Search results for: neural network models
1046 Designing of Multi-Agent Rescue Robot: Development and Basic Experiments of Master-Slave Type Rescue Robots
Authors: J. Lin, T. C. Kuo, C. -Y. Gau, K. C. Liu, Y. J. Huang, J. D. Yu, Y. W. Lin
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A multi-agent type robot for disaster response in calamity scene is proposed in this paper. The proposed grouped rescue robots can perform cooperative reconnaissance and surveillance to achieve a given rescue mission. The multi-agent rescue of dual set robot consists of one master set and three slave units. The research for this rescue robot system is going to detect at harmful environment where human is unreachable, such as the building is infected with virus or the factory has hazardous liquid in effluent. As a dual set robot, with Bluetooth and communication network, the master set can connect with slave units and send information back to computer by wireless and monitor. Therefore, rescuer can be informed the real-time information in a calamity area. Furthermore, each slave robot is able to obstacle avoidance by ultrasonic sensors, and encodes distance and location by compass. The master robot can integrate every devices information to increase the efficiency of prospected and research unknown area.
Keywords: Designing of multi-agent rescue robot, development and basic experiments of master-slave type rescue robots.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 15531045 An Off-the-Shelf Scheme for Dependable Grid Systems Using Virtualization
Authors: Toshinori Takabatake
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Recently, grid computing has been widely focused on the science, industry, and business fields, which are required a vast amount of computing. Grid computing is to provide the environment that many nodes (i.e., many computers) are connected with each other through a local/global network and it is available for many users. In the environment, to achieve data processing among nodes for any applications, each node executes mutual authentication by using certificates which published from the Certificate Authority (for short, CA). However, if a failure or fault has occurred in the CA, any new certificates cannot be published from the CA. As a result, a new node cannot participate in the gird environment. In this paper, an off-the-shelf scheme for dependable grid systems using virtualization techniques is proposed and its implementation is verified. The proposed approach using the virtualization techniques is to restart an application, e.g., the CA, if it has failed. The system can tolerate a failure or fault if it has occurred in the CA. Since the proposed scheme is implemented at the application level easily, the cost of its implementation by the system builder hardly takes compared it with other methods. Simulation results show that the CA in the system can recover from its failure or fault.Keywords: grid computing, restarting application, certificate authority, virtualization, dependability.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 13771044 Multi-Modal Visualization of Working Instructions for Assembly Operations
Authors: Josef Wolfartsberger, Michael Heiml, Georg Schwarz, Sabrina Egger
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Growing individualization and higher numbers of variants in industrial assembly products raise the complexity of manufacturing processes. Technical assistance systems considering both procedural and human factors allow for an increase in product quality and a decrease in required learning times by supporting workers with precise working instructions. Due to varying needs of workers, the presentation of working instructions leads to several challenges. This paper presents an approach for a multi-modal visualization application to support assembly work of complex parts. Our approach is integrated within an interconnected assistance system network and supports the presentation of cloud-streamed textual instructions, images, videos, 3D animations and audio files along with multi-modal user interaction, customizable UI, multi-platform support (e.g. tablet-PC, TV screen, smartphone or Augmented Reality devices), automated text translation and speech synthesis. The worker benefits from more accessible and up-to-date instructions presented in an easy-to-read way.Keywords: Assembly, assistive technologies, augmented reality, manufacturing, visualization.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 9171043 Optimal Allocation of DG Units for Power Loss Reduction and Voltage Profile Improvement of Distribution Networks using PSO Algorithm
Authors: K. Varesi
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This paper proposes a Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) based technique for the optimal allocation of Distributed Generation (DG) units in the power systems. In this paper our aim is to decide optimal number, type, size and location of DG units for voltage profile improvement and power loss reduction in distribution network. Two types of DGs are considered and the distribution load flow is used to calculate exact loss. Load flow algorithm is combined appropriately with PSO till access to acceptable results of this operation. The suggested method is programmed under MATLAB software. Test results indicate that PSO method can obtain better results than the simple heuristic search method on the 30-bus and 33- bus radial distribution systems. It can obtain maximum loss reduction for each of two types of optimally placed multi-DGs. Moreover, voltage profile improvement is achieved.Keywords: Distributed Generation (DG), Optimal Allocation, Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO), Power Loss Minimization, Voltage Profile Improvement.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 31681042 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 21741041 Application of GM (1, 1) Model Group Based on Recursive Solution in China's Energy Demand Forecasting
Authors: Yeqing Guan, Fen Yang
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To learn about China-s future energy demand, this paper first proposed GM(1,1) model group based on recursive solutions of parameters estimation, setting up a general solving-algorithm of the model group. This method avoided the problems occurred on the past researches that remodeling, loss of information and large amount of calculation. This paper established respectively all-data-GM(1,1), metabolic GM(1,1) and new information GM (1,1)model according to the historical data of energy consumption in China in the year 2005-2010 and the added data of 2011, then modeling, simulating and comparison of accuracies we got the optimal models and to predict. Results showed that the total energy demand of China will be 37.2221 billion tons of equivalent coal in 2012 and 39.7973 billion tons of equivalent coal in 2013, which are as the same as the overall planning of energy demand in The 12th Five-Year Plan.
Keywords: energy demands, GM(1, 1) model group, least square estimation, prediction
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 15551040 Numerical Study of Modulus of Subgrade Reaction in Eccentrically Loaded Circular Footing Resting
Authors: Seyed Abolhasan Naeini, Mohammad Hossein Zade
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This article is an attempt to present a numerically study of the behaviour of an eccentrically loaded circular footing resting on sand to determine its ultimate bearing capacity. A surface circular footing of diameter 12 cm (D) was used as shallow foundation. For this purpose, three dimensional models consist of foundation, and medium sandy soil was modelled by ABAQUS software. Bearing capacity of footing was evaluated and the effects of the load eccentricity on bearing capacity, its settlement, and modulus of subgrade reaction were studied. Three different values of load eccentricity with equal space from inside the core on the core boundary and outside the core boundary, which were respectively e=0.75, 1.5, and 2.25 cm, were considered. The results show that by increasing the load eccentricity, the ultimate load and the modulus of subgrade reaction decreased.
Keywords: Circular foundation, eccentric loading, sand, modulus of subgrade reaction.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 16481039 Intelligent Caching in on-demand Routing Protocol for Mobile Adhoc Networks
Authors: Shobha.K.R., K. Rajanikanth
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An on-demand routing protocol for wireless ad hoc networks is one that searches for and attempts to discover a route to some destination node only when a sending node originates a data packet addressed to that node. In order to avoid the need for such a route discovery to be performed before each data packet is sent, such routing protocols must cache routes previously discovered. This paper presents an analysis of the effect of intelligent caching in a non clustered network, using on-demand routing protocols in wireless ad hoc networks. The analysis carried out is based on the Dynamic Source Routing protocol (DSR), which operates entirely on-demand. DSR uses the cache in every node to save the paths that are learnt during route discovery procedure. In this implementation, caching these paths only at intermediate nodes and using the paths from these caches when required is tried. This technique helps in storing more number of routes that are learnt without erasing the entries in the cache, to store a new route that is learnt. The simulation results on DSR have shown that this technique drastically increases the available memory for caching the routes discovered without affecting the performance of the DSR routing protocol in any way, except for a small increase in end to end delay.Keywords: Caching, DSR, on demand routing, MANET.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 19911038 Gamma Irradiation Effect on Structural and Optical Properties of Bismuth-Boro-Tellurite Glasses
Authors: A. Azuraida, M. K. Halimah, C. A. C. Azurahanim, M. Ishak
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The changes of the optical and structural properties of Bismuth-Boro-Tellurite glasses pre and post gamma irradiation were studied. Six glass samples, with different composition [(TeO2)0.7 (B2O3)0.3]1-x (Bi2O3)x prepared by melt quenching method were irradiated with 25kGy gamma radiation at room temperature. The Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR) was used to explore the structural bonding in the prepared glass samples due to exposure, while UV-VIS Spectrophotometer was used to evaluate the changes in the optical properties before and after irradiation. Gamma irradiation causes profound changes in the peak intensity as shown by FTIR spectra which is due to the breaking of the network bonding. Before gamma irradiation, the optical band gap, Eg value decreased from 2.44 eV to 2.15 eV with the addition of Bismuth content. The value kept decreasing (from 2.18 eV to 2.00 eV) following exposure to gamma radiation due to the increase of non-bridging oxygen (NBO) and the increase of defect in the glass. In conclusion, the glass with high content of Bi2O3 (0.30Bi) give smallest Eg and show less changes in FTIR spectra after gamma irradiation which indicate that this glass is more resistant to gamma radiation compared to other glasses.Keywords: Boro-Tellurite, bismuth, gamma radiation, optical properties.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 23181037 The Delaying Influence of Degradation on the Divestment of Gas Turbines for Associated Gas Utilisation: Part 1
Authors: Mafel Obhuo, Dodeye I. Igbong, Duabari S. Aziaka, Pericles Pilidis
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An important feature of the exploitation of associated gas as fuel for gas turbine engines is a declining supply. So when exploiting this resource, the divestment of prime movers is very important as the fuel supply diminishes with time. This paper explores the influence of engine degradation on the timing of divestments. Hypothetical but realistic gas turbine engines were modelled with Turbomatch, the Cranfield University gas turbine performance simulation tool. The results were deployed in three degradation scenarios within the TERA (Techno-economic and environmental risk analysis) framework to develop economic models. An optimisation with Genetic Algorithms was carried out to maximize the economic benefit. The results show that degradation will have a significant impact. It will delay the divestment of power plants, while they are running less efficiently. Over a 20 year investment, a decrease of $0.11bn, $0.26bn and $0.45bn (billion US dollars) were observed for the three degradation scenarios as against the clean case.
Keywords: Economic return, flared associated gas, net present value, optimisation.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 11071036 Derivation of Fractional Black-Scholes Equations Driven by Fractional G-Brownian Motion and Their Application in European Option Pricing
Authors: Changhong Guo, Shaomei Fang, Yong He
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In this paper, fractional Black-Scholes models for the European option pricing were established based on the fractional G-Brownian motion (fGBm), which generalizes the concepts of the classical Brownian motion, fractional Brownian motion and the G-Brownian motion, and that can be used to be a tool for considering the long range dependence and uncertain volatility for the financial markets simultaneously. A generalized fractional Black-Scholes equation (FBSE) was derived by using the Taylor’s series of fractional order and the theory of absence of arbitrage. Finally, some explicit option pricing formulas for the European call option and put option under the FBSE were also solved, which extended the classical option pricing formulas given by F. Black and M. Scholes.Keywords: European option pricing, fractional Black-Scholes equations, fractional G-Brownian motion, Taylor’s series of fractional order, uncertain volatility.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 8581035 Sorption of Congo Red from Aqueous Solution by Surfactant-Modified Bentonite: Kinetic and Factorial Design Study
Authors: B. Guezzen, M. A. Didi, B. Medjahed
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An organoclay (HDTMA-B) was prepared from sodium bentonite (Na-B). The starting material was modified using the hexadecyltrimethylammonium ion (HDTMA+) in the amounts corresponding to 100 % of the CEC value. Batch experiments were carried out in order to model and optimize the sorption of Congo red dye from aqueous solution. The pseudo-first order and pseudo-second order kinetic models have been developed to predict the rate constant and the sorption capacity at equilibrium with the effect of temperature, the solid/solution ratio and the initial dye concentration. The equilibrium time was reached within 60 min. At room temperature (20 °C), optimum dye sorption of 49.4 mg/g (98.9%) was achieved at pH 6.6, sorbent dosage of 1g/L and initial dye concentration of 50 mg/L, using surfactant modified bentonite. The optimization of adsorption parameters mentioned above on dye removal was carried out using Box-Behnken design. The sorption parameters were analyzed statistically by means of variance analysis by using the Statgraphics Centurion XVI software.
Keywords: Adsorption, dye, factorial design, kinetic, organo-bentonite.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 14901034 Active Vibration Control of Passenger Seat with HFPIDCR Controlled Suspension Alternatives
Authors: Devdutt, M. L. Aggarwal
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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 12981033 Dissolved Oxygen Prediction Using Support Vector Machine
Authors: Sorayya Malek, Mogeeb Mosleh, Sharifah M. Syed
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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 22171032 A Consistency Protocol Multi-Layer for Replicas Management in Large Scale Systems
Authors: Ghalem Belalem, Yahya Slimani
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Large scale systems such as computational Grid is a distributed computing infrastructure that can provide globally available network resources. The evolution of information processing systems in Data Grid is characterized by a strong decentralization of data in several fields whose objective is to ensure the availability and the reliability of the data in the reason to provide a fault tolerance and scalability, which cannot be possible only with the use of the techniques of replication. Unfortunately the use of these techniques has a height cost, because it is necessary to maintain consistency between the distributed data. Nevertheless, to agree to live with certain imperfections can improve the performance of the system by improving competition. In this paper, we propose a multi-layer protocol combining the pessimistic and optimistic approaches conceived for the data consistency maintenance in large scale systems. Our approach is based on a hierarchical representation model with tree layers, whose objective is with double vocation, because it initially makes it possible to reduce response times compared to completely pessimistic approach and it the second time to improve the quality of service compared to an optimistic approach.Keywords: Data Grid, replication, consistency, optimistic approach, pessimistic approach.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 15751031 Present and Future Climate Extreme Indices over Sinai Peninsula, Egypt
Authors: Mahmoud Roushdi, Hany Mostafa, Khaled Kheireldin
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Sinai Peninsula and Suez Canal Corridor are promising and important economic regions in Egypt due to the unique location and development opportunities. Thus, the climate change impacts should be assessed over the mentioned area. Accordingly, this paper aims to assess the climate extreme indices in through the last 35 year over Sinai Peninsula and Suez Canal Corridor in addition to predict the climate extreme indices up to 2100. Present and future climate indices were analyzed with using different RCP scenarios 4.5 and 8.5 from 2010 until 2100 for Sinai Peninsula and Suez Canal Corridor. Furthermore, both CanESM and HadGEM2 global circulation models were used. The results indicate that the number of summer days is predicted to increase, on the other hand the frost days is predicted to decrease. Moreover, it is noted a slight positive trend for the percentile of wet and extremely days R95p and R99p for RCP4.5 and negative trend for RCP8.5.
Keywords: Climate change, extreme indices, RCP, Sinai Peninsula.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 15711030 Decision Support System for a Pilot Flash Flood Early Warning System in Central Chile
Authors: D. Pinto, L. Castro, M.L. Cruzat, S. Barros, J. Gironás, C. Oberli, M. Torres, C. Escauriaza, A. Cipriano
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Flash Floods, together with landslides, are a common natural threat for people living in mountainous regions and foothills. One way to deal with this constant menace is the use of Early Warning Systems, which have become a very important mitigation strategy for natural disasters. In this work we present our proposal for a pilot Flash Flood Early Warning System for Santiago, Chile, the first stage of a more ambitious project that in a future stage shall also include early warning of landslides. To give a context for our approach, we first analyze three existing Flash Flood Early Warning Systems, focusing on their general architectures. We then present our proposed system, with main focus on the decision support system, a system that integrates empirical models and fuzzy expert systems to achieve reliable risk estimations.
Keywords: Decision Support System, Early Warning Systems, Flash Flood, Natural Hazard.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 25021029 The Urban Project and the Urban Improvement to the Test of the Participation, Case: Project of Modernization of Constantine
Authors: Mouhoubi Nedjima, Sassi Boudemagh Souad
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In the framework of the modernization of the city of Constantine and in order to restore its status as a regional metropolis introducing it into the network of cities international metropolises, has major urban project was launched: project of modernization and of metropolitanization of the city of Constantine. Our research project focuses on the management of the project for the modernization of the city of Constantine (PMMC) focusing on the management of some aspects of the urban project whose participation, with the objective assessment of the managerial approach business. In this contribution, we focus on two cases revealing taken into account in our research work on the question of participation of actors and their organizations. It is "the urban project of modernization of Constantine" and the operation relating to "the urban improvement in the city of the Brothers FERRAD in the district of Zouaghi". This project and this operation with the objective of improving the living conditions of citizens have faced several challenges and obstacles that have been in major part the factors of its failures. Through this study, we examined the management process and the mode of organization of the actors of the project as well as the level of participation of the citizen to finally proposed managerial solutions toconflict situations observed.
Keywords: The urban project, urban improvement, participation, Constantine.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 20601028 Fuzzy Controller Design for TCSC to Improve Power Oscillations Damping
Authors: M Nayeripour, H. Khorsand, A. Roosta, T. Niknam, E. Azad
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Series compensators have been used for many years, to increase the stability and load ability of transmission line. They compensate retarded or advanced volt drop of transmission lines by placing advanced or retarded voltage in series with them to compensate the effective reactance, which cause to increase load ability of transmission lines. In this paper, two method of fuzzy controller, based on power reference tracking and impedance reference tracking have been developed on TCSC controller in order to increase load ability and improving power oscillation damping of system. In these methods, fire angle of thyristors are determined directly through the special Rule-bases with the error and change of error as the inputs. The simulation results of two area four- machines power system show the good performance of power oscillation damping in system. Comparison of this method with classical PI controller shows the increasing speed of system response in power oscillation damping.Keywords: TCSC, Two area network, Fuzzy controller, Power oscillation damping.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 19971027 Ecotoxicological Safety of Wastewater Treated with Lignocellulosic Adsorbents
Authors: Luísa P. Cruz-Lopes, Artur Figueirinha, Isabel Brás, Bruno Esteves
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Portugal is an important wine and olive oil producer, activities which generate a high quantity of residues commonly called grape stalks and olive cake, respectively. In this work grape stalks and olive cake were used as lignocellulosic adsorbents for wastewater containing lead treatment. To attain a better knowledge of the factors that could influence the quality of the treated wastewater, a chemical characterization of the materials used in the treatment was done. To access the ecotoxicological safety of the treated wastewater, several tests were performed.
The results of the toxicity test show that the samples leachate has a mild effect on the living models tested. The tests performed in lemna and bacteria were the most sensible to toxicity effects of the samples. The results obtained in this work evidenced the importance of use of simple and fast toxicity tests to predict impacts in the environment.
Keywords: Chemical composition, ecotoxicological, lignocellulosic residues, safety.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 17931026 Sustainable Urban Transport Management and Its Strategies
Authors: Touba Amirazodi
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Rapid process of urbanism development has increased the demand for some infrastructures such as supplying potable water, electricity network and transportation facilities and etc. Nonefficiency of the existing system with parallel managements of urban traffic management has increased the gap between supply and demand of traffic facilities. A sustainable transport system requires some activities more important than air pollution control, traffic or fuel consumption reduction and the studies show that there is no unique solution for solving complicated transportation problems and solving such a problem needs a comprehensive, dynamic and reliable mechanism. Sustainable transport management considers the effects of transportation development on economic efficiency, environmental issues, resources consumption, land use and social justice and helps reduction of environmental effects, increase of transportation system efficiency as well as improvement of social life and aims to enhance efficiency, goods transportation, provide services with minimum access problems that cannot be realized without reorganization of strategies, policies and plans.Keywords: Sustainable Urban Transport, Environment, Social Justice, Air Pollution
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 25251025 An Investigation into the Role of Market Beta in Asset Pricing: Evidence from the Romanian Stock Market
Authors: Ioan Popa, Radu Lupu, Cristiana Tudor
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In this paper, we apply the FM methodology to the cross-section of Romanian-listed common stocks and investigate the explanatory power of market beta on the cross-section of commons stock returns from Bucharest Stock Exchange. Various assumptions are empirically tested, such us linearity, market efficiency, the “no systematic effect of non-beta risk" hypothesis or the positive expected risk-return trade-off hypothesis. We find that the Romanian stock market shows the same properties as the other emerging markets in terms of efficiency and significance of the linear riskreturn models. Our analysis included weekly returns from January 2002 until May 2010 and the portfolio formation, estimation and testing was performed in a rolling manner using 51 observations (one year) for each stage of the analysis.Keywords: Bucharest Stock Exchange, Fama-Macbeth methodology, systematic risk, non-linear risk-return dependence.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 19051024 Vr-GIS and Ar-GIS In Education: A Case Study
Authors: Ilario Gabriele Gerloni, Vincenza Carchiolo, Alessandro Longheu, Ugo Becciani, Eva Sciacca, Fabio Vitello
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ICT tools and platforms endorse more and more educational process. Many models and techniques for people to be educated and trained about specific topics and skills do exist, as classroom lectures with textbooks, computers, handheld devices and others. The choice to what extent ICT is applied within learning contexts is related to personal access to technologies as well as to the infrastructure surrounding environment. Among recent techniques, the adoption of Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR) provides significant impulse in fully engaging users senses. In this paper, an application of AR/VR within Geographic Information Systems (GIS) context is presented. It aims to provide immersive environment experiences for educational and training purposes (e.g. for civil protection personnel), useful especially for situations where real scenarios are not easily accessible by humans. First acknowledgments are promising for building an effective tool that helps civil protection personnel training with risk reduction.Keywords: Education, virtual reality, augmented reality, civil protection.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 9311023 Cloud Computing Support for Diagnosing Researches
Authors: A. Amirov, O. Gerget, V. Kochegurov
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One of the main biomedical problem lies in detecting dependencies in semi structured data. Solution includes biomedical portal and algorithms (integral rating health criteria, multidimensional data visualization methods). Biomedical portal allows to process diagnostic and research data in parallel mode using Microsoft System Center 2012, Windows HPC Server cloud technologies. Service does not allow user to see internal calculations instead it provides practical interface. When data is sent for processing user may track status of task and will achieve results as soon as computation is completed. Service includes own algorithms and allows diagnosing and predicating medical cases. Approved methods are based on complex system entropy methods, algorithms for determining the energy patterns of development and trajectory models of biological systems and logical–probabilistic approach with the blurring of images.
Keywords: Biomedical portal, cloud computing, diagnostic and prognostic research, mathematical data analysis.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 16441022 The Risk Factors Associated with Under-Five Mortality in Lesotho Using the 2009 Lesotho Demographic and Health Survey
Authors: T. Motsima
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The under-5 mortality rate is high in sub-Saharan Africa with Lesotho being amongst the highest under-5 mortality rates in the world. The objective of the study is to determine the factors associated with under-5 mortality in Lesotho. The data used for this analysis come from the nationally representative household survey called the 2009 Lesotho Demographic and Health Survey. Odds ratios produced by the logistic regression models were used to measure the effect of each independent variable on the dependent variable. Female children were significantly 38% less likely to die than male children. Children who were breastfed for 13 to 18 months and those who were breastfed for more than 19 months were significantly less likely to die than those who were breastfed for 12 months or less. Furthermore, children of mothers who stayed in Quthing, Qacha’s Nek and Thaba Tseka ran the greatest risk of dying. The results suggested that: sex of child, type of birth, breastfeeding duration, district, source of energy and marital status were significant predictors of under-5 mortality, after correcting for all variables.
Keywords: Under-5 mortality, risk factors, millennium development goals, breastfeeding, logistic regression.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 14791021 A Quality-Oriented Approach toward Strategic Positioning in Higher Education Institutions
Authors: M. M. Mashhadi, K. Mohajeri, M. D. Nayeri
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Positioning the organization in the strategic environment of its industry is one of the first and most important phases of the organizational strategic planning and in today knowledge-based economy has its importance been duplicated for higher education institutes as the centers of education, knowledge creation and knowledge worker training. Up to now, various models with diverse approaches have been applied to investigate organizations- strategic position in different industries. Regarding the essential importance and strategic role of quality in higher education institutes, in this study, a quality-oriented approach has been suggested to positioning them in their strategic environment. Then the European Foundation of Quality Management (EFQM) model has been adopted to position the top Iranian business schools in their strategic environment. The result of this study can be used in strategic planning of these institutes as well as the other Iranian business schools.Keywords: Strategic planning, Strategic positioning, Quality, EFQM model, Higher education institutions.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 25151020 Semi Empirical Equations for Peak Shear Strength of Rectangular Reinforced Concrete Walls
Authors: Ali Kezmane, Said Boukais, Mohand Hamizi
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This paper presents an analytical study on the behavior of reinforced concrete walls with rectangular cross section. Several experiments on such walls have been selected to be studied. Database from various experiments were collected and nominal shear wall strengths have been calculated using formulas, such as those of the ACI (American), NZS (New Zealand), Mexican (NTCC), and Wood and Barda equations. Subsequently, nominal shear wall strengths from the formulas were compared with the ultimate shear wall strengths from the database. These formulas vary substantially in functional form and do not account for all variables that affect the response of walls. There is substantial scatter in the predicted values of ultimate shear strength. Two new semi empirical equations are developed using data from tests of 57 walls for transitions walls and 27 for slender walls with the objective of improving the prediction of peak strength of walls with the most possible accurate.Keywords: Shear strength, reinforced concrete walls, rectangular walls, shear walls, models.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 14531019 Localization of Near Field Radio Controlled Unintended Emitting Sources
Authors: Nurbanu Guzey, S. Jagannathan
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Locating Radio Controlled (RC) devices using their unintended emissions has a great interest considering security concerns. Weak nature of these emissions requires near field localization approach since it is hard to detect these signals in far field region of array. Instead of only angle estimation, near field localization also requires range estimation of the source which makes this method more complicated than far field models. Challenges of locating such devices in a near field region and real time environment are analyzed in this paper. An ESPRIT like near field localization scheme is utilized for both angle and range estimation. 1-D search with symmetric subarrays is provided. Two 7 element uniform linear antenna arrays (ULA) are employed for locating RC source. Experiment results of location estimation for one unintended emitting walkie-talkie for different positions are given.
Keywords: Localization, angle of arrival (AoA), range estimation, array signal processing, ESPRIT, uniform linear array (ULA).
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 23901018 A Collaborative Platform for Multilingual Ontology Development
Authors: Ahmed Tawfik, Fausto Giunchiglia, Vincenzo Maltese
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Ontologies provide a common understanding of a specific domain of interest that can be communicated between people and used as background knowledge for automated reasoning in a wide range of applications. In this paper, we address the design of multilingual ontologies following well-defined knowledge engineering methodologies with the support of novel collaborative development approaches. In particular, we present a collaborative platform which allows ontologies to be developed incrementally in multiple languages. This is made possible via an appropriate mapping between language independent concepts and one lexicalization per language (or a lexical gap in case such lexicalization does not exist). The collaborative platform has been designed to support the development of the Universal Knowledge Core, a multilingual ontology currently in English, Italian, Chinese, Mongolian, Hindi and Bangladeshi. Its design follows a workflow-based development methodology that models resources as a set of collaborative objects and assigns customizable workflows to build and maintain each collaborative object in a community driven manner, with extensive support of modern web 2.0 social and collaborative features.
Keywords: Knowledge Diversity, Knowledge Representation, Ontology Development.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 22041017 Towards a Complete Automation Feature Recognition System for Sheet Metal Manufacturing
Authors: Bahaa Eltahawy, Mikko Ylihärsilä, Reino Virrankoski, Esko Petäjä
Abstract:
Sheet metal processing is automated, but the step from product models to the production machine control still requires human intervention. This may cause time consuming bottlenecks in the production process and increase the risk of human errors. In this paper we present a system, which automatically recognizes features from the CAD-model of the sheet metal product. By using these features, the system produces a complete model of the particular sheet metal product. Then the model is used as an input for the sheet metal processing machine. Currently the system is implemented, capable to recognize more than 11 of the most common sheet metal structural features, and the procedure is fully automated. This provides remarkable savings in the production time, and protects against the human errors. This paper presents the developed system architecture, applied algorithms and system software implementation and testing.Keywords: Feature recognition, automation, sheet metal manufacturing, CAM, CAD.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1150