Search results for: high strain pile
2439 The Manufacturing of Metallurgical Grade Silicon from Diatomaceous Silica by an Induction Furnace
Authors: Shahrazed Medeghri, Saad Hamzaoui, Mokhtar Zerdali
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The metallurgical grade silicon (MG-Si) is obtained from the reduction of silica (SiO2) in an induction furnace or an electric arc furnace. Impurities inherent in reduction process also depend on the quality of the raw material used. Among the applications of the silicon, it is used as a substrate for the photovoltaic conversion of solar energy and this conversion is wider as the purity of the substrate is important. Research is being done where the purpose is looking for new methods of manufacturing and purification of silicon, as well as new materials that can be used as substrates for the photovoltaic conversion of light energy. In this research, the technique of production of silicon in an induction furnace, using a high vacuum for fusion. Diatomaceous Silica (SiO2) used is 99 mass% initial purities, the carbon used is 6N of purity and the particle size of 63μm as starting materials. The final achieved purity of the material was above 50% by mass. These results demonstrate that this method is a technically reliable, and allows obtaining a better return on the amount 50% of silicon.Keywords: Induction, amorphous silica, carbon microstructure, silicon.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 16502438 5-Aminolevulinic Acid-Loaded Gel, Sponge Collagen to Enhance the Delivery Ability to Skin
Authors: Yi-Ping Fang, Hsien-Ting Cheng
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Topical photodynamic therapy (PDT) with 5-aminolevulinic acid (ALA) is an alternative therapy for treating superficial cancer, especially for skin or oral cancer. ALA, a precursor of the photosensitizer protoporphyrin IX (PpIX), is present as zwitterions and hydrophilic property which make the low permeability through the cell membrane. Collagen is a traditional carrier; its molecular composed various amino acids which bear positive charge and negative charge. In order to utilize the ion-pairs with ALA and collagen, the study employed various pH values adjusting the net charge. The aim of this study was to compare a series collagen form, including solution, gel and sponge to investigate the topical delivery behavior of ALA. The in vivo confocal laser scanning microscopy (CLSM) study demonstrated that PpIX generation ability was different pattern after apply for 6 h. Gel type could generate high PpIX, and archived more deep of skin depth.Keywords: 5-Aminolevulinic acid (ALA), Collagen, Ion-pairs, Penetration behavior
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 17282437 Mindfulness and Employability: A Course on the Control of Stress during the Search for Work
Authors: O. Lasaga
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Defining professional objectives and the search for work are some of the greatest stress factors for final year university students and recent graduates. To manage correctly the stress brought about by the uncertainty, confusion and frustration this process often generates, a course to control stress based on mindfulness has been designed and taught. This course provides tools based on relaxation, mindfulness and meditation that enable students to address personal and professional challenges in the transition to the job market, eliminating or easing the anxiety involved. The course is extremely practical and experiential, combining theory classes and practical classes of relaxation, meditation and mindfulness, group dynamics, reflection, application protocols and session integration. The evaluation of the courses highlighted on the one hand the high degree of satisfaction and, on the other, the usefulness for the students in becoming aware of stressful situations and how these affect them and learning new coping techniques that enable them to reach their goals more easily and with greater satisfaction and well-being.
Keywords: Employability, meditation, mindfulness, relaxation techniques, stress.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 8992436 Empirical Exploration of Correlations between Software Design Measures: A Replication Study
Authors: Jehad Al Dallal
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Software engineers apply different measures to quantify the quality of software design. These measures consider artifacts developed at low or high level software design phases. The results are used to point to design weaknesses and to indicate design points that have to be restructured. Understanding the relationship among the quality measures and among the design quality aspects considered by these measures is important to interpreting the impact of a measure for a quality aspect on other potentially related aspects. In addition, exploring the relationship between quality measures helps to explain the impact of different quality measures on external quality aspects, such as reliability and maintainability. In this paper, we report a replication study that empirically explores the correlation between six well known and commonly applied design quality measures. These measures consider several quality aspects, including complexity, cohesion, coupling, and inheritance. The results indicate that inheritance measures are weakly correlated to other measures, whereas complexity, coupling, and cohesion measures are mostly strongly correlated.
Keywords: Quality attribute, quality measure, software design quality, spearman correlation.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 7922435 Comparison of Zero Voltage Soft Switching and Hard Switching Boost Converter with Maximum Power Point Tracking
Authors: N. Ravi Kumar, R. Kamalakannan
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The inherent nature of normal boost converter has more voltage stress across the power electronics switch and ripple. The presented formation of the front end rectifier stage for a photovoltaic (PV) organization is mainly used to give the supply. Further increasing of the solar efficiency is achieved by connecting the zero voltage soft switching boost converter. The zero voltage boost converter is used to convert the low level DC voltage to high level DC voltage. The inherent nature of zero voltage switching boost converter is used to shrink the voltage tension across the power electronics switch and ripple. The input stage allows the determined power point tracking to be used to extract supreme power from the sun when it is available. The hardware setup was implemented by using PIC Micro controller (16F877A).
Keywords: Boost converter, duty cycle, hard switching, MOSFET, maximum power point tracking, photovoltaic, soft switching, zero voltage switching.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 11932434 Effective Software-Based Solution for Processing Mass Downstream Data in Interactive Push VOD System
Authors: Ni Hong, Wu Guobin, Wu Gang, Pan Liang
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Interactive push VOD system is a new kind of system that incorporates push technology and interactive technique. It can push movies to users at high speeds at off-peak hours for optimal network usage so as to save bandwidth. This paper presents effective software-based solution for processing mass downstream data at terminals of interactive push VOD system, where the service can download movie according to a viewer-s selection. The downstream data is divided into two catalogs: (1) the carousel data delivered according to DSM-CC protocol; (2) IP data delivered according to Euro-DOCSIS protocol. In order to accelerate download speed and reduce data loss rate at terminals, this software strategy introduces caching, multi-thread and resuming mechanisms. The experiments demonstrate advantages of the software-based solution.Keywords: DSM-CC, data carousel, Euro-DOCSIS, push VOD.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 14762433 Preparation of Vanadium Powder by Hydrogenation and Dehydrogenation
Authors: Weicai Yang, Xianfeng Dong, Dapeng Zeng, Bo Lin, Jun Tang
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Low oxygen content vanadium powder was prepared by hydrogenation dehydrogenization (HDH). The effect of purification treatment on hydrogen absorption kinetics of dendritic vanadium was tested, and the effects of milling technique on powder yield and grain size were studied. The crystal phase, oxygen and nitrgen content, and grain size of prepared powder were characterized and analyzed by X-ray diffraction (XRD), oxygen and nitrogen analyzer and grain size analyzer. The results show that the alkaline cleaning can improve the hydrogen absorption of vanadium. The yield of vanadium hydride powder can reach as high as 90% by 4h ball-milling, The resultant product also have an oxygen content less than 600μg/g, and the grain size is smaller than 37μm. Meanwhile, the XRD results show that the phase of hydride vanadium powder is mainly VH0.81. After a hydrogen desorption treatment in vacuum at 700Ôäâ, the phase of the powder converts into V and a little of V2H.Keywords: V-5Cr-5Ti alloy, HDH, microstructures, mechanical properties.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 19252432 Poor Medical Waste Management (MWM) Practices and Its Risks to Human Health and the Environment: A Literature Review
Authors: Babanyara Y. Y., Ibrahim D. B., Garba T., Bogoro A. G., Abubakar, M. Y.
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Medical care is vital for our life, health and well-being. But the waste generated from medical activities can be hazardous, toxic and even lethal because of their high potential for diseases transmission. The hazardous and toxic parts of waste from healthcare establishments comprising infectious, medical and radioactive material as well as sharps constitute a grave risks to mankind and the environment, if these are not properly treated / disposed or are allowed to be mixed with other municipal waste. In Nigeria, practical information on this aspect is inadequate and research on the public health implications of poor management of medical wastes is few and limited in scope. Findings drawn from Literature particularly in the third world countries highlights financial problems, lack of awareness of risks involved in MWM, lack of appropriate legislation and lack of specialized MWM staff. The paper recommends how MWM practices can be improved in medical facilities.
Keywords: Environmental pollution, infectious, management, medical waste, public health.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 140592431 Innovation Policy and Development of Creative Industries: Case Study of Lithuanian Animation Industry
Authors: Tomas Mitkus, Vaida Nedzinskaitė-Mitkė
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The objective of this study is to identify and explore how adequate is modern innovation support mechanism to developed creative industries. We argue that current development and support strategy for creative industries, although acknowledge high correlation between innovation and creativity, do not seek to improve conditions to promote systematic innovation development in the creative sector. Using the Lithuanian animation industry as a case study, this paper will examine innovation contribution to creativity and, for that matter, the competitiveness of animation enterprises. This paper proposes insights that contribute to theoretical and practical discussions on how creative profile companies build national and international competitiveness through innovations. The conclusions suggest that development of creative industries could greatly benefit if policymakers would implement tools that would encourage creative profile enterprises to invest in to development of innovation at a constant rate.
Keywords: Creative industries, animation, innovation, innovation policy, management.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 10132430 Research of Dynamic Location Referencing Method Based On Intersection and Link Partition
Authors: Lv Wei-feng, Dai Xi, Zhu Tong-yu
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Dynamic location referencing method is an important technology to shield map differences. These method references objects of the road network by utilizing condensed selection of its real-world geographic properties stored in a digital map database, which overcomes the defections existing in pre-coded location referencing methods. The high attributes completeness requirements and complicated reference point selection algorithm are the main problems of recent researches. Therefore, a dynamic location referencing algorithm combining intersection points selected at the extremities compulsively and road link points selected according to link partition principle was proposed. An experimental system based on this theory was implemented. The tests using Beijing digital map database showed satisfied results and thus verified the feasibility and practicability of this method.
Keywords: Dynamic location referencing, inter-sectionreferencing, road link partition, road link point referencing.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 16982429 Development of a Microsensor to Minimize Post Cataract Surgery Complications
Authors: M. Mottaghi, F. Ghalichi, H. Badri Ghavifekr, H. Niroomand Oskui
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This paper presents design and characterization of a microaccelerometer designated for integration into cataract surgical probe to detect hardness of different eye tissues during cataract surgery. Soft posterior lens capsule of eye can be easily damaged in comparison with hard opaque lens since the surgeon can not see directly behind cutting needle during the surgery. Presence of microsensor helps the surgeon to avoid rupturing posterior lens capsule which if occurs leads to severe complications such as glaucoma, infection, or even blindness. The microsensor having overall dimensions of 480 μm x 395 μm is able to deliver significant capacitance variations during encountered vibration situations which makes it capable to distinguish between different types of tissue. Integration of electronic components on chip ensures high level of reliability and noise immunity while minimizes space and power requirements. Physical characteristics and results on performance testing, proves integration of microsensor as an effective tool to aid the surgeon during this procedure.Keywords: Cataract surgery, MEMS, Microsensor, Phacoemulsification.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 18332428 The Rank-scaled Mutation Rate for Genetic Algorithms
Authors: Mike Sewell, Jagath Samarabandu, Ranga Rodrigo, Kenneth McIsaac
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A novel method of individual level adaptive mutation rate control called the rank-scaled mutation rate for genetic algorithms is introduced. The rank-scaled mutation rate controlled genetic algorithm varies the mutation parameters based on the rank of each individual within the population. Thereby the distribution of the fitness of the papulation is taken into consideration in forming the new mutation rates. The best fit mutate at the lowest rate and the least fit mutate at the highest rate. The complexity of the algorithm is of the order of an individual adaptation scheme and is lower than that of a self-adaptation scheme. The proposed algorithm is tested on two common problems, namely, numerical optimization of a function and the traveling salesman problem. The results show that the proposed algorithm outperforms both the fixed and deterministic mutation rate schemes. It is best suited for problems with several local optimum solutions without a high demand for excessive mutation rates.
Keywords: Genetic algorithms, mutation rate control, adaptive mutation.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 26562427 Operational Guidelines for Six-Sigma Implementation: Survey of Indian Medium Scale Automotive Industries
Authors: Rajeshkumar U. Sambhe
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Large scale Indian manufacturers started implementing Six Sigma to their supply core to fulfill the endless need of high quality products. As well, they initiated encouraging their suppliers to apply the well-ascertain SS management practice and kept no resource for supplier enterprises, generally small midsized enterprises to think for the admittance of Six Sigma as a quality promotion drive. There are many issues to study for requisite changes before the introduction of Six Sigma in auto SMEs. This paper converges on impeding factors while implementing SS drive and also pinpoints the gains achieved through successful implementation. The result of this study suggest some operational guidelines for effective implementation of Six Sigma from evidences acquired through research questionnaire and interviews with industrial professionals, apportioned to assort auto sector mid-sized enterprises (MSEs) in India.Keywords: Indian automotive SMEs, quality management practices, six sigma imperatives, problems faced in six sigma implementation, benefits, some guidelines for implementation.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 24582426 Investigation and Comparison of Energy Intensity in Iranian Transportation Industry (Case Study Road Transportation Sector)
Authors: A. Mojtaba Aghajani, B. Leila Shavakhi
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Energy intensity(energy consumption intensity) is a global index which computes the required energy for producing a specific value of goods and services in each country. It is computed in terms of initial energy supply or final energy consumption. In this study (research) Divisia method is used to decompose energy consumption and energy intensity. This method decomposes consumption and energy intensity to production effects, structural and net intensity and could be done as time series or two-periodical. This study analytically investigates consumption changes and energy intensity on economical sectors of Iran and more specific on road transportation(rail road and road).Our results show that the contribution of structural effect (change in economical activities combination) is very low and the effect of net energy consumption has the higher contribution in consumption changes and energy intensity. In other words, the high consumption of energy is due to Intensity of energy consumption and is not to structural effect of transportation sector.Keywords: Divisia Method, Energy Intensity, Net IntensityEffect, Road Transportation , Structural Effect.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 15632425 An Interlacing Technique-Based Blind Video Watermarking Using Wavelet
Authors: B. Sridhar, C. Arun
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The rapid growth of multimedia technology demands the secure and efficient access to information. This fast growing lose the confidence of unauthorized duplication. Henceforth the protection of multimedia content is becoming more important. Watermarking solves the issue of unlawful copy of advanced data. In this paper, blind video watermarking technique has been proposed. A luminance layer of selected frames is interlaced into two even and odd rows of an image, further it is deinterlaced and equalizes the coefficients of the two shares. Color watermark is split into different blocks, and the pieces of block are concealed in one of the share under the wavelet transform. Stack the two images into a single image by introducing interlaced even and odd rows in the two shares. Finally, chrominance bands are concatenated with the watermarked luminance band. The safeguard level of the secret information is high, and it is undetectable. Results show that the quality of the video is not changed also yields the better PSNR values.
Keywords: Authentication, data security, deinterlaced, wavelet transform, watermarking.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 24672424 Defluoridation of Water by Schwertmannite
Authors: Aparajita Goswami, Mihir K Purkait
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In the present study Schwertmannite (an iron oxide hydroxide) is selected as an adsorbent for defluoridation of water. The adsorbent was prepared by wet chemical process and was characterized by SEM, XRD and BET. The fluoride adsorption efficiency of the prepared adsorbent was determined with respect to contact time, initial fluoride concentration, adsorbent dose and pH of the solution. The batch adsorption data revealed that the fluoride adsorption efficiency was highly influenced by the studied factors. Equilibrium was attained within one hour of contact time indicating fast kinetics and the adsorption data followed pseudo second order kinetic model. Equilibrium isotherm data fitted to both Langmuir and Freundlich isotherm models for a concentration range of 5-30 mg/L. The adsorption system followed Langmuir isotherm model with maximum adsorption capacity of 11.3 mg/g. The high adsorption capacity of Schwertmannite points towards the potential of this adsorbent for fluoride removal from aqueous medium.Keywords: Adsorption, fluoride, isotherm study, kinetics, schwertmannite.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 21612423 The Prevalence of Transfusion-Transmitted Virus (TTV) Infection inIranian Patients with Chronic Hepatitis B
Authors: P. Ghasemi Dehkordi, A. Doosti, M. R. Hajimirzaei
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TTV is an unenveloped circular single-stranded DNA virus with a diameter of 30-32 nm that first was described in 1997 in Japan. TTV was detected in various populations without proven pathology, including blood donors and in patients with chronic HBV and HCV hepatitis. The aim of this study was to determine the prevalence of TTV DNA in Iranian patients with chronic hepatitis B and C. Viral TTV-DNA was studied in 442 samples (202 with HBV, 138 with HCV and 102 controls) collected from west south of Iran. All extracted serum DNA was amplified by TTV ORF1 gene specific primers using the semi nested PCR technique. TTV DNA was detected in the serum of 8.9% and 10.8% patients with chronic hepatitis B and C, respectively. Prevalence of TTV-DNA in the serum of 102 controls was 2.9%. Results showed significant relation of TTV with HBV and HCV in patients by using T test examination (P<0.01). The prevalence of TTV-DNA in Iranian hepatitis B and C patients is rather high, and compare with other countries. To control and prevention of the distribution of TT-virus, examination of the blood and blood products it seems to be necessary.Keywords: Transfusion-transmitted virus (TTV), Hepatitis Cvirus (HCV), Hepatitis B virus (HBV), ORF1 gene, Semi nested PCR, Iran.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 19962422 The Effect on Lead Times When Normalizing a Supply Chain Process
Authors: Bassam Istanbouli
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Organizations are living in a very competitive and dynamic environment which is constantly changing. In order to achieve a high level of service, the products and processes of these organizations need to be flexible and evolvable. If the supply chains are not modular and well designed, changes can bring combinatorial effects to most areas of a company from its management, financial, documentation, logistics and its information structure. Applying the normalized system’s concept to segments of the supply chain may help in reducing those ripple effects, but it may also increase lead times. Lead times are important and can become a decisive element in gaining customers. Industries are always under the pressure in providing good quality products, at competitive prices, when and how the customer wants them. Most of the time, the customers want their orders now, if not yesterday. The above concept will be proven by examining lead times in a manufacturing example before and after applying normalized systems concept to that segment of the chain. We will then show that although we can minimize the combinatorial effects when changes occur, the lead times will be increased.Keywords: Supply chain, lead time, normalization, modular.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 5872421 Principal Role and School Structure
Authors: Behnaz Mohajeran, Alireza Ghaleei
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This main purpose of the study reported here was to investigate the extent to which the form of school governance (particularly decision-making) had an impact upon the effectiveness of the school with reference to parental involvement, planning and budgeting, professional development of teachers, school facilities and resources, and student outcomes. Particular attention was given to decision-making within the governance arrangements. The study was based on four case studies of high schools in New South Wales, Australia including one government school, one independent Christian community school, one independent Catholic school, and one Catholic systemic school. The focus of the research was principals, teachers, parents, and students of four schools with varying governance structures. To gain a greater insight into the issues, the researchers collected information by questionnaire, semi-structured interview, and review of school key documents. This study found that it was not so much structure but the centrality of the school Principal and the way that the Principal perceived his/her roles in relation to others that impacted most on school governance.Keywords: governance structure, principal role, schooleffectiveness, stakeholder involvement
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 27542420 Empirical Study on Causes of Project Delays
Authors: Khan Farhan Rafat, Riaz Ahmed
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Renowned offshore organizations are drifting towards collaborative exertion to win and implement international projects for business gains. However, devoid of financial constraints, with the availability of skilled professionals, and despite improved project management practices through state-of-the-art tools and techniques, project delays have become a norm these days. This situation calls for exploring the factor(s) affecting the bonding between project management performance and project success. In the context of the well-known 3M’s of project management (that is, manpower, machinery, and materials), machinery and materials are dependent upon manpower. Because the body of knowledge inveterate on the influence of national culture on men, hence, the realization of the impact on the link between project management performance and project success need to be investigated in detail to arrive at the possible cause(s) of project delays. This research initiative was, therefore, undertaken to fill the research gap. The unit of analysis for the proposed research excretion was the individuals who had worked on skyscraper construction projects. In reverent studies, project management is best described using construction examples. It is due to this reason that the project oriented city of Dubai was chosen to reconnoiter on causes of project delays. A structured questionnaire survey was disseminated online with the courtesy of the Project Management Institute local chapter to carry out the cross-sectional study. The Construction Industry Institute, Austin, of the United States of America along with 23 high-rise builders in Dubai were also contacted by email requesting for their contribution to the study and providing them with the online link to the survey questionnaire. The reliability of the instrument was warranted using Cronbach’s alpha coefficient of 0.70. The appropriateness of sampling adequacy and homogeneity in variance was ensured by keeping Kaiser–Meyer–Olkin (KMO) and Bartlett’s test of sphericity in the range ≥ 0.60 and < 0.05, respectively. Factor analysis was used to verify construct validity. During exploratory factor analysis, all items were loaded using a threshold of 0.4. Four hundred and seventeen respondents, including members from top management, project managers, and project staff, contributed to the study. The link between project management performance and project success was significant at 0.01 level (2-tailed), and 0.05 level (2-tailed) for Pearson’s correlation. Before initiating the moderator analysis test for linearity, multicollinearity, outliers, leverage points and influential cases, test for homoscedasticity and normality were carried out which are prerequisites for conducting moderator review. The moderator analysis, using a macro named PROCESS, was performed to verify the hypothesis that national culture has an influence on the said link. The empirical findings, when compared with Hofstede's results, showed high power distance as the cause of construction project delays in Dubai. The research outcome calls for the project sponsors and top management to reshape their project management strategy and allow for low power distance between management and project personnel for timely completion of projects.Keywords: Causes of construction project delays, construction industry, construction management, power distance.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 31042419 A Reproduction of Boundary Conditions in Three-Dimensional Continuous Casting Problem
Authors: Iwona Nowak, Jacek Smolka, Andrzej J. Nowak
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The paper discusses a 3D numerical solution of the inverse boundary problem for a continuous casting process of alloy. The main goal of the analysis presented within the paper was to estimate heat fluxes along the external surface of the ingot. The verified information on these fluxes was crucial for a good design of a mould, effective cooling system and generally the whole caster. In the study an enthalpy-porosity technique implemented in Fluent package was used for modeling the solidification process. In this method, the phase change interface was determined on the basis of the liquid fraction approach. In inverse procedure the sensitivity analysis was applied for retrieving boundary conditions. A comparison of the measured and retrieved values showed a high accuracy of the computations. Additionally, the influence of the accuracy of measurements on the estimated heat fluxes was also investigated.
Keywords: Boundary inverse problem, sensitivity analysis, continuous casting, numerical simulation.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 15122418 Speedup Breadth-First Search by Graph Ordering
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Breadth-First Search (BFS) is a core graph algorithm that is widely used for graph analysis. As it is frequently used in many graph applications, improving the BFS performance is essential. In this paper, we present a graph ordering method that could reorder the graph nodes to achieve better data locality, thus, improving the BFS performance. Our method is based on an observation that the sibling relationships will dominate the cache access pattern during the BFS traversal. Therefore, we propose a frequency-based model to construct the graph order. First, we optimize the graph order according to the nodes’ visit frequency. Nodes with high visit frequency will be processed in priority. Second, we try to maximize the child nodes’ overlap layer by layer. As it is proved to be NP-hard, we propose a heuristic method that could greatly reduce the preprocessing overheads.We conduct extensive experiments on 16 real-world datasets. The result shows that our method could achieve comparable performance with the state-of-the-art methods while the graph ordering overheads are only about 1/15.
Keywords: Breadth-first search, BFS, graph ordering, graph algorithm.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 6082417 The Load Balancing Algorithm for the Star Interconnection Network
Authors: Ahmad M. Awwad, Jehad Al-Sadi
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The star network is one of the promising interconnection networks for future high speed parallel computers, it is expected to be one of the future-generation networks. The star network is both edge and vertex symmetry, it was shown to have many gorgeous topological proprieties also it is owns hierarchical structure framework. Although much of the research work has been done on this promising network in literature, it still suffers from having enough algorithms for load balancing problem. In this paper we try to work on this issue by investigating and proposing an efficient algorithm for load balancing problem for the star network. The proposed algorithm is called Star Clustered Dimension Exchange Method SCDEM to be implemented on the star network. The proposed algorithm is based on the Clustered Dimension Exchange Method (CDEM). The SCDEM algorithm is shown to be efficient in redistributing the load balancing as evenly as possible among all nodes of different factor networks.
Keywords: Interconnection networks, Load balancing, Star network.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 20992416 Antioxidant Capacity of Different Broccoli Cultivars at Various Harvesting Dates
Authors: S. Graeff-Hönninger, J. Pfenning, V. Gutsal, S. Wolf, S. Zikeli, W. Claupein
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Broccoli is considered as being a rich source of AOX like flavonoids, polyphenols, anthocyanins etc. and of major interest especially in the organic sector. However, AOX is environment dependent and often varies between cultivars. Aim of the study was to investigate the impact of cultivar and harvest date on AOX in broccoli. Activity of the AOX was determined using a Photochem®-Analyzer and a kit of reagent solutions for analysis. Results of the study showed that the lipid (ACL) and water-soluble antioxidant potential (AWC) of broccoli heads varied significantly between the four harvesting dates, but not among the different cultivars. The highest concentration of ACL was measured in broccoli heads harvested in September 2011, followed by heads harvested at the beginning of July in 2012. ACW was highest in heads harvested in October 2011. Lowest concentrations of ACW were measured in heads harvested in June 2012. Overall, the study indicated that the harvest date and thus growing conditions seem to be of high importance for final antioxidant capacity of broccoli.Keywords: Antioxidant activity, open pollinating, organic agriculture.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 10272415 Effective Keyword and Similarity Thresholds for the Discovery of Themes from the User Web Access Patterns
Authors: Haider A Ramadhan, Khalil Shihab
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Clustering techniques have been used by many intelligent software agents to group similar access patterns of the Web users into high level themes which express users intentions and interests. However, such techniques have been mostly focusing on one salient feature of the Web document visited by the user, namely the extracted keywords. The major aim of these techniques is to come up with an optimal threshold for the number of keywords needed to produce more focused themes. In this paper we focus on both keyword and similarity thresholds to generate themes with concentrated themes, and hence build a more sound model of the user behavior. The purpose of this paper is two fold: use distance based clustering methods to recognize overall themes from the Proxy log file, and suggest an efficient cut off levels for the keyword and similarity thresholds which tend to produce more optimal clusters with better focus and efficient size.
Keywords: Data mining, knowledge discovery, clustering, dataanalysis, Web log analysis, theme based searching.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 14412414 A Comparative Study of P-I, I-P, Fuzzy and Neuro-Fuzzy Controllers for Speed Control of DC Motor Drive
Authors: S.R. Khuntia, K.B. Mohanty, S. Panda, C. Ardil
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This paper presents a comparative study of various controllers for the speed control of DC motor. The most commonly used controller for the speed control of dc motor is Proportional- Integral (P-I) controller. However, the P-I controller has some disadvantages such as: the high starting overshoot, sensitivity to controller gains and sluggish response due to sudden disturbance. So, the relatively new Integral-Proportional (I-P) controller is proposed to overcome the disadvantages of the P-I controller. Further, two Fuzzy logic based controllers namely; Fuzzy control and Neuro-fuzzy control are proposed and the performance these controllers are compared with both P-I and I-P controllers. Simulation results are presented and analyzed for all the controllers. It is observed that fuzzy logic based controllers give better responses than the traditional P-I as well as I-P controller for the speed control of dc motor drives.Keywords: Proportional-Integral (P-I) controller, Integral- Proportional (I-P) controller, Fuzzy logic control, Neuro-fuzzy control, Speed control, DC Motor drive.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 12442413 Air flow and Heat Transfer Modeling of an Axial Flux Permanent Magnet Generator
Authors: Airoldi G., Bumby J. R., Dominy C., G.L. Ingram, Lim C. H., Mahkamov K., N. L. Brown, A. Mebarki, M. Shanel
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Axial Flux Permanent Magnet (AFPM) Machines require effective cooling due to their high power density. The detrimental effects of overheating such as degradation of the insulation materials, magnets demagnetization, and increase of Joule losses are well known. This paper describes the CFD simulations performed on a test rig model of an air cooled Axial Flux Permanent Magnet (AFPM) generator built at Durham University to identify the temperatures and heat transfer coefficient on the stator. The Reynolds Averaged Navier-Stokes and the Energy equations are solved and the flow pattern and heat transfer developing inside the machine are described. The Nusselt number on the stator surfaces has been found. The dependency of the heat transfer on the flow field is described temperature field obtained. Tests on an experimental are undergoing in order to validate the CFD results.
Keywords: Axial flux permanent magnet machines, thermal modeling, CFD.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 22982412 Active Vibration Control of Passenger Seat with HFPIDCR Controlled Suspension Alternatives
Authors: Devdutt, M. L. Aggarwal
Abstract:
In this paper, passenger ride comfort issues are studied taking active quarter car model with three degrees of freedom. A hybrid fuzzy – PID controller with coupled rules (HFPIDCR) is designed for vibration control of passenger seat. Three different control strategies are considered. In first case, main suspension is controlled. In second case, passenger seat suspension is controlled. In third case, both main suspension and passenger seat suspensions are controlled. Passenger seat acceleration and displacement results are obtained using bump and sinusoidal type road disturbances. Finally, obtained simulation results of designed uncontrolled and controlled quarter car models are compared and discussed to select best control strategy for achieving high level of passenger ride comfort.
Keywords: Active suspension system, HFPIDCR controller, passenger ride comfort, quarter car model.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 12832411 Wood Species Recognition System
Authors: Bremananth R, Nithya B, Saipriya R
Abstract:
The proposed system identifies the species of the wood using the textural features present in its barks. Each species of a wood has its own unique patterns in its bark, which enabled the proposed system to identify it accurately. Automatic wood recognition system has not yet been well established mainly due to lack of research in this area and the difficulty in obtaining the wood database. In our work, a wood recognition system has been designed based on pre-processing techniques, feature extraction and by correlating the features of those wood species for their classification. Texture classification is a problem that has been studied and tested using different methods due to its valuable usage in various pattern recognition problems, such as wood recognition, rock classification. The most popular technique used for the textural classification is Gray-level Co-occurrence Matrices (GLCM). The features from the enhanced images are thus extracted using the GLCM is correlated, which determines the classification between the various wood species. The result thus obtained shows a high rate of recognition accuracy proving that the techniques used in suitable to be implemented for commercial purposes.Keywords: Correlation, Grey Level Co-Occurrence Matrix, ProbabilityDensity Function, Wood Recognition.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 24512410 Dissolved Oxygen Prediction Using Support Vector Machine
Authors: Sorayya Malek, Mogeeb Mosleh, Sharifah M. Syed
Abstract:
In this study, Support Vector Machine (SVM) technique was applied to predict the dichotomized value of Dissolved oxygen (DO) from two freshwater lakes namely Chini and Bera Lake (Malaysia). Data sample contained 11 parameters for water quality features from year 2005 until 2009. All data parameters were used to predicate the dissolved oxygen concentration which was dichotomized into 3 different levels (High, Medium, and Low). The input parameters were ranked, and forward selection method was applied to determine the optimum parameters that yield the lowest errors, and highest accuracy. Initial results showed that pH, Water Temperature, and Conductivity are the most important parameters that significantly affect the predication of DO. Then, SVM model was applied using the Anova kernel with those parameters yielded 74% accuracy rate. We concluded that using SVM models to predicate the DO is feasible, and using dichotomized value of DO yields higher prediction accuracy than using precise DO value.
Keywords: Dissolved oxygen, Water quality, predication DO, Support Vector Machine.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2205