Search results for: orthogonal experiment.

Authors: I. Alhassan, A. M. Saddiq, A. G. Gashua, K. K. Gwio-Kura

Abstract:

The main objective of any irrigation program is the development of an efficient water management system to sustain crop growth and development and avoid physiological water stress in the growing plants. Field experiment to evaluate the effects of some soil moisture conservation practices on yield and water use efficiency (WUE) of maize was carried out in three locations (i.e. Mubi and Yola in the northern Guinea Savannah and Ganye in the southern Guinea Savannah of Adamawa State, Nigeria) during the dry seasons of 2013 and 2014. The experiment consisted of three different irrigation levels (7, 10 and 12 day irrigation intervals), two levels of mulch (mulch and un-mulched) and two tillage practices (no tillage and minimum tillage) arranged in a randomized complete block design with split-split plot arrangement and replicated three times. The Blaney-Criddle method was used for measuring crop evapotranspiration. The results indicated that seven-day irrigation intervals and mulched treatment were found to have significant effect (P>0.05) on grain yield and water use efficiency in all the locations. The main effect of tillage was non-significant (P<0.05) on grain yield and WUE. The interaction effects of irrigation and mulch were significant (P>0.05) on grain yield and WUE at Mubi and Yola. Generally, higher grain yield and WUE were recorded on mulched and seven-day irrigation intervals, whereas lower values were recorded on un-mulched with 12-day irrigation intervals. Tillage exerts little influence on the yield and WUE. Results from Ganye were found to be generally higher than those recorded in Mubi and Yola; it also showed that an irrigation interval of 10 days with mulching could be adopted for the Ganye area, while seven days interval is more appropriate for Mubi and Yola.

Keywords: Irrigation, maize, mulching, tillage, guinea savannah.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1092

Authors: M. A. Wijewardane, S. A. N. C. Sudasinghe, H. K. G. Punchihewa, W. K. D. L. Wickramasinghe, S. A. Philip, M. R. S. U. Kumara

Abstract:

Visual comfort is one of the major parameters that can be taken to measure the human comfort in any environment. If the provided illuminance level in a working environment does not meet the workers visual comfort, it will lead to eye-strain, fatigue, headache, stress, accidents and finally, poor productivity. However, improvements in lighting do not necessarily mean that the workplace requires more light. Unnecessarily higher illuminance levels will also cause poor visual comfort and health risks. In addition, more power consumption on lighting will also result in higher energy costs. So, during this study, visual comfort and the illuminance requirement for the workers in textile/apparel industry were studied to perform different tasks (i.e. cutting, sewing and knitting) at their workplace. Experimental studies were designed to identify the optimum illuminance requirement depending upon the varied fabric colour and type and finally, energy saving potentials due to controlled illuminance level depending on the workforce requirement were analysed. Visual performance of workers during the sewing operation was studied using the ‘landolt ring experiment’. It was revealed that around 36.3% of the workers would like to work if the illuminance level varies from 601 lux to 850 lux illuminance level and 45.9% of the workers are not happy to work if the illuminance level reduces less than 600 lux and greater than 850 lux. Moreover, more than 65% of the workers who do not satisfy with the existing illuminance levels of the production floors suggested that they have headache, eye diseases, or both diseases due to poor visual comfort. In addition, findings of the energy analysis revealed that the energy-saving potential of 5%, 10%, 24%, 8% and 16% can be anticipated for fabric colours, red, blue, yellow, black and white respectively, when the 800 lux is the prevailing illuminance level for sewing operation.

Keywords: Landolt ring experiment, lighting energy consumption, illuminance, textile and apparel industry, visual comfort.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 830

Authors: Dongmin Cai, Stephen S-T Yau

Abstract:

Lacking an inherent “natural" dissimilarity measure between objects in categorical dataset presents special difficulties in clustering analysis. However, each categorical attributes from a given dataset provides natural probability and information in the sense of Shannon. In this paper, we proposed a novel method which heuristically converts categorical attributes to numerical values by exploiting such associated information. We conduct an experimental study with real-life categorical dataset. The experiment demonstrates the effectiveness of our approach.

Keywords: Categorical, Clustering, Converting, Information

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1360

Authors: Sky Chou, Joseph C. Chen

Abstract:

This paper focuses on using six sigma methodologies to reach the desired shrinkage of a manufactured high-density polyurethane (HDPE) part produced by the injection molding machine. It presents a case study where the correct shrinkage is required to reduce or eliminate defects and to improve the process capability index Cp and Cpk for an injection molding process. To improve this process and keep the product within specifications, the six sigma methodology, design, measure, analyze, improve, and control (DMAIC) approach, was implemented in this study. The six sigma approach was paired with the Taguchi methodology to identify the optimized processing parameters that keep the shrinkage rate within the specifications by our customer. An L9 orthogonal array was applied in the Taguchi experimental design, with four controllable factors and one non-controllable/noise factor. The four controllable factors identified consist of the cooling time, melt temperature, holding time, and metering stroke. The noise factor is the difference between material brand 1 and material brand 2. After the confirmation run was completed, measurements verify that the new parameter settings are optimal. With the new settings, the process capability index has improved dramatically. The purpose of this study is to show that the six sigma and Taguchi methodology can be efficiently used to determine important factors that will improve the process capability index of the injection molding process.

Keywords: Injection molding, shrinkage, six sigma, Taguchi parameter design.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1383

Authors: M. M. Seif, F. A. Khalil, A. A. K. Abou Arab, A. S. Abdel- Aziz, M. A. Abou Donia, Sh. R. Mohamed

Abstract:

Malathion (ML) is a well known pesticide commonly used in many agricultural and non-agricultural processes. Its toxicity has been attributed primarily to the accumulation of acetylcholine (Ach) at nerve junctions, due to the inhibition of acetylcholinesterase (AChE). The aim of the current research was to study the protective effect of the melissa plant extract against reproductive impairment induced by malathion in 32 male albino rats, and the biological experiment was divided into four groups (8 in each) that given malathion (27 mg/kg; 1/50 of the LD50 for an oral dose) and/or Melissa officinalis (MO) extract (200mg/kg/day) by gavages technique. The sperm counts, sperm motility, sperm morphology, FSH, LH, and testosterone levels had been determined in testes homogenate at the end of the experiment. It is worthy to report that, rats treated with melissa extract did not show a significant difference when compared with the control group, while rats given malathion alone had significantly lower sperm count, sperm motility, and significantly higher abnormal sperm numbers, than the untreated control rats as well as having significantly lower serum FSH, LH, and testosterone levels compared with the control group. Administrations of melissa extract restore all mentioned histological parameters towards the control group and the melissa extract had a strong positive protective effect against malathion toxicity. Results the of biological parameters were confirmed by the histological examination of rat testes and indicated that, both control and melissa groups showing normal seminiferous tubules, while malathion group testicular tissues had necrosis, edema in the seminiferous tubules and degeneration of spermatogonial cells lining the seminiferous tubules with incomplete spermatogenesis. The use of melissa against malathion improved the histological picture and showing normal seminiferous tubules with complete spermatogenesis and almost there was no histopathological changes could be noted.

Keywords: Malathion, Melissa officinalis L., Reproductive toxicity, Rats.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2882

Authors: S. A. Nta, M. J. Ayotamuno, A. H. Igoni, R. N. Okparanma

Abstract:

The work sought to understand the pattern of movement of contaminant from a continuous point source through soil. The soil used was sandy-loam in texture. The contaminant used was municipal solid waste landfill leachate, introduced as a point source through an entry point located at the center of top layer of the soil tank. Analyses were conducted after maturity periods of 50 and 80 days. The maximum change in chemical concentration was observed on soil samples at a radial distance of 0.25 m. Finite element approximation based model was used to assess the future prediction, management and remediation in the polluted area. The actual field data collected for the case study were used to calibrate the modeling and thus simulated the flow pattern of the pollutants through soil. MATLAB R2015a was used to visualize the flow of pollutant through the soil. Dispersion coefficient at 0.25 and 0.50 m radial distance from the point of application of leachate shows a measure of the spreading of a flowing leachate due to the nature of the soil medium, with its interconnected channels distributed at random in all directions. Surface plots of metals on soil after maturity period of 80 days shows a functional relationship between a designated dependent variable (Y), and two independent variables (X and Z). Comparison of measured and predicted profile transport along the depth after 50 and 80 days of leachate application and end of the experiment shows that there were no much difference between the predicted and measured concentrations as they were all lying close to each other. For the analysis of contaminant transport, finite difference approximation based model was very effective in assessing the future prediction, management and remediation in the polluted area. The experiment gave insight into the most likely pattern of movement of contaminant as a result of continuous percolations of the leachate on soil. This is important for contaminant movement prediction and subsequent remediation of such soils.

Keywords: Contaminant, dispersion, point or leaky source, surface plot, soil.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 532

Authors: Luciana Montera

Abstract:

DNA shuffling is a powerful method used for in vitro evolute molecules with specific functions and has application in areas such as, for example, pharmaceutical, medical and agricultural research. The success of such experiments is dependent on a variety of parameters and conditions that, sometimes, can not be properly pre-established. Here, two computational models predicting DNA shuffling results is presented and their use and results are evaluated against an empirical experiment. The in silico and in vitro results show agreement indicating the importance of these two models and motivating the study and development of new models.

Keywords: Computer simulation, DNA shuffling, in silico andin vitro comparison.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1728

Authors: Abdul Hafiizh, Shigeki Obote, Kenichi Kagoshima

Abstract:

This report aims to utilize existing and future Multiple-Input Multiple-Output Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing Wireless Local Area Network (MIMO-OFDM WLAN) systems characteristics–such as multiple subcarriers, multiple antennas, and channel estimation characteristics–for indoor location estimation systems based on the Direction of Arrival (DOA) and Radio Signal Strength Indication (RSSI) methods. Hybrid of DOA-RSSI methods also evaluated. In the experimental data result, we show that location estimation accuracy performances can be increased by minimizing the multipath fading effect. This is done using multiple subcarrier frequencies over wideband frequencies to estimate one location. The proposed methods are analyzed in both a wide indoor environment and a typical room-sized office. In the experiments, WLAN terminal locations are estimated by measuring multiple subcarriers from arrays of three dipole antennas of access points (AP). This research demonstrates highly accurate, robust and hardware-free add-on software for indoor location estimations based on a MIMO-OFDM WLAN system.

Keywords: Direction of Arrival (DOA), Indoor location estimation method, Multipath Fading, MIMO-OFDM, Received Signal Strength Indication (RSSI), WLAN, Hybrid DOA-RSSI

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1799

Authors: F. S. Al-Anzi, M. Sarfraz, A. Elmi, A. R. Khan

Abstract:

Researchers are responding to the environmental challenges of Kuwait in localized, innovative, effective and economic ways. One of the vital and significant examples of the natural challenges is lack or water and desertification. In this research, the project team focuses on redesigning a prototype, using Value Engineering Methodology, which would provide similar functionalities to the well-known technology of Waterboxx kits while reducing the capital and operational costs and simplifying the process of manufacturing and usability by regular farmers. The design employs used tires and recycled plastic sheets as raw materials. Hence, this approach is going to help not just fighting desertification but also helping in getting rid of ever growing huge tire dumpsters in Kuwait, as well as helping in avoiding hazards of tire fires yielding in a safer and friendlier environment. Several alternatives for implementing the prototype have been considered. The best alternative in terms of value has been selected after thorough Function Analysis System Technique (FAST) exercise has been developed. A prototype has been fabricated and tested in a controlled simulated lab environment that is being followed by real environment field testing. Water and soil analysis conducted on the site of the experiment to cross compare between the composition of the soil before and after the experiment to insure that the prototype being tested is actually going to be environment safe. Experimentation shows that the design was equally as effective as, and may exceed, the original design with significant savings in cost. An estimated total cost reduction using the VE approach of 43.84% over the original design. This cost reduction does not consider the intangible costs of environmental issue of waste recycling which many further intensify the total savings of using the alternative VE design. This case study shows that Value Engineering Methodology can be an important tool in innovating new designs for reducing costs.

Keywords: Desertification, functional analysis, scrap tires, value engineering, waste recycling, water irrigation rationing.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1461

Authors: H.R. Balouchi

Abstract:

To evaluate genetic variation of wheat (Triticum aestivum) affected by heat and drought stress on eight Australian wheat genotypes that are parents of Doubled Haploid (HD) mapping populations at the vegetative stage, the water stress experiment was conducted at 65% field capacity in growth room. Heat stress experiment was conducted in the research field under irrigation over summer. Result show that water stress decreased dry shoot weight and RWC but increased osmolarity and means of Fv/Fm values in all varieties except for Krichauff. Krichauff and Kukri had the maximum RWC under drought stress. Trident variety was shown maximum WUE, osmolarity (610 mM/Kg), dry mater, quantum yield and Fv/Fm 0.815 under water stress condition. However, the recovery of quantum yield was apparent between 4 to 7 days after stress in all varieties. Nevertheless, increase in water stress after that lead to strong decrease in quantum yield. There was a genetic variation for leaf pigments content among varieties under heat stress. Heat stress decreased significantly the total chlorophyll content that measured by SPAD. Krichauff had maximum value of Anthocyanin content (2.978 A/g FW), chlorophyll a+b (2.001 mg/g FW) and chlorophyll a (1.502 mg/g FW). Maximum value of chlorophyll b (0.515 mg/g FW) and Carotenoids (0.234 mg/g FW) content belonged to Kukri. The quantum yield of all varieties decreased significantly, when the weather temperature increased from 28 ÔùªC to 36 ÔùªC during the 6 days. However, the recovery of quantum yield was apparent after 8th day in all varieties. The maximum decrease and recovery in quantum yield was observed in Krichauff. Drought and heat tolerant and moderately tolerant wheat genotypes were included Trident, Krichauff, Kukri and RAC875. Molineux, Berkut and Excalibur were clustered into most sensitive and moderately sensitive genotypes. Finally, the results show that there was a significantly genetic variation among the eight varieties that were studied under heat and water stress.

Keywords: Abiotic stress, Genetic variation, Fluorescence, Wheat genotypes.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2227

Authors: Zhe JIN, Motomichi TOYAMA

Abstract:

In this paper, we propose a fixed formatting method of PPX(Pretty Printer for XML). PPX is a query language for XML database which has extensive formatting capability that produces HTML as the result of a query. The fixed formatting method is to completely specify the combination of variables and layout specification operators within the layout expression of the GENERATE clause of PPX. In the experiment, a quick comparison shows that PPX requires far less description compared to XSLT or XQuery programs doing the same tasks.

Keywords: PPX, XML, HTML, XSLT, XQuery, fixed formatting method.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1364

Authors: Shih-Bin Wang, Ping Yuan, Syu-Fang Liu, Ming-Jun Kuo

Abstract:

By the application of an improved back-propagation neural network (BPNN), a model of current densities for a solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) with 10 layers is established in this study. To build the learning data of BPNN, Taguchi orthogonal array is applied to arrange the conditions of operating parameters, which totally 7 factors act as the inputs of BPNN. Also, the average current densities achieved by numerical method acts as the outputs of BPNN. Comparing with the direct solution, the learning errors for all learning data are smaller than 0.117%, and the predicting errors for 27 forecasting cases are less than 0.231%. The results show that the presented model effectively builds a mathematical algorithm to predict performance of a SOFC stack immediately in real time. Also, the calculating algorithms are applied to proceed with the optimization of the average current density for a SOFC stack. The operating performance window of a SOFC stack is found to be between 41137.11 and 53907.89. Furthermore, an inverse predicting model of operating parameters of a SOFC stack is developed here by the calculating algorithms of the improved BPNN, which is proved to effectively predict operating parameters to achieve a desired performance output of a SOFC stack.

Keywords: a SOFC stack, BPNN, inverse predicting model of operating parameters, optimization of the average current density

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1364

Authors: Abdelkarim M. Ertiame, D. W. Yu, D. L. Yu, J. B. Gomm

Abstract:

In this paper, a robust fault detection and isolation (FDI) scheme is developed to monitor a multivariable nonlinear chemical process called the Chylla-Haase polymerization reactor, when it is under the cascade PI control. The scheme employs a radial basis function neural network (RBFNN) in an independent mode to model the process dynamics, and using the weighted sum-squared prediction error as the residual. The Recursive Orthogonal Least Squares algorithm (ROLS) is employed to train the model to overcome the training difficulty of the independent mode of the network. Then, another RBFNN is used as a fault classifier to isolate faults from different features involved in the residual vector. Several actuator and sensor faults are simulated in a nonlinear simulation of the reactor in Simulink. The scheme is used to detect and isolate the faults on-line. The simulation results show the effectiveness of the scheme even the process is subjected to disturbances and uncertainties including significant changes in the monomer feed rate, fouling factor, impurity factor, ambient temperature, and measurement noise. The simulation results are presented to illustrate the effectiveness and robustness of the proposed method.

Keywords: Robust fault detection, cascade control, independent RBF model, RBF neural networks, Chylla-Haase reactor, FDI under closed-loop control.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1835

Authors: Md. Khademul Islam Molla, Akimasa Sumi, M. Sayedur Rahman

Abstract:

The empirical mode decomposition (EMD) represents any time series into a finite set of basis functions. The bases are termed as intrinsic mode functions (IMFs) which are mutually orthogonal containing minimum amount of cross-information. The EMD successively extracts the IMFs with the highest local frequencies in a recursive way, which yields effectively a set low-pass filters based entirely on the properties exhibited by the data. In this paper, EMD is applied to explore the properties of the multi-year air temperature and to observe its effects on climate change under global warming. This method decomposes the original time-series into intrinsic time scale. It is capable of analyzing nonlinear, non-stationary climatic time series that cause problems to many linear statistical methods and their users. The analysis results show that the mode of EMD presents seasonal variability. The most of the IMFs have normal distribution and the energy density distribution of the IMFs satisfies Chi-square distribution. The IMFs are more effective in isolating physical processes of various time-scales and also statistically significant. The analysis results also show that the EMD method provides a good job to find many characteristics on inter annual climate. The results suggest that climate fluctuations of every single element such as temperature are the results of variations in the global atmospheric circulation.

Keywords: Empirical mode decomposition, instantaneous frequency, Hilbert spectrum, Chi-square distribution, anthropogenic impact.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2149

Authors: K. Krizova, R. Hela

Abstract:

The paper is focused on monitoring of dependencies of different composition concretes on elastic modulus values. To obtain a summary of elastic modulus development in dependence of concrete composition design variability was the objective of the experiment. Essential part of this work was initiated as a reaction to building practice when questions of elastic moduli arose at the same time and which mostly did not obtain the required and expected values from concrete constructions.

Keywords: Concrete, Compressive strength, Modulus of elasticity, EuroCode 2.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2855

Authors: Z. Haddad, C. Abid, O. Rahli, O. Margeat, W. Dachraoui, A. Mataoui

Abstract:

The present study aims to measure the volumetric mass density of NiPd-heptane nanofluids synthesized using a one step method known as thermal decomposition of metal-surfactant complexes. The particle concentration is up to 7.55g/l and the temperature range of the experiment is from 20°C to 50°C. The measured values were compared with the mixture theory and good agreement between the theoretical equation and measurement were obtained. Moreover, the available nanofluids volumetric mass density data in the literature is reviewed.

Keywords: NiPd nanoparticles, nanofluids, volumetric mass density, stability.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2667

Authors: D. Sun, T. F. Lu, A. Zander, M. Trinkle

Abstract:

This paper investigates the potential use of airborne ultrasonic phased arrays for imaging in outdoor environments as a means of overcoming the limitations experienced by kinect sensors, which may fail to work in the outdoor environments due to the oversaturation of the infrared photo diodes. Ultrasonic phased arrays have been well studied for static media, yet there appears to be no comparable examination in the literature of the impact of a flowing medium on the focusing behaviour of near field focused ultrasonic arrays. This paper presents a method for predicting the sound pressure fields produced by a single ultrasound element or an ultrasonic phased array influenced by airflows. The approach can be used to determine the actual focal point location of an array exposed in a known flow field. From the presented simulation results based upon this model, it can be concluded that uniform flows in the direction orthogonal to the acoustic propagation have a noticeable influence on the sound pressure field, which is reflected in the twisting of the steering angle of the array. Uniform flows in the same direction as the acoustic propagation have negligible influence on the array. For an array impacted by a turbulent flow, determining the location of the focused sound field becomes difficult due to the irregularity and continuously changing direction and the speed of the turbulent flow. In some circumstances, ultrasonic phased arrays impacted by turbulent flows may not be capable of producing a focused sound field.

Keywords: Airborne, airflow, focused sound field, ultrasonic phased array.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1626

Authors: Niina M. Nissinen

Abstract:

This paper introduces an approach to construct a set of criteria for evaluating alternative options. Content analysis was used to collet criterion elements. Then the elements were classified and organized yielding to hierarchic structure. The reliability of the constructed criteria was evaluated in an experiment. Finally the criteria were used to evaluate alternative options indecision-making.

Keywords: Conceptual analysis, Content Analysis, Criteria, Decision-Making, Evaluation of Candidates

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2416

Authors: H.R. Balouchi

Abstract:

To evaluate genetic variation of wheat (Triticum aestivum) affected by heat and drought stress on eight Australian wheat genotypes that are parents of Doubled Haploid (HD) mapping populations at the vegetative stage, the water stress experiment was conducted at 65% field capacity in growth room. Heat stress experiment was conducted in the research field under irrigation over summer. Result show that water stress decreased dry shoot weight and RWC but increased osmolarity and means of Fv/Fm values in all varieties except for Krichauff. Krichauff and Kukri had the maximum RWC under drought stress. Trident variety was shown maximum WUE, osmolarity (610 mM/Kg), dry mater, quantum yield and Fv/Fm 0.815 under water stress condition. However, the recovery of quantum yield was apparent between 4 to 7 days after stress in all varieties. Nevertheless, increase in water stress after that lead to strong decrease in quantum yield. There was a genetic variation for leaf pigments content among varieties under heat stress. Heat stress decreased significantly the total chlorophyll content that measured by SPAD. Krichauff had maximum value of Anthocyanin content (2.978 A/g FW), chlorophyll a+b (2.001 mg/g FW) and chlorophyll a (1.502 mg/g FW). Maximum value of chlorophyll b (0.515 mg/g FW) and Carotenoids (0.234 mg/g FW) content belonged to Kukri. The quantum yield of all varieties decreased significantly, when the weather temperature increased from 28 ÔùªC to 36 ÔùªC during the 6 days. However, the recovery of quantum yield was apparent after 8th day in all varieties. The maximum decrease and recovery in quantum yield was observed in Krichauff. Drought and heat tolerant and moderately tolerant wheat genotypes were included Trident, Krichauff, Kukri and RAC875. Molineux, Berkut and Excalibur were clustered into most sensitive and moderately sensitive genotypes. Finally, the results show that there was a significantly genetic variation among the eight varieties that were studied under heat and water stress.

Keywords: Abiotic stress, genetic variation, fluorescence, wheat genotypes.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2586

Authors: Randy Gomez, Keisuke Nakamura, Kazuhiro Nakadai

Abstract:

Distant-talking voice-based HCI system suffers from performance degradation due to mismatch between the acoustic speech (runtime) and the acoustic model (training). Mismatch is caused by the change in the power of the speech signal as observed at the microphones. This change is greatly influenced by the change in distance, affecting speech dynamics inside the room before reaching the microphones. Moreover, as the speech signal is reflected, its acoustical characteristic is also altered by the room properties. In general, power mismatch due to distance is a complex problem. This paper presents a novel approach in dealing with distance-induced mismatch by intelligently sensing instantaneous voice power variation and compensating model parameters. First, the distant-talking speech signal is processed through microphone array processing, and the corresponding distance information is extracted. Distance-sensitive Gaussian Mixture Models (GMMs), pre-trained to capture both speech power and room property are used to predict the optimal distance of the speech source. Consequently, pre-computed statistic priors corresponding to the optimal distance is selected to correct the statistics of the generic model which was frozen during training. Thus, model combinatorics are post-conditioned to match the power of instantaneous speech acoustics at runtime. This results to an improved likelihood in predicting the correct speech command at farther distances. We experiment using real data recorded inside two rooms. Experimental evaluation shows voice recognition performance using our method is more robust to the change in distance compared to the conventional approach. In our experiment, under the most acoustically challenging environment (i.e., Room 2: 2.5 meters), our method achieved 24.2% improvement in recognition performance against the best-performing conventional method.

Keywords: Human Machine Interaction, Human Computer Interaction, Voice Recognition, Acoustic Model Compensation, Acoustic Speech Enhancement.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1885

Authors: Mustafa Al Sukar, Azzam Sleit, Abdullatif Abu-Dalhoum, Bassam Al-Kasasbeh

Abstract:

Use and abuse of drugs by teens is very common and can have dangerous consequences. The drugs contribute to physical and sexual aggression such as assault or rape. Some teenagers regularly use drugs to compensate for depression, anxiety or a lack of positive social skills. Teen resort to smoking should not be minimized because it can be "gateway drugs" for other drugs (marijuana, cocaine, hallucinogens, inhalants, and heroin). The combination of teenagers' curiosity, risk taking behavior, and social pressure make it very difficult to say no. This leads most teenagers to the questions: "Will it hurt to try once?" Nowadays, technological advances are changing our lives very rapidly and adding a lot of technologies that help us to track the risk of drug abuse such as smart phones, Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs), Internet of Things (IoT), etc. This technique may help us to early discovery of drug abuse in order to prevent an aggravation of the influence of drugs on the abuser. In this paper, we have developed a Decision Support System (DSS) for detecting the drug abuse using Artificial Neural Network (ANN); we used a Multilayer Perceptron (MLP) feed-forward neural network in developing the system. The input layer includes 50 variables while the output layer contains one neuron which indicates whether the person is a drug addict. An iterative process is used to determine the number of hidden layers and the number of neurons in each one. We used multiple experiment models that have been completed with Log-Sigmoid transfer function. Particularly, 10-fold cross validation schemes are used to access the generalization of the proposed system. The experiment results have obtained 98.42% classification accuracy for correct diagnosis in our system. The data had been taken from 184 cases in Jordan according to a set of questions compiled from Specialists, and data have been obtained through the families of drug abusers.

Keywords: Artificial Neural Network, Decision Support System, drug abuse, drug addiction, Multilayer Perceptron.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1682

Authors: Yue Zhao, Jianping Li

Abstract:

This paper covers the present situation and problem of experimental teaching of mathematics specialty in recent years, puts forward and demonstrates experimental teaching methods for different education. From the aspects of content and experimental teaching approach, uses as an example the course “Experiment for Program Designing & Algorithmic Language" and discusses teaching practice and laboratory course work. In addition a series of successful methods and measures are introduced in experimental teaching.

Keywords: Differentiated teaching, experimental teaching, program design and algorithmic language, teaching method.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1632

Authors: Dinara F. Gaynutdinova, Vladimir Ya Modorsky, Nikolay A. Shevelev

Abstract:

The problem under research is that of unpredictable modes occurring in two-stage centrifugal hydraulic pump as a result of hydraulic processes caused by vibrations of structural components. Numerical, analytical and experimental approaches are considered. A hypothesis was developed that the problem of unpredictable pressure decrease at the second stage of centrifugal pumps is caused by cavitation effects occurring upon vibration. The problem has been studied experimentally and theoretically as of today. The theoretical study was conducted numerically and analytically. Hydroelastic processes in dynamic “liquid – deformed structure” system were numerically modelled and analysed. Using ANSYS CFX program engineering analysis complex and computing capacity of a supercomputer the cavitation parameters were established to depend on vibration parameters. An influence domain of amplitudes and vibration frequencies on concentration of cavitation bubbles was formulated. The obtained numerical solution was verified using CFM program package developed in PNRPU. The package is based on a differential equation system in hyperbolic and elliptic partial derivatives. The system is solved by using one of finite-difference method options – the particle-in-cell method. The method defines the problem solution algorithm. The obtained numerical solution was verified analytically by model problem calculations with the use of known analytical solutions of in-pipe piston movement and cantilever rod end face impact. An infrastructure consisting of an experimental fast hydro-dynamic processes research installation and a supercomputer connected by a high-speed network, was created to verify the obtained numerical solutions. Physical experiments included measurement, record, processing and analysis of data for fast processes research by using National Instrument signals measurement system and Lab View software. The model chamber end face oscillated during physical experiments and, thus, loaded the hydraulic volume. The loading frequency varied from 0 to 5 kHz. The length of the operating chamber varied from 0.4 to 1.0 m. Additional loads weighed from 2 to 10 kg. The liquid column varied from 0.4 to 1 m high. Liquid pressure history was registered. The experiment showed dependence of forced system oscillation amplitude on loading frequency at various values: operating chamber geometrical dimensions, liquid column height and structure weight. Maximum pressure oscillation (in the basic variant) amplitudes were discovered at loading frequencies of approximately 1,5 kHz. These results match the analytical and numerical solutions in ANSYS and CFM.

Keywords: Computing experiment, hydroelasticity, physical experiment, vibration.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1559

Authors: Rongtao Ding, Xinhao Ji, Linting Zhu

Abstract:

In recent years, the relevance feedback technology is regarded in content-based image retrieval. This paper suggests a neural networks feedback algorithm based on the radial basis function, coming to extract the semantic character of image. The results of experiment indicated that the performance of this relevance feedback is better than the feedback algorithm based on Single-RBF.

Keywords: Image retrieval, relevance feedback, radial basis function.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1536

Authors: Ayman El Sabagh, Sobhy Sorour, Abd Elhamid Omar, Adel Ragab, Mohammad Sohidul Islam, Celaleddin Barutçular, Akihiro Ueda, Hirofumi Saneoka

Abstract:

Salinity is one of the major factors limiting crop production in an arid environment. Despite its global importance soybean production suffer the problems of salinity stress causing damages at plant development. So it is implacable to either search for salinity enhancement of soybean plants. Therefore, in the current study we try to clarify the mechanism that might be involved in the ameliorating effects of osmo-protectants such as proline and glycine betaine as well as, compost application on soybean plants grown under salinity stress. The experiment was conducted under greenhouse conditions at the Graduate School of Biosphere Science Laboratory of Hiroshima University, Japan in 2011. The experiment was designed as a spilt-split plot based on randomized complete block design with four replications. The treatments could be summarized as follows; (i) salinity concentrations (0 and 15 mM), (ii) compost treatments (0 and 24 t ha-1) and (iii) the exogenous, proline and glycine betaine concentrations (0 mM and 25 mM) for each. Results indicated that salinity stress induced reduction in growth and physiological aspects (dry weight per plant, chlorophyll content, N and K+ content) of soybean plant compared with those of the unstressed plants. On the other hand, salinity stress led to increases in the electrolyte leakage ratio, Na and proline contents. Special attention was paid to, the tolerance against salt stress was observed, the improvement of salt tolerance resulted from proline, glycine betaine and compost were accompanied with improved K+, and proline accumulation. While, significantly decreased electrolyte leakage ratio and Na+ content. These results clearly demonstrate that harmful effect of salinity could reduce on growth aspects of soybean. Consequently, exogenous osmoprotectants combine with compost will effectively solve seasonal salinity stress problem and are a good strategy to increase salinity resistance of soybean in the drylands.

Keywords: Compost, glycine betaine, growth, proline, salinity tolerance, soybean.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 3230

Authors: Emilija Miletic, Milos Krstic, Maxim Piz, Michael Methfessel

Abstract:

In this work we present a solution for DAGC (Digital Automatic Gain Control) in WLAN receivers compatible to IEEE 802.11a/g standard. Those standards define communication in 5/2.4 GHz band using Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing OFDM modulation scheme. WLAN Transceiver that we have used enables gain control over Low Noise Amplifier (LNA) and a Variable Gain Amplifier (VGA). The control over those signals is performed in our digital baseband processor using dedicated hardware block DAGC. DAGC in this process is used to automatically control the VGA and LNA in order to achieve better signal-to-noise ratio, decrease FER (Frame Error Rate) and hold the average power of the baseband signal close to the desired set point. DAGC function in baseband processor is done in few steps: measuring power levels of baseband samples of an RF signal,accumulating the differences between the measured power level and actual gain setting, adjusting a gain factor of the accumulation, and applying the adjusted gain factor the baseband values. Based on the measurement results of RSSI signal dependence to input power we have concluded that this digital AGC can be implemented applying the simple linearization of the RSSI. This solution is very simple but also effective and reduces complexity and power consumption of the DAGC. This DAGC is implemented and tested both in FPGA and in ASIC as a part of our WLAN baseband processor. Finally, we have integrated this circuit in a compact WLAN PCMCIA board based on MAC and baseband ASIC chips designed from us.

Keywords: WLAN, AGC, RSSI, baseband processor

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 3949

Authors: A.A Issahanova, S. M. Jakupov, Z. B. Madalieva, A.A. Tolegenova

Abstract:

In the article the experience of principle new technology development of ethnopsychological experiment on the basis of using other virtual independent experimental variables is presented. It is shown that ethnic prejudices are the result of forming and development of specific semantic barriers, arising up in the conditions of interethnic co-operation and people-s communication. Their overcoming is more successful in the conditions of the special organized process of teaching in a polyethnic environment, characteristic for the modern institute

Keywords: virtual monoethnic group, semantic barrier, general fund of semantic notions, polyethnic environment, ethnic prejudices

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1143

Authors: Alexey V. Klyuev, Valery P. Samarin, Viktor F. Klyuev

Abstract:

A power measurement algorithm of the input mix components of the noise signal and narrowband interference is considered using functional transformations of the input mix in the postdetection processing channel. The algorithm efficiency analysis has been carried out for different interference-to-signal ratio. Algorithm performance features have been explored by numerical experiment results.

Keywords: Noise signal, continuous narrowband interference, signal power, spectrum width, detection.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1397

Authors: Maysam Saidi, Reza Maddahian, Bijan Farhanieh

Abstract:

In this research a comparison between k-epsilon and LES model for a deoiling hydrocyclone is conducted. Flow field of hydrocyclone is obtained by three-dimensional simulations with OpenFOAM code. Potential of prediction for both methods of this complex swirl flow is discussed. Large eddy simulation method results have more similarity to experiment and its results are presented in figures from different hydrocyclone cross sections.

Keywords: Deoiling hydrocyclones, k-epsilon model, Largeeddy simulation, OpenFOAM

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2525

Authors: Insaf Ajili, Malik Mallem, Jean-Yves Didier

Abstract:

Human motion recognition has been extensively increased in recent years due to its importance in a wide range of applications, such as human-computer interaction, intelligent surveillance, augmented reality, content-based video compression and retrieval, etc. However, it is still regarded as a challenging task especially in realistic scenarios. It can be seen as a general machine learning problem which requires an effective human motion representation and an efficient learning method. In this work, we introduce a descriptor based on Laban Movement Analysis technique, a formal and universal language for human movement, to capture both quantitative and qualitative aspects of movement. We use Discrete Hidden Markov Model (DHMM) for training and classification motions. We improve the classification algorithm by proposing two DHMMs for each motion class to process the motion sequence in two different directions, forward and backward. Such modification allows avoiding the misclassification that can happen when recognizing similar motions. Two experiments are conducted. In the first one, we evaluate our method on a public dataset, the Microsoft Research Cambridge-12 Kinect gesture data set (MSRC-12) which is a widely used dataset for evaluating action/gesture recognition methods. In the second experiment, we build a dataset composed of 10 gestures(Introduce yourself, waving, Dance, move, turn left, turn right, stop, sit down, increase velocity, decrease velocity) performed by 20 persons. The evaluation of the system includes testing the efficiency of our descriptor vector based on LMA with basic DHMM method and comparing the recognition results of the modified DHMM with the original one. Experiment results demonstrate that our method outperforms most of existing methods that used the MSRC-12 dataset, and a near perfect classification rate in our dataset.

Keywords: Human Motion Recognition, Motion representation, Laban Movement Analysis, Discrete Hidden Markov Model.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 728