Abstract:Abstract. This effort attempts to produce biodiesel from fish frying oil using a novel \"green\" technique based on Fe3O4-CeO2 nanoparticles as a catalyst. XRD analyzed this nanocatalyst\'s stability before and after usage. The best catalyst quantity (per cent by oil weight) and oil-to-methanol ratio for transesterification were explored. The physicochemical parameters of used oil and biodiesel were compared to ASTM D6751 and EN 14214. Catalyst recycling was considered. The biodiesel\'s physicochemical qualities were similar to conventional ones. The nanocatalyst\'s reactivity is sensitive to pretreatment and diminishes in the second cycle. This reduction in reactivity is followed by considerable leaching from the active phase (XRD).
Abstract:This work studies optical absorption in the zinc-blende boron-containing quantum dot (QD) structures. Eight structures are studied; two of them are the ternary BInP/GaP and BInP/BP. The emission wavelengths of the structures cover a broad spectrum range from UV to near-infrared. The structure with BP barriers emit at 292 nm. The ternary structure with GaP barrier emit at 720 nm. The structures with GaP barrier have importance in silicon device technology. The absorption peaks are arranged where the smallest energy difference between the transition subbands correspond to a higher absorption peak and are associated with a wide bandgap energy difference between the barrier and QD.
Abstract:This project was formulated to develop a system, with the purpose of improving the quality of life of deaf people with functional diversity, allowing them to listen and speak through an assisted communication system. As methodology, the research is quantitative of an applied experimental type, considering that the work is carried out to produce new developments, from a necessity of people with hearing, motor and speech diversity. The result is projected as a communication channel, which matches a software development with a device running iOS or Android operating systems. First, Morse code information is processed. Then, it is translated into text or voice commands allowing users to communicate their ideas or learning an alternate form of communication. Moreover, it will be an option to strengthen the inclusive infrastructure to ensure quality in the participatory teaching process, to enable Education Institutions to meet legal requirements. The achievement of the result is expected to reach top 7 levels of technological maturity on the innovation scale. Finally, the relevance of this project focuses on the possibility of offering an option to improve the quality of life of people with functional diversity, through technology.
Abstract:Timely and precise estimate of the area and distribution of sugarcane crops is crucial for decision-making in sugar mills. It aids in formulating the public policy and in the determination of prices by sugar mills for farmers and enables the supply disposal. Deep learning (DL) is an effective state-of-the-art technology for image processing. DL combined with RS is proven to be effective in crop classification. This study aims to compare 2D CNN and pretrained CNN models on Sentinel-2 and Landsat-8 satellite data at two sugarcane growing locations in Sangli, Maharashtra and four talukas of Karnataka. The potential of 2D and pretrained CNN models, namely, AlexNet, GoogLeNet, ResNet50 and DenseNet201 are evaluated to sugarcane fields and non-sugarcane areas. The results are depicting 2D CNN model performs relatively good with sentinel-2 (Landsat-8) at both locations producing 81.23 and 84.50 (74.18 and 78.68) at Sangli and four talukas, respectively. Whereas deep networks’ highest overall accuracy when applied on Landsat-8 is 95.00 and 92.00 on Sentinel-2. ResNet50 and DenseNet201 shown superior performance over other models with overall accuracies of 95.00 and 92.00, respectively, when used to extract features given to support vector machine (SVM) classifier. Despite significant difference in spatial resolution between Landsat-8 and Sentinel-2, there is not much difference in accuracies in both the dataset at the study locations when applied 2D CNN model and pretrained model. Noticeably, the results indicate that Sentinel-2 have the marginally upper hand in sugarcane classification when features are extracted using CNNs for sugarcane classification in India.
Abstract:The objective of this research is the valorization of calcined sediment from the Fergoug dam (western Algeria) in sustainable concrete production exposed to different level temperatures. For this purpose, the combination of calcined sediment and steel fiber in concrete is to contribute to economical formulations and has a significant impact on the mechanical performance. Moreover,after calcination at 750 °C calcined sediment was used as a replacement for the cement with different levels of 0%, 8% and 12% by cement weight and steel fiber dosages of 0%, 0.5%, and 1% by concrete volume were investigated on compressive strength at the age of 28 days with different temperature 20 °C, 400 °C, 500 °C and 800 °C in the furnace. The experimental result indicates that the combination of calcined sediment and fibre significantly improves properties of concrete, the optimum dosages of 8% of calcined sediment and 1% of steel fiber could improve compressive strength before and after heating. Beyond 500°C, the mechanical properties decreased rapidly. The inclusion of calcined sediment with or without fiber has shown the positive role in the concrete matrix on the extreme temperatures.
Abstract:In this paper, the finite element software ANSYS is employed to analyze the response (moment-curvature and ovalization-curvature relationships) of 6061-T6 aluminum alloy round-hole tubes (6061-RHTs) with different hole diameters of 2, 4, 6, 8, and 10 mm and hole directions of 0, 30, 60, and 90 subjected to cyclic bending with different curvature ratios of -1.0, -0.5, 0.0 and +0.5. From the experimental results, it can be observed that the moment-curvature relationship depicts a stable loop from the first cycle with a curvature ratio of -1.0. However, the moment-curvature relationship gradually drops and becomes stable after a few cycles with curvature ratios of -0.5, 0.0 and +0.5. The hole diameter and hole direction have little effect on the above behavior. The ovalization-curvature relationship depicts a ratcheting and increasing manner as the number of cycles increases for all curvature ratios. The hole diameter, hole direction or curvature ratio has a strong influence on the above behavior. In addition, a larger hole diameter, a smaller hole direction or a larger curvature ratio leads to a larger ovalization. Finally, by comparison of the ANSYS analysis and the experimental finding, it can be found that the ANSYS analysis can properly simulate the experimental data.
Abstract:Automatic detection can be useful in the search of large crop fields by simply detecting the disease with the symptoms appearing on the leaf. This paper presents the application of machine learning techniques aimed at detecting late blight disease using unsupervised learning methods such as K-Means and hierarchical clustering. The methodology used is composed by the following phases: acquisition of the dataset, image processing, feature extraction, feature selection, implementation of the learning model, performance measurement of the algorithm, finally a 68.24% hit rate was obtained being this the best result of the unsupervised learning algorithms implemented, using 3 clusters for clustering.
Abstract:Response mechanisms leakage currents on outdoor insulators when drizzling rains occur after the dry season are essential to predict the risk of flashover exposed to environmental pollution in ageing insulators. It can be used as initial information by network maintenance operators to act in the field. The main objective of this paper is to determine the effect of pollution accumulation and wetting on the surface of the insulator on the leakage current at the beginning of the rainy season after the dry season based on real-time monitoring. Monitoring was carried out on silicone rubber-SIR polymeric insulators and porcelain insulators installed on transmission towers or distribution lines on days with drizzling rain and no rain on ageing insulators. Based on the leakage current curve and statistical analysis results, drizzle during the day and night does not significantly affect the increase in leakage current in polymer insulators, except when the temperature is above 35oC, where the leakage current varies slightly over a wide range. Likewise, for porcelain insulators, the significance value, standard error, and determination value of R2 indicate a correspondence between leakage current and humidity, which means that there is a positive correlation between leakage current and moisture at the beginning of the rainy season with a significant value of P less than 0.05 (P < 0.05) and minimum standard errors of 0.028 and 0.044 for linear and exponential curves, respectively.
Abstract:The elderly i.e. people aged 60+ years is a sizeable segment in India. Advancing age brings several changes in lifestyle as well as social and consumption behavior however little is known about their leisure time activities. In particular, their inclination to adopt OTT video streaming platforms and the factors stimulating the same could be insightful to market players as well as it may make a vital contribution to the scarce literature in this area. The paper aims at - 1) exploring the profile of elderly adopters and non adopters of OTT platforms vis a vis factors such as – gender, working status, occupation, family life cycle stage, subscription, preferred content in traditional media (television),co-viewing of traditional media and; 2) identifying factors that stimulate the elderly consumers to adopt OTT video streaming platforms. Findings from a survey of 240 elderly respondents in NCR, India revealed a difference of pattern between adopters and non adopters with respect to the aforementioned factors. Furthermore, the results of discriminant analysis highlighted that the key predictors that led to adoption were – loss of interest in content from traditional media which is followed by low technology intimidation, interest in new age cinema, encouragement of spouse to adopt OTT platform and genre of interest as comedy. Given that the OTT landscape is going to get fiercely competitive in the coming years the OTT players can greatly benefit from the findings of this study which can guide them to captivate elderly consumers early as this segment can offer a better loyalty and stable base than their younger counterparts.
Abstract:Native chicken is one of the local chickens in Indonesia. Many chickens are kept by the \npeople of Indonesia as a producer of eggs and meat. Generally, the management of \ndomestic chicken rearing is external or public. Native chickens are usually given \nleftover feed or bran and will look for their own food around the house, garden and even \nforest. This research was conducted in Southeast Sulawesi with sampling locations \nnamely Kolaka Regency, North Kolaka Regency, Kendari City, South Konawe Regency, \nand Muna Regency. The purpose of this study was to determine the rate of introgression \nand genetic diversity of the external genetic characteristics of native chickens. About \n1750 native chickens were observed, with 875 males and 875 females. The variables \nthat will be observed are fur color, plumage color, feather pattern, feather flicker, shank \ncolor and comb shape. The method used to analyze the rate of introgression of exotic \nbreeds of Rhode Island Red, White Leghorn and Barred Plymouth Rock, native genes of \nlocal chickens, and genetic diversity or heterozygosity value. The results showed that \nthe highest percentage of gene frequencies in native chickens were colored feathers (ii), \ncolombian plumage color (ee), golden feathers flicker (ss), striated feather pattern (B_), \nblack and gray shank color (Idid). The authenticity of local chicken genes in native\nchickens reached 41.35%. The highest introgression rate was influenced by the Barred \nPlymouth Rock chicken gene 51.42%. The heterozygosity value of native chicken is \nstill high, namely 42.68%. To complete a set of their characterizations, further studies of \ntheir quantitative properties and molecular composition are required.