Search results for: Probabilistic Seismic Hazard Analysis

Authors: Susana Lemos, Neuza Pedro

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Thepurpose of the research is to characterize the levels of satisfaction of the students in e-learning post-graduate courses, taking into account specific dimensions of the course which were considered as benchmarks for the quality of this type of online learning initiative, as well as the levels of satisfaction towards each specific indicator identified in each dimension. It was also an aim of this study to understand how thesedimensions relate to one another. Using a quantitative research approach in the collection and analysis of the data, the study involves the participation of the students who attended on e-learning course in 2010/2011. The conclusions of this study suggest that online students present relatively high levels of satisfaction, which points towards a positive experience during the course. It is possible to note that there is a correlation between the different dimensions studied, consequently leading to different improvement strategies. Ultimately, this investigation aims to contribute to the promotion of quality and the success of e-learning initiatives in Higher Education.

Keywords: e-learning, higher education, quality, students satisfaction

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Authors: Sello Mokwena, Monyepao Thabang

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In this study, we propose a comprehensive approach to address the challenges in person re-identification models. By combining a centroid tracking algorithm with a Siamese convolutional neural network model, our method excels in detecting, tracking, and capturing robust person features across non-overlapping camera views. The algorithm efficiently identifies individuals in the camera network, while the neural network extracts fine-grained global features for precise cross-image comparisons. The approach's effectiveness is further accentuated by leveraging the camera network topology for guidance. Our empirical analysis of benchmark datasets highlights its competitive performance, particularly evident when background subtraction techniques are selectively applied, underscoring its potential in advancing person re-identification techniques.

Keywords: Camera network, convolutional neural network topology, person tracking, person re-identification, Siamese.

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Authors: Mustafa M. Donma, Orkide Donma, Murat Aydin, Muhammet Demirkol, Burcin Nalbantoglu, Aysin Nalbantoglu, Birol Topcu

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Childhood obesity is an ever increasing global health problem, affecting both developed and developing countries. Accurate evaluation of obesity in children requires difficult and detailed investigation. In our study, obesity in children was evaluated using new body fat ratios and indices. Assessment of anthropometric measurements, as well as some ratios, is important because of the evaluation of gender differences particularly during the late periods of obesity. A total of 239 children; 168 morbid obese (MO) (81 girls and 87 boys) and 71 normal weight (NW) (40 girls and 31 boys) children, participated in the study. Informed consent forms signed by the parents were obtained. Ethics Committee approved the study protocol. Mean ages (years)±SD calculated for MO group were 10.8±2.9 years in girls and 10.1±2.4 years in boys. The corresponding values for NW group were 9.0±2.0 years in girls and 9.2±2.1 years in boys. Mean body mass index (BMI)±SD values for MO group were 29.1±5.4 kg/m² and 27.2±3.9 kg/m² in girls and boys, respectively. These values for NW group were calculated as 15.5±1.0 kg/m² in girls and 15.9±1.1 kg/m² in boys. Groups were constituted based upon BMI percentiles for age-and-sex values recommended by WHO. Children with percentiles >99 were grouped as MO and children with percentiles between 85 and 15 were considered NW. The anthropometric measurements were recorded and evaluated along with the new ratios such as trunk-to-appendicular fat ratio, as well as indices such as Index-I and Index-II. The body fat percent values were obtained by bio-electrical impedance analysis. Data were entered into a database for analysis using SPSS/PASW 18 Statistics for Windows statistical software. Increased waist-to-hip circumference (C) ratios, decreased head-to-neck C, height ‘to’ ‘two’-‘to’-waist C and height ‘to’ ‘two’-‘to’-hip C ratios were observed in parallel with the development of obesity (p≤0.001). Reference value for height ‘to’ ‘two’-‘to’-hip ratio was detected as approximately 1.0. Index-II, based upon total body fat mass, showed much more significant differences between the groups than Index-I based upon weight. There was not any difference between trunk-to-appendicular fat ratios of NW girls and NW boys (p≥0.05). However, significantly increased values for MO girls in comparison with MO boys were observed (p≤0.05). This parameter showed no difference between NW and MO states in boys (p≥0.05). However, statistically significant increase was noted in MO girls compared to their NW states (p≤0.001). Trunk-to-appendicular fat ratio was the only fat-based parameter, which showed gender difference between NW and MO groups. This study has revealed that body ratios and formula based upon body fat tissue are more valuable parameters than those based on weight and height values for the evaluation of morbid obesity in children.

Keywords: Anthropometry, childhood obesity, gender, Morbid obesity.

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Authors: Muñoz-Sanchez, Victor Manuel, Perez-Flores, Antonio Manuel

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The main objective of this paper is to establish the relationship between models of state organization and the various types of collective identity expressed by the Spanish. The question of nationalism and identity ascription in Spain has always been a topic of special importance due to the presence in that country of territories where the population emits very different opinions of nationalist sentiment than the rest of Spain. The current situation of sovereignty challenge of Catalonia to the central government exemplifies the importance of the subject matter. In order to analyze this process of interrelation, we use a secondary data mining by applying the multiple correspondence analysis technique (MCA). As a main result a typology of four types of expression of collective identity based on models of State organization are shown, which are connected with the party position on this issue.

Keywords: Models of organization of the state, nationalism, collective identity, Spain, political parties.

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Authors: S. D. Nedelcut, V. Proca, D. M. Purcaru

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At present, the tendency to implement the conditionbased maintenance (CBM), which allows the optimization of the expenses for equipment monitoring, is more and more evident; also, the transformer substations with remote monitoring are increasingly used. This paper reviews all the advantages of the on-line monitoring and presents an equipment for on-line monitoring of bushings, which is the own contribution of specialists who are the authors of this paper. The paper presents a study of the temperature field, using the finite element method. For carrying out this study, the 3D modelling of the above mentioned bushing was performed. The analysis study is done taking into account the extreme thermal stresses, focusing at the level of the first cooling wing section of the ceramic insulator. This fact enables to justify the tanδ variation in time, depending on the transformer loading and the environmental conditions. With a view to reducing the variation of dielectric losses in bushing insulation, the use of ferrofuids instead of mineral oils is proposed.

Keywords: Monitoring, dielectric losses, ferrofluids, bushing.

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Authors: Mathias U. Bonet, Pericles Pilidis, Georgios Doulgeris

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A gas turbine-powered cruise Liner is scheduled to transport pilgrim passengers from Lagos-Nigeria to the Islamic port city of Jeddah in Saudi Arabia. Since the gas turbine is an air breathing machine, changes in the density and/or mass flow at the compressor inlet due to an encounter with variations in weather conditions induce negative effects on the performance of the power plant during the voyage. In practice, all deviations from the reference atmospheric conditions of 15 ^oC and 1.103 bar tend to affect the power output and other thermodynamic parameters of the gas turbine cycle. Therefore, this paper seeks to evaluate how a simple cycle marine gas turbine power plant would react under a variety of scenarios that may be encountered during a voyage as the ship sails across the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea before arriving at its designated port of discharge. It is also an assessment that focuses on the effect of varying aerodynamic and hydrodynamic conditions which deteriorate the efficient operation of the propulsion system due to an increase in resistance that results from some projected levels of the ship hull fouling. The investigated passenger ship is designed to run at a service speed of 22 knots and cover a distance of 5787 nautical miles. The performance evaluation consists of three separate voyages that cover a variety of weather conditions in winter, spring and summer seasons. Real-time daily temperatures and the sea states for the selected transit route were obtained and used to simulate the voyage under the aforementioned operating conditions. Changes in engine firing temperature, power output as well as the total fuel consumed per voyage including other performance variables were separately predicted under both calm and adverse weather conditions. The collated data were obtained online from the UK Meteorological Office as well as the UK Hydrographic Office websites, while adopting the Beaufort scale for determining the magnitude of sea waves resulting from rough weather situations. The simulation of the gas turbine performance and voyage analysis was effected through the use of an integrated Cranfield-University-developed computer code known as ‘Turbomatch’ and ‘Poseidon’. It is a project that is aimed at developing a method for predicting the off design behavior of the marine gas turbine when installed and operated as the main prime mover for both propulsion and powering of all other auxiliary services onboard a passenger cruise liner. Furthermore, it is a techno-economic and environmental assessment that seeks to enable the forecast of the marine gas turbine part and full load performance as it relates to the fuel requirement for a complete voyage.

Keywords:

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Authors: Khalid M. Aamir, Mohammad A. Maud

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Power Spectral Density (PSD) computed by taking the Fourier transform of auto-correlation functions (Wiener-Khintchine Theorem) gives better result, in case of noisy data, as compared to the Periodogram approach. However, the computational complexity of Wiener-Khintchine approach is more than that of the Periodogram approach. For the computation of short time Fourier transform (STFT), this problem becomes even more prominent where computation of PSD is required after every shift in the window under analysis. In this paper, recursive version of the Wiener-Khintchine theorem has been derived by using the sliding DFT approach meant for computation of STFT. The computational complexity of the proposed recursive Wiener-Khintchine algorithm, for a window size of N, is O(N).

Keywords: Power Spectral Density (PSD), Wiener-KhintchineTheorem, Periodogram, Short Time Fourier Transform (STFT), TheSliding DFT.

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Authors: L. B. Ni, N. S. Bt Rohadi, H. Bt Alfana, A. S. Bin Ali Hassan, J. Bin Karim, C. Bt Rasin

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This paper discusses the shared effort of teaching history in K-12 schools, community colleges, four-year colleges and universities to develop students' understanding of the history and habits of thought history. This study presents and discusses the problems of K-12 schools in colleges and universities, and the establishment of secondary school principals. This study also shows that the changing nature of practice can define new trends and affect the history professional in the classroom. There are many problems that historians and teachers of college faculty share in the history of high school teachers. History teachers can and should do better to get students in the classroom. History provides valuable insights into the information and embedded solid-state analysis models that are conflicting on the planet and are quickly changing exceptionally valuable. The survey results can reflect the history teaching in Malaysia.

Keywords: History issue, history teaching, school-university collaboration, history profession.

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Authors: Davide Fuscà, Kanan Rahimli, Roberto Leuzzi

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Prevent abuse and illegal activities in a given area of the sea is a very difficult and expensive task. Artificial intelligence offers the possibility to implement new methods to identify the vessel class type from the kinematic features of the vessel itself. The task strictly depends on the quality of the data. This paper explores the application of a deep Long Short-Term Memory model by using AIS flow only with a relatively low quality. The proposed model reaches high accuracy on detecting nine vessel classes representing the most common vessel types in the Ionian-Adriatic Sea. The model has been applied during the Adriatic-Ionian trial period of the international EU ANDROMEDA H2020 project to identify vessels performing behaviours far from the expected one, depending on the declared type.

Keywords: maritime surveillance, artificial intelligence, behaviour analysis, LSTM

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Authors: A. M. Omoare, E. O. Fakoya, O. E. Fapojuwo, W. O. Oyediran

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Awareness of value addition of sweet potato has received comparatively little attention in Nigeria despite its potential to reduce perishability and enhanced utilization of the crop in diverse products forms. This study assessed the awareness of value addition of sweet potato in Osun State, Nigeria. Multi-stage random sampling technique was used to select 120 respondents for the study. Data obtained were analyzed using descriptive statistics and multiple regression analysis. Findings showed that most (75.00%) of the respondents were male with mean age of 42.10 years and 96.70% of the respondents had formal education. The mean farm size was 2.30 hectares. Majority (75.00%) of the respondents had more than 10 years farming experience. Awareness of value addition of sweet potato was very low among the respondents. It was recommended that sweet potato farmers should be empowered through effective and efficient extension training on the use of modern processing techniques in order to enhance value addition of sweet potato. 

Keywords: Awareness, value addition, sweet potato, perishability.

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Authors: Supaporn Wimonchailerk

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This research aims to critical analyze the feminine violent within Thai daily newspaper. This study was qualitative base; content analysis from two popular newspapers (Thairath and Dailynews) two qualitative newspapers (Thaipost and Mathichon). Purposive sampling was used to select eleven specialize news reporters to do in-depth interview. The result found that, popular newspapers, Thairath and dailynews have presented feminine violent news in their paper more than Thaipost and Mathichon the qualitative newspaper. Beside, majority of sample present the feminine violent within news under the code of ethic, The National Press Council of Thailand. Interesting, the age of feminine violent victim was the information that has been focused most. The popular newspaper have illustrated crime scene photo on their first-page while qualitative newspaper used only headline to present the same news.

Keywords: Ethic, Feminine, Journalism, Newspaper, Violent Victim.

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Authors: Madina Kenzhegaranova, Aibol Mukhsiynov, Houman Sanandaji

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The article is about government programs and projects and their description which are aimed at improving the socioeconomic situation in the Republic of Kazakhstan. A brief historical overview, as well as information about current socio-economic, political and transitional contexts of the country are provided. Two theories were described in the article to inform this descriptive study. According to the United Nation's Development Reports for 2005 and 2011, the country's human development index (HDI) rose by several points despite the socio-economic and political imbalances taking place in the republic since it gained its independence in 1991. It is stated in the article that government support programs are one of the crucial factors that increase the population welfare which in its turn may lead to reduction of social crisis processes in the country.

Keywords: human capital, social crisis, state programs, unemployment

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Authors: Mahdieh Allahviranloo

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This paper introduces a mixed integer programming model to find the optimum development plan for port Anzali. The model minimizes total system costs taking into account both port infrastructure costs and shipping costs. Due to the multipurpose function of the port, the model consists of 1020 decision variables and 2490 constraints. Results of the model determine the optimum number of berths that should be constructed in each period and for each type of cargo. In addition to, the results of sensitivity analysis on port operation quantity provide useful information for managers to choose the best scenario for port planning with the lowest investment risks. Despite all limitations-due to data availability-the model offers a straightforward decision tools to port planners aspiring to achieve optimum port planning steps.

Keywords: MILP, Multipurpose Terminal, Port Operation Optimization, Port Anzali.

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Authors: Ugwuanyi, Georgina Obinne, Ugwu, Joy Nonye

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This paper examines the effect of corporate diversification on the profitability of the Financial services sector in Nigeria. The study relied on historic accounting data generated from financial (annual) reports and accounts of sampled banks between the period 1998 and 2007 (a ten-year period). A regression equation was formulated, in line with previous studies to shed light on the effect of corporate diversification on the profitability of the Financial services sector in Nigeria. The results of the regression analysis revealed that diversification impacts strongly on banks profitability. Conclusively the paper produces strong evidence to assert that diversification impacts positively and significantly on banks profitability because among other things such diversified banks can pool their internally generated funds and allocate them properly.

Keywords: Diversification, firm size, operational efficiency, profitability

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Authors: Youn-Sung Kim, Jin-Ho Jo, Mi-Sung Kim, Jae-Kun Lee

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Accelerated life cycle test is applied to various products or components in order to reduce the time of life cycle test in industry. It must be considered for many test conditions according to the product characteristics for the test and the selection of acceleration parameter is especially very important. We have carried out the general life cycle test and the accelerated life cycle test by applying the acceleration factor (AF) considering the characteristics of brushless DC (BLDC) motor for washing machine. The final purpose of this study is to verify the validity by analyzing the results of the general life cycle test and the accelerated life cycle test. It will make it possible to reduce the life test time through the reasonable accelerated life cycle test.

Keywords: Accelerated life cycle test, reliability test, motor for washing machine, brushless dc motor test.

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Authors: Wisuwat Songnuan, Phumin Kirawanich

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The influences of pulsed electric fields on early physiological development in Arabidopsis thaliana were studied. Inside a 4-mm electroporation cuvette, pre-germination seeds were subjected to high-intensity, nanosecond electrical pulses generated using laboratory-assembled pulsed electric field system. The field strength was varied from 5 to 20 kV.cm-1 and the pulse width and the pulse number were maintained at 10 ns and 100, respectively, corresponding to the specific treatment energy from 300 J.kg-1 to 4.5 kJ.kg-1. Statistical analyses on the average leaf area 5 and 15 days following pulsed electric field treatment showed that the effects appear significant the second week after treatments with a maximum increase of 80% compared to the control (P < 0.01).

Keywords: Arabidopsis thaliana, full-wave analysis, leaf area, high-intensity nanosecond pulsed electric fields

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Authors: M. Mahdavi, M. Ismail, K. Jumari, Z. M. Hanapi

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For the sensor network to operate successfully, the active nodes should maintain both sensing coverage and network connectivity. Furthermore, scheduling sleep intervals plays critical role for energy efficiency of wireless sensor networks. Traditional methods for sensor scheduling use either sensing coverage or network connectivity, but rarely both. In this paper, we use random scheduling for sensing coverage and then turn on extra sensor nodes, if necessary, for network connectivity. Simulation results have demonstrated that the number of extra nodes that is on with upper bound of around 9%, is small compared to the total number of deployed sensor nodes. Thus energy consumption for switching on extra sensor node is small.

Keywords: Wireless sensor networks, energy efficient network, performance analysis, network coverage.

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Authors: R. Mofeed, N. Elgendy

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Cinema constructs mind-spaces that reflect inherent human thoughts and emotions. As a representational art, Cinema would introduce comprehensive images of life phenomena in different ways. The term “represent” suggests verity of meanings; bring into presence, replace or typify. In that sense, Cinema may present a phenomenon through direct embodiment, or introduce a substitute image that replaces the original phenomena, or typify it by relating the produced image to a more general category through a process of abstraction. This research is interested in questioning the type of images that Egyptian Cinema introduces to informal urbanism and how these images were conditioned and reshaped in the last twenty years. The informalities/slums phenomenon first appeared in Egypt and, particularly, Cairo in the early sixties, however, this phenomenon was completely ignored by the state and society until the eighties, and furthermore, its evident representation in Cinema was by the mid-nineties. The Informal City represents the illegal housing developments, and it is a fast growing form of urbanization in Cairo. Yet, this expanding phenomenon is still depicted as the minority, exceptional and marginal through the Cinematic lenses. This paper aims at tracing the forms of representations of the urban informalities in the Egyptian Cinema between 1994 and 2014, and how did that affect the popular mind and its perception of these areas. The paper runs two main lines of inquiry; the first traces the phenomena through a chronological and geographical mapping of the informal urbanism has been portrayed in films. This analysis is based on an academic research work at Cairo University in Fall 2014. The visual tracing through maps and timelines allowed a reading of the phases of ignorance, presence, typifying and repetition in the representation of this huge sector of the city through more than 50 films that has been investigated. The analysis clearly revealed the “portrayed image” of informality by the Cinema through the examined period. However, the second part of the paper explores the “perceived image”. A designed questionnaire is applied to highlight the main features of that image that is perceived by both inhabitants of informalities and other Cairenes based on watching selected films. The questionnaire covers the different images of informalities proposed in the Cinema whether in a comic or a melodramatic background and highlight the descriptive terms used, to see which of them resonate with the mass perceptions and affected their mental images. The two images; “portrayed” and “perceived” are then to be encountered to reflect on issues of repetitions, stereotyping and reality. The formulated stereotype of informal urbanism is finally outlined and justified in relation to both production consumption mechanisms of films and the State official vision of informalities.

Keywords: Cairo, cinema, informal urbanism, representation, stereotype.

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Authors: Subrata Das, Sisir Kumar Guha

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The objective of the present paper is to theoretically investigate the steady-state performance characteristics of journal bearing of finite width, operating with micropolar lubricant in a turbulent regime. In this analysis, the turbulent shear stress coefficients are used based on the Constantinescu’s turbulent model suggested by Taylor and Dowson with the assumption of parallel and inertia-less flow. The numerical solution of the modified Reynolds equation has yielded the distribution of film pressure which determines the static performance characteristics in terms of load capacity, attitude angle, end flow rate and frictional parameter at various values of eccentricity ratio, non-dimensional characteristics length, coupling number and Reynolds number.

Keywords: Hydrodynamic lubrication, steady-state, micropolar lubricant, turbulent.

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Authors: Sarah E. Stief, Anne Theresa Eidhoff, Markus Voeth

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Despite all progress firms are facing the increasing need to adapt and assimilate digital technologies to transform their business activities in order to pursue business development. By using new digital technologies, firms can implement major business improvements in order to stay competitive and foster new growth potentials. The corresponding phenomenon of digital transformation has received some attention in previous literature in respect to industries such as media and publishing. Nevertheless, there is a lack of understanding of the concept and its organization within firms. With the help of twenty-three in-depth field interviews with German experts responsible for their company’s digital transformation, we examined what digital transformation encompasses, how it is organized and which opportunities and challenges arise within firms. Our results indicate that digital transformation is an inevitable task for all firms, as it bears the potential to comprehensively optimize and reshape established business activities and can thus be seen as a strategy of business development.

Keywords: Business development, digitalization, digital strategies, digital transformation.

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Authors: B. Malekynia

Abstract:

The anomalous generation of plasma blocks by interaction of petawatt-picosecond laser pulses permits side-on ignition of uncompressed solid fusion fuel following an improved application of the hydrodynamic Chu-model for deuterium-tritium. The new possibility of side-on laser ignition depends on accelerated ions and produced ions beams of high energy particles by the nonlinear ponderomotive force of the laser pulse in the plasma block, a re-evaluation of the early hydrodynamic analysis for ignition of inertial fusion by including inhibition factor, collective effect of stopping power of alpha particles and the energy loss rate reabsorption to plasma by the protons of plasma blocks being reduced by about a factor 40.

Keywords: Block ignition, Charged particles, Reabsorption, Skin layer ponderomotive acceleration.

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Authors: Gideon J. Bonthuys, Marco van Dijk, Jay N. Bhagwan

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Small scale hydropower used to play a very important role in the provision of energy to urban and rural areas of South Africa. The national electricity grid, however, expanded and offered cheap, coal generated electricity and a large number of hydropower systems were decommissioned. Unfortunately, large numbers of households and communities will not be connected to the national electricity grid for the foreseeable future due to high cost of transmission and distribution systems to remote communities due to the relatively low electricity demand within rural communities and the allocation of current expenditure on upgrading and constructing of new coal fired power stations. This necessitates the development of feasible alternative power generation technologies. A feasibility and implementation model was developed to assist in designing and financially evaluating small-scale hydropower (SSHP) plants. Several sites were identified using the model. The SSHP plants were designed for the selected sites and the designs for the different selected sites were priced using pricing models (civil, mechanical and electrical aspects). Following feasibility studies done on the designed and priced SSHP plants, a feasibility analysis was done and a design chart developed for future similar potential SSHP plant projects. The methodology followed in conducting the feasibility analysis for other potential sites consisted of developing cost and income/saving formulae, developing net present value (NPV) formulae, Capital Cost Comparison Ratio (CCCR) and levelised cost formulae for SSHP projects for the different types of plant installations. It included setting up a model for the development of a design chart for a SSHP, calculating the NPV, CCCR and levelised cost for the different scenarios within the model by varying different parameters within the developed formulae, setting up the design chart for the different scenarios within the model and analyzing and interpreting results. From the interpretation of the develop design charts for feasible SSHP in can be seen that turbine and distribution line cost are the major influences on the cost and feasibility of SSHP. High head, short transmission line and islanded mini-grid SSHP installations are the most feasible and that the levelised cost of SSHP is high for low power generation sites. The main conclusion from the study is that the levelised cost of SSHP projects indicate that the cost of SSHP for low energy generation is high compared to the levelised cost of grid connected electricity supply; however, the remoteness of SSHP for rural electrification and the cost of infrastructure to connect remote rural communities to the local or national electricity grid provides a low CCCR and renders SSHP for rural electrification feasible on this basis.

Keywords: Feasibility, cost, rural electrification, small-scale hydropower.

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Authors: Raj Kumar Samanta, Partha Bhattacharjee Gautam Sanyal

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In this paper, a mathematical model is proposed to estimate the dropping probabilities of cellular wireless networks by queuing handoff instead of reserving guard channels. Usually, prioritized handling of handoff calls is done with the help of guard channel reservation. To evaluate the proposed model, gamma inter-arrival and general service time distributions have been considered. Prevention of some of the attempted calls from reaching to the switching center due to electromagnetic propagation failure or whimsical user behaviour (missed call, prepaid balance etc.), make the inter-arrival time of the input traffic to follow gamma distribution. The performance is evaluated and compared with that of guard channel scheme.

Keywords: Cellular wireless networks, non-classical traffic, mathematicalmodel, guard channel, queuing, handoff.

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Authors: Nilson Barbieri, Bruno Matos Martins, Gabriel de Sant'Anna Vitor Barbieri

Abstract:

In more complex systems, such as automotive gearbox, a rigorous treatment of the data is necessary because there are several moving parts (gears, bearings, shafts, etc.), and in this way, there are several possible sources of errors and also noise. The basic objective of this work is the detection of damage in automotive gearbox. The detection methods used are the wavelet method, the bispectrum; advanced filtering techniques (selective filtering) of vibrational signals and mathematical morphology. Gearbox vibration tests were performed (gearboxes in good condition and with defects) of a production line of a large vehicle assembler. The vibration signals are obtained using five accelerometers in different positions of the sample. The results obtained using the kurtosis, bispectrum, wavelet and mathematical morphology showed that it is possible to identify the existence of defects in automotive gearboxes.

Keywords: Automotive gearbox, mathematical morphology, wavelet, bispectrum.

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Authors: Mohammad Ghavami, Reza S. Dilmaghani

Abstract:

This paper presents an adaptive framework for modelling financial markets using equity risk premiums, risk free rates and volatilities. The recorded economic factors are initially used to train four adaptive filters for a certain limited period of time in the past. Once the systems are trained, the adjusted coefficients are used for modelling and prediction of an important financial market index. Two different approaches based on least mean squares (LMS) and recursive least squares (RLS) algorithms are investigated. Performance analysis of each method in terms of the mean squared error (MSE) is presented and the results are discussed. Computer simulations carried out using recorded data show MSEs of 4% and 3.4% for the next month prediction using LMS and RLS adaptive algorithms, respectively. In terms of twelve months prediction, RLS method shows a better tendency estimation compared to the LMS algorithm.

Keywords: Prediction of financial markets, Adaptive methods, MSE, LSE.

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Authors: Shine U P, EMS Nair

Abstract:

Fatigue is the major threat in service of steel structure subjected to fluctuating loads. With the additional effect of corrosion and presence of weld joints the fatigue failure may become more critical in structural steel. One of the apt examples of such structural is the sailing ship. This is experiencing a constant stress due to floating and a pulsating bending load due to the waves. This paper describes an attempt to verify theory of fatigue in fracture mechanics approach with experimentation to determine the constants of crack growth curve. For this, specimen is prepared from the ship building steel and it is subjected to a pulsating bending load with a known defect. Fatigue crack and its nature is observed in this experiment. Application of fracture mechanics approach in fatigue with a simple practical experiment is conducted and constants of crack growth equation are investigated.

Keywords: fatigue, fracture mechanics, fatigue testing machine

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Authors: Osama H. Ghazal

Abstract:

The intension in this work is to investigate the effect of different fuels type on engine performance for different engine speed. Brake Power, Brake Torque, and specific fuel consumption were calculated and presented to show the effect of varying fuel type on them for all cases considered. A special program used to carry out the calculations. A simulation model for one-cylinder spark ignition engine has been built and calculated.

The analysis of the results shows that for methanol the power increases about 30% at 1000 rpm and 16% at 6000 rpm comparing with methane. For the same compared fuels the increment in fuel consumption is about 100% at 1000 rpm and 115% at 6000 rpm. The increment in brake thermal efficiency for gasoline is around 11% comparing with methane at 1000 rpm and 7% for methanol comparing with methane at 4000 rpm.

Keywords: Natural gas fuel, spark ignition engines, performance, engine simulation.

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Authors: Sallem F., Dahhou B., Kamoun A.

Abstract:

In this work, the main problem considered is the  detection and the isolation of the actuator fault. A new formulation of  the linear system is generated to obtain the conditions of the actuator  fault diagnosis. The proposed method is based on the representation  of the actuator as a subsystem connected with the process system in  cascade manner. The designed formulation is generated to obtain the  conditions of the actuator fault detection and isolation. Detectability  conditions are expressed in terms of the invertibility notions. An  example and a comparative analysis with the classic formulation  illustrate the performances of such approach for simple actuator fault  diagnosis by using the linear model of nuclear reactor.

 

Keywords: Actuator fault, Fault detection, left invertibility, nuclear reactor, observability, parameter intervals, system inversion.

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Authors: Parvinder S. Sandhu, Harpreet Kaur, Amanpreet Singh

Abstract:

Automatic reusability appraisal is helpful in evaluating the quality of developed or developing reusable software components and in identification of reusable components from existing legacy systems; that can save cost of developing the software from scratch. But the issue of how to identify reusable components from existing systems has remained relatively unexplored. In this research work, structural attributes of software components are explored using software metrics and quality of the software is inferred by different Neural Network based approaches, taking the metric values as input. The calculated reusability value enables to identify a good quality code automatically. It is found that the reusability value determined is close to the manual analysis used to be performed by the programmers or repository managers. So, the developed system can be used to enhance the productivity and quality of software development.

Keywords: Neural Network, Software Reusability, Software Metric, Accuracy, MAE, RMSE.

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Authors: Kholoud A. Al-Shammery , Badr El-Sabah A. Fetoh, Ahmed M. Alshammari

Abstract:

Protein and Esterase electrophoresis were used to genetically identify two Saudi tick species. Engorged females of the camel tick Hyalomma dromedarii (Koch) (Acari: Ixodidae) and the cattle tick Boophilus annulatus (Say) (Acari: Ixodidae) ticks collected from infested camels and cattle in the animals resting house at Hail region in KSA were used. The results showed that there are a variation in both of protein and esterase activity levels and a high polymorphism within and between the genera and species of Hyalomma and Boophilus . In conclusion, the protein and esterase electrophoretic analysis used in the present study could successfully distinguish among tick species, commonly found in Saudi Arabia.

Keywords: Molecular biology, The camel tick Hyalomma dromedarii, The cattle tick Boophilus annulatus , Ticks.

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