Search results for: Deregulated Distribution Network
907 Intertidal Fixed Stake Net Trap (Hadrah) Fishery in Kuwait: Distribution, Catch Rate and Species Composition
Authors: Ali F. Al-Baz, Mohsen M. Al-Husaini, James M. Bishop
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Intertidal fixed stake net trap (Hadrah) is one of the oldest fishing gears used throughout the Arabian Gulf countries since the 1800s and also one of most the efficient methods of capturing fish from the intertidal area. This study describes the hadrah fishery in Kuwait.
From October 2001 to December 2002, more than 37,372 specimens representing 95 species (89 fish, 2 mollusks and 4 crustaceans) were measured from hadrah, located in three different areas along Kuwait's coast. In Kuwait Bay, catch rates averaged 62 kg/sir-day (from 14 kg/sir-day in February to 160 kg/sir-day in October 2002). Commercial species accounted for 41% of the catches. Catches from Failakah Island averaged 96 kg/sir-day from June to September, with 61% of the catch being commercial species. In the southern area, catches averaged only 32 kg/sir-day and only 34% were commercially important.
Forty percent of the hadrah catches were juveniles, which shows that Kuwait’s shallow intertidal waters, particularly in Kuwait Bay, served as prime nursery habitat,. To maintain ecosystem biodiversity and recruitment success of the fishes, we recommended that all hadrah should be removed from Kuwait Bay. In the future, removal of hadrah from other locations should be considered.
Keywords: Catch and effort, Hadrah, Intertidal Fixed stake net, Kuwait, Species composition.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2276906 Numerical Investigation of Electrohydrodynamics: Enhanced Heat Transfer in a Solid Sample
Authors: Suwimon Saneewong Na Ayuttaya
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This paper presents a numerical investigation of electrically driven flow for enhancing convective heat transfer in a channel flow. This study focuses on the electrode arrangements, number of electrode and electrical voltage on Electrohydrodynamics (EHD) and effect of airflow driven on solid sample surface. The inlet airflow and inlet temperature are 0.35 m/s and 60 oC, respectively. High electrical voltage is tested in the range of 0-30 kV and number of electrode is tested in the range of 1-5. The numerical results show that electric field intensity is depended on electrical voltage and number of electrode. Increasing number of electrodes is increased shear flow, so swirling flow is increased. The swirling flows from aligned and staggered arrangements are affecting within the solid sample. When electrical voltage is increased, temperature distribution and convective heat transfer on the solid sample are significantly increased due to the electric force much stronger.Keywords: Electrohydrodynamics, swirling flow, convective heat transfer, solid sample.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1090905 High Efficiency Electrolyte Lithium Battery and RF Characterization
Authors: Wei Quan, Liu Chao, Mohammed N. Afsar
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The dielectric properties and ionic conductivity of novel "ceramic state" polymer electrolytes for high capacity lithium battery are characterized by Radio frequency and Microwave methods in two broad frequency ranges from 50 Hz to 20 KHz and 4 GHz to 40 GHz. This innovative solid polymer electrolyte which is highly ionic conductive (10-3 S/cm at room temperature) from -40oC to +150oC can be used in any battery application. Such polymer exhibits properties more like a ceramic rather than polymer. The various applied measurement methods produced accurate dielectric results for comprehensive analysis of electrochemical properties and ion transportation mechanism of this newly invented polymer electrolyte. Two techniques and instruments employing air gap measurement by Capacitance Bridge and in-waveguide measurement by vector network analyzer are applied to measure the complex dielectric spectra. The complex dielectric spectra are used to determine the complex alternating current electrical conductivity and thus the ionic conductivity.
Keywords: Polymer electrolyte, dielectric permittivity, lithium battery, ionic relaxation, microwave measurement.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2427904 Estimating the Effect of Fluid in Pressing Process
Authors: A. Movaghar, R. A. Mahdavinejad
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To analyze the effect of various parameters of fluid on the material properties such as surface and depth defects and/or cracks, it is possible to determine the affection of pressure field on these specifications. Stress tensor analysis is also able to determine the points in which the probability of defection creation is more. Besides, from pressure field, it is possible to analyze the affection of various fluid specifications such as viscosity and density on defect created in the material. In this research, the concerned boundary conditions are analyzed first. Then the solution network and stencil used are mentioned. With the determination of relevant equation on the fluid flow between notch and matrix and their discretion according to the governed boundary conditions, these equations can be solved. Finally, with the variation creations on fluid parameters such as density and viscosity, the affection of these variations can be determined on pressure field. In this direction, the flowchart and solution algorithm with their results as vortex and current function contours for two conditions with most applications in pressing process are introduced and discussed.
Keywords: Pressing, notch, matrix, flow function, vortex.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 709903 Gene Network Analysis of PPAR-γ: A Bioinformatics Approach Using STRING
Authors: S. Bag, S. Ramaiah, P. Anitha, K. M. Kumar, P. Lavanya, V. Sivasakhthi, A. Anbarasu
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Gene networks present a graphical view at the level of gene activities and genetic functions and help us to understand complex interactions in a meaningful manner. In the present study, we have analyzed the gene interaction of PPAR-γ (peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor gamma) by search tool for retrieval of interacting genes. We find PPAR-γ is highly networked by genetic interactions with 10 genes: RXRA (retinoid X receptor, alpha), PPARGC1A (peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor gamma, coactivator 1 alpha), NCOA1 (nuclear receptor coactivator 1), NR0B2 (nuclear receptor subfamily 0, group B, member 2), HDAC3 (histone deacetylase 3), MED1 (mediator complex subunit 1), INS (insulin), NCOR2 (nuclear receptor co-repressor 2), PAX8 (paired box 8), ADIPOQ (adiponectin) and it augurs well for the fact that obesity and several other metabolic disorders are inter related.
Keywords: Gene networks, NCOA1, PPARγ, PPARGC1A, RXRA.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 4547902 Effective Relay Communication for Scalable Video Transmission
Authors: Jung Ah Park, Zhijie Zhao, Doug Young Suh, Joern Ostermann
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In this paper, we propose an effective relay communication for layered video transmission as an alternative to make the most of limited resources in a wireless communication network where loss often occurs. Relaying brings stable multimedia services to end clients, compared to multiple description coding (MDC). Also, retransmission of only parity data about one or more video layer using channel coder to the end client of the relay device is paramount to the robustness of the loss situation. Using these methods in resource-constrained environments, such as real-time user created content (UCC) with layered video transmission, can provide high-quality services even in a poor communication environment. Minimal services are also possible. The mathematical analysis shows that the proposed method reduced the probability of GOP loss rate compared to MDC and raptor code without relay. The GOP loss rate is about zero, while MDC and raptor code without relay have a GOP loss rate of 36% and 70% in case of 10% frame loss rate.Keywords: Relay communication, Multiple Description Coding, Scalable Video Coding
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1440901 Coerced Delay and Multi Additive Constraints QoS Routing Schemes
Authors: P.S. Prakash, S. Selvan
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IP networks are evolving from data communication infrastructure into many real-time applications such as video conferencing, IP telephony and require stringent Quality of Service (QoS) requirements. A rudimentary issue in QoS routing is to find a path between a source-destination pair that satisfies two or more endto- end constraints and termed to be NP hard or complete. In this context, we present an algorithm Multi Constraint Path Problem Version 3 (MCPv3), where all constraints are approximated and return a feasible path in much quicker time. We present another algorithm namely Delay Coerced Multi Constrained Routing (DCMCR) where coerce one constraint and approximate the remaining constraints. Our algorithm returns a feasible path, if exists, in polynomial time between a source-destination pair whose first weight satisfied by the first constraint and every other weight is bounded by remaining constraints by a predefined approximation factor (a). We present our experimental results with different topologies and network conditions.Keywords: Routing, Quality-of-Service (QoS), additive constraints, shortest path, delay coercion.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1307900 Survey of Curriculum Quality of Postgraduate Studies of Insurance Management Field Case: University of Allameh Taba Tabaee
Authors: F. Havas Beigi, E. Mohammadi, M.Vafaee Yeganeh
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Curriculum is one of the most important inputs in higher education system and for knowing the strong and weak spots of it we need evaluation. The main purpose of this study was to survey of the curriculum quality of Insurance Management field. Case: University of Allameh Taba Tabaee(according to view point of students,alumni,employer and faculty members).Descriptive statistics (mean, tables, percentages, frequency distribution) and inferential statistics (CHI SQUARE) were used to analyze the data. Six criterions considered for the Quality of curriculum: objectives, content, teaching and learning methods, space and facilities, Time, assessment of learning. objectives, teaching and learning methods criterions was desirable level, content criteria was undesirable level, space and facilities, time and assessment of learning were rather desirable level. The quality of curriculum of insurance management field was relatively desirable level.
Keywords: Quality, curriculum, insurance management, higher education.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1333899 Web 2.0 in Higher Education: The Instructors’ Acceptance in Higher Educational Institutes in Kingdom of Bahrain
Authors: Amal M. Alrayes, Hayat M. Ali
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Since the beginning of distance education with the rapid evolution of technology, the social network plays a vital role in the educational process to enforce the interaction been the learners and teachers. There are many Web 2.0 technologies, services and tools designed for educational purposes. This research aims to investigate instructors’ acceptance towards web-based learning systems in higher educational institutes in Kingdom of Bahrain. Questionnaire is used to investigate the instructors’ usage of Web 2.0 and the factors affecting their acceptance. The results confirm that instructors had high accessibility to such technologies. However, patterns of use were complex. Whilst most expressed interest in using online technologies to support learning activities, learners seemed cautious about other values associated with web-based system, such as the shared construction of knowledge in a public format. The research concludes that there are main factors that affect instructors’ adoption which are security, performance expectation, perceived benefits, subjective norm, and perceived usefulness.
Keywords: Web 2.0, Higher education, Acceptance, Students’ perception.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1311898 Knowledge Representation Based On Interval Type-2 CFCM Clustering
Authors: Myung-Won Lee, Keun-Chang Kwak
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This paper is concerned with knowledge representation and extraction of fuzzy if-then rules using Interval Type-2 Context-based Fuzzy C-Means clustering (IT2-CFCM) with the aid of fuzzy granulation. This proposed clustering algorithm is based on information granulation in the form of IT2 based Fuzzy C-Means (IT2-FCM) clustering and estimates the cluster centers by preserving the homogeneity between the clustered patterns from the IT2 contexts produced in the output space. Furthermore, we can obtain the automatic knowledge representation in the design of Radial Basis Function Networks (RBFN), Linguistic Model (LM), and Adaptive Neuro-Fuzzy Networks (ANFN) from the numerical input-output data pairs. We shall focus on a design of ANFN in this paper. The experimental results on an estimation problem of energy performance reveal that the proposed method showed a good knowledge representation and performance in comparison with the previous works.
Keywords: IT2-FCM, IT2-CFCM, context-based fuzzy clustering, adaptive neuro-fuzzy network, knowledge representation.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2621897 High Cycle Fatigue Analysis of a Lower Hopper Knuckle Connection of a Large Bulk Carrier under Dynamic Loading
Authors: Vaso K. Kapnopoulou, Piero Caridis
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The fatigue of ship structural details is of major concern in the maritime industry as it can generate fracture issues that may compromise structural integrity. In the present study, a fatigue analysis of the lower hopper knuckle connection of a bulk carrier was conducted using the Finite Element Method by means of ABAQUS/CAE software. The fatigue life was calculated using Miner’s Rule and the long-term distribution of stress range by the use of the two-parameter Weibull distribution. The cumulative damage ratio was estimated using the fatigue damage resulting from the stress range occurring at each load condition. For this purpose, a cargo hold model was first generated, which extends over the length of two holds (the mid-hold and half of each of the adjacent holds) and transversely over the full breadth of the hull girder. Following that, a submodel of the area of interest was extracted in order to calculate the hot spot stress of the connection and to estimate the fatigue life of the structural detail. Two hot spot locations were identified; one at the top layer of the inner bottom plate and one at the top layer of the hopper plate. The IACS Common Structural Rules (CSR) require that specific dynamic load cases for each loading condition are assessed. Following this, the dynamic load case that causes the highest stress range at each loading condition should be used in the fatigue analysis for the calculation of the cumulative fatigue damage ratio. Each load case has a different effect on ship hull response. Of main concern, when assessing the fatigue strength of the lower hopper knuckle connection, was the determination of the maximum, i.e. the critical value of the stress range, which acts in a direction normal to the weld toe line. This acts in the transverse direction, that is, perpendicularly to the ship's centerline axis. The load cases were explored both theoretically and numerically in order to establish the one that causes the highest damage to the location examined. The most severe one was identified to be the load case induced by beam sea condition where the encountered wave comes from the starboard. At the level of the cargo hold model, the model was assumed to be simply supported at its ends. A coarse mesh was generated in order to represent the overall stiffness of the structure. The elements employed were quadrilateral shell elements, each having four integration points. A linear elastic analysis was performed because linear elastic material behavior can be presumed, since only localized yielding is allowed by most design codes. At the submodel level, the displacements of the analysis of the cargo hold model to the outer region nodes of the submodel acted as boundary conditions and applied loading for the submodel. In order to calculate the hot spot stress at the hot spot locations, a very fine mesh zone was generated and used. The fatigue life of the detail was found to be 16.4 years which is lower than the design fatigue life of the structure (25 years), making this location vulnerable to fatigue fracture issues. Moreover, the loading conditions that induce the most damage to the location were found to be the various ballasting conditions.Keywords: Lower hopper knuckle, high cycle fatigue, finite element method, dynamic load cases.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1001896 Effects of Damper Locations and Base Isolators on Seismic Response of a Building Frame
Authors: Azin Shakibabarough, Mojtaba Valinejadshoubi, Ashutosh Bagchi
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Structural vibration means repetitive motion that causes fatigue and reduction of the performance of a structure. An earthquake may release high amount of energy that can have adverse effect on all components of a structure. Therefore, decreasing of vibration or maintaining performance of structures such as bridges, dams, roads and buildings is important for life safety and reducing economic loss. When earthquake or any vibration happens, investigation on parts of a structure which sustain the seismic loads is mandatory to provide a safe condition for the occupants. One of the solutions for reducing the earthquake vibration in a structure is using of vibration control devices such as dampers and base isolators. The objective of this study is to investigate the optimal positions of friction dampers and base isolators for better seismic response of 2D frame. For this purpose, a two bay and six story frame with different distribution formats was modeled and some of their responses to earthquake such as inter-story drift, max joint displacement, max axial force and max bending moment were determined and compared using non-linear dynamic analysis.
Keywords: Fast nonlinear analysis, friction damper, base isolator, seismic vibration control, seismic response.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1666895 Exploring the Behavior of Recreational Bicyclists: an Empirical Study in Danshuei and Bali, Northern Taiwan
Authors: Chih-Cheng Chen, Meng-Lung Lin, Yung-Tan Lee Tsun-I Hsiao, Yi-Cheng Chen
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The Taiwan government has invested approximately 21 billion NT dollars in the construction of bicycle paths since bicycling has gained huge popularity as a healthy leisure and recreational activity. This study focuses on the behavior of recreational bicyclists in Danshuei and Bali, northern Taiwan. Data were collected from a field investigation carried out along the Danshuei bicycle path and Bali left-bank bicycle path. A total of 578 questionnaires were gathered for data analysis. Descriptive statistics and Chi-Square tests were used to assess bicyclists- behaviors. The frequency shows that, in these areas, Danshuei and Bali, most bicyclists rented bicycles, rode the bicycle path in the afternoon for about 2 hours. The used the bicycle path one time per week. For most, it was the first time to ride these bicycle paths. There were significant differences in distribution of bicycle ownership, time of day, duration of ride, ride frequency, and whether riding occurred on weekdays or weekends. Results indicated that most bicyclists in Danshuei and Bali were infrequent users.Keywords: recreational bicyclist, bicyclist behaviors, NorthernTaiwan
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1531894 Effect of Volume Fraction of Fibre on the Mechanical Properties of Nanoclay Reinforced E-Glass-Epoxy Composites
Authors: K. Krushnamurty, D. Rasmitha, I. Srikanth, K. Ramji, Ch. Subrahmanyam
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E-glass-epoxy laminated composites having different fiber volume fractions (40, 50, 60 and 70) were fabricated with and without the addition of nanoclay. Flexural strength and tensile strength of the composite laminates were determined. It was observed that, with increasing the fiber volume fraction (Vf) of fiber from 40 to 60, the ability of nanoclay to enhance the tensile and flexural strength of E-glass-epoxy composites decreases significantly. At 70Vf, the tensile and flexural strength of the nanoclay reinforced E-glass-epoxy were found to be lowest when compared to the E-glass-epoxy composite made without the addition of nanoclay. Based on the obtained data and microstructure of the tested samples, plausible mechanism for the observed trends has been proposed. The enhanced mechanical properties for nanoclay reinforced E-glass-epoxy composites for 40-60 Vf, due to higher interface toughness coupled with strong interfilament bonding may have ensured the homogeneous load distribution across all the glass fibers. Results in the decrease in mechanical properties at 70Vf, may be due to the inability of the matrix to bind the nanoclay and glass-fibers.Keywords: E-glass-epoxy composite laminates, fiber volume fraction, e-glass fiber, mechanical properties, delamination.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2809893 Seismic Behavior of Steel Moment-Resisting Frames for Uplift Permitted in Near-Fault Regions
Authors: M. Tehranizadeh, E. Shoushtari Rezvani
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Seismic performance of steel moment-resisting frame structures is investigated considering nonlinear soil-structure interaction (SSI) effects. 10-, 15-, and 20-story planar building frames with aspect ratio of 3 are designed in accordance with current building codes. Inelastic seismic demands of the superstructure are considered using concentrated plasticity model. The raft foundation system is designed for different soil types. Beam-on-nonlinear Winkler foundation (BNWF) is used to represent dynamic impedance of the underlying soil. Two sets of pulse-like as well as no-pulse near-fault earthquakes are used as input ground motions. The results show that the reduction in drift demands due to nonlinear SSI is characterized by a more uniform distribution pattern along the height when compared to the fixed-base and linear SSI condition. It is also concluded that beneficial effects of nonlinear SSI on displacement demands is more significant in case of pulse-like ground motions and performance level of the steel moment-resisting frames can be enhanced.
Keywords: Soil-structure interaction, uplifting, soil plasticity, near-fault earthquake, tall building.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1141892 Experimental Study of Hyperparameter Tuning a Deep Learning Convolutional Recurrent Network for Text Classification
Authors: Bharatendra Rai
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Sequences of words in text data have long-term dependencies and are known to suffer from vanishing gradient problem when developing deep learning models. Although recurrent networks such as long short-term memory networks help overcome this problem, achieving high text classification performance is a challenging problem. Convolutional recurrent networks that combine advantages of long short-term memory networks and convolutional neural networks, can be useful for text classification performance improvements. However, arriving at suitable hyperparameter values for convolutional recurrent networks is still a challenging task where fitting of a model requires significant computing resources. This paper illustrates the advantages of using convolutional recurrent networks for text classification with the help of statistically planned computer experiments for hyperparameter tuning.
Keywords: Convolutional recurrent networks, hyperparameter tuning, long short-term memory networks, Tukey honest significant differences
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 126891 Blind Identification Channel Using Higher Order Cumulants with Application to Equalization for MC−CDMA System
Authors: Mohammed Zidane, Said Safi, Mohamed Sabri, Ahmed Boumezzough
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In this paper we propose an algorithm based on higher order cumulants, for blind impulse response identification of frequency radio channels and downlink (MC−CDMA) system Equalization. In order to test its efficiency, we have compared with another algorithm proposed in the literature, for that we considered on theoretical channel as the Proakis’s ‘B’ channel and practical frequency selective fading channel, called Broadband Radio Access Network (BRAN C), normalized for (MC−CDMA) systems, excited by non-Gaussian sequences. In the part of (MC−CDMA), we use the Minimum Mean Square Error (MMSE) equalizer after the channel identification to correct the channel’s distortion. The simulation results, in noisy environment and for different signal to noise ratio (SNR), are presented to illustrate the accuracy of the proposed algorithm.
Keywords: Blind identification and equalization, Higher Order Cumulants, (MC−CDMA) system, MMSE equalizer.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1782890 Magnetic End Leakage Flux in a Spoke Type Rotor Permanent Magnet Synchronous Generator
Authors: Petter Eklund, Jonathan Sjölund, Sandra Eriksson, Mats Leijon
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The spoke type rotor can be used to obtain magnetic flux concentration in permanent magnet machines. This allows the air gap magnetic flux density to exceed the remanent flux density of the permanent magnets but gives problems with leakage fluxes in the magnetic circuit. The end leakage flux of one spoke type permanent magnet rotor design is studied through measurements and finite element simulations. The measurements are performed in the end regions of a 12 kW prototype generator for a vertical axis wind turbine. The simulations are made using three dimensional finite elements to calculate the magnetic field distribution in the end regions of the machine. Also two dimensional finite element simulations are performed and the impact of the two dimensional approximation is studied. It is found that the magnetic leakage flux in the end regions of the machine is equal to about 20% of the flux in the permanent magnets. The overestimation of the performance by the two dimensional approximation is quantified and a curve-fitted expression for its behavior is suggested.Keywords: End effects, end leakage flux, permanent magnet machine, spoke type rotor.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1075889 Development of Impressive Tensile Properties of Hybrid Rolled Ta0.5Nb0.5Hf0.5ZrTi1.5 Refractory High Entropy Alloy
Authors: M. Veeresham
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The microstructure, texture, phase stability, and tensile properties of annealed Ta0.5Nb0.5Hf0.5ZrTi1.5 alloy have been investigated in the present research. The alloy was severely hybrid-rolled up to 93.5% thickness reduction, subsequently rolled samples subjected to an annealing treatment at 800 °C and 1000 °C temperatures for 1 h. Consequently, the rolled condition and both annealed temperatures have a body-centered cubic (BCC) structure. Furthermore, quantitative texture measurements (orientation distribution function (ODF) analysis) and microstructural examinations (analytical electron backscatter diffraction (EBSD) maps) permitted to establish a good relationship between annealing texture and microstructure and universal testing machine (UTM) utilized for obtaining the mechanical properties. Impressive room temperature tensile properties combination with the tensile strength (1380 MPa) and (24.7%) elongation is achieved for the 800 °C heat-treated condition. The evolution of the coarse microstructure featured in the case of 1000 °C annealed temperature ascribed to the influence of high thermal energy.
Keywords: Refractory high entropy alloys, hybrid-rolling, recrystallization, microstructure, tensile properties.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 686888 Enhancing Protein Incorporation in Calcium Phosphate Coating on Titanium by Rapid Biomimetic Co-Precipitation Technique
Authors: J. Suwanprateeb, F. Thammarakcharoen
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Calcium phosphate coating (CaP) has been employed for protein delivery, but the typical direct protein adsorption on the coating led to low incorporation content and fast release of the protein from the coating. By using bovine serum albumin (BSA) as a model protein, rapid biomimetic co-precipitation between calcium phosphate and BSA was employed to control the distribution of BSA within calcium phosphate coating during biomimetic formation on titanium surface for only 6 h at 50oC in an accelerated calcium phosphate solution. As a result, the amount of BSA incorporation and release duration could be increased by using a rapid biomimetic coprecipitation technique. Up to 43 fold increases in the BSA incorporation content and the increase from 6 h to more than 360 h in release duration compared to typical direct adsorption technique were observed depending on the initial BSA concentration used during coprecipitation (1, 10 and 100 μg.ml-1). From x-ray diffraction and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy studies, the coating composition was not altered with the incorporation of BSA by this rapid biomimetic co-precipitation and mainly comprised octacalcium phosphate and hydroxyapatite. However, the microstructure of calcium phosphate crystals changed from straight, plate-like units to curved, plate-like units with increasing BSA content.
Keywords: Biomimetic, Calcium Phosphate Coating, Protein, Titanium.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2379887 Design and Analysis of Annular Combustion Chamber for a Micro Turbojet Engine
Authors: Rashid Slaheldinn Elhaj Mohammed
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The design of high performance combustion chambers for turbojet engines is considered as one of the most challenges that face gas turbine designers, since the design approach depends on empirical correlations of data derived from the previous design experiences. The objective of this paper is to design a combustion chamber that suits the requirements of a micro-turbojet engine with 400 N output thrust and operates with kerosene as fuel. In this paper, only preliminary calculations related to the annular type of combustion chamber are explained in details. These calculations will cover the evaluation of reference quantities, calculation of required dimensions, calculation of air distribution and pressure drop, estimation of number and diameters for air admission holes, as well as aerodynamic considerations. The design process is then accompanied by analytical procedure using commercial CFD ANALYSIS tool; ANSYS 16 CFX software. After conducting CFD analysis, the design process will be then iterated in order to gain satisfactory results. It should be noted that the design of the fuel preparation and installation systems is beyond the scope of this work, and it will be discussed separately in another work.Keywords: Annular combustion chamber, micro-turbojet engine, CFD ANALYSIS, pressure drop.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2103886 Evolution of Fuzzy Neural Networks Using an Evolution Strategy with Fuzzy Genotype Values
Authors: Hidehiko Okada
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Evolution strategy (ES) is a well-known instance of evolutionary algorithms, and there have been many studies on ES. In this paper, the author proposes an extended ES for solving fuzzy-valued optimization problems. In the proposed ES, genotype values are not real numbers but fuzzy numbers. Evolutionary processes in the ES are extended so that it can handle genotype instances with fuzzy numbers. In this study, the proposed method is experimentally applied to the evolution of neural networks with fuzzy weights and biases. Results reveal that fuzzy neural networks evolved using the proposed ES with fuzzy genotype values can model hidden target fuzzy functions even though no training data are explicitly provided. Next, the proposed method is evaluated in terms of variations in specifying fuzzy numbers as genotype values. One of the mostly adopted fuzzy numbers is a symmetric triangular one that can be specified by its lower and upper bounds (LU) or its center and width (CW). Experimental results revealed that the LU model contributed better to the fuzzy ES than the CW model, which indicates that the LU model should be adopted in future applications of the proposed method.
Keywords: Evolutionary algorithm, evolution strategy, fuzzy number, feedforward neural network, neuroevolution.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1554885 Improving Location Management in Mobile IPv4 Networks
Authors: Haidar Safa, Hassan Artail, Ahmad Mehio, Hicham Zahr, Ziad Matragi
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The Mobile IP Standard has been developed to support mobility over the Internet. This standard contains several drawbacks as in the cases where packets are routed via sub-optimal paths and significant amount of signaling messages is generated due to the home registration procedure which keeps the network aware of the current location of the mobile nodes. Recently, a dynamic hierarchical mobility management strategy for mobile IP networks (DHMIP) has been proposed to reduce home registrations costs. However, this strategy induces a packet delivery delay and increases the risk of packet loss. In this paper, we propose an enhanced version of the dynamic hierarchical strategy that reduces the packet delivery delay and minimizes the risk of packet loss. Preliminary results obtained from simulations are promising. They show that the enhanced version outperforms the original dynamic hierarchical mobility management strategy version.
Keywords: Location management, Mobile IP (MIP), Home Agent, Foreign Agent.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1450884 The Roles of Community Based Telecenters in Bridging the Digital Divide in Rural Malaysia
Authors: Zulkefli bin Ibrahim, Ainin Sulaiman, Tengku M. Faziharudean
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Malaysia is aggressive in promoting the usage of ICT to its mass population through the support by the government policies and programs targeting the general population. However, with the uneven distribution of the basic telecommunication infrastructure between the urban and rural area, cost for being “interconnected" that is considered high among the poorer rural population and the lack of local contents that suit the rural population needs or lifestyles, it is still a challenge for Malaysia to achieve its Vision 2020 Agenda moving the nation towards an information society by the year 2020. Among the existing programs that have been carried out by the government to encourage the usage of ICT by the rural population is “Kedaikom", a community telecenter with the general aim is to engage the community to get exposed and to use the ICT, encouraging the diffusion of the ICT technology to the rural population. The research investigated by using a questionnaire survey of how Kedaikom, as a community telecenter could play a role in encouraging the rural or underserved community to use the ICT. The result from the survey has proven that the community telecenter could bridge the digital divide between the underserved rural population and the well-accessed urban population in Malaysia. More of the rural population, especially from the younger generation and those with higher educational background are using the community telecenter to be connected to the ICT.Keywords: Digital divide, ICT, telecenters.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2147883 Protein Graph Partitioning by Mutually Maximization of cycle-distributions
Authors: Frank Emmert Streib
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The classification of the protein structure is commonly not performed for the whole protein but for structural domains, i.e., compact functional units preserved during evolution. Hence, a first step to a protein structure classification is the separation of the protein into its domains. We approach the problem of protein domain identification by proposing a novel graph theoretical algorithm. We represent the protein structure as an undirected, unweighted and unlabeled graph which nodes correspond the secondary structure elements of the protein. This graph is call the protein graph. The domains are then identified as partitions of the graph corresponding to vertices sets obtained by the maximization of an objective function, which mutually maximizes the cycle distributions found in the partitions of the graph. Our algorithm does not utilize any other kind of information besides the cycle-distribution to find the partitions. If a partition is found, the algorithm is iteratively applied to each of the resulting subgraphs. As stop criterion, we calculate numerically a significance level which indicates the stability of the predicted partition against a random rewiring of the protein graph. Hence, our algorithm terminates automatically its iterative application. We present results for one and two domain proteins and compare our results with the manually assigned domains by the SCOP database and differences are discussed.Keywords: Graph partitioning, unweighted graph, protein domains.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1360882 Research Trends on Magnetic Graphene for Water Treatment: A Bibliometric Analysis
Authors: J. C. M. Santos, J. C. A. Sousa, A. J. Rubio, L. S. Soletti, F. Gasparotto, N. U. Yamaguchi
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Magnetic graphene has received widespread attention for their capability of water and wastewater treatment, which has been attracted many researchers in this field. A bibliometric analysis based on the Web of Science database was employed to analyze the global scientific outputs of magnetic graphene for water treatment until the present time (2012 to 2017), to improve the understanding of the research trends. The publication year, place of publication, institutes, funding agencies, journals, most cited articles, distribution outputs in thematic categories and applications were analyzed. Three major aspects analyzed including type of pollutant, treatment process and composite composition have further contributed to revealing the research trends. The most relevant research aspects of the main technologies using magnetic graphene for water treatment were summarized in this paper. The results showed that research on magnetic graphene for water treatment goes through a period of decline that might be related to a saturated field and a lack of bibliometric studies. Thus, the result of the present work will lead researchers to establish future directions in further studies using magnetic graphene for water treatment.
Keywords: Composite, graphene oxide, nanomaterials, scientometrics.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1204881 Spatial Disparity in Education and Medical Facilities: A Case Study of Barddhaman District, West Bengal, India
Authors: Amit Bhattacharyya
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The economic scenario of any region does not show the real picture for the measurement of overall development. Therefore, economic development must be accompanied by social development to be able to make an assessment to measure the level of development. The spatial variation with respect to social development has been discussed taking into account the quality of functioning of a social system in a specific area. In this paper, an attempt has been made to study the spatial distribution of social infrastructural facilities and analyze the magnitude of regional disparities at inter- block level in Barddhman district. It starts with the detailed account of the selection process of social infrastructure indicators and describes the methodology employed in the empirical analysis. Analyzing the block level data, this paper tries to identify the disparity among the blocks in the levels of social development. The results have been subsequently explained using both statistical analysis and geo spatial technique. The paper reveals that the social development is not going on at the same rate in every part of the district. Health facilities and educational facilities are concentrated at some selected point. So overall development activities come to be concentrated in a few centres and the disparity is seen over the blocks.
Keywords: Disparity, inter-block, social development, spatial variation.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 648880 Neuro-fuzzy Classification System for Wireless-Capsule Endoscopic Images
Authors: Vassilis S. Kodogiannis, John N. Lygouras
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In this research study, an intelligent detection system to support medical diagnosis and detection of abnormal lesions by processing endoscopic images is presented. The images used in this study have been obtained using the M2A Swallowable Imaging Capsule - a patented, video color-imaging disposable capsule. Schemes have been developed to extract texture features from the fuzzy texture spectra in the chromatic and achromatic domains for a selected region of interest from each color component histogram of endoscopic images. The implementation of an advanced fuzzy inference neural network which combines fuzzy systems and artificial neural networks and the concept of fusion of multiple classifiers dedicated to specific feature parameters have been also adopted in this paper. The achieved high detection accuracy of the proposed system has provided thus an indication that such intelligent schemes could be used as a supplementary diagnostic tool in endoscopy.Keywords: Medical imaging, Computer aided diagnosis, Endoscopy, Neuro-fuzzy networks, Fuzzy integral.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1758879 Wavelet-Based Data Compression Technique for Wireless Sensor Networks
Authors: P. Kumsawat, N. Pimpru, K. Attakitmongcol, A.Srikaew
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In this paper, we proposed an efficient data compression strategy exploiting the multi-resolution characteristic of the wavelet transform. We have developed a sensor node called “Smart Sensor Node; SSN". The main goals of the SSN design are lightweight, minimal power consumption, modular design and robust circuitry. The SSN is made up of four basic components which are a sensing unit, a processing unit, a transceiver unit and a power unit. FiOStd evaluation board is chosen as the main controller of the SSN for its low costs and high performance. The software coding of the implementation was done using Simulink model and MATLAB programming language. The experimental results show that the proposed data compression technique yields recover signal with good quality. This technique can be applied to compress the collected data to reduce the data communication as well as the energy consumption of the sensor and so the lifetime of sensor node can be extended.Keywords: Wireless sensor network, wavelet transform, data compression, ZigBee, skipped high-pass sub-band.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2992878 Using Knowledge Management for Creating Knowledge Society through e-Government Services in Montenegro
Authors: Tamara Djurickovic
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The waves of eGovernment are rising very fast through almost all public administration, or at least most of the public administrations around the world, and not only the public administration, but also the entire government and all of their organization as a whole. The government uses information technology, and above all the internet or web network, to facilitate the exchange of services between government agencies and citizens, businesses, employees and other non-governmental agencies. With efficient and transparent information exchange, the information becomes accessible to the society (citizens, business, employees etc.), and as a result of these processes the society itself becomes the information society or knowledge society. This paper discusses the knowledge management for eGovernment development in significance and role. Also, the paper reviews the role of virtual communities as a knowledge management mechanism to support eGovernment in Montenegro. It explores the need for knowledge management in eGovernment, identifies knowledge management technologies, and highlights the challenges for developing countries, such as Montenegro in the implementation of eGovernment. The paper suggests that knowledge management is needed to facilitate information exchange and transaction processing with citizens, as well as to enable creation of knowledge society.Keywords: information, eGovernment, knowledge management, knowledge society
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1560