Search results for: Robot control
936 Discrimination of Alcoholic Subjects using Second Order Autoregressive Modelling of Brain Signals Evoked during Visual Stimulus Perception
Authors: Ramaswamy Palaniappan
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In this paper, a second order autoregressive (AR) model is proposed to discriminate alcoholics using single trial gamma band Visual Evoked Potential (VEP) signals using 3 different classifiers: Simplified Fuzzy ARTMAP (SFA) neural network (NN), Multilayer-perceptron-backpropagation (MLP-BP) NN and Linear Discriminant (LD). Electroencephalogram (EEG) signals were recorded from alcoholic and control subjects during the presentation of visuals from Snodgrass and Vanderwart picture set. Single trial VEP signals were extracted from EEG signals using Elliptic filtering in the gamma band spectral range. A second order AR model was used as gamma band VEP exhibits pseudo-periodic behaviour and second order AR is optimal to represent this behaviour. This circumvents the requirement of having to use some criteria to choose the correct order. The averaged discrimination errors of 2.6%, 2.8% and 11.9% were given by LD, MLP-BP and SFA classifiers. The high LD discrimination results show the validity of the proposed method to discriminate between alcoholic subjects.Keywords: Linear Discriminant, Neural Network, VisualEvoked Potential.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1611935 Using Metacognitive Strategies in Reading Comprehension by EFL Students
Authors: Simin Sadeghi-Saeb
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Metacognitive strategies consistently play important roles in reading comprehension. The metacognitive strategies involve the active monitoring and consequent regulation and orchestration of the cognitive processes in relation to the cognitive objects or data on which they bear. In this paper, the effect of instruction in using metacognitive strategies on reading academic materials, type of metacognitive strategies were mostly used by college university students before and after the instruction and the level they use those strategies before and after the instruction were studied. For these aims, 50 female college students were chosen. Then, they were divided randomly into two groups, experimental and control groups. At first session, students in both groups took the standard TOFEL exam. After the pre-test had been administered, the instruction began. After treatment, a post-test was taken. It is useful to state that after pre-test and post-test the same questionnaire was handed to the students of experimental group. The results of this research show that the instruction of metacognitive strategies has positive effect on the students' scores in reading comprehension tests. Furthermore, it showed that before and after the instruction, the students' usage of metacognitive strategies changed. Also, it demonstrated that the instruction affected the students' level of metacognitive strategies' usage.
Keywords: EFL students, English reading comprehension, instruction, metacognitive strategies.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1582934 Using Structural Equation Modeling in Causal Relationship Design for Balanced-Scorecards' Strategic Map
Authors: A. Saghaei, R. Ghasemi
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Through 1980s, management accounting researchers described the increasing irrelevance of traditional control and performance measurement systems. The Balanced Scorecard (BSC) is a critical business tool for a lot of organizations. It is a performance measurement system which translates mission and strategy into objectives. Strategy map approach is a development variant of BSC in which some necessary causal relations must be established. To recognize these relations, experts usually use experience. It is also possible to utilize regression for the same purpose. Structural Equation Modeling (SEM), which is one of the most powerful methods of multivariate data analysis, obtains more appropriate results than traditional methods such as regression. In the present paper, we propose SEM for the first time to identify the relations between objectives in the strategy map, and a test to measure the importance of relations. In SEM, factor analysis and test of hypotheses are done in the same analysis. SEM is known to be better than other techniques at supporting analysis and reporting. Our approach provides a framework which permits the experts to design the strategy map by applying a comprehensive and scientific method together with their experience. Therefore this scheme is a more reliable method in comparison with the previously established methods.Keywords: BSC, SEM, Strategy map.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2704933 Secure Resource Selection in Computational Grid Based on Quantitative Execution Trust
Authors: G.Kavitha, V.Sankaranarayanan
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Grid computing provides a virtual framework for controlled sharing of resources across institutional boundaries. Recently, trust has been recognised as an important factor for selection of optimal resources in a grid. We introduce a new method that provides a quantitative trust value, based on the past interactions and present environment characteristics. This quantitative trust value is used to select a suitable resource for a job and eliminates run time failures arising from incompatible user-resource pairs. The proposed work will act as a tool to calculate the trust values of the various components of the grid and there by improves the success rate of the jobs submitted to the resource on the grid. The access to a resource not only depend on the identity and behaviour of the resource but also upon its context of transaction, time of transaction, connectivity bandwidth, availability of the resource and load on the resource. The quality of the recommender is also evaluated based on the accuracy of the feedback provided about a resource. The jobs are submitted for execution to the selected resource after finding the overall trust value of the resource. The overall trust value is computed with respect to the subjective and objective parameters.Keywords: access control, feedback, grid computing, reputation, security, trust, trust parameter.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1487932 Alternative Approach toward Waste Treatment: Biodrying for Solid Waste in Malaysia
Authors: Nurul' Ain Ab Jalil, Hassan Basri
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This paper reviews the objectives, methods and results of previous studies on biodrying of solid waste in several countries. Biodrying of solid waste is a novel technology in developing countries such as in Malaysia where high moisture content in organic waste makes the segregation process for recycling purposes complicated and diminishes the calorific value for the use of fuel source. In addition, the high moisture content also encourages the breeding of vectors and disease-bearing animals. From the laboratory results, the average moisture content of organic waste, paper, plastics and metals are 58.17%, 37.93%, 29.79% and 1.03% respectively for UKM campus. Biodrying of solid waste is a simple method of waste treatment as well as a cost-efficient technology to dry the solid waste. The process depends on temperature monitoring and air flow control along with the natural biodegradable process of organic waste. This review shows that the biodrying of solid waste method has high potential in treatment and recycling of solid waste, be useful for biodrying study and implementation in Malaysia.
Keywords: Biodrying of solid waste, Organic waste, Fuel source.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1976931 Intervention of Sambucus Nigra Polyphenolic Extract in Experimental Arterial Hypertension
Authors: Manuela Ciocoiu, Laur Badescu, Oana Badulescu, Magda Badescu
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The research focuses on the effects of polyphenols extracted from Sambucus nigra fruit, using an experimental arterial hypertension pattern, as well as their influence on the oxidative stress. The results reveal the normalization of the reduced glutathion concentration, as well as a considerable reduction in the malondialdehide serum concentration by the polyphenolic protection. The rat blood pressure values were recorded using a CODATM system, which uses a non-invasive blood pressure measuring method. All the measured blood pressure components revealed a biostatistically significant (p<0.05) blood pressure drop between the AHT and the AHT+P groups. The results prove that oxidative stress is considerably lower, statistically speaking, in rats with hypertension but also provided with natural polyphenolic protection from Sambucus nigra fruits than in the rats belonging to the control group. In addition to the demonstrated antioxidant effects, natural polyphenols also have other biological properties that might contribute to the cardioprotective effects.Keywords: Arterial hypertension, Oxidative stress, Sambucus nigra
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 3340930 Efficient Feature-Based Registration for CT-M R Images Based on NSCT and PSO
Authors: Nemir Al-Azzawi, Harsa A. Mat Sakim, Wan Ahmed K. Wan Abdullah, Yasmin Mohd Yacob
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Feature-based registration is an effective technique for clinical use, because it can greatly reduce computational costs. However, this technique, which estimates the transformation by using feature points extracted from two images, may cause misalignments. To handle with this limitation, we propose to extract the salient edges and extracted control points (CP) of medical images by using efficiency of multiresolution representation of data nonsubsampled contourlet transform (NSCT) that finds the best feature points. The MR images were first decomposed using the NSCT, and then Edge and CP were extracted from bandpass directional subband of NSCT coefficients and some proposed rules. After edge and CP extraction, mutual information was adopted for the registration of feature points and translation parameters are calculated by using particle swarm optimization (PSO). The experimental results showed that the proposed method produces totally accurate performance for registration medical CT-MR images.
Keywords: Feature-based registration, mutual information, nonsubsampled contourlet transform, particle swarm optimization.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1969929 Spray Combustion Dynamics under Thermoacoustic Oscillations
Authors: Wajid A. Chishty, Stephen D. Lepera, Uri Vandsburger
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Thermoacoustic instabilities in combustors have remained a topic of investigation for over a few decades due to the challenges it posses to the operation of low emission gas turbines. For combustors burning liquid fuel, understanding the cause-andeffect relationship between spray combustion dynamics and thermoacoustic oscillations is imperative for the successful development of any control methodology for its mitigation. The paper presents some very unique operating characteristics of a kerosene-fueled diffusion type combustor undergoing limit-cycle oscillations. Combustor stability limits were mapped using three different-sized injectors. The results show that combustor instability depends on the characteristics of the fuel spray. A simple analytic analysis is also reported in support of a plausible explanation for the unique combustor behavior. The study indicates that high amplitude acoustic pressure in the combustor may cause secondary breakdown of fuel droplets resulting in premixed pre-vaporized type burning of the diffusion type combustor.Keywords: Secondary droplet breakup, Spray dynamics, Taylor Analogy Breakup Model, Thermoacoustic instabilities.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1854928 Impact of Gold and Silver Nanoparticles on Terrestrial Flora and Microorganisms
Authors: L. Steponavičiūtė, L. Steponavičienė
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Despite the rapid nanotechnology progress and recognition, its potential impact in ecosystems and health of humans is still not fully known. In this paper, the study of ecotoxicological dangers of nanomaterials is presented. By chemical reduction method, silver (AgNPs) and gold (AuNPs) nanoparticles were synthesized, characterized and used in experiments to examine their impact on microorganisms (Escherichia coli, Staphylococcus aureus and Candida albicans) and terrestrial flora (Phaseolus vulgaris and Lepidium sativum). The results collected during experiments with terrestrial flora show tendentious growth stimulations caused by gold nanoparticles. In contrast to these results, silver nanoparticle solutions inhibited growth of beans and garden cress, compared to control samples. The results obtained from experiments with microorganisms show similarities with ones collected from experiments with terrestrial plants. Samples treated with AuNPs of size 13 nm showed stimulation in the growth of the colonies compared with 3,5 nm size nanoparticles.
Keywords: Ecosystems, ecotoxicology, nanomaterials, nanoparticles.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1555927 Discussing Embedded versus Central Machine Learning in Wireless Sensor Networks
Authors: Anne-Lena Kampen, Øivind Kure
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Machine learning (ML) can be implemented in Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) as a central solution or distributed solution where the ML is embedded in the nodes. Embedding improves privacy and may reduce prediction delay. In addition, the number of transmissions is reduced. However, quality factors such as prediction accuracy, fault detection efficiency and coordinated control of the overall system suffer. Here, we discuss and highlight the trade-offs that should be considered when choosing between embedding and centralized ML, especially for multihop networks. In addition, we present estimations that demonstrate the energy trade-offs between embedded and centralized ML. Although the total network energy consumption is lower with central prediction, it makes the network more prone for partitioning due to the high forwarding load on the one-hop nodes. Moreover, the continuous improvements in the number of operations per joule for embedded devices will move the energy balance toward embedded prediction.
Keywords: Central ML, embedded machine learning, energy consumption, local ML, Wireless Sensor Networks, WSN.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 825926 Bread Quality Improvement with Special Novel Additives
Authors: Mónika Bartalné-Berceli, Eszter Izsó, Szilveszter Gergely, András Salgó
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Presently a significant portion of the Earth's population does not have access to healthy food. Either because they cannot afford it or because they do not know which one are they. The aim of the VII th Framework Chance project (Nr. 266331) supported by the European Union has been to develop relatively cheap food with favourable nutritional value and it should have acceptable quality for consumers. As one task of the project we manufactured bread products as a basic food. We examined the enrichment of bread products with four kinds of bran, with a special milling product of grain industry (aleurone-rich flour) and with a soy-based sprouted additive. The applied concentration of the six mentioned additives has been optimized and the physical properties of the bread products were monitored. The weight/density of the enriched breads increased a bit, however the volume and height decreased slightly compared to the corresponding data of the control bread. The optimized composition of the final product is favourably affected by these additives having highly preferred composition from nutritional point of view.
Keywords: Aleurone-rich flour, Brans, Bread products, Sprouted soybean, YASO.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1796925 Numerical Optimization of Pin-Fin Heat Sink with Forced Cooling
Authors: Y. T. Yang, H. S. Peng, H. T. Hsu
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This study presents the numerical simulation of optimum pin-fin heat sink with air impinging cooling by using Taguchi method. 9 L ( 4 3 ) orthogonal array is selected as a plan for the four design-parameters with three levels. The governing equations are discretized by using the control-volume-based-finite-difference method with a power-law scheme on the non-uniform staggered grid. We solved the coupling of the velocity and the pressure terms of momentum equations using SIMPLEC algorithm. We employ the k −ε two-equations turbulence model to describe the turbulent behavior. The parameters studied include fin height H (35mm-45mm), inter-fin spacing a , b , and c (2 mm-6.4 mm), and Reynolds number ( Re = 10000- 25000). The objective of this study is to examine the effects of the fin spacings and fin height on the thermal resistance and to find the optimum group by using the Taguchi method. We found that the fin spacings from the center to the edge of the heat sink gradually extended, and the longer the fin’s height the better the results. The optimum group is 3 1 2 3 H a b c . In addition, the effects of parameters are ranked by importance as a , H , c , and b .
Keywords: Heat sink, Optimum, Electronics cooling, CFD.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 3704924 Low NOx Combustion of Pulverized Petroleum Cokes
Authors: Sewon Kim, Minjun Kwon, Changyeop Lee
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This paper is aimed to study combustion characteristics of low NOx burner using petroleum cokes as fuel. The petroleum coke, which is produced through the oil refining process, is an attractive fuel in terms of its high heating value and low price. But petroleum coke is a challenging fuel because of its low volatile content, high sulfur and nitrogen content, which give rise to undesirable emission characteristics and low ignitability. Therefore, the research and development regarding the petroleum coke burner is needed for applying this industrial system. In this study, combustion and emission characteristics of petroleum cokes burner are experimentally investigated in an industrial steam boiler. The low NOx burner is designed to control fuel and air mixing to achieve staged combustion, which, in turn reduces both flame temperature and oxygen. Air distribution ratio of triple staged air is optimized experimentally. The result showed that NOx concentration is lowest when overfire air is used, and the burner function at a fuel rich condition. That is, the burner is operated at the equivalence ratio of 1.67 and overall equivalence ratio including overfire air is kept 0.87.Keywords: Petroleum cokes, Staged combustion, Low NOx, Equivalence ratio.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2179923 Disaggregating and Forecasting the Total Energy Consumption of a Building: A Case Study of a High Cooling Demand Facility
Authors: Juliana Barcelos Cordeiro, Khashayar Mahani, Farbod Farzan, Mohsen A. Jafari
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Energy disaggregation has been focused by many energy companies since energy efficiency can be achieved when the breakdown of energy consumption is known. Companies have been investing in technologies to come up with software and/or hardware solutions that can provide this type of information to the consumer. On the other hand, not all people can afford to have these technologies. Therefore, in this paper, we present a methodology for breaking down the aggregate consumption and identifying the highdemanding end-uses profiles. These energy profiles will be used to build the forecast model for optimal control purpose. A facility with high cooling load is used as an illustrative case study to demonstrate the results of proposed methodology. We apply a high level energy disaggregation through a pattern recognition approach in order to extract the consumption profile of its rooftop packaged units (RTUs) and present a forecast model for the energy consumption.Keywords: Energy consumption forecasting, energy efficiency, load disaggregation, pattern recognition approach.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1458922 Impact of Shearing Date on Behaviors and Performances of Pregnant Rahmani Ewes
Authors: T. M. Mousa-Balabel, M. A. Salama
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The effect of shearing date on behaviors and performances of 20 pregnant Rahmani ewes was evaluated in four groups (5each). Ewes were shorn at 70, 100 and 130 days of pregnancy in the first three groups respectively, while the fourth group was maintained unshorn as a control. Some behavioral and physiological data related to ewes in addition, blood cortisol level were recorded. Results revealed a significant increase in the frequencies of comfort and eating behaviors, respiratory rate, pulse rate, lamb birth weight and blood cortisol level in early and mid pregnancy shorn ewes. Also, a slight increase in pregnancy period was observed for those ewes. On the other hand, social behaviors, and core temperature were not affected by shearing. These results conclude that prenatal shearing (early and mid-pregnancy) of ewes increases the frequencies of comfort and eating behaviors, and improves the survival rates of lambs by increasing their birth weights.
Keywords: behavior, blood cortisol, pregnant rahmani ewes, shearing.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1688921 Fault Diagnosis of Nonlinear Systems Using Dynamic Neural Networks
Authors: E. Sobhani-Tehrani, K. Khorasani, N. Meskin
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This paper presents a novel integrated hybrid approach for fault diagnosis (FD) of nonlinear systems. Unlike most FD techniques, the proposed solution simultaneously accomplishes fault detection, isolation, and identification (FDII) within a unified diagnostic module. At the core of this solution is a bank of adaptive neural parameter estimators (NPE) associated with a set of singleparameter fault models. The NPEs continuously estimate unknown fault parameters (FP) that are indicators of faults in the system. Two NPE structures including series-parallel and parallel are developed with their exclusive set of desirable attributes. The parallel scheme is extremely robust to measurement noise and possesses a simpler, yet more solid, fault isolation logic. On the contrary, the series-parallel scheme displays short FD delays and is robust to closed-loop system transients due to changes in control commands. Finally, a fault tolerant observer (FTO) is designed to extend the capability of the NPEs to systems with partial-state measurement.
Keywords: Hybrid fault diagnosis, Dynamic neural networks, Nonlinear systems.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2220920 Development of New Control Techniques for Vibration Isolation of Structures using Smart Materials
Authors: Shubha P Bhat, Krishnamurthy, T.C.Manjunath, C. Ardil
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In this paper, the effects of the restoring force device on the response of a space frame structure resting on sliding type of bearing with a restoring force device is studied. The NS component of the El - Centro earthquake and harmonic ground acceleration is considered for earthquake excitation. The structure is modeled by considering six-degrees of freedom (three translations and three rotations) at each node. The sliding support is modeled as a fictitious spring with two horizontal degrees of freedom. The response quantities considered for the study are the top floor acceleration, base shear, bending moment and base displacement. It is concluded from the study that the displacement of the structure reduces by the use of the restoring force device. Also, the peak values of acceleration, bending moment and base shear also decreases. The simulation results show the effectiveness of the developed and proposed method.Keywords: DOF, Space structures, Acceleration, Excitation, Smart structure, Vibration, Isolation, Earthquakes.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1838919 Comparison of Classical and Ultrasound-Assisted Extractions of Hyphaene thebaica Fruit and Evaluation of Its Extract as Antibacterial Activity in Reducing Severity of Erwinia carotovora
Authors: Hanan Moawad, Naglaa M. Abd EL-Rahman
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Erwinia carotovora var. carotovora is the main cause of soft rot in potatoes. Hyphaene thebaica was studied for biocontrol of E. carotovora which inhibited growth of E. carotovora on solid medium, a comparative study of classical and ultrasound-assisted extractions of Hyphaene thebaica fruit. The use of ultrasound decreased significant the total time of treatment and increase the total amount of crude extract. The crude extract was subjected to determine the in vitro, by a bioassay technique revealed that the treatment of paper disks with ultrasound extraction of Hyphaene thebaica reduced the growth of pathogen and produced inhibition zones up to 38mm in diameter. The antioxidant activity of ultrasound-ethanolic extract of Doum fruits (Hyphaene thebaica) was determined. Data obtained showed that the extract contains the secondary metabolites such as Tannins, Saponin, Flavonoids, Phenols, Steroids, Terpenoids, Glycosides and Alkaloids.
Keywords: Ultrasound, classical extract, Biological control, Erwinia carotovora, Hyphaene thebaica.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2809918 Clarification of the Essential of Life Cycle Cost upon Decision-Making Process: An Empirical Study in Building Projects
Authors: Ayedh Alqahtani, Andrew Whyte
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Life Cycle Cost (LCC) is one of the goals and key pillars of the construction management science because it comprises many of the functions and processes necessary, which assist organisations and agencies to achieve their goals. It has therefore become important to design and control assets during their whole life cycle, from the design and planning phase through to disposal phase. LCCA is aimed to improve the decision making system in the ownership of assets by taking into account all the cost elements including to the asset throughout its life. Current application of LCC approach is impractical during misunderstanding of the advantages of LCC. This main objective of this research is to show a different relationship between capital cost and long-term running costs. One hundred and thirty eight actual building projects in United Kingdom (UK) were used in order to achieve and measure the above-mentioned objective of the study. The result shown that LCC is one of the most significant tools should be considered on the decision making process.
Keywords: Building projects, Capital cost, Life cycle cost, Maintenance costs, Operation costs.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1929917 The Customization of 3D Last Form Design Based On Weighted Blending
Authors: Shih-Wen Hsiao, Chu-Hsuan Lee, Rong-Qi Chen
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When it comes to last, it is regarded as the critical foundation of shoe design and development. Not only the last relates to the comfort of shoes wearing but also it aids the production of shoe styling and manufacturing. In order to enhance the efficiency and application of last development, a computer aided methodology for customized last form designs is proposed in this study. The reverse engineering is mainly applied to the process of scanning for the last form. Then the minimum energy is used for the revision of surface continuity, the surface of the last is reconstructed with the feature curves of the scanned last. When the surface of a last is reconstructed, based on the foundation of the proposed last form reconstruction module, the weighted arithmetic mean method is applied to the calculation on the shape morphing which differs from the grading for the control mesh of last, and the algorithm of subdivision is used to create the surface of last mesh, thus the feet-fitting 3D last form of different sizes is generated from its original form feature with functions remained. Finally, the practicability of the proposed methodology is verified through later case studies.
Keywords: 3D last design, Customization, Reverse engineering, Weighted morphing, Shape blending.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2203916 Environmental Pollution and Health Risks of Residents Living Near Ewekoro Cement Factory, Ewekoro, Nigeria
Authors: Michael Ajide Oyinloye
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Generally the natural environment is made up of air, water and soil. The release of emission of industrial waste into anyone of the components of the environment causes pollution. Industrial pollution significantly threatens the inherent right of people, to the enjoyment of a safe and secure environment. The aim of this paper is to assess the effect of environmental pollution and health risks of residents living near Ewekoro cement factory. The research made use of IKONOS imagery for Geographical Information System (GIS) to buffer and extract buildings that are less than 1km to the factory, within 1km to 5km and above 5km to the factory. Also questionnaire was used to elicit information on the socio-economic factors, effect of environmental pollution on residents and measures adopted to control industrial pollution on the residents. Findings show that most buildings that fall between less than 1km and 1km to 5km to the factory have high health risk in the study area. The study recommended total relocation for the residents of the study area to reduce health risk problems.
Keywords: Environmental pollution, Ewekoro, GIS, Health risk, Satellite imagery.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 5639915 PM10 Concentration Emitted from Blasting and Crushing Processes of Limestone Mines in Saraburi Province, Thailand
Authors: Kanokrat Makkwao, Tassanee Prueksasit
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This study aimed to investigate PM10 emitted from different limestone mines in Saraburi province, Thailand. The blasting and crushing were the main processes selected for PM10 sampling. PM10 was collected in two mines including, a limestone mine for cement manufacturing (mine A) and a limestone mine for construction (mine B). The IMPACT samplers were used to collect PM10. At blasting, the points aligning with the upwind and downwind direction were assigned for the sampling. The ranges of PM10 concentrations at mine A and B were 0.267-5.592 and 0.130-0.325 mg/m³, respectively, and the concentration at blasting from mine A was significantly higher than mine B (p < 0.05). During crushing at mine A, the PM10 concentration with the range of 1.153-3.716 and 0.085-1.724 mg/m³ at crusher and piles in respectively were observed whereas the PM10 concentration measured at four sampling points in mine B, including secondary crusher, tertiary crusher, screening point, and piles, were ranged 1.032-16.529, 10.957-74.057, 0.655-4.956, and 0.169-1.699 mg/m³, respectively. The emission of PM10 concentration at the crushing units was different in the ranges depending on types of machine, its operation, dust collection and control system, and environmental conditions.
Keywords: Blasting, crushing, limestone mines, PM10 concentration.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 462914 Lifetime Maximization in Wireless Ad Hoc Networks with Network Coding and Matrix Game
Authors: Jain-Shing Liu
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In this paper, we present a matrix game-theoretic cross-layer optimization formulation to maximize the network lifetime in wireless ad hoc networks with network coding. To this end, we introduce a cross-layer formulation of general NUM (network utility maximization) that accommodates routing, scheduling, and stream control from different layers in the coded networks. Specifically, for the scheduling problem and then the objective function involved, we develop a matrix game with the strategy sets of the players corresponding to hyperlinks and transmission modes, and design the payoffs specific to the lifetime. In particular, with the inherit merit that matrix game can be solved with linear programming, our cross-layer programming formulation can benefit from both game-based and NUM-based approaches at the same time by cooperating the programming model for the matrix game with that for the other layers in a consistent framework. Finally, our numerical example demonstrates its performance results on a well-known wireless butterfly network to verify the cross-layer optimization scheme.Keywords: Cross-layer design, Lifetime maximization, Matrix game, Network coding
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1693913 An Inductive Coupling Based CMOS Wireless Powering Link for Implantable Biomedical Applications
Authors: Lei Yao, Jia Hao Cheong, Rui-Feng Xue, Minkyu Je
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A closed-loop controlled wireless power transmission circuit block for implantable biomedical applications is described in this paper. The circuit consists of one front-end rectifier, power management sub-block including bandgap reference and low drop-out regulators (LDOs) as well as transmission power detection / feedback circuits. Simulation result shows that the front-end rectifier achieves 80% power efficiency with 750-mV single-end peak-to-peak input voltage and 1.28-V output voltage under load current of 4 mA. The power management block can supply 1.8mA average load current under 1V consuming only 12μW power, which is equivalent to 99.3% power efficiency. The wireless power transmission block described in this paper achieves a maximum power efficiency of 80%. The wireless power transmission circuit block is designed and implemented using UMC 65-nm CMOS/RF process. It occupies 1 mm × 1.2 mm silicon area.
Keywords: Implantable biomedical devices, wireless power transfer, LDO, rectifier, closed-loop power control
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2284912 Energy Benefits of Urban Platooning with Self-Driving Vehicles
Authors: Eduardo F. Mello, Peter H. Bauer
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The primary focus of this paper is the generation of energy-optimal speed trajectories for heterogeneous electric vehicle platoons in urban driving conditions. Optimal speed trajectories are generated for individual vehicles and for an entire platoon under the assumption that they can be executed without errors, as would be the case for self-driving vehicles. It is then shown that the optimization for the “average vehicle in the platoon” generates similar transportation energy savings to optimizing speed trajectories for each vehicle individually. The introduced approach only requires the lead vehicle to run the optimization software while the remaining vehicles are only required to have adaptive cruise control capability. The achieved energy savings are typically between 30% and 50% for stop-to-stop segments in cities. The prime motivation of urban platooning comes from the fact that urban platoons efficiently utilize the available space and the minimization of transportation energy in cities is important for many reasons, i.e., for environmental, power, and range considerations.Keywords: Electric vehicles, energy efficiency, optimization, platooning, self-driving vehicles, urban traffic.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1251911 Security Enhanced RFID Middleware System
Authors: Jieun Song, Taesung Kim, Sokjoon Lee, Howon Kim
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Recently, the RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) technology attracts the world market attention as essential technology for ubiquitous environment. The RFID market has focused on transponders and reader development. But that concern has shifted to RFID software like as high-valued e-business applications, RFID middleware and related development tools. However, due to the high sensitivity of data and service transaction within the RFID network, security consideration must be addressed. In order to guarantee trusted e-business based on RFID technology, we propose a security enhanced RFID middleware system. Our proposal is compliant with EPCglobal ALE (Application Level Events), which is standard interface for middleware and its clients. We show how to provide strengthened security and trust by protecting transported data between middleware and its client, and stored data in middleware. Moreover, we achieve the identification and service access control against illegal service abuse. Our system enables secure RFID middleware service and trusted e-business service.Keywords: RFID Middleware, ALE (Application Level Events), Security.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2066910 Transient Solution of an Incompressible Viscous Flow in a Channel with Sudden Expansion/Contraction
Authors: Durga C. Dalal, Swapan K. Pandit
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In this paper, a numerical study has been made to analyze the transient 2-D flows of a viscous incompressible fluid through channels with forward or backward constriction. Problems addressed include flow through sudden contraction and sudden expansion channel geometries with rounded and increasingly sharp reentrant corner. In both the cases, numerical results are presented for the separation and reattachment points, streamlines, vorticity and flow patterns. A fourth order accurate compact scheme has been employed to efficiently capture steady state solutions of the governing equations. It appears from our study that sharpness of the throat in the channel is one of the important parameters to control the strength and size of the separation zone without modifying the general flow patterns. The comparison between the two cases shows that the upstream geometry plays a significant role on vortex growth dynamics.Keywords: Forward and backward constriction, HOC scheme, Incompressible viscous flows, Separation and reattachment points.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1695909 Risk of Plastic Shrinkage Cracking in Recycled Aggregate Concrete
Authors: M. Eckert, M. Oliveira
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The intensive use of natural aggregates, near cities and towns, associated to the increase of the global population, leads to its depletion and increases the transport distances. The uncontrolled deposition of construction and demolition waste in landfills and city outskirts, causes pollution and takes up space. The use of recycled aggregates in concrete preparation would contribute to mitigate the problem. However, it arises the problem that the high water absorption of recycled aggregate decreases the bleeding rate of concrete, and when this gets lower than the evaporation rate, plastic shrinkage cracking occurs. This phenomenon can be particularly problematic in hot and windy curing environments. Cracking facilitates the flow of liquid and gas into concrete which attacks the reinforcement and degrades the concrete. These factors reduce the durability of concrete structures and consequently the lifetime of buildings. A ring test was used, cured in a wind tunnel, to evaluate the plastic shrinkage cracking sensitivity of recycled aggregate concrete, in order to implement preventive means to control this phenomenon. The role of several aggregate properties on the concrete segregation and cracking mechanisms were also discussed.
Keywords: Recycled Aggregate, Plastic Shrinkage Cracking; Wind Tunnel, Durability.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1028908 Performance Analysis of Cluster Based Dual Tired Network Model with INTK Security Scheme in a Wireless Sensor Network
Authors: D. Satish Kumar, S. Karthik
Abstract:
A dual tiered network model is designed to overcome the problem of energy alert and fault tolerance. This model minimizes the delay time and overcome failure of links. Performance analysis of the dual tiered network model is studied in this paper where the CA and LS schemes are compared with DEO optimal. We then evaluate the Integrated Network Topological Control and Key Management (INTK) Schemes, which was proposed to add security features of the wireless sensor networks. Clustering efficiency, level of protections, the time complexity is some of the parameters of INTK scheme that were analyzed. We then evaluate the Cluster based Energy Competent n-coverage scheme (CEC n-coverage scheme) to ensure area coverage for wireless sensor networks.
Keywords: CEC n-coverage scheme, Clustering efficiency, Dual tired network, Wireless sensor networks.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1670907 On Mobile Checkpointing using Index and Time Together
Authors: Awadhesh Kumar Singh
Abstract:
Checkpointing is one of the commonly used techniques to provide fault-tolerance in distributed systems so that the system can operate even if one or more components have failed. However, mobile computing systems are constrained by low bandwidth, mobility, lack of stable storage, frequent disconnections and limited battery life. Hence, checkpointing protocols having lesser number of synchronization messages and fewer checkpoints are preferred in mobile environment. There are two different approaches, although not orthogonal, to checkpoint mobile computing systems namely, time-based and index-based. Our protocol is a fusion of these two approaches, though not first of its kind. In the present exposition, an index-based checkpointing protocol has been developed, which uses time to indirectly coordinate the creation of consistent global checkpoints for mobile computing systems. The proposed algorithm is non-blocking, adaptive, and does not use any control message. Compared to other contemporary checkpointing algorithms, it is computationally more efficient because it takes lesser number of checkpoints and does not need to compute dependency relationships. A brief account of important and relevant works in both the fields, time-based and index-based, has also been included in the presentation.
Keywords: Checkpointing, forced checkpoint, mobile computing, recovery, time-coordinated.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1487