Search results for: Conflict Resolution Styles.

Authors: Muhammad Afzal, Cao Yihua, Zhao Ming

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The present work describes a computational study of aerodynamic characteristics of GLC305 airfoil clean and with 16.7 min ice shape (rime 212) and 22.5 min ice shape (glaze 944).The performance of turbulence models SA, Kε, Kω Std, and Kω SST model are observed against experimental flow fields at different Mach numbers 0.12, 0.21, 0.28 in a range of Reynolds numbers 3x106, 6x106, and 10.5x106 on clean and iced aircraft airfoil GLC305. Numerical predictions include lift, drag and pitching moment coefficients at different Mach numbers and at different angle of attacks were done. Accuracy of solutions with respect to the effects of turbulence models, variation of Mach number, initial conditions, grid resolution and grid spacing near the wall made the study much sensitive. Navier Stokes equation based computational technique is used. Results are very close to the experimental results. It has seen that SA and SST models are more efficient than Kε and Kω standard in under study problem.

Keywords: Aerodynamics, Airfoil GLC305, Iced Airfoil, Turbulence Model

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Authors: Yao-Hong Tsai

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This paper presents an efficient fusion algorithm for iris images to generate stable feature for recognition in unconstrained environment. Recently, iris recognition systems are focused on real scenarios in our daily life without the subject’s cooperation. Under large variation in the environment, the objective of this paper is to combine information from multiple images of the same iris. The result of image fusion is a new image which is more stable for further iris recognition than each original noise iris image. A wavelet-based approach for multi-resolution image fusion is applied in the fusion process. The detection of the iris image is based on Adaboost algorithm and then local binary pattern (LBP) histogram is then applied to texture classification with the weighting scheme. Experiment showed that the generated features from the proposed fusion algorithm can improve the performance for verification system through iris recognition.

Keywords: Image fusion, iris recognition, local binary pattern, wavelet.

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Authors: Md. Ataullah, Naveen Chauhan

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The Address Resolution Protocol (ARP) is used by computers to map logical addresses (IP) to physical addresses (MAC). However ARP is an all trusting protocol and is stateless which makes it vulnerable to many ARP cache poisoning attacks such as Man-in-the-Middle (MITM) and Denial of service (DoS) attacks. These flaws result in security breaches thus weakening the appeal of the computer for exchange of sensitive data. In this paper we describe ARP, outline several possible ARP cache poisoning attacks and give the detailed of some attack scenarios in network having both wired and wireless hosts. We have analyzed each of proposed solutions, identify their strengths and limitations. Finally get that no solution offers a feasible solution. Hence, this paper presents an efficient and secure version of ARP that is able to cope up with all these types of attacks and is also a feasible solution. It is a stateful protocol, by storing the information of the Request frame in the ARP cache, to reduce the chances of various types of attacks in ARP. It is more efficient and secure by broadcasting ARP Reply frame in the network and storing related entries in the ARP cache each time when communication take place.

Keywords: ARP cache poisoning, MITM, DoS

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Authors: Alireza Faed, David Forbes

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Complaints today have the ability to retain customer loyalty using state of the art systems and strategies in customer relationship management to analyze and respond to a plethora of customer perception. The Majority of companies are not aware of the beneficiary utilization of customer complaints for the sake of quality improvements. Also, some companies have problems determining how resolution of complaints can be profitable. In this study, we will define the problems and ascertain the importance of customer management system on the companies. Furthermore, we will determine the impact of such a system on efficiency, confidence, profitability and customer complaints. Eventually, we will develop methods and address the issues. In this paper, we used an open-ended questionnaire and distributed that to 30 randomly chosen respondents which were the passengers in an airport. We also define three hypotheses for our study and we will validate each of them. Then using frequency, Chi- Square and quality control method we optimized the size of customers- negative feedback and improved the process of customer retention.

Keywords: Complaint, Complaint management system, Customer relationship management, Retention.

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Authors: Khamael M. Abualnaja, Lidija Šiller, Benjamin R. Horrocks

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Metal-enhanced Luminescence of silicon nanocrystals (SiNCs) was determined using two different particle sizes of silver nanoparticles (AgNPs). SiNCs have been characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), high resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). It is found that the SiNCs are crystalline with an average diameter of 65 nm and FCC lattice. AgNPs were synthesized using photochemical reduction of AgNO3 with sodium dodecyl sulphate (SDS). The enhanced luminescence of SiNCs by AgNPs was evaluated by confocal Raman microspectroscopy. Enhancement up to x9 and x3 times were observed for SiNCs that mixed with AgNPs which have an average particle size of 100 nm and 30 nm, respectively. Silver NPs-enhanced luminescence of SiNCs occurs as a result of the coupling between the excitation laser light and the plasmon bands of AgNPs; thus this intense field at AgNPs surface couples strongly to SiNCs.

Keywords: Luminescence, Silicon Nanocrystals, Silver Nanoparticles, Surface Enhanced Raman Spectroscopy (SERS).

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Authors: Ebru Belkıs Kamanlıoğlu, Cem Güzeloğlu

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As the new industrial revolution advances in the nanotechnology have been followed with interest throughout the world and also in Turkey. Media has an important role in conveying these advances to public, rising public awareness and creating attitudes related to nanotechnology. As well as representing how a subject is treated, media frames determine how public think about this subject. In literature definite frames related to nanoscience and nanotechnology such as process, regulation, conflict and risks were mentioned in studies focusing different countries. So how nanotechnology news is treated by which frames and in which news categories in Turkey as a one of developing countries? In this study examining different variables about nanotechnology that affect public attitudes such as category, frame, story tone, source in Turkish media via framing analysis developed in agenda setting studies was aimed. In the analysis data between 2005 and 2009 obtained from the first five national newspapers with wide circulation in Turkey will be used. In this study the direction of the media about nanotechnology, in which frames nanotechnologic advances brought to agenda were reported as news, and sectoral, legal, economic and social scenes reflected by these frames to public related to nanotechnology in Turkey were planned.

Keywords: Agenda, frames, media, nanotechnology, Turkey.

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Authors: S. Pullteap

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In this paper, a fiber based Fabry-Perot interferometer is proposed and demonstrated for a non-contact displacement measurement. A piece of micro-prism which attached to the mechanical vibrator is served as the target reflector. Interference signal is generated from the superposition between the sensing beam and the reference beam within the sensing arm of the fiber sensor. This signal is then converted to the displacement value by using a developed program written in visual Cµ programming with a resolution of λ/8. A classical function generator is operated for controlling the vibrator. By fixing an excitation frequency of 100 Hz and varying the excitation amplitude range of 0.1 – 3 Volts, the output displacements measured by the fiber sensor are obtained from 1.55 μm to 30.225 μm. A reference displacement sensor with a sensitivity of ~0.4 μm is also employed for comparing the displacement errors between both sensors. We found that over the entire displacement range, a maximum and average measurement error are obtained of 0.977% and 0.44% respectively.

Keywords: Non-contact displacement measurement, extrinsicfiber based Fabry-Perot interferometer, interference signal, zerocrossingfringe counting technique.

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Authors: Lijiang Wang, Wei Wang, Yuhong Xu

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Lanthanide-doped upconversion nanoparticles which can convert near-infrared lights to visible lights have attracted growing interest because of their great potentials in fluorescence imaging. Upconversion fluorescence imaging technique with excitation in the near-infrared (NIR) region has been used for imaging of biological cells and tissues. However, improving the detection sensitivity and decreasing the absorption and scattering in biological tissues are as yet unresolved problems. In this present study, a novel NIR-reflected multispectral imaging system was developed for upconversion fluorescent imaging in small animals. Based on this system, we have obtained the high contrast images without the autofluorescence when biocompatible UCPs were injected near the body surface or deeply into the tissue. Furthermore, we have extracted respective spectra of the upconversion fluorescence and relatively quantify the fluorescence intensity with the multispectral analysis. To our knowledge, this is the first time to analyze and quantify the upconversion fluorescence in the small animal imaging.

Keywords: Multispectral imaging, near-infrared, upconversion fluorescence imaging, upconversion nanoparticles.

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Authors: Yusmeeraz Yusof, Yoshiyuki Yanagimoto, Shigeyasu Uno, Kazuo Nakazato

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We demonstrate a nonfaradaic electrochemical impedance spectroscopy measurement of biochemically modified gold plated electrodes using a two-electrode system. The absence of any redox indicator in the impedance measurements provide more precise and accurate characterization of the measured bioanalyte at molecular resolution. An equivalent electrical circuit of the electrodeelectrolyte interface was deduced from the observed impedance data of saline solution at low and high concentrations. The detection of biomolecular interactions was fundamentally correlated to electrical double-layer variation at modified interface. The investigations were done using 20mer deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) strands without any label. Surface modification was performed by creating mixed monolayer of the thiol-modified single-stranded DNA and a spacer thiol (mercaptohexanol) by a two-step self-assembly method. The results clearly distinguish between the noncomplementary and complementary hybridization of DNA, at low frequency region below several hundreds Hertz.

Keywords: Biosensor, electrical double-layer, impedance spectroscopy, label free DNA.

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Authors: Ardhendu Behera, Denis Lalanne, Rolf Ingold

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This paper proposes a method, combining color and layout features, for identifying documents captured from lowresolution handheld devices. On one hand, the document image color density surface is estimated and represented with an equivalent ellipse and on the other hand, the document shallow layout structure is computed and hierarchically represented. The combined color and layout features are arranged in a symbolic file, which is unique for each document and is called the document-s visual signature. Our identification method first uses the color information in the signatures in order to focus the search space on documents having a similar color distribution, and finally selects the document having the most similar layout structure in the remaining search space. Finally, our experiment considers slide documents, which are often captured using handheld devices.

Keywords: Document color modeling, document visual signature, kernel density estimation, document identification.

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Authors: S. Nasri, H. Bouziri

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Disasters are quite experienced in our days. They are caused by floods, landslides, and building fires that is the main objective of this study. To cope with these unexpected events, precautions must be taken to protect human lives. The emphasis on disposal work focuses on the resolution of the evacuation problem in case of no-notice disaster. The problem of evacuation is listed as a dynamic network flow problem. Particularly, we model the evacuation problem as an earliest arrival flow problem with load dependent transit time. This problem is classified as NP-Hard. Our challenge here is to propose a metaheuristic solution for solving the evacuation problem. We define our objective as the maximization of evacuees during earliest periods of a time horizon T. The objective provides the evacuation of persons as soon as possible. We performed an experimental study on emergency evacuation from the tunisian children’s hospital. This work prompts us to look for evacuation plans corresponding to several situations where the network dynamically changes.

Keywords: Dynamic network flow, Load dependent transit time, Evacuation strategy, Earliest arrival flow problem.

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Authors: A. Ujunwa, P. O. Salami, A. H. Umar

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The recommendation of the committee on corporate governance for public companies in Nigeria, that the position of the CEO be separated from board chair has generated serious debate among scholars and practitioners. They have questioned the appropriateness of implementing corporate governance model that is based on Anglo-Saxon agency problem characterized by dispersed ownership structure; where markets for corporate control, legal regulation, and contractual incentives are the key governance mechanisms. This paper strives to resolve the argument by adopting an institutional perspective in testing the agency theory on board duality. The study developed a theoretical and empirical model to better understand how ownership structure influences agency conflict and how such affects firm performance. Hence, the study examines the relationship between CEO duality and firm performance using two institutional ownership structures – dispersed ownership and concentrated ownership structures. The empirical results show that CEO duality is negatively correlated with firm performance in Nigeria irrespective of the firm-s ownership structure. The findings give credence to the recommendation of the Peterside Commission on the need to separate the position of CEO from board chair.

Keywords: Corporate Governance, CEO-Duality, Firm Performance.

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Authors: Sherin M. Youssef, Ahmed Abouelfarag, Noha M. Ghatwary

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An adaptive Fuzzy Inference Perceptual model has been proposed for watermarking of digital images. The model depends on the human visual characteristics of image sub-regions in the frequency multi-resolution wavelet domain. In the proposed model, a multi-variable fuzzy based architecture has been designed to produce a perceptual membership degree for both candidate embedding sub-regions and strength watermark embedding factor. Different sizes of benchmark images with different sizes of watermarks have been applied on the model. Several experimental attacks have been applied such as JPEG compression, noises and rotation, to ensure the robustness of the scheme. In addition, the model has been compared with different watermarking schemes. The proposed model showed its robustness to attacks and at the same time achieved a high level of imperceptibility.

Keywords: Watermarking, The human visual system (HVS), Fuzzy Inference System (FIS), Local Binary Pattern (LBP), Discrete Wavelet Transform (DWT).

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Authors: Marzieh Imani

Abstract:

Antoni Gaudi and Santiago Calatrava have reputation for designing bio-inspired creative and technical buildings. Even though they have followed different independent approaches towards design, the source of bio-inspiration seems to be common. Taking a closer look at their projects reveals that Calatrava has been influenced by Gaudi in terms of interpreting nature and applying natural principles into the design process. This research firstly discusses the dialogue between Biomimicry and architecture. This review also explores human/nature discourse during the history by focusing on how nature revealed itself to the fine arts. This is explained by introducing naturalism and romantic style in architecture as the outcome of designers’ inclination towards nature. Reviewing the literature, theoretical background and practical illustration of nature have been included. The most dominant practical aspects of imitating nature are form and function. Nature has been reflected in architectural science resulted in shaping different architectural styles such as organic, green, sustainable, bionic, and biomorphic. By defining a set of common aspects of Gaudi and Calatrava‘s design approach and by considering biomimetic design categories (organism, ecosystem, and behaviour as the main division and form, function, process, material, and construction as subdivisions), Gaudi’s and Calatrava’s project have been analysed. This analysis explores if their design approaches are equivalent or different. Based on this analysis, Gaudi’s architecture can be recognised as biomorphic while Calatrava’s projects are literally biomimetic. Referring to these architects, this review suggests a new set of principles by which a bio-inspired project can be determined either biomorphic or biomimetic.

Keywords: Biomimicry, Calatrava, Gaudi, nature.

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Authors: Z. Bottyán, F. Wantuch, A. Z. Gyöngyösi, Z. Tuba, K. Hadobács, P. Kardos, R. Kurunczi

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The sensitivity of UAVs to the atmospheric effects are apparent. All the same the meteorological support for the UAVs missions is often non-adequate or partly missing. In our paper we show a new complex meteorological support system for different types of UAVs pilots, specialists and decision makers, too. The mentioned system has two important parts with different forecasts approach such as the statistical and dynamical ones. The statistical prediction approach is based on a large climatological data base and the special analog method which is able to select similar weather situations from the mentioned data base to apply them during the forecasting procedure. The applied dynamic approach uses the specific WRF model runs twice a day and produces 96 hours, high resolution weather forecast for the UAV users over the Hungary. An easy to use web-based system can give important weather information over the Carpathian basin in Central-Europe. The mentioned products can be reached via internet connection.

Keywords: Aviation meteorology, statistical weather prediction, unmanned aerial systems, WRF.

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Authors: Mohamed S. Negm, Waleed S. Mandour

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The present study aims primarily at investigating words of peace (lexemes of peace) in the formal speeches of the Egyptian president Abdulfattah El-Sisi in a two-year span of time, from 2018 to 2019. This paper attempts to shed light not only on the contextual use of the antonyms, war and peace, but also it underpins quantitative analysis through the current methods of corpus linguistics. As such, the researchers have deployed a corpus-based approach in collecting, encoding, and processing 30 presidential speeches over the stated period (23,411 words and 25,541 tokens in total). Further, semantic fields and collocational networkzs are identified and compared statistically. Results have shown a significant propensity of adopting peace, including its relevant collocation network, textually and therefore, ideationally, at the expense of war concept which in most cases surfaces euphemistically through the noun conflict. The president has not justified the action of war with an honorable cause or a valid reason. Such results, so far, have indicated a positive sociopolitical mindset the Egyptian president possesses and moreover, reveal national and international fair dealing on arising issues.

Keywords: Corpus-assisted discourse studies, critical discourse analysis, collocation network, corpus linguistics.

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Authors: Annabelle Ogochukwu Onyefulu-Kingston

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One of the major purposes of artificial intelligence (AI) today is to evaluate and analyse millions of micro and macro data in order to determine what is relevant in a particular case and proffer it in an adequate manner. Microdata, as far as it relates to AI in international arbitration, is the millions of key issues specifically mentioned by either one or both parties or by their counsels, arbitrators, or arbitral tribunals in arbitral proceedings. This can be qualifications of expert witness and admissibility of evidence, amongst others. Macro data, on the other hand, refer to data derived from the resolution of the dispute and, consequently, the final and binding award. A notable example of this includes the rationale of the award and specific and general damages awarded, amongst others. This paper aims to critically evaluate and analyses the possibility of technological inclusion in international arbitration. This research will be imploring the qualitative method by evaluating existing literature on the consequence of applying AI to both micro and macro data in international arbitration, and how this can be of assistance to parties, counsels, and arbitrators.

Keywords: AI-based technologies, algorithms, arbitrators, international arbitration.

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Authors: Mounir Ait kerroum, Ahmed Hammouch, Driss Aboutajdine

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Texture information plays increasingly an important role in remotely sensed imagery classification and many pattern recognition applications. However, the selection of relevant textural features to improve this classification accuracy is not a straightforward task. This work investigates the effectiveness of two Mutual Information Feature Selector (MIFS) algorithms to select salient textural features that contain highly discriminatory information for multispectral imagery classification. The input candidate features are extracted from a SPOT High Resolution Visible(HRV) image using Wavelet Transform (WT) at levels (l = 1,2). The experimental results show that the selected textural features according to MIFS algorithms make the largest contribution to improve the classification accuracy than classical approaches such as Principal Components Analysis (PCA) and Linear Discriminant Analysis (LDA).

Keywords: Feature Selection, Texture, Mutual Information, Wavelet Transform, SVM classification, SPOT Imagery.

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Authors: J. Dumrongsak, A. M. Savill

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Non-premixed turbulent combustion Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) has been carried out in a simplified methanefuelled coaxial jet combustor employing Large Eddy Simulation (LES). The objective of this study is to evaluate the performance of LES in modelling non-premixed combustion using a commercial software, FLUENT, and investigate the effects of the grid density and chemistry models employed on the accuracy of the simulation results. A comparison has also been made between LES and Reynolds Averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) predictions. For LES grid sensitivity test, 2.3 and 6.2 million cell grids are employed with the equilibrium model. The chemistry model sensitivity analysis is achieved by comparing the simulation results from the equilibrium chemistry and steady flamelet models. The predictions of the mixture fraction, axial velocity, species mass fraction and temperature by LES are in good agreement with the experimental data. The LES results are similar for the two chemistry models but influenced considerably by the grid resolution in the inner flame and near-wall regions.

Keywords: Coaxial jet, reacting LES, non-premixed combustion, turbulent flow.

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Authors: Zulhamsyah Imran, Masahiro Yamao

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Social resilience has role to govern the local community and coastal fisheries resources toward sustainable fisheries development in tsunami affected area. This paper asses, explore and investigates of indigenous institutions, external and internal facilitators toward strengthening social resilience. Identification of the genuine organizations role had been conducted twice by using Rapid Assessment Appraisal, Focus Group Discussion, and in-depth interview for collecting primary and secondary data. Local wisdom had a contribution and adaptable to rebound social resilience. The Panglima Laot Lhok (sea commander) had determined and adapted role on recovery of the fishing community, particularly facilitated aid delivery to fishermen, as shown in anchovy fisheries relief case in Krueng Raya Bay. Toke Bangku (financial trader) had stimulated for reinforcement of advance payment and market channel. The other institutions supported upon linking and bridging connectivity among stakeholders. Collaborative governance can avoid conflict, reduce donor dependency and strengthen social resilience within fishing community.

Keywords: Fishing community, indigenous institution, adaptive role, collaborative, social resilience.

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Authors: V. G. Sangam, Balasaheb M. Patre

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In this paper we have proposed a methodology to develop an amperometric biosensor for the analysis of glucose concentration using a simple microcontroller based data acquisition system. The work involves the development of Detachable Membrane Unit (enzyme based biomembrane) with immobilized glucose oxidase on the membrane and interfacing the same to the signal conditioning system. The current generated by the biosensor for different glucose concentrations was signal conditioned, then acquired and computed by a simple AT89C51-microcontroller. The optimum operating parameters for the better performance were found and reported. The detailed performance evaluation of the biosensor has been carried out. The proposed microcontroller based biosensor system has the sensitivity of 0.04V/g/dl, with a resolution of 50mg/dl. It has exhibited very good inter day stability observed up to 30 days. Comparing to the reference method such as HPLC, the accuracy of the proposed biosensor system is well within ± 1.5%. The system can be used for real time analysis of glucose concentration in the field such as, food and fermentation and clinical (In-Vitro) applications.

Keywords: Biosensor, DMU, Glucose oxidase andMicrocontroller.

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Authors: K. Daud, A. F. Abidin, N. Hamzah, H. S. Nagindar Singh

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This paper produces a new approach for power quality analysis using a windowing technique based on Continuous S-transform (CST). This half-cycle window technique approach can detect almost correctly for initial detection of disturbances i.e. voltage sags, swells, and transients. Samples in half cycle window has been analyzed based continuous S-transform for entire disturbance waveform. The modified parameter has been produced by MATLAB programming m-file based on continuous s-transform. CST has better time frequency and localization property than traditional and also has ability to detect the disturbance under noisy condition correctly. The excellent time-frequency resolution characteristic of the CST makes it the most an attractive candidate for analysis of power system disturbances signals.

Keywords: Power quality disturbances, initial detection, half cycle windowing, continuous S-transform.

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Authors: S.R.Kamat, A.Yoxall, C.Craig , M.J.Carré, J.Rowson

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The hand is one of the essential parts of the body for carrying out Activities of Daily Living (ADLs). Individuals use their hands and fingers in everyday activities in the both the workplace and home. Hand-intensive tasks require diverse and sometimes extreme levels of exertion, depending on the action, movement or manipulation involved. The authors have undertaken several studies looking at grip choice and comfort. It is hoped that in providing improved understanding of discomfort during ADLs this will aid in the design of consumer products. Previous work by the authors outlined a methodology for calculating pain frequency and pain level for a range of tasks. From an online survey undertaken by the authors with regards manipulating objects during everyday tasks, tasks involving gripping were seen to produce the highest levels of pain and discomfort. Questioning of the participants showed that cleaning tasks were seen to be ADL's that produced the highest levels of discomfort, with women feeling higher levels of discomfort than men. This paper looks at the methodology for calculating pain frequency and pain level with particular regards to gripping activities. This methodology shows that activities such as mopping, sweeping and hoovering shows the highest numbers of pain frequency and pain level at 3112.5 frequency per month while the pain level per person doing this action was 0.78.The study then uses thin-film force sensors to analyze the force distribution in the hand whilst hoovering and compares this for differing grip styles and genders. Women were seen to have more of their hand under a higher pressure than men when undertaking hoovering. This suggests that women may feel greater discomfort than men since their hand is at a higher pressure more of the time.

Keywords: hovering, grip, pain

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Authors: Adilson Elias Xavier, Otto Corrêa Rotunno Filho, Paulo Canedo de Magalhães

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This paper addresses the issue of automatic parameter estimation in conceptual rainfall-runoff (CRR) models. Due to threshold structures commonly occurring in CRR models, the associated mathematical optimization problems have the significant characteristic of being strongly non-differentiable. In order to face this enormous task, the resolution method proposed adopts a smoothing strategy using a special C∞ differentiable class function. The final estimation solution is obtained by solving a sequence of differentiable subproblems which gradually approach the original conceptual problem. The use of this technique, called Hyperbolic Smoothing Method (HSM), makes possible the application of the most powerful minimization algorithms, and also allows for the main difficulties presented by the original CRR problem to be overcome. A set of computational experiments is presented for the purpose of illustrating both the reliability and the efficiency of the proposed approach.

Keywords: Rainfall-runoff models, optimization procedure, automatic parameter calibration, hyperbolic smoothing method.

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Authors: M. Hossein Ghadiri, Mohd Farid Mohamed, N. Lukman N. Ibrahim

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Wind catchers are traditional natural ventilation systems attached to buildings in order to ventilate the indoor air. The most common type of wind catcher is four sided one which is capable to catch wind in all directions. CFD simulation is the perfect way to evaluate the wind catcher performance. The accuracy of CFD results is the issue of concern, so sensitivity analyses is crucial to find out the effect of different settings of CFD on results. This paper presents a series of 3D steady RANS simulations for a generic isolated four-sided wind catcher attached to a room subjected to wind direction ranging from 0º to 180º with an interval of 45º. The CFD simulations are validated with detailed wind tunnel experiments. The influence of an extensive range of computational parameters is explored in this paper, including the resolution of the computational grid, the size of the computational domain and the turbulence model. This study found that CFD simulation is a reliable method for wind catcher study, but it is less accurate in prediction of models with non perpendicular wind directions.

Keywords: Wind catcher, CFD, natural ventilation, sensitivity study.

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Authors: K. Santacruz-Gomez, E. Silva-Campa, S. Álvarez-García, V. Mata-Haro, D. Soto-Puebla, M. Pedroza-Montero

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Blood gamma irradiation is the only available method to prevent transfusion associated graft versus host disease (TAGVHD). However, when blood is irradiated, determine blood shelf time is crucial. Non irradiated blood have a self-time from 21 to 35 days when is preserved with anticoagulated solution and stored at 4°C. During their storage, red blood cells (RBC) undergo a series of biochemical, biomechanical and molecular changes involving what is known as storage lesion (SL). SL include loss of structural integrity of RBC, decrease of 2,3-diphosphatidylglyceric acid levels, and increase of both ion potassium concentration and hemoglobin (Hb). On the other hand, Atomic force Microscopy (AFM) represents a versatile tool for a nano-scale high resolution topographic analysis in biological systems. In order to evaluate SL in irradiated and nonirradiated blood, RBC topography and morphometric parameters were obtained from an AFM XE-BIO system. Cell viability was followed using flow cytometry. Our results showed that early markers as nanoscale roughness, allow us to evaluate blood quality since other perspective.

Keywords: AFM, Blood γ-irradiation, roughness, Storage lesion.

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Authors: Alireza Bolhari, Ali Rezaeean, Jafar Bolhari, Fatemeh Zare

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With the advent of new technologies, factors related to mental health in e-workspaces are taken into consideration more than ever. Studies have revealed that one of the factors affecting the productivity of employees in an organization is occupational stress. Another influential factor is quality of work life which is important in the improvement of work environment conditions and organizational efficiency. In order to uncover the quality of work life level and to investigate the impact of occupational stress on quality of work life among information technology employees in Iran, a cross-sectional study design was applied and data were gathered using a questionnaire validated by a group of experts. The results of the study showed that information technology staffs have average level of both occupational stress and quality of work life. Furthermore, it was found that occupational stress has a negative impact on quality of work life. In addition, the same results were observed for role ambiguity, role conflict, role under-load, work-pace, work repetitiveness and tension toward quality of work life. No significant relation was found between role overload and quality of work life. Finally, directions for future research are proposed and discussed.

Keywords: Information Technology, e-Workspace, Healthcare, IT Staff, Occupational Stress, Quality of Work Life

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Authors: Jerome T. Tolentino, Ma. Victoria Rejuso, Jara Kaye Villanueva, Loureal Camille Inocencio, Ma. Rosario Concepcion O. Ang

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Wind energy is rapidly emerging as the primary source of electricity in the Philippines, although developing an accurate wind resource model is difficult. In this study, Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) Model, an open source mesoscale Numerical Weather Prediction (NWP) model, was used to produce a 1-year atmospheric simulation with 4 km resolution on the Ilocos Region of the Philippines. The WRF output (netCDF) extracts the annual mean wind speed data using a Python-based Graphical User Interface. Lastly, wind resource assessment was produced using a GIS software. Results of the study showed that it is more flexible to use Python scripts than using other post-processing tools in dealing with netCDF files. Using WRF Model, Python, and Geographic Information Systems, a reliable wind resource map is produced.

Keywords: Wind resource assessment, Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) Model, python, GIS software.

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Authors: A. Ouanane, A. Serir

Abstract:

In this paper, a novel algorithm based on Ridgelet Transform and support vector machine is proposed for human action recognition. The Ridgelet transform is a directional multi-resolution transform and it is more suitable for describing the human action by performing its directional information to form spatial features vectors. The dynamic transition between the spatial features is carried out using both the Principal Component Analysis and clustering algorithm K-means. First, the Principal Component Analysis is used to reduce the dimensionality of the obtained vectors. Then, the kmeans algorithm is then used to perform the obtained vectors to form the spatio-temporal pattern, called set-of-labels, according to given periodicity of human action. Finally, a Support Machine classifier is used to discriminate between the different human actions. Different tests are conducted on popular Datasets, such as Weizmann and KTH. The obtained results show that the proposed method provides more significant accuracy rate and it drives more robustness in very challenging situations such as lighting changes, scaling and dynamic environment

Keywords: Human action, Ridgelet Transform, PCA, K-means, SVM.

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Authors: P. Kumsawat, N. Pimpru, K. Attakitmongcol, A.Srikaew

Abstract:

In this paper, we proposed an efficient data compression strategy exploiting the multi-resolution characteristic of the wavelet transform. We have developed a sensor node called “Smart Sensor Node; SSN". The main goals of the SSN design are lightweight, minimal power consumption, modular design and robust circuitry. The SSN is made up of four basic components which are a sensing unit, a processing unit, a transceiver unit and a power unit. FiOStd evaluation board is chosen as the main controller of the SSN for its low costs and high performance. The software coding of the implementation was done using Simulink model and MATLAB programming language. The experimental results show that the proposed data compression technique yields recover signal with good quality. This technique can be applied to compress the collected data to reduce the data communication as well as the energy consumption of the sensor and so the lifetime of sensor node can be extended.

Keywords: Wireless sensor network, wavelet transform, data compression, ZigBee, skipped high-pass sub-band.

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