Low-Cost Active Monitoring of Attendance using Passive RFID Technology

In this paper, a smart attendance system for students attending schools is proposed. The proposed attendance system is based on Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology to facilitate automation and convenience. The proposed RFID Attendance System (RFID-AS) should be used by school administration to ensure safety for students as well as using it for grading and evaluation purposes. After careful study, passive RFID technology is selected to be used by the proposed system for its reasonable cost. The main components of the system are an RFID tag, an RFID reader, Visual Studio (XAF Tool), and SQL Server to compare the data from the RFID tag with the students’ database to record attendance automatically. A Graphical User Interface (GUI) is developed using Visual Studio (XAF Tool) to allow parents and school faculty to log in and browse the students’ records. Students will pass the classroom door, which will have an integrated RFID reader device to read their RFID. The paper discusses the design of the solution as well as the testing scenarios

Deep learning can improve early skin cancer detection

Skin cancer is the most common form of cancer affecting humans. Melanoma is the most dangerous type of skin cancer; and early diagnosis is extremely vital in curing the disease. So far, the human knowledge in this field is very limited, thus, developing a mechanism capable of identifying the disease early on can save lives, reduce intervention and cut unnecessary costs. In this paper, the researchers developed a new learning technique to classify skin lesions, with the purpose of observing and identifying the presence of melanoma.  This new technique is based on a convolutional neural network solution with multiple configurations; where the researchers employed an International Skin Imaging Collaboration (ISIC) dataset. Optimal results are achieved through a convolutional neural network composed of 14 layers. This proposed system can successfully and reliably predict the correct classification of dermoscopic lesions with 97.78% accuracy

Efficient H.264 intra Frame CODEC with Best prediction matrix mode algorithm

The continuous growth of smart communities and everincreasingdemand of sending or storing videos, have led toconsumption of huge amount of data. The video compressiontechniques are solving this emerging challenge. However, H.264standard can be considered most notable, and it has proven to meetproblematic requirements. The authors present (BPMM) as a novelefficient Intra prediction scheme. We can say that the creation of ourproposed technique was in a phased manner; it's emerged as aproposal and achieved impressive results in the performanceparameters as compression ratios, bit rates, and PSNR. Then in thesecond stage, we solved the challenges of overcoming the obstacle ofencoding bits overhead. In this research, we try to address the finalphase of the (BPMM) codec and to introduce our approach in a globalmanner through realization of decoding mechanism. For evaluation ofour scheme, we utilized VHDL as a platform. Final results haveproven our success to pass bottleneck of this phase, since the decodedvideos have the same PSNR that our encoder tells us, whilepreserving steady compression ratio treating the overhead. We aspireour BPMM algorithm will be adopted as reference design of H.264 inthe ITU

Electricity and Water Cogeneration Utilizing Aluminium Furnaces Waste Heat Integrating Thermal Storage Organic Rankine Cycle

High energy-intensive industries, including steel, chemicals, cement, and aluminium, contribute to about 75% of the industrial emissions of carbon dioxide globally and expelling large amounts of unrecovered waste heat into the atmosphere. Yet, there has been a challenge of studies that are conducted on recovering waste heat in the aluminium industry, especially in cast-house facilities, due to technical difficulties such as energy fluctuations in mass flow rate and temperature. In this study, the waste heat to power system is designed to generate power and freshwater in a cast-house facility with 18 furnaces by evaluating three methods in which the temporal waste heat from holding furnaces can be damped and exploited. These methods are: (1) implementing a temporal air injection, (2) optimising furnaces operation time shift, and (3) integrating sensible thermal heat storage. Organic Rankine Cycle is used for the waste heat to power conversion. The appropriate thermal energy storage design and a thermodynamic model of an Organic Rankine Cycle are investigated using temporal flue gas data that are collected on site from three furnaces. Reverse Osmosis technology is applied to produce water using the generated electricity. Results show that sensible heat thermal energy storage is the most suitable technology for damping the fluctuations of waste heat. By utilising waste heat from 18 remelting furnaces, a net power output of 323 kW can be produced to operate a Reverse Osmosis plant supplying 2419 m3 of fresh water daily, saving up to 2000 metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions annually. This study gives a comprehensive approach to deal with temporal waste heat in aluminium furnaces for smooth cogeneration

Feasibility Study for Water-Electricity Cogeneration Using Integrated System of Concentrated Solar Power and Biofuel as Renewable Energy

Although Concentrated Solar Power (CSP) is one of the promising renewable energy technologies, several technical and economic challenges should be addressed. One of the major issues associated with Concentrated Solar Power technologies is the reliability limitation of the plant in the stand-alone configuration. Therefore, Concentrated Solar Power systems can be integrated with either thermal energy storage (TES) or a fossil-fuelled power assist FFPA). However, initial and maintenance costs and emission production are the main challenges for the developing countries. Integrating biofuel/biogas with CSP increases the renewability while solar irradiation is in absent. The paper main objective is to perform a feasibility study of integrating a biofuel based gas turbine power units in a Concentrated Solar Power plant for electricity and water cogeneration. The study includes the thermodynamics analysis and assessment of three biofuels, namely, Jatropha oil, castor oil, and palm oil. In addition, a cost lifecycle, sensitivity, and Monte Carlo analyses were performed. The results showed that Castor oil had a better performance in terms of efficiency and carbon dioxide emissions with a maximum daily freshwater production of 181,000 m3/day. The proposed integration resulted in a levelized cost of water that is lower than the water tariff in the UAE by $1.39/m3 with a payback period of 5 years

STR-850: NUMERICAL MODELLING OF REINFORCED CONCRETE BLOCK STRUCTURAL WALL BUILDINGS UNDER SEISMIC LOADING

With the recent shift of design code developers’ focus from component- to system-level assessment of seismic force resisting systems, there is a need to numerically assess the performance of whole buildings. However, reinforced concrete block structural wall buildings are complex structural systems composed of materials with nonlinear and heterogeneous properties, which makes the numerical investigation challenging, especially when seismic behavior is considered. Most previous numerical models of reinforced concrete block walls have considered individual components, rather than the complete building system, and have used relatively complex micro-models. In this paper, OpenSees (Open System for Earthquake Engineering Simulation) is used to create macro non-linear models to simulate the response of two different buildings under unidirectional cyclic loading that represents earthquake effects. The models are created in such a way as to balance the desire for accuracy with the desire for relatively simple models that can be defined using only the geometry and actual material properties, and that are not excessively demanding computationally. Detailed validation of the models is conducted to compare the hysteretic behaviour of the numerical models with available experimental test results on reinforced concrete block structural wall buildings. This paper demonstrates that simple models can, with proper calibration, capture the cyclic response, including energy dissipation and degradation of strength, very well. In this way, this study significantly enhances the database of validated numerical models for reinforced masonry shear wall buildings

Effects of shade level and microenvironment on vegetative growth, physiological and biochemical characteristics of transplanted cucumber (Cucumis sativus)

Growing vegetables through transplantation under black shade nets is currently becoming popular to provide protection from high intensities of light and high temperatures. This study evaluated the effects of shade level on microenvironment, vegetative growth, photosynthetic pigments, chlorophyll a fluorescence, osmoprotectants, plant water status and leaf mineral nutrients of greenhouse-grown summer cucumber transplants at 25%, 50%, 63%, and 75% shade levels. Solar radiation and tempera-ture decreased with increased shading levels. Average daily temperatures were approximately decreased by 1.5oC under 75% shade nets compared to the 25% shade nets. Vegetative growth characteristics, photosynthetic pigments, chlorophyll a fluorescence (Fv/Fm, Fv/F0, and PI), dehydration tolerance and Leaf N, P and K concentrations increased when shade level increased. Chlorophyll a fluorescence (Fv/Fm, Fv/F0, and PI) reduced with the increase of solar radiation levels. Also, clear decreases in free proline, soluble sugars and total free amino acids in both experiments with increased shade level have been observed. Additionally, relative water content (RWC), membrane stability index (MSI) and electrolyte leakage (EL) of cucumber transplants were significantly affected in both experiments by shade level. Moreover Shade level affected leaf mineral nutrient but the effect differed among nutrients concentration. This study concluded that, nets with higher shading levels (63 and/or 75%) are a potential alternative to alleviate photo-inhibition and heat stress in cucumber transplants production

Fecal Lactoferrin As A Diagnostic and Prognostic Marker in Egyptian IBD Patients

Background: Inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD) are organic chronic inflammation of the gastrointestinal tract characterized by variable disease activity with repeated periods of remission and exacerbation. Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) is prevalent in up to fifth of population; diarrhea type has the broadest differential diagnosis. To distinguish inflammatory versus functional disorder fecal biomarkers as fecal lactoferrin (FL), being non-invasive acute phase proteins produced by inflamed mucosa, can help to avoid invasive procedures. Objective: The aim of this study was to assess sensitivity and specificity of fecal lactoferrin as a non-invasive biomarker in Egyptian patients with IBD and to detect its role in assessment of disease severity. Patients and methods: This comparative case control study was held through one year duration. Patients were recruited from Internal Medicine and Hepatology Department at a University Hospital. 50 subjects were classified into 3 groups: Group I included 30 patients with inflammatory bowel disease, Group II included 10 patients with irritable bowel syndrome, Group III included 10 healthy subjects as control group. Results: fecal lactoferrin assay (FLA) levels were highest in patients with IBD in comparison with IBS patients and healthy group. Moreover FLA levels also correlated significantly with disease severity in patients with IBD as higher levels of FLA were found in patients with severe ulcerative colitis (UC) or Crohn`s disease. Conclusion: Fecal lactoferrin can be used to differentiate IBD from IBS with 96.7% sensitivity and 100% specificity at cutoff value of 37 ug/ml while at cutoff value 7.2 ug/ml FLA has 100% sensitivity and specificity in differentiating IBD patients from healthy subjects in Egyptian population. Yet it can’t differentiate ulcerative colitis versus Crohn’s disease

The Safety and Efficacy of Cervical Laminectomy and Fusion versus Cervical Laminoplasty Surgery in Degenerative Cervical Myelopathy: A Prospective Randomized Trial

BACKGROUND: There is a lack of evidence of whether degenerative cervical myelopathy (DCM) is best treated through cervical laminoplasty (CLP) or cervical laminectomy with lateral mass fusion due to the lack of prospective randomized studies that are well designed. We conducted the largest prospective randomized trial to date to determine the comparative effectiveness and safety of both approaches. METHODS: In this prospective, randomized trial, we randomly assigned patients who had symptoms or signs of DCM to undergo either cervical laminectomy and lateral mass fixation (CLF) or CLP. The primary outcome measures were the change in the Visual Analog Scale (VAS), neck disability index, modified Japanese Orthopedic Association (mJOA) score, and Nurick’s myelopathy grading 1 year after surgery. The secondary outcome measures were the intraoperative, post-operative complications, hospital stay, C2-7 Cobb’s angle, and Odom’s criteria. The follow-up period was at least 1 year. RESULTS: A total of 30 patients (mean age, 54.5 ± 5.5 years, 70% of men) underwent prospective randomization. There was a significantly greater improvement in neck pain (VAS) in the CLF group at 1 year (p < 0.05). The improvement in the mJOA and Nurick’s myelopathy grading showed insignificant improvement between both groups. Furthermore, there was no significant difference in the patient’s post-operative satisfaction (Odom’s criteria). The mean operative time was significantly longer in the CLF group (p < 0.001), with no significant difference in the post-operative complications, however, there was a higher rate of C5 palsy, dural tear and infection in the CLF, and a higher rate of instrumentation failure in the CLP. The mean hospital stay was significantly longer in the posterior group (p < 0.05). Finally, there was a significant better improvement in the C2-7 Cobb’s angle at 1 year in the CLF group (p < 0.05). CONCLUSION: Among patients with multilevel DCM, the CLF approach was significantly better regarding the post-operative pain and Cobb’s angle while the CLP was significantly better in terms of shorter hospital stay and operative time

Prevalence of Toxigenic and Methicillin Resistant Staphylococci in Poultry Chain Production

oai:ojs.pkp.sfu.ca:article/1Staphylococci are a worldwide cause of human and animal infection and are considered to be of the most common causes of infections in birds. Enterotoxins produced by some staphylococcal species were recognized as a causative agent of staphylococcal food poisoning (SFP). Only enterotoxins produced by Staphylococcus aureus were as yet well characterized. Much less is known about enterotoxigenic potential of coagulase-negative species of genus Staphylococcus (CNS). It has been reported that enterotoxigenic CNS strains have been associated with human and animal infections and food poisoning. Samples collected from chicken production cycle (un hatched eggs, baby chicks, broilers, chicken meat and table eggs) in Luxor, Egypt were tested to investigate the presence of Staphylococcus species and detection of their enterotoxines genes with more special attention for detection of methicillin resistance gene (mec A). Samples were tested for S. aureus and CNS on the basis of cultural and biochemical properties and confirmed by PCR amplification of 16S rRNA and clfa gene. Results showed that the presence of Staphylococci were 50/150 (33.3%), 14% of the samples were S. aureus (21/150), while, 19.33% were CNS (29/150). mecA gene was detected in 66.7% and 51.7% among S. aureus and CNS respectively. Enterotoxins genes (seb, sec and see) were found in 5 (23.8%) of S. aureus with a percent of (9.5%) for seb and sec and (4.8%) for see, while sec and see were found in 6 (20.6%) of CNS.  With a percent (10.3%) for each. &nbsp