Search results for: resource management algorithm

Authors: Cameron Truong, Mikhail Bhatia, Yangyang Chen, Viet Nga Cao

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Using a sample of U.S. firms between 1996 and 2011, this paper documents a positive association between options trading volume and future stock price crash risk. This relation is evidently more pronounced among firms with higher information asymmetry, business uncertainty, and short-sale constraints. In a dichotomous cross-sectional setting, we also document that firms with options trading have higher future crash risk than firms without options trading. We further show in a difference-in-difference analysis that firms experience an increase in crash risk immediately after the listing of options. The results suggest that options traders are able of identifying bad news hoarding by management and choose to trade in a liquid options market in anticipation of future crashes.

Keywords: bad news hoarding, cross-sectional setting, options trading, stock price crash

Procedia PDF Downloads 449

Authors: Khaled M. Alhawiti

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This paper investigates the future of medicine and the use of Natural language processing. The importance of having correct clinical information available online is remarkable; improving patient care at affordable costs could be achieved using automated applications to use the online clinical information. The major challenge towards the retrieval of such vital information is to have it appropriately coded. Majority of the online patient reports are not found to be coded and not accessible as its recorded in natural language text. The use of Natural Language processing provides a feasible solution by retrieving and organizing clinical information, available in text and transforming clinical data that is available for use. Systems used in NLP are rather complex to construct, as they entail considerable knowledge, however significant development has been made. Newly formed NLP systems have been tested and have established performance that is promising and considered as practical clinical applications.

Keywords: clinical information, information retrieval, natural language processing, automated applications

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Authors: Gilberto Goracci, Fabio Curti

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This work presents a robust, light, and inexpensive algorithm to perform autonomous orbit determination using onboard magnetometer data in real-time. Magnetometers are low-cost and reliable sensors typically available on a spacecraft for attitude determination purposes, thus representing an interesting choice to perform real-time orbit determination without the need to add additional sensors to the spacecraft itself. Magnetic field measurements can be exploited by Extended/Unscented Kalman Filters (EKF/UKF) for orbit determination purposes to make up for GPS outages, yielding errors of a few kilometers and tens of meters per second in the position and velocity of a spacecraft, respectively. While this level of accuracy shows that Kalman filtering represents a solid baseline for autonomous orbit determination, it is not enough to provide a reliable state estimation in the absence of GPS signals. This work combines the solidity and reliability of the EKF with the versatility of a Recurrent Neural Network (RNN) architecture to further increase the precision of the state estimation. Deep learning models, in fact, can grasp nonlinear relations between the inputs, in this case, the magnetometer data and the EKF state estimations, and the targets, namely the true position, and velocity of the spacecraft. The model has been pre-trained on Sun-Synchronous orbits (SSO) up to 2126 kilometers of altitude with different initial conditions and levels of noise to cover a wide range of possible real-case scenarios. The orbits have been propagated considering J2-level dynamics, and the geomagnetic field has been modeled using the International Geomagnetic Reference Field (IGRF) coefficients up to the 13th order. The training of the module can be completed offline using the expected orbit of the spacecraft to heavily reduce the onboard computational burden. Once the spacecraft is launched, the model can use the GPS signal, if available, to fine-tune the parameters on the actual orbit onboard in real-time and work autonomously during GPS outages. In this way, the provided module shows versatility, as it can be applied to any mission operating in SSO, but at the same time, the training is completed and eventually fine-tuned, on the specific orbit, increasing performances and reliability. The results provided by this study show an increase of one order of magnitude in the precision of state estimate with respect to the use of the EKF alone. Tests on simulated and real data will be shown.

Keywords: artificial intelligence, extended Kalman filter, orbit determination, magnetic field

Procedia PDF Downloads 105

Authors: Simran Gill, Samuel Bartels

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Turfgrass is an important component of urban and rural lawns and landscapes. However, broadleaf weeds such as dandelions (Taraxacum officinale) and white clovers (Trifolium repens) pose major challenges to the health and aesthetics of turfgrass fields. Chemical weed control methods, such as 2,4-D weedicides, have been widely deployed; however, their safety and environmental impacts are often debated. Alternative, environmentally friendly control methods have been considered, but experimental tests for their effectiveness have been limited. This study investigates the use and effectiveness of nitrogen and iron compounds as nutrient management methods of weed control. In a two-phase experiment, the first conducted on a blend of cool season turfgrasses in plastic containers, the blend included Perennial ryegrass (Lolium perenne), Kentucky bluegrass (Poa pratensis) and Creeping red fescue (Festuca rubra) grown under controlled conditions in the greenhouse, involved the application of different combinations of nitrogen (urea and ammonium sulphate) and iron (chelated iron and iron sulphate) compounds and their combinations (urea × chelated iron, urea × iron sulphate, ammonium sulphate × chelated iron, ammonium sulphate × iron sulphate) contrasted with chemical 2, 4-D weedicide and a control (no application) treatment. There were three replicates of each of the treatments, resulting in a total of 30 treatment combinations. The parameters assessed during weekly data collection included a visual quality rating of weeds (nominal scale of 0-9), number of leaves, longest leaf span, number of weeds, chlorophyll fluorescence of grass, the visual quality rating of grass (0-9), and the weight of dried grass clippings. The results drawn from the experiment conducted over the period of 12 weeks, with three applications each at an interval of every 4 weeks, stated that the combination of ammonium sulphate and iron sulphate appeared to be most effective in halting the growth and establishment of dandelions and clovers while it also improved turf health. The second phase of the experiment, which involved the ammonium sulphate × iron sulphate, weedicide, and control treatments, was conducted outdoors on already established perennial turf with weeds under natural field conditions. After 12 weeks of observation, the results were comparable among the treatments in terms of weed control, but the ammonium sulphate × iron sulphate treatment fared much better in terms of the improved visual quality of the turf and other quality ratings. Preliminary results from these experiments thus suggest that nutrient management based on nitrogen and iron compounds could be a useful environmentally friendly alternative for controlling broadleaf weeds and improving the health and quality of turfgrass.

Keywords: broadleaf weeds, nitrogen, iron, turfgrass

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Authors: Stanis Koko Nyalongomo, Benjamin Mputela Bankanza, Moise Kisempa Mahungudi

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Several areas in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) experience serious problems of streaming and soil erosion. Erosion leads to degradation of soil health, and the three main causative factors of similar importance are deforestation, overgrazing, and land agricultural mismanagement. Degradation of soil health leads to a decrease in agricultural productivity and carbon dioxide (CO₂), and other greenhouse gas emissions. Agricultural productivity low, and sanitation-related diseases are a concern of a majority of DRC rural people -whose main livelihoods are conventional smallholder agriculture- due to degradation of agricultural soil health and prevalence of inappropriate sanitation in rural areas. Land management practices that increase soil carbon stocks on agricultural lands with practices including conservation agriculture and agroforestry do not only limit CO₂ emissions but also help prevent erosion while enhancing soil health and productivity. Promotion to adopt sustainable land management practices, especially conversion to well-managed agroforestry practices, is a necessity. This needs to be accompanied by incentives. Methods that incite smallholders to adopt practices that increase carbon stocks in agricultural lands and enhance soil health and productivity for social, economic, and environmental benefits, and give them the ability to get and use household dry toilets -included activities to inform and raise smallholder households awareness on the conversion of croplands to well-managed agroforestry systems through planting at least 20 fruit trees and/or acacias, soil carbon and practices that sequester it in soil and ecological sanitation; and offer smallholders technique and material supports and incentives under the form of dry toilets constructed for free for well-managed agroforestry implementation- were carried out to address problems of soil erosion as well as agricultural productivity and sanitation-related diseases. In 2018 and 2019, 19 of 23 targeted smallholder households expressed their satisfaction and converted their croplands to agroforestry through planting 374 trees, and each gotten 1 dry toilet constructed for free. Their neighbors expressed a willingness to participate in the project. Conversion to well-managed agroforestry practices offers many advantages to both farmers and the environment. The strategy of offering smallholders incentives for soil-friendly agricultural practices, especially well-managed agroforestry, is one of the solutions to prevent soil erosion. DRC rural people whose majority are smallholder households, need to be able to get and use dry toilets. So, dry toilets could be offered like incentives for well-managed agroforestry practices. Given the many advantages agroforestry and dry toilet can offer, recommendations are made for funding organizations to support such projects that promote the adoption of soil health practices.

Keywords: agroforestry, croplands, soil carbon, soil health

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Authors: Dalia Hanna, Alexander Ferworn

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This research provides detailed proposed training modules for the public safety teams and, specifically, SAR teams responsible for search and rescue operations related to finding lost persons with dementia. Finding a lost person alive is the goal of this training. Time matters if a lost person is to be found alive. Finding lost people living with dementia is quite challenging, as they are unaware they are lost and will not seek help. Even a small contribution to SAR operations could contribute to saving a life. SAR operations will always require expert professional and human volunteers. However, we can reduce their time, save lives, and reduce costs by providing practical training that is based on real-life scenarios. The content for the proposed training is based on the research work done by the researcher in this area. This research has demonstrated that, based on utilizing drones, the algorithmic approach could support a successful search outcome. Understanding the behavior of the lost person, learning where they may be found, predicting their survivability, and automating the search are all contributions of this work, founded in theory and demonstrated in practice. In crisis management, human behavior constitutes a vital aspect in responding to the crisis; the speed and efficiency of the response often get affected by the difficulty of the context of the operation. Therefore, training in this area plays a significant role in preparing the crisis manager to manage the emotional aspects that lead to decision-making in these critical situations. Since it is crucial to gain high-level strategic choices and the ability to apply crisis management procedures, simulation exercises become central in training crisis managers to gain the needed skills to respond critically to these events. The training will enhance the responders’ ability to make decisions and anticipate possible consequences of their actions through flexible and revolutionary reasoning in responding to the crisis efficiently and quickly. As adult learners, search and rescue teams will be approaching training and learning by taking responsibility of the learning process, appreciate flexible learning and as contributors to the teaching and learning happening during that training. These are all characteristics of adult learning theories. The learner self-reflects, gathers information, collaborates with others and is self-directed. One of the learning strategies associated with adult learning is effective elaboration. It helps learners to remember information in the long term and use it in situations where it might be appropriate. It is also a strategy that can be taught easily and used with learners of different ages. Designers must design reflective activities to improve the student’s intrapersonal awareness.

Keywords: training, OER, dementia, drones, search and rescue, adult learning, UDL, instructional design

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Authors: M. Ben Slimene, M.-S. Ouali

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Asset management of urban infrastructures faces a multitude of challenges that need to be overcome to obtain a reliable measurement of performances. Predicting the performance of slowly aging systems is one of those challenges, which helps the asset manager to investigate specific failure modes and to undertake the appropriate maintenance and rehabilitation interventions to avoid catastrophic failures as well as to optimize the maintenance costs. This article presents a methodology for modeling the deterioration of slowly degrading assets based on an operating history. It consists of extracting degradation profiles by grouping together assets that exhibit similar degradation sequences using an unsupervised classification technique derived from artificial intelligence. The obtained clusters are used to build the performance prediction models. This methodology is applied to a sample of a stormwater drainage culvert dataset.

Keywords: artificial Intelligence, clustering, culvert, regression model, slow degradation

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Authors: Rodrigo Costa, Thomas Mazzuchi, Shahram Sarkani

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This study analyzes the evolution of Bitcoin Improvement Proposals (BIPs), the self-governing mechanism that enables updates to the Bitcoin protocol. By modeling BIP submission frequencies with a Negative Binomial distribution and detecting change points with the Pelt Rupture model, we identify three distinct intervals of proposal activity, suggesting shifts in development priorities over time. Long-term growth patterns, captured by Gompertz and Weibull models, indicate an S-shaped trend in cumulative BIP counts, pointing toward a maturation phase in Bitcoin’s protocol. Our findings suggest that Bitcoin may be entering a stable stage, with fewer fundamental changes and more incremental enhancements. This trend highlights the need for further research into BIP content and more studies into its dynamics to better understand decentralized protocol governance and maturation.

Keywords: bitcoin improvement proposals, innovation management, change point detection, systems modeling, simulation

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Authors: Angela Cristina Da F. De Oliveira, Salma E. Asmar, Norbert P. Battlori, Yaz Vera, Uriel R. Valencia, Tâmara Duarte Borges, Antoni D. Bueno, Leandro Batista Costa

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As homeothermic animals, pigs manifest maximum performance when kept at comfortable temperature levels, represented by a limit where thermoregulatory processes are minimal (18 - 20°C). In a stress situation where it will have a higher energy demand for thermal maintenance, the energy contribution to the productive functions will be reduced, generating health imbalances, drop in productive rates and welfare problems. The hypothesis of this project is that 5% starch replacement per 5% sunflower oil (SO), in growing and finishing pig’s diet (Iberic x Duroc), is effective as a nutritional strategy to reduce the negative impacts of thermal stress on performance and animal welfare. Seventy-two crossbred males (51± 6,29 kg body weight- BW) were housed according to the initial BW, in climate-controlled rooms, in collective pens, and exposed to heat stress conditions (30 - 32°C; 35% to 50% humidity). The experiment lasted 90 days, and it was carried out in a randomized block design, in a 2 x 2 factorial, composed of two diets (starch or sunflower oil (with or without) and two feed intake management (ad libitum and restriction). The treatments studied were: 1) control diet (5% starch x 0% SO) with ad libitum intake (n = 18); 2) SO diet (replacement of 5% of starch per 5% SO) with ad libitum intake (n = 18); 3) control diet with restriction feed intake (n = 18); or 4) SO diet with restriction feed intake (n = 18). Feed was provided in two phases, 50–100 Kg BW for growing and 100-140 Kg BW for finishing period, respectively. Hematological, biochemical and growth performance parameters were evaluated on all animals at the beginning of the environmental treatment, on the transition of feed (growing to finishing) and in the final of experiment. After the experimental period, when animals reached a live weight of 130-140 kg, they were slaughtered by carbon dioxide (CO2) stunning. Data have shown for the growing phase no statistical interaction between diet (control x SO) and management feed intake (ad libitum x restriction) on animal performance. At finishing phase, pigs fed with SO diet with restriction feed intake had the same average daily gain (ADG) compared with pigs in control diet with ad libitum feed intake. Furthermore, animals fed with the same diet (SO), presented a better feed gain (p < 0,05) due to feed intake reduce (p < 0,05) when compared with control group. To hematological and biochemical parameters, animals under heat stress had an increase in hematocrit, corpuscular volume, urea concentration, creatinine, calcium, alanine aminotransferase and aspartate aminotransferase (p < 0,05) when compared with the beginning of experiment. These parameters were efficient to characterize the heat stress, although the experimental treatments were not able to reduce the hematological and biochemical stress indicators. In addition, the inclusion of SO on pig diets improve feed gain in pigs at finishing phase, even with restriction feed intake.

Keywords: hematological, performance, pigs, welfare

Procedia PDF Downloads 281

Authors: Ming Zhou, Taeho Park

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Early stage technologies have been particularly challenging to manage due to high degrees of their numerous uncertainties. Most research results directly out of a research lab tend to be at their early, if not the infant stage. A long while uncertain commercialization process awaits these lab results. The majority of such lab technologies go nowhere and never get commercialized due to various reasons. Any efforts or financial resources put into managing these technologies turn fruitless. High stake naturally calls for better results, which make a patenting decision harder to make. A good and well protected patent goes a long way for commercialization of the technology. Our preliminary research showed that there was not a simple yet productive procedure for such valuation. Most of the studies now have been theoretical and overly comprehensive where practical suggestions were non-existent. Hence, we attempted to develop a simple and highly implementable procedure for efficient and scalable valuation. We thoroughly reviewed existing research, interviewed practitioners in the Silicon Valley area, and surveyed university technology offices. Instead of presenting another theoretical and exhaustive research, we aimed at developing a practical guidance that a government agency and/or university office could easily deploy and get things moving to later steps of managing early stage technologies. We provided a procedure to thriftily value and make the patenting decision. A patenting index was developed using survey data and expert opinions. We identified the most important factors to be used in the patenting decision using survey ratings. The rating then assisted us in generating good relative weights for the later scoring and weighted averaging step. More importantly, we validated our procedure by testing it with our practitioner contacts. Their inputs produced a general yet highly practical cut schedule. Such schedule of realistic practices has yet to be witnessed our current research. Although a technology office may choose to deviate from our cuts, what we offered here at least provided a simple and meaningful starting point. This procedure was welcomed by practitioners in our expert panel and university officers in our interview group. This research contributed to our current understanding and practices of managing early stage technologies by instating a heuristically simple yet theoretical solid method for the patenting decision. Our findings generated top decision factors, decision processes and decision thresholds of key parameters. This research offered a more practical perspective which further completed our extant knowledge. Our results could be impacted by our sample size and even biased a bit by our focus on the Silicon Valley area. Future research, blessed with bigger data size and more insights, may want to further train and validate our parameter values in order to obtain more consistent results and analyze our decision factors for different industries.

Keywords: technology management, early stage technology, patent, decision

Procedia PDF Downloads 342

Authors: Luis Guilherme Resende Santos, Ido Nevat, Leslie Norford

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The Urban Heat Island (UHI) is characterized by increased air temperatures in urban areas compared to undeveloped rural surrounding environments. With urbanization and densification, the intensity of UHI increases, bringing negative impacts on livability, health and economy. In order to reduce those effects, it is required to take into consideration design factors when planning future developments. Given design constraints such as population size and availability of area for development, non-trivial decisions regarding the buildings’ dimensions and their spatial distribution are required. We develop a framework for optimization of urban design in order to jointly minimize UHI intensity and buildings’ energy consumption. First, the design constraints are defined according to spatial and population limits in order to establish realistic boundaries that would be applicable in real life decisions. Second, the tools Urban Weather Generator (UWG) and EnergyPlus are used to generate outputs of UHI intensity and total buildings’ energy consumption, respectively. Those outputs are changed based on a set of variable inputs related to urban morphology aspects, such as building height, urban canyon width and population density. Lastly, an optimization problem is cast where the utility function quantifies the performance of each design candidate (e.g. minimizing a linear combination of UHI and energy consumption), and a set of constraints to be met is set. Solving this optimization problem is difficult, since there is no simple analytic form which represents the UWG and EnergyPlus models. We therefore cannot use any direct optimization techniques, but instead, develop an indirect “black box” optimization algorithm. To this end we develop a solution that is based on stochastic optimization method, known as the Cross Entropy method (CEM). The CEM translates the deterministic optimization problem into an associated stochastic optimization problem which is simple to solve analytically. We illustrate our model on a typical residential area in Singapore. Due to fast growth in population and built area and land availability generated by land reclamation, urban planning decisions are of the most importance for the country. Furthermore, the hot and humid climate in the country raises the concern for the impact of UHI. The problem presented is highly relevant to early urban design stages and the objective of such framework is to guide decision makers and assist them to include and evaluate urban microclimate and energy aspects in the process of urban planning.

Keywords: building energy consumption, stochastic optimization, urban design, urban heat island, urban weather generator

Procedia PDF Downloads 131

Authors: Giada Feletti, Daniela Tedesco, Paolo Trucco

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The present study aims to develop a dashboard of Key Performance Indicators (KPI) to enhance information and predictive capabilities in Emergency Medical Services (EMS) systems, supporting both operational and strategic decisions of different actors. The employed research methodology consists of the first phase of revision of the technical-scientific literature concerning the indicators currently used for the performance measurement of EMS systems. From this literature analysis, it emerged that current studies focus on two distinct perspectives: the ambulance service, a fundamental component of pre-hospital health treatment, and the patient care in the Emergency Department (ED). The perspective proposed by this study is to consider an integrated view of the ambulance service process and the ED process, both essential to ensure high quality of care and patient safety. Thus, the proposal focuses on the entire healthcare service process and, as such, allows considering the interconnection between the two EMS processes, the pre-hospital and hospital ones, connected by the assignment of the patient to a specific ED. In this way, it is possible to optimize the entire patient management. Therefore, attention is paid to the dependency of decisions that in current EMS management models tend to be neglected or underestimated. In particular, the integration of the two processes enables the evaluation of the advantage of an ED selection decision having visibility on EDs’ saturation status and therefore considering the distance, the available resources and the expected waiting times. Starting from a critical review of the KPIs proposed in the extant literature, the design of the dashboard was carried out: the high number of analyzed KPIs was reduced by eliminating the ones firstly not in line with the aim of the study and then the ones supporting a similar functionality. The KPIs finally selected were tested on a realistic dataset, which draws us to exclude additional indicators due to the unavailability of data required for their computation. The final dashboard, which was discussed and validated by experts in the field, includes a variety of KPIs able to support operational and planning decisions, early warning, and citizens’ awareness of EDs accessibility in real-time. By associating each KPI to the EMS phase it refers to, it was also possible to design a well-balanced dashboard covering both efficiency and effective performance of the entire EMS process. Indeed, just the initial phases related to the interconnection between ambulance service and patient’s care are covered by traditional KPIs compared to the subsequent phases taking place in the hospital ED. This could be taken into consideration for the potential future development of the dashboard. Moreover, the research could proceed by building a multi-layer dashboard composed of the first level with a minimal set of KPIs to measure the basic performance of the EMS system at an aggregate level and further levels with KPIs that can bring additional and more detailed information.

Keywords: dashboard, decision support, emergency medical services, key performance indicators

Procedia PDF Downloads 113

Authors: Ikaputra

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This paper will focus on the concept of social capital for especially housing reconstruction Post Disaster. The context of the study is Indonesia and Yogyakarta Post Earthquake 2006 as a case, but it is expected that the concept can be adopted in general post disaster reconstruction. The discussion will begin by addressing issues on House Reconstruction Post Disaster in Indonesia and Yogyakarta; defining Social Capital as a concept for effective management capacity based on community; Social Capital Post Java Earthquake utilizing Gotong Royong—community mutual self-help, and Approach and Strategy towards Community-based Reconstruction.

Keywords: community empowerment, Gotong Royong, post disaster, reconstruction, social capital, Yogyakarta-Indonesia

Procedia PDF Downloads 325

Authors: Sina Dehghani, Zhikang Rong

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Historically, a variety of approaches have been taken to forecast commodity prices due to the significant implications of these values on the global economy. An accurate forecasting tool for a valuable commodity would significantly benefit investors and governmental agencies. Silver, in particular, has grown significantly as a commodity in recent years due to its use in healthcare and technology. This manuscript aims to utilize the Geometric Brownian Motion predictive model to forecast silver commodity prices over multiple 3-year periods. The results of the study indicate that the model has several limitations, particularly its inability to work effectively over longer periods of time, but still was extremely effective over shorter time frames. This study sets a baseline for silver commodity forecasting with GBM, and the model could be further strengthened with refinement.

Keywords: geometric Brownian motion, commodity, risk management, volatility, stochastic behavior, price forecasting

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Authors: Anamika Paul, Sudipto Sarkar

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The flow behaviour of non-Newtonian fluid is quite complicated, although both the pseudoplastic (n < 1, n being the power index) and dilatant (n > 1) fluids under this category are used immensely in chemical and process industries. A limited research work is carried out for flow over a bluff body in non-Newtonian flow environment. In the present numerical simulation we control the vortices of a square cylinder by placing an upstream vertical splitter plate for pseudoplastic (n=0.8), Newtonian (n=1) and dilatant (n=1.2) fluids. The position of the upstream plate is also varied to calculate the critical distance between the plate and cylinder, below which the cylinder vortex shedding suppresses. Here the Reynolds number is considered as Re = 150 (Re = U∞a/ν, where U∞ is the free-stream velocity of the flow, a is the side of the cylinder and ν is the maximum value of kinematic viscosity of the fluid), which comes under laminar periodic vortex shedding regime. The vertical plate is having a dimension of 0.5a × 0.05a and it is placed at the cylinder centre-line. Gambit 2.2.30 is used to construct the flow domain and to impose the boundary conditions. In detail, we imposed velocity inlet (u = U∞), pressure outlet (Neumann condition), symmetry (free-slip boundary condition) at upper and lower domain. Wall boundary condition (u = v = 0) is considered both on the cylinder and the splitter plate surfaces. The unsteady 2-D Navier Stokes equations in fully conservative form are then discretized in second-order spatial and first-order temporal form. These discretized equations are then solved by Ansys Fluent 14.5 implementing SIMPLE algorithm written in finite volume method. Here, fine meshing is used surrounding the plate and cylinder. Away from the cylinder, the grids are slowly stretched out in all directions. To get an account of mesh quality, a total of 297 × 208 grid points are used for G/a = 3 (G being the gap between the plate and cylinder) in the streamwise and flow-normal directions respectively after a grid independent study. The computed mean flow quantities obtained from Newtonian flow are agreed well with the available literatures. The results are depicted with the help of instantaneous and time-averaged flow fields. Qualitative and quantitative noteworthy differences are obtained in the flow field with the changes in rheology of fluid. Also, aerodynamic forces and vortex shedding frequencies differ with the gap-ratio and power index of the fluid. We can conclude from the present simulation that fluent is capable to capture the vortex dynamics of unsteady laminar flow regime even in the non-Newtonian flow environment.

Keywords: CFD, critical gap-ratio, splitter plate, wake-wake interactions, dilatant, pseudoplastic

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Authors: Ke Zhang, Yongli Zhu

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Due to rapid load growths in today’s highly electrified societies and the requirement for green energy sources, large-scale wind farm power transmission system is constantly developing. This system is a typical multi-terminal power supply system, whose structure of the network topology of transmission lines is complex. What’s more, it locates in the complex terrain of mountains and grasslands, thus increasing the possibility of transmission line faults and finding the fault location with difficulty after the faults and resulting in an extremely serious phenomenon of abandoning the wind. In order to solve these problems, a fault location method for multi-terminal transmission line based on wind farm characteristics and improved single-ended traveling wave positioning method is proposed. Through studying the zero sequence current characteristics by using the characteristics of the grounding transformer(GT) in the existing large-scale wind farms, it is obtained that the criterion for judging the fault interval of the multi-terminal transmission line. When a ground short-circuit fault occurs, there is only zero sequence current on the path between GT and the fault point. Therefore, the interval where the fault point exists is obtained by determining the path of the zero sequence current. After determining the fault interval, The location of the short-circuit fault point is calculated by the traveling wave method. However, this article uses an improved traveling wave method. It makes the positioning accuracy more accurate by combining the single-ended traveling wave method with double-ended electrical data. What’s more, a method of calculating the traveling wave velocity is deduced according to the above improvements (it is the actual wave velocity in theory). The improvement of the traveling wave velocity calculation method further improves the positioning accuracy. Compared with the traditional positioning method, the average positioning error of this method is reduced by 30%.This method overcomes the shortcomings of the traditional method in poor fault location of wind farm transmission lines. In addition, it is more accurate than the traditional fixed wave velocity method in the calculation of the traveling wave velocity. It can calculate the wave velocity in real time according to the scene and solve the traveling wave velocity can’t be updated with the environment and real-time update. The method is verified in PSCAD/EMTDC.

Keywords: grounding transformer, multi-terminal transmission line, short circuit fault location, traveling wave velocity, wind farm

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Authors: James R. Ogden, Denise T. Ogden

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The National Football League (USA) is the largest sporting business in the United States. In order to generate revenue, it is important that NFL teams win. Coaches, owners and general managers of the NFL teams want to create powerful teams with reliable players and they are willing to spend large amounts of money in order to do so. This research looks at one of the National Football League’s key players, the kicker. It would be intuitively obvious to suggest that those kickers who perform the best get paid the most. In this paper the researchers performed a correlation and regression analysis to determine if there is a correlation between an NFL kicker’s field goal percentage and salary. The research proposition was that higher performing kickers receive higher salaries. The data suggest that there is no correlation between salary and on-field performance.

Keywords: business management, sports marketing, tourism, American football

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Authors: Almagul Assainova , Dariya Abykenova, Liudmila Goncharenko, Sergey Sybachin, Saule Rakhimova, Abay Aman

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The recognition of a handwritten Kazakh text is a relevant objective today for the digitization of materials. The study presents a model of a hybrid neural network for handwriting recognition, which includes a convolutional neural network and a multi-layer perceptron. Each network includes 1024 input neurons and 42 output neurons. The model is implemented in the program, written in the Python programming language using the EMNIST database, NumPy, Keras, and Tensorflow modules. The neural network training of such specific letters of the Kazakh alphabet as ә, ғ, қ, ң, ө, ұ, ү, h, і was conducted. The neural network model and the program created on its basis can be used in electronic document management systems to digitize the Kazakh text.

Keywords: handwriting recognition system, image recognition, Kazakh font, machine learning, neural networks

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Authors: Deepanwita Deka, Dhruva Kumar Jha

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Endophytes are the microbes that colonize living, internal tissues of plants without causing any immediate, overt negative effects. Endophytes are rich source of therapeutic substances like antimicrobial, anticancerous, herbicidal, insecticidal, immunomodulatory compounds. Brucea mollis, commonly known as Quinine in Assam, belonging to the family Simaroubaceae, is a shrub or small tree, recorded as endangered species in North East India by CAMP survey in 2003. It is traditionally being used as antimalarial and antimicrobial agent and has antiplasmodial, cytotoxic, anticancer, diuretic, cardiovascular effect etc. Being endangered and medicinal; this plant may host certain noble endophytes which need to be studied in depth. The aim of the present study was isolation and identification of potent endophytic fungi from Brucea mollis, an endangered medicinal plant, to protect it from extinction due to over use for medicinal purposes. Aseptically collected leaves, barks and roots samples of healthy plants were washed and cut into a total of 648 segments of about 2 cm long and 0.5 cm broad with sterile knife, comprising 216 segments each from leaves, barks and roots. These segments were surface sterilized using ethanol, mercuric chloride (HgCl2) and aqueous solution of sodium hypochlorite (NaClO). Different media viz., Czapeck-Dox-Agar (CDA, Himedia), Potato-Dextrose-Agar (PDA, Himedia), Malt Extract Agar (MEA, Himedia), Sabourad Dextrose Agar (SDA, Himedia), V8 juice agar, nutrient agar and water agar media and media amended with plant extracts were used separately for the isolation of the endophytic fungi. A total of 11 fungal species were recovered from leaf, bark and root tissues of B. mollis. The isolates were screened for antimicrobial, antioxidant and enzymatic activities using certain protocols. Cochliobolus geniculatus was identified as the most dominant species. The mycelia sterilia (creamy white) showing highest inhibitory activity against Candida albicans (MTCC 183) was induced to sporulate using modified PDA media. The isolate was identified as Geosmithia pallida. The internal transcribed spacer of rDNA was sequenced for confirmation of the taxonomic identity of the sterile mycelia (creamy white). The internal transcribed spacer r-DNA sequence was submitted to the NCBI (KU693285) for the first time from India. G. pallida and Penicillium showed highest antioxidant activity among all the isolates. The antioxidant activity of G. pallida and Penicillium didn’t show statistically significant difference (P˃0.05). G. pallida, Cochliobolus geniculatus and P. purpurogenum respectively showed highest cellulase, amylase and protease activities. Thus, endopytic fungal isolates may be used as potential natural resource of pharmaceutical importance. The endophytic fungi, Geosmithia pallida, may be used for synthesis of pharmaceutically important natural products and consequently can replace plants hitherto used for the same purpose. This study suggests that endophytes should be investigated more aggressively to better understand the endophyte biology of B. mollis.

Keywords: Antimicrobial activity, antioxidant activity, Brucea mollis, endophytic fungi, enzyme activity, Geosmithia pallida

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Authors: Ian Kingsbury

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The rapid expansion of charter schools (public schools that receive government but do not face the same regulations as traditional public schools) over the preceding two decades has raised concerns over the potential for graft and fraud. These concerns are largely justified: Incidents of financial crime and mismanagement are not unheard of, and the charter sector has become a darling of hedge fund managers. In response, several states have strengthened their charter school regulatory regimes. Imposing regulations and attempting to increase accountability seem like sensible measures, and perhaps they are necessary. However, increased regulation may come at the cost of imposing barriers to entry. Specifically, increased regulation often entails evidence for a high likelihood of fiscal solvency. That should theoretically entail access to capital in the short-term, which may systematically preclude Black or Hispanic applicants from opening charter schools. Moreover, increased regulation necessarily entails more red tape. The institutional wherewithal and the number of hours required to complete an application to open a charter school might favor those who have partnered with an education service provider, specifically a charter management organization (CMO) or education management organization (EMO). These potential barriers to entry pose a significant policy concern. Just as policymakers hope to increase the share of minority teachers and principals, they should sensibly care whether individuals who open charter schools look like the students in that school. Moreover, they might be concerned if successful applications in states with stringent regulations are overwhelmingly affiliated with education service providers. One of the original missions of charter schools was to serve as a laboratory of innovation. Approving only those applications affiliated with education service providers (and in effect establishing a parallel network of schools rather than a diverse marketplace of schools) undermines that mission. Data and methods: The analysis examines more than 2,000 charter school applications from 15 states. It compares the outcomes of applications from states with a strong regulatory environment (those with high scores) from NACSA-the National Association of Charter School Authorizers- to applications from states with a weak regulatory environment (those with a low NACSA score). If the hypothesis is correct, applicants not affiliated with an ESP are more likely to be rejected in high-regulation states compared to those affiliated with an ESP, and minority candidates not affiliated with an education service provider (ESP) are particularly likely to be rejected. Initial returns indicate that the hypothesis holds. More applications in low NASCA-scoring Arizona come from individuals not associated with an ESP, and those individuals are as likely to be accepted as those affiliated with an ESP. On the other hand, applicants in high-NACSA scoring Indiana and Ohio are more than 20 percentage points more likely to be accepted if they are affiliated with an ESP, and the effect is particularly pronounced for minority candidates. These findings should spur policymakers to consider the drawbacks of charter school accountability and consider accountability regimes that do not impose barriers to entry.

Keywords: accountability, barriers to entry, charter schools, choice

Procedia PDF Downloads 159

Authors: Brahmia Nadjet

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The growing needs of displacements led advanced countries in this field install new specific transport systems, able to palliate any deficiencies, especially when regular public transport does not adequately meet the requests of users. In this context, on-demand transport systems (ODT) are very efficient; they rely on techniques based on the location of trip generators which should be assured effectively with the use of operators responsible of the advance reservation, planning and organization, and studying the different ODT criteria (organizational, technical, geographical, etc.). As the advanced countries in the field of transport, some developing countries are involved in the adaptation of the new technologies to reduce the deficit in their communication system. This communication presents the study of an ODT implementation in the west of Algeria, by developing the Geomatics side of the study. This part requires the use of specific systems (such as GIS, RDBMS), so we developed the process through an application in an environment of mobility by using the computer tools dedicated to the management of the entities related to the transport field.

Keywords: ODT, geomatics, GIS, transport systems

Procedia PDF Downloads 502

Authors: Kiran P. Chadayamuri, Saransh Bagdi, Sai Vinod Boddu

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Pollution has been a major problem that has haunted India for years. Large amounts of industrial, automobile and domestic waste have resulted in heavy contamination of air, land and water. The Taj Mahal, one of the Seven Wonders of the World, has been and continues to be India’s symbol of a rich history around the globe. Over the years, the beauty of Taj Mahal has also suffered from increasing pollution. Its shiny white exterior has started to turn yellow because of air pollution and acid rain. Illegal factories and uncontrolled construction have played a major role in worsening its condition. Rapid population growth in the city (Agra) meant more water requirement which has led to ground water deterioration under the historical monument making its wooden foundations dry and weak. Despite various measures by the state and central government, there hasn’t been any satisfactory result. This paper aims at studying the various causes and their impacts affecting the Taj Mahal and method that could slow down its deterioration.

Keywords: pollution, Taj Mahal, India, management

Procedia PDF Downloads 391

Authors: Mikhail O. Eremin

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Seismic activity around the world is clearly a threat to people's lives, as well as infrastructure and capital construction. It is the instability of the latter to powerful earthquakes that most often causes human casualties. Therefore, during construction it is necessary to take into account the risks of large-scale natural disasters. The task of assessing the risks of natural disasters is one of the most urgent at the present time. The final goal of any study of earthquakes is forecasting. This is especially important for seismically active regions of the planet where earthquakes occur frequently. Gorni Altai is one of such regions. In work, we developed the physical-mathematical model of stress-strain state evolution of loaded geomedium with the purpose of numerical simulation of seismic process accompanying the formation of Chuya-Kuray fault zone Gorni Altay, Russia. We build a structural model on the base of seismotectonic and paleoseismogeological investigations, as well as SRTM-data. Base of mathematical model is the system of equations of solid mechanics which includes the fundamental conservation laws and constitutive equations for elastic (Hooke's law) and inelastic deformation (modified model of Drucker-Prager-Nikolaevskii). An initial stress state of the model correspond to gravitational. Then we simulate an activation of a buried dextral strike-slip paleo-fault located in the basement of the model. We obtain the stages of formation and the structure of Chuya-Kuray fault zone. It is shown that results of numerical simulation are in good agreement with field observations in statistical sense. Simulated seismic process is strongly bound to the faults - lineaments with high degree of inelastic strain localization. Fault zone represents en-echelon system of dextral strike-slips according to the Riedel model. The system of surface lineaments is represented with R-, R'-shear bands, X- and Y-shears, T-fractures. Simulated seismic process obeys the laws of Gutenberg-Richter and Omori. Thus, the model describes a self-similar character of deformation and fracture of rocks and geomedia. We also modified the algorithm of determination of separate slip events in the model due to the features of strain rates dependence vs time.

Keywords: Drucker-Prager model, fault zone, numerical simulation, Riedel bands, seismic process, strike-slip fault

Procedia PDF Downloads 141

Authors: Marianna Nigra, Maicol Negrello

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Efficiency, productivity, and sustainability are important factors for structure and the application of processes in green building. Various previous studies have addressed efficiency, productivity, and sustainability separately. This research study aims to investigate the implications of these three factors taking together. Frequency analysis and the ranking techniques are carried out to explore the connection between these factors. The interconnection matrix has been developed and functional grouping is made based upon data from expert opinion and field professionals. The existence of a relationship, the type of relationship and the scaled impact have been drawn. Additionally, a system diagram has been developed to show the variable correlation. The results of expert opinion show that efficiency, productivity, and sustainability have a stronger impact on green buildings.

Keywords: green roof regulation, architecture, climate adaptation, resilience, innovation management

Procedia PDF Downloads 104

Authors: Mohd Khairul Bazli Mohd Aziz, Fadhilah Yusof, Zulkifli Yusop, Zalina Mohd Daud, Mohammad Afif Kasno

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Recent developed rainfall network design techniques have been discussed and compared by many researchers worldwide due to the demand of acquiring higher levels of accuracy from collected data. In many studies, rain-gauge networks are designed to provide good estimation for areal rainfall and for flood modelling and prediction. In a certain study, even using lumped models for flood forecasting, a proper gauge network can significantly improve the results. Therefore existing rainfall network in Johor must be optimized and redesigned in order to meet the required level of accuracy preset by rainfall data users. The well-known geostatistics method (variance-reduction method) that is combined with simulated annealing was used as an algorithm of optimization in this study to obtain the optimal number and locations of the rain gauges. Rain gauge network structure is not only dependent on the station density; station location also plays an important role in determining whether information is acquired accurately. The existing network of 84 rain gauges in Johor is optimized and redesigned by using rainfall, humidity, solar radiation, temperature and wind speed data during monsoon season (November – February) for the period of 1975 – 2008. Three different semivariogram models which are Spherical, Gaussian and Exponential were used and their performances were also compared in this study. Cross validation technique was applied to compute the errors and the result showed that exponential model is the best semivariogram. It was found that the proposed method was satisfied by a network of 64 rain gauges with the minimum estimated variance and 20 of the existing ones were removed and relocated. An existing network may consist of redundant stations that may make little or no contribution to the network performance for providing quality data. Therefore, two different cases were considered in this study. The first case considered the removed stations that were optimally relocated into new locations to investigate their influence in the calculated estimated variance and the second case explored the possibility to relocate all 84 existing stations into new locations to determine the optimal position. The relocations of the stations in both cases have shown that the new optimal locations have managed to reduce the estimated variance and it has proven that locations played an important role in determining the optimal network.

Keywords: geostatistics, simulated annealing, semivariogram, optimization

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Authors: Margarita Zavala, Gabriel Chavira, José González, Jorge Orozco, Julio Rolón, Roberto Pichardo

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Adolescence is a neuralgic stage in the formation of every human being, generally this stage is when the middle school level is studied. In 2006, Mexico incorporated 'mentoring' space to assist students in their integration and participation in life. In public middle schools, it is sometimes difficult to be aware of situations that affect students because of the number of them and traditional records management. With this, they lose the opportunity to provide timely support as a preventive way. In order to provide this support, it is required to know the students by detecting the relevant information that has greater impact on their learning process. This research is looking to check if it is possible to identify student’s relevant information to detect when it is at risk, and then to propose a model to manage in a proper way such information.

Keywords: adolescence, mentoring, middle school students, mentoring system support

Procedia PDF Downloads 480

Authors: Kunihisa Kakumoto

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“Purpose”: Global environmental issues are now being raised in a global dimension. By predicting sprawl phenomena beyond the limits of nature with algorithms, we can expect to protect our social life within the limits of nature. It turns out that the sustainable state of the planet now consists in maintaining a balance between the capabilities of nature and the possibilities of our social life. The amount of water on earth is finite. Sustainability is therefore highly dependent on water capacity. A certain amount of water is stored in the forest by planting and green space, and the amount of water can be considered in relation to the green space. CO2 is also absorbed by green plants. "Possible measurements and methods": The concept of the solar community has been introduced in technical papers on the occasion of many international conferences. The solar community concept is based on data collected from one solar model house. This algorithmic study simulates the amount of water stored by lush green vegetation. In addition, we calculated and compared the amount of CO2 emissions from the Taiyo Community and the amount of CO2 reduction from greening. Based on the trial calculation results of these solar communities, we are simulating the sustainable state of the earth as an algorithm trial calculation result. We believe that we should also consider the composition of this solar community group using digital technology as control technology. "Conclusion": We consider the solar community as a prototype for finding sustainable conditions for the planet. The role of water is very important as the supply capacity of water is limited. However, the circulation of social life is not constructed according to the mechanism of nature. This simulation trial calculation is explained using the total water supply volume as an example. According to this process, algorithmic calculations consider the total capacity of the water supply and the population and habitable numbers of the area. Green vegetated land is very important to keep enough water. Green vegetation is also very important to maintain CO2 balance. A simulation trial calculation is possible from the relationship between the CO2 emissions of the solar community and the amount of CO2 reduction due to greening. In order to find this total balance and sustainable conditions, the algorithmic simulation calculation takes into account lush vegetation and total water supply. Research to find sustainable conditions is done by simulating an algorithmic model of the solar community as a prototype. In this one prototype example, it's balanced. The activities of our social life must take place within the permissive limits of natural mechanisms. Of course, we aim for a more ideal balance by utilizing auxiliary digital control technology such as AI.

Keywords: solar community, sustainability, prototype, algorithmic simulation

Procedia PDF Downloads 61

Authors: Guoyu Wang, Meilian Zhang, Chunhui LI, Bing Ren

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In recent decades, a variety of floating structures have played a crucial role in ocean and marine engineering, such as ships, offshore platforms, floating breakwaters, fish farms, floating airports, etc. It is common for floating structures to suffer from loadings under waves, and the responses of the structures mounted in marine environments have a significant relation to the wave impacts. The interaction between surface waves and floating structures is one of the important issues in ship or marine structure design to increase performance and efficiency. With the progress of computational fluid dynamics, a number of numerical models based on the NS equations in the time domain have been developed to explore the above problem, such as the finite difference method or the finite volume method. Those traditional numerical simulation techniques for moving bodies are grid-based, which may encounter some difficulties when treating a large free surface deformation and a moving boundary. In these models, the moving structures in a Lagrangian formulation need to be appropriately described in grids, and the special treatment of the moving boundary is inevitable. Nevertheless, in the mesh-based models, the movement of the grid near the structure or the communication between the moving Lagrangian structure and Eulerian meshes will increase the algorithm complexity. Fortunately, these challenges can be avoided by the meshless particle methods. In the present study, a moving particle semi-implicit model is explored for the numerical simulation of fluid–structure interaction with surface flows, especially for coupling of fluid and moving rigid body. The equivalent momentum transfer method is proposed and derived for the coupling of fluid and rigid moving body. The structure is discretized into a group of solid particles, which are assumed as fluid particles involved in solving the NS equation altogether with the surrounding fluid particles. The momentum conservation is ensured by the transfer from those fluid particles to the corresponding solid particles. Then, the position of the solid particles is updated to keep the initial shape of the structure. Using the proposed method, the motions of a free-floating body in regular waves are numerically studied. The wave surface evaluation and the dynamic response of the floating body are presented. There is good agreement when the numerical results, such as the sway, heave, and roll of the floating body, are compared with the experimental and other numerical data. It is demonstrated that the presented MPS model is effective for the numerical simulation of fluid-structure interaction.

Keywords: floating body, fluid structure interaction, MPS, particle method, waves

Procedia PDF Downloads 75

Authors: Zoja Raud, Valery Vodovozov

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The paper focuses on the distance laboratory organisation for training the electrical engineering staff and students in the fields of electrical drive and power electronics. To support online knowledge acquisition and professional enhancement, new challenges in remote education based on an active learning approach with self-assessment have been emerged by the authors. Following the literature review and explanation of the improved assessment methodology, the concept and technological basis of the labs arrangement are presented. To decrease the gap between the distance study of the up-to-date equipment and other educational activities in electrical engineering, the improvements in the following-up the learners’ progress and feedback composition are introduced. An authoring methodology that helps to personalise knowledge acquisition and enlarge Web-based possibilities is described. Educational management based on self-assessment is discussed.

Keywords: advanced training, active learning, distance learning, electrical engineering, remote laboratory, self-assessment

Procedia PDF Downloads 327

Authors: Roshan Jelal, Charles Mbohwa

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In today’s world, internal fraud remains one of the most challenging problems within companies worldwide and despite investment in controls and attention given to the problem, the instances of internal fraud has not abated. To the contrary it appears that internal fraud is on the rise especially in the wake of the economic downturn. Leadership within companies believes that the more sophisticated the controls employed the less likely it would be for employees to pilfer. This is a very antiquated view as investment in controls may not be enough to curtail internal fraud; however, ensuring that a company drives the correct culture and behaviour within the organisation is likely to yield desired results. This research aims to understand how creating a strong ethical culture and embedding the principle of good corporate governance impacts on levels of internal fraud with an organization (a South African Bank).

Keywords: internal fraud, corporate governance, ethics, reserve bank, the King Code

Procedia PDF Downloads 416