Search results for: Samuel M. D. Oliveira

Authors: Guilherme Ribeiro, Alexandre Oliveira, Antonio Ferreira, Shyam Visweswaran, Gregory Cooper

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Patient-specific models are instance-based learning algorithms that take advantage of the particular features of the patient case at hand to predict an outcome. We introduce two patient-specific algorithms based on decision tree paradigm that use AUC as a metric to select an attribute. We apply the patient specific algorithms to predict outcomes in several datasets, including medical datasets. Compared to the patient-specific decision path (PSDP) entropy-based and CART methods, the AUC-based patient-specific decision path models performed equivalently on area under the ROC curve (AUC). Our results provide support for patient-specific methods being a promising approach for making clinical predictions.

Keywords: Approach instance-based, area Under the ROC Curve, Patient-specific Decision Path, clinical predictions.

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Authors: S. S. Pati, L. Herojit Singh, A. C. Oliveira, V. K. Garg

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Chitosan functionalized Fe3O4-Au core shell nanoparticles have been prepared using a two-step wet chemical approach using NaBH4 as reducing agent for formation of Au in ethylene glycol. X-ray diffraction studies shows individual phases of Fe3O4 and Au in the as prepared samples with crystallite size of 5.9 and 11.4 nm respectively. The functionalization of the core-shell nanostructure with Chitosan has been confirmed using Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy along with signatures of octahedral and tetrahedral sites of Fe3O4 below 600cm-1. Mössbauer spectroscopy shows decrease in particle-particle interaction in presence of Au shell (72% sextet) than pure oleic coated Fe3O4 nanoparticles (88% sextet) at room temperature. At 80K, oleic acid coated Fe3O4 shows only sextets whereas the Chitosan functionalized Fe3O4 and Chitosan functionalized Fe3O4@Au core shell show presence of 5 and 11% doublet, respectively.

Keywords: Magnetic nanoparticles, Fe3O4@Au core shell, iron oxide, Au nanoparticles.

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Authors: A. Oliveira-Brochado, R. Silva, C. Paulino

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The aim of this paper is to use an experiential view of wine tourism to develop a battery of items that can potentially capture the overall Douro Valley experience from the tourist’s perspective. The Douro Valley, a UNESCO World Heritage region located in Portugal, was the target of this study. The research took a mixed approach using both qualitative and quantitative designs. Firstly, we combine the literature review on service quality scales with a content analysis of five in-depth interviews with winery managers and a focus group with wine tourists to identify the main dimensions of the overall tourism experience and to develop a battery of items for each dimension. Eight dimensions of the overall wine tourism experience came out, as follows: winery service and staff, winery facilities, winery service, wine product, wine region environment, wine region accessibilities, wine region´s offerings, and the wine region and winery reputation.

Keywords: Wine tourism, Douro region, survey, wineries, experience.

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Authors: Mary L. G. S. Senna, Veruska, C. Dutra, Jr., Keity L. F. Oliveira, Patrícia A. Santos, Alana C. M. Santana

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Environmental impacts are the changes in the physical, chemical or biological properties of natural areas that are most often caused by human actions on the environment and which have consequences for human health, society and the elements of nature. The identification of the environmental impacts is important so that they are mitigated, and above all that the mitigating measures are applied in the area. This work aims to identify the environmental impacts generated in the Praia do Caju area in the city of Palmas/Brazil and show that the lack of structure on the beach intensifies the environmental impacts. The present work was carried out having as parameter, the typologies of exploratory and descriptive and quantitative research through a matrix of environmental impacts through direct observation and registration. The study took place during the holidays from August to December 2016 and photographic record of impacts. From the collected data it was possible to verify that Caju beach suffers constant degradation due to irregular deposition.

Keywords: Leisure, tourism, environmental impacts, Brazil.

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Authors: J. Areerut, F. Samuel

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The purpose of this research is to analyze the pattern of television commercials and how they encourage non-governmental organizations to build their image in Thailand. It realizes how public relations can impact an organization's image. It is a truth that bad public relations management can cause hurt a reputation. On the other hand, a very small amount of work in public relations helps your organization to be recognized broadly and eventually accepted even wider. The main idea in this paper is to study and analyze patterns of television commercials that could impact non-governmental organization's images in a greater way. This research uses questionnaires and content analysis to summarize results. The findings show the aspects of how patterns of television commercials that are suited to non-governmental organization work in Thailand. It will be useful for any non-governmental organization that wishes to build their image through television commercials and also for further work based on this research.

Keywords: Television Commercial (TVC), Organization Image, Non-Governmental Organization: NGO, Public Relation.

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Authors: G. F. Guimarães, A. R. de Faria, R. R. Rego, A. L. R. D’Oliveira

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One of the most relevant phenomena in manufacturing is the residual stress state development through the manufacturing chain. In most cases, the residual stresses have their origin in the heterogenous plastification produced by the processes. Although a few manufacturing processes have been successfully approached by numerical modeling, there is still lack of understanding on how these processes' interactions will affect the final stress state. The objective of this work is to analyze the effect of the grinding procedure on the residual stress state generated by a quasi-static indentation. The model consists in a simplified approach of shot peening, modeling four cases with variations in indenter size and force. This model was validated through topography, measured by optical 3D focus-variation. The indentation model configured with two loads was then exposed to two grinding procedures and the result was analyzed. It was observed that the grinding procedure will have a significant effect on the stress state.

Keywords: plasticity, residual stress, finite element method, manufacturing

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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: Gizelle K. Vianna, Gustavo S. Oliveira, Gabriel V. Cunha

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The use of decision support systems in agriculture may help monitoring large fields of crops by automatically detecting the symptoms of foliage diseases. In our work, we designed and implemented a decision support system for small tomatoes producers. This work investigates ways to recognize the late blight disease from the analysis of digital images of tomatoes, using a pair of multilayer perceptron neural networks. The networks outputs are used to generate repainted tomato images in which the injuries on the plant are highlighted, and to calculate the damage level of each plant. Those levels are then used to construct a situation map of a farm where a cellular automata simulates the outbreak evolution over the fields. The simulator can test different pesticides actions, helping in the decision on when to start the spraying and in the analysis of losses and gains of each choice of action.

Keywords: Artificial neural networks, cellular automata, decision support system, pattern recognition.

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Authors: Abeba Nigussie Turi, Xiangming Samuel Li

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Data-driven business models are more typical for established businesses than early-stage startups that strive to penetrate a market. This paper provided an extensive discussion on the principles of data analytics for early-stage digital entrepreneurial businesses. Here, we developed data-driven decision-making (DDDM) framework that applies to startups prone to multifaceted barriers in the form of poor data access, technical and financial constraints, to state some. The startup DDDM framework proposed in this paper is novel in its form encompassing startup data analytics enablers and metrics aligning with startups' business models ranging from customer-centric product development to servitization which is the future of modern digital entrepreneurship.

Keywords: Startup data analytics, data-driven decision-making, data acquisition, data generation, digital entrepreneurship.

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Authors: Joel Arrais, João E. Pereira, João Fernandes, José Luís Oliveira

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The scientific achievements coming from molecular biology depend greatly on the capability of computational applications to analyze the laboratorial results. A comprehensive analysis of an experiment requires typically the simultaneous study of the obtained dataset with data that is available in several distinct public databases. Nevertheless, developing a centralized access to these distributed databases rises up a set of challenges such as: what is the best integration strategy, how to solve nomenclature clashes, how to solve database overlapping data and how to deal with huge datasets. In this paper we present GeNS, a system that uses a simple and yet innovative approach to address several biological data integration issues. Compared with existing systems, the main advantages of GeNS are related to its maintenance simplicity and to its coverage and scalability, in terms of number of supported databases and data types. To support our claims we present the current use of GeNS in two concrete applications. GeNS currently contains more than 140 million of biological relations and it can be publicly downloaded or remotely access through SOAP web services.

Keywords: Data integration, biological databases

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Authors: S. R. De Oliveira, A. De Almeida, I. M. Dal Fabbro

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Residues are produced in all stages of human activities in terms of composition and volume which vary according to consumption practices and to production methods. Forms of significant harm to the environment are associated to volume of generated material as well as to improper disposal of solid wastes, whose negative effects are noticed more frequently in the long term. The solution to this problem constitutes a challenge to the government, industry and society, because they involve economic, social, environmental and, especially, awareness of the population in general. The main concerns are focused on the impact it can have on human health and on the environment (soil, water, air and sights). The hazardous waste produced mainly by industry, are particularly worrisome because, when improperly managed, they become a serious threat to the environment. In view of this issue, this study aimed to evaluate the management system of solid waste of a coprocessing industrial waste company, to propose improvements to the rejects generation management in a specific step of the Blending production process.

Keywords: Blending, environment, industrial residues.

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Authors: Anderson Rocha, Pedro Miguel de Figueiredo Dinis Oliveira Gaspar

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Machine vision has been widely used in recent years in agriculture, as a tool to promote the automation of processes and increase the levels of productivity. The aim of this work is the development of a path recognition algorithm based on image processing to guide a terrestrial robot in-between tree rows. The proposed algorithm was developed using the software MATLAB, and it uses several image processing operations, such as threshold detection, morphological erosion, histogram equalization and the Hough transform, to find edge lines along tree rows on an image and to create a path to be followed by a mobile robot. To develop the algorithm, a set of images of different types of orchards was used, which made possible the construction of a method capable of identifying paths between trees of different heights and aspects. The algorithm was evaluated using several images with different characteristics of quality and the results showed that the proposed method can successfully detect a path in different types of environments.

Keywords: Agricultural mobile robot, image processing, path recognition, Hough transform.

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Authors: Neves, L., Ferreira, V., Oliveira, R.

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Addition of an oily waste to a co-composting process of dairy cow manure with food waste, and the influence in the final product was evaluated. Three static composting piles with different substrates concentrations were assessed. Sawdust was also added to all composting piles to attain 60%, humidity at the beginning of the process. In pile 1, the co-substrates were the solid-phase of dairy cow manure, food waste and sawdust as bulking agent. In piles 2 and 3 there was an extra input of oily waste of 7 and 11% of the total volume, respectively, corresponding to 18 and 28% in dry weight. The results showed that the co-composting process was feasible even at the highest fat content. Another positive effect due to the oily waste addition was the requirement of extra humidity, due to the hydrophobic properties of this specific waste, which may imply reduced need of a bulking agent. Moreover, this study shows that composting can be a feasible way of adding value to fatty wastes. The three final composts presented very similar and suitable properties for land application.

Keywords: Cow manure, composting, food waste, lipids content.

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Authors: M. Eckert, M. Oliveira

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The intensive use of natural aggregates, near cities and towns, associated to the increase of the global population, leads to its depletion and increases the transport distances. The uncontrolled deposition of construction and demolition waste in landfills and city outskirts, causes pollution and takes up space. The use of recycled aggregates in concrete preparation would contribute to mitigate the problem. However, it arises the problem that the high water absorption of recycled aggregate decreases the bleeding rate of concrete, and when this gets lower than the evaporation rate, plastic shrinkage cracking occurs. This phenomenon can be particularly problematic in hot and windy curing environments. Cracking facilitates the flow of liquid and gas into concrete which attacks the reinforcement and degrades the concrete. These factors reduce the durability of concrete structures and consequently the lifetime of buildings. A ring test was used, cured in a wind tunnel, to evaluate the plastic shrinkage cracking sensitivity of recycled aggregate concrete, in order to implement preventive means to control this phenomenon. The role of several aggregate properties on the concrete segregation and cracking mechanisms were also discussed.

Keywords: Recycled Aggregate, Plastic Shrinkage Cracking; Wind Tunnel, Durability.

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Authors: Débora C. G. Oliveira, Julio D. Salles, Bruna A. Moriy, João A. Rossignolo, Holmer Savastano JR.

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The objective of this study was to identify the optimal level of partial replacement of Portland cement by the ashes originating from burning straw and bagasse from sugar cane (ASB). Order to this end, were made five series of flat plates and cylindrical bodies: control and others with the partial replacement in 20, 30, 40 and 50% of ASB in relation to the mass of the Ordinary Portland cement, and conducted a mechanical testing of simple axial compression (cylindrical bodies) and the four-point bending (flat plates) and determined water absorption (WA), bulk density (BD) and apparent void volume (AVV) on both types of specimens. Based on the data obtained, it may be noted that the control treatment containing only Portland cement, obtained the best results. However, the cylindrical bodies with 20% ashes showed better results compared to the other treatments. And in the formulations plates, the treatment which showed the best results was 30% cement replacement by ashes.

Keywords: Modulus of rupture, simple axial compression, waste.

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Authors: Aurea Lúcia Georgi Vendramin, Carlos Itsuo Yamamoto, Carlos Eduardo Camargo Nogueira, Anderson Miguel Lenz, Samuel N. Souza Melegari

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The thermal performance of a solar water heating with 1.00 m2 flat plate collectors in Cascavel - PR, is which presented in this article, paper presents the solution to leverage the marketing of solar heating systems through detailed constituent materials of the solar collector studies, these abundant materials in construction, such as expanded polyethylene, PVC, aluminum and glass tubes, mixing them with new materials to minimize loss of efficiency while decreasing its cost. The system was tested during months and the collector obtained maximum recorded temperature of outlet fluid of 55°C, while the maximum temperature of the water at the bottom of the hot water tank was 35°C. The average daily energy collected was 19.6 MJ/d; the energy supplied by the solar plate was 16.2 MJ/d; the loss in the feed pipe was 3.2 MJ/d; the solar fraction was 32.2%, the efficiency of the collector was 45.6% and the efficiency of the system was 37.8%.

Keywords: Recycled materials, energy efficiency, solar collector.

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Authors: C. S. Marques, M. J. Reis Lima, J. Oliveira, E. Teixeira-Lemos

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The growing concerns for physical wellbeing and health have been reflected in the way we choose food in our table. Nowadays, we are all more informed consumers and choose healthier foods. On the other hand, stroke, cancer and atherosclerosis may be somehow minimized by the intake of some bioactive compounds present in food, the so-called nutraceuticals and functional foods. The aim of this work was to make a revision of the published studies about the effects of some bioactive compounds, namely lycopene in human health, in the prevention of diseases, thus playing the role of a functional food. Free radical in human body can induce cell damage and consequently can be responsible for the development of some cancers and chronic diseases. Lycopene is one of the most powerful antioxidants known, being the predominant carotenoid in tomato. The respective chemistry, bioavailability, and its functional role in the prevention of several diseases will be object of this work. On the other hand, the inclusion of lycopene in some foods can also be made by biotechnology and represents a way to recover the wastes in the tomato industry with nutritional positive effects in health.

Keywords: Tomato, lycopene, bioavailability, functional foods, carotenoids, cancer and antioxidants.

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Authors: Mona Lisa M. Oliveira, Nara A. Policarpo, Ana Luiza B. P. Barros, Carla A. Silva

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Selective catalytic reduction systems for nitrogen oxides reduction by ammonia has been the chosen technology by most of diesel vehicle (i.e. bus and truck) manufacturers in Brazil, as also in Europe. Furthermore, at some conditions, over-stoichiometric ammonia availability is also needed that increases the NH₃ slips even more. Ammonia (NH₃) by this vehicle exhaust aftertreatment system provides a maximum efficiency of NOx removal if a significant amount of NH₃ is stored on its catalyst surface. In the other words, the practice shows that slightly less than 100% of the NOx conversion is usually targeted, so that the aqueous urea solution hydrolyzes to NH₃ via other species formation, under relatively low temperatures. This paper presents a model based on neural networks integrated with a road vehicle simulator that allows to estimate NH₃-slip emission factors for different driving conditions and patterns. The proposed model generates high NH₃slips which are not also limited in Brazil, but more efforts needed to be made to elucidate the contribution of vehicle-emitted NH₃ to the urban atmosphere.

Keywords: Ammonia slip, neural-network, vehicles emissions, SCR-NOx.

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Authors: J. Zambujal-Oliveira

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The relation between taxation states and foreign direct investment has been studied for several perspectives and with states of different levels of development. Usually it's only considered the impact of tax level on the foreign direct investment volume. This paper enhances this view by assuming that multinationals companies (MNC) can use transfer prices systems and have got investment timing flexibility. Thus, it evaluates the impact of the use of international transfer pricing systems on the states- policy and on the investment timing of the multinational companies. In uncertain business environments (with periodical release of news), the investment can increase if MNC detain investment delay options. This paper shows how tax differentials can attract foreign direct investments (FDI) and influence MNC behavior. The equilibrium is set in a global environment where MNC can shift their profits between states depending on the corporate tax rates. Assuming the use of transfer pricing schemes, this paper confirms the relationship between MNC behavior and the release of new business news.

Keywords: Corporate Taxation, International Profit Shifting, Real Options

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Authors: Miguel José Oliveira, Fátima Farinha, Elisa M. J. da Silva, Rui Lança, Manuel Duarte Pinheiro, Cátia Miguel

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The Observatory of Sustainability of the Algarve Region for Tourism (OBSERVE) will be a valuable tool to assess the sustainability of this region. The OBSERVE tool is designed to provide data and maintain an up-to-date, consistent set of indicators defined to describe the region on the environmental, sociocultural, economic and institutional domains. This ongoing two-year project has the active participation of the Algarve’s stakeholders, since they were consulted and asked to participate in the discussion for the indicators proposal. The environmental and sociocultural indicators chosen must indicate the characteristics of the region and should be in alignment with other global systems used to monitor the sustainability. This paper presents a review of sustainability indicators systems that support the first proposal for the environmental and sociocultural indicators. Others constraints are discussed, namely the existing data and the data available in digital platforms in a format suitable for automatic importation to the platform of OBSERVE. It is intended that OBSERVE will be a valuable tool to assess the sustainability of the region of Algarve.

Keywords: Sustainability, observatory, environmental indicators, sociocultural indicators, development, tourism, Algarve.

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Authors: Pavlo Selyshchev, Samuel Akintunde

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A theoretical approach to consider formation of chemical compound layer at the interface between initial substances A and B due to the interfacial interaction and diffusion is developed. It is considered situation when speed of interfacial interaction is large enough and diffusion of A-atoms through AB-layer is much more then diffusion of B-atoms. Atoms from A-layer diffuse toward B-atoms and form AB-atoms on the surface of B-layer. B-atoms are assumed to be immobile. The growth kinetics of the AB-layer is described by two differential equations with non-linear coupling, producing a good fit to the experimental data. It is shown that growth of the thickness of the AB-layer determines by dependence of chemical reaction rate on reactants concentration. In special case the thickness of the AB-layer can grow linearly or parabolically depending on that which of processes (interaction or the diffusion) controls the growth. The thickness of AB-layer as function of time is obtained. The moment of time (transition point) at which the linear growth are changed by parabolic is found.

Keywords: Phase formation, Binary systems, Interfacial Reaction, Diffusion, Compound layers, Growth kinetics.

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Authors: D. S. C. Soares, D. G. Costa, J. T. S., A. K. S. Abud, T. P. Nunes, A. M. Oliveira Júnior

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Mathematical models of drying are used for the purpose of understanding the drying process in order to determine important parameters for design and operation of the dryer. The jackfruit is a fruit with high consumption in the Northeast and perishability. It is necessary to apply techniques to improve their conservation for longer in order to diffuse it by regions with low consumption. This study aimed to analyze several mathematical models (Page, Lewis, and Midilli) to indicate one that best fits the conditions of convective drying process using performance indicators associated with each model: accuracy (Af) and noise factors (Bf), mean square error (RMSE) and standard error of prediction (% SEP). Jackfruit drying was carried out in convective type tray dryer at a temperature of 50°C for 9 hours. It is observed that the model Midili was more accurate with Af: 1.39, Bf: 1.33, RMSE: 0.01%, and SEP: 5.34. However, the use of the Model Midilli is not appropriate for purposes of control process due to need four tuning parameters. With the performance indicators used in this paper, the Page model showed similar results with only two parameters. It is concluded that the best correlation between the experimental and estimated data is given by the Page’s model.

Keywords: Drying, models, jackfruit.

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Authors: Camila da Silva, Simone Belorte de Andrade, Vitor Augusto dos Santos Garcia, Vladimir Ferreira Cabral, J. Vladimir Oliveira Lúcio Cardozo-Filho

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In the present study, the non-catalytic transesterification of soybean oil in continuous mode using supercritical ethanol were investigated. Experiments were performed in a packed-bed tubular reactor (PBTR) and variable studied were reaction temperature (523 K to 598 K), pressure (10 MPa to 20 MPa), oil to ethanol molar ratio (1:10 to 1:40) and water concentration (0 wt% to 10 wt% in ethanol). Results showed that ethyl esters yields obtained in the PBTR were higher (> 20 wt%) than those verified in a tubular reactor (TR), due to improved mass transfer conditions attained in the PBTR. Results demonstrated that temperature, pressure, oil to ethanol molar ratio and water concentration had a positive effect on fatty acid ethyl esters (FAEE) production in the experimental range investigated, with appreciable reaction yields (90 wt%) achieved at 598 K, 20 MPa, oil to ethanol molar ratio of 1:40 and 10 wt% of water concentration.

Keywords: Packed bed reactor, ethyl esters, continuous process, catalyst-free process.

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Authors: R. C. Barbuti, M. N. Oliveira, N. P. Perina, C. Haro, P. Bosch, C. S. Bogsan, J. N. Eisig, T. Navarro-Rodriguez

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The management of Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) eradication is still a matter of discussion, full effectiveness is rarely achieved, and it has many adverse effects. The use of probiotics may be associated with better eradication rates and possibly prevention of adverse events due to antibiotic therapy. The present clinical study was undertaken to evaluate the efficacy of a specially designed fermented milk product, containing Bifidobacterium lactis B420, on the eradication of H. pylori infection in a prospective, randomized, double-blind, controlled study in humans. Four test fermented milks (FM) were specially designed in which counts of viable cells in all products were 10^10 Log CFU. 100 mL-1 for Bifidobacterium lactis - Bifidobacterium species 420. 190 subjects infected with H. pylori, with previous diagnosis of functional dyspepsia according to Rome III criteria entered the study. Bifidobacterium lactis B420, administered twice a day for 90 days was not able to eradicate H. pylori in Brazilian patients with functional dyspepsia.

Keywords: Antibacterial Therapy, Bifidobacteria Fermented milk, Helicobacter pylori, probiotics.

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Authors: Susana Cortez, Pilar Teixeira, Rosário Oliveira, Manuel Mota

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Mature landfill leachates contain some macromolecular organic substances that are resistant to biological degradation. Recently, Fenton-s oxidation has been investigated for chemical treatment or pre-treatment of mature landfill leachates. The aim of this study was to reduce the recalcitrant organic load still remaining after the complete treatment of a mature landfill leachate by Fenton-s oxidation post-treatment. The effect of various parameters such as H2O2 to Fe2+ molar ratio, dosage of Fe2+ reagent, initial pH, reaction time and initial chemical oxygen demand (COD) strength, that have an important role on the oxidation, was analysed. A molar ratio H2O2/Fe2+ = 3, a Fe2+ dosage of 4 mmol·L-1, pH 3, and a reaction time of 40 min were found to achieve better oxidation performances. At these favorable conditions, COD removal efficiency was 60.9% and 31.1% for initial COD of 93 and 743 mg·L-1 respectively (diluted and non diluted leachate). Fenton-s oxidation also presented good results for color removal. In spite of being extremely difficult to treat this leachate, the above results seem rather encouraging on the application of Fenton-s oxidation.

Keywords: Fenton's oxidation, mature landfill leachate, recalcitrant organic matter.

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Authors: Ayub V. O. Ofulla, Jackson H. O. Onyuka, Samuel Wagai, Douglas Anyona, Gabriel O. Dida, John Gichuki

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This study was set to determine the antimicrobial activities of brine salting, chlorinated solution, and oil frying treatments on enteric bacteria and fungi in Rastrineobola argentea fish from fish landing beaches within L. Victoria basin of western Kenya. Statistical differences in effectiveness of the different treatment methods was determined by single factor ANOVA, and paired two-tail t-Test was performed to compare the differences in moisture contents before and after storage. Oil fried fish recorded the lowest microbial loads, sodium chloride at 10% concentration was the second most effective and chlorinated solution even at 150ppm was the least effective against the bacteria and fungi in fish. Moisture contents of the control and treated fish were significantly lower after storage. These results show that oil frying of fish should be adopted for processing and preserving Rastrineobola argentea which is the most abundant and affordable fish species from Lake Victoria.

Keywords: Fish landing beaches, Lake Victoria, oil frying, preservatives.

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Authors: Scott N. Gerard, Aliza Heching, Susann M. Keohane, Samuel S. Adams

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The world-wide population of people over 60 years of age is growing rapidly. The explosion is placing increasingly onerous demands on individual families, multiple industries and entire countries. Current, human-intensive approaches to eldercare are not sustainable, but IoT and AI technologies can help. The Knowledge Reactor (KR) is a contextual, data fusion engine built to address this and other similar problems. It fuses and centralizes IoT and System of Record/Engagement data into a reactive knowledge graph. Cognitive applications and services are constructed with its multiagent architecture. The KR can scale-up and scaledown, because it exploits container-based, horizontally scalable services for graph store (JanusGraph) and pub-sub (Kafka) technologies. While the KR can be applied to many domains that require IoT and AI technologies, this paper describes how the KR specifically supports the challenging domain of cognitive eldercare. Rule- and machine learning-based analytics infer activities of daily living from IoT sensor readings. KR scalability, adaptability, flexibility and usability are demonstrated.

Keywords: Ambient sensing, AI, artificial intelligence, eldercare, IoT, internet of things, knowledge graph.

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Authors: Tisciane Perpetuo e Oliveira, Dante Inga Narvaez, Marcelo Gradella Villalva

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Installations of solar photovoltaic systems have increased considerably in the last decade. Therefore, it has been noticed that monitoring of meteorological data (solar irradiance, air temperature, wind velocity, etc.) is important to predict the potential of a given geographical area in solar energy production. In this sense, the present work compares two computational tools that are capable of estimating the energy generation of a photovoltaic system through correlation analyzes of solar radiation data: PVsyst software and an algorithm based on the PVlib package implemented in MATLAB. In order to achieve the objective, it was necessary to obtain solar radiation data (measured and from a solarimetric database), analyze the decomposition of global solar irradiance in direct normal and horizontal diffuse components, as well as analyze the modeling of the devices of a photovoltaic system (solar modules and inverters) for energy production calculations. Simulated results were compared with experimental data in order to evaluate the performance of the studied methods. Errors in estimation of energy production were less than 30% for the MATLAB algorithm and less than 20% for the PVsyst software.

Keywords: Energy production, meteorological data, irradiance decomposition, solar photovoltaic system.

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Authors: Muhammad Muhsin, Abhishek Mishra, Shreyansh Vishwakarma, K. Dasaratha Babu, Anudevi Samuel

Abstract:

In an interconnected power system, any sudden small load perturbation in any of the interconnected areas causes the deviation of the area frequencies, the tie line power and voltage deviation at the generator terminals. This paper deals with the study of performance of intelligent Fuzzy Logic controllers coupled with Conventional Controllers (PI and PID) for Load Frequency Control. For analysis, an isolated single area and interconnected two area thermal power systems with and without generation rate constraints (GRC) have been considered. The studies have been performed with conventional PI and PID controllers and their performance has been compared with intelligent fuzzy controllers. It can be demonstrated that these controllers can successfully bring back the excursions in area frequencies and tie line powers within acceptable limits in smaller time periods and with lesser transients as compared to the performance of conventional controllers under same load disturbance conditions. The simulations in MATLAB have been used for comparative studies.

Keywords: Area Control Error, Fuzzy Logic, Generation rate constraint, Load Frequency, Tie line Power.

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Authors: Angela Unna Chukwu, Samuel Oluwafemi Oyamakin

Abstract:

We proposed a Hyperbolic Gompertz Growth Model (HGGM), which was developed by introducing a shape parameter (allometric). This was achieved by convoluting hyperbolic sine function on the intrinsic rate of growth in the classical gompertz growth equation. The resulting integral solution obtained deterministically was reprogrammed into a statistical model and used in modeling the height and diameter of Pines (Pinus caribaea). Its ability in model prediction was compared with the classical gompertz growth model, an approach which mimicked the natural variability of height/diameter increment with respect to age and therefore provides a more realistic height/diameter predictions using goodness of fit tests and model selection criteria. The Kolmogorov Smirnov test and Shapiro-Wilk test was also used to test the compliance of the error term to normality assumptions while the independence of the error term was confirmed using the runs test. The mean function of top height/Dbh over age using the two models under study predicted closely the observed values of top height/Dbh in the hyperbolic gompertz growth models better than the source model (classical gompertz growth model) while the results of R2, Adj. R2, MSE and AIC confirmed the predictive power of the Hyperbolic Gompertz growth models over its source model.

Keywords: Height, Dbh, forest, Pinus caribaea, hyperbolic, gompertz.

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