Abstract: In this study which has been conducted in Akçasu
Forest Range District of Devrek Forest Directorate; 3 methods (weed
control with labourer power, cover removal with Hitachi F20
Excavator, and weed control with agricultural equipment mounted on
a Ferguson 240S agriculture tractor) were utilized in weed control
efforts in regeneration of degraded oriental beech forests have been
compared. In this respect, 3 methods have been compared by
determining certain work hours and standard durations of unit areas
(1 hectare). For this purpose, evaluating the tasks made with human
and machine force from the aspects of duration, productivity and
costs, it has been aimed to determine the most productive method in
accordance with the actual ecological conditions of research field.
Within the scope of the study, the time studies have been conducted
for 3 methods used in weed control efforts. While carrying out those
studies, the performed implementations have been evaluated by
dividing them into business stages. Also, the actual data have been
used while calculating the cost accounts. In those calculations, the
latest formulas and equations which are also used in developed
countries have been utilized. The variance of analysis (ANOVA) was
used in order to determine whether there is any statistically
significant difference among obtained results, and the Duncan test
was used for grouping if there is significant difference. According to
the measurements and findings carried out within the scope of this
study, it has been found during living cover removal efforts in
regeneration efforts in demolished oriental beech forests that the
removal of weed layer in 1 hectare of field has taken 920 hours with
labourer force, 15.1 hours with excavator and 60 hours with an
equipment mounted on a tractor. On the other hand, it has been
determined that the cost of removal of living cover in unit area (1
hectare) was 3220.00 TL for labourer power, 1250 TL for excavator
and 1825 TL for equipment mounted on a tractor.
According to the obtained results, it has been found that the
utilization of excavator in weed control effort in regeneration of
degraded oriental beech regions under actual ecological conditions of
research field has been found to be more productive from both of
aspects of duration and costs. These determinations carried out
should be repeated in weed control efforts in degraded forest fields
with different ecological conditions, it is compulsory for finding the
most efficient weed control method. These findings will light the way
of technical staff of forestry directorate in determination of the most
effective and economic weed control method. Thus, the more actual
data will be used while preparing the weed control budgets, and there
will be significant contributions to national economy. Also the results of this and similar studies are very important for developing the policies for our forestry in short and long term.
Abstract: Liposome plays an important role in medical and
pharmaceutical science as e.g. nano scale drug carriers. Liposomes
are vesicles of varying size consisting of a spherical lipid bilayer and
an aqueous inner compartment. Magnet-driven liposome used for the
targeted delivery of drugs to organs and tissues. These liposome
preparations contain encapsulated drug components and finely
dispersed magnetic particles.
Liposomes are vesicles of varying size consisting of a spherical
lipid bilayer and an aqueous inner compartment that are generated in
vitro. These are useful in terms of biocompatibility, biodegradability,
and low toxicity, and can control biodistribution by changing the size,
lipid composition, and physical characteristics. Furthermore,
liposomes can entrap both hydrophobic and hydrophilic drugs and are
able to continuously release the entrapped substrate, thus being useful
drug carriers. Magnetic liposomes (MLs) are phospholipid vesicles
that encapsulate magneticor paramagnetic nanoparticles. They are
applied as contrast agents for magnetic resonance imaging (MRI).
The biological synthesis of nanoparticles using plant extracts plays
an important role in the field of nanotechnology. Green-synthesized
magnetite nanoparticles-protein hybrid has been produced by treating
Iron (III) / Iron (II) chloride with the leaf extract of Datura inoxia.
The phytochemicals present in the leaf extracts act as a reducing as
well stabilizing agents preventing agglomeration, which include
flavonoids, phenolic compounds, cardiac glycosides, proteins and
sugars.
The magnetite nanoparticles-protein hybrid has been trapped
inside the aqueous core of the liposome prepared by reversed phase
evaporation (REV) method using oleic and linoleic acid which has
been shown to be driven under magnetic field confirming the
formation magnetic liposome (ML). Chemical characterization of
stealth magnetic liposome has been performed by breaking the
liposome and release of magnetic nanoparticles. The presence iron
has been confirmed by colour complex formation with KSCN and
UV-Vis study using spectrophotometer Cary 60, Agilent.
This magnet driven liposome using nanoparticles-protein hybrid
can be a smart vesicles for the targeted drug delivery.
Abstract: Over the last few decades, oilfield service rolling
equipment has significantly increased in weight, primarily because of
emissions regulations, which require larger/heavier engines, larger
cooling systems, and emissions after-treatment systems, in some
cases, etc. Larger engines cause more vibration and shock loads,
leading to failure of electronics and control systems.
If the vibrating frequency of the engine matches the system
frequency, high resonance is observed on structural parts and mounts.
One such existing automated control equipment system comprising
wire rope mounts used for mounting computers was designed
approximately 12 years ago. This includes the use of an industrialgrade
computer to control the system operation. The original
computer had a smaller, lighter enclosure. After a few years, a newer
computer version was introduced, which was 10 lbm heavier. Some
failures of internal computer parts have been documented for cases in
which the old mounts were used. Because of the added weight, there
is a possibility of having the two brackets impact each other under
off-road conditions, which causes a high shock input to the computer
parts. This added failure mode requires validating the existing mount
design to suit the new heavy-weight computer.
This paper discusses the modal finite element method (FEM)
analysis and experimental modal analysis conducted to study the
effects of vibration on the wire rope mounts and the computer. The
existing mount was modelled in ANSYS software, and resultant
mode shapes and frequencies were obtained. The experimental modal
analysis was conducted, and actual frequency responses were
observed and recorded.
Results clearly revealed that at resonance frequency, the brackets
were colliding and potentially causing damage to computer parts. To
solve this issue, spring mounts of different stiffness were modeled in
ANSYS software, and the resonant frequency was determined.
Increasing the stiffness of the system increased the resonant
frequency zone away from the frequency window at which the engine
showed heavy vibrations or resonance. After multiple iterations in
ANSYS software, the stiffness of the spring mount was finalized,
which was again experimentally validated.
Abstract: Nowadays social media information, such as news,
links, images, or VDOs, is shared extensively. However, the
effectiveness of disseminating information through social media
lacks in quality: less fact checking, more biases, and several rumors.
Many researchers have investigated about credibility on Twitter, but
there is no the research report about credibility information on
Facebook. This paper proposes features for measuring credibility on
Facebook information. We developed the system for credibility on
Facebook. First, we have developed FB credibility evaluator for
measuring credibility of each post by manual human’s labelling. We
then collected the training data for creating a model using Support
Vector Machine (SVM). Secondly, we developed a chrome extension
of FB credibility for Facebook users to evaluate the credibility of
each post. Based on the usage analysis of our FB credibility chrome
extension, about 81% of users’ responses agree with suggested
credibility automatically computed by the proposed system.
Abstract: The recommended limit for cadmium concentration in
potable water is less than 0.005 mg/L. A continuous biosorption
process using indigenous red seaweed, Gracilaria corticata, was
performed to remove cadmium from the potable water. The process
was conducted under fixed conditions and the breakthrough curves
were achieved for three consecutive sorption-desorption cycles. A
modeling based on Artificial Neural Network (ANN) was employed
to fit the experimental breakthrough data. In addition, a simplified
semi empirical model, Thomas, was employed for this purpose. It
was found that ANN well described the experimental data (R2>0.99)
while the Thomas prediction were a bit less successful with R2>0.97.
The adjusted design parameters using the nonlinear form of Thomas
model was in a good agreement with the experimentally obtained
ones. The results approve the capability of ANN to predict the
cadmium concentration in potable water.
Abstract: Background: Taiwan now is an aging society. Research
on the elderly should not be confined to caring for seniors, but should
also be focused on ways to improve health and the quality of life.
Senior citizens who participate in volunteer services could become
less lonely, have new growth opportunities, and regain a sense of
accomplishment. Thus, the question of how to get the elderly to
participate in volunteer service is worth exploring. Objective: Apply
the Transtheoretical Model to understand stages of change in regular
volunteer service and voluntary service behaviour among the seniors.
Methods: 1525 adults over the age of 65 from the Renai district of
Keelung City were interviewed. The research tool was a
self-constructed questionnaire, and individual interviews were
conducted to collect data. Then the data was processed and analyzed
using the IBM SPSS Statistics 20 (Windows version) statistical
software program. Results: In the past six months, research subjects
averaged 9.92 days of volunteer services. A majority of these elderly
individuals had no intention to change their regular volunteer services.
We discovered that during the maintenance stage, the self-efficacy for
volunteer services was higher than during all other stages, but
self-perceived barriers were less during the preparation stage and
action stage. Self-perceived benefits were found to have an important
predictive power for those with regular volunteer service behaviors in
the previous stage, and self-efficacy was found to have an important
predictive power for those with regular volunteer service behaviors in
later stages. Conclusions/Implications for Practice: The research
results support the conclusion that community nursing staff should
group elders based on their regular volunteer services change stages
and design appropriate behavioral change strategies.
Abstract: The objective of the present study is to determine
better eye end design of a mono leaf spring used in light motor
vehicle. A conventional 65Si7 spring steel leaf spring model with
standard eye, casted and riveted eye end are considered. The CAD
model of the leaf springs is prepared in CATIA and analyzed using
ANSYS. The standard eye, casted and riveted eye leaf springs are
subjected to similar loading conditions. The CAE analysis of the leaf
spring is performed for various parameters like deflection and Von-
Mises stress. Mass reduction of 62.9% is achieved in case of riveted
eye mono leaf spring as compared to standard eye mono leaf spring
for the same loading conditions.
Abstract: Science and technology has a major impact on many
societal domains such as communication, medicine, food,
transportation, etc. However, this dominance of modern technology
can have a negative unintended impact on indigenous systems, and in
particular on indigenous foods. This problem serves as a motivation
to this study whose aim is to examine the perceptions of learners on
the usefulness of Information and Communication Technologies
(ICTs) for learning about indigenous foods. This aim will be
subdivided into two types of research objectives. The design and
identification of theories and models will be achieved using literature
content analysis. The objective on the empirical testing of such
theories and models will be achieved through the survey of
Hospitality studies learners from different schools in the iLembe and
Umgungundlovu Districts of the South African Kwazulu-Natal
province. SPSS is used to quantitatively analyze the data collected by
the questionnaire of this survey using descriptive statistics and
Pearson correlations after the assessment of the validity and the
reliability of the data. The main hypothesis behind this study is that
there is a connection between the demographics of learners, their
perceptions on the usefulness of ICTs for learning about indigenous
foods, and the following personality and eLearning related theories
constructs: Computer self-efficacy, Trust in ICT systems, and
Conscientiousness; as suggested by existing studies on learning
theories. This hypothesis was fully confirmed by the survey
conducted by this study except for the demographic factors where
gender and age were not found to be determinant factors of learners’
perceptions on the usefulness of ICTs for learning about indigenous
foods.
Abstract: The problematic of gender and socioeconomic status
biased differences in academic motivation patterns is discussed.
Gender identity is understood according to symbolic interactionism
perspective: as a result of reflected appraisals, social comparisons,
self-attributions, and identifications, shaped by social environment
and family context. The effects of socioeconomic status on academic
motivation are conceptualized according to Bourdieu’s habitus
concept, reflecting the role of unconscious and internalized cultural
signals, proper to low and high socioeconomic status family contexts.
Since families differ by various socioeconomic features, the
hypothesis about possible impact of parents’ socioeconomic status on
their children’s academic motivation interfering with gender
socialization effects is held. The survey, aiming to seize gender
differences in academic motivation and self-recorded improvementoriented
efforts as a result of socialization processes operating in the
families of low and high socioeconomic status, was designed. The
results of Lithuanian higher education students’ survey are presented
and discussed.
Abstract: TiO2 thin films have been prepared by the sol-gel dipcoating
technique in order to elaborate antireflective thin films for
monocrystalline silicon (mono-Si). The titanium isopropoxyde was
chosen as a precursor with hydrochloric acid as a catalyser for
preparing a stable solution. The optical properties have been tailored
with varying the solution concentration, the withdrawn speed, and the
heat-treatment. We showed that using a TiO2 single layer with 64.5
nm in thickness, heat-treated at 450°C or 300°C reduces the mono-Si
reflection at a level lower than 3% over the broadband spectral
domains [669-834] nm and [786-1006] nm respectively. Those latter
performances are similar to the ones obtained with double layers of
low and high refractive index glasses respectively.
Abstract: The globalization of markets, the need to develop
competitive advantages and core competencies, among other things,
lead organizations to increasingly cross borders to operate in other
countries. The expatriation of professionals who go to work in
another country besides their own becomes increasingly common. In
order to generate data about this issue, research was conducted
concerning the perception of expatriate employees concerning
expatriation success. The research method used was case study
through a qualitative approach. This research was done through
interviews with five India expatriates and five China expatriates,
interview with expatriate department heads and analysis of company
documents. It was found that there are differences between the
organizational perception and perception of expatriates of what
constitutes mission success. The paper also provides suggestions for
further research and suggestions for future expatriates.
Abstract: In this paper, we present a robust algorithm to recognize extracted text from grocery product images captured by mobile phone cameras. Recognition of such text is challenging since text in grocery product images varies in its size, orientation,
style, illumination, and can suffer from perspective distortion.
Pre-processing is performed to make the characters scale and
rotation invariant. Since text degradations can not be appropriately
defined using well-known geometric transformations such
as translation, rotation, affine transformation and shearing, we
use the whole character black pixels as our feature vector.
Classification is performed with minimum distance classifier
using the maximum likelihood criterion, which delivers very
promising Character Recognition Rate (CRR) of 89%. We
achieve considerably higher Word Recognition Rate (WRR) of
99% when using lower level linguistic knowledge about product
words during the recognition process.
Abstract: In recent years, the compression of date (Phoenix
dactylifera L.) fruit powders (DP) to obtain date tablets (DT) has
been suggested as a promising form of valorization of non
commercial valuable date fruit (DF) varieties. To further improve
and characterize DT, the present study aims to investigate the
influence of the DP particle size and compression force on some
physical properties of DT. The results show that independently of
particle size, the hardness (y) of tablets increases with the increase of
the compression force (x) following a logarithmic law (y = a ln (bx)
where a and b are the constants of model). Further, a full factorial
design (FFD) at two levels, applied to investigate the erosion %,
reveals that the effects of time and particle size are the same in
absolute value and they are beyond the effect of the compression.
Regarding the disintegration time, the obtained results also by means
of a FFD show that the effect of the compression force exceeds 4
times that of the DP particle size. As final stage, the color parameters
in the CIELab system of DT immediately after their obtaining are
differently influenced by the size of the initial powder.
Abstract: Taking the design tolerance into account, this paper
presents a novel efficient approach to generate iso-scallop tool path for
five-axis strip machining with a barrel cutter. The cutter location is
first determined on the scallop surface instead of the design surface,
and then the cutter is adjusted to locate the optimal tool position based
on the differential rotation of the tool axis and satisfies the design
tolerance simultaneously. The machining strip width and error are
calculated with the aid of the grazing curve of the cutter. Based on the
proposed tool positioning algorithm, the tool paths are generated by
keeping the scallop height formed by adjacent tool paths constant. An
example is conducted to confirm the validity of the proposed method.
Abstract: In this study, we are interested in a species of the
family of Asteraceae (Tagetes erecta). This family is considered as a
source of antimicrobial extracts with strong capacity. The extraction
of the flavonoids is carried out by the method of liquid/liquid with the
use of successive solvents. Afterwards, we evaluated the biological
activity of the flavonoids on five pathogenic bacterial stocks such as
Escherichia coli, Bacillus subtilis, Klebsiella pneumoniae,
Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Staphylococcus aureus and two stocks
of yeasts to knowing Candida albicans) and Saccharomyces
cerevisiae, by employing the method of the aromatogramme starting
from a solid disc. The result of the antimicrobial activity shows an
action and a variable degree of sensitivity according to bacterial
stocks tested. It will be noted that the flavonoids have an inhibiting
effect on E. coli, B. subtilis, K. pneumoniae and S. aureus. But a
resistance with respect to the extract by P. aeruginosa, C. albicans
and S. cerevisiae is to be mentioned.
Abstract: At present, the evaluation of voltage stability
assessment experiences sizeable anxiety in the safe operation of
power systems. This is due to the complications of a strain power
system. With the snowballing of power demand by the consumers
and also the restricted amount of power sources, therefore, the system
has to perform at its maximum proficiency. Consequently, the
noteworthy to discover the maximum ability boundary prior to
voltage collapse should be undertaken. A preliminary warning can be
perceived to evade the interruption of power system’s capacity. The
effectiveness of line voltage stability indices (LVSI) is differentiated
in this paper. The main purpose of the indices used is to predict the
proximity of voltage instability of the electric power system. On the
other hand, the indices are also able to decide the weakest load buses
which are close to voltage collapse in the power system. The line
stability indices are assessed using the IEEE 14 bus test system to
validate its practicability. Results demonstrated that the implemented
indices are practically relevant in predicting the manifestation of
voltage collapse in the system. Therefore, essential actions can be
taken to dodge the incident from arising.
Abstract: The tomato is a very important crop, whose
cultivation in the Mediterranean basin is severely affected by the
phytoparasitic weed Phelipanche ramosa. The semiarid regions of
the world are considered the main areas where this parasitic weed is
established causing heavy infestation as it is able to produce high
numbers of seeds (up to 500,000 per plant), which remain viable for
extended period (more than 20 years). In this paper the results
obtained from eleven treatments in order to control this parasitic
weed including chemical, agronomic, biological and biotechnological
methods compared with the untreated test under two plowing depths
(30 and 50 cm) are reported. The split-plot design with 3 replicates
was adopted. In 2014 a trial was performed in Foggia province
(southern Italy) on processing tomato (cv Docet) grown in the field
infested by Phelipanche ramosa. Tomato seedlings were transplant
on May 5, on a clay-loam soil. During the growing cycle of the
tomato crop, at 56-78 and 92 days after transplantation, the number
of parasitic shoots emerged in each plot was detected. At tomato
harvesting, on August 18, the major quantity-quality yield parameters
were determined (marketable yield, mean weight, dry matter, pH,
soluble solids and color of fruits). All data were subjected to analysis
of variance (ANOVA) and the means were compared by Tukey's test.
Each treatment studied did not provide complete control against
Phelipanche ramosa. However, among the different methods tested,
some of them which Fusarium, gliphosate, radicon biostimulant and
Red Setter tomato cv (improved genotypes obtained by Tilling
technology) under deeper plowing (50 cm depth) proved to mitigate
the virulence of the Phelipanche ramose attacks. It is assumed that
these effects can be improved combining some of these treatments
each other, especially for a gradual and continuing reduction of the
“seed bank” of the parasite in the soil.
Abstract: This paper investigates the viability of using carbon
fiber reinforced epoxy composites modified with carbon nanotubes to
strengthening reinforced concrete (RC) columns. Six RC columns
was designed and constructed according to ASCE standards. The
columns were wrapped using carbon fiber sheets impregnated with
either neat epoxy or CNTs modified epoxy. These columns were then
tested under concentric axial loading. Test results show that;
compared to the unwrapped specimens; wrapping concrete columns
with carbon fiber sheet embedded in CNTs modified epoxy resulted
in an increase in its axial load resistance, maximum displacement,
and toughness values by 24%, 109% and 232%, respectively. These
results reveal that adding CNTs into epoxy resin enhanced the
confinement effect, specifically, increased the axial load resistance,
maximum displacement, and toughness values by 11%, 6%, and
19%, respectively compared with columns strengthening with carbon
fiber sheet embedded in neat epoxy.
Abstract: This paper presents nonlinear pulse propagation characteristics for different input optical pulse shapes with various input pulse energy levels in semiconductor optical amplifiers. For simulation of nonlinear pulse propagation, finite-difference beam propagation method is used to solve the nonlinear Schrödinger equation. In this equation, gain spectrum dynamics, gain saturation are taken into account which depends on carrier depletion, carrier heating, spectral-hole burning, group velocity dispersion, self-phase modulation and two photon absorption. From this analysis, we obtained the output waveforms and spectra for different input pulse shapes as well as for different input energies. It shows clearly that the peak position of the output waveforms are shifted toward the leading edge which due to the gain saturation of the SOA for higher input pulse energies. We also analyzed and compared the normalized difference of full-width at half maximum for different input pulse shapes in the SOA.
Abstract: The paper describes a Chinese shadow play animation
system based on Kinect. Users, without any professional training, can
personally manipulate the shadow characters to finish a shadow play
performance by their body actions and get a shadow play video
through giving the record command to our system if they want. In our
system, Kinect is responsible for capturing human movement and
voice commands data. Gesture recognition module is used to control
the change of the shadow play scenes. After packaging the data from
Kinect and the recognition result from gesture recognition module,
VRPN transmits them to the server-side. At last, the server-side uses
the information to control the motion of shadow characters and video
recording. This system not only achieves human-computer interaction,
but also realizes the interaction between people. It brings an
entertaining experience to users and easy to operate for all ages. Even
more important is that the application background of Chinese shadow
play embodies the protection of the art of shadow play animation.