Search results for: distribution automation system
Commenced in January 2007
Frequency: Monthly
Edition: International
Paper Count: 9847

Search results for: distribution automation system

4837 Culture of Oleaginous Yeasts in Dairy Industry Wastewaters to Obtain Lipids Suitable for the Production of II-Generation Biodiesel

Authors: Domenico Pirozzi, Angelo Ausiello, Gaetano Zuccaro, Filomena Sannino, Abu Yousuf

Abstract:

The oleaginous yeasts Lipomyces starkey were grown in the presence of dairy industry wastewaters (DIW). The yeasts were able to degrade the organic components of DIW and to produce a significant fraction of their biomass as triglycerides. When using DIW from the Ricotta cheese production or residual whey as growth medium, the L. starkey could be cultured without dilution nor external organic supplement. On the contrary, the yeasts could only partially degrade the DIW from the Mozzarella cheese production, due to the accumulation of a metabolic product beyond the threshold of toxicity. In this case, a dilution of the DIW was required to obtain a more efficient degradation of the carbon compounds and an higher yield in oleaginous biomass. The fatty acid distribution of the microbial oils obtained showed a prevalence of oleic acid, and is compatible with the production of a II generation biodiesel offering a good resistance to oxidation as well as an excellent cold-performance.

Keywords: Yeasts, Lipids, Biodiesel, Dairy industry wastewaters.

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4836 Physiological and Psychological Influence on Office Workers during Demand Response

Authors: Megumi Nishida, Naoya Motegi, Takurou Kikuchi, Tomoko Tokumura

Abstract:

In recent years, the power system has been changed and a flexible power pricing system such as demand response has been sought in Japan. The demand response system works simply in the household sector and the owner as the decision-maker, can benefit from power saving. On the other hand, the execution of demand response in the office building is more complex than in the household because various people such as owners, building administrators and occupants are involved in the decision-making process. While the owners benefit from demand saving, the occupants are exposed to restricted benefits of a demand-saved environment. One of the reasons is that building systems are usually under centralized management and each occupant cannot choose freely whether to participate in demand response or not. In addition, it is unclear whether incentives give occupants the motivation to participate. However, the recent development of IT and building systems enables the personalized control of the office environment where each occupant can control the lighting level or temperature individually. Therefore, it can be possible to have a system which each occupant can make a decision of whether or not to participate in demand response in the office building. This study investigates personal responses to demand response requests, under the condition where each occupant can adjust their brightness individually in their workspace. Once workers participate in the demand response, their desk-lights are automatically turned off. The participation rates in the demand response events are compared among four groups, which are divided by different motivation, the presence, or absence of incentives and the method of participation. The result shows that there are significant differences of participation rates in demand response event between four groups. The method of participation has a large effect on the participation rate. The “Opt-out” groups where the occupants are automatically enrolled in a demand response event if they do not express non-participation have the highest participation rate in the four groups. Incentives also have an effect on the participation rate. This study also reports on the impact of low illumination office environment on the occupants, such as stress or fatigue. The electrocardiogram and the questionnaire are used to investigate the autonomic nervous activity and subjective fatigue symptoms of the occupants. There is no big difference between dim workspace during demand response event and bright workspace in autonomic nervous activity and fatigue.

Keywords: Demand response, illumination, questionnaire, electrocardiograph.

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4835 Effect of Laser Input Energy on the Laser Joining of Polyethylene Terephthalate to Titanium

Authors: Y. J. Chen, T. M. Yue, Z. N. Guo

Abstract:

This paper reports the effects of laser energy on the characteristics of bubbles generated in the weld zone and the formation of new chemical bonds at the Polyethylene Terephthalate (PET)/Ti joint interface in laser joining of PET to Ti. The samples were produced by using different laser energies ranging from 1.5 J – 6 J in steps of 1.5 J, while all other joining parameters remained unchanged. The types of chemical bonding at the joint interface were analysed by the x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) depth-profiling method. The results show that the characteristics of the bubbles and the thickness of the chemically bonded interface, which contains the laser generated bonds of Ti–C and Ti–O, increase markedly with increasing laser energy input. The tensile failure load of the joint depends on the combined effect of the amount and distribution of the bubbles formed and the chemical bonding intensity of the joint interface.

Keywords: Laser direct joining, Ti/PET interface, laser energy, XPS depth profiling, chemical bond, tensile failure load.

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4834 Increasing Profitability Supported by Innovative Methods and Designing Monitoring Software in Condition-Based Maintenance: A Case Study

Authors: Nasrin Farajiparvar

Abstract:

In the present article, a new method has been developed to enhance the application of equipment monitoring, which in turn results in improving condition-based maintenance economic impact in an automobile parts manufacturing factory. This study also describes how an effective software with a simple database can be utilized to achieve cost-effective improvements in maintenance performance. The most important results of this project are indicated here: 1. 63% reduction in direct and indirect maintenance costs. 2. Creating a proper database to analyse failures. 3. Creating a method to control system performance and develop it to similar systems. 4. Designing a software to analyse database and consequently create technical knowledge to face unusual condition of the system. Moreover, the results of this study have shown that the concept and philosophy of maintenance has not been understood in most Iranian industries. Thus, more investment is strongly required to improve maintenance conditions.

Keywords: Condition-based maintenance, Economic savings, Iran industries, Machine life prediction software.

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4833 Noise Depressed in a Micro Stepping Motor

Authors: Bo-Wun Huang, Jao-Hwa Kuang, J.-G. Tseng, Yan-De Wu

Abstract:

An investigation of noise in a micro stepping motor is considered to study in this article. Because of the trend towards higher precision and more and more small 3C (including Computer, Communication and Consumer Electronics) products, the micro stepping motor is frequently used to drive the micro system or the other 3C products. Unfortunately, noise in a micro stepped motor is too large to accept by the customs. To depress the noise of a micro stepped motor, the dynamic characteristics in this system must be studied. In this article, a Visual Basic (VB) computer program speed controlled micro stepped motor in a digital camera is investigated. Karman KD2300-2S non-contract eddy current displacement sensor, probe microphone, and HP 35670A analyzer are employed to analyze the dynamic characteristics of vibration and noise in a motor. The vibration and noise measurement of different type of bearings and different treatment of coils are compared. The rotating components, bearings, coil, etc. of the motor play the important roles in producing vibration and noise. It is found that the noise will be depressed about 3~4 dB and 6~7 dB, when substitutes the copper bearing with plastic one and coats the motor coil with paraffin wax, respectively.

Keywords: micro motor, noise, vibration

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4832 Simulation of the Reactive Rotational Molding Using Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics

Authors: A. Hamidi, S. Khelladi, L. Illoul, A. Tcharkhtchi

Abstract:

Reactive rotational molding (RRM) is a process to manufacture hollow plastic parts with reactive material has several advantages compared to conventional roto molding of thermoplastic powders: process cycle time is shorter; raw material is less expensive because polymerization occurs during processing and high-performance polymers may be used such as thermosets, thermoplastics or blends. However, several phenomena occur during this process which makes the optimization of the process quite complex. In this study, we have used a mixture of isocyanate and polyol as a reactive system. The chemical transformation of this system to polyurethane has been studied by thermal analysis and rheology tests. Thanks to these results of the curing process and rheological measurements, the kinetic and rheokinetik of polyurethane was identified. Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics, a Lagrangian meshless method, was chosen to simulate reactive fluid flow in 2 and 3D configurations of the polyurethane during the process taking into account the chemical, and chemiorehological results obtained experimentally in this study.

Keywords: Reactive rotational molding, free surface flows, simulation, smoothed particle hydrodynamics, surface tension.

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4831 Hardware-in-the-Loop Test for Automatic Voltage Regulator of Synchronous Condenser

Authors: Ha Thi Nguyen, Guangya Yang, Arne Hejde Nielsen, Peter Højgaard Jensen

Abstract:

Automatic voltage regulator (AVR) plays an important role in volt/var control of synchronous condenser (SC) in power systems. Test AVR performance in steady-state and dynamic conditions in real grid is expensive, low efficiency, and hard to achieve. To address this issue, we implement hardware-in-the-loop (HiL) test for the AVR of SC to test the steady-state and dynamic performances of AVR in different operating conditions. Startup procedure of the system and voltage set point changes are studied to evaluate the AVR hardware response. Overexcitation, underexcitation, and AVR set point loss are tested to compare the performance of SC with the AVR hardware and that of simulation. The comparative results demonstrate how AVR will work in a real system. The results show HiL test is an effective approach for testing devices before deployment and is able to parameterize the controller with lower cost, higher efficiency, and more flexibility.

Keywords: Automatic voltage regulator, hardware-in-the-loop, synchronous condenser, real time digital simulator.

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4830 Optimization of Thermal and Discretization Parameters in Laser Welding Simulation Nd:YAG Applied for Shin Plate Transparent Mode Of DP600

Authors: Chansopheak Seang, Afia David Kouadri, Eric Ragneau

Abstract:

Three dimensional analysis of thermal model in laser full penetration welding, Nd:YAG, by transparent mode DP600 alloy steel 1.25mm of thickness and gap of 0.1mm. Three models studied the influence of thermal dependent temperature properties, thermal independent temperature and the effect of peak value of specific heat at phase transformation temperature, AC1, on the transient temperature. Another seven models studied the influence of discretization, meshes on the temperature distribution in weld plate. It is shown that for the effects of thermal properties, the errors less 4% of maximum temperature in FZ and HAZ have identified. The minimum value of discretization are at least one third increment per radius for temporal discretization and the spatial discretization requires two elements per radius and four elements through thickness of the assembled plate, which therefore represent the minimum requirements of modeling for the laser welding in order to get minimum errors less than 5% compared to the fine mesh.

Keywords: FEA, welding, discretization, ABAQUS user subroutine DFLUX

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4829 Seismic Excitation of Steel Frame Retrofitted by a Multi-Panel PMC Infill Wall

Authors: Bu Seog Ju, Woo Young Jung

Abstract:

A multi-panel PMC infilled system, using polymer matrix composite (PMC) material, was introduced as new conceptual design for seismic retrofitting. A proposed multi panel PMC infilled system was composed of two basic structural components: inner PMC sandwich infills and outer FRP damping panels. The PMC material had high stiffness-to-weight and strength-to-weight ratios. Therefore, the addition of PMC infill panels into existing structures would not significantly alter the weight of the structure, while providing substantial structural enhancement.

In this study, an equivalent linearized dynamic analysis for a proposed multi-panel PMC infilled frame was performed, in order to assess their effectiveness and their responses under the simulated earthquake loading. Upon comparing undamped (without PMC panel) and damped (with PMC panel) structures, numerical results showed that structural damping with passive interface damping layer could significantly enhance the seismic response.

Keywords: Polymer Matrix Composite (PMC), Panel, Piece-wise linear, Earthquake, FRP.

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4828 Magnetoviscous Effects on Axi-Symmetric Ferrofluid Flow over a Porous Rotating Disk with Suction/Injection

Authors: Vikas Kumar

Abstract:

The present study is carried out to investigate the magneto-viscous effects on incompressible ferrofluid flow over a porous rotating disc with suction or injection on the surface of the disc subjected to a magnetic field. The flow under consideration is axi-symmetric steady ferrofluid flow of electrically non-conducting fluid. Karman’s transformation is used to convert the governing boundary layer equations involved in the problem to a system of non linear coupled differential equations. The solution of this system is obtained by using power series approximation. The flow characteristics i.e. radial, tangential, axial velocities and boundary layer displacement thickness are calculated for various values of MFD (magnetic field dependent) viscosity and for different values of suction injection parameter. Besides this, skin friction coefficients are also calculated on the surface of the disk. The results thus obtained are presented numerically and graphically in the paper.

Keywords: Axi-symmetric, ferrofluid, magnetic field, porous rotating disk.

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4827 The Change in Management Accounting from an Institutional and Contingency Perspective: A Case Study for a Romanian Company

Authors: Gabriel Jinga, Madalina Dumitru

Abstract:

The objective of this paper is to present the process of change in management accounting in Romania, a former communist country from Eastern Europe. In order to explain this process, we used the contingency and institutional theories. We focused on the following directions: the presentation of the scientific context and motivation of this research and the case study. We presented the state of the art in the process of change in the management accounting from the international and national perspective. We also described the evolution of management accounting in Romania in the context of economic and political changes. An important moment was the fall of communism in 1989. This represents a starting point for a new economic environment and for new management accounting. Accordingly, we developed a case study which presented this evolution. The conclusion of our research was that the changes in the management accounting system of the company analysed occurred in the same time with the institutionalisation of some elements (e.g. degree of competition, training and competencies in management accounting). The management accounting system was modelled by the contingencies specific to this company (e.g. environment, industry, strategy).

Keywords: Management accounting, change, Romania, contingency and institutional theory.

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4826 Porous Ni Electrodes Modified with Au Nanoparticles for Hydrogen Production

Authors: V. Pérez-Herranz, C. González-Buch, E. M. Ortega, S. Mestre

Abstract:

In this work new macroporous Ni electrodes modified with Au nanoparticles for hydrogen production have been developed. The supporting macroporous Ni electrodes have been obtained by means of the electrodeposition at high current densities. Then, the Au nanoparticles were synthesized and added to the electrode surface. The electrocatalytic behaviour of the developed electrocatalysts was studied by means of pseudo-steady-state polarization curves, electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) and hydrogen discharge curves. The size of the Au synthetized nanoparticles shows a monomodal distribution, with a very sharp band between 10 and 50 nm. The characteristic parameters d10, d50 and d90 were 14, 20 and 31 nm respectively. From Tafel polarization data has been concluded that the Au nanoparticles improve the catalytic activity of the developed electrodes towards the HER respect to the macroporous Ni electrodes. EIS permits to obtain the electrochemically active area by means of the roughness factor value. All the developed electrodes show roughness factor values in the same order of magnitude. From the activation energy results it can be concluded that the Au nanoparticles improve the intrinsic catalytic activity of the macroporous Ni electrodes.

Keywords: Au nanoparticles, hydrogen evolution reaction, porous Ni electrodes.

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4825 Flow Properties of Commercial Infant Formula Powders

Authors: Maja Benkovic, Ingrid Bauman

Abstract:

The objective of this work was to investigate flow properties of powdered infant formula samples. Samples were purchased at a local pharmacy and differed in composition. Lactose free infant formula, gluten free infant formula and infant formulas containing dietary fibers and probiotics were tested and compared with a regular infant formula sample which did not contain any of these supplements. Particle size and bulk density were determined and their influence on flow properties was discussed. There were no significant differences in bulk densities of the samples, therefore the connection between flow properties and bulk density could not be determined. Lactose free infant formula showed flow properties different to standard supplement-free sample. Gluten free infant formula with addition of probiotic microorganisms and dietary fiber had the narrowest particle size distribution range and exhibited the best flow properties. All the other samples exhibited the same tendency of decreasing compaction coefficient with increasing flow speed, which means they all become freer flowing with higher flow speeds.

Keywords: flow properties, infant formula, powderedmaterial

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4824 The Magnetized Quantum Breathing in Cylindrical Dusty Plasma

Authors: A. Abdikian

Abstract:

A quantum breathing mode has been theatrically studied in quantum dusty plasma. By using linear quantum hydrodynamic model, not only the quantum dispersion relation of rotation mode but also void structure has been derived in the presence of an external magnetic field. Although the phase velocity of the magnetized quantum breathing mode is greater than that of unmagnetized quantum breathing mode, attenuation of the magnetized quantum breathing mode along radial distance seems to be slower than that of unmagnetized quantum breathing mode. Clearly, drawing the quantum breathing mode in the presence and absence of a magnetic field, we found that the magnetic field alters the distribution of dust particles and changes the radial and azimuthal velocities around the axis. Because the magnetic field rotates the dust particles and collects them, it could compensate the void structure.

Keywords: The linear quantum hydrodynamic model, the magnetized quantum breathing mode, the quantum dispersion relation of rotation mode, void structure.

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4823 Comparison of MFCC and Cepstral Coefficients as a Feature Set for PCG Biometric Systems

Authors: Justin Leo Cheang Loong, Khazaimatol S Subari, Muhammad Kamil Abdullah, Nurul Nadia Ahmad, RosliBesar

Abstract:

Heart sound is an acoustic signal and many techniques used nowadays for human recognition tasks borrow speech recognition techniques. One popular choice for feature extraction of accoustic signals is the Mel Frequency Cepstral Coefficients (MFCC) which maps the signal onto a non-linear Mel-Scale that mimics the human hearing. However the Mel-Scale is almost linear in the frequency region of heart sounds and thus should produce similar results with the standard cepstral coefficients (CC). In this paper, MFCC is investigated to see if it produces superior results for PCG based human identification system compared to CC. Results show that the MFCC system is still superior to CC despite linear filter-banks in the lower frequency range, giving up to 95% correct recognition rate for MFCC and 90% for CC. Further experiments show that the high recognition rate is due to the implementation of filter-banks and not from Mel-Scaling.

Keywords: Biometric, Phonocardiogram, Cepstral Coefficients, Mel Frequency

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4822 Impact of Foliar Application of Zinc on Micro and Macro Elements Distribution in Phyllanthus amarus

Authors: Nguyen Cao Nguyen, Krasimir I. Ivanov, Penka S. Zapryanova

Abstract:

The present study was carried out to investigate the interaction of foliar applied zinc with other elements in Phyllanthus amarus plants. The plant samples for our experiment were collected from Lam Dong province, Vietnam. Seven suspension solutions of nanosized zinc hydroxide nitrate (Zn5(OH)8(NO3)2·2H2O) with different Zn concentration were used. Fertilization and irrigation were the same for all variants. The Zn content and the content of selected micro (Cu, Fe, Mn) and macro (Ca, Mg, P and K) nutrients in plant roots, and stems and leaves were determined. It was concluded that the zinc content of plant roots varies narrowly, with no significant impact of ZnHN fertilization. The same trend can be seen in the content of Cu, Mn, and macronutrients. The zinc content of plant stems and leaves varies within wide limits, with the significant impact of ZnHN fertilization. The trends in the content of Cu, Mn, and macronutrients are kept the same as in the root, whereas the iron trends to increase its content at increasing the zinc content.

Keywords: Zinc fertilizers, micro and macro elements, Phyllanthus amarus.

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4821 Effect of Processing Methods on Texture Evolution in AZ31 Mg Alloy Sheet

Authors: Jung-Ho Moon, Tae Kwon Ha

Abstract:

Textures of AZ31 Mg alloy sheets were evaluated by using neutron diffraction method in this study. The AZ31 sheets were fabricated either by conventional casting and subsequent hot rolling or strip casting. The effect of warm rolling was investigated using the AZ31 Mg alloy sheet produced by conventional casting. Warm rolling of 30% thickness reduction per pass was possible without any side-crack at temperatures as low as 200oC under the roll speed of 30 m/min. The initial microstructure of conventionally cast specimen was found to be partially recrystallized structures. Grain refinement was found to occur actively during the warm rolling. The (0002),(10-10) (10-11),and (10-12) complete pole figures were measured using the HANARO FCD (Neutron Four Circle Diffractometer) and ODF were calculated. The major texture of all specimens can be expressed by ND//(0001) fiber texture. Texture of hot rolled specimen showed the strongest fiber component, while that of strip cast sheet seemed to be similar to random distribution.

Keywords: Mg alloy, texture, pole figure, ODF, neutron diffraction, warm rolling.

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4820 Water Quality Assessment Based on Operational Indicator in West Coastal Water of Malaysia

Authors: Seyedeh Belin Tavakoly Sany, H. Rosli, R. Majid, S. Aishah

Abstract:

In this study, water monitoring was performed from Nov. 2012 to Oct. 2013 to assess water quality and evaluate the spatial and temporal distribution of physicochemical and biological variables in water. Water samples were collected from 10 coastal water stations of West Port. In the case of water-quality assessment, multi-metric indices and operational indicators have been proposed to classify the trophic status at different stations. The trophic level of West Port coastal water ranges from eutrophic to hypertrophic. Chl-a concentration was used to estimate the biological response of phytoplankton biomass and indicated eutrophic conditions in West Port and mesotrophic conditions at the control site. During the study period, no eutrophication events or secondary symptoms occurred, which may be related to hydrodynamic turbulence and water exchange, which prevent the development of eutrophic conditions in the West Port.

Keywords: Water quality, multi-metric indices, operational indicator, Malaysia, West Port.

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4819 Design and Analysis of Flexible Slider Crank Mechanism

Authors: Thanh-Phong Dao, Shyh-Chour Huang

Abstract:

This study presents the optimal design and formulation of a kinematic model of a flexible slider crank mechanism. The objective of the proposed innovative design is to take extra advantage of the compliant mechanism and maximize the fatigue life by applying the Taguchi method. A formulated kinematic model is developed using a pseudo-rigid-body model (PRBM). By means of mathematic models, the kinematic behaviors of the flexible slider crank mechanism are captured using MATLAB software. Finite element analysis (FEA) is used to show the stress distribution. The results show that the optimal shape of the flexible hinge includes a force of 8.5N, a width of 9mm and a thickness of 1.1mm. Analysis of variance shows that the thickness of the proposed hinge is the most significant parameter, with an F test of 15.5. Finally, a prototype is manufactured to prepare for testing the kinematic and dynamic behaviors.

Keywords: Kinematic behavior, fatigue life, pseudo-rigid-body model, flexible slider crank mechanism.

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4818 Stabilization of a Three-Pole Active Magnetic Bearing by Hybrid Control Method in Static Mode

Authors: Mahdi Kiani, Hassan Salarieh, Aria Alasty, S. Mahdi Darbandi

Abstract:

The design and implementation of the hybrid control method for a three-pole active magnetic bearing (AMB) is proposed in this paper. The system is inherently nonlinear and conventional nonlinear controllers are a little complicated, while the proposed hybrid controller has a piecewise linear form, i.e. linear in each sub-region. A state-feedback hybrid controller is designed in this study, and the unmeasurable states are estimated by an observer. The gains of the hybrid controller are obtained by the Linear Quadratic Regulator (LQR) method in each sub-region. To evaluate the performance, the designed controller is implemented on an experimental setup in static mode. The experimental results show that the proposed method can efficiently stabilize the three-pole AMB system. The simplicity of design, domain of attraction, uncomplicated control law, and computational time are advantages of this method over other nonlinear control strategies in AMB systems.

Keywords: Active magnetic bearing, three pole AMB, hybrid control, Lyapunov function.

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4817 Enhancing Operational Effectiveness in the Norwegian Army through Simulation-Based Training

Authors: B. Bakken, O. Boe

Abstract:

The Norwegian Military Academy (Army) has initiated a project with the main ambition to explore possible avenues to enhancing operational effectiveness through an increased use of simulation-based training and exercises. Within a cost/benefit framework, we discuss opportunities and limitations of vertical and horizontal integration of the existing tactical training system. Vertical integration implies expanding the existing training system to span the full range of training from tactical level (platoon, company) to command and staff level (battalion, brigade). Horizontal integration means including other domains than army tactics and staff procedures in the training, such as military ethics, foreign languages, leadership and decision making. We discuss each of the integration options with respect to purpose and content of training, "best practice" for organising and conducting simulation-based training, and suggest how to evaluate training procedures and measure learning outcomes. We conclude by giving guidelines towards further explorative work and possible implementation.

Keywords: Effectiveness, integration, simulation, training.

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4816 Separation Characteristics of Dissolved Gases from Water Using a Polypropylene Hollow Fiber Membrane Module with High Surface Area

Authors: Pil Woo Heo, In Sub Park

Abstract:

A polypropylene hollow fiber membrane module is used for separating dissolved gases which contain dissolved oxygen from water. These dissolved gases can be used for underwater breathing. To be used for a human, the minimum amount of oxygen is essential. To increase separation of dissolved gases, much water and high surface area of hollow fibers are requested. For efficient separation system, performance of single membrane module with high surface area needs to be investigated.

In this study, we set up experimental devices for analyzing separation characteristics of dissolved gases including oxygen from water using a polypropylene hollow fiber membrane module. Separation of dissolved gases from water is investigated with variations of water flow rates. Composition of dissolved gases is also measured using GC. These results expect to be used in developing the portable separation system.

Keywords: High surface area, breathing, vacuum, composition.

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4815 On Supporting a Meta-design Approach in Socio-Technical Ontology Engineering

Authors: Mesnan Silalahi, Dana Indra Sensuse, Indra Budi

Abstract:

Many studies have revealed the fact of the complexity of ontology building process. Therefore there is a need for a new approach which one of that addresses the socio-technical aspects in the collaboration to reach a consensus. Meta-design approach is considered applicable as a method in the methodological model of socio-technical ontology engineering. Principles in the meta-design framework are applied in the construction phases of the ontology. A web portal is developed to support the meta-design principles requirements. To validate the methodological model semantic web applications were developed and integrated in the portal and also used as a way to show the usefulness of the ontology. The knowledge based system will be filled with data of Indonesian medicinal plants. By showing the usefulness of the developed ontology in a semantic web application, we motivate all stakeholders to participate in the development of knowledge based system of medicinal plants in Indonesia.

Keywords: Socio-technical, meta-design, ontology engineering methodology, semantic web application.

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4814 Application of Formal Methods for Designing a Separation Kernel for Embedded Systems

Authors: Kei Kawamorita, Ryouta Kasahara, Yuuki Mochizuki, Kenichiro Noguchi

Abstract:

A separation-kernel-based operating system (OS) has been designed for use in secure embedded systems by applying formal methods to the design of the separation-kernel part. The separation kernel is a small OS kernel that provides an abstract distributed environment on a single CPU. The design of the separation kernel was verified using two formal methods, the B method and the Spin model checker. A newly designed semi-formal method, the extended state transition method, was also applied. An OS comprising the separation-kernel part and additional OS services on top of the separation kernel was prototyped on the Intel IA-32 architecture. Developing and testing of a prototype embedded application, a point-of-sale application, on the prototype OS demonstrated that the proposed architecture and the use of formal methods to design its kernel part are effective for achieving a secure embedded system having a high-assurance separation kernel.

Keywords: B method, embedded systems, extended state transition, formal methods, separation kernel, Spin.

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4813 Mining Image Features in an Automatic Two-Dimensional Shape Recognition System

Authors: R. A. Salam, M.A. Rodrigues

Abstract:

The number of features required to represent an image can be very huge. Using all available features to recognize objects can suffer from curse dimensionality. Feature selection and extraction is the pre-processing step of image mining. Main issues in analyzing images is the effective identification of features and another one is extracting them. The mining problem that has been focused is the grouping of features for different shapes. Experiments have been conducted by using shape outline as the features. Shape outline readings are put through normalization and dimensionality reduction process using an eigenvector based method to produce a new set of readings. After this pre-processing step data will be grouped through their shapes. Through statistical analysis, these readings together with peak measures a robust classification and recognition process is achieved. Tests showed that the suggested methods are able to automatically recognize objects through their shapes. Finally, experiments also demonstrate the system invariance to rotation, translation, scale, reflection and to a small degree of distortion.

Keywords: Image mining, feature selection, shape recognition, peak measures.

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4812 The Model Establishment and Analysis of TRACE/MELCOR for Kuosheng Nuclear Power Plant Spent Fuel Pool

Authors: W. S. Hsu, Y. Chiang, Y. S. Tseng, J. R. Wang, C. Shih, S. W. Chen

Abstract:

Kuosheng nuclear power plant (NPP) is a BWR/6 plant in Taiwan. There is more concern for the safety of NPPs in Taiwan after Japan Fukushima NPP disaster occurred. Hence, in order to estimate the safety of Kuosheng NPP spent fuel pool (SFP), by using TRACE, MELCOR, and SNAP codes, the safety analysis of Kuosheng NPP SFP was performed. There were two main steps in this research. First, the Kuosheng NPP SFP models were established. Second, the transient analysis of Kuosheng SFP was done by TRACE and MELCOR under the cooling system failure condition (Fukushima-like condition). The results showed that the calculations of MELCOR and TRACE were very similar in this case, and the fuel uncover happened roughly at 4th day after the failure of cooling system. The above results indicated that Kuosheng NPP SFP may be unsafe in the case of long-term SBO situation. In addition, future calculations were needed to be done by the other codes like FRAPTRAN for the cladding calculations.

Keywords: TRACE, MELCOR, SNAP, spent fuel pool.

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4811 Genetic Algorithm Application in a Dynamic PCB Assembly with Carryover Sequence- Dependent Setups

Authors: M. T. Yazdani Sabouni, Rasaratnam Logendran

Abstract:

We consider a typical problem in the assembly of printed circuit boards (PCBs) in a two-machine flow shop system to simultaneously minimize the weighted sum of weighted tardiness and weighted flow time. The investigated problem is a group scheduling problem in which PCBs are assembled in groups and the interest is to find the best sequence of groups as well as the boards within each group to minimize the objective function value. The type of setup operation between any two board groups is characterized as carryover sequence-dependent setup time, which exactly matches with the real application of this problem. As a technical constraint, all of the boards must be kitted before the assembly operation starts (kitting operation) and by kitting staff. The main idea developed in this paper is to completely eliminate the role of kitting staff by assigning the task of kitting to the machine operator during the time he is idle which is referred to as integration of internal (machine) and external (kitting) setup times. Performing the kitting operation, which is a preparation process of the next set of boards while the other boards are currently being assembled, results in the boards to continuously enter the system or have dynamic arrival times. Consequently, a dynamic PCB assembly system is introduced for the first time in the assembly of PCBs, which also has characteristics similar to that of just-in-time manufacturing. The problem investigated is computationally very complex, meaning that finding the optimal solutions especially when the problem size gets larger is impossible. Thus, a heuristic based on Genetic Algorithm (GA) is employed. An example problem on the application of the GA developed is demonstrated and also numerical results of applying the GA on solving several instances are provided.

Keywords: Genetic algorithm, Dynamic PCB assembly, Carryover sequence-dependent setup times, Multi-objective.

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4810 A Method for Controlling of Hand Prosthesis Based on Neural Network

Authors: Fereidoun Nowshiravan Rahatabad, Mohammad Ali Nekoui, Mohammad Reza Hashemi Golpaygani, AliFallah, Mehdi Kazemzadeh Narbat

Abstract:

The people are differed by their capabilities, skills and mental agilities. The evolution of human from childhood when they are completely dependent up to adultness the time they gradually set the dependency free is too complicated, by considering they have all started from almost one point but some become cleverer and some less. The main control command of a cybernetic hand should be posted by remaining healthy organs of disabled Person. These commands can be from several channels, which their recording and detecting are different and need complicated study. In this research, we suppose that, this stage has been done or in the other words, the command has been already sent and detected. So the main goal is to control a long hand, upper elbow hand missing, by an interest angle define by disabled. It means that, the system input is the position desired by disables and the output is the elbow-joint angle variation. Therefore the goal is a suitable control design based on neural network theory in order to meet the given mapping.

Keywords: Control - system design, Upper limb prosthesis, neuralnetwork.

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4809 An Adaptive Hand-Talking System for the Hearing Impaired

Authors: Zhou Yu, Jiang Feng

Abstract:

An adaptive Chinese hand-talking system is presented in this paper. By analyzing the 3 data collecting strategies for new users, the adaptation framework including supervised and unsupervised adaptation methods is proposed. For supervised adaptation, affinity propagation (AP) is used to extract exemplar subsets, and enhanced maximum a posteriori / vector field smoothing (eMAP/VFS) is proposed to pool the adaptation data among different models. For unsupervised adaptation, polynomial segment models (PSMs) are used to help hidden Markov models (HMMs) to accurately label the unlabeled data, then the "labeled" data together with signerindependent models are inputted to MAP algorithm to generate signer-adapted models. Experimental results show that the proposed framework can execute both supervised adaptation with small amount of labeled data and unsupervised adaptation with large amount of unlabeled data to tailor the original models, and both achieve improvements on the performance of recognition rate.

Keywords: sign language recognition, signer adaptation, eMAP/VFS, polynomial segment model.

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4808 Probabilistic Characteristics of older PR Frames in the Mid-America Earthquake Region

Authors: Do-Hwan Kim, Roberto Leon

Abstract:

Probabilistic characteristics of seismic responses of the Partially Restrained connection rotation (PRCR) and panel zone deformation (PZD) installed in older steel moment frames were investigated in accordance with statistical inference in decision-making process. The 4, 6 and 8 story older steel moment frames with clip angle and T-stub connections were designed and analyzed using 2%/50yrs ground motions in four cities of the Mid-America earthquake region. The probability density function and cumulative distribution function of PRCR and PZD were determined by the goodness-of-fit tests based on probabilistic parameters measured from the results of the nonlinear time-history analyses. The obtained probabilistic parameters and distributions can be used to find out what performance level mainly PR connections and panel zones satisfy and how many PR connections and panel zones experience a serious damage under the Mid-America ground motions.

Keywords: Mid-America earthquake, Panel zone, PR connection, Probabilistic characteristics, seismic performance

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