Search results for: changing customer requirements for sustainable design

Authors: Ching Kin Keong, Koh Tieng Wei, Abdul Azim Abd. Ghani, Khaironi Yatim Sharif

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Maintaining factory default battery endurance rate over time in supporting huge amount of running applications on energy-restricted mobile devices has created a new challenge for mobile applications developer. While delivering customers’ unlimited expectations, developers are barely aware of efficient use of energy from the application itself. Thus, developers need a set of valid energy consumption indicators in assisting them to develop energy saving applications. In this paper, we present a few software product metrics that can be used as an indicator to measure energy consumption of Android-based mobile applications in the early of design stage. In particular, Trepn Profiler (Power profiling tool for Qualcomm processor) has used to collect the data of mobile application power consumption, and then analyzed for the 23 software metrics in this preliminary study. The results show that McCabe cyclomatic complexity, number of parameters, nested block depth, number of methods, weighted methods per class, number of classes, total lines of code and method lines have direct relationship with power consumption of mobile application.

Keywords: Battery endurance, software metrics, mobile application, power consumption.

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Authors: Riza Muhida, Maisarah Ali, Puteri Shireen Jahn Kassim, Muhammad Abu Eusuf, Agus G.E. Sutjipto, Afzeri

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Over recent years, the number of building integrated photovoltaic (BIPV) installations for home systems have been increasing in Malaysia. The paper concerns an analysis - as part of current Research and Development (R&D) efforts - to integrate photovoltaics as an architectural feature of a detached house in the new satellite township of Putrajaya, Malaysia. The analysis was undertaken using calculation and simulation tools to optimize performance of BIPV home system. In this study, a the simulation analysis was undertaken for selected bungalow units based on a long term recorded weather data for city of Kuala Lumpur. The simulation and calculation was done with consideration of a PV panels' tilt and direction, shading effect and economical considerations. A simulation of the performance of a grid connected BIPV house in Kuala Lumpur was undertaken. This case study uses a 60 PV modules with power output of 2.7 kW giving an average of PV electricity output is 255 kWh/month..

Keywords: Building integrated photovoltaic, Malaysia, Simulation, panels' tilt and direction.

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Authors: Yang Song, Yifan Guo, Edward F. Gehringer

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Fifty years of research has found great potential for peer assessment as a pedagogical approach. With peer assessment, not only do students receive more copious assessments; they also learn to become assessors. In recent decades, more educational peer assessments have been facilitated by online systems. Those online systems are designed differently to suit different class settings and student groups, but they basically fall into two categories: rating-based and ranking-based. The rating-based systems ask assessors to rate the artifacts one by one following some review rubrics. The ranking-based systems allow assessors to review a set of artifacts and give a rank for each of them. Though there are different systems and a large number of users of each category, there is no comprehensive comparison on which design leads to higher reliability. In this paper, we designed algorithms to evaluate assessors' reliabilities based on their rating/ranking against the global ranks of the artifacts they have reviewed. These algorithms are suitable for data from both rating-based and ranking-based peer assessment systems. The experiments were done based on more than 15,000 peer assessments from multiple peer assessment systems. We found that the assessors in ranking-based peer assessments are at least 10% more reliable than the assessors in rating-based peer assessments. Further analysis also demonstrated that the assessors in ranking-based assessments tend to assess the more differentiable artifacts correctly, but there is no such pattern for rating-based assessors.

Keywords: Peer assessment, peer rating, peer ranking, reliability.

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Authors: Smriti Agarwal, Ashish Payal, B. V. R. Reddy

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IEEE 802.15.4 is a Low Rate Wireless Personal Area Networks (LR-WPAN) standard combined with ZigBee, which is going to enable new applications in Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) and Internet of Things (IoT) domain. In recent years, it has become a popular standard for WSNs. Wireless communication among sensor motes, enabled by IEEE 802.15.4 standard, is extensively replacing the existing wired technology in a wide range of monitoring and control applications. Researchers have proposed a routing framework and mechanism that interacts with the IEEE 802.15.4 standard using software platform. In this paper, we have designed and implemented MAC based routing (MBR) based on IEEE 802.15.4 standard using a hardware platform “SENSEnuts”. The experimental results include data through light and temperature sensors obtained from communication between PAN coordinator and source node through coordinator, MAC address of some modules used in the experimental setup, topology of the network created for simulation and the remaining battery power of the source node. Our experimental effort on a WSN Testbed has helped us in bridging the gap between theoretical and practical aspect of implementing IEEE 802.15.4 for WSNs applications.

Keywords: IEEE 802.15.4, routing, wireless sensor networks, ZigBee.

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Authors: Imran Khan Pathan, Anil Bhandari, Peeyush K. Sharma, Rakesh K. Patel, Suresh Purohit

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Floating tablets of Marichyadi Vati were developed with an aim to prolong its gastric residence time and increase the bioavailability of drug. Rapid gastrointestinal transit could result in incomplete drug release from the drug delivery system above the absorption zone leading to diminished efficacy of the administered dose. The tablets were prepared by wet granulation technique, using HPMC E50 LV act as Matrixing agent, Carbopol as floating enhancer, microcrystalline cellulose as binder, Sodium bi carbonate as effervescent agent with other excipients. The simplex lattice design was used for selection of variables for tablets formulation. Formulation was optimized on the basis of floating time and in vitro drug release. The results showed that the floating lag time for optimized formulation was found to be 61 second with about 97.32 % of total drug release within 3 hours. The vitro release profiles of drug from the formulation could be best expressed zero order with highest linearity r² = 0.9943. It was concluded that the gastroretentive drug delivery system can be developed for Marichyadi Vati containing Piperine to increase the residence time of the drug in the stomach and thereby increasing bioavailability.

Keywords: Piperine, Marichyadi Vati, Gastroretentive drug delivery, Floating tablet.

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Authors: Lu Zou, Dianfu MA, Ying Wang, Xianqi Zhao

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Avionic software architecture has transit from a federated avionics architecture to an integrated modular avionics (IMA) .ARINC 653 (Avionics Application Standard Software Interface) is a software specification for space and time partitioning in Safety-critical avionics Real-time operating systems. Methods to transform the abstract avionics application logic function to the executable model have been brought up, however with less consideration about the code generating input and output model specific for ARINC 653 platform and inner-task synchronous dynamic interaction order sequence. In this paper, we proposed an AADL-based model-driven design methodology to fulfill the purpose to automatically generating Cµ executable model on ARINC 653 platform from the ARINC653 architecture which defined as AADL653 in order to facilitate the development of the avionics software constructed on ARINC653 OS. This paper presents the mapping rules between the AADL653 elements and the elements in Cµ language, and define the code generating rules , designs an automatic C µ code generator .Then, we use a case to illustrate our approach. Finally, we give the related work and future research directions.

Keywords: IMA, ARINC653, AADL653, code generation.

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Authors: Shekhar Parajulee

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Nepal practiced a centralized unitary governing system for long and has gone through the federal system after the promulgation of the new constitution on 20 September 2015. There is a big paradigm shift in terms of governance after it. Now, there are three levels of governments, one federal government in the center, seven provincial governments and 753 local governments. Federalism refers to a political governing system with multiple tiers of government working together with coordination. It is preferred for self and shared rule. Though it has opened the door for rights of the people, political stability, state restructuring, and sustainable peace and development, there are many prospects and challenges for its proper implementation. This research analyzes the discourses of federalism implementation in Nepal with special reference to one of seven provinces, Gandaki. Federalism is a new phenomenon in Nepali politics and informed debates on it are required for its right evolution. This research will add value in this regard. Moreover, tracking its evolution and the exploration of the attitudes and behaviors of key actors and stakeholders in a new experiment of a new governing system is also important. The administrative and political system of Gandaki province in terms of service delivery and development will critically be examined. Besides demonstrating the performances of the provincial government and assembly, it will analyze the inter-governmental relation of Gandaki with the other two tiers of government. For this research, people from provincial and local governments (elected representatives and government employees), provincial assembly members, academicians, civil society leaders and journalists are being interviewed. The interview findings will be analyzed by supplementing with published documents. Just going into the federal structure is not the solution. As in the case of other provincial governments, Gandaki also had to start from scratch. It gradually took a shape of government and has been functioning sluggishly. The provincial government has many challenges ahead, which has badly hindered its plans and actions. Additionally, fundamental laws, infrastructures and human resources are found to be insufficient at the sub-national level. Lack of clarity in the jurisdiction is another main challenge. The Nepali Constitution assumes cooperation, coexistence and coordination as the fundamental principles of federalism which, unfortunately, appear to be lacking among the three tiers of government despite their efforts. Though the devolution of power to sub-national governments is essential for the successful implementation of federalism, it has apparently been delayed due to the centralized mentality of bureaucracy as well as a political leader. This research will highlight the reasons for the delay in the implementation of federalism. There might be multiple underlying reasons for the slow pace of implementation of federalism and identifying them is very tough. Moreover, the federal spirit is found to be absent in the main players of today's political system, which is a big irony. So, there are some doubts about whether the federal system in Nepal is just a keepsake or a substantive achievement.

Keywords: federalism, inter-governmental relations, Nepal, provincial government

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Authors: Seema Sharma Kaushik, Dhananjoy Shaw

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Various length dimensions of the body have been a variable of interest in the research areas of kinanthropometry. However the inclusion of length measurements in various studies remains restricted to reflect characteristics of a particular game/sport at a particular time. Hence, the present investigation was conducted to study various length dimensions correlates of a longitudinal physical conditioning program on Indian male youth. The study was conducted on 90 Indian male youth. The sample was equally divided into three groups namely, progressive load training (PLT), constant load training (CLT) and no load training (NL). The variables included sitting height, leg length, arm length and foot length. The study was conducted by adopting the multi group repeated measure design. Three different groups were measured four times after completion of each of the three meso-cycles of six-weeks duration each. The measurements were taken using the standard landmarks and procedures. Mean, standard deviation and analysis of co-variance were computed to analyze the data statistically. The post-hoc analysis was conducted for the significant F-ratios at 0.05 level. The study concluded that the followed longitudinal physical conditioning program had significant effect on various length dimensions of Indian male youth.

Keywords: Indian male youth, longitudinal, length dimensions, physical conditioning.

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Authors: Djemaa Megdoud, Messaoud Boudaa, Fatima Ouamrane, Salem Benamara

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In recent years, the compression of date (Phoenix dactylifera L.) fruit powders (DP) to obtain date tablets (DT) has been suggested as a promising form of valorization of non commercial valuable date fruit (DF) varieties. To further improve and characterize DT, the present study aims to investigate the influence of the DP particle size and compression force on some physical properties of DT. The results show that independently of particle size, the hardness (y) of tablets increases with the increase of the compression force (x) following a logarithmic law (y = a ln (bx) where a and b are the constants of model). Further, a full factorial design (FFD) at two levels, applied to investigate the erosion %, reveals that the effects of time and particle size are the same in absolute value and they are beyond the effect of the compression. Regarding the disintegration time, the obtained results also by means of a FFD show that the effect of the compression force exceeds 4 times that of the DP particle size. As final stage, the color parameters in the CIELab system of DT immediately after their obtaining are differently influenced by the size of the initial powder.

Keywords: Powder, valorization, tablets, date fruit (Phoenix dactylifera L.), hardness, erosion, disintegration time, color.

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Authors: M.Mirzakhani, M.R.Ardakani , A.Aeene Band , A.H. Shirani Rad, F.Rejali

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In order to evaluate the Effects of dual inoculation of Azotobacter and Mycorrhiza with Nitrogen and Phosphorus levels on yield and yield components of spring safflower, this study was carried out in field of Farahan university in Markazi province in 2007. A factorial in a randomized complete block design with three replications was used inoculation of Azotobacter (with inoculation and without inoculation) and Mycorrhiza (with inoculation and without inoculation ) with Nitrogen and Phosphorus levels [F0= N0+ P0 (kg.ha-1), F1= N50+ P25(kg.ha-1), F2= N100+ P50(kg.ha-1) and F3= N150+ P75 (kg.ha-1)] on spring safflower (cultivar IL-111). In this study characteristics such as: Harvest index, Hectolitre weight, Root dry weight, Seed yield, Mycorrhizal Colonization Root, Number of days to maturity were assessed. Results indicated that treatment (A0M1F3) with grain yield (1556 kg.ha-1) and treatment (A0M1F0) with grain yield (918 kg.ha-1) were significantly superior to the other treatments and according to calculated, inoculation seeds in plantig date with Azotobacter and Mycorrhiza to cause increase grain yield about 5/38 percentage. we can by inoculation safflower seeds with Azotobacter and Mycorrhiza too easily at the time sowing date. The purpose of this research, study and evaluation the role of biological fixation N and P, to provide for feeds plants.

Keywords: Spring safflower, grain yield, inoculation, Azotobacter and Mycorrhiza.

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Authors: S. S. Dol, M. S. Chan, S. F. Wong, J. S. Lim

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Emulsion formation is unavoidable and can be detrimental to an oil field production. The presence of stable emulsions also reduces the quality of crude oil and causes more problems in the downstream refinery operations, such as corrosion and pipeline pressure drop. Hence, it is important to know the effects of emulsions in the pipeline. Light crude oil was used for the continuous phase in the W/O emulsions where the emulsions pass through a flow loop to test the pressure drop across the pipeline. The results obtained shows that pressure drop increases as water cut is increased until it peaks at the phase inversion of the W/O emulsion between 30% to 40% water cut. Emulsions produced by gradual constrictions show a lower stability as compared to sudden constrictions. Lower stability of emulsions in gradual constriction has the higher influence of pressure drop compared to a sudden sharp decrease in diameter in sudden constriction. Generally, sudden constriction experiences pressure drop of 0.013% to 0.067% higher than gradual constriction of the same ratio. Lower constriction ratio cases cause larger pressure drop ranging from 0.061% to 0.241%. Considering the higher profitability in lower emulsion stability and lower pressure drop at the developed flow region of different constrictions, an optimum design of constriction is found to be gradual constriction with a ratio of 0.5.

Keywords: Constriction, pressure drop, turbulence, water cut, water-in-oil emulsions.

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Authors: A. Tomruk, G. Guler, B. Tandogan, E. Ozgur, N.N. Ulusu, N. Seyhan

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In the present study, we aimed to design the intrauterine and extrauterine exposure to 1800 MHz GSM-like RF radiation and investigate its possible bio-effects on infant female rabbits. Totally thirty-six New Zealand White female rabbits, onemonth old, were randomly divided into four groups which are composed of 9 rabbits; i. Group I [Intrauterine (IU) exposure(-); Extrauterine (EU) exposure (-)], Group II [IU exposure (-); EU exposure (+)], Group III [IU exposure(+);EU exposure(-)], Group IV [IU exposure (+);EU exposure(+)]. The master regulatory enzymes activities of pentose phosphate pathway (glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase, G-6PD; 6-phosphogluconate dehydrogenase, 6- PGDH) and glutathione-dependent metabolism (glutathione peroxidase, GSH-Px; glutathione reductase, GR; glutathione Stransferase, GST, thioredoxin reductase, TRx) were analyzed in liver tissues of young female rabbits. Decreased G-6PD, 6-PGD, GSH-Px, GR activities were found in Group III compared to Group I (p<0.05, Mann Whitney). Increased GSH-px and TRx activities were found in Group IV compared to Group I (p<0.05, Mann Whitney). It can be concluded that the intrauterine and extrauterine exposure to GSMlike RF radiation may influence the liver regulatory enzymes activities.

Keywords: Radiofrequency (RF), intrauterine (IU) andextrauterine (EU) exposure, infant female rabbits.

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Authors: Banaja Mohanty, Prakash Kumar Hota

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This paper presents a differential evolution algorithm to design a robust PI and PID controllers for Load Frequency Control (LFC) of nonlinear interconnected power systems considering the boiler dynamics, Governor Dead Band (GDB), Generation Rate Constraint (GRC). Differential evolution algorithm is employed to search for the optimal controller parameters. The proposed method easily copes of with nonlinear constraints. Further the proposed controller is simple, effective and can ensure the desirable overall system performance. The superiority of the proposed approach has been shown by comparing the results with published fuzzy logic controller for the same power systems. The comparison is done using various performance measures like overshoot, settling time and standard error criteria of frequency and tie-line power deviation following a 1% step load perturbation in hydro area. It is noticed that, the dynamic performance of proposed controller is better than fuzzy logic controller. Furthermore, it is also seen that the proposed system is robust and is not affected by change in the system parameters.

Keywords: Automatic Generation control (AGC), Generation Rate Constraint (GRC), Governor Dead Band (GDB), Differential Evolution (DE)

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Authors: Shiuh-Jer Huang, Yu-Chi Liu, Su-Hai Hsiang

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A novel low-cost impedance control structure is proposed for monitoring the contact force between end-effector and environment without installing an expensive force/torque sensor. Theoretically, the end-effector contact force can be estimated from the superposition of each joint control torque. There have a nonlinear matrix mapping function between each joint motor control input and end-effector actuating force/torques vector. This new force control structure can be implemented based on this estimated mapping matrix. First, the robot end-effector is manipulated to specified positions, then the force controller is actuated based on the hall sensor current feedback of each joint motor. The model-free fuzzy sliding mode control (FSMC) strategy is employed to design the position and force controllers, respectively. All the hardware circuits and software control programs are designed on an Altera Nios II embedded development kit to constitute an embedded system structure for a retrofitted Mitsubishi 5 DOF robot. Experimental results show that PI and FSMC force control algorithms can achieve reasonable contact force monitoring objective based on this hardware control structure.

Keywords: Robot, impedance control, fuzzy sliding mode control, contact force estimator.

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Authors: M. Susithra, R. Gnanadass

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Ancillary services are support services which are essential for humanizing and enhancing the reliability and security of the electric power system. Reactive power ancillary service is one of the important ancillary services in a restructured electricity market which determines the cost of supplying ancillary services and finding of how this cost would change with respect to operating decisions. This paper presents a new formation that can be used to minimize the Independent System Operator (ISO)’s total payment for reactive power ancillary service. The modified power flow tracing algorithm estimates the availability of reserve reactive power for ancillary service. In order to find optimum reactive power dispatch, Biogeography based optimization method (BPO) is proposed. Market Reactive Clearing Price (MRCP) is then estimated and it encourages generator companies (GENCOs) to participate in an ancillary service. Finally, optimal weighting factor and real time utilization factor of reactive power give the minimum ISO’s total payment. The effectiveness of proposed design is verified using IEEE 30 bus system.

Keywords: Biogeography based optimization method, Power flow tracing method, Reactive generation capability curve and Reactive power ancillary service.

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Authors: B. Bina, M.H. Mehdinejad, Gunnel Dalhammer, Guna RajaraoM. Nikaeen, H. Movahedian Attar

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Coagulation of water involves the use of coagulating agents to bring the suspended matter in the raw water together for settling and the filtration stage. Present study is aimed to examine the effects of aluminum sulfate as coagulant in conjunction with Moringa Oleifera Coagulant Protein as coagulant aid on turbidity, hardness, and bacteria in turbid water. A conventional jar test apparatus was employed for the tests. The best removal was observed at a pH of 7 to 7.5 for all turbidities. Turbidity removal efficiency was resulted between % 80 to % 99 by Moringa Oleifera Coagulant Protein as coagulant aid. Dosage of coagulant and coagulant aid decreased with increasing turbidity. In addition, Moringa Oleifera Coagulant Protein significantly has reduced the required dosage of primary coagulant. Residual Al+3 in treated water were less than 0.2 mg/l and meets the environmental protection agency guidelines. The results showed that turbidity reduction of % 85.9- % 98 paralleled by a primary Escherichia coli reduction of 1-3 log units (99.2 – 99.97%) was obtained within the first 1 to 2 h of treatment. In conclusions, Moringa Oleifera Coagulant Protein as coagulant aid can be used for drinking water treatment without the risk of organic or nutrient release. We demonstrated that optimal design method is an efficient approach for optimization of coagulation-flocculation process and appropriate for raw water treatment.

Keywords: MOCP, Coagulant aid, turbidity removal, E.coliremoval, water, treatment

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Authors: Frank C. Pan, Chih-Hao Chen

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The purpose of this study is to discuss the effect of the intervention of exercise behavior change plan for high school students on study subjects- social and psychological factors and exercise stages. This research uses the transtheoretical model as the research framework. One experiment group and one control group were used in a quasi-experimental design research. The experimental group accepted health-related physical fitness course and the traditional course; the control group accepted traditional physical education course. There is a significant difference before and after the intervention in the experimental group. Karl-s test shows the experimental group gained a better improvement than that in the control group. The Analysis of Covariance had shown the exercise stages (F=7.62, p<0.05), and the perceived exercise benefit (F=16.91, p<0.05) of the experimental group were obviously larger than those of the control group. There was no major effect on the perceived exercise barrier (F=0.61, p>0.05) after the intervention of exercise behavior change plan. However, the rate of high school students the practical implementation of the exercise is not high, obviously influenced by the exercise barrier. The academic and examination pressure may be the major causes of the exercise barrier in the high school.

Keywords: Transtheoretical model (TTM), High school students, exercise behavior

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Authors: Umair Baig, Kohei Nagai

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At highly congested reinforcement regions, which is common at beam-column joint area, clear spacing between parallel bars becomes less than maximum normal aggregate size (20mm) which has not been addressed in any design code and specifications. Limited clear spacing between parallel bars (herein after thin cover) is one of the causes which affect anchorage performance. In this study, an experimental investigation was carried out to understand anchorage performance of reinforcement in Self-Compacting Concrete (SCC) and Normal Concrete (NC) at highly congested regions under uni-axial tensile loading.  Column bar was pullout whereas; beam bars were offset from column reinforcement creating thin cover as per site condition. Two different sizes of coarse aggregate were used for NC (20mm and 10mm). Strain gauges were also installed along the bar in some specimens to understand the internal stress mechanism. Test results reveal that anchorage performance is affected at highly congested reinforcement region in NC with maximum aggregate size 20mm whereas; SCC and Small Aggregate (10mm) gives better structural performance. 

Keywords: Anchorage capacity, bond, Normal Concrete, self-compacting concrete.

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Authors: Waratta Authayarat, Hiroyuki Umemuro

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This study aims to explore the differences and similarities in perceptions of affective climate antecedents at the workplace (intimacy, flexibility, employment stability, and team) among Japanese and Thai Generations X and Y. The samples in this study were Thai and Japanese workers who completed a work environment questionnaire and provided demographic information. Generational differences in perceptions (beliefs) of what factors contribute to affective climate were investigated using t-test analysis. Mean scores for each antecedent were ranked to determine how each generation in each group prioritized the importance of all affective climate antecedents. Japanese Generation Y perceived the importance of employment stability for affective climate of their workplaces to be significantly higher than did Japanese Generation X. Thai Generation Y considered flexibility with a higher priority than did Thai Generation X. Intimacy was perceived as highly important across generations and countries in regard to affective climate. Results suggest that managers should design workplaces for a mixture of diverse generations, resulting in a better affective climate. Differences in the importance of antecedents for affective climate among Generations X and Y in two countries were clarified. In addition, different preferences regarding work environment across Japanese Generations X and Y and Thai Generations X and Y were discussed.

Keywords: Affective Climate, Employee, Generational Differences, Workplace

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Authors: Diako Azizi, Ahmad Gholami, Vahid Abbasi

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Optimal selection of electrical insulations in electrical machinery insures reliability during operation. From the insulation studies of view for electrical machines, stator is the most important part. This fact reveals the requirement for inspection of the electrical machine insulation along with the electro-thermal stresses. In the first step of the study, a part of the whole structure of machine in which covers the general characteristics of the machine is chosen, then based on the electromagnetic analysis (finite element method), the machine operation is simulated. In the simulation results, the temperature distribution of the total structure is presented simultaneously by using electro-thermal analysis. The results of electro-thermal analysis can be used for designing an optimal cooling system. In order to design, review and comparing the cooling systems, four wiring structures in the slots of Stator are presented. The structures are compared to each other in terms of electrical, thermal distribution and remaining life of insulation by using Finite Element analysis. According to the steps of the study, an optimization algorithm has been presented for selection of appropriate structure.

Keywords: Electrical field, field distribution, insulation, winding, finite element method, electro thermal

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Authors: Akash Rathee, Harish Parthasarathy

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In this paper, a frequency-variation based method has been proposed for transistor parameter estimation in a commonemitter transistor amplifier circuit. We design an algorithm to estimate the transistor parameters, based on noisy measurements of the output voltage when the input voltage is a sine wave of variable frequency and constant amplitude. The common emitter amplifier circuit has been modelled using the transistor Ebers-Moll equations and the perturbation technique has been used for separating the linear and nonlinear parts of the Ebers-Moll equations. This model of the amplifier has been used to determine the amplitude of the output sinusoid as a function of the frequency and the parameter vector. Then, applying the proposed method to the frequency components, the transistor parameters have been estimated. As compared to the conventional time-domain least squares method, the proposed method requires much less data storage and it results in more accurate parameter estimation, as it exploits the information in the time and frequency domain, simultaneously. The proposed method can be utilized for parameter estimation of an analog device in its operating range of frequencies, as it uses data collected from different frequencies output signals for parameter estimation.

Keywords: Perturbation Technique, Parameter estimation, frequency-variation based method.

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Authors: Masoud Mahdavi

Abstract:

The use of sloping lands is increasing due to the reduction of suitable lands for the construction of buildings. In the design and construction of buildings on sloping lands, the foundation has special loading conditions that require the designer and executor to use the slopped foundation. The creation of underground cavities, including urban and subway tunnels, sewers, urban facilities, etc., inside the ground, causes the behavior of the foundation to be unknown. In the present study, using Abacus software, a 45-degree stepped foundation on the ground is designed. The foundations are placed on the ground in a cohesive (no-hole) manner with circular cavities that show the effect of increasing the cross-sectional area of ​​the underground cavities on the foundation's performance. The Kobe earthquake struck the foundation and ground for two seconds. The underground cavities have a circular cross-sectional area with a radius of 5 m, which is located at a depth of 22.54 m above the ground. The results showed that as the number of underground cavities increased, von Mises stress (in the vertical direction) increased. With the increase in the number of underground cavities, the plastic strain on the ground has increased. Also, with the increase in the number of underground cavities, the change in location and speed in the foundation has increased.

Keywords: Stepped foundation, sloping ground, Kobe earthquake, Abaqus software, underground excavations.

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Authors: I. Kočvarová, E. Machů, N. Bártlová

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The issue of inclusion - segregation in the current Czech educational system is highly actual due to changes in legislation. It applies primarily to pupils with special educational needs, but it should also apply to pupils with giftedness. The paper presents chosen results of an exploratory survey that was carried out on a convenience sample of 1101 Czech teachers working in lower secondary education (ISCED2). The rate of teachers´ agreement with segregation of gifted pupils in the education system was monitored during this investigation. A validated questionnaire of our own design was used for the purpose of this investigation. The results were compared across groups of teachers in terms of selected variables. Results show that 36,3 % of teachers incline to segregation (rather than inclusion) of gifted pupils. Teachers who are not educated in this field and have no experience in teaching gifted pupils tend to support their segregation more in comparison with other teachers. Teachers of specialized schools for gifted pupils paradoxically agree with segregation to a slightly lesser extent than teachers from traditional schools, but they also manifest the most hesitant attitude in this issue. Preferences for segregation of gifted pupils are not related to attitudes toward gifted pupils or teachers' self-evaluation in terms of care for the gifted. Investigation indicates that the issue of education of gifted children and their inclusion in the educational system needs more space within the further education of teachers.

Keywords: Educational system, evaluation, gifted pupil, inclusion, segregation, teacher.

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Authors: V.Sekar, T.G.Palanivelu, B.Revathi

Abstract:

Electromagnetic interference (EMI) is one of the serious problems in most electrical and electronic appliances including fluorescent lamps. The electronic ballast used to regulate the power flow through the lamp is the major cause for EMI. The interference is because of the high frequency switching operation of the ballast. Formerly, some EMI mitigation techniques were in practice, but they were not satisfactory because of the hardware complexity in the circuit design, increased parasitic components and power consumption and so on. The majority of the researchers have their spotlight only on EMI mitigation without considering the other constraints such as cost, effective operation of the equipment etc. In this paper, we propose a technique for EMI mitigation in fluorescent lamps by integrating Frequency Modulation and Evolutionary Programming. By the Frequency Modulation technique, the switching at a single central frequency is extended to a range of frequencies, and so, the power is distributed throughout the range of frequencies leading to EMI mitigation. But in order to meet the operating frequency of the ballast and the operating power of the fluorescent lamps, an optimal modulation index is necessary for Frequency Modulation. The optimal modulation index is determined using Evolutionary Programming. Thereby, the proposed technique mitigates the EMI to a satisfactory level without disturbing the operation of the fluorescent lamp.

Keywords: Ballast, Electromagnetic interference (EMI), EMImitigation, Evolutionary programming (EP), Fluorescent lamp, Frequency Modulation (FM), Modulation index.

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Authors: Majid Toghyani, Abbas Ali Gheisari, Ali Khodami, Mehdi Toghyani, Mohammad Mohammadrezaei, Ramin Bahadoran

Abstract:

This experiment was conducted to investigate the effect of different levels of dietary chromium yeast (Cr-yeast) on thigh meat quality of broiler chicks reared under heat stress condition. Two hundred and forty Ross male chickens in heat stress condition (33±3°C) were allocated to five treatments in a completely randomized design. Treatments were supplemented with 0 (control), 200, 400, 800 and 1200 μg kg-1 Cr in the form of Cr yeast. Twelve chicks from each treatment were slaughtered at 42 d, to evaluate moisture, protein, lipid, pH and lipid oxidation of thigh meat. Protein, moisture, lipid and pH of thigh meat were not affected by supplemental Cr. Thigh meat lipid tended to decrease in broilers received 1200 μg kg-1. Storage time increased lipid oxidation of meat (P<0.01). Lipid oxidation of thigh muscle for two days of storage were affected by supplemental Cr and decreased (P<0.05). Results of this study showed that dietary Cr-yeast supplementation improved the thigh meat quality of broiler chicks in heat stress condition.

Keywords: Broiler, Heat stress, Chromium yeast, Thigh meat quality.

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Authors: Hassen M. Ouakad

Abstract:

In this paper, the influence of van der Waals, as well as electrostatic forces on the structural behavior of MEMS and NEMS actuators, has been investigated using of a Euler-Bernoulli beam continuous model. In the proposed nonlinear model, the electrostatic fringing-fields and the mid-plane stretching (geometric nonlinearity) effects have been considered. The nonlinear integro-differential equation governing the static structural behavior of the actuator has been derived. An original Galerkin-based reduced-order model has been developed to avoid problems arising from the nonlinearities in the differential equation. The obtained reduced-order model equations have been solved numerically using the Newton-Raphson method. The basic design parameters such as the pull-in parameters (voltage and deflection at pull-in), as well as the detachment length due to the van der Waals force of some investigated micro- and nano-actuators have been calculated. The obtained numerical results have been compared with some other existing methods (finite-elements method and finite-difference method) and the comparison showed good agreement among all assumed numerical techniques.

Keywords: MEMS, NEMS, fringing-fields, mid-plane stretching, Galerkin method.

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Authors: Josephine Mutwale-Ziko, Nonde Lushinga, Inonge Akakandelwa

Abstract:

The study discusses the effectiveness of health and safety induction practices on construction sites against the background of the Zambian construction industry experience. The research design included the literature review of relevant literature. Questionnaires and interviews were administered to regulatory bodies, health, and safety personnel. Observation was also employed on construction sites to assess the health and safety practices being used. Health and safety in the construction industry are not something to be ignored or overlooked. The construction industry needs to take heed of the serious consequences of inadequate health and safety induction practices. The implications of inadequate health and safety induction procedures included among others threats to profitability, corporate social responsibility and increased turnover of the workforce leading to poor productivity. Adequate health and safety practices can improve the health and wellbeing of employees, reduce financial implications on firms and encourage productivity on construction sites. Despite this, accidents are still prevalent on construction sites in Zambia. The overall result of this research denotes that the implementation of health and safety induction practices is inadequate, as indicated by the negligent and non-adherent attitude to health and safety induction aspects on the sites by most stakeholders on construction sites. Therefore, health and safety induction practices are ineffective as preventive measures for reduction of accidents on construction sites in Zambia.

Keywords: Accidents, employees, health and safety, inadequate induction.

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Authors: Vahid Nademi

Abstract:

In response to widely used wearable medical devices equipped with a continuous glucose monitor (CGM) and insulin pump, the advanced control methods are still demanding to get the full benefit of these devices. Unlike costly clinical trials, implementing effective insulin-glucose control strategies can provide significant contributions to the patients suffering from chronic diseases such as diabetes. This study deals with a key role of two-layer insulin-glucose regulator based on model-predictive-control (MPC) scheme so that the patient’s predicted glucose profile is in compliance with the insulin level injected through insulin pump automatically. It is achieved by iterative optimization algorithm which is called an integrated perturbation analysis and sequential quadratic programming (IPA-SQP) solver for handling uncertainties due to unexpected variations in glucose-insulin values and body’s characteristics. The feasibility evaluation of the discussed control approach is also studied by means of numerical simulations of two case scenarios via measured data. The obtained results are presented to verify the superior and reliable performance of the proposed control scheme with no negative impact on patient safety.

Keywords: Blood glucose monitoring, insulin pump, optimization, predictive control, diabetes disease.

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Authors: Zuraidasahana Zulkarnain, Mohd Shafry Mohd Rahim, Nor Anita Fairos Ismail, Mohd Azhar M. Arsad

Abstract:

Handwritten signature is accepted widely as a biometric characteristic for personal authentication. The use of appropriate features plays an important role in determining accuracy of signature verification; therefore, this paper presents a feature based on the geometrical concept. To achieve the aim, triangle attributes are exploited to design a new feature since the triangle possesses orientation, angle and transformation that would improve accuracy. The proposed feature uses triangulation geometric set comprising of sides, angles and perimeter of a triangle which is derived from the center of gravity of a signature image. For classification purpose, Euclidean classifier along with Voting-based classifier is used to verify the tendency of forgery signature. This classification process is experimented using triangular geometric feature and selected global features. Based on an experiment that was validated using Grupo de Senales 960 (GPDS-960) signature database, the proposed triangular geometric feature achieves a lower Average Error Rates (AER) value with a percentage of 34% as compared to 43% of the selected global feature. As a conclusion, the proposed triangular geometric feature proves to be a more reliable feature for accurate signature verification.

Keywords: biometrics, euclidean classifier, feature extraction, offline signature verification, VOTING-based classifier

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Authors: Shonak Bansal, Prince Jain, Arun Kumar Singh, Neena Gupta

Abstract:

Recently nature–inspired algorithms have widespread use throughout the tough and time consuming multi–objective scientific and engineering design optimization problems. In this paper, we present extended forms of firefly algorithm to find optimal Golomb ruler (OGR) sequences. The OGRs have their one of the major application as unequally spaced channel–allocation algorithm in optical wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) systems in order to minimize the adverse four–wave mixing (FWM) crosstalk effect. The simulation results conclude that the proposed optimization algorithm has superior performance compared to the existing conventional computing and nature–inspired optimization algorithms to find OGRs in terms of ruler length, total optical channel bandwidth and computation time.

Keywords: Channel allocation, conventional computing, four–wave mixing, nature–inspired algorithm, optimal Golomb ruler, Lévy flight distribution, optimization, improved multi–objective Firefly algorithms, Pareto optimal.

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