Search results for: finite state machines
442 An Analysis of Digital Forensic Laboratory Development among Malaysia’s Law Enforcement Agencies
Authors: Sarah K. Taylor, Miratun M. Saharuddin, Zabri A. Talib
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Cybercrime is on the rise, and yet many Law Enforcement Agencies (LEAs) in Malaysia have no Digital Forensics Laboratory (DFL) to assist them in the attrition and analysis of digital evidence. From the estimated number of 30 LEAs in Malaysia, sadly, only eight of them owned a DFL. All of the DFLs are concentrated in the capital of Malaysia and none at the state level. LEAs are still depending on the national DFL (CyberSecurity Malaysia) even for simple and straightforward cases. A survey was conducted among LEAs in Malaysia owning a DFL to understand their history of establishing the DFL, the challenges that they faced and the significance of the DFL to their case investigation. The results showed that the while some LEAs faced no challenge in establishing a DFL, some of them took seven to 10 years to do so. The reason was due to the difficulty in convincing their management because of the high costs involved. The results also revealed that with the establishment of a DFL, LEAs were better able to get faster forensic result and to meet agency’s timeline expectation. It is also found that LEAs were also able to get more meaningful forensic results on cases that require niche expertise, compared to sending off cases to the national DFL. Other than that, cases are getting more complex, and hence, a continuous stream of budget for equipment and training is inevitable. The result derived from the study is hoped to be used by other LEAs in justifying to their management the benefits of establishing an in-house DFL.
Keywords: Digital forensics, digital forensics laboratory, digital evidence, law enforcement agency.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1473441 Sensor Network Based Emergency Response and Navigation Support Architecture
Authors: Dilusha Weeraddana, Ashanie Gunathillake, Samiru Gayan
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In an emergency, combining Wireless Sensor Network's data with the knowledge gathered from various other information sources and navigation algorithms, could help safely guide people to a building exit while avoiding the risky areas. This paper presents an emergency response and navigation support architecture for data gathering, knowledge manipulation, and navigational support in an emergency situation. At normal state, the system monitors the environment. When an emergency event detects, the system sends messages to first responders and immediately identifies the risky areas from safe areas to establishing escape paths. The main functionalities of the system include, gathering data from a wireless sensor network which is deployed in a multi-story indoor environment, processing it with information available in a knowledge base, and sharing the decisions made, with first responders and people in the building. The proposed architecture will act to reduce risk of losing human lives by evacuating people much faster with least congestion in an emergency environment.
Keywords: Emergency response, Firefighters, Navigation, Wireless sensor network.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1997440 Concept of a Pseudo-Lower Bound Solution for Reinforced Concrete Slabs
Authors: M. De Filippo, J. S. Kuang
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In construction industry, reinforced concrete (RC) slabs represent fundamental elements of buildings and bridges. Different methods are available for analysing the structural behaviour of slabs. In the early ages of last century, the yield-line method has been proposed to attempt to solve such problem. Simple geometry problems could easily be solved by using traditional hand analyses which include plasticity theories. Nowadays, advanced finite element (FE) analyses have mainly found their way into applications of many engineering fields due to the wide range of geometries to which they can be applied. In such cases, the application of an elastic or a plastic constitutive model would completely change the approach of the analysis itself. Elastic methods are popular due to their easy applicability to automated computations. However, elastic analyses are limited since they do not consider any aspect of the material behaviour beyond its yield limit, which turns to be an essential aspect of RC structural performance. Furthermore, their applicability to non-linear analysis for modeling plastic behaviour gives very reliable results. Per contra, this type of analysis is computationally quite expensive, i.e. not well suited for solving daily engineering problems. In the past years, many researchers have worked on filling this gap between easy-to-implement elastic methods and computationally complex plastic analyses. This paper aims at proposing a numerical procedure, through which a pseudo-lower bound solution, not violating the yield criterion, is achieved. The advantages of moment distribution are taken into account, hence the increase in strength provided by plastic behaviour is considered. The lower bound solution is improved by detecting over-yielded moments, which are used to artificially rule the moment distribution among the rest of the non-yielded elements. The proposed technique obeys Nielsen’s yield criterion. The outcome of this analysis provides a simple, yet accurate, and non-time-consuming tool of predicting the lower-bound solution of the collapse load of RC slabs. By using this method, structural engineers can find the fracture patterns and ultimate load bearing capacity. The collapse triggering mechanism is found by detecting yield-lines. An application to the simple case of a square clamped slab is shown, and a good match was found with the exact values of collapse load.Keywords: Computational mechanics, lower bound method, reinforced concrete slabs, yield-line.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1081439 3D Multi-User Virtual Environment in Language Teaching
Authors: Hana Maresova, Daniel Ecler, Miroslava Mensikova
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This article focuses on the use of 3D multi-user virtual environment in language teaching and presents the results of a four-year research at the Palacky University Olomouc Faculty of Education (Czech Republic). Language teaching was conducted in an experimental form in the 3D virtual worlds of Second Life and Kitely (experimental group) and, in parallel to this, there was also traditional teaching conducted on identical topics in the form of lectures using a textbook (control group). The didactic test, which was presented to both of the groups in an identical form before the start of teaching and after its implementation, verified the effect of teaching in the experimental group by comparing the achieved results of both groups. Out of the three components of mother tongue teaching (grammar, literature, composition and communication education) students achieved partial better results (in the case of points focused on the visualization of the subject matter, these were statistically significant) in literature. Students from the control group performed better in grammar and composition. Based on the achieved results, we can state that the most appropriate use of multi-user virtual environment (MUVE) can be seen in teaching those topics that have the possibility of dramatization, experiential learning and group cooperation.
Keywords: 3D virtual reality, multiuser environments, online education, language education.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 448438 Active Islanding Detection Method Using Intelligent Controller
Authors: Kuang-Hsiung Tan, Chih-Chan Hu, Chien-Wu Lan, Shih-Sung Lin, Te-Jen Chang
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An active islanding detection method using disturbance signal injection with intelligent controller is proposed in this study. First, a DC\AC power inverter is emulated in the distributed generator (DG) system to implement the tracking control of active power, reactive power outputs and the islanding detection. The proposed active islanding detection method is based on injecting a disturbance signal into the power inverter system through the d-axis current which leads to a frequency deviation at the terminal of the RLC load when the utility power is disconnected. Moreover, in order to improve the transient and steady-state responses of the active power and reactive power outputs of the power inverter, and to further improve the performance of the islanding detection method, two probabilistic fuzzy neural networks (PFNN) are adopted to replace the traditional proportional-integral (PI) controllers for the tracking control and the islanding detection. Furthermore, the network structure and the online learning algorithm of the PFNN are introduced in detail. Finally, the feasibility and effectiveness of the tracking control and the proposed active islanding detection method are verified with experimental results.
Keywords: Distributed generators, probabilistic fuzzy neural network, islanding detection, non-detection zone.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1411437 Evaluation of Expected Annual Loss Probabilities of RC Moment Resisting Frames
Authors: Saemee Jun, Dong-Hyeon Shin, Tae-Sang Ahn, Hyung-Joon Kim
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Building loss estimation methodologies which have been advanced considerably in recent decades are usually used to estimate socio and economic impacts resulting from seismic structural damage. In accordance with these methods, this paper presents the evaluation of an annual loss probability of a reinforced concrete moment resisting frame designed according to Korean Building Code. The annual loss probability is defined by (1) a fragility curve obtained from a capacity spectrum method which is similar to a method adopted from HAZUS, and (2) a seismic hazard curve derived from annual frequencies of exceedance per peak ground acceleration. Seismic fragilities are computed to calculate the annual loss probability of a certain structure using functions depending on structural capacity, seismic demand, structural response and the probability of exceeding damage state thresholds. This study carried out a nonlinear static analysis to obtain the capacity of a RC moment resisting frame selected as a prototype building. The analysis results show that the probability of being extensive structural damage in the prototype building is expected to 0.01% in a year.
Keywords: Expected annual loss, Loss estimation, RC structure, Fragility analysis.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2367436 Simulation-Based Optimization of a Non-Uniform Piezoelectric Energy Harvester with Stack Boundary
Authors: Alireza Keshmiri, Shahriar Bagheri, Nan Wu
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This research presents an analytical model for the development of an energy harvester with piezoelectric rings stacked at the boundary of the structure based on the Adomian decomposition method. The model is applied to geometrically non-uniform beams to derive the steady-state dynamic response of the structure subjected to base motion excitation and efficiently harvest the subsequent vibrational energy. The in-plane polarization of the piezoelectric rings is employed to enhance the electrical power output. A parametric study for the proposed energy harvester with various design parameters is done to prepare the dataset required for optimization. Finally, simulation-based optimization technique helps to find the optimum structural design with maximum efficiency. To solve the optimization problem, an artificial neural network is first trained to replace the simulation model, and then, a genetic algorithm is employed to find the optimized design variables. Higher geometrical non-uniformity and length of the beam lowers the structure natural frequency and generates a larger power output.Keywords: Piezoelectricity, energy harvesting, simulation-based optimization, artificial neural network, genetic algorithm.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 829435 Separation Characteristics of the Hollow Fiber Membrane Module Using Water Mixed with Small Sized Bubbles Composed of Synthesized Exhalations
Authors: Pil Woo Heo, Hyunse Kim
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Fish can breathe freely under water using dissolved oxygen and survive for a long time without going out of the water. A human can also survive under water using dissolved oxygens, if properly used. He needs more dissolved oxygens than the fish, so efficient separation device is required. Since the amount of oxygen contained in water is weak, a person needs a lot of surface area to breathe in water, which leads to a large-sized device. It can be applied to various fields if it is developed as a device which is advantageous to carry in small size. In this paper, we have carried out a study on the effective use of exhalations and proposed the separation characteristics of the gas containing dissolved oxygen in the state of mixed gas considering the components of exhalation. The system was configured to have a fine bubble when the gas mixture injected into the front end of the separator. While the fluid containing the fine bubbles was supplied to the separator, the dissolved gas contained in water was separated using a vacuum pump. The gas separation amount of the separating apparatus with respect to the supplied mixed gas was measured. The amounts of separation of dissolved gas were increased as the amounts of mixed gas supplied were increased.
Keywords: Small sized bubbles, synthesized exhalations, separation, hollow fiber module.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 681434 Safety Culture Implementation Based on Occupational Health and Safety Assessment
Authors: Nyambayar Davaadorj, Ichiro Koshijima
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Safety or the state of being safe can be described as a condition of being not dangerous or not harmful. It is necessary for an individual to avoid dangerous situations every day. Also, an organization is subject to legal requirements for the health and safety of persons inside and around the immediate workplace, or who are exposed to the workplace activities. Although it might be difficult to keep a situation where complete safety is ensured, efforts must nonetheless be made to consider ways of removing any potential danger within an organization. In order to ensure a safe working environment, the capability of responding (i.e., resilience) to signals (i.e., information concerning events that could pose future problems that must be taken into account) that occur in and around corporations is necessary. The ability to evaluate this essential point is thus one way in which safety and security can be managed. This study focuses on OHSAS18001, an internationally applied standard for the construction and operation of occupational health and safety management systems, by using IDEF0 for Function Modeling (IDEF0) and the Resilience Matrix originally made by Bracco. Further, this study discusses a method for evaluating a manner in which Occupational Health and Safety Assessment Series (OHSAS) systematically functions within corporations. Based on the findings, this study clarifies the potential structural objection for corporations when implementing and operating the OHSAS standard.
Keywords: OHSAS18001, IDEF0, safety culture, resilience engineering.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1422433 Students' Acceptance of Incorporating Emerging Communication Technologies in Higher Education in Kuwait
Authors: Bashaiar Alsanaa
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Never has a revolution affected all aspects of humanity as the communication revolution during the past two decades. This revolution, with all its advances and utilities, swept the world thus becoming an integral part of our lives, hence giving way to emerging applications at the social, economic, political, and educational levels. More specifically, such applications have changed the delivery system through which learning is acquired by students. Interaction with educators, accessibility to content, and creative delivery options are but a few facets of the new learning experience now being offered through the use of technology in the educational field. With different success rates, third world countries have tried to pace themselves with use of educational technology in advanced parts of the world. One such country is the small rich-oil state of Kuwait which has tried to adopt the e-educational model, however, an evaluation of such trial is yet to be done. This study aimed to fill the void of research conducted around that topic. The study explored students' acceptance of incorporating communication technologies in higher education in Kuwait. Students' responses to survey questions presented an overview of the e-learning experience in this country, and drew a framework through which implications and suggestions for future research were discussed to better serve the advancement of e-education in developing countries.Keywords: Communication technologies, E-learning, Kuwait, Social media
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1691432 An Empirical Assessment of Sustainability of an Urban Water Supply Service Delivery
Authors: Olayinka Gafar Okeola, Akinola Muyiwa Moore
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Urban population is rapidly increasing in Ilorin, (the capital of Kwara State of Nigeria) along with related increased water demand. The inadequacies of water supply services have forced the populace to depend on dug wells, boreholes, water tankers, street vendors etc. for their water needs. People spend hours daily carrying jerry can all around to collect and queue for water at the public water tap with high opportunity cost both in time and economic wastage. This situation motivated this study to assess the sustainability of an urban water supply services to unravel the factors undermining the effective delivery of services. Contingent Valuation Method was used to place value on water supply services using the Double Bounded Dichotomous Choice format for willingness to pay elicitation. A database was created with Microsoft Excel and Stata 12 Software to model and evaluate the variables that affect household willingness to pay. The results of the study reveal that about 92% of the total households surveyed were connected to the Government water supply out of which 87% reported that they were not satisfied with the existing services. The results furthered revealed that respondents are willing to pay ₦2500 monthly to enjoy sustainable water supply service delivery.
Keywords: Willingness-to-pay, contingent valuation method, Nigeria, service, delivery.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 401431 Health Monitoring of Power Transformers by Dissolved Gas Analysis using Regression Method and Study the Effect of Filtration on Oil
Authors: Anjali Chatterjee, Nirmal Kumar Roy
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Economically transformers constitute one of the largest investments in a Power system. For this reason, transformer condition assessment and management is a high priority task. If a transformer fails, it would have a significant negative impact on revenue and service reliability. Monitoring the state of health of power transformers has traditionally been carried out using laboratory Dissolved Gas Analysis (DGA) tests performed at periodic intervals on the oil sample, collected from the transformers. DGA of transformer oil is the single best indicator of a transformer-s overall condition and is a universal practice today, which started somewhere in the 1960s. Failure can occur in a transformer due to different reasons. Some failures can be limited or prevented by maintenance. Oil filtration is one of the methods to remove the dissolve gases and prevent the deterioration of the oil. In this paper we analysis the DGA data by regression method and predict the gas concentration in the oil in the future. We bring about a comparative study of different traditional methods of regression and the errors generated out of their predictions. With the help of these data we can deduce the health of the transformer by finding the type of fault if it has occurred or will occur in future. Additional in this paper effect of filtration on the transformer health is highlight by calculating the probability of failure of a transformer with and without oil filtrating.
Keywords: Power Transformers, Dissolve gas Analysis, Regression method, Filtration, oil.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2926430 Investigating the Dynamics of Knowledge Acquisition in Learning Using Differential Equations
Authors: Gilbert Makanda, Roelf Sypkens
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A mathematical model for knowledge acquisition in teaching and learning is proposed. In this study we adopt the mathematical model that is normally used for disease modelling into teaching and learning. We derive mathematical conditions which facilitate knowledge acquisition. This study compares the effects of dropping out of the course at early stages with later stages of learning. The study also investigates effect of individual interaction and learning from other sources to facilitate learning. The study fits actual data to a general mathematical model using Matlab ODE45 and lsqnonlin to obtain a unique mathematical model that can be used to predict knowledge acquisition. The data used in this study was obtained from the tutorial test results for mathematics 2 students from the Central University of Technology, Free State, South Africa in the department of Mathematical and Physical Sciences. The study confirms already known results that increasing dropout rates and forgetting taught concepts reduce the population of knowledgeable students. Increasing teaching contacts and access to other learning materials facilitate knowledge acquisition. The effect of increasing dropout rates is more enhanced in the later stages of learning than earlier stages. The study opens up a new direction in further investigations in teaching and learning using differential equations.Keywords: Differential equations, knowledge acquisition, least squares nonlinear, dynamical systems.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 902429 Ultimately Bounded Takagi-Sugeno Fuzzy Management in Urban Traffic Stream Mechanism: Multi-Agent Modeling Approach
Authors: Reza Ghasemi, Negin Amiri Hazaveh
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In this paper, control methodology based on the selection of the type of traffic light and the period of the green phase to accomplish an optimum balance at intersections is proposed. This balance should be flexible to the static behavior of time, and randomness in a traffic situation; the goal of the proposed method is to reduce traffic volume in transportation, the average delay for each vehicle, and control over the crash of cars. The proposed method was specifically investigated at the intersection through an appropriate timing of traffic lights by sampling a multi-agent system. It consists of a large number of intersections, each of which is considered as an independent agent that exchanges information with each other, and the stability of each agent is provided separately. The robustness against uncertainties, scalability, and stability of the closed-loop overall system are the main merits of the proposed methodology. The simulation results show that the fuzzy intelligent controller in this multi-factor system which is a Takagi-Sugeno (TS) fuzzy is more useful than scheduling in the fixed-time method and it reduces the lengths of vehicles queuing.
Keywords: Fuzzy intelligent controller, traffic-light control, multi-agent systems, state space equations, stability.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 526428 Modeling of Session Initiation Protocol Invite Transaction using Colored Petri Nets
Authors: Sabina Baraković, Dragan Jevtić, Jasmina Baraković Husić
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Wireless mobile communications have experienced the phenomenal growth through last decades. The advances in wireless mobile technologies have brought about a demand for high quality multimedia applications and services. For such applications and services to work, signaling protocol is required for establishing, maintaining and tearing down multimedia sessions. The Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) is an application layer signaling protocols, based on request/response transaction model. This paper considers SIP INVITE transaction over an unreliable medium, since it has been recently modified in Request for Comments (RFC) 6026. In order to help in assuring that the functional correctness of this modification is achieved, the SIP INVITE transaction is modeled and analyzed using Colored Petri Nets (CPNs). Based on the model analysis, it is concluded that the SIP INVITE transaction is free of livelocks and dead codes, and in the same time it has both desirable and undesirable deadlocks. Therefore, SIP INVITE transaction should be subjected for additional updates in order to eliminate undesirable deadlocks. In order to reduce the cost of implementation and maintenance of SIP, additional remodeling of the SIP INVITE transaction is recommended.Keywords: Colored Petri Nets, SIP INVITE, state space, dead marking
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2907427 Online Battery Equivalent Circuit Model Estimation on Continuous-Time Domain Using Linear Integral Filter Method
Authors: Cheng Zhang, James Marco, Walid Allafi, Truong Q. Dinh, W. D. Widanage
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Equivalent circuit models (ECMs) are widely used in battery management systems in electric vehicles and other battery energy storage systems. The battery dynamics and the model parameters vary under different working conditions, such as different temperature and state of charge (SOC) levels, and therefore online parameter identification can improve the modelling accuracy. This paper presents a way of online ECM parameter identification using a continuous time (CT) estimation method. The CT estimation method has several advantages over discrete time (DT) estimation methods for ECM parameter identification due to the widely separated battery dynamic modes and fast sampling. The presented method can be used for online SOC estimation. Test data are collected using a lithium ion cell, and the experimental results show that the presented CT method achieves better modelling accuracy compared with the conventional DT recursive least square method. The effectiveness of the presented method for online SOC estimation is also verified on test data.Keywords: Equivalent circuit model, continuous time domain estimation, linear integral filter method, parameter and SOC estimation, recursive least square.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1337426 A New Heuristic Approach for the Large-Scale Generalized Assignment Problem
Authors: S. Raja Balachandar, K.Kannan
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This paper presents a heuristic approach to solve the Generalized Assignment Problem (GAP) which is NP-hard. It is worth mentioning that many researches used to develop algorithms for identifying the redundant constraints and variables in linear programming model. Some of the algorithms are presented using intercept matrix of the constraints to identify redundant constraints and variables prior to the start of the solution process. Here a new heuristic approach based on the dominance property of the intercept matrix to find optimal or near optimal solution of the GAP is proposed. In this heuristic, redundant variables of the GAP are identified by applying the dominance property of the intercept matrix repeatedly. This heuristic approach is tested for 90 benchmark problems of sizes upto 4000, taken from OR-library and the results are compared with optimum solutions. Computational complexity is proved to be O(mn2) of solving GAP using this approach. The performance of our heuristic is compared with the best state-ofthe- art heuristic algorithms with respect to both the quality of the solutions. The encouraging results especially for relatively large size test problems indicate that this heuristic approach can successfully be used for finding good solutions for highly constrained NP-hard problems.
Keywords: Combinatorial Optimization Problem, Generalized Assignment Problem, Intercept Matrix, Heuristic, Computational Complexity, NP-Hard Problems.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2337425 The Effect of Polypropylene Fiber in the Stabilization of Expansive Soils
Authors: A. S. Soğancı
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Expansive soils are often encountered in many parts of the world, especially in arid and semi-arid fields. Such kind of soils, generally including active clay minerals in low water content, enlarge in volume by absorbing the water through the surface and cause a great harm to the light structures such as channel coating, roads and airports. The expansive soils were encountered on the path of Apa-Hotamış conveyance channel belonging to the State Hydraulic Works in the region of Konya. In the research done in this area, it is predicted that the soil has a swollen nature and the soil should be filled with proper granular equipments by digging the ground to 50-60 cm. In this study, for purpose of helping the other research to be done in the same area, it is thought that instead of replacing swollen soil with the granular soil, by stabilizing it with polypropylene fiber and using it its original place decreases effect of swelling percent, in this way the cost will be decreased. Therefore, laboratory tests were conducted to study the effects of polypropylene fiber on swelling characteristics of expansive soil. Test results indicated that inclusion of fiber reduced swell percent of expansive soil. As the fiber content increased, the unconfined compressive strength was increased. Finally, it can be said that stabilization of expansive soils with polypropylene fiber is an effective method.Keywords: Expansive soils, polypropylene fiber, stabilization, swelling percent.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 5728424 A Comparative Study on Achievement Motivation and Sports Competition Anxiety among the Students of Different Tier of Academic Hierarchy
Authors: Nitai Biswas, Prasenjit Kapas, Arumay Jana, Asish Paul
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Introduction: Motivation is basic drive for all kinds of action. It has direct influence on academic achievement and sports performance that builds urge to incentive values of success. In other words, it can be defined as the need for success to attain excellence. Anxiety in pre competition especially in sports formulates positive inward settings in mind to overcome the challenge. There is a tendency to perceive competitive situations as some threatening issues and to respond them with feelings of apprehension and tension. Aim: Aim of the study was to compare the achievement motivation and competition anxiety among three different classes of students. Methods and Materials: To conduct the study the researcher has taken 131 male subjects from three different classes as Extra Department, Bachelor of Physical Education-I and Master of Physical EducationII, aged 19-28 years. Achievement motivation and sports competition anxiety were measured by the questionnaire. To analyze the data mean, standard deviation for each parameter as descriptive statistics and one way analysis of variance as inferential statistics were employed. Results: From the result of the study in achievement motivation (p ≥ 0.05) and competition anxiety (p ≥ 0.05) no significant differences were found among the said three groups. Conclusion: The study concluded that all three groups had almost the same state of achievement motivation and sports competition anxiety.Keywords: Anxiety, sports psychology, sports competition anxiety, achievement motivation, academic hierarchy.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1421423 Electric Vehicle Market Penetration Impact on Greenhouse Gas Emissions for Policy-Making: A Case Study of United Arab Emirates
Authors: Ahmed Kiani
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The United Arab Emirates is clearly facing a multitude of challenges in curbing its greenhouse gas emissions to meet its pre-allotted framework of Kyoto protocol and COP21 targets due to its hunger for modernization, industrialization, infrastructure growth, soaring population and oil and gas activity. In this work, we focus on the bonafide zero emission electric vehicles market penetration in the country’s transport industry for emission reduction. We study the global electric vehicle market trends, the complementary battery technologies and the trends by manufacturers, emission standards across borders and prioritized advancements which will ultimately dictate the terms of future conditions for the United Arab Emirate transport industry. Based on our findings and analysis at every stage of current viability and state-of-transport-affairs, we postulate policy recommendations to local governmental entities from a supply and demand perspective covering aspects of technology, infrastructure requirements, change in power dynamics, end user incentives program, market regulators behavior and communications amongst key stakeholders.
Keywords: Electric vehicles, greenhouse gas emission reductions, market analysis, policy recommendations.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1533422 Experimental and Theoretical Study on Hygrothermal Aging Effect on Mechanical Behavior of Fiber Reinforced Plastic Laminates
Authors: S. Larbi, R. Bensaada, S. Djebali, A. Bilek
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The manufacture of composite parts is a major issue in many industrial domains. Polymer composite materials are ideal for structural applications where high strength-to-weight and stiffness-to-weight ratios are required. However, exposition to extreme environment conditions (temperature, humidity) affects mechanical properties of organic composite materials and lead to an undesirable degradation. Aging mechanisms in organic matrix are very diverse and vary according to the polymer and the aging conditions such as temperature, humidity etc. This paper studies the hygrothermal aging effect on the mechanical properties of fiber reinforced plastics laminates at 40 °C in different environment exposure. Two composite materials are used to conduct the study (carbon fiber/epoxy and glass fiber/vinyl ester with two stratifications for both the materials [904/04] and [454/04]). The experimental procedure includes a mechanical characterization of the materials in a virgin state and exposition of specimens to two environments (seawater and demineralized water). Absorption kinetics for the two materials and both the stratifications are determined. Three-point bending test is performed on the aged materials in order to determine the hygrothermal effect on the mechanical properties of the materials.
Keywords: FRP laminates, hygrothermal aging, mechanical properties, theory of laminates.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1222421 Simulation Tools for Training in the Case of Energy Sector Crisis
Authors: H. Malachova, A. Oulehlova, D. Rezac
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Crisis preparedness training is the best possible strategy for identifying weak points, understanding vulnerability, and finding possible strategies for mitigation of blackout consequences. Training represents an effective tool for developing abilities and skills to cope with crisis situations. This article builds on the results of the research carried out in the field of preparation, realization, process, and impacts of training on subjects of energy sector critical infrastructure as a part of crisis preparedness. The research has revealed that the subjects of energy sector critical infrastructure have not realized training and therefore are not prepared for the restoration of the energy supply and black start after blackout regardless of the fact that most subjects state blackout and subsequent black start as key dangers. Training, together with mutual communication and processed crisis documentation, represent a basis for successful solutions for dealing with emergency situations. This text presents the suggested model of SIMEX simulator as a tool which supports managing crisis situations, containing training environment. Training models, possibilities of constructive simulation making use of non-aggregated as well as aggregated entities and tools of communication channels of individual simulator nodes have been introduced by the article.
Keywords: Energetic critical infrastructure, preparedness, training, simulation.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 810420 Urban Land Cover Change of Olomouc City Using LANDSAT Images
Authors: Miloš Marjanović, Jaroslav Burian, Ja kub Miřijovský, Jan Harbula
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This paper regards the phenomena of intensive suburbanization and urbanization in Olomouc city and in Olomouc region in general for the period of 1986–2009. A Remote Sensing approach that involves tracking of changes in Land Cover units is proposed to quantify the urbanization state and trends in temporal and spatial aspects. It actually consisted of two approaches, Experiment 1 and Experiment 2 which implied two different image classification solutions in order to provide Land Cover maps for each 1986–2009 time split available in the Landsat image set. Experiment 1 dealt with the unsupervised classification, while Experiment 2 involved semi- supervised classification, using a combination of object-based and pixel-based classifiers. The resulting Land Cover maps were subsequently quantified for the proportion of urban area unit and its trend through time, and also for the urban area unit stability, yielding the relation of spatial and temporal development of the urban area unit. Some outcomes seem promising but there is indisputably room for improvements of source data and also processing and filtering.
Keywords: Change detection, image classification, land cover, Landsat images, Olomouc city, urbanization.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1815419 Optimal Location of Multi Type Facts Devices for Multiple Contingencies Using Particle Swarm Optimization
Authors: S. Sutha, N. Kamaraj
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In deregulated operating regime power system security is an issue that needs due thoughtfulness from researchers in the horizon of unbundling of generation and transmission. Electric power systems are exposed to various contingencies. Network contingencies often contribute to overloading of branches, violation of voltages and also leading to problems of security/stability. To maintain the security of the systems, it is desirable to estimate the effect of contingencies and pertinent control measurement can be taken on to improve the system security. This paper presents the application of particle swarm optimization algorithm to find the optimal location of multi type FACTS devices in a power system in order to eliminate or alleviate the line over loads. The optimizations are performed on the parameters, namely the location of the devices, their types, their settings and installation cost of FACTS devices for single and multiple contingencies. TCSC, SVC and UPFC are considered and modeled for steady state analysis. The selection of UPFC and TCSC suitable location uses the criteria on the basis of improved system security. The effectiveness of the proposed method is tested for IEEE 6 bus and IEEE 30 bus test systems.
Keywords: Contingency Severity Index, Particle Swarm Optimization, Performance Index, Static Security Assessment.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2754418 State of Play of Mobile Government Apps on Google Play Store
Authors: Abdelbaset Rabaiah
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e-Government mobile applications provide an extension for effective e-government services in today’s omniconnected world. They constitute part of m-government platforms. This study explores the usefulness, availability, discoverability and maturity of such applications. While this study impacts theory by addressing a relatively lacking area, it impacts practice more. The outcomes of this study suggest valuable recommendations for practitioners-developers of e-government applications. The methodology followed is to examine a large number of e-government smartphone applications. The focus is on applications available at the Google Play Store. Moreover, the study investigates applications published on government portals of a number of countries. A sample of 15 countries is researched. The results show a diversity in the level of discoverability, development, maturity, and usage of smartphone apps dedicated for use of e-government services. It was found that there are major issues in discovering e-government applications on both the Google Play Store and as-well-as on local government portals. The study found that only a fraction of mobile government applications was published on the Play Store. Only 19% of apps were multilingual, and 43% were developed by third parties including private individuals. Further analysis was made, and important recommendations are suggested in this paper for a better utilization of e-government smartphone applications. These recommendations will result in better discoverability, maturity, and usefulness of e-government applications.
Keywords: Mobile applications, e-government, apps, app store.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 834417 Energy Efficiency Analysis of Discharge Modes of an Adiabatic Compressed Air Energy Storage System
Authors: Shane D. Inder, Mehrdad Khamooshi
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Efficient energy storage is a crucial factor in facilitating the uptake of renewable energy resources. Among the many options available for energy storage systems required to balance imbalanced supply and demand cycles, compressed air energy storage (CAES) is a proven technology in grid-scale applications. This paper reviews the current state of micro scale CAES technology and describes a micro-scale advanced adiabatic CAES (A-CAES) system, where heat generated during compression is stored for use in the discharge phase. It will also describe a thermodynamic model, developed in EES (Engineering Equation Solver) to evaluate the performance and critical parameters of the discharge phase of the proposed system. Three configurations are explained including: single turbine without preheater, two turbines with preheaters, and three turbines with preheaters. It is shown that the micro-scale A-CAES is highly dependent upon key parameters including; regulator pressure, air pressure and volume, thermal energy storage temperature and flow rate and the number of turbines. It was found that a micro-scale AA-CAES, when optimized with an appropriate configuration, could deliver energy input to output efficiency of up to 70%.
Keywords: CAES, adiabatic compressed air energy storage, expansion phase, micro generation, thermodynamic.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1105416 Investigation of the Flow Characteristics in a Catalytic Muffler with Perforated Inlet Cone
Authors: Gyo Woo Lee, Man Young Kim
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Emission regulations for diesel engines are being strengthened and it is impossible to meet the standards without exhaust after-treatment systems. Lack of the space in many diesel vehicles, however, make it difficult to design and install stand-alone catalytic converters such as DOC, DPF, and SCR in the vehicle exhaust systems. Accordingly, those have been installed inside the muffler to save the space, and referred to the catalytic muffler. However, that has complex internal structure with perforated plate and pipe for noise and monolithic catalyst for emission reduction. For this reason, flow uniformity and pressure drop, which affect efficiency of catalyst and engine performance, respectively, should be examined when the catalytic muffler is designed. In this work, therefore, the flow uniformity and pressure drop to improve the performance of the catalytic converter and the engine have been numerically investigated by changing various design parameters such as inlet shape, porosity, and outlet shape of the muffler using the three-dimensional turbulent flow of the incompressible, non-reacting, and steady state inside the catalytic muffler. Finally, it can be found that the shape, in which the muffler has perforated pipe inside the inlet part, has higher uniformity index and lower pressure drop than others considered in this work.
Keywords: Catalytic muffler, Perforated inlet cone, Catalysts, Perforated pipe, Flow uniformity, Pressure drop.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2890415 A Portable Cognitive Tool for Engagement Level and Activity Identification
Authors: T. Teo, S. W. Lye, Y. F. Li, Z. Zakaria
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Wearable devices such as Electroencephalography (EEG) hold immense potential in the monitoring and assessment of a person’s task engagement. This is especially so in remote or online sites. Research into its use in measuring an individual's cognitive state while performing task activities is therefore expected to increase. Despite the growing number of EEG research into brain functioning activities of a person, key challenges remain in adopting EEG for real-time operations. These include limited portability, long preparation time, high number of channel dimensionality, intrusiveness, as well as level of accuracy in acquiring neurological data. This paper proposes an approach using a 4-6 EEG channels to determine the cognitive states of a subject when undertaking a set of passive and active monitoring tasks of a subject. Air traffic controller (ATC) dynamic-tasks are used as a proxy. The work found that using a developed channel reduction and identifier algorithm, good trend adherence of 89.1% can be obtained between a commercially available brain computer interface (BCI) 14 channel Emotiv EPOC+ EEG headset and that of a carefully selected set of reduced 4-6 channels. The approach can also identify different levels of engagement activities ranging from general monitoring, ad hoc and repeated active monitoring activities involving information search, extraction, and memory activities.
Keywords: Neurophysiology, monitoring, EEG, outliers, electroencephalography.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 55414 A Robust and Adaptive Unscented Kalman Filter for the Air Fine Alignment of the Strapdown Inertial Navigation System/GPS
Authors: Jian Shi, Baoguo Yu, Haonan Jia, Meng Liu, Ping Huang
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Adapting to the flexibility of war, a large number of guided weapons launch from aircraft. Therefore, the inertial navigation system loaded in the weapon needs to undergo an alignment process in the air. This article proposes the following methods to the problem of inaccurate modeling of the system under large misalignment angles, the accuracy reduction of filtering caused by outliers, and the noise changes in GPS signals: first, considering the large misalignment errors of Strapdown Inertial Navigation System (SINS)/GPS, a more accurate model is made rather than to make a small-angle approximation, and the Unscented Kalman Filter (UKF) algorithms are used to estimate the state; then, taking into account the impact of GPS noise changes on the fine alignment algorithm, the innovation adaptive filtering algorithm is introduced to estimate the GPS’s noise in real-time; at the same time, in order to improve the anti-interference ability of the air fine alignment algorithm, a robust filtering algorithm based on outlier detection is combined with the air fine alignment algorithm to improve the robustness of the algorithm. The algorithm can improve the alignment accuracy and robustness under interference conditions, which is verified by simulation.
Keywords: Air alignment, fine alignment, inertial navigation system, integrated navigation system, UKF.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 523413 Kinetic Modeling of the Fischer-Tropsch Reactions and Modeling Steady State Heterogeneous Reactor
Authors: M. Ahmadi Marvast, M. Sohrabi, H. Ganji
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The rate of production of main products of the Fischer-Tropsch reactions over Fe/HZSM5 bifunctional catalyst in a fixed bed reactor is investigated at a broad range of temperature, pressure, space velocity, H2/CO feed molar ratio and CO2, CH4 and water flow rates. Model discrimination and parameter estimation were performed according to the integral method of kinetic analysis. Due to lack of mechanism development for Fisher – Tropsch Synthesis on bifunctional catalysts, 26 different models were tested and the best model is selected. Comprehensive one and two dimensional heterogeneous reactor models are developed to simulate the performance of fixed-bed Fischer – Tropsch reactors. To reduce computational time for optimization purposes, an Artificial Feed Forward Neural Network (AFFNN) has been used to describe intra particle mass and heat transfer diffusion in the catalyst pellet. It is seen that products' reaction rates have direct relation with H2 partial pressure and reverse relation with CO partial pressure. The results show that the hybrid model has good agreement with rigorous mechanistic model, favoring that the hybrid model is about 25-30 times faster.
Keywords: Fischer-Tropsch, heterogeneous modeling, kinetic study.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2809