Search results for: Partial Modified Prime Code (PMP)

Authors: S. N. Deepa, G. Sugumaran

Abstract:

This paper proposes a new algebraic scheme to design a PID controller for higher order linear time invariant continuous systems. Modified PSO (MPSO) based model order formulation techniques have applied to obtain the effective formulated second order system. A controller is tuned to meet the desired performance specification by using pole-zero cancellation method. Proposed PID controller is attached with both higher order system and formulated second order system. The closed loop response is observed for stabilization process and compared with general PSO based formulated second order system. The proposed method is illustrated through numerical example from literature.

Keywords: Higher order systems, model order formulation, modified particle swarm optimization, PID controller, pole-zero cancellation.

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Authors: Lana Dalawr Jalal

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This paper addresses the problem of offline path planning for Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) in complex threedimensional environment with obstacles, which is modelled by 3D Cartesian grid system. Path planning for UAVs require the computational intelligence methods to move aerial vehicles along the flight path effectively to target while avoiding obstacles. In this paper Modified Particle Swarm Optimization (MPSO) algorithm is applied to generate the optimal collision free 3D flight path for UAV. The simulations results clearly demonstrate effectiveness of the proposed algorithm in guiding UAV to the final destination by providing optimal feasible path quickly and effectively.

Keywords: Obstacle Avoidance, Particle Swarm Optimization, Three-Dimensional Path Planning Unmanned Aerial Vehicles.

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Authors: Nikolaos Kroupis, Minas Dasygenis, Dimitrios Soudris, Antonios Thanailakis

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One of the most growing areas in the embedded community is multimedia devices. Multimedia devices incorporate a number of complicated functions for their operation, like motion estimation. A multitude of different implementations have been proposed to reduce motion estimation complexity, such as spiral search. We have studied the implementations of spiral search and identified areas of improvement. We propose a modified spiral search algorithm, with lower computational complexity compared to the original spiral search. We have implemented our algorithm on an embedded ARM based architecture, with custom memory hierarchy. The resulting system yields energy consumption reduction up to 64% and performance increase up to 77%, with a small penalty of 2.3 dB, in average, of video quality compared with the original spiral search algorithm.

Keywords: Spiral Search, Motion Estimation, Embedded Systems, Low Power

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Authors: Adtha Lawanna

Abstract:

Software maintenance is one of the essential processes of Software-Development Life Cycle. The main philosophies of retaining software concern the improvement of errors, the revision of codes, the inhibition of future errors, and the development in piece and capacity. While the adjustment has been employing, the software structure has to be retested to an upsurge a level of assurance that it will be prepared due to the requirements. According to this state, the test cases must be considered for challenging the revised modules and the whole software. A concept of resolving this problem is ongoing by regression test selection such as the retest-all selections, random/ad-hoc selection and the safe regression test selection. Particularly, the traditional techniques concern a mapping between the test cases in a test suite and the lines of code it executes. However, there are not only the lines of code as one of the requirements that can affect the size of test suite but including the number of functions and faulty versions. Therefore, a model for test case selection is developed to cover those three requirements by the integral technique which can produce the smaller size of the test cases when compared with the traditional regression selection techniques.

Keywords: Software maintenance, regression test selection, test case.

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Authors: Adtha Lawanna

Abstract:

Software maintenance is one of the essential processes of Software-Development Life Cycle. The main philosophies of retaining software concern the improvement of errors, the revision of codes, the inhibition of future errors, and the development in piece and capacity. While the adjustment has been employing, the software structure has to be retested to an upsurge a level of assurance that it will be prepared due to the requirements. According to this state, the test cases must be considered for challenging the revised modules and the whole software. A concept of resolving this problem is ongoing by regression test selection such as the retest-all selections, random/ad-hoc selection and the safe regression test selection. Particularly, the traditional techniques concern a mapping between the test cases in a test suite and the lines of code it executes. However, there are not only the lines of code as one of the requirements that can affect the size of test suite but including the number of functions and faulty versions. Therefore, a model for test case selection is developed to cover those three requirements by the integral technique which can produce the smaller size of the test cases when compared with the traditional regression selection techniques.

Keywords: Software maintenance, regression test selection, test case.

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Authors: Seksan Chunothaisawat, Pongchanun Luangpaiboon

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There are two common types of operational research techniques, optimisation and metaheuristic methods. The latter may be defined as a sequential process that intelligently performs the exploration and exploitation adopted by natural intelligence and strong inspiration to form several iterative searches. An aim is to effectively determine near optimal solutions in a solution space. In this work, a type of metaheuristics called Ant Colonies Optimisation, ACO, inspired by a foraging behaviour of ants was adapted to find optimal solutions of eight non-linear continuous mathematical models. Under a consideration of a solution space in a specified region on each model, sub-solutions may contain global or multiple local optimum. Moreover, the algorithm has several common parameters; number of ants, moves, and iterations, which act as the algorithm-s driver. A series of computational experiments for initialising parameters were conducted through methods of Rigid Simplex, RS, and Modified Simplex, MSM. Experimental results were analysed in terms of the best so far solutions, mean and standard deviation. Finally, they stated a recommendation of proper level settings of ACO parameters for all eight functions. These parameter settings can be applied as a guideline for future uses of ACO. This is to promote an ease of use of ACO in real industrial processes. It was found that the results obtained from MSM were pretty similar to those gained from RS. However, if these results with noise standard deviations of 1 and 3 are compared, MSM will reach optimal solutions more efficiently than RS, in terms of speed of convergence.

Keywords: Ant colony optimisation, metaheuristics, modified simplex, non-linear, rigid simplex.

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Authors: O. Zimbili, W. Salim, M. Ndambuki

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Construction and Demolition (C&D) wastes contribute the highest percentage of wastes worldwide (75%). Furthermore, ceramic materials contribute the highest percentage of wastes within the C&D wastes (54%). The current option for disposal of ceramic wastes is landfill. This is due to unavailability of standards, avoidance of risk, lack of knowledge and experience in using ceramic wastes in construction. The ability of ceramic wastes to act as a pozzolanic material in the production of cement has been effectively explored. The results proved that temperatures used in the manufacturing of these tiles (about 900⁰C) are sufficient to activate pozzolanic properties of clay. They also showed that, after optimization (11-14% substitution); the cement blend performs better, with no morphological difference between the cement blended with ceramic waste, and that blended with other pozzolanic materials. Sanitary ware and electrical insulator porcelain wastes are some wastes investigated for usage as aggregates in concrete production. When optimized, both produced good results, better than when natural aggregates are used. However, the research on ceramic wastes as partial substitute for fine aggregates or cement has not been overly exploited as the other areas. This review has been concluded with focus on investigating whether ceramic wall tile wastes used as partial substitute for cement and fine aggregates could prove to be beneficial since the two materials are the most high-priced during concrete production.

Keywords: Blended, morphological, pozzolanic properties, waste.

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Authors: Sawcen Chebaane, Hakim Ben Othman

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This paper investigates the effect of International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) adoption on the frequency of earnings managements towards small positive profits. We focus on two emerging markets IFRS adopters: South Africa and Turkey. We tested our logistic regression using appropriate panelestimation techniques over a sample of 330 South African and 210 Turkish firm-year observations over the period 2002-2008. Our results document that mandatory adoption of IFRS is not associated with a reduction in earnings management towards small positive profits in emerging markets. These results contradict most of the previous findings of the studies conducted in developed countries. Based on the legal system factor, we compare the intensity of earnings management between a code law country (Turkey) and a common law country (South Africa) over the pre and post-adoption periods. Our findings show that the frequency of such earnings management practice increases significantly for the code law country.

Keywords: Civil law, common law, emerging markets, Mandatory IFRS adoption, small positive profits.

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Authors: Khine Phyu, Aung Myint Aye

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This paper presents results of measurements campaign carried out at a carrier frequency of 24GHz with the help of TPLINK router in indoor line-of-sight (LOS) scenarios. Firstly, the radio wave propagation strategies are analyzed in some rooms with router of point to point Ad hoc network. Then floor attenuation is defined for 3 floors in experimental region. The free space model and dual slope models are modified by considering the influence of corridor conditions on each floor. Using these models, indoor signal attenuation can be estimated in modeling of indoor radio wave propagation. These results and modified models can also be used in planning the networks of future personal communications services.

Keywords: radio wave signal analyzing, LOS radio wavepropagation, indoor radio wave propagation, free space model, tworay model and indoor attenuation.

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Authors: T.C.Manjunath, Ph.D., Ashok Kusagur, Shruthi Sanjay, Saritha Sindushree, C. Ardil

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This paper deals with the design, development & implementation of a temperature sensor using zigbee. The main aim of the work undertaken in this paper is to sense the temperature and to display the result on the LCD using the zigbee technology. ZigBee operates in the industrial, scientific and medical (ISM) radio bands; 868 MHz in Europe, 915 MHz in the USA and 2.4 GHz in most jurisdictions worldwide. The technology is intended to be simpler and cheaper than other WPANs such as Bluetooth. The most capable ZigBee node type is said to require only about 10 % of the software of a typical Bluetooth or Wireless Internet node, while the simplest nodes are about 2 %. However, actual code sizes are much higher, more like 50 % of the Bluetooth code size. ZigBee chip vendors have announced 128-kilobyte devices. In this work undertaken in the design & development of the temperature sensor, it senses the temperature and after amplification is then fed to the micro controller, this is then connected to the zigbee module, which transmits the data and at the other end the zigbee reads the data and displays on to the LCD. The software developed is highly accurate and works at a very high speed. The method developed shows the effectiveness of the scheme employed.

Keywords: Zigbee, Microcontroller, PIC, Transmitter, Receiver, Synchronous, Blue tooth, Communication.

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Authors: Salah Alrabeei, Mohammad Yousuf

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The goal of option pricing theory is to help the investors to manage their money, enhance returns and control their financial future by theoretically valuing their options. Modeling option pricing by Black-School models with jumps guarantees to consider the market movement. However, only numerical methods can solve this model. Furthermore, not all the numerical methods are efficient to solve these models because they have nonsmoothing payoffs or discontinuous derivatives at the exercise price. In this paper, the exponential time differencing (ETD) method is applied for solving partial integrodifferential equations arising in pricing European options under Merton’s and Kou’s jump-diffusion models. Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) algorithm is used as a matrix-vector multiplication solver, which reduces the complexity from O(M2) into O(M logM). A partial fraction form of Pad`e schemes is used to overcome the complexity of inverting polynomial of matrices. These two tools guarantee to get efficient and accurate numerical solutions. We construct a parallel and easy to implement a version of the numerical scheme. Numerical experiments are given to show how fast and accurate is our scheme.

Keywords: Integral differential equations, L-stable methods, pricing European options, Jump–diffusion model.

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Authors: Joon Ho Kim, Tae Kwon Ha

Abstract:

Single crystals of Magnesium alloys such as Mg-1Al, Mg-1Zn-0.5Y, Mg-3Li, and AZ31 alloys were successfully fabricated in this study by employing the modified Bridgman method. Single crystals of pure Mg were also made in this study. To determine the exact orientation of crystals, Laue back-reflection method and pole figure measurement were carried out on each single crystal. Dimensions of single crystals were 10 mm in diameter and 120 mm in length. Hardness and compression tests were conducted and the results revealed that hardness and the strength strongly depended on the orientation. The closer to basal one the orientation was, the higher hardness and compressive strength were. The effect of alloying was not higher than that of orientation. After compressive deformation of single crystals, the orientation of the crystals was found to rotate and to be parallel to the basal orientation.

Keywords: Compressive strength, Hardness, Mg alloys, Modified Bridgman method, Orientation, Pole figure, Single crystal.

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Authors: W. Permchart, S. Tanatvanit

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This paper presents the results of the experimental tests of the cooling performance of a 12,000-Btu/h modified air conditioner (referred to as M-AC) that use the ground as a heat sink of a condenser. In the tests, cooling capacity of M-AC with an optimal length of a condensing coil as well as life expectancy of copper coil buried underground were investigated. The lengths of copper coil fabricated and used as condenser coil of M-AC were set at 67, 50, 40 and 30 m whereas that of a 12,000-Btu/h conventional split-type air conditioner (referred to as C-AC) was about 22 m. The results showed that the ground can absorb heat rejected from a condenser of M-AC. The coefficient of performance (COP) of C-AC was about 2.5 whereas those of M-AC were found to be higher. It was found that the values of COP of M-AC with condensing coils of 67, 50 and 40 m long were about 6.9, 5.5 and 3.3, respectively, while that of 30-m-long one was found to be about 2.1. The electrical consumptions of M-AC were found lower than that of C-AC in the range of 11.5 – 15.5%. Additionally, life expectancy of underground condensing coil of M-AC was found to be over 7 years.

Keywords: Air conditioner, condenser, copper coil, ground.

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Authors: Abolghasem Yazdani, Sara Pourjafar

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This study has applied the L16 orthogonal array of the Taguchi method to determine the optimized polymeric Nanocomposite asphalt binder. Three control factors are defined as polypropylene plastomer (PP), styrene-butadiene-styrene elastomer (SBS) and Nanoclay. Four level of concentration contents are introduced for prepared asphalt binder samples. all samples were prepared with 4.5% of bitumen 60/70 content. Compressive strength tests were carried out for defining the optimized sample via QUALITEK-4 software. SBS with 3%, PP with 5 % and Nanoclay with 1.5% of concentrations are defined as the optimized Nanocomposite asphalt binders. The confirmation compressive strength and also softening point tests showed that modification of asphalt binders with this method, improved the compressive strength and softening points of asphalt binders up to 55%.

Keywords: modified asphalt, Polypropylene, SBS, Nanoclay, Taguchi method

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Authors: Vikas Tewari, K.R. Pardasani

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Calcium is very important for communication among the neurons. It is vital in a number of cell processes such as secretion, cell movement, cell differentiation. To reduce the system of reactiondiffusion equations of [Ca2+] into a single equation, two theories have been proposed one is excess buffer approximation (EBA) other is rapid buffer approximation (RBA). The RBA is more realistic than the EBA as it considers both the mobile and stationary endogenous buffers. It is valid near the mouth of the channel. In this work we have studied the effects of different types of buffers on calcium diffusion under RBA. The novel thing studied is the effect of sodium ions on calcium diffusion. The model has been made realistic by considering factors such as variable [Ca2+], [Na+] sources, sodium-calcium exchange protein(NCX), Sarcolemmal Calcium ATPase pump. The proposed mathematical leads to a system of partial differential equations which has been solved numerically to study the relationships between different parameters such as buffer concentration, buffer disassociation rate, calcium permeability. We have used Forward Time Centred Space (FTCS) approach to solve the system of partial differential equations.

Keywords: rapid buffer approximation, sodium-calcium exchangeprotein, Sarcolemmal Calcium ATPase pump, buffer disassociationrate, forward time centred space.

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Authors: Iman Elyasi, Sadegh Zarmehi

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Due to some reasons, observed images are degraded which are mainly caused by noise. Recently image denoising using the wavelet transform has been attracting much attention. Waveletbased approach provides a particularly useful method for image denoising when the preservation of edges in the scene is of importance because the local adaptivity is based explicitly on the values of the wavelet detail coefficients. In this paper, we propose several methods of noise removal from degraded images with Gaussian noise by using adaptive wavelet threshold (Bayes Shrink, Modified Bayes Shrink and Normal Shrink). The proposed thresholds are simple and adaptive to each subband because the parameters required for estimating the threshold depend on subband data. Experimental results show that the proposed thresholds remove noise significantly and preserve the edges in the scene.

Keywords: Image denoising, Bayes Shrink, Modified Bayes Shrink, Normal Shrink.

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Authors: R. Rahmoun-Mrabet

Abstract:

It is acknowledged that our style of speaking changes according to a wide range of variables such as gender, setting, the age of both the addresser and the addressee, the conversation topic, and the aim of the interaction. These differences in style are noticeable in monolingual and multilingual speech communities. Yet, they are more observable in speech communities where two or more codes coexist. The linguistic situation in Algeria reflects a state of bilingualism because of the coexistence of Arabic and French. Nevertheless, like all Arab countries, it is characterized by diglossia i.e. the concomitance of Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) and Algerian Arabic (AA), the former standing for the ‘high variety’ and the latter for the ‘low variety’. The two varieties are derived from the same source but are used to fulfil distinct functions that is, MSA is used in the domains of religion, literature, education and formal settings. AA, on the other hand, is used in informal settings, in everyday speech. French has strongly affected the Algerian language and culture because of the historical background of Algeria, thus, what can easily be noticed in Algeria is that everyday speech is characterized by code-switching from dialectal Arabic and French or by the use of borrowings. Tamazight is also very present in many regions of Algeria and is the mother tongue of many Algerians. Yet, it is not used in the west of Algeria, where the study has been conducted. The present work, which was directed in the speech community of Tlemcen-Algeria, aims at depicting some of the outcomes of the contact of Arabic with French such as code-switching, borrowing and interference. The question that has been asked is whether Algerians are aware of their use of borrowings or not. Three steps are followed in this research; the first one is to depict the sociolinguistic situation in Algeria and to describe the linguistic characteristics of the dialect of Tlemcen, which are specific to this city. The second one is concerned with data collection. Data have been collected from 57 informants who were given questionnaires and who have then been classified according to their age, gender and level of education. Information has also been collected through observation, and note taking. The third step is devoted to analysis. The results obtained reveal that most Algerians are aware of their use of borrowings. The present work clarifies how words are borrowed from French, and then adapted to Arabic. It also illustrates the way in which singular words inflect into plural. The results expose the main characteristics of borrowing as opposed to code-switching. The study also clarifies how interference occurs at the level of nouns, verbs and adjectives.

Keywords: Bilingualism, borrowing, code-switching, interference, language contact.

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Authors: A. A. Hossam-Eldin, E. N. Abdallah, M. S. El-Nozahy

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Power system state estimation is the process of calculating a reliable estimate of the power system state vector composed of bus voltages' angles and magnitudes from telemetered measurements on the system. This estimate of the state vector provides the description of the system necessary for the operation and security monitoring. Many methods are described in the literature for solving the state estimation problem, the most important of which are the classical weighted least squares method and the nondeterministic genetic based method; however both showed drawbacks. In this paper a modified version of the genetic algorithm power system state estimation is introduced, Sensitivity of the proposed algorithm to genetic operators is discussed, the algorithm is applied to case studies and finally it is compared with the classical weighted least squares method formulation.

Keywords: Genetic algorithms, ill-conditioning, state estimation, weighted least squares.

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Authors: Muhammad Aqil, Ichiro Kita, Akira Yano, Nishiyama Soichi

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This paper presents an alternate approach that uses artificial neural network to simulate the flood level dynamics in a river basin. The algorithm was developed in a decision support system environment in order to enable users to process the data. The decision support system is found to be useful due to its interactive nature, flexibility in approach and evolving graphical feature and can be adopted for any similar situation to predict the flood level. The main data processing includes the gauging station selection, input generation, lead-time selection/generation, and length of prediction. This program enables users to process the flood level data, to train/test the model using various inputs and to visualize results. The program code consists of a set of files, which can as well be modified to match other purposes. This program may also serve as a tool for real-time flood monitoring and process control. The running results indicate that the decision support system applied to the flood level seems to have reached encouraging results for the river basin under examination. The comparison of the model predictions with the observed data was satisfactory, where the model is able to forecast the flood level up to 5 hours in advance with reasonable prediction accuracy. Finally, this program may also serve as a tool for real-time flood monitoring and process control.

Keywords: Decision Support System, Neural Network, Flood Level

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Authors: Amrita Tripathi, Neeru Adlakha

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Calcium [Ca2+] dynamics is studied as a potential form of neuron excitability that can control many irregular processes like metabolism, secretion etc. Ca2+ ion enters presynaptic terminal and increases the synaptic strength and thus triggers the neurotransmitter release. The modeling and analysis of calcium dynamics in neuron cell becomes necessary for deeper understanding of the processes involved. A mathematical model has been developed for cylindrical shaped neuron cell by incorporating physiological parameters like buffer, diffusion coefficient, and association rate. Appropriate initial and boundary conditions have been framed. The closed form solution has been developed in terms of modified Bessel function. A computer program has been developed in MATLAB 7.11 for the whole approach.

Keywords: Laplace Transform, Modified Bessel function, reaction diffusion equation, diffusion coefficient, excess buffer, calcium influx

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Authors: M. Bodner, M. Scampicchio

Abstract:

Fourier Transform Infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy coupled with chemometrics was used to distinguish between butter samples and non-butter samples. Further, quantification of the content of margarine in adulterated butter samples was investigated. Fingerprinting region (1400-800 cm^–1) was used to develop unsupervised pattern recognition (Principal Component Analysis, PCA), supervised modeling (Soft Independent Modelling by Class Analogy, SIMCA), classification (Partial Least Squares Discriminant Analysis, PLS-DA) and regression (Partial Least Squares Regression, PLS-R) models. PCA of the fingerprinting region shows a clustering of the two sample types. All samples were classified in their rightful class by SIMCA approach; however, nine adulterated samples (between 1% and 30% w/w of margarine) were classified as belonging both at the butter class and at the non-butter one. In the two-class PLS-DA model’s (R² = 0.73, RMSEP, Root Mean Square Error of Prediction = 0.26% w/w) sensitivity was 71.4% and Positive Predictive Value (PPV) 100%. Its threshold was calculated at 7% w/w of margarine in adulterated butter samples. Finally, PLS-R model (R² = 0.84, RMSEP = 16.54%) was developed. PLS-DA was a suitable classification tool and PLS-R a proper quantification approach. Results demonstrate that FT-IR spectroscopy combined with PLS-R can be used as a rapid, simple and safe method to identify pure butter samples from adulterated ones and to determine the grade of adulteration of margarine in butter samples.

Keywords: Adulterated butter, margarine, PCA, PLS-DA, PLS-R, SIMCA.

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Authors: M. Ahmadi Marvast, M. Sohrabi, H. Ganji

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The rate of production of main products of the Fischer-Tropsch reactions over Fe/HZSM5 bifunctional catalyst in a fixed bed reactor is investigated at a broad range of temperature, pressure, space velocity, H2/CO feed molar ratio and CO2, CH4 and water flow rates. Model discrimination and parameter estimation were performed according to the integral method of kinetic analysis. Due to lack of mechanism development for Fisher – Tropsch Synthesis on bifunctional catalysts, 26 different models were tested and the best model is selected. Comprehensive one and two dimensional heterogeneous reactor models are developed to simulate the performance of fixed-bed Fischer – Tropsch reactors. To reduce computational time for optimization purposes, an Artificial Feed Forward Neural Network (AFFNN) has been used to describe intra particle mass and heat transfer diffusion in the catalyst pellet. It is seen that products' reaction rates have direct relation with H2 partial pressure and reverse relation with CO partial pressure. The results show that the hybrid model has good agreement with rigorous mechanistic model, favoring that the hybrid model is about 25-30 times faster.

Keywords: Fischer-Tropsch, heterogeneous modeling, kinetic study.

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Authors: Sellappan Narayanagounder, Karuppusami Gurusami

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The traditional Failure Mode and Effects Analysis (FMEA) uses Risk Priority Number (RPN) to evaluate the risk level of a component or process. The RPN index is determined by calculating the product of severity, occurrence and detection indexes. The most critically debated disadvantage of this approach is that various sets of these three indexes may produce an identical value of RPN. This research paper seeks to address the drawbacks in traditional FMEA and to propose a new approach to overcome these shortcomings. The Risk Priority Code (RPC) is used to prioritize failure modes, when two or more failure modes have the same RPN. A new method is proposed to prioritize failure modes, when there is a disagreement in ranking scale for severity, occurrence and detection. An Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) is used to compare means of RPN values. SPSS (Statistical Package for the Social Sciences) statistical analysis package is used to analyze the data. The results presented are based on two case studies. It is found that the proposed new methodology/approach resolves the limitations of traditional FMEA approach.

Keywords: Failure mode and effects analysis, Risk priority code, Critical failure mode, Analysis of variance.

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Authors: Noor Ayuni Che Zakaria, Takashi Komeda, Cheng Yee Low, Kaoru Inoue, Fazah Akhtar Hanapiah

Abstract:

Previous studies have shown that there are arguments regarding the reliability and validity of the Ashworth and Modified Ashworth Scale towards evaluating patients diagnosed with upper limb disorders. These evaluations depended on the raters’ experiences. This initiated us to develop an upper limb disorder part-task trainer that is able to simulate consistent upper limb disorders, such as spasticity and rigidity signs, based on the Modified Ashworth Scale to improve the variability occurring between raters and intra-raters themselves. By providing consistent signs, novice therapists would be able to increase training frequency and exposure towards various levels of signs. A total of 22 physiotherapists and occupational therapists participated in the study. The majority of the therapists agreed that with current therapy education, they still face problems with inter-raters and intra-raters variability (strongly agree 54%; n = 12/22, agree 27%; n = 6/22) in evaluating patients’ conditions. The therapists strongly agreed (72%; n = 16/22) that therapy trainees needed to increase their frequency of training; therefore believe that our initiative to develop an upper limb disorder training tool will help in improving the clinical education field (strongly agree and agree 63%; n = 14/22).

Keywords: Upper limb disorders, Clinical education tool, Inter/intra-raters variability, Spasticity, Modified Ashworth Scale.

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Authors: Marinelle El-Khoury, Lina Bouhaya, Nivine Abbas, Hassan Sleiman

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The road network in the north of Lebanon is a prime example of the lack of pavement design and execution in Lebanon.  These roads show major distresses and hence, should be tested and evaluated. The aim of this research is to investigate and determine the deficiencies in road surface design in Lebanon, and to propose an environmentally friendly asphalt mix design. This paper consists of several parts: (i) evaluating pavement performance and structural behavior, (ii) identifying the distresses using visual examination followed by laboratory tests, (iii) deciding the optimal solution where rehabilitation or reconstruction is required and finally, (iv) identifying a sustainable method, which uses recycled material in the proposed mix. The asphalt formula contains Reclaimed Asphalt Pavement (RAP) in the base course layer and in the asphalt layer. Visual inspection of the roads in Tripoli shows that these roads face a high level of distress severity. Consequently, the pavement should be reconstructed rather than simply rehabilitated. Coring was done to determine the pavement layer thickness. The results were compared to the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) design methodology and showed that the existing asphalt thickness is lower than the required asphalt thickness. Prior to the pavement reconstruction, the road materials were tested according to the American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM) specification to identify whether the materials are suitable. Accordingly, the ASTM tests that were performed on the base course are Sieve analysis, Atterberg limits, modified proctor, Los Angeles, and California Bearing Ratio (CBR) tests. Results show a CBR value higher than 70%. Hence, these aggregates could be used as a base course layer. The asphalt layer was also tested and the results of the Marshall flow and stability tests meet the ASTM specifications. In the last section, an environmentally friendly mix was proposed. An optimal RAP percentage of 30%, which produced a well graded base course and asphalt mix, was determined through a series of trials.

Keywords: Asphalt mix, reclaimed asphalt pavement, California bearing ratio, sustainability.

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Authors: Lixin Tian, Wei Xue

Abstract:

Many jobs in society go underground, such as mine mining, tunnel construction and subways, which are vital to the development of society. Once accidents occur in these places, the interruption of traditional wired communication is not conducive to the development of rescue work. In order to realize the positioning, early warning and command functions of underground personnel and improve rescue efficiency, it is necessary to develop and design an emergency ground communication system. It is easy to be subjected to narrowband interference when performing conventional underground communication. Spreading communication can be used for this problem. However, general spread spectrum methods such as direct spread communication are inefficient, so it is proposed to use parallel combined spread spectrum (PCSS) communication to improve efficiency. The PCSS communication not only has the anti-interference ability and the good concealment of the traditional spread spectrum system, but also has a relatively high frequency band utilization rate and a strong information transmission capability. So, this technology has been widely used in practice. This paper presents a PCSS communication model-multiple detection parallel combined spread spectrum (MDPCSS) communication system. In this paper, the principle of MDPCSS communication system is described, that is, the sequence at the transmitting end is processed in blocks and cyclically shifted to facilitate multiple detection at the receiving end. The block diagrams of the transmitter and receiver of the MDPCSS communication system are introduced. At the same time, the calculation formula of the system bit error rate (BER) is introduced, and the simulation and analysis of the BER of the system are completed. By comparing with the common parallel PCSS communication, we can draw a conclusion that it is indeed possible to reduce the BER and improve the system performance. Furthermore, the influence of different pseudo-code lengths selected on the system BER is simulated and analyzed, and the conclusion is that the larger the pseudo-code length is, the smaller the system error rate is.

Keywords: Cyclic shift, multiple detection, parallel combined spread spectrum, PN code.

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Authors: Katya Milenova, Penko Nikolov, Irina Stambolova, Plamen Nikolov, Vladimir Blaskov

Abstract:

In this article a comparison was made between Cu and TiO2 supported catalysts on activated carbon for ozone decomposition reaction. The activated carbon support in the case of TiO2/AC sample was prepared by physicochemical pyrolysis and for Cu/AC samples the supports are chemically modified carbons. The prepared catalysts were synthesized by impregnation method. The samples were annealed in two different regimes- in air and under vacuum. To examine adsorption efficiency of the samples BET method was used. All investigated catalysts supported on chemically modified carbons have higher specific surface area compared to the specific surface area of TiO2 supported catalysts, varying in the range 590÷620 m2/g. The method of synthesis of the precursors had influenced catalytic activity.

Keywords: Activated carbon, adsorption, copper, ozone decomposition, TiO2.

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Authors: Venny, S. Gan, H. K. Ng

Abstract:

This work focuses on the remediation of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs)-contaminated soil via Fenton treatment coupled with novel chelating agent (CA). The feasibility of chelated modified Fenton (MF) treatment to promote PAH oxidation in artificially contaminated soils was investigated in laboratory scale batch experiments at natural pH. The effects of adding inorganic and organic CA are discussed. Experiments using different iron catalyst to CA ratios were conducted, resulting in hydrogen peroxide: soil: iron: CA weight ratios that varied from 0.049: 1: 0.072: 0.008 to 0.049: 1: 0.072: 0.067. The results revealed that (1) inorganic CA could provide much higher PAH removal efficiency and (2) most of the proposed CAs were more efficient than commonly utilised CAs even at mild ratio. This work highlights the potential of novel chelating agents in maintaining a suitable environment throughout the Fenton treatment, particularly in soils with high buffer capacity.

Keywords: Chelating agent, Fenton, hydroxyl radicals, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon.

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Authors: I.Banerjee, A.K.Mahendra, T.K.Bera, B.G.Chandresh

Abstract:

The scroll pump belongs to the category of positive displacement pump can be used for continuous pumping of gases at low pressure apart from general vacuum application. The shape of volume occupied by the gas moves and deforms continuously as the spiral orbits. To capture flow features in such domain where mesh deformation varies with time in a complicated manner, mesh less solver was found to be very useful. Least Squares Kinetic Upwind Method (LSKUM) is a kinetic theory based mesh free Euler solver working on arbitrary distribution of points. Here upwind is enforced in molecular level based on kinetic flux vector splitting scheme (KFVS). In the present study we extended the LSKUM to moving node viscous flow application. This new code LSKUM-NS-MN for moving node viscous flow is validated for standard airfoil pitching test case. Simulation performed for flow through scroll pump using LSKUM-NS-MN code agrees well with the experimental pumping speed data.

Keywords: Least Squares, Moving node, Pitching, Spirals.

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Authors: H K Lakshminarayana, J S Bhat, H M Mahesh

Abstract:

A new estimator for evolutionary spectrum (ES) based on short time Fourier transform (STFT) and modified group delay function (MGDF) by signal decomposition (SD) is proposed. The STFT due to its built-in averaging, suppresses the cross terms and the MGDF preserves the frequency resolution of the rectangular window with the reduction in the Gibbs ripple. The present work overcomes the magnitude distortion observed in multi-component non-stationary signals with STFT and MGDF estimation of ES using SD. The SD is achieved either through discrete cosine transform based harmonic wavelet transform (DCTHWT) or perfect reconstruction filter banks (PRFB). The MGDF also improves the signal to noise ratio by removing associated noise. The performance of the present method is illustrated for cross chirp and frequency shift keying (FSK) signals, which indicates that its performance is better than STFT-MGDF (STFT-GD) alone. Further its noise immunity is better than STFT. The SD based methods, however cannot bring out the frequency transition path from band to band clearly, as there will be gap in the contour plot at the transition. The PRFB based STFT-SD shows good performance than DCTHWT decomposition method for STFT-GD.

Keywords: Evolutionary Spectrum, Modified Group Delay, Discrete Cosine Transform, Harmonic Wavelet Transform, Perfect Reconstruction Filter Banks, Short Time Fourier Transform.

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