Search results for: firm performance effectiveness

Authors: Roslina Ibrahim, Azizah Jaafar, Khalili Khalil

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Educational games (EG) are regarded as a promising teaching and learning tool for the new generation. Growing number of studies and literatures can be found in EG studies. Both academic researchers and commercial developers come out with various educational games prototypes and titles. Despite that, acceptance of educational games still lacks among the students. It is important to understanding students’ perceptions of EG, since they are the main stakeholder of the technology. Thus, this study seeks to understand perceptions of undergraduates’ students using a framework originated from user acceptance theory. The framework consists of six constructs with twenty-eight items. Data collection was done on 180 undergraduate students of Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur using self-developed online EG called ROBO-C. Data analysis was done using descriptive, factor analysis and correlations. Performance expectancy, effort expectancy, attitude, and enjoyment factors were found significantly correlated with the intention to use EG. This study provides more understanding towards the use of educational games among students.

Keywords: educational games, perceptions, acceptance, UTAUT

Procedia PDF Downloads 405

Authors: Jacolien Barnard, Corlia Van Heerden

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Effective and accessible consensual dispute resolution and in particular alternative dispute resolution, are central to consumer protection legislation. In this regard, the Consumer Protection Act 68 of 2008 (CPA) of South Africa is no exception. Due to the nature of consumer disputes, alternative dispute resolution (in theory) is an effective vehicle for the adjudication of disputes in a timely manner avoiding overburdening of the courts. The CPA sets down as one of its core purposes the provision of ‘an accessible, consistent, harmonized, effective and efficient system of redress for consumers’ (section 3(1)(h) of the CPA). Section 69 of the Act provides for the enforcement of consumer rights and provides for the National Consumer Commission to be the Central Authority which streamlines, adjudicates and channels disputes to the appropriate forums which include Alternative Dispute Resolution Agents (ADR-agents). The purpose of this paper is to analyze the regulation of these enforcement and redress mechanisms with particular focus on the Central Authority as well as the ADR-agents and their crucial role in successful and efficient adjudication of disputes in South Africa. The South African position will be discussed comparatively with the European Union (EU) position. In this regard, the European Union (EU) Directive on Alternative Dispute Resolution for Consumer Disputes (2013/11/EU) will be discussed (The ADR Directive). The aim of the ADR Directive is to solve contractual disputes between consumers and traders (suppliers or businesses) regardless of whether the agreement was concluded offline or online or whether or not the trader is situated in another member state (Recitals 4-6). The ADR Directive provides for a set of quality requirements that an ADR body or entity tasked with resolving consumer disputes should adhere to in member states which include regulatory mechanisms for control. Transparency, effectiveness, fairness, liberty and legality are all requirements for a successful ADR body and discussed within this chapter III of the Directive. Chapters III and IV govern the importance of information and co-operation. This includes information between ADR bodies and the European Commission (EC) but also between ADR bodies or entities and national authorities enforcing legal acts on consumer protection and traders. (In South Africa the National Consumer Tribunal, Provincial Consumer Protectors and Industry ombuds come to mind). All of which have a responsibility to keep consumers informed. Ultimately the papers aims to provide recommendations as to the successfulness of the current South African position in light of the comparative position in Europe and the highlight the importance of proper regulation of these redress and enforcement institutions.

Keywords: alternative dispute resolution, consumer protection law, enforcement, redress

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Authors: Shahbaz Amin, Sabir Hussain Shah, Sahib Khan

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This paper presents a thorough review concerning the design types of axial flux permanent magnet machines (AFPM) in terms of different features such as construction, design, materials, and manufacturing. Particular emphasis is given on the design and performance analysis of AFPM machines. A comparison among different permanent magnet machines is also provided. First of all, early and modern axial flux machines are mentioned. Secondly, rotor construction of different axial flux machines is described, then different stator constructions are mentioned depending upon the presence of slots and stator back iron. Then according to the arrangement of the rotor stator structure the machines are classified into single, double and multi-stack arrangements. Advantages, disadvantages and applications of each type of rotor and stator are pointed out. Finally on the basis of the reviewed literature merits, demerits, features and application of different axial flux machines structures are explained and clarified. Thus, this paper provides connection between the machines that are currently being used in industry and the developments of AFPM throughout the years.

Keywords: axial flux machines, axial flux applications, coreless machines, PM machines

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Authors: Benabdelaziz Soufyane

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The process of developing the activity of small and medium-sized enterprises(SME), and increasing the entrepreneurial sense, is becoming at the current period as one of the main bets, where many countries around the world try to give it the great importance because of their positive role in improving the economic development indicators in these countries. As a result of the sequential changes that international economic environment lives, the biggest global economic entities has become threatened because of different secretions financial crises and economic disorders. For this lots of countries tended to search for a mechanism to help it for creating new jobs and to spur the economy in order to face the foreign competition, fot this, we find the process of creating innovative entrepreneurial activity comes at the forefront of solutions for the purpose of achieving that. For the purpose of highlighting the role of this process and its future in the economy, this study seeks to consolidate the innovation’s concept and innovative entrepreneurship, then the success’s conditions of these entrepreneurships, to conclude with recommendations , solutions and important results.

Keywords: entrepreneurship, innovation, performance, vigilance, modernity, technology, business incubators

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Authors: Ramesh P., Aby Joseph

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Micro Inverters provide Module Embedded Solution for harvesting energy from small-scale solar photovoltaic (PV) panels. In addition to higher modularity & reliability (25 years of life), the MicroInverter has inherent advantages such as avoidance of long DC cables, eliminates module mismatch losses, minimizes partial shading effect, improves safety and flexibility in installations etc. Due to the above-stated benefits, the renewable energy technology with Solar Photovoltaic (PV) Micro Inverter becomes more widespread in Village Nano Grid application ensuring grid independence for rural communities and areas without access to electricity. While the primary objective of this paper is to discuss the problems related to rural electrification, this concept can also be extended to urban installation with grid connectivity. This work presents a comprehensive analysis of the power circuit design, control methodologies and prototyping of 300Wₚ Single Phase PV Micro Inverter. This paper investigates two different topologies for PV Micro Inverters, based on the first hand on Single Stage Flyback/ Forward PV Micro-Inverter configuration and the other hand on the Double stage configuration including DC-DC converter, H bridge DC-AC Inverter. This work covers Power Decoupling techniques to reduce the input filter capacitor size to buffer double line (100 Hz) ripple energy and eliminates the use of electrolytic capacitors. The propagation of the double line oscillation reflected back to PV module will affect the Maximum Power Point Tracking (MPPT) performance. Also, the grid current will be distorted. To mitigate this issue, an independent MPPT control algorithm is developed in this work to reject the propagation of this double line ripple oscillation to PV side to improve the MPPT performance and grid side to improve current quality. Here, the power hardware topology accepts wide input voltage variation and consists of suitably rated MOSFET switches, Galvanically Isolated gate drivers, high-frequency magnetics and Film capacitors with a long lifespan. The digital controller hardware platform inbuilt with the external peripheral interface is developed using floating point microcontroller TMS320F2806x from Texas Instruments. The firmware governing the operation of the PV Micro Inverter is written in C language and was developed using code composer studio Integrated Development Environment (IDE). In this work, the prototype hardware for the Single Phase Photovoltaic Micro Inverter with Double stage configuration was developed and the comparative analysis between the above mentioned configurations with experimental results will be presented.

Keywords: double line oscillation, micro inverter, MPPT, nano grid, power decoupling

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Authors: Veronica Diaz Quezada

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The society of the 21st century requires training of engineers capable of solving routine and non-routine problems in applications of the limit of real functions, as part of the course Calculus I. For this purpose, research was conducted with a methodological design that combines quantitative and qualitative procedures and that aims, to identify and to characterize the types of problems according to their nature and context, through the application of a mathematics test; to know— through a questionnaire— the opinion of difficulties in their solution, previous and missing knowledge of some students of three engineering careers of a state university in Chile. This research is completed with three case studies. The results favor the performance of students in solving problems of a fantasist and realistic context, but these do not guarantee mathematical skills which are necessary to solve non-routine problems of limit applications. In conclusion, through this research, it became clear that the students of the three engineerings do not have all the necessary skills to solve problems of application of the limit of a function of the real variable.

Keywords: case studies, engineering program, limits, problem solving

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Authors: Yi-Chun Chang, Ching-Ting Hsu, Wei-Hua Ho, Yueh-Tung Kuo

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Children with hearing impairment have deficits of balance and motors. Although most of parents teach deaf children communication skills in early life, but rarely teach the deficits of balance. The purpose of this study was to investigate whether static balance improved after table tennis training. Table tennis training was provided four times a week for eight weeks to two 12-year-old deaf children. The table tennis training included crossover footwork, sideway attack, backhand block-sideways-flutter forehand attack, and one-on-one tight training. Data were gathered weekly and statistical comparisons were made with a paired t-test. We observed that the dominant leg is better than the non-dominant leg in static balance and girl balance ability is better than boy. The final result shows that table tennis training significantly improves the deaf children’s static balance performance. It indicates that table tennis training on deaf children helps the static balance ability.

Keywords: deaf children, static balance, table tennis, vestibular structure

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Authors: Phalaunnnaphat Siriwongs

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The classroom of the 21st century is an ever changing forum for new and innovative thoughts and ideas. With increasing technology and opportunity, students have rapid access to information that only decades ago would have taken weeks to obtain. Unfortunately, new techniques and technology are not the cure for the fundamental problems that have plagued the classroom ever since education was established. Class size has been an issue long debated in academia. While it is difficult to pin point an exact number, it is clear that in this case more does not mean better. By looking into the success and pitfalls of classroom size the true advantages of smaller classes will become clear. Previously, one class was comprised of 50 students. Being seventeen and eighteen- year- old students, sometimes it was quite difficult for them to stay focused. To help them understand and gain much knowledge, a researcher introduced “The Theory of Multiple Intelligence” and this, in fact, enabled students to learn according to their own learning preferences no matter how they were being taught. In this lesson, the researcher designed a cycle of learning activities involving all intelligences so that everyone had equal opportunities to learn.

Keywords: multiple intelligences, role play, performance assessment, formative assessment

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Authors: Hamed Saremi, Shahla Saremi

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In today's competitive world, organizations are expected to surpass the competitors and benefit from the resources and benefits. Therefore, organizations need to improve the current performance is felt more than ever that this requires to identify organizational optimal strategies, and consider all strategies simultaneously. In this study, to enhance competitive advantage and according to customer requirements, alignment between business, production and marketing strategies, House of Quality (QFD) approach has been used and zero-one linear programming model has been studied. First, the alignment between production and marketing strategies with business strategy, independent weights of these strategies is calculated. Then with using QFD approach the aligned weights of optimal strategies in each production and marketing field will be obtained and finally the aligned marketing strategies selection with the purpose of allocating budget and specialist human resource to marketing functions will be done that lead to increasing competitive advantage and benefit.

Keywords: marketing strategy, business strategy, strategy alignment, house of quality deployment, production strategy

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Authors: Yuexi Xiong, Jingwu He

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The structural components in an energy facility such as steam turbine machines are operated under high stress and elevated temperature in an endured time period and thus the creep deformation and creep rupture failure are important issues that need to be addressed in the design of such components. There are numerous creep models being used for creep analysis that have both advantages and disadvantages in terms of accuracy and efficiency. The Isochronous Creep Analysis is one of the simplified approaches in which a full-time dependent creep analysis is avoided and instead an elastic-plastic analysis is conducted at each time point. This approach has been established based on the rupture dependent creep equations using the well-known Larson-Miller parameter. In this paper, some fundamental aspects of creep deformation and the rupture dependent creep models are reviewed and the analysis procedures using isochronous creep curves are discussed. Four rupture failure criteria are examined from creep fundamental perspectives including criteria of Stress Damage, Strain Damage, Strain Rate Damage, and Strain Capability. The accuracy of these criteria in predicting creep life is discussed and applications of the creep analysis procedures and failure predictions of simple models will be presented. In addition, a new failure criterion is proposed to improve the accuracy and effectiveness of the existing criteria. Comparisons are made between the existing criteria and the new one using several examples materials. Both strain increase and stress relaxation form a full picture of the creep behaviour of a material under high temperature in an endured time period. It is important to bear this in mind when dealing with creep problems. Accordingly there are two sets of rupture dependent creep equations. While the rupture strength vs LMP equation shows how the rupture time depends on the stress level under load controlled condition, the strain rate vs rupture time equation reflects how the rupture time behaves under strain-controlled condition. Among the four existing failure criteria for rupture life predictions, the Stress Damage and Strain Damage Criteria provide the most conservative and non-conservative predictions, respectively. The Strain Rate and Strain Capability Criteria provide predictions in between that are believed to be more accurate because the strain rate and strain capability are more determined quantities than stress to reflect the creep rupture behaviour. A modified Strain Capability Criterion is proposed making use of the two sets of creep equations and therefore is considered to be more accurate than the original Strain Capability Criterion.

Keywords: creep analysis, high temperature mateials, rapture evalution, steam turbine machines

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Authors: Hyung-Joon Kim, Jin-Young Park

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Energy dissipating devices (EDDs) have become more popular as seismic-force-resisting systems for building structures. However, there is little information on the collapse capacities of frames employing EDDs which are an important criterion for their seismic design. This study investigates the collapse capacities of steel frames with TADAS hysteric energy dissipative devices (HEDDs) that become an alternative to steel braced frames. To do this, 5-story steel ordinary concentrically braced frame and steel frame with HEDDs are designed and modeled. Nonlinear dynamic analyses and incremental dynamic analysis with 40 ground motions scaled to maximum considered earthquake are carried out. It is shown from analysis results that the significant enhancement in terms of the collapse capacities is found due to the introduction HEDDs.

Keywords: collapse capacity, incremental dynamic analysis, steel braced frame, TADAS hysteric energy dissipative device

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Authors: Hakim S. Sultan Aljibori

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An experimental procedure is developed to study the performance of composite thin wall cylinders subjected to internal pressure loading for investigations of stress distribution through the composite cylinders wall. Three types of fibers were used in this study are; woven roving glass fiber/epoxy, hybrid fiber/epoxy, and Kevlar fiber/epoxy composite specimens were fabricated and tested. All of these specimens subjected to uniformed pressure load using the hydraulic pump. Axial stress is identified, and values were found after collecting all the results. Comparison between the deferent types of specimens was done. Thus, the present investigation concludes the efficient and effective composite cylinder experimentally and provides a considerable advantage for using woven roving fibers in pressure vessels applications.

Keywords: stress distribution, composite material, internal pressure, glass fiber, hybrid fiber

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Authors: Liu Lin Xin

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With the increasing complexity of systems, log parsing and anomaly detection have become crucial for maintaining system stability. However, traditional methods often struggle with adaptability and accuracy, especially when dealing with rapidly evolving log content and unfamiliar domains. To address these challenges, this paper proposes approach that integrates Retrieval Augmented Generation (RAG) technology with Prompt Engineering for Large Language Models, applied specifically in LogPrompt. This approach enables dynamic log parsing and intelligent anomaly detection by combining real-time information retrieval with prompt optimization. The proposed method significantly enhances the adaptability of log analysis and improves the interpretability of results. Experimental results on several public datasets demonstrate the method's superior performance, particularly in scenarios lacking training data, where it significantly outperforms traditional methods. This paper introduces a novel technical pathway for log parsing and anomaly detection, showcasing the substantial theoretical value and practical potential.

Keywords: log parsing, anomaly detection, RAG, prompt engineering, LLMs

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Authors: M. Amo, A. Alvaro, A. Astudillo, R. Mc Culloch, J. C. del Castillo, M. Gómez, J. M. Martín

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Polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins and dibenzofurans (PCDD/Fs) of course comprise a range of highly toxic compounds that may exist as particulates within the air or accumulate within water supplies, soil, or vegetation. They may be created either ubiquitously or naturally within the environment as a product of forest fires or volcanic eruptions. It is only since the industrial revolution, however, that it has become necessary to closely monitor their generation as a byproduct of manufacturing/combustion processes, in an effort to mitigate widespread contamination events. Of course, the environmental concentrations of these toxins are expected to be extremely low, therefore highly sensitive and accurate methods are required for their determination. Since ionization of non-polar compounds through electrospray and APCI is difficult and inefficient, we evaluate the performance of a novel low-flow Atmospheric Pressure Photoionization (APPI) source for the trace detection of various dioxins and furans using rapid Mass Spectrometry workflows. Air, soil and biota (vegetable matter) samples were collected monthly during one year from various locations within the vicinity of an industrial incinerator in Spain. Analytes were extracted and concentrated using soxhlet extraction in toluene and concentrated by rotavapor and nitrogen flow. Various ionization methods as electrospray (ES) and atmospheric pressure chemical ionization (APCI) were evaluated, however, only the low-flow APPI source was capable of providing the necessary performance, in terms of sensitivity, required for detecting all targeted analytes. In total, 10 analytes including 2,3,7,8-tetrachlorodibenzodioxin (TCDD) were detected and characterized using the APPI-MS method. Both PCDDs and PCFDs were detected most efficiently in negative ionization mode. The most abundant ion always corresponded to the loss of a chlorine and addition of an oxygen, yielding [M-Cl+O]- ions. MRM methods were created in order to provide selectivity for each analyte. No chromatographic separation was employed; however, matrix effects were determined to have a negligible impact on analyte signals. Triple Quadrupole Mass Spectrometry was chosen because of its unique potential for high sensitivity and selectivity. The mass spectrometer used was a Sciex´s Qtrap3200 working in negative Multi Reacting Monitoring Mode (MRM). Typically mass detection limits were determined to be near the 1-pg level. The APPI-MS2 technology applied to the detection of PCDD/Fs allows fast and reliable atmospheric analysis, minimizing considerably operational times and costs, with respect other technologies available. In addition, the limit of detection can be easily improved using a more sensitive mass spectrometer since the background in the analysis channel is very low. The APPI developed by SEADM allows polar and non-polar compounds ionization with high efficiency and repeatability.

Keywords: atmospheric pressure photoionization-mass spectrometry (APPI-MS), dioxin, furan, incinerator

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Authors: Fatemeh Moosavi, Tumelo Franck Nkoshwane

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Peter Drucker the renowned management guru once said, “The best way to predict the future is to create it.” Mr. Drucker is also the man who placed human capital as the most vital resource of any institution. As such any institution bent on creating a better future, requires a competent human capital, one that is able to execute with efficiency and effectiveness the objective a society aspires to. Technology today is accelerating the rate at which many societies transition to knowledge based societies. In this accelerated paradigm, it is imperative that those in leadership establish a platform capable of sustaining the planned future; intellectual capital. The capitalist economy going into the future will not just be sustained by dollars and cents, but by individuals who possess the creativity to enterprise, innovate and create wealth from ideas. This calls for cities of the future, to have this premise at the heart of their future plan, if the objective of designing sustainable and liveable future cities will be realised. The knowledge economy, now transitioning to the creative economy, requires cities of the future to be ‘gardens’ of inspiration, to be places where knowledge, creativity, and innovation can thrive as these instruments are becoming critical assets for creating wealth in the new economic system. Developing nations must accept that learning is a lifelong process that requires keeping abreast with change and should invest in teaching people how to keep learning. The need to continuously update one’s knowledge, turn these cities into vibrant societies, where new ideas create knowledge and in turn enriches the quality of life of the residents. Cities of the future must have as one of their objectives, the ability to motivate their citizens to learn, share knowledge, evaluate the knowledge and use it to create wealth for a just society. The five functional factors suggested by Kevin Lynch;-vitality, meaning/sense, adaptability, access, control, and monitoring should form the basis on which policy makers and urban designers base their plans for future cities. The authors of this paper believe that developing nations “creative economy clusters”, cities where creative industries drive the need for constant new knowledge creating sustainable learning creative cities. Obviously the form, shape and size of these districts should be cognisant of the environmental, cultural and economic characteristics of each locale. Gaborone city in the republic of Botswana is presented as the case study for this paper.

Keywords: learning city, sustainable creative city, creative industry, good city form

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Authors: Olga Hernán-Vega, Patricia López-Rodríguez, David Escot-Bocanegra, Raúl Fernández-Recio, Ignacio Bravo

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Non-Cooperative Target Identification has become a key research domain in the Defense industry since it provides the ability to recognize targets at long distance and under any weather condition. High Resolution Range Profiles, one-dimensional radar images where the reflectivity of a target is projected onto the radar line of sight, are widely used for identification of flying targets. According to that, to face this problem, an approach to Non-Cooperative Target Identification based on the exploitation of Singular Value Decomposition to a matrix of range profiles is presented. Target Identification based on one-dimensional radar images compares a collection of profiles of a given target, namely test set, with the profiles included in a pre-loaded database, namely training set. The classification is improved by using Singular Value Decomposition since it allows to model each aircraft as a subspace and to accomplish recognition in a transformed domain where the main features are easier to extract hence, reducing unwanted information such as noise. Singular Value Decomposition permits to define a signal subspace which contain the highest percentage of the energy, and a noise subspace which will be discarded. This way, only the valuable information of each target is used in the recognition process. The identification algorithm is based on finding the target that minimizes the angle between subspaces and takes place in a transformed domain. Two metrics, F1 and F2, based on Singular Value Decomposition are accomplished in the identification process. In the case of F2, the angle is weighted, since the top vectors set the importance in the contribution to the formation of a target signal, on the contrary F1 simply shows the evolution of the unweighted angle. In order to have a wide database or radar signatures and evaluate the performance, range profiles are obtained through numerical simulation of seven civil aircraft at defined trajectories taken from an actual measurement. Taking into account the nature of the datasets, the main drawback of using simulated profiles instead of actual measured profiles is that the former implies an ideal identification scenario, since measured profiles suffer from noise, clutter and other unwanted information and simulated profiles don't. In this case, the test and training samples have similar nature and usually a similar high signal-to-noise ratio, so as to assess the feasibility of the approach, the addition of noise has been considered before the creation of the test set. The identification results applying the unweighted and weighted metrics are analysed for demonstrating which algorithm provides the best robustness against noise in an actual possible scenario. So as to confirm the validity of the methodology, identification experiments of profiles coming from electromagnetic simulations are conducted, revealing promising results. Considering the dissimilarities between the test and training sets when noise is added, the recognition performance has been improved when weighting is applied. Future experiments with larger sets are expected to be conducted with the aim of finally using actual profiles as test sets in a real hostile situation.

Keywords: HRRP, NCTI, simulated/synthetic database, SVD

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Authors: Joe Collins, Matthias Rother

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Background: Oral non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) are widely used for the relief of joint pain during and post-exercise. However, oral NSAIDs increase the risk of systemic side effects, even in healthy individuals, and retard recovery from muscle soreness. TDT 064 (Flexiseq®), a topical formulation containing ultra-deformable drug-free Sequessome™ vesicles, has demonstrated equivalent efficacy to oral celecoxib in reducing osteoarthritis-associated joint pain and stiffness. TDT 064 does not cause NSAID-related adverse effects. We describe clinical study data and a case report on the effectiveness of TDT 064 in reducing joint pain after exercise. Methods: Participants with a pain score ≥3 (10-point scale) 12–16 hours post-exercise were randomized to receive TDT 064 plus oral placebo, TDT 064 plus oral ketoprofen, or ketoprofen in ultra-deformable phospholipid vesicles plus oral placebo. Results: In the 168 study participants, pain scores were significantly higher with oral ketoprofen plus TDT 064 than with TDT 064 plus placebo in the 7 days post-exercise (P = 0.0240) and recovery from muscle soreness was significantly longer (P = 0.0262). There was a low incidence of adverse events. These data are supported by clinical experience. A 24-year-old male professional rugby player suffered a traumatic lisfranc fracture in March 2014 and underwent operative reconstruction. He had no relevant medical history and was not receiving concomitant medications. He had undergone anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction in 2008. The patient reported restricted training due to pain (score 7/10), stiffness (score 9/10) and poor function, as well as pain when changing direction and running on consecutive days. In July 2014 he started using TDT 064 twice daily at the recommended dose. In November 2014 he noted reduced pain on running (score 2-3/10), decreased morning stiffness (score 4/10) and improved joint mobility and was able to return to competitive rugby without restrictions. No side effects of TDT 064 were reported. Conclusions: TDT 064 shows efficacy against exercise- and injury-induced joint pain, as well as that associated with osteoarthritis. It does not retard muscle soreness recovery after exercise compared with an oral NSAID, making it an alternative approach for the treatment of joint pain during and post-exercise.

Keywords: exercise, joint pain, TDT 064, phospholipid vesicles

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Authors: Balachandra Kumaraswamy, P. G. Poonacha

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Automatic Music Information Retrieval has been one of the challenging topics of research for a few decades now with several interesting approaches reported in the literature. In this paper we have developed a pitch extraction method based on a finite Fourier series approximation to the given window of samples. We then estimate pitch as the fundamental period of the finite Fourier series approximation to the given window of samples. This method uses analysis of the strength of harmonics present in the signal to reduce octave as well as harmonic errors. The performance of our method is compared with three best known methods for pitch extraction, namely, Yin, Windowed Special Normalization of the Auto-Correlation Function and Harmonic Product Spectrum methods of pitch extraction. Our study with artificially created signals as well as music files show that Fourier Approximation method gives much better estimate of pitch with less octave and harmonic errors.

Keywords: pitch, fourier series, yin, normalization of the auto- correlation function, harmonic product, mean square error

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Authors: Seyed Abolhasan Naeini, Saeideh Mohammadi

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Embankment settlement on soft clays has always been problematic due to the high compaction and low shear strength of the soil. Deep soil mixing and geosynthetics are two soil improvement methods in such fields. Here, a numerical study is conducted on the embankment performance on the soft ground improved by deep soil mixing columns and geosynthetics based on the data of a real project. For this purpose, the finite element method is used in the Plaxis 2D software. The Soft Soil Creep model considers the creep phenomenon in the soft clay layer while the Mohr-Columb model simulates other soil layers. Results are verified using the data of an experimental embankment built on deep mixing columns. The effect of depth and diameter of deep mixing columns and the stiffness of geogrid on the vertical and horizontal movements of embankment on clay subsoil will be investigated in the following.

Keywords: PLAXIS 2D, embankment settlement, horizontal movement, deep soil mixing column, geogrid

Procedia PDF Downloads 164

Authors: Cristina Vatamanu, Doina Cosovan, Dragos Gavrilut, Henri Luchian

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In the past few years, the amount of malicious software increased exponentially and, therefore, machine learning algorithms became instrumental in identifying clean and malware files through semi-automated classification. When working with very large datasets, the major challenge is to reach both a very high malware detection rate and a very low false positive rate. Another challenge is to minimize the time needed for the machine learning algorithm to do so. This paper presents a comparative study between different machine learning techniques such as linear classifiers, ensembles, decision trees or various hybrids thereof. The training dataset consists of approximately 2 million clean files and 200.000 infected files, which is a realistic quantitative mixture. The paper investigates the above mentioned methods with respect to both their performance (detection rate and false positive rate) and their practicability.

Keywords: ensembles, false positives, feature selection, one side class algorithm

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Authors: Randa Boukhris, Alima Damak, Dorra Sellami

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Fingervein biometric authentication is one of the most popular and accurate technologies. However, low cost embedded solution is still an open problem. In this paper, a real-time implementation of fingervein recognition process embedded in Raspberry-Pi has been proposed. The use of Raspberry-Pi reduces overall system cost and size while allowing an easy user interface. Implementation of a target technology has guided to opt some specific parallel and simple processing algorithms. In the proposed system, we use four structural directional kernel elements for filtering finger vein images. Then, a Top-Hat and Bottom-Hat kernel filters are used to enhance the visibility and the appearance of venous images. For feature extraction step, a simple Local Directional Code (LDC) descriptor is applied. The proposed system presents an Error Equal Rate (EER) and Identification Rate (IR), respectively, equal to 0.02 and 98%. Furthermore, experimental results show that real-time operations have good performance.

Keywords: biometric, Bottom-Hat, Fingervein, LDC, Rasberry-Pi, ROI, Top-Hat

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Authors: Qiu Chen, Koji Kotani, Feifei Lee, Tadahiro Ohmi

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In this paper, we propose an improved face recognition algorithm using histogram-based features in spatial and frequency domains. For adding spatial information of the face to improve recognition performance, a region-division (RD) method is utilized. The facial area is firstly divided into several regions, then feature vectors of each facial part are generated by Binary Vector Quantization (BVQ) histogram using DCT coefficients in low frequency domains, as well as Local Binary Pattern (LBP) histogram in spatial domain. Recognition results with different regions are first obtained separately and then fused by weighted averaging. Publicly available ORL database is used for the evaluation of our proposed algorithm, which is consisted of 40 subjects with 10 images per subject containing variations in lighting, posing, and expressions. It is demonstrated that face recognition using RD method can achieve much higher recognition rate.

Keywords: binary vector quantization (BVQ), DCT coefficients, face recognition, local binary patterns (LBP)

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Authors: D. Benatiallah, A. Benatiallah, K. Bouchouicha, A. Harouz

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The development and operation of renewable energy known an important development in the world with significant growth potential. Estimate the solar radiation on terrestrial geographic locality is of extreme importance, firstly to choose the appropriate site where to place solar systems (solar power plants for electricity generation, for example) and also for the design and performance analysis of any system using solar energy. In addition, solar radiation measurements are limited to a few areas only in Algeria. Thus, we use theoretical approaches to assess the solar radiation on a given location. The Adrar region is one of the most favorable sites for solar energy use with a medium flow that exceeds 7 kWh / m2 / d and saddle of over 3500 hours per year. Our goal in this work focuses on the creation of a data bank for the given data in the energy field of the Adrar region for the period of the year and the month then the integration of these data into a geographic Information System (GIS) to estimate the solar flux on a location on the map.

Keywords: Adrar, flow, GIS, deposit potential

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Authors: O. M. Omar, A. M. Heniegal, G. D. Abd Elhameed, H. A. Mohamadien

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Local steel slag is produced as a by-product during the oxidation of steel pellets in an electric arc furnace. Using local steel slag waste as a hundred substitute of crushed stone in construction materials would resolve the environmental problems caused by the large-scale depletion of the natural sources of dolomite. This paper reports the experimental study to investigate the influence of a hundred replacement of dolomite as a coarse aggregate with local steel slag, on the fresh and hardened geopolymer concrete properties. The investigation includes traditional testing of hardening concrete, for selected mixes of cement and geopolymer concrete. It was found that local steel slag as a coarse aggregate enhanced the slump test of the fresh state of cement and geopolymer concretes. Nevertheless the unit weight of concretes was affected. Meanwhile, the good performance was observed when fly ash used as geopolymer concrete based.

Keywords: geopolymer, molarity, steel slag, sodium hydroxide, sodium silicate

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Authors: F. R. M. Nascimento, E. E. S. Lora, J. C. E. Palácio

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A mathematical model to investigate the performance of a two stage fixed bed downdraft gasifier operating with air, steam and oxygen mixtures as the gasifying fluid has been developed. The various conditions of mixtures for a double stage fluid entry, have been performed. The model has been validated through a series of experimental tests performed by NEST – The Excellence Group in Thermal and Distributed Generation of the Federal University of Itajubá. Influence of mixtures are analyzed through the Steam to Biomass (SB), Equivalence Ratio (ER) and the Oxygen Concentration (OP) parameters in order to predict the best operating conditions to obtain adequate output gas quality, once is a key parameter for subsequent gas processing in the synthesis of biofuels, heat and electricity generation. Results show that there is an optimal combination in the steam and oxygen content of the gasifying fluid which allows the user find the best conditions to design and operate the equipment according to the desired application.

Keywords: air, equilibrium, downdraft, fixed bed gasification, mathematical modeling, mixtures, oxygen steam

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Authors: Pushplata Garg

Abstract:

Mobility, is an integral part of living and sustainability of urban mobility, is essential not only for, but also for addressing global warming and climate change. However, very little is understood about the obstacles/hurdles and likely challenges in the success of plans for sustainable urban mobility in Indian cities from the public perspective. Whereas some of the problems and issues are common to all cities, others vary considerably with financial status, function, the size of cities and culture of a place. Problems and issues similar in all cities relate to availability, efficiency and safety of public transport, last mile connectivity, universal accessibility, and essential planning and design requirements of pedestrians and cyclists are same. However, certain aspects like the type of means of public transportation, priority for cycling and walking, type of roadside activities, are influenced by the size of the town, average educational and income level of public, financial status of the local authorities, and culture of a place. The extent of public awareness, civic sense, maintenance of public spaces and law enforcement vary significantly from large metropolitan cities to small and medium towns in countries like India. Besides, design requirements for shading, location of public open spaces and sitting areas, street furniture, landscaping also vary depending on the climate of the place. Last mile connectivity plays a major role in success/ effectiveness of public transport system in a city. In addition to the provision of pedestrian footpaths connecting important destinations, sitting spaces and necessary amenities/facilities along footpaths; pedestrian movement to public transit stations is encouraged by the presence of quality roadside public spaces. It is not only the visual attractiveness of streetscape or landscape or the public open spaces along pedestrian movement channels but the activities along that make a street vibrant and attractive. These along with adequate spaces to rest and relax encourage people to walk as is observed in cities with successful public transportation systems. The paper discusses problems and issues of pedestrians for last mile connectivity in the context of Delhi, Chandigarh, Gurgaon, and Roorkee- four Indian cities representing varying urban contexts, that is, of metropolitan, large and small cities.

Keywords: pedestrianisation, roadside public spaces, last mile connectivity, sustainable urban mobility

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Authors: Doyin Afolabi, Phillip Adewole, Oladipupo Sennaike

Abstract:

Most well-known classifiers, including the decision tree algorithm, can make predictions on balanced datasets efficiently. However, the decision tree algorithm tends to be biased towards imbalanced datasets because of the skewness of the distribution of such datasets. To overcome this problem, this study proposes a weighted decision tree algorithm that aims to remove the bias toward the majority class and prevents the reduction of majority observations in imbalance datasets classification. The proposed weighted decision tree algorithm was tested on three imbalanced datasets- cancer dataset, german credit dataset, and banknote dataset. The specificity, sensitivity, and accuracy metrics were used to evaluate the performance of the proposed decision tree algorithm on the datasets. The evaluation results show that for some of the weights of our proposed decision tree, the specificity, sensitivity, and accuracy metrics gave better results compared to that of the ID3 decision tree and decision tree induced with minority entropy for all three datasets.

Keywords: data mining, decision tree, classification, imbalance dataset

Procedia PDF Downloads 125

Authors: Reuben Newell, Edward Archer, Alistair McIlhagger, Calvin Ralph

Abstract:

Modern industry has developed a need for innovative 3D composite materials due to their attractive material properties. Composite materials are composed of a fibre reinforcement encased in a polymer matrix. The fibre reinforcement consists of warp, weft and binder yarns or tows woven together into a preform. The mechanical performance of composite material is largely controlled by the properties of the preform. As a result, the bulk of recent textile research has been focused on the design of high-strength preform architectures. Studies looking at optimisation of the weaving process have largely been neglected. It has been reported that yarns experience varying levels of damage during weaving, resulting in filament breakage and ultimately compromised composite mechanical performance. The weaving parameters involved in causing this yarn damage are not fully understood. Recent studies indicate that poor yarn tension control may be an influencing factor. As tension is increased, the yarn-to-yarn and yarn-to-weaving-equipment interactions are heightened, maximising damage. The correlation between yarn tension variation and weaving damage severity has never been adequately researched or quantified. A novel study is needed which accesses the influence of tension variation on the mechanical properties of woven yarns. This study has looked to quantify the variation of yarn tension throughout weaving and sought to link the impact of tension to weaving damage. Multiple yarns were randomly selected, and their tension was measured across the creel and shedding stages of weaving, using a hand-held tension meter. Sections of the same yarn were subsequently cut from the loom machine and tensile tested. A comparison study was made between the tensile strength of pristine and tensioned yarns to determine the induced weaving damage. Yarns from bobbins at the rear of the creel were under the least amount of tension (0.5-2.0N) compared to yarns positioned at the front of the creel (1.5-3.5N). This increase in tension has been linked to the sharp turn in the yarn path between bobbins at the front of the creel and creel I-board. Creel yarns under the lower tension suffered a 3% loss of tensile strength, compared to 7% for the greater tensioned yarns. During shedding, the tension on the yarns was higher than in the creel. The upper shed yarns were exposed to a decreased tension (3.0-4.5N) compared to the lower shed yarns (4.0-5.5N). Shed yarns under the lower tension suffered a 10% loss of tensile strength, compared to 14% for the greater tensioned yarns. Interestingly, the most severely damaged yarn was exposed to both the largest creel and shedding tensions. This study confirms for the first time that yarns under a greater level of tension suffer an increased amount of weaving damage. Significant variation of yarn tension has been identified across the creel and shedding stages of weaving. This leads to a variance of mechanical properties across the woven preform and ultimately the final composite part. The outcome from this study highlights the need for optimised yarn tension control during preform manufacture to minimize yarn-induced weaving damage.

Keywords: optimisation of preform manufacture, tensile testing of damaged tows, variation of yarn weaving tension, weaving damage

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Authors: Nikhil Jain, Yang Xu, Bin Yu

Abstract:

The material behavior of graphene, a single layer of carbon lattice, is extremely sensitive to its dielectric environment. We demonstrate improvement in electronic performance of graphene nanowire interconnects with full encapsulation by lattice-matching, chemically inert, 2D layered insulator hexagonal boron nitride (h- BN). A novel layer-based transfer technique is developed to construct the h-BN/MLG/h-BN heterostructures. The encapsulated graphene wires are characterized and compared with that on SiO2 or h-BN substrate without passivating h-BN layer. Significant improvements in maximum current-carrying density, breakdown threshold, and power density in encapsulated graphene wires are observed. These critical improvements are achieved without compromising the carrier transport characteristics in graphene. Furthermore, graphene wires exhibit electrical behavior less insensitive to ambient conditions, as compared with the non-passivated ones. Overall, h-BN/graphene/h- BN heterostructure presents a robust material platform towards the implementation of high-speed carbon-based interconnects.

Keywords: two-dimensional nanosheet, graphene, hexagonal boron nitride, heterostructure, interconnects

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Authors: Patrick Santos, João Casal, João Santos Luis Varandas, Tiago Alves, Carlos Romeiro, Sérgio Lourenço

Abstract:

Nowadays, technology makes it possible to, in one hand, communicate with various objects of the daily life through the Internet, and in the other, put these objects interacting with each other through this channel. Simultaneously, with the raise of smartphones as the most ubiquitous technology on persons lives, emerge new agents for these devices - Intelligent Personal Assistants. These agents have the goal of helping the user manage and organize his information as well as supporting the user in his/her day-to-day tasks. Moreover, other emergent concept is the Cloud Computing, which allows computation and storage to get out of the users devices, bringing benefits in terms of performance, security, interoperability and others. Connecting these three paradigms, in this work we propose an architecture for an intelligent system which provides an interface that assists the user on smart environments, informing, suggesting actions and allowing to manage the objects of his/her daily life.

Keywords: internet of things, cloud, intelligent personal assistant, architecture

Procedia PDF Downloads 508