Search results for: covariance structure analysis

Authors: P. Sowa

Abstract:

The new idea of analyze of power system failure with use of artificial neural network is proposed. An analysis of the possibility of simulating phenomena accompanying system faults and restitution is described. It was indicated that the universal model for the simulation of phenomena in whole analyzed range does not exist. The main classic method of search of optimal structure and parameter identification are described shortly. The example with results of calculation is shown.

Keywords: Dynamic equivalents, Network reduction, Neural networks, Power system analysis.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1896

Authors: T. K. Sriram, Joydip Dhar

Abstract:

Models based on stage structure have found varied applications in population models. This paper proposes a stage structured model to study the trends in the computer and video game playing population of US. The game paying population is divided into three compartments based on their age group. After simulating the mathematical model, a forecast of the number of game players in each stage as well as an approximation of the average age of game players in future has been made.

Keywords: Age structure, Forecasting, Mathematical modeling, Stage structure.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1901

Authors: R. M. Kashim

Abstract:

The study investigated primary school teachers’ conceptual and procedural knowledge of rational numbers and its effects on pupil’s achievement in rational numbers. Specifically, primary school teachers’ level of conceptual knowledge about rational numbers, primary school teachers’ level of procedural knowledge about rational numbers, and the effects of teachers conceptual and procedural knowledge on their pupils understanding of rational numbers in primary schools is investigated. The study was carried out in Bauchi metropolis in the Bauchi state of Nigeria. The design of the study was a multi-stage design. The first stage was a descriptive design. The second stage involves a pre-test, post-test only quasi-experimental design. Two instruments were used for the data collection in the study. These were Conceptual and Procedural knowledge test (CPKT) and Rational number achievement test (RAT), the population of the study comprises of three (3) mathematics teachers’ holders of Nigerian Certificate in Education (NCE) teaching primary six and 210 pupils in their intact classes were used for the study. The data collected were analyzed using mean, standard deviation, analysis of variance, analysis of covariance and t- test. The findings indicated that the pupils taught rational number by a teacher that has high conceptual and procedural knowledge understand and perform better than the pupil taught by a teacher who has low conceptual and procedural knowledge of rational number. It is, therefore, recommended that teachers in primary schools should be encouraged to enrich their conceptual knowledge of rational numbers. Also, the superiority performance of teachers in procedural knowledge in rational number should not become an obstruction of understanding. Teachers Conceptual and procedural knowledge of rational numbers should be balanced so that primary school pupils will have a view of better teaching and learning of rational number in our contemporary schools.

Keywords: Achievement, conceptual knowledge, procedural knowledge, rational numbers.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 886

Authors: Rafał Adamczak

Abstract:

State-of-the-art methods for secondary structure (Porter, Psi-PRED, SAM-T99sec, Sable) and solvent accessibility (Sable, ACCpro) predictions use evolutionary profiles represented by the position specific scoring matrix (PSSM). It has been demonstrated that evolutionary profiles are the most important features in the feature space for these predictions. Unfortunately applying PSSM matrix leads to high dimensional feature spaces that may create problems with parameter optimization and generalization. Several recently published suggested that applying feature extraction for the PSSM matrix may result in improvements in secondary structure predictions. However, none of the top performing methods considered here utilizes dimensionality reduction to improve generalization. In the present study, we used simple and fast methods for features selection (t-statistics, information gain) that allow us to decrease the dimensionality of PSSM matrix by 75% and improve generalization in the case of secondary structure prediction compared to the Sable server.

Keywords: Secondary structure prediction, feature selection, position specific scoring matrix.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1935

Authors: Leehter Yao, Kuei-Song Weng, Cherng-Dir Huang

Abstract:

A fuzzy classifier using multiple ellipsoids approximating decision regions for classification is to be designed in this paper. An algorithm called Gustafson-Kessel algorithm (GKA) with an adaptive distance norm based on covariance matrices of prototype data points is adopted to learn the ellipsoids. GKA is able toadapt the distance norm to the underlying distribution of the prototypedata points except that the sizes of ellipsoids need to be determined a priori. To overcome GKA's inability to determine appropriate size ofellipsoid, the genetic algorithm (GA) is applied to learn the size ofellipsoid. With GA combined with GKA, it will be shown in this paper that the proposed method outperforms the benchmark algorithms as well as algorithms in the field.

Keywords: Ellipsoids, genetic algorithm, classification, fuzzyc-means (FCM)

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1692

Authors: N. N. Omehe

Abstract:

CdSiP2 and CdsiAs2 are nonlinear optical materials for near and mid-infrared applications. Density functional theory has been applied to study the structure, band gap, and optical properties of these materials. The pseudopotential method was used in the form of projector augmented wave (PAW) and norm-conserving, the band structure calculations yielded a band gap of 1.55 eV and 0.88 eV for CdSiP2 and CdsiAs2 respectively. The values of ε1(ω)  from the doelectric function calculations are 15 and 14.9 CdSiP2 and CdsiAs2 respectively.

Keywords: Band structure, chalcopyrite, near-infrared materials, mid-infrared materials, nonlinear material, optical properties.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 240

Authors: Shuimiao Wan, Chao Yuan, Baoguang Tian

Abstract:

In statistics parameter theory, usually the parameter estimations have two kinds, one is the least-square estimation (LSE), and the other is the best linear unbiased estimation (BLUE). Due to the determining theorem of minimum variance unbiased estimator (MVUE), the parameter estimation of BLUE in linear model is most ideal. But since the calculations are complicated or the covariance is not given, people are hardly to get the solution. Therefore, people prefer to use LSE rather than BLUE. And this substitution will take some losses. To quantize the losses, many scholars have presented many kinds of different relative efficiencies in different views. For the linear weighted regression model, this paper discusses the relative efficiencies of LSE of β to BLUE of β. It also defines two new relative efficiencies and gives their lower bounds.

Keywords: Linear weighted regression, Relative efficiency, Lower bound, Parameter estimation.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2117

Authors: Ming-Chung Tsai, Kuan-Peng Chen, Zheng-Yao

Abstract:

A systematic and exhaustive method based on the group structure of a unitary Lie algebra is proposed to generate an enormous number of quantum codes. With respect to the algebraic structure, the orthogonality condition, which is the central rule of generating quantum codes, is proved to be fully equivalent to the distinguishability of the elements in this structure. In addition, four types of quantum codes are classified according to the relation of the codeword operators and some initial quantum state. By linking the unitary Lie algebra with the additive group, the classical correspondences of some of these quantum codes can be rendered.

Keywords: Quotient-Algebra Partition, Codeword Spinors, Basis Codewords, Syndrome Spinors

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1414

Authors: Ning Dong, Bo Yu

Abstract:

We are concerned with a class of quadratic matrix equations arising from the overdamped mass-spring system. By exploring the structure of coefficient matrices, we propose a fast cyclic reduction algorithm to calculate the extreme solutions of the equation. Numerical experiments show that the proposed algorithm outperforms the original cyclic reduction and the structure-preserving doubling algorithm.

Keywords: Fast algorithm, Cyclic reduction, Overdampedquadratic matrix equation, Structure-preserving doubling algorithm

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1333

Authors: Jin Myoung Kim, Tae Ho Cho

Abstract:

Wireless Sensor networks have a wide spectrum of civil and military applications that call for secure communication such as the terrorist tracking, target surveillance in hostile environments. For the secure communication in these application areas, we propose a method for generating a hierarchical key structure for the efficient group key management. In this paper, we apply A* algorithm in generating a hierarchical key structure by considering the history data of the ratio of addition and eviction of sensor nodes in a location where sensor nodes are deployed. Thus generated key tree structure provides an efficient way of managing the group key in terms of energy consumption when addition and eviction event occurs. A* algorithm tries to minimize the number of messages needed for group key management by the history data. The experimentation with the tree shows efficiency of the proposed method.

Keywords: Heuristic search, key management, security, sensor network.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1683

Authors: Fan-Yong Meng

Abstract:

In this paper, we first introduce the model of games on augmenting systems with a coalition structure, which can be seen as an extension of games on augmenting systems. The core of games on augmenting systems with a coalition structure is defined, and an equivalent form is discussed. Meantime, the Shapley function for this type of games is given, and two axiomatic systems of the given Shapley function are researched. When the given games are quasi convex, the relationship between the core and the Shapley function is discussed, which does coincide as in classical case. Finally, a numerical example is given.

Keywords: Cooperative game, augmenting system, Shapley function, core.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1194

Authors: Lenka Krulikovská, Jaroslav Polec, Michal Martinovič

Abstract:

In this paper we propose a method which improves the efficiency of video coding. Our method combines an adaptive GOP (group of pictures) structure and the shot cut detection. We have analyzed different approaches for shot cut detection with aim to choose the most appropriate one. The next step is to situate N frames to the positions of detected cuts during the process of video encoding. Finally the efficiency of the proposed method is confirmed by simulations and the obtained results are compared with fixed GOP structures of sizes 4, 8, 12, 16, 32, 64, 128 and GOP structure with length of entire video. Proposed method achieved the gain in bit rate from 0.37% to 50.59%, while providing PSNR (Peak Signal-to-Noise Ratio) gain from 1.33% to 0.26% in comparison to simulated fixed GOP structures.

Keywords: Adaptive GOP structure, video coding, video content, shot cut detection.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2290

Authors: Ashutosh Kumar Singh, Ravi Kumar P

Abstract:

This paper gives an introduction to Web mining, then describes Web Structure mining in detail, and explores the data structure used by the Web. This paper also explores different Page Rank algorithms and compare those algorithms used for Information Retrieval. In Web Mining, the basics of Web mining and the Web mining categories are explained. Different Page Rank based algorithms like PageRank (PR), WPR (Weighted PageRank), HITS (Hyperlink-Induced Topic Search), DistanceRank and DirichletRank algorithms are discussed and compared. PageRanks are calculated for PageRank and Weighted PageRank algorithms for a given hyperlink structure. Simulation Program is developed for PageRank algorithm because PageRank is the only ranking algorithm implemented in the search engine (Google). The outputs are shown in a table and chart format.

Keywords: Web Mining, Web Structure, Web Graph, LinkAnalysis, PageRank, Weighted PageRank, HITS, DistanceRank, DirichletRank,

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2834

Authors: Arishai Akraudom

Abstract:

The objective of this research was to study the themes of alcoholic beverage advertisements in Thailand after the enactment of the 2008 Alcoholic Beverage Control Act. Data was collected through textual analysis of 35 television and cinema advertisements for alcoholic beverage products broadcast in Thailand. Nine themes were identified, seven of which were themes that had previously been used before the new law (i.e. power, competition, friendship, Thainess, success, romance and safety) and two of which were new themes (volunteerism and conservation) that were introduced as a form of adaptation and negotiation in response to the new law.

Keywords: Alcoholic Beverage Control Act 2008, Alcohol Advertising, Analysis of Themes, Narrative Structure, Health Communication.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1620

Authors: Viriyavudh Sim, Jung Kyu Choi, Yong Ju Kwak, Oh Hyeon Jeon, Woo Young Jung

Abstract:

In this study, we investigated the buckling performance of basalt fiber reinforced polymer (BFRP) sandwich infill panels. Fiber Reinforced Polymer (FRP) is a major evolution for energy dissipation when used as infill material of frame structure, a basic Polymer Matrix Composite (PMC) infill wall system consists of two FRP laminates surrounding an infill of foam core. Furthermore, this type of component is for retrofitting and strengthening frame structure to withstand the seismic disaster. In-plane compression was considered in the numerical analysis with ABAQUS platform to determine the buckling failure load of BFRP infill panel system. The present result shows that the sandwich BFRP infill panel system has higher resistance to buckling failure than those of glass fiber reinforced polymer (GFRP) infill panel system, i.e. 16% increase in buckling resistance capacity.

Keywords: Basalt fiber reinforced polymer, buckling performance, FEM analysis, sandwich infill panel.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1350

Authors: I. Nassiri, B. Goliaei, M. Tavassoli

Abstract:

The ability to distinguish missense nucleotide substitutions that contribute to harmful effect from those that do not is a difficult problem usually accomplished through functional in vivo analyses. In this study, instead current biochemical methods, the effects of missense mutations upon protein structure and function were assayed by means of computational methods and information from the databases. For this order, the effects of new missense mutations in exon 5 of PTEN gene upon protein structure and function were examined. The gene coding for PTEN was identified and localized on chromosome region 10q23.3 as the tumor suppressor gene. The utilization of these methods were shown that c.319G>A and c.341T>G missense mutations that were recognized in patients with breast cancer and Cowden disease, could be pathogenic. This method could be use for analysis of missense mutation in others genes.

Keywords: Bioinformatics, missense mutations, PTEN tumorsuppressor gene.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2389

Authors: Norazah Mohd Suki, Norbayah Mohd Suki

Abstract:

This research aims to examine the influence of mediating effect of corporate social responsibility on the relationship between consumer awareness of green marketing and purchase intentions in the retail setting. Data from 200 valid questionnaires was analyzed using the partial least squares (PLS) approach for the analysis of structural equation models with SmartPLS computer program version 2.0 as research data does not necessarily have a multivariate normal distribution and is less sensitive to sample size than other covariance approaches. PLS results revealed that corporate social responsibility partially mediated the link between consumer awareness of green marketing and purchase intentions of the product in the retail setting. Marketing managers should allocate a sufficient portion of their budget to appropriate corporate social responsibility activities by engaging in voluntary programs for positive return on investment leading to increased business profitability and long run business sustainability. The outcomes of the mediating effects of corporate social responsibility add a new impetus to the growing literature and preceding discoveries on consumer green marketing awareness, which is inadequately researched in the Malaysian setting. Direction for future research is also presented.

Keywords: Green marketing awareness, corporate social responsibility, partial least squares, purchase intention.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1583

Authors: Brigitte Rafael, Stefan M. Oertl

Abstract:

Music segmentation is a key issue in music information retrieval (MIR) as it provides an insight into the internal structure of a composition. Structural information about a composition can improve several tasks related to MIR such as searching and browsing large music collections, visualizing musical structure, lyric alignment, and music summarization. The authors of this paper present the MTSSM framework, a twolayer framework for the multi-track segmentation of symbolic music. The strength of this framework lies in the combination of existing methods for local track segmentation and the application of global structure information spanning via multiple tracks. The first layer of the MTSSM uses various string matching techniques to detect the best candidate segmentations for each track of a multi-track composition independently. The second layer combines all single track results and determines the best segmentation for each track in respect to the global structure of the composition.

Keywords: Pattern Recognition, Music Information Retrieval, Machine Learning.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1627

Authors: Z. Abdullah, A. R. Hamdan

Abstract:

This paper is meant to analyze the ranking of University of Malaysia Terengganu, UMT’s website in the World Wide Web. There are only few researches have been done on comparing the ranking of universities’ websites so this research will be able to determine whether the existing UMT’s website is serving its purpose which is to introduce UMT to the world. The ranking is based on hub and authority values which are accordance to the structure of the website. These values are computed using two websearching algorithms, HITS and SALSA. Three other universities’ websites are used as the benchmarks which are UM, Harvard and Stanford. The result is clearly showing that more work has to be done on the existing UMT’s website where important pages according to the benchmarks, do not exist in UMT’s pages. The ranking of UMT’s website will act as a guideline for the web-developer to develop a more efficient website.

Keywords: Algorithm, ranking, website, web structure mining.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1667

Authors: Konstantinos G. Kostinakis, Asimina M. Athanatopoulou

Abstract:

A key issue in seismic risk analysis within the context of Performance-Based Earthquake Engineering is the evaluation of the expected seismic damage of structures under a specific earthquake ground motion. The assessment of the seismic performance strongly depends on the choice of the seismic Intensity Measure (IM), which quantifies the characteristics of a ground motion that are important to the nonlinear structural response. Several conventional IMs of ground motion have been used to estimate their damage potential to structures. Yet, none of them has been proved to be able to predict adequately the seismic damage. Therefore, alternative, scalar intensity measures, which take into account not only ground motion characteristics but also structural information have been proposed. Some of these IMs are based on integration of spectral values over a range of periods, in an attempt to account for the information that the shape of the acceleration, velocity or displacement spectrum provides. The adequacy of a number of these IMs in predicting the structural damage of 3D R/C buildings is investigated in the present paper. The investigated IMs, some of which are structure specific and some are non structure-specific, are defined via integration of spectral values. To achieve this purpose three symmetric in plan R/C buildings are studied. The buildings are subjected to 59 bidirectional earthquake ground motions. The two horizontal accelerograms of each ground motion are applied along the structural axes. The response is determined by nonlinear time history analysis. The structural damage is expressed in terms of the maximum interstory drift as well as the overall structural damage index. The values of the aforementioned seismic damage measures are correlated with seven scalar ground motion IMs. The comparative assessment of the results revealed that the structure-specific IMs present higher correlation with the seismic damage of the three buildings. However, the adequacy of the IMs for estimation of the structural damage depends on the response parameter adopted. Furthermore, it was confirmed that the widely used spectral acceleration at the fundamental period of the structure is a good indicator of the expected earthquake damage level.

Keywords: Damage measures, Bidirectional excitation, Spectral based IMs, R/C buildings.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2380

Authors: Leila Amjad, Mahsa Shafighi

Abstract:

The role of the pollen grain, with to the reproductive process of higher plants, is to deliver the spermatic cells to the embryo sac for egg fertilization. The aim of this project was study the effect of electromagnetic fields on structure and pollen grains development in Chenopodium album. Anthers of Chenopodium album L. were collected at different stages of development from control (without electromagnetic field) and plants grown at 10m from the field sources. Structure and development of pollen grains were studied and compared. The studying pollen structure by Light and Scanning electron microscopy showed that electromagnetic fields reduction of pollen grains number and male sterility, thus , in some anthers, pollen grains were attached together and deformed compared to control ones. The data presented suggest that prolonged exposures of plants to magnetic field may cause different biological effects at the cellular tissue and organ levels.

Keywords: Electromagnetic fields, pollen, Chenopodium albumL.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2195

Authors: G. Reinhart, J. Pohl

Abstract:

Manufacturing companies are facing a broad variety of challenges caused by a dynamic production environment. To succeed in such an environment, it is crucial to minimize the loss of time required to trigger the adaptation process of a company-s production structures. This paper presents an approach for the continuous monitoring of production structures by neurologic principles. It enhances classical monitoring concepts, which are principally focused on reactive strategies, and enables companies to act proactively. Thereby, strategic aspects regarding the harmonization of certain life cycles are integrated into the decision making process for triggering the reconfiguration process of the production structure.

Keywords: Continuous Factory Planning, Production Structure, Production Management.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1446

Authors: Estela Macedo Alves

Abstract:

This paper is an overview on public policy analysis focused on the study of Brazilian public policy making process. The methodology is based on the review of some theories on the subject, linking them to Brazilian reality. The study presents basic policy analysis concepts, such as policy, polity and politics. It is emphasized John Kingdon's Multiple Stream Model, because of its clarifying aspects concerning public policies formulation process in democratic countries. In this path it was possible to establish interpretations on environmental public policies in Brazil and understand its methods, instead of presenting only a case study. At the end, it is possible to connect theory with Brazilian reality, identifying negative and positive points of its political processes and structure.

Keywords: Brazilian policies, environmental public policy, multiple stream model, public policy analysis.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2170

Authors: P. V. S. Mascarenhas, B. C. P. Albuquerque, D. J. F. Campos, L. L. Almeida, V. R. Domingues, L. C. S. M. Ozelim

Abstract:

Retaining slope structures are increasingly considered in geotechnical engineering projects due to extensive urban cities growth. These kinds of engineering constructions may present instabilities over the time and may require reinforcement or even rebuilding of the structure. In this context, statistical analysis is an important tool for decision making regarding retaining structures. This study approaches the failure probability of the construction of a retaining wall over the debris of an old and collapsed one. The new solution’s extension length will be of approximately 350 m and will be located over the margins of the Lake Paranoá, Brasilia, in the capital of Brazil. The building process must also account for the utilization of the ruins as a caisson. A series of in situ and laboratory experiments defined local soil strength parameters. A Standard Penetration Test (SPT) defined the in situ soil stratigraphy. Also, the parameters obtained were verified using soil data from a collection of masters and doctoral works from the University of Brasília, which is similar to the local soil. Initial studies show that the concrete wall is the proper solution for this case, taking into account the technical, economic and deterministic analysis. On the other hand, in order to better analyze the statistical significance of the factor-of-safety factors obtained, a Monte Carlo analysis was performed for the concrete wall and two more initial solutions. A comparison between the statistical and risk results generated for the different solutions indicated that a Gabion solution would better fit the financial and technical feasibility of the project.

Keywords: Economical analysis, probability of failure, retaining walls, statistical analysis.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1023

Authors: A. Papalou, K. Vozikis

Abstract:

The aim of this paper is the analysis and preservation of lime kilns, focusing on the structure, construction, and functionality of vertical shaft lime kilns of the Cap Corse in Corsica. Plans and sections of two lime kilns are presented in detail, providing an overall picture of this specific industrial heritage. The potential damage areas are identified performing structural analysis of a lime kiln using the finite element method. A restoration and strengthening technique that satisfies the directions of the Charter of Venice is presented using post-tensioning tendons. Recommendations are given to preserve and promote these important historical structures integrating them into the custom footpath.

Keywords: industrial heritage, lime kilns, post-tensioning, preservation

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1603

Authors: H. Elftouh, N. T. Amar, M. Aghoutane, M. Boussouis

Abstract:

In this paper, two bandstop filters resonating at 5.25 GHz and 7.3 GHz using Defected Microstrip Structure (DMS) are discussed. These slots are incorporated in the feed lines of filters to perform a serious LC resonance property in certain frequency and suppress the spurious signals. Therefore, this method keeps the filter size unchanged and makes a resonance frequency that is due to the abrupt change of the current path of the filter. If the application requires elimination of this band of frequencies, additional filter elements are required, which can only be accomplished by adding this DMS element resonant at desired frequency band rejection. The filters are optimized and simulated with Computer Simulation Technology (CST) tool.

Keywords: Defected microstrip structure, microstrip filters, passive filter.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1373

Authors: T. Pavic Kramaric, M. Kitic

Abstract:

The purpose of this article is to analyze the market structure as well as the degree of concentration in insurance markets in new EU member states. The analysis was conducted using several most commonly used concentration indicators such as concentration ratio, Herfindahl-Hirschman index and entropy index. These indicators were calculated for the 2000-2010 period on the basis of total gross written premium as the most relevant indicator of market power in insurance markets. The results of the analysis showed that in all observed countries the level of concentration decreased, though with significantly different intensity. Yet, in some countries, the level of concentration remains very high.

Keywords: insurance market, concentration, new EU member states

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 3430

Authors: Jelena R. Pejović, Nina N. Serdar

Abstract:

This paper presents an analysis of the “Performance-Based” seismic design method, in order to overcome the perceived disadvantages and limitations of the existing seismic design approach based on force, in engineering practice. Bearing in mind, the specificity of the earthquake as a load and the fact that the seismic resistance of the structures solely depends on its behaviour in the nonlinear field, traditional seismic design approach based on force and linear analysis is not adequate. “Performance-Based” seismic design method is based on nonlinear analysis and can be used in everyday engineering practice. This paper presents the application of this method to eight-story high reinforced concrete building with combined structural system (reinforced concrete frame structural system in one direction and reinforced concrete ductile wall system in other direction). The nonlinear time-history analysis is performed on the spatial model of the structure using program Perform 3D, where the structure is exposed to forty real earthquake records. For considered building, large number of results were obtained. It was concluded that using this method we could, with a high degree of reliability, evaluate structural behavior under earthquake. It is obtained significant differences in the response of structures to various earthquake records. Also analysis showed that frame structural system had not performed well at the effect of earthquake records on soil like sand and gravel, while a ductile wall system had a satisfactory behavior on different types of soils.

Keywords: Ductile wall, frame system, nonlinear time-history analysis, performance-based methodology, RC building.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1495

Authors: Amin Abedi, Naser Vosoughi, Mohammad Bagher Ghofrani

Abstract:

Double heterogeneity of randomly located pebbles in the core and Coated Fuel Particles (CFPs) in the pebbles are specific features in pebble bed reactors and usually, because of difficulty to model with MCNP code capabilities, are neglected. In this study, characteristics of HTR-10, Tsinghua University research reactor, are used and not only double heterogeneous but also truncated CFPs and Pebbles are considered.Firstly, 8335 CFPs are distributed randomly in a pebble and then the core of reactor is filled with those pebbles and graphite pebbles as moderator such that 57:43 ratio of fuel and moderator pebbles is established.Finally, four different core configurations are modeled. They are Simple Cubic (SC) structure with truncated pebbles,SC structure without truncated pebble, and Simple Hexagonal(SH) structure without truncated pebbles and SH structure with truncated pebbles. Results like effective multiplication factor (Keff), critical height,etc. are compared with available data.

Keywords: Double Heterogeneity, HTR-10, MCNP, Pebble Bed Reactor, Stochastic Geometry.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2855

Authors: Riaz A. Bhatti, Wang Yanrong

Abstract:

Particle damping is a technique to reduce the structural vibrations by means of placing small metallic particles inside a cavity that is attached to the structure at location of high vibration amplitudes. In this paper, we have presented an analytical model to simulate the particle damping of two dimensional transient vibrations in structure operating under high centrifugal loads. The simulation results show that this technique remains effective as long as the ratio of the dynamic acceleration of the structure to the applied centrifugal load is more than 0.1. Particle damping increases with the increase of particle to structure mass ratio. However, unlike to the case of particle damping in the absence of centrifugal loads where the damping efficiency strongly depends upon the size of the cavity, here this dependence becomes very weak. Despite the simplicity of the model, the simulation results are considerably in good agreement with the very scarce experimental data available in the literature for particle damping under centrifugal loads.

Keywords: Impact damping, particle damping, vibration control, vibration suppression.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1798