Search results for: the quality of life

Authors: D. A. K. S. Gunaratna, N. D. Kodikara, H. L. Premaratne

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Automatic currency note recognition invariably depends on the currency note characteristics of a particular country and the extraction of features directly affects the recognition ability. Sri Lanka has not been involved in any kind of research or implementation of this kind. The proposed system “SLCRec" comes up with a solution focusing on minimizing false rejection of notes. Sri Lankan currency notes undergo severe changes in image quality in usage. Hence a special linear transformation function is adapted to wipe out noise patterns from backgrounds without affecting the notes- characteristic images and re-appear images of interest. The transformation maps the original gray scale range into a smaller range of 0 to 125. Applying Edge detection after the transformation provided better robustness for noise and fair representation of edges for new and old damaged notes. A three layer back propagation neural network is presented with the number of edges detected in row order of the notes and classification is accepted in four classes of interest which are 100, 500, 1000 and 2000 rupee notes. The experiments showed good classification results and proved that the proposed methodology has the capability of separating classes properly in varying image conditions.

Keywords: Artificial intelligence, linear transformation and pattern recognition.

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Authors: M. Geetha Priya, K. Baskaran, S. Srinivasan

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Digital systems are said to be constructed using basic logic gates. These gates are the NOR, NAND, AND, OR, EXOR & EXNOR gates. This paper presents a robust three transistors (3T) based NAND and NOR gates with precise output logic levels, yet maintaining equivalent performance than the existing logic structures. This new set of 3T logic gates are based on CMOS inverter and Pass Transistor Logic (PTL). The new universal logic gates are characterized by better speed and lower power dissipation which can be straightforwardly fabricated as memory ICs for high performance computer networks. The simulation tests were performed using standard BPTM 22nm process technology using SYNOPSYS HSPICE. The 3T NAND gate is evaluated using C17 benchmark circuit and 3T NOR is gate evaluated using a D-Latch. According to HSPICE simulation in 22 nm CMOS BPTM process technology under given conditions and at room temperature, the proposed 3T gates shows an improvement of 88% less power consumption on an average over conventional CMOS logic gates. The devices designed with 3T gates will make longer battery life by ensuring extremely low power consumption.

Keywords: Low power, CMOS, pass-transistor, flash memory, logic gates.

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Authors: T. A. Abegunde, O. B. Oyewole, T. A. Sanni

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A process of conversion of flour from three varieties of cassava, namely Odongbo, ofege and TMS30752 to ethanol using α-amylase locally sourced from germinated unhusked paddy rice and yeast isolated from palm wine was developed. It involves the germination of paddy rice for a period of 15days to produce α-amylase for starch hydrolysis and isolation of yeast from palm wine for fermentation. The results showed that optimum amylase yield of “ofada” rice paddy was at 6^th day germination which was 576.9ml/g. Ethanol yield for TMS30572 (440.3%) was significantly higher than “Odongbo” (160.2%) and “Ofege’’ (115.1%), Sugar conversion efficiency were 311.0%v/v, 268.2%v/v and 186.84%v/v for TMS30572, “Odongbo” and “Ofege” respectively. The ethanol boiling points were 78^oC, 76^oC and 80^oC for TMS30572, “Odongbo” and “Ofege” respectively. This study showed that cassava varieties affects quality of ethanol produced and germination of “ofada” rice for 6 days ensures optimum production of crude amylase enzyme.

Keywords: Cassava, ethanol, fermentation, hydrolysis, α-amylase.

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Authors: Mohammed Golam Sarwer, Lai Man Po, Kai Guo, Q.M. Jonathan Wu

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In H.264/AVC video encoding, rate-distortion optimization for mode selection plays a significant role to achieve outstanding performance in compression efficiency and video quality. However, this mode selection process also makes the encoding process extremely complex, especially in the computation of the ratedistortion cost function, which includes the computations of the sum of squared difference (SSD) between the original and reconstructed image blocks and context-based entropy coding of the block. In this paper, a transform-domain rate-distortion optimization accelerator based on fast SSD (FSSD) and VLC-based rate estimation algorithm is proposed. This algorithm could significantly simplify the hardware architecture for the rate-distortion cost computation with only ignorable performance degradation. An efficient hardware structure for implementing the proposed transform-domain rate-distortion optimization accelerator is also proposed. Simulation results demonstrated that the proposed algorithm reduces about 47% of total encoding time with negligible degradation of coding performance. The proposed method can be easily applied to many mobile video application areas such as a digital camera and a DMB (Digital Multimedia Broadcasting) phone.

Keywords: Context-adaptive variable length coding (CAVLC), H.264/AVC, rate-distortion optimization (RDO), sum of squareddifference (SSD).

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Authors: Rujira Kongnuy, Puntani Pongsumpun, I-Ming Tang

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Mathematical models can be used to describe the dynamics of the spread of infectious disease between susceptibles and infectious populations. Dengue fever is a re-emerging disease in the tropical and subtropical regions of the world. Its incidence has increased fourfold since 1970 and outbreaks are now reported quite frequently from many parts of the world. In dengue endemic regions, more cases of dengue infection in pregnancy and infancy are being found due to the increasing incidence. It has been reported that dengue infection was vertically transmitted to the infants. Primary dengue infection is associated with mild to high fever, headache, muscle pain and skin rash. Immune response includes IgM antibodies produced by the 5th day of symptoms and persist for 30-60 days. IgG antibodies appear on the 14th day and persist for life. Secondary infections often result in high fever and in many cases with hemorrhagic events and circulatory failure. In the present paper, a mathematical model is proposed to simulate the succession of dengue disease transmission in pregnancy and infancy. Stability analysis of the equilibrium points is carried out and a simulation is given for the different sets of parameter. Moreover, the bifurcation diagrams of our model are discussed. The controlling of this disease in infant cases is introduced in the term of the threshold condition.

Keywords: Dengue infection, equilibrium states, maternalantibodies, pregnancy and infancy.

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Authors: Munir Majdalawieh, Adam Marks

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In today’s very competitive higher education industry (HEI), HEIs are faced with the primary concern of developing, deploying, and sustaining high quality academic programs. Today, the HEI has well-established accreditation systems endorsed by a country’s legislation and institutions. The accreditation system is an educational pathway focused on the criteria and processes for evaluating educational programs. Although many aspects of the accreditation process highlight both the past and the present (prove), the “program review” assessment is "forward-looking assessment" (improve) and thus transforms the process into a continuing assessment activity rather than a periodic event. The purpose of this study is to propose a conceptual measurement framework for program review to be used by HEIs to undertake a robust and targeted approach to proactively and continuously review their academic programs to evaluate its practicality and effectiveness as well as to improve the education of the students. The proposed framework consists of two main components: program review principles and the program review measurement matrix.

Keywords: Academic program, program review principles, curriculum development, accreditation, evaluation, assessment, review measurement matrix, program review process, information technologies supporting learning, learning/teaching methodologies and assessment.

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Authors: Gizelle K. Vianna, Gabriel V. Cunha, Gustavo S. Oliveira

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Foliage diseases in plants can cause a reduction in both quality and quantity of agricultural production. Intelligent detection of plant diseases is an essential research topic as it may help monitoring large fields of crops by automatically detecting the symptoms of foliage diseases. This work investigates ways to recognize the late blight disease from the analysis of tomato digital images, collected directly from the field. A pair of multilayer perceptron neural network analyzes the digital images, using data from both RGB and HSL color models, and classifies each image pixel. One neural network is responsible for the identification of healthy regions of the tomato leaf, while the other identifies the injured regions. The outputs of both networks are combined to generate the final classification of each pixel from the image and the pixel classes are used to repaint the original tomato images by using a color representation that highlights the injuries on the plant. The new images will have only green, red or black pixels, if they came from healthy or injured portions of the leaf, or from the background of the image, respectively. The system presented an accuracy of 97% in detection and estimation of the level of damage on the tomato leaves caused by late blight.

Keywords: Artificial neural networks, digital image processing, pattern recognition.

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Authors: Guo Yan

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Clothing recycling bin is a traditional way to collect textile waste in many areas. In the clothing recycling business, the transportation cost normally takes over 50% of total costs. This case gives a good way to reduce transportation cost by reverse logistics system. In this reverse logistics system, there are offline strategic alliance partners, such as transport firms, convenience stores, laundries, and post office which are integrated onto the mobile APP. Offline strategic alliance partners provide the service of textile waste collection, and transportation by their vacant vehicles return journey from convenience stores, laundries and post offices to sorting centers. The results of the case study provide the strategic alliance with a valuable and light - asset business model by using the logistics of offline memberships. The company in this case just focuses on textile waste sorting, reuse, recycling etc. The research method of this paper is a case study of a clothing recycling company in Chengdu by field research and interview; the analysis is based on the theory of the reverse logistics system.

Keywords: Closed-loop recycles system, clothing recycling, end-of-life clothing, sharing economy, strategic alliance, reverse logistics.

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Authors: Anita Khadka, Gregory Epiphaniou, Carsten Maple

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There is a dramatic surge in the adoption of Machine Learning (ML) techniques in many areas, including the nuclear industry (such as fault diagnosis and fuel management in nuclear power plants), autonomous systems (including self-driving vehicles), space systems (space debris recovery, for example), medical surgery, network intrusion detection, malware detection, to name a few. Artificial Intelligence (AI) has become a part of everyday modern human life. To date, the predominant focus has been developing underpinning ML algorithms that can improve accuracy, while factors such as resiliency and robustness of algorithms have been largely overlooked. If an adversarial attack is able to compromise the learning method or data, the consequences can be fatal, especially but not exclusively in safety-critical applications. In this paper, we present an in-depth analysis of five adversarial attacks and two defence methods on a crack detection ML model. Our analysis shows that it can be dangerous to adopt ML techniques without rigorous testing, since they may be vulnerable to adversarial attacks, especially in security-critical areas such as the nuclear industry. We observed that while the adopted defence methods can effectively defend against different attacks, none of them could protect against all five adversarial attacks entirely.

Keywords: Resilient Machine Learning, attacks, defences, nuclear industry, crack detection.

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Authors: Saowapa Phaithayawat

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The objectives of study are the following: To study the way of life in terms of one hundred years co-existence of the Muslim and local community in this area 2) To analyze factors affect to this community with happy co-existence. The study requires quantitative research to study a history together with the study of humanity. The result of this study showed that the area of Petchburi 7 community is an ancient area which has owned by the Muslim for almost 100 years. There is a sanctuary as & center of unity. Later Bangkok becomes developed and provides more infrastructures like motorway and other transportation: however, the owners of lands in this community still keep their lands and build many buildings to run business. With this purpose, there are many non-Muslim people come to live here with co-existence. Not only are they convenient to work but also easy to transport by sky train. There are factors that make them live harmonious as following: 1) All Muslims in this area are strict to follow their rules and allocate their community for business. 2) All people, who come and live here, are middle-aged and working men and women. They, rent rooms closed to their work. 3) There are Muslim food and desserts, especially Roti, the popular fried flour, and local Chachak, tea originated from the south of Thailand. All these food and desserts are famous for working men and women to home and join after work 4) All Muslim in this area are independent to lead their own lives although a society changes rapidly.

Keywords: Co-existence, Muslim and other group of people, the ancient community.

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Authors: Georgi Yordanov Georgiev, Michael Daly, Erin Gombos, Amrit Vinod, Gajinder Hoonjan

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Measures of complexity and entropy have not converged to a single quantitative description of levels of organization of complex systems. The need for such a measure is increasingly necessary in all disciplines studying complex systems. To address this problem, starting from the most fundamental principle in Physics, here a new measure for quantity of organization and rate of self-organization in complex systems based on the principle of least (stationary) action is applied to a model system - the central processing unit (CPU) of computers. The quantity of organization for several generations of CPUs shows a double exponential rate of change of organization with time. The exact functional dependence has a fine, S-shaped structure, revealing some of the mechanisms of self-organization. The principle of least action helps to explain the mechanism of increase of organization through quantity accumulation and constraint and curvature minimization with an attractor, the least average sum of actions of all elements and for all motions. This approach can help describe, quantify, measure, manage, design and predict future behavior of complex systems to achieve the highest rates of self organization to improve their quality. It can be applied to other complex systems from Physics, Chemistry, Biology, Ecology, Economics, Cities, network theory and others where complex systems are present.

Keywords: Organization, self-organization, complex system, complexification, quantitative measure, principle of least action, principle of stationary action, attractor, progressive development, acceleration, stochastic.

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Authors: K. Sandjak, B. Tiliouine

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Structural analysis of flexible pavements has been and still is currently performed using multi-layer elastic theory. However, for thinly surfaced pavements subjected to low to medium volumes of traffics, the importance of non-linear stress-strain behavior of unbound granular materials (UGM) requires the use of more sophisticated numerical models for structural design and performance of such pavements. In the present work, nonlinear unbound aggregates constitutive model is implemented within an axisymmetric finite element code developed to simulate the nonlinear behavior of pavement structures including two local aggregates of different mineralogical nature, typically used in Algerian pavements. The performance of the mechanical model is examined about its capability of representing adequately, under various conditions, the granular material non-linearity in pavement analysis. In addition, deflection data collected by Falling Weight Deflectometer (FWD) are incorporated into the analysis in order to assess the sensitivity of critical pavement design criteria and pavement design life to the constitutive model. Finally, conclusions of engineering significance are formulated. 

Keywords: Nonlinear resilient behavior, unbound granular materials, RLT test results, FWD backcalculations, finite element simulations, pavement response and performance.

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Authors: A. Behbahaninia, S. A. Mirbagheri, A. H. Javid

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Heavy metal transfer in soil profiles is a major environmental concern because even slow transport through the soil may eventually lead to deterioration of groundwater quality. The use of sewage sludge and effluents from wastewater treatment plants for irrigation of agricultural lands is on the rise particularly in peri-urban area of developing countries. In this study soil samples under sludge application and wastewater irrigation were studied and soil samples were collected in the soil profiles from the surface to 100 cm in depth. For this purpose, three plots were made in a treatment plant in south of Tehran-Iran. First plot was irrigated just with effluent from wastewater treatment plant, second plot with simulated heavy metals concentration equal 50 years irrigation and in third plot sewage sludge and effluent was used. Trace metals concentration (Cd, Cu) were determined for soil samples. The results indicate movement of metals was observed, but the most concentration of metals was found in topsoil samples. The most of Cadmium concentration was measured in the topsoil of plot 3, 4.5mg/kg and Maximum cadmium movement was observed in 0-20 cm. The most concentration of copper was 27.76mg/kg, and maximum percolation in 0-20 cm. Metals (Cd, Cu) were measured in leached water. Preferential flow and metal complexation with soluble organic apparently allow leaching of heavy metals.

Keywords: Heavy metal, sludge, soil, transport.

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Authors: Osama Brinji, Wing Kong Chiu, Graham Tew

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Understanding the stability of rail ballast is one of the most important aspects in the railways. An unstable track may cause some issues such as unnecessary vibration and ultimately loss of track quality. The track foundation plays an important role in the stabilization of the railway. The dynamic response of rail ballast in the vicinity of the rail sleeper can affect the stability of the rail track and this has not been studied in detail. A review of literature showed that most of the works focused on the area under the concrete sleeper. Although there are some theories about the shear (longitudinal) effect of the rail ballast, these have not properly been studied and hence are not well understood. The stability of a rail track will depend on the compactness of the ballast in its vicinity. This paper will try to determine the dynamic response of the ballast to identify its resonant behaviour. This preliminary research is one of several studies that examine the vibration response of the granular materials. The main aim is to use this information for future design of sleepers to ensure that any dynamic response of the sleeper will not compromise the state of compactness of the ballast. This paper will report on the dependence of damping and the natural frequency of the ballast as a function of depth and distance from the point of excitation introduced through a concrete block. The concrete block is used to simulate a sleeper and the ballast is simulated with gravel. In spite of these approximations, the results presented in the paper will show an agreement with theories and the assumptions that are used in study the mechanical behaviour of the rail ballast.

Keywords: Ballast, dynamic response, sleeper, stability.

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Authors: Ma. Eliza Jijeth V. dela Cruz

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Technology is a recent prodigy in people’s everyday life that has taken off. It infiltrated almost every aspect of one’s lives, changing how people work, how people learn and how people perceive things. Academic Institutions, just like other organizations, have deeply modified its strategies to integrate technology into the institutional vision and corporate strategy that has never been greater. Information and Communications Technology (ICT) continues to be recognized as a major factor in organizations realizing its aims and objectives. Consequently, ICT has an important role in the mobilization of an academic institution’s strategy to support the delivery of operational, strategic or transformational objectives. This ICT strategy should align the institution with the radical changes of the ICT world through the use of Enterprise Architecture (EA). Hence, EA’s objective is to optimize the islands of legacy processes to be integrated that is receptive to change and supportive of the delivery of the strategy. In this paper, the focus is to explore the motivational antecedents during the adoption of EA in a Higher Education Institution in the Philippines for its ICT strategic plan. The seven antecedents (viewpoint, stakeholders, human traits, vision, revolutionary innovation, techniques and change components) provide understanding into EA adoption and the antecedents that influences the process of EA adoption.

Keywords: Enterprise architecture, adoption, antecedents, higher education institution.

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Authors: Ali Ridho Barakbah, Yasushi Kiyoki

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This paper presents a new approach for image segmentation by applying Pillar-Kmeans algorithm. This segmentation process includes a new mechanism for clustering the elements of high-resolution images in order to improve precision and reduce computation time. The system applies K-means clustering to the image segmentation after optimized by Pillar Algorithm. The Pillar algorithm considers the pillars- placement which should be located as far as possible from each other to withstand against the pressure distribution of a roof, as identical to the number of centroids amongst the data distribution. This algorithm is able to optimize the K-means clustering for image segmentation in aspects of precision and computation time. It designates the initial centroids- positions by calculating the accumulated distance metric between each data point and all previous centroids, and then selects data points which have the maximum distance as new initial centroids. This algorithm distributes all initial centroids according to the maximum accumulated distance metric. This paper evaluates the proposed approach for image segmentation by comparing with K-means and Gaussian Mixture Model algorithm and involving RGB, HSV, HSL and CIELAB color spaces. The experimental results clarify the effectiveness of our approach to improve the segmentation quality in aspects of precision and computational time.

Keywords: Image segmentation, K-means clustering, Pillaralgorithm, color spaces.

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Authors: Hersh C. Waxman, Yolanda N. Padrón, Jee-Young Shin, Héctor H. Rivera

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While many studies have conducted the achievement gap between groups of students in school districts, few studies have utilized resilience research to investigate achievement gaps within classrooms. This paper aims to summarize and discuss some recent studies Waxman, Padr├│n, and their colleagues conducted, in which they examined learning environment differences between resilient and nonresilient students in reading and mathematics classrooms. The classes consist of predominantly Hispanic elementary school students from low-income families. These studies all incorporated learning environment questionnaires and systematic observation methods. Significant differences were found between resilient and nonresilient students on their classroom learning environments and classroom behaviors. The observation results indicate that the amount and quality of teacher and student academic interaction are two of the most influential variables that promote student outcomes. This paper concludes by suggesting the following teacher practices to promote resiliency in schools: (a) using feedback from classroom observation and learning environment measures, (b) employing explicit teaching practices; and (c) understanding students on a social and personal level.

Keywords: achievement gap, classroom learning environments, educational resilience, systematic classroom observation

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Authors: Mohanad El-Harbawi, Nurul Amirah Hanim Bt. Umar, Norizan Ali, Yoshimitsu Uemura

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Study of fire and explosion is very important mainly in oil and gas industries due to several accidents which have been reported in the past and present. In this work, we have investigated the flammability of bio oil vapour mixtures. This mixture may contribute to fire during the storage and transportation process. Bio oil sample derived from Palm Kernell shell was analysed using Gas Chromatography Mass Spectrometry (GC-MS) to examine the composition of the sample. Mole fractions of 12 selected components in the liquid phase were obtained from the GC-FID data and used to calculate mole fractions of components in the gas phase via modified Raoult-s law. Lower Flammability Limits (LFLs) and Upper Flammability Limits (UFLs) for individual components were obtained from published literature. However, stoichiometric concentration method was used to calculate the flammability limits of some components which their flammability limit values are not available in the literature. The LFL and UFL values for the mixture were calculated using the Le Chatelier equation. The LFLmix and UFLmix values were used to construct a flammability diagram and subsequently used to determine the flammability of the mixture. The findings of this study can be used to propose suitable inherently safer method to prevent the flammable mixture from occurring and to minimizing the loss of properties, business, and life due to fire accidents in bio oil productions.

Keywords: Gas chromatography, compositions, lower and upper flammability limits (LFL & UFL), flammability diagram.

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Authors: Ajibola O. Akinrinde, Andrew Swanson, Remy Tiako

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There exist significant losses on transmission lines due to distance, as power generating stations could be located far from some isolated settlements. Standalone wind farms could be a good choice of alternative power generation for such settlements that are far from the grid due to factors of long distance or socio-economic problems. However, uncompensated wind farms consume reactive power since wind turbines are induction generators. Therefore, capacitor banks are used to compensate reactive power, which in turn improves the voltage profile of the network. Although capacitor banks help improving voltage profile, they also undergo switching actions due to its compensating response to the variation of various types of load at the consumer’s end. These switching activities could cause transient overvoltage on the network, jeopardizing the end-life of other equipment on the system. In this paper, the overvoltage caused by these switching activities is investigated using the IEEE bus 14-network to represent a standalone wind farm, and the simulation is done using ATP/EMTP software. Scenarios involving the use of pre-insertion resistor and pre-insertion inductor, as well as controlled switching was also carried out in order to decide the best mitigation option to reduce the overvoltage.

Keywords: Capacitor banks, IEEE bus 14-network, Pre-insertion resistor, Standalone wind farm.

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Authors: Niall J. English, Sylvia Leatham, Maria Isabel Meza Silva, Denis P. Dowling

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The training and education of under- and post-graduate students can be promoted by more active learning especially in engineering, overcoming more passive and vicarious experiences and approaches in their documented effectiveness. However, the possibility of outreach to young pupils and school-children in primary and secondary schools is a lesser explored area in terms of Education and Public Engagement (EPE) efforts – as relates to feedback and influence on shaping 3rd-level engineering training and education. Therefore, the outreach and school-visit agenda constitutes an interesting avenue to observe how active learning, careers stimulus and EPE efforts for young children and teenagers can teach the university sector, to improve future engineering-teaching standards and enhance both quality and capabilities of practice. This intervention involved careers-outreach efforts to lead to statistical determinations of motivations towards engineering, manufacturing and training. The aim was to gauge to what extent this intervention would lead to an increased careers awareness in engineering, using the method of the schools-visits programme as the means for so doing. It was found that this led to an increase in engagement by school pupils with engineering as a career option and a greater awareness of the importance of manufacturing. 

Keywords: outreach, education and public engagement, careers, peer interactions

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Authors: G. H. Li, M. Liu, H. J. Qi, Q. Zhu, W. Z. He

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The drilling and riveting processes are widely used in the assembly of carrier rocket, which makes the efficiency and quality of drilling become the important factor affecting the assembly process. According to the problem existing in the drilling of thick stacked plate (thickness larger than 10mm) of carrier rocket, such as drill break, large noise and burr etc., experimental study of the influence of tool material on the drilling was carried out. The cutting force was measured by a piezoelectric dynamometer, the aperture was measured with an outline projector, and the burr is observed and measured by a digital stereo microscope. Through the measurement, the effects of tool material on the drilling were analyzed from the aspects of drilling force, diameter, and burr. The results show that, compared with carbide drill and coated carbide one, the drilling force of high speed steel is larger. But, the application of high speed steel also has some advantages, e.g. a higher number of hole can be obtained, the height of burr is small, the exit is smooth and the slim burr is less, and the tool experiences wear but not fracture. Therefore, the high speed steel tool is suitable for the drilling of thick stacked plate of 2219 Aluminum alloy.

Keywords: 2219 aluminum alloy, thick stacked plate, drilling, tool material.

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Authors: S. Bennoud, S. Hocine, H. Slme

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Developments in turbine cooling technology play an important role in increasing the thermal efficiency and the power output of recent gas turbines, in particular the turbojets.

Advanced turbojets operate at high temperatures to improve thermal efficiency and power output. These temperatures are far above the permissible metal temperatures. Therefore, there is a critical need to cool the blades in order to give theirs a maximum life period for safe operation.

The focused objective of this work is to calculate the turbojet performances, as well as the calculation of turbine blades cooling.

The developed application able the calculation of turbojet performances to different altitudes in order to find a point of optimal use making possible to maintain the turbine blades at an acceptable maximum temperature and to limit the local variations in temperatures in order to guarantee their integrity during all the lifespan of the engine.

Keywords: Brayton cycle, Turbine Blades Cooling, Turbojet Cycle, turbojet performances.

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Authors: C. Ardil

Abstract:

The purpose of this paper is to present fuzzy TOPSIS in an entropic fuzzy environment. Due to the ambiguous concepts often represented in decision data, exact values are insufficient to model real-life situations. In this paper, the rating of each alternative is defined in fuzzy linguistic terms, which can be expressed with triangular fuzzy numbers. The weight of each criterion is then derived from the decision matrix using the entropy weighting method. Next, a vertex method is proposed to calculate the distance between two triangular fuzzy numbers. According to the TOPSIS concept, a closeness coefficient is defined to determine the ranking order of all alternatives by simultaneously calculating the distances to both the fuzzy positive-ideal solution (FPIS) and the fuzzy negative-ideal solution (FNIS). Finally, an illustrative example of selecting stealth fighter aircraft is shown at the end of this article to highlight the procedure of the proposed method. Correlation analysis and validation analysis using TOPSIS, WSM, and WPM methods were performed to compare the ranking order of the alternatives.

Keywords: stealth fighter aircraft selection, fuzzy uncertainty theory (FUT), fuzzy entropic decision (FED), fuzzy linguistic variables, triangular fuzzy numbers, multiple criteria decision making analysis, MCDMA, TOPSIS, WSM, WPM

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Authors: Omid Adibi, Nategheh Najafpour, Bijan Farhanieh, Hossein Afshin

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Gas release from the pipelines is one of the main factors in the gas industry accidents. Released gas ejects from the pipeline as a free jet and in the growth process, the fuel gets mixed with the ambient air. Accordingly, an accidental spark will release the chemical energy of the mixture with an explosion. Gas explosion damages the equipment and endangers the life of staffs. So due to importance of safety in gas industries, prevision of accident can reduce the number of the casualties. In this paper, natural gas leakages from the low pressure pipelines are studied in two steps: 1) the simulation of mixing process and identification of flammable zones and 2) the simulation of wind effects on the mixing process. The numerical simulations were performed by using the finite volume method and the pressure-based algorithm. Also, for the grid generation the structured method was used. The results show that, in just 6.4 s after accident, released natural gas could penetrate to 40 m in vertical and 20 m in horizontal direction. Moreover, the results show that the wind speed is a key factor in dispersion process. In fact, the wind transports the flammable zones into the downstream. Hence, to improve the safety of the people and human property, it is preferable to construct gas facilities and buildings in the opposite side of prevailing wind direction.

Keywords: Flammable zones, gas pipelines, numerical simulation, wind effects.

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Authors: Jaimala Gambhir, Tilak Thakur, Puneet Chawla

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As per the statistical data, the Doubly-fed Induction Generator (DFIG) based wind turbine with variable speed and variable pitch control is the most common wind turbine in the growing wind market. This machine is usually used on the grid connected wind energy conversion system to satisfy grid code requirements such as grid stability, Fault Ride Through (FRT), power quality improvement, grid synchronization and power control etc. Though the requirements are not fulfilled directly by the machine, the control strategy is used in both the stator as well as rotor side along with power electronic converters to fulfil the requirements stated above. To satisfy the grid code requirements of wind turbine, usually grid side converter is playing a major role. So in order to improve the operation capacity of wind turbine under critical situation, the intensive study of both machine side converter control and grid side converter control is necessary In this paper DFIG is modeled using power components as variables and the performance of the DFIG system is analysed under grid voltage fluctuations. The voltage fluctuations are made by lowering and raising the voltage values in the utility grid intentionally for the purpose of simulation keeping in view of different grid disturbances.

Keywords: DFIG, dynamic modeling, DPC, sag, swell, voltage fluctuations, FRT.

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Authors: Maryam Khalili, Fateme Ghanei

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As one of the most significant phenomena of industrialized societies, tourism plays a key role in encouraging regional developments and enhancing higher standards of living for local communities in particular. Traveling is a formative experience endowed with lessons on various aspects of life. It allows us learning how to enhance the social position as well as the social relationships. However, people forget the need to travel and gain first-hand experiences as they have to cope with the ever-increasing rate of stress created by the disorders and routines of the urban dwelling style. In this paper, various spaces of such experiences were explored through a virtual tour with two underlying aims: 1) encouraging, informing, and educating the community in terms of tourism development, and 2) introducing a temporary release from the routines. This study enjoyed a practical-qualitative research methodology, and the required data were collected through observation and using a multiple-response questionnaire. The participants (19-48 years old) included 41 citizens of both genders (63.4% male and 36.6% female) from two regions in Tehran, selected by cluster-probability sampling. The results led to development of a spatial design for a virtual tour experience in Tehran where different areas are explored to both raise people’s awareness and educate them on their cultural heritage.

Keywords: Ecotourism, education, gamification, social interaction, urban design, virtual tour.

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Authors: Zayed N. Alsulami, Asma F. Aldosseri, Ahmed S. Ezziden, Abdulrahman K. Alonazi

Abstract:

Children are more susceptible to medication errors than adults. Medication administration process is the last stage in the medication treatment process and most of the errors detected in this stage. Little research has been undertaken about medication errors in children in the Middle East countries. This study was aimed to evaluate how the paediatric nurses adhere to the medication administration policy and also to identify any medication preparation and administration errors or any risk factors. An observational, prospective study of medication administration process from when the nurses preparing patient medication until administration stage (May to August 2014) was conducted in Saudi Arabia. Twelve paediatric nurses serving 90 paediatric patients were observed. 456 drug administered doses were evaluated. Adherence rate was variable in 7 steps out of 16 steps. Patient allergy information, dose calculation, drug expiry date were the steps in medication administration with lowest adherence rates. 63 medication preparation and administration errors were identified with error rate 13.8% of medication administrations. No potentially life-threating errors were witnessed. Few logistic and administrative factors were reported. The results showed that the medication administration policy and procedure need an urgent revision to be more sensible for nurses in practice. Nurses’ knowledge and skills regarding to the medication administration process should be improved.

Keywords: Double checking, Medication administration errors, Medication safety, Nurses.

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Authors: Kuyucu Helvacioglu Asli Deniz, Tektas Arzu

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European Union candidate status provides a strong motivation for decision-making in the candidate countries in shaping the regional development policy where there is an envisioned transfer of power from center to the periphery. The process of Europeanization anticipates the candidate countries configure their regional institutional templates in the context of the requirements of the European Union policies and introduces new instruments of incentive framework of enlargement to be employed in regional development schemes. It is observed that the contribution of the local actors to the decision making in the design of the allocation architectures enhances the efficiency of the funds and increases the positive effects of the projects funded under the regional development objectives. This study aims at exploring the performances of the three regional development grant schemes in Turkey, established and allocated under the pre-accession process with a special emphasis given to the roles of the national and local actors in decision-making for regional development. Efficiency analyses have been conducted using the DEA methodology which has proved to be a superior method in comparative efficiency and benchmarking measurements. The findings of this study as parallel to similar international studies, provides that the participation of the local actors to the decision-making in funding contributes both to the quality and the efficiency of the projects funded under the EU schemes.

Keywords: Efficiency, European Union Funds, RegionalDevelopment, Turkey

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Authors: Faizal A. Samman, Thomas Hollstein, Manfred Glesner

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A synchronous network-on-chip using wormhole packet switching and supporting guaranteed-completion best-effort with low-priority (LP) and high-priority (HP) wormhole packet delivery service is presented in this paper. Both our proposed LP and HP message services deliver a good quality of service in term of lossless packet completion and in-order message data delivery. However, the LP message service does not guarantee minimal completion bound. The HP packets will absolutely use 100% bandwidth of their reserved links if the HP packets are injected from the source node with maximum injection. Hence, the service are suitable for small size messages (less than hundred bytes). Otherwise the other HP and LP messages, which require also the links, will experience relatively high latency depending on the size of the HP message. The LP packets are routed using a minimal adaptive routing, while the HP packets are routed using a non-minimal adaptive routing algorithm. Therefore, an additional 3-bit field, identifying the packet type, is introduced in their packet headers to classify and to determine the type of service committed to the packet. Our NoC prototypes have been also synthesized using a 180-nm CMOS standard-cell technology to evaluate the cost of implementing the combination of both services.

Keywords: Network-on-Chip, Parallel Pipeline Router Architecture, Wormhole Switching, Two-Level Priority Service.

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Authors: Safaa Mahmoud Issa

Abstract:

Architecture, as an art and science of designing, has always been the medium to create environments that fulfill their users’ needs. It could create an inclusive environment that would not isolate any individual regardless of his /her disabilities. It could help, hopefully, in setting the strategies that provide a supportive, educational environment that would allow the inclusion of students with autism. Architects could help in the battle against this neuro-developmental disorder by providing the accommodating environment, at home and at school, in order to prevent institutionalizing these children. Through a theoretical approach and a review of literature, this study will explore and analyze best practices in autism-friendly, supportive, teaching environments. Additionally, it would provide the range of measures, and set the strategies to deal with the students with autism sensory peculiarities, and that, in order to allow them to concentrate in the school environment, and be able to succeed, and to be integrated as an important addition to society and the social mainstream. Architects should take into consideration the general guidelines for an autism-friendly built environment, and apply them to specific buildings systems. And that, as certain design elements have great effect on children’s behavior, by appropriating architecture to provide inclusive accommodating environments, the basis for equalization of opportunities is set allowing these individuals a better, normal, non-institutional life, as the discussion presented in this study would reveal.

Keywords: Architecture, inclusion, students with autism, mainstream society.

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