Search results for: active and passive solar technologies
2132 The Determinants of Senior Students' Behavioral Intention on the Blended E-Learning for the Ceramics Teaching Course at the Active Aging University
Authors: Horng-Jyh Chen, Yi-Fang Chen, Chien-Liang Lin
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In this paper, the authors try to investigate the determinants of behavioral intention of the blended E-learning course for senior students at the Active Ageing University in Taiwan. Due to lower proficiency in the use of computers and less experience on learning styles of the blended E-learning course for senior students will be expected quite different from those for most young students. After more than five weeks course for two years the questionnaire survey is executed to collect data for statistical analysis in order to understand the determinants of the behavioral intention for senior students. The object of this study is at one of the Active Ageing University in Taiwan total of 84 senior students in the blended E-learning for the ceramics teaching course. The research results show that only the perceived usefulness of the blended E-learning course has significant positive relationship with the behavioral intention.
Keywords: Active Aging University, blended E-learning, ceramics teaching course, behavioral intention
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 17462131 The Effect of Response Feedback on Performance of Active Controlled Nonlinear Frames
Authors: M. Mohebbi, K. Shakeri
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The effect of different combinations of response feedback on the performance of active control system on nonlinear frames has been studied in this paper. To this end different feedback combinations including displacement, velocity, acceleration and full response feedback have been utilized in controlling the response of an eight story bilinear hysteretic frame which has been subjected to a white noise excitation and controlled by eight actuators which could fully control the frame. For active control of nonlinear frame Newmark nonlinear instantaneous optimal control algorithm has been used which a diagonal matrix has been selected for weighting matrices in performance index. For optimal design of active control system while the objective has been to reduce the maximum drift to below the yielding level, Distributed Genetic Algorithm (DGA) has been used to determine the proper set of weighting matrices. The criteria to assess the effect of each combination of response feedback have been the minimum required control force to reduce the maximum drift to below the yielding drift. The results of numerical simulation show that the performance of active control system is dependent on the type of response feedback where the velocity feedback is more effective in designing optimal control system in comparison with displacement and acceleration feedback. Also using full feedback of response in controller design leads to minimum control force amongst other combinations. Also the distributed genetic algorithm shows acceptable convergence speed in solving the optimization problem of designing active control systems.Keywords: Active control, Distributed genetic algorithms, Response feedback, Weighting matrices.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 13902130 Smart Trust Management for Vehicular Networks
Authors: Amel Ltifi, Ahmed Zouinkhi, Med Salim Bouhlel
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Spontaneous networks such as VANET are in general deployed in an open and thus easily accessible environment. Therefore, they are vulnerable to attacks. Trust management is one of a set of security solutions dedicated to this type of networks. Moreover, the strong mobility of the nodes (in the case of VANET) makes the establishment of a trust management system complex. In this paper, we present a concept of ‘Active Vehicle’ which means an autonomous vehicle that is able to make decision about trustworthiness of alert messages transmitted about road accidents. The behavior of an “Active Vehicle” is modeled using Petri Nets.
Keywords: Component, active vehicle, cooperation, petri nets, trust management, VANET.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 11122129 An 880 / 1760 MHz Dual Bandwidth Active RC Filter for 60 GHz Applications
Authors: Sanghoon Park, Kijin Kim, Kwangho Ahn
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An active RC filters with a 880 / 1760 MHz dual bandwidth tuning ability is present for 60 GHz unlicensed band applications. A third order Butterworth low-pass filter utilizes two Cherry-Hooper amplifiers to satisfy the very high bandwidth requirements of an amplifier. The low-pass filter is fabricated in 90nm standard CMOS process. Drawing 6.7 mW from 1.2 V power supply, the low frequency gains of the filter are -2.5 and -4.1 dB, and the output third order intercept points (OIP3) are +2.2 and +1.9 dBm for the single channel and channel bonding conditions, respectively.
Keywords: Butterworth filter, active RC, 60 GHz, CMOS, dual bandwidth, Cherry-Hooper amplifier.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 22132128 Fuzzy Logic Based Maximum Power Point Tracking Designed for 10kW Solar Photovoltaic System with Different Membership Functions
Authors: S. Karthika, K. Velayutham, P. Rathika, D. Devaraj
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The electric power supplied by a photovoltaic power generation systems depends on the solar irradiation and temperature. The PV system can supply the maximum power to the load at a particular operating point which is generally called as maximum power point (MPP), at which the entire PV system operates with maximum efficiency and produces its maximum power. Hence, a Maximum power point tracking (MPPT) methods are used to maximize the PV array output power by tracking continuously the maximum power point. The proposed MPPT controller is designed for 10kW solar PV system installed at Cape Institute of Technology. This paper presents the fuzzy logic based MPPT algorithm. However, instead of one type of membership function, different structures of fuzzy membership functions are used in the FLC design. The proposed controller is combined with the system and the results are obtained for each membership functions in Matlab/Simulink environment. Simulation results are decided that which membership function is more suitable for this system.
Keywords: MPPT, DC-DC Converter, Fuzzy logic controller, Photovoltaic (PV) system.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 42492127 Double Pass Solar Air Heater with Transvers Fins and without Absorber Plate
Authors: A. J. Mahmood, L. B. Y. Aldabbagh
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The counter flow solar air heaters, with four transverse fins and wire mesh layers are constructed and investigated experimentally for thermal efficiency at a geographic location of Cyprus in the city of Famagusta. The absorber plate is replaced by sixteen steel wire mesh layers, 0.18 x 0.18cm in cross section opening and a 0.02cm in diameter. The wire mesh layers arranged in three groups, first and second include 6 layers, while the third include 4 layers. All layers fixed in the duct parallel to the glazing and each group separated from the others by wood frame thickness of 0.5cm to reduce the pressure drop. The transverse fins arranged in a way to force the air to flow through the bed like eight letter path with flow depth 3cm. The proposed design has increased the heat transfer rate, but on other hand causes a high pressure drop. The obtained results show that, for air mass flow rate range between 0.011-0.036kg/s, the thermal efficiency increases with increasing the air mass flow. The maximum efficiency obtained is 65.6% for the mass flow rate of 0.036kg/s. Moreover, the temperature difference between the outlet flow and the ambient temperature, ΔT, reduces as the air mass flow rate increase. The maximum difference between the outlet and ambient temperature obtained was 43°C for double pass for minimum mass flow rate of 0.011kg/s. Comparison with a conventional solar air heater collector shows a significantly development in the thermal efficiency.Keywords: Counter flow, solar air heater (SAH), Wire mesh, Fins, Thermal efficiency.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 31702126 A Two-Stage Multi-Agent System to Predict the Unsmoothed Monthly Sunspot Numbers
Authors: Mak Kaboudan
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A multi-agent system is developed here to predict monthly details of the upcoming peak of the 24th solar magnetic cycle. While studies typically predict the timing and magnitude of cycle peaks using annual data, this one utilizes the unsmoothed monthly sunspot number instead. Monthly numbers display more pronounced fluctuations during periods of strong solar magnetic activity than the annual sunspot numbers. Because strong magnetic activities may cause significant economic damages, predicting monthly variations should provide different and perhaps helpful information for decision-making purposes. The multi-agent system developed here operates in two stages. In the first, it produces twelve predictions of the monthly numbers. In the second, it uses those predictions to deliver a final forecast. Acting as expert agents, genetic programming and neural networks produce the twelve fits and forecasts as well as the final forecast. According to the results obtained, the next peak is predicted to be 156 and is expected to occur in October 2011- with an average of 136 for that year.Keywords: Computational techniques, discrete wavelet transformations, solar cycle prediction, sunspot numbers.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 13192125 Application of Robot Formation Scheme for Screening Solar Energy in a Greenhouse
Authors: George K. Fourlas, Konstantinos Kalovrektis, Evangelos Fountas
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Many agricultural and especially greenhouse applications like plant inspection, data gathering, spraying and selective harvesting could be performed by robots. In this paper multiple nonholonomic robots are used in order to create a desired formation scheme for screening solar energy in a greenhouse through data gathering. The formation consists from a leader and a team member equipped with appropriate sensors. Each robot is dedicated to its mission in the greenhouse that is predefined by the requirements of the application. The feasibility of the proposed application includes experimental results with three unmanned ground vehicles (UGV).Keywords: Greenhouses application, robot formation, solarenergy.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 16192124 Performance Enhancement of Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells by MgO Coating on TiO2 Electrodes
Authors: C. Photiphitak, P. Rakkwamsuk, P. Muthitamongkol, C. Thanachayanont
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TiO2/MgO composite films were prepared by coating the magnesium acetate solution in the pores of mesoporous TiO2 films using a dip coating method. Concentrations of magnesium acetate solution were varied in a range of 1x10-4 – 1x10-1 M. The TiO2/MgO composite films were characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscropy (TEM), electrochemical impedance spectroscopy(EIS) , transient voltage decay and I-V test. The TiO2 films and TiO2/MgO composite films were immersed in a 0.3 mM N719 dye solution. The Dye-sensitized solar cells with the TiO2/MgO/N719 structure showed an optimal concentration of magnesium acetate solution of 1x10-3 M resulting in the MgO film estimated thickness of 0.0963 nm and giving the maximum efficiency of 4.85%. The improved efficiency of dyesensitized solar cell was due to the magnesium oxide film as the wide band gap coating decays the electron back transfer to the triiodide electrolyte and reduce charge recombination.Keywords: Magnesium oxide thin film, TiO2/MgO composite films, Electrochemical Impedance Spectrum, Transient voltage decay
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 31962123 Thermodynamic Analysis of Ventilated Façades under Operating Conditions in Southern Spain
Authors: Carlos A. D. Torres, Antonio D. Delgado
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In this work we study the thermodynamic behavior of some ventilated facades under summer operating conditions in Southern Spain. Under these climatic conditions, indoor comfort implies a high energetic demand due to high temperatures that usually are reached in this season in the considered geographical area.
The aim of this work is to determine if during summer operating conditions in Southern Spain, ventilated façades provide some energy saving compared to the non-ventilated façades and to deduce their behavior patterns in terms of energy efficiency.
The modelization of the air flow in the channel has been performed by using Navier-Stokes equations for thermodynamic flows. Numerical simulations have been carried out with a 2D Finite Element approach.
This way, we analyze the behavior of ventilated façades under different weather conditions as variable wind, variable temperature and different levels of solar irradiation.
CFD computations show the combined effect of the shading of the external wall and the ventilation by the natural convection into the air gap achieve a reduction of the heat load during the summer period. This reduction has been evaluated by comparing the thermodynamic performances of two ventilated and two unventilated façades with the same geometry and thermophysical characteristics.
Keywords: Passive cooling, ventilated façades, energy-efficient building, CFD, FEM.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 49352122 CMOS-Compatible Silicon Nanoplasmonics for On-Chip Integration
Authors: Shiyang Zhu, Guo-Qiang Lo, Dim-Lee Kwong
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Although silicon photonic devices provide a significantly larger bandwidth and dissipate a substantially less power than the electronic devices, they suffer from a large size due to the fundamental diffraction limit and the weak optical response of Si. A potential solution is to exploit Si plasmonics, which may not only miniaturize the photonic device far beyond the diffraction limit, but also enhance the optical response in Si due to the electromagnetic field confinement. In this paper, we discuss and summarize the recently developed metal-insulator-Si-insulator-metal nanoplasmonic waveguide as well as various passive and active plasmonic components based on this waveguide, including coupler, bend, power splitter, ring resonator, MZI, modulator, detector, etc. All these plasmonic components are CMOS compatible and could be integrated with electronic and conventional dielectric photonic devices on the same SOI chip. More potential plasmonic devices as well as plasmonic nanocircuits with complex functionalities are also addressed.
Keywords: Silicon nanoplasmonics, Silicon nanophotonics, Onchip integration, CMOS
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 18942121 Technologies of Transportation and Communication: Impact in Colonial Punjab
Authors: Mandakini Thakur, Sheena Pall
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Technology had been intimately related to colonialism as colonizers found the tools of technology essential to penetrate, organize and develop the unexplored geographical areas which they conquered. Transportation and communication technologies played an important role in consolidating the British rule in India as these were essential components required for quick movement of goods, troops and securing co-ordination between authorities and officials at various levels. The province of Punjab in British India was annexed by the British in 1949 and they immediately started to introduce western technologies of transport and communication for transportation of agricultural produce, security of defence forces and acquiring comprehensive, accurate, and frequent information from every quarter of the region. This paper describes the introduction of western technologies of road and bridge construction, railways, telegraph, telephone, radio transmission and printing press by the British in Colonial Punjab. These technologies created appreciable impact on the colonial Punjabi society which has been highlighted. The paper is intended to contribute to the much needed aspect of History of Technology in colonial Punjab.
Keywords: Colonial Punjab, technology, transportation, communication.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 8442120 Optimizing the Components of Grid-Independent Microgrids for Rural Electrification Utilizing Solar Panel and Supercapacitor
Authors: Astiaj Khoramshahi, Hossein Ahmadi Danesh Ashtiani, Ahmad Khoshgard, Hamidreza Damghani, Leila Damghani
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Rural electrification rates are generally low in Iran and many parts of the world that lack sustainable renewable energy resources. Many homes are based on polluting solutions such as crude oil and diesel generators for lighting, heating, and charging electrical gadgets. Small-scale portable solar battery packs are accessible to the public; however, they have low capacity and are challenging to be distributed in developing countries. To design a battery-based microgrid power systems, the load profile is one of the key parameters. Additionally, the reliability of the system should be taken into account. A conventional microgrid system can be either AC or coupling DC. Both AC and DC microgrids have advantages and disadvantages depending on their application and can be either connected to the main grid or perform independently. This article proposes a tool for optimal sizing of microgrid-independent systems via respective analysis. To show such an analysis, the type of power generation, number of panels, battery capacity, microgrid size, and group of available consumers should be considered. Therefore, the optimization of different design scenarios is based on number of solar panels and super saving sources, ranges of the depth of discharges, to calculate size and estimate the overall cost. Generally, it is observed that there is an inverse relationship between the depth spectrum of discharge and the solar microgrid costs.
Keywords: Storage, super-storage, grid-independent, economic factors, microgrid.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2942119 Inflammatory Markers in the Blood and Chronic Periodontitis
Authors: Saimir Heta, Ilma Robo, Nevila Alliu, Tea Meta
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Background: Plasma levels of inflammatory markers are the expression of the infectious wastes of existing periodontitis, as well as of existing inflammation everywhere in the body. Materials and Methods: The study consists of the clinical part of the measurement of inflammatory markers of 23 patients diagnosed with chronic periodontitis and the recording of parental periodontal parameters of patient periodontal status: hemorrhage index and probe values, before and 7-10 days after non-surgical periodontal treatment. Results: The level of fibrinogen drops according to the categorization of disease progression, active and passive, with the biggest % (18%-30%) at the fluctuation 10-20 mg/d. Fluctuations in fibrinogen level according to the age of patients in the range 0-10 mg/dL under 40 years and over 40 years was 13%-26%, in the range 10-20 mg/dL was 26%-22%, in the 20-40 mg/dL was 9%-4%. Conclusions: Non-surgical periodontal treatment significantly reduces the level of non-inflammatory markers in the blood. Oral health significantly reduces the potential source for periodontal bacteria, with the potential of promoting thromboembolism, through interaction between thrombocytes.
Keywords: Chronic periodontitis, atherosclerosis, risk factor, inflammatory markers.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 5452118 The State, Local Community and Participatory Governance Practices: Prospects of Change
Authors: Gaysu R. Arvind
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In policy discourse of 1990s, more inclusive spaces have been constructed for realizing full and meaningful participation of common people in education. These participatory spaces provide an alternative possibility for universalizing elementary education against the backdrop of a history of entrenched forms of social and economical exclusion; inequitable education provisions; and shrinking role of the state in today-s neo-liberal times. Drawing on case-studies of bottom-up approaches to school governance, the study examines an array of innovative ways through which poor people gained a sense of identity and agency by evolving indigenous solutions to issues regarding schooling of their children. In the process, state-s institutions and practices became more accountable and responsive to educational concerns of the marginalized people. The deliberative participation emerged as an active way of experiencing deeper forms of empowerment and democracy than its passive realization as mere bearers of citizen rights.Keywords: Deliberative Forum, Inclusive Spaces, Participatory Governance, People's Agency
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 16472117 A Study on the Effectiveness of Alternative Commercial Ventilation Inlets That Improve Energy Efficiency of Building Ventilation Systems
Authors: Brian Considine, Aonghus McNabola, John Gallagher, Prashant Kumar
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Passive air pollution control devices known as aspiration efficiency reducers (AER) have been developed using aspiration efficiency (AE) concepts. Their purpose is to reduce the concentration of particulate matter (PM) drawn into a building air handling unit (AHU) through alterations in the inlet design improving energy consumption. In this paper an examination is conducted into the effect of installing a deflector system around an AER-AHU inlet for both a forward and rear-facing orientations relative to the wind. The results of the study found that these deflectors are an effective passive control method for reducing AE at various ambient wind speeds over a range of microparticles of varying diameter. The deflector system was found to induce a large wake zone at low ambient wind speeds for a rear-facing AER-AHU, resulting in significantly lower AE in comparison to without. As the wind speed increased, both contained a wake zone but have much lower concentration gradients with the deflectors. For the forward-facing models, the deflector system at low ambient wind speed was preferred at higher Stokes numbers but there was negligible difference as the Stokes number decreased. Similarly, there was no significant difference at higher wind speeds across the Stokes number range tested. The results demonstrate that a deflector system is a viable passive control method for the reduction of ventilation energy consumption.
Keywords: Aspiration efficiency, energy, particulate matter, ventilation.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 4642116 Impact of Increasing Distributed Solar PV Systems on Distribution Networks in South Africa
Authors: Aradhna Pandarum
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South Africa is experiencing an exponential growth of distributed solar PV installations. This is due to various factors with the predominant one being increasing electricity tariffs along with decreasing installation costs, resulting in attractive business cases to some end-users. Despite there being a variety of economic and environmental advantages associated with the installation of PV, their potential impact on distribution grids has yet to be thoroughly investigated. This is especially true since the locations of these units cannot be controlled by Network Service Providers (NSPs) and their output power is stochastic and non-dispatchable. This report details two case studies that were completed to determine the possible voltage and technical losses impact of increasing PV penetration in the Northern Cape of South Africa. Some major impacts considered for the simulations were ramping of PV generation due to intermittency caused by moving clouds, the size and overall hosting capacity and the location of the systems. The main finding is that the technical impact is different on a constrained feeder vs a non-constrained feeder. The acceptable PV penetration level is much lower for a constrained feeder than a non-constrained feeder, depending on where the systems are located.
Keywords: Medium voltage networks, power system losses, power system voltage, solar photovoltaic, PV.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 5292115 Energy Efficiency Analysis of Crossover Technologies in Industrial Applications
Authors: W. Schellong
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Industry accounts for one-third of global final energy demand. Crossover technologies (e.g. motors, pumps, process heat, and air conditioning) play an important role in improving energy efficiency. These technologies are used in many applications independent of the production branch. Especially electrical power is used by drives, pumps, compressors, and lightning. The paper demonstrates the algorithm of the energy analysis by some selected case studies for typical industrial processes. The energy analysis represents an essential part of energy management systems (EMS). Generally, process control system (PCS) can support EMS. They provide information about the production process, and they organize the maintenance actions. Combining these tools into an integrated process allows the development of an energy critical equipment strategy. Thus, asset and energy management can use the same common data to improve the energy efficiency.
Keywords: Crossover technologies, data management, energy analysis, energy efficiency, process control.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 9492114 Millimeter Wave I/Q Generation with the Inductive Resonator Matched Poly-Phase Filter
Authors: Ki-Jin Kim, Sanghoon Park, K. H. Ahn
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A way of generating millimeter wave I/Q signal using inductive resonator matched poly-phase filter is suggested. Normally the poly-phase filter generates quite accurate I/Q phase and magnitude but the loss of the filter is considerable due to series connection of passive RC components. This loss term directly increases system noise figure when the poly-phase filter is used in RF Front-end. The proposed matching method eliminates above mentioned loss and in addition provides gain on the passive filter. The working algorithm is illustrated by mathematical analysis. The generated I/Q signal is used in implementing millimeter wave phase shifter for the 60 GHz communication system to verify its effectiveness. The circuit is fabricated in 90 nm TSMC RF CMOS process under 1.2 V supply voltage. The measurement results showed that the suggested method improved gain by 6.5 dB and noise by 2.3 dB. The summary of the proposed I/Q generation is compared with previous works.
Keywords: Millimeter Wave Circuits, Local Distribution, I/Q Generator.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 20002113 Analytical and Experimental Methods of Design for Supersonic Two-Stage Ejectors
Authors: S. Daneshmand, C. Aghanajafi, A. Bahrami
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In this paper the supersonic ejectors are experimentally and analytically studied. Ejector is a device that uses the energy of a fluid to move another fluid. This device works like a vacuum pump without usage of piston, rotor or any other moving component. An ejector contains an active nozzle, a passive nozzle, a mixing chamber and a diffuser. Since the fluid viscosity is large, and the flow is turbulent and three dimensional in the mixing chamber, the numerical methods consume long time and high cost to analyze the flow in ejectors. Therefore this paper presents a simple analytical method that is based on the precise governing equations in fluid mechanics. According to achieved analytical relations, a computer code has been prepared to analyze the flow in different components of the ejector. An experiment has been performed in supersonic regime 1.52112 Selection of Photovoltaic Solar Power Plant Investment Projects - An ANP Approach
Authors: P. Aragonés-Beltrán, F. Chaparro-González, J. P. Pastor Ferrando, M. García-Melón
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In this paper the Analytic Network Process (ANP) is applied to the selection of photovoltaic (PV) solar power projects. These projects follow a long management and execution process from plant site selection to plant start-up. As a consequence, there are many risks of time delays and even of project stoppage. In the case study presented in this paper a top manager of an important Spanish company that operates in the power market has to decide on the best PV project (from four alternative projects) to invest based on risk minimization. The manager identified 50 project execution delay and/or stoppage risks. The influences among elements of the network (groups of risks and alternatives) were identified and analyzed using the ANP multicriteria decision analysis method. After analyzing the results the main conclusion is that the network model can manage all the information of the real-world problem and thus it is a decision analysis model recommended by the authors. The strengths and weaknesses ANP as a multicriteria decision analysis tool are also described in the paper.Keywords: Multicriteria decision analysis, Analytic Network Process, Photovoltaic solar power projects.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 21192111 Design Guidelines for an Enhanced Interaction Experience in the Domain of Smartphone-Based Applications for Sport and Fitness
Authors: Paolo Pilloni, Fabrizio Mulas, Salvatore Carta
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Nowadays, several research studies point up that an active lifestyle is essential for physical and mental health benefits. Mobile phones have greatly influenced people’s habits and attitudes also in the way they exercise. Our research work is mainly focused on investigating how to exploit mobile technologies to favour people’s exertion experience. To this end, we developed an exertion framework users can exploit through a real world mobile application, called EverywhereSport Run (EWRun), designed to act as a virtual personal trainer to support runners during their trainings. In this work, inspired by both previous findings in the field of interaction design for people with visual impairments, feedback gathered from real users of our framework, and positive results obtained from two experimentations, we present some new interaction facilities we designed to enhance the interaction experience during a training. The positive obtained results helped us to derive some interaction design recommendations we believe will be a valid support for designers of future mobile systems conceived to be used in circumstances where there are limited possibilities of interaction.Keywords: Human Computer Interaction, Interaction Design Guidelines, Persuasive Mobile Technologies for Sport and Health.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 19362110 Identification of States and Events for the Static and Dynamic Simulation of Single Electron Tunneling Circuits
Authors: Sharief F. Babiker, Abdelkareem Bedri, Rania Naeem
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The implementation of single-electron tunneling (SET) simulators based on the master-equation (ME) formalism requires the efficient and accurate identification of an exhaustive list of active states and related tunnel events. Dynamic simulations also require the control of the emerging states and guarantee the safe elimination of decaying states. This paper describes algorithms for use in the stationary and dynamic control of the lists of active states and events. The paper presents results obtained using these algorithms with different SET structures.Keywords: Active state, Coulomb blockade, Master Equation, Single electron devices
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 13792109 Trusting Smart Speakers: Analysing the Different Levels of Trust between Technologies
Authors: Alec Wells, Aminu Bello Usman, Justin McKeown
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The growing usage of smart speakers raises many privacy and trust concerns compared to other technologies such as smart phones and computers. In this study, a proxy measure of trust is used to gauge users’ opinions on three different technologies based on an empirical study, and to understand which technology most people are most likely to trust. The collected data were analysed using the Kruskal-Wallis H test to determine the statistical differences between the users’ trust level of the three technologies: smart speaker, computer and smart phone. The findings of the study revealed that despite the wide acceptance, ease of use and reputation of smart speakers, people find it difficult to trust smart speakers with their sensitive information via the Direct Voice Input (DVI) and would prefer to use a keyboard or touchscreen offered by computers and smart phones. Findings from this study can inform future work on users’ trust in technology based on perceived ease of use, reputation, perceived credibility and risk of using technologies via DVI.
Keywords: Direct voice input, risk, security, technology and trust.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 5712108 Control Strategy for an Active Suspension System
Authors: C. Alexandru, P. Alexandru
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The paper presents the virtual model of the active suspension system used for improving the dynamic behavior of a motor vehicle. The study is focused on the design of the control system, the purpose being to minimize the effect of the road disturbances (which are considered as perturbations for the control system). The analysis is performed for a quarter-car model, which corresponds to the suspension system of the front wheel, by using the DFC (Design for Control) software solution EASY5 (Engineering Analysis Systems) of MSC Software. The controller, which is a PIDbased device, is designed through a parametric optimization with the Matrix Algebra Tool (MAT), considering the gain factors as design variables, while the design objective is to minimize the overshoot of the indicial response.Keywords: Active suspension, Controller, Dynamics, Vehicle
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 22452107 The Impact of Community Settlement on Leisure Time Use and Body Composition in Determining Physical Lifestyles among Women
Authors: Mawarni Mohamed, Sharifah Shahira A. Hamid
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Leisure time is an important component to offset the sedentary lifestyle of the people. Women tend to benefit from leisure activities not only to reduce stress but also to provide opportunities for well-being and self-satisfaction. This study was conducted to investigate body composition and leisure time use among women in Selangor from the influences of community settlement. A total of 419 women aged 18-65 years were selected to participate in this study. Descriptive statistics, t-test and ANOVA were used to analyze the level of physical activity and the relationship between leisure-time use and body composition were made to analyze the physical lifestyles. The results showed that women with normal body composition seem to be involved in more passive activities than women with less weight gain and obesity. Thus, the study recommended that the government and other health and recreational agencies should develop more places and activities suitable for leisure preference for women in their community settlement so they become more interested to engage in more active recreational and physical activities.Keywords: Body composition, community settlement, leisure time, lifestyles.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 9352106 Development of Active Learning Calculus Course for Biomedical Program
Authors: Mikhail Bouniaev
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The paper reviews design and implementation of a Calculus Course required for the Biomedical Competency Based Program developed as a joint project between The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley, and the University of Texas’ Institute for Transformational Learning, from the theoretical perspective as presented in scholarly work on active learning, formative assessment, and on-line teaching. Following a four stage curriculum development process (objective, content, delivery, and assessment), and theoretical recommendations that guarantee effectiveness and efficiency of assessment in active learning, we discuss the practical recommendations on how to incorporate a strong formative assessment component to address disciplines’ needs, and students’ major needs. In design and implementation of this project, we used Constructivism and Stage-by-Stage Development of Mental Actions Theory recommendations.
Keywords: Active learning, assessment, Calculus, cognitive demand, constructivism, mathematics, Stage-by-Stage Development of Mental Action Theory.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 17042105 A Method for Analysis of Industrial Distributed Embedded Systems
Authors: Dmitry A. Mikoyelov
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The paper presents a set of guidelines for analysis of industrial embedded distributed systems and introduces a mathematical model derived from these guidelines. In this study, the author examines a set of modern communication technologies that are or possibly can be used to build communication links between the subsystems of a distributed embedded system. An investigation of these guidelines results in a algorithm for analysis of specific use cases of target technologies. A goal of the paper acts as an important base for ongoing research on comparison of communication technologies. The author describes the principles of the model and presents results of the test calculations. Practical implementation of target technologies and empirical experiment data are based on a practical experience during the design and test of specific distributed systems in Latvian market.
Keywords: Distributed embedded system, analytical model, communication technology.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 15102104 Antenna for Energy Harvesting in Wireless Connected Objects
Authors: Nizar Sakli, Chayma Bahar, Chokri Baccouch, Hedi Sakli
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If connected objects multiply, they are becoming a challenge in more than one way. In particular by their consumption and their supply of electricity. A large part of the new generations of connected objects will only be able to develop if it is possible to make them entirely autonomous in terms of energy. Some manufacturers are therefore developing products capable of recovering energy from their environment. Vital solutions in certain contexts, such as the medical industry. Energy recovery from the environment is a reliable solution to solve the problem of powering wireless connected objects. This paper presents and study a optically transparent solar patch antenna in frequency band of 2.4 GHz for connected objects in the future standard 5G for energy harvesting and RF transmission.Keywords: 5G, IoT, wireless communications, antenna, solar cell.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 7902103 A Simulated Design and Analysis of a Solar Thermal Parabolic Trough Concentrator
Authors: Fauziah Sulaiman, Nurhayati Abdullah, Balbir Singh Mahinder Singh
Abstract:
In recent years Malaysia has included renewable energy as an alternative fuel to help in diversifying the country-s energy reliance on oil, natural gas, coal and hydropower with biomass and solar energy gaining priority. The scope of this paper is to look at the designing procedures and analysis of a solar thermal parabolic trough concentrator by simulation utilizing meteorological data in several parts of Malaysia. Parameters which include the aperture area, the diameter of the receiver and the working fluid may be varied to optimize the design. Aperture area is determined by considering the width and the length of the concentrator whereas the geometric concentration ratio (CR) is obtained by considering the width and diameter of the receiver. Three types of working fluid are investigated. Theoretically, concentration ratios can be very high in the range of 10 to 40 000 depending on the optical elements used and continuous tracking of the sun. However, a thorough analysis is essential as discussed in this paper where optical precision and thermal analysis must be carried out to evaluate the performance of the parabolic trough concentrator as the theoretical CR is not the only factor that should be considered.Keywords: Parabolic trough concentrator, Concentration ratio, Intercept factor, Efficiency.
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