Search results for: Traffic safety
760 Analysis of the Fire Hazard Posed by Petrol Stations in Stellenbosch and the Degree of Risk Acknowledgement in Land-Use Planning
Authors: K. Qonono
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Despite the significance and economic benefits of petrol stations in South Africa, these still pose a huge risk of fire and explosion threatening public safety. This research paper examines the extent to which land-use planning in Stellenbosch, South Africa, considers the fire risk posed by petrol stations and the implications for public safety as well as preparedness for large fires or explosions. To achieve this, the research identified the land-use types around petrol stations in Stellenbosch and determined the extent to which their locations comply with the local, national, and international land-use planning regulations. A mixed research method consisting of the collection and analysis of geospatial data and qualitative data was applied, where petrol stations within a six-kilometre radius of Stellenbosch’s town centre were utilised as study sites. The research examined the risk of fires/explosions at these petrol stations. The research investigated Stellenbosch Municipality’s institutional preparedness to respond in the event of a fire/explosion at these petrol stations. The research observed that siting of petrol stations does not comply with local, national, and international good practices, thus exposing the surrounding developments to fires and explosions. Land-use planning practice does not consider hazards created by petrol stations. Despite the potential for major fires at petrol stations, Stellenbosch Municipality’s level of preparedness to respond to petrol station fires appears low due to the prioritisation of more frequent events.
Keywords: Petrol stations, technological hazard, DRR, land-use planning, risk analysis.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 141759 Classification of Ground Water Resources for Emergency Supply
Authors: František Bozek, Alexandr Bozek, Alena Bumbova, Eduard Bakos, Jiri Dvorak
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The article deals with the classification of alternative water resources in terms of potential risks which is the prerequisite for incorporating these water resources to the emergency plans. The classification is based on the quantification of risks resulting from possible damage, disruption or total destruction of water resource caused by natural and anthropogenic hazards, assessment of water quality and availability, traffic accessibility of the assessed resource and finally its water yield. The aim is to achieve the development of an integrated rescue system, which will be capable of supplying the population with drinking water on the whole stricken territory during the states of emergency.
Keywords: Classification, Emergency Supply, Risk, Water Standby Resource.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1732758 Development and Control of Deep Seated Gravitational Slope Deformation: The Case of Colzate-Vertova Landslide, Bergamo, Northern Italy
Authors: Paola Comella, Vincenzo Francani, Paola Gattinoni
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This paper presents the Colzate-Vertova landslide, a Deep Seated Gravitational Slope Deformation (DSGSD) located in the Seriana Valley, Northern Italy. The paper aims at describing the development as well as evaluating the factors that influence the evolution of the landslide. After defining the conceptual model of the landslide, numerical simulations were developed using a finite element numerical model, first with a two-dimensional domain, and later with a three-dimensional one. The results of the 2-D model showed a displacement field typical of a sackung, as a consequence of the erosion along the Seriana Valley. The analysis also showed that the groundwater flow could locally affect the slope stability, bringing about a reduction in the safety factor, but without reaching failure conditions. The sensitivity analysis carried out on the strength parameters pointed out that slope failures could be reached only for relevant reduction of the geotechnical characteristics. Such a result does not fit the real conditions observed on site, where a number of small failures often develop all along the hillslope. The 3-D model gave a more comprehensive analysis of the evolution of the DSGSD, also considering the border effects. The results showed that the convex profile of the slope favors the development of displacements along the lateral valley, with a relevant reduction in the safety factor, justifying the existing landslides.
Keywords: Deep seated gravitational slope deformation, Italy, landslide, numerical modeling.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1025757 B-VIS Service-oriented Middleware for RFID Sensor Network
Authors: Wiroon Sriborrirux, Sorakrai Kraipui, Nakorn Indra-Payoong
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One of the most importance of intelligence in-car and roadside systems is the cooperative vehicle-infrastructure system. In Thailand, ITS technologies are rapidly growing and real-time vehicle information is considerably needed for ITS applications; for example, vehicle fleet tracking and control and road traffic monitoring systems. This paper defines the communication protocols and software design for middleware components of B-VIS (Burapha Vehicle-Infrastructure System). The proposed B-VIS middleware architecture serves the needs of a distributed RFID sensor network and simplifies some intricate details of several communication standards.Keywords: Middleware, RFID sensor network, Cooperativevehicle-infrastructure system, Enterprise Java Bean.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1535756 Microclimate Variations in Rio de Janeiro Related to Massive Public Transportation
Authors: Marco E. O. Jardim, Frederico A. M. Souza, Valeria M. Bastos, Myrian C. A. Costa, Nelson F. F. Ebecken
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Urban public transportation in Rio de Janeiro is based on bus lines, powered by diesel, and four limited metro lines that support only some neighborhoods. This work presents an infrastructure built to better understand microclimate variations related to massive urban transportation in some specific areas of the city. The use of sensor nodes with small analytics capacity provides environmental information to population or public services. The analyses of data collected from a few small sensors positioned near some heavy traffic streets show the harmful impact due to poor bus route plan.
Keywords: Big data, IoT, public transportation, public health system.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1071755 New Mitigating Technique to Overcome DDOS Attack
Authors: V. Praveena, N. Kiruthika
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In this paper, we explore a new scheme for filtering spoofed packets (DDOS attack) which is a combination of path fingerprint and client puzzle concepts. In this each IP packet has a unique fingerprint is embedded that represents, the route a packet has traversed. The server maintains a mapping table which contains the client IP address and its corresponding fingerprint. In ingress router, client puzzle is placed. For each request, the puzzle issuer provides a puzzle which the source has to solve. Our design has the following advantages over prior approaches, 1) Reduce the network traffic, as we place a client puzzle at the ingress router. 2) Mapping table at the server is lightweight and moderate.
Keywords: Client puzzle, DDOS attack, Egress, Ingress, IP Spoofing, Spoofed Packet.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1626754 A Methodology for Reducing the BGP Convergence Time
Authors: Eatedal A. Alabdulkreem, Hamed S. Al-Raweshidy, Maysam F. Abbod
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Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) is the standard routing protocol between various autonomous systems (AS) in the internet. In the event of failure, a considerable delay in the BGP convergence has been shown by empirical measurements. During the convergence time the BGP will repeatedly advertise new routes to some destination and withdraw old ones until it reach a stable state. It has been found that the KEEPALIVE message timer and the HOLD time are tow parameters affecting the convergence speed. This paper aims to find the optimum value for the KEEPALIVE timer and the HOLD time that maximally reduces the convergence time without increasing the traffic. The KEEPALIVE message timer optimal value founded by this paper is 30 second instead of 60 seconds, and the optimal value for the HOLD time is 90 seconds instead of 180 seconds.
Keywords: BGP, Convergence Time, HOLD time, Keep alive.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2041753 Development of Affordable and Reliable Diagnostic Tools to Record Vital Parameters for Improving Health Care in Low Resources Settings
Authors: Mannan Mridha, Usama Gazay, Kosovare V. Aslani, Hugo Linder, Alice Ravizza, Carmelo de Maria
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In most developing countries, although the vast majority of the people are living in the rural areas, the qualified medical doctors are not available there. Health care workers and paramedics, called village doctors, informal healthcare providers, are largely responsible for the rural medical care. Mishaps due to wrong diagnosis and inappropriate medication have been causing serious suffering that is preventable. While innovators have created many devices, the vast majority of these technologies do not find applications to address the needs and conditions in low-resource settings. The primary motive is to address the acute lack of affordable medical technologies for the poor people in low-resource settings. A low cost smart medical device that is portable, battery operated and can be used at any point of care has been developed to detect breathing rate, electrocardiogram (ECG) and arterial pulse rate to improve diagnosis and monitoring of patients and thus improve care and safety. This simple and easy to use smart medical device can be used, managed and maintained effectively and safely by any health worker with some training. In order to empower the health workers and village doctors, our device is being further developed to integrate with ICT tools like smart phones and connect to the medical experts wherever available, to manage the serious health problems.
Keywords: Healthcare for low resources settings, health awareness education, improve patient care and safety, smart and affordable medical device.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 854752 Database Compression for Intelligent On-board Vehicle Controllers
Authors: Ágoston Winkler, Sándor Juhász, Zoltán Benedek
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The vehicle fleet of public transportation companies is often equipped with intelligent on-board passenger information systems. A frequently used but time and labor-intensive way for keeping the on-board controllers up-to-date is the manual update using different memory cards (e.g. flash cards) or portable computers. This paper describes a compression algorithm that enables data transmission using low bandwidth wireless radio networks (e.g. GPRS) by minimizing the amount of data traffic. In typical cases it reaches a compression rate of an order of magnitude better than that of the general purpose compressors. Compressed data can be easily expanded by the low-performance controllers, too.
Keywords: Data analysis, data compression, differentialencoding, run-length encoding, vehicle control.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1567751 Drowsiness Warning System Using Artificial Intelligence
Authors: Nidhi Sharma, V. K. Banga
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Nowadays, driving support systems, such as car navigation systems, are getting common, and they support drivers in several aspects. It is important for driving support systems to detect status of driver's consciousness. Particularly, detecting driver's drowsiness could prevent drivers from collisions caused by drowsy driving. In this paper, we discuss the various artificial detection methods for detecting driver's drowsiness processing technique. This system is based on facial images analysis for warning the driver of drowsiness or in attention to prevent traffic accidents.Keywords: Neuro-Fuzzy Model, Halstead Model, Walston-FelixModel, Bailey-Basili Model, Doty Model, GA Based Model, GeneticAlgorithm.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 3711750 Pay Per Click Attribution: Effects on Direct Search Traffic and Purchases
Authors: Toni Raurich, Joan Llonch-Andreu
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This research focused on the relationship between Search Engine Marketing (SEM) and traditional advertising. The dominant assumption is that SEM does not help brand awareness and only does it in session as if it were the cost of manufacturing the product being sold. The study is methodologically developed using an experiment where the effects were determined to analyze the billboard effect. The research allowed the cross-linking of theoretical and empirical knowledge on digital marketing. This paper has validated that, this marketing generates retention as traditional advertising would by measuring brand awareness and its improvements. This changes the way performance and brand campaigns are distributed within marketing departments, effectively rebalancing budgets moving forward.
Keywords: Search engine marketing, click-through ratios, pay-per-click, marketing attribution.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 420749 Urban Search and Rescue and Rapid Field Assessment of Damaged and Collapsed Building Structures
Authors: Abid I. Abu-Tair, Gavin M. Wilde, John M. Kinuthia
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Urban Search and Rescue (USAR) is a functional capability that has been developed to allow the United Kingdom Fire and Rescue Service to deal with ‘major incidents’ primarily involving structural collapse. The nature of the work undertaken by USAR means that staying out of a damaged or collapsed building structure is not usually an option for search and rescue personnel. As a result there is always a risk that they themselves could become victims. For this paper, a systematic and investigative review using desk research was undertaken to explore the role which structural engineering can play in assisting search and rescue personnel to conduct structural assessments when in the field. The focus is on how search and rescue personnel can assess damaged and collapsed building structures, not just in terms of structural damage that may been countered, but also in relation to structural stability. Natural disasters, accidental emergencies, acts of terrorism and other extreme events can vary significantly in nature and ferocity, and can cause a wide variety of damage to building structures. It is not possible or, even realistic, to provide search and rescue personnel with definitive guidelines and procedures to assess damaged and collapsed building structures as there are too many variables to consider. However, understanding what implications damage may have upon the structural stability of a building structure will enable search and rescue personnel to better judge and quantify risk from a life-safety standpoint. It is intended that this will allow search and rescue personnel to make informed decisions and ensure every effort is made to mitigate risk, so that they themselves do not become victims.
Keywords: Damaged and collapsed building structures, life safety, quantifying risk, search and rescue personnel, structural assessments in the field.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 3120748 Interconnection of Autonomous PROFIBUS Segments through IEEE 802.16 WMAN
Authors: M. İskefiyeli, İ. Özçelik
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PROFIBUS (PROcess FIeld BUS) which is defined with international standarts (IEC61158, EN50170) is the most popular fieldbus, and provides a communication between industrial applications which are located in different control environment and location in manufacturing, process and building automation. Its communication speed is from 9.6 Kbps to 12 Mbps over distances from 100 to 1200 meters, and so it is to be often necessary to interconnect them in order to break these limits. Unfortunately this interconnection raises several issues and the solutions found so far are not very satisfactory. In this paper, we propose a new solution to interconnect PROFIBUS segments, which uses a wireless MAN based on the IEEE 802.16 standard as a backbone system. Also, the solution which is described a model for internetworking unit integrates the traffic generated by PROFIBUS segments into IEEE 802.16 wireless MAN using encapsulation technique.
Keywords: Internetworking Unit, PROFIBUS, WiMAX, WMAN, 802.16.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1695747 Estimation of Broadcast Probability in Wireless Adhoc Networks
Authors: Bharadwaj Kadiyala, Sunitha V
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Most routing protocols (DSR, AODV etc.) that have been designed for wireless adhoc networks incorporate the broadcasting operation in their route discovery scheme. Probabilistic broadcasting techniques have been developed to optimize the broadcast operation which is otherwise very expensive in terms of the redundancy and the traffic it generates. In this paper we have explored percolation theory to gain a different perspective on probabilistic broadcasting schemes which have been actively researched in the recent years. This theory has helped us estimate the value of broadcast probability in a wireless adhoc network as a function of the size of the network. We also show that, operating at those optimal values of broadcast probability there is at least 25-30% reduction in packet regeneration during successful broadcasting.Keywords: Crossover length, Percolation, Probabilistic broadcast, Wireless adhoc networks
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1592746 Improving the Quality of Transport Management Services with Fuzzy Signatures
Authors: Csaba I. Hencz, István Á. Harmati
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Nowadays the significance of road transport is gradually increasing. All transport companies are working in the same external environment where the speed of transport is defined by traffic rules. The main objective is to accelerate the speed of service and it is only dependent on the individual abilities of the managing members. These operational control units make decisions quickly (in a typically experiential and/or intuitive way). For this reason, support for these decisions is an important task. Our goal is to create a decision support model based on fuzzy signatures that can assist the work of operational management automatically. If the model sets parameters properly, the management of transport could be more economical and efficient.
Keywords: Freight transport, decision support, information handling, fuzzy methods.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 816745 Perception of Neighbourhood-Level Built Environment in Relation to Youth Physical Activity in Malaysia
Authors: A. Abdullah, N. Faghih Mirzaei, S. Hany Haron
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Neighbourhood environment walkability on reported physical activity (PA) levels of students of Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) in Malaysia. Compared with previous generations, today’s young people spend less time playing outdoors and have lower participation rates in PA. Research suggests that negative perceptions of neighbourhood walkability may be a potential barrier to adolescents’ PA. The sample consisted of 200 USM students (to 24 years old) who live outside of the main campus and engage in PA in sport halls and sport fields of USM. The data were analysed using the t-test, binary logistic regression, and discriminant analysis techniques. The present study found that youth PA was affected by neighbourhood environment walkability factors, including neighbourhood infrastructures, neighbourhood safety (crime), and recreation facilities, as well as street characteristics and neighbourhood design variables such as facades of sidewalks, roadside trees, green spaces, and aesthetics. The finding also illustrated that active students were influenced by street connectivity, neighbourhood infrastructures, recreation facilities, facades of sidewalks, and aesthetics, whereas students in the less active group were affected by access to destinations, neighbourhood safety (crime), and roadside trees and green spaces for their PAs. These results report which factors of built environments have more effect on youth PA and they message to the public to create more awareness about the benefits of PA on youth health.
Keywords: Fear of crime, neighbourhood built environment, physical activities, street characteristics design.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1380744 Development of a Novel Pneumatic Hybrid Engine
Authors: Yu-Ta Shen, Yean-Ren Hwang
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Although electrical motors are still the main devices used in vehicular exhaust comprises more than 95 percent of the air pollution in Taiwan's largest city, Taipei. On average, all commuters in Taipei travel 13.6 km daily, while motorcycle commuters travel 12.2 km. The convenience and mobility of motorcycles makes them irreplaceable in Taiwan city traffic but they add significantly to air pollution problems. In order to improve air pollution conditions, some new types of vehicles have been proposed, such as fuel cell driven and hybrid energy vehicles. In this study, we develop a model pneumatic hybrid motorcycle system and simulate its acceleration and mileage (km/L) performance. The results show that the pneumatic hybrid motorcycle can improve efficiency.Keywords: vehicular, exhaust, air pollution, pneumatic, hybrid, motorcycle
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2057743 Authenticast: A Source Authentication Protocol for Multicast Flows and Streams
Authors: Yacine Challal, Abdelmadjid Bouabdallah
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The lack of security obstructs a large scale de- ployment of the multicast communication model. There- fore, a host of research works have been achieved in order to deal with several issues relating to securing the multicast, such as confidentiality, authentication, non-repudiation, in- tegrity and access control. Many applications require au- thenticating the source of the received traffic, such as broadcasting stock quotes and videoconferencing and hence source authentication is a required component in the whole multicast security architecture. In this paper, we propose a new and efficient source au- thentication protocol which guarantees non-repudiation for multicast flows, and tolerates packet loss. We have simu- lated our protocol using NS-2, and the simulation results show that the protocol allows to achieve improvements over protocols fitting into the same category.
Keywords: Source Authentication, Non-repudiation, Multicast Security.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1521742 Numerical Simulations of Fire in Typical Air Conditioned Railway Coach
Authors: Manoj Sarda, Abhishek Agarwal, Juhi Kaushik, Vatsal Sanjay, Arup Kumar Das
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Railways in India remain primary mode of transport having one of the largest networks in the world and catering to billions of transits yearly. Catastrophic economic damage and loss to life is encountered over the past few decades due to fire to locomotives. Study of fire dynamics and fire propagation plays an important role in evacuation planning and reducing losses. Simulation based study of propagation of fire and soot inside an air conditioned coach of Indian locomotive is done in this paper. Finite difference based solver, Fire Dynamic Simulator (FDS) version 6 has been used for analysis. A single air conditioned 3 tier coupe closed to ambient surroundings by glass windows having occupancy for 8 people is the basic unit of the domain. A system of three such coupes combined is taken to be fundamental unit for the entire study to resemble effect to an entire coach. Analysis of flame and soot contours and concentrations is done corresponding to variations in heat release rate per unit volume (HRRPUA) of fire source, variations in conditioned air velocity being circulated inside coupes by vents and an alternate fire initiation and propagation mechanism via ducts. Quantitative results of fractional area in top and front view of the three coupes under fire and smoke are obtained using MATLAB (IMT). Present simulations and its findings will be useful for organizations like Commission of Railway Safety and others in designing and implementing safety and evacuation measures.Keywords: Air-conditioned coaches, fire propagation, flame contour, soot flow, train fire.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1295741 Enhanced QoS Mechanisms for IEEE 802.11e Wireless Networks
Authors: Ho-Ting Wu, Min-Hua Yang, Kai-Wei Ke, Lei Yan
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The quality-of-service (QoS) support for wireless LANs has been a hot research topic during the past few years. In this paper, two QoS provisioning mechanisms are proposed for the employment in 802.11e EDCA MAC scheme. First, the proposed call admission control mechanism can not only guarantee the QoS for the higher priority existing connections but also provide the minimum reserved bandwidth for traffic flows with lower priority. In addition, the adaptive contention window adjustment mechanism can adjust the maximum and minimum contention window size dynamically according to the existing connection number of each AC. The collision probability as well as the packet delay will thus be reduced effectively. Performance results via simulations have revealed the enhanced QoS property achieved by employing these two mechanisms.Keywords: 802.11e, admission control, contention window, EDCA
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1384740 Security of Mobile Agent in Ad hoc Network using Threshold Cryptography
Authors: S.M. Sarwarul Islam Rizvi, Zinat Sultana, Bo Sun, Md. Washiqul Islam
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In a very simple form a Mobile Agent is an independent piece of code that has mobility and autonomy behavior. One of the main advantages of using Mobile Agent in a network is - it reduces network traffic load. In an, ad hoc network Mobile Agent can be used to protect the network by using agent based IDS or IPS. Besides, to deploy dynamic software in the network or to retrieve information from network nodes Mobile Agent can be useful. But in an ad hoc network the Mobile Agent itself needs some security. Security services should be guaranteed both for Mobile Agent and for Agent Server. In this paper to protect the Mobile Agent and Agent Server in an ad hoc network we have proposed a solution which is based on Threshold Cryptography, a new vibe in the cryptographic world where trust is distributed among multiple nodes in the network.
Keywords: Ad hoc network, Mobile Agent, Security, Threats, Threshold Cryptography.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1967739 The New AIMD Congestion Control Algorithm
Authors: Hayder Natiq Jasem, Zuriati Ahmad Zukarnain, Mohamed Othman, Shamala Subramaniam
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Congestion control is one of the fundamental issues in computer networks. Without proper congestion control mechanisms there is the possibility of inefficient utilization of resources, ultimately leading to network collapse. Hence congestion control is an effort to adapt the performance of a network to changes in the traffic load without adversely affecting users perceived utilities. AIMD (Additive Increase Multiplicative Decrease) is the best algorithm among the set of liner algorithms because it reflects good efficiency as well as good fairness. Our control model is based on the assumption of the original AIMD algorithm; we show that both efficiency and fairness of AIMD can be improved. We call our approach is New AIMD. We present experimental results with TCP that match the expectation of our theoretical analysis.
Keywords: Congestion control, Efficiency, Fairness, TCP, AIMD.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 2420738 Speedup of Data Vortex Network Architecture
Authors: Qimin Yang
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In this paper, 3X3 routing nodes are proposed to provide speedup and parallel processing capability in Data Vortex network architectures. The new design not only significantly improves network throughput and latency, but also eliminates the need for distributive traffic control mechanism originally embedded among nodes and the need for nodal buffering. The cost effectiveness is studied by a comparison study with the previously proposed 2- input buffered networks, and considerable performance enhancement can be achieved with similar or lower cost of hardware. Unlike previous implementation, the network leaves small probability of contention, therefore, the packet drop rate must be kept low for such implementation to be feasible and attractive, and it can be achieved with proper choice of operation conditions.Keywords: Data Vortex, Packet Switch, Interconnection network, deflection, Network-on-chip
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1569737 Food Security in the Middle East and North Africa
Authors: Sara D. Garduño-Diaz, Philippe Y. Garduño-Diaz
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To date, one of the few comprehensive indicators for the measurement of food security is the Global Food Security Index (GFSI). This index is a dynamic quantitative and qualitative benchmarking model, constructed from 28 unique indicators, that measures drivers of food security across both developing and developed countries. Whereas the GFSI has been calculated across a set of 109 countries, in this paper we aim to present and compare, for the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), 1) the Food Security Index scores achieved and 2) the data available on affordability, availability, and quality of food. The data for this work was taken from the latest available report published by the creators of the GFSI, which in turn used information from national and international statistical sources. MENA countries rank from place 17/109 (Israel, although with resent political turmoil this is likely to have changed) to place 91/109 (Yemen) with household expenditure spent in food ranging from 15.5% (Israel) to 60% (Egypt). Lower spending on food as a share of household consumption in most countries and better food safety net programs in the MENA have contributed to a notable increase in food affordability. The region has also, however, experienced a decline in food availability, owing to more limited food supplies and higher volatility of agricultural production. In terms of food quality and safety the MENA has the top ranking country (Israel). The most frequent challenges faced by the countries of the MENA include public expenditure on agricultural research and development as well as volatility of agricultural production. Food security is a complex phenomenon that interacts with many other indicators of a country’s wellbeing; in the MENA it is slowly but markedly improving.
Keywords: Diet, food insecurity, global food security index, nutrition, sustainability.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 3995736 Apparent Temperature Distribution on Scaffoldings during Construction Works
Authors: I. Szer, J. Szer, K. Czarnocki, E. Błazik-Borowa
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People on construction scaffoldings work in dynamically changing, often unfavourable climate. Additionally, this kind of work is performed on low stiffness structures at high altitude, which increases the risk of accidents. It is therefore desirable to define the parameters of the work environment that contribute to increasing the construction worker occupational safety level. The aim of this article is to present how changes in microclimate parameters on scaffolding can impact the development of dangerous situations and accidents. For this purpose, indicators based on the human thermal balance were used. However, use of this model under construction conditions is often burdened by significant errors or even impossible to implement due to the lack of precise data. Thus, in the target model, the modified parameter was used – apparent environmental temperature. Apparent temperature in the proposed Scaffold Use Risk Assessment Model has been a perceived outdoor temperature, caused by the combined effects of air temperature, radiative temperature, relative humidity and wind speed (wind chill index, heat index). In the paper, correlations between component factors and apparent temperature for facade scaffolding with a width of 24.5 m and a height of 42.3 m, located at south-west side of building are presented. The distribution of factors on the scaffolding has been used to evaluate fitting of the microclimate model. The results of the studies indicate that observed ranges of apparent temperature on the scaffolds frequently results in a worker’s inability to adapt. This leads to reduced concentration and increased fatigue, adversely affects health, and consequently increases the risk of dangerous situations and accidental injuries
Keywords: Apparent temperature, health, safety work, scaffoldings.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 929735 Exploring the Safety of Sodium Glucose Co-Transporter-2 Inhibitors at the Imperial College London Diabetes Centre, UAE
Authors: Raad Nari, Maura Moriaty, Maha T. Barakat
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Introduction: Sodium-glucose co-transporter-2 (SGLT2) inhibitors are a new class of oral anti-diabetic drugs with a unique mechanism of action. They are used to improve glycaemic control in adults with type 2 diabetes by enhancing urinary glucose excretion. In the UAE, there has been certainly an increased use of these medications. As with any new medication, there are safety considerations related to their use in patients with type two diabetes. A retrospective study was conducted at the three main centres of the Imperial College London Diabetes Centre. Methodology: All patients in electronic database (Diamond) from October 2014 to October 2017 were included with a minimum of six months usage of sodium glucose co-transporter inhibitors that comprise canagliflozin, dapagliflozin and empagliflozin. There were 15 paired sample biochemical and clinical correlations. The analysis was done at the start of the study, three months and six months apart. SPSS version 24 was used for this study. Conclusion: This study of sodium glucose co-transporter-2 inhibitors used showed significant reductions in weight, glycated haemoglobin A1C, systolic and diastolic blood pressures. As the case with systematic reviews, there were similar changes in liver enzymes, raised total cholesterol, low density lipopoptein and high density lipoprotein. There was slight improvement in estimated glomerular filtration rate too. Our analysis also showed that they increased in the incidence of urinary tract symptoms and incidence of urinary tract infections.
Keywords: SGLT2 inhibitors dapagliflozin empagliflozin canagliflozin, adverse effects, amputation diabetic ketoacidosis DKA, urinary tract infection.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 722734 Routing Load Analysis over 802.11 DCF of Reactive Routing Protocols DSR and DYMO
Authors: Parma Nand, S.C. Sharma
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The Mobile Ad-hoc Network (MANET) is a collection of self-configuring and rapidly deployed mobile nodes (routers) without any central infrastructure. Routing is one of the potential issues. Many routing protocols are reported but it is difficult to decide which one is best in all scenarios. In this paper on demand routing protocols DSR and DYMO based on IEEE 802.11 DCF MAC protocol are examined and characteristic summary of these routing protocols is presented. Their performance is analyzed and compared on performance measuring metrics throughput, dropped packets due to non availability of routes, duplicate RREQ generated for route discovery and normalized routing load by varying CBR data traffic load using QualNet 5.0.2 network simulator.
Keywords: Adhoc networks, wireless networks, CBR, routingprotocols, route discovery, simulation, performance evaluation, MAC, IEEE 802.11.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1724733 Evaluation of the Energy Consumption per Bit inBENES Optical Packet Switch
Authors: V. Eramo, E. Miucci, A. Cianfrani, A. Germoni, M. Listanti
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We evaluate the average energy consumption per bit in Optical Packet Switches equipped with BENES switching fabric realized in Semiconductor Optical Amplifier (SOA) technology. We also study the impact that the Amplifier Spontaneous Emission (ASE) noise generated by a transmission system has on the power consumption of the BENES switches due to the gain saturation of the SOAs used to realize the switching fabric. As a matter of example for 32×32 switches supporting 64 wavelengths and offered traffic equal to 0,8, the average energy consumption per bit is 2, 34 · 10-1 nJ/bit and increases if ASE noise introduced by the transmission systems is increased.Keywords: Benes, Amplifier Spontaneous Emission Noise, EnergyConsumption, Optical Packet Switch.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1391732 Designing a Rescue System for Earthquake-Stricken Area with the Aim of Facilitation and Accelerating Accessibilities (Case Study: City of Tehran)
Authors: Naeleh Motamedi, Masoud Mahmoudkhan Shirazi, Nima Nouraei
Abstract:
Natural disasters, including earthquake, kill many people around the world every year. Society rescue actions, which start after the earthquake and are called LAST in abbreviation, include locating, access, stabilization and transportation. In the present article, we have studied the process of local accessibility to the injured and transporting them to health care centers. With regard the heavy traffic load due to earthquake, the destruction of connecting roads and bridges and the heavy debris in alleys and street, which put the lives of the injured and the people buried under the debris in danger, accelerating the rescue actions and facilitating the accessibilities are of great importance, obviously. Tehran, the capital of Iran, is among the crowded cities in the world and is the center of extensive economic, political, cultural and social activities. Tehran has a population of about 9.5 millions and because of the immigration of people from the surrounding cities. Furthermore, considering the fact that Tehran is located on two important and large faults, a 6 Richter magnitude earthquake in this city could lead to the greatest catastrophe during the entire human history. The present study is a kind of review and a major part of the required information for it, has been obtained from libraries all of the rescue vehicles around the world, including rescue helicopters, ambulances, fire fighting vehicles and rescue boats, and their applied technology, and also the robots specifically designed for the rescue system and the advantages and disadvantages of them, have been investigated. The studies show that there is a significant relationship between the rescue team-s arrival time at the incident zone and the number of saved people; so that, if the duration of burial under debris 30 minutes, the probability of survival is %99.3, after a day is %81, after 2days is %19 and after 5days is %7.4. The exiting transport systems all have some defects. If these defects are removed, more people could be saved each hour and the preparedness against natural disasters is increased. In this study, transport system has been designed for the rescue team and the injured; which could carry the rescue team to the incident zone and the injured to the health care centers. In addition, this system is able to fly in the air and move on the earth as well; so that the destruction of roads and the heavy traffic load could not prevent the rescue team from arriving early at the incident zone. The system also has the equipment required firebird for debris removing, optimum transport of the injured and first aid.
Keywords: earthquake, accelerating, accessibilities transportation, rescue system
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 1569731 The Effects of Production, Transportation and Storage Conditions on Mold Growth in Compound Feeds
Authors: N. Cetinkaya
Abstract:
The objective of the present study is to determine the critical control points during the production, transportation and storage conditions of compound feeds to be used in the Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point (HACCP) feed safety management system. A total of 40 feed samples were taken after 20 and 40 days of storage periods from the 10 dairy and 10 beef cattle farms following the transportation of the compound feeds from the factory. In addition, before transporting the feeds from factory immediately after production of dairy and beef cattle compound feeds, 10 from each total 20 samples were taken as 0 day. In all feed samples, chemical composition and total aflatoxin levels were determined. The aflatoxin levels in all feed samples with the exception of 2 dairy cattle feeds were below the maximum acceptable level. With the increase in storage period in dairy feeds, the aflatoxin levels were increased to 4.96 ppb only in a BS8 dairy farm. This value is below the maximum permissible level (10 ppb) in beef cattle feed. The aflatoxin levels of dairy feed samples taken after production varied between 0.44 and 2.01 ppb. Aflatoxin levels were found to be between 0.89 and 3.01 ppb in dairy cattle feeds taken on the 20th day of storage at 10 dairy cattle farm. On the 40th day, feed aflatoxin levels in the same dairy cattle farm were found between 1.12 and 7.83 ppb. The aflatoxin levels were increased to 7.83 and 6.31 ppb in 2 dairy farms, after a storage period of 40 days. These obtained aflatoxin values are above the maximum permissible level in dairy cattle feeds. The 40 days storage in pellet form in the HACCP feed safety management system can be considered as a critical control point.
Keywords: Aflatoxin, beef cattle feed, compound feed, dairy cattle feed, HACCP.
Procedia APA BibTeX Chicago EndNote Harvard JSON MLA RIS XML ISO 690 PDF Downloads 847