Search results for: efficiency criteria for IS architecture

Authors: Simin Asadollahi, Mohammad Hossein Haddad Khodaparast

Abstract:

Molasses is one of the most important by-products in sugar industry, which contains a large amount of sucrose. The routine way to separate the sucrose from molasses is using steffen method. Whereas this method is very usual in sugar factories, the aim of this research is optimization of this method. Mentioned optimization depends to three factors of reactor alkality, reactor temperature and diluted molasses brix. Accordingly, three different stages must be done:

1. Construction of a pilot plant similar to actual steffen system in sugar factories
2. Experimenting using the pilot plant
3. Laboratory analysis

These experiences included 27 treatments in three replications. In each replication, brix, polarization and purity characters in Saccharate syrup and hot and cold waste were measured. The results showed that diluted molasses brix, reactor alkality and reactor temperature had many significant effects on Saccharate purity and efficiency of molasses desugarization. This research was performed in "randomize complete design" form & was analyzed with "duncan multiple range test". The significant difference in the level of α = 5% is observed between the treatments. The results indicated that the optimal conditions for molasses desugarization by steffen method are: diluted molasses brix= 10, reactor alkality= 10 and reactor temperature=8˚C. 

Keywords: Molasses desugarization, Saccharate purity, Steffen process.

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Authors: A. El-S. Makled, M. K. Al-Tamimi

Abstract:

A mathematical model to predict the performance parameters (thrusts, chamber pressures, fuel mass flow rates, mixture ratios, and regression rates during firing time) of hybrid rocket motor (HRM) is evaluated. The internal ballistic (IB) hybrid combustion model assumes that the solid fuel surface regression rate is controlled only by heat transfer (convective and radiative) from flame zone to solid fuel burning surface. A laboratory HRM is designed, manufactured, and tested for low thrust profile space missions (10-15 N) and for validating the mathematical model (computer program). The polymer material and gaseous oxidizer which are selected for this experimental work are polymethyle-methacrylate (PMMA) and polyethylene (PE) as solid fuel grain and gaseous oxygen (GO₂) as oxidizer. The variation of various operational parameters with time is determined systematically and experimentally in firing of up to 20 seconds, and an average combustion efficiency of 95% of theory is achieved, which was the goal of these experiments. The comparison between recording fire data and predicting analytical parameters shows good agreement with the error that does not exceed 4.5% during all firing time. The current mathematical (computer) code can be used as a powerful tool for HRM analytical design parameters.

Keywords: Hybrid combustion, internal ballistics, hybrid rocket motor, performance parameters.

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Authors: Min Kyung An

Abstract:

In Wireless Sensor Networks which consist of tiny wireless sensor nodes with limited battery power, one of the most fundamental applications is data aggregation which collects nearby environmental conditions and aggregates the data to a designated destination, called a sink node. Important issues concerning the data aggregation are time efficiency and energy consumption due to its limited energy, and therefore, the related problem, named Minimum Latency Aggregation Scheduling (MLAS), has been the focus of many researchers. Its objective is to compute the minimum latency schedule, that is, to compute a schedule with the minimum number of timeslots, such that the sink node can receive the aggregated data from all the other nodes without any collision or interference. For the problem, the two interference models, the graph model and the more realistic physical interference model known as Signal-to-Interference-Noise-Ratio (SINR), have been adopted with different power models, uniform-power and non-uniform power (with power control or without power control), and different antenna models, omni-directional antenna and directional antenna models. In this survey article, as the problem has proven to be NP-hard, we present and compare several state-of-the-art approximation algorithms in various models on the basis of latency as its performance measure.

Keywords: Data aggregation, convergecast, gathering, approximation, interference, omni-directional, directional.

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Authors: M. K. Bhuyan

Abstract:

The use of human hand as a natural interface for humancomputer interaction (HCI) serves as the motivation for research in hand gesture recognition. Vision-based hand gesture recognition involves visual analysis of hand shape, position and/or movement. In this paper, we use the concept of object-based video abstraction for segmenting the frames into video object planes (VOPs), as used in MPEG-4, with each VOP corresponding to one semantically meaningful hand position. Next, the key VOPs are selected on the basis of the amount of change in hand shape – for a given key frame in the sequence the next key frame is the one in which the hand changes its shape significantly. Thus, an entire video clip is transformed into a small number of representative frames that are sufficient to represent a gesture sequence. Subsequently, we model a particular gesture as a sequence of key frames each bearing information about its duration. These constitute a finite state machine. For recognition, the states of the incoming gesture sequence are matched with the states of all different FSMs contained in the database of gesture vocabulary. The core idea of our proposed representation is that redundant frames of the gesture video sequence bear only the temporal information of a gesture and hence discarded for computational efficiency. Experimental results obtained demonstrate the effectiveness of our proposed scheme for key frame extraction, subsequent gesture summarization and finally gesture recognition.

Keywords: Hand gesture, MPEG-4, Hausdorff distance, finite state machine.

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Authors: Dawei Wang, Rujing Wang, Ying Li, Baozi Wei

Abstract:

FAQ system can make user find answer to the problem that puzzles them. But now the research on Chinese FAQ system is still on the theoretical stage. This paper presents an approach to semantic inference for FAQ mining. To enhance the efficiency, a small pool of the candidate question-answering pairs retrieved from the system for the follow-up work according to the concept of the agriculture domain extracted from user input .Input queries or questions are converted into four parts, the question word segment (QWS), the verb segment (VS), the concept of agricultural areas segment (CS), the auxiliary segment (AS). A semantic matching method is presented to estimate the similarity between the semantic segments of the query and the questions in the pool of the candidate. A thesaurus constructed from the HowNet, a Chinese knowledge base, is adopted for word similarity measure in the matcher. The questions are classified into eleven intension categories using predefined question stemming keywords. For FAQ mining, given a query, the question part and answer part in an FAQ question-answer pair is matched with the input query, respectively. Finally, the probabilities estimated from these two parts are integrated and used to choose the most likely answer for the input query. These approaches are experimented on an agriculture FAQ system. Experimental results indicate that the proposed approach outperformed the FAQ-Finder system in agriculture FAQ retrieval.

Keywords: FAQ, Semantic Inference, Ontology.

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Authors: Madhuri Bhavsar, Anupam K Singh, Shrikant Pradhan

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Long term rainfall analysis and prediction is a challenging task especially in the modern world where the impact of global warming is creating complications in environmental issues. These factors which are data intensive require high performance computational modeling for accurate prediction. This research paper describes a prototype which is designed and developed on grid environment using a number of coupled software infrastructural building blocks. This grid enabled system provides the demanding computational power, efficiency, resources, user-friendly interface, secured job submission and high throughput. The results obtained using sequential execution and grid enabled execution shows that computational performance has enhanced among 36% to 75%, for decade of climate parameters. Large variation in performance can be attributed to varying degree of computational resources available for job execution. Grid Computing enables the dynamic runtime selection, sharing and aggregation of distributed and autonomous resources which plays an important role not only in business, but also in scientific implications and social surroundings. This research paper attempts to explore the grid enabled computing capabilities on weather indices from HOAPS data for climate impact modeling and change detection.

Keywords: Climate model, Computational Grid, GridApplication, Heterogeneous Grid

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Authors: Justyna Rybicka, Ashutosh Tiwari, Shane Enticott

Abstract:

In the age of automation and computation aiding manufacturing, it is clear that manufacturing systems have become more complex than ever before. Although technological advances provide the capability to gain more value with fewer resources, sometimes utilisation of the manufacturing capabilities available to organisations is difficult to achieve. Flexible manufacturing systems (FMS) provide a unique capability to manufacturing organisations where there is a need for product range diversification by providing line efficiency through production flexibility. This is very valuable in trend driven production set-ups or niche volume production requirements. Although FMS provides flexible and efficient facilities, its optimal set-up is key in achieving production performance. As many variables are interlinked due to the flexibility provided by the FMS, analytical calculations are not always sufficient to predict the FMS’ performance. Simulation modelling is capable of capturing the complexity and constraints associated with FMS. This paper demonstrates how discrete event simulation (DES) can address complexity in an FMS to optimise the production line performance. A case study of an automotive FMS is presented. The DES model demonstrates different configuration options depending on prioritising objectives: utilisation and throughput. Additionally, this paper provides insight into understanding the impact of system set-up constraints on the FMS performance and demonstrates the exploration into the optimal production set-up.

Keywords: Automotive, capacity performance, discrete event simulation, flexible manufacturing system.

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Authors: M. Ezkurra, J. A. Esnaola, M. Martinez-Agirre, U. Etxeberria, U. Lertxundi, L. Colomo, M. Begiristain, I. Zurutuza

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Butterfly valves are widely used industrial piping components as on-off and flow controlling devices. The main challenge in the design process of this type of valves is the correct dimensioning to ensure proper mechanical performance as well as to minimise flow losses that affect the efficiency of the system. Butterfly valves are typically dimensioned in a closed position based on mechanical approaches considering uniform hydrostatic pressure, whereas the flow losses are analysed by means of CFD simulations. The main limitation of these approaches is that they do not consider either the influence of the dynamics of the manoeuvring stage or coupled phenomena. Recent works have included the influence of the flow on the mechanical behaviour for different opening angles by means of one-way FSI approach. However, these works consider steady-state flow for the selected angles, not capturing the effect of the transient flow evolution during the manoeuvring stage. Two-way FSI modelling approach could allow overcoming such limitations providing more accurate results. Nevertheless, the use of this technique is limited due to the increase in the computational cost. In the present work, the applicability of FSI one-way and two-way approaches is evaluated for the analysis of butterfly valves, showing that not considering fluid-structure coupling involves not capturing the most critical situation for the valve disc.

Keywords: Butterfly valves, fluid-structure interaction, one-way approach, two-way approach.

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Authors: Petra Wächter

Abstract:

A comprehensive discussion of feasible strategies for sustainable energy supply is urgently needed to achieve a turnaround of the current energy situation. The necessary fundamentals required for the development of a long term energy vision are lacking to a great extent due to the absence of reasonable long term scenarios that fulfill the requirements of climate protection and sustainable energy use. The contribution of the study is based on a search for sustainable energy paths in the long run for Austria. The analysis makes use of secondary data predominantly. The measures developed to avoid CO2 emissions and other ecological risk factors vary to a great extent among all economic sectors. This is shown by the calculation of CO2 cost of abatement curves. In this study it is demonstrated that the most effective technical measures with the lowest CO2 abatement costs yield solutions to the current energy problems. Various scenarios are presented concerning the question how the technological and environmental options for a sustainable energy system for Austria could look like in the long run. It is shown how sustainable energy can be supplied even with today-s technological knowledge and options available. The scenarios developed include an evaluation of the economic costs and ecological impacts. The results are not only applicable to Austria but demonstrate feasible and cost efficient ways towards a sustainable future.

Keywords: Cost of CO2 Abatement, Energy Economics, Energy Efficiency, Renewable Energy Technologies, Sustainable Energy and Development.

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Authors: A. G. Pradeep, Gorantla Giridhar Kumar, Vijay Turaga, Vinod Srinivasa

Abstract:

The major problem in the flow control valve is of lower Flow Capacity (Cv) which will reduce overall efficiency of flow circuit. Designers are continuously working to improve the Cv of the valve, but they need to validate the design ideas they have regarding the improvement of Cv. Traditional method of prototype and testing take a lot of time, that is where CFD comes into picture with very quick and accurate validation along with the visualization which is not possible with traditional testing method. We have developed a method to predict Cv value using CFD analysis by iterating on various Boundary conditions, solver settings and by carrying out grid convergence studies to establish correlation between the CFD model and Test data. The present study investigates 3 different ideas put forward by the designers for improving the flow capacity of the valves like reducing the cage thickness, changing the port position, and using the parabolic plug to guide the flow. Using CFD, we analyzed all design changes using the established methodology that we developed. We were able to evaluate the effect of these design changes on the Valve Cv. We optimized the wetted surface of the valve further by suggesting the design modification to the lower part of the valve to make the flow more streamlined. We could find that changing cage thickness and port position has little impact on the valve Cv. Combination of optimized wetted surface and introduction of parabolic plug improved the Cv of the valve significantly.

Keywords: Flow control valves, flow capacity, CFD simulations, design validation.

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Authors: Jagadish H. Pujar

Abstract:

Fuzzy Load forecasting plays a paramount role in the operation and management of power systems. Accurate estimation of future power demands for various lead times facilitates the task of generating power reliably and economically. The forecasting of future loads for a relatively large lead time (months to few years) is studied here (long term load forecasting). Among the various techniques used in forecasting load, artificial intelligence techniques provide greater accuracy to the forecasts as compared to conventional techniques. Fuzzy Logic, a very robust artificial intelligent technique, is described in this paper to forecast load on long term basis. The paper gives a general algorithm to forecast long term load. The algorithm is an Extension of Short term load forecasting method to Long term load forecasting and concentrates not only on the forecast values of load but also on the errors incorporated into the forecast. Hence, by correcting the errors in the forecast, forecasts with very high accuracy have been achieved. The algorithm, in the paper, is demonstrated with the help of data collected for residential sector (LT2 (a) type load: Domestic consumers). Load, is determined for three consecutive years (from April-06 to March-09) in order to demonstrate the efficiency of the algorithm and to forecast for the next two years (from April-09 to March-11).

Keywords: Fuzzy Logic Control (FLC), Data DependantFactors(DDF), Model Dependent Factors(MDF), StatisticalError(SE), Short Term Load Forecasting (STLF), MiscellaneousError(ME).

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Authors: M. S. Sivagamasundari, P. Melba Mary

Abstract:

Multilevel inverter is a promising inverter topology for high voltage and high power applications. This inverter synthesizes several different levels of DC voltages to produce a stepped AC output that approaches the pure sine waveform. The three different topologies, diode-clamped inverter, capacitor-clamped inverter and cascaded h-bridge multilevel inverter are widely used in these multilevel inverters. Among the three topologies, cascaded h-bridge multilevel inverter is more suitable for photovoltaic applications since each PV array can act as a separate dc source for each h-bridge module. This research especially focus on photovoltaic power source as input to the system and shows the potential of a Single Phase Cascaded H-bridge Eleven level inverter governed by the fuzzy logic controller to improve the power quality by reducing the total harmonic distortion at the output voltage. Hence the efficiency of the system will be improved. Simulation using MATLAB/SIMULINK has been done to verify the performance of cascaded h-bridge eleven level inverter using sinusoidal pulse width modulation technique. The simulated output shows very favorable result.

Keywords: Multilevel inverter, Cascaded H-Bridge multilevel inverter, Total Harmonic Distortion, Photovoltaic cell, Sinusoidal pulse width modulation.

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Authors: Zehai Yu, Hui Zhu, Linglong Lin, Huawei Liang, Biao Yu, Weixin Huang

Abstract:

With the development of intelligent vehicle systems, a high-precision road map is increasingly needed in many aspects. The automatic lane lines extraction and modeling are the most essential steps for the generation of a precise lane-level road map. In this paper, an automatic lane-level road map generation system is proposed. To extract the road markings on the ground, the multi-region Otsu thresholding method is applied, which calculates the intensity value of laser data that maximizes the variance between background and road markings. The extracted road marking points are then projected to the raster image and clustered using a two-stage clustering algorithm. Lane lines are subsequently recognized from these clusters by the shape features of their minimum bounding rectangle. To ensure the storage efficiency of the map, the lane lines are approximated to cubic polynomial curves using a Bayesian estimation approach. The proposed lane-level road map generation system has been tested on urban and expressway conditions in Hefei, China. The experimental results on the datasets show that our method can achieve excellent extraction and clustering effect, and the fitted lines can reach a high position accuracy with an error of less than 10 cm.

Keywords: Curve fitting, lane-level road map, line recognition, multi-thresholding, two-stage clustering.

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Authors: Nidhi Chouhan

Abstract:

Burgeoning demand of ‘Secularism’ has shaken the pillars of cultural studies in the contemporary literature. The perplexity of the culturally estranged term ‘secular’ gives rise to temporal ideologies across the world. Hence, it is high time to scan this concept in the context of Indian lifestyle which is a blend of assimilated cultures woven in multiple religious fabrics. The infliction of such secular taste is depicted in literary productions like ‘Satanic Verses’ and ‘An Area of Darkness’. The paper conceptually makes a cross-cultural analysis of anti-religious Indian literary texts, assessing its revitalization in current times. Further, this paper studies the increasing popularity of secular sensibility in the contemporary times. The mushrooming elements of secularism such as abstraction, spirituality, liberation, individualism give rise to a seemingly newer idea i.e. ‘Plurality’ making the literature highly hybrid. This approach has been used to study Indian modernity reflected in its literature. Seminal works of stalwarts are used to understand the consequence of this cultural synthesis. Conclusively, this theoretical research inspects the efficiency of secular culture, intertwined with internal coherence and throws light on the plurality of texts in Indian literature.

Keywords: Culture, Indian, literature, plurality, religion, secular, secularism.

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Authors: Gürcan D. Baysal, Ali Tanış

Abstract:

In this study, samples of plant types including rose hip (Rosa canina L.), jujube (Ziziphus jujube), sea buckthorn (Hippophae rhamnoides), elderberry (Sambucus nigra), apricot (Prunus armeniaca), scots pine (Pinus sylvestris), and cedar of Lebanon (Cedrus libani) were grown using plant supporting units called Ekobox and drip irrigation systems in the Karapınar, Konya region of Turkey to reveal the efficiency of Ekobox and drip irrigation compared against a control with no irrigation. The plant diameter, height, and survival rates were determined, compared with each other, and statistically analyzed. According to the statistical analysis of the results, Ekobox applications resulted in the highest values for survival rate, diameter, and height measurements whereas the lowest values were determined in the control groups. These results indicate that the cultivation of plants with Ekobox may help protect against the loss of fertile soils as an effective mechanism for combating erosion and desertification. These advantages may also lead to a lasting economic effect on the cultivation of plants by locals of the Karapınar, Konya province who suffer from an ever-decreasing underground water level as a result of agricultural consumption.

Keywords: Drip irrigation, Ekobox, plant diameter, plant height, plant survival rate.

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Authors: Heba Mohammed Nagy, Walid Mohamed Aly, Osama Fathy Hegazy

Abstract:

Educational  data mining  is  a  specific  data   mining field applied to data originating from educational environments, it relies on different  approaches to discover hidden knowledge  from  the  available   data. Among these approaches are   machine   learning techniques which are used to build a system that acquires learning from previous data. Machine learning can be applied to solve different regression, classification, clustering and optimization problems.

In  our  research, we propose  a “Student  Advisory  Framework” that  utilizes  classification  and  clustering  to  build  an  intelligent system. This system can be used to provide pieces of consultations to a first year  university  student to  pursue a  certain   education   track   where  he/she  will  likely  succeed  in, aiming  to  decrease   the  high  rate   of  academic  failure   among these  students.  A real case study  in Cairo  Higher  Institute  for Engineering, Computer  Science  and  Management  is  presented using  real  dataset   collected  from  2000−2012.The dataset has two main components: pre-higher education dataset and first year courses results dataset. Results have proved the efficiency of the suggested framework.

Keywords: Classification, Clustering, Educational Data Mining (EDM), Machine Learning.

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Authors: Fouad Salha , X. Guillaud

Abstract:

Directional over current relays (DOCR) are commonly used in power system protection as a primary protection in distribution and sub-transmission electrical systems and as a secondary protection in transmission systems. Coordination of protective relays is necessary to obtain selective tripping. In this paper, an approach for efficiency reduction of DOCRs nonlinear optimum coordination (OC) is proposed. This was achieved by modifying the objective function and relaxing several constraints depending on the four constraints classification, non-valid, redundant, pre-obtained and valid constraints. According to this classification, the far end fault effect on the objective function and constraints, and in consequently on relay operating time, was studied. The study was carried out, firstly by taking into account the near-end and far-end faults in DOCRs coordination problem formulation; and then faults very close to the primary relays (nearend faults). The optimal coordination (OC) was achieved by simultaneously optimizing all variables (TDS and Ip) in nonlinear environment by using of Genetic algorithm nonlinear programming techniques. The results application of the above two approaches on 6-bus and 26-bus system verify that the far-end faults consideration on OC problem formulation don-t lose the optimality.

Keywords: Backup/Primary relay, Coordination time interval (CTI), directional over current relays, Genetic algorithm, time dial setting (TDS), pickup current setting (Ip), nonlinear programming.

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Authors: R. Bourziza, W. El Khoumsi, I. Mghabbar, I. Rahou

Abstract:

The flood-risk zones called Merjas are lowlands that are flooded during the rainy season. Indeed, these depressed areas were reclaimed to dry them out in order to exploit their agricultural potential. Thus, farmers were able to start exploiting these drained lands. As the development of modern agriculture in Morocco progressed, farmers began to practice irrigated agriculture. In a context of vulnerability to floods and the need for optimal exploitation of the agricultural potential of the flood-risk zones, the question of how farmers are adapting to this context and the degree of exploitation of this potential arises. It is in these circumstances that this work was initiated, aiming at the characterization of irrigation practices in the flood-risk zones of the Ghareb lowland (Morocco). This characterization is based on two main axes: the characterization of irrigation techniques used, as well as the management of irrigation in these areas. In order to achieve our objective, two complementary approaches have been adopted; the first one is based on interviews with administrative agents and on farmer surveys, and the second one is based on field measurements of a few parameters, such as flow rate, pressure, uniformity coefficient of drippers and salinity. The results of this work led to conclude that the choice of the practiced crop (crop resistant to excess water in winter and vegetable crops during other seasons) and the availability and nature of water resources are the main criteria that determine the choice of the irrigation system. Even if irrigation management is imprecise, farmers are able to achieve agricultural yields that are comparable to those recorded in the entire irrigated perimeter. However, agricultural yields in these areas are still threatened by climate change, since these areas play the role of water retaining basins during floods by protecting the downstream areas, which can also damage the crops there instilled during the autumn. This work has also noted that the predominance of private pumping in flood-risk zones in the coastal zone creates a risk of marine intrusion, which risks endangering the groundwater table. Thus, this work enabled us to understand the functioning and the adaptation measures of these vulnerable zones for the sustainability of the Merjas and a better valorization of these marginalized lowlands.

Keywords: Flood-risk zones, irrigation practices, climate change, adaptation measures.

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Authors: Alan Luo, Hunter N. B. Moseley

Abstract:

Many macromolecular structure entries in the Protein Data Bank (PDB) have a range of regional (localized) quality issues, be it derived from X-ray crystallography, Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) spectroscopy, or other experimental approaches. However, most PDB entries are judged by global quality metrics like R-factor, R-free, and resolution for X-ray crystallography or backbone phi-psi distribution statistics and average restraint violations for NMR. Regional quality is often ignored when PDB entries are re-used for a variety of structurally based analyses. The binding of ligands, especially ligands involved in energy metabolism, is of particular interest in many structurally focused protein studies. Using a regional quality metric that provides chemically interpretable information from electron density maps, a significant number of outliers in regional structural quality was detected across X-ray crystallographic PDB entries for proteins bound to biochemically critical ligands. In this study, a series of analyses was performed to evaluate both specific and general potential factors that could promote these outliers. In particular, these potential factors were the minimum distance to a metal ion, the minimum distance to a crystal contact, and the isotropic atomic b-factor. To evaluate these potential factors, Fisher’s exact tests were performed, using regional quality criteria of outlier (top 1%, 2.5%, 5%, or 10%) versus non-outlier compared to a potential factor metric above versus below a certain outlier cutoff. The results revealed a consistent general effect from region-specific normalized b-factors but no specific effect from metal ion contact distances and only a very weak effect from crystal contact distance as compared to the b-factor results. These findings indicate that no single specific potential factor explains a majority of the outlier ligand-bound regions, implying that human error is likely as important as these other factors. Thus, all factors, including human error, should be considered when regions of low structural quality are detected. Also, the downstream re-use of protein structures for studying ligand-bound conformations should screen the regional quality of the binding sites. Doing so prevents misinterpretation due to the presence of structural uncertainty or flaws in regions of interest.

Keywords: Biomacromolecular structure, coenzyme, electron density discrepancy analysis, X-ray crystallography.

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Authors: A. Elyousfi, A. Tamtaoui, E. Bouyakhf

Abstract:

The H.264/AVC video coding standard contains a number of advanced features. Ones of the new features introduced in this standard is the multiple intramode prediction. Its function exploits directional spatial correlation with adjacent block for intra prediction. With this new features, intra coding of H.264/AVC offers a considerably higher improvement in coding efficiency compared to other compression standard, but computational complexity is increased significantly when brut force rate distortion optimization (RDO) algorithm is used. In this paper, we propose a new fast intra prediction mode decision method for the complexity reduction of H.264 video coding. for luma intra prediction, the proposed method consists of two step: in the first step, we make the RDO for four mode of intra 4x4 block, based the distribution of RDO cost of those modes and the idea that the fort correlation with adjacent mode, we select the best mode of intra 4x4 block. In the second step, we based the fact that the dominating direction of a smaller block is similar to that of bigger block, the candidate modes of 8x8 blocks and 16x16 macroblocks are determined. So, in case of chroma intra prediction, the variance of the chroma pixel values is much smaller than that of luma ones, since our proposed uses only the mode DC. Experimental results show that the new fast intra mode decision algorithm increases the speed of intra coding significantly with negligible loss of PSNR.

Keywords: Intra prediction, H264/AVC, video coding, encodercomplexity.

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Authors: K. Kalaikumar, E. Baburaj

Abstract:

One of the problems to be addressed in wireless sensor networks is the issues related to cross layer communication. Cross layer architecture shares the information across the layer, ensuring Quality of Services (QoS). With this shared information, MAC protocol adapts effective functionality maintenance such as route selection on changeable sensor network environment. However, time slot assignment and neighbour route selection time duration for cross layer have not been carried out. The time varying physical layer communication over cross layer causes high traffic load in the sensor network. Though, the traffic load was reduced using cross layer optimization procedure, the computational cost is high. To improve communication efficacy in the sensor network, a self-determined time slot based Cross-Layered Neighbour Route Discovery (C-LNRD) method is presented in this paper. In the presented work, the initial process is to discover the route in the sensor network using Dynamic Source Routing based Medium Access Control (MAC) sub layers. This process considers MAC layer operation with dynamic route neighbour table discovery. Then, the discovered route path for packet communication employs Broad Route Distributed Time Slot Assignment method on Cross-Layered Sensor Network system. Broad Route means time slotting on varying length of the route paths. During packet communication in this sensor network, transmission of packets is adjusted over the different time with varying ranges for controlling the traffic rate. Finally, Rayleigh fading model is developed in C-LNRD to identify the performance of the sensor network communication structure. The main task of Rayleigh Fading is to measure the power level of each communication under MAC sub layer. The minimized power level helps to easily reduce the computational cost of packet communication in the sensor network. Experiments are conducted on factors such as power factor, on packet communication, neighbour route discovery time, and information (i.e., packet) propagation speed.

Keywords: Medium access control, neighbour route discovery, wireless sensor network, Rayleigh fading, distributed time slot assignment

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Authors: Ujjwala Bhand, Mridula Goel

Abstract:

Global Competitiveness Index (GCI) prepared by World Economic Forum has become a benchmark in studying the competitiveness of countries and for understanding the factors that enable competitiveness. Innovation is a key pillar in competitiveness and has the unique property of enabling exponential economic growth. This paper attempts to analyze how the pillars comprising the Global Competitiveness Index affect innovation and whether GDP growth can directly affect innovation outcomes for a country. The key objective of the study is to identify areas on which governments of developing countries can focus policies and programs to improve their country’s innovativeness. We have compiled a panel data set for top innovating countries and large emerging economies called BRICS from 2007-08 to 2014-15 in order to find the significant factors that affect innovation. The results of the regression analysis suggest that government should make policies to improve labor market efficiency, establish sophisticated business networks, provide basic health and primary education to its people and strengthen the quality of higher education and training services in the economy. The achievements of smaller economies on innovation suggest that concerted efforts by governments can counter any size related disadvantage, and in fact can provide greater flexibility and speed in encouraging innovation.

Keywords: Innovation, Global Competitiveness Index, BRICS, economic growth.

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Authors: Lida Haghnegahdar, Ezzatollah Asgharizadeh

Abstract:

Value engineering is an efficacious contraption for administrators to make up their minds. Value perusals proffer the gaffers a suitable instrument to decrease the expenditures of the life span, quality amelioration, structural improvement, curtailment of the construction schedule, longevity prolongation or a merging of the aforementioned cases. Subjecting organizers to pressures on one hand and their accountability towards their pertinent fields together with inherent risks and ambiguities of other options on the other hand set some comptrollers in a dilemma utilization of risk management and the value engineering in projects manipulation with regard to complexities of implementing projects can be wielded as a contraption to identify and efface each item which wreaks unnecessary expenses and time squandering sans inflicting any damages upon the essential project applications. Of course It should be noted that implementation of risk management and value engineering with regard to the betterment of efficiency and functions may lead to the project implementation timing elongation. Here time revamping does not refer to time diminishing in the whole cases. his article deals with risk and value engineering conceptualizations at first. The germane reverberations effectuated due to its execution in Iran Khodro Corporation are regarded together with the joint features and amalgamation of the aforesaid entia; hence the proposed blueprint is submitted to be taken advantage of in engineering and industrial projects including Iran Khodro Corporation.

Keywords: Management, risk engineering, value engineering, project manipulation, Iran Khodro.

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Authors: I. Sarenkova, I. Ciprovica, I. Cinkmanis

Abstract:

Lactobionic acid is a disaccharide formed from gluconic acid and galactose, and produced by oxidation of lactose. Productivity of lactobionic acid by microbial synthesis can be affected by various factors, and one of them is a presence of potassium, magnesium and manganese ions. In order to extend lactobionic acid production efficiency, it is necessary to increase the yield of lactobionic acid by optimising the fermentation conditions and available substrates for Pseudomonas taetrolens growth. The object of the research was to determinate the application of K₂HPO₄, MnSO₄, MgSO₄ × 7H₂O salts in different concentration for effective lactose oxidation to lactobionic acid by Pseudomonas taetrolens. Pseudomonas taetrolens NCIB 9396 (NCTC, England) and Pseudomonas taetrolens DSM 21104 (DSMZ, Germany) were used for the study. The acid whey was used as the study object. The content of lactose in whey samples was determined using MilcoScan^TM Mars (Foss, Denmark) and high performance liquid chromatography (Shimadzu LC 20 Prominence, Japan). The content of lactobionic acid in whey samples was determined using the high performance liquid chromatography. The impact of studied salts differs, Mn²⁺ and Mg²⁺ ions enhanced fermentation instead of K⁺ ions. Results approved that Mn²⁺ and Mg²⁺ ions are necessary for Pseudomonas taetrolens growth. The study results will help to improve the effectiveness of lactobionic acid production with Pseudomonas taetrolens NCIB 9396 and DSM 21104.

Keywords: lactobionic acid, lactose oxidation, Pseudomonas taetrolens, whey.

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Authors: Wayan F. Mahmudy, Romeo M. Marian, Lee H. S. Luong

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 This paper deals with modeling and optimization of two NP-hard problems in production planning of flexible manufacturing system (FMS), part type selection problem and loading problem. The part type selection problem and the loading problem are strongly related and heavily influence the system’s efficiency and productivity. These problems have been modeled and solved simultaneously by using real coded genetic algorithms (RCGA) which uses an array of real numbers as chromosome representation. The novel proposed chromosome representation produces only feasible solutions which minimize a computational time needed by GA to push its population toward feasible search space or repair infeasible chromosomes. The proposed RCGA improves the FMS performance by considering two objectives, maximizing system throughput and maintaining the balance of the system (minimizing system unbalance). The resulted objective values are compared to the optimum values produced by branch-and-bound method. The experiments show that the proposed RCGA could reach near optimum solutions in a reasonable amount of time.

Keywords: Flexible manufacturing system, production planning, part type selection problem, loading problem, real-coded genetic algorithm.

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Authors: Valeria Tatano, Francesca Guidolin, Francesca Peltrera

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The preservation of historical Italian heritage, at the urban and architectural scale, has to consider restrictions and requirements connected with conservation issues and usability needs, which are often at odds with historical heritage preservation. Recent decades have been marked by the search for increased accessibility not only of public and private buildings, but to the whole historical city, also for people with disability. Moreover, in the last years the concepts of Smart City and Healthy City seek to improve accessibility both in terms of mobility (independent or assisted) and fruition of goods and services, also for historical cities. The principles of Inclusive Design have introduced new criteria for the improvement of public urban space, between current regulations and best practices. Moreover, they have contributed to transforming “special needs” into an opportunity of social innovation. These considerations find a field of research and analysis in the historical city of Venice, which is at the same time a site of UNESCO world heritage, a mass tourism destination bringing in visitors from all over the world and a city inhabited by an aging population. Due to its conformation, Venetian urban fabric is only partially accessible: about four thousand bridges divide thousands of islands, making it almost impossible to move independently. These urban characteristics and difficulties were the base, in the last 20 years, for several researches, experimentations and solutions with the aim of eliminating architectural barriers, in particular for the usability of bridges. The Venetian Municipality with the EBA Office and some external consultants realized several devices (e.g. the “stepped ramp” and the new accessible ramps for the Venice Marathon) that should determine an innovation for the city, passing from the use of mechanical replicable devices to specific architectural projects in order to guarantee autonomy in use. This paper intends to present the state-of-the-art in bridges accessibility, through an analysis based on Inclusive Design principles and on the current national and regional regulation. The purpose is to evaluate some possible strategies that could improve performances, between limits and possibilities of interventions. The aim of the research is to lay the foundations for the development of a strategic program for the City of Venice that could successfully bring together both conservation and improvement requirements.

Keywords: Accessibility and inclusive design, historical heritage preservation, technological and social innovation.

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Authors: A. S. Telang, P. P. Bedekar

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Flexible AC transmission system controllers play an important role in controlling the line power flow and in improving voltage profiles of the power system network. They can be used to increase the reliability and efficiency of transmission and distribution system. The modeling of these FACTS controllers in power flow calculations have become a challenging research problem. This paper presents a simple and systematic approach for a steady state power flow calculations of power system with STATCOM (Static Synchronous Compensator). It shows how systematically STATCOM can be implemented in conventional power flow calculations. The main contribution of this paper is to investigate this approach for two special conditions i.e. consideration of load increase pattern incorporating load change (active, reactive and both active and reactive) at all load buses simultaneously and the line contingencies under such load change. Such investigation proves to be relevant for determination of strategy for the optimal placement of STATCOM to enhance the voltage stability. The performance has been evaluated on many standard IEEE test systems. The results for standard IEEE-30 bus test system are presented here.

Keywords: Load flow analysis, Newton-Raphson (N-R) power flow, Flexible AC transmission system, FACTS, Static synchronous compensator, STATCOM, voltage profile.

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Authors: M.H.Ghaffari

Abstract:

A theoretical study is conducted to design and explore the effect of different parameters such as heat loads, the tube size of piping system, wick thickness, porosity and hole size on the performance and capability of a Loop Heat Pipe(LHP). This paper presents a steady state model that describes the different phenomena inside a LHP. Loop Heat Pipes(LHPs) are two-phase heat transfer devices with capillary pumping of a working fluid. By their original design comparing with heat pipes and special properties of the capillary structure, they-re capable of transferring heat efficiency for distances up to several meters at any orientation in the gravity field, or to several meters in a horizontal position. This theoretical model is described by different relations to satisfy important limits such as capillary and nucleate boiling. An algorithm is developed to predict the size of the LHP satisfying the limitations mentioned above for a wide range of applied loads. Finally, to assess and evaluate the algorithm and all the relations considered, we have used to design a new kind of LHP to recover the heat from the exhaust of an actual Gas Turbine. By finding the results, it showed that we can use the LHP as a very high efficient device to recover the heat even in high amount of loads(exhaust of a gas turbine). The sizes of all parts of the LHP were obtained using the developed algorithm.

Keywords: Loop Heat Pipe, Head Load, Liquid-Vapor Interface, Heat Transfer, Design Algorithm

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Authors: Farhan Beg

Abstract:

A Space Vector based Pulse Width Modulation control technique for the three-phase PWM converter is proposed in this paper. The proposed control scheme is based on a synchronous reference frame model. High performance and efficiency is obtained with regards to the DC bus voltage and the power factor considerations of the PWM rectifier thus leading to low losses. MATLAB/SIMULINK are used as a platform for the simulations and a SIMULINK model is presented in the paper. The results show that the proposed model demonstrates better performance and properties compared to the traditional SPWM method and the method improves the dynamic performance of the closed loop drastically. For the Space Vector based Pulse Width Modulation, Sine signal is the reference waveform and triangle waveform is the carrier waveform. When the value sine signal is large than triangle signal, the pulse will start produce to high. And then when the triangular signals higher than sine signal, the pulse will come to low. SPWM output will changed by changing the value of the modulation index and frequency used in this system to produce more pulse width. The more pulse width produced, the output voltage will have lower harmonics contents and the resolution increase.

Keywords: Power Factor, SVPWM, PWM rectifier, SPWM.

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Authors: Mustafa M. Donma, Orkide Donma

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Zinc (Zn) is a vital element required for growth and development particularly in children. It exhibits some protective effects against cardiovascular diseases (CVDs). Zn may be a potential biomarker of cardiovascular health. High sensitive cardiac troponin T (hs-cTnT) and cardiac myosin binding protein C (cMyBP-C) are new generation markers used for prediagnosis, diagnosis and prognosis of CVDs. The aim of this study is to determine Zn as well as new generation cardiac markers’ profiles in children with normal body mass index (N-BMI), obese (OB), morbid obese (MO) children and children with metabolic syndrome (MetS) findings. The association among them will also be investigated. Four study groups were constituted. The study protocol was approved by the institutional Ethics Committee of Tekirdag Namik Kemal University. Parents of the participants filled informed consent forms to participate in the study. Group 1 is composed of 44 children with N-BMI. Group 2 and Group 3 comprised 43 OB and 45 MO children, respectively. 45 MO children with MetS findings were included in Group 4. World Health Organization age- and sex-adjusted BMI percentile tables were used to constitute groups. These values were 15-85, 95-99 and above 99 for N-BMI, OB and MO, respectively. Criteria for MetS findings were determined. Routine biochemical analyses including Zn were performed. hs-cTnT and cMyBP-C concentrations were measured by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. Data were analyzed by using SPSS software. p < 0.05 was accepted as significant. Four groups were matched for age and gender. Decreased Zn concentrations were measured in Groups 2, 3 and 4 compared to Group 1. Groups did not differ from one another in terms of hs-cTnT. There were statistically significant differences between cMyBP-C levels of MetS group and N-BMI as well as OB groups. There was an increasing trend going from N-BMI group to MetS group. There were statistically significant negative correlations between Zn and hs-cTnT as well as cMyBP-C concentrations in MetS group. In conclusion, inverse correlations detected between Zn and new generation cardiac markers (hs-TnT and cMyBP-C) have pointed out that decreased levels of Zn accompany increased levels of hs-cTnT as well as cMyBP-C in children with MetS. This finding emphasizes that both Zn and these new generation cardiac markers may be evaluated as biomarkers of cardiovascular health during severe childhood obesity precipitated with MetS findings and also suggested as the messengers of the future risk in the adulthood periods of children with MetS.

Keywords: Cardiac myosin binding protein-C, cardiovascular diseases, children, high sensitive cardiac troponin T, obesity.

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