Search results for: conventional performance

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.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1759

Authors: Rahim Sotoudeh Bahreini, Alireza Foroughi Nematollahi, Akbar Jafari

Abstract:

This study investigates the mechanism of a Gyratory crusher-located in Golgohar mining and industrial Co. specifically with a focus on stresses distribution and fatigue failure of its main shaft. At first step, the cross section of the fractured shaft is studied, and the crack growth is analyzed. Then, the rotational motion of the shaft and the oil temperature of oil circuit of equipment are monitored. Condition monitoring is used to help finding a better modification. Based on the results of this study, the main causes of shaft failure are identified, and corrective solution is offered to increase crusher performance, especially its main shaft life. To predict the efficiency of the proposed modification, finite element simulation is performed, and its results are compared with the similar modified cases. The comparison and interpretation of simulation results confirm the efficiency of proposed corrective method.

Keywords: Fatigue failure, finite element method, gyratory crusher, condition monitoring.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1635

Authors: Nemir Al-Azzawi, Harsa A. Mat Sakim, Wan Ahmed K. Wan Abdullah, Yasmin Mohd Yacob

Abstract:

Feature-based registration is an effective technique for clinical use, because it can greatly reduce computational costs. However, this technique, which estimates the transformation by using feature points extracted from two images, may cause misalignments. To handle with this limitation, we propose to extract the salient edges and extracted control points (CP) of medical images by using efficiency of multiresolution representation of data nonsubsampled contourlet transform (NSCT) that finds the best feature points. The MR images were first decomposed using the NSCT, and then Edge and CP were extracted from bandpass directional subband of NSCT coefficients and some proposed rules. After edge and CP extraction, mutual information was adopted for the registration of feature points and translation parameters are calculated by using particle swarm optimization (PSO). The experimental results showed that the proposed method produces totally accurate performance for registration medical CT-MR images.

Keywords: Feature-based registration, mutual information, nonsubsampled contourlet transform, particle swarm optimization.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1970

Authors: Abhishek, Seema Devi, Jyoti Ohri

Abstract:

A mobile ad hoc network (MANET) represents a system of wireless mobile nodes that can self-organize freely and dynamically into arbitrary and temporary network topology. Unlike a wired network, wireless network interface has limited transmission range. Routing is the task of forwarding data packets from source to a given destination. Ad-hoc On Demand Distance Vector (AODV) routing protocol creates a path for a destination only when it required. This paper describes the implementation of AODV routing protocol using MATLAB-based Truetime simulator. In MANET's node movements are not fixed while they are random in nature. Hence intelligent techniques i.e. fuzzy and ANFIS are used to optimize the transmission range. In this paper, we compared the transmission range of AODV, fuzzy AODV and ANFIS AODV. For soft computing AODV, we have taken transmitted power and received threshold as input and transmission range as output. ANFIS gives better results as compared to fuzzy AODV.

Keywords: ANFIS, AODV, fuzzy, MANET, reactive routing protocol, routing protocol, Truetime.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1329

Authors: Ghobad Gorji, Hasan Golabi

Abstract:

The goal of this paper is to describe the design of an ultra-wideband (UWB) system that is optimized for the low-rate wireless personal area network application. To this aim, we propose a system based on direct chaotic communication (DCC) technology. Based on this system, a 2-GHz wide chaotic signal is produced into the UWB spectrum lower band, i.e., 3.1–5.1 GHz. For this system, two simple modulation schemes, namely chaotic on-off keying (COOK) and differential chaos shift keying  (DCSK) are evaluated first. We propose a modulation scheme, namely Double DCSK, to improve the performance of UWB DCC. Different characteristics of these systems, with Monte Carlo simulations based on the Additive White Gaussian Noise (AWGN) and the IEEE 802.15.4a standard channel models, are compared.

Keywords: Ultra-wideband, UWB, Direct Chaotic Communication, DCC, IEEE 802.15.4a, COOK, DCSK.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 208

Authors: Meor O. Hamzah, Seyed R. Omranian, Ali Jamshidi, Mohd R M. Hasan

Abstract:

This paper characterizes the effects of artificial short term aging in the laboratory on the rheological properties of virgin 80/100 penetration grade asphalt binder. After several years in service, asphalt mixture started to deteriorate due to aging. Aging is a complex physico-chemical phenomenon that influences asphalt binder rheological properties causing a deterioration in asphalt mixture performance. To ascertain asphalt binder aging effects, the virgin, artificially aged and extracted asphalt binder were tested via the Rolling Thin film Oven (RTFO), Dynamic Shear Rheometer (DSR) and Rotational Viscometer (RV). A comparative study between laboratory and field aging conditions were also carried out. The results showed that the specimens conditioned for 85 minutes inside the RTFO was insufficient to simulate the actual short term aging caused that took place in the field under Malaysian field conditions

Keywords: Asphalt binder, Short term aging, Rheological properties, Viscosity, Temperature susceptibility.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2527

Authors: P. Kumsawat, N. Pimpru, K. Attakitmongcol, A.Srikaew

Abstract:

In this paper, we proposed an efficient data compression strategy exploiting the multi-resolution characteristic of the wavelet transform. We have developed a sensor node called “Smart Sensor Node; SSN". The main goals of the SSN design are lightweight, minimal power consumption, modular design and robust circuitry. The SSN is made up of four basic components which are a sensing unit, a processing unit, a transceiver unit and a power unit. FiOStd evaluation board is chosen as the main controller of the SSN for its low costs and high performance. The software coding of the implementation was done using Simulink model and MATLAB programming language. The experimental results show that the proposed data compression technique yields recover signal with good quality. This technique can be applied to compress the collected data to reduce the data communication as well as the energy consumption of the sensor and so the lifetime of sensor node can be extended.

Keywords: Wireless sensor network, wavelet transform, data compression, ZigBee, skipped high-pass sub-band.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2989

Authors: Cândida M. Pereira, Amílcar L. Ramalho, Jorge A. Ambrósio

Abstract:

In the numerical solution of the forward dynamics of a multibody system, the positions and velocities of the bodies in the system are obtained first. With the information of the system state variables at each time step, the internal and external forces acting on the system are obtained by appropriate contact force models if the continuous contact method is used instead of a discrete contact method. The local deformation of the bodies in contact, represented by penetration, is used to compute the contact force. The ability and suitability with current cylindrical contact force models to describe the contact between bodies with cylindrical geometries with particular focus on internal contacting geometries involving low clearances and high loads simultaneously is discussed in this paper. A comparative assessment of the performance of each model under analysis for different contact conditions, in particular for very different penetration and clearance values, is presented. It is demonstrated that some models represent a rough approximation to describe the conformal contact between cylindrical geometries because contact forces are underestimated.

Keywords: Clearance joints, Contact mechanics, Contact dynamics, Internal cylindrical contact, Multibody dynamics.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2321

Authors: Sh. Yasini, M. B. Naghibi-Sistani, A. Karimpour

Abstract:

This paper employs a new approach to regulate the blood glucose level of type I diabetic patient under an intensive insulin treatment. The closed-loop control scheme incorporates expert knowledge about treatment by using reinforcement learning theory to maintain the normoglycemic average of 80 mg/dl and the normal condition for free plasma insulin concentration in severe initial state. The insulin delivery rate is obtained off-line by using Qlearning algorithm, without requiring an explicit model of the environment dynamics. The implementation of the insulin delivery rate, therefore, requires simple function evaluation and minimal online computations. Controller performance is assessed in terms of its ability to reject the effect of meal disturbance and to overcome the variability in the glucose-insulin dynamics from patient to patient. Computer simulations are used to evaluate the effectiveness of the proposed technique and to show its superiority in controlling hyperglycemia over other existing algorithms

Keywords: Insulin Delivery rate, Q-learning algorithm, Reinforcement learning, Type I diabetes.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2198

Authors: Chi Jung Kim, Mincheol Whang, Eui Chul Lee

Abstract:

In this paper, we propose a new method to distinguish between arousal and relaxation states by using multiple features acquired from a photoplethysmogram (PPG) and support vector machine (SVM). To induce arousal and relaxation states in subjects, 2 kinds of sound stimuli are used, and their corresponding biosignals are obtained using the PPG sensor. Two features–pulse to pulse interval (PPI) and pulse amplitude (PA)–are extracted from acquired PPG data, and a nonlinear classification between arousal and relaxation is performed using SVM. This methodology has several advantages when compared with previous similar studies. Firstly, we extracted 2 separate features from PPG, i.e., PPI and PA. Secondly, in order to improve the classification accuracy, SVM-based nonlinear classification was performed. Thirdly, to solve classification problems caused by generalized features of whole subjects, we defined each threshold according to individual features. Experimental results showed that the average classification accuracy was 74.67%. Also, the proposed method showed the better identification performance than the single feature based methods. From this result, we confirmed that arousal and relaxation can be classified using SVM and PPG features.

Keywords: Support Vector Machine, PPG, Emotion Recognition, Arousal, Relaxation

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2484

Authors: Supriyono, Sumardiyono, Rendy J. Pramono

Abstract:

Biodiesel is one of the alternative fuels promising for substituting petrodiesel as energy source which has an advantage as it is sustainable and eco-friendly. Due to the raw material that tends to decompose during storage, biodiesel also has the same characteristic that tends to decompose during storage. Biodiesel decomposition will form higher acid value as the result of oxidation to double bond on a fatty acid compound on biodiesel. Thus, free fatty acid value could be used to evaluate degradation of biodiesel due to the oxidation process. High free fatty acid on biodiesel could impact on the engine performance. Decomposition of biodiesel due to oxidation reaction could prevent by introducing a small amount of antioxidant. The origin of raw materials and the process for producing biodiesel will determine the effectiveness of antioxidant. Biodiesel made from high free fatty acid (FFA) crude palm oil (CPO) by using two steps esterification is vulnerable to oxidation process which is resulted in increasing on the FFA value. Tocopherol also known as vitamin E is one of the antioxidant that could improve the stability of biodiesel due to decomposition by the oxidation process. Tocopherol 0.5% concentration on palm oil biodiesel could reduce 13% of increasing FFA under temperature 80 °C and exposing time 180 minute.

Keywords: Antioxidant, biodiesel, decomposition, oxidation, tocopherol.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1630

Authors: Supriyono, Sumardiyono, Rendy J. Pramono

Abstract:

Biodiesel is one of the alternative fuels promising for substituting petrodiesel as energy source which has an advantage as it is sustainable and eco-friendly. Due to the raw material that tends to decompose during storage, biodiesel also has the same characteristic that tends to decompose during storage. Biodiesel decomposition will form higher acid value as the result of oxidation to double bond on a fatty acid compound on biodiesel. Thus, free fatty acid value could be used to evaluate degradation of biodiesel due to the oxidation process. High free fatty acid on biodiesel could impact on the engine performance. Decomposition of biodiesel due to oxidation reaction could prevent by introducing a small amount of antioxidant. The origin of raw materials and the process for producing biodiesel will determine the effectiveness of antioxidant. Biodiesel made from high free fatty acid (FFA) crude palm oil (CPO) by using two steps esterification is vulnerable to oxidation process which is resulted in increasing on the FFA value. Tocopherol also known as vitamin E is one of the antioxidant that could improve the stability of biodiesel due to decomposition by the oxidation process. Tocopherol 0.5% concentration on palm oil biodiesel could reduce 13% of increasing FFA under temperature 80 °C and exposing time 180 minute.

Keywords: Antioxidant, biodiesel, decomposition, oxidation, tocopherol.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1702

Authors: WooYoung Jung, Buntheng Chhorn, Min-Gi Kim

Abstract:

Recently, damage to domestic facilities by strong winds and typhoons are growing. Therefore, this study focused on sign structure among various vulnerable facilities. The evaluation of the wind fragility was carried out considering the destruction of the anchor, which is one of the various failure modes of the sign structure. The performance evaluation of the anchor was carried out to derive the wind fragility. Two parameters were set and four anchor types were selected to perform the pull-out and shear tests. The resistance capacity was estimated based on the experimental results. Wind loads were estimated using Monte Carlo simulation method. Based on these results, we derived the wind fragility according to anchor type and wind exposure category. Finally, the evaluation of the wind fragility was performed according to the experimental parameters such as anchor length and anchor diameter. This study shows that the depth of anchor was more significant for the safety of structure compare to diameter of anchor.

Keywords: Sign structure, wind fragility, set anchor, pull-out test, shear test, Monte Carlo simulation.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 791

Authors: Nikhil Ramaswamy, S.N.Omkar, Kashyap.H.Nathwani, Anil.M.Vanjare

Abstract:

In this present work, the development of an avionics system for flight data collection of a Raptor 30 V2 is carried out. For the data acquisition both onground and onboard avionics systems are developed for testing of a small-scale Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) helicopter. The onboard avionics record the helicopter state outputs namely accelerations, angular rates and Euler angles, in real time, and the on ground avionics system record the inputs given to the radio controlled helicopter through a transmitter, in real time. The avionic systems are designed and developed taking into consideration low weight, small size, anti-vibration, low power consumption, and easy interfacing. To mitigate the medium frequency vibrations embedded on the UAV helicopter during flight, a damper is designed and its performance is evaluated. A number of flight tests are carried out and the data obtained is then analyzed for accuracy and repeatability and conclusions are inferred.

Keywords: Data collection, Flight Testing, Onground and Onboard Avionics, UAV helicopter

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2642

Authors: C. N. Vanitha, M. Usha

Abstract:

In a real world scenario, the viability of the sensor networks has been proved by standardizing the technologies. Wireless sensor networks are vulnerable to both electronic and physical security breaches because of their deployment in remote, distributed, and inaccessible locations. The compromised sensor nodes send malicious data to the base station, and thus, the total network effectiveness will possibly be compromised. To detect and seclude the Route modifiers, a neural network based Pattern Learning predictor (PLP) is presented. This algorithm senses data at any node on present and previous patterns obtained from the en-route nodes. The eminence of any node is upgraded by their predicted and reported patterns. This paper propounds a solution not only to detect the route modifiers, but also to seclude the malevolent nodes from the network. The simulation result proves the effective performance of the network by the presented methodology in terms of energy level, routing and various network conditions.

Keywords: Neural networks, pattern learning, security, wireless sensor networks.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1303

Authors: O. Yavuz, L. Ozyilmaz

Abstract:

HIV-1 genome is highly heterogeneous. Due to this variation, features of HIV-I genome is in a wide range. For this reason, the ability to infection of the virus changes depending on different chemokine receptors. From this point of view, R5 HIV viruses use CCR5 coreceptor while X4 viruses use CXCR5 and R5X4 viruses can utilize both coreceptors. Recently, in Bioinformatics, R5X4 viruses have been studied to classify by using the experiments on HIV-1 genome. In this study, R5X4 type of HIV viruses were classified using Auto Regressive (AR) model through Artificial Neural Networks (ANNs). The statistical data of R5X4, R5 and X4 viruses was analyzed by using signal processing methods and ANNs. Accessible residues of these virus sequences were obtained and modeled by AR model since the dimension of residues is large and different from each other. Finally the pre-processed data was used to evolve various ANN structures for determining R5X4 viruses. Furthermore ROC analysis was applied to ANNs to show their real performances. The results indicate that R5X4 viruses successfully classified with high sensitivity and specificity values training and testing ROC analysis for RBF, which gives the best performance among ANN structures.

Keywords: Auto-Regressive Model, HIV, Neural Networks, ROC Analysis.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1180

Authors: Narottam Chand

Abstract:

Wireless sensor networks (WSNs) consist of number of tiny, low cost and low power sensor nodes to monitor some physical phenomenon. The major limitation in these networks is the use of non-rechargeable battery having limited power supply. The main cause of energy consumption in such networks is communication subsystem. This paper presents an energy efficient Cluster Cooperative Caching at Sensor (C3S) based upon grid type clustering. Sensor nodes belonging to the same cluster/grid form a cooperative cache system for the node since the cost for communication with them is low both in terms of energy consumption and message exchanges. The proposed scheme uses cache admission control and utility based data replacement policy to ensure that more useful data is retained in the local cache of a node. Simulation results demonstrate that C3S scheme performs better in various performance metrics than NICoCa which is existing cooperative caching protocol for WSNs.

Keywords: Cooperative caching, cache replacement, admission control, WSN, clustering.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2268

Authors: A. Hassoune, M. Khafallah, A. Mesbahi, T. Bouragba

Abstract:

This work presents an improved strategy of control for charging a lithium-ion battery in an electric vehicle charging station using two charger topologies i.e. single ended primary inductor converter (SEPIC) and forward converter. In terms of rapidity and accuracy, the power system consists of a topology/control diagram that would overcome the performance constraints, for instance the power instability, the battery overloading and how the energy conversion blocks would react efficiently to any kind of perturbations. Simulation results show the effectiveness of the proposed topologies operated with a power management algorithm based on voltage/peak current mode controls. In order to provide credible findings, a low power prototype is developed to test the control strategy via experimental evaluations of the converter topology and its controls.

Keywords: Battery charger, forward converter, lithium-ion, management algorithm, SEPIC.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 741

Authors: K. Himaja, T. S. Surendra, S. Tara Kalyani

Abstract:

In this article, Optimal Control for Coordinated Control (COC) of Series Vectorial Compensator (SVeC) and Power System Stabilizer (PSS) in order to damp Low Frequency Oscillations (LFO) is proposed. SVeC is a series Flexible Alternating Current Transmission System (FACTS) device. The Optimal Control strategy based on state feedback control for coordination of PSS and SVeC controllers under different loading conditions has not been developed. So, the Optimal State Feedback Controller (OSFC) for incorporating of PSS and SVeC controllers in COC manner has been developed in this paper. The performance of the proposed controller is checked through eigenvalue analysis and nonlinear time domain simulation results. The proposed Optimal Controller design for the COC of SVeC and PSS results will be analyzed without controller. The comparative results show that Optimal Controller for COC of SVeC and PSSs improve greatly the system damping LFO than without controller.

Keywords: Coordinated control, damping controller, optimal state feedback controller, power system stabilizer, series vectorial compensator.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 763

Authors: Cristina Vatamanu, Doina Cosovan, Dragoş Gavriluţ, Henri Luchian

Abstract:

In the past few years, the amount of malicious software increased exponentially and, therefore, machine learning algorithms became instrumental in identifying clean and malware files through (semi)-automated classification. When working with very large datasets, the major challenge is to reach both a very high malware detection rate and a very low false positive rate. Another challenge is to minimize the time needed for the machine learning algorithm to do so. This paper presents a comparative study between different machine learning techniques such as linear classifiers, ensembles, decision trees or various hybrids thereof. The training dataset consists of approximately 2 million clean files and 200.000 infected files, which is a realistic quantitative mixture. The paper investigates the above mentioned methods with respect to both their performance (detection rate and false positive rate) and their practicability.

Keywords: Detection Rate, False Positives, Perceptron, One Side Class, Ensembles, Decision Tree, Hybrid methods, Feature Selection.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 3280

Authors: Rajlaxmi Chouhan, Pritee Khanna

Abstract:

In this manuscript, a wavelet-based blind watermarking scheme has been proposed as a means to provide security to authenticity of a fingerprint. The information used for identification or verification of a fingerprint mainly lies in its minutiae. By robust watermarking of the minutiae in the fingerprint image itself, the useful information can be extracted accurately even if the fingerprint is severely degraded. The minutiae are converted in a binary watermark and embedding these watermarks in the detail regions increases the robustness of watermarking, at little to no additional impact on image quality. It has been experimentally shown that when the minutiae is embedded into wavelet detail coefficients of a fingerprint image in spread spectrum fashion using a pseudorandom sequence, the robustness is observed to have a proportional response while perceptual invisibility has an inversely proportional response to amplification factor “K". The DWT-based technique has been found to be very robust against noises, geometrical distortions filtering and JPEG compression attacks and is also found to give remarkably better performance than DCT-based technique in terms of correlation coefficient and number of erroneous minutiae.

Keywords: Fingerprint watermarking, minutiae, discrete wavelet transform, PN sequence

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2019

Authors: Commander Sunil Tyagi

Abstract:

Effectiveness of Artificial Neural Networks (ANN) and Support Vector Machines (SVM) classifiers for fault diagnosis of rolling element bearings are presented in this paper. The characteristic features of vibration signals of rotating driveline that was run in its normal condition and with faults introduced were used as input to ANN and SVM classifiers. Simple statistical features such as standard deviation, skewness, kurtosis etc. of the time-domain vibration signal segments along with peaks of the signal and peak of power spectral density (PSD) are used as features to input the ANN and SVM classifier. The effect of preprocessing of the vibration signal by Discreet Wavelet Transform (DWT) prior to feature extraction is also studied. It is shown from the experimental results that the performance of SVM classifier in identification of bearing condition is better then ANN and pre-processing of vibration signal by DWT enhances the effectiveness of both ANN and SVM classifier

Keywords: ANN, Artificial Intelligence, Fault Diagnosis, Pattern Recognition, Rolling Element Bearing, SVM. Wavelet Transform

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2118

Authors: Jimaima Lako, Subramaniam Sotheeswaran, Ketan Christi

Abstract:

The 15-a-side Fiji rugby team trains well in preparations for any rugby competition but rarely performs to expectations. In order to help the Fiji local based rugby players to identify some key basic areas in improving their performance, a series of workshops were conducted to assess their nutritional status and dietary habits in relation to energy demand during rugby matches. The nutrition workshop included the administration of questionnaires to 19 local based rugby players, requesting the following information: usual food intakes, training camp food intakes, carbohydrate loading, pre-game meals and post-game meals. The study revealed that poor eating habits of the players resulted in the low carbohydrate intake, which may have contributed to increase levels of fatigue leading to loss of stamina even before the second half of the game. It appears that the diet of most 15-a-side players does not provide enough energy to enable them to last the full eightyminutes of the game.

Keywords: Fiji rugby, Food habits, Physical fitness, Training meals

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 4312

Authors: Ju-Hong Lee, Chong-Jia Ciou, Yuan-Hau Yang

Abstract:

This paper deals with the problem of two-dimensional (2-D) recursive doubly complementary (DC) digital filter design. We present a structure of 2-D recursive DC filters by using 2-D symmetric half-plane (SHP) recursive digital all-pass lattice filters (DALFs). The novelty of using 2-D SHP recursive DALFs to construct a 2-D recursive DC digital lattice filter is that the resulting 2-D SHP recursive DC digital lattice filter provides better performance than the existing 2-D SHP recursive DC digital filter. Moreover, the proposed structure possesses a favorable 2-D DC half-band (DC-HB) property that allows about half of the 2-D SHP recursive DALF’s coefficients to be zero. This leads to considerable savings in computational burden for implementation. To ensure the stability of a designed 2-D SHP recursive DC digital lattice filter, some necessary constraints on the phase of the 2-D SHP recursive DALF during the design process are presented. Design of a 2-D diamond-shape decimation/interpolation filter is presented for illustration and comparison.

Keywords: All-pass digital filter, doubly complementary, lattice structure, symmetric half-plane digital filter, sampling rate conversion.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1269

Authors: Chimaobi Valentine Okolo

Abstract:

This paper seeks to assess the implications of bank consolidation on lending, which largely determine the survival and performance of small and medium scale enterprises and in turn the development of the Nigerian economy. Ordinary least square technique, correlation matrix test and Granger –causality test were employed to measure the extent to which lending to small and medium scale enterprises were influenced. The result showed that bank deposit (BD) impacted on lending to small and medium scale enterprises. Commercial and merchant bank lending rate had statistically insignificant effect on the dependent variable. There is a shift of focus by commercial banks from small and medium scale enterprises (small customers) to major investors (big customers). While micro finance banks work hard at providing funds to small and medium scale entrepreneurs, their capacity to meet the needs of these entrepreneurs is constrained. The capital and deposits of micro finance bank should be boosted in order to effectively support small and medium scale enterprises through loans.

Keywords: Asset size, bank consolidation, lending, small and medium enterprises.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2769

Authors: Rouzbeh Shafaghat, Hoda Shafaghat, Fatemeh Ghanbari, Pouya Sirous Rezaei, Rohollah Espanani

Abstract:

Nowadays, desalination of salt water is considered an important industrial process. In many parts of the world, particularly in the gulf countries, the multi-stage flash (MSF) water desalination has an essential contribution in the production of fresh water. In this study, a simple mathematical model is defined to design a MSF desalination system and the feasibility of using the MSF desalination process in proximity of a 42 MW power plant is investigated. This power plant can just provide 10 ton/h superheated steam from low pressure (LP) section of heat recovery steam generator (HRSG) for thermal desalting system. The designed MSF system with gained output ratio (GOR) of 10.3 has 24 flashing stages and can produce 2480 ton/d of fresh water. The expected performance characteristics of the designed MSF desalination plant are determined. In addition, the effect of motive water pressure on the amount of non-condensable gases removed by water jet vacuum pumps is investigated.

Keywords: Design, dual-purpose power plant, mathematical model, MSF desalination.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 3986

Authors: S. Hachemi, A. Ounis, S. Chabi

Abstract:

This paper presents the results of an experimental  study on the effects of elevated temperature on compressive and  flexural strength of Normal Strength Concrete (NSC), High Strength  Concrete (HSC) and High Performance Concrete (HPC). In addition,  the specimen mass and volume were measured before and after  heating in order to determine the loss of mass and volume during the  test. In terms of non-destructive measurement, ultrasonic pulse  velocity test was proposed as a promising initial inspection method  for fire damaged concrete structure. 100 Cube specimens for three  grades of concrete were prepared and heated at a rate of 3°C/min up  to different temperatures (150, 250, 400, 600, and 900°C). The results  show a loss of compressive and flexural strength for all the concretes  heated to temperature exceeding 400°C. The results also revealed that  mass and density of the specimen significantly reduced with an  increase in temperature.

 

Keywords: High temperature, Compressive strength, Mass loss, Ultrasonic pulse velocity.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2223

Authors: Mohini Polimetla, Rajat Mahapatra

Abstract:

There is need to explore emerging technologies based on carbon nanotube electronics as the MOS technology is approaching its limits. As MOS devices scale to the nano ranges, increased short channel effects and process variations considerably effect device and circuit designs. As a promising new transistor, the Carbon Nanotube Field Effect Transistor(CNTFET) avoids most of the fundamental limitations of the Traditional MOSFET devices. In this paper we present the analysis and comparision of a Carbon Nanotube FET(CNTFET) based 10(A current mirror with MOSFET for 32nm technology node. The comparision shows the superiority of the former in terms of 97% increase in output resistance,24% decrease in power dissipation and 40% decrease in minimum voltage required for constant saturation current. Furthermore the effect on performance of current mirror due to change in chirality vector of CNT has also been investigated. The circuit simulations are carried out using HSPICE model.

Keywords: Carbon Nanotube Field Effect Transistor, Chirality Vector, Current Mirror

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 3008

Authors: Chih-Jer Lin, Chun-Ying Lee, Chiang-Ho Cheng, Geng-Fung Chen

Abstract:

This paper investigates experimental studies on vibration suppression for a cantilever beam using an Electro-Rheological (ER) sandwich shock absorber. ER fluid (ERF) is a class of smart materials that can undergo significant reversible changes immediately in its rheological and mechanical properties under the influence of an applied electric field. Firstly, an ER sandwich beam is fabricated by inserting a starch-based ERF into a hollow composite beam. At the same time, experimental investigations are focused on the frequency response of the ERF sandwich beam. Second, the ERF sandwich beam is attached to a cantilever beam to become as a shock absorber. Finally, a fuzzy semi-active vibration control is designed to suppress the vibration of the cantilever beam via the ERF sandwich shock absorber. To check the consistency of the proposed fuzzy controller, the real-time implementation validated the performance of the controller.

Keywords: Electro-Rheological Fluid, Semi-active vibration control, shock absorber, fuzzy control, Real-time control.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 3228

Authors: Razvan Bocu, Dr Sabin Tabirca

Abstract:

The study of proteomics reached unexpected levels of interest, as a direct consequence of its discovered influence over some complex biological phenomena, such as problematic diseases like cancer. This paper presents the latest authors- achievements regarding the analysis of the networks of proteins (interactome networks), by computing more efficiently the betweenness centrality measure. The paper introduces the concept of betweenness centrality, and then describes how betweenness computation can help the interactome net- work analysis. Current sequential implementations for the between- ness computation do not perform satisfactory in terms of execution times. The paper-s main contribution is centered towards introducing a speedup technique for the betweenness computation, based on modified shortest path algorithms for sparse graphs. Three optimized generic algorithms for betweenness computation are described and implemented, and their performance tested against real biological data, which is part of the IntAct dataset.

Keywords: Betweenness centrality, interactome networks, protein-protein interactions, sub-communities, sparse networks, speedup tech-nique, IntAct.

Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1507