Search results for: Case Studies

Authors: Zuraida Alwadood, Adibah Shuib, Norlida Abd Hamid

Abstract:

This paper presents the review of past studies concerning mathematical models for rescheduling passenger railway services, as part of delay management in the occurrence of railway disruption. Many past mathematical models highlighted were aimed at minimizing the service delays experienced by passengers during service disruptions. Integer programming (IP) and mixed-integer programming (MIP) models are critically discussed, focusing on the model approach, decision variables, sets and parameters. Some of them have been tested on real-life data of railway companies worldwide, while a few have been validated on fictive data. Based on selected literatures on train rescheduling, this paper is able to assist researchers in the model formulation by providing comprehensive analyses towards the model building. These analyses would be able to help in the development of new approaches in rescheduling strategies or perhaps to enhance the existing rescheduling models and make them more powerful or more applicable with shorter computing time.

Keywords: Mathematical modelling, Mixed-integer programming, Railway rescheduling, Service delays.

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Authors: Isabela Romanha de Alcantara, José Eustáquio Ribeiro Vieira Filho, José Garcia Gasques

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Innovation and technology can be determinant factors to ensure agricultural and sustainable growth, as well as productivity gains. Technical change has contributed considerably to supply agricultural expansion in Brazil. This agricultural growth could be achieved by incorporating more land or capital. If capital is the main source of agricultural growth, it is possible to increase production per unit of land. The objective of this paper is to estimate: 1) total factor productivity (TFP), which is measured in terms of the rate of output per unit of input; and 2) the land-saving effect (LSE) that is the amount of land required in the case that yield rate is constant over time. According to this study, from 1990 to 2019, it appears that 87% of Brazilian agriculture product growth comes from the gains of productivity; the remaining 13% comes from input growth. In the same period, the total LSE was roughly 400 Mha, which corresponds to 47% of the national territory. These effects reflect the greater efficiency of using productive factors, whose technical change has allowed an increase in the agricultural production based on productivity gains.

Keywords: agriculture, land-saving effect, livestock, productivity

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Authors: Elysia Barker, Jian Guo Zhou, Ling Qian, Steve Decent

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A method of modelling topography used in the simulation of riverbeds is proposed in this paper which removes the need for datapoints and measurements of a physical terrain. While complex scans of the contours of a surface can be achieved with other methods, this requires specialised tools which the proposed method overcomes by using fractional Brownian motion (FBM) as a basis to estimate the real surface within a 15% margin of error while attempting to optimise algorithmic efficiency. This removes the need for complex, expensive equipment and reduces resources spent modelling bed topography. This method also accounts for the change in topography over time due to erosion, sediment transport, and other external factors which could affect the topography of the ground by updating its parameters and generating a new bed. The lattice Boltzmann method (LBM) is used to simulate both stationary and steady flow cases in a side-by-side comparison over the generated bed topography using the proposed method, and a test case taken from an external source. The method, if successful, will be incorporated into the current LBM program used in the testing phase, which will allow an automatic generation of topography for the given situation in future research, removing the need for bed data to be specified.

Keywords: Bed topography, FBM, LBM, shallow water, simulations.

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Authors: Mansour Nikpour, Mohd Zin kandar, Mohsen Ghasemi, Hossein Fallah

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Over half of the total electricity consumption is used in buildings. Air-conditioning and electric lighting are the two main resources of electricity consumption in high rise buildings. One way to reduce electricity consumption would be to limit heat gain into buildings, therefore reduce the demand for air-conditioning during hot summer months especially in hot regions. On the other hand natural daylight can be used to reduce the use of electricity for artificial lighting. In this paper effective factors on minimizing heat gain and achieving required day light were reviewed .As daylight always accompanied by solar heat gain. Also interactions between heat gain and daylight were discussed through previous studies and equations which are related to heat gain and day lighting especially in high rise buildings. As a result importance of building-s form and its component on energy consumption in buildings were clarified.

Keywords: High rise buildings, energy demand, day lighting, heat gain.

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Authors: Rosita Hedayati , Sedighe Kahrizi , Mohammad Parnianpour , Fariba Bahrami , Anoshirvan Kazemnejad

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The study of the variability of the postural strategies in low back pain patients, as a criterion in evaluation of the adaptability of this system to the environmental demands is the purpose of this study. A cross-sectional case-control study was performed on 21 recurrent non-specific low back pain patients and 21 healthy volunteers. The electromyography activity of Deltoid, External Oblique (EO), Transverse Abdominis/Internal Oblique (TrA/IO) and Erector Spine (ES) muscles of each person was recorded in 75 rapid arm flexion with maximum acceleration. Standard deviation of trunk muscles onset relative to deltoid muscle onset were statistically analyzed by MANOVA . The results show that chronic low back pain patients exhibit less variability in their anticipatory postural adjustments (APAs) in comparison with the control group. There is a decrease in variability of postural control system of recurrent non-specific low back pain patients that can result in the persistence of pain and chronicity by decreasing the adaptability to environmental demands.

Keywords: EMG Onset Latency, Variability, Posture, Non - specific Low Back Pain

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Authors: Abbas Haddadzadeh, Marzieh Sharif Paghaleh

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Within the new world order, the term “crisis" is nowadays familiar to companies. Organizations are experiencing conditions which are surprising, uncertain, often adverse and usually unstable. The companies, who grasp the importance of transformation within the information age, have felt the need to develop modern methods to achieve the ability to thrive despite severe shocks. Through strategically managing human resource and developing appropriate elements of human resource system, companies can be assured for resolving the crisis. In this paper the role of HR system on resolving crisis has been evaluated. To help accomplish this, an insight on previous strategic HRM literature and an introduction to the elements and relationship within HR systems has been presented. It also reviews different attitude around resilience in literature. It continues by reviewing three elements central to developing an organization-s capacity for crisis resolving and it will demonstrate how designing proper elements of HR system can lead the organizations to possess the ability for passing through crisis. Finally it will evaluate an Iranian Insurance organization in case of one of the three central elements (specific cognitive ability) and observe how successful they were on developing an effective HR system to be ready for facing crisis.

Keywords: Crisis, HR System, Resilience, Strategic Human Resource Management.

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Authors: Liliana M. Marinelli, Cristina T. Varanese

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In the last few years, students from higher education have difficulties in grasping mathematical concepts which support physical matters, especially those in the first years of this education. Classical Physics teaching turns to be complex when students are not able to make use of mathematical tools which lead to the conceptual structure of Physics. When derivation and integration rules are not used or developed in parallel with other disciplines, the physical meaning that we attempt to convey turns to be complicated. Due to this fact, it could be of great use to see the Classical Mechanics from an axiomatic approach, where the correspondence rules give physical meaning, if we expect students to understand concepts clearly and accurately. Using the Minkowski point of view adapted to a two-dimensional space and time where vectors, matrices, and straight lines (worked from an affine space) give mathematical and physical rigorosity even when it is more abstract. An interesting option would be to develop the disciplinary contents from an axiomatic version which embraces the Classical Mechanics as a particular case of Relativistic Mechanics. The observation about the increase in the difficulties stated by students in the first years of education allows this idea to grow as a possible option to improve performance and understanding of the concepts of this subject.

Keywords: Axiom, classical physics, physical concepts, relativity.

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Authors: András Horkai, Attila Talamon, Viktória Sugár

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There is an urgent need nowadays to reduce energy demand and the current level of greenhouse gas emission and use renewable energy sources increase in energy efficiency. On the other hand, the European Union (EU) countries are largely dependent on energy imports and are vulnerable to disruption in energy supply, which may, in turn, threaten the functioning of their current economic structure. Residential buildings represent a significant part of the energy consumption of the building stock. Only a small part of the building stock is exchanged every year, thus it is essential to increase the energy efficiency of the existing buildings. Present paper focuses on the buildings built with industrialized technology only, and their opportunities in the boundaries of nearly zero-energy regulation. Current paper shows the emergence of panel construction method, and past and present of the ‘panel’ problem in Hungary with a short outlook to Europe. The study shows as well as the possibilities for meeting the nearly zero and cost optimized requirements for residential buildings by analyzing the renovation scenarios of an existing residential typology.

Keywords: Budapest, energy consumption, industrialized technology, nearly zero-energy buildings.

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Authors: Emel Kızılkaya Aydogan, Mihrimah Ozmen, Yılmaz Delice

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In recent days, there is a change and the ongoing development of the telecommunications sector in the global market. In this sector, churn analysis techniques are commonly used for analysing why some customers terminate their service subscriptions prematurely. In addition, customer churn is utmost significant in this sector since it causes to important business loss. Many companies make various researches in order to prevent losses while increasing customer loyalty. Although a large quantity of accumulated data is available in this sector, their usefulness is limited by data quality and relevance. In this paper, a cost-sensitive feature selection framework is developed aiming to obtain the feature reducts to predict customer churn. The framework is a cost based optional pre-processing stage to remove redundant features for churn management. In addition, this cost-based feature selection algorithm is applied in a telecommunication company in Turkey and the results obtained with this algorithm.

Keywords: Churn prediction, data mining, decision-theoretic rough set, feature selection.

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Authors: Bachir Bentouati, Lakhdar Chaib, Saliha Chettih, Gai-Ge Wang

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The problem of economic dispatch (ED) is the basic problem of power framework, its main goal is to find the most favorable generation dispatch to generate each unit, reduce the whole power generation cost, and meet all system limitations. A heuristic algorithm, recently developed called Stud Krill Herd (SKH), has been employed in this paper to treat non-convex ED problems. The proposed KH has been modified using Stud selection and crossover (SSC) operator, to enhance the solution quality and avoid local optima. We are demonstrated SKH effects in two case study systems composed of 13-unit and 40-unit test systems to verify its performance and applicability in solving the ED problems. In the above systems, SKH can successfully obtain the best fuel generator and distribute the load requirements for the online generators. The results showed that the use of the proposed SKH method could reduce the total cost of generation and optimize the fulfillment of the load requirements.

Keywords: Stud Krill Herd, economic dispatch, crossover, stud selection, valve-point effect.

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Authors: Apirada Chinprateep

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The ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) is the goal of regional economic integration by 2015. In the region, tourism is an activity that is important, especially as a source of foreign currency, a source of employment creation and a source of income bringing to the region. Given the complexity of the issues entailing the concept of sustainable tourism, this paper tries to assess tourism sustainability with the ASEAN, based on a number of quantitative indicators for all the ten economies, Thailand, Myanmar, Laos, Vietnam, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, Philippines, Cambodia, and Brunei. The methodological framework will provide a number of benchmarks of tourism activities in these countries. They include identification of the dimensions; for example, economic, socio-ecologic, infrastructure and indicators, method of scaling, chart representation and evaluation on Asian countries. This specification shows that a similar level of tourism activity might introduce different implementation in the tourism activity and might have different consequences for the socioecological environment and sustainability. The heterogeneity of developing countries exposed briefly here would be useful to detect and prepare for coping with the main problems of each country in their tourism activities, as well as competitiveness and value creation of tourism for ASEAN economic community, and will compare with other parts of the world.

Keywords: AEC, ASEAN, sustainable, tourism, competitiveness.

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Authors: Do Hoai Nam, Keiko Udo, Akira Mano

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This paper presents the combination of different precipitation data sets and the distributed hydrological model, in order to examine the flood runoff reproductivity of scattered observation catchments. The precipitation data sets were obtained from observation using rain-gages, satellite based estimate (TRMM), and numerical weather prediction model (NWP), then were coupled with the super tank model. The case study was conducted in three basins (small, medium, and large size) located in Central Vietnam. Calculated hydrographs based on ground observation rainfall showed best fit to measured stream flow, while those obtained from TRMM and NWP showed high uncertainty of peak discharges. However, calculated hydrographs using the adjusted rainfield depicted a promising alternative for the application of TRMM and NWP in flood modeling for scattered observation catchments, especially for the extension of forecast lead time.

Keywords: Flood forecast, rainfall-runoff model, satellite rainfall estimate, numerical weather prediction, quantitative precipitation forecasting.

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Authors: Hamed Afrasiab, Saeed Khodaygan

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Prediction of machining process capability in the design stage plays a key role to reach the precision design and manufacturing of mechanical products. Inaccuracies in machining process lead to errors in position and orientation of machined features on the part, and strongly affect the process capability in the final quality of the product. In this paper, an efficient systematic approach is given to investigate the machining errors to predict the manufacturing errors of the parts and capability prediction of corresponding machining processes. A mathematical formulation of fixture locators modeling is presented to establish the relationship between the part errors and the related sources. Based on this method, the final machining errors of the part can be accurately estimated by relating them to the combined dimensional and geometric tolerances of the workpiece – fixture system. This method is developed for uncertainty analysis based on the Worst Case and statistical approaches. The application of the presented method is illustrated through presenting an example and the computational results are compared with the Monte Carlo simulation results.

Keywords: Process capability, machining error, dimensional and geometrical tolerances, uncertainty analysis.

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Authors: Abbas Ali Mahmood Karwi

Abstract:

Accurate timing alignment and stability is important to maximize the true counts and minimize the random counts in positron emission tomography So signals output from detectors must be centering with the two isotopes to pre-operation and fed signals into four units of pulse-processing units, each unit can accept up to eight inputs. The dual source computed tomography consist two units on the left for 15 detector signals of Cs-137 isotope and two units on the right are for 15 detectors signals of Co-60 isotope. The gamma spectrum consisting of either single or multiple photo peaks. This allows for the use of energy discrimination electronic hardware associated with the data acquisition system to acquire photon counts data with a specific energy, even if poor energy resolution detectors are used. This also helps to avoid counting of the Compton scatter counts especially if a single discrete gamma photo peak is emitted by the source as in the case of Cs-137. In this study the polyenergetic version of the alternating minimization algorithm is applied to the dual energy gamma computed tomography problem.

Keywords: Alignment, Spectrum, Laser, Detectors, Image

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Authors: N. H. Mvungi

Abstract:

Control of commutation of switched reluctance (SR) motor has been an area of interest for researchers for sometime now with mixed successes in addressing the inherent challenges. New technologies, processing schemes and methods have been adopted to make sensorless SR drive a reality. There are a number of conceptual, offline, analytical and online solutions in literature that have varying complexities and achieved equally varying degree of robustness and accuracies depending on the method used to address the challenges and the SR drive application. Magnetic coupling is one such challenge when using active probing techniques to determine rotor position of a SR motor from stator winding. This paper studies the effect of back-of-core saturation on the detected rotor position and presents results on measurement made on a 4- phase SR motor. The results shows that even for a four phase motor which is excited one phase at a time and using the electrically opposite phase for active position probing, the back-of-core saturation effects should not be ignored.

Keywords: Sensorless, SR motor, saturation effects, detection.

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Authors: Jehad Al Dallal

Abstract:

An application framework provides a reusable design and implementation for a family of software systems. If the framework contains defects, the defects will be passed on to the applications developed from the framework. Framework defects are hard to discover at the time the framework is instantiated. Therefore, it is important to remove all defects before instantiating the framework. In this paper, two measures for the adequacy of an object-oriented system-based testing technique are introduced. The measures assess the usefulness and uniqueness of the testing technique. The two measures are applied to experimentally compare the adequacy of two testing techniques introduced to test objectoriented frameworks at the system level. The two considered testing techniques are the New Framework Test Approach and Testing Frameworks Through Hooks (TFTH). The techniques are also compared analytically in terms of their coverage power of objectoriented aspects. The comparison study results show that the TFTH technique is better than the New Framework Test Approach in terms of usefulness degree, uniqueness degree, and coverage power.

Keywords: Object-oriented framework, object-oriented framework testing, test case generation, testing adequacy.

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Authors: Peyman Sindareh Esfahani, Jeffery Kurt Pieper

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In this paper, the problem of robust model predictive control (MPC) for discrete-time linear systems in linear fractional transformation form with structured uncertainty and norm-bounded disturbance is investigated. The problem of minimization of the cost function for MPC design is converted to minimization of the worst case of the cost function. Then, this problem is reduced to minimization of an upper bound of the cost function subject to a terminal inequality satisfying the l₂-norm of the closed loop system. The characteristic of the linear fractional transformation system is taken into account, and by using some mathematical tools, the robust predictive controller design problem is turned into a linear matrix inequality minimization problem. Afterwards, a formulation which includes an integrator to improve the performance of the proposed robust model predictive controller in steady state condition is studied. The validity of the approaches is illustrated through a robust control benchmark problem.

Keywords: Linear fractional transformation, linear matrix inequality, robust model predictive control, state feedback control.

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Authors: Jesus Orbe, Vicente Nunez-Anton

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This paper studies the duration or survival time of commercial banks active in the Moscovian three month Rouble deposits market, during the 1994-1997 period. The privatization process of the Russian commercial banking industry, after the 1988 banking reform, caused a massive entry of new banks followed by a period of high rates of exit. As a consequence, many firms went bankrupt without refunding their deposits. Therefore, both for the banks and for the banks- depositors, it is of interest to analyze which are the significant characteristics that motivate the exit or the closing of the bank. We propose a different methodology based on penalized weighted least squares which represents a very general, flexible and innovative approach for this type of analysis. The more relevant results are that smaller banks exit sooner, banks that enter the market in the last part of the study have shorter durations. As expected, the more experienced banks have a longer duration in the market. In addition, the mean survival time is lower for banks which offer extreme interest rates.

Keywords: Banking, censored, duration, Kaplan-Meier.

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Authors: Guranda Tevdoradze

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By the end of XX century in the structure of humanity some changes have been provoked: a new ethnos - Ethnos of Intellect is formed and is still being formed, beside the historical types of ethnoses: open ethnos, closed ethnos, wandering ethnos, dead ethnos, - and this event was caused by the technical progress, development of informational and transport communications, especially - by creation of Internet. The Ethnos of Intellect is something very close to the ÔÇ×Information Society“ described by J. Ellule and Y. Masuda that was regarded as the culture of XXI century, being an antithesis for technical and technicistical civilizations, but it-s necessary to indicate also the essential difference between these concepts: the Ethnos of Intellect is the antithesis of Socium. The existence of such an ethnos within human society that has already become an Information Society itself is extremely important in observing legally and informatically a new kind of reins in the hands of the political power, revealing every attempt to violate the human rights of simple citizens. A concrete example of some conjunction points of legal informatics and informatical law in a certain kind of ambiental studies of the project ''State Registre of Population'' in Russia is very eloquent.

Keywords: Culturology, Legal Informatics, Sociology of Groups.

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Authors: Norraihan Zakaria, Abdul Rahman Othman

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Political blogs are one of the pivotal alternative communication channels for political news in Malaysia. Many have argued that the mushrooming of political blogs nurtures the effective realization of human rights in the country. The paper studies the ‘Malaysian political blog readers–human rights’ relationship by exploring these questions: Has traditional mainstream media become obsolete with the rise of political blogosphere? Why do blog readers visit political blogs? A survey was conducted and the findings revealed that traditional mainstream media is still a pertinent source for political news in the country. Apart from acquiring the latest political updates quickly and at anytime, blog readers compare the news published in political blogs with the ones reported in traditional mainstream media. This suggests that freedom of information is deemed as one of the prime motives for Malaysian blog readers clinging to political blogosphere.

Keywords: Freedom of information, Human rights, Malaysian political blog readers, Malaysian political blogosphere.

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Authors: Robert Pintaric, Joze Matela, Stefan Pintaric, Stanka Vadnjal

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Introduction: This work is aimed to represent the use of the OPTI-JET CS MD1 MR prototype for application of neutral electrolyzed oxidizing water (NEOW) in magnetic resonance rooms. Material and Methods: We produced and used OPTI-JET CS MD1 MR aerosolisator whereby was performed aerosolization. The presence of microorganisms before and after the aerosolisation was recorded with the help of cyclone air sampling. Colony formed units (CFU) was counted. Results: The number of microorganisms in magnetic resonance 3T room was low as expected. Nevertheless, a possible CFU reduction of 87% was recorded. Conclusions: The research has shown that the use of EOW for the air and hard surface disinfection can considerably reduce the presence of microorganisms and consequently the possibility of hospital infections. It has also demonstrated that the use of OPTI-JET CS MD1 MR is very good. With this research, we started new guidelines for aerosolization in magnetic resonance rooms. Future work: We predict that presented technique works very good but we must focus also on time capacity sensors, and new appropriate toxicological studies.

Keywords: Biocide, electrolyzed oxidizing water (EOW), disinfection, microorganisms, OPTI-JET CS MD1MR.

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Authors: B. Lorestani, M. Cheraghi, N. Yousefi

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A research project dealing with the phytoremediation of a soil polluted by some heavy metals is currently running. The case study is represented by a mining area in Hamedan province in the central west part of Iran. The potential of phytoextraction and phytostabilization of plants was evaluated considering the concentration of heavy metals in the plant tissues and also the bioconcentration factor (BCF) and the translocation factor (TF). Also the several established criteria were applied to define hyperaccumulator plants in the studied area. Results showed that none of the collected plant species were suitable for phytoextraction of Cu, Zn, Fe and Mn, but among the plants, Euphorbia macroclada was the most efficient in phytostabilization of Cu and Fe, while, Ziziphora clinopodioides, Cousinia sp. and Chenopodium botrys were the most suitable for phytostabilization of Zn and Chondrila juncea and Stipa barbata had the potential for phytostabilization of Mn. Using the most common criterion, Euphorbia macroclada and Verbascum speciosum were Fe hyperaccumulator plants. Present study showed that native plant species growing on contaminated sites may have the potential for phytoremediation.

Keywords: Bioconcentration factor, Heavy metals, Hyperaccumulator, Phytoremediation, Translocation factor

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Authors: Xin Zhao, Yin-fan Zhu, Wei-ping Wang, Qun Li

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The Influence Diagrams (IDs) is a kind of Probabilistic Belief Networks for graphic modeling. The usage of IDs can improve the communication among field experts, modelers, and decision makers, by showing the issue frame discussed from a high-level point of view. This paper enhances the Time-Sliced Influence Diagrams (TSIDs, or called Dynamic IDs) based formalism from a Discrete Event Systems Modeling and Simulation (DES M&S) perspective, for Exploring Analysis (EA) modeling. The enhancements enable a modeler to specify times occurred of endogenous events dynamically with stochastic sampling as model running and to describe the inter- influences among them with variable nodes in a dynamic situation that the existing TSIDs fails to capture. The new class of model is named Dynamic-Stochastic Influence Diagrams (DSIDs). The paper includes a description of the modeling formalism and the hiberarchy simulators implementing its simulation algorithm, and shows a case study to illustrate its enhancements.

Keywords: Time-sliced influence diagrams, discrete event systems, dynamic-stochastic influence diagrams, modeling formalism, simulation algorithm.

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Authors: M. Tehranizadeh, E. Shoushtari Rezvani

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Seismic performance of steel moment-resisting frame structures is investigated considering nonlinear soil-structure interaction (SSI) effects. 10-, 15-, and 20-story planar building frames with aspect ratio of 3 are designed in accordance with current building codes. Inelastic seismic demands of the superstructure are considered using concentrated plasticity model. The raft foundation system is designed for different soil types. Beam-on-nonlinear Winkler foundation (BNWF) is used to represent dynamic impedance of the underlying soil. Two sets of pulse-like as well as no-pulse near-fault earthquakes are used as input ground motions. The results show that the reduction in drift demands due to nonlinear SSI is characterized by a more uniform distribution pattern along the height when compared to the fixed-base and linear SSI condition. It is also concluded that beneficial effects of nonlinear SSI on displacement demands is more significant in case of pulse-like ground motions and performance level of the steel moment-resisting frames can be enhanced.

Keywords: Soil-structure interaction, uplifting, soil plasticity, near-fault earthquake, tall building.

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Authors: Payam Foroutan Yekta

Abstract:

The formation of theatre in ancient Greece and the different reasons and arguments about it are still left as an interesting case of discussion, and the origin of the Greek drama is usually sought in the Dionysus Festival. One fundamental element for the transformation of ritual into theatre was the establishment of theatre or places specifically used for performing Greek drama. Despite the theories of social Darwinists in the field of theatre historiography, the present study takes as its point of departure the hypothesis that the procedure of the transformation of Dionysus rituals to theatre has not been an evolutionary one. Our arguments will be based on Michel Foucault’s theory in his seminal book Discipline and Punish, where he holds “power” to be always aiming at the regulation of formless and unpredictable masses in order to predict their movements and behaviours. Thus, it could be argued that by founding theatra, in less than two centuries, Athens’s political system has transformed the primitive, violent and chaotic Dionysus rituals, turning them into theatre in order to control the society as much as possible.

Keywords: Dionysus Rituals, Greek Drama, Theatron, Michel Foucault, Discipline and Punish, Political System.

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Authors: Raninder Kaur Dhillon, Mayur Jethwa, Hardeep Singh Rai

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Information technology has made a pivotal progress across disparate disciplines, one of which is AEC (Architecture, Engineering and Construction) industry. CAD is a form of computer-aided building modulation that architects, engineers and contractors use to create and view two- and three-dimensional models. The AEC industry also uses building information modeling (BIM), a newer computerized modeling system that can create four-dimensional models; this software can greatly increase productivity in the AEC industry. BIM models generate open source IFC (Industry Foundation Classes) files which aim for interoperability for exchanging information throughout the project lifecycle among various disciplines. The methods developed in previous studies require either an IFC schema or MVD and software applications, such as an IFC model server or a Building Information Modeling (BIM) authoring tool, to extract a partial or complete IFC instance model. This paper proposes an efficient algorithm for extracting a partial and total model from an Industry Foundation Classes (IFC) instance model without an IFC schema or a complete IFC model view definition (MVD).

Keywords: BIM, CAD, IFC, MVD.

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Authors: L. Bikulciene, E. Venskaityte, G. Jarusevicius

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Nonstationary and nonlinear signals generated by living complex systems defy traditional mechanistic approaches, which are based on homeostasis. Previous our studies have shown that the evaluation of the interactions of physiological signals by using special analysis methods is suitable for observation of physiological processes. It is demonstrated the possibility of using deep physiological model, based on the interpretation of the changes of the human body’s functional states combined with an application of the analytical method based on matrix theory for the physiological signals analysis, which was applied on high risk cardiac patients. It is shown that evaluation of cardiac signals interactions show peculiar for each individual functional changes at the onset of hemodynamic restoration procedure. Therefore, we suggest that the alterations of functional state of the body, after patients overcome surgery can be complemented by the data received from the suggested approach of the evaluation of functional variables’ interactions.

Keywords: Cardiac diseases, Complex systems theory, ECG analysis, matrix analysis.

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Authors: Chie Urawa

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Cautionary statements or disclaimers in corporate annual reports need to be carefully designed because clear cautionary statements may protect a company in the case of legal disputes and may undermine positive impressions. This study compares the language of cautionary statements using two corpora, Sony’s cautionary statement corpus (S-corpus) and Panasonic’s cautionary statement corpus (P-corpus), illustrating the differences and similarities in relation to the use of meaningful cautionary statements and critically analyzing why practitioners use the way. The findings describe the distinct differences between the two companies in the presentation of the risk factors and the way how they make the statements. The word ability is used more for legal protection in S-corpus whereas the word possibility is used more to convey a better impression in P-corpus. The main similarities are identified in the use of lexical words and pronouns, and almost the same wordings for eight years. The findings show how they make the statements unique to the company in the presentation of risk factors, and the characteristics of specific genre of professional communication. Important implications of this study are that more comprehensive approach can be applied in other contexts, and be used by companies to reflect upon their cautionary statements.

Keywords: Cautionary statements, corporate annual reports, corpus, risk factors.

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Authors: Ezenwa Chinenye Amanamba

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There is a call to ensure that the issues of safety and efficient throughput are considered during design; the solutions to these issues can also be retrofitted at locations where they were not captured during design, but have become problems to road users over time. This paper adopts several methods to analyze the performance of an intersection which was formerly a ‘priority-controlled’ intersection, but has now been converted to a ‘signal-controlled’ intersection. Extensive review of literature helped form the basis for result analysis and discussion. The Ikot-Ekpene/Anagha-Ezikpe intersection, located at the heart of Umuahia was adopted as case study; considering the high traffic volume on the route. Anecdotal evidence revealed that traffic signals imposed enormous delays at the intersection, especially for traffic on the major road. The major road has arrival flow which surpasses the saturation flow obtained from modelling of the isolated signalized intersection. Similarly, there were several geometric elements that did not agree with the specific function of the road. A roundabout, particularly flower roundabout was recommended as a better traffic control measure.

Keywords: Highway function, level of service, roundabout, traffic delays, Umuahia.

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Authors: Sheroz Khan, A. H. M. Zahirul Alam, Othman O. Khalifa, Mohd Rafiqul Islam, Zuraidah Zainudin, Muzna S. Khan, Nurul Iman Muhamad Pauzi

Abstract:

The study of soil for agriculture purposes has remained the main focus of research since the beginning of civilization as humans- food related requirements remained closely linked with the soil. The study of soil has generated an interest among the researchers for very similar other reasons including transmission, reflection and refraction of signals for deploying wireless underground sensor networks or for the monitoring of objects on (or in ) soil in the form of better understanding of soil electromagnetic characteristics properties. The moisture content has been very instrumental in such studies as it decides on the resistance of the soil, and hence the attenuation on signals traveling through soil or the attenuation the signals may suffer upon their impact on soil. This work is related testing and characterizing a measurement circuit meant for the detection of moisture level content in soil.

Keywords: Analog–digital Conversion, Bridge Circuits, Intelligent sensors, Pulse Time Modulation, Relaxation Oscillator

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