Abstract: Ripe ‘Nam Dok Mai’ mango (Mangifera indica L.) is an important exported fruit of Thailand, but rapidly declined in the quality attributes mainly by infection of anthracnose and stem end rot diseases. Multilayer coating is considered as a developed technique to maintain the postharvest quality of mangoes. The utilization of alternated coating by matching oppositely electrostatic charges between 0.1% chitosan and 0.1% polystyrene sulfonate (PSS) was studied. A number of the coating layers (layer by layer) were applied on mature green ‘Nam Dok Mai No.4’ mangoes prior to storage at 25 oC, 65-70% relative humidity (RH). There were significant differences in some quality attributes of mangoes coated by 3½ layers, 4½ layers and 5½ layers. In comparison to coated mangoes, uncoated fruits were higher in weight loss, total soluble solids, respiration rate, ethylene production and disease incidence except the titratable acidity. Coating fruit at 3½ layers exhibited the ripening delay and reducing disease infection without off flavour. On the other hand, fruit coated with 5½ layers comprised the lowest acceptable score, caused by exhibiting disorders from fermentation at the end of storage. As a result, multilayer coating between chitosan and PSS could effectively maintain the postharvest quality of mango, but number of coating layers should be thoroughly considered.
Abstract: The meeting behavior is a pervasive kind of interaction, which often occurs between the passenger and the shuttle. However, the meeting point set up at the Taoyuan International Airport is too far from the entry-exit, often causing passengers to stop searching near the entry-exit. When the number of people waiting for the rush hour increases, it often results in chaos in the waiting area. This study tried to find out what is the key factor to promote the rapid finding of each other between the passengers and the pick-ups. Then we implemented several design proposals to improve the meeting behavior of passengers and pick-ups based on behavior mapping and post-occupancy evaluation to enhance their meeting efficiency in unfamiliar environments. The research base is the reception hall of the second terminal of Taoyuan International Airport. Behavioral observation and mapping are implemented on the entry of inbound passengers into the welcome space, including the crowd distribution of the people who rely on the separation wall in the waiting area, the behavior of meeting and the interaction between the inbound passengers and the pick-ups. Then we redesign the space planning and signage design based on post-occupancy evaluation to verify the effectiveness of space plan and signage design. This study found that passengers ignore existing meeting-point designs which are placed on distant pillars at both ends. The position of the screen affects the area where the receiver is stranded, causing the pick-ups to block the passenger's moving line. The pick-ups prefer to wait where it is easy to watch incoming passengers and where it is closest to the mode of transport they take when leaving. Large visitors tend to gather next to landmarks, and smaller groups have a wide waiting area in the lobby. The location of the meeting point chosen by the pick-ups is related to the view of the incoming passenger. Finally, this study proposes an improved design of the meeting point, setting the traffic information in it, so that most passengers can see the traffic information when they enter the country. At the same time, we also redesigned the pick-ups desk to improve the efficiency of passenger meeting.
Abstract: The issue of high blood sugar level, the effects of which might end up as diabetes mellitus, is now becoming a rampant cardiovascular disorder in our community. In recent times, a lack of awareness among most people makes this disease a silent killer. The situation calls for urgency, hence the need to design a device that serves as a monitoring tool such as a wrist watch to give an alert of the danger a head of time to those living with high blood glucose, as well as to introduce a mechanism for checks and balances. The neural network architecture assumed 8-15-10 configuration with eight neurons at the input stage including a bias, 15 neurons at the hidden layer at the processing stage, and 10 neurons at the output stage indicating likely symptoms cases. The inputs are formed using the exclusive OR (XOR), with the expectation of getting an XOR output as the threshold value for diabetic symptom cases. The neural algorithm is coded in Java language with 1000 epoch runs to bring the errors into the barest minimum. The internal circuitry of the device comprises the compatible hardware requirement that matches the nature of each of the input neurons. The light emitting diodes (LED) of red, green, and yellow colors are used as the output for the neural network to show pattern recognition for severe cases, pre-hypertensive cases and normal without the traces of diabetes mellitus. The research concluded that neural network is an efficient Accu-Chek design tool for the proper monitoring of high glucose levels than the conventional methods of carrying out blood test.
Abstract: The study area is Kham Sakaesaeng District in Nakhon Ratchasima Province, the south section of Northeastern Thailand, located in the Lower Khorat-Ubol Basin. This region is the one of saline soil area, located in a dry plateau and regularly experience standing with periods of floods and alternating with periods of drought. Especially, the drought in the summer season causes the major saline soil and saline water problems of this region. The general cause of dry land salting resulted from salting on irrigated land, and an excess of water leading to the rising water table in the aquifer. The purpose of this study is to determine the relationship of physical and chemical properties between the soil and groundwater. The soil and groundwater samples were collected in both rainy and summer seasons. The content of pH, electrical conductivity (EC), total dissolved solids (TDS), chloride and salinity were investigated. The experimental result of soil and groundwater samples show the slightly pH less than 7, EC (186 to 8,156 us/cm and 960 to 10,712 us/cm), TDS (93 to 3,940 ppm and 480 to 5,356 ppm), chloride content (45.58 to 4,177,015 mg/l and 227.90 to 9,216,736 mg/l), and salinity (0.07 to 4.82 ppt and 0.24 to 14.46 ppt) in the rainy and summer seasons, respectively. The distribution of chloride content and salinity content were interpolated and displayed as a map by using ArcMap 10.3 program, according to the season. The result of saline soil and brined groundwater in the study area were related to the low-lying topography, drought area, and salt-source exposure. Especially, the Rock Salt Member of Maha Sarakham Formation was exposed or lies near the ground surface in this study area. During the rainy season, salt was eroded or weathered from the salt-source rock formation and transported by surface flow or leached into the groundwater. In the dry season, the ground surface is dry enough resulting salt precipitates from the brined surface water or rises from the brined groundwater influencing the increasing content of chloride and salinity in the ground surface and groundwater.
Abstract: In this paper, an approach combining analytical method for the distributed generator (DG) sizing and meta-heuristic search for the optimal location of DG has been presented. The optimal size of DG on each bus is estimated by the loss sensitivity factor method while the optimal sites are determined by Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) based optimal reactive power dispatch for minimizing active power loss. To confirm the proposed approach, it has been tested on IEEE-30 bus test system. The adjustments of operating constraints and voltage profile improvements have also been observed. The obtained results show that the allocation of DGs results in a significant loss reduction with good voltage profiles and the combined approach is competent in keeping the system voltages within the acceptable limits.
Abstract: In the case of the proposed method, the problem is
parallelized by considering multiple possible mode of operation
profiles, which determine the range in which the generators operate
in each period. For each of these profiles, the optimization is carried
out independently, and the best resulting dispatch is chosen. For each
such profile, the resulting problem is a quadratic programming (QP)
problem with a potentially negative definite Q quadratic term, and
constraints depending on the actual operation profile. In this paper we
analyze the performance of available MATLAB optimization methods
and solvers for the corresponding QP.
Abstract: This paper proposes a rigid point set matching
algorithm in arbitrary dimensions based on the idea of symmetric
covariant function. A group of functions of the points in the set are
formulated using rigid invariants. Each of these functions computes a
pair of correspondence from the given point set. Then the computed
correspondences are used to recover the unknown rigid transform
parameters. Each computed point can be geometrically interpreted as
the weighted mean center of the point set. The algorithm is compact,
fast, and dimension free without any optimization process. It either
computes the desired transform for noiseless data in linear time, or
fails quickly in exceptional cases. Experimental results for synthetic
data and 2D/3D real data are provided, which demonstrate potential
applications of the algorithm to a wide range of problems.
Abstract: High cost of fossil fuels and intensifying installations of alternate energy generation sources are intimidating main challenges in power systems. Making accurate load forecasting an important and challenging task for optimal energy planning and management at both distribution and generation side. There are many techniques to forecast load but each technique comes with its own limitation and requires data to accurately predict the forecast load. Artificial Neural Network (ANN) is one such technique to efficiently forecast the load. Comparison between two different ranges of input datasets has been applied to dynamic ANN technique using MATLAB Neural Network Toolbox. It has been observed that selection of input data on training of a network has significant effects on forecasted results. Day-wise input data forecasted the load accurately as compared to year-wise input data. The forecasted load is then distributed among the six generators by using the linear programming to get the optimal point of generation. The algorithm is then verified by comparing the results of each generator with their respective generation limits.
Abstract: Aerial and ground robots have various advantages of usage in different missions. Aerial robots can move quickly and get a different sight of view of the area, but those vehicles cannot carry heavy payloads. On the other hand, unmanned ground vehicles (UGVs) are slow moving vehicles, since those can carry heavier payloads than unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). In this context, we investigate the performances of various Similarity Metrics to provide a common map for Heterogeneous Robot Team (HRT) in complex environments. Within the usage of Lidar Odometry and Octree Mapping technique, the local 3D maps of the environment are gathered. In order to obtain a common map for HRT, informative theoretic similarity metrics are exploited. All types of these similarity metrics gave adequate as allowable simulation time and accurate results that can be used in different types of applications. For the heterogeneous multi robot team, those methods can be used to match different types of maps.
Abstract: In this paper, ways of modeling dynamic measurement
systems are discussed. Specially, for linear system with single-input
single-output, it could be modeled with shallow neural network.
Then, gradient based optimization algorithms are used for searching
the proper coefficients. Besides, method with normal equation and
second order gradient descent are proposed to accelerate the modeling
process, and ways of better gradient estimation are discussed. It
shows that the mathematical essence of the learning objective is
maximum likelihood with noises under Gaussian distribution. For
conventional gradient descent, the mini-batch learning and gradient
with momentum contribute to faster convergence and enhance model
ability. Lastly, experimental results proved the effectiveness of second
order gradient descent algorithm, and indicated that optimization with
normal equation was the most suitable for linear dynamic models.
Abstract: This work assesses the performance of an analytical
model framework to generate daily flow duration curves, FDCs,
based on climatic characteristics of the catchments and on their
streamflow recession coefficients. According to the analytical model
framework, precipitation is considered to be a stochastic process,
modeled as a marked Poisson process, and recession is considered
to be deterministic, with parameters that can be computed based
on different models. The analytical model framework was tested
for three case studies with different hydrological regimes located in
Switzerland: pluvial, snow-dominated and glacier. For that purpose,
five time intervals were analyzed (the four meteorological seasons
and the civil year) and two developments of the model were tested:
one considering a linear recession model and the other adopting
a nonlinear recession model. Those developments were combined
with recession coefficients obtained from two different approaches:
forward and inverse estimation. The performance of the analytical
framework when considering forward parameter estimation is poor in
comparison with the inverse estimation for both, linear and nonlinear
models. For the pluvial catchment, the inverse estimation shows
exceptional good results, especially for the nonlinear model, clearing
suggesting that the model has the ability to describe FDCs. For
the snow-dominated and glacier catchments the seasonal results are
better than the annual ones suggesting that the model can describe
streamflows in those conditions and that future efforts should focus
on improving and combining seasonal curves instead of considering
single annual ones.
Abstract: Introduction and objectives: Chlorobutanol is a raw material, mainly used as an antiseptic and antimicrobial preservative in injectable and ophthalmic preparations. The main objective of our study was the synthesis and evaluation of the antimicrobial activity of chlorobutanol hemihydrates. Material and methods: Chlorobutanol was synthesized according to the nucleophilic addition reaction of chloroform to acetone, identified by an infrared absorption using Spectrum One FTIR spectrometer, melting point, Scanning electron microscopy and colorimetric reactions. The dosage of carvedilol active substance was carried out by assaying the degradation products of chlorobutanol in a basic solution. The chlorobutanol obtained was subjected to bacteriological tests in order to study its antimicrobial activity. The antibacterial activity was evaluated against strains such as Escherichia coli (ATCC 25 922), Staphylococcus aureus (ATCC 25 923) and Pseudomonas aeroginosa (ATCC = American type culture collection). The antifungal activity was evaluated against human pathogenic fungal strains, such as Candida albicans and Aspergillus niger provided by the parasitology laboratory of the Hospital of Tizi-Ouzou, Algeria. Results and discussion: Chlorobutanol was obtained in an acceptable yield. The characterization tests of the product obtained showed a white and crystalline appearance (confirmed by scanning electron microscopy), solubilities (in water, ethanol and glycerol), and a melting temperature in accordance with the requirements of the European pharmacopoeia. The colorimetric reactions were directed towards the presence of a trihalogenated carbon and an alcohol function. The spectral identification (IR) showed the presence of characteristic chlorobutanol peaks and confirmed the structure of the latter. The microbiological study revealed an antimicrobial effect on all strains tested (Sataphylococcus aureus (MIC = 1250 µg/ml), E. coli (MIC = 1250 µg/ml), Pseudomonas aeroginosa (MIC = 1250 µg/ml), Candida albicans (MIC =2500 µg/ml), Aspergillus niger (MIC =2500 µg/ml)) with MIC values close to literature data. Conclusion: Thus, on the whole, the synthesized chlorobutanol satisfied the requirements of the European Pharmacopoeia, and possesses antibacterial and antifungal activity; nevertheless, it is necessary to insist on the purification step of the product in order to eliminate the maximum impurities.
Abstract: This paper proposed a design of 16 elements, 8x2 linear fed patch antenna array with 16 ports, for 28 GHz, mm-wave band 5G for base station. The phased array covers along the azimuth plane to provide the coverage to the users in omnidirectional. The proposed antenna is designed RT Duroid 5880 substrate with the overall size of 85x35.6x0.787 mm3. The array is operating from 27.43 GHz to 28.34 GHz with a 910 MHz impedance bandwidth. The gain of the array is 18.3 dB, while the suppression of the side lobes is -1.0 dB. The main lobe direction of the array is 15 deg. The array shows a high array gain throughout the impedance bandwidth with overall of VSWR is below 1.12. The design will be proposed in single element and 16 elements antenna.
Abstract: Synthetic domestic wastewater was treated via combining treatment methods, including electrochemical oxidation, adsorption, and sequencing batch reactor (SBR). In the upper part of the reactor, an anode and a cathode (Ti/RuO2-IrO2) were organized in parallel for the electrochemical oxidation procedure. Sodium sulfate (Na2SO4) with a concentration of 2.5 g/L was applied as the electrolyte. The voltage and current were fixed on 7.50 V and 0.40 A, respectively. Then, 15% working value of the reactor was filled by activated sludge, and 85% working value of the reactor was added with synthetic wastewater. Powdered cockleshell, 1.5 g/L, was added in the reactor to do ion-exchange. Response surface methodology was employed for statistical analysis. Reaction time (h) and pH were considered as independent factors. A total of 97.0% biochemical oxygen demand, 99.9% phosphorous and 88.6% cadmium were eliminated at the optimum reaction time (80.0 min) and pH (6.4).
Abstract: Aerodynamic stability coefficients are necessary to be known before any unmanned aircraft flight is performed. This requires expertise on aerodynamics and stability control of the aircraft. To enable efficacious performance of aircraft requires that a well-defined flight path and aerodynamics should be defined beforehand. This paper presents a study on the aerodynamics of an unmanned aero vehicle (UAV) during flight conditions. Current research holds comparative studies of different parameters for flight aerodynamic, measured using two different open source analytical software programs. These software packages are DATCOM and XLRF5, which help in depicting the flight aerodynamic variables. Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) was also used to perform aerodynamic analysis for which Star CCM+ was used. Output trends of the study demonstrate high accuracies between the two software programs with that of CFD. It can be seen that the Coefficient of Lift (CL) obtained from DATCOM and XFLR is similar to CL of CFD simulation. In the similar manner, other potential aerodynamic stability parameters obtained from analytical software are in good agreement with CFD.
Abstract: Biosensors are playing vital role in industrial, clinical, and chemical analysis applications. Among other techniques, ZnO based biosensor is an easy approach due to its exceptional chemical and electrical properties. ZnO nanorods have positively charged isoelectric point which helps immobilize the negative charge glucose oxides (GOx). Here, we report ZnO nanorods based biosensors for the immobilization of GOx. The ZnO nanorods were grown by hydrothermal method on indium tin oxide substrate (ITO). The fabrication of biosensors was carried through batch processing using conventional photolithography. The buffer solutions of GOx were prepared in phosphate with a pH value of around 7.3. The biosensors effectively immobilized the GOx and result was analyzed by calculation of voltage and current on nanostructures.
Abstract: In recent years, real-time spatial applications, like
location-aware services and traffic monitoring, have become more
and more important. Such applications result dynamic environments
where data as well as queries are continuously moving. As a result,
there is a tremendous amount of real-time spatial data generated
every day. The growth of the data volume seems to outspeed the
advance of our computing infrastructure. For instance, in real-time
spatial Big Data, users expect to receive the results of each query
within a short time period without holding in account the load
of the system. But with a huge amount of real-time spatial data
generated, the system performance degrades rapidly especially in
overload situations. To solve this problem, we propose the use of
data partitioning as an optimization technique. Traditional horizontal
and vertical partitioning can increase the performance of the system
and simplify data management. But they remain insufficient for
real-time spatial Big data; they can’t deal with real-time and
stream queries efficiently. Thus, in this paper, we propose a novel
data partitioning approach for real-time spatial Big data named
VPA-RTSBD (Vertical Partitioning Approach for Real-Time Spatial
Big data). This contribution is an implementation of the Matching
algorithm for traditional vertical partitioning. We find, firstly, the
optimal attribute sequence by the use of Matching algorithm. Then,
we propose a new cost model used for database partitioning, for
keeping the data amount of each partition more balanced limit and
for providing a parallel execution guarantees for the most frequent
queries. VPA-RTSBD aims to obtain a real-time partitioning scheme
and deals with stream data. It improves the performance of query
execution by maximizing the degree of parallel execution. This affects
QoS (Quality Of Service) improvement in real-time spatial Big Data
especially with a huge volume of stream data. The performance of
our contribution is evaluated via simulation experiments. The results
show that the proposed algorithm is both efficient and scalable, and
that it outperforms comparable algorithms.
Abstract: This study investigates the effect of closed circuit television (CCTV) image patch layout on performance of a simulated train-platform departure task. The within-subjects experimental design measures target detection rate and response latency during a CCTV visual search task conducted as part of the procedure for safe train dispatch. Three interface designs were developed by manipulating CCTV image patch layout. Eye movements, perceived workload and system usability were measured across experimental conditions. Task performance was compared to identify significant differences between conditions. The results of this study have not been determined.
Abstract: A frequency reconfigurable multiband antenna for intelligent transportation system (ITS) applications is proposed in this paper. A PIN-diode is used for reconfigurability. Centre frequencies are 1.38, 1.98, 2.89, 3.86, and 4.34 GHz in “ON” state of Diode and 1.56, 2.16, 2.88, 3.91 and 4.45 GHz in “OFF” state. Achieved maximum bandwidth is 18%. The maximum gain of the proposed antenna is 2.7 dBi in “ON” state and 3.95 dBi in “OFF” state of the diode. The antenna is simulated, fabricated, and tested in the lab. Measured and simulated results are in good confirmation.
Abstract: The objective of the study was based on the hydrological routing modelling for the continuous monitoring of the hydrological situation in the Moudjar river catchment, especially during floods with Hydrologic Engineering Center–Hydrologic Modelling Systems (HEC-HMS). The HEC-GeoHMS was used to transform data from geographic information system (GIS) to HEC-HMS for delineating and modelling the catchment river in order to estimate the runoff volume, which is used as inputs to the hydrological routing model. Two hydrological routing models were used, namely Muskingum and Muskingum routing models, for conducting this study. In this study, a comparison between the parameters of the Muskingum and Muskingum-Cunge routing models in HEC-HMS was used for modelling flood routing in the Moudjar river catchment and determining the relationship between these parameters and the physical characteristics of the river. The results indicate that the effects of input parameters such as the weighting factor "X" and travel time "K" on the output results are more significant, where the Muskingum routing model was more sensitive to input parameters than the Muskingum-Cunge routing model. This study can contribute to understand and improve the knowledge of the mechanisms of river floods, especially in ungauged river catchments.