Search results for: maximum entropy bootstrapping approach

Authors: Susmita Das, Kala Praveen Bagadi

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SDMA (Space-Division Multiple Access) is a MIMO (Multiple-Input and Multiple-Output) based wireless communication network architecture which has the potential to significantly increase the spectral efficiency and the system performance. The maximum likelihood (ML) detection provides the optimal performance, but its complexity increases exponentially with the constellation size of modulation and number of users. The QR decomposition (QRD) MUD can be a substitute to ML detection due its low complexity and near optimal performance. The minimum mean-squared-error (MMSE) multiuser detection (MUD) minimises the mean square error (MSE), which may not give guarantee that the BER of the system is also minimum. But the minimum bit error rate (MBER) MUD performs better than the classic MMSE MUD in term of minimum probability of error by directly minimising the BER cost function. Also the MBER MUD is able to support more users than the number of receiving antennas, whereas the rest of MUDs fail in this scenario. In this paper the performance of various MUD techniques is verified for the correlated MIMO channel models based on IEEE 802.16n standard.

Keywords: Multiple input multiple output, multiuser detection, orthogonal frequency division multiplexing, space division multiple access, Bit error rate

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Authors: Alessandro Preziosi, Antonio Prioletti, Luca Castangia

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Deformable part models achieve high precision in pedestrian recognition, but all publicly available implementations are too slow for real-time applications. We implemented a deformable part model algorithm fast enough for real-time use by exploiting information about the camera position and orientation. This implementation is both faster and more precise than alternative DPM implementations. These results are obtained by computing convolutions in the frequency domain and using lookup tables to speed up feature computation. This approach is almost an order of magnitude faster than the reference DPM implementation, with no loss in precision. Knowing the position of the camera with respect to horizon it is also possible prune many hypotheses based on their size and location. The range of acceptable sizes and positions is set by looking at the statistical distribution of bounding boxes in labelled images. With this approach it is not needed to compute the entire feature pyramid: for example higher resolution features are only needed near the horizon. This results in an increase in mean average precision of 5% and an increase in speed by a factor of two. Furthermore, to reduce misdetections involving small pedestrians near the horizon, input images are supersampled near the horizon. Supersampling the image at 1.5 times the original scale, results in an increase in precision of about 4%. The implementation was tested against the public KITTI dataset, obtaining an 8% improvement in mean average precision over the best performing DPM-based method. By allowing for a small loss in precision computational time can be easily brought down to our target of 100ms per image, reaching a solution that is faster and still more precise than all publicly available DPM implementations.

Keywords: Autonomous vehicles, deformable part model, dpm, pedestrian recognition.

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Authors: Ambuj Srivastava, Narender Singh

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This paper presents the effect of installation of cylindrical external store on the performance, stability, control and handling qualities of light transport category aircraft. A pair of long cylindrical store was installed symmetrically on either side of the fuselage (port and starboard) ahead of the wing and below the fuselage bottom surface running below pilot and co-pilot window. The cylindrical store was installed as hanging from aircraft surface through specially designed brackets. The adjoining structure was sufficiently reinforced for bearing aerodynamic loads. The length to diameter ratio of long cylindrical store was ~20. Based on academic studies and flow simulation analysis, a considerable detrimental effect on single engine second segment climb performance was found which was later validated through extensive flight testing exercise. The methodology of progressive flight envelope opening was adopted. The certification was sought from Regional airworthiness authorities and for according approval.

Keywords: Second segment climb, maximum operating speed, cruise performance, single engine and twin engine, minimum control speed, and additional trim required.

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Authors: Jia-Ming Kok, Javaan Chahl

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An optimisation method using both global and local optimisation is implemented to determine the flapping profile which will produce the most lift for an experimental wing-actuation system. The optimisation method is tested using a numerical quasi-steady analysis. Results of an optimised flapping profile show a 20% increase in lift generated as compared to flapping profiles obtained by high speed cinematography of a Sympetrum frequens dragonfly. Initial optimisation procedures showed 3166 objective function evaluations. The global optimisation parameters - initial sample size and stage one sample size, were altered to reduce the number of function evaluations. Altering the stage one sample size had no significant effect. It was found that reducing the initial sample size to 400 would allow a reduction in computational effort to approximately 1500 function evaluations without compromising the global solvers ability to locate potential minima. To further reduce the optimisation effort required, we increase the local solver’s convergence tolerance criterion. An increase in the tolerance from 0.02N to 0.05N decreased the number of function evaluations by another 20%. However, this potentially reduces the maximum obtainable lift by up to 0.025N.

Keywords: Flapping wing, Optimisation, Quasi-steady model.

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Authors: Brody R. Clark, Chaminda Gallage, John Yeaman

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Multigrade bitumen asphalt is a quality asphalt product that is not utilised in many places globally. Multigrade bitumen is believed to be less sensitive to temperature, which gives it an advantage over conventional binders. Previous testing has shown that asphalt temperature changes greatly with depth, but currently the industry standard is to nominate a single temperature for design. For detailed design of asphalt roads, perhaps asphalt layers should be divided into nominal layer depths and different modulus and fatigue equations/values should be used to reflect the temperatures of each respective layer. A collaboration of previous laboratory testing conducted on multigrade bitumen asphalt beams under a range of temperatures and loading conditions was analysed. The samples tested included 0% or 15% recycled asphalt pavement (RAP) to determine what impact the recycled material has on the fatigue life and stiffness of the pavement. This paper investigated the temperature susceptibility of multigrade bitumen asphalt pavements compared to conventional binders by combining previous testing that included conducting a sweep of fatigue tests, developing complex modulus master curves for each mix and a study on how pavement temperature changes through pavement depth. This investigation found that the final design of the pavement is greatly affected by the nominated pavement temperature and respective material properties. This paper has outlined a potential revision to the current design approach for asphalt pavements and proposes that further investigation is needed into pavement temperature and its incorporation into design.

Keywords: Asphalt, complex modulus, fatigue life, flexural stiffness, four-point bending, master curves, multigrade bitumen, thermal gradient.

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Authors: John Abraham, Ramesh Saravana Kumar, Francis Xavier, Deepak Mathew

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Broiler slaughter waste has become a major source of pollution throughout the world. Utilization of broiler slaughter waste by dry rendering process produced Rendered Chicken Oil (RCO), a cheap raw material for biodiesel production and Carcass Meal a feed ingredient for pets and fishes. Conversion of RCO into biodiesel may open new vistas for generating wealth from waste besides controlling the major havoc of environmental pollution. A two-step process to convert RCO to good quality Biodiesel was invented. Acid catalysed esterification of FFA followed by base catalysed transesterification of triglycerides was carried out after meticulously standardizing the methanol molar ratio, catalyst concentration, reaction temperature, and reaction time to obtain the maximum biodiesel yield of 97.62% and lowest glycerol yield of 6.96%. RCO biodiesel blend was tested in a CRDI diesel engine. The results revealed that the blending of commercial diesel with 20% RCO biodiesel (B20) lead to less engine wear, a quieter engine and better fuel economy. The better lubricating qualities of RCO B20 prevented over heating of engine, which prolongs the engine life. RCO B20 can reduce the import of crude oil and substantially reduce the engine emissions as proved by significantly lower smoke levels, thus mitigating climatic changes.

Keywords: Biodiesel, Broiler Waste, Engine Testing, Rendered Chicken Oil.

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Authors: Chaoyi Sun, Congxin Chen, Yun Zheng, Kaizong Xia, Wei Zhang

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Crest loads are often encountered in hydropower, highway, open-pit and other engineering rock slopes. Toppling failure is one of the most common deformation failure types of anti-dip bedding rock slopes. Analysis on such failure of anti-dip bedding rock slopes subjected to crest loads has an important influence on engineering practice. Based on the step-by-step analysis approach proposed by Goodman and Bray, a geo-mechanical model was developed, and the related analysis approach was proposed for the toppling failure of anti-dip bedding rock slopes subjected to crest loads. Using the transfer coefficient method, a formulation was derived for calculating the residual thrust of slope toe and the support force required to meet the requirements of the slope stability under crest loads, which provided a scientific reference to design and support for such slopes. Through slope examples, the influence of crest loads on the residual thrust and sliding ratio coefficient was investigated for cases of different block widths and slope cut angles. The results show that there exists a critical block width for such slope. The influence of crest loads on the residual thrust is non-negligible when the block thickness is smaller than the critical value. Moreover, the influence of crest loads on the slope stability increases with the slope cut angle and the sliding ratio coefficient of anti-dip bedding rock slopes increases with the crest loads. Finally, the theoretical solutions and numerical simulations using Universal Distinct Element Code (UDEC) were compared, in which the consistent results show the applicability of both approaches.

Keywords: Anti-dip slopes, crest loads, stability analysis, toppling failure.

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Authors: N. Akhavan, Sh. Tavousi Tafreshi, A. Ghasemi

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Seismic behavior of irregular structures through the past decades indicate that the stated buildings do not have appropriate performance. Among these subjects, the current paper has investigated the behavior of special steel moment frame with different configuration of soft storey vertically. The analyzing procedure has been evaluated with respect to incremental dynamic analysis (IDA), and numeric process was carried out by OpenSees finite element analysis package. To this end, nine 2D steel frames, with different numbers of stories and irregularity positions, which were subjected to seven pairs of ground motion records orthogonally with respect to Ibarra-Krawinkler deterioration model, have been investigated. This paper aims at evaluating the response of two-dimensional buildings incorporating soft storey which subjected to bi-directional seismic excitation. The IDAs were implemented for different stages of PGA with various ground motion records, in order to determine maximum inter-storey drift ratio. According to statistical elements and fracture range (standard deviation), the vulnerability or exceedance from above-mentioned cases has been examined. For this reason, fragility curves for different placement of soft storey in the first, middle and the last floor for 4, 8, and 16 storey buildings have been generated and compared properly.

Keywords: Special steel moment frame, soft storey, incremental dynamic analysis, fragility curve.

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Authors: Maria L. McLeod

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This study examines the ways in which cancer patient narratives are portrayed and framed on the websites of three leading U.S. cancer care centers – The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York, and Seattle Cancer Care Alliance. Thirty patient stories, 10 from each cancer center website blog, were analyzed using qualitative and quantitative textual analysis of unstructured data, documenting common themes and other elements of story structure and content. Patient narratives were coded using grounded theory as the basis for conducting emergent qualitative research. As part of a systematic, inductive approach to collecting and analyzing data, recurrent and unique themes were examined and compared in terms of positive and negative framing, patient agency, and institutional praise. All three of these cancer care centers are teaching hospitals, with university affiliations, that emphasize an evidence-based scientific approach to treatment that utilizes the latest research and cutting-edge techniques and technology. The featured cancer stories suggest positive outcomes based on anecdotal narratives as opposed to the science-based treatment models employed by the cancer centers. An analysis of 30 sample stories found skewed representation of the “cancer experience” that emphasizes positive outcomes while minimizing or excluding more negative realities of cancer diagnosis and treatment. The stories also deemphasize patient agency, instead focusing on deference and gratitude toward the cancer care centers, which are cast in the role of savior.  

Keywords: Cancer framing, cancer narratives, survivor stories, patient narratives.

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Authors: Qureshi, A. L., Mahessar A. A., Dashti, R. K., Yasin S. M.

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In this paper, effect of marginal quality groundwater on yield of cotton crop and soil salinity was studied. In this connection, three irrigation treatments each with four replications were applied. These treatments were i) use of canal water (T1), ii) use of marginal quality groundwater from tubewell (T2), and iii) conjunctive use by mixing with the ratio of 1:1 of canal water and marginal quality tubewell water (T3). Water was applied to the crop cultivated in Kharif season 2011; its quantity has been measured using cut-throat flume. Total 11 watering each of 50 mm depth have been applied from 20th April to 20th July, 2011. Further, irrigations were stopped due to monsoon rainfall up to crop harvesting. Maximum crop yield (seed cotton) was observed under T1 which was 1,517 kg/ha followed by T3 (mixed canal and tubewell water) having 1009 kg/ha and T2 i.e. marginal quality groundwater having 709 kg/ha. This concludes that crop yield in T2 and T3 in comparison to T1was reduced by about 53 and 30% respectively. It has been observed that yield of cotton crop is below potential limit for three treatments due to unexpected rainfall at the time of full flowering season; thus the yield was adversely affected. However, salt deposition in soil profiles was not observed that is due to leaching effect of heavy rainfall occurred during monsoon season.

Keywords: Conjunctive Use, Cotton Crop, Groundwater, Soil Salinity Status, Water Use Efficiency (WUE).

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Authors: Samir J. Deshmukh, Lalit B. Bhuyar, Shashank B. Thakre

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Partial combustion of biomass in the gasifier generates producer gas that can be used for heating purposes and as supplementary or sole fuel in internal combustion engines. In this study, the virgin biomass obtained from hingan shell is used as the feedstock for gasifier to generate producer gas. The gasifier-engine system is operated on diesel and on esters of vegetable oil of hingan in liquid fuel mode operation and then on liquid fuel and producer gas combination in dual fuel mode operation. The performance and emission characteristics of the CI engine is analyzed by running the engine in liquid fuel mode operation and in dual fuel mode operation at different load conditions with respect to maximum diesel savings in the dual fuel mode operation. It was observed that specific energy consumption in the dual fuel mode of operation is found to be in the higher side at all load conditions. The brake thermal efficiency of the engine using diesel or hingan oil methyl ester (HOME) is higher than that of dual fuel mode operation. A diesel replacement in the tune of 60% in dual fuel mode is possible with the use of hingan shell producer gas. The emissions parameters such CO, HC, NOx, CO2 and smoke are higher in the case of dual fuel mode of operation as compared to that of liquid fuel mode.

Keywords: Esters, performance, producer gas, vegetable oil.

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Authors: L. Petrosyan

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The problem of psychologist training remains a key priority in Armenia. During the Soviet period, the notion of a psychologist was obscure not only in Armenia but also in other Soviet republics. The breakup of the Soviet Union triggered a gradual change in this area activating the cooperation with specialists from other countries. The need for recovery from the psychological trauma caused by the 1988 earthquake pushed forward the development of practical psychology in Armenia. This phenomenon led to positive changes in perception of and interest to a psychologist profession.Armenian universities started designing special programs for psychologists’ preparation. Armenian psychologists combined their efforts in the field of training relevant specialists. During the recent years, the Bologna educational system was introduced in Armenia which led to implementation of education quality improvement programs. Nevertheless, even today the issue of psychologists’ training is not yet settled in Armenian universities. So far graduate psychologists haven’t got a clear idea of personal and professional qualities of a psychologist. Recently, as a result of educational reforms, the psychology curricula underwent changes, but so far they have not led to a desired outcome. Almost all curricula in certain specialties are aimed to form professional competencies and strengthen practical skills. A survey conducted in Armenia aimed to identify what are the ideas of young psychology specialists on the image of a psychologist. The survey respondents were 45 specialists holding bachelor’s degree as well as 30 master degree graduates, who have not been working yet. The research reveals that we need to change the approach of preparing psychology practitioners in the universities of Armenia. Such an approach to psychologist training will make it possible to train qualified specialists for enhancement of modern psychology theory and practice.

Keywords: Practitioners, Psychology Degree, study, professional competencies.

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Authors: H. Iranmanesh, M. R. Skandari, M. Allahverdiloo

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Project managers are the ultimate responsible for the overall characteristics of a project, i.e. they should deliver the project on time with minimum cost and with maximum quality. It is vital for any manager to decide a trade-off between these conflicting objectives and they will be benefited of any scientific decision support tool. Our work will try to determine optimal solutions (rather than a single optimal solution) from which the project manager will select his desirable choice to run the project. In this paper, the problem in project scheduling notated as (1,T|cpm,disc,mu|curve:quality,time,cost) will be studied. The problem is multi-objective and the purpose is finding the Pareto optimal front of time, cost and quality of a project (curve:quality,time,cost), whose activities belong to a start to finish activity relationship network (cpm) and they can be done in different possible modes (mu) which are non-continuous or discrete (disc), and each mode has a different cost, time and quality . The project is constrained to a non-renewable resource i.e. money (1,T). Because the problem is NP-Hard, to solve the problem, a meta-heuristic is developed based on a version of genetic algorithm specially adapted to solve multi-objective problems namely FastPGA. A sample project with 30 activities is generated and then solved by the proposed method.

Keywords: FastPGA, Multi-Execution Activity Mode, ParetoOptimality, Project Scheduling, Time-Cost-Quality Trade-Off.

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Authors: Francis Deinmodei W. Poazi, Jasmine O. Tamunosiki-Amadi, Maurice Fems

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In recent times the resource-based view (RBV) of strategic management has recorded a sizeable attention yet there has not been a considerable scholarly and managerial discourse, debate and attention. As a result, this paper gives special bit of critical reasoning as well as top-notch analyses and relationship between RBV and organizational innovation. The study examines those salient aspects of RBV that basically have the will power in ensuring the organization's capacity to go for innovative capability. In achieving such fit and standpoint, the paper joins other relevant academic discourse and empirical evidence. To this end, a reasonable amount of contributions in setting the ground running for future empirical researches would have been provided. More so, the study is guided and built on the following strength and significance: Firstly, RBV sees resources as heterogeneity which forms a strong point of strength and allows organisations to gain competitive advantage. In order words, competitive advantage can be achieved or delivered to the organization when resources are distinctively utilized in a valuable manner more than the envisaged competitors of the organization. Secondly, RBV is significantly influential in determining the real resources that are available in the organization with a view to locate capabilities within in order to attract more profitability into the organization when applied. Thus, there will be more sustainable growth and success in the ever competitive and emerging market. Thus, to have succinct description of the basic methodologies, the study adopts both qualitative as well as quantitative approach with a view to have a broad samples of opinion in establishing and identifying key and strategic organizational resources to enable managers of resources to gain a competitive advantage as well as generating a sustainable increase and growth in profit. Furthermore, a comparative approach and analysis was used to examine the performance of RBV within the organization. Thus, the following are some of the findings of the study: it is clear that there is a nexus between RBV and growth of competitively viable organizations. More so, in most parts, organizations have heterogeneous resources domiciled in their organizations but not all organizations as it was specifically and intelligently adopting the tenets of RBV to strengthen heterogeneity of resources which allows organisations to gain competitive advantage. Other findings of this study reveal that of managerial perception of RBV with respect to application and transformation of resources to achieve a profitable end. It is against this backdrop, the importance of RBV cannot be overemphasized; the study is strongly convinced and think that RBV view is one focal and distinct approach that is focused on internal to outside strategy which engenders sourcing or generating resources internally as well as having the quest to apply such internally sourced resources diligently to increase or gain competitive advantage.

Keywords: Competitive advantage, innovation, organisation, recognition, resource-based view.

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Authors: Robiul Islam, Monjurul Hasan, Rezaul Karim, M. F. M. Zain

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Coal fly ash, an industrial by product of coal combustion thermal power plants is considered as a hazardous material and its improper disposal has become an environmental issue. On the other hand, manufacturing conventional clay bricks involves on consumption of large amount of clay and leads substantial depletion of topsoil. This paper unveils the possibility of using fly ash as a partial replacement of clay for brick manufacturing considering the local technology practiced in Bangladesh. The effect of fly ash with different replacing ratio (0%, 20%, 30%, 40%, and 50% by volume) of clay on properties of bricks was studied. Bricks were made in the field parallel to ordinary bricks marked with specific number for different percentage to identify them at time of testing. No physical distortion is observed in fly ash brick after burning in the kiln. Results from laboratory test show that compressive strength of brick is decreased with the increase of fly ash and maximum compressive strength is found to be 19.6 MPa at 20% of fly ash. In addition, water absorption of fly ash brick is increased with the increase of fly ash. The abrasion value and Specific gravity of coarse aggregate prepared from brick with fly ash also studied and the results of this study suggests that 20% fly ash can be considered as the optimum fly ash content for producing good quality bricks utilizing present practiced technology.

Keywords: Bangladesh brick, fly ash, clay brick, physical properties, compressive strength.

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Authors: Wakako Araki, Jürgen Malzbender

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The mechanical deformation and the electrical conductivity of lanthanum strontium cobalt ferrite oxide under uniaxial compression were investigated at various temperatures up to 1073 K. The material reveals a rather complex mechanical behaviour related to its ferroelasticity and completely different stress-strain curves are obtained during the 1st and 2nd loading cycles. A distinctive ferroelastic creep was observed at 293 K whilst typical ferroelastic stress-strain curve were obtained in the temperature range from 473 K to 873 K. At 1073 K, on the other hand, high-temperature creep deformation was observed instead of ferroelastic deformation. The conductivity increases with increasing compressive stress at all the temperatures. The increase in conductivity is related to both geometrical and piezoelectric effects. From 293 K to 873 K, where the material exhibits ferroelastic behaviour, the variation in the total conductivity decreases with increasing temperature. The contribution of the piezoelectric effect to the total conductivity variation also decreases with increasing temperature and the maximum in piezoconductivity has a value of about 0.75 % at 293 K for a compressive stress of 100 MPa. There is no effect of domain switching on conductivity except for the geometric effect. At 1073 K, the conductivity is simply proportional to the compressive strain.

Keywords: Ferroelasticity, Piezoconductivity, oxygen separation membrane, perovskite.

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Authors: Souvik Bhattacharyya, Gautam Sanyal

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Over last two decades, due to hostilities of environment over the internet the concerns about confidentiality of information have increased at phenomenal rate. Therefore to safeguard the information from attacks, number of data/information hiding methods have evolved mostly in spatial and transformation domain.In spatial domain data hiding techniques,the information is embedded directly on the image plane itself. In transform domain data hiding techniques the image is first changed from spatial domain to some other domain and then the secret information is embedded so that the secret information remains more secure from any attack. Information hiding algorithms in time domain or spatial domain have high capacity and relatively lower robustness. In contrast, the algorithms in transform domain, such as DCT, DWT have certain robustness against some multimedia processing.In this work the authors propose a novel steganographic method for hiding information in the transform domain of the gray scale image.The proposed approach works by converting the gray level image in transform domain using discrete integer wavelet technique through lifting scheme.This approach performs a 2-D lifting wavelet decomposition through Haar lifted wavelet of the cover image and computes the approximation coefficients matrix CA and detail coefficients matrices CH, CV, and CD.Next step is to apply the PMM technique in those coefficients to form the stego image. The aim of this paper is to propose a high-capacity image steganography technique that uses pixel mapping method in integer wavelet domain with acceptable levels of imperceptibility and distortion in the cover image and high level of overall security. This solution is independent of the nature of the data to be hidden and produces a stego image with minimum degradation.

Keywords: Cover Image, Pixel Mapping Method (PMM), StegoImage, Integer Wavelet Tranform.

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Authors: Budiyono, I N. Widiasa, S. Johari, Sunarso

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In this study, the kinetic of biogas production was studied by performing a series laboratory experiment using rumen fluid of animal ruminant as inoculums. Cattle manure as substrate was inoculated by rumen fluid to the anaerobic biodigester. Laboratory experiments using 400 ml biodigester were performed in batch operation mode. Given 100 grams of fresh cattle manure was fed to each biodigester and mixed with rumen fluid by manure : rumen weight ratio of 1:1 (MR11). The operating temperatures were varied at room temperature and 38.5 oC. The cumulative volume of biogas produced was used to measure the biodigester performance. The research showed that the rumen fluid inoculated to biodigester gave significant effect to biogas production (P<0.05). Rumen fluid inoculums caused biogas production rate and efficiency increase two to three times in compare to manure substrate without rumen fluid. With the rumen fluid inoculums, gave the kinetic parameters of biogas production i.e biogas production rate constants (U), maximum biogas production (A), and minimum time to produce biogas (λ) are 3.89 ml/(gVS.day); 172.51 (ml/gVS); dan 7.25 days, respectively. While the substrate without rumen fluid gave the kinetic parameters U, A, and λ are 1.74 ml/(gVS.day); 73.81 (ml/gVS); dan 14.75 days, respectively. The future work will be carried out to study the dynamics of biogas production if both the rumen inoculums and manure are fed in the continuous system.

Keywords: rumen fluid, inoculums, anaerobic digestion, biogasproduction.

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Authors: Felicia Magpantay, Kenzu Abdella

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A model of a system concerning one species of demersal (inshore) fish and one of pelagic (offshore) fish undergoing fishing restricted by marine protected areas is proposed in this paper. This setup was based on the FISH-BE model applied to the Tabina fishery in Zamboanga del Sur, Philippines. The components of the model equations have been adapted from widely-accepted mechanisms in population dynamics. The model employs Gompertz-s law of growth and interaction on each type of protected and unprotected subpopulation. Exchange coefficients between protected and unprotected areas were assumed to be proportional to the relative area of the entry region. Fishing harvests were assumed to be proportional to both the number of fishers and the number of unprotected fish. An extra term was included for the pelagic population to allow for the exchange between the unprotected area and the outside environment. The systems were found to be bounded for all parameter values. The equations for the steady state were unsolvable analytically but the existence and uniqueness of non-zero steady states can be proven. Plots also show that an MPA size yielding the maximum steady state of the unprotected population can be found. All steady states were found to be globally asymptotically stable for the entire range of parameter values.

Keywords: fisheries modelling, marine protected areas, sustainablefisheries, Gompertz Law

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Authors: V. C. Sathish Gandhi, R. Kumaravelan, S. Ramesh, M. Venkatesan, M. Ponraj

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Each year nearly nine hundred persons die in head injuries and over fifty thousand persons are severely injured due to non wearing of helmets. In motor cycle accidents, the human head is exposed to heavy impact loading against natural protection. In this work, an attempt has been made for analyzing the helmet with all the standard data. The simulation software ‘ANSYS’ is used to analyze the helmet with different conditions such as bottom fixed-load on top surface, bottom fixed -load on top line, side fixed –load on opposite surface, side fixed-load on opposite line and dynamic analysis. The maximum force of 19.5 kN is applied on the helmet to study the model in static and dynamic conditions. The simulation has been carried out for the static condition for the parameters like total deformation, strain energy, von-Mises stress for different cases. The dynamic analysis has been performed for the parameter like total deformation and equivalent elastic strain. The result shows that these values are concentrated in the retention portion of the helmet. These results have been compared with the standard experimental data proposed by the BIS and well within the acceptable limit.

Keywords: Helmet, Deformation, Strain energy, Equivalent elastic strain.

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Authors: Machimontorn Promtong, Sherman C. P. Cheung, Guan H. Yeoh, Sara Vahaji, Jiyuan Tu

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The wide range of industrial applications involved with boiling flows promotes the necessity of establishing fundamental knowledge in boiling flow phenomena. For this purpose, a number of experimental and numerical researches have been performed to elucidate the underlying physics of this flow. In this paper, the improved wall boiling models, implemented on ANSYS CFX 14.5, were introduced to study subcooled boiling flow at elevated pressure. At the heated wall boundary, the Fractal model, Force balance approach and Mechanistic frequency model are given for predicting the nucleation site density, bubble departure diameter, and bubble departure frequency. The presented wall heat flux partitioning closures were modified to consider the influence of bubble sliding along the wall before the lift-off, which usually happens in the flow boiling. The simulation was performed based on the Two-fluid model, where the standard k-ω SST model was selected for turbulence modelling. Existing experimental data at around 5 bars were chosen to evaluate the accuracy of the presented mechanistic approach. The void fraction and Interfacial Area Concentration (IAC) are in good agreement with the experimental data. However, the predicted bubble velocity and Sauter Mean Diameter (SMD) are over-predicted. This over-prediction may be caused by consideration of only dispersed and spherical bubbles in the simulations. In the future work, the important physical mechanisms of bubbles, such as merging and shrinking during sliding on the heated wall will be incorporated into this mechanistic model to enhance its capability for a wider range of flow prediction.

Keywords: CFD, mechanistic model, subcooled boiling flow, two-fluid model.

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Authors: Sudip Kumar Kundu, Charu Singh

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The climatic condition over Indian region is highly dependent on monsoon. India receives maximum amount of rainfall during southwest monsoon. Indian economy is highly dependent on agriculture. The presence of flood and drought years influenced the total cultivation system as well as the economy of the country as Indian agricultural systems is still highly dependent on the monsoon rainfall. The present study has been planned to investigate the flood and drought years for the north-west Himalayan region from 1951 to 2014 by using area average Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) rainfall data. For this investigation the Normalized index (NI) has been utilized to find out whether the particular year is drought or flood. The data have been extracted for the north-west Himalayan (NWH) region states namely Uttarakhand (UK), Himachal Pradesh (HP) and Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) to find out the rainy season average rainfall for each year, climatological mean and the standard deviation. After calculation it has been plotted by the diagrams (or graphs) to show the results- some of the years associated with drought years, some are flood years and rest are neutral. The flood and drought years can also relate with the large-scale phenomena El-Nino and La-Lina.

Keywords: Indian Meteorological Department, Rainfall, Normalized index, Flood, Drought, NWH.

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Authors: Kullanart Obsuwan, Suluck Namchote, Natdhera Sanmanee, Kamolchanok Panishkan, Sirichai Dharmvanij

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Humic acids (HAs) have been shown to activate some ion uptakes along with stimulating the lateral roots at effective concentration of micronutrients. However, the effects of HA on ion adsorption by plant roots are not easily explainable due to the varieties of HAs that differ from origins. Therefore, this study was aimed to investigate the effect of various concentrations of HA obtained from the compost derived from mix manures and some agricultural wastes on the growth of eggplant seedlings (Solanum melongena L. cv. Chao Praya) in tissue cultures at low nutrient level. Egg plant seeds were surfaced sterilized and germinated in ½ Murashige and Skoog medium (MS) without HA added or in ¼ MS supplemented with 0, 25, 50, 75 and 100 ppm of HAs. Then, they were cultured for 4 weeks under the controlled environment. The results showed that seedlings grown on ¼MS supplemented with HAs at the concentration of 25 and 50 ppm had the average plant heights (2.49 and 2.28 cm, respectively) higher than the other treatments. Both treatments also significantly showed the maximum average fresh and dry weights (p<0.05). Also the later yielded the highest average number of leaves and the longest average root length (p<0.05). However, there was no statistically different in the number of roots among treatments (p>0.05). This suggested that HAs at the concentration of 25 and 50 ppm could improve the growth of egg plant seedlings in tissue cultures at low nutrient level (¼ MS).

Keywords: growth, seedling, humic acid, fresh weght, dry weight, tissue culture

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Authors: J. Hajri, H. Hrizi, N. Sboui, H. Baudrand

Abstract:

This paper presents a study of SIW circuits (Substrate Integrated Waveguide) with a rigorous and fast original approach based on Iterative process (WCIP). The theoretical suggested study is validated by the simulation of two different examples of SIW circuits. The obtained results are in good agreement with those of measurement and with software HFSS.

Keywords: Convergence study, HFSS, Modal decomposition, SIW Circuits, WCIP Method.

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Authors: Khalid Safaa Hashim Al Khalidy, Ali Jalil Abdul Kareem Chabuk, Majid Mohammed Ali Kadhim

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This research aims to study the lead pollution in the air of Babylon governorate that resulted generally from vehicles exhausts in addition to industrial and human activities.Vehicles number in Babylon governorate increased significantly after year 2003 that resulted with increase in lead emissions into the air.Measurement of lead emissions was done in seven stations distributed randomly in Babylon governorate. These stations where located in Industrial (Al-Sena'ay) Quarter, 60 street (near to Babylon sewer directorate), 40 Street (near to the first intersection), Al-Hashmia city, Al-Mahaweel city, , Al- Musayab city in addition to another station in Sayd Idris village belong to Abugharaq district (Agricultural station for comparison). The measured concentrations in these stations were compared with the standard limits of Environmental Protection Agency EPA (2 μg /m3). The results of this study showed that the average of lead concentrations ,in Babylon governorate during year 2010, was (3.13 μg/m3) which was greater than standard limits (2 μg/m3). The maximum concentration of lead was (6.41 μg / m3) recorded in the Industrial (Al-Sena'ay) Quarter during April month, while the minimum concentrations was (0.36 μg / m3) recorded in the agricultural station (Abugharaq) during December month.

Keywords: Lead, pollution, lead concentration

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Authors: Mithilesh Singh, Rakhi Chaturvedi

Abstract:

Neem is a highly heterozygous and commercially important perennial plant. Conventionally, it is propagated by seeds which loose viability within two weeks. Strictly cross pollinating nature of the plant causes serious barrier to the genetic improvement by conventional methods. Alternative methods of tree improvement such as somatic hybridization, mutagenesis and genetic transformation require an efficient in vitro plant regeneration system. In this regard, somatic embryogenesis particularly secondary somatic embryogenesis may offer an effective system for large scale plant propagation without affecting the clonal fidelity of the regenerants. It can be used for synthetic seed production, which further bolsters conservation of this tree species which is otherwise very difficult The present report describes the culture conditions necessary to induce and maintain repetitive somatic embryogenesis, for the first time, in neem. Out of various treatments tested, the somatic embryos were induced directly from immature zygotic embryos of neem on MS + TDZ (0.1 μM) + ABA (4 μM), in more than 76 % cultures. Direct secondary somatic embryogenesis occurred from primary somatic embryos on MS + IAA (5 μM) + GA3 (5 μM) in 12.5 % cultures. Embryogenic competence of the explant as well as of the primary embryos was maintained for a long period by repeated subcultures at frequent intervals. A maximum of 10 % of these somatic embryos were converted into plantlets.

Keywords: Azadirachta indica A. Juss., Cytokinin, Somatic embryogenesis, zygotic embryo culture.

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Authors: Cuneyt Yucelbas, Seral Ozsen, Sule Yucelbas, Gulay Tezel

Abstract:

Due to the fact that there exist only a small number of complex systems in artificial immune system (AIS) that work out nonlinear problems, nonlinear AIS approaches, among the well-known solution techniques, need to be developed. Gaussian function is usually used as similarity estimation in classification problems and pattern recognition. In this study, diagnosis of breast cancer, the second type of the most widespread cancer in women, was performed with different distance calculation functions that euclidean, gaussian and gaussian-euclidean hybrid function in the clonal selection model of classical AIS on Wisconsin Breast Cancer Dataset (WBCD), which was taken from the University of California, Irvine Machine-Learning Repository. We used 3-fold cross validation method to train and test the dataset. According to the results, the maximum test classification accuracy was reported as 97.35% by using of gaussian-euclidean hybrid function for fold-3. Also, mean of test classification accuracies for all of functions were obtained as 94.78%, 94.45% and 95.31% with use of euclidean, gaussian and gaussian-euclidean, respectively. With these results, gaussian-euclidean hybrid function seems to be a potential distance calculation method, and it may be considered as an alternative distance calculation method for hard nonlinear classification problems.

Keywords: Artificial Immune System, Breast Cancer Diagnosis, Euclidean Function, Gaussian Function.

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Authors: Altab Hossain, Ataur Rahman, Jakir Hossen, A.K.M. P. Iqbal, SK. Hasan

Abstract:

The measurement of aerodynamic forces and moments acting on an aircraft model is important for the development of wind tunnel measurement technology to predict the performance of the full scale vehicle. The potentials of an aircraft model with and without winglet and aerodynamic characteristics with NACA wing No. 65-3- 218 have been studied using subsonic wind tunnel of 1 m × 1 m rectangular test section and 2.5 m long of Aerodynamics Laboratory Faculty of Engineering (University Putra Malaysia). Focusing on analyzing the aerodynamic characteristics of the aircraft model, two main issues are studied in this paper. First, a six component wind tunnel external balance is used for measuring lift, drag and pitching moment. Secondly, Tests are conducted on the aircraft model with and without winglet of two configurations at Reynolds numbers 1.7×105, 2.1×105, and 2.5×105 for different angle of attacks. Fuzzy logic approach is found as efficient for the representation, manipulation and utilization of aerodynamic characteristics. Therefore, the primary purpose of this work was to investigate the relationship between lift and drag coefficients, with free-stream velocities and angle of attacks, and to illustrate how fuzzy logic might play an important role in study of lift aerodynamic characteristics of an aircraft model with the addition of certain winglet configurations. Results of the developed fuzzy logic were compared with the experimental results. For lift coefficient analysis, the mean of actual and predicted values were 0.62 and 0.60 respectively. The coreelation between actual and predicted values (from FLS model) of lift coefficient in different angle of attack was found as 0.99. The mean relative error of actual and predicted valus was found as 5.18% for the velocity of 26.36 m/s which was found to be less than the acceptable limits (10%). The goodness of fit of prediction value was 0.95 which was close to 1.0.

Keywords: Wind tunnel; Winglet; Lift coefficient; Fuzzy logic.

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Authors: Assem M. F. Sallam, Ah. El-S. Makled

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This paper presents a study on the trajectory of a two stage launch vehicle. The study includes dynamic responses of motion parameters as well as the variation of angles affecting the orientation of the launch vehicle (LV). LV dynamic characteristics including state vector variation with corresponding altitude and velocity for the different LV stages separation, as well as the angle of attack and flight path angles are also discussed. A flight trajectory study for the drop zone of first stage and the jettisoning of fairing are introduced in the mathematical modeling to study their effect. To increase the accuracy of the LV model, atmospheric model is used taking into consideration geographical location and the values of solar flux related to the date and time of launch, accurate atmospheric model leads to enhancement of the calculation of Mach number, which affects the drag force over the LV. The mathematical model is implemented on MATLAB based software (Simulink). The real available experimental data are compared with results obtained from the theoretical computation model. The comparison shows good agreement, which proves the validity of the developed simulation model; the maximum error noticed was generally less than 10%, which is a result that can lead to future works and enhancement to decrease this level of error.

Keywords: Launch vehicle modeling, launch vehicle trajectory, mathematical modeling, MATLAB-Simulink.

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Authors: H. Iranmanesh, M. R. Skandari, M. Allahverdiloo

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Project managers are the ultimate responsible for the overall characteristics of a project, i.e. they should deliver the project on time with minimum cost and with maximum quality. It is vital for any manager to decide a trade-off between these conflicting objectives and they will be benefited of any scientific decision support tool. Our work will try to determine optimal solutions (rather than a single optimal solution) from which the project manager will select his desirable choice to run the project. In this paper, the problem in project scheduling notated as (1,T|cpm,disc,mu|curve:quality,time,cost) will be studied. The problem is multi-objective and the purpose is finding the Pareto optimal front of time, cost and quality of a project (curve:quality,time,cost), whose activities belong to a start to finish activity relationship network (cpm) and they can be done in different possible modes (mu) which are non-continuous or discrete (disc), and each mode has a different cost, time and quality . The project is constrained to a non-renewable resource i.e. money (1,T). Because the problem is NP-Hard, to solve the problem, a meta-heuristic is developed based on a version of genetic algorithm specially adapted to solve multi-objective problems namely FastPGA. A sample project with 30 activities is generated and then solved by the proposed method.

Keywords: FastPGA, Multi-Execution Activity Mode, Pareto Optimality, Project Scheduling, Time-Cost-Quality Trade-Off.

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