extrusion was set up by a model that is termed as Navier-Stokes equation in addition to a rheological model of differential form based on single-mode exponential Phan- Thien/Tanner constitutive equation in a two-dimensional cylindrical coordinate system for predicting the contraction point of the polymer melt beyond the die. Numerical solutions are sought through semiimplicit Taylor-Galerkin pressure-correction finite element scheme. The investigation was focused on incompressible creeping flow with long relaxation time in terms of Weissenberg numbers up to 200. The isothermal case was considered with surface tension effect on free surface in extrudate flow and no slip at die wall. The Stream Line Upwind Petrov-Galerkin has been proposed to stabilize solution. The structure of mesh after die exit was adjusted following prediction of both top and bottom free surfaces so as to keep the location of contraction point around one unit length which is close to experimental results.

Keywords: wire coating, free surface, tube-tooling, extrudate swell, surface tension, finite element method.

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Authors: S.H. Zulkarnain, E.M.A Zawawi, M.Y. A. Rahman, N.K.F. Mustafa

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Building maintenance plays an important role among other activities in building operation. Building defect and damages are part of the building maintenance 'bread and butter' as their input indicated in the building inspection is very much justified, particularly as to determine the building performance. There will be no escape route or short cut from building maintenance work. This study attempts to identify a competitive performance that translates the Critical Success Factor achievements and satisfactorily meet the university-s expectation. The quality and efficiency of maintenance management operation of building depends, to some extent, on the building condition information, the expectation from the university sector and the works carried out for each maintenance activity. This paper reviews the critical success factor in building maintenance management practice for university sectors from four (4) perspectives which include (1) customer (2) internal processes (3) financial and (4) learning and growth perspective. The enhancement of these perspectives is capable to reach the maintenance management goal for a better living environment in university campus.

Keywords: Building maintenance, Critical Success Factor, Management, University

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Authors: Marjan Mahdavi-Roshan, Arsalan Salari, Mahbobeh Gholipour

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Hypertension is one of the important reasons of morbidity and mortality in countries, including Iran. It has been shown that hypertension is a consequence of the interaction of genetics and environment. Nutrients have important roles in the controlling of blood pressure. We assessed dietary habit and anthropometric status in patients with hypertension in the north of Iran, and that have special dietary habit and according to their culture. This study was conducted on 127 patients with newly recognized hypertension and the 120 normotensive participants. Anthropometric status was measured and demographic characteristics, and medical condition were collected by valid questionnaires and dietary habit assessment was assessed with 3-day food recall (two weekdays and one weekend). The mean age of participants was 58 ± 6.7 years. The mean level of energy intake, saturated fat, vitamin D, potassium, zinc, dietary fiber, vitamin C, calcium, phosphorus, copper and magnesium was significantly lower in the hypertensive group compared to the control (p < 0.05). After adjusting for energy intake, positive association was observe between hypertension and some dietary nutrients including; Cholesterol [OR: 1.1, P: 0.001, B: 0.06], fiber [OR: 1.6, P: 0.001, B: 1.8], vitamin D [OR: 2.6, P: 0.006, B: 0.9] and zinc [OR: 1.4, P: 0.006, B: 0.3] intake. Logistic regression analysis showed that there was not significant association between hypertension, weight and waist circumference. In our study, the mean intake of some nutrients was lower in the hypertensive individuals compared to the normotensive individual. Health training about suitable dietary habits and easier access to vitamin D supplementation in patients with hypertension are cost-effective tools to improve outcomes in Iran.

Keywords: Hypertension, dietary intake, weight, waist circumference, North of Iran.

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Authors: Samia Alblwi, Amani Ayad

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Mutation testing is the art of generating syntactic variations of a base program and checking whether a candidate test suite can identify all the mutants that are not semantically equivalent to the base; this technique can be used to assess the quality of test suite. One of the main obstacles to the widespread use of mutation testing is cost, as even small programs (a few dozen lines of code) can give rise to a large number of mutants (up to hundreds); this has created an incentive to seek to reduce the number of mutants while preserving their collective effectiveness. Two criteria have been used to reduce the size of mutant sets: equivalence, which aims to partition the set of mutants into equivalence classes modulo semantic equivalence, and selecting one representative per class; and, subsumption, which aims to define a partial ordering among mutants that ranks mutants by effectiveness and seeks to select maximal elements in this ordering. In this paper, we analyze these two policies using analytical and empirical criteria.

Keywords: Mutation testing, mutant sets, mutant equivalence, mutant subsumption, mutant set minimization.

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Authors: Violina R. Angelova, Mariana N. Perifanova-Nemska, Galina P. Uzunova, Elitsa N. Kolentsova

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Comparative research has been conducted to allow us to determine the accumulation of heavy metals (Pb, Zn and Cd) in the vegetative and reproductive organs of safflower, and to identify the possibility of its growth on soils contaminated by heavy metals and efficacy for phytoremediation. The experiment was performed on an agricultural field contaminated by the Non-Ferrous-Metal Works (MFMW) near Plovdiv, Bulgaria. The experimental plots were situated at different distances (0.1, 0.5, 2.0, and 15 km) from the source of pollution. The contents of heavy metals in plant materials (roots, stems, leaves, seeds) were determined. The quality of safflower oils (heavy metals and fatty acid composition) was also determined. The quantitative measurements were carried out with inductively-coupled plasma (ICP). Safflower is a plant that is tolerant to heavy metals and can be referred to the hyperaccumulators of lead and cadmium and the accumulators of zinc. The plant can be successfully used in the phytoremediation of heavy metal contaminated soils. The processing of safflower seeds into oil and the use of the obtained oil will greatly reduce the cost of phytoremediation.

Keywords: Heavy metals, phytoremediation, polluted soils, safflower.

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Authors: Ilef Ketata, Mohamed Khalil Baazaoui, Robert Fromm, Ahmad Fakhfakh, Faouzi Derbel

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The integration of wireless communication, e.g. in realor quasi-real-time applications, is related to many challenges such as energy consumption, communication range, latency, quality of service, and reliability. The improvement of wireless sensor network performance starts by enhancing the capabilities of each sensor node. While consuming less energy, wake-up receiver (WuRx) nodes have an impact on reducing latency. The solution for sensitivity improvements of sensor nodes, and WuRx in particular, with an energy consumption expense is low-noise amplifier (LNAs) blocks placed in the RF Antenna. This paper presents a comparative study for improving communication range and decreasing the energy consumption of WuRx nodes.

Keywords: Wireless sensor network, wake-up receiver, duty-cycled, low-noise amplifier, envelope detector, range study.

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Authors: Raid A. Al-Aomar

Abstract:

This paper presents an application of 5S lean technology to a production facility. Due to increased demand, high product variety, and a push production system, the plant has suffered from excessive wastes, unorganized workstations, and unhealthy work environment. This has translated into increased production cost, frequent delays, and low workers morale. Under such conditions, it has become difficult, if not impossible, to implement effective continuous improvement studies. Hence, the lean project is aimed at diagnosing the production process, streamlining the workflow, removing/reducing process waste, cleaning the production environment, improving plant layout, and organizing workstations. 5S lean technology is utilized for achieving project objectives. The work was a combination of both culture changes and tangible/physical changes on the shop floor. The project has drastically changed the plant and developed the infrastructure for a successful implementation of continuous improvement as well as other best practices and quality initiatives.

Keywords: 5S Technique, Continuous Improvement, Kaizen, Lean Technology, Work Methods, Work Standards

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Authors: Popa Cosmin, Chiran Aurel

Abstract:

The study aimed to identify the logical structure of data and particularities of developing and testing a website designed for selling farm products through online auctions. The research is based on a short literature review in the field and exploratory trials of some successful models from other industries, in order to identify the advantages of using such tool, as well as the optimal structure and functionality of an auction portal. In the last part, the study focuses on the results of testing the website by the potential beneficiaries. Conclusions of the study underlines that the particularities of some agricultural products could raise difficulties in the process of selling them through online auctions, but the use of such system it is perceived to bring significant improvements in the supply chain. The results of scientific investigations require a more detailed study regarding the importance of using quality standards for agricultural products sold via online auction, the impact that implementation of an online payment system could have on trade with agricultural products and problems which could arise in using the website in different countries.

Keywords: E-commerce, online auctions, marketing.

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Authors: E. Muneera, A. Anuar, A. S. Zulkiflee

Abstract:

The evolution in project management was triggered by the changes in management philosophy and practices in order to maintain competitive advantage and continuous success in the field. The purpose of this paper is to highlight the practicality of cognitive style and unlearning approach in influencing the achievement of project success by project managers. It introduces the concept of planning, knowing and creating style from cognitive style field in the light of achieving time, cost, quality and stakeholders appreciation in project success context. Further it takes up a discussion of the unlearning approach as a moderator in enhancing the relationship between cognitive style and project success. The paper bases itself on literature review from established disciplines like psychology, sociology and philosophy regarding cognitive style, unlearning and project success in general. The analysis and synthesis of literature in the subject area a conceptual paper is utilized as the basis of future research to form a comprehensive framework for project managers in enhancing the project management competency.

Keywords: Cognitive Style, Project Managers, Project Success, Unlearning.

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Authors: Jędrzej Minda

Abstract:

In aviation a very narrow spectrum of control inceptors exists, namely centre-sticks, side-sticks, pedals and yokes. However, new types of aircraft are emerging and with them a need for new inceptors. A manned multicopter created at AGH University of Science and Technology is an aircraft in which the pilot takes a specific orientation in which classical inceptors may be impractical to use. In this paper unique kind of control inceptor is described, which aims to provide a handling quality not unlike standard solutions and provide a firm grip point for the pilot without the risk of involuntary stick movement. Simulations of pilot-inceptor model were performed in order to compare dynamic amplification factors of design described in this paper with classical one. Functional prototype is built on which drone pilots carried out a comfort of use evaluation. This paper provides a general overview of the project, including literature review, reasoning behind components selection and mechanism design finalized by conclusions.

Keywords: Mechanisms, mechatronics, embedded control, serious gaming, rescue missions, rescue robotics.

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