Search results for: property rights
236 Effect of Leachate Presence on Shear Strength Parameters of Bentonite-Amended Zeolite Soil
Authors: R. Ziaie Moayed, H. Keshavarz Hedayati
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Over recent years, due to increased population and increased waste production, groundwater protection has become more important, therefore, designing engineered barrier systems such as landfill liners to prevent the entry of leachate into groundwater should be done with greater accuracy. These measures generally involve the application of low permeability soils such as clays. Bentonite is a natural clay with low permeability which makes it a suitable soil for using in liners. Also zeolite with high cation exchange capacity can help to reduce of hazardous materials risk. Bentonite expands when wet, absorbing as much as several times its dry mass in water. This property may effect on some structural properties of soil such as shear strength. In present study, shear strength parameters are determined by both leachates polluted and not polluted bentonite-amended zeolite soil with mixing rates (B/Z) of 5%-10% and 20% with unconfined compression test to obtain the differences. It is shown that leachate presence causes reduction in resistance in general.
Keywords: Bentonite, zeolite, leachate, shear strength parameters, unconfined compression tests.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 553235 Exploiting Non Circularity for Angle Estimation in Bistatic MIMO Radar Systems
Authors: Ebregbe David, Deng Weibo
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The traditional second order statistics approach of using only the hermitian covariance for non circular signals, does not take advantage of the information contained in the complementary covariance of these signals. Radar systems often use non circular signals such as Binary Phase Shift Keying (BPSK) signals. Their noncicular property can be exploited together with the dual centrosymmetry of the bistatic MIMO radar system to improve angle estimation performance. We construct an augmented matrix from the received data vectors using both the positive definite hermitian covariance matrix and the complementary covariance matrix. The Unitary ESPRIT technique is then applied to the signal subspace of the augmented covariance matrix for automatically paired Direction-of-arrival (DOA) and Direction-of-Departure (DOD) angle estimates. The number of targets that can be detected is twice that obtainable with the conventional ESPRIT approach. Simulation results show the effectiveness of this method in terms of increase in resolution and the number of targets that can be detected.
Keywords: Bistatic MIMO Radar, Unitary Esprit, Non circular signals.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1901234 Springback Simulations of Monolithic and Layered Steels Used for Pressure Equipment
Authors: Anish H. Gandhi, Harit K. Raval
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Carbon steel is used in boilers, pressure vessels, heat exchangers, piping, structural elements and other moderatetemperature service systems in which good strength and ductility are desired. ASME Boiler and Pressure Vessel Code, Section II Part A (2004) provides specifications of ferrous materials for construction of pressure equipment, covering wide range of mechanical properties including high strength materials for power plants application. However, increased level of springback is one of the major problems in fabricating components of high strength steel using bending. Presented work discuss the springback simulations for five different steels (i.e. SA-36, SA-299, SA-515 grade 70, SA-612 and SA-724 grade B) using finite element analysis of air V-bending. Analytical springback simulations of hypothetical layered materials are presented. Result shows that; (i) combination of the material property parameters controls the springback, (ii) layer of the high ductility steel on the high strength steel greatly suppresses the springback.Keywords: Carbon steel, Finite element analysis, Layeredmaterial, Springback
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2223233 Thailand and Procession of Trafficking Human Beings (Women and Children)
Authors: Kawinphat Lertpongmanee
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The problems of trafficking human beings were continuously violent in Thailand. The problems occurred from a variety of factors such as unemployment, agricultural workers’ urban immigration, sex tour, attitude of materialism society, divorced family, unsavourily effected law, and officers’ ignorance. The purposes of this study were to study the structure, connection, a number of trafficking human beings in Thailand. Qualitative and quantitative and results of previous research were used in this research. The previous procurers, interested persons, experienced people, human beings-aiding organization, and women-children rights organization were interviewed in depth. The field was used in a variety of regions. The findings showed that the structure and connection of trafficking human beings and their values are $8,750 million. There are 240,000 people in trafficked human beings. The trend of trafficking human beings grows continuously. It is changed according to economic circumstance, society and culture, and law. The state must be aware of its problem. The law is enacted by adding high penalty for serious fear.
Keywords: Human Trade, Prostitution trafficking, trafficking in women and children.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1611232 Thermal Stability Boundary of FG Panel under Aerodynamic Load
Authors: Sang-Lae Lee, Ji-Hwan Kim
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In this study, it is investigated the stability boundary of Functionally Graded (FG) panel under the heats and supersonic airflows. Material properties are assumed to be temperature dependent, and a simple power law distribution is taken. First-order shear deformation theory (FSDT) of plate is applied to model the panel, and the von-Karman strain- displacement relations are adopted to consider the geometric nonlinearity due to large deformation. Further, the first-order piston theory is used to model the supersonic aerodynamic load acting on a panel and Rayleigh damping coefficient is used to present the structural damping. In order to find a critical value of the speed, linear flutter analysis of FG panels is performed. Numerical results are compared with the previous works, and present results for the temperature dependent material are discussed in detail for stability boundary of the panel with various volume fractions, and aerodynamic pressures.Keywords: Functionally graded panels, Linear flutter analysis, Supersonic airflows, Temperature dependent material property.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1586231 Numerical Study of Iterative Methods for the Solution of the Dirichlet-Neumann Map for Linear Elliptic PDEs on Regular Polygon Domains
Authors: A. G. Sifalakis, E. P. Papadopoulou, Y. G. Saridakis
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A generalized Dirichlet to Neumann map is one of the main aspects characterizing a recently introduced method for analyzing linear elliptic PDEs, through which it became possible to couple known and unknown components of the solution on the boundary of the domain without solving on its interior. For its numerical solution, a well conditioned quadratically convergent sine-Collocation method was developed, which yielded a linear system of equations with the diagonal blocks of its associated coefficient matrix being point diagonal. This structural property, among others, initiated interest for the employment of iterative methods for its solution. In this work we present a conclusive numerical study for the behavior of classical (Jacobi and Gauss-Seidel) and Krylov subspace (GMRES and Bi-CGSTAB) iterative methods when they are applied for the solution of the Dirichlet to Neumann map associated with the Laplace-s equation on regular polygons with the same boundary conditions on all edges.Keywords: Elliptic PDEs, Dirichlet to Neumann Map, Global Relation, Collocation, Iterative Methods, Jacobi, Gauss-Seidel, GMRES, Bi-CGSTAB.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1705230 Laser Beam Forming of 3 mm Steel Plate and the Evolving Properties
Authors: Stephen Akinlabi, Mukul Shukla, Esther Akinlabi, Marwala Tshilidzi
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This paper reports the evolving properties of a 3 mm low carbon steel plate after Laser Beam Forming achieve this objective, the chemical analyse material and the formed components were carried thereafter both were characterized through microhardness profiling microstructural evaluation and tensile testing. showed an increase in the elemental concentration of the component when compared to the as received attributed to the enhancement property of the LBF process Ultimate Tensile Strength (UTS) and the Vickers the formed component shows an increase when compared to the as received material, this was attributed to strain hardening and grain refinement brought about by the LBF process. The microstructure of the as received steel consists of equiaxed ferrit that of the formed component exhibits elongated orming process (LBF). To es of the as received out and compared; profiling, The chemical analyses formed material; this can be process. The microhardness of ferrite and pearlite while grains.
Keywords: Laser beam forming, deformation , deformation, elongated grains
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1884229 An Algorithm for Secure Visible Logo Embedding and Removing in Compression Domain
Authors: Hongyuan Li, Guang Liu, Yuewei Dai, Zhiquan Wang
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Digital watermarking is the process of embedding information into a digital signal which can be used in DRM (digital rights managements) system. The visible watermark (often called logo) can indicate the owner of the copyright which can often be seen in the TV program and protects the copyright in an active way. However, most of the schemes do not consider the visible watermark removing process. To solve this problem, a visible watermarking scheme with embedding and removing process is proposed under the control of a secure template. The template generates different version of watermarks which can be seen visually the same for different users. Users with the right key can completely remove the watermark and recover the original image while the unauthorized user is prevented to remove the watermark. Experiment results show that our watermarking algorithm obtains a good visual quality and is hard to be removed by the illegally users. Additionally, the authorized users can completely remove the visible watermark and recover the original image with a good quality.Keywords: digital watermarking, visible and removablewatermark, secure template, JPEG compression
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1527228 Effect of adding Supercritical Carbon Dioxide Extracts of Cinnamomum tamala (Bay Leaf) on Nutraceutical Property of Tofu
Authors: Sudip Ghosh, Probir Kumar Ghosh, Paramita Bhattacharjee
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Supercritical carbon dioxide extracts of Cinnamomum tamala (bay) leaves obtained at 55°C, 512 bar was found to have appreciable nutraceutical properties and was successfully employed as value-added ingredients in preparation of tofu. The bay leaf formulated tofu sample was evaluated for physicochemical properties (pH, texture analysis and lipid peroxidation), proximate analysis, phytochemical properties (total phenol content, antioxidant properties and total reducing sugar), microbial load and sensory profile analysis for a storage period of ten days, vis-à-vis an experimental control sample. These assays established the superiority of the tofu sample formulated with supercritical carbon dioxide extract of bay leaf over the control sample. Bay leaf extract formulated tofu is a new green functional food with promising nutraceutical benefits.
Keywords: Cinnamomum tamala, Physicochemical properties Phytochemical properties, Supercritical carbon dioxide extraction, Tofu.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2493227 Negative Selection as a Means of Discovering Unknown Temporal Patterns
Authors: Wanli Ma, Dat Tran, Dharmendra Sharma
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The temporal nature of negative selection is an under exploited area. In a negative selection system, newly generated antibodies go through a maturing phase, and the survivors of the phase then wait to be activated by the incoming antigens after certain number of matches. These without having enough matches will age and die, while these with enough matches (i.e., being activated) will become active detectors. A currently active detector may also age and die if it cannot find any match in a pre-defined (lengthy) period of time. Therefore, what matters in a negative selection system is the dynamics of the involved parties in the current time window, not the whole time duration, which may be up to eternity. This property has the potential to define the uniqueness of negative selection in comparison with the other approaches. On the other hand, a negative selection system is only trained with “normal" data samples. It has to learn and discover unknown “abnormal" data patterns on the fly by itself. Consequently, it is more appreciate to utilize negation selection as a system for pattern discovery and recognition rather than just pattern recognition. In this paper, we study the potential of using negative selection in discovering unknown temporal patterns.
Keywords: Artificial Immune Systems, ComputationalIntelligence, Negative Selection, Pattern Discovery.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1654226 Investigating the Impact of the Laundry and Sterilization Process on the Performance of Reusable Surgical Gowns
Authors: N. Khomarloo, F. Mousazadegan, M. Latifi, N. Hemmatinejad
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Recently, the utilization of reusable surgical gowns in order to decrease costs, environmental protection and enhance surgeon’s comfort is considered. One of the concerns in applying this kind of medical protective clothing is reduction of their resistance to bacterial penetration especially in wet state, after repeated laundering and sterilizing process. The purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of the laundering and sterilizing process on the reusable surgical gown’s resistance against bacterial wet penetration. To this end, penetration of Staphylococcus aureus bacteria in wet state after 70 washing and sterilizing cycles was evaluated on the two single-layer and three-layer reusable gowns. The outcomes reveal that up to 20 laundering and sterilizing cycles, protective property of samples improves due to fabric shrinkage, after that because of the fabric’s construction opening, the bacterial penetration increase. However, the three-layer gown presents higher protective performance comparing to the single-layer one.
Keywords: Reusable surgical gown, laundry, sterilization, wet bacterial penetration.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1734225 Studying on ARINC653 Partition Run-time Scheduling and Simulation
Authors: Dongliang Wang, Jun Han, Dianfu Ma, Xianqi Zhao
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Avionics software is safe-critical embedded software and its architecture is evolving from traditional federated architectures to Integrated Modular Avionics (IMA) to improve resource usability. ARINC 653 (Avionics Application Standard Software Interface) is a software specification for space and time partitioning in Safety-critical avionics Real-time operating systems. Arinc653 uses two-level scheduling strategies, but current modeling tools only apply to simple problems of Arinc653 two-level scheduling, which only contain time property. In avionics industry, we are always manually allocating tasks and calculating the timing table of a real-time system to ensure it-s running as we design. In this paper we represent an automatically generating strategy which applies to the two scheduling problems with dependent constraints in Arinc653 partition run-time environment. It provides the functionality of automatic generation from the task and partition models to scheduling policy through allocating the tasks to the partitions while following the constraints, and then we design a simulating mechanism to check whether our policy is schedulable or notKeywords: Arinc653, scheduling, task allocation, simulation.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2328224 Techno-Legal Interplay of Domain Names: A Study with Reference to India
Authors: M. Tariq Banday, Farooq A. Mir
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Internet has unfolded its potential and its users are now quite convinced that it is a cost effective, flexible, efficient and viable option to carry out different business activities disregard of any physical or geographical boundaries. These intrinsic properties of Internet have raised innumerable legal issues that are difficult to resolve within the boundaries of existing legal régime which has a different scheme of things. Internet has impacted most of the branches of law more particularly Intellectual property jurisprudence which has engendered many IP issues including interplay of trademark and domain names. There is neither any separate legislation nor any express provision in the existing Trademark Act, 1999, which is relatively recent in origin and enacted at the time when theses issued had seized the attention of the courts in other jurisdictions. A host of legal issues cropped by the intersection of trademark and domain names which have been left for the courts to decide. The courts in India have seized this opportunity and have laid down a number of principles. This paper appraises approaches adopted by Indian courts in resolving domain name disputes and compares them with theories evolved and established in other jurisdictions.
Keywords: DNS, Domain Name, Trademarks, Passing off and Judicial Approach.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2450223 Schedule Management of an Enterprise Receiving Orders Considering Dependency between Unit Tasks of a Collaborative Project
Authors: Joseph Oh, Bo-Hyun Kim, Jae-Yong Baek
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This study suggests how an order-receiving company can avoid disclosing schedule information on unit tasks to the order-placing company when carrying out a collaborative project on the value chain in an order-oriented industry. Specifically, it suggests methods for keeping schedule information confidential, and categorizes potential situations by inter-task dependency. Lastly, an approach to select the most optimal non-disclosure method is discussed. With the methods for not disclosing work-related information suggested in the study, order-receiving companies can logically deal with political issues relating to the question of whether or not to disclose information upon the execution of a collaborative project in cooperation with an order-placing firm. Moreover, order-placing companies can monitor undistorted information, while respecting the legitimate rights of an order-receiving company. Therefore, it is fair to say that the suggestions made in this study will contribute to the smooth operation of collaborative intercompany projects.Keywords: collaborative project, dependency, schedule management, unit task.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1474222 Toward a Use of Ontology to Reinforcing Semantic Classification of Message Based On LSA
Authors: S. Lgarch, M. Khalidi Idrissi, S. Bennani
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For best collaboration, Asynchronous tools and particularly the discussion forums are the most used thanks to their flexibility in terms of time. To convey only the messages that belong to a theme of interest of the tutor in order to help him during his tutoring work, use of a tool for classification of these messages is indispensable. For this we have proposed a semantics classification tool of messages of a discussion forum that is based on LSA (Latent Semantic Analysis), which includes a thesaurus to organize the vocabulary. Benefits offered by formal ontology can overcome the insufficiencies that a thesaurus generates during its use and encourage us then to use it in our semantic classifier. In this work we propose the use of some functionalities that a OWL ontology proposes. We then explain how functionalities like “ObjectProperty", "SubClassOf" and “Datatype" property make our classification more intelligent by way of integrating new terms. New terms found are generated based on the first terms introduced by tutor and semantic relations described by OWL formalism.
Keywords: Classification of messages, collaborative communication tools, discussion forum, e-learning, formal description, latente semantic analysis, ontology, owl, semantic relations, semantic web, thesaurus, tutoring.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1608221 On the Quality of Internet Users- Behavioral Patterns in Using Different Sites and Its Impact on Taboos of Marriage: A Survey among Undergraduate Students in Mashhad City in Iran
Authors: Javadi Alimohammad, Zanjanizadeh Homa, Javadi Maryam
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Regarding the multi-media property of internet and the facilities that can be provided for the users, the purpose of this paper is to investigate the users- behavioral patterns and the impact of internet on taboos of marriage. For this purpose a survey technique on the sample size amounted 403 students of governmental guidance schools of city of Mashhad in country of Iran were considered. The results showed, the process of using various internet environments depends on the degree of the users- familiarity with these sites. In order to clarify the effects of the Internet on the taboos of marriage, the non – internet parameters also considered to be controlled. The ttest held among the internet users and non-users, indicated that internet users possess lower taboos of marriage. Extraction of the effects of internet via considering the effects of non-internet parameters, indicate that addiction to the internet, creating a cordial atmosphere, emotional communication, and message attractive factors have significant effects on the family's traditional values.
Keywords: Internet, taboos of marriage, family, masscommunication, computer mediate communication.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1385220 Failure Cases Analysis in Petrochemical Industry
Authors: S. W. Liu, J. H. Lv, W. Z. Wang
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In recent years, the failure accidents in petrochemical industry have been frequent, and have posed great security problems in personnel and property. The improvement of petrochemical safety is highly requested in order to prevent re-occurrence of severe accident. This study focuses on surveying the failure cases occurred in petrochemical field, which were extracted from journals of engineering failure, including engineering failure analysis and case studies in engineering failure analysis. The relation of failure mode, failure mechanism, type of components, and type of materials was analyzed in this study. And the analytical results showed that failures occurred more frequently in vessels and piping among the petrochemical equipment. Moreover, equipment made of carbon steel and stainless steel accounts for the majority of failures compared to other materials. This may be related to the application of the equipment and the performance of the material. In addition, corrosion failures were the largest in number of occurrence in the failure of petrochemical equipment, in which stress corrosion cracking accounts for a large proportion. This may have a lot to do with the service environment of the petrochemical equipment. Therefore, it can be concluded that the corrosion prevention of petrochemical equipment is particularly important.Keywords: Cases analysis, corrosion, failure, petrochemical industry.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1389219 Assessment of Carbon Dioxide Separation by Amine Solutions Using Electrolyte Non-Random Two-Liquid and Peng-Robinson Models: Carbon Dioxide Absorption Efficiency
Authors: Arash Esmaeili, Zhibang Liu, Yang Xiang, Jimmy Yun, Lei Shao
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A high pressure carbon dioxide (CO2) absorption from a specific gas in a conventional column has been evaluated by the Aspen HYSYS simulator using a wide range of single absorbents and blended solutions to estimate the outlet CO2 concentration, absorption efficiency and CO2 loading to choose the most proper solution in terms of CO2 capture for environmental concerns. The property package (Acid Gas-Chemical Solvent) which is compatible with all applied solutions for the simulation in this study, estimates the properties based on an electrolyte non-random two-liquid (E-NRTL) model for electrolyte thermodynamics and Peng-Robinson equation of state for the vapor and liquid hydrocarbon phases. Among all the investigated single amines as well as blended solutions, piperazine (PZ) and the mixture of piperazine and monoethanolamine (MEA) have been found as the most effective absorbents respectively for CO2 absorption with high reactivity based on the simulated operational conditions.
Keywords: Absorption, amine solutions, Aspen HYSYS, carbon dioxide, simulation.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 558218 Discontinuous Galerkin Method for 1D Shallow Water Flow with Water Surface Slope Limiter
Authors: W. Lai, A. A. Khan
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A water surface slope limiting scheme is tested and compared with the water depth slope limiter for the solution of one dimensional shallow water equations with bottom slope source term. Numerical schemes based on the total variation diminishing Runge- Kutta discontinuous Galerkin finite element method with slope limiter schemes based on water surface slope and water depth are used to solve one-dimensional shallow water equations. For each slope limiter, three different Riemann solvers based on HLL, LF, and Roe flux functions are used. The proposed water surface based slope limiter scheme is easy to implement and shows better conservation property compared to the slope limiter based on water depth. Of the three flux functions, the Roe approximation provides the best results while the LF function proves to be least suitable when used with either slope limiter scheme.Keywords: Discontinuous finite element, TVD Runge-Kuttascheme, slope limiters, Riemann solvers, shallow water flow.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2591217 Model-free Prediction based on Tracking Theory and Newton Form of Polynomial
Authors: Guoyuan Qi , Yskandar Hamam, Barend Jacobus van Wyk, Shengzhi Du
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The majority of existing predictors for time series are model-dependent and therefore require some prior knowledge for the identification of complex systems, usually involving system identification, extensive training, or online adaptation in the case of time-varying systems. Additionally, since a time series is usually generated by complex processes such as the stock market or other chaotic systems, identification, modeling or the online updating of parameters can be problematic. In this paper a model-free predictor (MFP) for a time series produced by an unknown nonlinear system or process is derived using tracking theory. An identical derivation of the MFP using the property of the Newton form of the interpolating polynomial is also presented. The MFP is able to accurately predict future values of a time series, is stable, has few tuning parameters and is desirable for engineering applications due to its simplicity, fast prediction speed and extremely low computational load. The performance of the proposed MFP is demonstrated using the prediction of the Dow Jones Industrial Average stock index.Keywords: Forecast, model-free predictor, prediction, time series
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1769216 Proposing an Efficient Method for Frequent Pattern Mining
Authors: Vaibhav Kant Singh, Vijay Shah, Yogendra Kumar Jain, Anupam Shukla, A.S. Thoke, Vinay KumarSingh, Chhaya Dule, Vivek Parganiha
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Data mining, which is the exploration of knowledge from the large set of data, generated as a result of the various data processing activities. Frequent Pattern Mining is a very important task in data mining. The previous approaches applied to generate frequent set generally adopt candidate generation and pruning techniques for the satisfaction of the desired objective. This paper shows how the different approaches achieve the objective of frequent mining along with the complexities required to perform the job. This paper will also look for hardware approach of cache coherence to improve efficiency of the above process. The process of data mining is helpful in generation of support systems that can help in Management, Bioinformatics, Biotechnology, Medical Science, Statistics, Mathematics, Banking, Networking and other Computer related applications. This paper proposes the use of both upward and downward closure property for the extraction of frequent item sets which reduces the total number of scans required for the generation of Candidate Sets.Keywords: Data Mining, Candidate Sets, Frequent Item set, Pruning.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1672215 Evaluation of Fuel Properties of Six Tropical Hardwood Timber Species for Briquettes
Authors: S. J. Mitchual, K. Frimpong-Mensah, N. A. Darkwa
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The fuel potential of six tropical hardwood species namely: Triplochiton scleroxylon, Ceiba pentandra, Aningeria robusta, Terminalia superba, Celtis mildbreadii and Piptadenia africana were studied. Properties studied included species density, gross calorific value, volatile matter, ash content, organic carbon and elemental composition. Fuel properties were determined using standard laboratory methods. The result indicates that the gross calorific value (GCV) of the species ranged from 20.16 to 22.22 MJ/kg and they slightly varied from each other. Additionally, the GCV of the biomass materials were higher than that of other biomass materials like; wheat straw, rice straw, maize straw and sugar cane. The ash and volatile matter content varied from 0.6075 to 5.0407%, and 75.23% to 83.70% respectively. The overall rating of the properties of the six biomass materials suggested that Piptadenia africana has the best fuel property to be used as briquettes and Aningeria robusta the worse. This study therefore suggests that a holistic assessment of a biomass material needs to be done before selecting it for fuel purpose.Keywords: Ash content, Briquette, Calorific value, Elemental composition, Species, Volatile matter.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1713214 Image Haze Removal Using Scene Depth Based Spatially Varying Atmospheric Light in Haar Lifting Wavelet Domain
Authors: Prabh Preet Singh, Harpreet Kaur
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This paper presents a method for single image dehazing based on dark channel prior (DCP). The property that the intensity of the dark channel gives an approximate thickness of the haze is used to estimate the transmission and atmospheric light. Instead of constant atmospheric light, the proposed method employs scene depth to estimate spatially varying atmospheric light as it truly occurs in nature. Haze imaging model together with the soft matting method has been used in this work to produce high quality haze free image. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed approach produces better results than the classic DCP approach as color fidelity and contrast of haze free image are improved and no over-saturation in the sky region is observed. Further, lifting Haar wavelet transform is employed to reduce overall execution time by a factor of two to three as compared to the conventional approach.
Keywords: Depth based atmospheric light, dark channel prior, lifting wavelet.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 533213 A Comparative Study of a Defective Superconductor/ Semiconductor-Dielectric Photonic Crystal
Authors: S. Sadegzadeh, A. Mousavi
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Temperature-dependent tunable photonic crystals have attracted widespread interest in recent years. In this research, transmission characteristics of a one-dimensional photonic crystal structure with a single defect have been studied. Here, we assume two different defect layers: InSb as a semiconducting layer and HgBa2Ca2Cu3O10 as a high-temperature superconducting layer. Both the defect layers have temperature-dependent refractive indexes. Two different types of dielectric materials (Si as a high-refractive index dielectric and MgF2 as a low-refractive index dielectric) are used to construct the asymmetric structures (Si/MgF2)NInSb(Si/MgF2)N named S.I, and (Si/MgF2)NHgBa2Ca2Cu3O10(Si/MgF2)N named S.II. It is found that in response to the temperature changes, transmission peaks within the photonic band gap of the S.II structure, in contrast to S.I, show a small wavelength shift. Furthermore, the results show that under the same conditions, S.I structure generates an extra defect mode in the transmission spectra. Besides high efficiency transmission property of S.II structure, it can be concluded that the semiconductor-dielectric photonic crystals are more sensitive to temperature variation than superconductor types.Keywords: Defect modes, photonic crystals, semiconductor, superconductor, transmission.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1242212 Lactic Acid-Chitosan Films’ Properties and Their in vivo Wound Healing Activity
Authors: T. S. Moe, T. A. Khaing
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Chitosan is a derivative of chitin, a compound usually isolated from the shells of some crustaceans such as crab, lobster and shrimp. It has biocompatible, biodegradable, and antimicrobial properties. To use these properties of chitosan in biomedical fields, chitosan films (1%, 2%, 3% and 4%) were prepared by using l% lactic acid as solvent. The effects of chitosan films on tensile strength, elongation at break, degree of swelling, thickness, morphology, allergic and irritation reactions and antibacterial property were evaluated. Staphylococcus aureus and Escherichia coli were used as tested microorganisms. In vivo wound healing activities of chitosan films were investigated using mice model. As results, Chitosan films have similar appearance and good swelling properties and 4% chitosan film showed the better swelling activity and the greatest elongation ratio than the other chitosan films. They also showed their good activity of wound healing in mice model. Moreover, the results showed that the films did not produce any unwilling symptoms (allergy or irritation). In conclusion, it is evident that the chitosan film has the potentiality to use as wound healing biofilms in the biomedical fields.
Keywords: Chitosan, wound healing, antibacterial activity.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2624211 The Power of Indigenous Peoples in Decision-Making Processes of Mining Projects: The Pilbara Region
Authors: K. N. Penna, J. P. English
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The destruction of the Juukan Gorge rock shelters in 2020 has catalysed impetus within Australian society for a significant change in engagement with Indigenous Peoples, and the approach to Indigenous cultural heritage, both within the Pilbara region and more broadly across Australia. Culture-based and people-centred approaches are inherent to inclusive sustainable development and Free, Prior, Informed Consent, outcomes encouraged by international and local recommendations on the human rights and cultural heritage preservation of Indigenous peoples. In this paper, we present an interpretive model of an evolved process for mining project development, incorporating culture-based and people-centred approaches, based on the Theory U system change method. The evolved process advocates a change in organisational mindset and culture, and a comprehensive understanding of Indigenous Peoples’ culture and values, as the foundations for increasing their influence and achieving mutually beneficial developments.
Keywords: Indigenous Engagement, mining industry, culture-based approach, people-centred approach, Theory U.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 409210 Growth Effects of Caffeic Acid and Thioglycolic Acid Modified Chitosans in U937 Cells
Authors: Aytekin A.O., Morimura S.
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Chitosan is a biopolymer composed of glucosamine and N-acetyl glucosamine. Solubility and viscosity pose problems in some applications. These problems can be overcome with unique modifications. In this study, firstly, chitosan was modified by caffeic acid and thioglycolic acid, separately. Then, growing effects of these modified polymers was observed in U937 cell line. Caffeic acid is a phenolic compound and its modifications act carcinogenic inhibitors in drugs. Thiolated chitosans are commonly being used for drugdelivery systems in various routes, because of enhancing mucoadhesiveness property. U937 cell line was used model cell for leukaemia. Modifications were achieved by 1 – 15 % binding range. Increasing binding ratios showed higher radical-scavenging activity and reducing cell growth, in compared to native chitosan. Caffeic acid modifications showed higher radical-scavenging activity than thiolated chitosans at the same concentrations. Caffeic acid and thioglycolic acid modifications inhibited growth of U937, effectively.Keywords: Chitosan, U937 cell, caffeic acid, thioglycolic acid
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1860209 Random Projections for Dimensionality Reduction in ICA
Authors: Sabrina Gaito, Andrea Greppi, Giuliano Grossi
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In this paper we present a technique to speed up ICA based on the idea of reducing the dimensionality of the data set preserving the quality of the results. In particular we refer to FastICA algorithm which uses the Kurtosis as statistical property to be maximized. By performing a particular Johnson-Lindenstrauss like projection of the data set, we find the minimum dimensionality reduction rate ¤ü, defined as the ratio between the size k of the reduced space and the original one d, which guarantees a narrow confidence interval of such estimator with high confidence level. The derived dimensionality reduction rate depends on a system control parameter β easily computed a priori on the basis of the observations only. Extensive simulations have been done on different sets of real world signals. They show that actually the dimensionality reduction is very high, it preserves the quality of the decomposition and impressively speeds up FastICA. On the other hand, a set of signals, on which the estimated reduction rate is greater than 1, exhibits bad decomposition results if reduced, thus validating the reliability of the parameter β. We are confident that our method will lead to a better approach to real time applications.Keywords: Independent Component Analysis, FastICA algorithm, Higher-order statistics, Johnson-Lindenstrauss lemma.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1878208 Mapping Crime against Women in India: Spatio-Temporal Analysis, 2001-2012
Authors: Ritvik Chauhan, Vijay Kumar Baraik
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Women are most vulnerable to crime despite occupying central position in shaping a society as the first teacher of children. In India too, having equal rights and constitutional safeguards, the incidences of crime against them are large and grave. In this context of crime against women, especially rape has been increasing over time. This paper explores the spatial and temporal aspects of crime against women in India with special reference to rape. It also examines the crime against women with its spatial, socio-economic and demographic associates using related data obtained from the National Crime Records Bureau India, Indian Census and other government sources of the Government of India. The simple statistical, choropleth mapping and other cartographic representation methods have been used to see the crime rates, spatio-temporal patterns of crime, and association of crime with its correlates. The major findings are visible spatial variations across the country and are also in the rising trends in terms of incidence and rates over the reference period. The study also indicates that the geographical associations are somewhat observed. However, selected indicators of socio-economic factors seem to have no significant bearing on crime against women at this level.
Keywords: Crime against women, crime mapping, trend analysis.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1692207 Properties Modification of Fiber Metal Laminates by Nanofillers
Authors: R. Eslami-Farsani, S. M. S. Mousavi Bafrouyi
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During past decades, increasing demand of modified Fiber Metal Laminates (FMLs) has stimulated a strong trend towards the development of these structures. FMLs contain several thin layers of metal bonded with composite materials. Characteristics of FMLs such as low specific mass, high bearing strength, impact resistance, corrosion resistance and high fatigue life are attractive. Nowadays, increasing development can be observed to promote the properties of polymer-based composites by nanofillers. By dispersing strong, nanofillers in polymer matrix, modified composites can be developed and tailored to individual applications. On the other hand, the synergic effects of nanoparticles such as graphene and carbon nanotube can significantly improve the mechanical, electrical and thermal properties of nanocomposites. In present paper, the modifying of FMLs by nanofillers and the dispersing of nanoparticles in the polymers matrix are discussed. The evaluations have revealed that this approach is acceptable. Finally, a prospect is presented. This paper will lead to further work on these modified FML species.Keywords: Fiber metal laminate, nanofiller, polymer matrix, property modification.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1153