Search results for: ventilation control system.
5958 System Identification Based on Stepwise Regression for Dynamic Market Representation
Authors: Alexander Efremov
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A system for market identification (SMI) is presented. The resulting representations are multivariable dynamic demand models. The market specifics are analyzed. Appropriate models and identification techniques are chosen. Multivariate static and dynamic models are used to represent the market behavior. The steps of the first stage of SMI, named data preprocessing, are mentioned. Next, the second stage, which is the model estimation, is considered in more details. Stepwise linear regression (SWR) is used to determine the significant cross-effects and the orders of the model polynomials. The estimates of the model parameters are obtained by a numerically stable estimator. Real market data is used to analyze SMI performance. The main conclusion is related to the applicability of multivariate dynamic models for representation of market systems.Keywords: market identification, dynamic models, stepwise regression.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 16275957 Socio-Technical Systems: Transforming Theory into Practice
Authors: L. Ngowi, N. H. Mvungi
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This paper critically examines the evolution of socio-technical systems theory, its practices, and challenges in system design and development. It examines concepts put forward by researchers focusing on the application of the theory in software engineering. There are various methods developed that use socio-technical concepts based on systems engineering without remarkable success. The main constraint is the large amount of data and inefficient techniques used in the application of the concepts in system engineering for developing time-bound systems and within a limited/controlled budget. This paper critically examines each of the methods, highlight bottlenecks and suggest the way forward. Since socio-technical systems theory only explains what to do, but not how doing it, hence engineers are not using the concept to save time, costs and reduce risks associated with new frameworks. Hence, a new framework, which can be considered as a practical approach is proposed that borrows concepts from soft systems method, agile systems development and object-oriented analysis and design to bridge the gap between theory and practice. The approach will enable the development of systems using socio-technical systems theory to attract/enable the system engineers/software developers to use socio-technical systems theory in building worthwhile information systems to avoid fragilities and hostilities in the work environment.
Keywords: Socio-technical systems, human centered design, software engineering, cognitive engineering, soft systems, systems engineering.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 28475956 A Comprehensive CFD Model for Sugar-Cane Bagasse Heterogeneous Combustion in a Grate Boiler System
Authors: Daniel J. O. Ferreira, Juan H. Sosa-Arnao, Bruno C. Moreira, Leonardo P. Rangel, Song W. Park
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The comprehensive CFD models have been used to represent and study the heterogeneous combustion of biomass. In the present work, the operation of a global flue gas circuit in the sugarcane bagasse combustion, from wind boxes below primary air grate supply, passing by bagasse insertion in swirl burners and boiler furnace, to boiler bank outlet is simulated. It uses five different meshes representing each part of this system located in sequence: wind boxes and grate, boiler furnace, swirl burners, superheaters and boiler bank. The model considers turbulence using standard k-ε, combustion using EDM, radiation heat transfer using DTM with 16 ray directions and bagasse particle tracking represented by Schiller- Naumann model. The results showed good agreement with expected behavior found in literature and equipment design. The more detailed results view in separated parts of flue gas system allows observing some flow behaviors that cannot be represented by usual simplifications like bagasse supply under homogeneous axial and rotational vectors and others that can be represented using new considerations like the representation of 26 thousand grate orifices by 144 rectangular inlets.Keywords: Comprehensive CFD model, sugar-cane bagasse combustion, sugar-cane bagasse grate boiler.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 27335955 Modelling the Occurrence of Defects and Change Requests during User Acceptance Testing
Authors: Kevin McDaid, Simon P. Wilson
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Software developed for a specific customer under contract typically undergoes a period of testing by the customer before acceptance. This is known as user acceptance testing and the process can reveal both defects in the system and requests for changes to the product. This paper uses nonhomogeneous Poisson processes to model a real user acceptance data set from a recently developed system. In particular a split Poisson process is shown to provide an excellent fit to the data. The paper explains how this model can be used to aid the allocation of resources through the accurate prediction of occurrences both during the acceptance testing phase and before this activity begins. Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 23485954 Ideological Tendencies of the Teachers about the Causes of Vandalism in Schools and Solution Proposals
Authors: Sevgi Birsel Nemlioğlu, Hasan Atak
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Aggression is a behavior that cannot be approved by the society. Vandalism which is aggression towards objects is an action that tends to damage public or personal property. The behaviors that are described as vandalism can often be observed in the schools as well. According to Zwier and Vaughan (1) previous research about the reasons of and precautionary measures for vandalism in schools can be grouped in three tendency categories: conservative, liberal and radical. In this context, the main aim of this study is to discover which ideological tendency of the reasons of school vandalism is adopted by the teachers and what are their physical, environmental, school system and societal solutions for vandalism. A total of 200 teachers participated in this study, and the mean age was 34.20 years (SD = 6.54). The sample was made up of 109 females and 91 males. For the analysis of the data, SPSS 15.00, frequency, percentage, and t-test were used. The research showed that the teachers have tendencies in the order of conservative, liberal and radical for the reasons of vandalism. The research also showed that the teachers do not have any tendency for eliminating vandalism physically and general solutions on the level of society; on the other hand they mostly adopt a conservative tendency in terms of precautions against vandalism in the school system. Second most, they adopt the liberal tendency in terms of precautions against vandalism in the school system. . It is observed that the findings of this study are comparable to the existing literature on the subject. Future studies should be conducted with multiple variants and bigger sampling.Keywords: Vandalism, School, Vandal, Turkey, Teacher, Tendency.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 19505953 System Module for Student Idol
Authors: M. S. Roslina, A. Noraziah
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Malaysia government had been trying hard in order to find the most efficient methods in learning. However, it is hard to actually access and evaluate students whom will then be called an excellent student. It is because in our realties student who excellent is only excel in academic. This evaluation becomes a problem because it not balances in our real life interm of to get an excellent student in whole area in their involvement of curiculum and cocuriculum. To overcome this scenario, we designed a module for Student Idol to evaluate student through three categories which are academic, co-curiculum and leadership. All the categories have their own merit point. Using this method, student will be evaluated more accurate compared to the previously. So, teacher can easily evaluate their student without having any emotion factor, relation factor and others. As conclusion this system module will helps the development of student evaluation more accurate and valid in Student Idol.Keywords: Evaluation, curiculum, co-curriculum, idol, systemmodule.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 14505952 Hybrid Weighted Multiple Attribute Decision Making Handover Method for Heterogeneous Networks
Authors: Mohanad Alhabo, Li Zhang, Naveed Nawaz
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Small cell deployment in 5G networks is a promising technology to enhance the capacity and coverage. However, unplanned deployment may cause high interference levels and high number of unnecessary handovers, which in turn result in an increase in the signalling overhead. To guarantee service continuity, minimize unnecessary handovers and reduce signalling overhead in heterogeneous networks, it is essential to properly model the handover decision problem. In this paper, we model the handover decision problem using Multiple Attribute Decision Making (MADM) method, specifically Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to an Ideal Solution (TOPSIS), and propose a hybrid TOPSIS method to control the handover in heterogeneous network. The proposed method adopts a hybrid weighting policy, which is a combination of entropy and standard deviation. A hybrid weighting control parameter is introduced to balance the impact of the standard deviation and entropy weighting on the network selection process and the overall performance. Our proposed method show better performance, in terms of the number of frequent handovers and the mean user throughput, compared to the existing methods.
Keywords: Handover, HetNets, interference, MADM, small cells, TOPSIS, weight.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 5845951 Research on the Micro Pattern forming of Spiral Grooves in a Dynamic Thrust Bearing
Authors: Sol-Kil Oh, Hye-Jin Lee, Jung-Han Song, Kyoung-Tae Kim, Nak-Kyu Lee, Jong-Ho Kim
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This paper deals with a novel technique for the fabrication of Spiral grooves in a dynamic thrust bearing. The main scheme proposed in this paper is to fabricate the microgrooves using desktop forming system. This process has advantages compared to the conventional electro-chemical machining in the viewpoint of a higher productivity. For this reason, a new testing apparatus is designed and built for press forming microgrooves on a surface of the thrust bearing. The material used in this study is sintered Cu-Fe alloy. The effects of the forming load on the performance of micro press forming are experimentally investigated. From the experimental results, formed depths are closed to the target ones with increasing the forming load.Keywords: Desktop forming system, Fluid dynamic bearing, Thrust bearing, Microgroove.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 14735950 A Real-Time Monitoring System of the Supply Chain Conditions, Products and Means of Transport
Authors: Dimitrios E. Kontaxis, George Litainas, Dimitrios P. Ptochos, Vaggelis P. Ptochos, Sotirios P. Ptochos, Dimitrios Beletsis, Konstantinos Kritikakis, Milan Sunaric
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Real-time monitoring of the supply chain conditions and procedures is a critical element for the optimal coordination and safety of the deliveries, as well as for the minimization of the delivery time and cost. Real time monitoring requires IoT data streams, which are related to the conditions of the products and the means of transport (e.g., location, temperature/humidity conditions, kinematic state, ambient light conditions, etc.). These streams are generated by battery-based IoT tracking devices, equipped with appropriate sensors, and are transmitted to a cloud-based back-end system. Proper handling and processing of the IoT data streams, using predictive and artificial intelligence algorithms, can provide significant and useful results, which can be exploited by the supply chain stakeholders in order to enhance their financial benefits, as well as the efficiency, security, transparency, coordination and sustainability of the supply chain procedures. The technology, the features and the characteristics of a complete, proprietary system, including hardware, firmware and software tools - developed in the context of a co-funded R&D program - are addressed and presented in this paper.
Keywords: IoT embedded electronics, real-time monitoring, tracking device, sensor platform
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 6565949 Application of Universal Distribution Factors for Real-Time Complex Power Flow Calculation
Authors: Abdullah M. Alodhaiani, Yasir A. Alturki, Mohamed A. Elkady
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Complex power flow distribution factors, which relate line complex power flows to the bus injected complex powers, have been widely used in various power system planning and analysis studies. In particular, AC distribution factors have been used extensively in the recent power and energy pricing studies in free electricity market field. As was demonstrated in the existing literature, many of the electricity market related costing studies rely on the use of the distribution factors. These known distribution factors, whether the injection shift factors (ISF’s) or power transfer distribution factors (PTDF’s), are linear approximations of the first order sensitivities of the active power flows with respect to various variables. This paper presents a novel model for evaluating the universal distribution factors (UDF’s), which are appropriate for an extensive range of power systems analysis and free electricity market studies. These distribution factors are used for the calculations of lines complex power flows and its independent of bus power injections, they are compact matrix-form expressions with total flexibility in determining the position on the line at which line flows are measured. The proposed approach was tested on IEEE 9-Bus system. Numerical results demonstrate that the proposed approach is very accurate compared with exact method.
Keywords: Distribution Factors, Power System, Sensitivity Factors, Electricity Market.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 26325948 Assessing and Improving Ramp-Up Capability
Authors: Sebastian Tschöpe, Konja Knüppel, Peter Nyhuis
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In times when product life cycles are decreasing, while market demands are increasing, manufacturing enterprises are confronted with the challenge of more frequent and more complex ramp-ups. Thus it becomes obvious that ramp-up management is going to be a topic enterprises have to focus on in the future. Since each ramp-up is unique concerning the product, the process, the technology, the circumstances and the coaction of these four factors, the knowledge of the ramp-up situation and the current ramp-up capability of the enterprise are fundamental requirements for the subsequent improvement of the ramp-up capability of the production system.
In this article a methodology is going to be presented which can be used to define typical production ramp-up situations, to identify the current ramp-up capability of a production system and to improve it with respect to a specific situation. Additionally there will be a description of the functionality of a software-tool developed based on this methodology.
Keywords: Assessment methodology, ramp-up, ramp-up capability, software-tool.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 20165947 Investigating Intrusion Detection Systems in MANET and Comparing IDSs for Detecting Misbehaving Nodes
Authors: Marjan Kuchaki Rafsanjani, Ali Movaghar, Faroukh Koroupi
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As mobile ad hoc networks (MANET) have different characteristics from wired networks and even from standard wireless networks, there are new challenges related to security issues that need to be addressed. Due to its unique features such as open nature, lack of infrastructure and central management, node mobility and change of dynamic topology, prevention methods from attacks on them are not enough. Therefore intrusion detection is one of the possible ways in recognizing a possible attack before the system could be penetrated. All in all, techniques for intrusion detection in old wireless networks are not suitable for MANET. In this paper, we classify the architecture for Intrusion detection systems that have so far been introduced for MANETs, and then existing intrusion detection techniques in MANET presented and compared. We then indicate important future research directions.Keywords: Intrusion Detection System(IDS), Misbehavingnodes, Mobile Ad Hoc Network(MANET), Security.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 20305946 File System-Based Data Protection Approach
Authors: Jaechun No
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As data to be stored in storage subsystems tremendously increases, data protection techniques have become more important than ever, to provide data availability and reliability. In this paper, we present the file system-based data protection (WOWSnap) that has been implemented using WORM (Write-Once-Read-Many) scheme. In the WOWSnap, once WORM files have been created, only the privileged read requests to them are allowed to protect data against any intentional/accidental intrusions. Furthermore, all WORM files are related to their protection cycle that is a time period during which WORM files should securely be protected. Once their protection cycle is expired, the WORM files are automatically moved to the general-purpose data section without any user interference. This prevents the WORM data section from being consumed by unnecessary files. We evaluated the performance of WOWSnap on Linux cluster.Keywords: Data protection, Protection cycle, WORM
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 16885945 Virtual E-Medic: A Cloud Based Medical Aid
Authors: Madiajagan Muthaiyan, Neha Goel, Deepti Sunder Prakash
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This paper discusses about an intelligent system to be installed in ambulances providing professional support to the paramedics on board. A video conferencing device over mobile 4G services enables specialists virtually attending the patient being transferred to the hospital. The data centre holds detailed databases on the patients past medical history and hospitals with the specialists. It also hosts various software modules that compute the shortest traffic –less path to the closest hospital with the required facilities, on inputting the symptoms of the patient, on a real time basis.Keywords: 4G mobile services, cloud computing, data centre, intelligent system, optimization, real time traffic reporting, SaaS, video conferencing.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 18785944 General Formula for Water Surface Profile over Side Weir in the Combined, Trapezoidal and Exponential, Channels
Authors: Abdulrahman Abdulrahman
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A side weir is a hydraulic structure set into the side of a channel. This structure is used for water level control in channels, to divert flow from a main channel into a side channel when the water level in the main channel exceeds a specific limit and as storm overflows from urban sewerage system. Computation of water surface over the side weirs is essential to determine the flow rate of the side weir. Analytical solutions for water surface profile along rectangular side weir are available only for the special cases of rectangular and trapezoidal channels considering constant specific energy. In this paper, a rectangular side weir located in a combined (trapezoidal with exponential) channel was considered. Expanding binominal series of integer and fraction powers and the using of reduction formula of cosine function integrals, a general analytical formula was obtained for water surface profile along a side weir in a combined (trapezoidal with exponential) channel. Since triangular, rectangular, trapezoidal and parabolic cross-sections are special cases of the combined cross section, the derived formula, is applicable to triangular, rectangular, trapezoidal cross-sections as analytical solution and semi-analytical solution to parabolic cross-section with maximum relative error smaller than 0.76%. The proposed solution should be a useful engineering tool for the evaluation and design of side weirs in open channel.
Keywords: Analytical solution, combined channel, exponential channel, side weirs, trapezoidal channel, water surface profile.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 9335943 Effect of the Truss System to the Flexural Behavior of the External Reinforced Concrete Beams
Authors: Rudy Djamaluddin, Yasser Bachtiar, Rita Irmawati, Abd. Madjid Akkas, Rusdi Usman Latief
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The aesthetic qualities and the versatility of reinforced concrete have made it a popular choice for many architects and structural engineers. Therefore, the exploration of natural materials such as gravels and sands as well as lime-stone for cement production is increasing to produce a concrete material. The exploration must affect to the environment. Therefore, the using of the concrete materials should be as efficient as possible. According to its natural behavior of the concrete material, it is strong in compression and weak in tension. Therefore the contribution of the tensile stresses of the concrete to the flexural capacity of the beams is neglected. However, removing of concrete on tension zone affects to the decreasing of flexural capacity. Introduce the strut action of truss structures may an alternative to solve the decreasing of flexural capacity. A series of specimens were prepared to clarify the effect of the truss structures in the concrete beams without concrete on the tension zone. Results indicated that the truss system is necessary for the external reinforced concrete beams. The truss system of concrete beam without concrete on tension zone (BR) could develop almost same capacity to the normal beam (BN). It can be observed also that specimens BR has lower number of cracks than specimen BN. This may be caused by the fact that there was no bonding effect on the tensile reinforcement on specimen BR to distribute the cracks.
Keywords: External Reinforcement, Truss, Concrete Beams.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 22705942 Using Wiki for Enhancing the Knowledge Transfer to Newcomers: An Experience Report
Authors: H. O. Barbosa, A. C. R. da Silva, C. M. de Almeida, E. M. dos Santos, F. O. de Sousa, F. B. da S. Souza, F. B. da S. Souza, F. de O. Lima, L. H. Albuquerque, R. F. do Valle Cunha
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Software development is intrinsic human-based knowledge-intensive. Due to globalization, software development has become a complex challenge and we usually face barriers related to knowledge management, team building, costly testing processes, especially in distributed settings. In this paper, we present the use of experimental studies to improve our knowledge management process using the Wiki system. According to the results, it was possible to identify learning preferences from our software projects leader team, organize and improve the learning experience of our Wiki, and facilitate collaboration by newcomers to improve Wiki with new contents available in the Wiki.
Keywords: Mobile products, knowledge management process, Wiki system, Global Software Development.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 6905941 A Numerical Strategy to Design Maneuverable Micro-Biomedical Swimming Robots Based on Biomimetic Flagellar Propulsion
Authors: Arash Taheri, Meysam Mohammadi-Amin, Seyed Hossein Moosavy
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Medical applications are among the most impactful areas of microrobotics. The ultimate goal of medical microrobots is to reach currently inaccessible areas of the human body and carry out a host of complex operations such as minimally invasive surgery (MIS), highly localized drug delivery, and screening for diseases at their very early stages. Miniature, safe and efficient propulsion systems hold the key to maturing this technology but they pose significant challenges. A new type of propulsion developed recently, uses multi-flagella architecture inspired by the motility mechanism of prokaryotic microorganisms. There is a lack of efficient methods for designing this type of propulsion system. The goal of this paper is to overcome the lack and this way, a numerical strategy is proposed to design multi-flagella propulsion systems. The strategy is based on the implementation of the regularized stokeslet and rotlet theory, RFT theory and new approach of “local corrected velocity". The effects of shape parameters and angular velocities of each flagellum on overall flow field and on the robot net forces and moments are considered. Then a multi-layer perceptron artificial neural network is designed and employed to adjust the angular velocities of the motors for propulsion control. The proposed method applied successfully on a sample configuration and useful demonstrative results is obtained.Keywords: Artificial Neural Network, Biomimetic Microrobots, Flagellar Propulsion, Swimming Robots.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 19195940 On Symmetries and Exact Solutions of Einstein Vacuum Equations for Axially Symmetric Gravitational Fields
Authors: Nisha Goyal, R.K. Gupta
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Einstein vacuum equations, that is a system of nonlinear partial differential equations (PDEs) are derived from Weyl metric by using relation between Einstein tensor and metric tensor. The symmetries of Einstein vacuum equations for static axisymmetric gravitational fields are obtained using the Lie classical method. We have examined the optimal system of vector fields which is further used to reduce nonlinear PDE to nonlinear ordinary differential equation (ODE). Some exact solutions of Einstein vacuum equations in general relativity are also obtained.Keywords: Gravitational fields, Lie Classical method, Exact solutions.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 19455939 Phase Noise Impact on BER in Space Communication
Authors: Ondrej Baran, Miroslav Kasal, Petr Vagner, Tomas Urbanec
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This paper deals with the modeling and the evaluation of a multiplicative phase noise influence on the bit error ratio in a general space communication system. Our research is focused on systems with multi-state phase shift keying modulation techniques and it turns out, that the phase noise significantly affects the bit error rate, especially for higher signal to noise ratios. These results come from a system model created in Matlab environment and are shown in a form of constellation diagrams and bit error rate dependencies. The change of a user data bit rate is also considered and included into simulation results. Obtained outcomes confirm theoretical presumptions.
Keywords: Additive thermal noise, AWGN, BER, bit error rate, multiplicative phase noise, phase shift keying.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 46215938 3D Dynamic Representation System for the Human Head
Authors: Laurenţiu Militeanu, Cristina Gena Dascâlu, D. Cristea
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The human head representations usually are based on the morphological – structural components of a real model. Over the time became more and more necessary to achieve full virtual models that comply very rigorous with the specifications of the human anatomy. Still, making and using a model perfectly fitted with the real anatomy is a difficult task, because it requires large hardware resources and significant times for processing. That is why it is necessary to choose the best compromise solution, which keeps the right balance between the details perfection and the resources consumption, in order to obtain facial animations with real-time rendering. We will present here the way in which we achieved such a 3D system that we intend to use as a base point in order to create facial animations with real-time rendering, used in medicine to find and to identify different types of pathologies.Keywords: 3D models, virtual reality.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 14605937 Vehicle Position Estimation for Driver Assistance System
Authors: Hyun-Koo Kim, Sangmoon Lee, Ho-Youl Jung, Ju H. Park
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We present a system that finds road boundaries and constructs the virtual lane based on fusion data from a laser and a monocular sensor, and detects forward vehicle position even in no lane markers or bad environmental conditions. When the road environment is dark or a lot of vehicles are parked on the both sides of the road, it is difficult to detect lane and road boundary. For this reason we use fusion of laser and vision sensor to extract road boundary to acquire three dimensional data. We use parabolic road model to calculate road boundaries which is based on vehicle and sensors state parameters and construct virtual lane. And then we distinguish vehicle position in each lane.Keywords: Vehicle Detection, Adaboost, Haar-like Feature, Road Boundary Detection
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 16485936 The Effectiveness of Cognitive Behavioural Intervention in Alleviating Social Avoidance for Blind Students
Authors: Mohamed M. Elsherbiny
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Social Avoidance is one of the most important problems that face a good number of disabled students. It results from the negative attitudes of non-disabled students, teachers and others. Some of the past research has shown that non-disabled individuals hold negative attitudes toward persons with disabilities. The present study aims to alleviate Social Avoidance by applying the Cognitive Behavioral Intervention. 24 Blind students aged 19–24 (university students) were randomly chosen we compared an experimental group (consisted of 12 students) who went through the intervention program, with a control group (12 students also) who did not go through such intervention. We used the Social Avoidance and Distress Scale (SADS) to assess social anxiety and distress behavior. The author used many techniques of cognitive behavioral intervention such as modeling, cognitive restructuring, extension, contingency contracts, selfmonitoring, assertiveness training, role play, encouragement and others. Statistically, T-test was employed to test the research hypothesis. Result showed that there is a significance difference between the experimental group and the control group after the intervention and also at the follow up stages of the Social Avoidance and Distress Scale. Also for the experimental group, there is a significance difference before the intervention and the follow up stages for the scale. Results showed that, there is a decrease in social avoidance. Accordingly, cognitive behavioral intervention program was successful in decreasing social avoidance for blind students.Keywords: Social avoidance, cognitive behavioral intervention, blind disability, disability.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 20005935 The Impact of the Cell-Free Solution of Lactic Acid Bacteria on Cadaverine Production by Listeria monocytogenes and Staphylococcus aureus in Lysine-Decarboxylase Broth
Authors: Fatih Özogul, Nurten Toy, Yesim Özogul
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The influences of cell-free solutions (CFSs) of lactic acid bacteria (LAB) on cadaverine and other biogenic amines production by Listeria monocytogenes and Staphylococcus aureus were investigated in lysine decarboxylase broth (LDB) using HPLC. Cell free solutions were prepared from Lactococcus lactis subsp. lactis, Leuconostoc mesenteroides subsp. cremoris, Pediococcus acidilactici and Streptococcus thermophiles. Two different concentrations that were 50% and 25% CFS and the control without CFSs were prepared. Significant variations on biogenic amine production were observed in the presence of L. monocytogenes and S. aureus (P < 0.05). The function of CFS on biogenic amine production by foodborne pathogens varied depending on strains and specific amine. Cadaverine formation by L. monocytogenes and S. aureus in control were 500.9 and 948.1 mg/L, respectively while the CFSs of LAB induced 4-fold lower cadaverine production by L. monocytogenes and 7-fold lower cadaverine production by S. aureus. The CFSs resulted in strong decreases in cadaverine and putrescine production by L. monocytogenes and S. aureus, although remarkable increases were observed for histamine, spermidine, spermine, serotonin, dopamine, tyramine and agmatine in the presence of LAB in lysine decarboxylase broth.
Keywords: Cell-free solution, lactic acid bacteria, cadaverine, food borne-pathogen.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 21325934 Effect of Submaximal Eccentric versus Maximal Isometric Contraction on Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness
Authors: Mohamed M. Ragab, Neveen A. Abdel Raoof, Reham H. Diab
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Background: Delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS) is the most common symptom when ordinary individuals and athletes are exposed to unaccustomed physical activity, especially eccentric contraction which impairs athletic performance, ordinary people work ability and physical functioning. Multitudes of methods have been investigated to reduce DOMS. One of the valuable methods to control DOMS is repeated bout effect (RBE) as a prophylactic method. Purpose: To compare the repeated bout effect of submaximal eccentric with maximal isometric contraction on induced DOMS. Methods: Sixty normal male volunteers were assigned randomly into three equal groups: Group A (first study group): 20 subjects received submaximal eccentric contraction on non-dominant elbow flexors as a prophylactic exercise. Group B (second study group): 20 subjects received maximal isometric contraction on nondominant elbow flexors as a prophylactic exercise. Group C (control group): 20 subjects did not receive any prophylactic exercises. Maximal isometric peak torque of elbow flexors and patient related elbow evaluation (PREE) scale were measured for each subject 3 times before, immediately after, and 48 hours after induction of DOMS. Results: Post-hoc test for maximal isometric peak torque and PREE scale immediately and 48 hours after induction of DOMS revealed that group (A) and group (B) resulted in significant decrease in maximal isometric strength loss and elbow pain and disability rather than control group (C), but submaximal eccentric group (A) was more effective than maximal isometric group (B) as it showed more rapid recovery of functional strength and less degrees of elbow pain and disability. Conclusion: Both submaximal eccentric contraction and maximal isometric contraction were effective in prevention of DOMS but submaximal eccentric contraction produced a greater protective effect against muscle damage induced by maximal eccentric exercise performed 2 days later.Keywords: Delayed onset muscle soreness, maximal isometric peak torque, patient related elbow evaluation scale, repeated bout effect.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 20975933 The Advent of Electronic Logbook Technology - Reducing Cost and Risk to Both Marine Resources and the Fishing Industry
Authors: Amos Barkai, Guy Meredith, Fatima Felaar, Zahrah Dantie, Dave de Buys
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Fisheries management all around the world is hampered by the lack, or poor quality, of critical data on fish resources and fishing operations. The main reasons for the chronic inability to collect good quality data during fishing operations is the culture of secrecy common among fishers and the lack of modern data gathering technology onboard most fishing vessels. In response, OLRAC-SPS, a South African company, developed fisheries datalogging software (eLog in short) and named it Olrac. The Olrac eLog solution is capable of collecting, analysing, plotting, mapping, reporting, tracing and transmitting all data related to fishing operations. Olrac can be used by skippers, fleet/company managers, offshore mariculture farmers, scientists, observers, compliance inspectors and fisheries management authorities. The authors believe that using eLog onboard fishing vessels has the potential to revolutionise the entire process of data collection and reporting during fishing operations and, if properly deployed and utilised, could transform the entire commercial fleet to a provider of good quality data and forever change the way fish resources are managed. In addition it will make it possible to trace catches back to the actual individual fishing operation, to improve fishing efficiency and to dramatically improve control of fishing operations and enforcement of fishing regulations.Keywords: data management, electronic logbook (eLog), electronic reporting system (ERS), fisheries management
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 19865932 Effect of Copper Particle on the PD Characteristics in a Coaxial Duct with Mixture of SF6 (10%) and N2 (90%) Gases
Authors: B. Rajesh Kamath, J. Sundara Rajan, M. K. Veeraiah, M. Z. Kurian
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Insulation performance of a gas insulated system is severely affected by particle contaminants. These metallic particles adversely affect the characteristics of insulating system. These particles can produce surface charges due to partial discharge activities. These particles which are free to move enhance the local electric fields. This paper deals with the influence of conducting particle placed in a co-axial duct on the discharge characteristics of gas mixtures. Co-axial duct placed in a high pressure chamber is used for the purpose. A gas pressure of 0.1, 0.2 and 0.3 MPa have been considered with a 10:90 SF6 and N2 gas mixtures. The 2D and 3D histograms of clean duct and duct with copper particle are discussed in this paper.
Keywords: B. Rajesh Kamath, J. Sundara Rajan, M. K. Veeraiah, M. Z. Kurian
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 17425931 Visualizing Transit Through a Web Based Geographic Information System
Authors: Ricardo Hoar
Abstract:
Currently in many major cities, public transit schedules are disseminated through lists of routes, grids of stop times and static maps. This paper describes a web based geographic information system which disseminates the same schedule information through intuitive GIS techniques. Using data from Calgary, Canada, an map based interface has been created to allow users to see routes, stops and moving buses all at once. Zoom and pan controls as well as satellite imagery allows users to apply their personal knowledge about the local geography to achieve faster, and more pertinent transit results. Using asynchronous requests to web services, users are immersed in an application where buses and stops can be added and removed interactively, without the need to wait for responses to HTTP requests.Keywords: Geographic Information Systems, Public Transit, WebServices, AJAX, Human Computer Interface
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 18755930 Optimization of Energy Harvesting Systems for RFID Applications
Authors: P. Chambe, B. Canova, A. Balabanian, M. Pele, N. Coeur
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To avoid battery assisted tags with limited lifetime batteries, it is proposed here to replace them by energy harvesting systems, able to feed from local environment. This would allow total independence to RFID systems, very interesting for applications where tag removal from its location is not possible. Example is here described for luggage safety in airports, and is easily extendable to similar situation in terms of operation constraints. The idea is to fix RFID tag with energy harvesting system not only to identify luggage but also to supply an embedded microcontroller with a sensor delivering luggage weight making it impossible to add or to remove anything from the luggage during transit phases. The aim is to optimize the harvested energy for such RFID applications, and to study in which limits these applications are theoretically possible. Proposed energy harvester is based on two energy sources: piezoelectricity and electromagnetic waves, so that when the luggage is moving on ground transportation to airline counters, the piezo module supplies the tag and its microcontroller, while the RF module operates during luggage transit thanks to readers located along the way. Tag location on the luggage is analyzed to get best vibrations, as well as harvester better choice for optimizing the energy supply depending on applications and the amount of energy harvested during a period of time. Effects of system parameters (RFID UHF frequencies, limit distance between the tag and the antenna necessary to harvest energy, produced voltage and voltage threshold) are discussed and working conditions for such system are delimited.
Keywords: EM waves, Energy Harvesting, Piezoelectric, RFID Tag.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 31815929 Development of Performance Indicators in Operational Level for Pre-hospital EMS in Thailand
Authors: Napisporn Memongkol, Runchana Sinthavalai, Nattapong Seneeratanaprayune Weerawat Ounsaneha, Chanisada Choosuk
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The objective of this research is to develop the performance indicators (PIs) in operational level for the Pre-hospital Emergency Medical Service (EMS) system employing in Thailand. This research started with ascertaining the current pre-hospital care system. The team analyzed the strategies of Narerthorn, a government unit under the ministry of public health, and the existing PIs of the pre-hospital care. Afterwards, the current National Strategic Plan of EMS development (2008-2012) of the Emergency Medical Institute of Thailand (EMIT) was considered using strategic analysis to developed Strategy Map (SM) and identified the Success Factors (SFs). The analysis results from strategy map and SFs were used to develop the Performance Indicators (PIs). To verify the set of PIs, the team has interviewed with the relevant practitioners for the possibilities to implement the PIs. To this paper, it was to ascertain that all the developed PIs support the objectives of the strategic plan. Nevertheless, the results showed that the operational level PIs suited only with the first dimension of National Strategic Plan (infrastructure and information technology development). Besides, the SF was the infrastructure development (to contribute the EMS system to people throughout with standard and efficiency both in normally and disaster conditions). Finally, twenty-nine indicators were developed from the analysis results of SM and SFs.Keywords: Emergency Medical Service, Performance Indicator, Success Factor, Thailand
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2281