Search results for: linear predictive coding

Authors: K. N. Kiran, S. Anish

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It is well known that secondary flow loses account about one third of the total loss in any axial turbine. Modern gas turbine height is smaller and have longer chord length, which might lead to increase in secondary flow. In order to improve the efficiency of the turbine, it is important to understand the behavior of secondary flow and device mechanisms to curtail these losses. The objective of the present work is to understand the effect of a stream wise end-wall fence on the aerodynamics of a linear turbine cascade. The study is carried out computationally by using commercial software ANSYS CFX. The effect of end-wall on the flow field are calculated based on RANS simulation by using SST transition turbulence model. Durham cascade which is similar to high-pressure axial flow turbine for simulation is used. The aim of fencing in blade passage is to get the maximum benefit from flow deviation and destroying the passage vortex in terms of loss reduction. It is observed that, for the present analysis, fence in the blade passage helps reducing the strength of horseshoe vortex and is capable of restraining the flow along the blade passage. Fence in the blade passage helps in reducing the under turning by 7⁰ in comparison with base case. Fence on end-wall is effective in preventing the movement of pressure side leg of horseshoe vortex and helps in breaking the passage vortex. Computations are carried for different fence height whose curvature is different from the blade camber. The optimum fence geometry and location reduces the loss coefficient by 15.6% in comparison with base case.

Keywords: boundary layer fence, horseshoe vortex, linear cascade, passage vortex, secondary flow

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Authors: Mohammad Karimi Moridani, Mohammad Abdi Zadeh, Zahra Shahiazar Mazraeh

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In recent years, the use of intelligent systems in biomedical engineering has increased dramatically, especially in the diagnosis of various diseases. Also, due to the relatively simple recording of the electrocardiogram signal (ECG), this signal is a good tool to show the function of the heart and diseases associated with it. The aim of this paper is to design an intelligent system for automatically detecting a normal electrocardiogram signal from abnormal one. Using this diagnostic system, it is possible to identify a person's heart condition in a very short time and with high accuracy. The data used in this article are from the Physionet database, available in 2016 for use by researchers to provide the best method for detecting normal signals from abnormalities. Data is of both genders and the data recording time varies between several seconds to several minutes. All data is also labeled normal or abnormal. Due to the low positional accuracy and ECG signal time limit and the similarity of the signal in some diseases with the normal signal, the heart rate variability (HRV) signal was used. Measuring and analyzing the heart rate variability with time to evaluate the activity of the heart and differentiating different types of heart failure from one another is of interest to the experts. In the preprocessing stage, after noise cancelation by the adaptive Kalman filter and extracting the R wave by the Pan and Tampkinz algorithm, R-R intervals were extracted and the HRV signal was generated. In the process of processing this paper, a new idea was presented that, in addition to using the statistical characteristics of the signal to create a return map and extraction of nonlinear characteristics of the HRV signal due to the nonlinear nature of the signal. Finally, the artificial neural networks widely used in the field of ECG signal processing as well as distinctive features were used to classify the normal signals from abnormal ones. To evaluate the efficiency of proposed classifiers in this paper, the area under curve ROC was used. The results of the simulation in the MATLAB environment showed that the AUC of the MLP and SVM neural network was 0.893 and 0.947, respectively. As well as, the results of the proposed algorithm in this paper indicated that the more use of nonlinear characteristics in normal signal classification of the patient showed better performance. Today, research is aimed at quantitatively analyzing the linear and non-linear or descriptive and random nature of the heart rate variability signal, because it has been shown that the amount of these properties can be used to indicate the health status of the individual's heart. The study of nonlinear behavior and dynamics of the heart's neural control system in the short and long-term provides new information on how the cardiovascular system functions, and has led to the development of research in this field. Given that the ECG signal contains important information and is one of the common tools used by physicians to diagnose heart disease, but due to the limited accuracy of time and the fact that some information about this signal is hidden from the viewpoint of physicians, the design of the intelligent system proposed in this paper can help physicians with greater speed and accuracy in the diagnosis of normal and patient individuals and can be used as a complementary system in the treatment centers.

Keywords: neart rate variability, signal processing, linear and non-linear features, classification methods, ROC Curve

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Authors: N. Tadrisi Parsa, A. R. Vali, R. Ghasemi

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Diabetes is a growing health problem in worldwide. Especially, the patients with Type 1 diabetes need strict glycemic control because they have deficiency of insulin production. This paper attempts to control blood glucose based on body mathematical body model. The Bergman minimal mathematical model is used to develop the nonlinear controller. A novel back-stepping based sliding mode control (B-SMC) strategy is proposed as a solution that guarantees practical tracking of a desired glucose concentration. In order to show the performance of the proposed design, it is compared with conventional linear and fuzzy controllers which have been done in previous researches. The numerical simulation result shows the advantages of sliding mode back stepping controller design to linear and fuzzy controllers.

Keywords: bergman model, nonlinear control, back stepping, sliding mode control

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Authors: Pratyashi Phukan, Ranjan Saikia

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Morphometry incorporates quantitative study of the area ,altitude,volume, slope profiles of a land and drainage basin characteristics of the area concerned.Fluvial geomorphology includes the consideration of linear,areal and relief aspects of a fluvially originated drainage basin. The linear aspect deals with the hierarchical orders of streams, numbers, and lenghts of stream segments and various relationship among them.The areal aspect includes the analysis of basin perimeters,basin shape, basin area, and related morphometric laws. The relief aspect incorporates besides hypsometric, climographic and altimetric analysis,the study of absolute and relative reliefs, relief ratios, average slope, etc. In this paper we have analysed the relationship among stream velocity, channel shape,sediment load,channel width,channel depth, etc.

Keywords: morphometry, hydraulic geometry, Umtrew river, Meghalaya

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Authors: Joshua Adan Valdez, Shawn Gallaher

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Global climate change has impacted atmospheric temperatures contributing to rising sea levels, decreasing sea ice, and increased freshening of high latitude oceans. This freshening has contributed to increased stratification inhibiting local mixing and nutrient transport, modifying regional circulations in polar oceans. In recent years, the Western Arctic has seen an increase in freshwater volume at an average rate of 397+-116km3/year across the Beaufort Gyre. The majority of the freshwater volume resides in the Beaufort Gyre surface lens driven by anticyclonic wind forcing, sea ice melt, and Arctic river runoff, and is typically defined as water fresher than 34.8. The near-isothermal nature of Arctic seawater and non-linearities in the equation of state for near-freezing waters result in a salinity-driven pycnocline as opposed to the temperature-driven density structure seen in the lower latitudes. In this study, we investigate the relationship between freshwater content and dynamic ocean topography (DOT). In situ measurements of freshwater content are useful in providing information on the freshening rate of the Beaufort Gyre; however, their collection is costly and time-consuming. Utilizing NASA’s ICESat-2’s DOT remote sensing capabilities and Air Expendable CTD (AXCTD) data from the Seasonal Ice Zone Reconnaissance Surveys (SIZRS), a linear regression model between DOT and freshwater content is determined along the 150° west meridian. Freshwater content is calculated by integrating the volume of water between the surface and a depth with a reference salinity of ~34.8. Using this model, we compare interannual variability in freshwater content within the gyre, which could provide a future predictive capability of freshwater volume changes in the Beaufort-Chukchi Sea using non-in situ methods. Successful employment of the ICESat-2’s DOT approximation of freshwater content could potentially demonstrate the value of remote sensing tools to reduce reliance on field deployment platforms to characterize physical ocean properties.

Keywords: Cryosphere, remote sensing, Arctic oceanography, climate modeling, Ekman transport

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Authors: Changqiao Wu, Guoqing Ding, Xin Chen

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In this paper, ways of modeling dynamic measurement systems are discussed. Specially, for linear system with single-input single-output, it could be modeled with shallow neural network. Then, gradient based optimization algorithms are used for searching the proper coefficients. Besides, method with normal equation and second order gradient descent are proposed to accelerate the modeling process, and ways of better gradient estimation are discussed. It shows that the mathematical essence of the learning objective is maximum likelihood with noises under Gaussian distribution. For conventional gradient descent, the mini-batch learning and gradient with momentum contribute to faster convergence and enhance model ability. Lastly, experimental results proved the effectiveness of second order gradient descent algorithm, and indicated that optimization with normal equation was the most suitable for linear dynamic models.

Keywords: dynamic system modeling, neural network, normal equation, second order gradient descent

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Authors: Zahraa Albasry, Hadeel D. Najim, Anmar Al-Taie

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Background: Hypertension is considered as one of the most important causes of cardiovascular complications and one of the leading causes of worldwide mortality. Identifying the potential risk factors associated with this medical health problem plays an important role in minimizing its incidence and related complications. The objective of this study is to explore the prevalence of receptor sensitivity regarding assess and understand the perception of specific predictive confounding factors on the prevalence of hypertension (HT) among a sample of Iraqi population in Baghdad, Iraq. Materials and Methods: A randomized cross sectional study was carried out on 100 adult subjects during their visit to the outpatient clinic at a certain sector of Baghdad Province, Iraq. Demographic, clinical and health records alongside specific screening and laboratory tests of the participants were collected and analyzed to detect the potential of confounding factors on the prevalence of HT. Results: 63% of the study participants suffered from HT, most of them were female patients (P < 0.005). Patients aged between 41-50 years old significantly suffered from HT than other age groups (63.5%, P < 0.001). 88.9% of the participants were obese (P < 0.001) and 47.6% had diabetes with HT. Positive family history and sedentary lifestyle were significantly higher among all hypertensive groups (P < 0.05). High salt and fatty food intake was significantly found among patients suffered from isolated systolic hypertension (ISHT) (P < 0.05). A significant positive correlation between packed cell volume (PCV) and systolic blood pressure (SBP) (r = 0.353, P = 0.048) found among normotensive participants. Among hypertensive patients, a positive significant correlation found between triglycerides (TG) and both SBP (r = 0.484, P = 0.031) and diastolic blood pressure (DBP) (r = 0.463, P = 0.040), while low density lipoprotein-cholesterol (LDL-c) showed a positive significant correlation with DBP (r = 0.443, P = 0.021). Conclusion: The prevalence of HT among Iraqi populations is of major concern. Further consideration is required to detect the impact of potential risk factors and to minimize blood pressure (BP) elevation and reduce the risk of other cardiovascular complications later in life.

Keywords: Correlation, Hypertension, Iraq, Risk factors

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Authors: Narjes Ebrahimi, Soheila Alyasin, Navid Nezafat, Hossein Esmailzadeh, Younes Ghasemi, Seyed Hesamodin Nabavizadeh

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Immunotherapy with allergy vaccines is of great importance in allergen-specific immunotherapy. In recent years, B-cell epitope-based vaccines have attracted considerable attention and the prediction of epitopes is crucial to design these types of allergy vaccines. B-cell epitopes might be linear or conformational. The prerequisite for the identification of conformational epitopes is the information about allergens' tertiary structures. Bioinformatics approaches have paved the way towards the design of epitope-based allergy vaccines through the prediction of tertiary structures and epitopes. Mite allergens are one of the major allergy contributors. Several mite allergens can elicit allergic reactions; however, their structures and epitopes are not well established. So, B-cell epitopes of various groups of mite allergens (24 allergens in 6 allergen groups) were predicted in the present work. Tertiary structures of 17 allergens with unknown structure were predicted and refined with RaptorX and GalaxyRefine servers, respectively. The predicted structures were further evaluated by Rampage, ProSA-web, ERRAT and Verify 3D servers. Linear and conformational B-cell epitopes were identified with Ellipro, Bcepred, and DiscoTope 2 servers. To improve the accuracy level, consensus epitopes were selected. Fifty-four conformational and 133 linear consensus epitopes were predicted. Furthermore, overlapping epitopes in each allergen group were defined, following the sequence alignment of the allergens in each group. The predicted epitopes were also compared with the experimentally identified epitopes. The presented results provide valuable information for further studies about allergy vaccine design.

Keywords: B-cell epitope, Immunotherapy, In silico prediction, Mite allergens, Tertiary structure

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Authors: V. Markogianni, D. Kalivas, G. Petropoulos, E. Dimitriou

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Lake water quality monitoring in combination with the use of earth observation products constitutes a major component in many water quality monitoring programs. Landsat 8 images of Trichonis Lake (Greece) acquired on 30/10/2013 and 30/08/2014 were used in order to explore the possibility of Landsat 8 to estimate water quality parameters and particularly CDOM absorption at specific wavelengths, chlorophyll-a and nutrient concentrations in this oligotrophic freshwater body, characterized by inexistent quantitative, temporal and spatial variability. Water samples have been collected at 22 different stations, on late August of 2014 and the satellite image of the same date was used to statistically correlate the in-situ measurements with various combinations of Landsat 8 bands in order to develop algorithms that best describe those relationships and calculate accurately the aforementioned water quality components. Optimal models were applied to the image of late October of 2013 and the validation of the results was conducted through their comparison with the respective available in-situ data of 2013. Initial results indicated the limited ability of the Landsat 8 sensor to accurately estimate water quality components in an oligotrophic waterbody. As resulted by the validation process, ammonium concentrations were proved to be the most accurately estimated component (R = 0.7), followed by chl-a concentration (R = 0.5) and the CDOM absorption at 420 nm (R = 0.3). In-situ nitrate, nitrite, phosphate and total nitrogen concentrations of 2014 were measured as lower than the detection limit of the instrument used, hence no statistical elaboration was conducted. On the other hand, multiple linear regression among reflectance measures and total phosphorus concentrations resulted in low and statistical insignificant correlations. Our results were concurrent with other studies in international literature, indicating that estimations for eutrophic and mesotrophic lakes are more accurate than oligotrophic, owing to the lack of suspended particles that are detectable by satellite sensors. Nevertheless, although those predictive models, developed and applied to Trichonis oligotrophic lake are less accurate, may still be useful indicators of its water quality deterioration.

Keywords: landsat 8, oligotrophic lake, remote sensing, water quality

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Authors: M. Najafi, S. Bab, F. Rahimi Dehgolan

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The motion of an axially moving beam with rotating prismatic joint with a tip mass on the end is analyzed to investigate the nonlinear vibration and dynamic stability of the beam. The beam is moving with a harmonic axially and rotating velocity about a constant mean velocity. A time-dependent partial differential equation and boundary conditions with the aid of the Hamilton principle are derived to describe the beam lateral deflection. After the partial differential equation is discretized by the Galerkin method, the method of multiple scales is applied to obtain analytical solutions. Frequency response curves are plotted for the super harmonic resonances of the first and the second modes. The effects of non-linear term and mean velocity are investigated on the steady state response of the axially moving beam. The results are validated with numerical simulations.

Keywords: super harmonic resonances, non-linear vibration, axially moving beam, Galerkin method

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Authors: M. Seguini, D. Nedjar

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An accuracy nonlinear analysis of a deep beam resting on elastic perfectly plastic soil is carried out in this study. In fact, a nonlinear finite element modeling for large deflection and moderate rotation of Euler-Bernoulli beam resting on linear and nonlinear random soil is investigated. The geometric nonlinear analysis of the beam is based on the theory of von Kàrmàn, where the Newton-Raphson incremental iteration method is implemented in a Matlab code to solve the nonlinear equation of the soil-beam interaction system. However, two analyses (deterministic and probabilistic) are proposed to verify the accuracy and the efficiency of the proposed model where the theory of the local average based on the Monte Carlo approach is used to analyze the effect of the spatial variability of the soil properties on the nonlinear beam response. The effect of six main parameters are investigated: the external load, the length of a beam, the coefficient of subgrade reaction of the soil, the Young’s modulus of the beam, the coefficient of variation and the correlation length of the soil’s coefficient of subgrade reaction. A comparison between the beam resting on linear and nonlinear soil models is presented for different beam’s length and external load. Numerical results have been obtained for the combination of the geometric nonlinearity of beam and material nonlinearity of random soil. This comparison highlighted the need of including the material nonlinearity and spatial variability of the soil in the geometric nonlinear analysis, when the beam undergoes large deflections.

Keywords: finite element method, geometric nonlinearity, material nonlinearity, soil-structure interaction, spatial variability

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Authors: Ruben Peralta, Sam Thomas, Nazia Hirani, Ayman El-Menyar, Hassan Al-Thani, Mohammed Al-Thani, Mohammed Al-Hajjaj, Rafael Consunji

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Moderate to severe work-related injuries [WRI's] are a leading cause of trauma admission in Qatar but information on risk factors for their incidence are lacking. This study aims to document and analyze the predictive characteristics for WRI to inform the creation of targeted interventions to improve worker safety in Qatar. This study was conducted as part of the NPRP grant # 7 - 1120 - 3 - 288, titled "A Unified Registry for Occupational Injury Prevention in Qatar”. 266 workers were interviewed using a standard questionnaire, during ‘World Day for Safety and Health at Work’, a Ministry of Public Health event, none refused interview. Nurses and doctors from the Hamad Trauma Center conducted the interviews. Questions were translated into the worker’s native language when it was deemed necessary. Standard information on epidemiologic characteristics and incidence of work-related injury were collected and compared between nationalities and those injured versus those not injured. 262 males and 4 females were interviewed. 17 [6.4%] reported a WRI in the last 24 months. More than half of the injured worked in construction [59%] followed by water supply [11.8%]. Factors significantly associated with recent injury were: Working for a company with > 500 employees and speaking Hindi. Protective characteristics included: Being from the Philippines or Sri Lanka, speaking Arabic, working in healthcare, an office or trading and company size between 100-500 employees. Years of schooling and working in Qatar were not predictive factor for WRI. The findings from this survey should guide future research that will better define worker populations at an increased risk for WRI and inform recruiters and sending countries. A focus on worker language skills, interventions in the construction industry and occupational safety in large companies is needed.

Keywords: occupational injury, prevention, safety, trauma, work related injury

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Authors: M. H. Fazel Zarandi, N. Moshahedi

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The hub location problem appears in a variety of applications such as medical centers, firefighting facilities, cargo delivery systems and telecommunication network design. The location of service centers has a strong influence on the congestion at each of them, and, consequently, on the quality of service. This paper presents a fuzzy maximal hub covering location problem (FMCHLP) in which travel costs between any pair of nodes is considered as a fuzzy variable. In order to consider the quality of service, we model each hub as a queue. Arrival rate follows Poisson distribution and service rate follows Erlang distribution. In this paper, at first, a nonlinear mathematical programming model is presented. Then, we convert it to the linear one. We solved the linear model using GAMS software up to 25 nodes and for large sizes due to the complexity of hub covering location problems, and simulated annealing algorithm is developed to solve and test the model. Also, we used possibilistic c-means clustering method in order to find an initial solution.

Keywords: fuzzy modeling, location, possibilistic clustering, queuing

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Authors: Jeffrey R. Mueller

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This paper expands on the role of the professor by detailing the origins of the profession, adding some of the unique contributions of North American Universities, as well as some of the best practice recommendations, to the unique tripartite role of the professor. It describes current challenges to the profession including the ever-controversial student rating of professors. It continues with the significance of empowerment to the role of the professor. It concludes with a predictive prescription for the future of the professoriate and the role of the university-level educational administrator toward that end.

Keywords: professoriate history, tripartite role, challenges, empowerment, shared governance, administratization

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Authors: Hossein Panahi, Firouz Fallahi, Sima Nasibparast

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Background & Aim: Unnecessary growth in health expenditures of developing countries in recent decades, and also the importance of physicians’ behavior in health market, have made the theory of physician-induced demand (PID) as one of the most important issues in health economics. Therefore, the main objective of this study is to investigate the hypothesis of induced demand among mental patients who receive services from either psychologists or psychiatrists in East Azerbaijan province. Methods: Using data from questionnaires in 2020 and employing the theoretical model of Jaegher and Jegers (2000) and hierarchical linear modeling (HLM), this study examines the PID hypothesis of selected psychologists and psychiatrists. The sample size of the study, after removing the questionnaires with missing data, is 45 psychologists and 203 people of their patients, as well as 30 psychiatrists and 160 people of their patients. Results: The results show that, although psychiatrists are ‘profit-oriented physicians’, there is no evidence of inducing unnecessary demand by them (PID), and the difference between the behavior of employers and employee doctors is due to differences in practice style. However, with regard to psychologists, the results indicate that they are ‘profit-oriented’, and there is a PID effect in this sector. Conclusion: According to the results, it is suggested that in order to reduce competition and eliminate the PID effect, the admission of students in the field of psychology should be reduced, patient information on mental illness should be increased, and government monitoring and control over the national health system must be increased.

Keywords: physician-induced demand, national health system, hierarchical linear modeling methods, multilevel modela

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Authors: M. M. Ali, Ahmed Al- Ani, Derek Eamus, Daniel K. Y. Tan

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In this glasshouse study, we developed the new image-based non-destructive technique for detecting leaf P status of different crops such as cotton, tomato and lettuce. Plants were allowed to grow on nutrient media containing different P concentrations, i.e. 0%, 50% and 100% of recommended P concentration (P0 = no P, L; P1 = 2.5 mL 10 L-1 of P and P2 = 5 mL 10 L-1 of P as NaH2PO4). After 10 weeks of growth, plants were harvested and data on leaf P contents were collected using the standard destructive laboratory method and at the same time leaf images were collected by a handheld crop image sensor. We calculated leaf area, leaf perimeter and RGB (red, green and blue) values of these images. This data was further used in the linear discriminant analysis (LDA) to estimate leaf P contents, which successfully classified these plants on the basis of leaf P contents. The data indicated that P deficiency in crop plants can be predicted using the image and morphological data. Our proposed non-destructive imaging method is precise in estimating P requirements of different crop species.

Keywords: image-based techniques, leaf area, leaf P contents, linear discriminant analysis

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Authors: Benmalek M. Larbi, R. Harbi, S. Boukor

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This paper reports an experimental work that aimed to investigate the effects of clay brick waste, as part of fine aggregate, on rendering mortar performance. The brick, in crushed form, was from a local brick manufacturer that was rejected due to being of-standard. It was used to replace 33.33 %, 50 %, 66.66 % and 100 % by weight of the quarry sand in mortar. Effects of the brick replacement on the mortar key properties intended for wall plastering were investigated; these are workability, compressive strength, flexural strength, linear shrinkage, water absorption by total immersion and by capillary suction. The results showed that as the brick replacement level increased, the mortar workability reduced. The linear shrinkage increases over time and decreases with the introduction of brick waste. The compressive and flexural strengths decrease with the increase of brick waste because of their great water absorption.

Keywords: clay brick waste, mortar, properties, quarry sand

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Authors: Dhyaalddin Bahaalddin Noori Zangana

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This study involves the behavior of reinforced sand under a square footing. A series of bearing capacity tests were performed on a small-scale laboratory model, which filled with a poorly-graded homogenous bed of sand, which was placed in a medium dense state using sand raining technique. The sand was reinforced with 40 mm wide household aluminum foil strips. The main studied parameters was to consider the effect of reinforcing strip length, with various linear density of reinforcement, number of reinforcement layers and depth of top layer of reinforcement below the footing, on load-settlement behavior, bearing capacity ratio and settlement reduction factor. The relation of load-settlement generally showed similar trend in all the tests. Failure was defined as settlement equal to 10% of the footing width. The recommended optimum reinforcing strip length, linear density of reinforcement, number of reinforcement layers and depth of top layer of reinforcing strips that give the maximum bearing capacity improvement and minimum settlement reduction factor were presented and discussed. Different bearing capacity ration versus length of the reinforcing strips and settlement reduction factor versus length of the reinforcing strips relations at failure were showed improvement of bearing capacity ratio by a factor of 3.82 and reduction of settlement reduction factor by a factor of 0.813. The optimum length of reinforcement was found to be 7.5 times the footing width.

Keywords: square footing, relative density, linear density of reinforcement, bearing capacity ratio, load-settlement behaviour

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Authors: Huy Q. Tran, Jungwon Huh, Kiseok Kwak, Choonghyun Kang

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Infrared thermography (IRT) technique has been proven to be a good method for nondestructive evaluation of concrete material. In the building, a broad range of applications has been used such as subsurface defect inspection, energy loss, and moisture detection. The purpose of this research is to consider the qualitative and quantitative performance of reinforced concrete deteriorations using active infrared thermography technique. An experiment of three different heating regimes was conducted on a concrete slab in the laboratory. The thermal characteristics of the IRT method, i.e., absolute contrast and observation time, are investigated. A linear relationship between the observation time and the real depth was established with a well linear regression R-squared of 0.931. The results showed that the absolute contrast above defective area increases with the rise of the size of delamination and the heating time. In addition, the depth of delamination can be predicted by using the proposal relationship of this study.

Keywords: concrete building, infrared thermography, nondestructive evaluation, subsurface delamination

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Authors: Smail Tigani, Mohamed Ouzzif

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This work presents a discrete quantitative state prediction algorithm with intelligent behavior making it able to self-improve some performance aspects. The specificity of this algorithm is the capacity of self-rectification of the prediction strategy before the final decision. The auto-rectification mechanism is based on two parallel mathematical models. In one hand, the algorithm predicts the next state based on event transition matrix updated after each observation. In the other hand, the algorithm extracts its residues trend with a linear regression representing historical residues data-points in order to rectify the first decision if needs. For a normal distribution, the interactivity between the two models allows the algorithm to self-optimize its performance and then make better prediction. Designed key performance indicator, computed during a Monte Carlo simulation, shows the advantages of the proposed approach compared with traditional one.

Keywords: discrete state, Markov Chains, linear regression, auto-adaptive systems, decision making, Monte Carlo Simulation

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Authors: Dhruv Sharma, Lynne Blair, Stephen Clune

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Later life loneliness is a social issue that is increasing alongside an upward global population trend. As a society, one way that we have responded to this social challenge is through developing non-pharmacological interventions such as befriending services, activity clubs, meet-ups, etc. Through a systematic literature review, this paper suggests that currently there is an underrepresentation of radical innovation, and underutilization of digital technologies in developing loneliness interventions for older adults. This paper examines intervention studies that were published in English language, within peer reviewed journals between January 2005 and December 2014 across 4 electronic databases. In addition to academic databases, interventions found in grey literature in the form of websites, blogs, and Twitter were also included in the overall review. This approach yielded 129 interventions that were included in the study. A systematic approach allowed the minimization of any bias dictating the selection of interventions to study. A coding strategy based on a pattern analysis approach was devised to be able to compare and contrast the loneliness interventions. Firstly, interventions were categorized on the basis of their objective to identify whether they were preventative, supportive, or remedial in nature. Secondly, depending on their scope, they were categorized as one-to-one, community-based, or group based. It was also ascertained whether interventions represented an improvement, an incremental innovation, a major advance or a radical departure, in comparison to the most basic form of a loneliness intervention. Finally, interventions were also assessed on the basis of the extent to which they utilized digital technologies. Individual visualizations representing the four levels of coding were created for each intervention, followed by an aggregated visual to facilitate analysis. To keep the inquiry within scope and to present a coherent view of the findings, the analysis was primarily concerned the level of innovation, and the use of digital technologies. This analysis highlights a weak but positive correlation between the level of innovation and the use of digital technologies in designing and deploying loneliness interventions, and also emphasizes how certain existing interventions could be tweaked to enable their migration from representing incremental innovation to radical innovation for example. This analysis also points out the value of including grey literature, especially from Twitter, in systematic literature reviews to get a contemporary view of latest work in the area under investigation.

Keywords: ageing, loneliness, innovation, digital

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Authors: Sherry Ann Ganase, Sandra Sookram

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This study examines adaptation measures and factors that influence adaptation decisions in Bequia by using multiple linear regression and a structural equation model. Using survey data, the results suggest that households are knowledgeable and concerned about climate change but lack knowledge about the measures needed to adapt. The findings from the SEM suggest that a positive relationship exist between vulnerability and adaptation, vulnerability and perception, along with a negative relationship between perception and adaptation. This suggests that being aware of the terms associated with climate change and knowledge about climate change is insufficient for implementing adaptation measures; instead the risk and importance placed on climate change, vulnerability experienced with household flooding, drainage and expected threat of future sea level are the main factors that influence the adaptation decision. The results obtained in this study are beneficial to all as adaptation requires a collective effort by stakeholders.

Keywords: adaptation, Bequia, multiple linear regression, structural equation model

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Authors: S. B. Rathna Kumar, Pranjali A Ujwane, Panchanan Mohanty

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The present study aimed to develop a battery for assessing speech recognition performance by adults in Marathi. A total of four word lists were developed by considering word frequency, word familiarity, words in common use, and phonemic balance. Each word list consists of 25 words (15 monosyllabic words in CVC structure and 10 monosyllabic words in CVCV structure). Equivalence analysis and performance-intensity function testing was carried using the four word lists on a total of 150 native speakers of Marathi belonging to different regions of Maharashtra (Vidarbha, Marathwada, Khandesh and Northern Maharashtra, Pune, and Konkan). The subjects were further equally divided into five groups based on above mentioned regions. It was found that there was no significant difference (p > 0.05) in the speech recognition performance between groups for each word list and between word lists for each group. Hence, the four word lists developed were equally difficult for all the groups and can be used interchangeably. The performance-intensity (PI) function curve showed semi-linear function, and the groups’ mean slope of the linear portions of the curve indicated an average linear slope of 4.64%, 4.73%, 4.68%, and 4.85% increase in word recognition score per dB for list 1, list 2, list 3 and list 4 respectively. Although, there is no data available on speech recognition tests for adults in Marathi, most of the findings of the study are in line with the findings of research reports on other languages. The four word lists, thus developed, were found to have sufficient reliability and validity in assessing speech recognition performance by adults in Marathi.

Keywords: speech recognition performance, phonemic balance, equivalence analysis, performance-intensity function testing, reliability, validity

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Authors: Ho Jeong Jin, Chang Won Seo, Choon Sik Cho, Bong Yong Choi, Kwang Kyun Na, Sang Rok Lee

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In this paper, a radar signal processing technique using the LFM-FSK (Linear Frequency Modulation-Frequency Shift Keying) is proposed for reducing the false alarm rate based on the compressive sensing. The LFM-FSK method combines FMCW (Frequency Modulation Continuous Wave) signal with FSK (Frequency Shift Keying). This shows an advantage which can suppress the ghost phenomenon without the complicated CFAR (Constant False Alarm Rate) algorithm. Moreover, the parametric sparse algorithm applying the compressive sensing that restores signals efficiently with respect to the incomplete data samples is also integrated, leading to reducing the burden of ADC in the receiver of radars. 24 GHz FMCW signal is applied and tested in the real environment with FSK modulated data for verifying the proposed algorithm along with the compressive sensing.

Keywords: compressive sensing, LFM-FSK radar, radar signal processing, sparse algorithm

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Authors: Feri̇t Çakici, M. Kemal Leblebi̇ci̇oğlu

Abstract:

In this study, an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) with level flight, vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) and mode-transitioning capability is designed and analyzed. The platform design combines both multirotor and fixed-wing (FW) conventional airplane structures and control surfaces; therefore named as VTOL-FW. The aircraft is modeled using aerodynamical principles and linear models are constructed utilizing small perturbation theory for trim conditions. The proposed method of control includes implementation of multirotor and airplane mode controllers and design of an algorithm to transition between modes in achieving smooth switching maneuvers between VTOL and FW flight. Thus, VTOL-FW UAV’s flight characteristics are expected to be improved by enlarging operational flight envelope through enabling mode-transitioning, agile maneuvers and increasing survivability. Experiments conducted in simulation and real world environments shows that VTOL-FW UAV has both multirotor and airplane characteristics with extra benefits in an enlarged flight envelope.

Keywords: aircraft design, linear analysis, mode transitioning control, UAV

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Authors: Stuart Bradley, Mathew Legg, Lilyan Panton

Abstract:

Ultrasonic remote sensing is a useful tool for assessing the interior structure of complex targets. For these methods, significantly enhanced spatial resolution is obtained if the pulse is coded, for example using a linearly changing frequency during the pulse duration. Such pulses have a time-dependent spectral structure. Interpretation of the backscatter from targets is, therefore, complicated if the scattering is frequency-dependent. While analytic models are well established for steady sinusoidal excitations applied to simple shapes such as spheres, such models do not generally exist for temporally evolving excitations. Therefore, models are developed in the current paper for handling such signals so that the properties of the targets can be quantitatively evaluated while maintaining very high spatial resolution. Laboratory measurements on simple shapes are used to confirm the validity of the models.

Keywords: linear FM chirp, time-dependent acoustic scattering, ultrasonic remote sensing, ultrasonic scattering

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Authors: L. Nouri Taiba, Y. Bouhamidi, F. Kaouah, Z. Bendjama, M. Trari

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In the present study, an ecofriendly biocomposite namely calcium alginate immobilized Ammi Visnaga (Khella) extraction waste (SWAV/CA) was prepared by electrostatic extrusion method and used on the cadmium biosorption from aqueous phase with and without the assistance of ultrasound in batch conditions. The influence of low frequency ultrasound (37 and 80 KHz) on the cadmium biosorption kinetics was studied. The obtained results show that the ultrasonic irradiation significantly enhances and improves the efficiency of the cadmium removal. The Pseudo first order, Pseudo-second-order, Intraparticle diffusion, and Elovich models were evaluated using the non-linear curve fitting analysis method. Modeling of kinetic results shows that biosorption process is best described by the pseudo-second order and Elovich, in both the absence and presence of ultrasound.

Keywords: biocomposite, biosorption, cadmium, non-linear analysis, ultrasound

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Authors: Chaoyan Huang, Hongxia Zheng

Abstract:

For deep space exploration and long duration interplanetary manned missions, protection of astronauts from cosmic radiation is an unavoidable problem. However, passive shielding can be little effective for protecting particles which energies are greater than 1GeV/nucleon. In this study, active magnetic protection method is adopted. Taking into account the structure and size of the end-cap, eight shielding magnetic field configurations are designed based on the Hoffman configuration. The shielding effect of shielding magnetic field structure, intensity B and thickness L on H particles with 2GeV energy is compared by test particle simulation. The result shows that the shielding effect is better with the linear type magnetic field structure in the end-cap region. Furthermore, two magnetic field configurations with better shielding effect are investigated through H and He galactic cosmic spectra. And the shielding effect of the linear type configuration adopted in the barrel and end-cap regions is best.

Keywords: galactic cosmic rays, active protection, shielding magnetic field configuration, shielding effect

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Authors: Vahid Saatchian, Seyyed Farideh Hadavi

Abstract:

The main aim of this study was developing the collaboration model of physical education and sport sciences faculties with service section of sport industrial.The research methods of this study was a qualitative. So researcher with of identifying the priority list of collaboration between colleges and service section of sport industry and according to sampling based of subjective and snowball approach, conducted deep interviews with 22 elites that study around the field of research topic. indeed interviews were analyzed through qualitative coding (open, axial and selective) with 5 category such as causal condition, basic condition, intervening conditions, action/ interaction and strategy. Findings exposed that in causal condition 10 labels appeared. So because of heterogeneity of labes, researcher categorized in total subject. In basic condition 59 labels in open coding identified this categorized in 14 general concepts. Furthermore with composition of the declared category and relationship between them, 5 final and internal categories (culture, intelligence, marketing, environment and ultra-powers) were appeared. Also an intervening condition in the study includes 5 overall scopes of social factors, economic, cultural factors, and the management of the legal and political factors that totally named macro environment. Indeed for identifying strategies, 8 areas that covered with internal and external challenges relationship management were appeared. These are including, understanding, outside awareness, manpower, culture, integrated management, the rules and regulations and marketing. Findings exposed 8 labels in open coding which covered the internal and external of challenges of relation management of two sides and these concepts were knowledge and awareness, external view, human source, madding organizational culture, parties’ thoughts, unit responsible for/integrated management, laws and regulations and marketing. Eventually the consequences categorized in line of strategies and were at scope of the cultural development, general development, educational development, scientific development, under development, international development, social development, economic development, technology development and political development that consistent with strategies. The research findings could help the sport managers witch use to scientific collaboration management and the consequences of this in those sport institutions. Finally, the consequences that identified as a result of the devopmental strategies include: cultural, governmental, educational, scientific, infrastructure, international, social, economic, technological and political that is largely consistent with strategies. With regard to the above results, enduring and systematic relation with long term cooperation between the two sides requires strategic planning were based on cooperation of all stakeholders. Through this, in the turbulent constantly changing current sustainable environment, competitive advantage for university and industry obtained. No doubt that lack of vision and strategic thinking for cooperation in the planning of the university and industry from its capability and instead of using the opportunity, lead the opportunities to problems.

Keywords: university and industry collaboration, sport industry, physical education and sport science college, service section of sport industry

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Authors: Zaki Ahmad Khan, Jamshed Siddiqui, Abdus Samad

Abstract:

The Scheduling and mapping of tasks on a set of processors is considered as a critical problem in parallel and distributed computing system. This paper deals with the problem of dynamic scheduling on a special type of multiprocessor architecture known as Linear Crossed Cube (LCQ) network. This proposed multiprocessor is a hybrid network which combines the features of both linear type of architectures as well as cube based architectures. Two standard dynamic scheduling schemes namely Minimum Distance Scheduling (MDS) and Two Round Scheduling (TRS) schemes are implemented on the LCQ network. Parallel tasks are mapped and the imbalance of load is evaluated on different set of processors in LCQ network. The simulations results are evaluated and effort is made by means of through analysis of the results to obtain the best solution for the given network in term of load imbalance left and execution time. The other performance matrices like speedup and efficiency are also evaluated with the given dynamic algorithms.

Keywords: dynamic algorithm, load imbalance, mapping, task scheduling

Procedia PDF Downloads 444