Abstract: A growing demand is felt today for realistic 3D
models enabling the cognition and popularization of historical-artistic
heritage. Evaluation and preservation of Cultural Heritage is
inextricably connected with the innovative processes of gaining,
managing, and using knowledge. The development and perfecting of
techniques for acquiring and elaborating photorealistic 3D models,
made them pivotal elements for popularizing information of objects
on the scale of architectonic structures.
Abstract: Fires is one of the main types of disturbances that
shape ecosystems in the Mediterranean region. However nowadays,
climate alterations towards higher temperatures result on increased
levels of fire intensity, frequency and spread as well as difficulties for
natural regeneration to occur. Thasos Island is one of the Greek
islands that has experienced those problems. Since 1984, a series of
wildfires led to the reduction of forest cover from 61.6% to almost
20%. The negative impacts were devastating in many different
aspects for the island. The absence of plant cover, post-wildfire
precipitation and steep slopes were the major factors that induced
severe soil erosion and intense floods. That also resulted to serious
economic problems to the local communities and the inability of the
burnt areas to regenerate naturally. Despite the substantial amount of
published work regarding Thasos wildfires, there is no information
related to post-wildfire effects on factors such as soil erosion. More
research related to post-fire effects should help to an overall
assessment of the negative impacts of wildfires on land degradation
through processes such as soil erosion and flooding.
Abstract: This paper presents the design and implementation
details of a complete unmanned aerial system (UAS) based
on commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) components, focusing on
safety, security, search and rescue scenarios in GPS-denied
environments. In particular, The aerial platform is capable
of semi-autonomously navigating through extremely low-light,
GPS-denied indoor environments based on onboard sensors only,
including a downward-facing optical flow camera. Besides, an
additional low-cost payload camera system is developed to stream
both infra-red video and visible light video to a ground station in
real-time, for the purpose of detecting sign of life and hidden humans.
The total cost of the complete system is estimated to be $1150,
and the effectiveness of the system has been tested and validated
in practical scenarios.
Abstract: In this paper a very simple and effective user
administration view of computing clusters systems is implemented in
order of friendly provide the configuration and monitoring of
distributed application executions. The user view, the administrator
view, and an internal control module create an illusionary
management environment for better system usability. The
architecture, properties, performance, and the comparison with others
software for cluster management are briefly commented.
Abstract: Hypertension is a common condition causing cardio
and cerebrovascular complications. Portugal has one of the highest
mortality rates from stroke and a high prevalence of hypertension.
Systolic Blood Pressure (SBP) is an important risk factor for
cardiovascular events (myocardial infarction and stroke) and
premature mortality, particularly in the elderly population. The
present study aims to estimate the prevalence of hypertension in a
Portuguese population living in a coastal city and to identify some of
its determinants (namely gender, age, the body mass index and
physical activity frequency). A total of 91 adults who attended three pharmacies of a coastal
city in the center of Portugal, between May and August of 2013 were
evaluated. Attendants who reported to have diabetes or taking
antihypertensive drugs in the 2 previous weeks were excluded from
the study. Sociodemographic factors, BMI, habits of exercise and BP
were assessed. Hypertension was defined as blood pressure ≥140/90
mmHg. The majority of the studied population was constituted by women
(75.8%), with a mean age of 54.2±1.6 years old, married or living in
civil union and that had completed secondary school or had higher
education (40%). They presented a mean BMI of 26.2±4.76 Kg/m2.,
and were sedentary. The mean BP was 127.0±17.77mmHg- 74.69 ±
9.53. In this population we found 4.3% of people with hypertension
and 16.1% with normal high blood pressure. Men exhibit a tendency to present higher systolic blood pressure
values than women. Of all the factors considered, SBP values also
tended to be higher with age and higher BMI values.
Despite the fact that the mean values of SBP did not present values
higher than 140 mmHg we must be concerned because the studied
population is undiagnosed for hypertension. Although this is a preliminary study, it might be a prelude to the
upcoming research about the underlying factors responsible for the
occurrence of SBP.
Abstract: Hydraulic fracturing is one of the most important
stimulation techniques available to the petroleum engineer to extract
hydrocarbons in tight gas sandstones. It allows more oil and gas
production in tight reservoirs as compared to conventional means.
The main aim of the study is to optimize the hydraulic fracturing as
technique and for this purpose three multi-zones layer formation is
considered and fractured contemporaneously. The three zones are
named as Zone1 (upper zone), Zone2 (middle zone) and Zone3
(lower zone) respectively and they all occur in shale rock. Simulation was performed with Mfrac integrated software which
gives a variety of 3D fracture options. This simulation process
yielded an average fracture efficiency of 93.8%for the three
respective zones and an increase of the average permeability of the
rock system. An average fracture length of 909 ft with net height
(propped height) of 210 ft (average) was achieved. Optimum
fracturing results was also achieved with maximum fracture width of
0.379 inches at an injection rate of 13.01 bpm with 17995 Mscf of
gas production.
Abstract: The steady flow of a second order fluid through
constricted tube with slip velocity at wall is modeled and analyzed
theoretically. The governing equations are simplified by implying no
slip in radial direction. Based on Karman Pohlhausen procedure
polynomial solution for axial velocity profile is presented.
Expressions for pressure gradient, shear stress, separation and
reattachment points, and radial velocity are also calculated. The
effect of slip and no slip velocity on magnitude velocity, shear stress,
and pressure gradient are discussed and depicted graphically. It is
noted that when Reynolds number increases magnitude velocity of
the fluid decreases in both slip and no slip conditions. It is also found
that the wall shear stress, separation, and reattachment points are
strongly affected by Reynolds number.
Abstract: Obturator Foramen is a specific structure in Pelvic
bone images and recognition of it is a new concept in medical image
processing. Moreover, segmentation of bone structures such as
Obturator Foramen plays an essential role for clinical research in
orthopedics. In this paper, we present a novel method to analyze the
similarity between the substructures of the imaged region and a hand
drawn template as a preprocessing step for computation of Pelvic
bone rotation on hip radiographs. This method consists of integrated
usage of Marker-controlled Watershed segmentation and Zernike
moment feature descriptor and it is used to detect Obturator Foramen
accurately. Marker-controlled Watershed segmentation is applied to
separate Obturator Foramen from the background effectively. Then,
Zernike moment feature descriptor is used to provide matching
between binary template image and the segmented binary image for
final extraction of Obturator Foramens. Finally, Pelvic bone rotation
rate calculation for each hip radiograph is performed automatically to
select and eliminate hip radiographs for further studies which depend
on Pelvic bone angle measurements. The proposed method is tested
on randomly selected 100 hip radiographs. The experimental results
demonstrated that the proposed method is able to segment Obturator
Foramen with 96% accuracy.
Abstract: Mixed-use development is one of the most important
trends in new island house transformation along southeast coastal area
in China. Unique island geographical environment and profound
fishing village culture coexist for a long time in this. With artistic
creation for the purpose of the "live-work" houses are in a large
number of emergence, however, still lack of systematic strategy.
Based on space effect from marine resources to regional human
settlements, this article teases out the evolution regularity of island
settlement context and architectural form, then, puts forward the
formation mechanism and construction model of art island houses.
Thereby, to further explore space design method and site creation
strategy of mixed-use development.
Abstract: Detecting changes in multiple images of the same
scene has recently seen increased interest due to the many
contemporary applications including smart security systems, smart
homes, remote sensing, surveillance, medical diagnosis, weather
forecasting, speed and distance measurement, post-disaster forensics
and much more. These applications differ in the scale, nature, and
speed of change. This paper presents an application of image
processing techniques to implement a real-time change detection
system. Change is identified by comparing the RGB representation of
two consecutive frames captured in real-time. The detection threshold
can be controlled to account for various luminance levels. The
comparison result is passed through a filter before decision making to
reduce false positives, especially at lower luminance conditions. The
system is implemented with a MATLAB Graphical User interface
with several controls to manage its operation and performance.
Abstract: Presently various computational techniques are used
in modeling and analyzing environmental engineering data. In the
present study, an intra-comparison of polynomial and radial basis
kernel functions based on Support Vector Regression and, in turn, an
inter-comparison with Multi Linear Regression has been attempted in
modeling mass transfer capacity of vertical (θ = 90O) and inclined (θ
multiple plunging jets (varying from 1 to 16 numbers). The data set
used in this study consists of four input parameters with a total of
eighty eight cases, forty four each for vertical and inclined multiple
plunging jets. For testing, tenfold cross validation was used.
Correlation coefficient values of 0.971 and 0.981 along with
corresponding root mean square error values of 0.0025 and 0.0020
were achieved by using polynomial and radial basis kernel functions
based Support Vector Regression respectively. An intra-comparison
suggests improved performance by radial basis function in
comparison to polynomial kernel based Support Vector Regression.
Further, an inter-comparison with Multi Linear Regression
(correlation coefficient = 0.973 and root mean square error = 0.0024)
reveals that radial basis kernel functions based Support Vector
Regression performs better in modeling and estimating mass transfer
by multiple plunging jets.
Abstract: An early diagnosis of bone metastasis is very
important for making a right decision on a subsequent therapy. One
of the most important steps to be taken initially, for developing a new
radiopharmaceutical is the measurement of organ radiation exposure
dose. In this study, the dosimetric studies of a novel agent for
SPECT-imaging of the bone metastasis, 111In-(4-
{[(bis(phosphonomethyl))carbamoyl]methyl}7,10bis(carboxymethyl)
-1,4,7,10-tetraazacyclododec-1-yl) acetic acid (111In-BPAMD)
complex, have been carried out to estimate the dose in human organs
based on the data derived from mice. The radiolabeled complex was
prepared with high radiochemical purity in the optimal conditions.
Biodistribution studies of the complex was investigated in the male
Syrian mice at the selected times after injection (2, 4, 24 and 48 h).
The human absorbed dose estimation of the complex was made based
on data derived from the mice by the radiation absorbed dose
assessment resource (RADAR) method. 111In-BPAMD complex was prepared with high radiochemical
purity >95% (ITLC) and specific activities of 2.85 TBq/mmol. Total
body effective absorbed dose for 111In-BPAMD was 0.205
mSv/MBq. This value is comparable to the other 111In clinically used
complexes. The results show that the dose with respect to the critical
organs is satisfactory within the acceptable range for diagnostic
nuclear medicine procedures. Generally, 111In-BPAMD has
interesting characteristics and it can be considered as a viable agent
for SPECT-imaging of the bone metastasis in the near future.
Abstract: Cost overruns are a persistent problem in oil and gas
megaprojects. Whilst the extant literature is filled with studies on
incidents and causes of cost overruns, underlying theories to explain
their emergence in oil and gas megaprojects are few. Yet, a way to
contain the syndrome of cost overruns is to understand the bases of
‘how and why’ they occur. Such knowledge will also help to develop
pragmatic techniques for better overall management of oil and gas
megaprojects. The aim of this paper is to explain the development of
cost overruns in hydrocarbon megaprojects through the perspective of
chaos theory. The underlying principles of chaos theory and its
implications for cost overruns are examined and practical
recommendations proposed. In addition, directions for future research
in this fertile area provided.
Abstract: The current study focuses on the seismic design of
offshore pipelines against active faults. After an extensive literature
review of the provisions of the seismic norms worldwide and of the
available analytical methods, the study simulates numerically
(through finite-element modeling and strain-based criteria) the
distress of offshore pipelines subjected to PGDs induced by active
normal and reverse seismic faults at the seabed. Factors, such as the
geometrical properties of the fault, the mechanical properties of the
ruptured soil formations, and the pipeline characteristics, are
examined. After some interesting conclusions regarding the seismic
vulnerability of offshore pipelines, potential cost-effective mitigation
measures are proposed taking into account constructability issues.
Abstract: Annihilations, phase shifts, scattering lengths and
elastic cross sections of low energy positrons scattering from
magnesium atoms were studied using the least-squares variational
method (LSVM). The possibility of positron binding to the
magnesium atoms is investigated. A trial wave function is suggested
to represent e+-Mg elastic scattering and scattering parameters were
derived to estimate the binding energy and annihilation rates. The
trial function is taken to depend on several adjustable parameters, and
is improved iteratively by increasing the number of terms. The
present results have the same behavior as reported semi-empirical,
theoretical and experimental results. Especially, the estimated
positive scattering length supports the possibility of positronmagnesium
bound state system that was confirmed in previous
experimental and theoretical work.
Abstract: In this article, we used the residual correction method
to deal with transient thermoelastic problems with a hollow spherical
region when the continuum medium possesses spherically isotropic
thermoelastic properties. Based on linear thermoelastic theory, the
equations of hyperbolic heat conduction and thermoelastic motion
were combined to establish the thermoelastic dynamic model with
consideration of the deformation acceleration effect and non-Fourier
effect under the condition of transient thermal shock. The approximate
solutions of temperature and displacement distributions are obtained
using the residual correction method based on the maximum principle
in combination with the finite difference method, making it easier and
faster to obtain upper and lower approximations of exact solutions.
The proposed method is found to be an effective numerical method
with satisfactory accuracy. Moreover, the result shows that the effect
of transient thermal shock induced by deformation acceleration is
enhanced by non-Fourier heat conduction with increased peak stress.
The influence on the stress increases with the thermal relaxation time.
Abstract: Adequate and reliable estimates of aquifer parameters
are of utmost importance for proper management of vital
groundwater resources. At present scenario, the ground water is
polluted because of industrial waste disposed over the land and the
contaminants are transported in the aquifer from one area to another
area, which is depending on the characteristics of the aquifer and
contaminants. To know the contaminant transport, the accurate
estimation of aquifer properties is highly needed. Conventionally,
these properties are estimated through pumping tests carried out on
water wells. The occurrence and movement of ground water in the
aquifer are characteristically defined by the aquifer parameters. The
pumping (aquifer) test is the standard technique for estimating
various hydraulic properties of aquifer systems, viz., transmissivity
(T), hydraulic conductivity (K), storage coefficient (S) etc., for which
the graphical method is widely used. The study area for conducting
pumping test is Pydibheemavaram Industrial area near the coastal
belt of Srikulam, AP, India. The main objective of the present work is
to estimate the aquifer properties for developing contaminant
transport model for the study area.
Abstract: Graphene, a single-atom sheet, has been considered as
the most promising material for making future nanoelectromechanical
systems as well as purely electrical switching with graphene
transistors. Graphene-based devices have advantages in scaled-up
device fabrication due to the recent progress in large area graphene
growth and lithographic patterning of graphene nanostructures. Here
we investigated its mechanical responses of circular graphene
nanoflake under the nanoindentation using classical molecular
dynamics simulations. A correlation between the load and the
indentation depth was constructed. The nanoindented force in this
work was applied to the center point of the circular graphene nanoflake
and then, the resonance frequency could be tuned by a nanoindented
depth. We found the hardening or the softening of the graphene
nanoflake during its nanoindented-deflections, and such properties
were recognized by the shift of the resonance frequency. The
calculated mechanical parameters in the force-vs-deflection plot were
in good agreement with previous experimental and theoretical works.
This proposed schematics can detect the pressure via the deflection
change or/and the resonance frequency shift, and also have great
potential for versatile applications in nanoelectromechanical systems.
Abstract: One of the challenges that higher education faces is to
find how to approach the sustainability in an inclusive way to the
student within all the different academic areas, how to move the
sustainable development from the abstract field to the operational
field. This research comes from the ecoliteracy and the pedagogical
praxis as tools for rebuilding the teaching processes inside of
universities. The purpose is to determine and describe which are the
factors involved in the process of learning particularly in the
Greenhouse-School Siembra UV. In the Greenhouse-School Siembra UV, of the University of
Veracruz, are cultivated vegetables, medicinal plants and small
cornfields under the usage of eco-technologies such as hydroponics,
Wickingbed and Hugelkultur, which main purpose is the saving of
space, labor and natural resources, as well as function as agricultural
production alternatives in the urban and periurban zones. The sample was formed with students from different academic
areas and who are actively involved in the greenhouse, as well as
institutes from the University of Veracruz and governmental and nongovernmental
departments. This project comes from a pedagogic praxis approach, from filling
the needs that the different professional profiles of the university
students have. All this with the purpose of generate a pragmatic
dialogue with the sustainability. It also comes from the necessity to
understand the factors that intervene in the students’ praxis. In this
manner is how the students are the fundamental unit in the sphere of
sustainability. As a result, it is observed that those University of Veracruz
students who are involved in the Greenhouse-school, Siembra UV,
have enriched in different levels the sense of urban and periurban
agriculture because of the diverse academic approaches they have
and the interaction between them. It is concluded that the ecotechnologies
act as fundamental tools for ecoliteracy in society,
where it is strengthen the nutritional and food security from a
sustainable development approach.
Abstract: Background: To compare the thinning patterns of the
ganglion cell-inner plexiform layer (GCIPL) and peripapillary retinal
nerve fiber layer (pRNFL) as measured using Cirrus high-definition
optical coherence tomography (HD-OCT) in patients with visual field
(VF) defects that respect the vertical meridian. Methods: Twenty eyes of eleven patients with VF defects that
respect the vertical meridian were enrolled retrospectively. The
thicknesses of the macular GCIPL and pRNFL were measured using
Cirrus HD-OCT. The 5% and 1% thinning area index (TAI) was
calculated as the proportion of abnormally thin sectors at the 5% and
1% probability level within the area corresponding to the affected VF.
The 5% and 1% TAI were compared between the GCIPL and pRNFL
measurements. Results: The color-coded GCIPL deviation map showed a
characteristic vertical thinning pattern of the GCIPL, which is also
seen in the VF of patients with brain lesions. The 5% and 1% TAI
were significantly higher in the GCIPL measurements than in the
pRNFL measurements (all P < 0.01). Conclusions: Macular GCIPL analysis clearly visualized a
characteristic topographic pattern of retinal ganglion cell (RGC) loss
in patients with VF defects that respect the vertical meridian, unlike
pRNFL measurements. Macular GCIPL measurements provide more
valuable information than pRNFL measurements for detecting the
loss of RGCs in patients with retrograde degeneration of the optic
nerve fibers.