Sengathir Janakiraman, Deva Priya M., Christy Jeba Malar A., Karthick S. and Anitha Rajakumari P.
The purpose of this paper is to design an Internet-of-Things (IoT) architecture-based Diabetic Retinopathy Detection Scheme (DRDS) proposed for identifying Type-I or Type-II…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to design an Internet-of-Things (IoT) architecture-based Diabetic Retinopathy Detection Scheme (DRDS) proposed for identifying Type-I or Type-II diabetes and to specifically advise the Type-II diabetic patients about the possibility of vision loss.
Design/methodology/approach
The proposed DRDS includes the benefits of automatic calculation of clip limit parameters and sub-window for making the detection process completely adaptive. It uses the advantages of extended 5 × 5 Sobels operator for estimating the maximum edges determined through the convolution of 24 pixels with eight templates to achieve 24 outputs corresponding to individual pixels for finding the maximum magnitude. It enhances the probability of connecting pixels in the vascular map with its closely located neighbourhood points in the fundus images. Then, the spatial information and kernel of the neighbourhood pixels are integrated through the Robust Semi-supervised Kernelized Fuzzy Local information C-Means Clustering (RSKFL-CMC) method to attain significant clustering process.
Findings
The results of the proposed DRDS architecture confirm the predominance in terms of accuracy, specificity and sensitivity. The proposed DRDS technique facilitates superior performance at an average of 99.64% accuracy, 76.84% sensitivity and 99.93% specificity.
Research limitations/implications
DRDS is proposed as a comfortable, pain-free and harmless diagnosis system using the merits of Dexcom G4 Plantinum sensors for estimating blood glucose level in diabetic patients. It uses the merits of RSKFL-CMC method to estimate the spatial information and kernel of the neighborhood pixels for attaining significant clustering process.
Practical implications
The IoT architecture comprises of the application layer that inherits the DR application enabled Graphical User Interface (GUI) which is combined for processing of fundus images by using MATLAB applications. This layer aids the patients in storing the capture fundus images in the database for future diagnosis.
Social implications
This proposed DRDS method plays a vital role in the detection of DR and categorization based on the intensity of disease into severe, moderate and mild grades. The proposed DRDS is responsible for preventing vision loss of diabetic Type-II patients by accurate and potential detection achieved through the utilization of IoT architecture.
Originality/value
The performance of the proposed scheme with the benchmarked approaches of the literature is implemented using MATLAB R2010a. The complete evaluations of the proposed scheme are conducted using HRF, REVIEW, STARE and DRIVE data sets with subjective quantification provided by the experts for the purpose of potential retinal blood vessel segmentation.
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Ezhilmaran G., Sekar S., Sathish Kumar K. and Thanigaiarasu S.
This study aims to investigate the effect of slanted perforation diameter in tabs for the control of Mach 1.4 underexpanded supersonic jet flow characteristics.
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to investigate the effect of slanted perforation diameter in tabs for the control of Mach 1.4 underexpanded supersonic jet flow characteristics.
Design/methodology/approach
Numerical investigation was carried out for NPR 5 to analyze the effect of slanted perforation diameter in tabs to control the Mach 1.4 jet. Four sets of tabs with slanted circular perforation geometries (Φp = 1, 1.5, 2 and 2.5 mm) were considered in this study. The inclination angle of 20° (αP) with reference to the jet axis was maintained constant for all the four tabs considered.
Findings
Determined value indicates there is a 68%, 71%, 73% and 75% drop in supersonic core for the Φp = 1, 1.5, 2.0 and 2.5 mm, respectively. The results show that the tabs with 2.5 mm perforation diameter were found to be efficient in reducing the supersonic jet core in comparison with other tab cases. The reduction in supersonic core length is due to the extent of miniscule vortices exuviating from slanted small and large diameter perforation in the tabs.
Practical implications
The concept of slanted perforation can be applied in scramjet combustion, which finds its best application in hypersonic vehicles and in noise suppression in fighter aircraft.
Originality/value
Slanted perforation and circular shapes with different diameters have not been studied in the supersonic regime. Examining the effect of circular diameter in slanted perforation is an innovation in this research paper.
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Nikhitha Adepu, Sharareh Kermanshachi, Apurva Pamidimukkala and Emily Nwakpuda
The effects of the COVID-19 outbreak on the construction industry were formidable and far-reaching, as the construction sector is a major contributor to the gross domestic product…
Abstract
Purpose
The effects of the COVID-19 outbreak on the construction industry were formidable and far-reaching, as the construction sector is a major contributor to the gross domestic product (GDP), which balances various sectors of the global economy, and to infrastructure growth, which is a primary gauge of a nation’s advancement. The outbreak led to workforce disruptions, worker deficits, dwindling efficiency, elongated project durations, and scarce opportunities for training and mentorship, and despite endeavors to mitigate these challenges, construction timelines experienced significant interruptions. Various researchers have pinpointed contributing elements, but few have constructed a predictive model to gauge the degree of impact.
Design/methodology/approach
Therefore, this research intends to fill by introducing an ordinal logistic regression method to forecast the impacts of a pandemic or other similar type of crisis. To achieve this, an online survey was developed and distributed to collect the perceptions of the construction engineers and managers about the diverse contributors to the exceeding project timelines during the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak.
Findings
Findings from this study indicate that financial liquidity, modifications to original plans, delays in securing governmental clearances, and a shortage of competent labor have medium-to-high levels of impact on project schedules.
Originality/value
This study will furnish decision-makers with crucial knowledge that will give them the tools to refine their strategies and judiciously allocate resources to overcome the unique hurdles encountered by various construction segments and will enhance the industry's capability to respond more effectively to challenges inherent in this type of crisis.
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Muhammad Ayat, Azmat Ullah and Chang Wook Kang
The coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic has negatively affected project management organisations especially those conducting large construction projects that involve a large…
Abstract
Purpose
The coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic has negatively affected project management organisations especially those conducting large construction projects that involve a large number of people, complex supply chains, and lack of experience and preliminary arrangements in managing remote work. This study aims to analyse the impact of COVID-19 on the construction sector and how to minimise the effect of pandemic disruptions.
Design/methodology/approach
This study is based on the reviews of relevant reports, articles and semi-structured interviews of the construction experts working in the Pakistan construction industry during the current COVID-19 pandemic. The primary data for this study were collected through semi-structured interviews with the construction experts and analysed them using thematic analysis. A total of 15 semi-structured interviews were conducted in this study.
Findings
Through thematic analysis, this study identified approximately 55 initial raw data themes, 15 first-order themes, 11 second-order themes and 4 general dimensions of the impact of COVID-19 on the construction sector. The authors identified working style and behavioural changes, challenges and risks, stakeholders and new directions for the construction sector in the post-pandemic world as the four main dimensions of the effect of the pandemic on the construction sector. Further, least digitalisation, complex cash flow, abundance of labour-intensive methods, diverse stakeholders, and dependencies on foreign expertise, imported material and machineries were identified as the most important reasons for poor resiliency of the construction sector during COVID-19 pandemic in Pakistan.
Originality/value
This study major contributions are: (1) analysing the impact of COVID-19 on the construction sector in relation to Pakistan, (2) discussing new directions for the construction sector and (3) putting in place a set of mitigation measures that will help minimise disruptions in construction-related projects to ensure that set objectives are achieved.
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Xiangyu Lu, Leyuan Zhang, Xingguo Feng, D. Chen and Yu Zuo
Aluminum tripolyphosphate was used as a corrosion inhibitor in a simulated concrete pore solution. For studies of the inhibition mechanism of aluminum tripolyphosphate on the…
Abstract
Purpose
Aluminum tripolyphosphate was used as a corrosion inhibitor in a simulated concrete pore solution. For studies of the inhibition mechanism of aluminum tripolyphosphate on the carbon steel, its influence on the pitting initiation on the carbon steel in a Cl− containing pore solution were investigated.
Design/methodology/approach
Potentiodynamic polarization curves, Mott–Schottky plots and potentiostatic polarization of the carbon steel in the pore solution with different content of aluminum tripolyphosphate were measured, as well as the optical micrographs of pitting on the carbon steel was observed.
Findings
The metastable pitting potential and the stable pitting potential increased, while the donor density and the flat band potential decreased with the concentration of aluminum tripolyphosphate in solution. Furthermore, the initiation of pitting was suppressed, as well as the transition from metastable to stable pitting was hindered by the aluminum tripolyphosphate. The scale parameter (a), in the extreme distribution of the maximum current peak, could be used to predict the transition from metastable to stable pitting.
Originality/value
The inhibition mechanism of aluminum tripolyphosphate on carbon steel in pore solution was revealed. It suppresses the initiation of pitting and hinders the transition from metastable to stable pitting. Furthermore, a parameter defined as the scale parameter (a) in the extreme distribution of the maximum current peak was introduced to predict the transition from metastable to stable pitting.
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Houari Youcef Moudjib, Duan Haibin, Baochang Zhang and Mohammed Salah Ahmed Ghaleb
Hyperspectral imaging (HSI) systems are becoming potent technologies for computer vision tasks due to the rich information they uncover, where each substance exhibits a distinct…
Abstract
Purpose
Hyperspectral imaging (HSI) systems are becoming potent technologies for computer vision tasks due to the rich information they uncover, where each substance exhibits a distinct spectral distribution. Although the high spectral dimensionality of the data empowers feature learning, the joint spatial–spectral features have not been well explored yet. Gabor convolutional networks (GCNs) incorporate Gabor filters into a deep convolutional neural network (CNN) to extract discriminative features of different orientations and frequencies. To the best if the authors’ knowledge, this paper introduces the exploitation of GCNs for hyperspectral image classification (HSI-GCN) for the first time. HSI-GCN is able to extract deep joint spatial–spectral features more rapidly and accurately despite the shortage of training samples. The authors thoroughly evaluate the effectiveness of used method on different hyperspectral data sets, where promising results and high classification accuracy have been achieved compared to the previously proposed CNN-based and Gabor-based methods.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors have implemented the new algorithm of Gabor convolution network on the hyperspectral images for classification purposes.
Findings
Implementing the new GCN has shown unexpectable results with an excellent classification accuracy.
Originality/value
To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this work is the first one that implements this approach.
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Sathish Kumar K., Senthilkumar Chidambaram and Naren Shankar Radha Krishnan
This paper aims to present the jet mixing effectiveness of triangular tabs with semi-circular corrugations to control the subsonic and sonic correctly expanded jets.
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to present the jet mixing effectiveness of triangular tabs with semi-circular corrugations to control the subsonic and sonic correctly expanded jets.
Design/methodology/approach
Three semi-circular corrugated triangular tabs (Tab A, Tab B and Tab C) of equal blockage 5.11% are used, in which the corrugation locations on the tabs are varied. The offset distance between the semi-circular corrugations at the leaned edges of the triangular tabs are 0.0, 0.75 and 1.5 mm for the Tabs A, B and C, respectively. Two identical semi-circular corrugated tabs has been placed exactly 180° apart at the exit of the convergent nozzle. The pitot pressure measurements were taken to study the jet mixing characteristics of the tabs for the jet exit Mach numbers of 0.6, 0.8 and 1.0, and it is compared with the free jet.
Findings
The jet centerline pitot pressure decay reveals that, Tab A is very effective than Tab B and Tab C. For the jet exit Mach numbers of 0.6, 0.8 and 1.0, the potential core reduction for the Tab A is found to be 69.1%, 69.7% and 70.8%, respectively, when compared with the free jet.
Practical implications
The semi-circular corrugated triangular tabs were found to be more effective than the plain triangular tabs of equal blockage ratio for reducing the core length with minimum thrust loss.
Originality/value
The offset distance of the semi-circular corrugations are varied along the leaned sides of the triangular tabs, which is the novelty of this study.
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Democratic candidate Barack Obama campaigned for the office of President of the United States on a message of hope and change. Included in this message was an avowed commitment to…
Abstract
Democratic candidate Barack Obama campaigned for the office of President of the United States on a message of hope and change. Included in this message was an avowed commitment to fighting for equality and social justice. This chapter evaluates the Obama administration's record on social justice issues from a black feminist perspective. I find that although the administration has made some notable achievements, the universalist paradigm from which it operates may cause policymakers to overlook multiply oppressed groups. It might likewise blind them to the processes that generate and maintain social inequality. I argue that the results could hinder Obama from succeeding with much of his social justice agenda. I conclude by discussing how examining inequality through a black feminist prism would enable the Obama administration to speed up its program and develop and implement more effective policies. Finally, I also recommend a social justice project that might help the president create a legacy that will promote his goals long after he leaves office.
Abdulla Alateeq, Wael Elmedany, Nedal Ababneh and Kevin Curran
The purpose of this paper is to investigate the latest research related to secure routing protocols in Wireless Sensor Network (WSN) and propose a new approach that can achieve a…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to investigate the latest research related to secure routing protocols in Wireless Sensor Network (WSN) and propose a new approach that can achieve a higher security level compared to the existing one. One of the main security issues in WSNs is the security of routing protocols. A typical WSN consists of a large number of small size, low-power, low-cost sensor devices. These devices are very resource-constrained and usually use cheap short-range radios to communicate with each other in an ad hoc fashion thus, achieving security in these networks is a big challenge, which is open for research.
Design/methodology/approach
The route updates and data messages of the protocol are authenticated using Edwards-curves Digital Signature Algorithm (EdDSA). Routing protocols play an essential role in WSNs, they ensure the delivery of the sensed data from the remote sensor nodes to back-end systems via a data sink. Routing protocols depend on route updates received from neighboring nodes to determine the best path to the sink. Manipulating these updates by inserting rouge nodes in the network that advertise false updates can lead to a catastrophic impact on the compromised WSN performance.
Findings
As a result, a new secure energy-aware routing protocol (SEARP) is proposed, which uses security enhanced clustering algorithm and EdDSA to authenticate route advertisements and messages. A secure clustering algorithm is also used as part of the proposed protocol to conserve energy, prolong network lifetime and counteract wormhole attacks.
Originality/value
In this paper, a SEARP is proposed to address network layer security attacks in WSNs. A secure clustering algorithm is also used as part of the proposed protocol to conserve energy, prolong network lifetime and counteract wormhole attacks. A simulation has been carried out using Sensoria Simulator and the performance evaluation has been discussed.
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Minh Van Nguyen, Ha Duy Khanh, Chien Thanh Phan and Le Dinh Thuc
Poor mental health is a well-recognized issue in the construction sector. However, there is still little understanding of factors affecting construction employees’ awareness of…
Abstract
Purpose
Poor mental health is a well-recognized issue in the construction sector. However, there is still little understanding of factors affecting construction employees’ awareness of mental health problems (MHP). This study aims to investigate the awareness of MHP among construction employees using the Health Belief Model (HBM). The research explores how various factors, such as perceived susceptibility, perceived severity, perceived benefits, perceived barriers, cues to action and self-efficacy, shape MHP awareness within the construction sector.
Design/methodology/approach
A structured four-step research methodology was employed. First, a literature review and expert validation identified 28 variables relevant to MHP awareness. A questionnaire was then developed and distributed to construction employees in Vietnam, with 238 valid responses collected. Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) were employed to validate the evaluation model. After that, fuzzy synthetic evaluation (FSE) was used to assess the importance of each dimension of MHP awareness.
Findings
The results indicate that perceived barriers and perceived benefits were the two most significant factors in MHP awareness. The remaining dimensions – perceived susceptibility, perceived severity, cues to action and self-efficacy – were found to have a lesser but notable impact on MHP awareness.
Originality/value
This research comprehensively analyzes MHP awareness among construction employees using the HBM framework. The findings suggested that Vietnamese firms should focus on increasing cues to action and self-efficacy to improve MHP awareness among construction employees. This study also proposed that construction firms should provide more stress-reduction activities and training programs suitable to the Vietnamese context for their employees.