Search results for: characteristics of quality

Authors: Susan.Bandias

Abstract:

This paper examines the role of telecommunications in sustainable development of urban, rural and remote communities in the Northern Territory of Australia through the theoretical lens of Social Capital. Social Capital is a relatively new construct and is rapidly gaining interest among policy makers, politicians and researchers as a means to both describe and understand social and economic development. Increasingly, the concept of Social Capital, as opposed to the traditional economic indicators, is seen as a more accurate measure of well-being. Whilst the essence of Social Capital is quality social relations, the concept intersects with telecommunications and Information Communications Technology (ICT) in a number of ways. The potential of ICT to disseminate information quickly, to reach vast numbers of people simultaneously and to include the previously excluded, is immense. However, the exact nature of the relationship is not clearly defined. This paper examines the nexus between social relations of mutual benefit, telecommunications access and sustainable development. A mixed methodological approach was used to test the hypothesis that No relationship exists between Social Capital and access to telecommunications services and facilities. Four communities, which included two urban, a rural and a remote Indigenous community in the Northern Territory of Australia are the focus of this research paper.

Keywords: Indigenous disadvantage, Social Capital, sustainable development, telecommunications.

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Authors: Ammar M. Hassan, Ayoub Al-Hamadi, Yassin M. Y. Hasan, Mohamed A. A. Wahab, Bernd Michaelis

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Because of the great advance in multimedia technology, digital multimedia is vulnerable to malicious manipulations. In this paper, a public key self-recovery block-based video authentication technique is proposed which can not only precisely localize the alteration detection but also recover the missing data with high reliability. In the proposed block-based technique, multiple description coding MDC is used to generate two codes (two descriptions) for each block. Although one block code (one description) is enough to rebuild the altered block, the altered block is rebuilt with better quality by the two block descriptions. So using MDC increases the ratability of recovering data. A block signature is computed using a cryptographic hash function and a doubly linked chain is utilized to embed the block signature copies and the block descriptions into the LSBs of distant blocks and the block itself. The doubly linked chain scheme gives the proposed technique the capability to thwart vector quantization attacks. In our proposed technique , anyone can check the authenticity of a given video using the public key. The experimental results show that the proposed technique is reliable for detecting, localizing and recovering the alterations.

Keywords: Authentication, hash function, multiple descriptioncoding, public key encryption, watermarking.

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Authors: Faisal Alazzaz, Andrew Whyte

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Off-site construction methods have played an important role in the construction sector in the past few decades. It is increasingly becoming a major alternative technique and strategic direction compared to traditional in-situ method. It produces a significant amount of value for the construction industry and the economy more generally. To date, an impressive number of studies have been lunched on the perceived perception of off-site construction. However, it seems that a quantifying benefit on the offsite construction area is lacking. Therefore, this paper examines the recent research literature on the benefits of off- site construction and provides future direction. In the beginning, this paper provides a brief history and current value of the off-site construction followed by a detailed discussion on the benefit of off-site construction. These benefits include but not limited to time saving, quality improvement, relieving skills shortages, cost reduction and productivity improvement. Toward this end, off-site construction should learn from other productive industry similar to services or manufacturing industry by applying operational management tools and techniques with extensive focus on employee empowerment will shed the light on future uptake of Off-site construction. This study is of value in providing scholars have a clear picture of perceived benefit of off-site construction research and give an opportunities for future uptake of off-site method.

Keywords: Building projects, Employer empowerment, Off-site construction benefits, Productivity.

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Authors: Man Young Kim

Abstract:

In this work, the effects of scale on thermal behavior of the slab in a walking-beam type reheating furnace is studied by considering scale formation and growth in a furnace environment. Also, mathematical heat transfer model to predict the thermal radiation in a complex shaped reheating furnace with slab and skid buttons is developed with combined nongray WSGGM and blocked-off solution procedure. The model can attack the heat flux distribution within the furnace and the temperature distribution in the slab throughout the reheating furnace process by considering the heat exchange between the slab and its surroundings, including the radiant heat transfer among the slabs, the skids, the hot combustion gases and the furnace wall as well as the gas convective heat transfer in the furnace. With the introduction of the mathematical formulations validation of the present numerical model is conducted by calculating two example problems of blocked-off and nongray gas radiative heat transfer. After discussing the formation and growth of the scale on the slab surface, slab heating characteristics with scale is investigated in terms of temperature rise with time. 

Keywords: Reheating Furnace, Scale, Steel Slab, Radiative Heat Transfer, WSGGM.

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Authors: D. Kriebel, J. E. Mehner

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The paper introduces a method to efficiently simulate nonlinear changing electrostatic fields occurring in micro-electromechanical systems (MEMS). Large deflections of the capacitor electrodes usually introduce nonlinear electromechanical forces on the mechanical system. Traditional finite element methods require a time-consuming remeshing process to capture exact results for this physical domain interaction. In order to accelerate the simulation process and eliminate the remeshing process, a formulation of a strongly coupled electromechanical transducer element will be introduced which uses a combination of finite-element with an advanced mesh morphing technique using radial basis functions (RBF). The RBF allows large geometrical changes of the electric field domain while retain high element quality of the deformed mesh. Coupling effects between mechanical and electrical domains are directly included within the element formulation. Fringing field effects are described accurate by using traditional arbitrary shape functions.

Keywords: electromechanical, electric field, transducer, simulation, modeling, finite-element, mesh morphing, radial basis function

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Authors: Marcus C. Garcia, Giselle C. Guimarães, Luciana H. Yamane, Renato R. Siman

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The environmental indicators and the classification of beach waste are essential tools to diagnose the current situation and to indicate ways to improve the quality of this environment. The purpose of this paper was to perform a quali-quantitative analysis of the beach waste on the Curva da Jurema Beach (Espírito Santo - Brazil). Three transects were used with equidistant positioning over the total length of the beach for the solid waste collection. Solid wastes were later classified according to their use and primary raw material from the low and high summer season. During the low season, average values of 7.10 items.m^-1, 18.22 g.m^-1 and 0.91 g.m^-2 were found for the whole beach, and transect 3 contributed the most waste, with the total sum of items equal to 999 (49%), a total mass of 5.62 kg and a total volume of 21.31 L. During the high summer season, average values of 8.22 items.m^-1, 54.40 g.m^-1 and 2.72 g.m^-2 were found, with transect 2 contributing the most to the total sum with 1,212 items (53%), a total mass of 10.76 kg and a total volume of 51.99 L. Of the total collected, plastic materials represented 51.4% of the total number of items, 35.9% of the total mass and 68% of the total volume. The implementation of reactive and proactive measures is necessary so that the management of the solid wastes on Curva da Jurema Beach is in accordance with principles of sustainability.

Keywords: Beach solid waste, environmental indicators, quali-quantitative analysis, waste management.

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Authors: R. Rama Kishore, Sunesh

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This paper presents an optimized, robust, and secured watermarking technique. The methodology used in this work is the combination of entropy and chaotic grid map. The proposed methodology incorporates Discrete Cosine Transform (DCT) on the host image. To improve the imperceptibility of the method, the host image DCT blocks, where the watermark is to be embedded, are further optimized by considering the entropy of the blocks. Chaotic grid is used as a key to reorder the DCT blocks so that it will further increase security while selecting the watermark embedding locations and its sequence. Without a key, one cannot reveal the exact watermark from the watermarked image. The proposed method is implemented on four different images. It is concluded that the proposed method is giving better results in terms of imperceptibility measured through PSNR and found to be above 50. In order to prove the effectiveness of the method, the performance analysis is done after implementing different attacks on the watermarked images. It is found that the methodology is very strong against JPEG compression attack even with the quality parameter up to 15. The experimental results are confirming that the combination of entropy and chaotic grid map method is strong and secured to different image processing attacks.

Keywords: Digital watermarking, discrete cosine transform, chaotic grid map, entropy.

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Authors: Dina Tamazin, Nicoleta Tipi, Sahar Validi

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The oil refining industry plays vital role in the world economy. Oil refining companies operate in a more complex and dynamic environment than ever before. In addition, oil refining companies and the public are becoming more conscious of crude oil scarcity and climate changes. Hence, sustainability in the oil refining industry is becoming increasingly critical to the industry's long-term viability and to the environmental sustainability. Mainly, it is relevant to the measurement and evaluation of the company's sustainable performance to support the company in understanding their performance and its implication more objectively and establishing sustainability development plans. Consequently, the oil refining companies attempt to re-engineer their supply chain to meet the sustainable goals and standards. On the other hand, this research realized that previous research in oil refining sustainable supply chain performance measurements reveals that there is a lack of studies that consider the integration of sustainability in the supply chain performance measurement practices in the oil refining industry. Therefore, there is a need for research that provides performance guidance, which can be used to measure sustainability and assist in setting sustainable goals for oil refining supply chains. Accordingly, this paper aims to present a comprehensive oil refining sustainable supply chain performance measurement theoretical framework. In development of this theoretical framework, the main characteristics of oil refining industry have been identified. For this purpose, a thorough review of relevant literature on performance measurement models and sustainable supply chain performance measurement models has been conducted. The comprehensive oil refining sustainable supply chain performance measurement theoretical framework introduced in this paper aims to assist oil refining companies in measuring and evaluating their performance from a sustainability aspect to achieve sustainable operational excellence.

Keywords: Oil refining industry, oil refining sustainable supply chain performance measurements, performance measurements, sustainability.

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Authors: S. S. Dol, M. S. Chan, S. F. Wong, J. S. Lim

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Emulsion formation is unavoidable and can be detrimental to an oil field production. The presence of stable emulsions also reduces the quality of crude oil and causes more problems in the downstream refinery operations, such as corrosion and pipeline pressure drop. Hence, it is important to know the effects of emulsions in the pipeline. Light crude oil was used for the continuous phase in the W/O emulsions where the emulsions pass through a flow loop to test the pressure drop across the pipeline. The results obtained shows that pressure drop increases as water cut is increased until it peaks at the phase inversion of the W/O emulsion between 30% to 40% water cut. Emulsions produced by gradual constrictions show a lower stability as compared to sudden constrictions. Lower stability of emulsions in gradual constriction has the higher influence of pressure drop compared to a sudden sharp decrease in diameter in sudden constriction. Generally, sudden constriction experiences pressure drop of 0.013% to 0.067% higher than gradual constriction of the same ratio. Lower constriction ratio cases cause larger pressure drop ranging from 0.061% to 0.241%. Considering the higher profitability in lower emulsion stability and lower pressure drop at the developed flow region of different constrictions, an optimum design of constriction is found to be gradual constriction with a ratio of 0.5.

Keywords: Constriction, pressure drop, turbulence, water cut, water-in-oil emulsions.

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Authors: Erfan Niazi, Marianne Fenech

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Red Blood Cells (RBCs) or erythrocytes tend to form chain-like aggregates under low shear rate called rouleaux. This is a reversible process and rouleaux disaggregate in high shear rates. Therefore, RBCs aggregation occurs in the microcirculation where low shear rates are present but does not occur under normal physiological conditions in large arteries. Numerical modeling of RBCs interactions is fundamental in analytical models of a blood flow in microcirculation. Population Balance Modeling (PBM) is particularly useful for studying problems where particles agglomerate and break in a two phase flow systems to find flow characteristics. In this method, the elementary particles lose their individual identity due to continuous destructions and recreations by break-up and agglomeration. The aim of this study is to find RBCs aggregation in a dynamic situation. Simplified PBM was used previously to find the aggregation rate on a static observation of the RBCs aggregation in a drop of blood under the microscope. To find aggregation rate in a dynamic situation we propose an experimental set up testing RBCs sedimentation. In this test, RBCs interact and aggregate to form rouleaux. In this configuration, disaggregation can be neglected due to low shear stress. A high-speed camera is used to acquire video-microscopic pictures of the process. The sizes of the aggregates and velocity of sedimentation are extracted using an image processing techniques. Based on the data collection from 5 healthy human blood samples, the aggregation rate was estimated as 2.7x10³(±0.3 x10³) 1/s.

Keywords: Red blood cell, Rouleaux, microfluidics, image processing, population balance modeling.

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Authors: Abdulaziz H. El-Sinawi

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Some of the polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) are the strongest known carcinogens compounds; the majority of them are mostly produced by the incomplete combustion of fossil fuels; Motor vehicles are a significant source of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) where diesel emission is one of the main sources of such compounds available in the ambient air. There is a big concern about the increasing concentration of PAHs in the environment. Researchers are trying to explore optimal methods to reduce those pollutants and improve the quality of air. Water blended fuel is one of the possible approaches to reduce emission of PAHs from the combustion of diesel in urban and domestic vehicles. In this work a modeling study was conducted using CHEMKIN-PRO software to simulate spray combustion at similar diesel engine conditions. Surrogate fuel of (80 % n-heptane and 20 % toluene) was used due to detailed kinetic and thermodynamic data needed for modeling is available for this kind of fuel but not available for diesel. An emulsified fuel with 3, 5, 8, 10 and 20 % water by volume is used as an engine feed for this study. The modeling results show that water has a significant effect on reducing engine soot and PAHs precursors formation up to certain extent.

Keywords: Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAHs), DieselEngine, Emission, Surrogate Fuel, Emulsified Fuel, Soot precursors, Combustion

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Authors: Jie Zhang, Qianyu Guo, Tieyi Zhang, Zhiyong Feng, Xiaohong Li

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The widespread popularity of mobile devices and the development of artificial intelligence (AI) have led to the widespread adoption of deep learning (DL) in Android apps. Compared with traditional Android apps (traditional apps), deep learning based Android apps (DL-based apps) need to use more third-party application programming interfaces (APIs) to complete complex DL inference tasks. However, existing methods (e.g., FlowDroid) for detecting sensitive information leakage in Android apps cannot be directly used to detect DL-based apps as they are difficult to detect third-party APIs. To solve this problem, we design DLtrace, a new static information flow analysis tool that can effectively recognize third-party APIs. With our proposed trace and detection algorithms, DLtrace can also efficiently detect privacy leaks caused by sensitive APIs in DL-based apps. Additionally, we propose two formal definitions to deal with the common polymorphism and anonymous inner-class problems in the Android static analyzer. Using DLtrace, we summarize the non-sequential characteristics of DL inference tasks in DL-based apps and the specific functionalities provided by DL models for such apps. We conduct an empirical assessment with DLtrace on 208 popular DL-based apps in the wild and found that 26.0% of the apps suffered from sensitive information leakage. Furthermore, DLtrace outperformed FlowDroid in detecting and identifying third-party APIs. The experimental results demonstrate that DLtrace expands FlowDroid in understanding DL-based apps and detecting security issues therein.

Keywords: Mobile computing, deep learning apps, sensitive information, static analysis.

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Authors: Lenka Hurtalová, Eva Tillová, Mária Chalupová, Juraj Belan, Milan Uhríčik

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The secondary alloy A226 is used for many automotive casting produced by mould casting and high pressure die casting. This alloy has excellent castability, good mechanical properties and cost-effectiveness. Production of primary aluminium alloys belong to heavy source fouling of life environs. The European Union calls for the emission reduction and reduction in energy consumption therefore increase production of recycled (secondary) aluminium cast alloys. The contribution is deal with influence of recycling on the quality of the casting made from A226 in automotive industry. The properties of the casting made from secondary aluminium alloys were compared with the required properties of primary aluminium alloys. The effect of recycling on microstructure was observed using combination different analytical techniques (light microscopy upon black-white etching, scanning electron microscopy - SEM upon deep etching and energy dispersive X-ray analysis - EDX). These techniques were used for the identification of the various structure parameters, which was used to compare secondary alloy microstructure with primary alloy microstructure.

Keywords: A226 secondary aluminium alloy, deep etching, mechanical properties, recycling foundry aluminium alloy.

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Authors: Noor Zainab Habib, Ibrahim Kamaruddin, Madzalan Napiah, Isa Mohd Tan

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This paper presents a research conducted to investigate the effect of mixing process on polypropylene (PP) modified bitumen mixed with well graded aggregate to form modified bituminous concrete mix. Two mode of mixing, namely dry and wet with different concentration of polymer polypropylene was used with 80/100 pen bitumen, to evaluate the bituminous concrete mix properties. Three percentages of polymer varying from 1-3% by the weight of bitumen was used in this study. Three mixes namely control mix, wet mix and dry mix were prepared. Optimum binder content was calculated considering Marshall Stability, flow, air voids and Marshall Quotient at different bitumen content varying from 4% - 6.5% for control, dry and wet mix. Engineering properties thus obtained at the calculated optimum bitumen content revealed that wet mixing process is advantageous in comparison to dry mixing as it increases the stiffness of the mixture with the increase in polymer content in bitumen. Stiffness value for wet mix increases with the increase in polymer content which is beneficial in terms of rutting. 1% PP dry mix also shows enhanced stiffness, with the air void content limited to 4%.The flow behaviour of dry mix doesn't indicate any major difference with the increase in polymer content revealing that polymer acting as an aggregate only without affecting the viscosity of the binder in the mix. Polypropylene (PP) when interacted with 80 pen base bitumen enhances its performance characteristics which were brought about by altered rheological properties of the modified bitumen. The decrease in flow with the increase in binder content reflects the increase in viscosity of binder which induces the plastic flow in the mix. Workability index indicates that wet mix were easy to compact up to desired void ratio in comparison to dry mix samples.

Keywords: Marshall Flow, Marshall Stability, Polymer modified bitumen, Polypropylene, Stiffness.

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Authors: Farhad Asadi, S. Hossein Sadati

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This paper presents a prediction performance of feedforward Multilayer Perceptron (MLP) and Echo State Networks (ESN) trained with extended Kalman filter. Feedforward neural networks and ESN are powerful neural networks which can track and predict nonlinear signals. However, their tracking performance depends on the specific signals or data sets, having the risk of instability accompanied by large error. In this study we explore this process by applying different network size and leaking rate for prediction of nonlinear or chaotic signals in MLP neural networks. Major problems of ESN training such as the problem of initialization of the network and improvement in the prediction performance are tackled. The influence of coefficient of activation function in the hidden layer and other key parameters are investigated by simulation results. Extended Kalman filter is employed in order to improve the sequential and regulation learning rate of the feedforward neural networks. This training approach has vital features in the training of the network when signals have chaotic or non-stationary sequential pattern. Minimization of the variance in each step of the computation and hence smoothing of tracking were obtained by examining the results, indicating satisfactory tracking characteristics for certain conditions. In addition, simulation results confirmed satisfactory performance of both of the two neural networks with modified parameterization in tracking of the nonlinear signals.

Keywords: Feedforward neural networks, nonlinear signal prediction, echo state neural networks approach, leaking rates, capacity of neural networks.

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Authors: H. C. Chinwenyi, H. D. Ibrahim, F. A. Ahmed

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In modern financial mathematics, valuing derivatives such as options is often a tedious task. This is simply because their fair and correct prices in the future are often probabilistic. This paper examines three different Stochastic Differential Equation (SDE) models in finance; the Constant Elasticity of Variance (CEV) model, the Balck-Karasinski model, and the Heston model. The various Martingales option price valuation formulas for these three models were obtained using the replicating portfolio method. Also, the numerical solution of the derived Martingales options price valuation equations for the SDEs models was carried out using the Monte Carlo method which was implemented using MATLAB. Furthermore, results from the numerical examples using published data from the Nigeria Stock Exchange (NSE), all share index data show the effect of increase in the underlying asset value (stock price) on the value of the European Put Option for these models. From the results obtained, we see that an increase in the stock price yields a decrease in the value of the European put option price. Hence, this guides the option holder in making a quality decision by not exercising his right on the option.

Keywords: Equivalent Martingale Measure, European Put Option, Girsanov Theorem, Martingales, Monte Carlo method, option price valuation, option price valuation formula.

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Authors: Wichai Pattanapol, Sarah J. Wakes, Michael J. Hilton, Katharine J.M. Dickinson

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Turbulence modeling of large-scale flow over a vegetated surface is complex. Such problems involve large scale computational domains, while the characteristics of flow near the surface are also involved. In modeling large scale flow, surface roughness including vegetation is generally taken into account by mean of roughness parameters in the modified law of the wall. However, the turbulence structure within the canopy region cannot be captured with this method, another method which applies source/sink terms to model plant drag can be used. These models have been developed and tested intensively but with a simple surface geometry. This paper aims to compare the use of roughness parameter, and additional source/sink terms in modeling the effect of plant drag on wind flow over a complex vegetated surface. The RNG k-ε turbulence model with the non-equilibrium wall function was tested with both cases. In addition, the k-ω turbulence model, which is claimed to be computationally stable, was also investigated with the source/sink terms. All numerical results were compared to the experimental results obtained at the study site Mason Bay, Stewart Island, New Zealand. In the near-surface region, it is found that the results obtained by using the source/sink term are more accurate than those using roughness parameters. The k-ω turbulence model with source/sink term is more appropriate as it is more accurate and more computationally stable than the RNG k-ε turbulence model. At higher region, there is no significant difference amongst the results obtained from all simulations.

Keywords: CFD, canopy flow, surface roughness, turbulence models.

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Authors: Ambalika Ekka

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In today’s world, the growing demand for urban built forms has resulted in the production and consumption of building materials i.e. embodied energy in building construction, leading to pollution and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Therefore, new buildings will offer a unique opportunity to implement more energy efficient building without compromising on building performance of the building. Embodied energy of building materials forms major contribution to embodied energy in buildings. The paper results in an approach towards designing an energy efficient apartment building through embodied energy assessment. This paper discusses the trend of residential development in Rourkela, which includes three case studies of the contemporary houses, followed by architectural elements, number of storeys, predominant material use and plot sizes using primary data. It results in identification of predominant material used and other characteristics in urban area. Further, the embodied energy coefficients of various dominant building materials and alternative materials manufactured in Indian Industry is taken in consideration from secondary source i.e. literature study. The paper analyses the embodied energy by estimating materials and operational energy of proposed building followed by altering the specifications of the materials based on the building components i.e. walls, flooring, windows, insulation and roof through res build India software and comparison of different options is assessed with consideration of sustainable parameters. This paper results that autoclaved aerated concrete block only reaches the energy performance Index benchmark i.e. 69.35 kWh/m² yr i.e. by saving 4% of operational energy and as embodied energy has no particular index, out of all materials it has the highest EE 23206202.43  MJ.

Keywords: Energy efficient, embodied energy, energy performance index, building materials.

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Authors: Haoyi Sheng

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China's aging tendency is becoming increasingly severe, which leads to the embarrassing situation of "getting old before getting wealthy". The traditional pension model does not comply with the need of today. Relying on "Internet Plus", it can efficiently integrate information and resources and meet the personalized needs of elderly care. It can reduce the operating cost of community elderly care facilities and lay a technical foundation for providing better services for the elderly. The key for providing help for the elderly in the future is to effectively integrate technology, make good use of technology, and improve the efficiency of elderly care services. The effective integration of traditional home care, community care, intelligent elderly care equipment and medical resources to create the "Internet Plus" community intelligent pension service mode has become the future development trend of aging care. The research method of this paper is to collect literature and conduct theoretical research on community pension firstly. Secondly, the combination of suitable aging design and "Internet Plus" is elaborated through research. Finally, this paper states the current level of intelligent technology in old-age care and looks into the future by understanding multiple levels of "Internet Plus". The development of community intelligent pension mode and content under "Internet Plus" has enormous development potential. In addition to the characteristics and functions of ordinary houses, residential design of endowment housing has higher requirements for comfort and personalization, and the people-oriented is the principle of design.

Keywords: Ageing tendency, "Internet plus", community intelligent elderly care, elderly care service model, technology.

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Authors: N. A. Ahmad Zubairi, H. Takaijudin, K. W. Yusof

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Pesticides have been used widely over the world in agriculture to protect from pests and reduce crop losses. However, it affects the environment with toxic chemicals. Exceed of toxic constituents in the ecosystem will result in bad side effects. The hydrological cycle is related to the existence of pesticides and heavy metal which it can penetrate through varieties of sources into the soil or water bodies, especially runoff. Therefore, proper mechanisms of pesticide and heavy metal removal should be studied to improve the quality of ecosystem free or reduce from unwanted substances. This paper reviews the use of treatment train and its mechanisms to minimize pesticides and heavy metal from agricultural runoff. Organochlorine (OCL) is a common pesticide that was found in the agricultural runoff. OCL is one of the toxic chemicals that can disturb the ecosystem such as inhibiting plants' growth and harm human health by having symptoms as asthma, active cancer cell, vomit, diarrhea, etc. Thus, this unwanted contaminant gives disadvantages to the environment and needs treatment system. Hence, treatment train by bioretention system is suitable because removal efficiency achieves until 90% of pesticide removal with selected vegetated plant and additive.

Keywords: Pesticides, heavy metal, agricultural runoff, bioretention, mechanism removal, treatment train.

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Authors: Muhammad Rehan Khalid, Muhammad Haroon Siddiqui, Danish Ilyas

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This paper explores the implementation of adaptive coding and modulation schemes for Multiple-Input Multiple-Output Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (MIMO-OFDM) feedback systems. Adaptive coding and modulation enables robust and spectrally-efficient transmission over time-varying channels. The basic premise is to estimate the channel at the receiver and feed this estimate back to the transmitter, so that the transmission scheme can be adapted relative to the channel characteristics. Two types of codebook based channel feedback techniques are used in this work. The longterm and short-term CSI at the transmitter is used for efficient channel utilization. OFDM is a powerful technique employed in communication systems suffering from frequency selectivity. Combined with multiple antennas at the transmitter and receiver, OFDM proves to be robust against delay spread. Moreover, it leads to significant data rates with improved bit error performance over links having only a single antenna at both the transmitter and receiver. The coded modulation increases the effective transmit power relative to uncoded variablerate variable-power MQAM performance for MIMO-OFDM feedback system. Hence proposed arrangement becomes an attractive approach to achieve enhanced spectral efficiency and improved error rate performance for next generation high speed wireless communication systems.

Keywords: Adaptive Coded Modulation, MQAM, MIMO, OFDM, Codebooks, Feedback.

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Authors: Gintarė Sauliutė, Gintaras Svecevičius

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Landfill leachates contain a number of persistent pollutants, including heavy metals. They have the ability to spread in ecosystems and accumulate in fish which most of them are classified as top-consumers of trophic chains. Fish are freely swimming organisms; but perhaps, due to their species-specific ecological and behavioral properties, they often prefer the most suitable biotopes and therefore, did not avoid harmful substances or environments. That is why it is necessary to evaluate the persistent pollutant dispersion in hydroecosystem using fish tissue metal concentration. In hydroecosystems of hybrid type (e.g. river-pond-river) the distance from the pollution source could be a perfect indicator of such a kind of metal distribution. The studies were carried out in the Kairiai landfill neighboring hybrid-type ecosystem which is located 5 km east of the Šiauliai City. Fish tissue (gills, liver, and muscle) metal concentration measurements were performed on two types of ecologically-different fishes according to their feeding characteristics: benthophagous (Gibel carp, roach) and predatory (Northern pike, perch). A number of mathematical models (linear, non-linear, using log and other transformations) have been applied in order to identify the most satisfactorily description of the interdependence between fish tissue metal concentration and the distance from the pollution source. However, the only one log-multiple regression model revealed the pattern that the distance from the pollution source is closely and positively correlated with metal concentration in all predatory fish tissues studied (gills, liver, and muscle).

Keywords: Bioaccumulation in fish, heavy metals, hydroecosystem, landfill leachate, mathematical model.

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Authors: Alexandra Aslanidou

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The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), concerning the protection of natural persons within the European Union with regard to the processing of personal data and on the free movement of such data, became applicable in the European Union (EU) on 25 May 2018 and transformed the way personal data were being treated under the Data Protection Directive (DPD) regime, generating sweeping organizational changes to both public sector and business. A social practice that is considerably influenced in the way of its day-to-day operations is Human Resource (HR) management, for which the importance of GDPR cannot be underestimated. That is because HR processes personal data coming in all shapes and sizes from many different systems and sources. The significance of the proper functioning of an HR department, specifically in human-centered, service-oriented environments such as the education field, is decisive due to the fact that HR operations in schools, conducted effectively, determine the quality of the provided services and consequently have a considerable impact on the success of the educational system. The purpose of this paper is to analyze the decisive role that GDPR plays in HR departments that operate in schools and in order to practically evaluate the aftermath of the Regulation during the first months of its applicability; a comparative use cases analysis in five highly dynamic schools, across three EU Member States, was attempted.

Keywords: General data protection regulation, human resource management, educational system.

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Authors: Sushil Kumar Swar, Sanjay Kumar Sharma, Hari Krishan Sharma, Sushil Kumar

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The seriously damaged structures during earthquakes show the need and importance of design of reinforced concrete structures with high ductility. Reinforced concrete beam-column joints have an important function in all structures. Under seismic excitation, the beam column joint region is subjected to horizontal and vertical shear forces whose magnitude is many times higher than the adjacent beam and column. Strength and ductility of structures depends mainly on proper detailing of the reinforcement in beamcolumn joints and the old structures were found ductility deficient. DSP materials are obtained by using high quantities of super plasticizers and high volumes of micro silica. In the case of High Performance Densified Small Particle Concrete (HPDSPC), since concrete is dense even at the micro-structure level, tensile strain would be much higher than that of the conventional SFRC, SIFCON & SIMCON. This in turn will improve cracking behaviour, ductility and energy absorption capacity of composites in addition to durability. The fine fibers used in our mix are 0.3mm diameter and 10 mm which can be easily placed with high percentage. These fibers easily transfer stresses and act as a composite concrete unit to take up extremely high loads with high compressive strength. HPDSPC placed in the beam column joints helps in safety of human life due to prolonged failure.

Keywords: High Performance Densified Small Particle Concrete (HPDSPC), Steel Fıber Reinforced Concrete (SFRC), Slurry Infiltrated Concrete (SIFCON), Slurry Infiltrated Mat Concrete (SIMCON).

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Authors: Rana Th. A. Al-Rubaye, Burcin Atilgan, Richard J. Holmes, Arthur A. Garforth

Abstract:

Structured catalysts formed from the growth of zeolites on substrates is an area of increasing interest due to the increased efficiency of the catalytic process, and the ability to provide superior heat transfer and thermal conductivity for both exothermic and endothermic processes. However, the generation of structured catalysts represents a significant challenge when balancing the relationship variables between materials properties and catalytic performance, with the Na2O, H2O and Al2O3 gel composition paying a significant role in this dynamic, thereby affecting the both the type and range of application. The structured catalyst films generated as part of this investigation have been characterised using a range of techniques, including X-ray diffraction (XRD), Electron microscopy (SEM), Energy Dispersive X-ray analysis (EDX) and Thermogravimetric Analysis (TGA), with the transition from oxide-on-alloy wires to hydrothermally synthesised uniformly zeolite coated surfaces being demonstrated using both SEM and XRD. The robustness of the coatings has been ascertained by subjecting these to thermal cycling (ambient to 550oC), with the results indicating that the synthesis time and gel compositions have a crucial effect on the quality of zeolite growth on the FeCrAlloy wires. Finally, the activity of the structured catalyst was verified by a series of comparison experiments with standard zeolite Y catalysts in powdered pelleted forms.

Keywords: FeCrAlloy, Structured catalyst, and Zeolite Y.

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Authors: Asma M. Milad, Mohammad B. Kassim, Wan R. Daud

Abstract:

Highly ordered TiO2 nanotube (TNT) arrays were fabricated onto a pre-treated titanium foil by anodic oxidation with a voltage of 20V in phosphoric acid/sodium fluoride electrolyte. A pretreatment of titanium foil involved washing with acetone, isopropanol, ethanol and deionized water. Carbon doped TiO2 nanotubes (C-TNT) was fabricated 'in-situ' with the same method in the presence of polyvinyl alcohol and urea as carbon sources. The affects of polyvinyl alcohol concentration and oxidation time on the composition, morphology and structure of the C-TN were studied by FE-SEM, EDX and XRD techniques. FESEM images of the nanotubes showed uniform arrays of C-TNTs. The density and microstructures of the nanotubes were greatly affected by the content of PVA. The introduction of the polyvinyl alcohol into the electrolyte increases the amount of C content inside TiO2 nanotube arrays uniformly. The influence of carbon content on the photo-current of C-TNT was investigated and the I-V profiles of the nanotubes were established. The preliminary results indicated that the 'in-situ' doping technique produced a superior quality nanotubes compared to post doping techniques.

Keywords: Anodization, photoelectrochemical cell, 'in-situ', post doping, thin film, and titania nanotube arrays.

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Authors: Taghreed Abu-Salim

Abstract:

This paper develops and investigates a framework for the assessment of customer involvement in the service design process of result oriented product-service systems in order to improve the service offering in a business-to-business (B2B) context. The framework comprises five main criteria and fifteen sub-criteria that contribute to customer involvement in a hierarchy using a maturity grid to highlight the strengths and weaknesses for each criterion. To develop the customer involvement framework, an extensive literature review related to service design, result oriented product-service system (PSS) and customer involvement in service design was carried out. Key factors that significantly influence customer involvement from industry and literature were identified to develop the framework. A major contribution of the developed framework includes a hierarchy of appropriate criteria for assessing customer involvement in the service design process within results oriented PSS; the definition of four maturity levels which are suitable to describe the whole spectrum of customer involvement in the service design process; and finally, The paper concludes by enabling service providers to: take proactive decisions; screen and evaluate new services; improve perceived service quality; and provide barriers against imitation.

Keywords: Customer involvement, maturity grid, new service development, result oriented product-service system, service design.

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Authors: K. Kong, E. Ferrier, L. Michel

Abstract:

The purpose of this research was to investigate the creep behaviour of the heterogeneous Timber-UHPFRC beams. New developments have been done to further improve the structural performance, such as strengthening of the timber (glulam) beam by bonding composite material combine with an ultra-high performance fibre reinforced concrete (UHPFRC) internally reinforced with or without carbon fibre reinforced polymer (CFRP) bars. However, in the design of wooden structures, in addition to the criteria of strengthening and stiffness, deformability due to the creep of wood, especially in horizontal elements, is also a design criterion. Glulam, UHPFRC and CFRP may be an interesting composite mix to respond to the issue of creep behaviour of composite structures made of different materials with different rheological properties. In this paper, we describe an experimental and analytical investigation of the creep performance of the glulam-UHPFRC-CFRP beams assembled by bonding. The experimental investigations creep behaviour was conducted for different environments: in- and outside under constant loading for approximately a year. The measured results are compared with numerical ones obtained by an analytical model. This model was developed to predict the creep response of the glulam-UHPFRCCFRP beams based on the creep characteristics of the individual components. The results show that heterogeneous glulam-UHPFRC beams provide an improvement in both the strengthening and stiffness, and can also effectively reduce the creep deflection of wooden beams.

Keywords: Carbon fibre-reinforced polymer (CFRP) bars, creep behaviour, glulam, ultra-high performance fibre reinforced concrete (UHPFRC).

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Authors: Pibool Waijittragum

Abstract:

The purpose of this paper is to synthesize the research result of brand Identities of Thai Halal brands which related to the way of life for Thai Muslims. The results will be transforming to Thai Halal Brands packaging and label design. The expected benefit is an alternative of marketing strategy for brand building process for Halal products in Thailand. Four elements of marketing strategies which necessary for the brand identity creation is the research framework: consists of Attributes, Benefits, Values and Personality. The research methodology was applied using qualitative and quantitative; 19 marketing experts with dynamic roles in Thai consumer products were interviewed. In addition, a field survey of 122 Thai Muslims selected from 175 Muslim communities in Bangkok was studied. Data analysis will be according to 5 categories of Thai Halal product: 1) Meat 2) Vegetable and Fruits 3) Instant foods and Garnishing ingredient 4) Beverages, Desserts and Snacks 5) Hygienic daily products.

The results will explain some suitable approach for brand Identities of Thai Halal brands as are: 1) Benefit approach as the characteristics of the product with its benefit. The brand identity created transform to the packaging design should be clear and display a fresh product 2) Value approach as the value of products that affect to consumers’ perception. The brand identity created transform to the packaging design should be simply look and using a trustful image 3) Personality approach as the reflection of consumers thought. The brand identity created transform to the packaging design should be sincere, enjoyable, merry, flamboyant look and using a humoristic image.

Keywords: Marketing strategies, Brand identity, Packaging and Label Design, Thai Halal products.

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Authors: N. Muthukumaran, R. Ravi

Abstract:

The Quad Tree Decomposition based performance analysis of compressed image data communication for lossy and lossless through wireless sensor network is presented. Images have considerably higher storage requirement than text. While transmitting a multimedia content there is chance of the packets being dropped due to noise and interference. At the receiver end the packets that carry valuable information might be damaged or lost due to noise, interference and congestion. In order to avoid the valuable information from being dropped various retransmission schemes have been proposed. In this proposed scheme QTD is used. QTD is an image segmentation method that divides the image into homogeneous areas. In this proposed scheme involves analysis of parameters such as compression ratio, peak signal to noise ratio, mean square error, bits per pixel in compressed image and analysis of difficulties during data packet communication in Wireless Sensor Networks. By considering the above, this paper is to use the QTD to improve the compression ratio as well as visual quality and the algorithm in MATLAB 7.1 and NS2 Simulator software tool.

Keywords: Image compression, Compression Ratio, Quad tree decomposition, Wireless sensor networks, NS2 simulator.

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