Search results for: Information Technology.
1479 Hardness Variations as Affected by Bar Diameter of AISI 4140 Steel
Authors: Hamad K. Al-Khalid, Ayman M. Alaskari, Samy E. Oraby
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Hardness of the widely used structural steel is of vital importance since it may help in the determination of many mechanical properties of a material under loading situations. In order to obtain reliable information for design, properties homogeneity should be validated. In the current study the hardness variation over the different diameters of the same AISI 4140 bar is investigated. Measurements were taken on the two faces of the stock at equally spaced eight sectors and fifteen layers. Statistical and graphical analysis are performed to asses the distribution of hardness measurements over the specified area. Hardness measurements showed some degree of dispersion with about ± 10% of its nominal value provided by manufacturer. Hardness value is found to have a slight decrease trend as the diameter is reduced. However, an opposite behavior is noticed regarding the sequence of the sector indicating a nonuniform distribution over the same area either on the same face or considering the corresponding sector on the other face (cross section) of the same material bar.Keywords: Hardness; Hardness variation; AISI 4140 steel; Bardiameter; Statistical Analysis.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 29291478 Behavioral Studies on Multi-Directionally Reinforced 4-D Orthogonal Composites on Various Preform Configurations
Authors: Sriram Venkatesh, V. Murali Mohan, T. V. Karthikeyan
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The main advantage of multidirectionally reinforced composites is the freedom to orient selected fiber types and hence derives the benefits of varying fibre volume fractions and there by accommodate the design loads of the final structure of composites. This technology provides the means to produce tailored composites with desired properties. Due to the high level of fibre integrity with through thickness reinforcement those composites are expected to exhibit superior load bearing characteristics with capability to carry load even after noticeable and apparent fracture. However, a survey of published literature indicates inadequacy in the design and test data base for the complete characterization of the multidirectional composites. In this paper the research objective is focused on the development and testing of 4-D orthogonal composites with different preform configurations and resin systems. A preform is the skeleton 4D reinforced composite other than the matrix. In 4-D performs fibre bundles are oriented in three directions at 1200 with respect to each other and they are on orthogonal plane with the fibre in 4th direction. This paper addresses the various types of 4-D composite manufacturing processes and the mechanical test methods followed for the material characterization. A composite analysis is also made, experiments on course and fine woven preforms are conducted and the findings of test results are discussed in this paper. The interpretations of the test results reveal several useful and interesting features. This should pave the way for more widespread use of the perform configurations for allied applications.
Keywords: Multidirectionally Reinforced Composites, 4-D Orthogonal Preform, Course weave, Fine weave.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 14131477 4D Modelling of Low Visibility Underwater Archaeological Excavations Using Multi-Source Photogrammetry in the Bulgarian Black Sea
Authors: Rodrigo Pacheco-Ruiz, Jonathan Adams, Felix Pedrotti
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This paper introduces the applicability of underwater photogrammetric survey within challenging conditions as the main tool to enhance and enrich the process of documenting archaeological excavation through the creation of 4D models. Photogrammetry was being attempted on underwater archaeological sites at least as early as the 1970s’ and today the production of traditional 3D models is becoming a common practice within the discipline. Photogrammetry underwater is more often implemented to record exposed underwater archaeological remains and less so as a dynamic interpretative tool. Therefore, it tends to be applied in bright environments and when underwater visibility is > 1m, reducing its implementation on most submerged archaeological sites in more turbid conditions. Recent years have seen significant development of better digital photographic sensors and the improvement of optical technology, ideal for darker environments. Such developments, in tandem with powerful processing computing systems, have allowed underwater photogrammetry to be used by this research as a standard recording and interpretative tool. Using multi-source photogrammetry (5, GoPro5 Hero Black cameras) this paper presents the accumulation of daily (4D) underwater surveys carried out in the Early Bronze Age (3,300 BC) to Late Ottoman (17th Century AD) archaeological site of Ropotamo in the Bulgarian Black Sea under challenging conditions (< 0.5m visibility). It proves that underwater photogrammetry can and should be used as one of the main recording methods even in low light and poor underwater conditions as a way to better understand the complexity of the underwater archaeological record.Keywords: 4D modelling, Black Sea, maritime archaeology, underwater photogrammetry, Bronze Age, low visibility.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 15381476 Patterns of Sports Supplement Use among Iranian Female Athletes
Authors: A. Golshanraz, L. Hakemi, L. Pourkazemi, E. Dadgostar, F. Moradzandi, R. Tabatabaee, F. Moradi, K. Hosseinihajiagha, N. Jazayeri, H. Abedifar, R. Fouladi, M. Khooban, H. Saboori, M. Kiani, M. Sajedi, E. Karooninejad, S.Moeen, M.Ghavam, F.Beiranvand, S.Mansoori, F.Gheisari, H.Barzegari
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Supplement use is common in athletes. Besides their cost, they may have side effects on health and performance. 250 questionnaires were distributed among female athletes (mean age 27.08 years). The questionnaire aimed to explore the frequency, type, believes, attitudes and knowledge regarding dietary supplements. Knowledge was good in 30.3%, fair in 60.2%, and poor in 9.1% of respondents. 65.3% of athletes did not use supplements regularly. The most widely used supplements were vitamins (48.4%), minerals (42.9%), energy supplements (21.3%), and herbals (20.9%). 68.9% of athletes believed in their efficacy. 34.4% experienced performance enhancement and 6.8% of reported side effects. 68.2% reported little knowledge and 60.9% were eager to learn more. In conclusion, many of the female athletes believe in the efficacy of supplements and think they are an unavoidable part of competitive sports. However, their information is not sufficient. We have to stress on education, consulting sessions, and rational prescription.
Keywords: athlete, female, sports, supplement
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 17451475 Distributed Coverage Control by Robot Networks in Unknown Environments Using a Modified EM Algorithm
Authors: Mohammadhosein Hasanbeig, Lacra Pavel
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In this paper, we study a distributed control algorithm for the problem of unknown area coverage by a network of robots. The coverage objective is to locate a set of targets in the area and to minimize the robots’ energy consumption. The robots have no prior knowledge about the location and also about the number of the targets in the area. One efficient approach that can be used to relax the robots’ lack of knowledge is to incorporate an auxiliary learning algorithm into the control scheme. A learning algorithm actually allows the robots to explore and study the unknown environment and to eventually overcome their lack of knowledge. The control algorithm itself is modeled based on game theory where the network of the robots use their collective information to play a non-cooperative potential game. The algorithm is tested via simulations to verify its performance and adaptability.Keywords: Distributed control, game theory, multi-agent learning, reinforcement learning.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 9731474 User Acceptance of Location-based Services
Authors: Neven Vrček, Goran Bubaš, Neven Bosilj
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Location-based services (LBS) exploit the known location of a user to provide services dependent on their geographic context and personalized needs [1]. The development and arrival of broadband mobile data networks supported with mobile terminals equipped with new location technologies like GPS have finally created opportunities for implementation of LBS applications. But, from the other side, collecting location information data in general raises privacy concerns. This paper presents results from two surveys of LBS acceptance in Croatia. The first survey was administered on 181 students, and the second extended survey involved pattern of 180 Croatian citizens. We developed questionnaire which consists of descriptions of 15 different applications with scale which measures perceptions and attitudes of users towards these applications. We report the results to identify potential commercial applications for LBS in B2C segment. Our findings suggest that some types of applications like emergency&safety services and navigation have significantly higher rate of acceptance than other types.Keywords: Acceptance, location-based services, m-application.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 19651473 Sustainable Development Contributions among University of Madeira (Portugal) Students
Authors: Hélder Spínola
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Sustainable development is highly dependent on the implementation of environmental education programs, which has as its ultimate goal to produce environmentally literate citizens that undertake environmentally friendly actions. Efforts on environmental education along past years are now perceived on the increase of citizens awareness on European countries and, particularly, in Portugal. However, we still have a lack of information on the prevalence of specific behaviors that contributes to sustainability, influenced by a new attitude toward the environment. The determination of pro-environmental behaviors prevalence in higher education students is an important approach to understand to which extend the next leading generation is, in practice, committed with the goals of sustainable development. Therefore, present study evaluates the prevalence of a specific set of behaviors (water savings, energy savings, environmental criteria on shopping, and mobility) on the University of Madeira students and discusses their commitment with sustainable development.Keywords: Pro-environmental behaviors, sustainable development, environmental education, higher education students
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 16231472 Region-Based Image Fusion with Artificial Neural Network
Authors: Shuo-Li Hsu, Peng-Wei Gau, I-Lin Wu, Jyh-Horng Jeng
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For most image fusion algorithms separate relationship by pixels in the image and treat them more or less independently. In addition, they have to be adjusted different parameters in different time or weather. In this paper, we propose a region–based image fusion which combines aspects of feature and pixel-level fusion method to replace only by pixel. The basic idea is to segment far infrared image only and to add information of each region from segmented image to visual image respectively. Then we determine different fused parameters according different region. At last, we adopt artificial neural network to deal with the problems of different time or weather, because the relationship between fused parameters and image features are nonlinear. It render the fused parameters can be produce automatically according different states. The experimental results present the method we proposed indeed have good adaptive capacity with automatic determined fused parameters. And the architecture can be used for lots of applications.Keywords: Image fusion, Region-based fusion, Segmentation, Neural network, Multi-sensor.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 22581471 Simple Procedure for Probability Calculation of Tensile Crack Occurring in Rigid Pavement – Case Study
Authors: Aleš Florian, Lenka Ševelová, Jaroslav Žák
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Formation of tensile cracks in concrete slabs of rigid pavement can be (among others) the initiation point of the other, more serious failures which can ultimately lead to complete degradation of the concrete slab and thus the whole pavement. Two measures can be used for reliability assessment of this phenomenon - the probability of failure and/or the reliability index. Different methods can be used for their calculation. The simple ones are called moment methods and simulation techniques. Two methods - FOSM Method and Simple Random Sampling Method - are verified and their comparison is performed. The influence of information about the probability distribution and the statistical parameters of input variables as well as of the limit state function on the calculated reliability index and failure probability are studied in three points on the lower surface of concrete slabs of the older type of rigid pavement formerly used in the Czech Republic.
Keywords: Failure, pavement, probability, reliability index, simulation, tensile crack.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 23071470 A Data Mining Model for Detecting Financial and Operational Risk Indicators of SMEs
Authors: Ali Serhan Koyuncugil, Nermin Ozgulbas
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In this paper, a data mining model to SMEs for detecting financial and operational risk indicators by data mining is presenting. The identification of the risk factors by clarifying the relationship between the variables defines the discovery of knowledge from the financial and operational variables. Automatic and estimation oriented information discovery process coincides the definition of data mining. During the formation of model; an easy to understand, easy to interpret and easy to apply utilitarian model that is far from the requirement of theoretical background is targeted by the discovery of the implicit relationships between the data and the identification of effect level of every factor. In addition, this paper is based on a project which was funded by The Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey (TUBITAK).
Keywords: Risk Management, Financial Risk, Operational Risk, Financial Early Warning System, Data Mining, CHAID Decision Tree Algorithm, SMEs.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 31241469 Mining Implicit Knowledge to Predict Political Risk by Providing Novel Framework with Using Bayesian Network
Authors: Siavash Asadi Ghajarloo
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Nowadays predicting political risk level of country has become a critical issue for investors who intend to achieve accurate information concerning stability of the business environments. Since, most of the times investors are layman and nonprofessional IT personnel; this paper aims to propose a framework named GECR in order to help nonexpert persons to discover political risk stability across time based on the political news and events. To achieve this goal, the Bayesian Networks approach was utilized for 186 political news of Pakistan as sample dataset. Bayesian Networks as an artificial intelligence approach has been employed in presented framework, since this is a powerful technique that can be applied to model uncertain domains. The results showed that our framework along with Bayesian Networks as decision support tool, predicted the political risk level with a high degree of accuracy.Keywords: Bayesian Networks, Data mining, GECRframework, Predicting political risk.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 21741468 The New Method of Concealed Data Aggregation in Wireless Sensor: A Case Study
Authors: M. Abbasi Dezfouli, S. Mazraeh, M. H. Yektaie
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Wireless sensor networks (WSN) consists of many sensor nodes that are placed on unattended environments such as military sites in order to collect important information. Implementing a secure protocol that can prevent forwarding forged data and modifying content of aggregated data and has low delay and overhead of communication, computing and storage is very important. This paper presents a new protocol for concealed data aggregation (CDA). In this protocol, the network is divided to virtual cells, nodes within each cell produce a shared key to send and receive of concealed data with each other. Considering to data aggregation in each cell is locally and implementing a secure authentication mechanism, data aggregation delay is very low and producing false data in the network by malicious nodes is not possible. To evaluate the performance of our proposed protocol, we have presented computational models that show the performance and low overhead in our protocol.
Keywords: Wireless Sensor Networks, Security, Concealed Data Aggregation.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 17681467 Zero-Knowledge Proof-of-Reserve: A Confidential Approach to Cryptocurrency Asset Verification
Authors: Sam, Ng, Lewis Leighton, Sam Atkinson, Carson Yan, Landan Hu, Leslie Cheung, Brian Yap, Kent Lung, Ketat Sarakune
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This paper presents a method for verifying cryptocurrency reserves that balances the need for both transparency and data confidentiality. Our methodology employs cryptographic techniques, including Merkle Trees, Bulletproof, and zkSnark, to verify that total assets equal or exceed total liabilities, represented by customer funds. Notably, this verification is achieved without disclosing sensitive information such as the total asset value, customer count, or cold wallet addresses. We delve into the construction and implementation of this methodology. While the system is robust and scalable, we also identify areas for potential enhancements to improve its efficiency and versatility. As the digital asset landscape continues to evolve, our approach provides a solid foundation for ensuring continued trust and security in digital asset platforms.
Keywords: Cryptocurrency, crypto-currency, proof-of-reserve, por, zero-knowledge, zkpor.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 601466 An E-Government Implementation Model for Peruvian State Companies Based on COBIT 5.0: Definition and Goals of the Model
Authors: M. Bruzza, M. Tupia, F. Rodríguez
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As part of the regulatory compliance process and the streamlining of public administration, the Peruvian government has implemented the National E-Government Plan in all state institutions with the aim of providing citizens with solid services based on the use of Information and Communications Technologies (ICT). As part of the regulations, the requisites to be met by public institutions have been submitted. However, the lack of an implementation model was detected, one that can serve as a guide to such institutions in order to materialize the organizational and technological structures needed, which allow them to provide the required digital services. This paper develops an implementation model of electronic government (e-government) for Peru’s state institutions, in compliance with current regulations based on a COBIT 5.0 framework. Furthermore, the paper introduces phase 1 of this model: business and IT goals, the goals cascade and the future model of processes.
Keywords: E-government, implementation, model, COBIT 5.0, digital services, u-government, m-government.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 13951465 Identification of Ductile Damage Parameters for Austenitic Steel
Authors: J. Dzugan, M. Spaniel, P. Konopík, J. Ruzicka, J. Kuzelka
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The modeling of inelastic behavior of plastic materials requires measurements providing information on material response to different multiaxial loading conditions. Different triaxiality conditions and values of Lode parameters have to be covered for complex description of the material plastic behavior. Samples geometries providing material plastic behavoiur over the range of interest are proposed with the use of FEM analysis. Round samples with 3 different notches and smooth surface are used together with butterfly type of samples tested at angle ranging for 0 to 90°. Identification of ductile damage parameters is carried out on the basis of obtained experimental data for austenitic stainless steel. The obtained material plastic damage parameters are subsequently applied to FEM simulation of notched CT normally samples used for fracture mechanics testing and results from the simulation are compared with real tests.Keywords: baqus, austenitic steel, computer simulation, ductile damage, triaxiality
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 37371464 Identifying Teachers’ Perception of Integrity in School-Based Assessment Practice: A Case Study
Authors: Abd Aziz Bin Abd Shukor, Eftah Binti Moh Hj Abdullah
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This case study aims to identify teachers’ perception as regards integrity in School-Ba sed Assessment (PBS) practice. This descriptive study involved 9 teachers from 4 secondary schools in 3 districts in the state of Perak. The respondents had undergone an integrity in PBS Practice interview using a focused group discussion method. The overall findings showed that the teachers believed that integrity in PBS practice could be achieved by adjusting the teaching methods align with learning objectives and the students’ characteristics. Many teachers, parents and student did not understand the best practice of PBS. This would affect the integrity in PBS practice. Teachers did not emphasis the principles and ethics. Their integrity as an innovative public servant may also be affected with the frequently changing assessment system, lack of training and no prior action research. The analysis of findings showed that the teachers viewed that organizational integrity involving the integrity of PBS was difficult to be implemented based on the expectations determined by Malaysia Ministry of Education (KPM). A few elements which assisted in the achievement of PBS integrity were the training, students’ understanding, the parents’ understanding of PBS, environment (involving human resources such as support and appreciation and non-human resources such as technology infrastructure readiness and media). The implications of this study show that teachers, as the PBS implementers, have a strong influence on the integrity of PBS. However, the transformation of behavior involving PBS integrity among teachers requires the stabilisation of support and infrastructure in order to enable the teachers to implement PBS in an ethical manner.
Keywords: Assessment integrity, integrity, perception, school-based assessment.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 16021463 Analysis of Tool-Chip Interface Temperature with FEM and Empirical Verification
Authors: M. Bagheri, P. Mottaghizadeh
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Reliable information about tool temperature distribution is of central importance in metal cutting. In this study, tool-chip interface temperature was determined in cutting of ST37 steel workpiece by applying HSS as the cutting tool in dry turning. Two different approaches were implemented for temperature measuring: an embedded thermocouple (RTD) in to the cutting tool and infrared (IR) camera. Comparisons are made between experimental data and results of MSC.SuperForm and FLUENT software. An investigation of heat generation in cutting tool was performed by varying cutting parameters at the stable cutting tool geometry and results were saved in a computer; then the diagrams of tool temperature vs. various cutting parameters were obtained. The experimental results reveal that the main factors of the increasing cutting temperature are cutting speed (V ), feed rate ( S ) and depth of cut ( h ), respectively. It was also determined that simultaneously change in cutting speed and feed rate has the maximum effect on increasing cutting temperature.Keywords: Cutting parameters, Finite element modeling, Temperature measurement, Tool-chip interface temperature.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 29361462 Performance Evaluation of Wavelet Based Coders on Brain MRI Volumetric Medical Datasets for Storage and Wireless Transmission
Authors: D. Dhouib, A. Naït-Ali, C. Olivier, M. S. Naceur
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In this paper, we evaluate the performance of some wavelet based coding algorithms such as 3D QT-L, 3D SPIHT and JPEG2K. In the first step we achieve an objective comparison between three coders, namely 3D SPIHT, 3D QT-L and JPEG2K. For this purpose, eight MRI head scan test sets of 256 x 256x124 voxels have been used. Results show superior performance of 3D SPIHT algorithm, whereas 3D QT-L outperforms JPEG2K. The second step consists of evaluating the robustness of 3D SPIHT and JPEG2K coding algorithm over wireless transmission. Compressed dataset images are then transmitted over AWGN wireless channel or over Rayleigh wireless channel. Results show the superiority of JPEG2K over these two models. In fact, it has been deduced that JPEG2K is more robust regarding coding errors. Thus we may conclude the necessity of using corrector codes in order to protect the transmitted medical information.
Keywords: Image coding, medical imaging, wavelet basedcoder, wireless transmission.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 19421461 A Wavelet-Based Watermarking Method Exploiting the Contrast Sensitivity Function
Authors: John N. Ellinas, Panagiotis Kenterlis
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The efficiency of an image watermarking technique depends on the preservation of visually significant information. This is attained by embedding the watermark transparently with the maximum possible strength. The current paper presents an approach for still image digital watermarking in which the watermark embedding process employs the wavelet transform and incorporates Human Visual System (HVS) characteristics. The sensitivity of a human observer to contrast with respect to spatial frequency is described by the Contrast Sensitivity Function (CSF). The strength of the watermark within the decomposition subbands, which occupy an interval on the spatial frequencies, is adjusted according to this sensitivity. Moreover, the watermark embedding process is carried over the subband coefficients that lie on edges where distortions are less noticeable. The experimental evaluation of the proposed method shows very good results in terms of robustness and transparency.
Keywords: Image watermarking, wavelet transform, human visual system, contrast sensitivity function.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 20921460 A Comparative Study on Survival and Growth of Larvivorous Fish, Rasbora daniconius, Puntius ticto, and Puntius Conchonius
Authors: Lavkush Kumar Brahman, Ramesh Chandra
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Experiments were carried out on the survival and growth of Rasbora daniconius, Puntius ticto and Puntius conchonius. The motivation of the study was to obtain information for growing the fish on a commercial scale for their use as biological control agents against mosquito larvae. The effects of temperature, total hardness, DO, pH and feed on the growth of fish were also investigated. Excessive value of total hardness was found because very rich calcium ion is present in Chitrakoot area. There was significant increases in growth rates of fish as temperature was increased from 280C to 300C. Further increases in temperature up to 320C, did not further affect growth. The positive and highly significant correlations 0.991488, 0.9581 and 0.9935 were found between length and weight of P. ticto, P. conchonius and R. daniconius respectively. The regression was significant at 5% level of probability.
Keywords: Indigenous fish, DO, larvae, mosquito, pH, Temperature, total hardness.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 18221459 Use of GIS for the Performance Evaluation of Canal Irrigation System in Rice Wheat Cropping Zone
Authors: Umm-e- Kalsoom, M. Arshad, Sadia Iqbal, M. Usman, M. Adnan
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The research study evaluated the performance of irrigation system by using special scientific tools like Remote Sensing and GIS technology, so that proper measurements could be taken for the sustainable agriculture and water management. Different performance evaluation parameters had been calculated for the purposed data was gathered from field investigation and different government and private organizations. According to the calculations, organic matter ranges from 0.19% (low value) to 0.76% (high value). In flat irrigation system for wheat yield ranges from 3347.16 to 5260.39 kg/ha, while the total water applied to wheat crop ranges from 252.94 to 279.19 mm and WUE ranges from 13.07 to 18.37 kg/ha/mm. For rice yield ranges from 3347.47 to 5433.07 kg/ha with total water supplied to rice crop ranges from 764.71 to 978.15 mm and WUE ranges from 3.49 to 5.71 kg/ha/mm. Similarly, in raised bed system wheat yield ranges from 4569.13 to 6008.60 kg/ha, total water supplied ranges from 158.87 to 185.09 mm and WUE ranges from 27.20 to 33.54 kg/ha/mm while in rice crop, yield ranges from 5285.04 to 6716.69 kg/ha, total water supplied ranges from 600.72 to 755.06 mm and WUE ranges from 6.41 to 10.05 kg/ha/mm. Almost 51.3% water saving is observed in bed irrigation system as compared to flat system. Less water supplied to beds is more affective as its WUE value is higher than flat system where more water is supplied in both the seasons. Similarly, RWS values show that maximum water deficit while minimum area is getting adequate water supply. Greater yield is recorded in bed system as plant per square meter is more in bed system in comparison of flat system Thus, the integration of GIS tools to regularly compute performance indices could provide irrigation managers with the means for managing efficiently the irrigation system.Keywords: Field survey, Relative Water Supply (RWS), Remote sensing maps, Water Use Efficiency (WUE).
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 24181458 Provision of Basic Water and Sanitation Services in South Africa through the Municipal Infrastructure Grant Programme
Authors: Elkington Sibusiso Mnguni
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Although South Africa has made good progress in providing basic water and sanitation services to its citizens, there is still a large section of the population that has no access to these services. This paper reviews the performance of the government’s municipal infrastructure grant programme in providing basic water and sanitation services which are part of the constitutional requirements to the citizens. The method used to gather data and information was a desk top study which sought to review the progress made in rolling out the programme. The successes and challenges were highlighted and possible solutions were identified that can accelerate the elimination of the remaining backlogs and improve the level of service to the citizens. Currently, approximately 6.5 million citizens are without access to basic water services and approximately 10 million are without access to basic sanitation services.
Keywords: Grant, municipal infrastructure, sanitation, services, water.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 6741457 Evolutionary Distance in the Yeast Genome
Authors: Somayyeh Azizi, Saeed Kaboli, Atsushi Yagi
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Whole genome duplication (WGD) increased the number of yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae chromosomes from 8 to 16. In spite of retention the number of chromosomes in the genome of this organism after WGD to date, chromosomal rearrangement events have caused an evolutionary distance between current genome and its ancestor. Studies under evolutionary-based approaches on eukaryotic genomes have shown that the rearrangement distance is an approximable problem. In the case of S. cerevisiae, we describe that rearrangement distance is accessible by using dedoubled adjacency graph drawn for 55 large paired chromosomal regions originated from WGD. Then, we provide a program extracted from a C program database to draw a dedoubled genome adjacency graph for S. cerevisiae. From a bioinformatical perspective, using the duplicated blocks of current genome in S. cerevisiae, we infer that genomic organization of eukaryotes has the potential to provide valuable detailed information about their ancestrygenome.Keywords: Whole-genome duplication, Evolution, Double-cutand- join operation, Yeast.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 15051456 Removal of Cationic Heavy Metal and HOC from Soil-Washed Water Using Activated Carbon
Authors: Chi Kyu Ahn, Young Mi Kim, Seung Han Woo, Jong Moon Park
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Soil washing process with a surfactant solution is a potential technology for the rapid removal of hydrophobic organic compound (HOC) from soil. However, large amount of washed water would be produced during operation and this should be treated effectively by proper methods. The soil washed water for complex contaminated site with HOC and heavy metals might contain high amount of pollutants such as HOC and heavy metals as well as used surfactant. The heavy metals in the soil washed water have toxic effects on microbial activities thus these should be removed from the washed water before proceeding to a biological waste-water treatment system. Moreover, the used surfactant solutions are necessary to be recovered for reducing the soil washing operation cost. In order to simultaneously remove the heavy metals and HOC from soil-washed water, activated carbon (AC) was used in the present study. In an anionic-nonionic surfactant mixed solution, the Cd(II) and phenanthrene (PHE) were effectively removed by adsorption on activated carbon. The removal efficiency for Cd(II) was increased from 0.027 mmol-Cd/g-AC to 0.142 mmol-Cd/g-AC as the mole ratio of SDS increased in the presence of PHE. The adsorptive capacity of PHE was also increased according to the SDS mole ratio due to the decrement of molar solubilization ratios (MSR) for PHE in an anionic-nonionic surfactant mixture. The simultaneous adsorption of HOC and cationic heavy metals using activated carbon could be a useful method for surfactant recovery and the reduction of heavy metal toxicity in a surfactant-enhanced soil washing process.
Keywords: Activated carbon, Anionic-nonionic surfactant mixture, Cationic heavy metal, HOC, Soil washing
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 17311455 Indian License Plate Detection and Recognition Using Morphological Operation and Template Matching
Authors: W. Devapriya, C. Nelson Kennedy Babu, T. Srihari
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Automatic License plate recognition (ALPR) is a technology which recognizes the registration plate or number plate or License plate of a vehicle. In this paper, an Indian vehicle number plate is mined and the characters are predicted in efficient manner. ALPR involves four major technique i) Pre-processing ii) License Plate Location Identification iii) Individual Character Segmentation iv) Character Recognition. The opening phase, named pre-processing helps to remove noises and enhances the quality of the image using the conception of Morphological Operation and Image subtraction. The second phase, the most puzzling stage ascertain the location of license plate using the protocol Canny Edge detection, dilation and erosion. In the third phase, each characters characterized by Connected Component Approach (CCA) and in the ending phase, each segmented characters are conceptualized using cross correlation template matching- a scheme specifically appropriate for fixed format. Major application of ALPR is Tolling collection, Border Control, Parking, Stolen cars, Enforcement, Access Control, Traffic control. The database consists of 500 car images taken under dissimilar lighting condition is used. The efficiency of the system is 97%. Our future focus is Indian Vehicle License Plate Validation (Whether License plate of a vehicle is as per Road transport and highway standard).
Keywords: Automatic License plate recognition, Character recognition, Number plate Recognition, Template matching, morphological operation, canny edge detection.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 24061454 A Bionic Approach to Dynamic, Multimodal Scene Perception and Interpretation in Buildings
Authors: Rosemarie Velik, Dietmar Bruckner
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Today, building automation is advancing from simple monitoring and control tasks of lightning and heating towards more and more complex applications that require a dynamic perception and interpretation of different scenes occurring in a building. Current approaches cannot handle these newly upcoming demands. In this article, a bionically inspired approach for multimodal, dynamic scene perception and interpretation is presented, which is based on neuroscientific and neuro-psychological research findings about the perceptual system of the human brain. This approach bases on data from diverse sensory modalities being processed in a so-called neuro-symbolic network. With its parallel structure and with its basic elements being information processing and storing units at the same time, a very efficient method for scene perception is provided overcoming the problems and bottlenecks of classical dynamic scene interpretation systems.Keywords: building automation, biomimetrics, dynamic scene interpretation, human-like perception, neuro-symbolic networks.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 16171453 Observations about the Principal Components Analysis and Data Clustering Techniques in the Study of Medical Data
Authors: Cristina G. Dascâlu, Corina Dima Cozma, Elena Carmen Cotrutz
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The medical data statistical analysis often requires the using of some special techniques, because of the particularities of these data. The principal components analysis and the data clustering are two statistical methods for data mining very useful in the medical field, the first one as a method to decrease the number of studied parameters, and the second one as a method to analyze the connections between diagnosis and the data about the patient-s condition. In this paper we investigate the implications obtained from a specific data analysis technique: the data clustering preceded by a selection of the most relevant parameters, made using the principal components analysis. Our assumption was that, using the principal components analysis before data clustering - in order to select and to classify only the most relevant parameters – the accuracy of clustering is improved, but the practical results showed the opposite fact: the clustering accuracy decreases, with a percentage approximately equal with the percentage of information loss reported by the principal components analysis.Keywords: Data clustering, medical data, principal components analysis.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 15021452 Blind Impulse Response Identification of Frequency Radio Channels: Application to Bran A Channel
Authors: S. Safi, M. Frikel, M. M'Saad, A. Zeroual
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This paper describes a blind algorithm for estimating a time varying and frequency selective fading channel. In order to identify blindly the impulse response of these channels, we have used Higher Order Statistics (HOS) to build our algorithm. In this paper, we have selected two theoretical frequency selective channels as the Proakis-s 'B' channel and the Macchi-s channel, and one practical frequency selective fading channel called Broadband Radio Access Network (BRAN A). The simulation results in noisy environment and for different data input channel, demonstrate that the proposed method could estimate the phase and magnitude of these channels blindly and without any information about the input, except that the input excitation is i.i.d (Identically and Independent Distributed) and non-Gaussian.
Keywords: Frequency response, system identification, higher order statistics, communication channels, phase estimation.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 18331451 Forecasting Fraudulent Financial Statements using Data Mining
Authors: S. Kotsiantis, E. Koumanakos, D. Tzelepis, V. Tampakas
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This paper explores the effectiveness of machine learning techniques in detecting firms that issue fraudulent financial statements (FFS) and deals with the identification of factors associated to FFS. To this end, a number of experiments have been conducted using representative learning algorithms, which were trained using a data set of 164 fraud and non-fraud Greek firms in the recent period 2001-2002. The decision of which particular method to choose is a complicated problem. A good alternative to choosing only one method is to create a hybrid forecasting system incorporating a number of possible solution methods as components (an ensemble of classifiers). For this purpose, we have implemented a hybrid decision support system that combines the representative algorithms using a stacking variant methodology and achieves better performance than any examined simple and ensemble method. To sum up, this study indicates that the investigation of financial information can be used in the identification of FFS and underline the importance of financial ratios.Keywords: Machine learning, stacking, classifier.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 30531450 Food Quality Labels and their Perception by Consumers in the Czech Republic
Authors: Sarka Velcovska
Abstract:
The paper deals with quality labels used in the food products market, especially with labels of quality, labels of origin, and labels of organic farming. The aim of the paper is to identify perception of these labels by consumers in the Czech Republic. The first part refers to the definition and specification of food quality labels that are relevant in the Czech Republic. The second part includes the discussion of marketing research results. Data were collected with personal questioning method. Empirical findings on 150 respondents are related to consumer awareness and perception of national and European food quality labels used in the Czech Republic, attitudes to purchases of labelled products, and interest in information regarding the labels. Statistical methods, in the concrete Pearson´s chi-square test of independence, coefficient of contingency, and coefficient of association are used to determinate if significant differences do exist among selected demographic categories of Czech consumers.
Keywords: Food quality labels, quality labels awareness, quality labels perception, marketing research.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2327