Search results for: secondary level students

Authors: Yung-Chien Sun, O. Grant Clark

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In this paper, the implementation of a rule-based intuitive reasoner is presented. The implementation included two parts: the rule induction module and the intuitive reasoner. A large weather database was acquired as the data source. Twelve weather variables from those data were chosen as the “target variables" whose values were predicted by the intuitive reasoner. A “complex" situation was simulated by making only subsets of the data available to the rule induction module. As a result, the rules induced were based on incomplete information with variable levels of certainty. The certainty level was modeled by a metric called "Strength of Belief", which was assigned to each rule or datum as ancillary information about the confidence in its accuracy. Two techniques were employed to induce rules from the data subsets: decision tree and multi-polynomial regression, respectively for the discrete and the continuous type of target variables. The intuitive reasoner was tested for its ability to use the induced rules to predict the classes of the discrete target variables and the values of the continuous target variables. The intuitive reasoner implemented two types of reasoning: fast and broad where, by analogy to human thought, the former corresponds to fast decision making and the latter to deeper contemplation. . For reference, a weather data analysis approach which had been applied on similar tasks was adopted to analyze the complete database and create predictive models for the same 12 target variables. The values predicted by the intuitive reasoner and the reference approach were compared with actual data. The intuitive reasoner reached near-100% accuracy for two continuous target variables. For the discrete target variables, the intuitive reasoner predicted at least 70% as accurately as the reference reasoner. Since the intuitive reasoner operated on rules derived from only about 10% of the total data, it demonstrated the potential advantages in dealing with sparse data sets as compared with conventional methods.

Keywords: Artificial intelligence, intuition, knowledge acquisition, limited certainty.

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Authors: A. Abdulla Khairi Mohamed, Mohamed Gamal Abdelmonem, Gehan Selim

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Walkability in civic and public spaces in Libyan cities is challenging due to the lack of accessibility design, informal merging into car traffic, and the general absence of adequate urban and space planning. The lack of accessible and pedestrian-friendly public spaces in Libyan cities has emerged as a major concern for the government if it is to develop smart and sustainable spaces for the 21st century. A walkable urban space has become a driver for urban development and redistribution of land use to ensure pedestrian and walkable routes between sites of living and workplaces. The characteristics of urban open space in the city centre play a main role in attracting people to walk when attending their daily needs, recreation and daily sports. There is significant gap in the understanding of perceptions, feasibility and capabilities of Libyan urban space to accommodate enhance or support the smart design of a walkable pedestrian-friendly environment that is safe and accessible to everyone. The paper aims to undertake observations of walkability and walkable space in the city of Tripoli as a benchmark for Libyan cities; assess the validity and consistency of the seven principal aspects of smart design, safety, accessibility and 51 factors that affect the walkability in open urban space in Tripoli, through the analysis of 10 local urban spaces experts (town planner, architect, transport engineer and urban designer); and explore user groups’ perceptions of accessibility in walkable spaces in Libyan cities through questionnaires. The study sampled 200 respondents in 2015-16. The results of this study are useful for urban planning, to classify the walkable urban space elements which affect to improve the level of walkability in the Libyan cities and create sustainable and liveable urban spaces.

Keywords: Walkability, sustainability, liveability, accessibility, safety.

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Authors: D. Satish Kumar, N. Nagarajan

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Coverage conservation and extend the network lifetime are the primary issues in wireless sensor networks. Due to the large variety of applications, coverage is focus to a wide range of interpretations. The applications necessitate that each point in the area is observed by only one sensor while other applications may require that each point is enclosed by at least sensors (n>1) to achieve fault tolerance. Sensor scheduling activities in existing Transparent and non- Transparent relay modes (T-NT) Mobile Multi-Hop relay networks fails to guarantee area coverage with minimal energy consumption and fault tolerance. To overcome these issues, Cluster based Energy Competent n- coverage scheme called (CEC n-coverage scheme) to ensure the full coverage of a monitored area while saving energy. CEC n-coverage scheme uses a novel sensor scheduling scheme based on the n-density and the remaining energy of each sensor to determine the state of all the deployed sensors to be either active or sleep as well as the state durations. Hence, it is attractive to trigger a minimum number of sensors that are able to ensure coverage area and turn off some redundant sensors to save energy and therefore extend network lifetime. In addition, decisive a smallest amount of active sensors based on the degree coverage required and its level. A variety of numerical parameters are computed using ns2 simulator on existing (T-NT) Mobile Multi-Hop relay networks and CEC n-coverage scheme. Simulation results showed that CEC n-coverage scheme in wireless sensor network provides better performance in terms of the energy efficiency, 6.61% reduced fault tolerant in terms of seconds and the percentage of active sensors to guarantee the area coverage compared to exiting algorithm.

Keywords: Wireless Sensor network, Mobile Multi-Hop relay networks, n-coverage, Cluster based Energy Competent, Transparent and non- Transparent relay modes, Fault Tolerant, sensor scheduling.

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Authors: Bipul Krishna Saha, Basab Chakraborty, Ashish Alex Sam, Parthasarathi Ghosh

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The demand for energy is cumulatively increasing with time.  Since the availability of conventional energy resources is dying out gradually, significant interest is being laid on searching for alternate energy resources and minimizing the wastage of energy in various fields.  In such perspective, low-grade waste heat from several industrial sources can be reused to generate electricity. The present work is to further the adoption of the Organic Rankine Cycle (ORC) technology in Indian industrial sector.  The present paper focuses on extending the previously reported idea to the next level through a comparative review with three different working fluids using practical data from an Indian industrial plant. For comprehensive study in the simulation platform of Aspen Hysys^®, v8.6, the waste heat data has been collected from a current coke oven gas plant in India.  A parametric analysis of non-regenerative ORC and regenerative ORC is executed using the working fluids R-123, R-11 and R-21 for subcritical ORC system.  The primary goal is to determine the optimal working fluid considering various system parameters like turbine work output, obtained system efficiency, irreversibility rate and second law efficiency under applied multiple heat source temperature (160 °C- 180 °C).  Selection of the turbo-expanders is one of the most crucial tasks for low-temperature applications in ORC system. The present work is an attempt to make suitable recommendation for the appropriate configuration of the turbine. In a nutshell, this study justifies the proficiency of integrating the ORC technology in Indian perspective and also finds the appropriate parameter of all components integrated in ORC system for building up an ORC prototype.

Keywords: Organic rankine cycle, regenerative organic rankine cycle, waste heat recovery, Indian industry.

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Authors: K. A. Ghazaryan, H. S. Movsesyan, N. P. Ghazaryan

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The present study was aimed in assessing the heavy metal pollution of the soils around Agarak copper-molybdenum mine complex and related environmental risks. This mine complex is located in the south-east part of Armenia, and the present study was conducted in 2013. The soils of the five riskiest sites of this region were studied: surroundings of the open mine, the sites adjacent to processing plant of Agarak copper-molybdenum mine complex, surroundings of Darazam active tailing dump, the recultivated tailing dump of “ravine - 2”, and the recultivated tailing dump of “ravine - 3”. The mountain cambisol was the main soil type in the study sites. The level of soil contamination by heavy metals was assessed by Contamination factors (Cf), Degree of contamination (Cd), Geoaccumulation index (I-geo) and Enrichment factor (EF). The distribution pattern of trace metals in the soil profile according to Cf, Cd, I-geo and EF values shows that the soil is much polluted. Almost in all studied sites, Cu, Mo, Pb, and Cd were the main polluting heavy metals, and this was conditioned by Agarak copper-molybdenum mine complex activity. It is necessary to state that the pollution problem becomes pressing as some parts of these highly polluted region are inhabited by population, and agriculture is highly developed there; therefore, heavy metals can be transferred into human bodies through food chains and have direct influence on public health. Since the induced pollution can pose serious threats to public health, further investigations on soil and vegetation pollution are recommended. Finally, Cf calculating based on distance from the pollution source and the wind direction can provide more reasonable results.

Keywords: Agarak copper-molybdenum mine complex, heavy metals, soil contamination, enrichment factor, Armenia.

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Authors: Amr A. El Hanafy, Muhammad Qureshi, Jamal Sabir, Mohamed Mutawakil, Mohamed M. Ahmed, Hassan El Ashmaoui, Hassan Ramadan, Mohamed Abou-Alsoud, Mahmoud Abdel Sadek

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Domestic goats (Capra hircus) are extremely diverse species and principal animal genetic resource of the developing world. These facilitate a persistent supply of meat, milk, fibre, and skin and are considered as important revenue generators in small pastoral environments. This study aimed to fingerprint β-LG gene at PCR-RFLP level in native Saudi goat breeds (Ardi, Habsi and Harri) in an attempt to have a preliminary image of β-LG genotypic patterns in Saudi breeds as compared to other foreign breeds such as Indian and Egyptian. Also, the Phylogenetic analysis was done to investigate evolutionary trends and similarities among the caprine β-LG gene with that of the other domestic specie, viz. cow, buffalo and sheep. Blood samples were collected from 300 animals (100 for each breed) and genomic DNA was extracted. A fragment of the β-LG gene (427bp) was amplified using specific primers. Subsequent digestion with Sac II restriction endonuclease revealed two alleles (A and B) and three different banding patterns or genotypes i.e. AA, AB and BB. The statistical analysis showed a general trend that β-LG AA genotype had higher milk yield than β-LG AB and β-LG BB genotypes. Nucleotide sequencing of the selected β-LG fragments was done and submitted to GenBank NCBI (Accession No. KJ544248, KJ588275, KJ588276, KJ783455, KJ783456 and KJ874959). Phylogenetic analysis on the basis of nucleotide sequences of native Saudi goats indicated evolutional similarity with the GenBank reference sequences of goat, Bubalus bubalis and Bos taurus. However, the origin of sheep which is the most closely related from the evolutionary point of view, was located some distance away.

Keywords: β-Lactoglobulin, Saudi goats, PCR-RFLP, Phylogenetic analysis.

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Authors: M. F. Wu, F. T. Cheng, C. S. Wu, M. C. Tan

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It is a critical time to upgrade technology and increase value added with manufacturing skills developing and management strategies that will highly satisfy the customers need in the precision machinery global market. In recent years, the supply side, each precision machinery manufacturers in each country are facing the pressures of price reducing from the demand side voices that pushes the high-end precision machinery manufacturers adopts low-cost and high-quality strategy to retrieve the market. Because of the trend of the global market, the manufacturers must take price reducing strategies and upgrade technology of low-end machinery for differentiations to consolidate the market.By using six key success factors (KSFs), customer perceived value, customer satisfaction, customer service, product design, product effectiveness and machine structure quality are causal conditions to explore the impact of competitive advantage of the enterprise, such as overall profitability and product pricing power. This research uses key success paths (KSPs) approach and f/s QCA software to explore various combinations of causal relationships, so as to fully understand the performance level of KSFs and business objectives in order to achieve competitive advantage. In this study, the combination of a causal relationships, are called Key Success Paths (KSPs). The key success paths guide the enterprise to achieve the specific outcomes of business. The findings of this study indicate that there are thirteen KSPs to achieve the overall profitability, sixteen KSPs to achieve the product pricing power and seventeen KSPs to achieve both overall profitability and pricing power of the enterprise. The KSPs provide the directions of resources integration and allocation, improve utilization efficiency of limited resources to realize the continuous vision of the enterprise.

Keywords: Precision Machinery Industry, Key Success Factors (KSPs), Key Success Paths (KSPs), Overall Profitability, Product Pricing Power, Competitive Advantages.

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Authors: Mehrangiz Rezaee, Zabih Charrahi

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In the last decade, with increasing tourism destinations and tourism growth, we are witnessing the widespread impacts of tourism on the economy, environment and society. Tourism and its related economy are now undergoing a transformation and as one of the key pillars of business economics, it plays a vital role in the world economy. Activities related to tourism and providing services appropriate to it in an area, like many economic sectors, require the necessary context on its origin. Given the importance of tourism industry and tourism potentials of Yazd province in Iran, it is necessary to use a proper procedure for prioritizing different areas for proper and efficient planning. One of the most important goals of planning is foresight and creating balanced development in different geographical areas. This process requires an accurate study of the areas and potential and actual talents, as well as evaluation and understanding of the relationship between the indicators affecting the development of the region. At the global and regional level, the development of tourist resorts and the proper distribution of tourism destinations are needed to counter environmental impacts and risks. The main objective of this study is the sustainable development of suitable tourism areas. Given that tourism activities in different territorial areas require operational zoning, this study deals with the evaluation of territorial tourism using concepts such as land use, fitness and sustainable development. It is essential to understand the structure of tourism development and the spatial development of tourism using land use patterns, spatial planning and sustainable development. Tourism spatial planning implements different approaches. However, the development of tourism as well as the spatial development of tourism is complex, since tourist activities can be carried out in different areas with different purposes. Multipurpose areas have great important for tourism because it determines the flow of tourism. Therefore, in this paper, by studying the development and determination of tourism suitability that is related to spatial development, it is possible to plan tourism spatial development by developing a model that describes the characteristics of tourism. The results of this research determine the suitability of multi-functional territorial tourism development in line with spatial planning of tourism.

Keywords: Land use change, spatial planning, sustainability, territorial tourist, Yazd.

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Authors: A. Alzeyadi, E. Loffill, R. Alkhaddar

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Continuous upflow filters can combine the nutrient (nitrogen and phosphate) and suspended solid removal in one unit process. The contaminant removal could be achieved chemically or biologically; in both processes the filter removal efficiency depends on the interaction between the packed filter media and the influent. In this paper a residence time distribution (RTD) study was carried out to understand and compare the transfer behaviour of contaminants through a selected filter media packed in a laboratory-scale continuous up flow filter; the selected filter media are limestone and white dolomite. The experimental work was conducted by injecting a tracer (red drain dye tracer –RDD) into the filtration system and then measuring the tracer concentration at the outflow as a function of time; the tracer injection was applied at hydraulic loading rates (HLRs) (3.8 to 15.2 m h-1). The results were analysed according to the cumulative distribution function F(t) to estimate the residence time of the tracer molecules inside the filter media. The mean residence time (MRT) and variance σ2 are two moments of RTD that were calculated to compare the RTD characteristics of limestone with white dolomite. The results showed that the exit-age distribution of the tracer looks better at HLRs (3.8 to 7.6 m h-1) and (3.8 m h-1) for limestone and white dolomite respectively. At these HLRs the cumulative distribution function F(t) revealed that the residence time of the tracer inside the limestone was longer than in the white dolomite; whereas all the tracer took 8 minutes to leave the white dolomite at 3.8 m h-1. On the other hand, the same amount of the tracer took 10 minutes to leave the limestone at the same HLR. In conclusion, the determination of the optimal level of hydraulic loading rate, which achieved the better influent distribution over the filtration system, helps to identify the applicability of the material as filter media. Further work will be applied to examine the efficiency of the limestone and white dolomite for phosphate removal by pumping a phosphate solution into the filter at HLRs (3.8 to 7.6 m h-1).

Keywords: Filter media, hydraulic loading rate, residence time distribution, tracer.

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Authors: Nilima Gajbhiye

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The acid rain causes change in pH level of soil it is directly influence on root and leaf growth. Yield of the crop was reduced if acidity of soil is more. Acid rain seeps into the earth and poisons plants and trees by dissolving toxic substances in the soil, such as aluminum, which get absorbed by the roots. In present investigation, effect of acid rain on crop Vigna radiata was studied. The effect of acid rain on change in soil fertility was detected in which pH of control sample was 6.5 and pH of 1% H2SO4 and 1% HNO3 were 3.5. Nitrogen nitrate in soil was high in 1% HNO3 treated soil & Control sample. Ammonium nitrogen in soil was low in 1% HNO3 & H2SO4 treated soil. Ammonium nitrogen was medium in control and other samples. The effect of acid rain on seed germination on 3rd day of germination control sample growth was 6.1cm with plumule 0.001% HNO3 & 0.001% H2SO4 was 5.5cm with plumule and 8cm with plumule. On 10th day fungal growth was observed in 1% and 0.1% H2SO4 concentrations when all plants were dead. The effect of acid rain on crop productivity was investigated on 3rd day roots were developed in plants. On 12th day Vigna radiata showed more growth in 0.1% HNO3 and 0.1% H2SO4 treated plants as compare to control plants. On 20th day development of discoloration of plant pigments were observed on acid treated plants leaves. On 34th day Vigna radiata showed flower in 0.1% HNO3, 0.01% HNO3 and 0.01% H2SO4treated plants and no flowers were observed on control plants. On 42th day 0.1% HNO3, 0.01% HNO and 0.01% H2SO4 treated Vigna radiata variety and control plants were showed seeds on plants. In Vigna radiate variety 0.1%, 0.01% HNO3, 0.01% H2SO4treated plants were dead on 46th day and fungal growth was observed. The toxicological study was carried out on Vigna radiata plants exposed to 1% HNO3 cells were damaged more than 1% H2SO4. Leaf sections exposed to 0.001% HNO3 & H2SO4 showed less damaged of cells and pigmentation observed in entire slide when compare with control plant.

Keywords: Acid rain, pH, Vigna radiate, HNO3 & H2SO4.

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Authors: I. M. Yusuff, A. M. Arogunjo, S. B. Ibikunle, O. M. Oni, P. O. Osho

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Generally, water contamination is a serious health concern, affecting millions of people worldwide every year. Among the water contaminants, radon is a radioactive contaminant understudied and under-regulated. It produces many adverse health effects, including cancer. It is a natural gas that cannot be seen, tasted, or smelled. It develops from the radioactive decay of radium found in the rock of soil and has been considered a health hazard due to its radioactivity in nature. To examine its effects and physicochemical characteristics on the blood biomarkers due to its ingestion in drinking water, its concentrations were monitored and measured in treated and untreated water using Electronic Radon Active Detector (RAD7), while human blood samples were collected using the required laboratory tools. The blood samples were collected and examined physicochemically using semi-automated chemistry analyzer to evaluate the chemistry parameters of the blood. Statistically, results obtained were analyzed using T-test of variables at 95% confidence interval. The outcome of results revealed 112.03 Bq/m3, 561.67 Bq/m3 and 2,753.00 Bq/m3 of radon-222 concentrations in the three water samples used respectively. Demographically, chemistry parameters biomarkers of the blood determined displayed some levels of variations due to radon-222 contaminants ingested from untreated water. Also, analyzed results of blood revealed the associations between the physicochemical parameters of the blood biomarkers and volunteers’ health consequences. The consequences observed were more severed with group B volunteers than group A, due to high level of radon contaminants in borehole water consumed by group B than in well water consumed by group A. The percentages of elevated and depressed biomarkers observed differ from initial reference values and, were the dysfunction indicators. They are directly or indirectly associated to human’s state of health. Most significant biomarkers affected were; HCO3, Cl, K, Cr and Na, they are relevant biomarkers in medicine to determine human’s state of health at any point in time.

Keywords: Radioactive, radon, biomarker, ingestion, dysfunction.

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Authors: A. Camões, M. Ferreira Dias, M. Amorim

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In recent years, the social economy is increasingly seen as a viable means to address social problems. Social enterprises, as well as public projects and initiatives targeted to meet social purposes, offer organizational models that assume heterogeneity, flexibility and adaptability to the ‘real world and real problems’. Despite the growing popularity of social initiatives, decision makers still face a paucity in what concerns the available models and tools to adequately assess its sustainability, and its impacts, notably the nature of its contribution to economic growth. This study was carried out at the local level, by analyzing the social impact initiatives and projects promoted by the Municipality of Albergaria-a-Velha (Câmara Municipal de Albergaria-a-Velha -CMA), a municipality of 25,000 inhabitants in the central region of Portugal. This work focuses on the challenges related to the qualifications and employability of citizens, which stands out as one of the key concerns in the Portuguese economy, particularly expressive in the context of small-scale cities and inland territories. The study offers a characterization of the Municipality, its socio-economic structure and challenges, followed by an exploratory analysis of multiple sourced data, collected from the CMA's documental sources as well as from privileged informants. The purpose is to conduct detailed analysis of the CMA's social projects, aimed at characterizing its potential impact for the model of qualifications and employability of the citizens of the Municipality. The study encompasses a discussion of the socio-economic profile of the municipality, notably its asymmetries, the analysis of the social projects and initiatives, as well as of data derived from inquiry actors involved in the implementation of the social projects and its beneficiaries. Finally, the results obtained with the Better Life Index will be included. This study makes it possible to ascertain if what is implicit in the literature goes to the encounter of what one experiences in reality.

Keywords: Measurement, municipalities, social economy, social impact.

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Authors: Frances Turner

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Gloves are significant physical objects, being one of the oldest forms of dress. Glove culture is part of every facet of life; its extraordinary history encompasses practicality, and symbolism reflecting a wide range of social practices. The survival of not only the gloves but associated articles enables the possibility to analyse real lives, however so far this area has been largely neglected. Limited information is available to students, researchers, or those involved with the design and making of gloves. There are several museums and independent collectors in England that hold collections of gloves (some from as early as 16th century), machinery, tools, designs and patterns, marketing materials and significant archives which demonstrate the rich heritage of English glove design and manufacturing, being of national significance and worthy of international interest. Through a research glove network which now exists thanks to research grant funding, there is potential for the holders of glove collections to make connections and explore links between these resources to promote a stronger understanding of the significance, breadth and heritage of the English glove industry. The network takes an interdisciplinary approach to bring together interested parties from academia, museums and manufacturing, with expert knowledge of the production, collections, conservation and display of English leather gloves. Academics from diverse arts and humanities disciplines benefit from the opportunities to share research and discuss ideas with network members from non-academic contexts including museums and heritage organisations, industry, and contemporary designers. The fragmented collections when considered in entirety provide an overview of English glove making since earliest times and those who wore them. This paper makes connections and explores links between these resources to promote a stronger understanding of the significance, breadth and heritage of the English Glove industry. The following areas are explored: current content and status of the individual museum collections, potential links, sharing of information histories, social and cultural and relationship to history of fashion design, manufacturing and materials, approaches to maintenance and conservation, access to the collections and strategies for future understanding of their national significance. The facilitation of knowledge exchange and exploration of the collections through the network informs organisations’ future strategies for the maintenance, access and conservation of their collections. By involving industry in the network, it is possible to ensure a contemporary perspective on glove-making in addition to the input from heritage partners. The slow fashion movement and awareness of artisan craft and how these can be preserved and adopted for glove and accessory design is addressed. Artisan leather glove making was a skilled and significant industry in England that has now declined to the point where there is little production remaining utilising the specialist skills that have hardly changed since earliest times. This heritage will be identified and preserved for future generations of the rich cultural history of gloves may be lost.

Keywords: Artisan glove making skills, English leather gloves, glove culture, glove network.

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Authors: Aurelija Burinskienė, Dalė Dzemydienė, Arūnas Miliauskas

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This research aims at developing the approach for more effective freight delivery and transportation process management. The road congestions and the identification of causes are important, as well as the context information recognition and management. The measure of many parameters during the transportation period and proper control of driver work became the problem. The number of vehicles per time unit passing at a given time and point for drivers can be evaluated in some situations. The collection of data is mainly used to establish new trips. The flow of the data is more complex in urban areas. Herein, the movement of freight is reported in detail, including the information on street level. When traffic density is extremely high in congestion cases, and the traffic speed is incredibly low, data transmission reaches the peak. Different data sets are generated, which depend on the type of freight delivery network. There are three types of networks: long-distance delivery networks, last-mile delivery networks and mode-based delivery networks; the last one includes different modes, in particular, railways and other networks. When freight delivery is switched from one type of the above-stated network to another, more data could be included for reporting purposes and vice versa. In this case, a significant amount of these data is used for control operations, and the problem requires an integrated methodological approach. The paper presents an approach for providing e-services for drivers by including the assessment of the multi-component infrastructure needed for delivery of freights following the network type. The construction of such a methodology is required to evaluate data flow conditions and overloads, and to minimize the time gaps in data reporting. The results obtained show the possibilities of the proposing methodological approach to support the management and decision-making processes with functionality of incorporating networking specifics, by helping to minimize the overloads in data reporting.

Keywords: Transportation networks, freight delivery, data flow, monitoring, e-services.

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Authors: Konstantinos G. Kostinakis, Asimina M. Athanatopoulou

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A key issue in seismic risk analysis within the context of Performance-Based Earthquake Engineering is the evaluation of the expected seismic damage of structures under a specific earthquake ground motion. The assessment of the seismic performance strongly depends on the choice of the seismic Intensity Measure (IM), which quantifies the characteristics of a ground motion that are important to the nonlinear structural response. Several conventional IMs of ground motion have been used to estimate their damage potential to structures. Yet, none of them has been proved to be able to predict adequately the seismic damage. Therefore, alternative, scalar intensity measures, which take into account not only ground motion characteristics but also structural information have been proposed. Some of these IMs are based on integration of spectral values over a range of periods, in an attempt to account for the information that the shape of the acceleration, velocity or displacement spectrum provides. The adequacy of a number of these IMs in predicting the structural damage of 3D R/C buildings is investigated in the present paper. The investigated IMs, some of which are structure specific and some are non structure-specific, are defined via integration of spectral values. To achieve this purpose three symmetric in plan R/C buildings are studied. The buildings are subjected to 59 bidirectional earthquake ground motions. The two horizontal accelerograms of each ground motion are applied along the structural axes. The response is determined by nonlinear time history analysis. The structural damage is expressed in terms of the maximum interstory drift as well as the overall structural damage index. The values of the aforementioned seismic damage measures are correlated with seven scalar ground motion IMs. The comparative assessment of the results revealed that the structure-specific IMs present higher correlation with the seismic damage of the three buildings. However, the adequacy of the IMs for estimation of the structural damage depends on the response parameter adopted. Furthermore, it was confirmed that the widely used spectral acceleration at the fundamental period of the structure is a good indicator of the expected earthquake damage level.

Keywords: Damage measures, Bidirectional excitation, Spectral based IMs, R/C buildings.

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Authors: Mirza Munir Ahmed, S.R.M. Kutty, Mohd Faris Khamidi, Idris Othman, Azmi Mohd Shariff

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Petrol Fuel Station (PFS) has potential hazards to the people, asset, environment and reputation of an operating company. Fire hazards, static electricity air pollution evoked by aliphatic and aromatic organic compounds are major causes of accident/incident occurrence at fuel station. Activities such as carelessness, maintenance, housekeeping, slips trips and falls, transportation hazard, major and minor injuries, robbery and snake bites has a potential to create unsafe conditions. The level of risk of these hazards varies according to location and country. The emphasis on safety considerations by the government is variable all around the world. Developed countries safety records are much better as compared to developing countries safety statistics. There is no significant approach available to highlight the unsafe acts and unsafe conditions during operation and maintenance of fuel station. Fuel station is the most commonly available facilities that contain flammable and hazardous materials. Due to continuous operation of fuel station they pose various hazards to people, environment and assets of an organization. To control these hazards, there is a need for specific approach. PFS operation is unique as compared to other businesses. For smooth operations it demands an involvement of operating company, contractor and operator group. This study will focus to address hazard contributing factors that have a potential to make PFS operation risky. One year data collected, 902 activities analyzed, comparisons were made to highlight significant contributing factors. The study will provide help and assistance to PFS outlet marketing companies to make their fuel station operation safer. It will help health safety and environment (HSE) professionals to arrest the gap available related to safety matters at PFS.

Keywords: Accident, Contributing factors, carelessness, fire, explosion, injuries.

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Authors: Angelo Lerro, Manuela Battipede, Piero Gili, Alberto Brandl

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Redundancy requirements for UAV (Unmanned Aerial Vehicle) are hardly faced due to the generally restricted amount of available space and allowable weight for the aircraft systems, limiting their exploitation. Essential equipment as the Air Data, Attitude and Heading Reference Systems (ADAHRS) require several external probes to measure significant data as the Angle of Attack or the Sideslip Angle. Previous research focused on the analysis of a patented technology named Smart-ADAHRS (Smart Air Data, Attitude and Heading Reference System) as an alternative method to obtain reliable and accurate estimates of the aerodynamic angles. This solution is based on an innovative sensor fusion algorithm implementing soft computing techniques and it allows to obtain a simplified inertial and air data system reducing external devices. In fact, only one external source of dynamic and static pressures is needed. This paper focuses on the benefits which would be gained by the implementation of this system in UAV applications. A simplification of the entire ADAHRS architecture will bring to reduce the overall cost together with improved safety performance. Smart-ADAHRS has currently reached Technology Readiness Level (TRL) 6. Real flight tests took place on ultralight aircraft equipped with a suitable Flight Test Instrumentation (FTI). The output of the algorithm using the flight test measurements demonstrates the capability for this fusion algorithm to embed in a single device multiple physical and virtual sensors. Any source of dynamic and static pressure can be integrated with this system gaining a significant improvement in terms of versatility.

Keywords: Neural network, aerodynamic angles, virtual sensor, unmanned aerial vehicle, air data system, flight test.

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Authors: N. Ikasari, T. Sumransat, U. Eko, R. Kusumastuti

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Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) are regarded as the engine for economic development, notwithstanding their continuous financing conundrum. In the case of developing countries, access to finance is a reflection of the effectiveness of government policy. The widely accepted perspective to assess small businesses’ access to finance is that of economic view. The existing body of literature presents access to finance in three dimensions; they are accessibility, eligibility and affordability. Within this perspective, the role of socio-cultural has not explored. This study is aimed at investigating the existence of any socio-cultural factors within access to finance issue in Asian countries where governance is enriched by countries’ values and beliefs. The significance of this study is the instigation of supplementary dimension to assess access to finance that eventually contributes to the development of micro-finance policy. Indonesia and Thailand are selected as cases in point, where distinction is drawn on the level of cultural diversity and micro-finance policy in respective country. A questionnaire is used to collect information related to the three dimensions of access to finance as well as to explore alternative financing reasoning to elaborate the issue from the demand side. Questionnaires are distributed to 60 small business owners operating in Indonesia and the same number in Thailand. In order to present a complete understanding on the matter at hand, interviews with banks are conducted to capture the perspective as presented by the supply side. Research findings show that small business owners and banks in Indonesia and Thailand are in agreement that access to finance is not deemed as an issue. However, trust issue that exists mutually between financing users and providers leads small business owners in Indonesia to look for alternative financing other than banks. The findings contribute to the refinement of micro-financing policy in Indonesia and Thailand.

Keywords: Access to finance, Indonesia, small and medium enterprises, Thailand.

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Authors: Hui Tag, Jambey Tsering, Pallabi Kalita Hui, Baikuntha Jyoti Gogoi, Vijay Veer

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The food security issues and its relevance in High Mountain regions of the world have been often neglected. Wild edible plants have been playing a major role in livelihood security among the tribal Communities of East Himalayan Region of the world since time immemorial. The Eastern Himalayan Region of India is one of the mega diverse regions of world and rated as top 12th Global Biodiversity Hotspots by IUCN and recognized as one of the 200 significant eco-regions of the Globe. The region supports one of the world’s richest alpine floras and about one-third of them are endemic to the region. There are at least 7,500 flowering plants, 700 orchids, 58 bamboo species, 64 citrus species, 28 conifers, 500 mosses, 700 ferns and 728 lichens. The region is the home of more than three hundred different ethnic communities having diverse knowledge on traditional uses of flora and fauna as food, medicine and beverages. Monpa, Memba and Khamba are among the local communities residing in high altitude region of Eastern Himalaya with rich traditional knowledge related to utilization of wild edible plants. The Monpas, Memba and Khamba are the followers Mahayana sect of Himalayan Buddhism and they are mostly agrarian by primary occupation and also heavily relaying on wild edible plants for their livelihood security during famine since millennia. In the present study, we have reported traditional uses of 40 wild edible plant species and out of which 6 species were analyzed at biochemical level for nutrients contents and free radical scavenging activities. The results have shown significant free radical scavenging (antioxidant) activity and nutritional potential of the selected 6 wild edible plants used by the local communities of Eastern Himalayan Region of India.

Keywords: East Himalaya, Local community, Wild edible plants, Nutrition, Food security.

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Authors: M. Naserian, M. Jooshaki, M. Fotuhi-Firuzabad, M. Hossein Mohammadi Sanjani, A. Oraee

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In recent years, the development of communication infrastructure and smart meters have facilitated the utilization of demand-side resources which can enhance stability and economic efficiency of power systems. Direct load control programs can play an important role in the utilization of demand-side resources in the residential sector. However, investments required for installing control equipment can be a limiting factor in the development of such demand response programs. Thus, selection of consumers with higher potentials is crucial to the success of a direct load control program. Heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) systems, which due to the heat capacity of buildings feature relatively high flexibility, make up a major part of household consumption. Considering that the consumption of HVAC systems depends highly on the ambient temperature and bearing in mind the high investments required for control systems enabling direct load control demand response programs, in this paper, a solution is presented to uncover consumers with high air conditioner demand among a large number of consumers and to measure the demand response potential of such consumers. This can pave the way for estimating the investments needed for the implementation of direct load control programs for residential HVAC systems and for estimating the demand response potentials in a distribution system. In doing so, we first cluster consumers into several groups based on the correlation coefficients between hourly consumption data and hourly temperature data using K-means algorithm. Then, by applying a recent algorithm to the hourly consumption and temperature data, consumers with high air conditioner consumption are identified. Finally, demand response potential of such consumers is estimated based on the equivalent desired temperature setpoint changes.

Keywords: Data-driven analysis, demand response, direct load control, HVAC system.

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Authors: Saleh Dabil

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This study investigates the level of existence of organized retail crime in supermarkets of Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. The store managers, security managers and general employees were asked about the types of retail crimes occur in the stores. Three independent variables were related to the report of organized retail theft. The independent variables are: 1) the supermarket profile (volume, location, standard and type of the store), 2) the social physical environment of the store (maintenance, cleanness and overall organizational cooperation), 3) the security techniques and loss prevention electronics techniques used. The theoretical framework of this study based on the social disorganization theory. This study concluded that the organized retail theft, in specific, organized theft is moderately apparent in Riyadh stores. The general result showed that the environment of the stores has an effect on the prevalence of organized retail theft with relation to the gender of thieves, age groups, working shift, type of stolen items as well as the number of thieves in one case. Among other reasons, some factors of the organized theft are: economic pressure of customers based on the location of the store. The dealing of theft also was investigated to have a clear picture of stores dealing with organized retail theft. The result showed that mostly, thieves sent without any action and sometimes given written warning. Very few cases dealt with by police. There are other factors in the study can be looked up in the text. This study suggests solving the problem of organized theft; first, is "the well distributing of the duties and responsibilities between the employees especially for security purposes". Second "Installation of strong security system" and "Making well-designed store layout". Third is "giving training for general employees" and "to give periodically security skills training of employees". There are other suggestions in the study can be looked up in the text.

Keywords: Organized Crime, Retail, Theft, Loss prevention, Store environment.

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Authors: Viktor R. Stoynov, Zlatka V. Valkova-Jarvis

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The intelligent management and optimisation of radio resource technologies will lead to a considerable improvement in the overall performance in Next Generation Networks (NGNs). Carrier Aggregation (CA) technology, also known as Spectrum Aggregation, enables more efficient use of the available spectrum by combining multiple Component Carriers (CCs) in a virtual wideband channel. LTE-A (Long Term Evolution–Advanced) CA technology can combine multiple adjacent or separate CCs in the same band or in different bands. In this way, increased data rates and dynamic load balancing can be achieved, resulting in a more reliable and efficient operation of mobile networks and the enabling of high bandwidth mobile services. In this paper, several distinct CA deployment strategies for the utilisation of spectrum bands are compared in indoor-outdoor scenarios, simulated via the recently-developed Realistic Indoor Environment Generator (RIEG). We analyse the performance of the User Equipment (UE) by integrating the average throughput, the level of fairness of radio resource allocation, and other parameters, into one summative assessment termed a Comparative Factor (CF). In addition, comparison of non-CA and CA indoor mobile networks is carried out under different load conditions: varying numbers and positions of UEs. The experimental results demonstrate that the CA technology can improve network performance, especially in the case of indoor scenarios. Additionally, we show that an increase of carrier frequency does not necessarily lead to improved CF values, due to high wall-penetration losses. The performance of users under bad-channel conditions, often located in the periphery of the cells, can be improved by intelligent CA location. Furthermore, a combination of such a deployment and effective radio resource allocation management with respect to user-fairness plays a crucial role in improving the performance of LTE-A networks.

Keywords: Comparative factor, carrier aggregation, indoor mobile network, resource allocation.

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Authors: Sourabh Jain, Sukhvir Singh Jain, Gaurav V. Jain

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Intelligent Transportation System (ITS) is the application of technology for developing a user–friendly transportation system for urban areas in developing countries. The goal of urban corridor management using ITS in road transport is to achieve improvements in mobility, safety, and the productivity of the transportation system within the available facilities through the integrated application of advanced monitoring, communications, computer, display, and control process technologies, both in the vehicle and on the road. This paper attempts to present the past studies regarding several ITS available that have been successfully deployed in urban corridors of India and abroad, and to know about the current scenario and the methodology considered for planning, design, and operation of Traffic Management Systems. This paper also presents the endeavor that was made to interpret and figure out the performance of the 27.4 Km long study corridor having eight intersections and four flyovers. The corridor consisting of 6 lanes as well as 8 lanes divided road network. Two categories of data were collected on February 2016 such as traffic data (traffic volume, spot speed, delay) and road characteristics data (no. of lanes, lane width, bus stops, mid-block sections, intersections, flyovers). The instruments used for collecting the data were video camera, radar gun, mobile GPS and stopwatch. From analysis, the performance interpretations incorporated were identification of peak hours and off peak hours, congestion and level of service (LOS) at mid blocks, delay followed by the plotting speed contours and recommending urban corridor management strategies. From the analysis, it is found that ITS based urban corridor management strategies will be useful to reduce congestion, fuel consumption and pollution so as to provide comfort and efficiency to the users. The paper presented urban corridor management strategies based on sensors incorporated in both vehicles and on the roads.

Keywords: Congestion, ITS Strategies, Mobility, Safety.

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Authors: F. Moghtaderi, M. Burke, J. Troelsen

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There has been a significant decline in active travel and a massive increase in the use of car dependent travel in many countries during the past two decades. Evidential risks for people’s physical and mental health problems are correlated with this increased use of motorized travel. These health related problems range from overweight and obesity to increased air pollution. In response to these rising concerns health professionals, traffic planers, local authorities and others have introduced a variety of initiatives to counterbalance the dominance of cars for daily journeys. However, the nature of travel behavior change interventions, which aim to reduce car use, are very complex and challenging regarding their interactions with human behavior. To change travel behavior at least two aspects have to be taken into consideration. First, how to alter attitudes and perceptions toward the sustainable and healthy modes of travel, in competition with experiences of private car use. And second, how to make these behavior change processes irreversible and sustainable. There are no comprehensive models available to guide policy interventions to increase the level of success of travel behavior change interventions across both these dimensions. A comprehensive theoretical framework is required in the effort to optimize how to facilitate and guide the processes of data collection and analysis to achieve the best possible guidelines for policy makers. Regarding the gaps in the travel behavior change research literature, this paper attempted to identify and suggest a multidimensional framework in order to facilitate planning the implemented travel behavior change interventions. A structured mixed-method model is suggested to improve the analytic power of the results according to the complexity of human behavior. In order to recognize people’s attitudes towards a specific travel mode, the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) was operationalized. But in order to capture decision making processes the Transtheoretical model of Behavior Change (TTM) was also used. Consequently, the combination of these two theories (TTM and TPB) has resulted in a synthesis with appropriate concepts to identify and design an implemented travel behavior change interventions.

Keywords: Behavior change theories, Theoretical framework, Travel behavior change interventions.

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Authors: M. L. Anitha, K. A. Radhakrishna Rao

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With the advent of modern computing technology, there is an increased demand for developing recognition systems that have the capability of verifying the identity of individuals. Recognition systems are required by several civilian and commercial applications for providing access to secured resources. Traditional recognition systems which are based on physical identities are not sufficiently reliable to satisfy the security requirements due to the use of several advances of forgery and identity impersonation methods. Recognizing individuals based on his/her unique physiological characteristics known as biometric traits is a reliable technique, since these traits are not transferable and they cannot be stolen or lost. Since the performance of biometric based recognition system depends on the particular trait that is utilized, the present work proposes a fusion approach which combines Inner knuckle print (IKP) trait of the middle, ring and index fingers with the geometrical features of hand. The hand image captured from a digital camera is preprocessed to find finger IKP as region of interest (ROI) and hand geometry features. Geometrical features are represented as the distances between different key points and IKP features are extracted by applying local binary pattern descriptor on the IKP ROI. The decision level AND fusion was adopted, which has shown improvement in performance of the combined scheme. The proposed approach is tested on the database collected at our institute. Proposed approach is of significance since both hand geometry and IKP features can be extracted from the palm region of the hand. The fusion of these features yields a false acceptance rate of 0.75%, false rejection rate of 0.86% for verification tests conducted, which is less when compared to the results obtained using individual traits. The results obtained confirm the usefulness of proposed approach and suitability of the selected features for developing biometric based recognition system based on features from palmar region of hand.

Keywords: Biometrics, hand geometry features, inner knuckle print, recognition.

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Authors: Corneliu Sofronie, Roxana Zubcov

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Cognitive Science appeared about 40 years ago, subsequent to the challenge of the Artificial Intelligence, as common territory for several scientific disciplines such as: IT, mathematics, psychology, neurology, philosophy, sociology, and linguistics. The new born science was justified by the complexity of the problems related to the human knowledge on one hand, and on the other by the fact that none of the above mentioned sciences could explain alone the mental phenomena. Based on the data supplied by the experimental sciences such as psychology or neurology, models of the human mind operation are built in the cognition science. These models are implemented in computer programs and/or electronic circuits (specific to the artificial intelligence) – cognitive systems – whose competences and performances are compared to the human ones, leading to the psychology and neurology data reinterpretation, respectively to the construction of new models. During these processes if psychology provides the experimental basis, philosophy and mathematics provides the abstraction level utterly necessary for the intermission of the mentioned sciences. The ongoing general problematic of the cognitive approach provides two important types of approach: the computational one, starting from the idea that the mental phenomenon can be reduced to 1 and 0 type calculus operations, and the connection one that considers the thinking products as being a result of the interaction between all the composing (included) systems. In the field of psychology measurements in the computational register use classical inquiries and psychometrical tests, generally based on calculus methods. Deeming things from both sides that are representing the cognitive science, we can notice a gap in psychological product measurement possibilities, regarded from the connectionist perspective, that requires the unitary understanding of the quality – quantity whole. In such approach measurement by calculus proves to be inefficient. Our researches, deployed for longer than 20 years, lead to the conclusion that measuring by forms properly fits to the connectionism laws and principles.

Keywords: complementary methodology, connection approach, networks without scaling, quantum psychology.

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Authors: A. Juhász, M. Fogarasi

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Those causing fatal traffic accidents are traumatized, which negatively influences their cognitive functions and their personality. In order to clarify how much the trauma of causing a fatal accident effects their driving skills and personality traits, the results of a psychological aptitude and a personality test of drivers carelessly causing fatal accidents and of drivers not causing any accidents were compared separately. The sample (N = 354) consists of randomly selected drivers from the Transportation Aptitude and Examination Centre database who caused fatal accidents (Fatal group, n = 177) or did not cause accidents (Control group, n = 177). The aptitude tests were taken between 2014 and 2019. The comparison of the 2 groups was done according to 3 aspects: 1. Categories of aptitude (suitable, restricted, unsuited); 2. Categories of causes (ability, personality, ability and personality) within the restricted or unsuited (altogether: non-suitable subgroups); 3. Categories of ability and personality within the non-suitable subgroups regardless of the cause-category. Within ability deficiency, the two groups include those, whose ability factor is impaired or limited. This is also true in case of personality failure. Compared to the control group, the number of restricted drivers causing fatal accidents is significantly higher (p < .000) and the number of unsuited drivers is higher on a tendency-level (p = .06). Compared to the control group in the fatal non-suitable subgroup, the ratio of restricted suitability and the unsuitability due to ability factors is exclusively significantly lower (p < .000). The restricted suitability and the unsuitability due to personality factors are more significant in the fatal non-suitable subgroup (p < .000). Incapacity due to combination of ability and personality is also significantly higher in the fatal group (p = .002). Compared to the control group both ability and personality factors are also significantly higher in the fatal non-suitable subgroup (p < .000). Overall, the control group is more eligible for driving than drivers who have caused fatalities. The ability and personality factors are significantly higher in the case of fatal accident causers who are non-suitable for driving. Moreover the concomitance of ability and personality factors occur almost exclusively to drivers who caused fatal accidents. Further investigation is needed to understand the causes and how the aptitude test results for the fatal group could improve over time.

Keywords: Aptitude, unsuited, fatal accident, ability, personality.

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Authors: A. Čelan, M. Ćosić, D. Rušić, N. Kuzmanić

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Conducting crystallization in an agitated vessel requires a proper selection of mixing parameters that would result in a production of crystals of specific properties. In dual impeller systems, which are characterized by a more complex hydrodynamics due to the possible fluid flow interactions, revealing a clear link between mixing parameters and crystallization kinetics is still an open issue. The aim of this work is to establish this connection by investigating how fluid flow patterns, generated by two impellers mounted on the same shaft, reflect on metastable zone width of borax decahydrate, one of the most important parameters of the crystallization process. Investigation was carried out in a 15-dm³ bench scale batch cooling crystallizer with an aspect ratio (H/T) equal to 1.3. For this reason, two radial straight blade turbines (4-SBT) were used for agitation. Experiments were conducted at different impeller spacings at the state of complete suspension. During the process of an unseeded batch cooling crystallization, solution temperature and supersaturation were continuously monitored what enabled a determination of the metastable zone width. Hydrodynamic conditions in the vessel achieved at different impeller spacings investigated were analyzed in detail. This was done firstly by measuring the mixing time required to attain the desired level of homogeneity. Secondly, fluid flow patterns generated in a described dual impeller system were both photographed and simulated by VisiMix Turbulent software. Also, a comparison of these two visualization methods was performed. Experimentally obtained results showed that metastable zone width is definitely affected by the hydrodynamics in the crystallizer. This means that this crystallization parameter can be controlled not only by adjusting the saturation temperature or cooling rate, as is usually done, but also by choosing a suitable impeller spacing that will result in a formation of crystals of wanted size distribution.

Keywords: Dual impeller crystallizer, fluid flow pattern, metastable zone width, mixing time, radial impeller.

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Authors: Xiangjun Li, Huaiyuan Tian, Wujie Zhang, Dianhua Liu

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Polyoxymethylene dimethyl ethers (PODE_n) as clean diesel additive can improve the combustion efficiency and quality of diesel fuel and alleviate the problem of atmospheric pollution. Considering synthetic routes, PODE production from methanol and formaldehyde is regarded as the most economical and promising synthetic route. However, methanol used for synthesizing PODE can produce water, which causes the loss of active center of catalyst and hydrolysis of PODE_n in the production process. Macroporous strong acidic cation exchange resin catalyst was prepared, which has comparative advantages over other common solid acid catalysts in terms of stability and catalytic efficiency for synthesizing PODE. Catalytic reactions were carried out under 353 K, 1 MPa and 3mL·g_cat^-1·h^-1 in a fixed bed reactor. Methanol conversion and PODE_3-6 selectivity reached 49.91% and 23.43%, respectively. Catalyst lifetime evaluation showed that resin catalyst retained its catalytic activity for 20 days without significant changes and catalytic activity of completely deactivated resin catalyst can basically return to previous level by simple acid regeneration. The acid exchange capacities of original and deactivated catalyst were 2.5191 and 0.0979 mmol·g^-1, respectively, while regenerated catalyst reached 2.0430 mmol·g^-1, indicating that the main reason for resin catalyst deactivation is that Brønsted acid sites of original resin catalyst were temporarily replaced by non-hydrogen ion cations. A separation process consisting of extraction and distillation for PODE_3-6 product was designed for separation of water and unreacted formaldehyde from reactive mixture and purification of PODE_3-6, respectively. The concentration of PODE_3-6 in final product can reach up to 97%. These results indicate that the scale-up production of PODE_3-6 from methanol and formaldehyde solution is feasible.

Keywords: Inactivation, polyoxymethylene dimethyl ethers, separation process, sulfonic cation exchange resin.

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Authors: Wasiu O. Ajagbe, Habeeb O. Hamzat, Waris A. Adebisi

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Structural failures occur due to a number of reasons. These may include under design, poor workmanship, substandard materials, misleading laboratory tests and lots more. Reinforcing steel bar is an important construction material, hence its properties must be accurately known before being utilized in construction. Understanding this property involves carrying out mechanical tests prior to design and during construction to ascertain correlation using steel testing machine which is usually not readily available due to the location of project. This study was conducted to determine the reliability of reinforcing steel testing machines. Reconnaissance survey was conducted to identify laboratories where yield and ultimate tensile strengths tests can be carried out. Six laboratories were identified within Ibadan and environs. However, only four were functional at the time of the study. Three steel samples were tested for yield and tensile strengths, using a steel testing machine, at each of the four laboratories (LM, LO, LP and LS). The yield and tensile strength results obtained from the laboratories were compared with the manufacturer’s specification using a reliability analysis programme. Structured questionnaire was administered to the operators in each laboratory to consider their impact on the test results. The average value of manufacturers’ tensile strength and yield strength are 673.7 N/mm² and 559.7 N/mm² respectively. The tensile strength obtained from the four laboratories LM, LO, LP and LS are given as 579.4, 652.7, 646.0 and 649.9 N/mm² respectively while their yield strengths respectively are 453.3, 597.0, 550.7 and 564.7 N/mm². Minimum tensile to yield strength ratio is 1.08 for BS 4449: 2005 and 1.15 for ASTM A615. Tensile to yield strength ratio from the four laboratories are 1.28, 1.09, 1.17 and 1.15 for LM, LO, LP and LS respectively. The tensile to yield strength ratio shows that the result obtained from all the laboratories meet the code requirements used for the test. The result of the reliability test shows varying level of reliability between the manufacturers’ specification and the result obtained from the laboratories. Three of the laboratories; LO, LS and LP have high value of reliability with the manufacturer i.e. 0.798, 0.866 and 0.712 respectively. The fourth laboratory, LM has a reliability value of 0.100. Steel test should be carried out in a laboratory using the same code in which the structural design was carried out. More emphasis should be laid on the importance of code provisions.

Keywords: Reinforcing steel bars, reliability analysis, tensile strength, universal testing machine, yield strength.

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