Search results for: human condition

Authors: C. M. A. Robles G., R. A. Hernandez-Becerril

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We board the problem of creating a seismic alert system, based upon artificial neural networks, trained by using the well-known back-propagation and genetic algorithms, in order to emit the alarm for the population located into a specific city, about an eminent earthquake greater than 4.5 Richter degrees, and avoiding disasters and human loses. In lieu of using the propagation wave, we employed the magnitude of the earthquake, to establish a correlation between the recorded magnitudes from a controlled area and the city, where we want to emit the alarm. To measure the accuracy of the posed method, we use a database provided by CIRES, which contains the records of 2500 quakes incoming from the State of Guerrero and Mexico City. Particularly, we performed the proposed method to generate an issue warning in Mexico City, employing the magnitudes recorded in the State of Guerrero.

Keywords: Seismic Alert System, Artificial Neural Networks, Genetic Algorithms.

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Authors: L. Mota, O. Frausto

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Marine Protected Areas can benefit from nature based tourism, monitoring environmental impacts and also become target for human presence. From more than 3 million tourists visiting Cozumel Island every year, an average of 2,8 million arrive by cruise ship, and 41% are estimated to have motivation for water activities. The destination is relying so much on the tourism activity, that scuba diving and snorkeling in the National Park Reef of Cozumel sustain the major economic activity. In order to achieve the sustainable development indicator designed for regional environmental development, the PNAC offers a training course to tourism providers to access the protected area. This way, the update of the last 5 years of such training is directed to diving staff, boat crew and professionals, making them able to assist in managing the natural resource. Moreover, the case study is an example to be used for raising awareness among tourists visiting protected areas.

Keywords: Education, Marine Protected Area, scuba diving, sustainability, tourism.

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Authors: A. Beheshti, S. Salkhordeh, H. Amini

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Based on statistics released by Islamic Republic of Iran Police (IRIP), from among the total 9555 motorcycle accidents that happened in 2007, 857 riders died and 11219 one got injured. If we also consider the death toll and injuries of other vehicles' accidents resulted from traffic violation by motorcycle riders, then paying attention to the motorcycle accidents seems to be very necessary. Therefore, in this study we tried to investigate the traits and issues related to production, application, and training, along with causes of motorcycle accidents from 4 perspectives of road, human, environment and vehicle and also based on statistical and geographical analysis of accident-sheets prepared by Iran Road Patrol Department (IRPD). Unfamiliarity of riders with regulations and techniques of motorcycling, disuse of safety equipments, inefficiency of roads and design of junctions for safe trafficking of motorcycles and finally the lack of sufficient control of responsible organizations are among the major causes which lead to these accidents.

Keywords: Motorcycle, Motorcycle riders, Road accidents, Statistical analysis of accidents.

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Authors: Sahar Dehyouri, Seyed Jamal Farajollah Hosseini

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Perspective of food security in 21 century showed shortage of food that production is faced to vital problem. Food security strategy is applied longtime method to assess required food. Meanwhile, nanotechnology revolution changes the world face. Nanotechnology is adequate method utilize of its characteristics to decrease environmental problems and possible further access to food for small farmers. This article will show impact of production and adoption of nanocrops on food security. Population is researchers of agricultural research center of Esfahan province. The results of study show that there was a relationship between uses, conversion, distribution, and production of nanocrops, operative human resources, operative circumstance, and constrains of usage of nanocrops and food security. Multivariate regression analysis by enter model shows that operative circumstance, use, production and constrains of usage of nanocrops had positive impact on food security and they determine in four steps 20 percent of it.

Keywords: adoption, food safety, food security, nanocrops

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Authors: Aini Hussain, M A Hannan, Azah Mohamed, Hilmi Sanusi, Burhanuddin Yeop Majlis

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Airbag deployment has been known to be responsible for huge death, incidental injuries and broken bones due to low crash severity and wrong deployment decisions. Therefore, the authorities and industries have been looking for more innovative and intelligent products to be realized for future enhancements in the vehicle safety systems (VSSs). Although the VSSs technologies have advanced considerably, they still face challenges such as how to avoid unnecessary and untimely airbag deployments that can be hazardous and fatal. Currently, most of the existing airbag systems deploy without regard to occupant size and position. As such, this paper will focus on the occupant and crash sensing performances due to frontal collisions for the new breed of so called smart airbag systems. It intends to provide a thorough discussion relating to the occupancy detection, occupant size classification, occupant off-position detection to determine safe distance zone for airbag deployment, crash-severity analysis and airbag decision algorithms via a computer modeling. The proposed system model consists of three main modules namely, occupant sensing, crash severity analysis and decision fusion. The occupant sensing system module utilizes the weight sensor to determine occupancy, classify the occupant size, and determine occupant off-position condition to compute safe distance for airbag deployment. The crash severity analysis module is used to generate relevant information pertinent to airbag deployment decision. Outputs from these two modules are fused to the decision module for correct and efficient airbag deployment action. Computer modeling work is carried out using Simulink, Stateflow, SimMechanics and Virtual Reality toolboxes.

Keywords: Crash severity analysis, occupant size classification, smart airbag, vehicle safety system.

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Authors: Zaini Mohd-Zain, Mohd-Saufee A.F. Mohd-Ismail, Norlida Buniyamin

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Staphylococcus aureus, one of the microflora in a human external auditory canal (EAC) is frequently exposed to highfrequency electromagnetic field (HF-EMF) generated by mobile phones. It is normally non-pathogenic but in certain circumstances, it can cause infections. This study investigates the changes in the physiology of S. aureus when exposed to HF-EMF of a mobile phone. Exponentially grown S. aureus were exposed to two conditions of EMF irradiation (standby-mode and on-call mode) at four durations; 15, 30, 45 and 60 min. Changes in the viability and biofilm production of the S. aureus were compared between the two conditions of exposure. EMF from the standby-mode has enhanced the growth of S. aureus but during on-call, the growth was suppressed. No significant difference in the amount of biofilm produced in both modes of exposure was observed. Thus, HF-EMF of mobile phone affects the viability of S. aureus but not its ability to produce biofilm.

Keywords: Electromagnetic field, mobile phone, biofilm, Staphylococcus aureus

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Authors: Rusyaizila Ramli, Nasriah Zakaria, Putra Sumari

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Privacy issues commonly discussed among researchers, practitioners, and end-users in pervasive healthcare. Pervasive healthcare systems are applications that can support patient-s need anytime and anywhere. However, pervasive healthcare raises privacy concerns since it can lead to situations where patients may not be aware that their private information is being shared and becomes vulnerable to threat. We have systematically analyzed the privacy issues and present a summary in tabular form to show the relationship among the issues. The six issues identified are medical information misuse, prescription leakage, medical information eavesdropping, social implications for the patient, patient difficulties in managing privacy settings, and lack of support in designing privacy-sensitive applications. We narrow down the issues and chose to focus on the issue of 'lack of support in designing privacysensitive applications' by proposing a privacy-sensitive architecture specifically designed for pervasive healthcare monitoring systems.

Keywords: Human Factors, Pervasive Healthcare, PrivacyIssues

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Authors: Laszlo Vari

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In the digital age, the spread of the mobile world and the nature of the cyberspace, offers many new opportunities for the prevalence of the fundamental right to free expression, and therefore, for free speech and freedom of the press; however, these new information communication technologies carry many new challenges. Defamation, censorship, fake news, misleading information, hate speech, breach of copyright etc., are only some of the violations, all of which can be derived from the harmful exercise of freedom of expression, all which become more salient in the internet. Here raises the question: how can we eliminate these problems, and practice our fundamental freedom rightfully? To answer this question, we should understand the elements and the characteristic of the nature of freedom of expression, and the role of the actors whose duties and responsibilities are crucial in the prevalence of this fundamental freedom. To achieve this goal, this paper will explore the European practice to understand instructions found in the case-law of the European Court of Human rights for the rightful exercise of freedom of expression.

Keywords: Collision of rights, European case-law, freedom opinion and expression, media law, freedom of information, online expression

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Authors: L. H. Chong, Y. Y. Chen

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Information is increasing in volumes; companies are overloaded with information that they may lose track in getting the intended information. It is a time consuming task to scan through each of the lengthy document. A shorter version of the document which contains only the gist information is more favourable for most information seekers. Therefore, in this paper, we implement a text summarization system to produce a summary that contains gist information of oil and gas news articles. The summarization is intended to provide important information for oil and gas companies to monitor their competitor-s behaviour in enhancing them in formulating business strategies. The system integrated statistical approach with three underlying concepts: keyword occurrences, title of the news article and location of the sentence. The generated summaries were compared with human generated summaries from an oil and gas company. Precision and recall ratio are used to evaluate the accuracy of the generated summary. Based on the experimental results, the system is able to produce an effective summary with the average recall value of 83% at the compression rate of 25%.

Keywords: Information retrieval, text summarization, statistical approach.

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Authors: V. Veeraprathap, G. S. Harish, G. Narendra Kumar

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Uncontrolled growth of abnormal cells in the lung in the form of tumor can be either benign (non-cancerous) or malignant (cancerous). Patients with Lung Cancer (LC) have an average of five years life span expectancy provided diagnosis, detection and prediction, which reduces many treatment options to risk of invasive surgery increasing survival rate. Computed Tomography (CT), Positron Emission Tomography (PET), and Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) for earlier detection of cancer are common. Gaussian filter along with median filter used for smoothing and noise removal, Histogram Equalization (HE) for image enhancement gives the best results without inviting further opinions. Lung cavities are extracted and the background portion other than two lung cavities is completely removed with right and left lungs segmented separately. Region properties measurements area, perimeter, diameter, centroid and eccentricity measured for the tumor segmented image, while texture is characterized by Gray-Level Co-occurrence Matrix (GLCM) functions, feature extraction provides Region of Interest (ROI) given as input to classifier. Two levels of classifications, K-Nearest Neighbor (KNN) is used for determining patient condition as normal or abnormal, while Artificial Neural Networks (ANN) is used for identifying the cancer stage is employed. Discrete Wavelet Transform (DWT) algorithm is used for the main feature extraction leading to best efficiency. The developed technology finds encouraging results for real time information and on line detection for future research.

Keywords: ANN, DWT, GLCM, KNN, ROI, artificial neural networks, discrete wavelet transform, gray-level co-occurrence matrix, k-nearest neighbor, region of interest.

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Authors: Mehdi Gheibi, Shahram Hesami

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Scolothrips longicornis Priesner is one of the important predators of tetranychid mites with a wide distribution throughout Iran. Life table and population growth parameters of S. longicornis feeding on two-spotted spider mite, Tetranychus turkestani Ugarov & Nikolski were investigated under laboratory condition (26±1ºC, 65±5% R.H. and 16L: 8D). To carry of these experiments, S. longicornis collections reared on cowpea infested with T. turkestani were prepared. The eggs with less than 24 hours old were selected and reared. The emerged larvae feeding directly on cowpea leaf discs which were infested with T. turkestani. Thirty females of S. longicornis with 24 hours age were selected and released on infested leaf discs. They replaced daily to a new leaf disc and the laying eggs have counted. The experiment continued till the last thrips had died. The result showed that the mean age mortality of the adult female thrips were between 21-25 days which is nearly equal life expectancy (ex) at the time of adult eclosion. Parameters related to reproductive table including gross reproductive rate, net reproductive rate, intrinsic rate of natural increase and finite rate of increase were 48.91, 37.63, 0.26 and 2.3, respectively. Mean age per female/day, mean fertile egg per female/day, gross hatch rate, mean net age fertility, mean net age fecundity, net fertility rate and net fecundity rate were 2.23, 1.76, 0.87, 13.87, 14.26, 69.1 and 78.5, respectively. Sex ratio of offspring also recorded daily. The highest sex ratio for females was 0.88 in first day of oviposition. The sex ratio decreased gradually and reached under 0.46 after the day 26 and the oviposition rate declined. Then it seems that maintenance of rearing culture of predatory thrips for mass rearing later than 26 days after egg-laying commence is not profitable.

Keywords: Tetranychus, Scolothrips, Demography, Life table, Reproductive table

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Authors: Sajjad Shojaeidoust, Mohsen Ghanbarzadeh, Abdolhamid Habibi

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Exercise-induced bronchospasm (EIB) is a transitory condition of airflow obstruction that is associated with physical activities. It is noted that high ventilation can lead to an increase in the heat and reduce in the moisture in airways resistance of trachea. Also causes of pathophysiological mechanism are EIB. Accordingly, studying some parameters of pulmonary function (FVC, FEV1) among active people seems quintessential. The aim of this study was to analyze bronchospasm following the implementation of a program of maximum aerobic exercise in active men at Chamran University of Ahwaz. Method: In this quasi-experimental study, the population consisted of all students at Chamran University. Among from 55 participants, of which, 15 were randomly selected as the experimental group. In this study, the size of the maximum oxygen consumption was initially measured, and then, based on the maximum oxygen consumed, the active individuals were identified. After five minutes’ warm-up, Strand treadmill exercise test was taken (one session) and pulmonary parameters were measured at both pre- and post-tests (spirometer). After data normalization using KS and non-normality of the data, the Wilcoxon test was used to analyze the data. The significance level for all statistical surveys was considered p≤0/05. Results: The results showed that the ventilation factors and bronchospasm (FVC, FEV1) in the pre-test and post-test resulted in no significant difference among the active people (p≥0/05). Discussion and conclusion: Based on the results observed in this study, it appears that pulmonary indices in active individuals increased after aerobic test. The increase in this indicator in active people is due to increased volume and elasticity of the lungs as well. In other words, pulmonary index is affected by rib muscles. It is considered that progress over respiratory muscle strength and endurance has raised FEV1 in the active cases.

Keywords: Bronchospasm, aerobic active maximum, pulmonary function, spirometer.

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Authors: P. Pongsumpun, I. M. Tang

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Malaria is a serious, acute and chronic relapsing infection to humans. It is characterized by periodic attacks of chills, fever, nausea, vomiting, back pain, increased sweating anemia, splenomegaly (enlargement of the spleen) and often-fatal complications.The malaria disease is caused by the multiplication of protozoa parasite of the genus Plasmodium. Malaria in humans is due to 4 types of malaria parasites such that Plasmodium falciparum, Plasmodium vivax, Plasmodium malariae and Plasmodium ovale. P.vivax malaria differs from P. falciparum malaria in that a person suffering from P. vivax malaria can experience relapses of the disease. Between the relapses, the malaria parasite will remain dormant in the liver of the patient, leading to the patient being classified as being in the dormant class. A mathematical model for the transmission of P. vivax is developed in which the human population is divided into four classes, the susceptible, the infected, the dormant and the recovered. In this paper, we formulate the dynamical model of P. vivax malaria to see the distribution of this disease at the district level.

Keywords: Dynamical model, household, local level, Plasmodium Vivax Malaria.

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Authors: Ganetsou Evanthia, Koutsikos Emmanouil, Austin Anna Maria

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Information technology has long served the needs of individuals for learning and entertainment, but much less for children in sickness. The aim of the proposed online video game is to provide immersive learning opportunities as well as essential social and emotional scenarios for hospital-bound children with long-term illness. Online self-paced courses on chosen school subjects, including specialized software and multisensory assessments, aim at enhancing children’s academic achievement and sense of inclusion, while doctor minigames familiarize and educate young patients on their medical conditions. Online ethical dilemmas will offer children opportunities to contemplate on the importance of medical procedures and following assigned medication, often challenging for young patients; they will therefore reflect on their condition, re-evaluate their perceptions about hospitalization, and assume greater personal responsibility for their progress. Children’s emotional and psychosocial needs are addressed by engaging in social conventions, such as interactive, daily, collaborative mini games with other hospitalized peers, like virtual competitive sports games, weekly group psychodrama sessions, and online birthday parties or sleepovers. Social bonding is also fostered by having a virtual pet to interact with and take care of, as well as a virtual nurse to discuss and reflect on the mood of the day, engage in constructive dialogue and perspective-taking, and offer reminders. Access to the platform will be available throughout the day depending on the patient’s health status. The program is designed to minimize escapism and feelings of exclusion and can flexibly be adapted to offer post-treatment and a support online system at home.

Keywords: Hospitalized children, interactive games, long-term illness, cognitive enhancement, socioemotional development.

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Authors: Ugur Karakaya, Hasan Bulent Kantarcı

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In this study, firstly democratic thoughts which directly or indirectly affect economic development and/or the interaction between authoritarian regimes and the economic development and the direction and channels of this interaction were studied and then the study tried to determine how democracy affects economic development. It was concluded that the positive contributions of democracy to economic development were more determinant than the effects that were either negative or restrictive in terms of development. When compared to autocracy, since democracy is more successful in managing social conflicts, ensuring political stability and preventing social disasters such as famine, it contributes more to economic development. Democracy also facilitates delegation of authority, provides a stable investment environment and accelerates mobilization of resources in accordance with economic growth/development. Democracy leads to an increase in human capital accumulation and increases the growth rate through reducing income inequality. It can be said that democratic regimes are the most appropriate ones in terms of increasing economic performance and supporting economic development through their strong institutional structures and the assurance they will ensure in property rights.

Keywords: Autocratic Regime, Democracy, Economic Development, Economic Freedom.

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Authors: J. Mehena, M. C. Adhikary

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Edge detection is one of the most important tasks in image processing. Medical image edge detection plays an important role in segmentation and object recognition of the human organs. It refers to the process of identifying and locating sharp discontinuities in medical images. In this paper, a neuro-fuzzy based approach is introduced to detect the edges for noisy medical images. This approach uses desired number of neuro-fuzzy subdetectors with a postprocessor for detecting the edges of medical images. The internal parameters of the approach are optimized by training pattern using artificial images. The performance of the approach is evaluated on different medical images and compared with popular edge detection algorithm. From the experimental results, it is clear that this approach has better performance than those of other competing edge detection algorithms for noisy medical images.

Keywords: Edge detection, neuro-fuzzy, image segmentation, artificial image, object recognition.

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Authors: Nazli Ebrahimi, Sharan Kaur Garib Singh, Reza Sigari Tabrizi

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One of the main concerns in the Information Technology field is adoption with new technologies in organizations which may result in increasing the usage paste of these technologies.This study aims to look at the issue of culture-s role in accepting and using new technologies in organizations. The study examines the effect of culture on accepting and intention to use new technology in organizations. Studies show culture is one of the most important barriers in adoption new technologies. The model used for accepting and using new technology is Technology Acceptance Model (TAM), while for culture and dimensions a well-known theory by Hofsted was used. Results of the study show significant effect of culture on intention to use new technologies. All four dimensions of culture were tested to find the strength of relationship with behavioral intention to use new technologies. Findings indicate the important role of culture in the level of intention to use new technologies and different role of each dimension to improve adaptation process. The study suggests that transferring of new technologies efforts are most likely to be successful if the parties are culturally aligned.

Keywords: Human-computer interaction, accepting new technologies, culture, behavioral intention.

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Authors: Babanyara Y. Y., Ibrahim D. B., Garba T., Bogoro A. G., Abubakar, M. Y.

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Medical care is vital for our life, health and well-being. But the waste generated from medical activities can be hazardous, toxic and even lethal because of their high potential for diseases transmission. The hazardous and toxic parts of waste from healthcare establishments comprising infectious, medical and radioactive material as well as sharps constitute a grave risks to mankind and the environment, if these are not properly treated / disposed or are allowed to be mixed with other municipal waste. In Nigeria, practical information on this aspect is inadequate and research on the public health implications of poor management of medical wastes is few and limited in scope. Findings drawn from Literature particularly in the third world countries highlights financial problems, lack of awareness of risks involved in MWM, lack of appropriate legislation and lack of specialized MWM staff. The paper recommends how MWM practices can be improved in medical facilities.

Keywords: Environmental pollution, infectious, management, medical waste, public health.

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Authors: Hossein Mirzaee, Farhad Besharati

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A combination of image fusion and quad tree decomposition method is used for detecting the sunspot trajectories in each month and computation of the latitudes of these trajectories in each solar hemisphere. Daily solar images taken with SOHO satellite are fused for each month and the result of fused image is decomposed with Quad Tree decomposition method in order to classifying the sunspot trajectories and then to achieve the precise information about latitudes of sunspot trajectories. Also with fusion we deduce some physical remarkable conclusions about sun magnetic fields behavior. Using quad tree decomposition we give information about the region on sun surface and the space angle that tremendous flares and hot plasma gases permeate interplanetary space and attack to satellites and human technical systems. Here sunspot images in June, July and August 2001 are used for studying and give a method to compute the latitude of sunspot trajectories in each month with sunspot images.

Keywords: Quad Tree Decomposition, Sunspot.

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Authors: A. Gandomkar, K. Fouladi

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One of the efficient factors in comprehensive development of an area is to provide water sources and on the other hand the appropriate management of them. Population growth and nourishment security for such a population necessitate the achievement of constant development besides the reforming of traditional management in order to increase the profit of sources; In this case, the constant exploitation of sources for the next generations will be considered in this program. The achievement of this development without the consideration and possibility of water development will be too difficult. Zayanderood basin with 41500 areas in square kilometers contains 7 sub-basins and 20 units of hydrologic. In this basin area, from the entire environment descending, just a small part will enter into the river currents and the rest will be out of efficient usage by various ways. The most important surface current of this basin is Zayanderood River with 403 kilometers length which is originated from east slopes of Zagros mount and after draining of this basin area it will enter into Gaavkhooni pond. The existence of various sources and consumptions of water in Zayanderood basin, water transfer of the other basin areas into this basin, of course the contradiction between the upper and lower beneficiaries, the existence of worthwhile natural ecosystems such as Gaavkhooni swamp in this basin area and finally, the drought condition and lack of water in this area all necessitate the existence of comprehensive management of water sources in this central basin area of Iran as this method is a kind of management which considers the development and the management of water sources as an equilibrant way to increase the economical and social benefits. In this study, it is tried to survey the network of surface water sources of basin in upper and lower sections; at the most, according to the difficulties and deficiencies of an efficient management of water sources in this basin area, besides the difficulties of water draining and the destructive phenomenon of flood-water, the appropriate guidelines according to the region conditions are presented in order to prevent the deviation of water in upper sections and development of regions in lower sections of Zayanderood dam.

Keywords: Zayanderood Basin, Efficient Management, Hydrology Climate.

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Authors: Hossein Nejati, Seyed H. Mirisaee, Gholam H. Dastghaibifard

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Computers are being integrated in the various aspects of human every day life in different shapes and abilities. This fact has intensified a requirement for the software development technologies which is ability to be: 1) portable, 2) adaptable, and 3) simple to develop. This problem is also known as the Pervasive Computing Problem (PCP) which can be implemented in different ways, each has its own pros and cons and Context Oriented Programming (COP) is one of the methods to address the PCP. In this paper a design for a COP framework, a context aware framework, is presented which has eliminated weak points of a previous design based on interpreter languages, while introducing the compiler languages power in implementing these frameworks. The key point of this improvement is combining COP and Dependency Injection (DI) techniques. Both old and new frameworks are analyzed to show advantages and disadvantages. Finally a simulation of both designs is proposed to indicating that the practical results agree with the theoretical analysis while the new design runs almost 8 times faster.

Keywords: Dependency Injection, Compiler-based architecture, Context-Oriented Programming, COP, Pervasive ComputingProblem

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Authors: Norsiah Abdul Hamid, Halimah Badioze Zaman

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This paper outlines the research conducted to propose na framework of 'Knowledge Society' (KS) in the Malaysian context. It is important to highlight that the emergence of KS is a result of the rapid growth in knowledge and information. However, the discussion of KS should not only be limited to the importance of knowledge, but a holistic KS is also determined by other imperative dimensions. This article discusses the results of a study conducted previously in Malaysia in order to identify the essential dimensions of KS, and consequently propose a KS framework in the Malaysian context. Two methods were employed, namely the Delphi technique and semi-structured interviews. The modified Delphi involved five rounds with ten experts, while the interviews were conducted with two prominent figures in Malaysia. The results support the proposed framework which contains seven major dimensions in order for Malaysia to become a KS in the future. The dimensions which are crucial for a holistic Malaysian KS are human capital, spirituality, economy, social, institutional, sustainability, and driven by the ICT.

Keywords: Malaysia, Knowledge Society, Framework, Delphi Technique, Interview.

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Authors: Vishwambhar Prasad Sati

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This article examines cloudburst-triggered natural hazards mainly flashfloods and landslides in the Uttarakhand Himalaya. It further describes mechanism and implications of natural hazards and illustrates the preventive and mitigation measures. We conducted this study through collection of archival data, case study of cloudburst hit areas, and rapid field visit of the affected regions. In the second week of August 2017, about 50 people died and huge losses to property were noticed due to cloudburst-triggered flashfloods. Our study shows that although cloudburst triggered hazards in the Uttarakhand Himalaya are natural phenomena and unavoidable yet, disasters can be minimized if preventive measures are taken up appropriately. We suggested that construction of human settlements, institutions and infrastructural facilities along the seasonal streams and the perennial rivers should be avoided to prevent disasters. Further, large-scale tree plantation on the degraded land will reduce the magnitude of hazards.

Keywords: Cloudburst, flashfloods, landslides, fragile landscape, Uttarakhand Himalaya.

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Authors: Nilam S. Octaviani, Semin

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The diesel engine is an internal combustion engine that uses compressed air to combust. The diesel engines are widely used in the world because it has the most excellent combustion efficiency than other types of internal combustion engine.  However, the exhaust emissions of it produce pollutants that are harmful to human health and the environment. Therefore, natural gas used as an alternative fuel using on compression ignition engine to respond those environment issues. This paper aims to discuss the comparison of the technical characteristics and exhaust gases emission from conventional diesel engine and dual fuel diesel engine. According to the study, the dual fuel engine applications have a lower compression pressure and has longer ignition delay compared with normal diesel mode. The engine power is decreased at dual fuel mode. However, the exhaust gases emission on dual fuel engine significantly reduce the nitrogen oxide (NOx), carbon dioxide (CO₂) and particular metter (PM) emissions.

Keywords: Diesel engine, dual fuel engine, emissions, technical characteristics.

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Authors: R. Tamborrino, F. Rinaudo

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Digital technologies offer possibilities to effectively convert historical archives into instruments of knowledge able to provide a guide for the interpretation of historical phenomena. Digital conversion and management of those documents allow the possibility to add other sources in a unique and coherent model that permits the intersection of different data able to open new interpretations and understandings. Urban history uses, among other sources, the inventories that register human activities in a specific space (e.g. cadastres, censuses, etc.). The geographic localisation of that information inside cartographic supports allows for the comprehension and visualisation of specific relationships between different historical realities registering both the urban space and the peoples living there. These links that merge the different nature of data and documentation through a new organisation of the information can suggest a new interpretation of other related events. In all these kinds of analysis, the use of GIS platforms today represents the most appropriate answer. The design of the related databases is the key to realise the ad-hoc instrument to facilitate the analysis and the intersection of data of different origins. Moreover, GIS has become the digital platform where it is possible to add other kinds of data visualisation. This research deals with the industrial development of Turin at the beginning of the 20th century. A census of factories realized just prior to WWI provides the opportunity to test the potentialities of GIS platforms for the analysis of urban landscape modifications during the first industrial development of the town. The inventory includes data about location, activities, and people. GIS is shaped in a creative way linking different sources and digital systems aiming to create a new type of platform conceived as an interface integrating different kinds of data visualisation. The data processing allows linking this information to an urban space, and also visualising the growth of the city at that time. The sources, related to the urban landscape development in that period, are of a different nature. The emerging necessity to build, enlarge, modify and join different buildings to boost the industrial activities, according to their fast development, is recorded by different official permissions delivered by the municipality and now stored in the Historical Archive of the Municipality of Turin. Those documents, which are reports and drawings, contain numerous data on the buildings themselves, including the block where the plot is located, the district, and the people involved such as the owner, the investor, and the engineer or architect designing the industrial building. All these collected data offer the possibility to firstly re-build the process of change of the urban landscape by using GIS and 3D modelling technologies thanks to the access to the drawings (2D plans, sections and elevations) that show the previous and the planned situation. Furthermore, they access information for different queries of the linked dataset that could be useful for different research and targets such as economics, biographical, architectural, or demographical. By superimposing a layer of the present city, the past meets to the present-industrial heritage, and people meet urban history.

Keywords: Digital urban history, census, digitalisation, GIS, modelling, digital humanities.

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Authors: S. Kittipongvises, T. Mino, C. Polprasert

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Global climate change has become the preeminent threat to human security in the 21st century. From mitigation perspective, this study aims to evaluate the performance of biogas renewable project under clean development mechanism activities (namely Korat-Waste-to-Energy) in Thailand and to assess local perceptions towards the significance of climate change mitigation and sustainability of such project in their community. Questionnaire was developed based on the national sustainable development criteria and was distributed among systematically selected households within project boundaries (n=260). Majority of the respondents strongly agreed with the reduction of odor problems (81%) and air pollution (76%). However, they were unsure about greenhouse gas reduction from such project and ignorant about the key issues of climate change. A lesson learned suggested that there is a need to further investigate the possible socio-psychological barriers may significantly shape public perception and understandings of climate change in the local context.

Keywords: Climate Change Mitigation, Local Perspective, Sustainability, Thailand

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Authors: Muhammad Kamil Abdullah, Khazaimatol S Subari, Justin Leo Cheang Loong, Nurul Nadia Ahmad

Abstract:

This paper discusses the effectiveness of the EEG signal for human identification using four or less of channels of two different types of EEG recordings. Studies have shown that the EEG signal has biometric potential because signal varies from person to person and impossible to replicate and steal. Data were collected from 10 male subjects while resting with eyes open and eyes closed in 5 separate sessions conducted over a course of two weeks. Features were extracted using the wavelet packet decomposition and analyzed to obtain the feature vectors. Subsequently, the neural networks algorithm was used to classify the feature vectors. Results show that, whether or not the subjects- eyes were open are insignificant for a 4– channel biometrics system with a classification rate of 81%. However, for a 2–channel system, the P4 channel should not be included if data is acquired with the subjects- eyes open. It was observed that for 2– channel system using only the C3 and C4 channels, a classification rate of 71% was achieved.

Keywords: Biometric, EEG, Wavelet Packet Decomposition, NeuralNetworks

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Authors: Peyman Honarmandi, Mazen Alhirsh

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Banner towing is a major form of advertisement. It consists of a banner showing a logo or a selection of words or letters being towed by an aircraft. Traditionally bush planes have been used to tow banners given their high thrust capabilities, however, with the development of Remote-Controlled (RC) aircraft, they could be a good replacement as RC planes mitigate the risk of human life and can be easier to operate. This paper studies the best banner design to be towed by an RC aircraft. This is done by conducting wind tunnel testing on an array of banners with different materials and designs. A pull gauge is used to record the drag force during testing which is then used to calculate the coefficient of drag, Cd. The testing results show that the best banner design would be a hybrid design with a solid and mesh material. The design with the lowest Cd of 0.082 was a half ripstop nylon half polyester mesh design. On the other hand, the design with highest Cd of 0.305 involved incorporating a tail chute to decrease fluttering.

Keywords: Aerodynamics of banner, banner design, banner towing, drag coefficients of banner, RC aircraft banner.

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Authors: Maliheh Raji, Hossein Abolghasemi, Jaber Safdari, Ali Kargari

Abstract:

Samarium as a rare-earth element is playing a growing important role in high technology. Traditional methods for extraction of rare earth metals such as ion exchange and solvent extraction have disadvantages of high investment and high energy consumption. Emulsion liquid membrane (ELM) as an improved solvent extraction technique is an effective transport method for separation of various compounds from aqueous solutions. In this work, the extraction of samarium from aqueous solutions by ELM was investigated using response surface methodology (RSM). The organic membrane phase of the ELM was a nanofluid consisted of multiwalled carbon nanotubes (MWCNT), Span80 as surfactant, Cyanex 272 as mobile carrier, and kerosene as base fluid. 1 M nitric acid solution was used as internal aqueous phase. The effects of the important process parameters on samarium extraction were investigated, and the values of these parameters were optimized using the Central Composition Design (CCD) of RSM. These parameters were the concentration of MWCNT in nanofluid, the carrier concentration, and the volume ratio of organic membrane phase to internal phase (Roi). The three-dimensional (3D) response surfaces of samarium extraction efficiency were obtained to visualize the individual and interactive effects of the process variables. A regression model for % extraction was developed, and its adequacy was evaluated. The result shows that % extraction improves by using MWCNT nanofluid in organic membrane phase and extraction efficiency of 98.92% can be achieved under the optimum conditions. In addition, demulsification was successfully performed and the recycled membrane phase was proved to be effective in the optimum condition.

Keywords: Cyanex 272, emulsion liquid membrane, multiwalled carbon nanotubes, nanofluid, response surface methodology, Samarium.

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Authors: Khalid Ghoulam, Belaid Bouikhalene, Zakaria Harmouch, Hicham Mouncif

Abstract:

One of the essential topics in the information systems is the registration management. The objective of this project is to create a web portal designed to help new students on the first access to the Sultan Moulay Slimane University SMSU (Practical Information, Pre-Registration, Placement Test, Terms of use ... etc.) while creating a secure space protecting both data from the institutions of the University and student information. This portal is accessible from any computer connected to the Internet inside and outside the campus. In this work, we present a platform on the first access to the SMSU which is essential for authentication in the digital work space of the university. This platform allows university to make better decisions for students clustering, to avoid traditional manual method, and to reduce the cost in human and material resources.

Keywords: Registration, SMSU, Security, FAUSMS, digital work space, Placement test.

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