Search results for: higher order statistics

Authors: H. López-Moreno, A. Rodríguez-Sánchez, C. Viñas-Arrebola, C. Porras-Amores

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The ventilated façade has great advantages when compared to traditional façades as it reduces the air conditioning thermal loads due to the stack effect induced by solar radiation in the air chamber. Optimizing energy consumption by using a ventilated façade can be used not only in newly built buildings but also it can be implemented in existing buildings, opening the field of implementation to energy building retrofitting works. In this sense, the following three prototypes of façade where designed, built and further analyzed in this research: non-ventilated façade (NVF); slightly ventilated façade (SLVF) and strongly ventilated façade (STVF). The construction characteristics of the three facades are based on the Spanish regulation of building construction “Technical Building Code”. The façades have been monitored by type-k thermocouples in a representative day of the summer season in Madrid (Spain). Moreover, an analysis of variance (ANOVA) with repeated measures, studying the thermal lag in the ventilated and no-ventilated façades has been designed. Results show that STVF façade presents higher levels of thermal inertia as the thermal lag reduces up to 17% (daily mean) compared to the non-ventilated façade. In addition, the statistical analysis proves that an increase of the ventilation holes size in STVF façades can improve the thermal lag significantly (p >0.05) when compared to the SLVF façade.

Keywords: Energy efficiency, experimental study, statistical analysis, thermal behavior, ventilated façade.

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Authors: Emad Hazbkhah. Abdolreza zahiri, Hossein ghorbanizade kharazi

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The present paper is a case study about exploitation of Kheir Abad river (Khoozestan, Iran) water resources and the problems caused by river sediments around the pumping stations. The weak points and strong points of Boneh Basht pumping station have been studied by experienced experts, work teams, and consulting engineers and technical and executive solutions have been suggested. Therefore, the suggestions of this article are based on the performed studies and are proposed in order to evaluate the logical solutions. Rather complicated processes resulting from the interaction of water flows and sediments observed at Boneh Basht pumping station occur at other pumping stations in almost the same way. Therefore, Boneh Basht pumping station can be selected as a sample (pilot) and up-to-date theories and experiences can be applied to this station and the results can be offered to other stations.

Keywords: Boneh Basht , Iran , Pumping Station, Sedimentation

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Authors: Mary L. G. S. Senna, Afonso R. Aquino, Veruska C. Dutra, Carlos H. C. Tolentino

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The quality of life index, despite elucidating many discussions, the conceptual subjectivity of the term does not show precision, and consequently, many researchers seek to develop methods aiming to measure this concept, bringing it to a more concrete approach. In this study, the quality of life index method was used to analyze the population of Mateiros, Tocantins, Brazil for quality of life. After data collection, it was compared the quality of life index between the population and the group of beneficiaries of the Brazilian government assistance program Bolsa Família (Family Allowance). Some of the people interviewed receive financial aid from the federal government program Bolsa Família (22%). Comparisons were made among the final score of the quality of life index of the Mateiros population and the following factors: Gender, age, education, those working or not with tourism and those who receive or do not receive the Bolsa Família. It was observed that only the factor, Bolsa Família (p-score 0.0138), shows an association with quality of life improvement, noticing that those who have financial aid had a higher quality of life improvement than the rest of the population. It was concluded that, government assistance has shown a decisive element on the enhancement of Mateiros population quality of life, indicating that similar actions should be maintained.

Keywords: Quality of life index, government aid to families, sustainable tourism, Bolsa Familia.

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Authors: Hamideh Mahdavifar, Ramin Nassiri, Alireza Bagheri

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Enterprise Architecture (EA) is a framework for description, coordination and alignment of all activities across the organization in order to achieve strategic goals using ICT enablers. A number of EA-compatible frameworks have been developed. We, in this paper, mainly focus on Federal Enterprise Architecture Framework (FEAF) since its reference models are plentiful. Among these models we are interested here in its business reference model (BRM). The test process is one important subject of an EA project which is to somewhat overlooked. This lack of attention may cause drawbacks or even failure of an enterprise architecture project. To address this issue we intend to use International Software Testing Qualification Board (ISTQB) framework and standard test suites to present a method to improve EA testing process. The main challenge is how to communicate between the concepts of EA and ISTQB. In this paper, we propose a method for integrating these concepts.

Keywords: Business Reference Model (BRM), Federal Enterprise Architecture (FEA), ISTQB, Test Techniques.

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Authors: Iveta Nováková, Martin-Andrè S. Husby, Boy-Arne Buyle

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The building industry has one of the most significant contributions to global warming due to the production of building materials, transportation, building activities, and demolition of structures when they reach the end of their life. Implementation of circular material flow and circular economy can significantly reduce greenhouse gasses and simultaneously reduce the need for natural resources. The use of recycled concrete aggregates (RCA) is one of the possibilities for reducing the depletion of raw materials for concrete production. Concrete is the most used building material worldwide, and aggregates constitute large part of its volume. RCA can replace a certain amount of natural aggregates (NA), and concrete will still perform as required. The aim of this scientific paper is to evaluate RCA properties with and without mechanical treatment. Analysis of RCA itself will be followed by compressive strength of concrete containing various amounts of treated and non-treated RCA. Results showed improvement in compressive strength of the mix with mechanically treated RCA compared to standard RCA, and even the strength of concrete with mechanically treated RCA in dose 50% of coarse aggregates was higher than the reference mix by 4%. Based on obtained results, it can be concluded that integration of RCA in industrial concrete production is feasible, at a replacement ratio of 50% for mechanically treated RCA and 30% if untreated RCA is used, without affecting the compressive strength negatively.

Keywords: Recycled concrete aggregates, RCA, mechanical treatment, aggregate properties, compression strength.

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Authors: M. Pervan, T. Pavic Kramaric

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The aim of this paper is to investigate the influence of market share and diversification on the nonlife insurers- performance. The underlying relationships have been investigated in different industries and different disciplines (economics, management...), still, no consistency exists either in the magnitude or statistical significance of the relationship between market share (and diversification as well) on one side and companies- performance on the other side. Moreover, the direction of the relationship is also somewhat questionable. While some authors find this relationship to be positive, the others reveal its negative association. In order to test the influence of market share and diversification on companies- performance in Croatian nonlife insurance industry for the period from 1999 to 2009, we designed an empirical model in which we included the following independent variables: firms- profitability from previous years, market share, diversification and control variables (i.e. ownership, industrial concentration, GDP per capita, inflation). Using the two-step generalized method of moments (GMM) estimator we found evidence of a positive and statistically significant influence of both, market share and diversification, on insurers- profitability.

Keywords: Diversification, market share, nonlife insurance

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Authors: Ilias Spais, George Bafas

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Natural Language Understanding Systems (NLU) will not be widely deployed unless they are technically mature and cost effective to develop. Cost effective development hinges on the availability of tools and techniques enabling the rapid production of NLU applications through minimal human resources. Further, these tools and techniques should allow quick development of applications in a user friendly way and should be easy to upgrade in order to continuously follow the evolving technologies and standards. This paper presents a visual tool for the structuring and editing of dialog forms, the key element of driving conversation in NLU applications based on IBM technology. The main focus is given on the basic component used to describe Human – Machine interactions of that kind, the Dialogue Manager. In essence, the description of a tool that enables the visual representation of the Dialogue Manager mainly during the implementation phase is illustrated.

Keywords: Conversational Applications, Forms Dialogue Manager (FDM), Natural Language Processing, Natural Language Understanding.

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Authors: M. Malekyarand, M. Shariati Ghalehno, A. Mokhber Dezfuli, H. Saebi Monfared, S. R. Ghoraishi K.

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Shape and form of the watermelon fruits are important factors to save spaces and reducing damage during storing of the fruits. In order to save spaces and prevent fruit damage in watermelon the following experiment was carried out in the farm. The fruits were boxed when they were approximately one cm less than the box diameter. The cubic, hexagonal forms were compared in this research. To do this, different boxes were designed with different holes on the sides to holes the watermelons fruits for shaping. The shapes of the boxes were hexagonal and cubic. The boxes holes sizes were the same with 10mm diameter each. Each side of the boxes had different holes including: without holes to 75 holes. The result showed that the best shape for watermelon storing to save space and prevent fruit damage was hexagonal form. The percentages of the fruit damage were 33 to 80 respectively.

Keywords: Cubic form, fruit damage, hexagonal, watermelon shape.

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Authors: John B. McQuillen, David F. Chao, Nancy R. Hall, Brian J. Motil, Nengli Zhang

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Future space vehicles will require the use of non-toxic, cryogenic propellants, because of the performance advantages over the toxic hypergolic propellants and also because of the environmental and handling concerns. A prototypical capillary flow liquid acquisition device (LAD) for cryogenic propellants was fabricated with a mesh screen, covering a rectangular flow channel with a cylindrical outlet tube, and was tested with liquid oxygen (LOX). In order to better understand the performance in various gravity environments and orientations with different submersion depths of the LAD, a series of computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations of LOX flow through the LAD screen channel, including horizontally and vertically submersions of the LAD channel assembly at normal gravity environment was conducted. Gravity effects on the flow field in LAD channel are inspected and analyzed through comparing the simulations.

Keywords: Liquid acquisition device, cryogenic propellants, CFD simulation, vertically submerged screen channel, gravity effects.

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Authors: Mehmet Durnali

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The main purpose of this study is to find out, analyze and discuss basic principles of education and training in the constitutions, including the latest amendment, of France, Indonesia, Japan, South Africa, the United States of America, and Turkey. This research specifically aims at establishing a framework in order to compare educational values such as right of education, responsibilities of states and those of people, and other issues pertaining to education in the Constitution of Turkey to others. Additionally, it emphasizes the meaning of education in constitution, the reasons for references to education in constitutions and why it is important for people, states or nations and state organs. Qualitative analysis technique is performed to accomplish the aim of this study. Maximum variation sampling is used. The main data source of the analysis is official organic laws of those countries. The data is examined by using descriptive and content analysis method.

Keywords: Education in the constitution, education law, legal principles of education, right to education.

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Authors: Gitanjali Devi, Kandarpa Kumar Sarma, Pranayee Datta, Anjana Kakoti Mahanta

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Cosmic showers, from their places of origin in space, after entering earth generate secondary particles called Extensive Air Shower (EAS). Detection and analysis of EAS and similar High Energy Particle Showers involve a plethora of experimental setups with certain constraints for which soft-computational tools like Artificial Neural Network (ANN)s can be adopted. The optimality of ANN classifiers can be enhanced further by the use of Multiple Classifier System (MCS) and certain data - dimension reduction techniques. This work describes the performance of certain data dimension reduction techniques like Principal Component Analysis (PCA), Independent Component Analysis (ICA) and Self Organizing Map (SOM) approximators for application with an MCS formed using Multi Layer Perceptron (MLP), Recurrent Neural Network (RNN) and Probabilistic Neural Network (PNN). The data inputs are obtained from an array of detectors placed in a circular arrangement resembling a practical detector grid which have a higher dimension and greater correlation among themselves. The PCA, ICA and SOM blocks reduce the correlation and generate a form suitable for real time practical applications for prediction of primary energy and location of EAS from density values captured using detectors in a circular grid.

Keywords: EAS, Shower, Core, ANN, Location.

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Authors: Zainab M. Musa, Nordin M. A. Rahman, Julaily A. Jusoh

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Digital reference service is when a traditional library reference service is provided electronically. In most cases users do not get full satisfaction from using digital reference service due to variety of reasons. This paper discusses the formal specification of web services applications for digital reference services (WSDRS). WSDRS is an informal model that claims to reduce the problems of digital reference services in libraries. It uses web services technology to provide efficient digital way of satisfying users’ need in the reference section of libraries. Informal model is in natural language which is inconsistent and ambiguous that may cause difficulties to the developers of the system. In order to solve this problem we decided to convert the informal specifications into formal specifications. This is supposed to reduce the overall development time and cost. We use Z language to develop the formal model and verify it with Z/EVES theorem prover tool.

Keywords: Formal, specifications, web services, digital reference services.

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Authors: Mohammed Mahmood, Walid Tizani, Carlo Sansour

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In this paper, experimental testing and numerical analysis were used to investigate the effect of tube thickness on the face bending for concrete filled hollow sections connected to other structural members using Extended Hollobolts. Six samples were tested experimentally by applying pull-out load on the bolts. These samples were designed to fail by column face bending. The main variable in all tests is the column face thickness. Finite element analyses were also performed using ABAQUS 6.11 to extend the experimental results and to quantify the effect of column face thickness. Results show that, the column face thickness has a clear impact on the connection strength and stiffness. However, the amount of improvement in the connection stiffness by changing the column face thickness from 5mm to 6.3mm seems to be higher than that when increasing it from 6.3mm to 8mm. The displacement at which the bolts start pulling-out from their holes increased with the use of thinner column face due to the high flexibility of the section. At the ultimate strength, the yielding of the column face propagated to the column corner and there was no yielding in its walls. After the ultimate resistance is reached, the propagation of the yielding was mainly in the column face with a miner yielding in the walls.

Keywords: Anchored bolted connection, Extended Hollobolt, Column faces bending and concrete filled hollow sections.

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Authors: Ye Wei, Sitalakshmi Venkatraman, Fahri Benli, Fiona Wahr

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The present digital world poses many challenges to various stakeholders in the education sector. In particular, lecturers of higher education (HE) are faced with the problem of ensuring that students are able to achieve the required learning outcomes despite rapid changes taking place worldwide. Different strategies are adopted to retain student engagement and commitment in classrooms to address the differences in learning habits, preferences and styles of the digital generation of students recently. Further, with the onset of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic, online classroom has become the most suitable alternate mode of teaching environment to cope with lockdown restrictions. These changes have compounded the problems in the learning engagement and short attention span of HE students. New Agile methodologies that have been successfully employed to manage projects in different fields are gaining prominence in the education domain. In this paper, we present the application of Scrum as an agile methodology to enhance student learning and engagement in an online smart classroom environment. We demonstrate the use of our proposed approach using a case study to teach key topics in information technology that require students to gain technical and business-related data analytics skills.

Keywords: Agile methodology, Scrum, online learning, smart classroom environment, student engagement, active learning.

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Authors: Saeed Mian Qaisar, Laurent Fesquet, Marc Renaudin

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The mobile systems are powered by batteries. Reducing the system power consumption is a key to increase its autonomy. It is known that mostly the systems are dealing with time varying signals. Thus, we aim to achieve power efficiency by smartly adapting the system processing activity in accordance with the input signal local characteristics. It is done by completely rethinking the processing chain, by adopting signal driven sampling and processing. In this context, a signal driven filtering technique, based on the level crossing sampling is devised. It adapts the sampling frequency and the filter order by analysing the input signal local variations. Thus, it correlates the processing activity with the signal variations. It leads towards a drastic computational gain of the proposed technique compared to the classical one.

Keywords: Level Crossing Sampling, Activity Selection, Adaptive Rate Filtering, Computational Complexity.

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Authors: Do-Kyu, Hwang, Ho-Young Kim, Ho-Hyeoung Choi, Gi-Beom Park, Jae-Hoon Lee

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Currently there are many use of threaded reinforcing bars in construction fields because those do not need additional screw processing when connecting reinforcing bar by threaded coupler. In this study, reinforced concrete bridge piers using threaded rebar coupler system at the plastic hinge area were tested to evaluate seismic performance. The test results showed that threads of the threaded rebar coupler system could be loosened while under tension-compression cyclic loading because tolerance and rib face angle of a threaded rebar coupler system are greater than that of a conventional ribbed rebar coupler system. As a result, cracks were concentrated just outside of the mechanical coupler and stiffness of reinforced concrete bridge pier decreased. Therefore, it is recommended that connection ratio of mechanical couplers in one section shall be below 50% in order that cracks are not concentrated just outside of the mechanical coupler. Also, reduced stiffness of the specimen should be considered when using the threaded rebar coupler system.

Keywords: Reinforced concrete column, seismic performance, threaded rebar coupler, threaded reinforcing bar.

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Authors: Marut Pichetvit

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The research objective aims to search information about storytelling and fable associated with fireflies in Amphawa community, in order to design and create a story book which is appropriate for the interests of children in early childhood. This book should help building the development of learning about the natural environment, imagination, and creativity among children, which then, brings about the promotion of the development, conservation and dissemination of cultural values and uniqueness of the Amphawa community. The population used in this study were 30 students in early childhood aged between 6-8 years-old, grade 1-3 from the Demonstration School of Suan Sunandha Rajabhat University. The method used for this study was purposive sampling and the research conducted by the query and analysis of data from both the document and the narrative field tales and fable associated with the fireflies of Amphawa community. Then, using the results to synthesize and create a conceptual design in a form of 8 visual images which were later applied to 1 illustrated children’s book and presented to the experts to evaluate and test this media.

Keywords: Children’s illustrated book, Fireflies, Amphawa.

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Authors: Naji Ali Albakay, Abdulrahman Alothaim, Isa Barshushi

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The most common quadrature amplitude modulator (QAM) applies two Mach-Zehnder Modulators (MZM) and one phase shifter to generate high order modulation format. The bias of MZM changes over time due to temperature, vibration, and aging factors. The change in the biasing causes distortion to the generated QAM signal which leads to deterioration of bit error rate (BER) performance. Therefore, it is critical to be able to lock MZM’s Q point to the required operating point for good performance. We propose a technique for automatic bias control (ABC) of QAM transmitter using BER measurements and gradient descent optimization algorithm. The proposed technique is attractive because it uses the pertinent metric, BER, which compensates for bias drifting independently from other system variations such as laser source output power. The proposed scheme performance and its operating principles are simulated using OptiSystem simulation software for 4-QAM and 16-QAM transmitters.

Keywords: Automatic bias control, optical fiber communication, optical modulation, optical devices.

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Authors: Zuwairie Ibrahim, Yusei Tsuboi, Osamu Ono, Marzuki Khalid

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Deoxyribonucleic Acid or DNA computing has emerged as an interdisciplinary field that draws together chemistry, molecular biology, computer science and mathematics. Thus, in this paper, the possibility of DNA-based computing to solve an absolute 1-center problem by molecular manipulations is presented. This is truly the first attempt to solve such a problem by DNA-based computing approach. Since, part of the procedures involve with shortest path computation, research works on DNA computing for shortest path Traveling Salesman Problem, in short, TSP are reviewed. These approaches are studied and only the appropriate one is adapted in designing the computation procedures. This DNA-based computation is designed in such a way that every path is encoded by oligonucleotides and the path-s length is directly proportional to the length of oligonucleotides. Using these properties, gel electrophoresis is performed in order to separate the respective DNA molecules according to their length. One expectation arise from this paper is that it is possible to verify the instance absolute 1-center problem using DNA computing by laboratory experiments.

Keywords: DNA computing, operation research, 1-center problem.

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Authors: Ordabek Khozhamberdiyev

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In this article, some methods are mentioned for developing the theatrical language by giving information of “theatrical language" since the arising of the language in obsolete terms, and today, and also by examining the problems. Being able to talk meaningfully in the theater stage is a skillful art. Maybe, to be able to convey the idea of the poet, his/her world outlook and his/her feelings from the bottom of the heart as such, also conveying the speech norms without breaking them to the ear of audience in a fascinating way in adverse of a repellent way is the most difficult one. Because of this, “the word is the mirror of the idea". The importance of the theatrical language should not be perceived as only a post, it is “as the yarn that the culture carpet is weaved from". Thereby, it is a tool which transposes our culture and our life style from generation to generation. At the time of creativeness, the “word" comes out from the poet, “the word and feeling" art comes out from the actor. If it was not so, the audience could read the texts of the work himself/herself instead of going to the theater in order to see the performance. The fundamental works by the Turkish, Kazakh and English scientists have been taken as a basis for the research done.

Keywords: language, sound, stage, theatrical language, voice

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Authors: Huay Lit Woo, Qiyun Wang

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Weblog is an Internet tool that is believed to possess great potential to facilitate learning in education. This study wants to know if weblog can be used to promote students- critical thinking. It used a group of secondary two students from a Singapore school to write weblogs as a means of substitution for their traditional handwritten assignments. The topics for the weblogging are taken from History syllabus but modified to suit the purpose of this study. Weblogs from the students were collected and analysed using a known coding system for measuring critical thinking. Results show that the topic for blogging is crucial in determining the types of critical thinking employed by the students. Students are seen to display critical thinking traits in the areas of information sourcing, linking information to arguments and viewpoints justification. Students- criticalness is more profound when the information for writing a topic is readily available. Otherwise, they tend to be less critical and subjective. The study also found that students lack the ability to source for external information suggesting that students may need to be taught information literacy in order to widen their use of critical thinking skills.

Keywords: Affordance, blog, critical thinking, perception, weblog.

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Authors: Shun-Kai Yang, Kuo-Feng Ssu

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Target tracking and localization are important applications in wireless sensor networks. In these applications, sensor nodes collectively monitor and track the movement of a target. They have limited energy supplied by batteries, so energy efficiency is essential for sensor networks. Most existing target tracking protocols need to wake up sensors periodically to perform tracking. Some unnecessary energy waste is thus introduced. In this paper, an energy efficient protocol for target localization is proposed. In order to preserve energy, the protocol fixes the number of sensors for target tracking, but it retains the quality of target localization in an acceptable level. By selecting a set of sensors for target localization, the other sensors can sleep rather than periodically wake up to track the target. Simulation results show that the proposed protocol saves a significant amount of energy and also prolongs the network lifetime.

Keywords: Coverage, energy efficiency, target localization, wireless sensor network.

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Authors: Luna Shamieh

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Various players are part of the game in an asymmetric war, all making efforts to provide human security to their own adherents. Although a fragile state is not able to provide sufficient and comprehensive services, it still provides special services and security to the elite; the insurgents as well provide services and security to their associates. The humanitarian organisations, on the other hand, provide some fundamental elements of human security, but only in the regions, they are able to access when possible (if possible). The counterinsurgents (security forces of the state and intervention forces) operate within a narrow band defined by the vision of the responsibility to protect and the perspective of the resolution of the conflict through combat; hence, the possibility to provide human security is shaken at this end. This article examines how each player provides human security from the perspective of freedom from want in order to secure basic and strategic needs, freedom from fear through providing protection against all kinds of violence, and the freedom to live in dignity. It identifies a vicious cycle caused by the intervention of the different players causing a centrifugal force that may lead to disintegration of the nation under war.

Keywords: Human security, asymmetric war, counter insurgency, fragile state, insurgency.

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Authors: Ali Mithad Emre

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In military aviation, the use of flight simulators has proliferated recently in order to train fifth generation fighter pilots. With these simulators, pilots can carry out real-time flights resulting in seeing their faults and can perform emergency drills prior to real flights. Since we cannot risk losing the aircraft and the pilot himself/herself in the flight training process, flight simulators are of great importance to adapt the fighter pilots competently to real flights aboard the fifth generation aircraft. The real flights are impossible to simulate thoroughly on the ground. To some extent, the fixed-based simulators may assist the pilot to steer aircraft technically and visually but flight simulators can’t trick the pilot’s vestibular, sensory, and perceptual systems without motion platforms. This paper discusses the benefits of motion simulators for fifth generation fighter pilots’ training in preference to the fixed-based counterparts by analyzing their pros and cons.

Keywords: Centrifuge, g-loc, military, pilot, sickness, simulator, VMS.

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Authors: Shilpesh R. Rajpurohit, Harshit K. Dave

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Fused deposition modeling (FDM) gains popularity in recent times, due to its capability to create prototype as well as functional end use product directly from CAD file. Parts fabricated using FDM process have mechanical properties comparable with those of injection-molded parts. However, performance of the FDM part is severally affected by the poor mechanical properties of the part due to nature of layered structure of printed part. Mechanical properties of the part can be improved by proper selection of process variables. In the present study, a comparative study between unidirectional and bidirectional raster angle has been carried out at a combination of different layer height and raster width. Unidirectional raster angle varied at five different levels, and bidirectional raster angle has been varied at three different levels. Fabrication of tensile specimen and tensile testing of specimen has been conducted according to ASTM D638 standard. From the results, it can be observed that higher tensile strength has been obtained at 0° raster angle followed by 45°/45° raster angle, while lower tensile strength has been obtained at 90° raster angle. Analysis of fractured surface revealed that failure takes place along with raster deposition direction for unidirectional and zigzag failure can be observed for bidirectional raster angle.

Keywords: Additive manufacturing, fused deposition modeling, raster angle, tensile strength.

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Authors: Cesar Hernández, Diego Giral, Ingrid Páez

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This article proposes a hybrid algorithm for spectrum allocation in cognitive radio networks based on the algorithms Analytical Hierarchical Process (AHP) and Technique for Order of Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS) to improve the performance of the spectrum mobility of secondary users in cognitive radio networks. To calculate the level of performance of the proposed algorithm a comparative analysis between the proposed AHP-TOPSIS, Grey Relational Analysis (GRA) and Multiplicative Exponent Weighting (MEW) algorithm is performed. Four evaluation metrics are used. These metrics are accumulative average of failed handoffs, accumulative average of handoffs performed, accumulative average of transmission bandwidth, and accumulative average of the transmission delay. The results of the comparison show that AHP-TOPSIS Algorithm provides 2.4 times better performance compared to a GRA Algorithm and, 1.5 times better than the MEW Algorithm.

Keywords: Cognitive radio, decision making, hybrid algorithm, spectrum handoff, wireless networks.

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Authors: M. Dehghan, R. Al-Mahaidi, I. Sbarski

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An industrial epoxy adhesive used in Carbon Fiber Reinforced Polymer (CFRP) strengthening systems was modified by dispersing multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs). Nanocomposites were fabricated using the solvent-assisted dispersion method and ultrasonic mixing. Thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), dynamic mechanical analysis (DMA) and tensile tests were conducted to study the effect of nanotubes dispersion on the thermal and mechanical properties of the epoxy composite. Experimental results showed a substantial enhancement in the decomposition temperature and tensile properties of epoxy composite, while, the glass transition temperature (T_g) was slightly reduced due to the solvent effect. The morphology of the epoxy nanocomposites was investigated by SEM. It was proved that using solvent improves the nanotubes dispersion. However, at contents higher than 2 wt. %, nanotubes started to re-bundle in the epoxy matrix which negatively affected the final properties of epoxy composite.

Keywords: Carbon Fiber Reinforced Polymer, Epoxy, Multi-Walled Carbon Nanotube, Glass Transition Temperature.

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Authors: S. Vasupongayya, W. Noodam, P. Kongyong

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This paper presents the result of three senior capstone projects at the Department of Computer Engineering, Prince of Songkla University, Thailand. These projects focus on developing an examination management system for the Faculty of Engineering in order to manage the examination both the examination room assignments and the examination proctor assignments in each room. The current version of the software is a web-based application. The developed software allows the examination proctors to select their scheduled time online while each subject is assigned to each available examination room according to its type and the room capacity. The developed system is evaluated using real data by prospective users of the system. Several suggestions for further improvements are given by the testers. Even though the features of the developed software are not superior, the developing process can be a case study for a projectbased teaching style. Furthermore, the process of developing this software can show several issues in developing an educational support application.

Keywords: Scheduling, Web-based, Greedy Algorithm, Engineering Education.

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Authors: Min Kyu Kim, Eun Young Lee, Dong Woo Son, Yoon Seok Chang

Abstract:

In this paper, we introduce a flexible box erecting machine (BEM) that swiftly and automatically transforms cardboard into a three dimensional box. Recently, the parcel service and home-shopping industries have grown rapidly, and there is an increasing need for various box types to ship various products. However, workers cannot fold thousands of boxes manually in a day. As such, automatic BEMs are garnering greater attention. This study takes equipment operation into consideration as well as mechanical improvements in order to design a BEM that is able to outperform its conventional counterparts. We analyzed six dispatching rules – First In First Out (FIFO), Shortest Processing Time (SPT), Earliest Due Date (EDD), Setup Avoidance, EDD + SPT, and EDD + Setup Avoidance – to determine which one was most suitable for BEM operation. Consequently, SPT and Setup Avoidance were found to be the most critical rules, followed by EDD + Setup Avoidance, EDD + SPT, EDD, and FIFO. This hierarchy was valid for both our conventional BEM and our new flexible BEM from the viewpoint of processing time. We believe that this research can contribute to flexible BEM management, which has the potential to increase productivity and convenience.

Keywords: Automation, box erecting machine, dispatching rule, setup time.

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Authors: V. Sacca, A. Sarica, F. Novellino, S. Barone, T. Tallarico, E. Filippelli, A. Granata, P. Valentino, A. Quattrone

Abstract:

In the last few years, resting-state functional MRI (rs-fMRI) was widely used to investigate the architecture of brain networks by investigating the Blood Oxygenation Level Dependent response. This technique represented an interesting, robust and reliable approach to compare pathologic and healthy subjects in order to investigate neurodegenerative diseases evolution. On the other hand, the elaboration of rs-fMRI data resulted to be very prone to noise due to confounding factors especially the head motion. Head motion has long been known to be a source of artefacts in task-based functional MRI studies, but it has become a particularly challenging problem in recent studies using rs-fMRI. The aim of this work was to evaluate in MS patients a well-known motion correction algorithm from the FMRIB's Software Library - MCFLIRT - that could be applied to minimize the head motion distortions, allowing to correctly interpret rs-fMRI results.

Keywords: Head motion correction, MCFLIRT algorithm, multiple sclerosis, resting state fMRI.

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