Search results for: proposed module

Authors: Nesli Aydin

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Waste management decision making in developing countries has moved towards being more pragmatic, transparent, sustainable and comprehensive. Turkey is required to make its waste related legislation compatible with European Legislation as it is a candidate country of the European Union. Improper Turkish practices such as open burning and open dumping practices must be abandoned urgently, and robust waste management systems have to be structured. The determination of an optimum waste management system in any region requires a comprehensive analysis in which many criteria are taken into account by stakeholders. In conducting this sort of analysis, there are two main criteria which are evaluated by waste management analysts; economic viability and environmentally friendliness. From an analytical point of view, a central characteristic of sustainable development is an economic-ecological integration. It is predicted that building a robust waste management system will need significant effort and cooperation between the stakeholders in developing countries such as Turkey. In this regard, this study aims to provide data regarding the cost and environmental burdens of waste treatment technologies such as an incinerator, an autoclave (with different capacities), a hydroclave and a microwave coupled with updated information on calculation methods, and a framework for comparing any proposed scenario performances on a cost and environmental basis.

Keywords: Decision making, economic viability, environmentally friendliness, stakeholder, waste management systems.

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Authors: J.-H. Moon, D.-O Kim, R.-H. Park

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This paper presents a video matting method, which extracts the foreground and alpha matte from a video sequence. The objective of video matting is finding the foreground and compositing it with the background that is different from the one in the original image. By finding the motion vectors (MVs) using a sliced block matching algorithm (SBMA), we can extract moving regions from the video sequence under the assumption that the foreground is moving and the background is stationary. In practice, foreground areas are not moving through all frames in an image sequence, thus we accumulate moving regions through the image sequence. The boundaries of moving regions are found by Canny edge detector and the foreground region is separated in each frame of the sequence. Remaining regions are defined as background regions. Extracted backgrounds in each frame are combined and reframed as an integrated single background. Based on the estimated background, we compute the frame difference (FD) of each frame. Regions with the FD larger than the threshold are defined as foreground regions, boundaries of foreground regions are defined as unknown regions and the rest of regions are defined as backgrounds. Segmentation information that classifies an image into foreground, background, and unknown regions is called a trimap. Matting process can extract an alpha matte in the unknown region using pixel information in foreground and background regions, and estimate the values of foreground and background pixels in unknown regions. The proposed video matting approach is adaptive and convenient to extract a foreground automatically and to composite a foreground with a background that is different from the original background.

Keywords: Background estimation, Object segmentation, Blockmatching algorithm, Video matting.

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Authors: El Sayed A. Sharara, A. Tsuji, K. Terada

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Call centers have been expanding and they have influence on activation in various markets increasingly. A call center’s work is known as one of the most demanding and stressful jobs. In this paper, we propose the fatigue detection system in order to detect burnout of call center agents in the case of a neck pain and upper back pain. Our proposed system is based on the computer vision technique combined skin color detection with the Viola-Jones object detector. To recognize the gesture of hand poses caused by stress sign, the YCbCr color space is used to detect the skin color region including face and hand poses around the area related to neck ache and upper back pain. A cascade of clarifiers by Viola-Jones is used for face recognition to extract from the skin color region. The detection of hand poses is given by the evaluation of neck pain and upper back pain by using skin color detection and face recognition method. The system performance is evaluated using two groups of dataset created in the laboratory to simulate call center environment. Our call center agent burnout detection system has been implemented by using a web camera and has been processed by MATLAB. From the experimental results, our system achieved 96.3% for upper back pain detection and 94.2% for neck pain detection.

Keywords: Call center agents, fatigue, skin color detection, face recognition.

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Authors: D. B. L. Bong, K.C. Lai, A. Joseph

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The uses of road map in daily activities are numerous but it is a hassle to construct and update a road map whenever there are changes. In Universiti Malaysia Sarawak, research on Automatic Road Extraction (ARE) was explored to solve the difficulties in updating road map. The research started with using Satellite Image (SI), or in short, the ARE-SI project. A Hybrid Simple Colour Space Segmentation & Edge Detection (Hybrid SCSS-EDGE) algorithm was developed to extract roads automatically from satellite-taken images. In order to extract the road network accurately, the satellite image must be analyzed prior to the extraction process. The characteristics of these elements are analyzed and consequently the relationships among them are determined. In this study, the road regions are extracted based on colour space elements and edge details of roads. Besides, edge detection method is applied to further filter out the non-road regions. The extracted road regions are validated by using a segmentation method. These results are valuable for building road map and detecting the changes of the existing road database. The proposed Hybrid Simple Colour Space Segmentation and Edge Detection (Hybrid SCSS-EDGE) algorithm can perform the tasks fully automatic, where the user only needs to input a high-resolution satellite image and wait for the result. Moreover, this system can work on complex road network and generate the extraction result in seconds.

Keywords: Road Network Recognition, Colour Space, Edge Detection, Urban Planning.

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Authors: Zuhaib Ashfaq Khan, Imran Khan, Nandana Rajatheva

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In this paper, hybrid FDMA-TDMA access technique in a cooperative distributive fashion introducing and implementing a modified protocol introduced in [1] is analyzed termed as Power and Cooperation Diversity Gain Protocol (PCDGP). A wireless network consists of two users terminal , two relays and a destination terminal equipped with two antennas. The relays are operating in amplify-and-forward (AF) mode with a fixed gain. Two operating modes: cooperation-gain mode and powergain mode are exploited from source terminals to relays, as it is working in a best channel selection scheme. Vertical BLAST (Bell Laboratories Layered Space Time) or V-BLAST with minimum mean square error (MMSE) nulling is used at the relays to perfectly detect the joint signals from multiple source terminals. The performance is analyzed using binary phase shift keying (BPSK) modulation scheme and investigated over independent and identical (i.i.d) Rayleigh, Ricean-K and Nakagami-m fading environments. Subsequently, simulation results show that the proposed scheme can provide better signal quality of uplink users in a cooperative communication system using hybrid FDMATDMA technique.

Keywords: Cooperation Diversity, Best Channel Selectionscheme, MIMO relay networks, V-BLAST, QRdecomposition, and MMSE.

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Authors: Sangeeta Mandal, Rajib Kar, Durbadal Mandal, Sakti Prasad Ghoshal

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In this paper, an optimal design of linear phase digital high pass finite impulse response (FIR) filter using Particle Swarm Optimization with Constriction Factor and Inertia Weight Approach (PSO-CFIWA) has been presented. In the design process, the filter length, pass band and stop band frequencies, feasible pass band and stop band ripple sizes are specified. FIR filter design is a multi-modal optimization problem. The conventional gradient based optimization techniques are not efficient for digital filter design. Given the filter specifications to be realized, the PSO-CFIWA algorithm generates a set of optimal filter coefficients and tries to meet the ideal frequency response characteristic. In this paper, for the given problem, the designs of the optimal FIR high pass filters of different orders have been performed. The simulation results have been compared to those obtained by the well accepted algorithms such as Parks and McClellan algorithm (PM), genetic algorithm (GA). The results justify that the proposed optimal filter design approach using PSOCFIWA outperforms PM and GA, not only in the accuracy of the designed filter but also in the convergence speed and solution quality.

Keywords: FIR Filter; PSO-CFIWA; PSO; Parks and McClellanAlgorithm, Evolutionary Optimization Technique; MagnitudeResponse; Convergence; High Pass Filter

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Authors: Nihad Chakri, Btissam El Amrani, Faouzi Berrada, Fouad Amraoui

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In Morocco, water scarcity requires the exploitation of non-conventional resources. Rural areas are under-equipped with sanitation infrastructure, unlike urban areas. Decentralized and low-cost solutions could improve the quality of life of the population and the environment. In this context, the Faculty of Sciences Ain Chock (FSAC) has undertaken an integrated project to treat part of its wastewater using a decentralized compact system. The project will propose alternative solutions that are inexpensive and adapted to the context of peri-urban and rural areas in order to treat the wastewater generated and to use it for irrigation, watering and cleaning. For this purpose, several tests were carried out in the laboratory in order to develop a liquid waste treatment system optimized for local conditions. Based on the results obtained at laboratory scale of the different proposed scenarios, we designed and implemented a prototype of a mini wastewater treatment plant for the faculty. In this article, we will outline the steps of dimensioning, construction and monitoring of the mini-station in our faculty.

Keywords: Wastewater, purification, response methodology surfaces optimization, vertical filter, Moving Bed Biofilm Reactors, MBBR process, sizing, prototype, Faculty of Sciences Ain Chock, decentralized approach, mini wastewater treatment plant, reuse of treated wastewater reuse, irrigation, sustainable development.

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Authors: Yahya Naderi, Tohid Rahimi, Babak Yousefi, Seyed Hossein Hosseini

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Today’s modern interconnected power system is highly complex in nature. In this, one of the most important requirements during the operation of the electric power system is the reliability and security. Power and frequency oscillation damping mechanism improve the reliability. Because of power system stabilizer (PSS) low speed response against of major fault such as three phase short circuit, FACTs devise that can control the network condition in very fast time, are becoming popular. But FACTs capability can be seen in a major fault present when nonlinear models of FACTs devise and power system equipment are applied. To realize this aim, the model of multi-machine power system with FACTs controller is developed in MATLAB/SIMULINK using Sim Power System (SPS) blockiest. Among the FACTs device, Static synchronous series compensator (SSSC) due to high speed changes its reactance characteristic inductive to capacitive, is effective power flow controller. Tuning process of controller parameter can be performed using different method. But Genetic Algorithm (GA) ability tends to use it in controller parameter tuning process. In this paper firstly POD controller is used to power oscillation damping. But in this station, frequency oscillation dos not has proper damping situation. So FOD controller that is tuned using GA is using that cause to damp out frequency oscillation properly and power oscillation damping has suitable situation.

Keywords: Power oscillation damping (POD), frequency oscillation damping (FOD), Static synchronous series compensator (SSSC), Genetic Algorithm (GA).

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Authors: Abdul Hafiizh, Shigeki Obote, Kenichi Kagoshima

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This report aims to utilize existing and future Multiple-Input Multiple-Output Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing Wireless Local Area Network (MIMO-OFDM WLAN) systems characteristics–such as multiple subcarriers, multiple antennas, and channel estimation characteristics–for indoor location estimation systems based on the Direction of Arrival (DOA) and Radio Signal Strength Indication (RSSI) methods. Hybrid of DOA-RSSI methods also evaluated. In the experimental data result, we show that location estimation accuracy performances can be increased by minimizing the multipath fading effect. This is done using multiple subcarrier frequencies over wideband frequencies to estimate one location. The proposed methods are analyzed in both a wide indoor environment and a typical room-sized office. In the experiments, WLAN terminal locations are estimated by measuring multiple subcarriers from arrays of three dipole antennas of access points (AP). This research demonstrates highly accurate, robust and hardware-free add-on software for indoor location estimations based on a MIMO-OFDM WLAN system.

Keywords: Direction of Arrival (DOA), Indoor location estimation method, Multipath Fading, MIMO-OFDM, Received Signal Strength Indication (RSSI), WLAN, Hybrid DOA-RSSI

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Authors: E. Moradimaram, H. Sayehvand

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In recent years the increasing use of fossil fuels has led to various environmental problems including urban pollution, ozone layer depletion and acid rains. Moreover, with the increased number of industrial centers and higher consumption of these fuels, the end point of the fossil energy reserves has become more evident. Considering the environmental pollution caused by fossil fuels and their limited availability, renewable sources can be considered as the main substitute for non-renewable resources. One of these resources is the Organic Rankine Cycles (ORCs). These cycles while having high safety, have low maintenance requirements. Combining the ORCs with other systems, such as ejector and reheater will increase overall cycle efficiency. In this study, ejector and reheater are used to improve the thermal efficiency (ηth), exergy efficiency (η_ex) and net output power (w_net); therefore, the ORCs with reheater (RORCs) are proposed. A computational program has been developed to calculate the thermodynamic parameters required in Engineering Equations Solver (EES). In this program, the analysis of the first and second law in RORC is conducted, and a comparison is made between them and the ORCs with Ejector (EORC). R245fa is selected as the working fluid and water is chosen as low temperature heat source with a temperature of 95 °C and a mass transfer rate of 1 kg/s. The pressures of the second evaporator and reheater are optimized in terms of maximum exergy efficiency. The environment is at 298.15 k and at 101.325 kpa. The results indicate that the thermodynamic parameters in the RORC have improved compared to EORC.

Keywords: Organic rankine cycle, organic rankine cycle with reheater, organic rankine cycle with ejector, exergy efficiency.

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Authors: Firas Mohamad Al-Sabek

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The purpose of the paper is to examine the most critical and important factor which will affect the implementation of Total Quality Management (TQM) in the construction industry in the United Arab Emirates. It also examines the most effected Project outcome from implementing TQM. A framework was also proposed depending on the literature studies. The method used in this paper is a quantitative study. A survey with a sample of 60 respondents was created and distributed in a construction company in Abu Dhabi, which includes 15 questions to examine the most critical factor that will affect the implementation of TQM in addition to the most effected project outcome from implementing TQM. The survey showed that management commitment is the most important factor in implementing TQM in a construction company. Also it showed that Project cost is most effected outcome from the implementation of TQM. Management commitment is very important for implementing TQM in any company. If the management loose interest in quality then everyone in the organization will do so. The success of TQM will depend mostly on the top of the pyramid. Also cost is reduced and money is saved when the project team implement TQM. While if no quality measures are present within the team, the project will suffer a commercial failure. Based on literature, more factors can be examined and added to the model. In addition, more construction companies could be surveyed in order to obtain more accurate results. Also this study could be conducted outside the United Arab Emirates for further enchantment.

Keywords: Construction project, total quality management, management commitment, cost, theoretical framework.

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Authors: Wann-Ming Wey

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The link between urban planning and design principles and the built environment of an urban renewal area is of interest to the field of urban studies. During the past decade, there has also been increasing interest in urban planning and design; this interest is motivated by the possibility that design policies associated with the built environment can be used to control, manage, and shape individual activity and behavior. However, direct assessments and design techniques of the links between how urban planning design policies influence individuals are still rare in the field. Recent research efforts in urban design have focused on the idea that land use and design policies can be used to increase the quality of design projects for an urban renewal area-s built environment. The development of appropriate design techniques for the built environment is an essential element of this research. Quality function deployment (QFD) is a powerful tool for improving alternative urban design and quality for urban renewal areas, and for procuring a citizen-driven quality system. In this research, we propose an integrated framework based on QFD and an Analytic Network Process (ANP) approach to determine the Alternative Technical Requirements (ATRs) to be considered in designing an urban renewal planning and design alternative. We also identify the research designs and methodologies that can be used to evaluate the performance of urban built environment projects. An application in an urban renewal built environment planning and design project evaluation is presented to illustrate the proposed framework.

Keywords: Analytic Network Process, Built Environment, Quality Function Deployment, Urban Design, Urban Renewal.

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Authors: Konstantinos C. Giotopoulos, Christos E. Alexakos, Grigorios N. Beligiannis, Spiridon D.Likothanassis

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In this contribution an innovative platform is being presented that integrates intelligent agents and evolutionary computation techniques in legacy e-learning environments. It introduces the design and development of a scalable and interoperable integration platform supporting: I) various assessment agents for e-learning environments, II) a specific resource retrieval agent for the provision of additional information from Internet sources matching the needs and profile of the specific user and III) a genetic algorithm designed to extract efficient information (classifying rules) based on the students- answering input data. The agents are implemented in order to provide intelligent assessment services based on computational intelligence techniques such as Bayesian Networks and Genetic Algorithms. The proposed Genetic Algorithm (GA) is used in order to extract efficient information (classifying rules) based on the students- answering input data. The idea of using a GA in order to fulfil this difficult task came from the fact that GAs have been widely used in applications including classification of unknown data. The utilization of new and emerging technologies like web services allows integrating the provided services to any web based legacy e-learning environment.

Keywords: Bayesian Networks, Computational Intelligencetechniques, E-learning legacy systems, Service Oriented Integration, Intelligent Agents, Genetic Algorithms.

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Authors: Guanqiao Wang, Hongyang Yu

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There is a lot of repetitive work in the traditional construction industry. These repetitive tasks can significantly improve production efficiency by replacing manual tasks with robots. Therefore, robots appear more and more frequently in the construction industry. Navigation and positioning is a very important task for construction robots, and the requirements for accuracy of positioning are very high. Traditional indoor robots mainly use radio frequency or vision methods for positioning. Compared with ordinary robots, the indoor plastering robot needs to be positioned closer to the wall for wall plastering, so the requirements for construction positioning accuracy are higher, and the traditional navigation positioning method has a large error, which will cause the robot to move. Without the exact position, the wall cannot be plastered or the error of plastering the wall is large. A positioning method is proposed, which is assisted by line lasers and uses image processing-based positioning to perform more accurate positioning on the traditional positioning work. In actual work, filter, edge detection, Hough transform and other operations are performed on the images captured by the camera. Each time the position of the laser line is found, it is compared with the standard value, and the position of the robot is moved or rotated to complete the positioning work. The experimental results show that the actual positioning error is reduced to less than 0.5 mm by this accurate positioning method.

Keywords: Indoor plastering robot, navigation, precise positioning, line laser, image processing.

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Authors: Ali Shirazi, Robert A. Taylor, Stephen D. White, Graham L. Morrison

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In this paper, a detailed simulation model of a solar-powered triple-effect LiBr–H₂O absorption chiller is developed to supply both cooling and heating demand of a large-scale building, aiming to reduce the fossil fuel consumption and greenhouse gas emissions in building sector. TRNSYS 17 is used to simulate the performance of the system over a typical year. A combined energetic-economic-environmental analysis is conducted to determine the system annual primary energy consumption and the total cost, which are considered as two conflicting objectives. A multi-objective optimization of the system is performed using a genetic algorithm to minimize these objectives simultaneously. The optimization results show that the final optimal design of the proposed plant has a solar fraction of 72% and leads to an annual primary energy saving of 0.69 GWh and annual CO₂ emissions reduction of ~166 tonnes, as compared to a conventional HVAC system. The economics of this design, however, is not appealing without public funding, which is often the case for many renewable energy systems. The results show that a good funding policy is required in order for these technologies to achieve satisfactory payback periods within the lifetime of the plant.

Keywords: Economic, environmental, multi-objective optimization, solar air-conditioning, triple-effect absorption chiller.

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Authors: Ahmed Abdulghani Taha, Mohammad Abdulghani Taha

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This study aims at being acquainted with the using the body fat percentage (%BF) with body Mass Index (BMI) as input parameters in fuzzy logic decision support system to predict properly the lifted weight for students at weightlifting class lift according to his abilities instead of traditional manner. The sample included 53 male students (age = 21.38 ± 0.71 yrs, height (Hgt) = 173.17 ± 5.28 cm, body weight (BW) = 70.34 ± 7.87.6 kg, Body mass index (BMI) 23.42 ± 2.06 kg.m-2, fat mass (FM) = 9.96 ± 3.15 kg and fat percentage (% BF) = 13.98 ± 3.51 %.) experienced the weightlifting class as a credit and has variance at BW, Hgt and BMI and FM. BMI and % BF were taken as input parameters in FUZZY logic whereas the output parameter was the lifted weight (LW). There were statistical differences between LW values before and after using fuzzy logic (Diff 3.55± 2.21, P > 0.001). The percentages of the LW categories proposed by fuzzy logic were 3.77% of students to lift 1.0 fold of their bodies; 50.94% of students to lift 0.95 fold of their bodies; 33.96% of students to lift 0.9 fold of their bodies; 3.77% of students to lift 0.85 fold of their bodies and 7.55% of students to lift 0.8 fold of their bodies. The study concluded that the characteristic changes in body composition experienced by students when undergoing weightlifting could be utilized side by side with the Fuzzy logic decision support system to determine the proper workloads consistent with the abilities of students.

Keywords: Fuzzy logic, body mass index, body fat percentage, weightlifting.

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Authors: Michael Gerges, Ograbe Ahiakwo, Martin Jaeger, Ahmad Asaad

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Recent advances of Building Information Modeling (BIM) especially in the Middle East have increased remarkably. Dubai has been taking a lead on this by making it mandatory for BIM to be adopted for all projects that involve complex architecture designs. This is because BIM is a dynamic process that assists all stakeholders in monitoring the project status throughout different project phases with great transparency. It focuses on utilizing information technology to improve collaboration among project participants during the entire life cycle of the project from the initial design, to the supply chain, resource allocation, construction and all productivity requirements. In view of this trend, the paper examines the extent of applying BIM in the State of Kuwait, by exploring practitioners’ perspectives on BIM, especially their perspectives on main barriers and main advantages. To this end structured interviews were carried out based on questionnaires and with a range of different construction professionals. The results revealed that practitioners perceive improved communication and mitigated project risks by encouraged collaboration between project participants. However, it was also observed that the full implementation of BIM in the State of Kuwait requires concerted efforts to make clients demanding BIM, counteract resistance to change among construction professionals and offer more training for design team members. This paper forms part of an on-going research effort on BIM and its application in the State of Kuwait and it is on this basis that further research on the topic is proposed.

Keywords: Building Information Modeling, BIM, construction industry, Kuwait.

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Authors: Satish Kumar Peddapelli

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This paper presents advances in pulse width modulation techniques which refers to a method of carrying information on train of pulses and the information be encoded in the width of pulses. Pulse Width Modulation is used to control the inverter output voltage. This is done by exercising the control within the inverter itself by adjusting the ON and OFF periods of inverter. By fixing the DC input voltage we get AC output voltage. In variable speed AC motors the AC output voltage from a constant DC voltage is obtained by using inverter. Recent developments in power electronics and semiconductor technology have lead improvements in power electronic systems. Hence, different circuit configurations namely multilevel inverters have became popular and considerable interest by researcher are given on them. A fast space-vector pulse width modulation (SVPWM) method for five-level inverter is also discussed. In this method, the space vector diagram of the five-level inverter is decomposed into six space vector diagrams of three-level inverters. In turn, each of these six space vector diagrams of three-level inverter is decomposed into six space vector diagrams of two-level inverters. After decomposition, all the remaining necessary procedures for the three-level SVPWM are done like conventional two-level inverter. The proposed method reduces the algorithm complexity and the execution time. It can be applied to the multilevel inverters above the five-level also. The experimental setup for three-level diode-clamped inverter is developed using TMS320LF2407 DSP controller and the experimental results are analyzed.

Keywords: Five-level inverter, Space vector pulse wide modulation, diode clamped inverter.

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Authors: Tatsaporn Todhanakasem, Kamonchanok Areerat, Pornthap Thanonkeo, Roungdao KlinjapoandGlenn M. Young

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Rice bran has been abandoned as agricultural waste for million tonnes per year in Thailand, therefore they have been proposed to be utilized as a rich carbon source in the production of bioethanol. Many toxic compounds are possibly released during the pretreatment of rice bran prior the fermentation process. This study aims to analyze on the availability of toxic compounds and the amount of glucose obtained from 2 different pretreatments using sulfuric acid and mixed cellulase enzymes (without and with delignification/ activated charcoal). The concentration of furfural, 5- hydroxymethyl furfural (5-HMF), levulinic acid, vanillin, syringaldehyde and4-hydroxybenzaldehyde (4-HB) and the percent acetic acid were found to be 0.0517 ± 0.049 mg/L, 0.032 ± 0.06 mg/L, 21074 ± 1685.62 mg/L, 126.265 ± 6.005 mg/L, 2.89 ± 0.30 mg/L, 0.37 ± 0.031mg/L and 0.72% under the pretreatment process without delignification/ activated charcoal treatment and 384.47 ± 99.02 g/L, 0.068 mg/L, 142107.62 ± 8664.6 mg/L, 0.19 mg/L, 5.43 ± 3.29 mg/L, 4.80 ± 0.76 mg/L and 0.254% under the pretreatment process with delignification/ activated charcoal treatment respectively. The presence of high concentration of acetic acid was found to impede the growth of Zymomonas mobilis strain TISTR 551 despite the present of high concentration of levulinic acid. Z. mobilis strain TISTR 551 was found to produce 8.96 ± 4.06 g/L of ethanol under 4 days fementation period in biofilm stage in which represented 40% theoretical yield.

Keywords: Rice bran, Zymomonas mobilis, biofilm, ethanol.

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Authors: Aya Salama

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Digital Twin has emerged as a compelling research area, capturing the attention of scholars over the past decade. It finds applications across diverse fields, including smart manufacturing and healthcare, offering significant time and cost savings. Notably, it often intersects with other cutting-edge technologies such as Data Mining, Artificial Intelligence, and Machine Learning. However, the concept of a Human Digital Twin (HDT) is still in its infancy and requires further demonstration of its practicality. HDT takes the notion of Digital Twin a step further by extending it to living entities, notably humans, who are vastly different from inanimate physical objects. The primary objective of this research was to create an HDT capable of automating real-time human responses by simulating human behavior. To achieve this, the study delved into various areas, including clustering, supervised classification, topic extraction, and sentiment analysis. The paper successfully demonstrated the feasibility of HDT for generating personalized responses in social messaging applications. Notably, the proposed approach achieved an overall accuracy of 63%, a highly promising result that could pave the way for further exploration of the HDT concept. The methodology employed Random Forest for clustering the question database and matching new questions, while K-nearest neighbor was utilized for sentiment analysis.

Keywords: Human Digital twin, sentiment analysis, topic extraction, supervised machine learning, unsupervised machine learning, classification and clustering.

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Authors: Ion Smeureanu, Marian Dardala, Adriana Reveiu

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The new programming technologies allow for the creation of components which can be automatically or manually assembled to reach a new experience in knowledge understanding and mastering or in getting skills for a specific knowledge area. The project proposes an interactive framework that permits the creation, combination and utilization of components that are specific to mathematical training in high schools. The main framework-s objectives are: • authoring lessons by the teacher or the students; all they need are simple operating skills for Equation Editor (or something similar, or Latex); the rest are just drag & drop operations, inserting data into a grid, or navigating through menus • allowing sonorous presentations of mathematical texts and solving hints (easier understood by the students) • offering graphical representations of a mathematical function edited in Equation • storing of learning objects in a database • storing of predefined lessons (efficient for expressions and commands, the rest being calculations; allows a high compression) • viewing and/or modifying predefined lessons, according to the curricula The whole thing is focused on a mathematical expressions minicompiler, storing the code that will be later used for different purposes (tables, graphics, and optimisations). Programming technologies used. A Visual C# .NET implementation is proposed. New and innovative digital learning objects for mathematics will be developed; they are capable to interpret, contextualize and react depending on the architecture where they are assembled.

Keywords: Adaptor, automatic assembly learning component and user control.

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Authors: Babak Mirbaha, Mahmoud Saffarzadeh, Fatemeh Mohajeri

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Road traffic accidents lead to a higher rate of death and injury, especially in vulnerable road users such as pedestrians. Improving the safety of facilities for pedestrians is a major concern for policymakers because of the high number of pedestrian fatalities and direct and indirect costs which are imposed to the society. This study focuses on the idea of determining the willingness to pay of pedestrians for increasing their safety while crossing the street. In this study, three different scenarios including crossing the street with zebra crossing facilities, crossing the street with zebra crossing facilities and installing a pedestrian traffic light and constructing a pedestrian bridge with escalator are presented. The research was conducted based on stated preferences method. The required data were collected from a questionnaire that consisted of three parts: pedestrian’s demographic characteristics, travel characteristics and scenarios. Four different payment amounts are presented for each scenario and a logit model has been built for each proposed payment. The results show that sex, age, education, average household income and individual salary have significant effect on choosing a scenario. Among the policies that have been mentioned through the questionnaire scenarios, the scenario of crossing the street with zebra crossing facilities and installing a traffic lights is the most frequent, with willingness to pay 10,000 Rials and the scenario of crossing the street with a zebra crossing with a willingness to pay 100,000 Rials having the least frequency. For all scenarios, as the payment is increasing, the willingness to pay decreases.

Keywords: Pedestrians, willingness to pay, safety, immunization.

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Authors: Karam Y. Maalawi, Hanan E.M EL-Sayed

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This paper presents an exact analytical model for optimizing stability of thin-walled, composite, functionally graded pipes conveying fluid. The critical flow velocity at which divergence occurs is maximized for a specified total structural mass in order to ensure the economic feasibility of the attained optimum designs. The composition of the material of construction is optimized by defining the spatial distribution of volume fractions of the material constituents using piecewise variations along the pipe length. The major aim is to tailor the material distribution in the axial direction so as to avoid the occurrence of divergence instability without the penalty of increasing structural mass. Three types of boundary conditions have been examined; namely, Hinged-Hinged, Clamped- Hinged and Clamped-Clamped pipelines. The resulting optimization problem has been formulated as a nonlinear mathematical programming problem solved by invoking the MatLab optimization toolbox routines, which implement constrained function minimization routine named “fmincon" interacting with the associated eigenvalue problem routines. In fact, the proposed mathematical models have succeeded in maximizing the critical flow velocity without mass penalty and producing efficient and economic designs having enhanced stability characteristics as compared with the baseline designs.

Keywords: Functionally graded materials, pipe flow, optimumdesign, fluid- structure interaction

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Authors: Angelina A. Tzacheva, Jaishree Ranganathan

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Interest in (STEM) Science Technology Engineering Mathematics education especially Computer Science education has seen a drastic increase across the country. This fuels effort towards recruiting and admitting a diverse population of students. Thus the changing conditions in terms of the student population, diversity and the expected teaching and learning outcomes give the platform for use of Innovative Teaching models and technologies. It is necessary that these methods adapted should also concentrate on raising quality of such innovations and have positive impact on student learning. Light-Weight Team is an Active Learning Pedagogy, which is considered to be low-stake activity and has very little or no direct impact on student grades. Emotion plays a major role in student’s motivation to learning. In this work we use the student feedback data with emotion classification using surveys at a public research institution in the United States. We use Actionable Pattern Discovery method for this purpose. Actionable patterns are patterns that provide suggestions in the form of rules to help the user achieve better outcomes. The proposed method provides meaningful insight in terms of changes that can be incorporated in the Light-Weight team activities, resources utilized in the course. The results suggest how to enhance student emotions to a more positive state, in particular focuses on the emotions ‘Trust’ and ‘Joy’.

Keywords: Actionable pattern discovery, education, emotion, data mining.

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Authors: Ashish Saini, A.K. Saxena

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The genetic algorithm (GA) based solution techniques are found suitable for optimization because of their ability of simultaneous multidimensional search. Many GA-variants have been tried in the past to solve optimal power flow (OPF), one of the nonlinear problems of electric power system. The issues like convergence speed and accuracy of the optimal solution obtained after number of generations using GA techniques and handling system constraints in OPF are subjects of discussion. The results obtained for GA-Fuzzy OPF on various power systems have shown faster convergence and lesser generation costs as compared to other approaches. This paper presents an enhanced GA-Fuzzy OPF (EGAOPF) using penalty factors to handle line flow constraints and load bus voltage limits for both normal network and contingency case with congestion. In addition to crossover and mutation rate adaptation scheme that adapts crossover and mutation probabilities for each generation based on fitness values of previous generations, a block swap operator is also incorporated in proposed EGA-OPF. The line flow limits and load bus voltage magnitude limits are handled by incorporating line overflow and load voltage penalty factors respectively in each chromosome fitness function. The effects of different penalty factors settings are also analyzed under contingent state.

Keywords: Contingent operation state, Fuzzy rule base, Genetic Algorithms, Optimal Power Flow.

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Authors: Marco Raciti Castelli, Alberto Castelli, Ernesto Benini

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The construction of a civil structure inside a urban area inevitably modifies the outdoor microclimate at the building site. Wind speed, wind direction, air pollution, driving rain, radiation and daylight are some of the main physical aspects that are subjected to the major changes. The quantitative amount of these modifications depends on the shape, size and orientation of the building and on its interaction with the surrounding environment.The flow field over a flat roof model building has been numerically investigated in order to determine two-dimensional CFD guidelines for the calculation of the turbulent flow over a structure immersed in an atmospheric boundary layer. To this purpose, a complete validation campaign has been performed through a systematic comparison of numerical simulations with wind tunnel experimental data.Several turbulence models and spatial node distributions have been tested for five different vertical positions, respectively from the upstream leading edge to the downstream bottom edge of the analyzed model. Flow field characteristics in the neighborhood of the building model have been numerically investigated, allowing a quantification of the capabilities of the CFD code to predict the flow separation and the extension of the recirculation regions.The proposed calculations have allowed the development of a preliminary procedure to be used as a guidance in selecting the appropriate grid configuration and corresponding turbulence model for the prediction of the flow field over a twodimensional roof architecture dominated by flow separation.

Keywords: CFD, roof, building, wind.

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Authors: Erika R. Chambriard, Sandro C. Izidoro, Davidson P. Mendes, Douglas E. V. Pires

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Work-related illnesses and disorders have been a constant aspect of work. Although their nature has changed over time, from musculoskeletal disorders to illnesses related to psychosocial aspects of work, its impact on the life of workers remains significant. Despite significant efforts worldwide to protect workers, the disparity between changes in work legislation and actual benefit for workers’ health has been creating a significant economic burden for social security and health systems around the world. In this context, this study aims to propose, test and validate a modular prototype that allows for work environmental aspects to be assessed, monitored and better controlled. The main focus is also to provide a historical record of working conditions and the means for workers to obtain comprehensible and useful information regarding their work environment and legal limits of occupational exposure to different types of environmental variables, as means to improve prevention of work-related accidents and disorders. We show the developed prototype provides useful and accurate information regarding the work environmental conditions, validating them with standard occupational hygiene equipment. We believe the proposed prototype is a cost-effective and adequate approach to work environment monitoring that could help elucidate the links between work and occupational illnesses, and that different industry sectors, as well as developing countries, could benefit from its capabilities.

Keywords: Arduino prototyping, occupational health and hygiene, work environment, work-related disorders prevention.

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Authors: Xiaobai Li, Li Li, Yujin Hu, Weiming Deng, Zhe Ding

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A size-dependent Euler–Bernoulli beam model, which accounts for nonlocal stress field, strain gradient field and higher order inertia force field, is derived based on the nonlocal strain gradient theory considering velocity gradient effect. The governing equations and boundary conditions are derived both in dimensional and dimensionless form by employed the Hamilton principle. The analytical solutions based on different continuum theories are compared. The effect of higher order inertia terms is extremely significant in high frequency range. It is found that there exists an asymptotic frequency for the proposed beam model, while for the nonlocal strain gradient theory the solutions diverge. The effect of strain gradient field in thickness direction is significant in low frequencies domain and it cannot be neglected when the material strain length scale parameter is considerable with beam thickness. The influence of each of three size effect parameters on the natural frequencies are investigated. The natural frequencies increase with the increasing material strain gradient length scale parameter or decreasing velocity gradient length scale parameter and nonlocal parameter.

Keywords: Euler-Bernoulli Beams, free vibration, higher order inertia, nonlocal strain gradient theory, velocity gradient.

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Authors: Sanghoon Kim, Sun-Tae Chung, Souhwan Jung, Seoungseon Jeon, Jaemin Kim, Seongwon Cho

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In this paper, we propose a face recognition algorithm using AAM and Gabor features. Gabor feature vectors which are well known to be robust with respect to small variations of shape, scaling, rotation, distortion, illumination and poses in images are popularly employed for feature vectors for many object detection and recognition algorithms. EBGM, which is prominent among face recognition algorithms employing Gabor feature vectors, requires localization of facial feature points where Gabor feature vectors are extracted. However, localization method employed in EBGM is based on Gabor jet similarity and is sensitive to initial values. Wrong localization of facial feature points affects face recognition rate. AAM is known to be successfully applied to localization of facial feature points. In this paper, we devise a facial feature point localization method which first roughly estimate facial feature points using AAM and refine facial feature points using Gabor jet similarity-based facial feature localization method with initial points set by the rough facial feature points obtained from AAM, and propose a face recognition algorithm using the devised localization method for facial feature localization and Gabor feature vectors. It is observed through experiments that such a cascaded localization method based on both AAM and Gabor jet similarity is more robust than the localization method based on only Gabor jet similarity. Also, it is shown that the proposed face recognition algorithm using this devised localization method and Gabor feature vectors performs better than the conventional face recognition algorithm using Gabor jet similarity-based localization method and Gabor feature vectors like EBGM.

Keywords: Face Recognition, AAM, Gabor features, EBGM.

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Authors: Abdelkarim M. Ertiame, D. W. Yu, D. L. Yu, J. B. Gomm

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In this paper, a robust fault detection and isolation (FDI) scheme is developed to monitor a multivariable nonlinear chemical process called the Chylla-Haase polymerization reactor, when it is under the cascade PI control. The scheme employs a radial basis function neural network (RBFNN) in an independent mode to model the process dynamics, and using the weighted sum-squared prediction error as the residual. The Recursive Orthogonal Least Squares algorithm (ROLS) is employed to train the model to overcome the training difficulty of the independent mode of the network. Then, another RBFNN is used as a fault classifier to isolate faults from different features involved in the residual vector. Several actuator and sensor faults are simulated in a nonlinear simulation of the reactor in Simulink. The scheme is used to detect and isolate the faults on-line. The simulation results show the effectiveness of the scheme even the process is subjected to disturbances and uncertainties including significant changes in the monomer feed rate, fouling factor, impurity factor, ambient temperature, and measurement noise. The simulation results are presented to illustrate the effectiveness and robustness of the proposed method.

Keywords: Robust fault detection, cascade control, independent RBF model, RBF neural networks, Chylla-Haase reactor, FDI under closed-loop control.

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