Search results for: water quality index.

Authors: W. Preechaporn, M. Jaroensutasinee, K. Jaroensutasinee

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This study investigated the seasonal prevalence of Aedes aegypti and Ae. albopictus larvae in three topographical areas (i.e. mangrove, rice paddy and mountainous areas). Samples were collected from 300 households in both wet and dry seasons in nine districts in Nakhon Si Thammarat province. Ae. aegypti and Ae. albopictus were found in 21 out of 29 types of water containers in mangrove, rice paddy and mountainous areas. Ae. aegypti and Ae. albopictus laid eggs in different container types depending on season and topographical areas. Ae. aegypti larvae were found most in metal box in mangrove and mountainous areas in wet season. Ae. albopictus larvae were also found most in metal box in mangrove and mountainous areas in both wet and dry seasons. All Ae. albopictus larval indices were higher than Ae. aegypti larval indices in all three topographical areas and both seasons. HI and BI did not differ in three topographical areas but differed between Aedes sp. HI for both Ae. aegypti and Ae. albopictus in all three topographical areas in both seasons were greater than 10 %, except Aedes aegypti in rice paddy area in wet season. This indicated high risks of DHF transmission in these areas.

Keywords: Aedes aegypti, Aedes albopictus, Season, Topography.

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Authors: L. Lakhdari, B. Bouchiba, M. Bechar

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The multi-level inverters present an important novelty in the field of energy control with high voltage and power. The major advantage of all multi-level inverters is the improvement and spectral quality of its generated output signals. In recent years, various pulse width modulation techniques have been developed. From these technics we have: Sinusoidal Pulse Width Modulation (SPWM) and Space Vector Pulse Width Modulation (SVPWM). This work presents a detailed analysis of the comparative advantage of space vector pulse width modulation (SVPWM) and the standard SPWM technique for Three Level Diode Clamped Inverter fed Induction Motor. The comparison is based on the evaluation of harmonic distortion THD.

Keywords: Induction motor, multi-level inverters, NPC inverter, sinusoidal pulse width modulation, space vector pulse width modulation.

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Authors: S. M. Ahuja

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A Rice Sheller is used for obtaining polished white rice from paddy. There are about 3000 Rice Shellers in Punjab and 50000 in India. During the process of shelling lot of dust is emitted from different unit operations like paddy silo, paddy shaker, bucket elevators, huskers, paddy separator etc. These dust emissions have adverse effect on the health of the workers and the wear and tear of the shelling machinery is fast. All the dust emissions spewing out of these unit operations of a rice Sheller were contained by providing suitable hoods and enclosures while ensuring their workability. These were sucked by providing an induced draft fan followed by a high efficiency cyclone separator that has got an overall dust collection efficiency of more than 90%. This cyclone separator replaced two cyclone separators and a filter bag house, which the Rice Sheller was already having. The dust concentration in the stack after the installation of cyclone separator is well within the stipulated standards. Besides controlling pollution, there is improvement in the quality of products like bran and the life of shelling machinery has enhanced. The payback period of this technology is less than four shelling months.

Keywords: Air Pollution, Cyclone Separator, Pneumatic Conveying, Rice Sheller.

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Authors: Abdulwahab Alalyani, Mahbub Rashid

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Public green space promotes community health including daily activities, but these resources may not be available enough or may not equitably be distributed. This paper measures and compares the availability of public green spaces (PGS) among low, middle, and high-income neighborhoods in the Riyadh city. Additionally, it compares the total availability of PGS to WHO standard and Dubai availability of PGS per person. All PGS were mapped using geographical information systems, and total area availability of PGS compared to WHO and Dubai standards. To evaluate the significant differences in PGS availability across low, medium, and high-income Riyadh neighborhoods, we used a One-way ANOVA analysis of covariance to test the differences. As a result, by comparing PGS of Riyadh neighborhoods to WHO and Dubai-availability, it was found that Riyadh PGS were lower than the minimum standard of WHO and as well as Dubai. Riyadh has only 1.13 m² per capita of PGS. The second finding, the availability of PGS, was significantly different among Riyadh neighborhoods based on socioeconomic status. The future development of PGS should be focused on increasing PGS availability and should be given priority to those low-income and unhealthy communities.

Keywords: Spatial equity, green space, healthy city, quality of life, income, built environment.

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Authors: Laimona Sliburyte

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Today advertising is actively penetrating into many spheres of our lives. We cannot imagine the existence of a lot of economic activities without advertising. That mostly concerns trade and services. Everyone of us should look better into the everyday communication and carefully consider the amount and the quality of the information we receive as well as its influence on our behaviour. Special attention should be paid to the young generation. Theoretical and practical research has proved the ever growing influence of information (especially the one contained in advertising) on a society; on its economics, culture, religion, politics and even people-s private lives and behaviour. Children have plenty of free time and, therefore, see a lot of different advertising. Though education of children is in the hands of parents and schools, advertising makers and customers should think with responsibility about the selection of time and transmission channels of child targeted advertising. The purpose of the present paper is to investigate the influence of advertising upon consumer views and behaviour of children in different age groups. The present investigation has clarified the influence of advertising as a means of information on a certain group of society, which in the modern information society is the most vulnerable – children. In this paper we assess children-s perception and their understanding of advertising.

Keywords: Advertising, children, children targeted advertising, consumer socialization process.

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Authors: José A. D. Machuca, Bernabé Escobar-Pérez, Pedro Garrido Vega, Darkys E. Lujan García

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Starting with an analysis of the financial and operational indicators that can be found in the specialised literature, this study aims to contribute to improvements in the performance measurement systems used when the unit of analysis is the manufacturing plant. For this a search was done in the highest impact Journals of Production and Operations Management and Management Accounting , with the aim of determining the financial and operational indicators used to evaluate performance when Advanced Production Practices have been implemented, more specifically when the practices implemented are Total Quality Management, JIT/Lean Manufacturing and Total Productive Maintenance. This has enabled us to obtain a classification of the two types of indicators based on how much each is used. For the financial indicators we have also prepared a proposal that can be adapted to manufacturing plants- accounting features. In the near future we will propose a model that links practices implementation with financial and operational indicators and these two last with each other. We aim to will test this model empirically with the data obtained in the High Performance Manufacturing Project.

Keywords: Advanced Production Practices, Financial Indicators, Non-Financial Indicators

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Authors: G.Kavitha, V.Sankaranarayanan

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Grid computing provides a virtual framework for controlled sharing of resources across institutional boundaries. Recently, trust has been recognised as an important factor for selection of optimal resources in a grid. We introduce a new method that provides a quantitative trust value, based on the past interactions and present environment characteristics. This quantitative trust value is used to select a suitable resource for a job and eliminates run time failures arising from incompatible user-resource pairs. The proposed work will act as a tool to calculate the trust values of the various components of the grid and there by improves the success rate of the jobs submitted to the resource on the grid. The access to a resource not only depend on the identity and behaviour of the resource but also upon its context of transaction, time of transaction, connectivity bandwidth, availability of the resource and load on the resource. The quality of the recommender is also evaluated based on the accuracy of the feedback provided about a resource. The jobs are submitted for execution to the selected resource after finding the overall trust value of the resource. The overall trust value is computed with respect to the subjective and objective parameters.

Keywords: access control, feedback, grid computing, reputation, security, trust, trust parameter.

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Authors: Lucia Abbamonte, Olimpia Matarazzo

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In recent years linguistic research has turned increasing attention to covert/overt strategies to modulate authorial stance and positioning in scientific texts, and to the recipients' response. This study discussed some theoretical implications of the use of rhetoric in scientific communication and analysed qualitative data from the authoritative The Cognitive Neurosciences III (2004) volume. Its genre-identity, status and readability were considered, in the social interactive context of contemporary disciplinary discourses – in their polyphony of traditional and new, emerging genres. Evidence was given of the ways its famous authors negotiate and shape knowledge and research results – explicitly appraising team work and promoting faith in the fast-paced progress of Cognitive Neuroscience, also through experiential metaphors – by presenting a set of examples, ordered according to their dominant rhetorical quality.

Keywords: Appraisal, disciplinary discourses, experientialmetaphors, genre, identity, knowledge, readability, rhetoric, strategies, theoretical implications.

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Authors: Hoda Aslani, Mohammad Moghiman, Mohammad Aslani

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Considering the demand to reduce global warming potential and importance of solidification in various applications, there is an increasing interest in energy storage systems to find the efficient phase change materials. Therefore, this paper presents an experimental study and comparison on the potential of titania nanofluids with and without surfactant for cooling energy storage systems. A designed cooling generation device based on compression refrigeration cycle is used to explore nanofluids solidification characteristics. In this work, titania nanoparticles of 0.01, 0.02 and 0.04 wt.% are dispersed in deionized water as base fluid. Measurement of phase change parameters of nanofluids illustrates that the addition of polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP) as surfactant to titania nanofluids advances the onset nucleation time and leads to lower solidification time. Also, the experimental results show that only adding 0.02 wt.% titania nanoparticles, especially in the case of nanofluids with a surfactant, can evidently reduce the supercooling degree by nearly 70%. Hence, it is concluded that there is a great energy saving potential in the energy storage systems using titania nanofluid with PVP.

Keywords: Cooling energy storage, nanofluid, PVP, solidification, titania.

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Authors: Taneli Eisto, Venlakaisa Hölttä, Katrine Mahlamäki, Janne Kollanus, Marko Nieminen

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Early supplier involvement (ESI) benefits new product development projects several ways. Nevertheless, many castuser companies do not know the advantages of ESI and therefore do not utilize it. This paper presents reasons why to utilize ESI in casting industry and how that can be done. Further, this paper presents advantages and challenges related to ESI in casting industry, and introduces a Casting-Network Collaboration Model. The model presents practices for companies to build advantageous collaborative relationships. More detailed, the model describes three levels for company-network relationships in casting industry with different degrees of collaboration, and requirements for operating in each level. In our research, ESI was found to influence, for example, on project time, component cost, and quality. In addition, challenges related to ESI, such as, a lack of mutual trust and unawareness about the advantages were found. Our research approach was a case study including four cases.

Keywords: Casting Industry, Collaboration Model, EarlySupplier Involvement, New Product Development.

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Authors: W. K. Hiromi Ariyaratne, Morten C. Melaaen, Lars-André Tokheim

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A mathematical model based on a mass and energy balance for the combustion in a cement rotary kiln was developed. The model was used to investigate the impact of replacing about 45 % of the primary coal energy by different alternative fuels. Refuse derived fuel, waste wood, solid hazardous waste and liquid hazardous waste were used in the modeling. The results showed that in order to keep the kiln temperature unchanged, and thereby maintain the required clinker quality, the production capacity had to be reduced by 1-15 %, depending on the fuel type. The reason for the reduction is increased exhaust gas flow rates caused by the fuel characteristics. The model, which has been successfully validated in a full-scale experiment, was also used to show that the negative impact on the production capacity can be avoided if a relatively small part of the combustion air is replaced by pure oxygen.

Keywords: Alternative fuels, Cement kiln main burner, Oxygen enrichment, Production capacity.

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Authors: Naser Ahmadi Sani, Karim Solaimani, Lida Razaghnia, Jalal Zandi

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In recent decades, rapid and incorrect changes in land-use have been associated with consequences such as natural resources degradation and environmental pollution. Detecting changes in land-use is one of the tools for natural resource management and assessment of changes in ecosystems. The target of this research is studying the land-use changes in Haraz basin with an area of 677000 hectares in a 15 years period (1996 to 2011) using LANDSAT data. Therefore, the quality of the images was first evaluated. Various enhancement methods for creating synthetic bonds were used in the analysis. Separate training sites were selected for each image. Then the images of each period were classified in 9 classes using supervised classification method and the maximum likelihood algorithm. Finally, the changes were extracted in GIS environment. The results showed that these changes are an alarm for the HARAZ basin status in future. The reason is that 27% of the area has been changed, which is related to changing the range lands to bare land and dry farming and also changing the dense forest to sparse forest, horticulture, farming land and residential area.

Keywords: HARAZ Basin, Change Detection, Land-use, Satellite Data.

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

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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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Authors: Muhammad Tahir Qadri, Syed Shafi-Uddin Qadri, Faizan Farid, Nabeel Abid

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This paper discuss the separation of the miscible liquids by means of fractional distillation. For complete separation of liquids, the process of heating, condensation, separation and storage is done automatically to achieve the objective. PIC micro-controller has been used to control each and every process of the work. The controller also controls the storage process by activating and deactivating the conveyors. The liquids are heated which on reaching their respective boiling points evaporate and enter the condensation chamber where they convert into liquid. The liquids are then directed to their respective tanks by means of stepper motor which moves in three directions, each movement into different tank. The tank on filling sends the signal to controller which then opens the solenoid valves. The tank is emptied into the beakers below the nozzle. As the beaker filled, the nozzle closes and the conveyors come into operation. The filled beaker is replaced by an empty beaker from behind. The work can be used in oil industries, chemical industries and paint industries.

Keywords: Miscible Liquid Separation Unit, Distillation, Waste Water Treatment, Organic Liquids Collection.

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Authors: G. K. Pandey, D. Ramadasu, I. Banerjee, V. Vinod, G. Padmakumar, V. Prakash, K. K. Rajan

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Detailed thermal hydraulic investigations are very  essential for safe and reliable functioning of liquid metal cooled fast  breeder reactors. These investigations are further more important for  components with complex profile, since there is no direct correlation  available in literature to evaluate the hydraulic characteristics of such  components directly. In those cases available correlations for similar  profile or geometries may lead to significant uncertainty in the  outcome. Hence experimental approach can be adopted to evaluate  these hydraulic characteristics more precisely for better prediction in  reactor core components.  Prototype Fast Breeder Reactor (PFBR), a sodium cooled pool  type reactor is under advanced stage of construction at Kalpakkam,  India. Several components of this reactor core require hydraulic  investigation before its usage in the reactor. These hydraulic  investigations on full scale models, carried out by experimental  approaches using water as simulant fluid are discussed in the paper. 

Keywords: Fast Breeder Reactor, Cavitation, pressure drop, Reactor components.

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Authors: S. B. Fasoyiro, K. A. Arowora

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Pigeon pea (Cajanus cajan) blanched for 20min was dehulled and milled into flour. The flour was incorporated into dried whole fermented maize (Ogi) at five levels. The resultant products were analyzed for chemical and pasting properties. The fortified Ogi samples were also assessed for sensory attributes: appearance, color, flavor, mouth feel and overall acceptability. The protein content in the whole Ogi fortified samples was in the range of 11.2-16.6% and crude fibre 3.22-3.46%. Fortified whole Ogi with pigeon pea at 30%, 40% and 50% of inclusion with pigeon pea flour has higher protein, crude fibre and ash content. Varying range of pasting quality was recorded for the blends, pasting temperature for fortified Obi was in the range of 45.3-49.50C and peak time 5.05-5.210C. The sensory acceptability of the whole Ogi fortified blends prepared into gruel has higher acceptability for various qualities in comparison with the traditional Ogi gruel.

Keywords: Maize Ogi, pigeon pea, chemical, pasting, sensory properties.

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Authors: Anne-Lena Kampen, Øivind Kure

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Machine learning (ML) can be implemented in Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) as a central solution or distributed solution where the ML is embedded in the nodes. Embedding improves privacy and may reduce prediction delay. In addition, the number of transmissions is reduced. However, quality factors such as prediction accuracy, fault detection efficiency and coordinated control of the overall system suffer. Here, we discuss and highlight the trade-offs that should be considered when choosing between embedding and centralized ML, especially for multihop networks. In addition, we present estimations that demonstrate the energy trade-offs between embedded and centralized ML. Although the total network energy consumption is lower with central prediction, it makes the network more prone for partitioning due to the high forwarding load on the one-hop nodes. Moreover, the continuous improvements in the number of operations per joule for embedded devices will move the energy balance toward embedded prediction.

Keywords: Central ML, embedded machine learning, energy consumption, local ML, Wireless Sensor Networks, WSN.

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Authors: M. Ismail, Cao Yihua, Zhao Ming, Abu Bakar

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Heavy rainfall greatly affects the aerodynamic performance of the aircraft. There are many accidents of aircraft caused by aerodynamic efficiency degradation by heavy rain. In this Paper we have studied the heavy rain effects on the aerodynamic efficiency of cambered NACA 64-210 and symmetric NACA 0012 airfoils. Our results show significant increase in drag and decrease in lift. We used preprocessing software gridgen for creation of geometry and mesh, used fluent as solver and techplot as postprocessor. Discrete phase modeling called DPM is used to model the rain particles using two phase flow approach. The rain particles are assumed to be inert. Both airfoils showed significant decrease in lift and increase in drag in simulated rain environment. The most significant difference between these two airfoils was the NACA 64-210 more sensitivity than NACA 0012 to liquid water content (LWC). We believe that the results showed in this paper will be useful for the designer of the commercial aircrafts and UAVs, and will be helpful for training of the pilots to control the airplanes in heavy rain.

Keywords: airfoil, discrete phase modeling, heavy rain, Reynolds

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Authors: R. Bhuvenesh, M.H. Norizaman, M.S. Abdul Manan

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Industrial surveys shows that manufacturing companies define the qualities of thermal removing process based on the dimension and physical appearance of the cutting material surface. Therefore, the roughness of the surface area of the material cut by the plasma arc cutting process and the rate of the removed material by the manual plasma arc cutting machine was importantly considered. Plasma arc cutter Selco Genesis 90 was used to cut Standard AISI 1017 Steel of 200 mm x100 mm x 6 mm manually based on the selected parameters setting. The material removal rate (MRR) was measured by determining the weight of the specimens before and after the cutting process. The surface roughness (SR) analysis was conducted using Mitutoyo CS-3100 to determine the average roughness value (Ra). Taguchi method was utilized to achieve optimum condition for both outputs studied. The microstructure analysis in the region of the cutting surface is performed using SEM. The results reveal that the SR values are inversely proportional to the MRR values. The quality of the surface roughness depends on the dross peak that occurred after the cutting process.

Keywords: Material removal rate, plasma arc cutting, surface roughness, Taguchi method

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Authors: Zahra Morshedi

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Environmental considerations have become an integral part of developmental thinking and decision making in many countries. It is growing rapidly in importance as a discipline of its own. Preventive approaches have been used at the evolutional process of environmental management as a broad and dynamic system for dealing with pollution and environmental degradation. In this regard, Environmental Assessment as an activity for identification and prediction of project’s impacts carried out in the world and its legal significance dates back to late 1960. In Iran, according to the Article 2 of Environmental Protection Act, Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) should be prepared for seven categories of project. This article has been actively implementing by Department of Environment at 1997. World Bank in 1989 attempted to introducing application of Environmental Assessment for making decision about projects which are required financial assistance in developing countries. So, preparing EIA for obtaining World Bank loan was obligated. Alborz Project is one of the World Bank Projects in Iran which is environmentally significant. Seven out of ten W.B safeguard policies were considered at this project. In this paper, Alborz project, objectives, safeguard policies and role of environmental management will be elaborated

Keywords: AILWMP, EIA, Environmental Management, Safeguard Policies.

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Authors: JiEun Jeong, Se-Won Kang, Hee-Ju Hwang, Sung-Hwa Chae, Sang-Haeng Choi, Hong-SeogPark, YeonSoo Han, Bok-Reul Lee, Dae-Hyun Seog, Yong Seok Lee

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Tofurther advance research on immune-related genes from T. molitor, we constructed acDNA library and analyzed expressed sequence taq (EST) sequences from 1,056 clones. After removing vector sequence and quality checkingthrough thePhred program (trim_alt 0.05 (P-score>20), 1039 sequences were generated. The average length of insert was 792 bp. In addition, we identified 162 clusters, 167 contigs and 391 contigs after clustering and assembling process using a TGICL package. EST sequences were searchedagainst NCBI nr database by local BLAST (blastx, EKeywords: EST, Innate immunity, Tenebriomolitor

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Authors: Tijani Delleji, Mourad Zribi, Ahmed Ben Hamida

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This paper discusses EM algorithm and Bootstrap approach combination applied for the improvement of the satellite image fusion process. This novel satellite image fusion method based on estimation theory EM algorithm and reinforced by Bootstrap approach was successfully implemented and tested. The sensor images are firstly split by a Bayesian segmentation method to determine a joint region map for the fused image. Then, we use the EM algorithm in conjunction with the Bootstrap approach to develop the bootstrap EM fusion algorithm, hence producing the fused targeted image. We proposed in this research to estimate the statistical parameters from some iterative equations of the EM algorithm relying on a reference of representative Bootstrap samples of images. Sizes of those samples are determined from a new criterion called 'hybrid criterion'. Consequently, the obtained results of our work show that using the Bootstrap EM (BEM) in image fusion improve performances of estimated parameters which involve amelioration of the fused image quality; and reduce the computing time during the fusion process.

Keywords: Satellite image fusion, Bayesian segmentation, Bootstrap approach, EM algorithm.

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Authors: G. Lingam, N. Lingam, K. Raghuwaiya

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Thirty-eight rural school leaders in Solomon Islands responded to a questionnaire aimed at identifying their perceptions of work challenges. The data analysis points to an overwhelming percentage of school leaders feeling they face multifaceted problems in their work settings, including such challenges as untrained teachers, lack of funding, limited learning and teaching resources, and land disputes. The latter in particular is beyond the school leader’s jurisdiction; addressing it needs urgent attention from the principal stakeholder(s). Such challenges, seemingly tangential to the business of schooling, inadvertently affect the provision of good-quality education. The findings demonstrate that contextual challenges raise questions about what powers leadership at school level has to deal with some of them. The suggestion is advanced for the significant place-conscious leadership development to help address some community and cultural challenges. Implications of this paper are likely to be relevant to other similar contexts in the Pacific region and beyond.

Keywords: Rural school leaders, leadership, challenges, Solomon Islands, contextual factors.

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Authors: Rajlaxmi Chouhan, Pritee Khanna

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In this manuscript, a wavelet-based blind watermarking scheme has been proposed as a means to provide security to authenticity of a fingerprint. The information used for identification or verification of a fingerprint mainly lies in its minutiae. By robust watermarking of the minutiae in the fingerprint image itself, the useful information can be extracted accurately even if the fingerprint is severely degraded. The minutiae are converted in a binary watermark and embedding these watermarks in the detail regions increases the robustness of watermarking, at little to no additional impact on image quality. It has been experimentally shown that when the minutiae is embedded into wavelet detail coefficients of a fingerprint image in spread spectrum fashion using a pseudorandom sequence, the robustness is observed to have a proportional response while perceptual invisibility has an inversely proportional response to amplification factor “K". The DWT-based technique has been found to be very robust against noises, geometrical distortions filtering and JPEG compression attacks and is also found to give remarkably better performance than DCT-based technique in terms of correlation coefficient and number of erroneous minutiae.

Keywords: Fingerprint watermarking, minutiae, discrete wavelet transform, PN sequence

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Authors: Ibrahim F. Elbaba, Paul T. Williams

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Hydrogen is regarded to play an important role in future energy systems because it can be produced from abundant resources and its combustion only generates water. The disposal of waste tyres is a major problem in environmental management throughout the world. The use of waste materials as a source of hydrogen is particularly of interest in that it would also solve a waste treatment problem. There is much interest in the use of alternative feedstocks for the production of hydrogen since more than 95% of current production is from fossil fuels. The pyrolysis of waste tyres for the production of liquid fuels, activated carbons and gases has been extensively researched. However, combining pyrolysis with gasification is a novel process that can gasify the gaseous products from pyrolysis. In this paper, an experimental investigation into the production of hydrogen and other gases from the bench scale pyrolysis-gasification of tyres has been investigated. Experiments were carried using a two stage system consisting of pyrolysis of the waste tyres followed by catalytic steam gasification of the evolved gases and vapours in a second reactor. Experiments were conducted at a pyrolysis temperature of 500 °C using Ni/Al2O3 as a catalyst. The results showed that there was a dramatic increase in gas yield and the potential H2 production when the gasification temperature was increased from 600 to 900 oC. Overall, the process showed that high yields of hydrogen can be produced from waste tyres.

Keywords: Catalyst, Hydrogen, Pyrolysis, Gasification, Tyre, Waste

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Authors: Moaz H. Ali, M. N. M. Ansari

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This paper presents a study the effect of nose radius (Rz-mm) on cutting force components and temperatures during the machining simulation in an orthogonal cutting process for titanium alloy (Ti-6Al-4V). The cutting process was performed at various nose radiuses (Rz-mm) while the depth of cut (d-mm), feed rate (fmm/ tooth) and cutting speed (vc-m/ min) were remained constant. The main cutting force (Fc), feed cutting force (Ft) and temperatures were estimated by using finite element modeling (FEM) through ABAQUS/EXPLICIT software and the simulation was developed the two-dimension via an orthogonal cutting process during machining titanium alloy (Ti-6Al-4V). The results led to the conclusion that the nose radius (Rz-mm) has affected directly on the cutting force components. However, temperature gave no indication or has no significant relation with nose radius during machining titanium alloy (Ti-6Al-4V). Hence, any increase or decrease in the nose radius (Rzmm) during machining operation led to effect on the cutting forces and thus it will be effective on surface finish, quality, and quantity of products.

Keywords: Finite element modeling (FEM), nose radius, cutting force, temperature, titanium alloy (Ti-6Al-4V).

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Authors: M. Sarrab, M. Elbasir

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The use of information technology in education have changed not only the learners learning style but also the way they taught, where nowadays learners are connected with diversity of information sources with means of knowledge available everywhere. The advantage of network wireless technologies and mobility technologies used in the education and learning processes lead to mobile learning as a new model of learning technology. Currently, most of mobile learning applications are developed for the formal education and learning environment. Despite the long history and large amount of research on mobile learning and instruction design model still there is a need of well-defined process in designing mobile learning applications. Based on this situation, this paper emphasizes on identifying instruction design phase’s considerations and influencing factors in developing mobile learning application. This set of instruction design steps includes analysis, design, development, implementation, evaluation and continuous has been built from a literature study, with focus on standards for learning, mobile application software quality and guidelines. The effort is part of an Omani-funded research project investigating the development, adoption and dissemination of mobile learning in Oman.

Keywords: Instruction design, mobile learning, mobile application.

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Authors: Steady Mushayabasa

Abstract:

Typhoid fever is a communicable disease, found only in man and occurs due to systemic infection mainly by Salmonella typhi organism. The disease is endemic in many developing countries and remains a substantial public health problem despite recent progress in water and sanitation coverage. Globally, it is estimated that typhoid causes over 16 million cases of illness each year, resulting in over 600,000 deaths. A mathematical model for assessing the impact of educational campaigns on controlling the transmission dynamics of typhoid in the community, has been formulated and analyzed. The reproductive number has been computed. Stability of the model steady-states has been examined. The impact of educational campaigns on controlling the transmission dynamics of typhoid has been discussed through the basic reproductive number and numerical simulations. At its best the study suggests that targeted education campaigns, which are effective at stopping transmission of typhoid more than 40% of the time, will be highly effective at controlling the disease in the community. 

Keywords: Mathematical model, Typhoid, saturated incidence rate, treatment, reproductive number, sensitivity analysis.

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Authors: Imen Mejri, Ahmed Mahmoudi, Mohamed A. Abbassi, Ahmed Omri

Abstract:

This paper examines the natural convection in a square enclosure filled with a water-Al₂O₃ nanofluid and is subjected to a magnetic field. The side walls of the cavity have spatially varying sinusoidal temperature distributions. The horizontal walls are adiabatic. Lattice Boltzmann method (LBM) is applied to solve the coupled equations of flow and temperature fields. This study has been carried out for the pertinent parameters in the following ranges: Rayleigh number of the base fluid, Ra=10³ to 10⁶, Hartmann number varied from Ha=0 to 90, phase deviation (γ=0, π/4, π/2, 3π/4 and π) and the solid volume fraction of the nanoparticles between Ø = 0 and 6%. The results show that the heat transfer rate increases with an increase of the Rayleigh number but it decreases with an increase of the Hartmann number. For γ=π/2 and Ra=10⁵ the magnetic field augments the effect of nanoparticles. At Ha=0, the greatest effects of nanoparticles are obtained at γ = 0 and π/4 for Ra=10⁴ and 10⁵ respectively.

 

Keywords: Lattice Boltzmann Method, magnetic field, Natural convection, nanofluid, Sinusoidal temperature distribution.

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Authors: M. R. Dahmardeh Ghaleno, M. Nohtani, S. Khaledi

Abstract:

Flood simulation and prediction is one of the most active research areas in surface water management. WetSpa is a distributed, continuous, and physical model with daily or hourly time step that explains precipitation, runoff, and evapotranspiration processes for both simple and complex contexts. This model uses a modified rational method for runoff calculation. In this model, runoff is routed along the flow path using Diffusion-Wave equation which depends on the slope, velocity, and flow route characteristics. Golestan Dam Basin is located in Golestan province in Iran and it is passing over coordinates 55° 16´ 50" to 56° 4´ 25" E and 37° 19´ 39" to 37° 49´ 28"N. The area of the catchment is about 224 km², and elevations in the catchment range from 414 to 2856 m at the outlet, with average slope of 29.78%. Results of the simulations show a good agreement between calculated and measured hydrographs at the outlet of the basin. Drawing upon Nash-Sutcliffe model efficiency coefficient for calibration periodic model estimated daily hydrographs and maximum flow rate with an accuracy up to 59% and 80.18%, respectively.

Keywords: Watershed simulation, WetSpa, stream flow, flood prediction.

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