American Scientific Research Journal for Engineering, Technology, and Sciences (ASRJETS)

Current Stage of Autonomous Driving Through A Quick Survey for Novice

2020-10-08T09:12:12+00:00

Today, autonomous driving is considered a branch of artificial intelligence in which various technologies are employed, ranging from computer vision to machine learning-based sensor fusion technologies. This work summarizes the autonomous vehicle advances and also discusses the crucial components required to build such technology. The state-of-the-art architectures of autonomous vehicles compromise several core modules, including sensors, road scene perception, motion planning, core control system, and system management. The research showed that computer vision technologies such as object detection and tracking and localization and mapping techniques, play crucial roles in an advanced autonomous vehicle functional architecture. The current stage of this industry demonstrates the successful prototyping of autonomous vehicles without drivers’ significant interventions. However, the research centers and automobile industries’ ongoing development aim to explore the productization of such highly automated vehicles and seek to improve road scene perception to reduce the number of sensors while enhancing or maintaining the current performance.

Mediational Role of Phonological Awareness Skills in Phonological Working Memory, IQ and Reading Ability among Kindergarten Children’s

2020-10-08T09:38:46+00:00

The present study was designed to examine the relationship between phonological working memory, IQ and reading ability, through the mediation phonological awareness skills. Two hundred kindergarten children’s (100 boys & 100 girls; age ranged between 4 and 5 years) (M age =4.38), from 23 kindergartens attached to private schools in Muscat Governorate, Oman. The Phonological awareness skills was measured with “Phonological Awareness Test- Second Edition (PAT-2)” [34], the “Comprehensive Test of Phonological Processing (CTOPP-2)” and phonological working memory [35]. The IQ was measured by Otis Lennon [36]. Mediational path analysis supported our hypothesized model. Result indicate that phonological working memory indirectly links to the reading ability of children, through phonological awareness skills, there was no direct effect of intelligence on phonological awareness, It was conclude that Memory, who have higher use more phonological awareness skills and their children show higher reading ability.

Effect of Pre-treated Oil-based Drill Cuttings on the Compressive Strength of Sandcrete Blocks

2020-10-08T09:44:35+00:00

This study examines the drill cuttings on the compressive strength of mortar blended with thermally desorbed drill cuttings and Portland-limestone cement grade 42.5R. The thermally desorbed drill cuttings was used as a partial substitute for Portland-limestone cement. Replacement levels of 0, 5, 10, 15, 20 and 25% were used. The chemical oxide composition, initial and final settings times and the compressive strengths of the blended mortar were determined at curing period of 7 days, 28 days and 90 days respectively. The ANOVA analysis showed that the replication means are not significantly different at 5% probability level, while the coefficient of variability obtained is 10.9% which is within the acceptable limit of less than 20%. Also, the results showed that the treatment means are significantly different at 5% probability level and within the acceptable limit of coefficient of variability which is the degree of precision with which the treatments were compared. Hence, this indicates that the 95% probability that the conclusion of the treatment mean being different is correct, keeping other experimental variables constant. Therefore, partial replacement of cement with the pretreated oil based drill cuttings at different replacement levels has a significant effect on the compressive strength of the sandcrete blocks produced.

Static Analysis of a Rotating Part

2020-10-09T14:38:52+00:00

In this study, the composite orthotropic annular rotating part of carbon fibre reinforced polymer is investigated statically. Rotating structure is modeled in CATIA V5 and meshed in HyperMesh 13.0 to be analytically simulated in ANSYS 16.1 APDL. The static behaviour of the radial, circumferential and longitudinal stresses and deformations are obtained and analysed at six various angular velocities up to 2727.27 rad/s. It is noted that the simulated magnitudes of the hoop stress are higher than that of the radial and longitudinal stresses. However, the maximum displacements are found to be in the longitudinal and radial directions respectively. In addition, these stresses are observed to increase as the angular velocities increased.

Dynamical Behavior of Brusselator System Driven by Non-Gaussian Noise

2020-10-15T06:27:34+00:00

The non-Gaussian noise induced the mean first passage time (MFPT) in Brusselator system are examined. In this paper, the path integral method is used to approximate non-Gaussian noise to Gaussian color noise. The FPT of the 50000 response tracks is obtained by solving the system equation through the fourth-order stochastic Runge-Kutta algorithm. Then we get the MFPT. The influences of the noise intensity, correlation time and non-Gaussian parameter of non-Gaussian noise on the MFPT are characterized. We also found the noise enhanced stability (NES) phenomenon in the system.

Times of Application of Boron in Irrigated Rice Genotypes in Tropical Varzeas

2020-10-19T23:47:17+00:00

Boron is an important micronutrient for all vegetables, being part of several metabolic functions within cells. Rice stands out as a staple food for more than half the world’s population and requires small amounts of boron. The objective of this study was to evaluate the effect of boron application at different times in the culture of irrigated rice in the conditions of the floodplains in the Southwest of the State of Tocantins. The experiment was installed at Fazenda Santa Rita, municipality of Lagoa da Confusão-TO in the 2015/2016 harvest, in bands, with a randomized block design, in a 4 x 4 factorial scheme, with 4 repetitions. The dose of 3.0 kg ha −1 of boron was applied, in the form of borax, via leaf, in four seasons. WereFour lowland rice cultivars (IRGA-424, IRGA-424 RI, IRGA-425, and IRGA-426) were used. The characteristics evaluated were: plant height, number of panicles, spikelet sterility, the mass of one hundred grains, grain yield, whole grains, and grain yield. Boron resulted in higher productivity. The highest yields were achieved with borate fertilization at 60 and 75 days after emergence. The genotypes IRGA-424 RI and IRGA-425 proved to be more efficient in the use of boron, is recommended at any time of application of the micronutrient.

Contamination of Cadmium and Mercury along the East Coast of the Gulf of Thailand: A Comparative Study Using the Green Mussel (Perna viridis), Artificial Mussel, Water and Sediment

2020-10-15T06:35:49+00:00

We compared Cd and Hg concentrations in green mussel (Perna viridis) in wet and dry seasons along the Gulf of Thailand affected by different anthropogenic activities (Angsila - aquaculture, Sriracha - shipping, and Maptaphut - heavy industry). Levels of Cd in green mussels from Angsila during wet (mean ± SD 1.72 ± 0.20 µg/g dry wt.) and dry seasons (1.21 ± 0.52 µg/g dry wt.) were significantly higher than those in Sriracha and Maptaphut. Likewise, levels of Cd in artificial mussel (AM) were also highest in Angsila. Mean concentration of Hg in green mussels fluctuated only within a narrow range (0.07- 0.08 µg/g dry wt.) at all sites in the wet season, but was significantly lower in the dry season (0.03 µg/g dry wt.). Maptaphut had the highest Hg concentration in sediment during the dry season (0.17 ± 0.11 µg/g dry wt.). In contrast, level of Hg in mussel was 2-3 times higher in the wet season than the dry season at all sites.

Nevertheless, levels of Cd and Hg in mussel and sediment at all sites were still below the national Seafood/Sediment quality standards established in other countries. No significant correlation was found between level of Cd in mussels with those in AM and sediment or between sediment and AM. This research has successfully used the AM for monitoring of Cd, indicating both mussels and AM can provide a reliable estimate on Cd contamination in the aquatic environment.

Challenges of Inland Container Depots in Nigeria

2020-10-19T06:04:55+00:00

The concept of inland container depots (ICD) has been in existence for over 35 years to mitigate the major problem of port congestion in developed and developing countries due to the continuous increase in international business transactions through containers. As a result, most nations with Nigeria as a case study have faced serious challenges in implementing and operating inland container depots. This research summarizes the major challenges from literature review and findings from port stakeholders based on the current trend. A functional process framework and effective linkages from the ports to respective ICD with modern intermodal transport infrastructure are required for sustainable operation of ICD.

Men’s and Women’s Time: An Analysis of Biological Time of Man and Woman by Applying the Mathematics of Harmony

2020-10-19T06:16:38+00:00

If we start from the fact that in the structure and function of the human body, the relations and functions that are in the golden ratio can be recognized, we in this article, extended this idea to the duration of human life. Based on the golden ratio, we divided human life into certain phases, bounded by characteristic numbers, and observed differences in the flow of physical and biological time in individual phases. We have shown that in certain phases, physical time, compared to biological time, flows at different rate. We have also shown that there is a difference in the points/numbers that determine the time phases of a man's and a woman's life: for example, a man enters the youth phase at the age of 21, and a woman at the age of 18; the males are in the mature stage at 34, the females at 29; a man enters the old age phase at 55 and a woman at 47. Because of these differences we conclude that the biological time of man and woman flows at different rates, so it is possible to speak of men’s and women’s biological time.

Genetic Algorithm applied to the Capacitated Vehicle Routing Problem: an analysis of the influence of different encoding schemes on the population behavior

2020-10-19T06:40:17+00:00

Genetic Algorithm (GA) is an optimization method that has been widely used in the solution of NP-Hard (Non-deterministic Polynomial-time) problems, among which is the Vehicle Routing Problem (VRP), widely known in the literature due to its applications in the logistics and supply sectors, and which is considered in this work. However, finding solution for any optimization problem using GA presupposes the adoption of a solution encoding scheme that, according to the literature, impacts its performance. However, there is a lack of works in the literature exploring this theme. In this work we carry out an analysis of the main encoding schemes (binary and integer) employed in the GA for the solution of the capacitated VRP (CVRP), in order to evaluate the influence of each of them on the behavior of the GA population and, consequently, on the algorithm performance. To this end, we developed a computational tool that allows visualizing the GA individuals (solutions) mapped to a two-dimensional space. Based on the experiments conducted, we observed that, in general, integer vectors provide better conditions for GA individuals to explore the solution space, leading to better results. The results found, besides corroborating some assumptions in the literature, may justify the preference for integer encoding schemes to solve CVRP in recent literature works. In addition, this study can contribute to the choice and/or proposition of heuristics that allow GA to search for better quality solutions for the VRP with less computational effort.

Study of the Clinical Impact of Drugs Interactions of Acenocoumarol

2020-10-24T13:37:19+00:00

One of the problems linked to the use of acenocoumarol in therapy is the intra and interindividual variability of the doses necessary to obtain the desired INR; this may be due to several factors, including drug interactions. This is how we felt the need and the importance of undertaking this work which aims to identify the drugs most likely to interact with acenocoumarol and to assess the risk level of these interactions. This is a prospective, single-center cross-sectional study from January 01, 2017 until April 30, 2017, conducted at the pharmacovigilance service of the Oran EHU. In order to assess the risk level of an interaction, we used an interaction weighting method which allowed us to calculate the criticality indices (CI). The results highlighted 22 drugs at high risk of interacting with acenocoumarol of which amiodarone, omeprazole and diclofenac sodium are the most involved. This work was carried out with the aim of optimizing and securing acenocoumarol treatment.

Development of the Genotyping Protocol for the Study of Genetic Polymorphisms of CYP450 2C9 (CYP2C9 * 2, * 3) and VKORC1 1639G> A

2020-10-24T13:41:44+00:00

Two genes are mainly involved in the variability of the response to Acenocoumarol: one encoding the vitamin K epoxide reductase (VKORC1) pharmacological target of AVKs, and the other encoding the cytochrome P450 2C9 (CYP2C9), responsible for the metabolism of coumarin derivatives to inactive metabolites.The objective of our work is to develop a genotyping technique in order to study this genetic polymorphism within the Algerian population.Genotyping is performed by RFLP (restriction fragment length polymorphism) PCR over 4 steps: DNA extraction, amplification, enzymatic digestion and electrophoresis. The FDA has approved that the use of genetic testing may help healthcare professionals better predict steady-state doses of vitamin k antagonists in order to optimize the management of patients treated with this drug.