Abstract: This paper aims to project the construction of a
prototype azimuthal thruster, mounted with materials of low cost and
easy access, testing in a controlled environment to measure their
performance, characteristics and feasibility of future projects. The
construction of the simulation of dynamic positioning software,
responsible for simulating a vessel and reposition it when necessary.
Validation tests were performed in the form of partial or complete
system. These tests validate the system manually or automatically.
The system provides an interface to the user and simulates the
conditions unfavorable positioning of a vessel, accurately calculates
the azimuth angle, the direction of rotation of the helix and the time
that this should be turned on so that the vessel back to position
original. A serial communication connects the Simulation Dynamic
Positioning System with Embedded System causing the usergenerated
data to simulate the DP system arrives in the form of
control signals to the motors of the propellant. This article addresses
issues in the marine industry employees.
Abstract: Zn alloy and composite coatings are widely used in
buildings and structures, automobile and fasteners industries to
protect steel component from corrosion. In this paper, Zn-Ni-Al2O3
nanocomposite coatings were electrodeposited on mild steel using a
novel sol enhanced electroplating method. In this method, transparent
Al2O3 sol was added into the acidic Zn-Ni bath to produced Zn-Ni-
Al2O3 nanocomposite coatings. The effect of alumina sol on the
electrodeposition process, and coating properties was investigated
using cyclic voltammetry, XRD, ESEM and Tafel test. Results from
XRD tests showed that the structure of all coatings was single γ-
Ni5Zn21 phase. Cyclic voltammetry results showed that the
electrodeposition overpotential was lower in the presence of alumina
sol in the bath, and caused the reduction potential of Zn-Ni to shift to
more positive values. Zn-Ni-Al2O3 nanocomposite coatings produced
more uniform and compact deposits, with fine grained microstructure
when compared to Zn-Ni coatings. The corrosion resistance of Zn-Ni
coatings was improved significantly by incorporation of alumina
nanoparticles into the coatings.
Abstract: This paper presents the design, development and
evaluation of an application prototype developed to support
tuberculosis (TB) patients’ treatment adherence. The system makes
use of graphics and voice reminders as opposed to text messaging to
encourage patients to follow their medication routine. To evaluate the
effect of the prototype applications, participants were given mobile
phones on which the reminder system was installed. Thirty-eight
people, including TB health workers and patients from Zanzibar,
Tanzania, participated in the evaluation exercises. The results
indicate that the participants found the mobile image-based
application is useful to support TB treatment. All participants
understood and interpreted the intended meaning of every image
correctly. The study findings revealed that the use of a mobile visualbased
application may have potential benefit to support TB patients
(both literate and illiterate) in their treatment processes.
Abstract: This paper is focused on the reference current
calculation in the compensation mode of the active DC traction
substations. The so-called p-q theory of the instantaneous reactive
power is used as theoretical foundation. The compensation goal of
total compensation is taken into consideration for the operation under
both sinusoidal and nonsinusoidal voltage conditions, through the
two objectives of unity power factor and perfect harmonic
cancelation. Four blocks of reference current generation implement
the conceived algorithms and they are included in a specific Simulink
library, which is useful in a DSP dSPACE-based platform working
under Matlab/Simulink. The simulation results validate the
correctness of the implementation and fulfillment of the
compensation tasks.
Abstract: In this study, lipid-deprived residuals of microalgae
were hydrolyzed for the production of reducing sugars by using the
recombinant Bacillus cellulosome, carrying eight genes from the
Clostridium thermocellum ATCC27405. The obtained cellulosome
was found to exist mostly in the broth supernatant with a cellulosome
activity of 2.4 U/mL. Furthermore, the Michaelis-Menten constant
(Km) and Vmax of cellulosome were found to be 14.832 g/L and 3.522
U/mL. The activation energy of the cellulosome to hydrolyze
microalgae LDRs was calculated as 32.804 kJ/mol.
Abstract: The growth of organic farming practices in the last
few decades is continuing to stimulate the international debate about
this alternative food market. As a part of a PhD project research
about embeddedness in Alternative Food Networks (AFNs), this
paper focuses on the promotional aspects of organic farms websites
from the Madrid region. As a theoretical tool, some knowledge
categories drawn on the geographic studies literature are used to
classify the many ideas expressed in the web pages. By analysing
texts and pictures of 30 websites, the study aims to question how and
to what extent actors from organic world communicate to the
potential customers their personal beliefs about farming practices,
products qualities, and ecological and social benefits. Moreover, the
paper raises the question of whether organic farming laws and
regulations lack of completeness about the social and cultural aspects
of food.
Abstract: SARA is a common and serious metabolic disorder in
early lactation in dairy cattle and in finishing beef cattle, caused by
diets with high inclusion of cereal grain. This experiment was
performed to determine the efficacy of Megasphaera elsdenii, a
major lactate-utilizing bacterium in prevention/treatment of SARA in
vivo. In vivo experimentation, it was used eight ruminally cannulated
rams and it was applied the rapid adaptation with the mixture of grain
based on wheat (80% wheat, 20% barley) and barley (80% barley,
20% wheat). During the systematic adaptation, it was followed the
probability of SARA formation by being measured the rumen pH
with two hours intervals after and before feeding. After being
evaluated the data, it was determined the ruminal pH ranged from
5.2-5.6 on the condition of feeding with 60 percentage of grain
mixture based on barley and wheat, that assured the definite form of
subacute acidosis. In four days SARA period, M. elsdenii (1010 cfu
ml-1) was inoculated during the first two days. During the SARA
period, it was observed the decrease of feed intake with M. elsdenii
inoculation. Inoculation of M. elsdenii was caused to differentiation
of rumen pH (P
Abstract: The work aims to develop a robot in the form of
autonomous vehicle to detect, inspection and mapping of
underground pipelines through the ATmega328 Arduino platform.
Hardware prototyping is very similar to C / C ++ language that
facilitates its use in robotics open source, resembles PLC used in
large industrial processes. The robot will traverse the surface
independently of direct human action, in order to automate the
process of detecting buried pipes, guided by electromagnetic
induction. The induction comes from coils that send the signal to the
Arduino microcontroller contained in that will make the difference in
intensity and the treatment of the information, and then this
determines actions to electrical components such as relays and
motors, allowing the prototype to move on the surface and getting the
necessary information. This change of direction is performed by a
stepper motor with a servo motor. The robot was developed by
electrical and electronic assemblies that allowed test your application.
The assembly is made up of metal detector coils, circuit boards and
microprocessor, which interconnected circuits previously developed
can determine, process control and mechanical actions for a robot
(autonomous car) that will make the detection and mapping of buried
pipelines plates. This type of prototype can prevent and identifies
possible landslides and they can prevent the buried pipelines suffer an
external pressure on the walls with the possibility of oil leakage and
thus pollute the environment.
Abstract: The rapid growth of multimedia technology demands
the secure and efficient access to information. This fast growing lose
the confidence of unauthorized duplication. Henceforth the protection
of multimedia content is becoming more important. Watermarking
solves the issue of unlawful copy of advanced data. In this paper,
blind video watermarking technique has been proposed. A luminance
layer of selected frames is interlaced into two even and odd rows of
an image, further it is deinterlaced and equalizes the coefficients of
the two shares. Color watermark is split into different blocks, and the
pieces of block are concealed in one of the share under the wavelet
transform. Stack the two images into a single image by introducing
interlaced even and odd rows in the two shares. Finally, chrominance
bands are concatenated with the watermarked luminance band. The
safeguard level of the secret information is high, and it is
undetectable. Results show that the quality of the video is not
changed also yields the better PSNR values.
Abstract: Greenhouses offer us suitable conditions which can
be controlled easily for the growth of the plant and they are made by
using a covering material that allows the sun light entering into the
system. Covering material can be glass, fiber glass, plastic or another
transparent element. This study investigates the solar energy usability
rates and solar energy benefitting rates of a semi-spherical (modified
arch) type greenhouse system according to different orientations and
positions which exists under climatic conditions of Bayburt. In the
concept of this study it is tried to determine the best direction and
best sizes of a semi-spherical greenhouse to get best solar benefit
from the sun. To achieve this aim a modeling study is made by using
MATLAB. However, this modeling study is run for some determined
shapes and greenhouses it can be used for different shaped
greenhouses or buildings. The basic parameters are determined as
greenhouse azimuth angle, the rate of size of long edge to short and
seasonal solar energy gaining of greenhouse. The optimum azimuth
angles of 400, 300, 250, 200, 150, 100, 50 m2 modified arch
greenhouse are 90o, 90o, 35o, 35o, 34o, 33o and 22o while their
optimum k values (ratio of length to width) are 10, 10, 10, 10, 6, 4
and 4 respectively. Positioning the buildings in order to get more
solar heat energy in winter and less in summer brings out energy and
money savings and increases the comfort.
Abstract: A knowledge base stores facts and rules about the
world that applications can use for the purpose of reasoning. By
applying the concept of granular computing to a knowledge base,
several advantages emerge. These can be harnessed by applications
to improve their capabilities and performance. In this paper, the
concept behind such a construct, called a granular knowledge cube,
is defined, and its intended use as an instrument that manages to
cope with different data types and detect knowledge domains is
elaborated. Furthermore, the underlying architecture, consisting of the
three layers of the storing, representing, and structuring of knowledge,
is described. Finally, benefits as well as challenges of deploying it
are listed alongside application types that could profit from having
such an enhanced knowledge base.
Abstract: This paper presents the design and fabrication of a
novel piezoelectric actuator for a gas micro pump with check valve
having the advantages of miniature size, light weight and low power
consumption. The micro pump is designed to have eight major
components, namely a stainless steel upper cover layer, a piezoelectric
actuator, a stainless steel diaphragm, a PDMS chamber layer, two
stainless steel channel layers with two valve seats, a PDMS check
valve layer with two cantilever-type check valves and an acrylic
substrate. A prototype of the gas micro pump, with a size of 52 mm ×
50 mm × 5.0 mm, is fabricated by precise manufacturing. This device
is designed to pump gases with the capability of performing the
self-priming and bubble-tolerant work mode by maximizing the stroke
volume of the membrane as well as the compression ratio via
minimization of the dead volume of the micro pump chamber and
channel. By experiment apparatus setup, we can get the real-time
values of the flow rate of micro pump and the displacement of the
piezoelectric actuator, simultaneously. The gas micro pump obtained
higher output performance under the sinusoidal waveform of 250 Vpp.
The micro pump achieved the maximum pumping rates of 1185
ml/min and back pressure of 7.14 kPa at the corresponding frequency
of 120 and 50 Hz.
Abstract: Neural activity in the human brain starts from the
early stages of prenatal development. This activity or signals
generated by the brain are electrical in nature and represent not only
the brain function but also the status of the whole body. At the
present moment, three methods can record functional and
physiological changes within the brain with high temporal resolution
of neuronal interactions at the network level: the
electroencephalogram (EEG), the magnet oencephalogram (MEG),
and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI); each of these has
advantages and shortcomings. EEG recording with a large number of
electrodes is now feasible in clinical practice. Multichannel EEG
recorded from the scalp surface provides very valuable but indirect
information about the source distribution. However, deep electrode
measurements yield more reliable information about the source
locations intracranial recordings and scalp EEG are used with the
source imaging techniques to determine the locations and strengths of
the epileptic activity. As a source localization method, Low
Resolution Electro-Magnetic Tomography (LORETA) is solved for
the realistic geometry based on both forward methods, the Boundary
Element Method (BEM) and the Finite Difference Method (FDM). In
this paper, we review the findings EEG- LORETA about epilepsy.
Abstract: Breast cancer is in the top rate of cancer. We analyzed
the prevalence of obesity and its association with breast cancer and
finally we reviewed 25 article that 320 patient and 320 control which
enrolled to our study. The distribution of breast cancer patients and
controls with respect to their anthropometric indices in patients with
higher weight, which was statistically significant (60.2 ± 10.2 kg)
compared with control group (56.1 ± 11.3 kg). The body mass index
of patients was (26.06+/-3.42) and significantly higher than the
control group (24.1+/-1.7). Obesity leads to increased levels of
adipose tissue in the body that can be stored toxins and carcinogens
to produce a continuous supply. Due to the high level of fat and the
role of estrogen in a woman which is endogenous estrogen of the
tumor and regulates the activities of growth steroids, obesity has
confirmed as a risk factor for breast cancer. Our study and other
studies have shown that obesity is a risk factor for breast cancer. And
it can be prevented with a weight loss intervention for breast cancer
in the future.
Abstract: This paper concludes that, for economic development,
and to ensure survival, Kenya and similar countries must industrialize
their economy and mechanize their agriculture using modern large
scale methods.
Abstract: This study conducts simulation analyses to find the
optimal debt ceiling of Taiwan, while factoring in welfare
maximization under a dynamic stochastic general equilibrium
framework. The simulation is based on Taiwan's 2001 to 2011
economic data and shows that welfare is maximized at a debt/GDP
ratio of 0.2, increases in the debt/GDP ratio leads to increases in both
tax and interest rates and decreases in the consumption ratio and
working hours. The study results indicate that the optimal debt ceiling
of Taiwan is 20% of GDP, where if the debt/GDP ratio is greater than
40%, the welfare will be negative and result in welfare loss.
Abstract: While choosing insulating oil, characteristic features
such as thermal cooling, endurance, efficiency and being
environment-friendly should be considered. Mineral oils are referred
as petroleum-based oil. In this study, vegetable oils investigated as an
alternative insulating liquid to mineral oil. Dissipation factor,
breakdown voltage, relative dielectric constant and resistivity
changes with the frequency and voltage of mineral, rapeseed and nut
oils were measured. Experimental studies were performed according
to ASTM D924 and IEC 60156 standards.
Abstract: Residential buildings consume significant amounts of
energy and produce large amount of emissions and waste. However,
there is a substantial potential for energy savings in this sector which
needs to be evaluated over the life cycle of residential buildings. Life
Cycle Assessment (LCA) methodology has been employed to study
the primary energy uses and associated environmental impacts of
different phases (i.e., product, construction, use, end of life, and
beyond building life) for residential buildings. Four different
alternatives of residential buildings in Vancouver (BC, Canada) with
a 50-year lifespan have been evaluated, including High Rise
Apartment (HRA), Low Rise Apartment (LRA), Single family
Attached House (SAH), and Single family Detached House (SDH).
Life cycle performance of the buildings is evaluated for embodied
energy, embodied environmental impacts, operational energy,
operational environmental impacts, total life-cycle energy, and total
life cycle environmental impacts. Estimation of operational energy
and LCA are performed using DesignBuilder software and Athena
Impact estimator software respectively.
The study results revealed that over the life span of the buildings,
the relationship between the energy use and the environmental
impacts are identical. LRA is found to be the best alternative in terms
of embodied energy use and embodied environmental impacts; while,
HRA showed the best life-cycle performance in terms of minimum
energy use and environmental impacts. Sensitivity analysis has also
been carried out to study the influence of building service lifespan
over 50, 75, and 100 years on the relative significance of embodied
energy and total life cycle energy. The life-cycle energy requirements
for SDH are found to be a significant component among the four
types of residential buildings. The overall disclose that the primary
operations of these buildings accounts for 90% of the total life cycle
energy which far outweighs minor differences in embodied effects
between the buildings.
Abstract: This paper proposes a linear model for optimizing
domestic energy consumption in Romania. The particularity of the
model is that it is putting in competition both tangible technologies
and thermal insulation projects with different financing modes.
The model is optimizing the energy system by minimizing the
global discounted cost in household sector, by integrating residential
lighting, space heating, hot water, combined space heating – hot
water, as well as space cooling, in a monolithic model. Another
demand sector included is the passenger transport.
This paper focuses on space heating part, analyzing technical and
economic issues related to investment decisions to envelope and
insulate buildings, in order to minimize energy consumption.
Abstract: Brownfields are one of the most important problems
that must be solved by today's cities. The topic of this article is
description of developing a comprehensive transformation of postindustrial
area of the former iron factory national cultural heritage
lower Vítkovice. City of Ostrava used to be industrial superpower of
the Czechoslovak Republic, especially in the area of coal mining and
iron production, after declining industrial production and mining in
the 80s left many unused areas of former factories generally
brownfields and backfields. Since the late 90s we are observing how
the city officials or private entities seeking to remedy this situation.
Regeneration of brownfields is a very expensive and long-term
process. The area is now rebuilt for tourists and residents of the city
in the entertainment, cultural, and social center. It was necessary do
the reconstruction of the industrial monuments. Equally important
was the construction of new buildings, which helped reusing of the
entire complex. This is a unique example of transformation of
technical monuments and completion of necessary new objects, so
that the area could start working again and reintegrate back into the
urban system.