Search results for: light weight algorithm
Commenced in January 2007
Frequency: Monthly
Edition: International
Paper Count: 10766

Search results for: light weight algorithm

4556 Uptake of Off-Site Construction: Benefit and Future Application

Authors: Faisal Alazzaz, Andrew Whyte

Abstract:

Off-site construction methods have played an important role in the construction sector in the past few decades. It is increasingly becoming a major alternative technique and strategic direction compared to traditional in-situ method. It produces a significant amount of value for the construction industry and the economy more generally. To date, an impressive number of studies have been lunched on the perceived perception of off-site construction. However, it seems that a quantifying benefit on the offsite construction area is lacking. Therefore, this paper examines the recent research literature on the benefits of off- site construction and provides future direction. In the beginning, this paper provides a brief history and current value of the off-site construction followed by a detailed discussion on the benefit of off-site construction. These benefits include but not limited to time saving, quality improvement, relieving skills shortages, cost reduction and productivity improvement. Toward this end, off-site construction should learn from other productive industry similar to services or manufacturing industry by applying operational management tools and techniques with extensive focus on employee empowerment will shed the light on future uptake of Off-site construction. This study is of value in providing scholars have a clear picture of perceived benefit of off-site construction research and give an opportunities for future uptake of off-site method.

Keywords: building projects, employer empowerment, off-site construction benefits, productivity

Procedia PDF Downloads 441
4555 Dependence of the Structural, Electrical and Magnetic Properties of YBa2Cu3O7−δ Bulk Superconductor on the Sm Doping

Authors: Raheleh Hajilou

Abstract:

In this study, we report the synthesis and characterization of YBa2Cu3O7-δ (YBCO) high-temperature superconductor prepared by solid-state method and doped with Sm in different weight percentages, 0, 0.01, 0.02 and 0.05 wt. The result of X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis conforms to the formation of an orthorhombic phase of superconductivity in our samples. This is an important finding and indicates that the samples may exhibit superconductivity properties at certain conditions. Our results unequivocally point to a different structural order or disorder in SM/Y samples as compared to Sm based samples. We suggest that different site preferences of oxygen vacancies, predominantly created in CuO2 planes (CuO chains) of Y and Sm-based samples, might be responsible for the observed difference in the behavior. This contention is supported by a host of other considerations and experimental observations. The study investigated the effects of Sm doping on the YBCO system on various properties such as structural, critical temperature (Tc), scanning electron microscope (SEM), irresistibility line(IL), critical current density, jc, and flux line pinning force. It Seems the sample x=0.05 undergoes an insulator transition, which suppresses its superconducting transition temperature (Tc). Additionally, magnetization was measured as a function of temperature (M-T) and magnetic loops (M-H) at constant temperatures of 10. 20, 30, 40, 50 and 60K up to 10KG.

Keywords: high-Tc superconductors, Scanning electron microscopy, X-ray scattering, Irreversibility line

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4554 An Assessment of the Hip Muscular Imbalance for Patients with Rheumatism

Authors: Anthony Bawa, Konstantinos Banitsas

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Rheumatism is a muscular disorder that affects the muscles of the upper and lower limbs. This condition could potentially progress to impair the movement of patients. This study aims to investigate the hip muscular imbalance in patients with chronic rheumatism. A clinical trial involving a total of 15 participants, made up of 10 patients and 5 control subjects, took place in KATH Hospital between August and September. Participants recruited for the study were of age 54 ± 8years, weight 65± 8kg, and height 176 ± 8cm. Muscle signals were recorded from the rectus femoris, and vastus lateralis on the right and left hip of participants. The parameters used in determining the hip muscular imbalances were the maximum voluntary contraction (MVC%), the mean difference, and hip muscle fatigue levels. The mean signals were compared using a t-test, and the metrics for muscle fatigue assessment were based on the root mean square (RMS), mean absolute value (MAV) and mean frequency (MEF), which were computed between the hip muscles of participants. The results indicated that there were significant imbalances in the muscle coactivity between the right and left hip muscles of patients. The patients’ MVC values were observed to be above 10% when compared with control subjects. Furthermore, the mean difference was seen to be higher with p > 0.002 among patients, which indicated clear differences in the hip muscle contraction activities. The findings indicate significant hip muscular imbalances for patients with rheumatism compared with control subjects. Information about the imbalances among patients will be useful for clinicians in designing therapeutic muscle-strengthening exercises.

Keywords: muscular, imbalances, rheumatism, Hip

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4553 Effect of Citric Acid and Clove on Cured Smoked Meat: A Traditional Meat Product

Authors: Esther Eduzor, Charles A. Negbenebor, Helen O. Agu

Abstract:

Smoking of meat enhances the taste and look of meat, it also increases its longevity, and helps preserve the meat by slowing down the spoilage of fat and growth of bacteria. The Lean meat from the forequarter of beef carcass was obtained from the Maiduguri abattoir. The meat was cut into four portions with weight ranging from 525-545 g. The meat was cut into bits measuring about 8 cm in length, 3.5 cm in thickness and weighed 64.5 g. Meat samples were washed, cured with various concentration of sodium chloride, sodium nitrate, citric acid and clove for 30 min, drained and smoked in a smoking kiln at a temperature range of 55-600°C, for 8 hr a day for 3 days. The products were stored at ambient temperature and evaluated microbiologically and organoleptically. In terms of processing and storage there were increases in pH, free fatty acid content, a decrease in water holding capacity and microbial count of the cured smoked meat. The panelists rated control samples significantly (p < 0.05) higher in terms of colour, texture, taste and overall acceptability. The following organisms were isolated and identified during storage: Bacillus specie, Bacillus subtilis, streptococcus, Pseudomonas, Aspergillus niger, Candida and Penicillium specie. The study forms a basis for new product development for meat industry.

Keywords: citric acid, cloves, smoked meat, bioengineering

Procedia PDF Downloads 448
4552 Growing Acts of Terrorism in Local Conflicts: A Dire Need for International Attention

Authors: Yusuf Abubakar Mamud

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Highlighting the imperatives of local conflicts considering the dangerous dimensions of terrorism they are assuming in Africa has not attracted serious academic and political attention. The discourse about conflict in Africa was discussed within five identified conflict zones in the continent. The threats from these local conflicts are diverse and complex and the acts of terrorism in these local conflicts are driven by certain attitudes and behaviours linked to the African leadership. The paper examined and noted that the current conflict resolution model of the African Union (AU) was robust with requisite institutions to address the trends in local conflicts. However, it was observed that the AU peace and security framework lacked the requisite structural and technical capabilities to proactively address the drivers of local conflicts in Africa. It was found that the persistence of local conflicts in the African region may deny her the opportunities of achievement of the targets envisioned in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Consequently, the paper called on the international community to support Africa through provision of capacity. It urged the African leaders themselves to develop the political will to ensure that all issues concerning peace and security in the continent were guided by the provisions of the AU Constitutive Act. The need to strengthen the APRM in the light of the current trends in local conflicts was also highlighted.

Keywords: conflicts, local conflicts, terrorism, sustainable development

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4551 Effect of Peppermint Essential Oil versus a Mixture of Formic and Propionic Acids on Corn Silage Volatile Fatty Acid Score

Authors: Mohsen Danesh Mesgaran, Ali Hodjatpanah Montazeri, Alireza Vakili, Mansoor Tahmasbei

Abstract:

To compare peppermint essential oil versus a mixture of formic and propionic acids a study was conducted to their effects on volatile fatty acid proportion and VFA score of corn silage. Chopped whole crop corn (control) was treated with peppermint essential oil (240 mg kg-1 DM) or a mixture of formic and propionic acids (2:1) at 0.4% of fresh forage weight, and ensiled for 30 days. Then, silage extract was provided and the concentration of each VFA was determined using gas chromatography. The VFA score was calculated according to the patented formula proposed by Dairy One Scientific Committee. The score is calculated based on the positive impact of lactic and acetic acids versus the negative effect of butyric acid to achieve a single value for evaluating silage quality. The essential oil declined pH and increased the concentration of lactic and acetic acids in the silage extract. All corn silages evaluated in this study had a VFA score between 6 through 8. However, silage with peppermint essential oils had lower volatile fatty acids score than those of the other treatments. Both of applied additives caused a significant improvement in silage aerobic stability.

Keywords: peppermint, essential oil, corn silage, VFA (volatile fatty acids)

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4550 Assembly Solution for Modular Buildings: Development of a Plug-In Self-Locking Device Designed for Light-Framed Structures

Authors: Laurence Picard, André Bégin-Drolet, Pierre Blanchet

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The prefabricated construction industry has been operating in North America for several years now and differs from traditional construction by its much shorter project timelines, lower costs, and increased build quality. Faced with the global housing crisis, prefabrication should be the first choice for erecting buildings quickly and at a low cost. However, the reality is quite different; manufacturers focus their operations mainly on single-home construction. This is explained by the lack of a suitable and efficient assembly solution for erecting large-scale buildings. Indeed, it is difficult to maintain the coveted advantages of prefabrication with a laborious on-site assembly and a colossal load of additional operations such as the installation of fasteners and the internal finishing. In the desire to maximize the benefits of prefabrication and make it a smart choice even for large buildings, an automated connection solution is developed. The plug-in self-locking device was developed accordingly to the product design phases: on-site observations, the definition of the problem and product requirements, solution generation, prototyping, fabricating and testing.

Keywords: assembly solution, automation, construction productivity, modular connection, modular buildings, plug-in device, self-lock mechanism

Procedia PDF Downloads 171
4549 Hierarchical Tree Long Short-Term Memory for Sentence Representations

Authors: Xiuying Wang, Changliang Li, Bo Xu

Abstract:

A fixed-length feature vector is required for many machine learning algorithms in NLP field. Word embeddings have been very successful at learning lexical information. However, they cannot capture the compositional meaning of sentences, which prevents them from a deeper understanding of language. In this paper, we introduce a novel hierarchical tree long short-term memory (HTLSTM) model that learns vector representations for sentences of arbitrary syntactic type and length. We propose to split one sentence into three hierarchies: short phrase, long phrase and full sentence level. The HTLSTM model gives our algorithm the potential to fully consider the hierarchical information and long-term dependencies of language. We design the experiments on both English and Chinese corpus to evaluate our model on sentiment analysis task. And the results show that our model outperforms several existing state of the art approaches significantly.

Keywords: deep learning, hierarchical tree long short-term memory, sentence representation, sentiment analysis

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4548 The Customization of 3D Last Form Design Based on Weighted Blending

Authors: Shih-Wen Hsiao, Chu-Hsuan Lee, Rong-Qi Chen

Abstract:

When it comes to last, it is regarded as the critical foundation of shoe design and development. Not only the last relates to the comfort of shoes wearing but also it aids the production of shoe styling and manufacturing. In order to enhance the efficiency and application of last development, a computer aided methodology for customized last form designs is proposed in this study. The reverse engineering is mainly applied to the process of scanning for the last form. Then the minimum energy is used for the revision of surface continuity, the surface of the last is reconstructed with the feature curves of the scanned last. When the surface of a last is reconstructed, based on the foundation of the proposed last form reconstruction module, the weighted arithmetic mean method is applied to the calculation on the shape morphing which differs from the grading for the control mesh of last, and the algorithm of subdivision is used to create the surface of last mesh, thus the feet-fitting 3D last form of different sizes is generated from its original form feature with functions remained. Finally, the practicability of the proposed methodology is verified through later case studies.

Keywords: 3D last design, customization, reverse engineering, weighted morphing, shape blending

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4547 Sporting Events among the Disabled between Excellence and Ideal in Motor Performance: Analytical Descriptive Study in Some Paralympic Sports

Authors: Guebli Abdelkader, Reguieg Madani, Belkadi Adel, Sbaa Bouabdellah

Abstract:

The identification of mechanical variables in the motor performance trajectory has a prominent role in improving skill performance, error-exceeding, it contributes seriously to solving some problems of learning and training. The study aims to highlight the indicators of motor performance for Paralympic athletes during the practicing sports between modelling and between excellence in motor performance, this by taking into account the distinction of athlete practicing with special behavioral skills for the Paralympic athletes. In the study, we relied on the analysis of some previous research of biomechanical performance indicators during some of the events sports (shooting activities in the Paralympic athletics, shooting skill in the wheelchair basketball). The results of the study highlight the distinction of disabled practitioners of sporting events identified in motor performance during practice, by overcoming some physics indicators in human movement, as a lower center of body weight, increase in offset distance, such resistance which requires them to redouble their efforts. However, the results of the study highlighted the strength of the correlation between biomechanical variables of motor performance and the digital level achievement similar to the other practitioners normal.

Keywords: sports, the disabled, motor performance, Paralympic

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4546 Amharic Text News Classification Using Supervised Learning

Authors: Misrak Assefa

Abstract:

The Amharic language is the second most widely spoken Semitic language in the world. There are several new overloaded on the web. Searching some useful documents from the web on a specific topic, which is written in the Amharic language, is a challenging task. Hence, document categorization is required for managing and filtering important information. In the classification of Amharic text news, there is still a gap in the domain of information that needs to be launch. This study attempts to design an automatic Amharic news classification using a supervised learning mechanism on four un-touch classes. To achieve this research, 4,182 news articles were used. Naive Bayes (NB) and Decision tree (j48) algorithms were used to classify the given Amharic dataset. In this paper, k-fold cross-validation is used to estimate the accuracy of the classifier. As a result, it shows those algorithms can be applicable in Amharic news categorization. The best average accuracy result is achieved by j48 decision tree and naïve Bayes is 95.2345 %, and 94.6245 % respectively using three categories. This research indicated that a typical decision tree algorithm is more applicable to Amharic news categorization.

Keywords: text categorization, supervised machine learning, naive Bayes, decision tree

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4545 Jurisdiction in International Law

Authors: Hamid Vahidkia

Abstract:

Purview has customarily been considered in worldwide law as simply an address of the rights and powers of states. Conceived in this way, the rules onward serve the imperative work of delimiting (whereas tolerating a few covers of) state administrative specialist – the address of when an individual or occasion may be subject to national direction – a work which is shared with the cognate teach of private worldwide law. This article proposes that the thought and the rules of locale in worldwide law require reconceptualization in light of three advancements. The primary is the developing acknowledgment that in an extend of circumstances, the work out of national locale may, beneath worldwide law, be an address of duty or commitment instead of right. The moment advancement is the expanded acknowledgment that such jurisdictional obligations may, in a few circumstances, be owed not as it were to other states but also to private parties, especially through the rise and fortifying of the teachings of refusal of equity and get to equity. The third improvement is the broadly perceived wonder known as party independence, beneath which private parties in the gracious debate have the control to bestow locale on national courts and to decide themselves which law administers their connections. In combination, these improvements propose the need to reexamine the concept of ward in worldwide law to reflect the more complex substances of a worldwide lawful arrangement beneath which states possess both jurisdictional rights and commitments and are not the elite on-screen characters.

Keywords: international law, jurisdiction, purview, preconceptions, commitment

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4544 First Occurrence of Histopathological Assessment in Gadoid Deep-Fish Phycis blennoides from the Southwestern Mediterranean Sea

Authors: Zakia Alioua, Amira Soumia, Zerouali-Khodja Fatiha

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In spite of a wide variety of contaminants such as heavy metals and organic compounds in addition to the importance of extended pollution, the deep-sea and its species are not in haven and being affected through contaminants exposure. This investigation is performed in order to provide data on the presence of pathological changes in the liver and gonads of the greater forkbeard. A total of 998 specimens of the teleost fish Phycis blennoides Brünnich, 1768 ranged from 5,7 to 62,7 cm in total length, were obtained from the commercial fisheries of Algerian ports. The sampling has been carried out monthly from December 2013 to June 2015 and from January to June 2016 caught by trawlers and longlines between 75 and 600 fathoms in the coast of Algeria. Individuals were sexed their gonads, and their livers were removed and processed for light microscopy and one case of atresia was identified. In whole, overall 0,002% of the specimens presented some degree of liver steatosis. For the gastric section, 442 selected stomachs contents were observed looking for parasitic infestation and enumerate 212 nematodes. A prospecting survey for metal contaminant was performed on the liver by atomic absorption spectrophotometry analysis.

Keywords: atresia, coast of Algeria, histopathology, nematode, Phycis blennoides, steatosis

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4543 Synthesis of Biofuels of New Generation

Authors: Selena Gutiérrez, Araceli Martínez

Abstract:

One of the most important challenges worldwide, scientific and technological, is to have a sustainable energy source; friendly to the environment and widely available. Currently, the 85% of the energy used comes from the fossil sources. Another important environmental problem is that several rubber products (tires, gloves, hoses, among others) are discarded practically without any treatment. In nature, the degradation of such products will take at least 500 years. In 2009, the worldwide rubber production was about 23.6 million tons. In order to solve this problems, our research focus in an alternative synthesis of biofuels in a two-step approach: The metathesis degradation of industrial rubber (models of rubber waste), and the oligomers transesterification. Thus, cis-1,4-polybutadiene (Mn= 9.1x105, Mw/Mn= 2.2) and styrene-butadiene block copolymers with 30% (Mn= 1.61x105; Mw/Mn= 1.3) and 21% wt styrene (Mn= 1.92x105; Mw/Mn= 1.4) were degraded via metathesis with soybean oil as chain transfer agent (CTA) and green solvent; using [(PCy3)2Cl2Ru=CHPh] and [(1,3-diphenyl-4,5-dihydroimidazol-2-ylidene)(PCy3)Ru=CHPh] catalysts. Afterwards, the products were transesterified by basic homogeneous catalysis. Before transesterification, the polystyrene microblocks (Mn= 16,761; Mw/Mn= 1.2) were isolated. Finally, the biofuels obtained (BO) were purified, characterized and showed similar properties to standards biodiesel (SB) (Norms: EN 14214-03 and ASTM D6751-02), i.e. (SB / BO): molecular weight [Daltons] (570 / 543-596), density [g/cm3] (0.86-0.90 / 0.88), kinematic viscosity [mm2/s] (1.90-6.0 / 3.5-4.5), iodine (97 / 97-98) and cetane number (Min.47 / 56-58).

Keywords: biofuels, industrial rubber, metathesis, vegetable oils

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4542 Cross Line of Causality in Childhood Stuttering between Psychology and Neurolinguistics: Systematic Literature Review and Meta-Analysis

Authors: Sadeq Al Yaari, Muhammad Alkhunayn, Ayman Al Yaari, Montaha Al Yaari, Aayah Al Yaari, Adham Al Yaari, Sajedah Al Yaari, Fatehi Eissa

Abstract:

Stuttering is a multidimensional disorder that is influenced by different factors. As a result of their un-understanding of the genuine reasons behind stuttering, psychiatrists and Speech and Language Pathologists/Therapists (SLP/Ts) are often unfamiliar with the psychoneurolinguistic characteristics, support needs, and the disability measurement impacting requested rehabilitation of the stuttering population. PubMed, PsycInfo, Web of Science, Scopus, and Google scholar searches, in addition to some unpublished literature, were conducted in this Systematic Literature Review and Meta-analysis (SLR and Meta-analysis) to identify whether stuttering is caused by psychological or neurological reasons. The study concluded that psychological, not neurolinguistic factors were identified as most significant for the causality of childhood stuttering. Stutterers have intact language skills, but impaired ability more to communicate with others than to form letters in the brain or to articulate them. The study recommends research in the future that sheds light on the adult stuttering population often left out of the focus of diagnosis and in need of further exploration vis-a-vis issues they encounter, as well as the possible ways to deal with them psychoneurolinguistically.

Keywords: causality, childhood stuttering, psychology, neurolinguistics, systematic literature review, meta-analysis

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4541 An iTunes U App for Development of Metacognition Skills Delivered in the Enrichment Program Offered to Gifted Students at the Secondary Level

Authors: Maha Awad M. Almuttairi

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This research aimed to measure the impact of the use of a mobile learning (iTunes U) app for the development of metacognition skills delivered in the enrichment program offered to gifted students at the secondary level in Jeddah. The author targeted a group of students on an experimental scale to evaluate the achievement. The research sample consisted of a group of 38 gifted female students. The scale of evaluation of the metacognition skills used to measure the performance of students in the enrichment program was as follows: Satisfaction scale for the assessment of the technique used and the final product form after completion of the program. Appropriate statistical treatment used includes Paired Samples T-Test Cronbach’s alpha formula and eta squared formula. It was concluded in the results the difference of α≤ 0.05, which means the performance of students in the skills of metacognition in favor of using iTunes U. In light of the conclusion of the experiment, a number of recommendations and suggestions were present; the most important benefit of mobile learning applications is to provide enrichment programs for gifted students in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, as well as conducting further research on mobile learning and gifted student teaching.

Keywords: enrichment program, gifted students, metacognition skills, mobile learning

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4540 A Model to Assess Sustainability Using Multi-Criteria Analysis and Geographic Information Systems: A Case Study

Authors: Antonio Boggia, Luisa Paolotti, Gianluca Massei, Lucia Rocchi, Elaine Pace, Maria Attard

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The aim of this paper is to present a methodology and a computer model for sustainability assessment based on the integration of Multi-criteria Decision Analysis (MCDA) with a Geographic Information System (GIS). It presents the result of a study for the implementation of a model for measuring sustainability to address the policy actions for the improvement of sustainability at territory level. The aim is to rank areas in order to understand the specific technical and/or financial support that is required to develop sustainable growth. Assessing sustainable development is a multidimensional problem: economic, social and environmental aspects have to be taken into account at the same time. The tool for a multidimensional representation is a proper set of indicators. The set of indicators must be integrated into a model, that is an assessment methodology, to be used for measuring sustainability. The model, developed by the Environmental Laboratory of the University of Perugia, is called GeoUmbriaSUIT. It is a calculation procedure developed as a plugin working in the open-source GIS software QuantumGIS. The multi-criteria method used within GeoUmbriaSUIT is the algorithm TOPSIS (Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to Ideal Design), which defines a ranking based on the distance from the worst point and the closeness to an ideal point, for each of the criteria used. For the sustainability assessment procedure, GeoUmbriaSUIT uses a geographic vector file where the graphic data represent the study area and the single evaluation units within it (the alternatives, e.g. the regions of a country, or the municipalities of a region), while the alphanumeric data (attribute table), describe the environmental, economic and social aspects related to the evaluation units by means of a set of indicators (criteria). The use of the algorithm available in the plugin allows to treat individually the indicators representing the three dimensions of sustainability, and to compute three different indices: environmental index, economic index and social index. The graphic output of the model allows for an integrated assessment of the three dimensions, avoiding aggregation. The presence of separate indices and graphic output make GeoUmbriaSUIT a readable and transparent tool, since it doesn’t produce an aggregate index of sustainability as final result of the calculations, which is often cryptic and difficult to interpret. In addition, it is possible to develop a “back analysis”, able to explain the positions obtained by the alternatives in the ranking, based on the criteria used. The case study presented is an assessment of the level of sustainability in the six regions of Malta, an island state in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea and the southernmost member of the European Union. The results show that the integration of MCDA-GIS is an adequate approach for sustainability assessment. In particular, the implemented model is able to provide easy to understand results. This is a very important condition for a sound decision support tool, since most of the time decision makers are not experts and need understandable output. In addition, the evaluation path is traceable and transparent.

Keywords: GIS, multi-criteria analysis, sustainability assessment, sustainable development

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4539 Characterization of Agroforestry Systems in Burkina Faso Using an Earth Observation Data Cube

Authors: Dan Kanmegne

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Africa will become the most populated continent by the end of the century, with around 4 billion inhabitants. Food security and climate changes will become continental issues since agricultural practices depend on climate but also contribute to global emissions and land degradation. Agroforestry has been identified as a cost-efficient and reliable strategy to address these two issues. It is defined as the integrated management of trees and crops/animals in the same land unit. Agroforestry provides benefits in terms of goods (fruits, medicine, wood, etc.) and services (windbreaks, fertility, etc.), and is acknowledged to have a great potential for carbon sequestration; therefore it can be integrated into reduction mechanisms of carbon emissions. Particularly in sub-Saharan Africa, the constraint stands in the lack of information about both areas under agroforestry and the characterization (composition, structure, and management) of each agroforestry system at the country level. This study describes and quantifies “what is where?”, earliest to the quantification of carbon stock in different systems. Remote sensing (RS) is the most efficient approach to map such a dynamic technology as agroforestry since it gives relatively adequate and consistent information over a large area at nearly no cost. RS data fulfill the good practice guidelines of the Intergovernmental Panel On Climate Change (IPCC) that is to be used in carbon estimation. Satellite data are getting more and more accessible, and the archives are growing exponentially. To retrieve useful information to support decision-making out of this large amount of data, satellite data needs to be organized so to ensure fast processing, quick accessibility, and ease of use. A new solution is a data cube, which can be understood as a multi-dimensional stack (space, time, data type) of spatially aligned pixels and used for efficient access and analysis. A data cube for Burkina Faso has been set up from the cooperation project between the international service provider WASCAL and Germany, which provides an accessible exploitation architecture of multi-temporal satellite data. The aim of this study is to map and characterize agroforestry systems using the Burkina Faso earth observation data cube. The approach in its initial stage is based on an unsupervised image classification of a normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) time series from 2010 to 2018, to stratify the country based on the vegetation. Fifteen strata were identified, and four samples per location were randomly assigned to define the sampling units. For safety reasons, the northern part will not be part of the fieldwork. A total of 52 locations will be visited by the end of the dry season in February-March 2020. The field campaigns will consist of identifying and describing different agroforestry systems and qualitative interviews. A multi-temporal supervised image classification will be done with a random forest algorithm, and the field data will be used for both training the algorithm and accuracy assessment. The expected outputs are (i) map(s) of agroforestry dynamics, (ii) characteristics of different systems (main species, management, area, etc.); (iii) assessment report of Burkina Faso data cube.

Keywords: agroforestry systems, Burkina Faso, earth observation data cube, multi-temporal image classification

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4538 An Integrated Lightweight Naïve Bayes Based Webpage Classification Service for Smartphone Browsers

Authors: Mayank Gupta, Siba Prasad Samal, Vasu Kakkirala

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The internet world and its priorities have changed considerably in the last decade. Browsing on smart phones has increased manifold and is set to explode much more. Users spent considerable time browsing different websites, that gives a great deal of insight into user’s preferences. Instead of plain information classifying different aspects of browsing like Bookmarks, History, and Download Manager into useful categories would improve and enhance the user’s experience. Most of the classification solutions are server side that involves maintaining server and other heavy resources. It has security constraints and maybe misses on contextual data during classification. On device, classification solves many such problems, but the challenge is to achieve accuracy on classification with resource constraints. This on device classification can be much more useful in personalization, reducing dependency on cloud connectivity and better privacy/security. This approach provides more relevant results as compared to current standalone solutions because it uses content rendered by browser which is customized by the content provider based on user’s profile. This paper proposes a Naive Bayes based lightweight classification engine targeted for a resource constraint devices. Our solution integrates with Web Browser that in turn triggers classification algorithm. Whenever a user browses a webpage, this solution extracts DOM Tree data from the browser’s rendering engine. This DOM data is a dynamic, contextual and secure data that can’t be replicated. This proposal extracts different features of the webpage that runs on an algorithm to classify into multiple categories. Naive Bayes based engine is chosen in this solution for its inherent advantages in using limited resources compared to other classification algorithms like Support Vector Machine, Neural Networks, etc. Naive Bayes classification requires small memory footprint and less computation suitable for smartphone environment. This solution has a feature to partition the model into multiple chunks that in turn will facilitate less usage of memory instead of loading a complete model. Classification of the webpages done through integrated engine is faster, more relevant and energy efficient than other standalone on device solution. This classification engine has been tested on Samsung Z3 Tizen hardware. The Engine is integrated into Tizen Browser that uses Chromium Rendering Engine. For this solution, extensive dataset is sourced from dmoztools.net and cleaned. This cleaned dataset has 227.5K webpages which are divided into 8 generic categories ('education', 'games', 'health', 'entertainment', 'news', 'shopping', 'sports', 'travel'). Our browser integrated solution has resulted in 15% less memory usage (due to partition method) and 24% less power consumption in comparison with standalone solution. This solution considered 70% of the dataset for training the data model and the rest 30% dataset for testing. An average accuracy of ~96.3% is achieved across the above mentioned 8 categories. This engine can be further extended for suggesting Dynamic tags and using the classification for differential uses cases to enhance browsing experience.

Keywords: chromium, lightweight engine, mobile computing, Naive Bayes, Tizen, web browser, webpage classification

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4537 Functionality Based Composition of Web Services to Attain Maximum Quality of Service

Authors: M. Mohemmed Sha Mohamed Kunju, Abdalla A. Al-Ameen Abdurahman, T. Manesh Thankappan, A. Mohamed Mustaq Ahmed Hameed

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Web service composition is an effective approach to complete the web based tasks with desired quality. A single web service with limited functionality is inadequate to execute a specific task with series of action. So, it is very much required to combine multiple web services with different functionalities to reach the target. Also, it will become more and more challenging, when these services are from different providers with identical functionalities and varying QoS, so while composing the web services, the overall QoS is considered to be the major factor. Also, it is not true that the expected QoS is always attained when the task is completed. A single web service in the composed chain may affect the overall performance of the task. So care should be taken in different aspects such as functionality of the service, while composition. Dynamic and automatic service composition is one of the main option available. But to achieve the actual functionality of the task, quality of the individual web services are also important. Normally the QoS of the individual service can be evaluated by using the non-functional parameters such as response time, throughput, reliability, availability, etc. At the same time, the QoS is not needed to be at the same level for all the composed services. So this paper proposes a framework that allows composing the services in terms of QoS by setting the appropriate weight to the non-functional parameters of each individual web service involved in the task. Experimental results show that the importance given to the non-functional parameter while composition will definitely improve the performance of the web services.

Keywords: composition, non-functional parameters, quality of service, web service

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4536 Large Strain Compression-Tension Behavior of AZ31B Rolled Sheet in the Rolling Direction

Authors: A. Yazdanmehr, H. Jahed

Abstract:

Being made with the lightest commercially available industrial metal, Magnesium (Mg) alloys are of interest for light-weighting. Expanding their application to different material processing methods requires Mg properties at large strains. Several room-temperature processes such as shot and laser peening and hole cold expansion need compressive large strain data. Two methods have been proposed in the literature to obtain the stress-strain curve at high strains: 1) anti-buckling guides and 2) small cubic samples. In this paper, an anti-buckling fixture is used with the help of digital image correlation (DIC) to obtain the compression-tension (C-T) of AZ31B-H24 rolled sheet at large strain values of up to 10.5%. The effect of the anti-bucking fixture on stress-strain curves is evaluated experimentally by comparing the results with those of the compression tests of cubic samples. For testing cubic samples, a new fixture has been designed to increase the accuracy of testing cubic samples with DIC strain measurements. Results show a negligible effect of anti-buckling on stress-strain curves, specifically at high strain values.

Keywords: large strain, compression-tension, loading-unloading, Mg alloys

Procedia PDF Downloads 240
4535 Stabilization of Expansive Soils with Polypropylene Fiber

Authors: Ali Sinan Soğancı

Abstract:

Expansive soils are often encountered in many parts of the world, especially in arid and semi-arid fields. Such kind of soils, generally including active clay minerals in low water content, enlarge in volume by absorbing the water through the surface and cause a great harm to the light structures such as channel coating, roads and airports. The expansive soils were encountered on the path of Apa-Hotamış conveyance channel belonging to the State Hydraulic Works in the region of Konya. In the research done in this area, it is predicted that the soil has a swollen nature and the soil should be filled with proper granular equipment by digging the ground to 50-60 cm. In this study, for purpose of helping the other research to be done in the same area, it is thought that instead of replacing swollen soil with the granular soil, by stabilizing it with polypropylene fiber and using it its original place decreases effect of swelling percent, in this way the cost will be decreased. Therefore, a laboratory tests were conducted to study the effects of polypropylene fiber on swelling characteristics of expansive soil. Test results indicated that inclusion of fiber reduced swell percent of expansive soil. As the fiber content increased, the unconfined compressive strength was increased. Finally, it can be say that stabilization of expansive soils with polypropylene fiber is an effective method.

Keywords: expansive soils, polypropylene fiber, stabilization, swelling percent

Procedia PDF Downloads 477
4534 Distributed Acoustic Sensing Signal Model under Static Fiber Conditions

Authors: G. Punithavathy

Abstract:

The research proposes a statistical model for the distributed acoustic sensor interrogation units that broadcast a laser pulse into the fiber optics, where interactions within the fiber determine the localized acoustic energy that causes light reflections known as backscatter. The backscattered signal's amplitude and phase can be calculated using explicit equations. The created model makes amplitude signal spectrum and autocorrelation predictions that are confirmed by experimental findings. Phase signal characteristics that are useful for researching optical time domain reflectometry (OTDR) system sensing applications are provided and examined, showing good agreement with the experiment. The experiment was successfully done with the use of Python coding. In this research, we can analyze the entire distributed acoustic sensing (DAS) component parts separately. This model assumes that the fiber is in a static condition, meaning that there is no external force or vibration applied to the cable, that means no external acoustic disturbances present. The backscattered signal consists of a random noise component, which is caused by the intrinsic imperfections of the fiber, and a coherent component, which is due to the laser pulse interacting with the fiber.

Keywords: distributed acoustic sensing, optical fiber devices, optical time domain reflectometry, Rayleigh scattering

Procedia PDF Downloads 73
4533 Numerical Solution of Transient Natural Convection in Vertical Heated Rectangular Channel between Two Vertical Parallel MTR-Type Fuel Plates

Authors: Djalal Hamed

Abstract:

The aim of this paper is to perform, by mean of the finite volume method, a numerical solution of the transient natural convection in a narrow rectangular channel between two vertical parallel Material Testing Reactor (MTR)-type fuel plates, imposed under a heat flux with a cosine shape to determine the margin of the nuclear core power at which the natural convection cooling mode can ensure a safe core cooling, where the cladding temperature should not reach a specific safety limits (90 °C). For this purpose, a computer program is developed to determine the principal parameters related to the nuclear core safety, such as the temperature distribution in the fuel plate and in the coolant (light water) as a function of the reactor core power. Throughout the obtained results, we noticed that the core power should not reach 400 kW, to ensure a safe passive residual heat removing from the nuclear core by the upward natural convection cooling mode.

Keywords: buoyancy force, friction force, finite volume method, transient natural convection

Procedia PDF Downloads 202
4532 A Metallography Study of Secondary A226 Aluminium Alloy Used in Automotive Industries

Authors: Lenka Hurtalová, Eva Tillová, Mária Chalupová, Juraj Belan, Milan Uhríčik

Abstract:

The secondary alloy A226 is used for many automotive casting produced by mould casting and high pressure die-casting. This alloy has excellent castability, good mechanical properties and cost-effectiveness. Production of primary aluminium alloys belong to heavy source fouling of life environs. The European Union calls for the emission reduction and reduction in energy consumption, therefore, increase production of recycled (secondary) aluminium cast alloys. The contribution is deal with influence of recycling on the quality of the casting made from A226 in automotive industry. The properties of the casting made from secondary aluminium alloys were compared with the required properties of primary aluminium alloys. The effect of recycling on microstructure was observed using combination different analytical techniques (light microscopy upon black-white etching, scanning electron microscopy-SEM upon deep etching and energy dispersive X-ray analysis-EDX). These techniques were used for the identification of the various structure parameters, which was used to compare secondary alloy microstructure with primary alloy microstructure.

Keywords: A226 secondary aluminium alloy, deep etching, mechanical properties, recycling foundry aluminium alloy

Procedia PDF Downloads 546
4531 The Fit of the Partial Pair Distribution Functions of BaMnFeF7 Fluoride Glass Using the Buckingham Potential by the Hybrid RMC Simulation

Authors: Sidi Mohamed Mesli, Mohamed Habchi, Arslane Boudghene Stambouli, Rafik Benallal

Abstract:

The BaMnMF7 (M=Fe,V, transition metal fluoride glass, assuming isomorphous replacement) have been structurally studied through the simultaneous simulation of their neutron diffraction patterns by reverse Monte Carlo (RMC) and by the Hybrid Reverse Monte Carlo (HRMC) analysis. This last is applied to remedy the problem of the artificial satellite peaks that appear in the partial pair distribution functions (PDFs) by the RMC simulation. The HRMC simulation is an extension of the RMC algorithm, which introduces an energy penalty term (potential) in acceptance criteria. The idea of this work is to apply the Buckingham potential at the title glass by ignoring the van der Waals terms, in order to make a fit of the partial pair distribution functions and give the most possible realistic features. When displaying the partial PDFs, we suggest that the Buckingham potential is useful to describe average correlations especially in similar interactions.

Keywords: fluoride glasses, RMC simulation, hybrid RMC simulation, Buckingham potential, partial pair distribution functions

Procedia PDF Downloads 510
4530 Influence of Silicon Carbide Particle Size and Thermo-Mechanical Processing on Dimensional Stability of Al 2124SiC Nanocomposite

Authors: Mohamed M. Emara, Heba Ashraf

Abstract:

This study is to investigation the effect of silicon carbide (SiC) particle size and thermo-mechanical processing on dimensional stability of aluminum alloy 2124. Three combinations of SiC weight fractions are investigated, 2.5, 5, and 10 wt. % with different SiC particle sizes (25 μm, 5 μm, and 100nm) were produced using mechanical ball mill. The standard testing samples were fabricated using powder metallurgy technique. Both samples, prior and after extrusion, were heated from room temperature up to 400ºC in a dilatometer at different heating rates, that is, 10, 20, and 40ºC/min. The analysis showed that for all materials, there was an increase in length change as temperature increased and the temperature sensitivity of aluminum alloy decreased in the presence of both micro and nano-sized silicon carbide. For all conditions, nanocomposites showed better dimensional stability compared to conventional Al 2124/SiC composites. The after extrusion samples showed better thermal stability and less temperature sensitivity for the aluminum alloy for both micro and nano-sized silicon carbide.

Keywords: aluminum 2124 metal matrix composite, SiC nano-sized reinforcements, powder metallurgy, extrusion mechanical ball mill, dimensional stability

Procedia PDF Downloads 530
4529 Specified Human Motion Recognition and Unknown Hand-Held Object Tracking

Authors: Jinsiang Shaw, Pik-Hoe Chen

Abstract:

This paper aims to integrate human recognition, motion recognition, and object tracking technologies without requiring a pre-training database model for motion recognition or the unknown object itself. Furthermore, it can simultaneously track multiple users and multiple objects. Unlike other existing human motion recognition methods, our approach employs a rule-based condition method to determine if a user hand is approaching or departing an object. It uses a background subtraction method to separate the human and object from the background, and employs behavior features to effectively interpret human object-grabbing actions. With an object’s histogram characteristics, we are able to isolate and track it using back projection. Hence, a moving object trajectory can be recorded and the object itself can be located. This particular technique can be used in a camera surveillance system in a shopping area to perform real-time intelligent surveillance, thus preventing theft. Experimental results verify the validity of the developed surveillance algorithm with an accuracy of 83% for shoplifting detection.

Keywords: Automatic Tracking, Back Projection, Motion Recognition, Shoplifting

Procedia PDF Downloads 336
4528 Sardine Oil as a Source of Lipid in the Diet of Giant Freshwater Prawn (Macrobrachium rosenbergii)

Authors: A. T. Ramachandra Naik, H. Shivananda Murthy, H. n. Anjanayappa

Abstract:

The freshwater prawn, Macrobrachium rosenbergii is a more popular crustacean cultured widely in monoculture system in India. It has got high nutritional value in the human diet. Hence, understanding its enzymatic and body composition is important in order to judge its flesh quality. Fish oil specially derived from Indian oil sardine is a good source of highly unsaturated fatty acid and lipid source in fish/prawn diet. A 35% crude protein diet with graded levels of Sardine oil as a source of fat was incorporated at four levels viz, 2.07, 4.07, 6.07 and 8.07% maintaining a total lipid level of feed at 8.11, 10.24, 12.28 and 14.33% respectively. Diet without sardine oil (6.05% total lipid) was served as basal treatment. The giant freshwater prawn, Macrobrachium rosenbergii was used as test animal and the experiment was lost for 112 days. Significantly, higher gain in weight of prawn was recorded in the treatment with 6.07% sardine oil incorporation followed by higher specific growth rate, food conversion rate and protein efficiency ratio. The 8.07% sardine oil diet produced the highest RNA: DNA ratio in the prawn muscle. Digestive enzyme analyses in the digestive tract and mid-gut gland showed the greatest activity in prawns fed the 8.07% diet.

Keywords: digestive enzyme, fish diet, Macrobrachium rosenbergii, sardine oil

Procedia PDF Downloads 334
4527 Alternate Furrow Irrigation and Potassium Fertilizer on Seed Yield, Water Use Efficiency and Fatty Acids of Rapeseed

Authors: A. Bahrani

Abstract:

In order to study the effect of restricted irrigation systems and different potassium fertilizer on water use efficiency and yield of rapeseed (Brassica napus L.), an experiment was conducted in an arid area in Khuzestan, Iran in 2013. The main plots consisted of three irrigation methods: FI (full irrigation), alternate furrow irrigation (AFI) and fixed furrow irrigation (FFI). Each subplot received three rates of K fertiliser application: 0, 150 or 300 kg ha-1. The results showed that the plots receiving the full irrigation resulted in significantly higher grain yields, 1000-kernel weight and grain number per pod than both alternate treatments. However, the highest WUE were obtained in alternate furrow irrigation and 300 kg K ha-1 and the lowest one was found in the FI treatment and 0 kg K ha-1. Potassium application increased RWC in alternate furrow irrigation and fixed furrow irrigation than FI treatment. Maximum oil content was observed in those treatments where full irrigation was applied while minimum oil content was produced in FFI irrigated treatments. Potassium fertilizer also increased grain oil by 15 % than control. Deficit irrigation reduced oleic acid and erucic acid. However, oleic acid and linoleic acid increased with increasing of potassium.

Keywords: erucic acid, irrigation methods, linoleic acid, oil percent, oleic acid

Procedia PDF Downloads 291