Search results for: Dedicated short range communication

Authors: Kayoko Yamamoto

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This study focuses on an evaluation of Hokkaido which is the northernmost and largest prefecture by surface area in Japan and particularly on two points: the rivalry between all kinds of land use such as urban land and agricultural and forestry land in various cities and their surrounding areas and the possibilities for forestry biomass in areas other than those mentioned above and grasps which areas require examination of the nature of land use control and guidance through conducting land use analysis at the district level using GIS (Geographic Information Systems). The results of analysis in this study demonstrated that it is essential to divide the whole of Hokkaido into two areas: those within delineated city planning areas and those outside of delineated city planning areas and to conduct an evaluation of each land use control. In delineated urban areas, particularly urban areas, it is essential to re-examine land use from the point of view of compact cities or smart cities along with conducting an evaluation of land use control that focuses on issues of rivalry between all kinds of land use such as urban land and agricultural and forestry land. In areas outside of delineated urban areas, it is desirable to aim to build a specific community recycling range based on forest biomass utilization by conducting an evaluation of land use control concerning the possibilities for forest biomass focusing particularly on forests within and outside of city planning areas.

Keywords: Land Use Control, Urbanization, Forestry Biomass, Geographic Information Systems (GIS), Hokkaido

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Authors: Mehrdad Arabi, Ehsan Beheshtitabar, Bahador Ghadirifaraz, Behrooz Forjanizadeh

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Interaction between human, location and activity defines space. In the framework of these relations, space is a container for current specifications in relations of the 3 mentioned elements. The change of land utility considered with average performance range, urban regulations, society requirements etc. will provide welfare and comfort for citizens. From an engineering view it is fundamental that choosing a proper location for a specific civil activity requires evaluation of locations from different perspectives. The debate of desirable establishment of municipal service elements in urban regions is one of the most important issues related to urban planning. In this paper, the research type is applicable based on goal, and is descriptive and analytical based on nature. Initially existing terminals in Esfahan are surveyed and then new locations are presented based on evaluated criteria. In order to evaluate terminals based on the considered factors, an AHP model is used at first to estimate weight of different factors and then existing and suggested locations are evaluated using Arc GIS software and AHP model results. The results show that existing bus terminals are located in fairly proper locations. Further results of this study suggest new locations to establish terminals based on urban criteria.

Keywords: Arc GIS, Esfahan city, Optimum locations, Terminals.

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Authors: R. Dangtungee, A. Rattanapan, S. Siengchin

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Waste silicon carbide (waste SiC) filled high-density polyethylene (HDPE) with and without surface modifiers were studied. Two types of surface modifiers namely; high-density polyethylene-grafted-maleic anhydride (HDPE-g-MA) and 3-aminopropyltriethoxysilane have been used in this study. The composites were produced using a two roll mill, extruder and shaped in a hydraulic compression molding machine. The mechanical properties of polymer composites such as flexural strength and modulus, impact strength, tensile strength, stiffness and hardness were investigated over a range of compositions. It was found that, flexural strength and modulus, tensile modulus and hardness increased, whereas impact strength and tensile strength decreased with the increasing in filler contents, compared to the neat HDPE. At similar filler content, the effect of both surface modifiers increased flexural modulus, impact strength, tensile strength and stiffness but reduced the flexural strength. Morphological investigation using SEM revealed that the improvement in mechanical properties was due to enhancement of the interfacial adhesion between waste SiC and HDPE.

Keywords: High-density polyethylene, HDPE-g-MA, mechanical properties, morphological properties, silicon carbide, waste silicon carbide.

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Authors: Chamindi Dilkushi Senaratne

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Sri Lanka has lived with the English language for more than 200 years. Although officially considered a link language, the phenomenal usage of English by the Sinhala-English bilingual has given rise to a mixed code with identifiable structural characteristics. The extensive use of the mixed language by the average Sri Lankan bilingual has resulted in it being used as a medium of communication by creative writers of bilingual advertisements in Sri Lanka. This study analyses the way in which English is used in bilingual advertisements in both print and electronic media in Sri Lanka. The theoretical framework for the study is based on Kachru’s analysis of the use of English by the bilingual, Muysken’s typology on code mixing theories in colonial settings and Myers-Scotton’s theory on the Matrix Language Framework Model. The study will look at a selection of Sinhala-English advertisements published in newspapers from 2015 to 2016. Only advertisements using both Sinhala and English are used for the analysis. To substantiate data collected from the newspapers, the study will select bilingual advertisements from television advertisements. The objective of the study is to analyze the mixed patterns used for creative purposes by advertisers. The results of the study will reveal the creativity used by the Sinhala –English bilingual and the morphological processes used by the creators of Sinhala-English bilingual advertisements to attract the masses.

Keywords: Bilingual, code mixing, mixed code, morphology, processes.

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Authors: Rajendraprasad Narne, P. C. Panda

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In this article, coordinated tuning of power system stabilizer (PSS) with static var compensator (SVC) and thyristor controlled series capacitor (TCSC) in multi-machine power system is proposed. The design of proposed coordinated damping controller is formulated as an optimization problem and the controller gains are optimized instantaneously using advanced adaptive particle swarm optimization (AAPSO). The objective function is framed with the inter-area speed deviations of the generators and it is minimized using AAPSO to improve the dynamic stability of power system under severe disturbance. The proposed coordinated controller performance is evaluated under a wide range of system operating conditions with three-phase fault disturbance. Using time domain simulations the damping characteristics of proposed controller is compared with individually tuned PSS, SVC and TCSC controllers. Finally, the real-time simulations are carried out in Opal-RT hardware simulator to synchronize the proposed controller performance in the real world.

Keywords: Advanced adaptive particle swarm optimization, Coordinated design, Power system stabilizer, Real-time implementation, static var compensator, Thyristor controlled series capacitor.

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Authors: Sitalakshmi Venkatraman, Fiona Wahr, Anthony de Souza-Daw, Samuel Kaspi

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There is a growing emphasis on generic skills in higher education to match the changing skill-set requirements of the labour market. However, researchers and policy makers have not arrived at a consensus on the generic skills that actually contribute towards workplace employability and performance that complement and/or underpin discipline-specific graduate attributes. In order to strengthen the qualifications framework, a range of ‘generic’ learning outcomes have been considered for students undergoing higher education programs and among them it is necessary to have the fundamental generic skills such as literacy and numeracy at a level appropriate to the qualification type. This warrants for curriculum design approaches to contextualise the form and scope of these fundamental generic skills for supporting both students’ learning engagement in the course, as well as the graduate attributes required for employability and to progress within their chosen profession. Little research is reported in integrating such generic skills into discipline-specific learning outcomes. This paper explores the literature of the generic skills required for graduates from the discipline of Information Technology (IT) in relation to an Australian higher education institution. The paper presents the rationale of a proposed Bachelor of IT curriculum designed to contextualize the learning of these generic skills within the students’ discipline studies.

Keywords: Curriculum, employability, generic skills, graduate attributes, higher education, information technology.

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Authors: Mohammad Syuhaimi Ab-Rahman, Mohd. Saiful Dzulkefly Zan, Mohd Taufiq Mohd Yusof

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With the drastically growth in optical communication technology, a lossless, low-crosstalk and multifunction optical switch is most desirable for large-scale photonic network. To realize such a switch, we have introduced the new architecture of optical switch that embedded many functions on single device. The asymmetrical architecture of OXADM consists of 3 parts; selective port, add/drop operation, and path routing. Selective port permits only the interest wavelength pass through and acts as a filter. While add and drop function can be implemented in second part of OXADM architecture. The signals can then be re-routed to any output port or/and perform an accumulation function which multiplex all signals onto single path and then exit to any interest output port. This will be done by path routing operation. The unique features offered by OXADM has extended its application to Fiber to-the Home Technology (FTTH), here the OXADM is used as a wavelength management element in Optical Line Terminal (OLT). Each port is assigned specifically with the operating wavelengths and with the dynamic routing management to ensure no traffic combustion occurs in OLT.

Keywords: OXADM, asymmetrical architecture, optical switch, OLT, FTTH.

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Authors: Rajine Swetha R, B. Shekar Babu, Sumithra Devi K.A

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Electronic Systems are the core of everyday lives. They form an integral part in financial networks, mass transit, telephone systems, power plants and personal computers. Electronic systems are increasingly based on complex VLSI (Very Large Scale Integration) integrated circuits. Initial electronic design automation is concerned with the design and production of VLSI systems. The next important step in creating a VLSI circuit is Physical Design. The input to the physical design is a logical representation of the system under design. The output of this step is the layout of a physical package that optimally or near optimally realizes the logical representation. Physical design problems are combinatorial in nature and of large problem sizes. Darwin observed that, as variations are introduced into a population with each new generation, the less-fit individuals tend to extinct in the competition of basic necessities. This survival of fittest principle leads to evolution in species. The objective of the Genetic Algorithms (GA) is to find an optimal solution to a problem .Since GA-s are heuristic procedures that can function as optimizers, they are not guaranteed to find the optimum, but are able to find acceptable solutions for a wide range of problems. This survey paper aims at a study on Efficient Algorithms for VLSI Physical design and observes the common traits of the superior contributions.

Keywords: Genetic Algorithms, Physical Design, VLSI.

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Authors: Sourabh Jain, Sukhvir Singh Jain, Gaurav V. Jain

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Intelligent Transportation System is an integrated application of communication, control and monitoring and display process technologies for developing a user–friendly transportation system for urban areas in developing countries. In fact, the development of a country and the progress of its transportation system are complementary to each other. Urban traffic has been growing vigorously due to population growth as well as escalation of vehicle ownership causing congestion, delays, pollution, accidents, high-energy consumption and low productivity of resources. The development and management of urban transport in developing countries like India however, is at tryout stage with very few accumulations. Under the umbrella of ITS, urban corridor management strategy have proven to be one of the most successful system in accomplishing these objectives. The present study interprets and figures out the performance of the 27.4 km long Urban Bus route having six intersections, five flyovers and 29 bus stops that covers significant area of the city by causality analysis. Performance interpretations incorporate Passenger Boarding and Alighting, Dwell time, Distance between Bus Stops and Total trip time taken by bus on selected urban route.

Keywords: Congestion, Dwell time, delay, passengers boarding alighting, travel time.

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Authors: Salim Cerig, Fatime Geyikoglu, Murat Bakir, Suat Colak, Merve Sonmez, Kubra Koc

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Cisplatin (CIS) is one of the most effective an anticancer drug and also toxic to cells by activating oxidative stress. Oleuropein (OLE) has key role against oxidative stress in mammalian cells, but the role of this antioxidant in the toxicity of CIS remains unknown. The aim of the present study was to investigate the efficacy of OLE on CIS-induced liver damages in male rats. With this aim, male Sprague Dawley rats were randomly assigned to one of eight groups: Control group; the group treated with 7 mg/kg/day CIS; the groups treated with 50, 100 and 200 mg/kg/day OLE (i.p.); and the groups treated with OLE for three days starting at 24 h following CIS injection. After 4 days of injections, serum was provided to assess the blood AST, ALT and LDH values. The liver tissues were removed for histological, biochemical (TAC, TOS and MDA) and genotoxic evaluations. In the CIS treated group, the whole liver tissue showed significant histological changes. Also, CIS significantly increased both the incidence of oxidative stress and the induction of 8-hydroxy-deoxyguanosine (8-OH-dG). Moreover, the rats taking CIS have abnormal results on liver function tests. However, these parameters reached to the normal range after administration of OLE for 3 days. Finally, OLE demonstrated an acceptable high potential and was effective in attenuating CIS-induced liver injury. In this trial, the 200 mg/kg dose of OLE firstly appeared to induce the most optimal protective response.

Keywords: Antioxidant response, cisplatin, histology, liver, oleuropein, 8-OhdG.

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Authors: A. M. Wahab, E. Rustighi

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Elastomeric dielectric material has recently become a new alternative for actuator technology. The characteristics of dielectric elastomers placed between two electrodes to withstand large strain when electrodes are charged has attracted the attention of many researcher to study this material for actuator technology. Thus, in the past few years Danfoss Ventures A/S has established their own dielectric electro-active polymer (DEAP), which was called PolyPower. The main objective of this work was to investigate the dynamic characteristics for vibration control of a PolyPower actuator folded in ‘pull’ configuration. A range of experiments was carried out on the folded actuator including passive (without electrical load) and active (with electrical load) testing. For both categories static and dynamic testing have been done to determine the behavior of folded DEAP actuator. Voltage-Strain experiments show that the DEAP folded actuator is a non-linear system. It is also shown that the voltage supplied has no effect on the natural frequency. Finally, varying AC voltage with different amplitude and frequency shows the parameters that influence the performance of DEAP folded actuator. As a result, the actuator performance dominated by the frequency dependence of the elastic response and was less influenced by dielectric properties.

Keywords: Dielectric Electro-active Polymer, Pull Actuator, Static, Dynamic, Electromechanical.

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Authors: Pardeep Singh, Sanjay Sharma

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Content-Based Image Retrieval (CBIR) has been one on the most vivid research areas in the field of computer vision over the last 10 years. Many programs and tools have been developed to formulate and execute queries based on the visual or audio content and to help browsing large multimedia repositories. Still, no general breakthrough has been achieved with respect to large varied databases with documents of difering sorts and with varying characteristics. Answers to many questions with respect to speed, semantic descriptors or objective image interpretations are still unanswered. In the medical field, images, and especially digital images, are produced in ever increasing quantities and used for diagnostics and therapy. In several articles, content based access to medical images for supporting clinical decision making has been proposed that would ease the management of clinical data and scenarios for the integration of content-based access methods into Picture Archiving and Communication Systems (PACS) have been created. This paper gives an overview of soft computing techniques. New research directions are being defined that can prove to be useful. Still, there are very few systems that seem to be used in clinical practice. It needs to be stated as well that the goal is not, in general, to replace text based retrieval methods as they exist at the moment.

Keywords: CBIR, GA, Rough sets, CBMIR

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Authors: Montri Phothisonothai, Masahiro Nakagawa

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The objective of this paper is to characterize the spontaneous Electroencephalogram (EEG) signals of four different motor imagery tasks and to show hereby a possible solution for the present binary communication between the brain and a machine ora Brain-Computer Interface (BCI). The processing technique used in this paper was the fractal analysis evaluated by the Critical Exponent Method (CEM). The EEG signal was registered in 5 healthy subjects,sampling 15 measuring channels at 1024 Hz.Each channel was preprocessed by the Laplacian space ltering so as to reduce the space blur and therefore increase the spaceresolution. The EEG of each channel was segmented and its Fractaldimension (FD) calculated. The FD was evaluated in the time interval corresponding to the motor imagery and averaged out for all the subjects (each channel). In order to characterize the FD distribution,the linear regression curves of FD over the electrodes position were applied. The differences FD between the proposed mental tasks are quantied and evaluated for each experimental subject. The obtained results of the proposed method are a substantial fractal dimension in the EEG signal of motor imagery tasks and can be considerably utilized as the multiple-states BCI applications.

Keywords: electroencephalogram (EEG), motor imagery tasks, mental tasks, biomedical signals processing, human-machine interface, fractal analysis, critical exponent method (CEM).

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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.

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Authors: SunWoo Lee, TaeBum Lee, YoonHwa Park, YooJeong Kim

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Solar lentigines appear predominantly on chronically sun-exposed areas of skin, such as the face and the back of the hands. Among the several ways to lentigines treatment, quality-switched lasers are well-known effective treatment for removing solar lentigines. The present pilot study was therefore designed to assess the efficacy of quality-switched ruby laser treatment of such lentigines compare between pretreatment and posttreatment of skin brightness. Twenty-two adults with chronic sun-damaged skin (mean age 52.8 years, range 37–74 years) were treated at the Korean site. A 694 nm Q-switched ruby laser was used, with the energy density set from 1.4 to 12.5 J/cm2, to treat solar lentigines. Average brightness of skin color before ruby laser treatment was 137.3 and its skin color was brightened after ruby laser treatment by 150.5. Also, standard deviation of skin color was decreased from 17.8 to 16.4. Regarding the multivariate model, age and energy were identified as significant factors for skin color brightness change in lentigo depigmentation by ruby laser treatment. Their respective odds ratios were 1.082 (95% CI, 1.007–1.163), and 1.431 (95% CI, 1.051–1.946). Lentigo depigmentation treatment using ruby lasers resulted in a high performance in skin color brightness. Among the relative factors involve with ruby laser treatment, age and energy were the most effective factors which skin color change to brighter than pretreatment.

Keywords: Depigmentation, lentigo, quality switched ruby laser, skin color.

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Authors: Van-Quang Trinh, Gi-Soo Chung, Hee-Cheol Kim

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The increasing number of senior population gradually causes to demand the use of information and communication technology for their satisfactory lives. This paper presents the development of an integrated TV based system which offers an opportunity to provide value added services to a large number of elderly citizens, and thus helps improve their quality of life. The design philosophy underlying this paper is to fulfill both technological and human aspects. The balance between these two dimensions has been currently stressed as a crucial element for the design of usable systems in real use, particularly to the elderly who have physical and mental decline. As the first step to achieve it, we have identified human and social factors that affect the elder-s quality of life by a literature review, and based on them, build four fundamental services: information, healthcare, learning and social network services. Secondly, the system architecture, employed technologies and the elderly-friendly system design considerations are presented. This reflects technological and human perspectives in terms of the system design. Finally, we describe some scenarios that illustrate the potentiality of the proposed system to improve elderly people-s quality of life.

Keywords: Elderly people, human computer interaction, quality of life, smart television, user-centered system design

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Authors: Jamal R. Elbergali

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Multiple Input Multiple Output (MIMO) systems are wireless systems with multiple antenna elements at both ends of the link. Wireless communication systems demand high data rate and spectral efficiency with increased reliability. MIMO systems have been popular techniques to achieve these goals because increased data rate is possible through spatial multiplexing scheme and diversity. Spatial Multiplexing (SM) is used to achieve higher possible throughput than diversity. In this paper, we propose a Zero- Forcing (ZF) detection using a combination of Ordered Successive Interference Cancellation (OSIC) and Zero Forcing using Interference Cancellation (ZF-IC). The proposed method used an OSIC based on Signal to Noise Ratio (SNR) ordering to get the estimation of last symbol, then the estimated last symbol is considered to be an input to the ZF-IC. We analyze the Bit Error Rate (BER) performance of the proposed MIMO system over Rayleigh Fading Channel, using Binary Phase Shift Keying (BPSK) modulation scheme. The results show better performance than the previous methods.

Keywords: SNR, BER, BPSK, MIMO, Modulation, Zero forcing (ZF), OSIC, ZF-IC, Spatial Multiplexing (SM).

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Authors: H. Salonen, E. Castagnoli, C. Vornanen-Winqvist, R. Mikkola, C. Duchaine, L. Morawska, J. Kurnitski

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A wide range of health effects among occupants are associated with the exposure to bioaerosols from fungal sources. Although the accurate role of these aerosols in causing the symptoms and diseases is poorly understood, the important effect of bioaerosol exposure on human health is well recognized. Thus, there is a need to determine all of the contributing factors related to the concentration of fungi in indoor air. In this study, we reviewed and summarized the different factors affecting the concentrations of viable fungi in school buildings. The literature research was conducted using Pubmed and Google Scholar. In addition, we searched the lists of references of selected articles. According to the literature, the main factors influencing the concentration of viable fungi in the school buildings are moisture damage in building structures, the season (temperature and humidity conditions), the type and rate of ventilation, the number and activities of occupants and diurnal variations. This study offers valuable information that can be used in the interpretation of the fungal analysis and to decrease microbial exposure by reducing known sources and/or contributing factors. However, more studies of different local factors contributing to the human microbial exposure in school buildings—as well as other type of buildings and different indoor environments—are needed.

Keywords: Fungi, concentration, indoor, school, contributing factor.

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Authors: Haitao Yang, Zhenjiang Ruan, Fei Xu, Lanting Xia

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Industry data centers often need to sync data changes reliably and instantly from a large-scale of heterogeneous autonomous relational databases accessed via the not-so-reliable Internet, for which a practical generic sync middleware of low maintenance and operation costs is most wanted. To this demand, this paper presented a generic sync middleware system (GSMS), which has been developed, applied and optimized since 2006, holding the principles or advantages that it must be SyncML-compliant and transparent to data application layer logic without referring to implementation details of databases synced, does not rely on host computer operating systems deployed, and its construction is light weighted and hence of low cost. Regarding these hard commitments of developing GSMS, in this paper we stressed the significant optimization breakthrough of GSMS sync delay being well below a fraction of millisecond per record sync. A series of ultimate tests with GSMS sync performance were conducted for a persuasive example, in which the source relational database underwent a broad range of write loads (from one thousand to one million intensive writes within a few minutes). All these tests showed that the performance of GSMS is competent and smooth even under ultimate write loads.

Keywords: Heterogeneous massive data, instantly sync intensive writes, Internet generic middleware design, optimization.

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Authors: José M. Cantera, Miguel Jiménez, Genoveva López, Javier Soriano

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With the advent of emerging personal computing paradigms such as ubiquitous and mobile computing, Web contents are becoming accessible from a wide range of mobile devices. Since these devices do not have the same rendering capabilities, Web contents need to be adapted for transparent access from a variety of client agents. Such content adaptation is exploited for either an individual element or a set of consecutive elements in a Web document and results in better rendering and faster delivery to the client device. Nevertheless, Web content adaptation sets new challenges for semantic markup. This paper presents an advanced components platform, called SMC, enabling the development of mobility applications and services according to a channel model based on the principles of Services Oriented Architecture (SOA). It then goes on to describe the potential for integration with the Semantic Web through a novel framework of external semantic annotation that prescribes a scheme for representing semantic markup files and a way of associating Web documents with these external annotations. The role of semantic annotation in this framework is to describe the contents of individual documents themselves, assuring the preservation of the semantics during the process of adapting content rendering. Semantic Web content adaptation is a way of adding value to Web contents and facilitates repurposing of Web contents (enhanced browsing, Web Services location and access, etc).

Keywords: Semantic web, ubiquitous and mobile computing, web content transcoding. semantic mark-up, mobile computing, middleware and services.

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Authors: M.D. Murcia, M. Gomez, E. Gomez, J.L. Gomez, N. Christofi

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The removal efficiency of 4-chlorophenol with different advanced oxidation processes have been studied. Oxidation experiments were carried out using two 4-chlorophenol concentrations: 100 mg L-1 and 250 mg L-1 and UV generated from a KrCl excilamp with (molar ratio H2O2: 4-chlorophenol = 25:1) and without H2O2, and, with Fenton process (molar ratio H2O2:4- chlorophenol of 25:1 and Fe2+ concentration of 5 mg L-1). The results show that there is no significant difference in the 4- chlorophenol conversion when using one of the three assayed methods. However, significant concentrations of the photoproductos still remained in the media when the chosen treatment involves UV without hydrogen peroxide. Fenton process removed all the intermediate photoproducts except for the hydroquinone and the 1,2,4-trihydroxybenzene. In the case of UV and hydrogen peroxide all the intermediate photoproducts are removed. Microbial bioassays were carried out utilising the naturally luminescent bacterium Vibrio fischeri and a genetically modified Pseudomonas putida isolated from a waste treatment plant receiving phenolic waste. The results using V. fischeri show that with samples after degradation, only the UV treatment showed toxicity (IC50 =38) whereas with H2O2 and Fenton reactions the samples exhibited no toxicity after treatment in the range of concentrations studied. Using the Pseudomonas putida biosensor no toxicity could be detected for all the samples following treatment due to the higher tolerance of the organism to phenol concentrations encountered.

Keywords: 4-chlorophenol, Fenton, photodegradation, UV, excilamp.

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Authors: Batin Latif Aylak, Bernd Noche

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Overhead conveyor systems are in use in many installations around the world, meeting the widest range of applications possible. Overhead conveyor systems are particularly preferred in automotive industry but also at post offices. Overhead conveyor systems must always be integrated with a logistical process by finding the best way for a cheaper material flow in order to guarantee precise and fast workflows. With their help, any transport can take place without wasting ground and space, without excessive company capacity, lost or damaged products, erroneous delivery, endless travels and without wasting time. Ultra-light overhead conveyor systems are rope-based conveying systems with individually driven vehicles. The vehicles can move automatically on the rope and this can be realized by energy and signals. Crossings are realized by switches. Ultra-light overhead conveyor systems provide optimal material flow, which produces profit and saves time. This article introduces two new ultra-light overhead conveyor designs in logistics and explains their components. According to the explanation of the components, scenarios are created by means of their technical characteristics. The scenarios are visualized with the help of CAD software. After that, assumptions are made for application area. According to these assumptions scenarios are visualized. These scenarios help logistics companies achieve lower development costs as well as quicker market maturity.

Keywords: Logistics, material flow, overhead conveyor.

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Authors: Mardiati Zain, N. Jamarun, A. S. Tjakradidjaja

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The effect of phosphorus supplementation of ammoniated rice straw was studied. The in vitro experiment was carried out following the first stage of Tilley and Terry method. The treatments consisting of four diets were A = 50% ammoniated rice straw + 50% concentrate (control), B = A + 0.2% Phosphor (P) supplement, C = A + 0.4% Phosphor (P) supplement, and D = A + 0.6% Phosphor (P) supplement of dry matter. Completely randomized design was used as the experimental design with differences among treatment means were examined using Duncan multiple range test. Variables measured were total bacterial and cellulolytic bacterial population, cellulolytic enzyme activity, ammonia (NH3) and volatile fatty acid (VFA) concentrations, as fermentability indicators and synthesized microbial protein, as well as degradability indicators including dry matter (DM), organic matter (OM), neutral detergent fibre (NDF), acid detergent fibre (ADF) and cellulose. The results indicated that fermentability and degradability of diets consisting ammoniated rice straw with P supplementation were significantly higher than the control diet (P< 0.05). It is concluded that P supplementation is important to improve fermentability and degradability of rations containing ammoniated RS and concentrate. In terms of the most effective level of P supplementation occurred at a supplementation rate of 0.4% of dry matter.

Keywords: Ammoniated rice straw, phosphorus, fermentability, degradability and synthesized microbial protein.

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Authors: Komeil Valipourian

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Urban advances and the growing need for developing infrastructures has increased the importance of deep excavations. In this study, after the introducing probability analysis as an important issue, an attempt has been made to apply it for the deep excavation project of Bangkok’s Metro as a case study. For this, the numerical probability model has been developed based on the Finite Difference Method and Monte Carlo sampling approach. The results indicate that disregarding the issue of probability in this project will result in an inappropriate design of the retaining structure. Therefore, probabilistic redesign of the support is proposed and carried out as one of the applications of probability analysis. A 50% reduction in the flexural strength of the structure increases the failure probability just by 8% in the allowable range and helps improve economic conditions, while maintaining mechanical efficiency. With regard to the lack of efficient design in most deep excavations, by considering geometrical and geotechnical variability, an attempt was made to develop an optimum practical design standard for deep excavations based on failure probability. On this basis, a practical relationship is presented for estimating the maximum allowable horizontal displacement, which can help improve design conditions without developing the probability analysis.

Keywords: Numerical probability modeling, deep excavation, allowable maximum displacement, finite difference method, FDM.

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Authors: W. Y. Wan Fairos, W. H. Wan Azaki, L. Mohamad Alias, Y. Bee Wah

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Dengue fever has become a major concern for health authorities all over the world particularly in the tropical countries. These countries, in particular are experiencing the most worrying outbreak of dengue fever (DF) and dengue haemorrhagic fever (DHF). The DF and DHF epidemics, thus, have become the main causes of hospital admissions and deaths in Malaysia. This paper, therefore, attempts to examine the environmental factors that may influence the recent dengue outbreak. The aim of this study is twofold, firstly is to establish a statistical model to describe the relationship between the number of dengue cases and a range of explanatory variables and secondly, to identify the lag operator for explanatory variables which affect the dengue incidence the most. The explanatory variables involved include the level of cloud cover, percentage of relative humidity, amount of rainfall, maximum temperature, minimum temperature and wind speed. The Poisson and Negative Binomial regression analyses were used in this study. The results of the analyses on the 915 observations (daily data taken from July 2006 to Dec 2008), reveal that the climatic factors comprising of daily temperature and wind speed were found to significantly influence the incidence of dengue fever after 2 and 3 weeks of their occurrences. The effect of humidity, on the other hand, appears to be significant only after 2 weeks.

Keywords: Dengue Fever, Dengue Hemorrhagic Fever, Negative Binomial Regression model, Poisson Regression model.

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Authors: K. Appasamy, P. Paul

Abstract:

Mauritius, a developing small-island-state, is facing a recession which is having a considerable economic impact particularly on its construction sector. Further, the presence of foreign entities, both as companies and workers, within this sector is creating a very competitive environment for local firms. This study investigates the key drivers that allow foreign firms to participate in this sector, in particular looking at the international and local tender processes, and the capacity of local industry to participate. This study also looks at how the current set up may hinder the latter’s involvement. The methodology used included qualitative semi-structured interviews conducted with established foreign companies, local companies, and public bodies. Study findings indicate: there is an adequate availability of professional skills and expertise within the Mauritian construction industry but a lack of skilled labour especially at the operative level; projects awarded to foreign firms are either due to their uniqueness and hence lack of local knowledge, or due to foreign firms having lower tender bids; tendering systems and processes are weak, including monitoring and enforcement, which encourages corruption and favouritism; a high lev el of ignorance of this sector’s characteristics and opportunities exists amongst the local population; local entities are very profit oriented and have short term strategies that discourage long term investment in workforce training and development; but most importantly, stakeholders do not grasp the importance of encouraging youngsters to join this sector, they have no long term vision, and there is a lack of mutual involvement and collaboration between them. Although local industry is highly competent, qualified and experienced, the tendering and procurement systems in Mauritius are not conducive enough to allow for effective strategic planning and an equitable allocation of projects during an economic downturn so that the broadest spread of stakeholders’ benefit. It is of utmost importance that all sector and government entities collaborate to formulate strategies and reforms on tender processes and capacity building to ensure fairness and continuous growth of this sector in Mauritius.

Keywords: Construction industry, tender process, international firms, local capacity, Mauritius.

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Authors: S. R. M. Kutty, S. N. I. Ngatenah, M. H. Isa, A. Malakahmad

Abstract:

Water hyacinth has been used in aquatic systems for wastewater purification in many years worldwide. The role of water hyacinth (Eichhornia crassipes) species in polishing nitrate and phosphorus concentration from municipal wastewater treatment plant effluent by phytoremediation method was evaluated. The objective of this project is to determine the removal efficiency of water hyacinth in polishing nitrate and phosphorus, as well as chemical oxygen demand (COD) and ammonia. Water hyacinth is considered as the most efficient aquatic plant used in removing vast range of pollutants such as organic matters, nutrients and heavy metals. Water hyacinth, also referred as macrophytes, were cultivated in the treatment house in a reactor tank of approximately 90(L) x 40(W) x 25(H) in dimension and built with three compartments. Three water hyacinths were placed in each compartments and water sample in each compartment were collected in every two days. The plant observation was conducted by weight measurement, plant uptake and new young shoot development. Water hyacinth effectively removed approximately 49% of COD, 81% of ammonia, 67% of phosphorus and 92% of nitrate. It also showed significant growth rate at starting from day 6 with 0.33 shoot/day and they kept developing up to 0.38 shoot/day at the end of day 24. From the studies conducted, it was proved that water hyacinth is capable of polishing the effluent of municipal wastewater which contains undesirable amount of nitrate and phosphorus concentration.

Keywords: water hyacinth, phytoremediation, nutrient removal, Eichhornia crassipes

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Authors: A. Chaouachi, R. M. Kamel, K. Nagasaka

Abstract:

This paper presents a novel methodology for Maximum Power Point Tracking (MPPT) of a grid-connected 20 kW Photovoltaic (PV) system using neuro-fuzzy network. The proposed method predicts the reference PV voltage guarantying optimal power transfer between the PV generator and the main utility grid. The neuro-fuzzy network is composed of a fuzzy rule-based classifier and three Radial Basis Function Neural Networks (RBFNN). Inputs of the network (irradiance and temperature) are classified before they are fed into the appropriated RBFNN for either training or estimation process while the output is the reference voltage. The main advantage of the proposed methodology, comparing to a conventional single neural network-based approach, is the distinct generalization ability regarding to the nonlinear and dynamic behavior of a PV generator. In fact, the neuro-fuzzy network is a neural network based multi-model machine learning that defines a set of local models emulating the complex and non-linear behavior of a PV generator under a wide range of operating conditions. Simulation results under several rapid irradiance variations proved that the proposed MPPT method fulfilled the highest efficiency comparing to a conventional single neural network.

Keywords: MPPT, neuro-fuzzy, RBFN, grid-connected, photovoltaic.

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Authors: P. Lestinsky, D. Jecha, V. Brummer, P. Stehlik

Abstract:

Scrubbing by a liquid spraying is one of the most effective processes used for removal of fine particles and soluble gas pollutants (such as SO2, HCl, HF) from the flue gas. There are many configurations of scrubbers designed to provide contact between the liquid and gas stream for effectively capturing particles or soluble gas pollutants, such as spray plates, packed bed towers, jet scrubbers, cyclones, vortex and venturi scrubbers. The primary function of venturi scrubber is the capture of fine particles as well as HCl, HF or SO2 removal with effect of the flue gas temperature decrease before input to the absorption column. In this paper, sulfur dioxide (SO2) from flue gas was captured using new design replacing venturi scrubber (1st degree of wet scrubbing). The flue gas was prepared by the combustion of the carbon disulfide solution in toluene (1:1 vol.) in the flame in the reactor. Such prepared flue gas with temperature around 150°C was processed in designed laboratory O-element scrubber. Water was used as absorbent liquid. The efficiency of SO2 removal, pressure drop and temperature drop were measured on our experimental device. The dependence of these variables on liquid-gas ratio was observed. The average temperature drop was in the range from 150°C to 40°C. The pressure drop was increased with increasing of a liquid-gas ratio, but no too much as for the common venturi scrubber designs. The efficiency of SO2 removal was up to 70 %. The pressure drop of our new designed wet scrubber is similar to commonly used venturi scrubbers; nevertheless the influence of amount of the liquid on pressure drop is not so significant.

Keywords: Desulphurization, absorption, flue gas, modeling.

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Authors: Rohitash Chandra, Christian W. Omlin

Abstract:

We present a hybrid architecture of recurrent neural networks (RNNs) inspired by hidden Markov models (HMMs). We train the hybrid architecture using genetic algorithms to learn and represent dynamical systems. We train the hybrid architecture on a set of deterministic finite-state automata strings and observe the generalization performance of the hybrid architecture when presented with a new set of strings which were not present in the training data set. In this way, we show that the hybrid system of HMM and RNN can learn and represent deterministic finite-state automata. We ran experiments with different sets of population sizes in the genetic algorithm; we also ran experiments to find out which weight initializations were best for training the hybrid architecture. The results show that the hybrid architecture of recurrent neural networks inspired by hidden Markov models can train and represent dynamical systems. The best training and generalization performance is achieved when the hybrid architecture is initialized with random real weight values of range -15 to 15.

Keywords: Deterministic finite-state automata, genetic algorithm, hidden Markov models, hybrid systems and recurrent neural networks.

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