Search results for: second order.

Authors: Vijaya K. Srivastava, Davide Spinello

Abstract:

This paper presents performance of two robust gradient-based heuristic optimization procedures based on 3ⁿ enumeration and tunneling approach to seek global optimum of constrained integer problems. Both these procedures consist of two distinct phases for locating the global optimum of integer problems with a linear or non-linear objective function subject to linear or non-linear constraints. In both procedures, in the first phase, a local minimum of the function is found using the gradient approach coupled with hemstitching moves when a constraint is violated in order to return the search to the feasible region. In the second phase, in one optimization procedure, the second sub-procedure examines 3ⁿ integer combinations on the boundary and within hypercube volume encompassing the result neighboring the result from the first phase and in the second optimization procedure a tunneling function is constructed at the local minimum of the first phase so as to find another point on the other side of the barrier where the function value is approximately the same. In the next cycle, the search for the global optimum commences in both optimization procedures again using this new-found point as the starting vector. The search continues and repeated for various step sizes along the function gradient as well as that along the vector normal to the violated constraints until no improvement in optimum value is found. The results from both these proposed optimization methods are presented and compared with one provided by popular MS Excel solver that is provided within MS Office suite and other published results.

Keywords: Constrained integer problems, enumerative search algorithm, Heuristic algorithm, tunneling algorithm.

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Authors: Claudineia Brazil, Elison Eduardo Jardim Bierhals, Luciane Teresa Salvi, Rafael Haag

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Renewable energy sources are dependent on climatic variability, so for adequate energy planning, observations of the meteorological variables are required, preferably representing long-period series. Despite the scientific and technological advances that meteorological measurement systems have undergone in the last decades, there is still a considerable lack of meteorological observations that form series of long periods. The reanalysis is a system of assimilation of data prepared using general atmospheric circulation models, based on the combination of data collected at surface stations, ocean buoys, satellites and radiosondes, allowing the production of long period data, for a wide gamma. The third generation of reanalysis data emerged in 2010, among them is the Climate Forecast System Reanalysis (CFSR) developed by the National Centers for Environmental Prediction (NCEP), these data have a spatial resolution of 0.50 x 0.50. In order to overcome these difficulties, it aims to evaluate the performance of solar radiation estimation through alternative data bases, such as data from Reanalysis and from meteorological satellites that satisfactorily meet the absence of observations of solar radiation at global and/or regional level. The results of the analysis of the solar radiation data indicated that the reanalysis data of the CFSR model presented a good performance in relation to the observed data, with determination coefficient around 0.90. Therefore, it is concluded that these data have the potential to be used as an alternative source in locations with no seasons or long series of solar radiation, important for the evaluation of solar energy potential.

Keywords: Climate, reanalysis, renewable energy, solar radiation.

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Authors: M. G. Papoutsidakis, G. Chamilothoris, F. Dailami, N. Larsen, A Pipe

Abstract:

Due to their high power-to-weight ratio and low cost, pneumatic actuators are attractive for robotics and automation applications; however, achieving fast and accurate control of their position have been known as a complex control problem. A methodology for obtaining high position accuracy with a linear pneumatic actuator is presented. During experimentation with a number of PID classical control approaches over many operations of the pneumatic system, the need for frequent manual re-tuning of the controller could not be eliminated. The reason for this problem is thermal and energy losses inside the cylinder body due to the complex friction forces developed by the piston displacements. Although PD controllers performed very well over short periods, it was necessary in our research project to introduce some form of automatic gain-scheduling to achieve good long-term performance. We chose a fuzzy logic system to do this, which proved to be an easily designed and robust approach. Since the PD approach showed very good behaviour in terms of position accuracy and settling time, it was incorporated into a modified form of the 1st order Tagaki- Sugeno fuzzy method to build an overall controller. This fuzzy gainscheduler uses an input variable which automatically changes the PD gain values of the controller according to the frequency of repeated system operations. Performance of the new controller was significantly improved and the need for manual re-tuning was eliminated without a decrease in performance. The performance of the controller operating with the above method is going to be tested through a high-speed web network (GRID) for research purposes.

Keywords: Fuzzy logic, gain scheduling, leaky integrator, pneumatic actuator.

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Authors: Cornelia-Eugenia Munteanu

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From a psychological perspective, psychopathology is the area of clinical psychology that has at its core psychological assessment and psychotherapy. In day-to-day clinical practice, psychodiagnosis and psychotherapy are used independently, according to their intended purpose and their specific methods of application. The paper explores how the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory-2 (MMPI-2) and Mini Mental State Examination-2 (MMSE-2) psychological tools contribute to enhancing the effectiveness of cognitive behavioral psychotherapy (CBT). This combined approach, psychotherapy in conjunction with assessment of personality and cognitive functions, is illustrated by two cases, a severe depressive episode with psychotic symptoms and a mixed anxiety-depressive disorder. The order in which CBT, MMPI-2, and MMSE-2 were used in the diagnostic and therapeutic process was determined by the particularities of each case. In the first case, the sequence started with psychotherapy, followed by the administration of blue form MMSE-2, MMPI-2, and red form MMSE-2. In the second case, the cognitive screening with blue form MMSE-2 led to a personality assessment using MMPI-2, followed by red form MMSE-2; reapplication of the MMPI-2 due to the invalidation of the first profile, and finally, psychotherapy. The MMPI-2 protocols gathered useful information that directed the steps of therapeutic intervention: a detailed symptom picture of potentially self-destructive thoughts and behaviors otherwise undetected during the interview. The memory loss and poor concentration were confirmed by MMSE-2 cognitive screening. This combined approach, psychotherapy with psychological assessment, aligns with the trend of adaptation of the psychological services to the everyday life of contemporary man and paves the way for deepening and developing the field.

Keywords: Assessment, cognitive behavioral psychotherapy, MMPI-2, MMSE-2, psychopathology.

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Authors: Payam Haghparast, Mikhail V. Sorin, Hakim Nesreddine

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The complex oblique shock phenomenon can be simply assumed as a normal shock at the constant area section to simulate a sharp pressure increase and velocity decrease in 1-D thermodynamic models. The assumed normal shock location is one of the greatest sources of error in ejector thermodynamic models. Most researchers consider an arbitrary location without justifying it. Our study compares the effect of normal shock place on ejector dimensions in 1-D models. To this aim, two different ejector experimental test benches, a constant area-mixing ejector (CAM) and a constant pressure-mixing (CPM) are considered, with different known geometries, operating conditions and working fluids (R245fa, R141b). In the first step, in order to evaluate the real value of the efficiencies in the different ejector parts and critical back pressure, a CFD model was built and validated by experimental data for two types of ejectors. These reference data are then used as input to the 1D model to calculate the lengths and the diameters of the ejectors. Afterwards, the design output geometry calculated by the 1D model is compared directly with the corresponding experimental geometry. It was found that there is a good agreement between the ejector dimensions obtained by the 1D model, for both CAM and CPM, with experimental ejector data. Furthermore, it is shown that normal shock place affects only the constant area length as it is proven that the inlet normal shock assumption results in more accurate length. Taking into account previous 1D models, the results suggest the use of the assumed normal shock location at the inlet of the constant area duct to design the supersonic ejectors.

Keywords: 1D model, constant area-mixing, constant pressure-mixing, normal shock location, ejector dimensions.

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Authors: Yesubai Rubavathi Charles, Ravi Ramraj

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In order to retrieve images efficiently from a large database, a unique method integrating color and texture features using genetic programming has been proposed. Opponent color histogram which gives shadow, shade, and light intensity invariant property is employed in the proposed framework for extracting color features. For texture feature extraction, fast discrete curvelet transform which captures more orientation information at different scales is incorporated to represent curved like edges. The recent scenario in the issues of image retrieval is to reduce the semantic gap between user’s preference and low level features. To address this concern, genetic algorithm combined with relevance feedback is embedded to reduce semantic gap and retrieve user’s preference images. Extensive and comparative experiments have been conducted to evaluate proposed framework for content based image retrieval on two databases, i.e., COIL-100 and Corel-1000. Experimental results clearly show that the proposed system surpassed other existing systems in terms of precision and recall. The proposed work achieves highest performance with average precision of 88.2% on COIL-100 and 76.3% on Corel, the average recall of 69.9% on COIL and 76.3% on Corel. Thus, the experimental results confirm that the proposed content based image retrieval system architecture attains better solution for image retrieval.

Keywords: Content based image retrieval, Curvelet transform, Genetic algorithm, Opponent color histogram, Relevance feedback.

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Authors: Souvik Bhattacharyya, Gautam Sanyal

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Recent years have witnessed the rapid development of the Internet and telecommunication techniques. Information security is becoming more and more important. Applications such as covert communication, copyright protection, etc, stimulate the research of information hiding techniques. Traditionally, encryption is used to realize the communication security. However, important information is not protected once decoded. Steganography is the art and science of communicating in a way which hides the existence of the communication. Important information is firstly hidden in a host data, such as digital image, video or audio, etc, and then transmitted secretly to the receiver.In this paper a data hiding model with high security features combining both cryptography using finite state sequential machine and image based steganography technique for communicating information more securely between two locations is proposed. The authors incorporated the idea of secret key for authentication at both ends in order to achieve high level of security. Before the embedding operation the secret information has been encrypted with the help of finite-state sequential machine and segmented in different parts. The cover image is also segmented in different objects through normalized cut.Each part of the encoded secret information has been embedded with the help of a novel image steganographic method (PMM) on different cuts of the cover image to form different stego objects. Finally stego image is formed by combining different stego objects and transmit to the receiver side. At the receiving end different opposite processes should run to get the back the original secret message.

Keywords: Cover Image, Finite state sequential machine, Melaymachine, Pixel Mapping Method (PMM), Stego Image, NCUT.

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Authors: S. Jalaja, A. M. Vijaya Prakash

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Recursive combination of an algorithm based on Karatsuba multiplication is exploited to design a generalized transpose and parallel Finite Impulse Response (FIR) Filter. Mid-range Karatsuba multiplication and Carry Save adder based on Karatsuba multiplication reduce time complexity for higher order multiplication implemented up to n-bit. As a result, we design modified N-tap Transpose and Parallel Symmetric FIR Filter Structure using Karatsuba algorithm. The mathematical formulation of the FFA Filter is derived. The proposed architecture involves significantly less area delay product (APD) then the existing block implementation. By adopting retiming technique, hardware cost is reduced further. The filter architecture is designed by using 90 nm technology library and is implemented by using cadence EDA Tool. The synthesized result shows better performance for different word length and block size. The design achieves switching activity reduction and low power consumption by applying with and without retiming for different combination of the circuit. The proposed structure achieves more than a half of the power reduction by adopting with and without retiming techniques compared to the earlier design structure. As a proof of the concept for block size 16 and filter length 64 for CKA method, it achieves a 51% as well as 70% less power by applying retiming technique, and for CSA method it achieves a 57% as well as 77% less power by applying retiming technique compared to the previously proposed design.

Keywords: Carry save adder Karatsuba multiplication, mid-range Karatsuba multiplication, modified FFA, transposed filter, retiming.

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Authors: Jae-Yong Lee, Gyu-Hyun Bae, Yun-Soo Chung, Dae-Sub Kim, Jae-Sung Bae

Abstract:

In general, fabric is heat-treated using a stenter machine in order to dry and fix its shape. It is important to shape before the heat treatment because it is difficult to revert back once the fabric is formed. To produce the product of right shape, camera type weft straightener has been applied recently to capture and process fabric images quickly. It is more powerful in determining the final textile quality rather than photo-sensor. Positioning in front of a stenter machine, weft straightener helps to spread fabric evenly and control the angle between warp and weft constantly as right angle by handling skew and bow rollers. To process this tricky procedure, the structural analysis should be carried out in advance, based on which, its control technology can be drawn. A structural analysis is to figure out the specific contact/slippage characteristics between fabric and roller. We already examined the applicability of camera type weft straightener to plain weave fabric and found its possibility and the specific working condition of machine and rollers. In this research, we aimed to explore another applicability of camera type weft straightener. Namely, we tried to figure out camera type weft straightener can be used for fabrics. To find out the optimum condition, we increased the number of rollers. The analysis is done by ANSYS software using Finite Element Analysis method. The control function is demonstrated by experiment. In conclusion, the structural analysis of weft straightener is done to identify a specific characteristic between roller and fabrics. The control of skew and bow roller is done to decrease the error of the angle between warp and weft. Finally, it is proved that camera type straightener can also be used for the special fabrics.

Keywords: Camera type weft straightener, structure analysis, control, skew and bow roller.

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Authors: Oliver Marunțălu, Elena Elisabeta Manea, Lăcrămioara Diana Robescu, Mihai Necșoiu, Gheorghe Lăzăroiu, Dana Andreya Bondrea

Abstract:

In order to obtain efficient pollutants removal in small-scale wastewater treatment plants, uniform water flow has to be achieved. The experimental setup, designed for treating high-load wastewater (leachate), consists of two aerobic biological reactors and a lamellar settler. Both biological tanks were aerated by using three different types of aeration systems - perforated pipes, membrane air diffusers and tube ceramic diffusers. The possibility of homogenizing the water mass with each of the air diffusion systems was evaluated comparatively. The oxygen concentration was determined by optical sensors with data logging. The experimental data was analyzed comparatively for all three different air dispersion systems aiming to identify the oxygen concentration variation during different operational conditions. The Oxygenation Capacity was calculated for each of the three systems and used as performance and selection parameter. The global mass transfer coefficients were also evaluated as important tools in designing the aeration system. Even though using the tubular porous diffusers leads to higher oxygen concentration compared to the perforated pipe system (which provides medium-sized bubbles in the aqueous solution), it doesn’t achieve the threshold limit of 80% oxygen saturation in less than 30 minutes. The study has shown that the optimal solution for the studied configuration was the radial air diffusers which ensure an oxygen saturation of 80% in 20 minutes. An increment of the values was identified when the air flow was increased.

Keywords: Flow, aeration, bioreactor, oxygen concentration.

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Authors: E. Asadollahi-Yazdi, J. Gardan, P. Lafon

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Nowadays, manufactures are encountered with production of different version of products due to quality, cost and time constraints. On the other hand, Additive Manufacturing (AM) as a production method based on CAD model disrupts the design and manufacturing cycle with new parameters. To consider these issues, the researchers utilized Design For Manufacturing (DFM) approach for AM but until now there is no integrated approach for design and manufacturing of product through the AM. So, this paper aims to provide a general methodology for managing the different production issues, as well as, support the interoperability with AM process and different Product Life Cycle Management tools. The problem is that the models of System Engineering which is used for managing complex systems cannot support the product evolution and its impact on the product life cycle. Therefore, it seems necessary to provide a general methodology for managing the product’s diversities which is created by using AM. This methodology must consider manufacture and assembly during product design as early as possible in the design stage. The latest approach of DFM, as a methodology to analyze the system comprehensively, integrates manufacturing constraints in the numerical model in upstream. So, DFM for AM is used to import the characteristics of AM into the design and manufacturing process of a hybrid product to manage the criteria coming from AM. Also, the research presents an integrated design method in order to take into account the knowledge of layers manufacturing technologies. For this purpose, the interface model based on the skin and skeleton concepts is provided, the usage and manufacturing skins are used to show the functional surface of the product. Also, the material flow and link between the skins are demonstrated by usage and manufacturing skeletons. Therefore, this integrated approach is a helpful methodology for designer and manufacturer in different decisions like material and process selection as well as, evaluation of product manufacturability.

Keywords: Additive manufacturing, 3D printing, design for manufacturing, integrated design, interoperability.

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Authors: Anil Bhandari, Imran Khan Pathan, Peeyush K. Sharma, Rakesh K. Patel, Suresh Purohit

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The purpose of this study was to prepare time and pH dependent release tablets of Ayurvedic Churna formulation and evaluate their advantages as colon targeted drug delivery system. The Vidangadi Churna was selected for this study which contains Embelin and Gallic acid. Embelin is used in Helminthiasis as therapeutic agent. Embelin is insoluble in water and unstable in gastric environment so it was formulated in time and pH dependent tablets coated with combination of two polymers Eudragit L100 and ethyl cellulose. The 150mg of core tablet of dried extract and lactose were prepared by wet granulation method. The compression coating was used in the polymer concentration of 150mg for both the layer as upper and lower coating tablet was investigated. The results showed that no release was found in 0.1 N HCl and pH 6.8 phosphate buffers for initial 5 hours and about 98.97% of the drug was released in pH 7.4 phosphate buffer in total 17 Hours. The in vitro release profiles of drug from the formulation could be best expressed first order kinetics as highest linearity (r²= 0.9943). The results of the present study have demonstrated that the time and pH dependent tablets system is a promising vehicle for preventing rapid hydrolysis in gastric environment and improving oral bioavailability of Embelin and Gallic acid for treatment of Helminthiasis.

Keywords: Embelin, Gallic acid, Vidangadi Churna, Colon targeted drug delivery.

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Authors: O. Alelweet, S. Pavia

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In order to face current compelling environmental problems affecting the planet, the construction industry needs to adapt. It is widely acknowledged that there is a need for durable, high-performance, low-greenhouse gas emission binders that can be used as an alternative to Portland cement (PC) to lower the environmental impact of construction. Alkali activated materials (AAMs) are considered a more sustainable alternative to PC materials. The binders of AAMs result from the reaction of an alkali metal source and a silicate powder or precursor which can be a calcium silicate or an aluminosilicate-rich material. This paper evaluates the particle size, specific surface area, chemical and mineral composition and amorphousness of silicate materials (most industrial waste locally produced in Ireland and Saudi Arabia) to develop alkali-activated binders that can replace PC resources in specific applications. These include recycled ceramic brick, bauxite, illitic clay, fly ash and metallurgical slag. According to the results, the wastes are reactive and comply with building standards requirements. The study also evidenced that the reactivity of the Saudi bauxite (with significant kaolinite) can be enhanced on thermal activation; and high calcium in the slag will promote reaction; which should be possible with low alkalinity activators. The wastes evidenced variable water demands that will be taken into account for mixing with the activators. Finally, further research is proposed to further determine the reactive fraction of the clay-based precursors.

Keywords: Reactivity, water demand, alkali-activated materials, brick, bauxite, illitic clay, fly ash, slag.

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Authors: Tharwat N. Hijjawi

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Learning oral skills in an Arabic speaking environment is challenging. A blended course (material, activities, and individual/ group work tasks …) was implemented in a module of level B1 for undergraduate students of French as a foreign language in order to increase their opportunities to practice listening and speaking skills. This research investigates the influence of this modality on enhancing active learning and examines the effectiveness of provided strategies. Moreover, it aims at discovering how it allows teacher to flip the traditional classroom and create a learner-centered framework. Which approaches were integrated to motivate students and urge them to search, analyze, criticize, create and accomplish projects? What was the perception of students? This paper is based on the qualitative findings of a questionnaire and a focus group interview with learners. Despite the doubled time and effort both “teacher” and “student” needed, results revealed that the NTIC allowed a shift into a learning paradigm where learners were the “chiefs” of the process. Tasks and collaborative projects required higher intellectual capacities from them. Learners appreciated this experience and developed new life-long learning competencies at many levels: social, affective, ethical and cognitive. To conclude, they defined themselves as motivated young researchers, motivators and critical thinkers.

Keywords: Active learning, critical thinking, inverted classroom, learning paradigm, problem-based.

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Authors: I. Abuiziah, A. Oulhaj, K. Sebari, D. Ouazar, A. A. Saber

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In water pipeline systems, the flow control is an integrated part of the operation, for instance, opening and closing the valves, starting and stopping the pumps, when these operations very quickly performed, they shall cause the hydraulic transient phenomena, which may cause pump and, valve failures and catastrophic pipe ruptures. Fluid transient analysis is one of the more challenging and complicated flow problems in the design and the operation of water pipeline systems. Transient control has become an essential requirement for ensuring safe operation of water pipeline systems. An accurate analysis and suitable protection devices should be used to protect water pipeline systems. The fourth-order Runge-Kutta method has been used to solve the dynamic and continuity equations in the rigid column method, while the characteristics method used to solve these equations in the full elastic methods. This paper presents the problem of modeling and simulating of transient phenomena in conveying pipeline systems based on the rigid column and full elastic methods. Also, it provides the influence of using the protection devices to protect the pipeline systems from damaging due to the gain pressure which occur in the transient state. The results obtained provide that the model is an efficient tool for flow transient analysis and provide approximately identical results by using these two methods. Moreover; using the closed surge tank reduces the unfavorable effects of transients.

Keywords: Flow transient, Pipeline, Air chamber, Numerical model, Protection devices, Elastic method, Rigid column method.

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Authors: Martin H¨ausl, Maximilian Auch, Johannes Forster, Peter Mandl, Alexander Schill

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In order to survive on the market, companies must constantly develop improved and new products. These products are designed to serve the needs of their customers in the best possible way. The creation of new products is also called innovation and is primarily driven by a company’s internal research and development department. However, a new approach has been taking place for some years now, involving external knowledge in the innovation process. This approach is called open innovation and identifies customer knowledge as the most important source in the innovation process. This paper presents a concept of using social media posts as an external source to support the open innovation approach in its initial phase, the Ideation phase. For this purpose, the social media posts are semantically structured with the help of an ontology and the authors are evaluated using graph-theoretical metrics such as density. For the structuring and evaluation of relevant social media posts, we also use the findings of Natural Language Processing, e. g. Named Entity Recognition, specific dictionaries, Triple Tagger and Part-of-Speech-Tagger. The selection and evaluation of the tools used are discussed in this paper. Using our ontology and metrics to structure social media posts enables users to semantically search these posts for new product ideas and thus gain an improved insight into the external sources such as customer needs.

Keywords: Idea ontology, innovation management, open innovation, semantic search.

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Authors: Mohammad Reza Mohammadian, Dariush Sattarzadeh, Mir Mohammad Javad Poor Hadi Hosseini

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Population growth, urban development and urban buildup have disturbed the balance between the nature and the city, and so leading to the loss of quality of sustainability of proximity to rivers. While in the past, the sides of urban rivers were considered as urban green space. Urban rivers and their sides that have environmental, social and economic values are important to achieve sustainable development. So far, efforts have been made at various scales in various cities around the world to revitalize these areas. On the other hand, biophilic design is an innovative design approach in which attention to natural details and relation to nature is a fundamental concept. The purpose of this study is to provide an integrated framework of urban design using the potential of urban rivers (in order to increase sustainability) with a biophilic design approach to be used in cities in developing countries. The methodology of the research is based on the collection of data and information from research and projects including a study on biophilic design, investigations and projects related to the urban rivers, and a review of the literature on sustainable urban development. Then studying the boundary of urban rivers is completed by examining case samples. Eventually, integrated framework of urban design, to design the boundaries of urban rivers in the cities of developing countries is presented regarding the factors affecting the design of these areas. The result shows that according to this framework, the potential of the river banks is utilized to increase not only the environmental sustainability but also social, economic and physical stability with regard to water, light, and the usage of indigenous materials, etc.

Keywords: Urban rivers, biophilic design, urban sustainability, nature.

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Authors: Abdelghani Boudiaf

Abstract:

The profusion of studies relating to the concept of organizational learning shows the importance that has been given to this concept in the management sciences. A few years ago, companies leaned towards ISO 9001 certification; this requires the implementation of the quality management system (QMS). In order for this objective to be achieved, companies must have a set of skills, which pushes them to develop learning through continuous training. The results of empirical research have shown that implementation of the QMS in the company promotes the development of learning. It should also be noted that several types of learning are developed in this sense. Given the nature of skills development is normative in the context of the quality demarche, companies are obliged to qualify and improve the skills of their human resources. Continuous training is the keystone to develop the necessary learning. To carry out continuous training, companies need to be able to identify their real needs by developing training plans based on well-defined engineering. The training process goes obviously through several stages. Initially, training has a general aspect, that is to say, it focuses on topics and actions of a general nature. Subsequently, this is done in a more targeted and more precise way to accompany the evolution of the QMS and also to make the changes decided each time (change of working method, change of practices, change of objectives, change of mentality, etc.). To answer our problematic we opted for the method of qualitative research. It should be noted that the case study method crosses several data collection techniques to explain and understand a phenomenon. Three cases of companies were studied as part of this research work using different data collection techniques related to this method.

Keywords: Changing mentalities, continuous training, organizational learning, quality management system, skills development.

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Authors: M. Tadi, M. Hadi Mohammad Zadeh, Ozge Ogut

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Although how cities’ forms are structured is studied, more efforts are needed on systemic comprehensions and evaluations of the urban morphology through quantitative metrics that are able to describe the performance of a city in relation to its formal properties. More research is required in this direction in order to better describe the urban form characteristics and their impact on the environmental performance of cities and to increase their sustainability stewardship. With the aim of developing a better understanding of the built environment’s systemic structure, the intention of this paper is to present a holistic methodology for studying the behavior of the built environment and investigate the methods for measuring the effect of urban structure to the environmental performance. This goal will be pursued through an inquiry into the morphological components of the urban systems and the complex relationships between them. Particularly, this paper focuses on proximity, referring to the proximity of different land-uses, is a concept with which Integrated Modification Methodology (IMM) explains how land-use allocation might affect the choice of mobility in neighborhoods, and especially, encourage or discourage non-motived mobility. This paper uses proximity to demonstrate that the structure attributes can quantifiably relate to the performing behavior in the city. The target is to devise a mathematical pattern from the structural elements and correlate it directly with urban performance indicators concerned with environmental sustainability. The paper presents some results of this rigorous investigation of urban proximity and its correlation with performance indicators in four different areas in the city of Milan, each of them characterized by different morphological features.

Keywords: Built environment, ecology, sustainable indicators, sustainability, urban morphology.

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Authors: Ahmad Ali Shahid, Muhammad Shakil Shaukat, Kamran Shehzad Bajwa, Abdul Qayyum Rao, Tayyab Husnain

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Agriculture is the backbone of economy of Pakistan and cotton is the major agricultural export and supreme source of raw fiber for our textile industry. To combat severe problems of insect and weed, combination of three genes namely Cry1Ac, Cry2A and EPSPS genes was transferred in locally cultivated cotton variety MNH-786 with the use of Agrobacterium mediated genetic transformation. The present study focused on the molecular screening of transgenic cotton plants at T3 generation in order to confirm integration and expression of all three genes (Cry1Ac, Cry2A and EPSP synthase) into the cotton genome. Initially, glyphosate spray assay was used for screening of transgenic cotton plants containing EPSP synthase gene at T3 generation. Transgenic cotton plants which were healthy and showed no damage on leaves were selected after 07 days of spray. For molecular analysis of transgenic cotton plants in the laboratory, the genomic DNA of these transgenic cotton plants were isolated and subjected to amplification of the three genes. Thus, seventeen out of twenty (Cry1Ac gene), ten out of twenty (Cry2A gene) and all twenty (EPSP synthase gene) were produced positive amplification. On the base of PCR amplification, ten transgenic plant samples were subjected to protein expression analysis through ELISA. The results showed that eight out of ten plants were actively expressing the three transgenes. Real-time PCR was also done to quantify the mRNA expression levels of Cry1Ac and EPSP synthase gene. Finally, eight plants were confirmed for the presence and active expression of all three genes at T3 generation.

Keywords: Agriculture, Cotton, Transformation, Cry Genes, ELISA and PCR.

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Authors: Hamidreza Hoshyarmanesh, Hosein Madieh, Sanju Lama, Yaser Maddahi, Garnette R. Sutherland, Kourosh Zareinia

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This paper illustrates the concept of an algorithm to register specified markers on the neuroArm surgical manipulators, an image-guided MR-compatible tele-operated robot for microsurgery and stereotaxy. Two range-finding algorithms, namely time-of-flight and phase-shift, are evaluated for registration and supervisory control. The time-of-flight approach is implemented in a semi-field experiment to determine the precise position of a tiny retro-reflective moving object. The moving object simulates a surgical tool tip. The tool is a target that would be connected to the neuroArm end-effector during surgery inside the magnet bore of the MR imaging system. In order to apply flight approach, a 905-nm pulsed laser diode and an avalanche photodiode are utilized as the transmitter and receiver, respectively. For the experiment, a high frequency time to digital converter was designed using a field-programmable gate arrays. In the phase-shift approach, a continuous green laser beam with a wavelength of 530 nm was used as the transmitter. Results showed that a positioning error of 0.1 mm occurred when the scanner-target point distance was set in the range of 2.5 to 3 meters. The effectiveness of this non-contact approach exhibited that the method could be employed as an alternative for conventional mechanical registration arm. Furthermore, the approach is not limited by physical contact and extension of joint angles.

Keywords: 3D laser scanner, intraoperative MR imaging, neuroArm, real time registration, robot-assisted surgery, supervisory control.

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Authors: Mohammad T. Uddin, Aurup R. Dhar

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The study was conducted to assess the impact of conservation agriculture practice on farmers’ socioeconomic condition and soil environmental quality in Bangladesh. A total of 450 (i.e., 50 focal, 150 proximal and 250 control) farmers from five districts were selected for this study. Descriptive statistics like sum, averages, percentages, etc. were calculated to evaluate the socioeconomic data. Using Enyedi’s crop productivity index, it was found that the crop productivity of focal, proximal and control farmers was increased by 0.9, 1.2 and 1.3 percent, respectively. The result of DID (Difference-in-difference) analysis indicated that the impact of conservation agriculture practice on farmers’ average annual income was significant. Multidimensional poverty index (MPI) indicates that poverty in terms of deprivation of health, education and living standards was decreased; and a remarkable improvement in farmers’ socioeconomic status was found after adopting conservation agriculture practice. Most of the focal and proximal farmers stated about increased soil environmental condition where majority of control farmers stated about constant environmental condition in this regard. The Probit model reveals that minimum tillage operation, permanent organic soil cover, and application of compost and vermicompost were found significant factors affecting soil environmental quality under conservation agriculture. Input support, motivation, training programmes and extension services are recommended to implement in order to raise the awareness and enrich the knowledge of the farmers on conservation agriculture practice.

Keywords: Conservation agriculture, crop productivity, socioeconomic status, soil environment quality.

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Authors: Essa Alenazi, Zulfikar Adamu

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The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) is not an exception in relying on the growth of its construction industry to support rapid population growth. However, its need for infrastructure development is constrained by low productivity levels and cost overruns caused by factors such as delays to project completion. Delays in delivering a construction project are a global issue and while theories such as Optimism Bias have been used to explain such delays, in KSA, client-related causes of delays are also significant. The objective of this paper is to develop a framework-based approach to explore how the country’s construction industry can manage and reduce delays in construction projects through building information modelling (BIM) in order to mitigate the cost consequences of such delays.  It comprehensively and systematically reviewed the global literature on the subject and identified gaps, critical delay factors and the specific benefits that BIM can deliver for the delay management.  A case study comprising of nine hospital projects that have experienced delay and cost overruns was also carried out. Five critical delay factors related to the clients were identified as candidates that can be mitigated through BIM’s benefits. These factors are: Ineffective planning and scheduling of the project; changes during construction by the client; delay in progress payment; slowness in decision making by the client; and poor communication between clients and other stakeholders. In addition, data from the case study projects strongly suggest that optimism bias is present in many of the hospital projects. Further validation via key stakeholder interviews and documentations are planned.

Keywords: BIM, client perspective, delay management, optimism bias, public sector projects.

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Authors: Gülnar Bayramoğlu Barman

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Since the industrial revolution, technological developments and increased population have caused environmental damages. To protect the nature and architectural environment, firstly, green architecture, ecological architecture and then sustainability occurred. This term has been proposed not to be a new term but a response to environmental disturbances caused by human activities and it is re-conceptualization of architecture. Sustainable architecture or sustainability is lot more extensive than ecological and green architecture. It contains the imbalance between environmental problems that is natural environment and consumption that occurred all around the world. An important part of sustainability debate focused on urban planning and design for more sustainable forms and patterns. In particular, it is discussed that planning and design of urban areas have a major effect on transport and therefore can help reduce car usage, emissions, global warming and climate change. There are many planning and design approaches and movement that introduce certain criteria and strategies to prevent car dependency and encourage people to use public transportation and walking. However, when review the literature, it is seen that planning movements, such as New Urbanism and Transit Oriented Development originated and were implemented mostly in West European and North American Cities. The purpose of this study is to find out whether all those criteria, principles and strategies are also relevant planning approaches for more non-western cities like Baku, which has a very different planning background and therefore possibly different urban form and transport issues. In order to answer the abovementioned question, planning and design approaches in the literature and these recent planning movements were studied and a check list was formed which indicate planning and design approaches that can help attain a more sustainable transport outcome. The checklist was then applied to the case of Baku.

Keywords: Sustainability, Transport, Urban Design.

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Authors: Oluseyi O. Ajayi, Ohiose D. Ohijeagbon, Mercy Ogbonnaya, Ameh Attabo

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The study assessed the potential and economic viability of stand-alone wind systems for embedded generation, taking into account its benefits to small off-grid rural communities at 40 meteorological sites in Nigeria. A specific electric load profile was developed to accommodate communities consisting of 200 homes, a school and a community health centre. This load profile was incorporated within the distributed generation analysis producing energy in the MW range, while optimally meeting daily load demand for the rural communities. Twenty-four years (1987 to 2010) of wind speed data at a height of 10m utilized for the study were sourced from the Nigeria Meteorological Department, Oshodi. The HOMER® software optimizing tool was engaged for the feasibility study and design. Each site was suited to 3MW wind turbines in sets of five, thus 15MW was designed for each site. This design configuration was adopted in order to easily compare the distributed generation system amongst the sites to determine their relative economic viability in terms of life cycle cost, as well as levelised cost of producing energy. A net present value was estimated in terms of life cycle cost for 25 of the 40 meteorological sites. On the other hand, the remaining sites yielded a net present cost; meaning the installations at these locations were not economically viable when utilizing the present tariff regime for embedded generation in Nigeria.

Keywords: Wind speed, wind power, distributed generation, cost per kilowatt-hour, clean energy, Nigeria.

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Authors: Syed Muzyan Shahzad, Liu Jianxin, Asim Shahzad, Muhammad Sharjeel Raza, Sun Ya, Fanidi Meryem

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Electrical resistivity investigation was conducted in vicinity of Tarbela Ghazi, in order to study the subsurface layer with a view of determining the depth to the aquifer and thickness of groundwater potential zones. Vertical Electrical Sounding (VES) using Schlumberger array was carried out at 16 VES stations. Well logging data at four tube wells have been used to mark the super saturated zones with great discharge rate. The present paper shows a geoelectrical identification of the lithology and an estimate of the relationship between the resistivity and Dar Zarrouk parameters (transverse unit resistance and longitudinal unit conductance). The VES results revealed both homogeneous and heterogeneous nature of the subsurface strata. Aquifer is unconfined to confine in nature, and at few locations though perched aquifer has been identified, groundwater potential zones are developed in unconsolidated deposits layers and more than seven geo-electric layers are observed at some VES locations. Saturated zones thickness ranges from 5 m to 150 m, whereas at few area aquifer is beyond 150 m thick. The average anisotropy, transvers resistance and longitudinal conductance values are 0.86 %, 35750.9821 Ω.m², 0.729 Siemens, respectively. The transverse unit resistance values fluctuate all over the aquifer system, whereas below at particular depth high values are observed, that significantly associated with the high transmissivity zones. The groundwater quality in all analyzed samples is below permissible limit according to World Health Standard (WHO).

Keywords: Geoelectric layers, Dar Zarrouk parameters, Aquifer, Electro-stratigraphic.

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Authors: M. Suresh Kumar, K. Ramani

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This paper proposed the comparison made between Multi-Carrier Pulse Width Modulation, Sinusoidal Pulse Width Modulation and Selective Harmonic Elimination Pulse Width Modulation technique for minimization of Total Harmonic Distortion in Cascaded H-Bridge Multi-Level Inverter. In Multicarrier Pulse Width Modulation method by using Alternate Position of Disposition scheme for switching pulse generation to Multi-Level Inverter. Another carrier based approach; Sinusoidal Pulse Width Modulation method is also implemented to define the switching pulse generation system in the multi-level inverter. In Selective Harmonic Elimination method using Genetic Algorithm and Particle Swarm Optimization algorithm for define the required switching angles to eliminate low order harmonics from the inverter output voltage waveform and reduce the total harmonic distortion value. So, the results validate that the Selective Harmonic Elimination Pulse Width Modulation method does capably eliminate a great number of precise harmonics and minimize the Total Harmonic Distortion value in output voltage waveform in compared with Multi-Carrier Pulse Width Modulation method, Sinusoidal Pulse Width Modulation method. In this paper, comparison of simulation results shows that the Selective Harmonic Elimination method can attain optimal harmonic minimization solution better than Multi-Carrier Pulse Width Modulation method, Sinusoidal Pulse Width Modulation method.

Keywords: Multi-level inverter, Selective Harmonic Elimination Pulse Width Modulation, Multi-Carrier Pulse Width Modulation, Total Harmonic Distortion, Genetic Algorithm.

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Authors: Chaiyakrit Raoupatham, Ram Hari Dhakal, Chalermchai Wanichlamlert

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This paper aimed to introduce the solution of concrete slump recovery using chemical admixture type-F (superplasticizer, naphthalene base) to the practice in order to solve unusable concrete problem due to concrete loss its slump, especially for those tropical countries that have faster slump loss rate. In the other hand, randomly adding superplasticizer into concrete can cause concrete to segregate. Therefore, this paper also develops the estimation model used to calculate amount of second dose of superplasticizer need for concrete slump recovery. Fresh properties of ordinary Portland cement concrete with volumetric ratio of paste to void between aggregate (paste content) of 1.1-1.3 with water-cement ratio zone of 0.30 to 0.67 and initial superplasticizer (naphthalene base) of 0.25%-1.6% were tested for initial slump and slump loss for every 30 minutes for one and half hour by slump cone test. Those concretes with slump loss range from 10% to 90% were re-dosed and successfully recovered back to its initial slump. Slump after re-dosed was tested by slump cone test. From the result, it has been concluded that, slump loss was slower for those mix with high initial dose of superplasticizer due to addition of superplasticizer will disturb cement hydration. The required second dose of superplasticizer was affected by two major parameters, which were water-cement ratio and paste content, where lower water-cement ratio and paste content cause an increase in require second dose of superplasticizer. The amount of second dose of superplasticizer is higher as the solid content within the system is increase, solid can be either from cement particles or aggregate. The data was analyzed to form an equation use to estimate the amount of second dosage requirement of superplasticizer to recovery slump to its original.

Keywords: Estimation model, second superplasticizer dosage, slump loss, slump recovery.

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Authors: Mohammed Abaoli, Omer Kara

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The current research has investigated the soil quality status under dryland vegetation of Yabello district, Southern Ethiopia in which we should identify the nature and extent of salinity problem of the area for further research bases. About 48 soil samples were taken from 0-30, 31-60, 61-90 and 91-120 cm soil depths by opening 12 representative soil profile pits at 1.5 m depth. Soil color, texture, bulk density, Soil Organic Carbon (SOC), Cation Exchange Capacity (CEC), Na, K, Mg, Ca, CaCO₃, gypsum (CaSO₄), pH, Sodium Adsorption Ratio (SAR), Exchangeable Sodium Percentage (ESP) were analyzed. The dominant soil texture was silty-clay-loam.  Bulk density varied from 1.1 to 1.31 g/cm³. High SOC content was observed in 0-30 cm. The soil pH ranged from 7.1 to 8.6. The electrical conductivity shows indirect relationship with soil depth while CaCO₃ and CaSO₄ concentrations were observed in a direct relationship with depth. About 41% are non-saline, 38.31% saline, 15.23% saline-sodic and 5.46% sodic soils. Na concentration in saline soils was greater than Ca and Mg in all the soil depths. Ca and Mg contents were higher above 60 cm soil depth in non-saline soils. The concentrations of SO₂^-4 and HCO^-3 were observed to be higher at the most lower depth than upper. SAR value tends to be higher at lower depths in saline and saline-sodic soils, but decreases at lower depth of the non-saline soils. The distribution of ESP above 60 cm depth was in an increasing order in saline and saline-sodic soils. The result of the research has shown the direction to which extent of salinity we should consider for the Commiphora plant species we want to grow on the area. 

Keywords: Commiphora species, dryland vegetation, ecological significance, soil quality, salinity problem.

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Authors: F. Rezaie Moghaddam, T. Rezaie Moghaddam, M. Pasbani Khiavi, M. Ali Ghorbani

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Identifying and classifying intersections according to severity is very important for implementation of safety related counter measures and effective models are needed to compare and assess the severity. Highway safety organizations have considered intersection safety among their priorities. In spite of significant advances in highways safety, the large numbers of crashes with high severities still occur in the highways. Investigation of influential factors on crashes enables engineers to carry out calculations in order to reduce crash severity. Previous studies lacked a model capable of simultaneous illustration of the influence of human factors, road, vehicle, weather conditions and traffic features including traffic volume and flow speed on the crash severity. Thus, this paper is aimed at developing the models to illustrate the simultaneous influence of these variables on the crash severity in urban highways. The models represented in this study have been developed using binary Logit Models. SPSS software has been used to calibrate the models. It must be mentioned that backward regression method in SPSS was used to identify the significant variables in the model. Consider to obtained results it can be concluded that the main factor in increasing of crash severity in urban highways are driver age, movement with reverse gear, technical defect of the vehicle, vehicle collision with motorcycle and bicycle, bridge, frontal impact collisions, frontal-lateral collisions and multi-vehicle crashes in urban highways which always increase the crash severity in urban highways.

Keywords: Backward regression, crash severity, speed, urbanhighways.

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