bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Adaptive Backstepping Sliding Mode Control of the Hybrid Conveying Mechanism with Mismatched Disturbances via Nonlinear Disturbance Observers
Authors: Yuan Wei , Gao Guoqin , Li Jianzhen
Published: August 2020

An adaptive backstepping sliding mode controller combined with a nonlinear disturbance observer is designed for trajectory tracking of the electrically driven hybrid conveying mechanism with mismatched disturbances. A nonlinear disturbance observer is constructed for estimation and compensation of the mismatched and matched disturbances. Then, a hybrid control scheme is designed by combining the adaptive backstepping sliding mode controller and the mentioned observer. The Lyapunov candidate functions are utilized to derive the control and adaptive law. According to the simulation and experimental results, superior tracking performance could be obtained through the presented control scheme compared with conventional backstepping sliding mode control. Meanwhile, the presented control scheme can effectively reduce the chattering problem and improve tracking precision.
Transcription Factors That Regulate the Pathogenesis of Ulcerative Colitis
Authors: Zhang Bing , Sun Tao
Published: August 2020

Ulcerative colitis (UC) is one of the inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD) characterized by occurrence in the rectum and sigmoid colon of young adults. However, the functional roles of transcription factors (TFs) and their regulating target genes and pathways are not fully known in ulcerative colitis (UC). In this study, we collected gene expression data to identify differentially expressed TFs (DETFs). We found that differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were significantly enriched in the target genes of HOXA2, IKZF1, KLF2, XBP1, EGR2, ETV7, BACH2, CBFA2T3, HLF, and NFE2. TFs including BACH2, CBFA2T3, EGR2, ETV7, NFE2, and XBP1, and their target genes were significantly enriched in signaling by interleukins. BACH2 target genes were enriched in estrogen receptor‐ (ESR‐) mediated signaling and nongenomic estrogen signaling. Furthermore, to clarify the functional roles of immune cells on the UC pathogenesis, we estimated the immune cell proportions in all the samples. The accumulated effector CD8 and reduced proportion of naïve CD4 might be responsible for the adaptive immune response in UC. The accumulation of plasma in UC might be associated with increased gut permeability. In summary, we present a systematic study of the TFs by analyzing the DETFs, their regulating target genes and pathways, and immune cells. These findings might improve our understanding of the TFs in the pathogenesis of UC.
Antioxidant and Antimicrobial Activity of Polyphenols Extracted after Adsorption onto Natural Clay “Ghassoul”
Authors: Allaoui Safae , Bennani Mohammed Naciri , Ziyat Hamid , Qabaqous Omar , Tijani Najib , Ittobane Najim , Barbouchi Mohammed , Bouymajane Aziz , Filali Fouzia Rhazi
Published: August 2020

Natural polyphenols contained in olive mill wastewaters (OMW) have been usually associated with great bioactive properties as “antioxidants”. In this work, we recovered the polyphenols after adsorption onto natural clay “ghassoul” by different solvents: water, ethyl acetate, and methanol (PPW, PPA, and PPM, respectively) to avoid environmental pollution. Also, we tested the antioxidant activity of the extracted polyphenols by two methods: 1,1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) and total antioxidant capacity (TAC). Then, we analyzed antimicrobial activity by the microdilution technique to determine at the minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) and the minimum bactericidal concentration (MBC). The OMW of the Fez-Meknes region has a very acidic pH, considerable amounts of mineral matter, and a high concentration of polyphenols and organic content. The results of the test from DPPH showed good antiradical potential for polyphenols extracted with water, but the TAC showed an important capacity for all extracts unless PPA. The antibacterial activity is not the same on the four bacteria studied (Escherichia coli, Salmonella sp, Staphylococcus aureus, and Enterococcus faecalis), and all extracts inhibit most tested germs that do not have the same MIC and the same sensitivity. Only the PPW showed the minimum bactericidal concentration (MBC) that is equal to 0.290 mg/mL for Salmonella sp and Staphylococcus aureus, which confirms that the extraction by water of the adsorbed polyphenols is an original solution to recover the polyphenols and also to obtain a natural phenolic antioxidant which can be used in the pharmaceutical, nourishment, and cosmetic industry.
Identification of Key mRNAs and lncRNAs in Neonatal Sepsis by Gene Expression Profiling
Authors: Bu Lin , Wang Zi-wen , Hu Shu-qun , Zhao Wen-jing , Geng Xiao-juan , Zhou Ting , Zhuo Luo , Chen Xiao-bing , Sun Yan , Wang Yan-li , Li Xiao-min
Published: August 2020

Neonatal sepsis is one of the most prevalent causes of death of the neonates. However, the mechanisms underlying neonatal sepsis remained unclear. The present study identified a total of 1128 upregulated mRNAs and 1008 downregulated mRNAs, 28 upregulated lncRNAs, and 61 downregulated lncRNAs in neonatal sepsis. Then, we constructed PPI networks to identify key regulators in neonatal sepsis, including ITGAM, ITGAX, TLR4, ITGB2, SRC, ELANE, RPLP0, RPS28, RPL26, and RPL27. lncRNA coexpression analysis showed HS.294603, LOC391811, C12ORF47, LOC729021, HS.546375, HNRPA1L-2, LOC158345, and HS.495041 played important roles in the progression of neonatal sepsis. Bioinformatics analysis showed DEGs were involved in the regulation cellular extravasation, acute inflammatory response, macrophage activation of NF-kappa B signaling pathway, TNF signaling pathway, HIF-1 signaling pathway, Toll-like receptor signaling pathway, and ribosome, RNA transport, and spliceosome. lncRNAs were involved in regulating ribosome, T cell receptor signaling pathway, RNA degradation, insulin resistance, ribosome biogenesis in eukaryotes, and hematopoietic cell lineage. We thought this study provided useful information for identifying novel therapeutic markers for neonatal sepsis.
Avoiding Spurious Retransmission over Flooding-Based Routing Protocol for Underwater Sensor Networks
Authors: Lee Sungwon , Bae Yeongjoon , Khan Muhammad Toaha Raza , Seo Junho , Kim Dongkyun
Published: August 2020

In underwater wireless sensor networks (UWSN), acoustic communication naturally introduces challenges such as long propagation delay and high packet loss. The flooding-based routing protocol can address these challenges with its multipath characteristics. As in flooding-based routing, due to multipath propagation mechanism, not only DATA but also ACK messages are transmitted through multiple routes however still some packet loss will degrade the performance. So, to provide high reliability of message delivery, an efficient retransmission mechanism is inevitable. Though, if the network uses conventional transport layer protocol such as TCP, it will suffer a spurious retransmission problem as TCP was originally not designed for the multipath environment. In this paper, we propose route discrimination for flooding-based routing to reduce spurious retransmission in UWSN to solve the limitation. The notion of ACK copies waiting time (ACWT) is utilized which is selectively updated based on the similarity of paths of transmission of ACK message copies. We also improved our previous solution that lacks flexibility to cope with dynamic link error characteristics. Through evaluation, we verified that our new scheme achieves the performance improvements of 14%~84% in terms of retransmission ratio compared to the previous research.
Shear Strength of Internal Reinforced Concrete Beam‐Column Joints: Intelligent Modeling Approach and Sensitivity Analysis
Authors: Feng De-Cheng , Fu Bo
Published: August 2020

In this paper, an intelligent modeling approach is presented to predict the shear strength of the internal reinforced concrete (RC) beam‐column joints and used to analyze the sensitivity of the influence factors on the shear strength. The proposed approach is established based on the famous boosting‐family ensemble machine learning (ML) algorithms, i.e., gradient boosting regression tree (GBRT), which generates a strong predictive model by integrating several weak predictors, which are obtained by the well‐known individual ML algorithms, e.g., DT, ANN, and SVM. The strong model is boosted as each weak predictor has its own weight in the final combination according to the performance. Compared with the conventional mechanical‐driven shear strength models, e.g., the well‐known modified compression field theory (MCFT), the proposed model can avoid the complicated derivation process of shear mechanism and calibration of the involved empirical parameters; thus, it provides a more convenient, fast, and robust alternative way for predicting the shear strength of the internal RC joints. To train and test the GBRT model, a total of 86 internal RC joint specimens are collected from the literatures, and four traditional ML models and the MCFT model are also employed as comparisons. The results indicate that the GBRT model is superior to both the traditional ML models and MCFT model, as its degree‐of‐fitting is the highest and the predicting dispersion is the lowest. Finally, the model is used to investigate the influences of different parameters on the shear strength of the internal RC joint, and the sensitivity and importance of the corresponding parameters are obtained.
Dialysis Disequilibrium Syndrome and Cerebellar Herniation with Successful Reversal Using Mannitol
Authors: Curtis Anna , Lamb Christian , Rao Hussain , Williams Andrew , Patel Amit
Published: August 2020

Dialysis disequilibrium syndrome (DDS) is a morbid but rare complication of dialysis. Feared sequalae of this diagnosis are brain herniation and death. This report presents a patient who was diagnosed with DDS with subsequent tonsillar herniation shown on imaging with complete resolution of clinical signs and symptoms, as well as imaging findings of herniation after prompt initiation of intravenous mannitol. This is the first known case of reversal and survival of DDS-induced tonsillar herniation using mannitol.
Experimental Study of the Influence of Excavation Surface Stability and Sand Flowability Caused by Dense Slurry–Earth Pressure Balance Shield Tunneling in Silty Sand Stratum
Authors: Qian Yongjin , Min Fanlu , Mo Zhenze , Fan Xihui
Published: August 2020

Silty sand is highly permeable and has a large internal friction angle. To ensure the stable and efficient construction of the Earth pressure balance (EPB) shield in silt stratum, it is necessary to reduce the disturbance to the stratum during tunneling and reduce the risk of spewing and blocking during soil discharge. Thus, a new type of dense slurry‐EPB shield construction technology is proposed. Using a custom‐made test device, the consolidation tests were conducted on sand after mixing it with different amounts of slurry to study the change in the pore pressure in the mixed soil and sand stratum and analyze the stress transmission rule. In addition, slump tests were conducted on the mixed soil to study the change in the fluidity. Based on the laboratory test results, a field investigation was carried out to study the effects of the amount of slurry addition on the pore pressure in the stratum, the driving parameters, and the sand’s flowability during shield tunneling. The results show that when the amount of slurry reaches a certain value, the filter cake effect occurs. The greater the amount of slurry added during the shield tunneling, the smaller the rate of change of the pore pressure in the stratum. When the amount of BC2 slurry added reached 8 m3 per ring, the rate of change was reduced by 57%, and the slump value improved by 93%. The type of filter cake of the DS‐EPB shield was only internal filter cake during tunneling, which reduced the disturbance of the excavation face and improved the flowability of the sand. These results are of great significance to the application and promotion of DS‐EPB shields in sandy cobble strata.
A New Computing Paradigm for Off-Grid Direction of Arrival Estimation Using Compressive Sensing
Authors: Mirza Hamid Ali , Aslam Laeeq , Raja Muhammad Asif Zahoor , Chaudhary Naveed Ishtiaq , Qureshi Ijaz Mansoor , Malik Aqdas Naveed
Published: August 2020

In this paper, a method for solving grid mismatch or off-grid target is presented for direction of arrival (DOA) estimation problem using compressive sensing (CS) technique. Location of the sources are at few angles as compare to the entire angle domain, i.e., spatially sparse sources, and their location can be estimated using CS methods with ability of achieving super resolution and estimation with a smaller number of samples. Due to grid mismatch in CS techniques, the source energy is distributed among the adjacent grids. Therefore, a fitness function is introduced which is based on the difference of the source energy among the adjacent grids. This function provides the best discretization value for the grid through iterative grid refinement. The effectiveness of the proposed scheme is verified through extensive simulations for different number of sources.
Associated Anomalies in Congenital Lung Abnormalities: A 20-Year Experience
Authors: Hermelijn Sergei M. , Zwartjes Rutger R. , Tiddens Harm A.W.M. , Cochius-den Otter Suzan C.M. , Reiss Irwin K.M. , Wijnen René M.H. , Schnater J. Marco
Published: August 2020

Introduction: A congenital lung abnormality (CLA) is often found in conjunction with other abnormalities but screening guidelines for newborns with CLA have not yet been reported. We aimed to assess the incidence of associated anomalies in CLA patients born or followed up at our centre and the need for additional screening of newborns with a CLA. Methods: From a retrospective chart review of all patients born with a CLA between January 1999 and January 2019, we identified patients diagnosed with a congenital pulmonary airway malformation, bronchopulmonary sequestration, congenital lobar overinflation, bronchogenic cyst, or lung agenesis. Associated anomalies were noted and categorized according to the affected organ system. Results: Twenty-eight (14%) of 196 CLA patients had a major associated anomaly. This was most frequent in conjunction with a lung agenesis (100%) or bronchogenic cyst (29%). Congenital heart defects (32%) and gastrointestinal defects (18%) were the most frequently associated anomalies. Examination of newborns with a CLA should focus on the cardiovascular and gastrointestinal tract, and a chest and abdominal radiograph may be useful to assess signs of major associated anomalies, regardless of the clinical course.
Risk of Dementia in Diabetic Patients with Hyperglycemic Crisis: A Nationwide Taiwanese Population-Based Cohort Study
Authors: Chou Chih-Ho , Feng I-Jung , Chen Yi-Chen , Chen Jiann-Hwa , Lin Hung-Jung , Wang Jhi-Joung , Hsu Chien-Chin , Huang Chien-Cheng
Published: August 2020

Background: A hyperglycemic crisis episode (HCE) signifies poor control of diabetes and may increase the risk of dementia via microvascular and macrovascular injuries. Objectives: We conducted this study to clarify this issue, which remains unclear. Methods: Using the Taiwan National Health Insurance Database, we identified 9,466 diabetic patients with HCE and the identical number of diabetic patients without HCE who were matched by age and sex for this nationwide population-based cohort study. The risk of dementia was compared between the 2 cohorts by following up until 2014. Investigation of independent predictors of dementia was also done. Results: In the overall analysis, the risk of dementia between the 2 cohorts was not different. However, stratified analyses showed that patients with HCE had a higher risk of subsequent dementia in the age subgroup of 45−54 and 55–64 years (adjusted odds ratio [AOR]: 2.4, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.6–3.6, and AOR: 1.2, 95% CI: 1.0–1.5, respectively). In the overall analysis, older age, female sex, ≥3 HCEs, hypertension, hyperlipidemia, depression, cerebrovascular disease, Parkinson’s disease, and head injury were independent predictors. Conclusions: HCE increased the risk of dementia in diabetic patients aged 45–64 years. Dementia was predicted by ≥3 HCEs. Prevention of recurrent HCE, control of comorbidities, and close follow-up of cognitive decline and dementia are suggested in patients with HCE.
Steroidresistenz bei organisierender Pneumonie bedingt durch Lungenkryptokokkose
Authors: Nomura Motoko , Ohta Hiromitsu , Hiruta Masahiro , Kudo Fumiaki , Ohyanagi Fumiyoshi , Yamaguchi Yasuhiro
Published: August 2020

Die kryptogene organisierende Pneumonie (COP) spricht in der Regel gut auf eine Steroidtherapie an. Bei einem Ausschleichen der Steroiddosis kommt es jedoch häufig zu Rezidiven. In unserem Krankenhaus stellte sich ein 74-jähriger Mann mit Verdacht auf steroidresistente COP vor. Eine Thorax-Computertomographie (CT) ergab trotz Verabreichung oraler Steroide in mittlerer Dosierung neue Konsolidierungen im Bereich des linken Lungenunterlappens. Bei einer erneuten transbronchialen Lungenbiopsie wurde eine Lungenkryptokokkose festgestellt. Nach Einleitung einer Behandlung mit Antimykotika verkleinerten sich die Konsolidierungen im linken Unterlappen sukzessive. Bei immungeschwächten Patienten mit Lungenkryptokokkose kommt es zu unterschiedlichen CT-Befunden, wobei Konsolidierungen häufig beobachtet werden. Im Falle einer steroidrefraktären COP sollte eine zugrunde liegende Lungenkryptokokkose in Betracht gezogen werden.
HistoriAR: Experience Indonesian history through interactive game and augmented reality
Authors: Trista Shintia , Rusli Andre
Published: August 2020

History has a vital function in shaping the personality of the nation, the quality of humans, and the people of a country. However, one factor that influences learning behavior that could be improved is the students’ interest in learning. The use of game-based learning has been proven to be effective in making activities to be more fun to do. Moreover, augmented reality technology also shows enormous potential in the world of education. This research developed a game-based historical learning application using augmented reality to enhance user experience in learning history. The application is built using the Unity Game Engine and Vuforia. Furthermore, the application was tested and evaluated by measuring the perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use following the guidance in the Technology Acceptance Model. The result shows that the application achieves 89.5% for perceived usefulness and 86.33% for perceived ease of use.
Development of a reliable path-loss model for FM broadcast reception in office locations
Authors: Domingo Marco G. , E. Estebal Prince Kendrick , Tongco Geraldine A. , Mappatao Gerino P.
Published: August 2020

This paper proposes for the development of a path-loss model to improve the accuracy in predicting the signal level in office locations for the reception of FM broadcast. Identifying the factors that affect the signal level and eventually developing a model to predict the signal inside buildings will guide engineers in designing a broadcast system. A properly designed broadcast system will ensure optimum signal penetration in these listening areas. Further, the developed model can find applications in policy-making on the regulation of FM broadcast stations, both for analog and digital radio systems. Signal level measurements from three FM broadcast stations have been made inside eight office rooms in De La Salle University-Manila. With the three stations utilizing circularly polarized transmitting antennas, the measurements aim to determine the signal levels of the horizontal and vertical components of the received signal. These measured levels are used to determine the effects on the magnitude of the received signal of some factors, such as signal frequency and polarization, receiving antenna height, walls, transmitter-receiver distance, etc. Since the developed model is based on the measured signal levels in the actual office environment, its accuracy is then better than any of the existing models earlier developed.
A closed modified V-shaped uniplanar triple band ACS fed antenna for wireless applications
Authors: Kumar Anuj , Jindal Anukul , Singh Apurva , Roy Reshma , Kumar Om Prakash , Ali Tanweer
Published: August 2020

In the proposed paper, a uniplanar asymmetric coplanar strip (ACS) fed antenna with closed V-shaped radiating patch of size  printed on FR4 substrate with loss tangent ( =0.02, height (h)=1.6mm, and dielectric constant of 4.4 covering WiMAX, X-band and WLAN applications is presented. The proposed closed V-shaped radiating patch is formed by joning two rectangular stubs. The resultant shape of the radiating patch is obtained by adding rectangular strips to feed line until desired multiband results are achieved.  The advantage of this structure is that it forms simple configuration as well as helps the overall antenna in attaining three distinict useful frequency band with good impedance matching for S11-10 dB criteria. The proposed ACS fed antenna operates at 3.1 (WiMAX), 5.0 (WLAN) and 9.9 (X-band) GHz with impedance bandwidth ranging from 2.7-3.9 GHz, 4.4-5.5 GHz and 9.5-10.3 GHz in simulation. Under measurement the proposed antenna shows multiband phenomenon at 3.2, 5.3 and 9.7 GHz with impedance bandwidth ranging from 2.8-3.7 GHz, 4.6-5.4 GHz and 9.4-10 GHz, respectively. The antenna exhibits simulated gain of 2.51, 1.18 and 1.96 dB at the corresponding frequency bands of 3.1, 5.0 and 9.9 GHz. The key parameters of the antenna like length and width of the multi-branched strips are optimized to get the multiband operation. The deisign simulation is carried out in Ansys HFSS (High frequency Simulation Software) where different characteristics of the proposed antenna are investigated. The evolution and optimization process is dealt in detail with the help of S11, VSWR, current distributions, radiation patterns and gain.
Verification analysis for the reliable analytical multi-taper detector in next generation network
Authors: Allah O. Selim Hebat , Dessouki Ahmed Shaaban , Y. M. Soliman Heba
Published: August 2020

Multi-taper method (MTM) acts as an effective detector of spectrum sensing in Cognitive radio networks. In this paper, an analytical study was proposed in which reliable, simple, and computationally efficient mathematical terms for the mean and variance of the probability density function (PDF) were derived using the MTM technique. The closed-form expressions for the probability of detection and false alarm for the MTM detector were obtained accordingly. The proposed analytical study was evaluated by intensive simulations using MATLAB. Different simulation techniques were proposed to verify the derived analysis. The existence of White Gaussian Noise was assumed. Important aspects of spectrum detection in cognitive radio networks were included such as, receiver operating characteristics, detection rate versus signal to noise ratio (SNR), and the minimum desired sample points for a specific performance. A comparison was completed with the energy detection technique and all of the results suggested that the proposed paradigm is both credible and powerful under all the parameters considered in the simulation.
Implementation of electronic stethoscope for online remote monitoring with mobile application
Authors: Hadiyoso Sugondo , Mardiyah Dieny Rofiatul , Ramadan Dadan Nur , Ibrahim Asril
Published: August 2020

The stethoscope is a piece of medical standard equipment that isused by a physician for an initial examination of the patient. Generally, the stethoscopeis used for auscultating sounds which are generated by the workings of organ systems such as cardiac, lung or digestive. In the present condition with the growing number of the patient population, it has an impact on the burden of hospitals and medical practitioners. So that treatment is not optimal, especially patients who need continuous monitoring. Thus it needs a system that can work dynamically, flexibly and remotely based. This paper focuses on the implementation of the electronic stethoscope which is integrated with a mobile phone as the modality of online data transmission through the internet network. The prototype of an electronic stethoscope uses condenser mic, pre-amplifier, wide bandpass filter (20 Hz-1 KHz) and audio amplifier. The maximum gain is 28.63 dB in the 20 Hz-690 Hz frequency range. The signal output can be connected to the android mobile through the jacked phone to be stored in MP3 format and then sent to the cloud server for further monitoring and analysis. The application called “Steder” supports realtime communication between patient and physician for medical check-up, consultation, and discussion activities.
Enhanced fractional frequency reuse approach for interference mitigation in femtocell networks
Authors: Alquhali Abdullah H. , Roslee Mardeni , Abdelgadir Mohamed Babikir , Kordi Khaldon , Mohamed Khalid S.
Published: August 2020

Small cell networks are expected to heavily be deployed in wireless communication networks due to it ability to enhance signals quality and spectrum utilisation. However, interference is posing a major threat to wireless communication especially cellular femtocell networks whereby its performance is degraded in dense deployment areas. For this reason, an enhanced fractional frequency reuse approach is proposed in this paper to mitigate the interference in femtocell networks. This is achieved by dividing the service area and frequency into three regions and three sets whereby each set is allocated different frequency set. The femtocell location is later obtained and assigned frequency in accordance to the region. The proposed approach helps in reducing the interference, boost the signal to interference plus noise (SINR), and enhance the throughput.
An overview of big data analysis
Authors: Arena Fabio , Pau Giovanni
Published: August 2020

Big data represents one of the most profound and most pervasive evolutions in the digital world. Examples of big data come from Internet of Things (IoT) devices, as well as smart cars, but also the use of social networks, industries, and so on. The sources of data are numerous and continuously increasing, and, therefore, what characterizes big data is not only the volume but also the complexity due to the heterogeneity of information that can be obtained. The fastest growth in spending on big data technologies is happening within banking, healthcare, insurance, securities and investment services, and telecommunications. Remarkably, three of those industries lie within the financial sector, which has many particularly serviceable use cases for big data analytics, such as fraud detection, risk management, and customer service optimization. In fact, the definition of big data analysis refers to the process that encompasses the gathering and analysis of big data to obtain useful information for the business. This paper focuses on delivering a short review concerning the current technologies, future perspectives, and the evaluation of some use cased associated with the analysis of big data.
A comparative study of wavelet families for electromyography signal classification based on discrete wavelet transform
Authors: Achmamad Abdelouahad , Jbari Atman
Published: August 2020

Automatic detection of neuromuscular disorders performed using electromyography (EMG) has become an interesting domain for many researchers. In this paper, we present an approach to evaluate and classify the non-stationary EMG signals based on discrete wavelet transform (DWT). Most often researches did not consider the effect of DWT factors on the performance of EMG signals classification. This problem is still an interesting unsolved challenge. However, the selection of appropriate mother wavelet and related level decomposition is an essential issue that should be addressed in DWT-based EMG signals classification. The proposed method consists of decomposing a raw EMG signal into different sub-bands. Several statistical features were extracted from each sub-band and six wavelet families were investigated. The feature vector was used as inputs to support vector machine (SVM) classifier for the diagnosis of neuromuscular disorders. The obtained results achieve satisfactory performances with optimal DWT factors using 10-fold cross-validation. From the classification performances, it was found that sym14 is the most suitable mother wavelet at the 8th optimal wavelet level of decomposition. These simulation results demonstrated that the proposed method is very reliable for reducing cost computational time of automated neuromuscular disorders system and removing the redundancy information.
Cloud-based middleware for supporting batch and stream access over smart healthcare wearable device
Authors: Bhawiyuga Adhitya , Kharisma Satria Adi , Santoso Bagus Jati , Kartikasari Dany Primanita , Kirana Annisa Puspa
Published: August 2020

In IoT-based smart healthcare services, the heterogeneity of connected wearable sensing devices open up a wide opportunity to develop various healthcare services. However, it also poses an interoperability challenge since each sensing device and application may have different communication mechanisms. Considering that challenge, web platform can be seen as a promising candidate for providing an interoperability layer as we can abstract various devices as single representation i.e. web resource. In this paper, we propose the design of middleware for enabling efficient web of things access over healthcare wearable devices. The proposed middleware consists of three components: gateway-to-cloud device, messaging service and data access interface. The gateway-to-cloud device has a role to perform low level sensor data collection from various wearable sensing device through bluetooth low energy (BLE) communication protocol. Collected data are then relayed to the cloud IoT platform using a lightweight MQTT messaging protocol. In order to provide device abstraction along with access to the stored data, the system offers two kind of interfaces: the Restful HTTP identified by unique universal resource locator (URL) for batch access and MQTT websocket interface identified by unique topic to accommodate access on sensing data in near real time stream manner.
Analysis on different shape of textile antenna under bending condition for GPS application
Authors: Zaidi N. I. , Ali M. T. , Abd Rahman N. H. , Yahya M. F. , Amin Nordin M. S.
Published: August 2020

In this paper, three antennas with different designs, which are square, circle and edgy patch (flower) were simulated and fabricated. The experiment was carried out to study the effects of bending on these three different shapes of antennas. Two bending conditions which are H-plane and E-plane were used. The antenna was designed to resonate at 1.575 GHz for GPS application and to be incorporated with human arm. Thus, the bending angle was specified to be 135o which is about the size of a typical human arm. As the paper focusing on the bending effects only, the characteristic of the bending structure was set to be equal to the air, with Ɛr=1. The antenna characteristics such as gain, resonant frequency and radiation pattern were analyzed for these three shapes of antennas. As a result, the shape of the radiating patch has significant impact on the antenna performance under bending conditions. Based on the comparison of E-plane and H-plane data, the edgy shape was found to be more affected in term of gain performance as compared to other shapes. Bending on E-plane has shown severe degradation in antenna gain performance, whereby at H-plane, significant improvement in gain was observed
A high-efficiency continuous class-F power amplifier design using simplified real frequency technique
Authors: Sadeque Md. Golam , Yusoff Zubaida , Roslee Mardeni
Published: August 2020

The fourth-generation (4G) wireless communication has been deployed in many countries. However, there are still some problems such as spectrum crisis due to the increase of wireless mobile devices and servicing. Therefore, the fifth-generation (5G) communication system will be employed at some different spectrum other than 4G frequency band. The radio frequency power amplifier (RFPA) is the key component of the 5G system. In this paper, a broadband continuous class-F (CCF) RFPA is designed for the 5G frequency band from 3.3-4.3 GHz. The input and output matching network are designed using the simplified real frequency technique (SRFT). Using a 10W GaN CGH40010F Cree device, the efficiency of the RFPA achieved greater than 70.7% for the whole frequency band with a maximum of 81.5%. The output power and the gain are more than 40 dBm and 10 dB respectively
Improvement of genetic algorithm using artificial bee colony
Authors: Taher Ali Abdul Kadhim , Kadhim Suhad Malallah
Published: August 2020

Genetic algorithm (GA) is a part of evolutionary computing that simulates the theory of evolution and natural selection, where this technique depends on a heuristic random search. This algorithm reflects the operation of natural selection, where the fittest individuals are chosen for reproduction so that they produce offspring of the next generation. This paper proposes a method to improve GA using artificial bee colony (GABC). This proposed algorithm was applied to random number generation (RNG), and travelling salesman problem (TSP). The proposed method used to generate initial populations for GA rather than the random generation that used in traditional GA. The results of testing on RNG show that the proposed GABC was better than traditional GA in the mean iteration and the execution time. The results of testing TSP show the superiority of GABC on the traditional GA. The superiority of the GABC is clear in terms of the percentage of error rate, the average length route, and obtaining the shortest route. The programming language Python3 was used in programming the proposed methods.
Wideband millimeter-wave substrate integrated waveguide cavity-backed antenna for satellites communications
Authors: AL-Fadhali Najib , Majid Huda A. , Omar Rosli , Ismail M. F. , A. Rahim M. K. , O. Mumin Abdul Rashid , F. Esmail B. A.
Published: August 2020

This paper presents a new type of wideband waveguide (SIW) cavity-backed patch antenna for millimeter wave (mmW). The antenna proposed applies to applications of 31-36 GHz Ka-band such as satellites communications. The SIW is intended with settings for particular slots. The antenna is constructed on Rogers RT5880 (lossy) with 2.2 dielectric constant, l.27 mm thickness, and 0.0009 loss tangent. It is simulated in the programming of computer simulation technology (CST) Microwave Studio. The simulated results show that the SIW antenna resonates across 31 to 36 GHz bands, which means that this new antenna covers all applications within this range. The reflection coefficients in targeting range are below 10 dB. The antenna achieves good efficiency and gain with 80% and 8.87 dBi respectively.
A preliminary study on digital image performance to stimulate food taste experience
Authors: Nasrudin Nur Hasni , Harun Afdallyna Fathiyah
Published: August 2020

Users and food marketers alike would share images of food in the hopes that viewers would be able to capture the emotion/sensation presented by the food. This is a form of food digitization, shifting away from the mechanical aspect of taste stimulation to the use of digitized visuals. This paper aim to evaluate the performance of taste perception made by users by just looking at food image. Using food images as a medium of taste stimulation, this paper reports international users’ perception of the taste of Malaysian local food through an online channel. By applying SPSS analysis, the author studied the patterns of similarity and dissimilarity of users’ perception of food images that have been compiled using an online survey. Interestingly observed, the results of the analysis enable the author to assess how close user perceptions were akin to the real taste. The author found that most user perceptions are closely matched with the food’s real taste which allows the author to conclude that visual media is possible in stimulating food taste experience. It is good news for food marketers and food tourism. Nevertheless, more samples of food images are required to further attest these findings.
An improved ant colony optimization algorithm for wire optimization
Authors: Jim Ho Joon , Hashim Fazida Hanim
Published: August 2020

Wire optimization has become one of the greatest challenges in today’s circuit design. This paper presents a method for wire optimization in circuit routing using an improved ant colony optimization with Steiner nodes (ACOSN) algorithm. Circuit delay and power dissipation are primarily affected by the length of the routed wire. Thus, the main goal of this proposed algorithm is to find the shortest route from one point to another using an algorithm that relies on the artificial behavior of ants. The algorithm is implemented in the JAVA programming language. The proposed ACOSN algorithm is compared with the conventional ant colony optimization (ACO) algorithm in terms of efficiency and routing performance when applied to three types of circuits: emitter-coupled logic, 741 output and a cascode amplifier. The performance of the proposed method is analyzed based on circuit information such as total wire routing, total number of nets, total wire reduction, terminals per net and total terminals. From the simulation analysis, it is shown that the proposed ACOSN algorithm gives the most benefit to complex circuits, where it successfully reduces the wire length by 21.52% for a cascode amplifier circuit, 14.49% for a 741 output circuit, and 10.43% for emitter-coupled logic circuit.
Estimation efficiency of rewound induction motors in situ using a numerical model
Authors: Kaddari Mohamed , Mouden Mahmoud El , Hajjaji Abdelowahed , Abdellah Semlali
Published: August 2020

This paper presents an effective technique for determining the impact of rewinding practices on the motor efficiency and characterizing the efficiency reduction when electrical motors are rewound several times. This technique focuses on a new approach and a statistical study to find a numerical model for the estimation efficiency of rewound induction motors in the field. The experimental results from 101 induction motor tests are analyzed. A numerical model is determined and compared with different methods: separate losses method, modified current method and simple current method. An error analysis is conducted to examine the level of uncertainty by testing three asynchronous motors at 110 kW, 160 kW, and 300 kW. The results show that this approach can predict and estimate the efficiency reduction in rewound motors without expensive tests and can help the energy manager make effective cost decisions in replacing the rewound motors with more efficient ones by using an assessment of overconsumption and maintenance costs. Another advantage of this model is that it can be used to improve the software tools and can also be a very strong indicator to audit the repair quality
The robust counterpart open capacitated vehicle routing problem with time windows on waste transport problems
Authors: Yuliza Evi , Puspita Fitri Maya , Supadi Siti Suzlin
Published: August 2020

The optimum route for garbage transport vehicles is restricted by vehicle capacity and time windows that the garbage transport vehicle starts at the origin and does not return to the origin. The problem of transporting waste routes is a robust optimization problem where the amount of waste in an area and travel time is uncertain. In the real world, traffic jams and vehicle engine damage can cause delays. This paper proposes the robust counterpart open capacitated vehicle routing problem (denoted by RCOCVRP) with soft time windows model. The aim of RCOCVRP with soft time windows model is to find schedule and optimum route of transporting waste. This model calculation uses LINGO software and GAMS software. Finally for the evaluation of the RCOCVRP model with soft time windows on the proposed waste transportation problem is conducted so that it hasa feasible solution.
Cowbree: A novel dataset for fine-grained visual categorization
Authors: Khan Umar Akbar , Din Saira Moin U. , Lashari Saima Anwar , Saare Murtaja Ali , Ilyas Muhammad
Published: August 2020

Fine-grained visual categorization (FGVC) dealt with objects belonging to one class with intra-class differences into subclasses. FGVC is challenging due to the fact that it is very difficult to collect enough training samples. This study presents a novel image dataset named Cowbreefor FGVC. Cowbree dataset contains 4000 images belongs to eight different cow breeds. Images are properly categorized under different breed names (labels) based on different texture and color features with the help of experts. While evidence shows that the existing dataset are of low quality, targeting few breeds with less number of images. To validate the dataset, three state of the art classifiers sequential minimal optimization (SMO), Multiclass classifier and J48 were used. Their results in term of accuracy are 68.81%, 55.81% and 57.45% respectively. Where results shows that SMO out performed with 68.81% accuracy, 68.4% precision and 68.8% recall.
Temperatures effects on cascaded Mach-Zehnder interferometer structures
Authors: Syahriar Ary , Alamtaha Rahmat , Alamtaha Zulkifli , Wulandari Putri
Published: August 2020

To increase bandwidth and number of channels per fiber for more than one wavelength in the same fiber the dense wavelength division multiplexing (DWDM) technology has been utilized. One of the devices that are important in DWDM is an optical interleaver. This paper discussed the effects of temperatures in the DWDM interleaver by using the Mach-Zehnder interferometer (MZI) structures which is arranged in two-stage cascaded MZI and the three-stage cascaded MZI geometries. The main consequences of increase temperature inside the fiber optics are the change of effective refractive index in the material of silica fiber due to the thermo-optics effects. In our analysis we have used the transfer matrix method to investigate the wavelength dependence of output power to the temperatures changes that varies from 30oC to 430ºC. In the calculation we have used the C-Band range wavelength which is around 1530 to 1565 nm. It has been shown that the change of temperatures may shift the wavelength inside the MZI output power in linear manners. These effects may be used to tune wavelength transmission inside the MZI structures to suit the ITU-T defined grid.
Decentralized proportional-integral control with carbon addition for wastewater treatment plant
Authors: Husin M. H. , Rahmat M. F. , Wahab N. A.
Published: August 2020

Two main challenges in activated sludge wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) are cost and effluent quality, which has forced the wastewater treatment operator to find an alternative to improve the existing control strategy. The Benchmark Simulation Model No. 1 (BSM1) is applied as operational settings for this study. In BSM1, the standard control variables are the internal recirculation flow rate and the oxygen transfer rate. To improve the existing control strategy of BSM1, three alternative control handles are proposed, which are the individual aeration intensity control, carbon source addition and combination of both. The effect of each control handles in terms of the effluent violation, effluent quality, aeration cost, and total operational cost index are examined. The simulation result has shown that the individual control of aeration intensity improved the effluent quality index, and reduced the aeration, pumping, and total operational cost index when compared to the standard BSM1 control handle. Nonetheless, the addition of a fixed external carbon source has shown a significantly improved effluent quality with a lower number of total nitrogen violations as compared to the standard BSM1 control handles. Thus, the proposed control handles may be beneficial if applied in a real WWTP.
Design of substrate integrated waveguide withMinkowski-Sierpinski fractal antenna for WBAN applications
Authors: Jawad Mustafa Mohammed , Abd Malik Nik Noordini Nik , Murad Noor Asniza , Ahmad Mohd Riduan , Esa Mona Riza Mohd , Hussein Yaqdhan Mahmood
Published: August 2020

This paper presents a new design of patch antenna using Minkowski-Sierpinski fractal technique with substrate integrated waveguide (SIW) to resonate at 60 GHz. The antenna is proposed to be used for wireless body area network applications (WBAN). The proposed antenna is implemented using Rogers 5880 substrate with permittivity of (εr) of 2.2 and loss tangent is 0.0004, height of the substrate is 0.381 mm. Computer simulation technology-Microwave Studio (CST-MW) is used to simulate the proposed antenna. The simulated results show a wide bandwidth of 3.5 GHz between the ranges of (58.3-61.7) GHz, with a good return loss of more than -10 dB. A simulated gain of 7.9 dB is achieved with a linear antenna efficiency of 91%. This proposed antenna is used to improve the quality of radiation pattern, bandwidth, and gain at millimetre wave (mm-Wave) band for WBAN applications.
Soft dielectric elastomer microactuator for robot locomotion
Authors: Mohd Ghazali Farah Afiqa , Jie Wong Yi , Ahmad Fuaad Mariatul Rawdhah , Mohamed Ali Mohamed Sultan
Published: August 2020

This paper presents dielectric elastomer actuated robot locomotion and the development of a robotic model structure based using a dielectric elastomer actuator. A pre-stretched dielectric elastomer actuator is fabricated onto acrylic frames to form single and multiple robotic crawler models. The crawler models demonstrate forwards motion upon application of high voltage to the attached dielectric elastomer actuator. Characterizations revealed that the fabricated multiple crawler models showed results over the single crawler model in terms of locomotion potential. The maximum forward locomotion speed of the multiple crawler models is recorded as 1.2 mm/s. Nonetheless, precise results are highly attainable provided a structured and coherent fabrication technique of the dielectric elastomer actuator is implemented.
Aircraft position estimation using angle of arrival of received radar signals
Authors: Amjad Freeha Majeed , Sha'ameri Ahmad Zuri , Yusof Kamaludin Mohamad , Eberechukwu Paulson
Published: August 2020

With increasing demand of air traffic, there is a need to optimize the use of available airspace. Effective utilization of airspace relies on quality of aircraft surveillance. Active research is carried out for enhancements in surveillance techniques and various methods are evaluated for future use. This paper evaluates the use of multiple signal classification (MUSIC) based angle of arrival (AOA) estimation along with multiangulation for locating aircrafts from their electromagnetic wave emission. The performance evaluation of the system is presented by evaluating the AOA estimation errors and position estimation (PE) errors. The errors are evaluated by comparing the estimated value to the actual value. An analysis on the system parameters, AOA error and PE error are presented in the end. AOA errors are affected by the AOA value (emitter bearing), number of array elements, SNR and resolution of AOA estimation algorithm. Errors in AOA estimation lead to PE errors. The simulation results show small errors for short ranges. The system performance can be improved at the expense of computational time by using higher MUSIC resolution and larger antenna arrays